Carnival vs Royal Caribbean?

[kwazi07]

 

But hey! If we ignore all the things that are different, yes, these two cruise lines are like identical twins! :D

 

 

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Tapi, you are SO FUNNY! If there was a like button I would hit it 1000000x. I really don't understand why people say they are more similar than different. I could name so many different t things. Especially in their older ships. Like in your Enchantment review, I was expecting a frumpy ship. I was also wrong.

 

Anyways, Enchantment is RCIs 5th oldest ship. So we are comparing apples to apples, Imagination is Carnivals 5th oldest ship. Imagination cannot compare to Enchantment for old ships.

 

Now, I am asking this to everyone on this thread: if they were both free, which would you choose: Enchantment or Imagination?

 

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[BenjiRodney]

Tapi, you are SO FUNNY! If there was a like button I would hit it 1000000x. I really don't understand why people say they are more similar than different. I could name so many different t things. Especially in their older ships. Like in your Enchantment review, I was expecting a frumpy ship. I was also wrong.

 

Anyways, Enchantment is RCIs 5th oldest ship. So we are comparing apples to apples, Imagination is Carnivals 5th oldest ship. Imagination cannot compare to Enchantment for old ships.

 

Now, I am asking this to everyone on this thread: if they were both free, which would you choose: Enchantment or Imagination?

 

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I would choose Imagination.

 

 

 

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[kwazi07]

I would choose Imagination.

 

 

 

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Just wondering, but why?

I respect your opinion.

 

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[Tapi]

Tapi, you are SO FUNNY! If there was a like button I would hit it 1000000x.

 

Now, I am asking this to everyone on this thread: if they were both free, which would you choose: Enchantment or the Imagination?

 

Thanks for the compliments! :D

 

About choosing one ship, let me start by saying that I've been on the Imagination twice, and both times, I had a great time! However, given the option, I'd choose the Enchantment. Here are the reasons:

 

- Use of glass throughout the ship. The Vision class ships were once dubbed "The Ships of Light" and I understand why. The thinly framed floor to ceiling glass windows throughout the ship offer awesome, unobstructed views. While the Imagination has big windows, the way they are framed don't offer unobstructed views from all angles.

 

- Viking Crown Lounge: Amazing 270 degree views from the top of the ship. Not available on the Imagination

 

- Chops Grille: Nice to have an alternative dining restaurant on an older ship doing 3/4 night cruises. Not available on the Imagination.

 

- Electronic signage throughout the ship: Made getting around the ship, finding venues, and learning about activities much easier. Not available on the Imagination.

 

- Solarium and Park Cafe: Quiet, glass-covered pool with a cafe offering alternative, healthy options, including made to order salads and creative paninis. Not offered on the Imagination.

 

- Royal Babies and Tots program: Offers a nursery as well as Fisher-Price and Crayola sponsored activities for kids as young as 6 months of age. Drop off hours from early in the morning until evening. Not offered on the Imagination (Camp Carnival starts at 2 years of age, which would've prevented my youngest daughter to participate).

 

- My Fair Lady Dining Room: While the food and service left much to be desired, the two tiered, open atrium and chandelier design with upscale furnishings was much more pleasing than the Imagination's single tiered, low ceiling dining rooms.

 

- Pool deck: Multiple, larger pools, including a splash area for children too young to jump in the pool. While the Imagination has a pool deck as well, it only has one smaller pool. The other pool on the ship was removed to make way for new slides. Great concept, but one that limited pool space by half.

 

- Stateroom categories and number of balconies: Enchantment boast a larger percentage of standard balcony staterooms which makes them more affordable. Also, there's a wider variety of stateroom categories, including family staterooms all the way to Royal suites with a long list of perks. On the Imagination, the only way to get a balcony is by booking a suite, and even then, you don't get any perks besides priority embarkation.

 

- Ben and Jerry's :D and Starbucks. Not offered on the Imagination.

 

- Service: More polished and detail oriented. For example, cabin stewards now introduce themselves, explain the features in your stateroom, and hand you their personal business card with their direct extension. On Carnival, while staff genuinely seem happy and friendly, we didn't encounter the attention to detail that we experienced on our last Royal cruise.

 

- The decor. Enough said.

 

 

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Edited September 17, 2014 by Tapi

[BenjiRodney]

Just wondering, but why?

I respect your opinion.

 

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Had a good time on the Imagination last year. Love the Fantasy Class ships.

 

Carnival staff much friendlier to us than Royal staff ever was. Never had to report a staff member like I have on Royal.

 

Carnival immediately addresses any concerns you have. Royal could care less, tell you we will open a report on it. In Bermuda when a member of the party was hurt while in Hamilton and taken by Ambulance to get stitches, they were of no help. Only concerned that it had not happened on the excursion. They did not have the number for the ambulance, or hospital, nor could we get ahold of the port agent through the number they always print on the Cruise Compass that you take everywhere with you.

 

Only after seeing how frustrated we were at getting no where, the Guest Services Manger, who had been on the side watching the whole time, came forward and called up to the bridge to get some information.

 

Issues with dining and the room that we have never experienced with Carnival, yes their Fantasy Class ships are the same ages and built by the same yards as some of the Royal ships. We just have not had that good experience yet with Royal. It's not their fault someone got hurt and required stitches, but they could have been just a tad more helpful or expressed some concern.

 

Carnival seems to plan more activities to keep you busy, I know you can't do them all, but there were times in Both Alaska and Bermuda where there were dead spaces in the daily calendar.

 

It's all about preference, and for me I'll take the Carnival any day over Royal.

 

 

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[kwazi07]

Tapi: I love all the windows. I really loved having a view no matter where I was. I loved the floor to ceiling windows by the Park Cafe. I agree the stewards are more personal, but I think the MDR staff and food is better than Royal. The MDR food on Carnival is great. The dining rooms are nicer however on Royal. I am one of those people who like extravagance so that's why I like the two story dining rooms. Pool space is so much better. I have not been on Imagination but I have been on Paradise and I would take Enchantment over Paradise any day.

 

BenjiRodney: you bring up very valid points. I do agree Carnival service is a little better in most areas, specifically MDR.

 

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[sgttami]

I'm Diamond Plus on RCL and recently started sailing Carnival.

 

I like both.

 

Carnival wins for the great pricing for singles (on the ones I was lucky enough to book).

 

Radiance Class ships on RCL are the best but unless they come down in price, I'm not sailing them anymore.

 

Food quality was pretty much the same on both but each line had something I liked better than the other.

 

Entertainment varied with each cruise on both lines.

 

As an edge to Carnival, I really thought the people I met were a lot friendlier, passengers and crew included!

[NCteacherlovescruising]

Same with Guy's on Carnival. You can still get a burger for free in the dining room that won't taste as good as Guy's. I consider Guy's a specialty hamburger joint for FREE.

 

I agree!

[Cruzaholic41]

OP - To answer your original question. This one isn't even close in my mind. Imagination cannot be compared with Enchantment. I've actually been on both ships more than once and I can say first hand the gaudy party boat Imagination isn't even in the same league against the beauty of the Enchantment.

[aenglish1609]

Uh, my comparisons were based on the biggest and newest ships each cruise line has since I considered them to be representative of the best that each cruise line has to offer. Not my fault that these cruise lines are so different these days, (although some people keep insisting that they are soooo similar). :rolleyes:

 

What do you want me to do, compare one of Carnival's largest and newest ships with one of Royal's older and smaller Voyager class ships to make the comparison more alike and so that the differences between the two cruise lines aren't so apparent?

 

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Well thats not true at all, because Carnival's newest ships have about 14 dining options, but sure you are not showing bias :confused:

 

I'm not asking you to do that at all, I'm saying if you compare RCL ships against Oasis and Allure, than they would look quite different too. I admitted that Oasis and Allure will OBVIOUSLY have more options, but if you take those two out, Carnival and RCL are VERY similar...

[aenglish1609]

That is EXACTLY the point that I've been trying to make!! What these two cruise lines offer is so different, that many times there's NO COMPARISON! How can I compare a Carnival top suite with a Royal Caribbean top suite? I can't! Carnival doesn't offer anything quite like it. Even a Captain's Suite doesn't have any perks besides priority embarkation.

 

But hey! If we ignore all the things that are different, yes, these two cruise lines are like identical twins! :D

 

 

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Well there you go then, why don't you go on 1 cruise on RCL Royal Loft(which is completely useless by the way) for 15,000 + and I will take 15 Carnival cruises on a balcony room, then you can have all of those oh-so-great things about RCL... :rolleyes:

[jimbo5544]

You don't pay extra for rock wall or florider.

 

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Sure you do, it's in the price difference in the cruise fare.

[jimbo5544]

Tapi - I think you said it best. You've been around here and reviewing long enough where everyone should know you are not a biased cheerleader of any one line. I agree with your comparisons and I also agree that RCI has done a great job distancing itself ahead of Carnival in many, many areas.

They are different (notice I did not say better ;)) and one of the ever increasing differences is price. So much so that it sometimes makes me laugh.

[Tapi]

Well there you go then, why don't you go on 1 cruise on RCL Royal Loft(which is completely useless by the way)

 

 

The point is that there's no comparison between the selection of stateroom categories between Royal and Carnival, even when comparing the smallest ships. For those willing to pay extra for a Royal Suite with all the perks that come with it, the option is there. On Carnival, not so much. Some people obviously have the money to afford it and find it worth it. Cheapest doesn't work for everybody.

 

 

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[Tapi]

Well thats not true at all, because Carnival's newest ships have about 14 dining options...

 

 

Uh, I'm talking about actual, individual restaurants, not "options" like room service or stations at the buffet.

 

 

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Edited September 18, 2014 by Tapi

[jimbo5544]

Uh, I'm talking about actual, individual restaurants.

 

 

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I tried to keep out of the discussion, I did, I really did. ;)

 

I think you are referring to Quantum (in regards to the number of restaurants), I guess my take is that more (in this particular case) can easily be perceived as not better when all but 5 (and I could take you to task in that they are all what I would call restaurants) are for pay. Having some options in where/when (another whole topic) and what type of food I want to consume are good, but not to end of the MDR experience. I (it is all about opinions here, right?) view that as a sharp negative, which will probably prevent me from wanting to even go on the QOTS.

[Tapi]

I tried to keep out of the discussion, I did, I really did. ;)

 

 

I'm surprised that you bit your tongue that long! :)

 

The point that I've been trying to make is that I don't consider Carnival and Royal to be so similar that the price difference isn't justified. The differences are there and for those who care about them, the extra money spent is well worth t. Whether someone considers one cruise line to be better than the other is their own personal opinion, but to say that they are SO alike is what I don't agree with.

 

 

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[jimbo5544]

I'm surprised that you bit your tongue that long! :)

 

The point that I've been trying to make is that I don't consider Carnival and Royal to be so similar that the price difference isn't justified. The differences are there and for those who care about them, the extra money spent is well worth t. Whether someone considers one cruise line to be better than the other is their own personal opinion, but to say that they are SO alike is what I don't agree with.

 

 

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LOL, it was so tough to do.:)

 

I got your point. Just as an aside, we currently have a group of family and friends going on the Breeze 12/28 and I think the balconies are going for about 1400/ person. We looked for a client on a fairly similar cruise (I forget much in a short order of time:confused:) on the QOTS (out of NJ in the winter:confused:) and the cheapest price for an inside room was 2400. That is certainly a WOW factor (they might be happy with getting that - who would not) that their cruisers have to pay for "all of those purported extras". Seems to me to be way over the top, but people are paying it.

[aenglish1609]

The point is that there's no comparison between the selection of stateroom categories between Royal and Carnival, even when comparing the smallest ships. For those willing to pay extra for a Royal Suite with all the perks that come with it, the option is there. On Carnival, not so much. Some people obviously have the money to afford it and find it worth it. Cheapest doesn't work for everybody.

 

 

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Well sure, that option exists, but that does not make RCL worth anymore, except to the 0.00001 percent of people who actually book this room... :rolleyes:

Edited September 18, 2014 by aenglish1609

[aenglish1609]

Uh, I'm talking about actual, individual restaurants, not "options" like room service or stations at the buffet.

 

 

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Your numbers are still way off then, nowhere do I see where any RCL ship has 24 individual sit-down restaurants, or that Carnival has only 2-3...

But I know, you are not biased ;)

[kwazi07]

I'm surprised that you bit your tongue that long! :)

 

The point that I've been trying to make is that I don't consider Carnival and Royal to be so similar that the price difference isn't justified. The differences are there and for those who care about them, the extra money spent is well worth t. Whether someone considers one cruise line to be better than the other is their own personal opinion, but to say that they are SO alike is what I don't agree with.

 

 

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I really agree with you. While Carnival is cheaper, I would prefer to pay a little more for a different (and in my opinion) and better experience.

 

You seem really similar to me,like CCL but sees and obvious advantage to Royal.

[Cruzaholic41]

I really agree with you. While Carnival is cheaper, I would prefer to pay a little more for a different (and in my opinion) and better experience.

 

You seem really similar to me, like CCL but sees an obvious advantage to Royal.

 

That makes 3 of us. I like and will continue to sail Carnival, but I don't think they are on the same level as RCI.

[tkportersat]

I would gladly sail on either, I personally feel they are more alike than different. I have more Carnival due to RC not sailing year round out of Galveston for a few years, otherwise it would probably be more equal.

 

I guess if you are more adventurous you might like RC better with it's Flowrider, ziplining, rock wall, ice skating, etc. I usually go to relax so those aren't a huge draw for me, although I did successfully climb the rock wall once on the Rhapsody and it was fun but I was sore for a week after :)

 

The only edge I would give to RC personally is their adults only solarium. Carnival is almost there with Serenity but minus the pool it's a few points below.

[BobbyD]

That makes 3 of us. I like and will continue to sail Carnival, but I don't think they are on the same level as RCI.

 

Count me as 4! As somebody previously stated, I like Carnival. I really do. But, I LOVE RCI!

[WetToes]

We sail both. We like both. We also think they are very much alike.

That's our opinion and we're sticking to it. ;)