Early 40s first time X – our perspective

[riclop]

Thank you for your review...I was glad to hear of your good experiences on Carnival. We always hear bad things, but I'm going to give them a try next year I think.

 

We're a "mixed" marriage personality-wise :D DH is more the Carnival extrovert personality who loves upbeat music and activities and I'm more the quiet introvert X person. But the lack of energy/nightlife in the evenings is the one thing even I wish I could change about X.. It was so dead in the clubs every night on our one X cruise to date - and I was actually on a 5-day western Caribbean cruise out of FLL which is supposed to draw a younger, more active group.

 

My only hesitation in trying Carnival is the concern that there will be a ton more kids. Truthfully, I'm fine with a ship full of kids if parents and/or crew keep things in reasonably good control. But I hear that's often not the case.

 

Agree totally our cruise was so dead that we will never go back.

[Flafun888]

Agree totally our cruise was so dead that we will never go back.

 

We actually have one more 7-day cruise in March I booked onboard last year. I'm sure we'll have a really nice, relaxing time. There are elements of Celebrity I truly enjoy. But will probably give Carnival a shot next time if any of the higher-rated Carnival ships sail from FLL or Miami.

[chotton]

Nice fair review of your opinions and observations. My wife and I both 43 an find that Celebrity fits us perfectly when we cruise without our kids.

 

I did one Carnival cruise back in the mid-90s on Celebration, and it was terrible. I'm sure Carnival is completely different cruise line than it was then. We've considered trying Carnival, but get cold feet every time.

 

You find a product you like and stick with it.

[minidonuts85]

Nice reading your review!

 

We're 42 and have done 26 with Carnival and just finished our 2nd with Celebrity. Honestly, we just absolutely relax on Celebrity. We enjoy the Martini Bar and DJ's at night and find the service on X to be better than Carnival. Nice to not have to sign out for a pool towel, beer actually served in a bottle instead of poured into a plastic cup and no kids running up and down the halls.

 

We will still do Carnival but for short cruises only if the price is right and we need a quick getaway that we can drive to (Port of LA).

[bar_20]

On our Solstice cruise they had many nights with pool entertainment. Unfortunately in a venue that would hold maybe 500 at most they would try and squeeze in 1500 passengers. It didn't work. As far as rude people our cruise started in Sydney AU and went to Honolulu. A great majority of the passengers were from AU and NZ, never had a problem with rudeness. The second half of the cruise was from Honolulu to Vancouver, BC. The passengers were mostly Americans and many were rude. jumping lines, rude on tenders, holding too many seats in the auditorium, putting towels on pool lounge chairs and coming back 2-3 hours later, etc. Too many centers of the universe on the ship.

[irishgal1970]

Nice fair review of your opinions and observations. My wife and I both 43 an find that Celebrity fits us perfectly when we cruise without our kids.

 

I did one Carnival cruise back in the mid-90s on Celebration, and it was terrible. I'm sure Carnival is completely different cruise line than it was then. We've considered trying Carnival, but get cold feet every time.

 

You find a product you like and stick with it.

 

Right. I'm 45 and my sister is 42. I wanted to try RC for our next cruise, but she really liked the lack of kids on board X. I'm still interested in trying other lines so I can truly compare.