Difference Between Princess and Carnival

[muggo11]

I have cruised on Carnival 15 times and Princess the last eight. My husband is 67 and I am 63. We love both lines. I think Princess appeals to a slightly older demographic.

The costs are comparable. The comedians are a little racier on Carnival. And they definitely give better awards for winning trivia contests on Carnival :) The food and entertainment options are excellent and comparable for both lines. And spas and casinos are outsourced to same companies.

 

Personally we love the fact that cruises are so accessible to people with disabilities. After all we may be there one day ourselves. So the scooters and walkers don't bother us at all.

 

The main reason we have been cruising recently with princess is because of the longer, more interesting itineraries. Such as the Panama Canal, a long trip from Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro, and a transatlantic from room to Fort Lauderdale. But next year we are taking Carnival Vista for a week out of Miami then dashing to Fort Lauderdale to take Regal Princess for a second week.

 

Give Princess a try and change things up a bit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Skai]

I've cruised both (and other lines) and the worst food on any cruise, for us, was on the Carnival Dream yet our favorite was on the Victory out of PR. I really do believe it has to do with the Master Chef and they are often moved around so it's hard to judge a cruise line by only giving any one cruise line only one chance. We have had bad experiences with Princess in the food department. We found that Carnival's steak house is far better than what Princess offers and for about the same amount of money. We enjoy HAL even better.

 

What you're stating here is exemplary of how many differing variables can have an influence on one's perception. It's also worth noting how much 1st impressions have staying power in maintaining those perceptions.

 

Of the cruises we've taken(between Carnival and Princess), I would say that our sailing on the Star Princess was noticeably the worst in terms of quality of (complimentary)food.

 

We've tried Carnival's steakhouse once, and while the meal was OK, we were thoroughly unimpressed with the affair in comparison with the experiences that we've had at the Crown Grill(and Sterling steakhouse - though our last visit to Sterling on the Sapphire was a little subpar.)

 

(At Carnival's steakhouse)Not being able to substitute a rib-eye(for the filet) with the surf-and-turf w/out an extra charge really rubbed me the wrong way. To add insult to injury, when the filet arrived, it couldn't have been any more than 3 oz.(two or three bites). The crappy wine they threw in as a promotion even further soured the experience. At the time, dining in a Princess Steakhouse was $40/$50 a couple, while on Carnival it was $70 a couple.

 

I doubt we'll bother with the steakhouse ever again on future Carnival sailings, after having only one less than good experience.

 

It's interesting to read that you had a bad experience with the food on the Dream, as while our's wasn't exactly great, it wasn't noticeably bad. However, when we sailed on the Norwegian Dawn the following week(b2b New Orleans), the complimentary food was so bad, that we found ourselves having to eat in a specialty restaurant almost every night of the entire cruise. Even then, the specialty restaurants were sort of hit-or-miss. So, perhaps the Dream in comparison seemed much better after trying NCL as a head-to-head comparison.

 

We are itinerary based cruisers and we also enjoy trying out different embarkation ports to sail from. When looking for a cruise, the ports are often weighted as much(or more) than the ship we're sailing on. So we recently branched out from Princess, to try Carnival(and NCL) for the opportunity to spend a couple of days pre-cruise sailing out of NOLA. Princess no longer offers the opportunity to sail out of NOLA.

 

Carnival has also been offering longer cruises(than their normal fare) as part of their "Journeys" schedule. These cruises have generally been 10+ days one-way destination cruises with port-filled unique itineraries. Our 11-day cruise on the Sunshine had a whoppin' 8 port days/2 @sea, and the longer itinerary likely provided for a more mature clientele than their usual 'party'/families w/ young kids crowd.

 

For the most part Carnival is all about the 7-day(or less) cruise, and they primarily only sail from U.S. based ports -- Every once in a while throwing a ship at the Med or across the Pacific. There's not much variety to what Carnival offers. For this, it may be a bit until we sail with them again, unless another "Journeys" cruise at a great rate catches our eye, or we get some idea to sail out of Charleston, SC to Bermuda or something.

 

When shopping around, if we have a choice among similar itineraries, we prefer Princess.

 

However, while Princess does offer itineraries all over the world, Princess hasn't really done much in recent years to change up their itineraries to make them unique among other contemporary lines. Outside of a very small handful of unique offerings, most of what Princess offers now is the exact same as what they've offered for the last several years going -- with the exception of nixing French Polynesia.

 

Princess' Med. sailings are pretty vanilla and way overpriced IMHO. That's why we decided to look at Celebrity and HAL for our upcoming E. Med sailing for the opportunity to sail into Venice.

 

When looking at Panama Canal(and Asia) sailings, I've also found myself looking at other lines with more/different offerings instead. Perhaps Princess has messed up in ditching all of their Panamax ships in favor of floating behemoths that are only really best suited for 7-10 day trips.

 

When we sail the Caribbean again, hopefully Princess will have mixed it up a bit by then. Perhaps reintroduce the 7-day(or even a 10-day) (RT) out of San Juan? How about a true 12(or 14) day out of Florida? What about an itinerary that combines some S. Carib and W. Carib ports? How about revisiting/reintroducing some ports like Tortola, St. Vincent and Martinique?

 

What about offering a 12-day out of LA that also goes to Southern Mexico and/or Central America in addition to the MR ports?

Edited April 20, 2016 by Skai

[40yearcruiser]

Very good observations, Skai

We are platinum on both Carnival and Princess (will be elite this year!!) so have cruised numerous times on both. We also have found that Carnival is usually a younger crowd--the shorter the cruise the younger the crowd. We enjoy both lines, as well as several others. On the longer cruises the passengers are normally older because we are the ones who can get away for weeks at a time. We did the transatlantic on the Carnival Breeze when it was new and it was a different demographic than a Caribbean cruise. Loved the Breeze--we've been on it 3 times now.

 

We usually choose a cruise based on 1. itinerary and 2. cost. For 7 or 8 day cruises (we don't do shorter than that) we have most often gone on Carnival and have never really been disappointed. We were on the Splendor for New Years and loved the ship; and the food was good. Ohhh, I love that chocolate melting cake:D For long cruises--15 days or more we have most often gone with Princess, although we have also done Celebrity, Cunard, Costa, and Norwegian (we are equal-opportunity cruisers). Guess we're just not picky because we have enjoyed every ship we've been on. Leaving tomorrow for a transatlantic on Royal Princess (15 days), going to try MSC in the Caribbean in June, and doing 41 days on the Emerald Princess in the fall. We like to look for the infrequent itineraries when the ships are repositioning and Princess is our usual choice.

[Hobart18]

I refer to the comments about the scooters and walking frames on board. I have travelled mainly on Princess and once on Carnival. From what I remember about the Carnival Spirit there wasn't a lot of room for walking, I don't think they had very wide isles. On Princess, especially the Golden Princess, there was a lot more room to accommodate all modes of travel around the ship. I believe that everyone should be able to access cruise ships and to have an enjoyable time, to be able to park on a bench or on a scooter on the Promenade deck and just watch the world go by and breath in that beautiful good clean sea air. I have always found that people are respectful of people on the ship. Where else can you have a holiday where you don't have to cook or clean or do the dishes.Everyone needs a place to escape to for a well deserved rest & relax and overhaul from the every day complexities of our daily lives.

[jchris1230]

We cruise both lines. Princess has an older crowd, less children, on some ships Princess has the International Cafe and Vines. Princess has this awful new restaurant called "Share" by Curtis Stone. Food is subjective as some will say, BUT, I believe Carnival has better tasting food than Princess. Princess decor is more subtle than Carnival. Carnival has more bling, and Carnival is more lively. Princess has lots of people who use walkers and motorized scooters that you are constantly having to dodge. We enjoy both lines. We book with whoever has the best deal going at the time we want to cruise. Princess I think has some better deals than Carnival.

 

Did you try Share? I was on Ruby last week and after a Share wine tasting, I decided I had to eat there. The food was fabulous. So many unique flavors that can't be judged by just reading the menu. Share turned out to be the highlight of my cruise, food wise :)

[elliair]

Did you try Share? I was on Ruby last week and after a Share wine tasting, I decided I had to eat there. The food was fabulous. So many unique flavors that can't be judged by just reading the menu. Share turned out to be the highlight of my cruise, food wise :)

 

I was at the doctors yesterday and while skimming through a magazine I saw this big beautiful pizza displayed. It had a nice thick crust and it just looked like something I could go for. Guess whose pizza it was? Curtis Stone! After reading some of the reviews on a couple of threads here, I would go for the pizza over runny pate.

 

As for the scooter/walker comment, some people who use the scooters aren't that polite with them. On our last cruise one woman in particular had a horn on her scooter and she used it racing down the Promenade deck. The question was, "what's the difference between Carnival and Princess." More scooters and walkers on Princess. I'm not degrading anyone who must use one, it is what it is. As for the elevator comment by someone here, the elevator isn't in my vocabulary, I take the stairs. But, I know what you mean about people crowding into them. I usually make it up to the next deck before the elevator door opens.:D

[Dragonfly0705]

It had to be Spring break as we rarely cruise during that time or in the summer months. We don't book Carnival or Princess when we know it will be over ran by children whose parents haven't a clue as to where they are at and what they are doing.

 

 

Is there a time of year I can book a cruise that is not over run by old people? I can't stand the way they smell, the fact that they are so loud when they refuse to wear their hearing aids, and that their caregivers can't keep them from wandering off!

 

*** I am being completely sarcastic in my above remarks to highlight the fact that one could complain about any age group if they wanted to. If you don't want to be around other people, or God forbid children, then perhaps you should stay at home.***