Norwegian vs. Carnival Review

[Yellowjacket1799]

Hello everyone!

 

After 20 cruises with Carnival I finally decided to try out a different cruise line. I've always said one day I would try Royal Carribean, and never really had much desire to try any others - until recently.

 

A cruise buddy booked Norwegian for later in the year and peaked my interest so I decided to look into it and compare for an upcoming cruise. The prices with their sale was so much cheaper that I decided to book two cruises, one of which that had the all you can drink package. So now that I've finished the first of two I wanted to take a swing at giving a reivew based upon my point of view.

 

I have a lot going on over the next few days so I will do my best to complete this in a timely mannor. And let me begin first by saying that I love Carnival - obviously having 109 days at sea over the last 12 years with them doesn't happen if you are "sort of" a fan. But prices have continued to climb up and a lot of things have changed over the last 12 years - a lot for the better and some things not so much.

[Yellowjacket1799]

I'll start with pricing and ease of booking. I've always found booking online via Carnival, with your TA or with a PVP easy and Norwegian seems to be just as easy. I will note that I liked Carnival's previous version of their website better as it showed you the price per day for each cruise and I just liked the older layout better, but YMMV. And since I don't have any prior experience with Norwegian's website I would give "website ease of use and booking via site or phone" a tie between the two; not much difference.

 

As far as pricing goes: I looked at several different cruises on several different dates and Norwegian beat Carnival each time. One of those that I booked even came out cheaper with the all you can drink package vs. just getting the room with Carnival. Wow! For my quick, not so scientific comparison Norwegian won in this category.

 

Embarkation: Since this was my first time sailing and I've been platinum with Carnival for several years it really isn't a great comparison but I believe I have some good points to call out. First off, I think both Carnival and Norwegian do a great job of getting the long lines moving quickly. When you get in a line a mile long it can be overwelming, but when you find out that it only takes a few minutes to get through then everything is much better. What I didn't like about Norwegian was after you get through the line, you then have to wait in a room to be called by group number to board the ship. This wait wasn't too long, only about 15 minutes. But I don't understand the point - Carnival gets you directly on once you have your keys. Advantage: Carnival

[Kcruiser2014]

I'm looking forward to your review. Good start.

[Guindalf]

As someone doing the reverse (booking on Carnival after years as a Norwegian customer), this is interesting. We had a very bad experience on the Sensation in 2003 and are just getting round to giving the line a second (final?) chance.

 

We're sailing on the Valor next Sunday.

 

It would be helpful to know what NCL ship you were on.

 

Thanks.

[Clarea]

I appreciate the comparison, thanks.

[loganvillemommy]

The Valor is SO much better than Sensation. We sailed the Valor last year, after sailing the Sensation and the Fascination. No comparison. You will love the Valor.

 

 

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Edited May 8, 2016 by loganvillemommy

[twokids0204]

We did 1 on NCL and 1 on Carnival and 1 on RCI.

 

We have an upcoming Carnival this summer.

 

I am looking forward to reading your opinion.

 

My only comment so far is, we had an opposite experience with boarding.

On Carnival Pride out of Baltimore, we were waiting about an hour to board after checking in. On The NCL Jewel in Seattle we boarded immediately after check in.

We also loved NCL's Freestyle promo options, and the ability to select the Ultimate Beverage Package.

[Yellowjacket1799]

As someone doing the reverse (booking on Carnival after years as a Norwegian customer), this is interesting. We had a very bad experience on the Sensation in 2003 and are just getting round to giving the line a second (final?) chance.

 

We're sailing on the Valor next Sunday.

 

It would be helpful to know what NCL ship you were on.

 

Thanks.

 

The Escape. I've done the smaller Carnival ships, but the last few years I've stuck to the larger ones. I enjoy all of them, but for the price it just seems better to go with the larger ones these days.

[emcelh]

I'll start with pricing and ease of booking. I've always found booking online via Carnival, with your TA or with a PVP easy and Norwegian seems to be just as easy. I will note that I liked Carnival's previous version of their website better as it showed you the price per day for each cruise and I just liked the older layout better, but YMMV. And since I don't have any prior experience with Norwegian's website I would give "website ease of use and booking via site or phone" a tie between the two; not much difference.

 

As far as pricing goes: I looked at several different cruises on several different dates and Norwegian beat Carnival each time. One of those that I booked even came out cheaper with the all you can drink package vs. just getting the room with Carnival. Wow! For my quick, not so scientific comparison Norwegian won in this category.

 

Embarkation: Since this was my first time sailing and I've been platinum with Carnival for several years it really isn't a great comparison but I believe I have some good points to call out. First off, I think both Carnival and Norwegian do a great job of getting the long lines moving quickly. When you get in a line a mile long it can be overwelming, but when you find out that it only takes a few minutes to get through then everything is much better. What I didn't like about Norwegian was after you get through the line, you then have to wait in a room to be called by group number to board the ship. This wait wasn't too long, only about 15 minutes. But I don't understand the point - Carnival gets you directly on once you have your keys. Advantage: Carnival

 

Carnival doesn't always gat you onboard immediately. In 4 cruises with Carnival, that only happened to me once. The other 3 times we had to wait for our number to be called.

[Guindalf]

The Escape. I've done the smaller Carnival ships, but the last few years I've stuck to the larger ones. I enjoy all of them, but for the price it just seems better to go with the larger ones these days.

 

Cool. The Escape is a nice ship. We sailed that route on the Getaway last October, which is the same design but one deck smaller, basically.

 

In January last year, we were lucky enough to experience the suite life, picking up one on the Dawn for under $1000 each. Now THAT's an experience, from the priority boarding and waiting room, to the butler and concierge service, to priority disembarkation and everything in between! I think they're trying, but I don't think ANY of the big commercial lines treat suite guests as well as NCL.

[Computer Nerd]

i've sailed 9 times on carnival and 4 on ncl and have a cruise on each booked......with an rccl cruise in between. :D both lines have their strengths and weaknesses but i find i prefer carnival over ncl. of course, a lot depends on the ship one picks but to me, how carnival does business suits my lifestyle better. either way, due to how things happen in my life i will continue sailing both lines and having fun each and every time i sail on both carnival and ncl.

[Zeta3]

Following along. Cruised Carnival for a long time, switched to Norwegian for several years, now switching back to Carnival.

[evandbob]

Positives about NCL over Carnival - the entertainment and the variety of food options. I book NCL when I can get a free specialty dining package. Drinkers may want to book NCL or Celebrity to get a free drink package rather than pay for Carnival's Cheers. Solo cruisers on NCL may catch a break with solo studio fares, while Carnival charges solos 200%.

 

Negatives about NCL over Carnival - NCL smoking policy and spread out casion - at least Carnival attempts to keep smoking to one indoor area of the ship. NCL's cabins appear a little smaller than Carnival's. I'm not diamond on NCL like I am on Carnival, hopefully I can get to a frequency level where NCL acknowledges my business.

 

Let's get the rest of the OP's review!

[jomoin]

I'm very interested to hear the OP's review on the two lines. We traveled on NCL for the first time (Norwegian Dawn) in March out of NOLA. We are booked on the Carnival Conquest next week out of Fort Lauderdale. This will be our first Carnival cruise in 20 years. I'm anxious to see the differences between the two cruises. On NCL we booked an interior cabin and got an upsell to a balcony in the last week for $20. No such luck for our interior cabin on Carnival. There were a lot of spring breakers on NCL which did not help our experience, but overall, we enjoyed the cruise. We are really looking forward to see how Carnival compares!

[Yellowjacket1799]

Around the ship:

 

The Escape has some very beautiful features. It seems like a lot of thought and attention to detail went into the design. A few things that stuck out to me were 1. using real brick vineers on the walls in the comedy club, whereas Carnival has the drop down screen the comedians stand in front of. 2. the mini golf course had graffiti on the obsticles on the course to give it that skate park "punk" atmosphere. 3. O'sheehan's had dark wood tables and accents, along with 1940's baseball cards and various other pieces of art that gave it that true sports pub vibe. 4. the rooms had an indicator on the outside of the room door that correlated to your key card being inserted for the light. It let the room steward know that you were "home" and you also had a button to select "do not disturb or that your room needs service" which I thought were pretty nice options to have. 5. Touch screen tv's all over the place to allow you to see what was going on based on each category and also find specific cabins easily. 6. The adults only area on the main deck was awesome! I really liked that it had a tunnel feel to it when you enter and then it opens up and has a rock cave with a water run off. Overall IMO Escape is a much cooler ship than Breeze, Magic or Dream. Advantage: NCL

Edited May 8, 2016 by Yellowjacket1799

[Yellowjacket1799]

Food:

 

So this one gets a little tricky. Right off the bat I noticed some things better and different about NCL. The cafe area on lido felt like it was more segregated from the pool whereas on Carnival I've always felt like they run together - not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation. NCL served fresh pretzel rolls and sticks every day which was very cool. And the cafe food on lido seemed much better than Carnival. With that said, the dinning room food on NCL did not impress me very much. And I noticed that most everything in the dinning room in the evening was being served on lido which could be good if you didn't want to go to the dinning room, but on the flipside took the charm out of wanting to dress up and go into the dinning room. Deserts also seemed a lot better on Carnival. NCL had an interesting twist to the warm chocolate melting cake. They paired it with a scope of ice cream with flakes of chocolate inside and cut strawberries. I liked the change up but the cake was a tad bit smaller which probably isnt a bad thing for my sugar intake... Advantage: Carnival.

[Rosethorn40]

We did 1 on NCL and 1 on Carnival and 1 on RCI.

 

We have an upcoming Carnival this summer.

 

I am looking forward to reading your opinion.

 

My only comment so far is, we had an opposite experience with boarding.

On Carnival Pride out of Baltimore, we were waiting about an hour to board after checking in. On The NCL Jewel in Seattle we boarded immediately after check in.

We also loved NCL's Freestyle promo options, and the ability to select the Ultimate Beverage Package.

 

Baltimore is notorious for being a horrible place to cruise from. Back in 2009 we were on a RCCL ship (Grandeur of the Seas), and we didn't dis-embark until NOON! We had docked on time, etc, but the unloading of the luggage (I think done by dockworkers in Baltimore) and immigration were so slow. So blame you issues with boarding the Carnival ship in Balto. on the Port of Baltimore, not on Carnival.

[ready2cruzagain]

Definitely following since switching to NCL due to price, entertainment (or Carnival's lack of entertainment) and UBP included this fall on the Epic. Can't wait to read the rest of this..so far, so good.

[Jimmy Geegitz]

Nice to see this comparison. Carnival is getting a little pricey and not adding much to condone the increase. Main Showroom Entertainment on Carnival is absolutely horrible.

[oxymoron11]

Thanks for the comparison. We jumped ship also, (Carnival platinum) because of the good deals on NCL. We cruise in Nov. (Jade) and Jan. (Epic).

I will enjoy reading your comments.

[Yellowjacket1799]

I wanted to go back and elaborate a little on why I give Carnival the nod on food vs. NCL. NCL has a lot of cool options but the dollars can add up quick. They also changed Margarittaville to al a carte vs. being free as it originally was and I noticed on the cruise that while I was around that deck I never saw anyone there which is a shame.

 

Carnival has the mongolian wok which I love!!! But they only do it on certain days and at certain times. :( And their deli has always been a favorite. I also think their pizza was better than NCL. NCL edges them out with 24hr options at O'sheehans - wings, fijitas, burgers and dogs just to name a few. They crush Carnival in that one category, but overall I think Carnival has better food minus O'sheehans and the lido deck. But you won't go wrong with either option.

[Yellowjacket1799]

Venues & Events:

 

I like escape because I think they do the best job of creating a new vibe at each venue. I liked how the casino and O'sheehans were combined into one entire deck. And as a non-smoker, I was surprised I didn't notice the smokers at all; though I didn't spend a lot of time in the casino. I liked the 5 o'clock somewhere bar because it was dedicated to karaoke every night from 7:30 to 12 - this is an area where Carnival has backed off; probably because of John Heald. Although I do believe a few things could be improved on - they use a big screen for the lyrics which if you stand on stage or face the crowd would put your back to the words. For some of us this isn't an issue, but for causual karaoke fans this is a problem. Also, they only have two drinks that you can get frozen and being a Jimmy Buffet themed bar, you would think they would have a larger selection. Carnival does Superstar Live vs. NCL's Bandaoke and Carnival does win this head to head match-up because they incorporate monitors for casual singers. On NCL you get a paper copy of the lyrics for you to use if you need them. Again, they put so much thought and detail into their ship and then cut that one little corner that could really make them shine.

 

Bingo is pretty expensive to play, epsecially if you plan to play more than once and NCL has "instant winner" scratch offs to entice people. From my observation this was a waste of money. I saw a lot of $1 winners, but if you're paying $40, $60 or $80 to play then you should have more winners. While attending one of the sessions I did some unscientific math based upon a rough count of seats filled vs. the average price and they area easily clearing $20k+ and they payout totals are typically less than $2500. I haven't played on Carnival in so long that I don't recall their prices.

 

NCL's Glow Party vs. Carnival's White Party - Okay, so this one isn't even in the same league. After all these years of cruising I've never seen anything this wild at sea. NCL did an amazing job at this. For years I've attending white parties on Carnival and at first it seemed like I was the only one dressed in white and as the years went by more people started to join in, but it still is typically only a handful of people here and there. But on the Escape as you enter the tunnel to get to Spice H20, the adults only deck, you can feel the bass pounding as you get closer and see the glow of neon drinks. Once you enter you're surrounded by a sea of white, pun intended. My guess was about 6-800 people all dressed in white - 3 hype men up on stage getting the crowd turned up with a large video screen behind them playing videos to match the music.

 

Winner: Hands down NCL based on Karaoke and the Glow Party!

[Warm Breezes]

Enjoying your comparison. I have sailed on CCL 7 times with number 8 on the Dream coming up next week and NCL 3 times with number 4 booked for next year in September on the Escape. So far your comparisons are what I would have said for our previous cruises on both lines. It will be interesting to hear the rest of your thoughts. I have to say though that when adding in the packages I got on NCL, SDP and Internet (don't drink enough to justify even the tip on UBP and we do our own thing for excursions), we still paid just slightly less for our Carnival Cruise (booked both cruises within weeks of each other in February). Both are balcony rooms but we booked early enough with NCL to get a prime location angled balcony.

Edited May 9, 2016 by Warm Breezes

[wallygator21015]

Pros & Cons - Carnival Pride vs. NCL Gem

NCL Gem 10 nights January 22, 2016

CCL Pride 14 nights March 13, 2016

 

Pros:

Both Ships are very clean on the inside of the ship.

Air conditioning worked well on both ships.

Pride - Cabin 1105 Ocean View - Was able to keep cabin temperature between 68 - 70 degrees.

Pride 12 pack of water bottles delivered to your room $3.99

Carnival Pride - Food overall is very good, much better than on the Norwegian Gem.

Pride Main Dinning Room offers Shrimp Cocktail every night, and on different nights Serves Lobster, Oysters Rockefeller, Beef Wellington, FiLet Mignon, Prime Rib, etc.

If you want lobster on Norwegian, you have to pay to go to a specialty restaurant. Plus 18% service charge.

PRIDE - Note: on our (14 nights) cruise Lobster was offered 3 times on 3 different nights in the main dinning room, (very tasty)

Pride Free pizza 24 /7 (very good)

PRIDE - Staterooms are much larger than NCL Gem

Recommended tipping on Carnival is $12.00 per day

Required tipping on Norwegian is $13.50 per day

Room serviced twice daily - No Problem - on both ships.

Pride - David's Steakhouse, Gem - Cagney's are equal in value. However, Norwegian adds on an additional 18% service charge.

Pride casino - complimentary drinks while gambling include premium brands.

Gem casino - complimentary drinks while gambling must be valued at $5. dollars or less. However you may pay for an upgrade to a premium brand.

 

Cons:

PRIDE - Two automatic doors opening to the promenade deck, used by the handicapped, on both sides of the ship forward, were out of service for the entire cruise?

I am handicapped and use a wheelchair and required assistance to reach the promenade deck.

Pride - clock on the wall in the spa hot tub broken the entire cruise.

PRIDE - White paint flakes and white paint spots all over the promenade deck. Outside doors missing paint?

Gem & Pride - Casinos constantly full of smoke and no way to avoid it if you are a player.

Carnival Pride - Guy's greasy burgers & fries are nauseating. Often while frying the burgers the indoor buffet would fill up with smoke from the grease. Employees would plug in large fans to dissipate the smoke and stench from the buffet area.

I would rather have a McDonald's Big Mac.

Nevertheless, everywhere you look, Norwegian has made cuts to their product and found new ways to charge more money and provide less products and services to their passengers.

The new CEO for Norwegian - Frank J. Del Rio, has declared his intention to gouge his already booked passengers for another $50. - $100. per cabin on every cruise.

 

Summation

I am a Diamond Guest on Carnival, and a Platinum Guest on Norwegian. Overall, I prefer to cruise on Carnival.

 

 

 

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[nissach]

Love hearing everyone's reviews/comments on Carnival and NCL.

We have never sailed NCL(but would love too), Holland once and Carnival 7 times. We choose Carnival because it is always cheaper, hands down.

Now with that being said. we have to travel at high time, Christmas/NYE, so prices on all lines are higher, but Carnival is always significantly less expensive. I can't justify spending up to twice as much on other lines. :(