Moving on Up....

[pastamom2011]

So after five cruises on Carnival, I feel like I am ready for an upgrade. I have enjoyed Carnival, especially when cruising with teenagers but I feel my husband and I are ready for a new scene. We love great food and wine. Entertainment is nice... but we don't go every night to the shows. We do go to the gym and spa regularly. We are both pretty active. Love people watching. Enjoy the Caribbean and the Med. Viking looks great, but I can't pay $5000 per person for a week. What cruise line should I look at if $1800-$2500 look good for a week with a balcony.

[rkacruiser]

I would recommend Holland America or Princess. The Greenhouse Spa with their Hydrotherapy Pool and Thermal Suites on the HAL Vista and Signature Class ships are the amenities on those ships that I enjoy the most. The Gym is also well equipped, in my opinion, as well.

 

Some like the entertainment provided on HAL ships; some don't. My opinion: it depends upon the cruise and the Cruise Director aboard.

 

Some like the food/wine offerings; some don't. My opinion: it depends upon the cruise and the ship's Executive Chef.

 

If you are a fan of Guy's Burgers on Carnival ships, be prepared to be blown away by the Dive-in burgers and Fries on HAL ships. (Others will disagree, I know. This is just my opinion based upon my experience.)

 

My most recent cruises have been on HAL and Carnival. I like them both for different reasons and am comfortable in moving between the two brands. It has been too long for me to provide what the current Princess cruise experience might be. I'd check them out, however, certainly by reading the Princess Message Boards. Just be aware that their new builds, i.e. Royal, Regal, and Majestic Princess, have small verandas for their standard veranda staterooms. My most recent Princess cruise was aboard Star Princess in a standard veranda stateroom. Quite satisfactory with an acceptable sized veranda (and Fettuccine Alfredo served in the MDR that is memorable!).

[montekat]

We have done quite a few Carnival and Royal Caribbean. Right now we are enjoying Celebrity. Certainly can be done for a reasonable rate.

[Sequim88]

Within the Carnival family either Princess or Holland America would be a nice "move up". Otherwise Celebrity would be an option over in the RCL family. At least with Princess or HAL you would have some reciprocal benefits.

[leaveitallbehind]

One more recommendation for Celebrity. RCI wouldn't be a bad second option either.

[Essiesmom]

Within the Carnival family either Princess or Holland America would be a nice "move up". Otherwise Celebrity would be an option over in the RCL family. At least with Princess or HAL you would have some reciprocal benefits.

Reciprocal benefits? They will recognize you as a 'past guest', that's all. I you go to the HAL website and try a mock booking, when they ask for your Mariner Society number, they give the option for them to look it up. try that, and I bet you will find you already have a number...EM

[leaveitallbehind]

For a discussion on cruise lines with reciprocal loyalty benefits go to this CC link:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2498987

 

The fact is most cruise lines with multiple brands do not have reciprocal programs. RCI is one of the few - if not the only one - that does this, at least to my knowledge.

[Flatbush Flyer]

So after five cruises on Carnival, I feel like I am ready for an upgrade. I have enjoyed Carnival, especially when cruising with teenagers but I feel my husband and I are ready for a new scene. We love great food and wine. Entertainment is nice... but we don't go every night to the shows. We do go to the gym and spa regularly. We are both pretty active. Love people watching. Enjoy the Caribbean and the Med. Viking looks great, but I can't pay $5000 per person for a week. What cruise line should I look at if $1800-$2500 look good for a week with a balcony.

 

 

Love "GREAT" food and want to cruise for <$2500? Nice try!

However, if you're willing to limit the cruise to 8 or 10 days in the Med, Oceania's included air fare or air credit plus O Life perks that you'd pay for with mass market lines, may bring a well researched/chosen itinerary down below $3k/person.

 

 

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[Robinsoncruiseso]

We regularly book balcony cabins on Princess for under the $2500 cabin total for two range. Nice spa and not too many children. Food is nice. I think the grill on the Lido deck (hamburgers, hotdogs, fries) is excellent and many ships have the International Cafe which is open 24/7. The drinks on Princess are reasonably priced as well and the drink packages may be purchased for only one in the cabin if the other is not a drinker. Also non-alcohol drink packages available. I think the entertainment is good. Not quite "Broadway" but definitely not community theater.

FYI I am nearing 50- grown children - and dance till an hour or two past midnight.

[SuiteTraveler]

The next level up from Carnival is:

 

NCL and RCCL

then

Princess, Celebrity and HAL

 

then above that you get to the specialty lines (tall sailing ships, river barges, river cruises) and finally the luxury ships. Some of the sailing ships, Starclippers, for example, you can get on as low at $1420 if you choose a sailing they have a sale on.

[navybankerteacher]

Within the Carnival family either Princess or Holland America would be a nice "move up". Otherwise Celebrity would be an option over in the RCL family. At least with Princess or HAL you would have some reciprocal benefits.

 

The "benefits" might be nice, but are so trivial as to take second place behind ship and itinerary. From OP's post, I would suggest either Celebrity or HAL - roughly comparable price for good food, service, and comfort - so decision should hang on itinerary.

[SuiteTraveler]

If you have been hanging out in Carnival's thermal suite, the thermal suite on NCL Epic, Getaway, Breakaway and Escape have that beat by a mile. They also have great gym. No formal nights and it's more about going to a different restaurant every night. The negative of NCL is that the pool deck is over crowded. RCCL doesn't have a better spa but it does have the Adults only Solarium and some really amazing ships - especially Oasis class! HAL - we went on it at age 45/46 and everyone else was in their 70's plus. On a positive note, the suite we had was really nice but we found the food very bland. Celebrity - in the Caribbean, more of a mixed bag of ages though it skews to people who are older or more sedate, more of a quiet cruise, however the food in the MDR is really good and the specialty restaurants are, too. Princess is more of a mixed group cruise with a British flare. They have a nice quiet thermal suite in the spas of their newest ships, but I've been hearing bad things about their food lately - sad because they used to have some of the best food!

[CarrieAP]

Consider NCL. We tried the Getaway after past cruises on Carnival and loved it! The food in the MDRs we thought was better than Carnival or Disney, with the added option of trying the specialty restaurants as well. Feels more like eating in restaurants than traditional cruise ship feel. The shows were top notch with a wide variety of music, comedians etc.

 

Drink packages are offered as a perk which felt indulgent even though we are not big drinkers.

 

I didn't expect to like NCL based on my preconceptions, but now can't wait to sail with them again!

 

 

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[getaway_goddess]

We've sailed with NCL a few times and LOVED them. RCCL and Disney look fantastic as well - they have many great onboard entertainment/activity options. The bigger ships were definitely our favourite (like the Getaway!). We recently tried Princess and were really disappointed. We thought it would be an upgrade from NCL, since it is supposed to be mid-level, but it really was a huge downgrade. We have heard that the Regal Princess is nice though (we sailed on the Crown - which seems to be rated badly).

 

We made a video comparing NCL and Princess you can view here if you want:

 

The description allows you to skip around (it's really long and may not all be relevant to you). I'd suggest looking at the Daily Activities, Food Selection, and Bonus sections, since they are more a direct comparison between the cruise lines.

 

Cheers!

[Sequim88]

RCI is one of the few - if not the only one - that does this,

Yes, that was one reason we came really close to "X" for this summer since we are Platinum on RCCL but in the end choice of dates brought us back to HAL. From discussions on the HAL forum I had thought Carnival took care of the loyalty side better. Something we will consider going forward. Our next cruise will likely be another Transatlantic so will probably be RCCL or X.

[nhsails]

Royal Celebrity MSC

[GUT2407]

So after five cruises on Carnival, I feel like I am ready for an upgrade. I have enjoyed Carnival, especially when cruising with teenagers but I feel my husband and I are ready for a new scene. We love great food and wine. Entertainment is nice... but we don't go every night to the shows. We do go to the gym and spa regularly. We are both pretty active. Love people watching. Enjoy the Caribbean and the Med. Viking looks great, but I can't pay $5000 per person for a week. What cruise line should I look at if $1800-$2500 look good for a week with a balcony.

 

 

For us Princess, may be a bit sedate for you, or Celebrity which may be a younger crowd than Princess.

[MicCanberra]

I think NCL or Royal would be a better fit, with both price and demographic. Moving from Carnival to NCL or Royal before moving to a line like Princess, X or HAL.