Carnival Cruiser tries Princess - Comparisons

[KKB]

12 minutes ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

 

We (me and DH) sailed the Mardi Gras in July, 7-days, in an aft balcony. Cost was about $2,700 total, which did not include drinks.

 

We will be sailing Celebrity Reflection in a Concierge Class extended balcony for 7 days on January 22. For the cruise only rate we paid about $1,700 total. 

 

Edit to add: Mardi Gras was Western Caribbean, X is Eastern.

Now, the Mardi Gras is a newer ship & Reflection is older & has not been "revolutionized", thus the great rate. (and and aft balcony usually garners a larger price tag).

If you compared Mardi Gras to Apex, Edge or Beyond in an aft cabin, likely more comparable pricing.

Conversely, if you compared Reflection to some older Carnival ships you may find more comparable rates.

[SRQbeachgirl]

Just now, KKB said:

Now, the Mardi Gras is a newer ship & Reflection is older & has not been "revolutionized", thus the great rate. (and and aft balcony usually garners a larger price tag).

If you compared Mardi Gras to Apex, Edge or Beyond in an aft cabin, likely more comparable pricing.

Conversely, if you compared Reflection to some older Carnival ships you may find more comparable rates.

 

Yes, that is true. But I have been looking at cruises in the April - May 2023 timeframe and I'm really not seeing much saving on Carnival vs other lines for comparable ships and itineraries. We prefer the older ships, but the cost for Carnival vs RCI or Celebrity are about the same.

 

Moral of the story: cruise pricing has gotten weird. 🤷‍♀️

[KKB]

12 hours ago, sparks1093 said:

I can't do a comparison with X, but I did just price out a Princess vs Carnival cruise. Both left in 9/2024 going to Alaska. Princess leaving from Vancouver, Carnival from Seattle. Princess price for a forward balcony $4206 which includes the drink package, Wi-Fi for two, tips and a few other amenities. Carnival's price for an aft balcony was $3363. Add in gratuities of $203, Cheers at $991, Wi-Fi at $202 and the total is $4759. That's a $553 difference, so yes, it pays to shop around. Of course if someone doesn't buy Cheers the price difference may not be so much, but one should definitely look at all such factors in deciding. We will likely be looking at Princess as a possibility from now on. 

 

I pulled up AK 9/23, Interior

The bare bones rates: Carnival is $150 more than Princess, Celebrity about $200 more than Carnival.

When I click on Princess Plus package, it is only $800 more for drinks, unlimited wifi & tips for 2.

You note above that to add those on Carnival for a week is $1400 more...so the "AI" pricing also saves $.

Even Celebrity "AI" package only adds $750 more than the bare bones...so it would also be cheaper than Carnival if one wished to add those.

Once you take off the $200 for gratuities that you are going to pay anyway...then the $200 for wifi (you could fudge it to $100 if you are willing to share 1 plan), your unlimited drinks are down to $400/wk/2.

Thats just over $20pp/day. Thus you can see why Princess Plus is a no brainer. 

We sailed AK with DH's aunt & uncle in their 70s & they didn't think they needed the drink plan...but I convinced them for the $20/day, it's a no brainer. They thanked u.

Again, I KNOW this isn't always the case...but I recommend shopping around

 

[KKB]

8 minutes ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

 

Yes, that is true. But I have been looking at cruises in the April - May 2023 timeframe and I'm really not seeing much saving on Carnival vs other lines for comparable ships and itineraries. We prefer the older ships, but the cost for Carnival vs RCI or Celebrity are about the same.

 

Moral of the story: cruise pricing has gotten weird. 🤷‍♀️

Meh, we discovered this 10 years ago...again, I truly think it is brand perception more than reality.

[CruizinSusan70]

5 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

If Carnival Corp wanted a new ship, they could certainly have one. The individual Carnival lines can't override corporate who supplies the funds. MSC, for example, is still essentially a one trick pony. RCI has more older ships than Carnival. Carnival is ahead of the curve.

 

The fact that RCI has more older ships than Carnival does not play into the equation at all.  You state that MSC  is a one trick pony, yet they have awfully deep pockets since their parent company did not bleed billions and billions and billions like their competition, including of course Carnival.  

The bottom line is that as things stand the Jubilee will be the only new ship in the company over the next six years at a minimum, yet RCI, NCL and MSC keep cranking them out and giving potential new blue cards to Carnival shinier new toys on the other lines.

Edited December 27, 2022 by CruizinSusan70

[BlerkOne]

45 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

The fact that RCI has more older ships than Carnival does not play into the equation at all.  You state that MSC  is a one trick pony, yet they have awfully deep pockets since their parent company did not bleed billions and billions and billions like their competition, including of course Carnival.  

The bottom line is that as things stand the Jubilee will be the only new ship in the company over the next six years at a minimum, yet RCI, NCL and MSC keep cranking them out and giving potential new blue cards to Carnival shinier new toys on the other lines.

Not everyone is blinded by newer or bigger. Neither one means better. I was on the oldest ship Carnival had twice this year and both cruises were great. In both cases the next cruise was on the newest ship - Mardi Gras one time, then Celebration. There are no bad cruises.

 

Royal is well over 20 billion in debt. The only reason MSC cruises didn't bleed billions is that they are still small.

[CruizinSusan70]

8 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Not everyone is blinded by newer or bigger. Neither one means better. I was on the oldest ship Carnival had twice this year and both cruises were great. In both cases the next cruise was on the newest ship - Mardi Gras one time, then Celebration. There are no bad cruises.

 

Royal is well over 20 billion in debt. The only reason MSC cruises didn't bleed billions is that they are still small.

Fully agree that there are no bad cruises, only ones that are better than others.  But that fact still doesn't change the situation that after the Jubilee debuts 11 months from now, it's the last new Carnival ship for the rest of the decade.  And that fact will come back to bite them in the butt while their competition all have at least four new builds while Carnival has none.

[BlerkOne]

5 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Fully agree that there are no bad cruises, only ones that are better than others.  But that fact still doesn't change the situation that after the Jubilee debuts 11 months from now, it's the last new Carnival ship for the rest of the decade.  And that fact will come back to bite them in the butt while their competition all have at least four new builds while Carnival has none.

The topic is Carnival vs Princess. Two Carnival brands. Princess has 2 ships on the books. It is anticipated that Carnival brands will add 1 or 2 ships per year starting in 2027. I bet Carnival gets at least one.

[DallasGuy75219]

7 hours ago, SRQbeachgirl said:

 

We (me and DH) sailed the Mardi Gras in July, 7-days, in an aft balcony. Cost was about $2,700 total, which did not include drinks.

 

We will be sailing Celebrity Reflection in a Concierge Class extended balcony for 7 days on January 22. For the cruise only rate we paid about $1,700 total. 

Those sailing dates are not at all comparable.  July is the middle of high season, especially on the lower tier mass market lines like Carnival, Royal, and NCL that the cater to families with their kids programs.  The end of January is low season, after Christmas and New Years week and before kids start going on Spring Break.

[CruizinSusan70]

48 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

The topic is Carnival vs Princess. Two Carnival brands. Princess has 2 ships on the books. It is anticipated that Carnival brands will add 1 or 2 ships per year starting in 2027. I bet Carnival gets at least one.

Please quote me online or video verification that Carnival brands will add 1 or 2 per year over each of the last 3 years in the decade.  

I'm going by two different cruise experts on YouTube that post 4-5 times each per week and both said that it was reported by Carnival that they were done with new builds for the rest of the decade after the ones in the pipeline that of course include the Sphere Class ships of Princess.

[BlerkOne]

19 minutes ago, CruizinSusan70 said:

Please quote me online or video verification that Carnival brands will add 1 or 2 per year over each of the last 3 years in the decade.  

I'm going by two different cruise experts on YouTube that post 4-5 times each per week and both said that it was reported by Carnival that they were done with new builds for the rest of the decade after the ones in the pipeline that of course include the Sphere Class ships of Princess.

I'm going by Carnival's CEO statement and not yellow journalism.

 

“This is our lowest order book in decades,” Weinstein continued. “We don’t expect any new ships in 2026 and anticipate just one or two new builds each year for several years thereafter.”

[BlerkOne]

We have just four ships on order through 2025, plus our second incredible Seabourn luxury expedition ship to be delivered in 2023. This is our lowest order book in decades. We don't expect any new ships in 2026 and anticipate just one or two new builds each year for several years thereafter. Turning back to our operating performance, we are effectively addressing near-term challenges in the post-pause transition with higher first quarter net per diems expected and have been reshaping our portfolio to drive revenue growth as we return to historically high occupancy levels and delivering measurable pricing improvements over time.

https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2022/12/21/carnival-corp-ccl-q4-2022-earnings-call-transcript/

 

[Pellaz]

3 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

The only reason MSC cruises didn't bleed billions is that they are still small.

Well, that, AND they are one of the largest commercial ocean shippers and container-freight operations on the planet.....

[sparks1093]

12 hours ago, ontheweb said:

OK, but airfare would be part of the total cost. And when we did an Alaskan cruise and looked at both those ports, it was not only more expensive to fly to Vancouver, it was also not direct as were flights to Seatle.

Part of the total cost, yes, but I don't generally consider that when looking at the cruise fare itself because our cruises and air are booked at to different times, often over a year apart. Of course this is going to be different for each person as well, many people only have one choice of departure airport and we are fortunate to have 3 (Burlington, Montreal and Boston). This particular cruise would be a bit different though because of the two possible departure ports. Normally we are only looking at cruises from one port.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, sparks1093 said:

 This particular cruise would be a bit different though because of the two possible departure ports. Normally we are only looking at cruises from one port.

Yes, that does make a difference.

 

And one of the sticking points when we looked at flights was the fact that we could not get a direct flight to Vancouver. (We also have 3 airport choices, Newark (which we generally prefer), JFK, and La Guardia.

[BlerkOne]

14 hours ago, Pellaz said:

Well, that, AND they are one of the largest commercial ocean shippers and container-freight operations on the planet.....

Everything was impacted. Remember the freighters stacked up near Los Angeles and other ports? MSC has what, 4 cruise ships in the Caribbean?

[Itried4498]

We were on the Miracle last month for Thanksgiving and are currently on the Crown Princess for a 16-day Holiday cruise.

 

Definitely not Princess’ fault - the voyage to Hawaii has been extremely rough and unpleasantly cold.  The pools have been covered since left San Pedro and mimic a wave pool.

 

That said, we’ve been displeased with the **** show called dinner.  We were told their equivalent of “your time” dining was rolling out this cruise but on the first night, the dining room manager said they would be doing only traditional early / late seatings.  So our dinner reservation was cancelled.  For the next four nights, we waited 60, 90, 45 and 30 minutes past our reserved time (and had to sit with another party).  Not happy at all.  Worst of all we talked with the cruise director and she said she’d get back with us but not a word.

 

I probably wouldn’t said Princess again until they sorted this problem out.  Our Thanksgiving cruise on the Miracle was damn near close to perfect.  Granted, the dinner choices on Princess blow Carnival away (we had Halibut and jumbo shrimp the other day), but im not wasting 3.5-5 hours on dinner.

 

also… really surprised at how little synergy there is between Carnival and Princess there is.  Even the vendors for things like toilet paper are completely different… combined procurement = easy savings.

[KKB]

2 hours ago, Itried4498 said:

We were on the Miracle last month for Thanksgiving and are currently on the Crown Princess for a 16-day Holiday cruise.

 

Definitely not Princess’ fault - the voyage to Hawaii has been extremely rough and unpleasantly cold.  The pools have been covered since left San Pedro and mimic a wave pool.

 

That said, we’ve been displeased with the **** show called dinner.  We were told their equivalent of “your time” dining was rolling out this cruise but on the first night, the dining room manager said they would be doing only traditional early / late seatings.  So our dinner reservation was cancelled.  For the next four nights, we waited 60, 90, 45 and 30 minutes past our reserved time (and had to sit with another party).  Not happy at all.  Worst of all we talked with the cruise director and she said she’d get back with us but not a word.

 

I probably wouldn’t said Princess again until they sorted this problem out.  Our Thanksgiving cruise on the Miracle was damn near close to perfect.  Granted, the dinner choices on Princess blow Carnival away (we had Halibut and jumbo shrimp the other day), but im not wasting 3.5-5 hours on dinner.

 

also… really surprised at how little synergy there is between Carnival and Princess there is.  Even the vendors for things like toilet paper are completely different… combined procurement = easy savings.

Interesting to hear this comparison as we sail the Miracle to Hawaii next week.

I was hoping to see some trip reports on the Miracle this month, but NOPE.

Is it correct that the casino bar was removed during dry dock? 

Thanks!

[BlerkOne]

On 12/26/2022 at 4:28 PM, SRQbeachgirl said:

 

We (me and DH) sailed the Mardi Gras in July, 7-days, in an aft balcony. Cost was about $2,700 total, which did not include drinks.

 

We will be sailing Celebrity Reflection in a Concierge Class extended balcony for 7 days on January 22. For the cruise only rate we paid about $1,700 total. 

 

Edit to add: Mardi Gras was Western Caribbean, X is Eastern.

Summer is peak season and Jan 22 is near the low. Even on the same ship there would be a large difference. 

[DallasGuy75219]

On 12/27/2022 at 6:05 PM, Itried4498 said:

We were told their equivalent of “your time” dining was rolling out this cruise but on the first night, the dining room manager said they would be doing only traditional early / late seatings.    So our dinner reservation was cancelled.  For the next four nights, we waited 60, 90, 45 and 30 minutes past our reserved time (and had to sit with another party).  Not happy at all.  Worst of all we talked with the cruise director and she said she’d get back with us but not a word.

 

also… really surprised at how little synergy there is between Carnival and Princess there is.  Even the vendors for things like toilet paper are completely different… combined procurement = easy savings.

Princess fed you a line of complete and utter BS.  I had Dine My Way on Crown in August.  Likely they're understaffed so made the arbitrary decision to go back to assigned time dining.  And I'd say severely understaffed if you're waiting that long past your assigned time just to be seated.

 

Keep in mind that Princess ships cross the world more frequently than Carnival, which tends to keep its ships in the same homeport for years at a time between changing homeports or going into drydock (with the exception of 2-3 ships in seasonally in Alaska).  A Carnival ship in Miami and a Princess ship in Ft. Lauderdale are both probably getting the same toilet paper.  But if that Princess ship was previously in the Mediterranean, they likely got a different brand of toilet paper and may still have some on hand to use after the ship moves to Ft. Lauderdale.  Then on top of that there are still COVID supply chain issues and their normal brand of toilet paper may not have even been available.  On one post-COVID cruise (don't remember which line) they were using toilet paper not with rolls individually wrapped for the hotel/cruise industry but in a case of 24 wrapped in plastic, like you'd buy in a multipack at your local grocery store or Sam's or Costco.

[FloridaGram]

On 12/19/2022 at 10:07 PM, cruisinqt said:

I had similar feelings after doing the Grand Princess a few years back. I enjoyed the cruise it was a beautiful ship but things just pretty much shutdown after 10 pm. Yes the bars and casino were busy but nothing else. And like you I’m a night owl so that was a bit of a bummer. There were lots of activities scheduled during the day but they weren’t my cup of tea. I wasn’t very interested in ballroom dance classes, lectures, watching ice sculptures be carved, learning how to make towel animals, etc. The food was really good, especially in the MDR. And the shows were excellent, better than Carnival’s in my opinion. But I just felt a bit restless and bored oftentimes on that cruise. It just wasn’t my cup of tea I guess. I don’t dislike Princess, I can see why so many people like them, it just wasn’t for me. Royal on the other hand was very similar to Carnival so I sail them every now and then when I find a good deal. In fact I’m going on Quantam of the Seas in May for an Alaskan cruise. 

We recently returned from the largest cruise ship in the world, at this time. While the main shows were incredible and so much better than Carnival (except the Mardi Gras) there was nothing much to do after those main shows. Venues we were interested in were to small and too crowded. We went back and watched TV 2 nights, and their TV is so much worse than Carnival. Thank goodness football was on so my husband was happy. Food was no better, and often worse, and I missed my Guy's burgers. I am happy to be returning home to Carnival in Jan 23 and not sure what my future holds for cruising.

And talking about snobs, a couple of people I talked to think Carnival is the worst, but they have never been on Carnival.  People who sat beside us at dinner plan to look into Carnival from the west coast for their next family cruise. We are elderly to most but CCL and Royal both have good points and bad points. Going on NCL next month but I don't expect any thing different and it costs more. We always have a good time on CCL I just do not prefer the playlist productions since they switched to that. But I keep coming back because it feels like home!

[FloridaGram]

On 12/24/2022 at 12:53 AM, CruizinSusan70 said:

According to your signature your lone Princess cruise was in 2006 or 16 years ago.  Are you the same today that you were 16 years ago?  Of course not.  And it's the same with Princess.  We have only done Princess once, for 14 days on their newest ship the Discovery. And our overall experience was just as good as the Mardi Gras, just as good as the Norwegian Prima and just as good as the Celebrity Apex.  Have sailed on all four of the newest ships in these respective fleets this year.  None of them were perfect, but all were well above average and we would sail on each of them again with no problem. 

Thanks for the input. I am looking into the Celebrity Beyond for my next cruise. RCCL had too many kids and the Wonder seemed more geared to kids. I would love that when sailing with my whole family but for just the 2 of us I am ready to try something new. We liked the Mardi Gras so are trying in Celebration in a few weeks. I think I will try Discovery and Prima because of your recommendation, The Wonder did have incredible shows though.

[rs45thompson]

On 12/24/2022 at 9:45 AM, RobertoF said:

We are fairly young for cruisers and love Princess.  I used to bash Carnival even though we had never been on a Carnival ship (unfair, I know).  So this year we went on Carnival Sunrise and it was everything I feared.  We hated it and will not go back on Carnival.  Everything was lower end and more crowded on Carnival.  That East Villiage club/mosh pit party atmosphere just did not appeal to us.  More recently we have been sailing Celebrity.  It is more expensive, but if you find Princess to be a bit dull I would say try out a Celebrity Edge-class ship (Edge, Apex, Beyond).  We have been on each of these ships and loved them all and now Celebrity is our go-to cruise line.  Celebrity has elegance like Princess or HAL but more activities (including late night like club DJs and silent disco) and more and better entertainment (particularly the quirky shows in Eden).  Also, Celebrity has great smoke-free casinos.

I have never been on the Sunrise- so I don't know anything about it.  Why not try the newer ships like Carnival Celebration and Mardi Gras.  I think you will find a big difference and may enjoy these ships more.

[KKB]

44 minutes ago, FloridaGram said:

Thanks for the input. I am looking into the Celebrity Beyond for my next cruise. RCCL had too many kids and the Wonder seemed more geared to kids. I would love that when sailing with my whole family but for just the 2 of us I am ready to try something new. We liked the Mardi Gras so are trying in Celebration in a few weeks. I think I will try Discovery and Prima because of your recommendation, The Wonder did have incredible shows though.

We are sailing our 1st Carnival cruise next week...

 

But we have done Celebrity Edge twice & the Apex as well...with the Beyond in Dec. 

We LOVE LOVE LOVE Eclass on Celebrity! Food is FANTASTIC (MDRs are so great...but Eden was terrific on both ships it is now a must do...plus I wanna try Le Voyage & Chef's table as well!), shows are Celebrity's best. And the ships are gorgeous. Infinite balconies--people love them or hate them. We like a balcony but don't typically spend a lot of time out there so the extra room an IV adds was nice.

 

Sailed Discovery in Sept...lovely ship. It was an AK cruise so more sedate than any Caribbean cruise we have taken. But we do love Princess.

 

TRYING to get my NCL April cruise changed from Getaway to Prima...really want to try her. But I'm not sure that will happen...

 

[cruisinqt]

8 hours ago, FloridaGram said:

We recently returned from the largest cruise ship in the world, at this time. While the main shows were incredible and so much better than Carnival (except the Mardi Gras) there was nothing much to do after those main shows. Venues we were interested in were to small and too crowded. We went back and watched TV 2 nights, and their TV is so much worse than Carnival. Thank goodness football was on so my husband was happy. Food was no better, and often worse, and I missed my Guy's burgers. I am happy to be returning home to Carnival in Jan 23 and not sure what my future holds for cruising.

And talking about snobs, a couple of people I talked to think Carnival is the worst, but they have never been on Carnival.  People who sat beside us at dinner plan to look into Carnival from the west coast for their next family cruise. We are elderly to most but CCL and Royal both have good points and bad points. Going on NCL next month but I don't expect any thing different and it costs more. We always have a good time on CCL I just do not prefer the playlist productions since they switched to that. But I keep coming back because it feels like home!

Yeah I feel the same way. I loved the magic shows and family feud on Mardi Gras. I’m looking forward to the big top circus in the Celebration in February. Carnival is starting to get better in entertainment. They just need to let go of the playlist productions.