I cruised CCL and RCL back to back. here's my comparo/review

[dclark]

This is great. Thanks for taking the time to do the comparison. Can you give me an idea of how the activities on the ship differed? I'm guessing they both do bingo but what about the other classes/activities/games?

 

Thank you.

 

Boy, that is a tough one-I could look at the planners, but truth be told, we didn't do much on the ship during the day because of the port intensive schedule. We had two sea days on the CCL Liberty and none on the Majesty. We did the dance class thingy which was on CCL. Both ships had the typical pool games, but as far as unique things, I don't know. This is one case where it would be unfair to compare the two ships because the Majesty has no sea days.If anything, the ship serves as a hotel, shuttling you from one port to another.

The piano guy on CCL played to a dead room, I could see why. There was a piano guy on RCL and he did a good job of getting the shnockered grey

haired crowd singing Manilow's "Mandy". Outside of the showroom, the only night time entertainment that stood out on CCL was the band "Music Boardwalk". Not only would they play a large variety of music, each member, even the drummer, would take turns singing lead and they would even sound like the singers of the band. It looked pretty cool seeing three filipinos singing "Sweet Home Alabama" and sounding as if Lynyrd Skynrd was there! Definitely the best band I have ever seen on a ship.

Activities? Games? Same pool stuff, they both have the marriage game, I think they are pretty much identical except that the Majesty offers the "Quest" (which we did attend).

[GoinCruisin]

I was on the Sovereign of the Seas a week ago--my first on RCL--I found their room service menu to be quite limited. They did offer pizza and a few sandwiches, fruit plate, cheese plate, some pastries, etc. I can't remember it all but the menu didn't even take up a full page. While I found the crew to be fantastic, I was disappointed in the food in the dining room. Most of the time it arrived lukewarm or cold. Also, the rooms were smaller and, no goody basket in the bathroom.:eek: We had a nice time, after all, we were on a cruise, but we all wanted to jump over to the Fascination when we were docked side-by-side in Nassau. We'll be sticking with Carnival from now on but wanted to try RCL.

 

They must have changed the menu... it was the one thing I thought RCL really had over Carnival... they had hot food on the menu :) Although, I LOOOVE CCL's sammiches on the room service menu :D

[cruisersunsetbrat]

Also, the rooms were smaller and, no goody basket in the bathroom.:eek: We had a nice time, after all, we were on a cruise, but we all wanted to jump over to the Fascination when we were docked side-by-side in Nassau. We'll be sticking with Carnival from now on but wanted to try RCL.

 

Our sentiments exactly. We sailed Mariner of the Seas in May, 2007 and disliked so many things about this cruise (yes, the food was one of them but there were so many other negative things that happened on that cruise). I distinctly remember our stop in St. Thomas, my DH and I both noticed a Carnival ship docked by the MOS and we both commented how much we wished we would be getting back on that Carnival ship instead of RCCL. After 1+ years we still have no desire to try RCCL again.

[ratherBcruizin']

I agree about the Liberty being gorgeous. It is by far the most beautiful ship I have been on. When I walked into the atrium it was a literal "WOW!"

 

Loved it.

[Texaslandshark]

I was on the Sovereign of the Seas a week ago--my first on RCL--I found their room service menu to be quite limited. They did offer pizza and a few sandwiches, fruit plate, cheese plate, some pastries, etc. I can't remember it all but the menu didn't even take up a full page. While I found the crew to be fantastic, I was disappointed in the food in the dining room. Most of the time it arrived lukewarm or cold. Also, the rooms were smaller and, no goody basket in the bathroom.:eek: We had a nice time, after all, we were on a cruise, but we all wanted to jump over to the Fascination when we were docked side-by-side in Nassau. We'll be sticking with Carnival from now on but wanted to try RCL.

 

Thanks for your response,,,I asked because my buddy (while cruising on Conquest w/me) is a 2 time RCL customer. This was 2 months ago and he mentioned that on RCL you could order basically anything (steak, etc) anytime at all. I thought to myself, well is that's the case and the ships are gorgeous..maybe that's why they get much more $$. Now I'm not so sure.

[terri23]

Thanks for your response,,,I asked because my buddy (while cruising on Conquest w/me) is a 2 time RCL customer. This was 2 months ago and he mentioned that on RCL you could order basically anything (steak, etc) anytime at all. I thought to myself, well is that's the case and the ships are gorgeous..maybe that's why they get much more $$. Now I'm not so sure.

 

the "permanent" RC room service menu has standard offerings (including sandwiches, salads, burgers, wings and pizza). but the TV also scrolls the daily hot offerings - be sure to look out for those. Several of the lunch and dinner apps and entrees (and desserts) are available through room service. You can also go to the Windjammer (buffet) and bring whatever you choose back to your room (cover it with another plate to protect from the coughers and sneezers on the way back to your cabin!). We did this several times for snacks / appetizers since we had late seating dinner.

[hubofhockey]

Boy, that is a tough one-I could look at the planners, but truth be told, we didn't do much on the ship during the day because of the port intensive schedule. We had two sea days on the CCL Liberty and none on the Majesty. We did the dance class thingy which was on CCL. Both ships had the typical pool games, but as far as unique things, I don't know. This is one case where it would be unfair to compare the two ships because the Majesty has no sea days.If anything, the ship serves as a hotel, shuttling you from one port to another.

The piano guy on CCL played to a dead room, I could see why. There was a piano guy on RCL and he did a good job of getting the shnockered grey

haired crowd singing Manilow's "Mandy". Outside of the showroom, the only night time entertainment that stood out on CCL was the band "Music Boardwalk". Not only would they play a large variety of music, each member, even the drummer, would take turns singing lead and they would even sound like the singers of the band. It looked pretty cool seeing three filipinos singing "Sweet Home Alabama" and sounding as if Lynyrd Skynrd was there! Definitely the best band I have ever seen on a ship.

Activities? Games? Same pool stuff, they both have the marriage game, I think they are pretty much identical except that the Majesty offers the "Quest" (which we did attend).

 

My one time in the piano bar on the Liberty, the room was full and the player had everyone singing (hotel california, sweet caroline - lots of red sox fans on that one, and others). I am not sure which Carnival ships also have the Sinatra/Sammy Davis Jr tribute guy. But that's a great show too. I think the guy who does the tribute goes ship to ship. One of the main reasons I am going on a different line next year is to see new shows. I can't sit through "Rocking down Broadway" and "Music around the World"? again. I wish they'd change the shows more often. It's reason enough to try different lines. I think after Princess next year, we'll do an RCI in 2010. :cool:

[cruisegal58]

ha! i had the same shrimp as u did! haha we sailed the mariner of the seas in may after 7 on ccl..the mariner was a pretty ship and the adult pool area was great!! but the food was not up to par at all..i have posted several times on the boards about the 4 shrimp that were butterflied to appear larger! hahaha and that nasty pile of white rice in the middle of the dish. nice and shaped like the huge bowl it was formed to. eewww several dishes had that rice! p-u we ate at the wj 4 nts..rccl didnt have options for drinks either. did u notice there were no drinks around the pools, well anywhere?? if the wj was open u could go in and get something. i thought the lemonade was sour beyond compare. weird b/c all the drinks were poured and sitting on a tray, the ice all melted and spilling over the edge. we had heard that rccl was so great. hahaha i guess some folks think so. the beds r so comfy on ccl too. rccl was not. we did enjoy our promanade cabin on mariner though. glad we took along some things to drink. i dont know what they charge higher prices for?? the ice show was nice indeed. the other shows were like a high school production same as ccl. service was fine on rccl, better than ccl i will say that. seems like more adult types working, ccl is always like 18 yr old kids that do not enfoce rules. like kids around the casino at 2am..or running all over all night long..but..i wrote ccl a letter saying i am ready to return and will book the freedom for my next cruise..loved the shrimp and rice thing! hahahaha its true! cindy

[Drew B]

Decor- majesty looked elegant, if a bit dated. The dated part came from the design it being an old ship, with low ceilings and being small.It actually reminded me of the Dawn Princess. The Liberty actually wowed us. No offense to CCL groupies, but the Liberty didn't look tacky like other CCL ships (including the Valor and Glory)- it really had an upclass look. It has a lot of fake brick and flowers all over. It was really a nice ship. My family took notice and the word "wow" came up a lot.

 

 

This made me giggle. Sorry, but fake brick and flowers are pretty much the pinnacle of tackiness. It doesn't bother me, as I find Carnival's out-there design style to be "festive" but I certainly wouldn't call anything with fake brick and flowers" "upclass"...

[nothomeonacruise]

Loved your review comparison and I agree 100%. I totally loved Half Moon Cay, too. We were at Labadee with RCL, which was a disappointment in comparison to Half Moon Cay. IMO.

[dclark]

ha! i had the same shrimp as u did! haha we sailed the mariner of the seas in may after 7 on ccl..the mariner was a pretty ship and the adult pool area was great!! but the food was not up to par at all..i have posted several times on the boards about the 4 shrimp that were butterflied to appear larger! hahaha and that nasty pile of white rice in the middle of the dish. nice and shaped like the huge bowl it was formed to. eewww several dishes had that rice! p-u we ate at the wj 4 nts..rccl didnt have options for drinks either. did u notice there were no drinks around the pools, well anywhere?? /quote]

 

On debarcation, I was real thirsty. There was nothing to drink in the pool area! So, I went to the windjammer- it was closed! I wanted to go in to just get a drink, but an employee told me to go up another deck to some other place which, since the ship was still new to me, was unknown.

Maybe they do this to sell drinks. We were chill'in by the pool after getting back from Key West. There were a lot of empty loungers around us. Despite this, we barraged with people selling drinks! In a period of five minutes, we had three different servers ask us if we wanted to buy drinks! They kpet walking in front of us asking us if we wanted drinks. That's not service, that's pestering, like what they do on the beaches of Mexico.