The wife and I, as well as a group of friends, are planning to do a cruise this summer instead of an all inclusive (since my wife and I haven't done a cruise before). Our friends have a pretty wide range of budgets, and since my wife and I will be planning it, we made sure everyone was upfront about their max price point. One of our friends has been on 5 different cruises, and she recommended Royal Carribean as our #1 choice. Our original plan was to fly to San Juan for departure since we would spend less time at sea, and hit more islands (primarily Barbados as a lot of us have never been there). However, factoring in the increased flight costs, the slightly cheaper cruise rates (compared to departing from Ft. Lauderdale), makes it impossible to stay within all of our group's budget. If we fly into Ft. Lauderdale you spend more time at sea, and less stops at various islands, but the price is a little cheaper (still VERY close to the budget limit). In comes Carnival. They have several cruises departing San Juan, hitting a lot of islands (only one day spent entirely at sea) including St. Lucia (which Royal doesn't stop at) as well as Barbados, and the rates are MUCH cheaper, even with flights. I'm a little leery of Carnival, though, because reading online, they don't seem to get as solid reviews as Royal Carribean does. Now to the point of this thread. Have any of you cruised on Carnival lines? What was your overall experience? Food quality? Staff quality? Things to do on the ship? Alcohol rates? Cleanliness? Crowds? Any ships you would recommend or avoid? Also, if anyone has used other lines (Norwegian for instance) and have any input, I would appreciate it. Thanks!
Carnival is a party boat, alot of late nights spent drinking and dancing. Royal Carribean is more layed back.
My wife an I have been on probably 15 or so cruises over the years and for the most part they were all good experiences, with that said we have found some we have liked better then others. We have been Princess, RC,celebrity, carnival, Norwegian and crystal cruises. We tended to enjoy newer mid size boats, the mega newer ships haven't appealed to us because of the amount of people on the ship..too crowded and impersonal. We did go on one Carnvial cruise several years back, it was last minute and a very low price....we literally booked it a couple days before our departure. It was a little bit more party/ younger crowd then we normally look for in a cruise that said we knew that going into it. For the money it was a good cruise. Now that said it isn't our first choice, nor iis Norwegian( older crowd on the one we were on) A little bit of advise...if you can swing it get a balcony or mini sweet...makes for a nicer trip. Some other thing to consider..we found that ease of departure from the initial port makes a difference..some places are better then others and makes for a nicer start and end to the trip. The nice parts about cruising is that your free to do as little or a much as your want. Hope this helps and feel free to PM me I you have any questions.. Enjoy it..we have!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
No experience with Carnival but I have a suggestion. Go to this website...it helped me tremendously when I planned our Alaska cruise. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/
I've been on only one cruise, and it was carnival. Carnival itself was fine - like others said there is a lot of late night partying but on the other hand it's no problem to get away from that if that's not your thing. Couple things on cruises in general. I found the days at sea kinda boring so I think your on the right track looking for a cruise with multiple stops. Another thing, you can't use cash to pay on the ship. You are issued a card which you use to pay for everything, and you pay the balance at the end. If you are are on a budget then be careful because the balance on that card can creep up if your not paying attention. My wife and I did a 3 day cruise and we were almost $500. Lastly, you can buy bottles of booze on the ship in the liquor store, it's much cheaper if you do this and bring it back to your room and mix drinks there. I would bring whatever you like mixed with it with you in your luggage, such as diet coke or orange juice or whatever. Other than that, have fun !!
I will say that I have been on 1 cruise and absolutely loved it, went with a group of friends as well. It was a RC, ported out of Miami. San Juan was a port we went to and I have no plans of going back there, very unimpressed, mainly the cleanliness or lack there of. One of my friends mother goes on 3-4 cruises a year, she knew all the little ins ans outs of the whole deal. I personally wouldn't worry about being at sea a lot, that's some of the most fun times. Its literally a floating city, some ports I would have rather just stayed on the boat.
