Carnival Cruises

After the last four episodes with Carnival, now I think our next cruise may take us back on Princess. We always absolutely loved Princess, but tried Carnival and were happy with them. But I'm a little hesitant now, unless it was a super deal. But, super deal or not, that doesn't make up for being stranded or having your vacation interrupted.

For my fellow cruises, has anyone done Royal Caribbean's Oasis or Allure? they are super big ships, but I'm thinking they're almost too big. But in reflection, at one time 3000 passengers sounded super big and now it's normal. The new mega ships hold around 6000 passengers. Friends of ours are going on the Oasis in May and they got a pretty good deal.

I'm definitely not afraid of cruising, and after 35 or so cruises we'll never give them up. But maybe it's time to give Carnival a rest and time to get their act cleaned up.

you might want to keep in mind that Princess is owned by Carnival.

mrblanche said:

you might want to keep in mind that Princess is owned by Carnival.

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I was just thinking about that this morning. We were talking about cruises (as usual) and I did remind Paul that Carnival owns Princess --- but doesn't Carnival own a lot? Don't get me wrong, we've had the last four years of super cruises on Carnival, but 4 disasters in a short period of time makes me wonder! Got to do some serious research before our next cruise!

Carnival owns Carnival Cruises, of course.  But they also own Princess, Holland America (and through them, Windstar), Costa, Cunard, Ibero, P&O, and Seabourn cruise lines.

They don't share a lot of operations or personnel between the lines.

And to put it all in perspective, Carnival's first ship, the TSS Mardi Gras, ran aground on its first cruise.
 

We were never on the Mardi Gras, but I remember touring it when my late mother-in-law and her husband took a cruise. That was in the days when you were allowed visitors on a ship.

Never was on Holland america - I hear good and bad about them. While we're no spring chickens (senior citizens?) - from what I hear Holland America caters to an "old" clientele. I still don't consider ourselves old and hope we never get like that. I have heard that they are trying to attract younger passengers. Standing joke I remember from one comedian on a ship was that Holland America has their midnight buffet at 7 p.m. Another comment from a port employee was that Holland America has wheel chair races!

We were on Celebrity once (The Zenith) and I remember it was a great cruise and food was fantastic. Memorable part of that cruise was that we picked up a Cuban boat with 8 passengers headed for Miami.

We've done two Carnival and three Princess cruises, and are in the process of booking a cruise right now, just haven't quite figured out who to book with only because of timing and ports, etc.  Want to do Canada/New England this fall.  So...we're deciding between Norwegian, Princess or Holland America.  I'm about to discard Holland America from the mix for the reasons you stated, even though we are not spring chickens either, however, we like to FEEL young, and we also are casual, and I get the feeling on Holland America, it's dressier than we prefer.  That's why Celebrity isn't in the mix.  Not sure if they do that cruise anyway.  I know Royal Caribbean does, but we want to go into the St. Lawrence Seaway, and there's doesn't go there

Decisions, decisions.    Gotta figure it out soon, though.  They're booking up quickly, and, amazingly, so are the hotels in Quebec City, if we end up starting from there!  I was checking today, and many are already sold out for the night before one of the cruises I was looking at starts!  (we're talking October here )

I know my first cruise was a Carnival and I think the second was as well, no complaints here ^^

The passenger/space density is lowest on Holland America, so if you don't like feeling crowded, I have no trouble recommending them.  We've done several HA cruises, and enjoyed them, although one was on a ship that had very real problems due to being stretched. That was the old Westerdam, no longer in the fleet.  An HA cruise is closer to the traditional cruise, with assigned seating, formal nights, etc. 

Norwegian used to be one of our favorites, but their newest form of "freestyle cruising" just about turned us off them.  The dining room food was stingy in proportions and not great quality.  Lots of extra-cost dining rooms, some of them very good.

Princess is our all-time favorite, the smaller the ship, the better.  Also fairly low passenger/space density, and some of the best food.

We've done about 30 cruises.

Full disclosure:  I own stock in Carnival.  Accidentally, actually, since I actually bought stock in Princess, and they were acquired by Carnival after that.  Also, I used to do work for a cruise web site.  If you do a google search on my name, you'll probably still find reviews and articles I wrote long ago.
 

We own stock in Carnival too, and am very bummed to find out that we no longer get OBC's for owning at least 100 shares .  When we went to Hawaii on Princess last February, we got $250 in OBCs for that stock.  Well, since DH is a veteran, at least he'll still get OBC's for that (on Princess).  Better than a sharp stick in the eye, huh

mrsgreenjeens said:

We've done two Carnival and three Princess cruises, and are in the process of booking a cruise right now, just haven't quite figured out who to book with only because of timing and ports, etc.  Want to do Canada/New England this fall.  So...we're deciding between Norwegian, Princess or Holland America.  I'm about to discard Holland America from the mix for the reasons you stated, even though we are not spring chickens either, however, we like to FEEL young, and we also are casual, and I get the feeling on Holland America, it's dressier than we prefer.  That's why Celebrity isn't in the mix.  Not sure if they do that cruise anyway.  I know Royal Caribbean does, but we want to go into the St. Lawrence Seaway, and there's doesn't go there

Decisions, decisions.    Gotta figure it out soon, though.  They're booking up quickly, and, amazingly, so are the hotels in Quebec City, if we end up starting from there!  I was checking today, and many are already sold out for the night before one of the cruises I was looking at starts!  (we're talking October here :jaw: )

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That should be a fun trip! We always run into the cruise ships when we are in Bar Harbor.

kookycats said:

  For my fellow cruises, has anyone done Royal Caribbean's Oasis or Allure? they are super big ships, but I'm thinking they're almost too big. 

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That's exactly what some people on our ship said about the Oasis. Our ship held 1700, and they said it was much better because the Oasis  was far too large

I have to say their impressive ships because we docked along side one of them, but even we got lost on the ship we were on

Rosiemac said:

That's exactly what some people on our ship said about the Oasis. Our ship held 1700, and they said it was much better because the Oasis  was far too large

I have to say their impressive ships because we docked along side one of them, but even we got lost on the ship we were on

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I heard from someone that the Oasis and Allure ships require reservations for the show at night because of their size. Don't think I'd like that at all. Much too structured. Also, I don't know what the dress code is --- we HATE to get dressed up. Carnival is pretty flexible as to their so called dressy nights. Men don't necessarily need a jacket, and for me- a nice pair of black slacks and a little dressy top is fine. Also we prefer to open sitting for meals since we can go any time that we want. Mike mentioned that the food on the Norwegian line wasn't good and I agree. They were pretty unorganized at their open seating, and sometimes we ended up sitting alone. We like to have other people at our table - it's interesting to meet people from all over the country and world. But the food on the open seating for Princess and Carnival was excellent.

Nothing to add about what cruise line to use. However, since you like cruises, did you hear that they are building an exact replica of The Titanic?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/26/titanic-2-launch-new-york-replica

It is supposed to set sail in 2016.
 

kookycats said:

we HATE to get dressed up. Carnival is pretty flexible as to their so called dressy nights. Men don't necessarily need a jacket, and for me- a nice pair of black slacks and a little dressy top is fine. Also we prefer to open sitting for meals since we can go any time that we want. Mike mentioned that the food on the Norwegian line wasn't good and I agree. They were pretty unorganized at their open seating, and sometimes we ended up sitting alone. We like to have other people at our table - it's interesting to meet people from all over the country and world. But the food on the open seating for Princess and Carnival was excellent.

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No tuxedos for us either!  We usually go to the alternative (pay)  restaurants on "formal night" so we can just wear jeans or whatever.  When did Carnival start having open seating dining?  Last time we went you still had to pick a time, which we do NOT like.  And I thought Norwegian invented freestyle dining, so wonder why they aren't very good at it

I agree, though...we enjoy sitting at a table with others, and it's fun to sit with a different set of people every night! 

mrsgreenjeens said:

No tuxedos for us either!  We usually go to the alternative (pay)  restaurants on "formal night" so we can just wear jeans or whatever.  When did Carnival start having open seating dining?  Last time we went you still had to pick a time, which we do NOT like.  And I thought Norwegian invented freestyle dining, so wonder why they aren't very good at it

I agree, though...we enjoy sitting at a table with others, and it's fun to sit with a different set of people every night! 

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I think Carnival started the open sitting around 3 years ago. We were on the Valor and they didn't have open sitting, then the next 3 years we were on the Liberty, Freedom and Valor again, and all of those ships now have open sitting.

I think you're right about Norwegian being the first to have freestyle dining. We were on the Sun around 10 years ago and it wasn't bad then, but around 5 years ago we took the Sun again and it wasn't good at all. Entertainment was lacking, food service unorganized and not too good. Maybe it was just a bad week - I know that happens occasionally.

Some people go on cruises and want to sit by themselves. To each his own - but we have dinner ourselves every night all year, and on a cruise it's fun to meet all different people. While you may not always like them all or have things in common, for the most part it's interesting and fun. We've met some wonderful people on cruises and some of them we still keep in touch with.

Natalie_ca said:

Nothing to add about what cruise line to use. However, since you like cruises, did you hear that they are building an exact replica of The Titanic?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/26/titanic-2-launch-new-york-replica

It is supposed to set sail in 2016.

 

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I've heard about the new Titanic and I think it might be fun to do a cruise like that. My husband isn't too sure of that! I'll check their website, but if I remember the things I heard, I think they are going to try to have people dress the way they dressed on the original Titanic. Guess that's too dressy for us! But I'd be curious to see what it's all about. Oops - just remembered and read about people willing to pay up to a million dollars --- guess that lets us out!!!

mrsgreenjeens said:

We've done two Carnival and three Princess cruises, and are in the process of booking a cruise right now, just haven't quite figured out who to book with only because of timing and ports, etc.  Want to do Canada/New England this fall.  So...we're deciding between Norwegian, Princess or Holland America.  I'm about to discard Holland America from the mix for the reasons you stated, even though we are not spring chickens either, however, we like to FEEL young, and we also are casual, and I get the feeling on Holland America, it's dressier than we prefer.  That's why Celebrity isn't in the mix.  Not sure if they do that cruise anyway.  I know Royal Caribbean does, but we want to go into the St. Lawrence Seaway, and there's doesn't go there

Decisions, decisions.    Gotta figure it out soon, though.  They're booking up quickly, and, amazingly, so are the hotels in Quebec City, if we end up starting from there!  I was checking today, and many are already sold out for the night before one of the cruises I was looking at starts!  (we're talking October here :jaw: )

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I did the Canada/New England cruise on Holland America in 2006, on the Amsterdam, and had a great time. It's not as casual as Carnival, but I certainly didn't feel that it was and "old people's" cruise. On the other hand, my one cruise on Carnival was probably the least enjoyable cruise I've ever done.

kookycats said:

people willing to pay up to a million dollars

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Seriously!?  Crazy!

Most industry insiders believe the "new Titanic" is a hoax.
 

I've heard good things about Royal Caribbean. If I ever cruise again, I might try them out. Have you tried RC?

I've been on two Carnival crusies in the past (2004 and 2008). I enjoyed both! That being said, given Carnival's recent string of issues, I would chose a different cruise line if I went on one anytime in the near future. I understand that accidents can happen with any liner, but they've had an unacceptable amount of issues lately and they need to get their act together for the sake of their customers.