DH and I (30's) are planning a 7 day out of Puerto Rico for 5 yrs Anniversary. Our choices are Carnival Victory or Princess Carribean. Does any one have any info on either one. This will be our 5th cruise.

Congrats on the event! Try www.cruisecritic.com or www.cruisereviews.com for questions. Also consider a pre or post stay in san Juan as its very nice there and there are alot of attractions or if you prefer nice beaches to relax on. Larry

Thats great to hear! Heres some pointers that I discovered:

-Carnival is very much a more family oriented line. Although still luxurious, its more a upbeat fast paced type of setting and style. More young people then older folks.
-Princess is more on the side of luxury and provision of the very best. Generally, more slowed down, relaxing and with an older (age wise) crowd.
-San Juan's airport I hear is a monstrosity of a disorganized building. Very much fast paced and busy. However, as in many cases, your experience is all how you choose to make it!

But weaknesses aside, the smaller bad experiences we all may enounter is heavily outweighed by the overall excellent time I'm sure you'll have. Enjoy!

For us, the availability of open seating dining makes Princess our choice among the mainstream lines. We prefer being able to eat whenever we want over the traditional early or late seating at a set time.

Congrats! This is a no brainer (to me, at least....!) Carnival Victory route is a winner route.

By the way, the info on the San Juan Airport been disorganized is very, very outdated. Renovations are 90% completed. The most modern and easiest to navigate airport in the Caribbean.

We flew in and out of SJU last May/June. Very efficient. You can't exit (if you have checked luggage) w/o showing your claim stubs to security. Then, if you need a taxi you line up, tell the attendant where you are going, get a voucher with the fare already written on it and line up for the taxi. It was very good actually. The whole preocess took about 15 mins. after we corraled all our bags.

"Carnival is very much a more family oriented line. Although still luxurious..."

Luxurious compared to what - rowboats?
Carnival may be OK, but it certainly does not fit the category of luxury cruise lines.

Not a Carnival fan, but the Caribbean Princess had the poorest design of any ship I'd ever sailed. We literally could not find a seat for a show, in the piano lounge and at several activities. That ship was built with an extra area of cabins and cannot accomodate all the guests. They did a pretty good job on dinners, but the buffet was poorly designed, cramped and crowded.

I've always enjoyed Carnival cruises.

I don't think Carnival is necessarily more fun than others and I don't think Princess is necessarily more luxurious than others.

I tend to care about the cabin and the food. Carnival's cabins are bigger and the food is great (although not better). The open seating for dinner isn't necessarily good or bad. I don't mind eating with the same people and I've heard complaints about long waits for tables on some Princess cruises.

Ship by ship is a better way to judge than line vs. line. Check out reviews of the specific ships. IMO newer ships or newly refurbished are better. Like restaurants or other businesses, some are better run than others.

agree about that!!

Throw in my 2 cents worth - RCCL has good cruises out of San Juan as well. The airport is not as bad as the other poster alluded to.

Same company owns both crusie line so it is half dozen of one and six the other.

They cater to different crowds so it depends on your choice of ship board activities.

My preference is Princess over Carinval.

Princess is more resort like while Carinval is more Vegas like. If you are familiar with Vegas hotels, it would be Monte Carlos vs Bally.

You may want to check out comments on cruise critic. They rated Caribbean Princess 4 and the Victory only 3.

I'm a Carnival Traveler. I've also heard the Princess and Royal Carribean are very luxorious. My parents and grandma have been on the Carnival Victory to Mexico(my parents) and Nova Scotia(grandma). They also been on Norwegin Cruises to Bermuda. From their experiences my parents did like the cruise but they were a little rushed. Grandma said she didn't like it(both the location because there's nothing good to see in Nova Scotia and some of the service). I'm not saying bad things about Carnival but the Victory isn't like the Miracle we did for our Carribean cruise(cause they are both in a different class type). I still like them and the prices are right. Still I would go on another cruiseline to see more neat features and locations.

Been on Princess Carribean and Carnival Victory. By all means Princess Carribean is the top choice. I found the Victory had much more motion and the stabalizers don't seem to do their job. If you do book Princess get the Caribe floor. Balconies are bigger for same price. Lots of cruises.....