How Does Carnival Compare With HAL?
 

I have sailed with HAL a couple of times, but I am now thinking of taking a cruise on one of the Carnival ships (the Glory). How do the two compare?

Comparing Carnival to HAL would be like comparing my golf game to Tiger Woods'. If you insist on trying Carnival, ween yourself from quality and service by going to Celebrity, then Princess, then RCCL and finally Carnival.

Peter

Though we have never taken HAL our experience on Carnival has been quite good and I would not hesitate to use them again.

Peter:

Is that a fair comparison.

I mean surely you've played golf, but we all know you've never sailed Carnival.

Apples to oranges. HAL has much more class than Carnival. My opinion only and I have been on both.

I don't mean to insult you by any means, but are you serious? If I didn't know any better, I'd wonder if this is a troll....

I don't think so as he is also asking about cruise excursions on another thread. Seems legit IMHO.

Seems like a perfectly legitimate question to me. My own experience with Carnival, and admittedly this was some years ago, was less than ideal mainly because I had serious concerns about the company's safety practices on the particular ship I was on.

You might want to read the reviews on cruisecritic.com or cruise-addicts.com but be warned that there is a lot of prejudice against the so-called "people who sail on Carnival" who have been described in some of those reviews as everything from "looking like they just stepped out of a K-Mart" to "waitresses" and so forth..in other words very subjective.

I sailed on Princess once and thought it was about as dull as watching paint dry but others love it and love HAL and love RCCL.

I think in the end you are going to have to take a chance and see for yourself since your tastes and needs are probably different than a lot of the adamant ones who post reviews.

Good luck

It is hard not to have a great time on any cruise, but the other passengers add (or detract) from the experience. On HAL you might expect an older crowd, more affluent and sophisticated, while on Carnival you might expect a younger, more value oriented. Neither is a bad cruise, they are just different.

If you liked HAL quite a bit, then I would stay in that arena (HAL, Celebrity, Oceania, etc.) One the other hand, if HAL was too quiet, reserved and boring, then you might want to try a Carnival cruise.

Whatever you decide, have a great cruise.

Tom Ogg
www.CruiseReviews.com

Excellent answers Tom and Top.

I just wanted to reply to the question of whether this is a troll question. I can assure you that it isn't. We recently did an Alaskan cruise on HAL with some friends, one of whom say that she would like to see the Mayan ruins in Chichen Itza. I suggested maybe another cruise, since this is basically a day trip. When I started looking into the cruiselines, the only two that I found that had excursions to Chichen Itza were HAL and Carnival (Radisson did too, but that was a little out of our price range). The cruise on HAL is identical to the last Carribean cruise we took on HAL (Cozumel, Ocho Rios and Grand Cayman) so I was considering maybe the Carnival cruise (with Key West, Cozumel, Belize and Progreso). the Mayan excursion is from Progreso on it which makes the excusion two or three hours shorter than the one on HAL. Plus the dates that Carnival offers are a little more desirable. The problem is that I have never sailed on Carnival, which even my travel agent says is a couple of steps down from HAL. Add the fact that the ship (the Glory) carries over twice as many people as the HAL ships that I have been on amd it feels really scary to me. I was just looking for opinions on what to expect about the differences between the two cruiselines. Would it be better to go with the better cruiseline or with the better itinerary? Would it be better to just forget the cruise and do an excursion from Cancun? Any suggestions?

Actually its too bad that suggestion offended you. If you read some of her other posts, well just consider the source. As for a suggestion, there is plenty to do if you base your vacvation in Cancun:
1. Ferries to Isla Mujeres and Cozumel
2. Mayan ruins in Tulum and Chitzen Itza
3. Ecological parks Xcaret and Xel-Ha
4. Explore Playa del Carmen
5. Play golf if you like
6. Enjoy the beaches in Cancun

I've taken the HAL you are asking about. It was awhile ago so I don't know how things might of changed but it was very nice, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only time I took Carnival was for Mexico on the Pacific side , it was right before they were replacing their older ship so I didn't get to experience the newer and nicer ship. The Carnival ambience isn't as nice as HAL but I stilled enjoyed myself and had a great time. We had kids on the Carnival cruise so it met our needs. What I have noticed about cruising is that I prefer the smaller ships. The larger the ship the tougher it is to relax -it just doesn't have as nice as a feel. After awhile larger ships get to be a hassle for instance when you want to run to your room for a second but it's clear over on the other side of the boat.

However, even though HAL is nicer I would probably consider doing the Carnival just for the different itinerary. I guess it comes down to what you enjoy most, your time on the boat or the ports of call. I'm not that big on reruns when there is so much to see, so little time.

Mariann

My experience has been that once you have sailed on HA you DO NOT want to go on Carnival. I have been on over 50 cruises on many lines, including Carnival which is on the bottom of my list.