royal vs carnival
 

I've been on 3 royal carribean cruises and was thinking about trying carnival. My husband is hesitant. Are their notable differences in quality? Prices on board (drinks etc.) Looking at beginning of Oct. Thanks!

This promises to be a hot one. :S- Try going to www.cruisecritic.com. You will find tons of passenger reviews as well as professional ones. I just looked at the reviews of the Carnival Legend their and they are quite good. We have taken one CCL cruise (Destiny) and two RCI cruises, one on the Spledour and last May on the Adventure. The AOS was really nice, Destiny was 2nd to that and the Splendour 3rd. IMHO. I thought the food was better overall on the Destiny but the AOS is a great ship. She gets my overall vote. Cheers, Larry

Hot one indeed, especially when the quality of cruising in general seems to be declining. 2 yrs ago I rec'd a Carnival cruise to friends of mine who had exclusively cruised on RC. They were not impressed. I had a hard time actually figuring out why. They liked the food on carnival more than RC and said they had the nicest cabin they have ever had, much larger. However, they were very disappointed with the public areas on the boat, the Liberty. They also did not like the fact that there were no adult only pool areas. I also took my parents on a Carnival cruise. My dad's comments were, "where are all the old folks". They did not care for the dining room entertainment, preferring a quieter dining experience. Ask my kids and hands down they prefer Carnival to Princess, Celebrity and RC. I personally think that Carnival is a good value for the money.

I like Carnival and will gladly sail with them again.

The comparison should be done ship by ship rather than line by line. While there are some differences all boats in a line share - they are more like restaurant chains, with some being newer, nicer and/or better run than others.

It's best to review the boats that run in a specific area on cruise critic to see the praises and criticisms of the individual ships, then pick the one that fits you best.

If there was ever a notable difference, it must be gone or close to nothing. I have done multiples on both; my choice is CARNIVAL. Food is about the only area I could see RCCL stepping a bit farther, but everything else, CARNIVAL takes RCCL. A no-brainer.

The differences between the 2 are narrowing IMO. I personally prefer the decor on RCI and find their mid ship ships especially pretty (Radiance class).

I felt it was really crowded on the Glory (Carnival) and found it worse than even the biggest RCI ship so I would take a look at the space to passenger ratio. I really did not like the pool area on the Glory class:(

Thanks for all of the input. Cruise critic is a great website.

Have been on four Royal Car. cruises. Did our first and last Carnival this summer. I expected less and was not disappointed in that area! Many other passengers who have sailed both lines agreed.

Our first cruise was RCL, second one was Carnival...would pick RCL any day...I didn't care for the way the passengers are treated on day the cruise is over and on RCL, whatever they are serving in the main dining rooms, you can order it room service, which you can't on Carnival..also, the ships just seem to be nicer on RCL