Who has traveled with Carnival Cruise lines?

Question

Normally my family travels with Royal Caribbean but this year we are going on the Carnival Miracle (this summer) and I was just wondering how it is (service, food, cruise excursions). Also what excursions, if any, did you do on the islands (we're going to San Juan, St. Thomas, and Tortola). I have 15 people in my family ranging from 9 to 63 just to give you an idea of what type of excursions we can and can't do.

Answer 1

i went on the carnival conquest, to jamaica, cozumel , and grand caymen. it was fun, but i wasn't as impressed as i thought i would be.there are so many hidden fee's, which i'm sure you will probably find on all cruise lines, i was actually thinking of trying out royal caribbean next time. the room service never answered, the pizzaria was not 24 hrs. like we were told, the excursions were expensive and we were lied to, in jamaica we paid to swim with dolphins, and clearly when we got there, others were swimming with them, we were told that our cruise line didn't allow the swimming part and all we could do was kiss them on the head and pet them and take a picture, not with our own cameras, we had to let them take our pictures and then pay for it, that made a lot of people mad. there were several complaints that we had after getting off the ship, and we promised ourselves not to go again. hopefully you will have a better time, you are going to different islands then we did and it's not the same ship. good luck.

Answer 2

I have been on both cruiselines and actually prefer Carnival. I found the service excellent and food far superior.I have since been on 6 other Carnival cruises and have not been disappointed (twice we traveled in a group of 10 women and this year we will go again on Carnival, there were no "WOW" moments on RCL)

Having done the same itenery on both lines I believe you will find the excursions very similar, and actually on one of them we were with the RCL ship in port when we were.

In San Juan we did the historic fort sighseeing tour as we got into San Juan after 4p. We loved it, the kids had a great time and you could really deciede how much walking you wanted to do at the stops.

St Thomas had the most beautiful water and we choose the Catamaran snorkel on the Castaway Girl. The staff was fantastic and we had an awesome time. They were great with my daughter, who was 11 at the time. There was rum punch or fruit juoce on the way back. We enjoyed it so much that this year we are planning the same snorkel excursion. I am sorry for the other poster but have never found hidden fees with any excursion. Carnival or RCL for that matter are really only booking agents for the tours and they are run by the tour companies. Many excursions can be booked thru outside sources for less than the boat price.

We docked in St Maarten so unfortunately I  cant help you at that port but I do hope you all have fun whatever you choose

Answer 3

Hi there, Im also cruising in the Miracle this summer to those same ports!  We're leaving July 20th.  When are you going?

I've only been on one Carnival Cruise, in 2004 on the Fascination, but I thought it was wonderful!

I don't know if you've seen cruisecritic.com.  They have great info and wonderful message boards, some forums are for specific cruise lines or types or cruises or for what to do in each port.  You should check it out.  I know I've read posts about the dolphin encounters through Carnival, and no one has ever mentioned not being able to swim with them, if that interests you.

Answer 4

You can check out pictures of Carnival Pride, which is a sister ship of Carnival Miracle, here:

http://www.cruisesavvy.com/journals/eric...

FYI, the decor on Miracle is different -- less weird "art".

Carnival has much better nightlife and general social atmosphere than RCI, but it isn't always as "polished".  The food is really good (and the pizzeria is way better than on RCI).  I've heard really good things about the kids and teen programs.  Service is good -- maybe more cheerful, but again  less polished than RCI.

In the Caribbean, the shore excursions are basically the same across the different cruise lines.  The one exception is that Carnival does not push scooters or wave runners, because there are just too many accidents.

In terms of excursions, you don't have to buy them from the cruise line.  Since you're going to major established ports (not sketchy 3rd world places) you can search online and find reputable shore excursion providers.  It'll be cheaper, but it's important to find a reliable company.

If you'd be interested in sharing your cruise stories/pictures you can get a free Cruise Journal here:

http://www.cruisesavvy.com/journals

I'm sure a lot of people would love to hear about your trip!