Norwegian Cruise Line or Carnival?

christy7211

We're hoping to go on an Alaskan cruise in August 2011 after our July wedding. These are the two cruise lines I'm looking at right now. I need any and all advice or opinions on the two that you can provide! And would you recommend going through a travel agent? Thank you!

Ginabean2011

Try cruisecritic.com for more info on the different lines. I personally prefer Norwegian over carnival but the itinerary is the most important factor for me. I don't typically think about travel agents for cruise vacations, it's something I research and book all on my own.

strlzfan11

I loved my NCL cruise!  Cruisecompete.com is a free service that allows you to enter the details of your cruise (date, ship, etc.) and it will generate quotes for you.  You then have the option to book with any of those agencies.  It worked out great for me.  When the price of the cruise went down after we booked, we were able to get a refund and we ended up getting onboard credit plus a bottle of wine in our stateroom.

naomikb

I sailed Carnival last year on a Caribbean cruise, stopping in Ft. Lauderdale, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.  I have never sailed Norwegian.  It is the "party" line, and had lots of young people and families but not a whole lot of nightlife - a decent piano bar and excellent shows in the theatre, but not much after 10PM.  The food was great, staff was great, and price was great.  We shopped around and got an inside room for < $600 for the week.

My major complaints are the same as some PP, which are constant sales pitches on board, trying to upgrade packages, buy drink cards, spa packages, excursions etc.  My one other complaint was that the pools were tiny and really warm and not refreshing, and were filled with sea water so were really salty.  My understanding is that other ships (we were on the Freedom) and other cruise lines have bigger pools, and ones that are freshwater.   I would definitely recommend going on one of those ships, since the Freedom pools were really not refreshing at all.

We used a travel agent and I'd recommend it, it made things easier and offered some extra insurance in case we needed to cancel the trip or our flights were delayed and we wouldn't meet the boat in time.

dmartineau1

I did a carnival cruise last November. it wa sa lot of fun, but their cruises are very family oriented. We weren't bothered by the kids, but they were pretty much using all the space in the pools and it just didn't feel very "adult"

I'm not sure if they have cruises on ships that arent "fun ships" maybe that would be good because as i said it was a lot of fun!

Heather&Chuck

I've only ever been on Carnival and Royal Caribbean. As far as I know, Carnival has larger staterooms than other lines, which is a bigger deal if you're going with an inside stateroom or an oceanview, since these are typically very tiny.

Carnival is definitely more of a "party ship" than NCL will be. My fiancée and I are going on a Carnival cruise in the Caribbean for our honeymoon. We wanted an atmosphere that would provide lots of fun. If you're looking for a more romantic vibe you probably would be better off with NCL. Really, you can't go wrong with either. My parents went on an Alaskan cruise for one of their anniversaries (Princess Cruise Line, I think) and they LOVED it. Said it was the best cruises they've been on as far as the location. They said Alaska was absolutely gorgeous, so I think either way you go, you'll be very happy.

Whit825

Carnival, definitely Carnival! Yes, Carnival is the "fun ship," so if you don't want a party atmosphere, I would recommend spending more money and going on Celebrity, Princess, etc. However, I would think most 20 and 30 somethings on their honeymoon would prefer a younger crowd; many of the more expensive cruise lines are frequented by people who are of post-retirement age.  I have done two Carnival cruises and one Norwegian cruise, and the quality is not even comparable.  Norwegian cruises are the cheapest out there because they are the lowest quality.  I went on a 7 night Caribbean cruise on Norwegian with my two best friends from college. The room service food was not even edible.  We became friends with the cruise director because he had a thing for my friend (which, in retrospect, is also highly unprofessional).  Even he admitted the room service food was terrible. And keep in mind we were poor college students, so our standards were low.  The worst part was that the sink & toilet  in our bathroom completely flooded our entire cabin. There was so much water that it flowed out into the carpet in our cabin.  My makeup bag was completely soaked, and my makeup was ruined.  Norwegian refused to reimburse me for it.  Oh, and when we called to say our room was flooding, no one came.  We had to call again - it took 30 minutes before someone came to look at it, all the while, water is gushing out of our toilet and sinke! We ended up having to switch rooms on the ship on our second to last night (which was a huge inconvenience because when your vacation is winding down, you don't want to have to waste time switching rooms).  We were not given ANYTHING to comp us for the inconvenience.  Never again!  Conversely, I've had an amazing time on both of my carnival cruises.

xtina01

I have cruised Carnival 3 times and have loved each cruise! I can't say anything about Norwegian, but Carnival is a great choice!  In fact we just booked our HM with Carnival for cost-effective fun vacation!  There service is excellent and the food is delicious.  They provide lots of fun activities for you to participate in as well if you and your fiance are interested in that sorta thing. Good luck with your planning

futurepivko

i said on carnival and celebrity...........celebrity........RUN AWAY. we were on the celebrity century ship, and it was AWFUL. it was old, nothing worked, and one pool was even closed! it was horrible. i will never sail celebrity ever EVER again. RUN AWAY!

carnival was AWESOME. soooo much to do, friendly staff, nice rooms. we are going on another carnival for our honeymoon, to the southern caribbean this time. (instead of western caribbean) i loved it...thats why we are doing it again, and because we are past guests, we used our carnival number and got LOTS of free upgrades, and will get more incentives once onboard.

IAmLymelady

I don't know if this is true for all cruises, but NCL had an automatic 18% gratuity built in when my friend and her FI went.  She felt that the work ethic of some of the people on board suffered for it because they were getting 18% either way.  Again, this might be something on all cruises, I don't know, but when I go on a cruise I'm going to ask my travel agent about that before we decide who to go with.