CARNIVAL VS DCL: The discussion and comparison thread!

[mevelandry]

The itinerary is Nassau with two sea days. I think we are going to try getting a day pass at Breezes on our Nassau day. Originally we weren't going to get off the ship, but I don't want to go all the way to the Bahamas without going to the beach! I really wish this cruise had a Princess Cays or Half Moon Cay stop, but beggars can't be choosers!

In Nassau, we liked the Blue Lagoon excursion. The lagoon was great and there was a nice beach behind the BBQ restaurant (a bit rocky to swim though). I heard the Day Passes at the British Colonial are a great value too (very close to the ship).

 

[CandleontheWater]

In Nassau, we liked the Blue Lagoon excursion. The lagoon was great and there was a nice beach behind the BBQ restaurant (a bit rocky to swim though). I heard the Day Passes at the British Colonial are a great value too (very close to the ship).

We are going to do the British Colonial Hilton in April when we take the kids over spring break. It was really appealing because it was walkable (my kids still need carseats so I don't want them in taxis in Nassau), and because it includes a food/drink credit. We just booked Breezes, so I'll be sure to report about it when we get back and I'll post about BCH when we do that in April. My husband and I love all-inclusive resorts, we've been to resorts in both Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and the idea of combining crusing with an AI seems like the best of both worlds!

 

[mevelandry]

We are going to do the British Colonial Hilton in April when we take the kids over spring break. It was really appealing because it was walkable (my kids still need carseats so I don't want them in taxis in Nassau), and because it includes a food/drink credit. We just booked Breezes, so I'll be sure to report about it when we get back and I'll post about BCH when we do that in April. My husband and I love all-inclusive resorts, we've been to resorts in both Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and the idea of combining crusing with an AI seems like the best of both worlds!

I'm sure it's going to be perfect!

Now... I'm trying to remember if you are sailing on the Victory (or if they changed ships for the Bahamas)?

 

[mevelandry]

As we are getting closer to our sailing, I just realized something that is quite nice. (I'm not sure if DCL does that because we've never sailed from Miami...)

Flights to and from Miami are kinda pricey.

I really appreciate the fact that Carnival offers affordable shuttles to and from Fort Lauderdale even when your cruise is departing from Miami.

That made us save a lot of money!

(We'll be staying in South Beach and departing from Miami Airport after the cruise).

 

[cruiser21]

Grand Turk is really a great beach day, we loved it. I would also add Curaçao to places to visit. The downtown area is about a 10 minute walk from the port and is so safe and clean, it was beautiful there.

A few more thoughts from our B2B:

We docked this morning and at this point have to say, we are full fledged card carrying Carnies! We'll still continue with DCL as well but man we just have a blast on CCL. This is also coming from someone who does not drink alcohol, so that was not a factor in my enjoyment.

The Cruise Director on CCL, plays a much bigger role than on DCL and really can make or break a cruise. Our first Vista cruise we had Matt Mitchum, who is the number 1 rated CD on Carnival. We were supposed to have him again fir these 2 cruises, but the pulled him for our 2 cruises only and put him on another ship that was hosting a bunch of NFL players. We ended up with Chris Williams, aka The Flying Scotsman. Wow is all I can say about that man, he was fantastic and I actually liked him better than Matt.

Service on the ship actually got better on the 2nd cruise as more crew members recognized us from the 1st cruise.

We were able to sign up for the "Behind the Fun" your which was a 3 hour tour where we actually got to go the kitchen, engine control room, housekeeping, crew galley and lounge, backstage of the theater, and the up on the bridge and were able to meet the Captain. The cost for this was $95/person and was worth every penny. It's hard to come by as they only take 2 groups of 16 on the last sea day, I loved it!!

Cleanliness of the ship was great. I'm a restaurant guy and have managed or owned restaurants for the last 30 years and am hyper critical about cleanliness. I could not believe the amount of deep cleaning going on all around the ship. As I was going through the buffet this morning the Restaurant Captain had a white glove and flashlight checking the wood slatted ceiling over the beverage area for cleanliness. The whole ship looked fantastic, I was so happy to see this going on.

One quick comment on guest service then I need to get some sleep. One of our FB cruise group members posted one of their experiences on the ship. Their daughter became ill with a stomach bug at the beginning of the cruise and was quarantined to the cabin for 3 days. Carnival prorated the cruise fare for her and refunded the 3 days fare to them, they did not ask fir this at all, just something they did. I think they are really trying to up their game and shed their booze cruise reputation.

I'll post more in the next couple days.

What did you do in Aruba and Dominican Republic? Did you do any excursions on the cruise. Carnival actually has some interesting ones. How were the lines at Guys and Blue Iguana? I have read reviews that say they were really long. How was the service at specialty restaurants and in the MDR? Did you have my time dining or a set time? How were the lines for the ropes course and sky ride? Sorry for all the questions. I've been reading reviews that are all over the place. I have a hold on this cruise the week before Christmas.

 

[mevelandry]

What did you do in Aruba and Dominican Republic? Did you do any excursions on the cruise. Carnival actually has some interesting ones. How were the lines at Guys and Blue Iguana? I have read reviews that say they were really long. How was the service at specialty restaurants and in the MDR? Did you have my time dining or a set time? How were the lines for the ropes course and sky ride? Sorry for all the questions. I've been reading reviews that are all over the place. I have a hold on this cruise the week before Christmas.

Great questions. Following. (Not that I am having second thoughts about our Jamaica-Grand Cayman-Cozumel itinerary but I wish I had the time and money to make it a back-to-back and do the Grand Turk-Aruba-Curaçao cruise too!!!)

 

[trvlgirlmq]

What did you do in Aruba and Dominican Republic? Did you do any excursions on the cruise. Carnival actually has some interesting ones. How were the lines at Guys and Blue Iguana? I have read reviews that say they were really long. How was the service at specialty restaurants and in the MDR? Did you have my time dining or a set time? How were the lines for the ropes course and sky ride? Sorry for all the questions. I've been reading reviews that are all over the place. I have a hold on this cruise the week before Christmas.

I've been on Vista so I will chime in if that's OK! We are going on Vista again next summer (Southern Caribbean) per the kid's request. Aruba we plan to bus or taxi to Eagle Beach. We are not getting off the ship in DR.

Lines - I didn't find them too bad. I mean if you go to Guy's at exactly Noon then yes you may have to wait as they make everyone's plate. When feeding over 4000 people in limited spaces I try to be patient.

MDR - We only do ATD, we tend to still eat early so no real waits for us. Service was hit or miss but we were on the 5th cruise ever and the crew was still learning the ship. The servers were friendly though.

Activities - Waits could get long for SkyRide but that is because it takes a while and only 2 at a time. Also, it closes when the wind speed hits 60 mph and they are constantly checking. Ropes course had shorter lines but more can do it at one time. It also closes for high wind so just be prepared to have to come back possibly.

Personally we prefer bigger ships with more activities. If that means more people and a bit of a wait then so be it.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

What did you do in Aruba and Dominican Republic? Did you do any excursions on the cruise. Carnival actually has some interesting ones. How were the lines at Guys and Blue Iguana? I have read reviews that say they were really long. How was the service at specialty restaurants and in the MDR? Did you have my time dining or a set time? How were the lines for the ropes course and sky ride? Sorry for all the questions. I've been reading reviews that are all over the place. I have a hold on this cruise the week before Christmas.

We didn't do any excursions at all for this leg, just walked around the ports on our own. The only exception to this was in DR, where we were off the ship for about 15 minutes in the secure port area, then right back on to enjoy an empty ship. I felt very safe walking around in Aruba, GT and Curaçao, especially Curaçao.

We waited a maximum of 5 minutes for Guy's and BI. However, we did have a wait for pizza of a little over 10 minutes a few times, they really understaff that place. And I'm saying that from a perspective of a dude that has been in the pizza industry for over 30 years. There were so many times when only 1 guy was working the entire place by himself, I really wanted to jump back there and help the poor guy out - I felt really bad for him. We also only waited a maximum of 10 minutes for Guy's Pig and Anchor - definitely worth the wait!

We also ate at JiJi's and Cucina for lunch many times, there was never a wait for Cucina but JiJi's filled up really quickly on sea days, so there was often a 15 minute wait for that. We did learn however, that you can order both to go if you don't want to wait for a seat. There were people that would do that, then take it down one deck and eat in the Lido.

The deli on Lido was a hot mess most of the time, there is no signage for cueing up to order, so there are people everywhere not knowing what to do, they need to do something better with that. The funny thing is, they have stancions set up there to cue people but it doesn't give any direction on what side to line up on, I mentioned this to guest services on about day 9 of our 14 days and no signs were ever put in place. By the way, their salted dark chocolate chip cookies are amazeballs! I can't tell you how many times I stopped there just for those.

The only specialty restaurant we did was Fahrenheit 555, service was impeccable and the food was fantastic! I would definitely put it in the same category as Ruth's Chris, Morton's and Flemings. It's a huge bargain at only $35/person.

We had set dining for the first, (6:00) seating, our service team for the first leg wasn't that great at all, the second leg was a completely different story - they were fantastic! Never had any issues with them!

We approach CCL with a DCL attitude - get there early and wait for them to open. We usually got to both attractions about 30 minutes before they opened and were always within the first 10 people in line. There were a couple times when there was no one at Skyride, so we were able to go around continuously 3 times straight.

Overall, I really wish CCL would extend their hours for Guy's, BI and Pig and Anchor, but it certainly won't stop me from booking Vista or Horizon again. I would absolutely do this itinerary again in a heartbeat, loved having an 8 day cruise and the water down south was so much warmer than up higher on the Eastern and Western itineraries. I really want to be in the Havana cabins though, I love the cabana patios and the pool is never crowded during the day, so peaceful.

I think a lot of the negative reviews of Vista are from seasoned CCL cruisers who just like the other ships better. Their first impression of Vista is bad because she doesn't have the soaring atrium all the other Carnival ships have. I feel the same way about so many of the people here on the Dis that don't like the Dream class ships because they started on the classics.

Feel free to hit me up with any other questions, I can talk cruises forever!

 

[cruiser21]

We didn't do any excursions at all for this leg, just walked around the ports on our own. The only exception to this was in DR, where we were off the ship for about 15 minutes in the secure port area, then right back on to enjoy an empty ship. I felt very safe walking around in Aruba, GT and Curaçao, especially Curaçao.

We waited a maximum of 5 minutes for Guy's and BI. However, we did have a wait for pizza of a little over 10 minutes a few times, they really understaff that place. And I'm saying that from a perspective of a dude that has been in the pizza industry for over 30 years. There were so many times when only 1 guy was working the entire place by himself, I really wanted to jump back there and help the poor guy out - I felt really bad for him. We also only waited a maximum of 10 minutes for Guy's Pig and Anchor - definitely worth the wait!

We also ate at JiJi's and Cucina for lunch many times, there was never a wait for Cucina but JiJi's filled up really quickly on sea days, so there was often a 15 minute wait for that. We did learn however, that you can order both to go if you don't want to wait for a seat. There were people that would do that, then take it down one deck and eat in the Lido.

The deli on Lido was a hot mess most of the time, there is no signage for cueing up to order, so there are people everywhere not knowing what to do, they need to do something better with that. The funny thing is, they have stancions set up there to cue people but it doesn't give any direction on what side to line up on, I mentioned this to guest services on about day 9 of our 14 days and no signs were ever put in place. By the way, their salted dark chocolate chip cookies are amazeballs! I can't tell you how many times I stopped there just for those.

The only specialty restaurant we did was Fahrenheit 555, service was impeccable and the food was fantastic! I would definitely put it in the same category as Ruth's Chris, Morton's and Flemings. It's a huge bargain at only $35/person.

We had set dining for the first, (6:00) seating, our service team for the first leg wasn't that great at all, the second leg was a completely different story - they were fantastic! Never had any issues with them!

We approach CCL with a DCL attitude - get there early and wait for them to open. We usually got to both attractions about 30 minutes before they opened and were always within the first 10 people in line. There were a couple times when there was no one at Skyride, so we were able to go around continuously 3 times straight.

Overall, I really wish CCL would extend their hours for Guy's, BI and Pig and Anchor, but it certainly won't stop me from booking Vista or Horizon again. I would absolutely do this itinerary again in a heartbeat, loved having an 8 day cruise and the water down south was so much warmer than up higher on the Eastern and Western itineraries. I really want to be in the Havana cabins though, I love the cabana patios and the pool is never crowded during the day, so peaceful.

I think a lot of the negative reviews of Vista are from seasoned CCL cruisers who just like the other ships better. Their first impression of Vista is bad because she doesn't have the soaring atrium all the other Carnival ships have. I feel the same way about so many of the people here on the Dis that don't like the Dream class ships because they started on the classics.

Feel free to hit me up with any other questions, I can talk cruises forever!

Thanks for clarifying the line situation that seem non- existent on your cruise. We've done a southern on DCL. I agree the southern Islands are just better. We did Grenada, ST Kitts, St Lucia, Barbados and Antigua on DCL. One of my favorite cruises. I could actually do the southern on the Wonder for around the same price, but I don't want to fly to San Juan.
The Havana Cabanas do look nice. I could get one if I held off to May 5.

 

[cruiser21]

Great questions. Following. (Not that I am having second thoughts about our Jamaica-Grand Cayman-Cozumel itinerary but I wish I had the time and money to make it a back-to-back and do the Grand Turk-Aruba-Curaçao cruise too!!!)

If you haven't done this itinerary you will enjoy it. No worries.

I've been on Vista so I will chime in if that's OK! We are going on Vista again next summer (Southern Caribbean) per the kid's request. Aruba we plan to bus or taxi to Eagle Beach. We are not getting off the ship in DR.

Lines - I didn't find them too bad. I mean if you go to Guy's at exactly Noon then yes you may have to wait as they make everyone's plate. When feeding over 4000 people in limited spaces I try to be patient.

MDR - We only do ATD, we tend to still eat early so no real waits for us. Service was hit or miss but we were on the 5th cruise ever and the crew was still learning the ship. The servers were friendly though.

Activities - Waits could get long for SkyRide but that is because it takes a while and only 2 at a time. Also, it closes when the wind speed hits 60 mph and they are constantly checking. Ropes course had shorter lines but more can do it at one time. It also closes for high wind so just be prepared to have to come back possibly.

Personally we prefer bigger ships with more activities. If that means more people and a bit of a wait then so be it.

Since we haven't been to any of these ports. We will do something in every port. Is their something wrong with DR that would keep you on the ship?

 

[Dug720]

If you haven't done this itinerary you will enjoy it. No worries.

Since we haven't been to any of these ports. We will do something in every port. Is their something wrong with DR that would keep you on the ship?

Having been to the Carnival Corp-built Amber Cove (on fathom)... Amber Cove is clearly manufactured and just stupid (you're standard cruise port shops with a TINY market for local things). They tried to make it look old, but it just looks cheap and cheesy. LOL. (I couldn't stand Icy Straight Point in AK for similar manufactured-looking reasons, but even it was better than Amber Cove.)

Puerto Plata does have some nice beaches, but you'd need to see if you could do a day pass or do an excursion to one of the resorts there.

 

[mevelandry]

We didn't do any excursions at all for this leg, just walked around the ports on our own. The only exception to this was in DR, where we were off the ship for about 15 minutes in the secure port area, then right back on to enjoy an empty ship. I felt very safe walking around in Aruba, GT and Curaçao, especially Curaçao.

We waited a maximum of 5 minutes for Guy's and BI. However, we did have a wait for pizza of a little over 10 minutes a few times, they really understaff that place. And I'm saying that from a perspective of a dude that has been in the pizza industry for over 30 years. There were so many times when only 1 guy was working the entire place by himself, I really wanted to jump back there and help the poor guy out - I felt really bad for him. We also only waited a maximum of 10 minutes for Guy's Pig and Anchor - definitely worth the wait!

We also ate at JiJi's and Cucina for lunch many times, there was never a wait for Cucina but JiJi's filled up really quickly on sea days, so there was often a 15 minute wait for that. We did learn however, that you can order both to go if you don't want to wait for a seat. There were people that would do that, then take it down one deck and eat in the Lido.

The deli on Lido was a hot mess most of the time, there is no signage for cueing up to order, so there are people everywhere not knowing what to do, they need to do something better with that. The funny thing is, they have stancions set up there to cue people but it doesn't give any direction on what side to line up on, I mentioned this to guest services on about day 9 of our 14 days and no signs were ever put in place. By the way, their salted dark chocolate chip cookies are amazeballs! I can't tell you how many times I stopped there just for those.

The only specialty restaurant we did was Fahrenheit 555, service was impeccable and the food was fantastic! I would definitely put it in the same category as Ruth's Chris, Morton's and Flemings. It's a huge bargain at only $35/person.

We had set dining for the first, (6:00) seating, our service team for the first leg wasn't that great at all, the second leg was a completely different story - they were fantastic! Never had any issues with them!

We approach CCL with a DCL attitude - get there early and wait for them to open. We usually got to both attractions about 30 minutes before they opened and were always within the first 10 people in line. There were a couple times when there was no one at Skyride, so we were able to go around continuously 3 times straight.

Overall, I really wish CCL would extend their hours for Guy's, BI and Pig and Anchor, but it certainly won't stop me from booking Vista or Horizon again. I would absolutely do this itinerary again in a heartbeat, loved having an 8 day cruise and the water down south was so much warmer than up higher on the Eastern and Western itineraries. I really want to be in the Havana cabins though, I love the cabana patios and the pool is never crowded during the day, so peaceful.

I think a lot of the negative reviews of Vista are from seasoned CCL cruisers who just like the other ships better. Their first impression of Vista is bad because she doesn't have the soaring atrium all the other Carnival ships have. I feel the same way about so many of the people here on the Dis that don't like the Dream class ships because they started on the classics.

Feel free to hit me up with any other questions, I can talk cruises forever!

The wait really doesn't sound bad considering the fact that we wait 5 to 10 minutes at our local McDonald (yeah, they are a bit slow). LOL

 

[mevelandry]

I'm a bit disappointed. Just tried to call and move cabins because I booked (by accident) a room with two twin beds that are not convertible into a king bed... After looking for days, there was finally a room with a "convertible into king bed" available in the Cloud 9 Spa section...

Unfortunately, for some mysterious reason, the available room is considered a "downgrade" (maybe because it is close from the elevators). So, I've been denied.

The only other way they could upgrade me was sending me into a Deck 2 OV... I was getting an OV instead of inside but losing the spa access. To me that sounded more like a downgrade so... still stuck with my non-convertible twin bed.

 

[mevelandry]

If you haven't done this itinerary you will enjoy it. No worries.

Never did it. But it's on my list. Someday...

 

[trvlgirlmq]

If you haven't done this itinerary you will enjoy it. No worries.

Since we haven't been to any of these ports. We will do something in every port. Is their something wrong with DR that would keep you on the ship?

The port in DR on the Southern is La Romana. It is not built up at all. I have read it is not the safest to go out on your own. The public beaches are about 30 minutes away and the cost for taxi's is ridiculous (someone on CC posted it cost them $90, highway robbery). You only have 7 hours in port and it basically forces you to do a ship excursion as there are only a couple of companies who do anything there. Those companies don't offer anything our whole family is interested in and I was also very concerned about the short port time and length of the described excursions.

 

[mevelandry]

The port in DR on the Southern is La Romana. It is not built up at all. I have read it is not the safest to go out on your own. The public beaches are about 30 minutes away and the cost for taxi's is ridiculous (someone on CC posted it cost them $90, highway robbery). You only have 7 hours in port and it basically forces you to do a ship excursion as there are only a couple of companies who do anything there. Those companies don't offer anything our whole family is interested in and I was also very concerned about the short port time and length of the described excursions.

I haven't tried it myself but I heard a lot of good words about the Dreams resort in La Romana...

 

[cruiser21]

Thanks for the info on DR. It sounds as disappointing as Falmouth. It's hard for me to get excited about the Caribbean, but if you want to cruise between Dec and April there's really nowhere else to go.

 

[cruiser21]

Never did it. But it's on my list. Someday...

Ah did you make a change? I can appreciate people that can't make up their mind. I'm one of those people times 10. I'm still bummed out I'm doing Alaska and not the transatlantic. I flip flopped 20 times. As soon the PIF day passed I had buyers remorse. Id probably have buyers remorse if I booked the TA. Two great cruises I wish I could fly from Vancouver to Barcelona and do both.

 

[cruiser21]

The Monkeyland excursion gets really good reviews in La Romana. Anything that has anything to do with animals my son is going to love. I think he'd like the Ostrich farm in Curacao too. I'm not big on booking cruise excursions due to cost, but the price of this cruise is so good I might give it a go. He's not a beach kid. He likes animals and active stuff. Were going dog sledding and white water rafting in Alaska. Zip lining may be something he likes.
I'm open to any suggestions.

 

[mevelandry]

Thanks for the info on DR. It sounds as disappointing as Falmouth. It's hard for me to get excited about the Caribbean, but if you want to cruise between Dec and April there's really nowhere else to go.

Ah did you make a change? I can appreciate people that can't make up their mind. I'm one of those people times 10. I'm still bummed out I'm doing Alaska and not the transatlantic. I flip flopped 20 times. As soon the PIF day passed I had buyers remorse. Id probably have buyers remorse if I booked the TA. Two great cruises I wish I could fly from Vancouver to Barcelona and do both.

No change. But I had originally booked the Paradise for Key West/Cozumel. So my Vista cruise to Jamaica/Grand Cayman/Cozumel is already a "change of plan". And my Could 9 Spa room too. Lol

After this one we'll try to figure out what our next vacation is going to be (in April). We already have the Anthem of the Seas booked for a Bermuda cruise in October 2018.