Carnival is the only cruise line we have been on and we were over the top happy, this was a few years ago before all the trauma and drama that has since been in the media. Maybe we were lucky, but they went above and beyond to take care of our son who is disabled. They simply could not do enough for us and we were very pampered. We were in the cheapest OV we could get. The only thing we spent money on were a few pictures since it was our anniversary and we treated ourselves to soda cards. There were no other charges. We loved the food and our stateroom was quiet and comfortable.
I would be happy to go on any cruise and overall I am just looking for the best pricing to go on our Dream List of destinations. When there is a few thousand dollars difference for the same itinerary then I will just go with the cheapest and be happy.
CCL used to be a great product, clearly, or I wouldn't have kept going on them. I have Gold with both RCI and CCL. I won't go back on CCL, my last Dream was SUCH a disappointment. I'm glad you had good service, as our cruises up to 2011 were really great experiences. We noticed some cut backs in 2012, but it wasn't til our last one a few weeks after Triumph 2013 that we realized CCL corporate had made cut backs that we couldn't deal with. We aren't picky, we just wanted waters filled in the dining room etc. It was honestly that poorly staffed, and I have never waited in so many lines just for something like a self serve icecream or a cup of coffee in the buffet dining room.
Our friends enjoyed their Jan Pride of America NCL but they all agree, never CCL for them again either (and that was based on the 2011 cruise I really liked!). So hopefully you will do well with NCL.
CCL is strapped with poorly maintained older ships, and their response is to add big back up generators to the ship decks that can't have them installed and then to cut back things we enjoyed (like a sushi bar), and half of the staff. The poor servers were so overwhelmed and their hatred of us is quite evident. On cruise critic, one guest asked to take a photo of her servers and when she looks back, the server is flipping double birds in the photo. That about says it all.
Other than the Pirate show being somewhat juvenile on our recent Magic and the rooms being less than their Dream counterparts, my Magic cruise is one of the most FUN adult and funny entertaining cruises I have ever had. In 4 days, the fun level WAAAAAAY exceeded any 7 day on Carnival (although ports are always great, but their sea days are bingo and baudy pool deck games), and that was especially true for our 3 day Dream last year as well. Same money as a Carnival, a few less days (less to take off time off work and pay dogsitters), and a much, much better cruising experience!
