My CARNIVAL CRUISE experiences

[Andrea J.]

On another thread Aruba Lisa asked if anyone have been on Carnival Cruises.
Paul, Kevin and I have been about 20 cruises and 12 of those have been Carnival. The others on NCL and Holland.
Destinations have been to Canada, Caribbean and Berumuda.

Carnival has changed its reputation for the better!
In the 80's and early 90's it was primarily WILD and we had been on a few of the wild ones (young folks with lots of booze)
Eventually Carnival began to spruce up their image as they began to gobble up smaller cruise lines and those that were financially unstable and CCL then became the cruise line mega company that it is today.

We never had a bad experience on CCL. We have always found customer service to be outstanding. We have always found the food and beverages outstanding. We have always found reasonable pricing.


We stopped cruising for 2 reasons.

• The ships became too large for our liking. We got tired of being lost onboard!
• We decided that going to Aruba was more laid back and a better relaxing trip for us. We got tired of trying to keep up with a cruise daily schedule, fighting for chaise space around the pools on the cruise ships, got tired of having to DRESS for dinner, got tired of having to pack a ton of clothes.

We have stayed in regular outside and balcony ~~ the balcony units were the best!!.

Bottom line, we prefer Aruba and being on dry land.
I ALWAYS got seasick, no matter how large or small the ship. Flat seas or swells! I always ended up getting the shot of Phenergan for seasickness.

disclosure** we have a friend that is on a FJORD cruise on a Norwegian ship now. Paul has said repeatedly that this is a cruise that he MUST do, or Alaska. I am sure that the Alaska or Fjord cruise is in his retirement plan.

and...........our son a marine engineer, interviewed for engineering positions with RCL and Celebrity (both owned by RCCL) he was offered positions with both which he declined.
CCL and its ships do NOT hire Americans for any positions in Engineering, dining, transportation. The only Americans employed by CCL are on the "hotel" part of the staff. The entertainers are contract eployees.
They don't hire Americans for the food service, propulsion or navigation of the ships.
Andrea

[Arubalisa]

Thanks , I am going to forward your thoughts onto dh. He is primarily concerned with

In the 80's and early 90's it was primarily WILD and we had been on a few of the wild ones (young folks with lots of booze)

Dh definitely does not fit into that category and Carnival and Royal Caribbean are really the only two lines who cruise the Caribbean during the summer. RCCL is too expensive, so that leaves Carnival.

As much as we love Aruba, unless they build bridge so that we can drive to Aruba , or the airfares come down , it will be our option for next summer's vacation.

[DaveNJodie]

Hi Lisa,

We are also Aruba fanatics who have gone on a number of cruises. Carnival is by far our favorite because the cost is reasonable (actually cheap in our opinion), the food is excellent, and there are always good choices of itineraries. We always bring the kids who love the Camp Carnival experience (and which gives us some adult time) and we usually choose an inside cabin as we don't spend any time in the room except to sleep (just like in Aruba). Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. We are considering only cruising next year due to the high cost of airfare to Aruba. Good luck!

Dave and Jodie

[abj]

i was on a Carnival cruise years ago and had a great time. must have been the early to mid 1990's when we went. went to fla. keys and cosmel. did a ton of eating and drinking that week. loved every minute of it. can't wait to do another cruise one day.

[Arubalisa]

I am giving away my age when I say my first cruise as a "young adult" was with Carnival Cruise Lines when they only had two ships: The Carnivale and the Festivale. That was even before they became known as the "Fun Ships".

[abj]

lol.. i was on the Ecstasy when that was fairly new. and the Destiny was being built.

[Andrea J.]

re: age and the Festivale
i too was on that ship along with being on the Carnivale the following year.

the Festrivale cruise i was on was in 1979 (i think) with friends.
the Carnivale crusie was in 1980 or 1981 with Paul and our ski group crowd.
eventually those ships were sold or scrapped and we started cruising on Carnival's Tropicale.
our last cruise was on the Fascination which was a nice ship, but too big for our liking.


another older ship that was magnificent was the NCLs Norway.

i do not miss cruising
i do not miss ironing and packing all of the clothes
i do not miss really anything about it at all.

Originally Posted by Arubalisa

I am giving away my age when I say my first cruise as a "young adult" was with Carnival Cruise Lines when they only had two ships: The Carnivale and the Festivale. That was even before they became known as the "Fun Ships".

[Arubalisa]

We missed each other on the Carnivale by about a year or two. I sailed on the Carnivale in January '83. Never had the pleasure of sailing aboard the Norway, but she was a grand lady! The most recent (June 2008) photo of her beached in India and being dismantled is at http://www.maritimematters.com/norway.html Very sad pictures. Sorry could not post here due to copyrights. She was scrapped in 2003(?)

My all time favorite ship was the Britanis. Small like the Festivale and Carnivale. Imagine a cruise ship in this day and age with only 2 bars, one inside and one outside? She rests now on the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Africa as she was on her way to being scrapped. A more fitting end in my mind.

i do not miss ironing and packing all of the clothes

AMEN! I try to explain to dh that he enjoys cruising so much because HE does NOT have to take part in that misery.

[danadog56]

My husband and I along with friends of ours went on a cruise to the southern caribbean, which I don't think they even do anymore. That was how we first discovered Aruba. The very next year we used a timeshare I rented from a doctor I worked with and bought a timeshare that visit.
After the primary reason that we loved the island so much, but also because after one cruise my husband told me..."never again". Even though we had a wonderful time...One day on St. John, arrived in St. Thomas and a very good friend of ours that lives on St. John met us at the dock and took us on the ferry to S.J.....without a doubt the best day of the whole trip.
He hated the hurry to get up and get ready to hurry to get off the boat to hurry to get to the tour to hurry to get back to huury to shower and get ready for dinner...basically the whole hurry-up thing killed it for him.
So long story short......even tough we probably will never cruise again, if it weren't for the cruise we may have never discovered our favorite place on earth !!!! So to that end I must say...THANK YOU CARNIVAL CRUISE LINES !!!!