CARNIVAL VS DCL: The discussion and comparison thread!

[we"reofftoneverland]

Day 3: Amber Cove
Went to buffet for breakfast. Crowded but plenty of seating. Food was ok, standard breakfast. Picked up daily puzzle. Crown Princess parked next to us at Amber Cove. Got off at Amber Cove. Forgot one child's sail and sign and dh had to go back to get it. At exit, Carnival already had water and tent set up on dock. Lots of photographers and no lines. Walked through developed area of Amber Cove and bought sunscreen and hat. $10 each. Lots of shopping there. Amber Cove is interesting because it is a gated resort area developed specifically for cruisers by Carnival, almost like a private island, but has no beach access right by the port. There is a free pool complex with a bar/food ($) and zip line over the pool ($) and lots of shopping and a bay where I think you can rent kayaks. Plenty of excursions and car rentals available on site, but we took a taxi to Malacombe beach ($70 roundtrip for 5 for "all day" anywhere). Recommended by dispatcher. Nice beach and had statue of Neptune (famous) but I would recommend a different beach. Kids enjoyed it but after about an hour one started freaking out about sand. We were planning on going to playa plata as well (city), but had to go back to ship with difficult child. Our driver had also offered to take us to a better beach. He was great and gave us mini tour, but one of the kids was just disagreeable so we went back to port. We talked to some Princess cruisers in Amber Cove who said ship was VERY QUIET! Said they missed Carnival. They said much older crowd on Princess. Our teen son did zip line in Amber Cove ($20). Free pool area there very nice. We spent a few minutes there before getting back on the ship.
Showered and kids to club. Went to Hasbro game show and DH picked as contestant! But he lost. They did give him a Hasbro card game. Lol. Went to Punchliner comedy, Mark Sweeney, great. Picked up kids who made rubber band bracelets and scratch card drawings. They were very happy with the arts and crafts.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

pool at back of ship. beautiful at night. never crowded. i am still trying to figure out photos. it will only let me upload certain ones that are apparently smaller files

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

back pool at night

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

cabin decor?!

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

light in cabin. I thought this light was a bizarre light. We loved the ship decor but not the cabin decor. Not a big deal, just pointing out observations.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

desserts at coffee bar!

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Day 4: Grand Turk
Ordered room service for breakfast for first time this cruise. Coffee, hot chocolate, cereal, yogurt, croissants. All excellent.. Got off at about 7:45am and headed to beach. Crown Princess docking while we were getting off. This would be our last joint port stop. Beautiful day just lying on beach. One child insisted on staying in kid camp while other one went to beach with us. People next to us on beach found 4 conch shells and gave us 2! Beautiful. Margaritaville rocking. Shopped at port area before getting back on boat about 1pm. Picked up child at club. Showered and ate at Pizza Pirate and Guy's Burgers. Snacks at Sweet Spot (rum cake, hazelnut cake, strawberry marshmellows) and Coffee Bar. Pulled away from Grand Turk and ran into rough seas. Bought 2 t-shirts at the 2 for $20 t-shirt sale. Almost won $100 pack with "the claw" game. Dropped $$ at last second. Lol. Napped in room, ship rocking up and down. Kids watched Despicable Me 3 on TV. Music in atrium. Awesome 7 person band. Mdr where waiters danced to uptown funk. One child made small bag at club. Other played a series of games including the ever fun gaga ball. Everyone very happy.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Day 5: Half Moon Cay

Ugh! Carnival does not seem to have the tender system down. Or at least did not on this day. Plan was to go to Alchemy Bar to pick up tickets with group number to get off. We took our time getting there and wound up with group 32. A half hour later they were handing out tickets for around group 60. Soon after they ran out of tickets (?!) and told remaining people to show up to tender after everyone else. There were a fair amount of unhappy people. The process started late and it went downhill from there. It took us about an hour and a half to be called to tender. When we got there we realized that half the people getting on the tender did not have tickets. So there was no order to the process. No one was checking tickets. We have tendered 2x with ncl (none with dcl) and ncl has the system down. On NCL, you are called by room/floor and it is fast. Like we are ready early and they were already on general boarding before we made it to the tender. NCL has several boats running both times. When they call you, it is to a staging area near the gangway (like one time it was the theater) where you are lead by staff row by row to the tender. It is very organized and constantly moving. Not on CCL. CCL had only 2 boats running (!!), even though there were other boats in the port they could have used. There was no point to the tender tickets since they were letting on anyone at any time. The process was also painfully slow. But... the island was fabulous. Easily rivals Castaway. Better in that it is larger and has more remote areas. The island is also landscaped in an idylic way like Castaway. We stayed on the island about five hours, mostly hanging on the beach, but also exploring and walking to a tip of the island. Free food on the island was also nearly identical to Castaway, except no soft serve.
That night DH and I went to The Point steakhouse ($35 pp). We felt like the cost was well worth it. Very old fashioned and relaxing atmosphere and food excellent. We did not do this on the Vista but decided to go on Conquest. Definitely a steakhouse, although they had a few other dishes besides steak, and the food was not as "complex" as Palo. For us the atmosphere beat Palo because it was more private and romantic. I feel like you are more on display at Palo. The waitstaff was very attentive but not as "overbearing" as at Palo. This is a personal preference. We have only done Remy once and are not huge fans. We are just not into eating enough for a restaurant like Remy.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

I have a lot of pictures of HMC and will figure out how to upload!!

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Day 5: Half Moon Cay

Ugh! Carnival does not seem to have the tender system down. Or at least did not on this day. Plan was to go to Alchemy Bar to pick up tickets with group number to get off. We took our time getting there and wound up with group 32. A half hour later they were handing out tickets for around group 60. Soon after they ran out of tickets (?!) and told remaining people to show up to tender after everyone else. There were a fair amount of unhappy people. The process started late and it went downhill from there. It took us about an hour and a half to be called to tender. When we got there we realized that half the people getting on the tender did not have tickets. So there was no order to the process. No one was checking tickets. We have tendered 2x with ncl (none with dcl) and ncl has the system down. On NCL, you are called by room/floor and it is fast. Like we are ready early and they were already on general boarding before we made it to the tender. NCL has several boats running both times. When they call you, it is to a staging area near the gangway (like one time it was the theater) where you are lead by staff row by row to the tender. It is very organized and constantly moving. Not on CCL. CCL had only 2 boats running (!!), even though there were other boats in the port they could have used. There was no point to the tender tickets since they were letting on anyone at any time. The process was also painfully slow. But... the island was fabulous. Easily rivals Castaway. Better in that it is larger and has more remote areas. The island is also landscaped in an idylic way like Castaway. We stayed on the island about five hours, mostly hanging on the beach, but also exploring and walking to a tip of the island. Free food on the island was also nearly identical to Castaway, except no soft serve.
That night DH and I went to The Point steakhouse ($35 pp). We felt like the cost was well worth it. Very old fashioned and relaxing atmosphere and food excellent. We did not do this on the Vista but decided to go on Conquest. Definitely a steakhouse, although they had a few other dishes besides steak, and the food was not as "complex" as Palo. For us the atmosphere beat Palo because it was more private and romantic. I feel like you are more on display at Palo. The waitstaff was very attentive but not as "overbearing" as at Palo. This is a personal preference. We have only done Remy once and are not huge fans. We are just not into eating enough for a restaurant like Remy.

We loved the steakhouse on Vista, never been to Remy or Palo on DCL. When we tendered at Grand Cayman on Vista it was very organized and painless, pretty quick. I’m really looking forward to the rest of your review, thanks for doing this.

 

[mevelandry]

View attachment 309542 View attachment 309544 View attachment 309545 desserts at coffee bar!

That is a White Forest cake, right? How is it? That's the next cake I want to try. (I tried the Blue Velvet and loved it).

 

[mevelandry]

Day 5: Half Moon Cay

Ugh! Carnival does not seem to have the tender system down. Or at least did not on this day. Plan was to go to Alchemy Bar to pick up tickets with group number to get off. We took our time getting there and wound up with group 32. A half hour later they were handing out tickets for around group 60. Soon after they ran out of tickets (?!) and told remaining people to show up to tender after everyone else. There were a fair amount of unhappy people. The process started late and it went downhill from there. It took us about an hour and a half to be called to tender. When we got there we realized that half the people getting on the tender did not have tickets. So there was no order to the process. No one was checking tickets. We have tendered 2x with ncl (none with dcl) and ncl has the system down. On NCL, you are called by room/floor and it is fast. Like we are ready early and they were already on general boarding before we made it to the tender. NCL has several boats running both times. When they call you, it is to a staging area near the gangway (like one time it was the theater) where you are lead by staff row by row to the tender. It is very organized and constantly moving. Not on CCL. CCL had only 2 boats running (!!), even though there were other boats in the port they could have used. There was no point to the tender tickets since they were letting on anyone at any time. The process was also painfully slow. But... the island was fabulous. Easily rivals Castaway. Better in that it is larger and has more remote areas. The island is also landscaped in an idylic way like Castaway. We stayed on the island about five hours, mostly hanging on the beach, but also exploring and walking to a tip of the island. Free food on the island was also nearly identical to Castaway, except no soft serve.
That night DH and I went to The Point steakhouse ($35 pp). We felt like the cost was well worth it. Very old fashioned and relaxing atmosphere and food excellent. We did not do this on the Vista but decided to go on Conquest. Definitely a steakhouse, although they had a few other dishes besides steak, and the food was not as "complex" as Palo. For us the atmosphere beat Palo because it was more private and romantic. I feel like you are more on display at Palo. The waitstaff was very attentive but not as "overbearing" as at Palo. This is a personal preference. We have only done Remy once and are not huge fans. We are just not into eating enough for a restaurant like Remy.

The lack of discipline regarding the tendering is definitely something I would write down on the survey AND would complain about on John Heald's page in order for them to give more attention to the problem.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

We loved the steakhouse on Vista, never been to Remy or Palo on DCL. When we tendered at Grand Cayman on Vista it was very organized and painless, pretty quick. I’m really looking forward to the rest of your review, thanks for doing this.

That is great to hear about tendering. We figured our experience was probably not the norm because it seemed so strange. We were not upset about it, just surprised. We will definitely do the steakhouse on CCL for every cruise now! Loved it. Glad you guys are reading. I will finish today.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

That is a White Forest cake, right? How is it? That's the next cake I want to try. (I tried the Blue Velvet and loved it).

Yes! White forest and I forgot the name of the other one. The base was made of chocolate.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

The lack of discipline regarding the tendering is definitely something I would write down on the survey AND would complain about on John Heald's page in order for them to give more attention to the problem.

I will let them know. Their overall operations are excellent.
We got home late last night. I have already received the OBB offer. It is the standard one:


GET 50% OFF OF YOUR DEPOSIT,
$50 ONBOARD CASH, FREE UPGRADES,
AND PRICE PROTECTION.

OR

BOOK A SUITE

GET 50% OFF OF YOUR DEPOSIT,
$100 ONBOARD CASH

I also received an email from ncl and they have $1 deposits right now.

 

[lovin'fl]

We have done 1 Disney, 1 Royal and 8 Carnival cruises. Getting off and on the ship with Carnival is my sole complaint. We just did the Royal cruise and I felt it did not compare to Carnival in most areas...like food and bar service and activities...Carnival does it better IMO. But the one thing going for Royal, IMO, was they knew how to promptly get folks on and off the ship. Except disembark day...that was mass chaos. Carnival always has long lines to get off and back on in port...and tendering is worse.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

1 of the 2 for $20 t-shirts

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

craft morning

 

[MickeyD]

Ok, I am loving the Conquest review! Thank you we'reofftoneverland! This is one of the ships we are looking at booking. I thought it interesting that the people from Crown Princess were saying it was too quiet and a much older crowd. Good to know, since we also looked at that one. I don't remember if Half Moon Cay was the private island we went to with Carnival or not? Does anyone remember how long they have been going there? Can't wait to see pics.

 

[trvlgirlmq]

Great review we'reofftoneverland. I've only tendered once and it was easy so hoping you just had a one-off bad experience. We are booked on Crown Princess for 2019 but it's a European cruise so we will fit right in!