<p>We have taken two Carnival cruises. I would like to try another line. I found both the entertainment and food pretty mediocre on this last cruise, and recent headlines regarding their ships also have me concerned.</p>
<p>I would like to find another cruise line that is moderately priced. I understand that Carnival is definitely at the low end of pricing and I will pay more for another line.</p>
<p>We want to fit into the age demographic of the cruise line, so we don’t want something like Disney that caters to families with young children or a cruise where everyone else is 70+ and everything shuts down after nine.</p>
<p>We like a variety of activities including the Vegas style shows and comedians. I found Carnival’s daytime activities to be limited to sales pitches disguised as seminars. I wouldn’t mind real seminars or game-type activities such as trivia.</p>
<p>We found the food in the main dining room on Carnival to really be lacking. We agreed that if we were served that at a local restaurant, we would never return. We don’t need fancy gourmet food, just good quality.</p>
<p>What cruise lines have others enjoyed and why?</p>
<p>I’ve been on Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Holland America. I didn’t like Carnival at all. Royal Caribbean is my favorite; they had good shows and daytime activities. Lots of interesting venues to choose from. I just came back from a HAL cruise; the demographic was age 50’s to 70’s for the most part; almost no children. The ship was lovely but the shows mediocre.</p>
<p>I like Celebrity and Royal Carribean. Have been on Holland America and Cunard as well but that tends to be an older demographic. Have been on Disney but that was when my kids were alot younger. Have enjoyed the Carnival cruises I have been on. I guess I do like Celebrity and Royal Caribbean the best currently. Royal Caribbean is good for teenagers and young adults. Celebrity is nice for couples or friends traveling together. There are of course more exclusive cruise lines as well.</p>
<p>Our first cruise several years ago was on Carnival and it wasn’t a great experience. Each of the first 4 nights we were awakened between 3 and 4 in the morning by the group of drunk 20 somethings in the cabin next door. After many trips down to the front desk and a shouting match on the balcony things finally settled down.</p>
<p>My wife convinced me to try again. We have since taken three trips with Royal Caribbean and enjoyed them all very much. We going on another Royal Caribbean cruise this summer.</p>
<p>We have learned the experience will be greatly influenced by the time of year, destinations and the particular ship. Summer trips to the caribbean will be loaded with kids,some more housebroken than others. Our last one was a September trip to Alaska so there were many middle aged/early retired couples. Very relaxing and spectacular scenery.</p>
<p>Celebrity is very good. I’ve only been on one trip with them, though, Alaska. Everything shut down by 9:30. That may have been the itinerary though. I would sure like to travel with them again to know for sure. Their service was wonderful. I truly enjoyed Royal Caribbean - again only one trip - Hawaii - and it was fantastic. Lots to do all day and night, and this was long before the mega-ships came around. Did Norwegian, once, but the service was lacking, and they nickle and dime you to death. I hated it. The ship was nice though with a terraced pool area and plenty to do at night. I have sailed Carnival, a lot (I live close to 3 ports) and since I have noticed a downhill slope in their food and service, my best friend and I (my sailing mate) now book a balcony cabin and spend a lot of time on it. Reading, chatting, relaxing. And we buy in to the spa (if one is available). Holland America was the worst (food that catered to the true senior set, very little in the way of entertainment, ho-hum service) - BUT our ship had the best library I have ever seen at sea! Complete with a (pay extra) coffee cafe, it wrapped around an upper deck and had panorama views and a ton of seating with couches, comfy chairs and the like. The library was sponsored by the New York Times. It was something!</p>
<p>I would say try Celebrity. For some of their itineraries they are pricier.</p>
<p>Been on Princess, Carnival, RCCL, and Norwegian Cruise Lines. Really liked them all, but…</p>
<p>I really recommend you look into Norwegian. The entertainment is fantastic. So much better than the other cruises we went on, it can’t compare. Didn’t see a large contingent of really young or really old, but people like us mostly…in their forties, fifties, with kids and/or parents. Food is very good, love the anytime dining, and they change up the buffet constantly. Some of the others seem to just serve the same time, but they always had something new. You don’t even need to book their specialty restaurants.</p>
<p>For entertainment, you have dueling pianos, Blue Man group, Second City comedy, jazz club, so many other things. People don’t seem to do the formal dress much (yay, always a problem for us). Reasonably priced drinks, DELICIOUS Italian coffee shop. I’m gritting my teeth as we take a RCCL cruise soon, I know it won’t match. We have done two cruises on the NCL Epic, and honestly I didn’t think they nickled and dimed you more than any other cruise line.</p>
<p>We cruise a lot. Our favorite cruise line is Celebrity (beautiful ships, great food, highly visible senior staff/management, overall understated elegance). We just returned from a trip last week aboard Celebrity Constellation - it was a fun trip!We also like Royal Caribbean and Princess. We have cruised with Carnival a few times and have not cared for the experience with Carnival. our ship .</p>
<p>I know it’s a different kind than most people have mentioned, but my parents (50s/60s age group) have loved the Viking River Cruises they’ve gone on. The food has been good, fun talkative people, and most days you stop in a port along a river and can either take a guided tour or enjoy the city on your own. I think the ships only hold a few hundred people (if even), so it’s a very different experience from the mega-ships offered by Carnival.</p>
<p>Any suggestions for us? Family of 4 (parents mid-50s, my sister and I mid-20s). We want to go around the Carribean in May. </p>
<p>Really don’t need a lot of entertainment. We’d be happy with a pool and some simple things. We do need one with a lot of dining options though. We all have sort of tricky diets. </p>
<p>romani, your family sounds easy to please. You will get a huge variety of food on any major cruise line, as they have huge buffets for every meal. I advise that whatever cruise line you pick, that you put a premium on choosing a newer boat over an older one, it is a very different experience. Especially with a cruise line like Carnival…old boats are beat up, with the party crowd, newer boats are nice as any other. </p>
<p>With your sort of flexibility on a cruise line, you might just want to pick one based on departure point, port stops, and best cabin for a decent price. There are always some awesome deals to the Caribbean. I like going to sites like costcotravel.com, alaska airlines and delta websites, for great deals, sometimes the extras they offer are more than the individual cruise lines.</p>
<p>Our family has been on Norweigan, Royal Carribbean, Holland America and once on Carnival.</p>
<p>We enjoyed all of them but least favorite was Carnival by a longshot. I would go on any cruise line again except Carnival.</p>
<p>I’ve heard wonderful things about Celebrity and Princess too.</p>
<p>It depends on where you want to go and what you want to do. We’ve taken several cruises because of their destinations and ports of call and others for the experience on the ship.</p>
<p>Have you looked at cruise critic dot com? That might help you narrow down your next choice.</p>
<p>"just"aMom, I was interested to see your comment about your Celebrity trip to Alaska and the ship shutting down after 9:30. I was just on the Celebrity Infinity to Alaska in June and the ship was quite lively well past midnight. Maybe it is ship or sailing dependent. Celebrity and Royal Caribbean are both great.</p>
<p>My H and I cruise a fair amount, because we hate hate hate cold weather and in the winter, cruises are a pretty cheap way to escape the shivers.</p>
<p>As far as entertainment, our experience has been that the quality doesn’t depend on the cruise line so much as on the size of the ship. The larger the ship, the better the entertainment tends to be. Kind of stands to reason when you think about it.</p>
<p>The lowest priced lines - and Carnival is in that group - will tend to have the biggest problem with young couples getting drunk and obnoxious in the middle of the night, although any line is subject to that during school break times. You might want to double-check that you’re not booking during the weeks of Presidents’ Day, the weeks before and after Easter, and the two weeks right after most university classes end.</p>
<p>However, all things being equal, we like Celebrity the best. The food seems to be a cut above. We’ve had meh cruises on Norwegian previously, but we just got back from a Norwegian cruise around Hawaii. A lot of people told us their service would be bad, but I have to tell you, hands down, we had the best service of all the cruises we’ve ever taken. Fabulous, start to finish.</p>
<p>In case anyone wants to take a cruise but worries about cruise ship safety, you might want to think about the Norwegian cruise around Hawaii. They operate with US workers, in US only ports, with US safety standards. We rated it 100% on all counts.</p>
<p>Romani, if you want to go out of Tampa in May, your only choices are 4 or 5 day cruises on the Royal Caribbean Jewel and the Carnival Paradise. They won’t go far, though, certainly not around the Caribbean, just to a couple of ports. Carnival has a couple more ships out of Jacksonville and Port Canaveral that basically go to the Bahamas. You’ll have to look at Fort Lauderdale and Miami for more options.</p>
<p>Or if you can get to Baltimore, the Royal Caribbean Grandeur goes to Bermuda. That would be a nice cruise for beginners, and they seem to have a variety of new dining options.</p>
<p>But as chocchip says, the very best resource is cruisecritic dot com. They even have a message board for new cruisers.</p>
<p>We’re going out of Tampa because my mom’s godmother is not doing well down there (poor health) and can only afford airfare one time. We’re also only going for a few days, not a long trip. 4-5 days is perfect. By Caribbean I meant south of Florida :o</p>