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Freedom of the Seas from Coco Cay Island |
Just a little background to get us started. I have been on three Carnival cruises and
just got off of my first ever Royal Caribbean cruise. I will be posting a full review later, but
wanted to quickly touch on one very touchy subject and that's service. Reading the various reviews around the
internet and forum post at places like cruise critic you would be lead to
believe that Royal Caribbean is hands down a much better experience. Well from our trip on the Freedom of the Seas
I would have to disagree. Now don't get
me wrong we had a wonderful time and met some amazing crew members, but we also
had just as many so so encounters as well.
I wanted to highlight a few things in this post that each of the cruise
lines excel at so that you can feel more informed when you are making your next
cruise decision.
Royal Caribbean Strengths (Freedom of the Seas)
- Quality of the
ship
- This ship is
hands down the most beautiful ship I have sailed on. It really is a floating resort. There is so much to do on the ship it's hard
to squeeze it all in. I will post a more
detailed review of the ship later so you can see some of the exciting venues
this ship has to offer.
- Language (How well
the crew spoke English)
- Now this was a
surprise as almost all cruise ships are registered outside the U.S. and have
predominantly all foreign crew members.
This ship was no different, but what was different is how well the crew
spoke English. For most of the crew
English is a second language and I usually have some difficulty understanding
them on Carnival ships. In all three
cruises with Carnival I have at some point been frustrated trying to
communicate with crew members when I order food or drink. This trip was not like that at all and I was
able to clearly communicate with just about everyone I encountered on the ship. Only sailing on one of Royals Caribbean’s
ship I can't speak for the entire fleet but on this ship it was something I
noticed on the very first day and it defiantly made the cruise more enjoyable.
Carnival Strengths (Triumph, Fantasy, Conquest)
- Service
- One constant
thing that I have read and experienced with Carnival is their excellent room
stewards. For many people having a good
room steward can really change the cruising experience. On Carnival they always seem like Ninja's; I hardly ever see them, but when I come back to the room the bed is made, I have a towel animal, and tomorrow’s fun times. They also seem to immediately know my
name. On Royal Caribbean the room
steward just seemed to always be in the hall.
Every time I left or entered the hallway there he was with his cart
hogging half the hallway. On RCI you
also had to put a marker inside the key card slot for him to know you needed
your room cleaned. Which was not a big
deal, but on Carnival it always seems like my room steward had a sixth sense
and felt a disturbance in the force when I left the room and it was dirty.
- Steak House (Extra
Charge Venue)
- I have been to
the Point Steakhouse on the Carnival Conquest and Chops Grille on Royal
Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas. Both
venues are $30 per person extra and offer a more intimate dining
experience. The food is prepared to
order instead of mass produced and the wait staff provides more personalized
service. The reason I give the nod to
Carnival is the overall quality was much like going to a high end steak house. Actually a couple months after our cruise on
the Carnival Conquest me and my wife went to Ruth Chris and both walked away
disappointed because of how good everything was at the Point Steakhouse. So what’s better you ask. Well for one Carnival uses aged beef so the
Filet that we had on Carnival was more tender and flavorful. Also on Carnival the wait staff works in
teams; so as soon as you sit down and order your drink they start taking away
wine glasses, filling water glasses and the bread starts to fly around the
table. It’s one of those WOW factors you
would expect from a venue like this. The
desserts are also to die for I am a huge cheese cake fan and the slice of
cheese cake that comes with your meal at the point is big enough for 3 and it
was some of the best tasting cheese cake I had ever had. Chops Grilled didn't offer cheese cake and
their "specialty" was a Crème Brule it tasted good, but didn't seem
fitting for the venue. Now I know this
segment was waited heavily towards Carnival so I want to make sure I say that
if you are sailing on either Carnival or Royal Caribbean and you enjoy Steak
and Lobster that you check out the specialty steak house. You will enjoy yourself on either line.
What I have tried to do in the blog is give a couple of
strengths that each line has over the other.
I personally walked away from this cruise completely happy with what
Royal Caribbean has to offer, but completely confident I would be sailing with
Carnival again as well. There are so
many new and exciting ships that have either just started sailing or are about
to be sailing that being loyal to one brand doesn't seem possible. I look forward to sailing on Royals new mega
ship the Allures of the Seas and Carnivals newest ship the Carnival
Breeze. I even hope to check out NCL's
the Norwegian Epic and Norwegian Breakaway.
With regard to the mainstream cruise lines each line has their strengths
and weaknesses and as long as you go with an open mind and have fun attitude
I'm confident you will enjoy yourself.