Will I still like Carnival?

[LifeIsCruising]

About 4 years ago (when I lived and breathed this board) , after 8 Carnival cruises in a row, I started trying other lines. Since then I've been on Princess, Celebrity, Cunard, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Holland America, and others. I'm booked on the Carnival Glory a day after an inaugural sailing on Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas. What will I think of Carnival?

[sailinglisa]

Chris - as someone who had their first cruise with Carnival and HATED it.......and then 8 years later tried Princess and fell in love with cruising, I think I can give you a little insight.

In 2003 after 3 Princess, 2 Celebrity and 1 Premier cruise, I decided to give Carnival a second chance and booked an 8 day cruise on the Carnival Legend. I really enjoyed that cruise despite some problems with my roommate. I liked the ship and the staff, and the food was much better than I remembered from my first Carnival cruise in 1991 (Fantasy). I liked it so much that when a friend of mine invited her friends to join her on an extended family cruise on the Carnival Liberty 2/4/06, I booked again. And I found that Carnival - while still being the Fun Ship - had again improved their food and service.

So, after 16 total cruises: 6 on Princess, 3 on Celebrity, 3 on RCCL, 3 on Carnival and one on Premier......and keeping in mind that all cruise lines have their strengths and weaknesses, I think you will enjoy your Carnival cruise if you keep it in perspective and keep an open mind to the changes Carnival has made.

I will cruise on Carnival again......just don't know when as there are places to go and see that Carnival just does not cruise to at this time!

[TheSkipper]

We just did the Glory after a lapse of about five years on a Carnival cruise. And, we really thought Carnival has done a fantastic job upgrading the food and the staterooms.

You will love it.

[SCIROCCO]

Me and Annie have cruised carnival twice, but have been away for 4 years as well, we were cruising RCCL on The Rhapsody but they quit going to the Western Caribbean for Sept, Oct and November! So we are Going on the Conquest for the first time its quite a larger ship than we like but I guess itll be a experience exploring her! This is good to hear about the improvements on the Food when we cruised on the Celebration and the Elation the food was terrible thats why we went to the Rhapsody! Thanks Sailinglisa, can you tell me anything about the Conquest?!

[hazelson]

Tried Princess once and went right back to Carnival - we are in our 50's, not into nightlife and partying - but found Princess to be very boring.

We loved the Glory and the Conquest but liked the size and layout of the Pride much better - so much so we booked her sister ship - the Spirit for Alaska in the fall.

Guess it boils down to individual tastes.

[GottaCruz]

Chris, Great to see you here again.

[KeithnRita]

Chris, we've cruised all those lines as well, except for Cunard. We have heard many great things about Carnival since our last Carnival cruise in 2002 on the Victory. We think you will still like them, as we believe we would.

You have been missed on this site and we hope you are back with all us CruiseCrazies.