CARNIVAL VS DCL: The discussion and comparison thread!

[hdrolfe]

Did you put in the ages of everyone? When I do a mock booking and add my son, at the point I put his age it recalculates to lower the gratuity cost.

 

[StarSeven7]

Did you put in the ages of everyone? When I do a mock booking and add my son, at the point I put his age it recalculates to lower the gratuity cost.

It doesn’t let me put in ages until adding all of the passenger info....maybe it would recalculate at that point? I’m on the Canadian version of the website if that makes a difference and it’s impossible to view the US site within Canada so I don’t know if that version looks any different!

 

[hdrolfe]

It doesn’t let me put in ages until adding all of the passenger info....maybe it would recalculate at that point? I’m on the Canadian version of the website if that makes a difference and it’s impossible to view the US site within Canada so I don’t know if that version looks any different!

Yes once you put in the passenger information it should recalculate the total. It's charging you for 2 free adults and 2 paying adults most likely. And I'm also Canadian so only see that version.

 

[StarSeven7]

Yes once you put in the passenger information it should recalculate the total. It's charging you for 2 free adults and 2 paying adults most likely. And I'm also Canadian so only see that version.

Ok good to know! Thanks for the response!! I was being lazy and didn’t want to go through the hassle of adding everyone’s name just to get a price! I wish they would just ask ages on the first screen so you could get an accurate price right away!!

 

[StarSeven7]

Does anyone know if this NCL sale is actually a good deal? On Cruise Critic a lot of people are saying they hiked up prices to take 30% off. I guess the perks are good if you’re looking for those but we probably wouldn’t pay for any of those otherwise and we prefer to do excursions on our own so they’re not super useful to us. The price for 4 of us seems ok but not amazing. Celebrity and RCCL have similar pricing for a 7 night in Europe and it’s about what we paid for our 7 night Southern Caribbean on DCL.

 

[belle032]

Does anyone know if this NCL sale is actually a good deal? On Cruise Critic a lot of people are saying they hiked up prices to take 30% off. I guess the perks are good if you’re looking for those but we probably wouldn’t pay for any of those otherwise and we prefer to do excursions on our own so they’re not super useful to us. The price for 4 of us seems ok but not amazing. Celebrity and RCCL have similar pricing for a 7 night in Europe and it’s about what we paid for our 7 night Southern Caribbean on DCL.

I actually asked this in the NCL group I joined on FB! It seems like they run the "free promos" pretty constantly throughout the year and it usually just depends which ones they offer at any given time. Doesn't sound like they offer ALL promos to every stateroom category very often, which I believe they're doing right now, so that might be a perk only if you would purchase at least some of them anyway.

I kind of agree with the whole 30% off idea that it's marked up to be marked down. The price of the cruise we're looking at seems to have remained pretty steady these past few months. So unless you're looking at a last minute deal (especially now with the travel scares), it might not be too much of a discount overall.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Does anyone know if this NCL sale is actually a good deal? On Cruise Critic a lot of people are saying they hiked up prices to take 30% off. I guess the perks are good if you’re looking for those but we probably wouldn’t pay for any of those otherwise and we prefer to do excursions on our own so they’re not super useful to us. The price for 4 of us seems ok but not amazing. Celebrity and RCCL have similar pricing for a 7 night in Europe and it’s about what we paid for our 7 night Southern Caribbean on DCL.

A really good deal last minute on NCL is about $499 per person for an inside room on a 7 night Caribbean. I would consider $699 (no freebies or gratuities) to be a really good deal at this point with them. I haven’t looked since the corona thing.

 

[StarSeven7]

Thanks for the help everyone! I'm looking for June/July 2021 so still a long ways out and probably wouldn't book any time really soon since we're still deciding what we want to do. I'm finding around $5000ish USD for 2 adults, 2 kids in an oceanview on NCL, RCCL, and Celebrity for Mediterranean cruises. It's obviously cheaper than DCL for Europe but it doesn't seem like an amazing deal that I need to jump on or anything!

I wanted to report back that I did go through all the passenger names/ages screen and it did take off the free drinks gratuities for the kids! Does that mean the kids don't get a drinks package at all (meaning we'd have to pay for soft drinks for them?) or just that they don't have to pay for gratuities? The gratuities for DH and I were $185 CAD each for 7 nights which seems much more reasonable. Funny that they make you go all the way through the booking to get the correct pricing though!

Does anyone have any feedback on NCL, RCCL, or Celebrity with kids? The ships I'm looking at are Norwegian Pearl, Rhapsody of the Seas, and Celebrity Infinity. Itinerary is the most important to me and these are the ships that offer itineraries that I would be willing to go on. (My DH and I have spent a lot of time in Europe and I've been to many of the popular spots in the Med so I'm looking for new destinations that I haven't been to before). I would probably choose Celebrity if it were just DH and I but I'm not sure it's a great fit for my kids. They'll be 11 and 8 and they're good kids but they're pretty high energy so feeling like I needed to keep them in line constantly or get glared at from other passengers would be stressful! I also see that they would be separated into different kids club areas on NCL which my son said right away that he wouldn't like (not surprisingly!) We really don't need a lot of bells and whistles to keep them happy but a good kids club and maybe a pool slide would be nice! Also kids food is a huge plus since they're both picky eaters.

Thanks!

 

[belle032]

Ok I think NCL has pulled me in and I'm going to put down a deposit for Alaska 2021. This is the new cancellation policy per the website:

"For all new and existing bookings that embark from March 10, 2020 through and including September 30, 2020:
Cancellation may occur until 48 hours prior to vacation date for a 100% future cruise credit (FCC) which may be redeemed on ANY Norwegian sailing embarking on or before December 31, 2022.
Vacation date includes any pre hotel or cruisetour packages booked through Norwegian.
Future Cruise Credit will include all components of the reservation that have been paid. Including but not limited to: Shore excursions, beverage and dining package gratuities, service charges and air/transfers pre purchased through Norwegian. Cost of insurance on existing bookings is not included in the FCC amount."

I know it's not a full refund but I honestly think that's pretty reasonable. We still want to try NCL no matter what so I'd be fine with a credit.

Just in case anyone is curious about pricing, I am looking at a 7 Night Awe of Alaska (includes Glacier Bay & Inside Passage) on the Norwegian Encore. Dates are Sept. 5-12, 2021.

Deposit: $250
Free at Sea Gratuities: $316.80
Total cost for two adults, Balcony stateroom, all taxes & port fees, all Free at Sea perks (beverage package, specialty dining, shore excursions, Wifi) + $200 OBC: $5204.43


Just to compare a similar DCL sailing: 7 Night Alaska out of Vancouver (includes Dawes Glacier) on the Wonder. Dates are Sept. 6-13, 2021.

Deposit: $1338.40
Total cost for two adults, Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom w/Verandah +all taxes & port fees: $7089.52
No "perks" or OBC.

Not a SUPER crazy difference for a lot of cruisers, but for how we like to cruise, that is a big difference for us.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Ok I think NCL has pulled me in and I'm going to put down a deposit for Alaska 2021. This is the new cancellation policy per the website:

"For all new and existing bookings that embark from March 10, 2020 through and including September 30, 2020:
Cancellation may occur until 48 hours prior to vacation date for a 100% future cruise credit (FCC) which may be redeemed on ANY Norwegian sailing embarking on or before December 31, 2022.
Vacation date includes any pre hotel or cruisetour packages booked through Norwegian.
Future Cruise Credit will include all components of the reservation that have been paid. Including but not limited to: Shore excursions, beverage and dining package gratuities, service charges and air/transfers pre purchased through Norwegian. Cost of insurance on existing bookings is not included in the FCC amount."

I know it's not a full refund but I honestly think that's pretty reasonable. We still want to try NCL no matter what so I'd be fine with a credit.

Just in case anyone is curious about pricing, I am looking at a 7 Night Awe of Alaska (includes Glacier Bay & Inside Passage) on the Norwegian Encore. Dates are Sept. 5-12, 2021.

Deposit: $250
Free at Sea Gratuities: $316.80
Total cost for two adults, Balcony stateroom, all taxes & port fees, all Free at Sea perks (beverage package, specialty dining, shore excursions, Wifi) + $200 OBC: $5204.43


Just to compare a similar DCL sailing: 7 Night Alaska out of Vancouver (includes Dawes Glacier) on the Wonder. Dates are Sept. 6-13, 2021.

Deposit: $1338.40
Total cost for two adults, Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom w/Verandah +all taxes & port fees: $7089.52
No "perks" or OBC.

Not a SUPER crazy difference for a lot of cruisers, but for how we like to cruise, that is a big difference for us.

Encore looks like a beautiful ship

 

[mevelandry]

NCL used to charge gratuities on the open bar package only for the first two in the room, so the open bar was only good for 2 people. Now, I've noticed that the open bar applies to everyone when you are adding it as a free offer, so they charge gratuities for everyone, and it is a ridiculous price depending on the length of the cruise. Also, it seems insane to charge the same gratuities for kids as you do for adults when kids are clearly not eligible for the "full" open bar package. I haven't looked into how they price their crazy drink packages as I assume they may have decided to just charge everyone the same whether you have an alcoholic drink package or a non-alcoholic drink package. I price out NCL cruises frequently and NEVER take the drink package, I definitely don't drink enough to make up the crazy cost.

Maybe it's because we are just 2 but for us, it wasn't that much (about 100$ USD per person, which is about half the amount we usually spend for drinks during our cruise).

 

[mevelandry]

Ok I think NCL has pulled me in and I'm going to put down a deposit for Alaska 2021. This is the new cancellation policy per the website:

"For all new and existing bookings that embark from March 10, 2020 through and including September 30, 2020:
Cancellation may occur until 48 hours prior to vacation date for a 100% future cruise credit (FCC) which may be redeemed on ANY Norwegian sailing embarking on or before December 31, 2022.
Vacation date includes any pre hotel or cruisetour packages booked through Norwegian.
Future Cruise Credit will include all components of the reservation that have been paid. Including but not limited to: Shore excursions, beverage and dining package gratuities, service charges and air/transfers pre purchased through Norwegian. Cost of insurance on existing bookings is not included in the FCC amount."

I know it's not a full refund but I honestly think that's pretty reasonable. We still want to try NCL no matter what so I'd be fine with a credit.

Just in case anyone is curious about pricing, I am looking at a 7 Night Awe of Alaska (includes Glacier Bay & Inside Passage) on the Norwegian Encore. Dates are Sept. 5-12, 2021.

Deposit: $250
Free at Sea Gratuities: $316.80
Total cost for two adults, Balcony stateroom, all taxes & port fees, all Free at Sea perks (beverage package, specialty dining, shore excursions, Wifi) + $200 OBC: $5204.43


Just to compare a similar DCL sailing: 7 Night Alaska out of Vancouver (includes Dawes Glacier) on the Wonder. Dates are Sept. 6-13, 2021.

Deposit: $1338.40
Total cost for two adults, Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom w/Verandah +all taxes & port fees: $7089.52
No "perks" or OBC.

Not a SUPER crazy difference for a lot of cruisers, but for how we like to cruise, that is a big difference for us.

Not a crazy difference in price but if you count all the perks (which has a value of about 500$ USD per person) ... It's interesting!

 

[belle032]

Not a crazy difference in price but if you count all the perks (which has a value of about 500$ USD per person) ... It's interesting!

That's what I think too. Especially because we always buy a beverage package if it's offered. We aren't lushes but we'll easily spend over $316 on drinks in a week, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic. Considering Carnival is $52-ish per person, per day, that's a huge savings. And $200 OBC is a pretty nice bonus too.

 

[mevelandry]

That's what I think too. Especially because we always buy a beverage package if it's offered. We aren't lushes but we'll easily spend over $316 on drinks in a week, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic. Considering Carnival is $52-ish per person, per day, that's a huge savings. And $200 OBC is a pretty nice bonus too.

Absolutely.
p.s.: I love your new picture!!!

 

[belle032]

Absolutely.
p.s.: I love your new picture!!!

Aww thank you! Animator’s Palate was probably my favorite!

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Regal Princess Cruise for this week has been cancelled! We are next week... this is all so surreal.

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Regal Princess Cruise for this week has been cancelled! We are next week... this is all so surreal.

Best of luck, I hope you make it on

 

[belle032]

Regal Princess Cruise for this week has been cancelled! We are next week... this is all so surreal.

I hope you get to sail because I'd love to hear a review! Ugh unfortunately I think cruising is just going to be a mess this year.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Best of luck, I hope you make it on

I hope you get to sail because I'd love to hear a review! Ugh unfortunately I think cruising is just going to be a mess this year.

We have started to think about canceling. Ugh. We are on the fence. We are not worried about the virus at all, but if we sail and get quarantined we cannot afford to take an extra two weeks off from work. I know, belle032, I am thinking if we do sail I will sign up on cc and try to do a blog on the princess forum about sailing during the Coronavirus fear. Our teen begged us not to cancel before he took off for school this morning. He loves the entire idea of being on an real adventure. Lol.

 

[hdrolfe]

I have no cruise booked until December, but watching some of the prices drop (especially on Royal), it sure is tempting! I do worry about being quarantined on the ship for 2 weeks, not so much the virus itself just the reactions of people to the fear of it right now. I can't imagine being confined to a cabin on the ship with my son for 2 weeks...