Review and Comparison of my recent Cruises

I don't really have anything specific to blog about today that's new. I am having a little writer's block or fatigue for new items to research, so I will blog about 2 cruises that I went on.

The first cruise was in December 2007 I went on the Royal Caribbean Baja Cruise, which was a 4 day cruise that left from Los Angeles and stopped at San Diego, Catalina Island and then Ensenada Mexico.
The arrival day was hectic, thousands of people boarding and each person being given a numbered ticket and boarding by groups was time consuming and a little stressful especially for a first time traveler. Once on board you can't go into your room until several hours so you spend your time visiting the cafe or exploring the ship, which is fine. There is a first day safety presentation on all cruises that takes about 20 - 30 minutes and is required. Nobody likes to do it, but it is only the first day and doesn't take much time.

In summary the Royal Caribbean cruise being our first was completely magical, we didn't really explore the San Diego port, because we have been to San Diego so many times previously, but we Kayaked the ocean around the island of Catalina, and explored Ensenada and ate at the famous and delicious Mango Mango restaurant.

The fine dining on the Royal Caribbean ship was exquisite and the buffet food was above average, on par with most Las Vegas hotel buffets. There was never any want for food, and the wait staff and service was bar none.

The debarking process was akward and also just as much of a hassle as the boarding process, we even were randomly stopped by port authority and had to be pulled out of line and have every suitcase opened and rifled through which was uncomfortable and wasted almost an hour and a half of our time. This wasn't the cruise line's fault though and just bad luck I guess.

Our Second Cruise was in June of 2008 and was the Carnival Mexican Riviera 7 Day cruise, we decided to try a different cruise line only because Carnival was about $200 cheaper per person for the Junior Suite, and we wanted to see if another cruise line was better or the same.

Carnival had a better boarding and debarking process that much is certain, if you book a suite, you automatically get priority boarding and can board with the VIP access and not have to wait in boarding groups. This boarding was much faster than with Royal Caribbean, and the debarking we just took our luggage with us which allowed us to leave with the first boarding group which was also very fast.

That being said every other aspect of the cruise line itself was lacking compared to Royal Caribbean. The food in the buffet was "okay" not as high quality as Royal Caribbean, but not terrible either. The buffet however is spread out across 3 rooms, and instead of all food stations being located in one central place, you had to walk to different rooms to get different categories of food which was a huge waste of time.

The fine dining on Carnival wasn't even close to Royal Caribbean, the food itself was average, where everything on Royal Caribbean was spectacular, the service and wait staff were good overall but lacked the polished and truly appreciative touch of the Royal Caribbean staff. On the first night we really were seated at a bad table right in the middle of a walkway and had a hard time with our first waiter, that we requested a different waiter and table for the rest of the trip.

The ports were all incredible, Cabo San Lucas was amazing, and everyone should visit Cabo Wabo if they visit there. Puerto Vallerta was equally impressive and we fished for hours for Dolphin Tuna (Mahi Mahi). The Carnival Cruise did have a very nice Sushi bar that opened in the afternoon, but overall there were gaps in food being available, whereas on Royal Caribbean any time of day you wanted to eat, you can eat without worrying about what was available at what times.

The room's at Royal Caribbean were more comfortable and laid out better, even though the Junior Suite at Carnival has a King Size bed vs a Queen Size on Royal Caribbean. The Royal Caribbean ship we stayed on was "Monarch of the Sea's" and the Carnival ship we sailed on was "Carnival Pride"

Neither cruise was a bad experience by any means, we enjoyed both cruises imensely, but in comparison Royal Caribbean to Carnival we prefer Royal Caribbean for better service, higher quality food, more comfortable rooms. Carnival did have a better boarding/debarking process and had more activities like mini-golf on top of deck, but overall the service was okay, the food lackluster and the rooms not as comfortable.

Again, not bad, just compared to Royal Caribbean not as impressive.

We hope to try Norwegian Cruise Line next and maybe do an Alaskan cruise and see how "Freestyle" cruising fares.

So if you have never been on a cruise before I highly recommend them to anyone, they are cheaper per day/per person if you factor in Hotel, Food Costs...etc A decent room on a cruise ship has all inclusive meals, and is far more vacation bang for the buck than traveling somewhere. The excursions however are fun but don't give you a lot of time if you really want to visit a place, it is kind of like a sample with activity, but if you really want to see Cabo, then stay in Cabo for a few days rather than use a cruise.

Happy Vacationing everyone.

-The Wanderer