and is posted in travel too. Will be in Houston over Thanksgiving in Houston and considering cruise out of Galveston while there. Have sailed on Princess, Norwegian (Europe) and Royal Caribbean but never MSC or Carnival. All have times and route we can consider but know nothing about MSC or Carnival (except for the food fights and other passenger misbehaviors that have gotten press coverage). Anyone have experienced MSC or Carnival and give me a brief recommendation or comment?
Its Been Discussed Before (Cruises)
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Last: 7 days ago by jh88ag
Unless you're trying to party I wouldn't recommend Carnival. Its a fun time but its not the nicest of ships/amenities.
Do not go on an MSC or Carnival if you've only gone on those listed above.
It'd be the equivalent of flying AA, Southwest, United and then going RyanAir and probably expecting the same service/treatment.
It'd be the equivalent of flying AA, Southwest, United and then going RyanAir and probably expecting the same service/treatment.
I would vacation at the gates of hell before I got on a Carnival ship
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AG
Go get really hammered on some plastic bottle vodka and rum, go to Golden Corral, start a fight (with or without food involvement), wake up the next morning, find your pants and put the money you would have spent on a carnival cruise into your long term savings account and call it good.
CactusThomas said:
I would vacation at the gates of hell before I got on aCarnivalcruise ship
Fixed it for you
My wife and I took a carnival cruise from Galveston to Cozumel once.
Once.
Once.
Either will be good. Anything over Thanksgiving is going to be more expensive than usual which will price out the riff raff. Longer itineraries i.e. 6-7 days will have the same effect. If you're looking at the Carnival Jubilee, it will have more dining and entertainment options than MSC. The Seascape is a nice ship too but not as many dining/entertainment options but it also doesn't have the amusement park feel that Carnival sometimes does. Both ships will be full with families with kids out of school over the Thanksgiving break. The Seascape will have a lower price point for one more night aboard so I'd probably lean that direction. One thing I'd consider too is the Jubilee arriving in port on Saturday so you'd be back on land to watch the tu game.
ttha_aggie_09 said:CactusThomas said:
I would vacation at the gates of hell before I got on aCarnivalcruise ship
Fixed it for you
This. No possible way am I being stuck on a floating jail, then going to all of the tourists spots that are primarily owned by the cruise lines anyway.
Fly somewhere, go on excursions.
I went on a Carnival Cruise(Jubilee out of Galveston) last year and it was fine. No fights that I saw. People weren't acting crazy. First and only cruise I've been on. Are others nicer, probably. Carnival has a reputation, right or wrong its takes a lot to change a reputation once you get it.
If you want an easy, fast, cheap, and questionable vacation from Houston, fly to Cancun and get on the ferry to Isla.
Stay on the south end. Seems the word got out about Isla...the north gets insane.
To be fair, a coworker just went on a Mediterranean Ritz cruise and raved about it. Now I wouldn't drop 25K on that, but better cruises do exist.O.G. said:ttha_aggie_09 said:CactusThomas said:
I would vacation at the gates of hell before I got on aCarnivalcruise ship
Fixed it for you
This. No possible way am I being stuck on a floating jail, then going to all of the tourists spots that are primarily owned by the cruise lines anyway.
Fly somewhere, go on excursions.
I have heard nothing but great things about the MSC ship out of Galveston. Apparently they have levelled up. So much so that some believe it is better than the RC cruises. I would not go Carnival unless you are looking for a cheap cruise to deal with miserable people.
Hope Is A Good Thing
I asked my wife if she wanted to go on a cruise for our 50th anniversary. She said yes. On our boat at Lake of the Ozarks. 
I said: " Sounds good to me."
I said: " Sounds good to me."
TAMU Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences
Boat racing is like a beautiful woman.......expensive, high maintenance, but well worth the fun!
Boat racing is like a beautiful woman.......expensive, high maintenance, but well worth the fun!
Buck Compton said:O.G. said:ttha_aggie_09 said:CactusThomas said:
I would vacation at the gates of hell before I got on aCarnivalcruise ship
Fixed it for you
This. No possible way am I being stuck on a floating jail, then going to all of the tourists spots that are primarily owned by the cruise lines anyway.
Fly somewhere, go on excursions.
To be fair, a coworker just went on a Mediterranean Ritz cruise and raved about it. Now I wouldn't drop 25K on that, but better cruises do exist.
In all fairness, I would do one of those Viking River Cruises in Europe....Except they won't let you raid monasteries and pillage the local villages...
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May be a bit long winded but here's my 0.02 seeing as we went on our first cruise last summer and followed it up again this summer.
We have 2 girls (6 and 9) so we decided last summer to go on a short cruise to see how we liked it. We did a 4 day RC cruise out of Galveston.
Had a good time, kids enjoyed it, and wife and I had no big complaints so we did a 7-day out of Galveston this summer.
Two main takeaways...I'd never do one without kids and as long as you set your expectations they're fine.
To be able to take the kids 1 hour to Galveston and hop on a ship and go is nice. No airports and flight delays and all that crap. Again...With 2 young kids in tow it's so easy.
The Royal Caribbean were nice. Very clean and well kept. I think they really fight the stigma of dirty petri dishes that some have of cruise boats so there are always people cleaning wiping surfaces etc. We never like 'Gross not touching that'.
The food is what it is. This is where setting expectations comes in. It's not bad but it's not great. Kids eat noting but mac and cheese, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets anyways so WGAF. Again...Ease of not having to decide on dinner and having to be anywhere at any certain time is great. It's a tradeoff I'll make for average food. there are upscale options that are higher quality but you have to pay extra for those.
The excursions we did were excellent. Top notch. Just don't book any through the cruise line itself. Go on tripadvisor, find ones you like, and book your own. It's the same ones people are booking when they fly there. maybe a little more legwork in planning or an extra taxi ride but well worth it.
So in summary they are what they are. Not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be. Wouldn't do it with just the wife and I (that's what the nice resort vacations are for). Kids have a blast swimming in the pool, water slides, rock climbing, arcade, etc. Parents have fun relaxing and drinking, casino, bars, shows at night. The way I see it with young kids it's worth it rather than spending way more, flying somewhere, dragging the kids around when at the end of the day they just wanna swim in the pool and eat ice cream anyways.
We have 2 girls (6 and 9) so we decided last summer to go on a short cruise to see how we liked it. We did a 4 day RC cruise out of Galveston.
Had a good time, kids enjoyed it, and wife and I had no big complaints so we did a 7-day out of Galveston this summer.
Two main takeaways...I'd never do one without kids and as long as you set your expectations they're fine.
To be able to take the kids 1 hour to Galveston and hop on a ship and go is nice. No airports and flight delays and all that crap. Again...With 2 young kids in tow it's so easy.
The Royal Caribbean were nice. Very clean and well kept. I think they really fight the stigma of dirty petri dishes that some have of cruise boats so there are always people cleaning wiping surfaces etc. We never like 'Gross not touching that'.
The food is what it is. This is where setting expectations comes in. It's not bad but it's not great. Kids eat noting but mac and cheese, hot dogs, and chicken nuggets anyways so WGAF. Again...Ease of not having to decide on dinner and having to be anywhere at any certain time is great. It's a tradeoff I'll make for average food. there are upscale options that are higher quality but you have to pay extra for those.
The excursions we did were excellent. Top notch. Just don't book any through the cruise line itself. Go on tripadvisor, find ones you like, and book your own. It's the same ones people are booking when they fly there. maybe a little more legwork in planning or an extra taxi ride but well worth it.
So in summary they are what they are. Not nearly as bad as some people make it out to be. Wouldn't do it with just the wife and I (that's what the nice resort vacations are for). Kids have a blast swimming in the pool, water slides, rock climbing, arcade, etc. Parents have fun relaxing and drinking, casino, bars, shows at night. The way I see it with young kids it's worth it rather than spending way more, flying somewhere, dragging the kids around when at the end of the day they just wanna swim in the pool and eat ice cream anyways.
RCR06 said:
I went on a Carnival Cruise(Jubilee out of Galveston) last year and it was fine. No fights that I saw. People weren't acting crazy. First and only cruise I've been on. Are others nicer, probably. Carnival has a reputation, right or wrong its takes a lot to change a reputation once you get it.
I've been on one Carnival cruise - it was a 9 day cruise out of Galveston to the Bahamas. Had a great time. No issues with ship or anything. I suspect any cruise of short duration (e.g. 5 days or less) you risk possible issues. Longer cruises that are a bit more expensive are probably less risky. If you do eventually take a Carnival cruise, have a Guy Fieri burger. One of the best burgers I've eaten. Good luck.
Only issue is with problems during excursions, booked through cruise you're getting back to the boat no matter what - book yourself and you could be screwed.
We did an RC back in 2010 and our excursion in Jamacia booked through RC, to a rum factory cool tour but quite a bit of bus ride. Another private tour, from the same boat to the same place but not RC... got into a fender bender on the way back, boat left the 8 people there and they had to fly back to Galveston on their dime (Jamacia was the last port).
We did an RC back in 2010 and our excursion in Jamacia booked through RC, to a rum factory cool tour but quite a bit of bus ride. Another private tour, from the same boat to the same place but not RC... got into a fender bender on the way back, boat left the 8 people there and they had to fly back to Galveston on their dime (Jamacia was the last port).
Yes freak accidents like that can always happen.
All the private tours we've been on have been very on top of departure times and who's on what ship to make sure everyone gets back on time.
Do your research and stick to reputable companies with lots of reviews and you'll be fine.
Like I said the excursions we did this summer in Mexico and Honduras were awesome and exceeded all of our expectations.
All the private tours we've been on have been very on top of departure times and who's on what ship to make sure everyone gets back on time.
Do your research and stick to reputable companies with lots of reviews and you'll be fine.
Like I said the excursions we did this summer in Mexico and Honduras were awesome and exceeded all of our expectations.
My wife and I have been on quite a few Carnival cruises and enjoyed them, including a Mediterranean cruise.. Only Carnival because our daughter worked for them for several years and we'd cruise on whatever ship she was working on. As others have mentioned, the longer and more expensive cruises are less likely to have problems. The only one where we had a bad experience should have been expected. We sailed out of Baltimore, because that's where daughter was based at the time. Little did we know it just happened to be spring break up there (mid-April). Rough crowd.
Brother of Rattler and his Frau go on at least 1 cruise a year in those floating petri dishes......as regular as clockwork they both come back sick and have to go to doctors .........Doc it hurts when we do this ......wellllll don't do that.
Carnival is fine as long as you don't go during summer / swimsuit holidays. During those times is when the riffraff, parties, etc show up.
Thanksgiving will probably be fine. We've gone on 3-4 carnival cruises during October thru February and never had any issues.
Thanksgiving will probably be fine. We've gone on 3-4 carnival cruises during October thru February and never had any issues.
Drive over to lake Charles and do a couple night at the golden nugget maybe?
Going on one next week…carnival out of Long Beach. I'll report back. First time…we shall see…wife wants to try it out so off we'll go.
Regent now goes out of Galveston I heard. Doing 17 days totally all inclusive that is drinks and excursions for $11k
Carnival is not a cruise line. Its hell on the seas. Maybe over the top take. We had a legitmate issue on our last cruise. They told us to piss off.
Been on 4 Carnival cruises in my life. Roughly, in 1993, 1998, 2006, and 2024. First two were great. Last 2 sucked. Never again.
Warning everyone. If I ever go on a cruise again, it will be a catatmaran through Moorings.
Been on 4 Carnival cruises in my life. Roughly, in 1993, 1998, 2006, and 2024. First two were great. Last 2 sucked. Never again.
Warning everyone. If I ever go on a cruise again, it will be a catatmaran through Moorings.
What happened
Cruises out of most Guif ports suck. Disney is an exception. Forget Carnival. I've heard Princess is bearable because they don't cater to the redneck, ghetto drunk crowd.
The trouble with the Caribbean cruises is the ship is the destination. That's why you end up with a floating bar at sea and all that comes with it.
The trouble with the Caribbean cruises is the ship is the destination. That's why you end up with a floating bar at sea and all that comes with it.
Sorry, but how will you watch the game if you are on boat?
Carnival is a floating trailer park.
I think a cheap quick flight to Cancun would be a much better option than trapping yourself on the Spirit Airlines of the sea.
El Texicano said:
Carnival is a floating trailer park.
Located in the ghetto?
"I don't care about your feelings OP. I'm not going to let fandom replace reason, thought, and history"
Done a few "nicer" cruises with other families.
Last Carnival cruise - bunch of college kids on spring break. Hallway doors all open. Smelled like Obsession and cheap tequila with country music blaring and kids got ready. Felt like I was back in the dorms. Handed out all the wine glasses to kids wanting to pre-drink from our room, then woke up to a giant puddle of barf outside our door on our way to breakfast. Lovely.
No fights, just ******y kids being too loud and drinking too much. So basically, me back in the day....
Worked out every morning, ate, brought back coffee to the room. Then hit the deck or excursions if we were in port. Dinner was just basic stuff. Nobody really dresses up anymore. Never had any seasickness issues but saw a ton of those little patches people wear behind their ear.
I did enjoy a bottle of scotch, a decent cigar, and a book hanging on the balcony in the room. It's pitch black at night, and those waves can get rough. And it's a LONG way down. You go over; that's a wrap.
Last Carnival cruise - bunch of college kids on spring break. Hallway doors all open. Smelled like Obsession and cheap tequila with country music blaring and kids got ready. Felt like I was back in the dorms. Handed out all the wine glasses to kids wanting to pre-drink from our room, then woke up to a giant puddle of barf outside our door on our way to breakfast. Lovely.
No fights, just ******y kids being too loud and drinking too much. So basically, me back in the day....
Worked out every morning, ate, brought back coffee to the room. Then hit the deck or excursions if we were in port. Dinner was just basic stuff. Nobody really dresses up anymore. Never had any seasickness issues but saw a ton of those little patches people wear behind their ear.
I did enjoy a bottle of scotch, a decent cigar, and a book hanging on the balcony in the room. It's pitch black at night, and those waves can get rough. And it's a LONG way down. You go over; that's a wrap.
Nobody cares. Work Harder
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