It is the year of our 30th wedding anniversary, the kids are both grown and out of the house, so how did we decide to celebrate? Go on a cruise! Our travel agent recommended that we try Princess and said it is twice the ship that Carnival is at about the same price. So we took her advice...and I'm so glad we did!
This was our fourth cruise, but our first on Princess. Our previous cruises were all on Carnival, and we enjoyed them a lot, but now that we've experienced Princess, we're spoiled and probably won't go back to Carnival. In comparing the two, I'd say that Carnival reminds me of Vegas with bright, gaudy, glitzy colors and cheap looking dEcor, whereas Princess decorates much more subtly with calmer colors and rich woods.
We also liked that Princess does not bombard you with endless announcements over the public address system like Carnival does about where and when to get off the ship at the ports, daily reminders to go play Bingo and attend the art auctions, etc. Princess just sort of lets you figure it out yourself by reading your daily "Patter" newspaper, which is delivered to your stateroom each night. That tells me that Princess caters to a better educated, more mature crowd who can figure things out on their own without unending announcements and Carnival is appealing to the jet age go-getters who are too busy to figure things out on their own and would prefer to be told what to do and when to do it.