My wife and I are Gold card holders with Carnival having been on 15+ cruises with them over the last 7 years so when we decided to try something different we went with NCL because the port in Long Beach California is so close by. As a note to understand some of my perspectives we are both in our early 50’s.

My goal with this is to try and relate many of the questions that I had about the differences between the cruise lines and the overall ship experience. Frankly this is something that I looked all over the internet for and couldn’t find much about.

First and foremost, here is what I believe is the main difference between the two; Carnival is setup as a weeklong party and NCL is set up as a weeklong vacation. I know that doesn’t completely make sense but try to think about it. NCL was all about relaxation and Carnival is all about partying. For myself, I don’t believe this changes the overall ratings of the cruises it just made things feel a little different. It is hard to walk around on a Carnival ship without being asked if you want a drink, on NCL… I had to wait multiple times in line at a bar because they didn’t have the bar staff approaching people that were sitting down. I sat 18 feet from the bar (yes I know I could get off my butt and go to the bar but there was a line) for over 20 minutes and then finally got up since no bar staff came around. (as a side note, on day one this wasn’t the case….. I just don’t know where all the staff that was there on day one disappeared to the rest of the cruise.) This wasn’t the case in the Casino where they always had plenty of staff to get you a drink. My wife and I also joked that on Carnival you dodged strollers and on NCL you dodged walkers…… again this is not a bad thing. Read more