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Would we have cruised again? Not all cruise lines are created equal.

  • Writer: Kirsty
    Kirsty
  • Dec 9, 2024
  • 3 min read

You know that there’s different cruise lines and you know that some are targeted at different demographics but you don’t truly understand the difference between them until you’ve sailed with different cruise lines.


Now I’m not going to sit here and go through every single cruise line and compare their offerings, but there is definitely a difference in cruise lines, what they offer and who the target. Take Cunard, they target an older demographic and radiate 5 star, I mean they don’t name their ships after Queens for nothing, and it’s a dream for a lot of people to do a 3 Queens cruise*. You also have Disney Cruises another 5 Star cruise line, but not one of the first ones that come to mind when people start talking 5 Star cruises, as they are targeted at families so the 5 star experience is different to the 5 Star luxury experience, you’ll receive on Cunard, Seabourn, Silverseas, Azamara or Scenic.


There is even a big difference between all the affordable and mid-range cruise lines, looking at P&O vs Carnival, or Royal Caribbean International vs Princess, with each of these comparisons one cruise line that is notably geared toward families while the other is, I guess you could say more reserved. Even the offerings from the same cruise line on different sides of the world are different due to the size of the ships.


We have a Disney Cruise coming up in a few weeks and a Royal Caribbean cruise booked for 2026, that we are so excited for as we haven’t sailed with either of these cruise lines before. However, we have sailed with Carnival Australia and P&O, and while we enjoyed both experiences, the Carnival cruise was definitely a much better experience in our opinion, so much so, that we often wonder if had we cruised P&O first would we have cruised again and be so eager to continue to cruise?


Let’s Talk Carnival Australia


Carnival is definitely a family cruise line; their ships have activities catering to all ages and are just a lot of fun to go on. Yes, they don’t compare to RCI when it comes to onboard entertainment, but they are generally also cheaper. Our cruise was on Carnival Spirit and as we boarded and walked into the atrium, we were hit with that wow factor you always imagine a cruise ship to have. We always found something fun to do and spent very little time in our cabin. The whole ship just had a fun and entertaining vibe to it (Carnival Spirit is that fun she even tried to re-enact the Titanic recently). We still remember our cabin host Sundae, he was so friendly and happy for a chat.


Let’s talk P&O


I’m not saying that we hated P&O, it just really lacked that wow factor as well as onboard activities. Yes, not just the cruise line, but the ship itself can have a bit impact on your experience, and we really did not cruise on P&O’s best ship, Pacific Dawn (now MS Ambience one of Ambassador Cruise Line’s ships), which was one of P&Os smaller and older ships. When I first stepped onboard my first thought was “oh”, there was no wow factor like there was when we stepped onboard Carnival Spirit. We did the usual walk around the ship, and we were like is this it, they must have a lot of activities that they put on throughout the cruise. But they didn’t really, we actually had a lot of spare time on this cruise, which was great in a way as we actually relaxed, but we also felt like we didn’t really get our money’s worth. We did do a lot of adult activities on this cruise, learning to play popular casino games (we’re not gamblers so it was fun being able to have a go at these games without putting up any money), and mixology classes. We even spent basically a whole sea day in the cabin as there wasn’t anything of interest to do.

 

 

*What’s a 3 Queens cruise? It’s when all 3 ships (Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria & Queen Mary 2) line up/meet at ports so you can change from one ship to another. Cunard now also have Queen Anne so the newest phase is 4 Queens Cruises.

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