Carnival and Royal Caribbean serve the same audience with similar services.
Some would argue that Royal Caribbean has a slightly higher-end audience, but with the newer ships in their fleets, the two family-friendly cruise lines appear to largely court the same customers.
But while they offer similar products, they also have a lot of meaningful differences. Some of these are subtle, like Carnival now charging a $5 fee for any customer who wants a third entree in the main dining room.
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That change is based more on limiting waste than making money, but it's one of the many small things that distinguish the two cruise lines. Food policies have generally been an area where Royal Caribbean and Carnival are similar but not the same.
Carnival, for example, recently expanded its late-night eats menu to offer more choice after 10 p.m. than Royal Caribbean does. In addition, Carnival will now deliver select menu items anywhere on the ship, so you literally don't have to be in your room to order room service.
Where the two cruise lines differ the most might be in their beverage packages.
Royal Caribbean's Deluxe Beverage Package includes all-you-can-drink soda, water, juice, specialty coffee (aside from dedicated Starbucks locations), shakes and alcoholic beverages. The Carnival Cheers package includes similar items but caps the consumption of alcoholic beverages at 15 a day.
That's a pretty big difference, as while most people won't get anywhere near 15, beer drinkers and people who start early do hit the limit.
Carnival Cruise Line CCL executives have been clear that this policy won't be changing, but Royal Caribbean has another beverage offer that Carnival passengers have been asking for but the line hasn't agreed to make.
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Image source: Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival asked for a key beverage change
In addition to its Deluxe Beverage Package, Royal Caribbean also offers a Refreshment Package. That's an unlimited-drinks package including everything except alcohol.
Carnival does not have a similar drink package and it's something its passengers seem very interested in having.
James Dugan asked Carnival Brand Ambassador John Heald about whether the cruise line might add a similar package. The exchange took place on Heald's Facebook page
"Would Carnival consider adding another drink program the just included bottled water/specialty coffees/shakes? I'm sure this has probably been asked before. I'm just not a big alcohol drinker so the Cheers package doesn't really fit for me and I don't drink much soda at all either. I am, however, a big fan of the specialty coffee shops," he asked.
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Heald's assistant/partner Jacinta, who sometimes monitors and posts on the page, had a blunt answer for Dugan.
"Hello, we don’t have immediate plans to add a new package. Thanks, Jacinta," she wrote.
Carnival offers more drink-package details
Heald weighed in the next morning: "Hello, I just want to add to the conversation that we have looked very hard at doing different packages but the hard part for us is finding the savings to pass on to the guest. But things change so let’s see what the future holds. Thank you all."
While that answer generated a lot of pushback, Heald offered more detail as to why the cruise line made the decision:
"I’m just going to say one more thing that I’ve said many times and that is that it is harder to find the savings on a program like this because having a program that contains no alcohol is more expensive for us than to do a program like Cheers that does have alcohol. That’s why at the moment there are no plans to do this."
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Both cruise lines offer soda-only packages.
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