We cruised Eastern Caribbean on Carnival Celebration in 2023 and had a great time. This year we tried NCL on the Norwegian Jade for the Mexican Riviera and honestly… it was a lot worse.
The NCL app was awful. Hard to find dining and activities, and we even had to pay for messaging wifi just to talk to each other in the same cabin. Carnival’s app made that easy and free. Food on the Jade was also a letdown. Outside of the buffet, most of the restaurants were pretty bad. On Carnival we had tons of solid options on the Lido deck plus places like Guy’s and Shaq’s.
Entertainment was another big difference. On the Jade, a lot of days felt like there was nothing going on, and the main shows were underwhelming. Celebration always felt lively and fun.
I know it’s not a fair ship to ship comparison since one is new and one is older, but overall our Carnival experience was way better. So I’m genuinely curious why Carnival gets dragged so hard all the time when, for us at least, it delivered more value and fun.
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