Warning: People say TapJoy is a notoriously bad company who will fight you tooth and nail not to pay out the reward if something goes wrong. I was pretty lucky here, but people hate them for a reason.
Intro
I thought it'd be useful to compile a list of games that people have tried through TapJoy and what kind of strategies people used to most efficiently get to their goal.
I'm going to be straight up - unless you really enjoy the side game you're playing, you're going to feel like it's a waste of time and not worth the gems. I'd only really recommend these TapJoy games to people who are F2P or pact players, or for dolphins with some extra time on their hands. While doing these offers it's easy to suffer from a sort of mobile game burnout. Even playing Alchemist Code was exhausting me.
There is a time limit for some of these challenges (it differs per game, so be mindful of it when you start the challenge), you can only pick one challenge per game, and it has to be a new account in the game. I did not spend any money on any of these games. I spent as much time throughout the day as I could on each game, which was probably about 2 hours a day.
For all of these games, my strategies reflect trying to achieve the challenge ASAP. If you end up liking the game and want to keep playing, some of these strategies may not be optimal, because they require using resources that you'd otherwise want to save.
I would recommend keeping the game installed until after you get your pay-out, and try not to fall below the challenge threshold until you get your payout.
Also, I did notice that I got the same offers on my iPhone after I already completed the offer on an Android device. So these may be repeatable across platforms, but I haven't tested this, and knowing Gumi, there's a chance they'll think you're cheating.
Here is another great thread that goes over TapJoy offers.
Finally, the jewel rewards listed here are based on what can be obtained on an Android device in the U.S. Other countries or platforms may provide differing rewards, so if you find that the reward is different than what is listed, just weigh your reward amount versus my time spent to see if it's worth it for you.
Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire
Challenge Options
10K power (shortest, 579 gems), level 10 citadel (medium, 850 gems), 100K power (longest, 1428 gems)
I picked 100K power
Jewels Obtained
1428
Time Spent
5 days
Jewels Obtained/Time Spent Ratio (Higher is Better)
285.6
Genre
Kingdom builder
Opinion
This is actually a pretty efficient offer. Unlike Lords Mobile, the limiting factor on building up your empire is resources, not time. This makes it
much faster to progress. This was the first TapJoy offer I picked up, and maybe because of that, I didn't mind it too much. I've played these sort of kingdom builder games in the past, so it didn't take long for me to catch on.
One thing I hated is that the game is VERY in your face about in-app purchases. I minimize and maximize games a lot; and every time you go back into this game, there's an IAP offer shoved in your face. It's annoying, but a small price to pay.
Strategy
I went for the 100K option, so my strategy is geared towards that. You're going to want to make the following buildings:
- 11 quarries
- 4 farms
- 6 mines
- 5 banks
- 4 energy extractors
- 8 barracks
- 1 hospital ward
Quarries are the most important here, because it's the most used resource. You're going to want to build the buildings above, then level up your citadel whenever possible. This lets you upgrade your buildings to match your citadel level. Outside of that, you can follow the buildings that the game recommends, as those will pay out rewards.
You're going to use your training grounds to make as many siege weapons as possible, as these units hold the most resources. When you open the map view, you'll see resource nodes throughout. You can send your troops to these nodes, and they'll slowly gather that resource type. You'll also see monsters on the map. It's important to attack these monsters, as they'll give you additional resources. Always attack once at a time - don't do the high energy attack.
Keep an eye out for the events going on as you play. There are events for building, researching, training, and attacking monsters. If possible, spend your resources on whatever activity type is going on for that event. You only get points when you
finish the building/research/troops, so plan accordingly. These events can pay out with useful resources, speed-ups, or shields.
Joining an active guild is very important. When you're building or researching you can ask for help - everybody who gives you help shortens the build/research time by a minute. Further, when asking for help, and when giving help to others in your guild, you get guild coins that you may use for useful items like speed-ups or resources. Getting into a good guild right from the beginning probably won't happen. The "open" guilds, that allow anybody to apply, are usually pretty inactive; but you may need to start off here. After you've built up a little bit, and if the guild isn't active, leave and rejoin a closed group. You want a guild with active members who hit that "ask for help" button often, since that's where you get your guild coins.
One of your most important buildings, in terms of power gain, is your wall. Do
not build the "reinforced wall" unit inside of the wall building. Instead, wait until you've researched traps, and then build nothing but traps. Traps give 4 power each, whereas the walls only give 1.
Just keep upgrading your resource buildings and building siege units and traps as you slowly upgrade your citadel. When you get to citadel level 9, you should have enough shield items to keep you shielded permanently from now until you hit 100K. So make sure you always have a shield active and just rush for 100K by building a lot of units. Forget about research. You had also may as well start using all of your speed-up items to reach that goal ASAP.
After you get your payout, if you had a good guild, do them a favor and donate your resources.
Lords Mobile
Challenge Options
Gather 50K timber on the map (136 gems), reach player level 25 (442 gems), castle level 11 (595 gems), castle level 12 (769 gems), castle level 14 (1530 gems)
I picked level 14 castle
Jewels Obtained
1530
Time Spent
12 days
Jewels Obtained/Time Spent Ratio (Higher is Better)
127.5
Genre
Kingdom builder
Opinion
I actually liked the gameplay in this game better than FFXV: A New Empire. It has a couple of extra modes that make the game more enjoyable, though it's otherwise the same game with a medieval fantasy theme... but there is one other big difference... BUILDING THINGS TAKES
FOREVER. For example, building up my citadel required me to level up my wall, which required me to level up my forge, which required me to level up my mine... and each of those start taking at least 15 hours towards the end.
Strategy
I went for the level 14 citadel option, so my strategy is geared towards that. In this game, you want to build up a bunch of farms. Most of your resource income will come from the resource nodes that you see on the map, and not from actual resource production. In your resource build slots, build one timber mill, one mine, one quarry, and then nothing but farms.
You'll unlock the rest of your base by beating some NPC enemies. As you do that, you're ultimately going to want just one barracks, three infirmaries, and the rest Manors. Any additional resource nodes you unlock should be more farms.
Joining an active guild is very important. When you're building or researching you can ask for help - everybody who gives you help shortens the build/research time by a minute. Further, when asking for help, and when giving help to others in your guild, you get guild coins that you may use for useful items like speed-ups. Getting into a good guild right from the beginning probably won't happen. The "open" guilds, that allow anybody to apply, are usually pretty inactive; but you may need to start off here. After you've built up a little bit, and if the guild isn't active, leave and rejoin a closed group. You want a guild with active members who hit that "ask for help" button often, since that's where you get your guild coins.
You're going to be in a bit of a time crunch in this game, because getting to level 14 citadel takes a
long time. Ignore the suggested buildings. Instead, look at what your citadel needs for the next level, and go for that. Then just keep doing that. The ONLY exception is that you want a level 9 Academy ASAP. This lets you get tier 2 troops, which is a necessity between citadel levels 9-14. Anyway, as you get towards the end, the buildings start taking a VERY long time. This is when you're going to start using those speed-up items.
Do not claim your "Turf Quest" rewards until you get a "+25% Player XP" boost item. I forget what got me that; but once I got that I used it and claimed all of my Turf Quests in order to get a ton of level ups. When you level up your hero, beeline towards Construction I, max it out, and then go for Construction II, and max it out. After that, go for Research I and Research II. Other than that, it doesn't really matter.
For units, I'd go with a fairly even mix, mostly to help you beat the NPC enemies in your turf. Since resources are so abundant, don't worry too much about the fact that siege engines and infantry carry more than archers or cavalry.
Go through the little dungeons to keep your heroes leveled up and equipped, and then use the heroes to attack monsters on the map. Always attack once at a time - don't do the high energy attack. Monsters can drop ever valuable gems or speed-ups.
After you get your payout, if you had a good guild, do them a favor and donate your resources.
:Edit:
XXAlastairXX pointed out that if you don't mind spending $9.00: "buy the 99 cent bundles 4 times and one of the 5 dollars ones. I forgot which one but buying all those in Lords Mobile made getting the castle to level 14 so easy. You could probably do it in 30 minutes."
Empire and Puzzles
Challenge Options
Beat level 51 (province level 7)
Jewels Obtained
300
Time Spent
4 days
Jewels Obtained/Time Spent Ratio (Higher is Better)
75
Genre
Similar to Bejeweled/Candy Crush, but the jewel combinations will hit enemy units, who are attacking you. There's a gacha system to get better units. There's also a sort of base-building mechanic, but you don't really attack other people/get attacked in the same way as in a kingdom builder game.
Opinion
I pretty much only picked this game up because my Fiancée plays it. I probably enjoyed it more than I otherwise would have because of it. It's pretty easy until you get to province 7, and then you'll need items to progress, but that's not a problem. If you like Bejeweled or Candy Crush, go for it - but otherwise, the small payout isn't worth the time investment.
I do like that the game has an auto-battle mechanic that you can use when fighting normal enemies or when fighting titans.
Strategy
The game gives you a starting roster who will be decent enough for the most part. I kept the Fire element healer, but otherwise swapped out all my other 1 star characters. In the end I had Bane (3* light), Tyrum (3* dark; I got lucky with a daily pull, your 2* Layla should be fine), Needler (2* green), Ragnhild (2* blue), and Sharan (1* red). As you turn in jewel combinations during battles, heroes of the color of that combination get mana, which they may use to cast special abilities.
You can get more characters by beating levels, or, more commonly, by training them through the training camp. Before you get to level 4 training camp, you'll constantly hit the manpower cap. Don't worry about this too much. At level 4 training camp you can basically queue up all of your manpower into the camp, so that it will slowly churn out common/uncommon recruits for you throughout the day.
You level up your heroes by feeding other heroes into them. If you feed them units of the same element, it provides additional experience. There's also an unfortunate chance mechanic here: each time you feed units to your hero, there is a
chance that their skill will level up. If you feed a copy of the unit to itself, that's +25%, and then each other unit will give +2% for the same element, or +1% for an off-element.
For this challenge, the Forge building is probably more important than it otherwise would be. You want to get your Forge to level 4 for the arrow item; level 5 is also useful for the better healing potion. As we get towards the end of this challenge, these items will be absolutely essential to completing the stages.
You should be able to beat province 6 with fairly minimal use of items, except for maybe some minor healing potions. I feel like at province 7, level 5, things started getting harder. This is when I started needing to use the arrows at each group of enemies. This made the stages
much easier.
Joining a good guild in this game isn't as important as in the kingdom building games. When you're in a guild, there are raid monsters called titans that show up. If the guild kills them, you get some rewards. When your guild kills five of them, you get a bonus treasure chest. That's nice, but not a necessity. So joining and staying with an open guild should be fine enough.
Legendary: Game of Heroes
Challenge Options
Reach rank 20
Jewels Obtained
500
Time Spent
1 day* (I got my payout for reaching rank 14, even though the challenge said to reach rank 20)
Jewels Obtained/Time Spent Ratio (Higher is Better)
500
Genre
Similar to Bejeweled/Candy Crush, but the jewel combinations will hit enemy units, who are attacking you. There's a gacha system to get better units.
Opinion
This is similar to Empire and Puzzles. The art style is better, but I think it lacks some of the charm that Empire and Puzzles has. There's no story in the game at all, and there is no base building. It all feels really bland, like you're just aimlessly going through the motions with no real goal. The jewel combining aspect is different from Empire and Puzzles for the better - you can combine jewels diagonally, and when you combine jewels you have a period of time where you can either make additional combinations, or move one jewel to an adjacent location. Your characters then attack randomly, rather than the jewels going out in front of you like in Empire and Puzzles. This is nice since you don't ever feel like you're stuck in combat.
Strategy
The game will give you a choice for your starting character. I went with the blue one, but I doubt it matters much. You'll be able to go through the initial levels very easily. The color and type of tower will correspond with the enemies that you will fight. The sort of normal stone towers are green enemies - other than that, it's pretty self-explanatory, red towers are red, blue are blue, etc. So you'll want to use characters of the opposite element type (red > green, green > blue, blue > red, dark and light beat each other), if possible. After a little while, it'll allow you to join a guild.
Joining a decent guild is a pretty big one here. When you're in a guild, you can use guildmate's characters, which then go on a 24 hour cooldown. So getting into a guild where a lot of people have good units for you to use is pretty important, since their characters will basically solo any levels you come across. A lot of times I'll use a roster full of characters opposite of the map that I'm playing, and then a mercenary of the same color as the tower, or a light or dark mercenary. The mercenary should be able to solo anything, unless maybe it's their opposing element. So by having a mercenary that doesn't match your team's color, you can make use of two different jewel colors rather than having your entire team be one color and have most gems being useless to you.
Just keep progressing through the story. Open up the 500 gem hero promo packs whenever you get the gems for it - chances are, whatever you get here will be better than the common/uncommons you've been picking up along the way. I only bother upgrading the heroes I get from these packs, as well as the starting hero that I picked.
I got the reward when I got to rank 14... not sure if that is a bug that affected just me or if everybody would get that. I can't imagine my strategy would have changed much between ranks 14-20... just keep chugging along through the campaign.
Spin & Win
Challenge Options
Reach level 8 (80 gems), reach level 18 (300 gems)
Jewels Obtained
300
Time Spent
4 days
Jewels Obtained/Time Spent Ratio (Higher is Better)
75
Genre
Slots Casino
Opinion
I'm not a fan of casinos, so virtual casinos are especially "meh". The game does have an auto-play mechanic, but you need to be semi mindful of the game because you have to click on the screen occasionally for timed events. I really didn't like this game. It's basically just hogging up your phone's time for what seems like a very unneccesary reason. This one is really going to make you wonder, "Why am I doing this for 300 gems?"
Strategy
While you're playing, these little balloons will sometimes appear from players playing at your same row of slots. That said, I like to sit at a row with two or three other players on Emerald 7 (at MGM) or Forbidden 7 (at Mirage), then auto-bet at the lowest bet amount (though betting more does give more XP per spin). I have my volume turned up and my phone next to me to hear the little balloon appear, then you have to click on it above your avatar's head. This will give either chips, experience, or loyalty points (which can be claimed for real life casino trips, but meh). Occasionally a little free spin mini-game will appear if someone in your row gets three "Free Spins" on their slot machine. Those games can pay out a lot. As soon as you unlock the Mirage casino, go there. One of the Free Spin games that you can get there is a double XP boost.
You're going to need to be very mindful of the free 100k chips that come in every two hours. Getting these are going to be vital to completing the challenge in time. You do get something like 400k once a day, but if you're not snagging the two hour chips, I don't think you'll be able to do this in 7 days.
Since this game requires that you leave it running to earn progress, I would combine it with another game allows you to make progress while idle (so basically any other game reviewed here).
Idle Heroes
Challenge Options
Reach level 40 (216), Get 2 5* heroes (239), Enhance Power to 10,000 (199)
I picked reach level 40
Jewels Obtained
216
Time Spent
4 days
Jewels Obtained/Time Spent Ratio (Higher is Better)
75
Genre
Gacha, idle turn-based RPG
Opinion
I actually kind of enjoyed this one. It was a breath of fresh air after kingdom builders, puzzle games, and a casino game.
Strategy
I wouldn't recommend picking the "get two 5* heroes" challenge, as that is going to be luck-based. I dunno about you, but for a difference of 23 gems, I'd have the guaranteed "reach level 40" challenge. I had no five star heroes by the time I got to level 40.
Anyway, the game's tutorial pretty much tells you what you need to know. Just keep upgrading your team of heroes and auto-equipping them. I wouldn't bother spending resources on heroes that are 3* or less unless you got nothing but 3* heroes from the free 3 heroic summon scrolls you get early on. I would recommend getting as far as you can by playing the game manually. When you've hit a point where you're out of upgrade glue or gold, and you still can't beat the level you're on, then just come back to the game in a few hours or so. You can then press the green "Get" button on the level that you're at. That should give you enough materials to make it a couple more levels in - then just repeat the process. Switch out your 3* heroes for 4* heroes or better as you get them.
[Web Game] Who's That Pokemon?
Challenge Options
n/a
Jewels Obtained
0 (should have been 22)
Time Spent
About 30 minutes
Genre
Web quiz
Opinion
This was a "Who's That Pokemon?" web quiz with 40 questions. The page was absolutely riddled with ads, and then you'd have to click next
twice to get to the next question. It was an unpleasant experience, and even when I was expecting the payout, I was thinking to myself that it wasn't worth it.
Result
The quiz never paid out. I got to the last question and then there was no next or finish option. So I just had to kind of close the browser. I didn't reach to TapJoy about it. I'm not sure if they would have even been helpful if I had.
As a result, I'd recommend avoiding any quizzes or web-based offers.
Videos
Challenge Options
n/a
Jewels Obtained
1
Time Spent
About a minute
Genre
Video
Opinion
These are a really easy, guaranteed way to get 1 gem... but like... it's 1 gem. I'd only do these if you're 100% F2P, and even then it's probably not worth your time.
Result
These always pay out for me immediately.
submitted by Because of the bridge, there is a limit to the size of cruise ship that can come into Baltimore. I thought that might make for the fairest possible comparison between two ships across different lines. Please keep in mind that while I have attempted to be as comprehensive and unbiased as possible, this is from
my perspective. As a result, some items (e.g. youth program) I reviewed may have no relevance to you while other items (all-inclusive drink package) I didn't review at all may be extremely important to you.
Many times where I say "on the Pride/Grandeur", the statement is true across the entire Carnival/Royal line but I have stuck with this usage specifically because I do not know enough to know which is specific just to the ship and which isn't.
About Me: I am in my early 40's and cruise with my wife and two daughters (ages 10 and 12). I primarily cruise Carnival because of the cost to value factor but we have no brand loyalty and all three cruises booked in 2018 are on 3 different lines (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian). Besides cost, I choose cruises based on itineraries as I like to go to at least one new place each time I cruise which is hard to do without also leaving from new ports each time.
Ship Factoids - Completed: Pride = 2001, Grandeur = 1996
- Last Upgraded: Pride = 2014, Grandeur = 2017
- State rooms: Pride = 1062, Grandeur = 1142
- Passengers: Pride = 2124, Grandeur = 2446
Cruise Cost I'm a deal hunter and, in both cases, the cruise was booked at least 9 months in advance and the price was monitored daily for price drops. The prices below are per person per day keeping in mind a family of 4 sharing a single interior cabin.
- Cruise Fare Including Taxes/Fees: Pride = $58.54, Grandeur = $66.13
- Daily Gratuities: Pride = $12.95, Grandeur = $14.50
- Add-on Gratuity: Pride = 15%, Grandeur = 18%
I will cover the cost of specific items like room service separately. The add-on gratuity is here because I didn't really have anywhere else to fit it but if you order a drink at a show or eat in the specialty dining, this reflects what will be tacked on to the bill automatically on the respective ships.
The $9.14 a day difference may not seem like much but for a family of 4 over a week adds up to $255.92
Cabin Size/Amenities An interior cabin for 4 passengers was compared. The Carnival Pride is a slightly larger ship but has fewer cabins and can accommodate fewer passengers. This was very apparent in the size of the cabin as it seemed luxuriously spacious in comparison to the Grandeur. The Pride has a mini-fridge where as the Grandeur does not. The Grandeur has a flat screen TV on an adjustable wall mount while the Pride still has a big old CRT TV. You can find the average square footage by searching online but I don't think it will really help to appreciate just how tiny the Grandeur rooms were in comparison.
Internet Internet at sea sucks which is nowhere more apparent than on the Carnival Pride. That being said, the cost for their value plan when booked in advance is $4 per day. On the Grandeur, the price was $15.95 per day. At that price, surely it was going to be blazing fast in comparison right?
WRONG I only got a 24 hour pass and after the first hour, I went to customer service to cancel and get a refund. I talked to several people who said the same thing (no coverage in the cabin, only works when everyone else is asleep, etc.) but I also talked to someone who said he was video chatting on a daily basis so I will just leave this with a
caveat emptor Technology The Carnival Pride has the Carnival Hub App which is a game changer. This free phone app gives you access to your stateroom charges, deck plans, activity guide, menus, etc. An optional capability for a one time fee of $5 for the entire cruise, allows you to chat with other guests on the ship. With younger children, this was huge. And because it was only local communication (no satellite uplink required), it was fast and reliable. Apparently RC has a similar app but it isn't available on the Grandeur.
The Grandeur has touch screen displays at the stairs on each deck which allows you to get an activity guide, see today's menu as well as map out how to get to something on the ship. This was really cool and the Pride didn't have this though it was available from the Hub App.
The Carnival Pride had a number of kiosks through-out the ship where you could check your room charges as well as on the TV in your room and the Hub App but the Grandeur had none of these - you had to go to Guest Services and get a print out each time (what a waste of paper).
The Grandeur had self-service soda machines for people who purchased the soda package but the Pride does not.
Gift Cards This may seem like an odd thing to review but as I mentioned before, I am a value shopper and can get gift cards for at least 10% off which is a significant savings. Online and on the Pride, I could use a gift card to pay for anything (cruise fare, taxes, gratuities, excursions, etc.) and the process was easy - just enter the gift card information. The Grandeur was excruciating painful in comparison. When the gift certificates arrived in the mail, I discovered that I had to hand write information and then mail them back to Royal and that it could only be applied towards the base cruise fare. Once received, Royal then marked my account as being handled by a travel agent (I'm not making this up) which meant I could no longer have full control of my account online and had to call and explain each time any time I wanted to make a change.
Bring Your Own WateJuice/Soda I'm not covering alcohol but I believe both ships allow each adult guest over the age of 21 to bring on a certain size bottle of wine/champagne.
Carnival Pride's official policy is that each guest, regardless of age is allowed to bring 12 cans/cartons of juice/soda/sparkling water. These must be placed in your carry-on luggage. Bottles (plastic/glass) are specifically prohibited.
The Grandeur's official policy is that no outside drinks are allowed aside from the alcohol allowance mentioned previously. In practice, they seem to look the other way for bottled water.
Effectively, you can bring bottled water on the Grandeur but not the Pride. You can bring 12 cans/cartons per person of juice/soda on the Pride but not the Grandeur.
Both ships make medically necessary allowances (you can bring on distilled water for a CPAP machine for instance).
Food/Dining We always get "early dining" but both ships offered 3 options (early, late, my-time). The only difference to note was that early dining is 6 PM on the Pride but is 5:30 PM on the Grandeur.
The quality of the food in the main dining was great on both ships. The service in main dining is also excellent on both ships. The only difference between the two was the options offered. On the Pride, there is a section for "rare finds" where you might get to try something that you might not otherwise have such as frog legs or rabbit. On the Pride, there is also a section for "local" which is representative of whichever port you just departed from (Caribbean jerked chicken for instance). The Grandeur didn't have these on the menu and by the end of the cruise, the offerings seemed repetitive.
The buffet dining is a different story all together. The Windjammer on the Grandeur is tiny in comparison to the Pride's Lido. This was problematic for two reasons. First, seating. Second, offerings. The Pride has a ton of places where you can tell someone what you want and how you want it and they will make it for you (Blue Iguana for tacos/burritos/fajitas, Guy's Burger's for hamburgers, The Deli for hot/cold sandwiches, the Pizza Pirate for pizza, etc.) as well as a number of cuisine specific self-serve (my wife loves the Asian food from Chopsticks). On the Grandeur, I didn't really see any made-to-order food options in the Windjammer except for breakfast at the omelet making station which the Pride also has.
While I have tried a number of specialty dining options on a number of ships/lines, the only equivalent specialty dining that I experienced on both ships was the sushi restaurants (Pride = Bonsai, Grandeur = Izumi). Both were excellent. I think the Grandeur had the edge in terms of range of offering but the Pride had two options that I thought were unique. First, there is a "boat for two" for $22 which comes out on a literal boat and was too much for my wife and I to finish. Second, they had a "surprise and delight" feature (again, $22 for two) which was the chef's choice. Again, I think the Grandeur had a wider selection of options but the a la carte pricing was a bit more.
EDIT: My wife just informed me of one other difference which I was unaware of as I skipped the second formal night on the Grandeur. On the Pride, when they had lobster and filet mignon on the menu, she was allowed to order as many as she wanted. On the Grandeur, she was told only one lobster tail per guest. Because I didn't come to dinner that night, she ordered one for me and then ate two.
Excursions Since this is a highly personal choice, it is hard to provide any meaningful comparison but there are two things worth pointing out. On the Pride, excursion prices are fairly stable and you likely will not see any discounts unless you follow John Heald and find one of the rare promo codes. On the Grandeur, the prices seemed to change all the time and every week I was getting an email offering a certain percentage off different excursions. I'm not sure either is superior but as they are different, I wanted to point them out. The second thing I wanted to mention I struggled if I should include or not as it has more to do with itinerary. The Pride tends to arrive at port early in the morning and depart around early dining giving you quite awhile to book whatever excursion you want. The Grandeur had weird arrival/departure times which made excursions more difficult to plan. Nassau for instance (Pride 8AM - 5PM, Grandeur 1PM - 11:59PM).
Entertainment Kids: I couldn't keep my youngest daughter out of the youth program on either ship so I would say they are equivalent. Both ships have an arcade as well as age designated areas and lots of things for the kids to do. That is where the equivalency ends as Carnival wins this category hands down. On the Grandeur, kids are not allowed in the first row of shows and in the first 3 rows must be accompanied by an adult. On the Pride, every comedian must have a family friendly show in addition to the adult only show. The Pride has two water slides and a Splash Zone. The Grandeur has a rock climbing wall. The Pride has a ton of family targeted entertainment such as Hasbro The Game show where as the Grandeur seemed to tolerate those under 16. The Pride had events such as the Dr. Seuss breakfast ($5 per person) and Build-A-Bear where as I don't remember a single thing like that on the Grandeur.
Adults/General: The Grandeur only had 1 location where it put on shows (The Palladium) which is a two deck theater. On the Pride, there were two locations - the Butterfly lounge which doubled as the Punchliner Comedy Club and the Taj Mahal which is a three deck theater. The Grandeur did shows with a live band which it called an orchestra. The downside to this was they took up a lot of space which limited the size of the performance of whatever act was performing. On the Pride, they put on shows that use moving floors, backdrops with projected scenes as well, pyrotechnics as well as raised/lowered floors. None of that was possible on the Grandeur. On the Grandeur, there only ever seemed to be a single show that was repeated twice to accommodate differences in dining times. On the Pride, there seemed to be multiple different shows every night where the one in the main theater was repeated. For instance, there might have been three comedy routines in the Punchliner (1 family friendly by the first comedian, a later adult only by a second comedian and then the last show would be another adult only by the same comedian as the family friendly). That same night, they might have a magician in the main Taj Majal theater perform the same act twice.
Laundry On the Grandeur, you need to check towels in/out using your sea pass card where there is a $25 charge for any towel not returned. These are roughly the same size as the bath towels - just colored blue. On the Pride, 4 towels are in your state room (more available upon request) and are giant beach towels. The cost if one is lost is $22. Oddly enough, you may also buy a brand new one for $22 if you want one to keep (they are nice towels).
The Pride has self-service launderettes on nearly every deck. The price recently went up to $3.25 to wash and $3.25 to dry for a total of $6.50 to do a load of laundry ($8 if you also need to buy detergent but we bring our own pods). The Grandeur doesn't offer any self-service laundry and charges $34.99 to do a small bag of laundry.
Room Service Continental breakfast is free on both the Pride and the Grandeur. The only notable difference is the hours (Pride = 5AM-10AM, Grandeur = 6AM-11AM).
Room service is $7.95 + 18% gratuity on the Grandeur. It is more complicated on the Pride due to recent changes. The Pride stopped offering complimentary room service 24 hours a day but expanded the menu. From 6 AM until 10 PM, there are still complimentary room service items available but it now offers several other items during this time that range from $2 to $6. From 10 PM until 6 AM, an expanded menu is available with items ranging from $2 to $6.
Miscellaneous I like beer - different styles of beer. The Pride doesn't have a lot of craft beer options. The Grandeur didn't have any. I ended up drinking Newcastle the entire Grandeur trip. On the Pride, I at least had a handful of options.
The Pride does not change the clock to match local times when in port but the Grandeur does. I watched both systems cause problems with other guests and do not feel one is superior to another. The important thing to remember is that even though you are on "island time", you must remain vigilant if you are supposed to be in a certain place at a certain time.
Trivia on the Pride is on the honor system (self-scoring) where as you are instructed to swap sheets on the Grandeur. The Pride gives out "ships on a stick" and sometimes medals as prizes where the Grandeur gives out a wide range of items (pens, highlighters, key chains, carabiner, etc.).
Both ships have a section of the casino marked as non-smoking. Until the Grandeur, I thought that was like saying you have a non-peeing section in the pool. I was so surprised on the Grandeur of the lack of smoke smell that I actually played black-jack several times. This was not the case on the Pride where I would actually go up a deck just to avoid walking through it.
On the Grandeur, while in port, my daughter couldn't sign herself in/out of the youth program despite my authorization that she could do so. I can't remember if this was also the case on the Pride. I think we may have only noticed this again because of the weird port arrival/departure times.
The Pride had a dedicated "game" room, library and chapel. If the Grandeur had these things, I didn't find them but they did have a bookcase that served as their library.
The Pride has bathrobes available upon request for any category cabin and any loyalty level guest. The Grandeur only has bathrobes available for higher level cabin categories/loyalty levels.
I have only cruised on the Grandeur once but towel animals didn't seem to be important. On the Pride, we had a new animal every single night in our room but on the Grandeur it seemed to be once every few nights. On the Pride, one morning the entire Lido deck was covered in towel animals - in extremely creative ways. Nothing like it happened on the Grandeur. This may not seem like much but the kids were kind of let down.
This really isn't about the ships so I hesitated to add it but I feel it is an important distinction. Royal's website is a hot mess compared to Carnival's.
Closing Thoughts While the Pride provides much better value dollar for dollar, we had a great time on both ships and would go on either again for the right price/itinerary.
If I didn't cover something that you want to know about, please ask. Both ship's have "The Quest" for instance which I didn't cover but would be happy to discuss if someone wants to know more.
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