Anyone Else Noticing Than Princess Pricing is Higher Than Celebrity?

I've been comparing pricing on fall 2018 transatlantic and New England/Canada 2-week cruises. I'm including gratuities and AIBP in prices. Even with Sip n Sail I'm finding that Princess is $500 to over $1,000 more expensive for balcony cabins.

Have those of you researching other itineraries found this to be common?

Princess is cheaper than Oceania/Viking/Regent/Crystal/Silversea though. ;)

Probably because Princess serves edible food whereas Celebrity does not

Prices vary and go up and down all the time. I have booked princess cruises that were cheaper than Carnival, for the exact cruise. Just keep checking.

Princess better food? I've taken many Celebrity cruises - I have been quite satisfied with their food and I can be picky. So elfinmagic, for my upcoming first Princess cruise, I'm going to have high expectations

It must depend on the itinerary. I checked a couple of Celebrity cruises and the prices for balconies were higher. I guess it pays to check.

Probably because Princess serves edible food whereas Celebrity does not

Well that's the funniest thing I've read today. Don't remember seeing meatloaf and mac and cheese in the Celenrity dining room. :evilsmile:

The issue I see with Princess's pricing for the Sip and Sail package is they offer these itineraries so far out .... not available for sailings within the next couple of months. So, they see what they can fill with this promo and the pricing has not dropped as it sometimes tends to do for those last minute sailings.

Celebrity's offering of the one free perk (or more than one at times) is that you are still able to book using this promo for last minute sailings, oftentimes making them a better bargain than the Princess sailings. Plus, to get one of the free perks on Celebrity, you only have to book an oceanview and not a balcony.

You can still get some great pricing on Princess ... just probably not when combining it with the Sip and Sail promo.

PS ... the food on Celebrity is really good to excellent!!

Probably because Princess serves edible food whereas Celebrity does not

I agree, we are elite on Princess and Celebrity... when we cruise X we skip the MDR, food hit an miss on X, they are not as responsive to off menu requests either. Will give X a full on the buffet... but I have not been on the Royal or Regal yet... may change my mind after cruising on the Royal in October.

I agree, we are elite on Princess and Celebrity... when we cruise X we skip the MDR, food hit an miss on X, they are not as responsive to off menu requests either. Will give X a full on the buffet... but I have not been on the Royal or Regal yet... may change my mind after cruising on the Royal in October.

You're Elite on Celebrity and you find their MDR food inedible?

Princess better food? I've taken many Celebrity cruises - I have been quite satisfied with their food and I can be picky. So elfinmagic, for my upcoming first Princess cruise, I'm going to have high expectations

I totally agree. We've found Celebrity's food to be really, really good. Princess' is too, it's just not as varied. In the buffet, there aren't as many made-to-order stations as there are on Celebrity.

Probably because Princess serves edible food whereas Celebrity does not

Not always.

I've been on one Princess cruise where the food was close to inedible, and one Celebrity cruise where the food was slightly better than Princess.

I checked the price of a similar balcony cabin on both lines for a couple of NZ cruises and Celebrity came in cheaper AND included a drink package. We don't get Sip and Sail promotions in the Australian region.

Probably because Princess serves edible food whereas Celebrity does not

I hope your assessment of Princess food is accurate, since my next cruise is on Crown Princess. But I do notice that every one of your posts has been in the Princess forum. Have you ever sailed on Celebrity?

Probably because Princess serves edible food whereas Celebrity does not

Not true.

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Well that's the funniest thing I've read today. Don't remember seeing meatloaf and mac and cheese in the Celenrity dining room. :evilsmile:

Agree! [emoji81]

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I hope your assessment of Princess food is accurate, since my next cruise is on Crown Princess. But I do notice that every one of your posts has been in the Princess forum. Have you ever sailed on Celebrity?

Hi JazzBeau. We've had good and not so good food on Princess. Very inconsistent. Princess went through a phase when their food, especially the beef, was so poor, that we divorced Princess and fled to X and were blown away by the food in BLU.

We then decided to go back to Princess, and the food improved greatly. That said, we had great food on the Grand in Oct and good food on the Regal as well.

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To help offset pricing, Princess allows stackable OBC, like Military, Shareholder, TA, etc, whereas Celebrity seems to allow not so much

I hope your assessment of Princess food is accurate, since my next cruise is on Crown Princess. But I do notice that every one of your posts has been in the Princess forum. Have you ever sailed on Celebrity?

So you are basing your future Princess food experience on someone's opinion from Cruise Critic? :o

You're Elite on Celebrity and you find their MDR food inedible?

Yes, we cruised Celebrity for years, like Princess, when they started to build Solstice class ships... we found the MDR on these ships less than enjoyable..(we tried the Equinox, Eclipse, Silhoutte and one other ship, forget the name) to be honest even before that, food was always not as good as Princess, even though many cruisers claim X is better. For us, X was always hit and miss. The new X dining rooms, were more crowded, tables so close together waiters kept bumping in our chairs...and lighting was very poor... we were on an 11 day Mediterranean cruise on Equinox, after 5 days in the MDR, we decided this not enjoyable.... so skipped the MDR for the remainder of the cruise... best decision we made. From that point on, we never went back to the MDR on the other X ships. We tried BLU, okay... prefer the Crown Grill on Princess to BLU, as well. Like the menu options on the CG better. We do not cruise for food, so when we book X we go to the buffet and are more than satisfied. The buffet on the Royal class is similar to X... but we have not tried it yet.

Celebrity's offering of the one free perk (or more than one at times) is that you are still able to book using this promo for last minute sailings, oftentimes making them a better bargain than the Princess sailings. Plus, to get one of the free perks on Celebrity, you only have to book an oceanview and not a balcony.

The perks are not free on Celebrity. They are built in to the price. You can ask for Celebrity pricing without a perk and it is significantly lower than with a perk included.

I sailed on Emerald Princess for 32 days earlier this year found the food excellent dined Traditional and am Gluten Free

Horizon Court on the other hand can vary.Breakfasts very good wonderful choice with also personalized omelettes to your choice.With regular hot food unless you get there when it is first placed out, later on can look tired.The cold items like salads ,fruit and deserts are great.We had a European head Chef my preference .:)

The perks are not free on Celebrity. They are built in to the price. You can ask for Celebrity pricing without a perk and it is significantly lower than with a perk included.

We have just completed a cruise on Princess, with no beverage package.

Worked out at £65 p.p.p.n in a obstructed cabin.

We are now going back to Celebrity and as we really missed our balcony, we have booked a balcony cabin. As we are Elite on Celebrity we have also been given an upgrade, 2C for 2D price. We also have a beverage package included, so are not surprised that we are paying more, almost double in fact.

As to the food, I prefer Celebrity's, as their menus indicate whether the food is suitable for vegetarians, sugar free or Lactose free ( which I am) Princess would ask me to pre order and then adapt any menu. There were a number of nights when my serving came without potato, so I then had to ask for a jacket potato, so by the time that came my meal was half finished.

Crown Princess were also trying to cater for the British market. We were served soggy fish and chips and the Yorkshire puddings were burnt at the first attempt.

The other 6 occupants of our evening dinner table, who were all Platimun status, thought that cuts had been made. It was our first cruise on Princess, so we had nothing to compare to ( except Celebrity)

Well that's the funniest thing I've read today. Don't remember seeing meatloaf and mac and cheese in the Celenrity dining room. :evilsmile:

It's not the type of food it is the preparation - some was drenched in gravy, some was so dry it tasted like sawdust - We did not try the specialty dining - was glad it was only a 7 day cruise - we disembarked and went directly to a Princess 14 day with real food

Well that's the funniest thing I've read today. Don't remember seeing meatloaf and mac and cheese in the Celenrity dining room. :evilsmile:

I haven't either but I bet the meatloaf on Princess was better than the over salted gray steak I was served on Celebrity.

I haven't either but I bet the meatloaf on Princess was better than the over salted gray steak I was served on Celebrity.

After 11 or 12 on Princess, I've had some pretty dire meals on them including lobster tails that I swear had been washed in fairy liquid in the Crown Grill but no matter how bad a meal got, I would still never say Princess presents inedible food. Same should be said for Celebrity. Its a ridiculous comment.