never cruised Princess

We are looking for a different cruise line and some of our friends have gone on 10 cruises with Princess. They love it. What do you all think of it?

We are looking for a different cruise line and some of our friends have gone on 10 cruises with Princess. They love it. What do you all think of it?

We just love Princess. Our favorite ship is Regal Princess.

We like Princess and all the other cruise lines we've been on. I love the International Café Princess provides on most of their ships. Cruise fares are decent compared to other lines in our opinion.

We are looking for a different cruise line and some of our friends have gone on 10 cruises with Princess. They love it. What do you all think of it?

I think you will find the vast majority of responders on the Princess board are here because they like Princess. If you are trying to determine whether Princess would be a good match for you, I would first ask your friends who know you well since those of us responding don't know you at all and you don't know us. I recommend taking some time to peruse this board and you'll get a much better feel of what folks like and don't like.

Princess is our favorite though most of our cruises have been on Carnival as they gear toward the Caribbean (closest to home) and 7 days or less which fits the kids schedules best.

It is what I think of as a classic cruise experience without being stuffy. I enjoy the few formal evenings where people still wear jacket and tie, and several in tux. The decor is elegant and the passengers are laid back and well-mannered. The food is enjoyable and we can always find something to do, even if it is just relax with a glass of wine in the wine bar, or people watch in the international cafe.

As we get closer to retirement and as our children get older, we will begin to cruise with them more and more. They allow someone to be a traveler, and explore the world, rather than simply visit a destination. I look forward to Europe, South America and beyond....

We love Princess. When we started cruising, we tried Princess and two other lines and found that for us Princess offered the best package

We like the services and the atmosphere that Princess provides.

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While we cruise on other lines from time to time, Princess is the best overall fit for us and our favorite. :D

How can anyone go wrong cruising on the L O V E boat!! :hearteyes:

We love Princess for a variety of reasons. First, cruising can be a good value for your vacation money, with the stresses of transportation between places of interest, finding a place to sleep and good restaurants, all taken away. Princess Cruises pampers us, from our first cruise onward.

We know what to expect from Princess: good food, clean staterooms, friendly crew, a good variety of entertainment, and plenty of things to do onboard ship to match whatever your desires. Princess offers an upscale décor in their ships, and offers special evenings for more romantic dining.

We feel pampered while on a Princess Cruise. But I said that before, didn't I?

I like it. Not too pretentious, but not a Chuck E. Cheeze Spring Break combo either.

It took my wife many years to convince me to go on a cruise as I absolutely KNEW I wouldn't like anything about it. Period. Our first cruise was on Princess and I got hooked. We've never sailed any other line. Absolutely love Princess.

Like most on this board I will say we like Princess very much, as we have 19 cruises with them versus a few elsewhere. But beware, this thread is for Princess questions and issues so most responders are Princess regulars. I have friends who swear by other lines, X in particular. Try to find people who have cruised a variety of lines to get a balanced answer.

We cruised NCL twice, RCCL twice, and Carnival, HAL, and Celebrity once each before we tried Princess. Once we tried Princess we never went back to the others. Nothing against them, Princess just fit. And we've enjoyed every cruise we've had with them.

You might not get a real fair and balanced opinion from this board as mentioned above seeing that most of us have had a long great history with this cruise line. I think you'll find that there are good and not so good things about any cruise line, but we look for consistency so there are no surprises. With Princess, we have enjoyed over 30 voyages and had a great time on all of them. If you avoid the negatives and embrace the positives with any ship you will have a successful voyage.

After one NCL and X cruise, still prefer Princess. A few of the nicer features that we value are the self-service laundry, the 24-hour International Cafe (on most ships now), Buffet that's available all day (and the ones on the Royal class ships are great) Movies under the Stars, bringing 2 bottles of champagne aboard on embarkation with no corkage charge, and yummy crunchy hard-rolls in the dining rooms. Talk to your pals - maybe book a cruise together and check it out!

I've done 30-plus cruises with Princess for a reason ..... I love the classy but casual style of cruising that Princess offers, the ships are well maintained, the décor is attractive but not gaudy, comfortable accommodations, the staff and crew are almost uniformly cheerful and helpful and service-oriented, a good variety of itineraries are available, plenty of activity options (no silly hairy chest, etc. competitions), and good, sometimes great, food whether in a dining room or the buffet or alternative dining venues.

I feel the overall package provides a great value for my travel dollars.

It will depend somewhat on your age and lifestyle. Princess skews a little older than some other lines. I started cruising on Princess and was in love for a long time. Still like them a lot, but after trying some other lines mega ships, with way more entertainment and dining options, I'm finding it harder to go back for fear I may be bored. Depends on what you like. If quiet and relaxing is your style, you'll be fine. If you want tons of cool stuff to do, not so much, even on the newer ships.

For us, Princess is like a warm blanket on a chilly evening sitting on the porch.

Princess is comfortable. We are in our early 60's and find this fits for us.

We will try other cruise lines I am sure but that does not mean we do not like Princess's style of cruising.

We are not avid cruisers (only 5 cruises so far, and #6 is coming up on Regal Princess), but we do have a 50/50 experience with Royal Caribbean.

The first 3 cruises were on RC (Liberty, Navigator and Independence). RC offers a lot more things to do on the ship than Princess. You can participate or you can watch many fun activities (rock climbing, ice skating, mini golf, water sports, kiddy pool, etc.).

Princess is geared more towards the adults, just like Celebrity. If your kids are not into the Kid's club and have to go with you everywhere on the ship, there is very little to do on Princess besides sunning or swimming on the pool with kids. Our kid will not stay at the kid's club (stranger anxiety), so he had to trail us everywhere. It rained every sea day on Caribbean Princess. There was nothing to do with kids. At least on Regal my husband took him to the gelato shop, but there was no gelato cafe on Caribbean. Caribbean Princess' photos were deceiving, because they showed a great looking kid playground/jungle gym, but when we arrived, we discovered that it was in the room for kids 8-12 years of age, and my then 5 year old was not allowed in. Now, I must mention that kids 8-12 years old are NOT interested in this playground at all. Caribbean Princess crew should really rethink this arrangement.

You have to pay-per-view for movies and cartoons on RC. Regal offered a variety of movies and cartoons for free, on demand, and plenty of them were dubbed in other languages. Caribbean Princess didn't offer the same - their TV programming was set.

From 2009 to 2012 RCCL menu didn't change at all. They offered the same dishes on all three ships (MDR and buffet). We got tired of it, and that's when we tried Princess. Our first cruise with Princess was on Regal. We loved the food and the Chocolate Journey. MDR dishes were simply great, but the buffet on Regal blew me away. It was fantastic. I am looking forward to exploring it again this November.

So, naturally I thought it was going to be the same on Caribbean Princess, and no, it wasn't. MDR dishes were slightly different from Regal, but great nevertheless, but the buffet was small and underwhelming. We didn't go hungry by any means, but both my husband and I were disappointed. Oh, and I must mention that the kid's menu food in MDR was subpar. My son is a good eater, but the kid dishes were simply inedible (I tried them after the kid complained and I concur). Eventually, he would just eat something at the buffet beforehand, and have a fruit salad and ice cream at MDR.

We didn't have this problem on Regal. Also, Regal offers MDR menus in a variety of foreign languages, which is a huge plus.

For our second cruise with Princess, we chose Caribbean Princess only because of the destinations on that sailing. Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire were fantastic, and we are very happy with our choice. The ship itself was a bit tired and dirty, and I had to wipe the entire cabin with Lysol wipes. It was a dirty cabin and especially bathroom.

Regal was grand and clean. However, I was a bit disappointed in the layout of the ship. On RC ships there was one long promenade with shops and cafes, perfect for strolling, eating and looking in stores. On Princess ships the Promenade is split between 3 levels with stairs between all of them. A little inconvenient if you are traveling with people with limited mobility.

So, basically, if you are looking for great food but don't care about activities with kids, go with Princess. If you are looking for kid-friendly activities and are ok with good food, go with Royal Caribbean.

Oh, one more thing. RCCL has been pretty bad about pricing in the last few years. It's very expensive, and the 3rd/4th passengers are even more expensive than the first 2. All three times on Princess our kid has travelled for $99+ tax, and the 1-2nd passenger prices have been very enticing when you catch a great sale.

P.S. Forgot to say - we had the most uncomfortable twin beds on Regal. Rather painful to sleep on for both me and hubby (we are in very early 40s). Caribbean had OK twin beds. RCCL had average beds - neither super comfortable, no super uncomfortable.

P. P. S. Our friends cruise a lot, and they tried different cruise lines. They love Regal Princess the best. The food is the greatest, kids love Kid's club, comfortable, grand, clean, etc. Oh, and their most favorite thing by far? Chocolate Journey. They are really-really into food quality.

We've sailed over 50 times, on several different mainstream lines ...mostly on Princess and Celebrity.

Princess gets my vote for sailing out of San Francisco but Celebrity gets my vote for nearly everything else. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy my Princess cruises and their pricing for specialty dining and cocktails, bringing your own wine policy and happy hour are a win on Princess. The entertainment is also fabulous .. the venues for it are not as much to my liking, though.

For families with kids, I would recommend Royal Caribbean. Plus, they have the most beautifully maintained ships that I've seen. However, the food ... yikes! Unless you go to a specialty restaurant, it is just not that good. Entertainment is great on RCCL.

I have found the service on Celebrity and Princess to be pretty much equal.

I have not experienced very many children on Celebrity but on the shorter itineraries, Princess can have an abundance of children.

Princess bookings win out because they allow you to stack your benefits / discounts. Although, you can't beat the go best perks when they are offered on Celebrity.

Celebrity's cabins are quite a bit nicer but the closets on Princess cruises are the best.

We are looking for a different cruise line and some of our friends have gone on 10 cruises with Princess. They love it. What do you all think of it?

We enjoyed Princess on a trans-Atlantic cruise, and we greatly appreciated our mini-suite over a standard stateroom - especially on this linger cruise!

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We love Princess Cruises!! I hope you will to.

Tony

our first princess cruise i was very dismissive of movies under the stars. i thought it was cheesy.

that was some of my favorite times on the ship and i can't wait for muts on my next cruise. super excited to see my ship will have a new screen after dry dock for it as well.

i've hopped around cruise lines and i've enjoyed them all for various things. when my parents wanted to go on a cruise they were swayed by my review of my last princess cruise to book this one.

We love Princess Cruises!! I hope you will to.

Tony

More than the Rowboat? Perhaps they are each fabulous in their own particular way. :halo: