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Dear DCL


SCRev
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We're sorry. Due to price we went to Alaska on Princess. Alaska was great! Princess not so much. We knew Disney would be better but had no idea how much. Cabins were adequate, much smaller (we had handicapped accessible). Food -dining rooms not close, buffet tie (maybe). Crew Disney=Chick fil-A, Princess=McDonald's. Value, due to Princess policy for charging extra for EVERYTHING, Disney would have been better value. Entertainment didn't know there could be this big a gap. Please forgive us DCL, we won't stray again.

 

PS - The Princess cruise was good and if this was our first time we probably would have been well pleased.

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Princess on the British Isles last year was 1/4 the cost of DCL. No kidding. We had originally booked an inside HA on DCL because of the cost (a balcony was twice as much). The balcony on Princess was half the cost of the inside on DCL. An inside HA on Princess would have been 1/4 the cost of an inside HA on DCL.

 

OK, I "had to" buy a beverage package at $8 per day for daughter since Princess doesn't do "free" soda. Not sure what else you mean by "charge extra for everything," but then we are two adults...so any surcharges for kid programs don't affect us. The normal Princess cabins are tiny. The HAs are OK. The thing I liked least about Princess was that everything was beige! Everything.

 

Yup, Celebrity and Princess "entertainment" tends to be quite awful. Princess in Japan was better. DCL was by far the best. Princess crew was spotty--some quite good, most not so friendly as DCL. Food...we've watched DCL food go downhill over the years. I'd consider them to be about equal to the others. Princess had daily afternoon tea. While not as fancy as the Palo tea that DCL discontinued, it was a nice afternoon break on sea days and the scones were good.

 

Bottom line--if I were going to be on the ship a lot, DCL could be a better choice. For a cruise where the ports are really the point of the cruise, even considering buying the soda package, I could cruise 4 times as much on Princess as on DCL. Yes, I miss some things that DCL does better, but I've reached a point where I'm looking at the itinerary and really am not interested in any more Caribbean cruises.

 

Did you try the "International Cafe" on Princess? That was really good and no upcharge. Princess had a nice library as well.

 

And just curious, what do you mean by "Princess charges extra for everything?" We honestly didn't experience that. Yes, we paid for a single soda package (I don't drink it). Both lines charge for internet, and have similar charges for photos, excursions, spa, and tips. Yes, they have upcharge dining rooms, but we found the MDR and the buffet to be fine. And DCL has upcharge dining rooms as well.

 

Did I love either Princess or Celebrity? No, not the way I truly like a lot of things about DCL. But is DCL worth 4 times the cost of Princess? Not for us.

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the reason we didn't even consider DCL for alaska is they only had round trip itineraries - nothing one way..

since we wanted to spend time in mainland alaska before the cruise, DCL was out by definition..

 

so for alaska, we chose a one way southbound cruise with Royal Caribbean, which has a very good product...

the theater isn't as good as disney, but the service is very good and the most important thing for us in alaska, it had the itinerary we wanted...

 

so when the destination is important - only true for us in alaska - itinerary wins..

 

everywhere else, probably DCL....

for example, in the med - where we mostly don't get off the ship and the ship is the destination, DCL has the advantage..

 

.

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I too am curious to the Princess "charge for everything" approach as I never experienced that on any of my Princess cruises. From an entertainment standpoint, remember, Disney is an entertainment company that owns a cruise line, as opposed to cruise lines that offer entertainment.

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Princess can do alot of "charging for everything" and still get no where near the cost of DCL. We have always found Princess food to be very good. You just have to evaluate what is more important in each cruise to you take and decide from there. I guess the OP has decided on DCL which is certainly their choice.

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Princess can do alot of "charging for everything" and still get no where near the cost of DCL. We have always found Princess food to be very good. You just have to evaluate what is more important in each cruise to you take and decide from there. I guess the OP has decided on DCL which is certainly their choice.

Obviously it is OP's choice. We just never experienced "charge for everything" on Princess more than on DCL other than soda. We do prefer the way DCL charges for internet, but both charge.

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Obviously it is OP's choice. We just never experienced "charge for everything" on Princess more than on DCL other than soda. We do prefer the way DCL charges for internet' date=' but both charge.[/quote']

I am curious also as to what those "charge for everything" charges are?

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I am curious also as to what those "charge for everything" charges are?

I checked my notes from our last cruise. THe only unusual charge I could see was $3 for pizza from room service (no charge if you went to the pizza place where the pizza was FAR better than DCL's). The explanation for the pizza charge from room service was that teens tend to call and order lots of pizza and then waste it. With a small charge, the parents could track it. There was no charge for room service delivery or for any other food item.

 

The line we thought charged for everything was NCL. I know that they later eliminated some charges after passenger complaints.

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I didn't find extra charges on Princess. In fact, I found the activities and other things that I did pay for cost less on Princess than they did on Disney. Drinks, spa services, etc, all cost me less on Princess.

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OP never replied to any of our requests to clarify what he/she was referring to as the charging for EVERYTHING statement.

 

Not sure how this works on DCL, only thing I can think of that we paid an extra charge for (which we were aware) was a corkage fee of $15 for a bottle of wine that was brought to the Bayou Cafe.

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As much as I love DCL, we chose NCL for our NE/Canada cruise. The itinerary seems better and they offer longer cruises for the same cost as a five day DCL. Although the itinerary seems to be improving now that they go to Quebec City. Panama Canal cruise I am still up in the air about. The other cruise lines seem to go to a lot more ports, but are they worth even getting off the ship for? If anyone has done the DCL PC cruise and a PC cruise on another line, please let me know if it was worth giving up the niceties of DCL.

 

 

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As much as I love DCL, we chose NCL for our NE/Canada cruise. The itinerary seems better and they offer longer cruises for the same cost as a five day DCL. Although the itinerary seems to be improving now that they go to Quebec City. Panama Canal cruise I am still up in the air about. The other cruise lines seem to go to a lot more ports, but are they worth even getting off the ship for? If anyone has done the DCL PC cruise and a PC cruise on another line, please let me know if it was worth giving up the niceties of DCL.

 

 

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We have done the NE/Canada cruise twice on NCL (two different ships) and have another one scheduled for 2018 on the new NCL Escape - no complaints. Itinerary and price were my first concern, plus got all the NCL perks.

 

Did the Panama Canal on Princess. This was not our first Princess sailing but the first Panama Canal. Food, service and cost - could not have asked for more. The biggest issue was the fact that the ship had just been refurbished, so more passengers and the ship did not seem to account for that as far as the dinning room wait and the lack of seating for the shows. There were also some issues with the shore excursion vendor at on of the ports which effected alot of passengers. Luckily we were not one of them but I have since heard that has been corrected. Would I sail Princess again for the PC cruise, YES.

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The above post brings up another issue on Princess--the various ships are different with various guest facilities, etc. For instance, we started with a short cruise on Princess as a "try out." One of my favorite areas was the International Cafe. This is an area that has fancy coffees and teas, but also various pastries and salads, sandwiches, etc. --the offerings change throughout the day. It is sort of like the Cove Cafe, but larger and more elaborate; the shrimp or chicken salads could easily be a lunch; the breakfast munchies easily constitute a meal. And there are seats with a nice view, etc. The ship we were on in Japan did not have this facility. They did place a tray of cookies at one of the bars each afternoon. We keep reading about an amazing pasta place that is only on the "Regal" class ships..so we haven't tried it. On the other hand, the library on the ship in Japan was easily double the size of our first Princess experience.

 

Yes, I know that there are differences between the Dream/Fantasy and the Magic/Wonder for similar reasons, but these differences seem to decrease with each dry dock. I got the impression on Princess that the intent was to keep each type of ship the same with the changes as new ships are built.

 

Another point on Princess--I've heard the stories that "the HA cabins on Princess cost more." This is strictly speaking, not true. What is true is that the HA cabins on Princess are in preferred locations (midship, near elevators.) All the cabins in these locations cost more. You can't get a balcony HA at the entry level for a balcony cabin as an HA cabin does not exist in that category. This is really no different than DCL where the balcony HA cabins are a cat 6. You cannot pay the cat 7 rate or the cat 5 rate and book an HA cabin as the cabins don't exist in those categories.

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As to things that are not included on Princess that are on Disney, there are not really that many (and all, except maybe soda if you have kids are optional):

 

Princess has a small room service charge for certain items

Sodas are not included

SOME kids clubs activities may have a fee

They have more specialty dining options with fees including a la carte items at some bars etc (this is where I see confusion as Disney puts out free food in the district for example and Princess does not so people are surprised if they are charged, and people also think that some of the free venues have charges because of it and they do not)

Princess has a pay adult only deck

 

That said, I doubt anyone on here (or even the Princess forum) would argue that Disney does not have a better general product, thats not the question. The question has become does that better product justify the price premium, and the vast majority of us seem to think not right now.

 

Moki's point is also valid, with 19 ships in their fleet there is FAR more variation among Princess ships than Disney's 4...

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Food -dining rooms not close, buffet tie (maybe).

 

 

 

Food is very subjective so I won't get into that part of the quote, but I have to completely disagree about the buffets. Even on the older smaller ships (you don't say which ship you were on but about 50% of the ships that do Alaska are older and smaller than most in the fleet) the buffet blows Disney out of the water. On Princess the buffet is never closed during the day, there is always one side that is open with some offerings, DCL you have to try and find when it's open, they have horrific hours. Also, Princess' buffet is a true buffet for dinner and not a sit down restaurant. If you have been on one of princess' newer ships (Royal, Regal, Majestic) the buffet design and offerings are even better.

 

There are only 2 things I can think of that Princess charges for that DCL includes, sodas and the adults only area (sanctuary on princess). Given that Princess is often half the cost, if not more, than DCL even if you chose to purchase those options you are no where near getting close to the cost on DCL. This is strictly a cost comparison not a value comparison since your comments centered strictly around cost.

 

Yes DCL has way better cabins, but they are geared towards accommodating a family in 1 cabin vs couples maybe a +1, and yes one of the best entertainment companies on the planet does entertainment that no one can touch because they own all the content.

 

We loved our Disney Cruise. We love our Princess cruises. I would do Disney again in a heartbeat if it were affordable. Cruising is like car shopping, you can get a Ford or a Lamborghini, they both do the same thing but for a much different experience at a much different price and it's up to you to decide where the value of money paid for what you get comes into play.

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We loved our Disney Cruise. We love our Princess cruises. I would do Disney again in a heartbeat if it were affordable. Cruising is like car shopping, you can get a Ford or a Lamborghini, they both do the same thing but for a much different experience at a much different price and it's up to you to decide where the value of money paid for what you get comes into play.

Loonbeam--yes, you are right. I forgot about the Sanctuary area as we never used it. We also never had problems finding pool chairs in the adult areas on Princess without paying the Sanctuary fee for a guaranteed chair and shade.

 

The car comparison says it all. I don't consider Princess to be "low end" cruising nor do I consider DCL to be the top of the available lines, but the idea is the same.

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I must admit, I have never done DCL, why, I can't afford it...way to expensive for our budget, Princess suits us just fine. We have also done the rest of the lines...RCCL, NCL and Celebrity. It depends on price and itinerary on who we cruise with, but lately, we enjoy Princess.

 

We used to always to to the MDR for dinner, but, lately we thoroughly enjoy the buffet for dinner, the dining room is set up real nice and I can get up and go get what I want and how much of it. Our cruises of late have been mostly on the Regal and Royal Princess.

 

As for the continuing comments, not just here, about the cabins being "tiny", as for a society which lives accordingly to "bigger is better" with a room in your house for every activity, YES, the cabin will be small according to your standards, but, in my case, I live in a very small apartment, where the cabin is the size of my living room.

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If you are used to DCL, a cabin on Princess or Celebrity seems tiny. You need to move to a "mini-suite" on Princess to have roughly the same sq. ft. as a standard cabin on DCL. But as others have noted, the typical Princess cabin has 2 occupants on any given cruise (although many of the rooms will technically handle 4). The typical DCL room cruises with 3 and often 4 guests.

 

That said, prior to our need for an HA cabin, the cabins on Celebrity and Princess met our needs for 2 persons. They also had an incredible amount of storage space.

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We took a Princess Cruise looking for better itinerary and price than DCL. My analysis showed the price of Princess to be about 40 percent to 50 percent cheaper than DCL for a comparable room, using the mini-suite on Princess as the option. I used several different cruises for the comparison, both Canada/New England and several European itineraries. The number of itinerary choices on Princess is extensive and attractive given DCL's limited options. DCL is making some effort to expand.

 

We ended up booking a full suite on Princess for the same price as a DCL stateroom. We were on the Caribbean Princess.

What I liked about Princess:

- Itineraries, and our Canada/New England especially;

- Explorers Lounge

- International Cafe

- The atrium area on the ship

- The steak speciality restaurant

- Live band was good, but overall entertainment just ok

What I did not like:

- Cleanliness of the ship - not immaculate like a DCL ship

- Somewhat unfriendly, non-engaging crew, especially severs

- We, in our early 60's may have been the youngest on this cruise

- The cruise director

 

We ended up going back to DCL like the original poster is suggesting and are doing back-to-back Baltic and Norwegian/Icelandic cruises with them next week.

 

Value is highly subjective. The things we like about DCL:

- Friendly, engaging crew

- Palos

- Immaculate ship

- Entertainment

- Stateroom with bath split in two

- Adult areas and activities

- And, yes, food, both in main and buffet (although Princess does have a good buffet)

These are mostly subjective, and vary from individual to individual.

 

We will still consider other cruise lines for itineraries we just can't get on DCL.

 

DCL does need to make improvements in areas noted in this thread and other threads.

 

 

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One key thing to note - even among Princess loyalists, the Caribbean Princess is considered one of the least popular (possibly THE least) in their fleet due to a combination of questionable design and upgrade selections among other factors. As an example it has the lowest space/passenger ratio of any ship AND the highest passenger/crew ratio, not only on Princess, of ships in the same class by far on most mass lines, resulting in maintenance and morale issues. There's a reason that particular ship tends to run cheaper than the rest of Princess...

 

We took a Princess Cruise looking for better itinerary and price than DCL. My analysis showed the price of Princess to be about 40 percent to 50 percent cheaper than DCL for a comparable room, using the mini-suite on Princess as the option. I used several different cruises for the comparison, both Canada/New England and several European itineraries. The number of itinerary choices on Princess is extensive and attractive given DCL's limited options. DCL is making some effort to expand.

 

We ended up booking a full suite on Princess for the same price as a DCL stateroom. We were on the Caribbean Princess.

What I liked about Princess:

- Itineraries, and our Canada/New England especially;

- Explorers Lounge

- International Cafe

- The atrium area on the ship

- The steak speciality restaurant

- Live band was good, but overall entertainment just ok

What I did not like:

- Cleanliness of the ship - not immaculate like a DCL ship

- Somewhat unfriendly, non-engaging crew, especially severs

- We, in our early 60's may have been the youngest on this cruise

- The cruise director

 

We ended up going back to DCL like the original poster is suggesting and are doing back-to-back Baltic and Norwegian/Icelandic cruises with them next week.

 

Value is highly subjective. The things we like about DCL:

- Friendly, engaging crew

- Palos

- Immaculate ship

- Entertainment

- Stateroom with bath split in two

- Adult areas and activities

- And, yes, food, both in main and buffet (although Princess does have a good buffet)

These are mostly subjective, and vary from individual to individual.

 

We will still consider other cruise lines for itineraries we just can't get on DCL.

 

DCL does need to make improvements in areas noted in this thread and other threads.

 

 

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We sailed the Sapphire Princess four years ago this week. The primary reason we chose Princess over DCL was the one way itinerary from Whittier to Vancouver that allowed us to see Glacier bay and the Hubbard Glacier. The only real difference I noticed was the entertainment. Once you've done Disney, everything pales in compares, but Princess was amateur hour. The one thing main difference I noticed for us, was the freestyle dining. I understand why DCL can't do it , because of the restaurant configuration, but we've always found 5:45 too early to eat and my wife cannot eat as late as 8:15 due to reflux issues. It was nice being able to eat at a normal 7:00 every night. Yes, I know we could eat in Cabanas, but we LIKE the MDRs and would hate to miss them, so we put up with main seating.

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