huskerdan25

The more I think about it, no matter how they implement this reserved theatre seating perk, we always go early and sit just above the lower level as we enjoy viewing the shows from that vantage point so we wouldn't want to sit close to the stage to begin with so we don't really see this as a perk.  Not complaining but doubt we'll use it.  But the other upgrades are appreciated.  We aren't big drinkers but having the premium beverage package means we might try some drinks we wouldn't consider otherwise.  Not sure we will necessarily use the unlimited premium desserts, smoothies, etc since I am a type 2 diabetic but I might enjoy one a day 🙂

Excited to get back to Princess! 

Hi everyone.  I just booked our 13th cruise with Princess for next January 2024 and we booked the plus package and got the upgraded Premier package.  We also got the military OBC so it looks like you don't lose that or it isn't a choice between getting the premier package upgrade or the military OBC.  You get both.

The one thing I am trying to find information on is the reserved theatre seating perk and how that works.  Anyone have any idea?  I'll keep searching and if I find the information, I'll let you know.

I think being upgraded from the plus package to the premier package is a nice bonus for us veterans and much appreciated.  We love the Princess product and the respect Princess extends to veterans.  We are looking forward to cruising with Princess again since our last cruise with Princess was January 2020, just before the pandemic.  Since then, we have only cruised once, this past July on Oceania to Alaska and we are cruising on the Celebrity Apex in a little over 3 weeks (our 5th Celebrity cruise) so finally returning to our favorite cruise line.

Thanks Flatbush Flyer!  I appreciate the quick response and this puts me more at ease now.  Really looking forward to cruising with Oceania and expect we will love it!

Hi everyone.  We are set to go to Alaska on the Regatta from Seattle from July 8- 15 and just a few minutes ago, I went to the website (I have gone there a few times in the last few weeks) to see if we can make specialty restaurant reservations as we are close to the 45 days before the cruise.  Anyway, for some reason, the website says we don't have any bookings.  We paid in full this cruise 2-3 weeks prior to final payment so I'm sure that can't be the problem.  Has anyone had this issue and might know if it is just a website glitch and at some point soon we should see our booking back on the website?  I have emailed my TA to ask her to follow up with Oceania.  I am not aware of the cruise being cancelled or anything like that so count me as being a bit worried.

Appreciate any input if you have experienced this and if I have anything to worry about.  We are veteran cruisers (but this is our first with Oceania) and with Princess and Celebrity, we have never had this issue.

Thanks!

Dan

21 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Could be the current Covid situation

 as I understand it they usually have a naturalist  on the Alaska cruises  but again if the covid situation is still around they may not

Thanks LHT28.  In my first post, I did mean a naturalist and we do hope there is one on this cruise understanding any impacts covid may have on the cruise.  Hopefully no impact.

Hi Oceania cruisers.  We are Dan and Maddy from Colorado and we are cruise veterans with 13 cruises on Princess and 3 on Celebrity.  We are cruising with Oceania for the first time from July 8-15, 2022 on the Regatta to Alaska.  We've done Alaska twice on Princess and loved it.  One thing we really loved was the lectures during the cruise as we approached the ports of call.  Does Oceania have lectures pertaining to Alaska's wildlife and history like Princess does?  Princess brought lecturers onboard at various points of the cruise and held the lectures in the Princess theatre as well as provided recordings on tv.  These lectures really enhanced the Alaska experience.

We are really looking forward to a different cruise experience with Oceania.  

So, only photos of my wife and I are included, not with the rest of my family.  Not worth the cost then in my opinion.  I'll bring my nice camera and take photos of my entire family instead of take them with the cruise line.  Thanks.

Hi fellow Princess cruisers!  My wife, myself and my family are booked on the Enchanted Princess cruise to the Western Caribbean in Jan 2021 to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary so there will be 11 of us altogether.  If my wife and I purchase the photo package, do the rest of my family have to?  Will our package cover all photos involving our party or just my wife and I?  I know on a previous cruise we had the package and though we met some friends on the cruise and they were part of our traveling party, we still were able to get photos with them and they were included in our package.  I don't want to assume that will be the case this time so I am asking my good friends on this forum if they might know the answer.

Thanks!

Thanks for your thoughts on our options.  Leaning towards staying in downtown LB and taking a transport to the World Cruise Center on Saturday morning.  Have never been to LB and would like to spend some time there.

Thanks Bruin Steve.  We will land in LBG at 11:25am so we actually would have the afternoon and evening before the cruise leaves the next day.  Having been in San Pedro before, there really isn't much there but sounds like we could spend an afternoon and evening in Long Beach before taking a shuttle to the cruise port next morning.  Do you think it is worth getting a hotel in Long Beach if we are arriving just before noon the day before or do you still think it best to just get over to San Pedro.  I do currently have a reservation at the Doubletree in San Pedro but can cancel and book a hotel in Long Beach if we decide to spend the day/night there.

We are cruising on the Royal on January 18 to the Mexican Riviera and prefer flying into a small airport like Long Beach rather than into LAX.  Southwest Airlines has great airfare at the moment from Denver to Long Beach and it is lower than flying into LAX.  Here are my questions:

1) Should we stay in Long Beach the night before and then get transported to the World Cruise Center the next morning or once we land in Long Beach, stay in a hotel near the World Cruise Port in San Pedro?

2) I believe the Long Beach airport is closer to San Pedro than LAX, correct?  We have flown into LAX for a cruise out of San Pedro before and it was quite a distance and we booked a private car to take us from LAX to San Pedro and back.  

Thanks for your input on my questions in advance.

Thank you all for your input.  I think we will go to a bank ATM in London nearest to your hotel to withdraw some cash but plan to put most of our expenditures on a major credit card.  I don't feel the need to purchase local currency prior to landing in London.

Hi everyone.  Our 8 day cruise around the British Isles that includes the optional Tattoo is coming up quickly (8/17).  We will be visiting Helier, Miflord Haven, Wales, Dublin, Ireland and Invergordon and Edinburgh Scotland.  Most of my expenses will be paid for via credit card but for smaller purchases with cash, will all we need to have is British Pounds or will we need Euros as well?  Also, Any recommendations on how much currency I should get for those who have done this cruise or something similar would be greatly appreciated.  We are going to London a week before the cruise that leaves our of Dover so we will definitely be getting a few hundred in British Pounds.  But will having just British Pounds be enough for cash purchases in Wales, Ireland and Scotland?

Thanks in advance for your input!

I have sailed a few times with X and have been stunned by how perfectly the fish is always cooked. That is not easy, especially when producing hundreds and hundreds of servings.

We will sail Princess for the first time in a few months and if their fish is as good as Celebrity's I will be a very happy diner indeed.

I was amazed how perfectly cooked the Salmon on the every day menu was! One person at your table liked it so much he ordered it almost every dinner. I finally decided I had to get it one night and it was just perfectly cooked. I will be ordering the Salmon more often on my future Princess cruises! This was on the Grand on a 15-day cruise to Hawaii.

About Us: My wife (semi-retired) and I (retired) just started cruising after 10+ years of no vacations due to the demands of a small business. In less than a year we have taken 3 cruises.

 

 

• · April ’17 Celebrity Reflection TA
  
• · Oct ’17 Celebrity Equinox southern Caribbean
  
• · Jan ’18 Coral Princess Panama Canal
  

Prior to that we did an Alaska cruise 15 years ago and I did a Caribbean cruise as a child in the early 60’s on Canard.

My main purpose in this post is to offer some observations on the differences we saw between Celebrity and Princess based on only a few cruises. I realize, and readers should keep in mind, that the Reflection and Equinox are larger ships than the Coral Princess. As a result, my observations don’t hold true across the entire fleets. After two Celebrity cruises, I was curious about how Princess would differ. I’ve tried to present my observations below. We are not loyal to any line - our next cruise is on Azamara and I keep watching for an affordable cruise on Oceania. I’ll start by briefly mentioning a few observations on Reflection and Equinox.

 

 

Reflection – Equinox Observations: These are sister ships, but there are a few differences.

 

 

• We much preferred the layout of the Sunset Bar on Reflection.
  
• We LOVED the Lawn Club Grill on Reflection and really missed it on the Equinox. I see that many people here like the glass show on Equinox (occupies the LCG space), but when I heard that the glass show was closed for renovation, I was hopeful that the Lawn Club Grill was coming to Equinox too. No such luck. The hot glass show just changed from a free demonstration to a paid hands-on experience.
  
• The Mast Grill on Equinox is more enjoyable because there is less wind due to design differences at the front of the deck.
  

• Cellar Masters on the Reflection is rarely used and the Gastro Pub on Equinox is a much better use of the space.
  
• Reflection has a small area on Deck 9 called Game On. It has several tables for card games, but what we really liked was that there were several gaming tables with large touch screens on the surface. These gaming tables had a variety of games that you could play. We liked a game that was pretty much like Word Search. The nice thing is that both people could play simultaneously. I looked for a home version of this kind of electronic gaming table but couldn’t find one. Seems to me like a good product opportunity for the video game industry. We were disappointed to find that Equinox lacks this feature.
  

Given a choice we prefer the Reflection over the Equinox.

 

Celebrity – Princess Observations: Admittedly based on a limited exposure to each.

 

· Embarkation: We arrived at the terminal at about 10:30am for each cruise. On both Celebrity and Princess we completed registration quickly and painlessly. On Celebrity we immediately boarded the ship, but the rooms were not ready until 1pm. On Princess we had to sit in a waiting area until about noon before we could board, however the rooms were ready when we boarded.

 

· Cabins: The big difference between Celebrity and Princess balcony cabins is the bathroom and the sitting area. We liked the bathroom on Celebrity much better – especially the shower size and shower door vs curtain. The sitting area on Celebrity had a love seat. On Princess you needed to book a mini-suite to get a love seat, otherwise there was just a single chair.

 

· Bars (getting to the really important stuff 😊): We really enjoyed the Marini and Sunset Bars on Celebrity and thought we would miss them on Princess. To our surprise we found the selection of bars on Princess to be superior. We also found the bartenders on Princess to be more personable. After a few days, many of the Princess bartenders didn’t even ask to see our cards as they told us “we know your number”. The bartenders on Princess seemed to really enjoy their jobs, on Celebrity – not so much. One disappointment on Princess is the mixes they use. Generally subpar. The worst is the pina colada mix. We drank a lot of pina coladas on Celebrity. On Princess it only took one to convince us to switch to something else. The margarita mix was OK, but not great. All-in-all we still preferred the bars on Princess – service goes a long way, we just had to be more selective about what we ordered.

 

· The Sanctuary: Not a comparison, because Celebrity has nothing like it. We had a lot of sea days on the Princess Panama Canal cruise and, having heard good things about the Sanctuary, we headed straight there upon boarding to book afternoons for every sea day. We loved it! I hate to rave about it because I like to keep “my favorite fishing hole” secret. The Sanctuary on the Coral is particularly nice because it has its own little pool.

 

· Main Dining Room: I know, I know, food is subjective so skip this section if you wish. Let me start by saying I am not one who expects fine dining on a mainstream cruise ship. When serving 1000’s of diners it’s unrealistic to expect much more than high end banquet food. In general, this is what both Celebrity and Princess accomplish. It’s fine. The menus are a bit boring, but I can always find something that sounds good. I do think Princess should be a bit embarrassed about replacing steak on the every day menu with a hamburger - but that’s just me. I’m always amazed at how both cruise line kitchens manage to serve properly cooked fish. It must be magic. I’d never order fish at a banquet hall. There were a couple fails on Princess. One was Beef Wellington where the pastry was totally soggy. The other was short rib that was so tough that it was hard to even cut. That aside, the MDR experience on Celebrity and Princess are pretty much comparable. We eat late (8-8:30pm) and anytime dining on both lines worked fine.

 

· Specialty Restaurants: On Celebrity we…… Love the Lawn Club Grill, quite enjoy Murano, were surprised by Sushi on Five, Sushi on a cruise ship? That can’t be fresh. But, it was actually much better than expected, Tuscan Grill is loved by many – but not us. On Princess the choices were more limited. Many people rave about Sabatini’s, but my wife didn’t care for the menu at all. Imagine…. An Italian restaurant where someone who loves Italian food hates the menu. The Coral also has the Bayou Café & Steakhouse. Ate there once. It was OK. We did miss the Crab Shack and the occasional pub lunches which people seem to really enjoy. The best thing the specialty restaurants have going for them on Princess is the price.

 

· Entertainment: Princess does a much better job of offering live entertainment at multiple venues throughout the ship. As a result, I’d say Princess is much livelier at night. As for the main showroom – I like the layout of the Celebrity showrooms better. Particularly the larger size. I didn’t like having to show up at the Princess showroom early in order to get a seat. That said, I heard that Princess has better shows. The first cast show proved that to be true. The singers were much better than those on Celebrity (Celebrity tended to have one decent male and female vocalist and the rest were mediocre). The Princess cast was clearly more talented however, the following two cast shows were not good fits for the cast. The Universe Lounge on Princess was a really strange design. We sat on the balcony level which has comfy chairs and sofas. The problem is that the floor is flat. You could either sit in the front row where you could see the stage (except for the annoying railing that ran at eye-level), or you could sit on a nice sofa in the second row and look at the back of the heads of the people in front of you - with absolutely no chance of seeing the stage which was too low and not in line-of-sight. Looking down on the main level, there were also comfy chairs and love seats, but again the floor was rather flat and the stage was only raised about a foot or so. It seemed likely that those sitting in the back would have a hard time seeing the performance. Just a really strange design.

 

· Casino: The casino on Princess was smaller, but this didn’t really prove to be too much of a disadvantage. I play blackjack and there were only two blackjack tables - a $10 table and a $25 table. I initially thought this would be a problem, but it really wasn’t. I rarely had trouble getting a seat at the $10 table. The casino staff were great on both lines. My wife liked the slot selection on Celebrity better. The larger size of the Celebrity casino is nice too. One real plus for the Princess casino is that you can charge casino play directly to your cabin account without any added service fee (Celebrity charges 5%). On Celebrity I carry cash for the casino – no need to on Princess.

 

Website: I just can’t pass up an opportunity to slam Celebrity for their unimaginably poor website. I’m sure more than a few new cruisers, after having experienced Celebrity’s website, quickly decided to move on to other cruise lines. It’s a real shame because the on-board experience is so much better than the pre-cruise.

 

So there you have it, some observations from a relatively new cruiser. All-in-all both Celebrity and Princess do a good job providing an enjoyable cruising experience. They could certainly learn some things from one another. Still, as many have said, they are more alike than different. I would gladly return to either line.

 

Ps I’ve posted to both Celebrity and Princess boards. I hope this isn’t against the rules.

Really enjoyed your comparison of Celebrity and Princess. We cruise both though Princess is our first love and the one we have cruised most with but we are sailing on the Equinox this January so we do look for good pricing and itineraries on both lines.

We love both, are elite with X and doing our 3rd Princess cruise in April. Celebrity has escargot on their every night menu (and DH orders it every night); have not seen it on Princess.

One very important difference is the web-sites. Princess is very user friendly, X is TERRIBLE

Escargot was one the menu one of the nights on our 15 night Hawaii cruise in the Grand but I have requested it other nights and gotten it no problem so even though it isn't on the menu most nights, you can still order it.

Totally agree about the websites!

We like both though we have taken 10 Princess cruises to 2 Celebrity cruises. We find them more similar than different but here are a couple of things we like about one over the other:

1) Love the balcony cabins on Celebrity

I do need to qualify this because we have only been on the Reflection, a Solstice class ship. The balcony cabins are similar to the mini-suites on Princess ships. Love the bathroom on the Reflection (glass closed-in shower and larger in size) and the couch and extra tv in the cabin.

2) We love chocolate and Princess does chocolate great! Love the Norman Love creations (most anyways). On our Celebrity cruises, we couldn't find a chocolate dessert anywhere and in general found the desserts to be so-so. Especially love the Princess ice cream!

3) We really like Cafe Al Bacio with the selections of premium coffees and teas and desserts but the International Cafe is better in our opinion, providing many none dessert choices for breakfast and lunch. We give the IC a slightly bigger thumbs up.

4) We find pricing to be consistently better with Princess. One thing that keeps bringing us back is the loyalty perks and since both my wife and I are veterans, we really appreciate the on-board credit we get ($100 each for cruise under 14 days and $250 each for over 14 days). We got $500 total OBC for the Hawaii cruise we just completed over a week ago. That is a big perk as you can see. The military discounts that Celebrity provides don't really add up much because in many cases, the cost of the cruise is higher than Princess to begin with.

5) We personally like the Atriums on the Princess ships (on the newer ships like the Regal) better than the layout of the Reflection.

6) We find entertainment to be better and more varied on Princess. Seems like there was a lot more activities after dinner on our Princess cruises than on Celebrity. Celebrity seemed more sedate at night. Not a big deal but we like the many options available to us on Princess.

One area where we expected to find Celebrity at a higher level was food and while this is true in the specialty restaurants (which cost much more than Princess), the food in the dining room was just on par with Princess in our opinion. On our first Reflection cruise, service was so poor the first night that we never returned to the dining room and ate in the buffet or specialty restaurants the rest of the cruise. The second time the dining room was better but not the big upgrade that we were led to believe we would experience.

From our perspective, I don't think you will find the two lines all that different. Depends on what ships you have been on with Princess. Obviously, it is better to compare apples to apples as far as ships are concerned (don't compare a Millenium class ship to the Regal for example) but in our opinion, there are many more similarities than differences and would cruise either for the right itinerary and price. So far, Princess has been meeting our travel needs more than Celebrity.

Happy cruising!

Unless you need the upper berths, avoid sideways cabins with them.

They are really, really intrusive.

In my opinion, much more so in the sideways cabins.

 

Even when assigned a guarantee, you may be able to move to an available cabin

in the same category, to avoid upper berths.

Very good point!! Ours did not have the upper berths and we would not have booked it if it had.

So rules don't apply? So one should never purchase insurance, because perhaps if you complain enough, someone will give you your money back. This is our society these days, entitlement, its not just for millennials. Quite frankly, why should Princess care because you cruise with them, guess what, they will sell that room regardless if it is to someone who has sailed 50 times, or someone that sails once. Quite frankly, it does them better to have newbies aboard, they are the ones that will be spending the money, and the line doesn't have to worry about providing "free" stuff.

 

Yes, it is sad that the OP husband had a medical emergency before leaving on holidays, but just because one "neglects" to purchase insurance doesn't mean that they are entitled to something for free. Perhaps one should be more aware of what they have, I am aware that my credit card gives me the insurance, its why I pay $120/year for my card. I am aware that if I am out of the country for longer than 14 days, then I will have to purchase extra insurance. We all make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes are expensive or devastating, or just merely annoying.

 

I apologize if I come off harsh, but I work as a property claims adjuster, and the amount of people that I deal with that feel that something should be covered just because is ridiculous. Or complaints I read on social media because someone has gone into a store, and god forbid, the clerk didn't smile at them or their coffee wasn't filled right to the top. As someone mentioned earlier, you have to be cognizant that you are checking off the box that insurance is not required.

According to yags you are a bitter soul who is taking great glea in telling the OP to suck it up :rolleyes:!

Yes, we live in a culture of entitlement. You no longer need to follow the rules because you should be able to talk your way out of the consequences rather than face them. No one is happy to tell the OP what the reality is. And we all hope for the best for her husband. But sometimes you have to take your lumps when you make a mistake and learn from them. If you can whine and talk your way out of every consequence due to not following the rules, then we might as well not have rules. No one should ever have to buy travel insurance because we should be able to talk our way out of the consequences of not having purchased it. I guess those of us who don't take the chance that something bad may happen that could keep us from taking a cruise and actually buy the travel insurance are a bunch of dunces.

Would love to hear from the OP on how her husband is doing and many of us are keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.

Much better lay out and storage.

Agree! We had one on our recent Grand cruise to Hawaii and loved the layout! Felt bigger than the normal inside cabins and we had a lot of closet space that had closet doors until the balcony cabins. We would gladly book another sideways inside cabin!

Appreciate the responses. Not sure why some of the reviews I read gave me a different perspective but I would hope that we could expect better food. Actually we would expect it to be the best of any of our cruises as well. Is turnover on dining staff minimal as it seems from the responses that the Maitre D' has been on the Princess for quite some time?

For the first time in 10 Princess cruises, we actually had to have several dishes taken away while on the Hawaii cruise so while not bad, some of the meals were disappointing. Looking for a better dining experience in the Pacific.

Just thought of another question. Will the menus on this cruise contain dishes native to the British Isles? Or should we expect standard menu options we would find on other cruises like the Caribbean?

I have been to the crown grill several times and have always ordered either the filet mignon or the ribeye steak. Each time I tell myself I'm going to order something different but I never do. I know this steak is massive but has anyone here ever ordered the porterhouse? Was it tender and juicy? Also, what is a sterling silver beef chop? What cut is that?

 

Oh my, I just noticed that my favorite appetizer is no longer on the menu. We loved the scallops. What's up with that?

We regularly order the Porterhouse and every one we have gotten has been tender and juicy and cooked perfectly. This last cruise to Hawaii, I ordered the Filet Mignon on our second visit to the Crown Grill with the Tiger Prawns (extra $10) and it was fantastic! This was on the Grand. But our favorite is the Porterhouse!

Bon Apetit!

Overall, the dining experience on the PP is terrific. Oscar is one of the best Maitre d’s at sea. You’ll love the Pacific Princess.

Thanks Pam, this is encouraging coming from you! I know food is subjective, but I would hope we could expect an uptick on a much smaller cruise ship.

We are booked on the August 17, 2019 Ireland, Wales and Scotland (with option Military Tattoo) cruise on the Pacific Princess and we have never been on the Pacific before. I see that the capacity is 670 so as small as some of the Oceania cruise ships. With so much fewer people, is it reasonable to expect that the quality of the food would be better than on the much larger ships? From some reviews I have read, that isn't the case. Sounds like the food quality has gotten poorer across the entire fleet including Princess' one small ship?

Anyone who has sailed on the Pacific recently able to confirm or deny this?

We still will take this cruise because of the itinerary and because we want to sail on a much smaller ship for once but kind of disappointing that our expectations for the food cannot be heightened considering the ship is small much smaller and the number of meals that need to be made are as well. Is it the ingredients, the cooks.....?

We just got off the Grand on the 15 day cruise to Hawaii from SF and the meals were hit and miss. Having taken our 10th cruise with Princess, it is definitely noticeable the decline in the food in the main dining room. We still find the food in the specialty restaurants to be worth the added cost.

I find it sad that a lot of bitter souls on here take great glee in telling you to suck it up and walk away a loser. Never walk away without giving it the best you got. There are things Princess can do to retain your business, as mentioned in above posts. Keep fighting no matter what these sorry souls say. 23 plus cruises, no cruise line wants to lose that kind of customer. They have the power to, at least, restore some of what you lost. don't let these nay sayers convince you to give up. good luck.

Bitter souls, taking great glee.....wow, you have problems!