JLC0912

We are planning a NZ cruise on Royal Princess next February. I gave it a lot of thought and almost re-booked on the Beyond. We have mainly done RC in the past (mainly Oasis ships) and as newly retired people in our late 50s, it seemed that Celebrity would be a good fit. Some of my pros and cons were: Cons Not happy about what I feel is antiquated entertainment. Celebrity offers entertainment directed towards our age and perhaps younger. Also of note is that the newer Princess ships also have more modern entertainment and music choices. I feel that the Neil Diamond tribute mentioned by another poster is not something I would be into; that music is from my parent's era. I will admit to being picky since my daughter was a dancer and was taught by top choreographers from the music industry and I am used to seeing "the latest" in entertainment and music. Pros I like the itinerary better. We got the mini-suite and I think we will really enjoy that. The food sounds comparable and will likely be to our satisfaction. The pricing on the Plus package and speciality dining is much lower. If we went on the Celebrity, I would not have bought the equivalent drink packaged as it is extremely expensive, IMO. I don't care for their emphasis on tiered treatment in which they block off large parts of the ship for full suite guests. We will be spending quite a bit of money on this vacation and I am not into being treated like a second class guest. The cost is lower for the same itinerary on Princess compared to Celebrity. Also, I really don't like Celebrity's new balcony style. I think we will have a great time on the cruise on the Royal Princess. Everything will be great except for the after dinner entertainment. The ship is nice- elegant and I prefer their balconies over the new Celebrity ones. The only reservation I have is that if the itinerary was not exactly what we wanted, I would consider another cruise line or at least a new Princess ship so I would enjoy the time on the ship more. This will likely be our first and last cruise on one of the older Princess ships unless they update the entertainment. BTW- the entertainment on RC Symphony for our Mediterranean cruise blew me away. The Circus Soleil water show was outstanding as were the ice skating performances. They had 2-3 night clubs with DJs whick offered different, more updated music choices.

We are going on the Royal Princess for an AU/ NZ cruise. I have given a lot of thought to the entertainment and nearly switched to Celebrity. From the videos I saw on Youtube of the productions shows, I would agree with @trin880 that they could use some improvement. But there were so many positives for Royal Princess compared to Celebrity, I decided to stay with Princess. We have only taken a few cruises on RC before, and I must say their Oasis ships have outstanding entertainment. IMO, I don't think Celebrity or Princess will equal theirs. We plan on doing a Princess cruise for Alaska, so this is all good info.:)

@PurpleTraveller. Thanks for the additional information. Your blog is full of useful info. Have you considered doing a youtube channel? I will follow your posts as I think it could help me get some detailed info while selecting cruise options in the future. It seems you have many scheduled, so those posts would likely be helpful. We are in our late 50s and retired as of January of this year. I would like to do more cruises, but we are somewhat restricted by having to board two dogs and a cat when we travel. Also, with some of our vacations we paid more for dog boarding than our hotel rooms.... Anyway, If your posts on your other cruises are as complete as this one, it should help me narrow down my choices. Thank you for taking the time to post this detailed review.🙂 -Jen

@azbirdmom Thank you much for the info! I will keep an eye on that issue since I really want to visit Wellington. It is one of the ports that interest me the most. I plan on seeing the Te Pa Pa museum, the Weta Workshop, the cable car, the Botanic Gardens, Cuban Street, and sample their Thai food! I really do not want to miss that..... Also of note is that Wellington is probably better since it rains alot in NZ and there are more things to do in Wellington in the event of inclement weather. It is good to know that Princess notified people well in advance so they could make changes to their travel plans. I could see the Weta Workshop in Auckland. And perhaps try to fit in some Maori cultural experience to replace the Te Papa museum.

@PurpleTraveller. Thanks for doing this comprehensive review. We have booked this cruise in 2025 and it is good to know that you had a good experience on board the Royal Princess. You mention that prior to the cruise, you were sent an email that the ship would go to Picton instead of Wellington. Did you find out why that change was made? Does anyone know if other cruise dates also had that same substitution? I might change my travel plans to try if this is something that happens regularly. Thanks 🙂

@the penguins. I will say again, thank you!!! Those pictures definitely will factor into my decision. I do like the forward view of the Sounds. Similarly, I read Princess is considered one of the best lines on which to do an Alaska cruise. One reason I liked the Edge was for the additional two ports because it is possible to book a small boat excursion at one of these ports through a different sound. But with the views available on the Royal, it seems unnecessary to do a separate sound excursion since Royal already provides a spectacular view.

I don't think I would like the Silent Disco on the Edge for a date night because you can't talk to your partner with the headphones on. To me, it seems like being in a crowd and being isolated at the same time. Do you know if there are other clubs on the Edge for dancing? I just found out that Princess dropped the price on the Deluxe Balcony Cabin. All included with the Plus pkg, I priced it out to $3,086 when including the cash back and other discounts with the Costco Citicard! With the additional discount with their current rate, I am not sure I could get close with the Edge oceanview stateroom.

More good info. Thanks! Looks like you were looking at the same options that I am looking for. Thanks for the heads up on the cabin location. I am a light sleeper, so I might choose one of the oceanview cabins I saw that had the lifeboat at the floor level, but is otherwise unobstructed and also has cabins above and below.

@Mauidiver. You answered my next question- Can the sounds be viewed in a public area in the ship's aft? I will see if I can find info on where the best public spaces to view the Sounds on the Edge.

Thank you so much! Lots of useful information here.I was not aware that Princess had smaller balconies. I checked out the link you posted, so now I know that the Princess entertainment is not really my cup of tea. So I think I can now add that factor into my analysis.

@runner15km What was the approx. cost of the bottle? I am curious if the cost is the same as it is to pre-order, as Skynight mentioned. We are planning a cruise on Princess and even though we purchased the Plus plan we may get a bottle in the cabin. We did that on our RC cruise and it was just very relaxing to go back to the cabin and mix up a drink and take it with us or drink it on our balcony. No issue of waiting in line, don't have to wait for individually delivered room service drinks.

@Mauidiver. Thanks. I think I will make a new list and divide it by these categories. But I would still like to get more info on the entertainment and music on both of these ships. Then I can see where I end up with regard to that category. Have you been on the Edge before in a room with the “Infinite Veranda”? How do you think the view of the somewhat similar Panoramic Oceanview cabin would compare with a regular balcony cabin?

Are there any seasoned cruisers that can help me with this? I find the decision tougher for me because we are on a budget and only cruise every other year. So, I am trying to make a choice that I like a lot since we will not do this itinerary again. I am trying to decide between the Royal Princess and the Celebrity Edge for a January/ February cruise to/ from Sydney to New Zealand Sounds and other ports in NZ. I am looking at a deluxe balcony cabin on Royal Princess or an ocean view cabin on the Edge. It seems I might be able to get them for about the same price. I don't care for the infinity veranda style stateroom on the Edge, plus the oceanview is much cheaper. The itineraries are the same, except Royal starts in Auckland and ends in Sydney and Edge does the opposite. Here are some of my considerations: We are not big drinkers and would only get the drink pkg on Princess since it is less costly If we chose Edge, I could order a "gift" bottle of alcohol to our room like I did on RC. In addition, we would likely have one glass of wine per day and perhaps 8 mixed drinks over the course of 11 day cruise. Our bill on RC was very low on the ship when we did this. It would be nice to not worry about a bar bill and drink as we like on Princess. We do like access to the internet and would consider getting one device with upgraded internet on Edge (share ipad) and then one basic internet service. I like the Edge itinerary better because the Sounds and sea days are at the beginning of the cruise, which would allow us to fully recover from our very long trip from the midwest to AU/ NZ. The second day of the cruise on Royal would have the busiest port day as it is in Tauranga for 12 hours and there are man things to do there. I also like the Edge itinerary better because it ends in Auckland on a Friday and there are some weekend things to do there post-cruise. Edge cruise has two additional ports: Napier and Picton. These are two ports that I might like, but are not essential to me to enjoy the trip. Of note is that extending the trip a few days means higher boarding costs for our 2 dogs and cat. Having a balcony cabin on Royal would help us not miss any part of the views going through the Sounds. We will likely do main dining room for dinners with just one specialty restaurant on the trip Looking at videos online, I have seen that Celebrity has similar desserts to RC and I do no like the RC desserts as they all seem to have some sort of whipped gelatin frosting or are similarly not very tasty. I much prefer the storage (drawers space) on the edge than the one big closet on Princess. I usually bring a lot of knit shirts and dresses and have no need to hang much on a cruise and would rather use drawer space. I don't really care about top shelf liquor or wine, so the Princess Plus pkg would be fine. Entertainment concerns Entertainment on the ship is important because we will have approx. 4-5 sea days. Something that I found made a really big difference on our last RC cruise: the fantastic entertainment on the Symphony. We loved the ice skating shows and the Circus Soleil style shows. We are younger retired, at 58 yrs old and our entertainment and music tastes are more in line with younger generations. I have seen a few videos of Princess entertainment around the ship which consists of short themed dancers and I will be really, really disappointed if the comprises a large portion of what they offer. My daughter was competitive dancer at one of the top studios in the country and we have spent years watching exceptionally well-trained dancers perform with great choreography. the Princess dance performances that are not on a stage seems kind of hokey to me. We like Broadway style shows that a little more sophisticated, choreographed, and staged dancing and singing. We also like Circus Soleil style shows. We do not like game show type of entertainment, but we might like Bingo on the ship. We like date nights and dancing to recent music. I know this is a lot of info, but I don't see the point in comparing the cruise lines without comparing specific information. I have read comparisons, but they mostly compare dislike information, like "the Edge has more choices of staterooms," which is not relevant to our decision. I am hoping some seasoned cruisers will help us out with more specific info. Thanks for any info and advice you can give! 🙂 -Jen

I will never pay for another specialty dining on RC again. Last cruise, we did Wonderland and the food was really just OK. The staff performance was lacking in any kind of enthusiasm. From what the waiter said, it sounded like they were chewed out by some mgr of RC and they were very down. Of note is that we paid top price since our dinner was not purchased as part of one of their specials, like 3 nts specialty or the unlimited pkg. I would rather spend my $ on nice restaurants in the ports. We went to a Michelin-star restaurant in Amalfi, and it was awesome. IMO, The specialty RC restaurants are on par with average restaurants we can go to at home.

If I did pay for this pizza- even if I just paid $1, I would send it back to the kitchen and ask for a refund. It is probably the worst pizza I have had from a restaurant. Since it is free, I lower my standards. But if I pay, they need to earn my business by offering a quality product.