DubbyLee

Thank you for your great review. I want to thank you for saving us from the HOHO bus! We planned on going on it in Oslo! Now we're signed up for a tour.

Thanks again!

I paid $135 for my set. The sets on the ship ranged from $300 to in the thousands. It really depends on how eleborate the doll is, how many pieces there are etc...My set breaks down to 15 dolls. I actually took it apart yesterday for a friend, the entire time terrified I'd drop the last doll on my dark hardwood floors and never find her again...the get SUPER tiny at the end. We really only had the one store to shop in but they had a great selection. I was very pleased with mine. If I can figure out how to post a picture I will!

Thanks for following along!

 

 

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Thank you for reading along!

Thank you so much for the info. I'm loving your review.

I am dying to buy the dolls in Russia. Do you mind sharing an approximate cost?

A packing hint...don't pack your suitcase with just your own clothes in it. Spread your clothes out into different suitcases. My husband and I mix up our things just in case one of our suitcases is lost.

We're doing this cruise and the TA starting 8/30. Loving you review so far.

Oops...I see a few beat me to the packing advice!

Looking forward to reading the rest of your tale... you are living my nightmare so far! As a seriously fluffy female I live in fear of my luggage being lost and seriously NOT being able to find anything to replace the lost clothing. Sounds like that will be the case in Copenhagen next year for sure! :)

A packing hint...don't pack your suitcase with just your own clothes in it. Spread your clothes out into different suitcases. My husband and I mix up our things just in case one of our suitcases is lost.

We're doing this cruise and the TA starting 8/30. Loving you review so far.

Now I'm nervous about our first time booking EZAir.

We booked (for August doing a TA) Business Class one way to Copenhagan with a 4 day stopover in London. $1700 with BA with the first flight on AA.

Booking to London only through the airline directly would cost over $9,000! How does Princess get such a deal? I'm really worried it's going to get messed up.

I think I'll tell them to pay it in full when final payment is made in 2 weeks.

I would like to use Princess Air but I try to book only flights where I have an aisle seat. Can you pick your seats before you pay?

Yes, you can.

We enjoyed the afternoon tea.

Afternoon tea is one of my favorite on board thing to do. I'm rarely hungry for dinner until very late. :D

I'm with Bob...I'm assuming they are upset that there are other places you can still smoke including the casino. They may not feel RC is doing enough? I'm not sure :confused: I'll be honest, I will avoid the casino just avoid the stale smell of smoke. It just isn't worth it to me and I'm not really someone who enjoys gambling anyway.

I feel the same way. Does Royal Caribbean have a non smoking night in their casinos? Princess has a night or two depending on the length of the cruise. That's when I go, though it still stinks.

There is a charge, I believe about 3% (?) I bring cash.:D

Ok, thanks.

Hi...we'll be cruising on RCI for the first time in 20 years. Re: the casino. On Princess we can draw money on our room without a penalty or charge. Is it the same on RCI or should we bring extra cash for the slots?

Thanks!

Perhaps I did misread..but that would make it more simple:

 

 

 

Absolutely. If cancelling before final payment, or through insurance for a covered reason, the refund would be given in the form payment was made: the OP should receive a new gift certificate for the same amount. Asking for the value of the certificate to be moved directly to another booking is a move with too much potential for error--and if full payment was made, asking for the gift certificate to be applied and a subsequent refund issued is really not reasonable.

 

(And pardon my lack of knowledge--but what advantage is there to buying a gift certificate to be used as payment of the cruise fare [as opposed to buying OBC which would be completely refundable if cancelled] unless there is a discount on the purchase [such as a big box store selling two $50 gift cards to a local restaurant for $79, for example])???

I bought RCI gift certificates from my grand kids school so they get fund raising credit. I also bought the insurance in case I need to cancel.

Just so I have an idea of what to expect, I'm posting this on both boards.

 

I will be taking my first non Royal cruise next year and I'm wondering about how each group of passengers see the other cruise line.

 

As you can see from my signature I have experienced Sovereign, Vision, and Freedom classes of RCL ships. My upcoming Princess cruise will be on Coral Princess. On RCL we have stayed in Outside, balcony and Jr. Suites and on the Princess cruises we are booked into a Mini Suite.

 

I don't expect huge differences between the two but I'm curious as to how fans of each compare the two.

I'm doing the opposite next month. Our first RCI cruise in over 20 years. We just took a Princess cruise last month. I'm kind of nervous because I feel like I know Princess inside and out.

I hope to post my own observations when we return.

RC vs. Princess

 

Compared to most, I'm still a pretty new cruiser. I've been on two Princess cruises (Island and Ruby), and most recently, I went on Freedom of the Seas with Royal Caribbean. Before going on Freedom, DH and I tried to see what people thought of both and what the differences were. We have LOVED Princess, but since we have an 11-yr-old boy, we thought that we'd give Freedom a try to see if DS would like the activities better. So we went into the cruise with an open mind, excited about experiencing a new line.

 

So with that said, after returning, I jotted down a few things that we like better about one or the other, and I wanted to share that with everyone.

 

What we liked better about Royal Caribbean:

 

 

 

--Checking in was faster, even though we weren't experienced RC cruisers. We typically arrive by about 10 or 11, and we have had to sit in a holding area with Princess. But with RC, as soon as we checked in, we were able get on the ship.

 

--We loved the miniature ship models on each floor. We could always see where we were in reference to the rest of the ship.

 

--We also loved the touch screen guides on each floor. We could see where we were and how to get to any part of the ship. We could also see all of the activities going on and the menu for that evening.

 

--I actually liked the Royal Promenade much better than the Princess plaza concept. I liked being to walk up and down the mall area, and the parties along the promenade were great.

 

--Since we don't spend the money on balconies or suites, we usually book interior or oceanview. I appreciated the shower stalls with the actual sliding door. I can't stand the teeny shower stall on Princess, and I especially don't like the curtain.

 

--I know that it isn't that big of a deal, but we were always excited to see what towel animals would be waiting for us at night.

 

--I think that the shows on RC are much better than the shows I've seen on Princess. Now, shows aren't make or break for us, though.

 

--We liked the fact that there were two movies that were showing during our week that were brand new (in theaters at home).

 

--This is BIG for me. I LOVED the fact that RC had a one-price-pays-all for photos. I bought the photo package before the cruise, so since I knew that we already could get all of our pics, then we took advantage of as many photo ops that we could find. I wish, wish, wish that Princess would start doing this!

 

--I like the gym on RC better. It seems bigger, and the layout is nicer.

 

--DH loved that there were soccer games on the ship.

 

--Little things--I think I liked the design & art on RC better than on Princess, but I would never make a decision between lines based on that.

 

--DS liked self-serve ice cream. Easy to get.

 

--We loved the Tutti salad in the MDR for lunch. GREAT salad!

 

--The cruise directors and assistant cruise directors on RC seemed way more fun. And we saw the officers much more on RC than we ever do on Princess. The night activities seemed more enthusiastically attended on RC than on Princess.

 

What I liked better about Princess:

 

--The buffet! I think that although the layout on RC was better, the food choices and quality were better on Princess. I know that there are buffet staples for breakfast and lunch. I don't expect a buffet to be completely different every single day, but I do expect some variety. I don't remember much variety on RC. We like that on Princess, we can tell the difference between the days' offerings.

 

--The PIZZA is divine on Princess. DH, DS and I ate the pizza on Princess every single day, and some days, we ate it multiple times! I can pretty much eat any pizza. Even frozen pizza makes me happy sometimes. But my frozen pizza is better than the pizza I ate on RC. Ugh.

 

--The grill on Princess...it was nice to be able to get hamburgers, grilled chicken and hot dogs easily while we were at the pool.

 

--The MDR lunches were much better on Princess. And of the three sea days on RC, they used the same lunch menu twice. I was expecting three different lunch menus like we have seen on Princess...I sound so spoiled. But for foodies like us, it's nice to have different choices each day.

 

--MDR food was so much better for us on Princess. I love the fish dishes on Princess. I have enjoyed almost everything I have eaten in the MDR on Princess, and I just liked the food on RC. It's good, sure. I never sent anything back. I ate it and liked it. But I really like Princess MDR food that much better. There was nothing that made me go WOW on RC whereas I can list easily the things I love on Princess.

 

--DH and I love the tea times on Princess.

 

--Service in the MDR seemed better and more organized on Princess. I don't think that our waiters were bad at all. They just seemed more frazzled and rushed than the ones we've had on Princess. Also, we like having the bread basket at our table on Princess. Unless we flagged down our waiters or waiter assistants on RC, we would never get a second bread roll. But they were always so rushed that they often forgot to offer us more bread.

 

--We like the closet area and storage availability on Princess much better. Smarter layout.

 

--Smoking--I don't know what it is, but it seemed to me that in the public areas outside, there was more of a compliance with the smoking rules on Princess than on RC. I think that this is a fault of the passengers who could care less about rules and other people, but it is also because they weren't being told to stop smoking. But I am sure that the poor RC workers were afraid of the complaints that would have been turned in about them.

 

--Coming back on port days, we received cooling towels and bottled water with Princess. Nothing like that on Royal Caribbean.

 

--We like not having to check towels in and out on Princess. That got annoying on RC.

 

--Movies Under the Stars--SO much better on Princess. The popcorn, the blankets--so nice. I tried to watch a movie outside on RC, and I had to get five towels to cover myself with.

 

--The game room. We tried to find the game room on RC, and we found a room at the top that had some cards. There may have been some games in there somewhere, but if there were, they must have been hidden in the cabinets or something. It was also a quiet area, so it was hard for us to play games and chat. We aren't loud, but we want to laugh a little without getting looks from the next table. On Princess, we loved the fact that we could go to one of the restaurants (designated for family games) any time during the day, and there would be a table full of games we could borrow, and many tables that we could use. There is also a table set up with drinks and snacks for us. Nice touch.

 

--The International Cafe. Enough said. YUM.

 

--The fish and chips in the Wheelhouse

 

--The non-alcoholic beverage package was better for DS on Princess. The package on Princess included the mocktails, whereas the one on RC only included sodas (and other drinks, but not mocktails). Our kiddo loves his mocktails.

 

--We love the promenade deck on Princess much better. We love the loungers on Princess, and it just seemed more relaxing than on RC.

 

--There seemed to be less announcements on Princess. I liked that.

 

--The procedure for leaving the ship on port days seemed much more organized on Princess. It seemed confusing and crowded on RC.

 

BOTH:

 

To tell you the truth, if someone were to gift me a cruise on RC or Princess, I would be ecstatic. But if I'm paying, I would pay for Princess much more readily than RC.

 

But, I think that many things are similar. The service we have received on both lines has been super. The people who work the lines are hard-working, dedicated and friendly. There was nothing that they wouldn't do for us. We liked both cabins. We love trivia, and we enjoyed both lines. I think the shopping was similar on both lines, but I'm not that big of a shopper. There were activities throughout the day on both ships that have kept us occupied, and the music has been good on both. We have loved all of our cabin stewards, no matter what line.

 

Like I said above, I'd go back again on both, but if given the same itinerary that is served by both, I would probably choose Princess. I hope that this is helpful for anyone who is looking for differences and similarities between them.

 

Happy cruising!

Bernadette

I enjoyed reading your comparison. Next month is a Princess cruise for us and in Sept. we cruise on Royal Caribbean. I'm going to see if my reviews match yours.

I'm thinking of booking a Canada/New England cruise and the only deck available is Deck 10. I see that Deck 11 is the pool level. Has anyone been on Deck 10 and is it noisy because of Deck 11?

Thank you!