Pride vs Regal Princess

just did a 5 nite regal in october for a stellar price of 550 pp for a mini. and i'd love to get on the ship again at a good price. i received some casino offers which expire tomorrow for princess and the fares are amazing but air to FLL is not amazing for the early january time period. i do have a regal jan 7 obst balc on hold expiring tonight. 99 for the inside and 169 for the obst balc. crazy cheap!

i really do enjoy exploring new ships ( in this case that would be pride) and i have not flown in 20 years and i never thought i'd even consider flying but with these prices it's tempting. however, with baggage fees, extra parking etc. i am not so sure FLL is a true bargain compared to the close drive baltimore is for me. and i admit the idea of flying doesnt thrill me. especially the waiting in the airport all day after you get back for your later cheap flight. and with the holidays money is tight so all these bag fees etc are really annoying.

ill try to keep the numbers simple. but these figures include the appropriate gratuities/fare/taxes/air/parking at port or airport and baggage fees for 1 per person. but dang spirit charges 45 for carryon. so it would be jet blue and spirit flights.

i'm just looking for the comparison to the 2 ships and January on regal vs late February on Pride. i know from videos on youtube the pride has older bathrooms with colored sinks and tube tvs. i dont care about that. i care about service and decent food and ship and relaxation and peacefullness. when i was on regal i swear it was empty. never crowds or lines for anything. a total joy to be aboard. lots to do on bad weather days inside

also the ports are not relevant. i love cruising itself and being on A SHIP! i also understand pride has an indoor pool for the cold days before you get to the south. but of course being outside day 1 on regal could be considered an advantage.

regal early January:

obstr balcony on hold for 1386 (interior at 1256 may or may not be available tomorrow)

pride late February: 1660 french door 'interior' or 1950 for balcony. i have no problem getting one of the french door rooms and would not do the 1950 for full balcony but just put it in for comparison.

Hard to compare a relatively new ship with an older ship. The Pride doesn’t get too many reviews (or complaints ;) )

Love the French Door cabins. Hopefully you got one between the lifeboats.

The Spirit class IMHO has the best pax flow of any CCL ship I’ve been on. (Princess, HAL, Carnival). Very few bottlenecks.

Some highlights

Adult Serenity deck is free

Alchemy Bar

Regular cabin sizes are larger than Princess’s. The French Door Interior cabins will have a sofa. They’re identical to OV and Balcony cabins.

Cons

Your safe can be either have buttons or you will need a card with a magnetic strip. We use an old AAA card. The swipe safes are being replaced with a button safe when they no longer work.

Carnival’s carry onboard beverage policy. No bottles only cans. On the plus side a 12pack of water is $4.99 preorder or thru room service.

Food wise it’s hit or miss, depends on the hand of the chef. We prefer Carnival’s pizza and made to order sandwiches. The hot chocolate on the Lido is very good.

Can't speak to Princess but we loved Pride. It's been about 2 years since we sailed on her, but our sailing was after the 2.0 upgrades. We found the food to be good (only ever ate in the buffet for breakfast/lunch, always MDR or steakhouse for dinner) and plenty to do on the ship. We watched comedians almost every night, so I'm not sure about the other shows. We thought they crew was good; made friends with the bartender & server in Red Frog Pub and they always had drinks for us whenever we showed up, no matter how busy they were.

As Sadie noted, serenity "adults only" deck is free, and it was wonderful. The adults only was strictly enforced on our cruise, which was nice because there were quite a few kids onboard, as we sailed right before back-to-school. I don't mind kids, and I expected them to be prevalent on the cruise, it was just nice to know there was somewhere we could go (other than the casino) to be in a calmer, more relaxed atmosphere :)

Been on Princess Royal (Regal sister ship). Loved it. Great flow and different atmosphere.... Felt a bit more upscale service and option wise. But the ship was definitely quieter. We are diehard Carnival cruisers and sometimes change is good. That being said...We have cruised on the Miracle 2x (Pride sister ship) and love the layout and passenger flow over all Carnival class ships we have sailed in the past.

There is NO comparison , REGAL !!!!!

Hi

I was on the Pride just last month and love the ship. I was on it a few years back as well.

People are mentioning the serenity deck being nice, but it is outside and cold. Three extra days of warm weather would make me choose the Princess sailing if otherwise it was a tossup in your mind.

Again no comparison... book Princess.

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We were on the Regal Canada cruise with you, and will be sailing on the Pride in February/March. I expect larger crowds and a younger demographic. Regal will probably have bigger crowds sailing from FL in winter than we had from NY in October too;)

We are looking forward to the Alchemy bar, but if you don't drink much that probably wouldn't be a plus.

Carnival does not have as liberal a policy for carry-on beverages. Only 12-12oz cans or less pp of non-alcoholic beverages and 1 bottle of wine pp over 21 (no extras with corkage fee). Carnival does have a much better selection of mocktails though if that is of interest.

As beautiful as Regal was it did have an odd lay-out. Pride does not appear to have the same difficulties.

We had some of the best service on Regal of all our cruises, but we also had some that was just average. We found most of the food to just be ok (with the exception of WM table:hearteyes:)

I think Pride also has a specialty coffee shop like International Cafe, but the food has an upcharge as well as the drinks. I have seen reviews that they also have an afternoon tea (hidden in the fun pages under dining, not activities).

Good luck with your decision.

No comparison.....REGAL all the way!! That is one gorgeous ship and had the BEST food (even on Lido it was fabulous)!!

i'm posting my story in threads where i've asked people for help. thanks everyone! :

for those following alongwith my 1000 questions and other uncertainties: for the past day the websiteshowed only singles available at the casino rate. i emailed the nice TA fromprincess that had emailed me before. she said there's some glitch and that manydoubles are left. so she pressed some buttons and got us in a dirt cheap obstbalc and WE ARE GOING ON A CRUISE!!!!!

also i follow princess airfares pretty much hourly during theday. turns out the exact perfect flights at a very good price became availableand we got the last 2 seats!!!! bought the platinum plan in case of snow so ithink we are covered.

i'm ecstatic beyond belief. didnt think id get back on regalagain so soon..and i havent flown in 20 years and i hear you gotta pay for thebathroom and take off your shoes or whatever but thats ok.

moral of the story: play a few bucks the slots even if you hategambling, you can get some realllllly good rates. i'm proof of this.

i'm posting my story in threads where i've asked people for help. thanks everyone! :

 

for those following alongwith my 1000 questions and other uncertainties: for the past day the websiteshowed only singles available at the casino rate. i emailed the nice TA fromprincess that had emailed me before. she said there's some glitch and that manydoubles are left. so she pressed some buttons and got us in a dirt cheap obstbalc and WE ARE GOING ON A CRUISE!!!!!

 

also i follow princess airfares pretty much hourly during theday. turns out the exact perfect flights at a very good price became availableand we got the last 2 seats!!!! bought the platinum plan in case of snow so ithink we are covered.

 

i'm ecstatic beyond belief. didnt think id get back on regalagain so soon..and i havent flown in 20 years and i hear you gotta pay for thebathroom and take off your shoes or whatever but thats ok.

 

 

moral of the story: play a few bucks the slots even if you hategambling, you can get some realllllly good rates. i'm proof of this.

Great choice. Enjoy your cruise.

i hear you gotta pay for thebathroom and take off your shoes or whatever but thats ok.

What airline is this? :confused: I don't ever want to fly them! Personally, I've found that Southwest gives the best "bang for your buck" when it comes to flying, but I live close to one of their hubs, and generally fly into another of their hubs, so that probably has a lot to do with it.