RCL Voyager class vs. Princess Grand class

If you have experienced both, would you provide any pros and cons with either line. Thanks

I would like to hear some information on this also, if anyone can help. Thank you.

Caribbean Princess 7/03/04
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I have not done those class of ships but both cruiselines are great. Did you post this on RCCL? There is a similiar post there and one idiot posted back saying he or she would not cruise Princess because it was owned by Carnival. I could not but help but post that Carnival CORPORATION also owned Cunard which was one of the most expensive cruiselines and I would love to cruise Cunard if I could afford to. I am planning a voyager class cruise too and would also like some unbaised information.

Carnival Tropicale 10/15/98 Western Caribbean
RCCL Sovereign of the Seas 11/22/99 Bahamas
Carnival Fascination 09/23/00 Southern caribbean
HAL Statendam 05/20/01 Alaska
RCCL Sovereign of the Seas 11/08/01 Bahamas
Pacific Princess 09/29/02 Bermuda
Carnival Inspiration 12/14/03 Western caribbean
Carnival Miracle 04/09/04 Bahamas

Momofmeg, Yes I did post this on both the RCL and Princess boards and did not receive that many responses. Also, figured each board would respond with bias info so posted on here and still hoping to get some info. I am glad you responded to that "Carnival owning Princess" comment....ridiculous!
I see you sailed on the Miracle...did you cruise with children? If so, how was it? Thanks.

We have done both. Hope this helps:
Food- not much difference between the two, better pizza on Princess, better grill on RCCL
Cabins- do mini or full suites, actually prefer RCCL in this area
Cabin Staff- we have had much better service with RCCL than Princess, except on the Tahitian this past winter, our favorite cruise ever
Shows-again another 50/50 here
Dining- PC vs Traditional, have had to wait even with reservations, particularly on last December's trip on the Golden, however, do like to the convenience of PC
Kid's Prgrams- have taken our kids and grandkids on both lines, everyone agreed RCCL won hands down here
SPA- both Steiner, so no difference
Tours- learned to book our own after our first cruise 25 years ago!
Not much help am I [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
We usually end up picking out l RCCL and l Princess, then look at the pricing, unless it is a drop dead deal, we'll go with RCCL every time. Just fits our personalities better I guess. One other sidebar: we have had our luggage broken into twice, once on Ocean Princess and once on Golden. Needless to say, we were less than satisfied with Princess' response. Still have not heard from them over December's incident and best they came up with after the Ocean one was $25 room credit on our next cruise.

Norway QE2
Imagination Voyager
Ocean Princess Explorer
Radiance Oceana
Golden Princess Navigator
Tahitian Princess
QM2 Millenium

Yes Miracle was great. It seemed Carnival had her best chefs-entertainers etc. on this ship. I believe Carnival pulled out all the stops because this was a new ship. Th lounges had a good many choices of live entertainment. There was this group called music unlimited that did nostalgia rock in Frankie and Johnny's. a guitar player who did country type music was in the lounge by the purser's desk and atruim. The lounge across from the dinningroom had a jazz band. I also heard the Music Unlimited played in the supper club Nick and Nora's late night (after 1a.m.)

I would cruise Miracle aga for sure but will probally wait a couple of years as I did her Tampa ittinerary on Inspiration last year. I want to go to like St. Thomas next cruise so I am hoping to cruise on Mariner of the Seas.

Oh yes. I felt my Miracle cruise was every bit as good as my one Princess cruise. My Princess cruises was an old ship not so nice as the new ships today but on her were the best Italian chefs and great Broadway style shows. Miracle is the only ship that I have been on the rivaled the great chefs and great shows that Pacfic Princess had.

We sailed Royal Voyager 11/2003 and Princess Grand 11/2002. Both ships were great, but had their differences:

Cabins: We had a jr suite on both and Royal prevailed in this category. We've taken 7 cruises in the past and the Royal cabin was the nicest we've ever had.

Scheduled Activities: Princess is the winner! Royal had a limited number of scheduled activities (day and night) in my opinion. I wonder if they felt this was not as necessary since they offered the mini golf course, roller blade track, ice skating rink, and rock climbing wall?? We LOVED those 4 activities, but would also like to have seen more trivia contests, scavenger hunts, games, etc....

Nightly Entertainment: Princess again is the winner. Royal seemed to have limited amounts of dancing opportunities and limited number of music venues. The shows on both ships were about equal except for the Ice Skating show on Royal. That was perhaps the best show I've ever seen on a cruise ship!

Food: They both seemed to rate equally well.

Private Island: Royal is the winner this time. They seemed to offer more at their private island than did Princess. Princess did not offer any motorized sports (jet skis, etc.) and I do not remember a water "play" island (could be wrong on that, though).

Ship Decor: Royal is the winner hands down. No question about that! Other than Celebrity Infinity the Voyager has been the most elaborate ship we've been on in our 7 cruises.

Again, every cruise line and every ship has their positive and negatives. You have to weigh all the odds and my experience has been they are all great cruises, just some better than others!