Royal Caribbean or Princess?

Want to go to the ABC Islands in March 2018. Choice of Royal Caribbean - Navigator of the Sea or Princess - Crown Princess. Which would you choose and why? We have never sailed on either line before. Itinerary is basically the same. Will probably book a Balcony or Jr. Suite. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

We love Princess.

It just fits.

But that probably doesn't help you.

I'd need to know more about what you are looking for in a cruise.

No kids just DH and myself. We are young 55's. We have been on Carnival - hated it, NCL was fun, truly enjoyed our cruise with X so we booked them again to see if it was just the itinerary or X or the X passengers. They were a little bit quieter than NCL - would have liked a little more ship activity but we found people were more friendly and we met some great people on the cruise. We liked that the most about the cruise with X. We are hoping for the same experience in 2017.

I have always wanted to go to the ABC Islands and a cruise is the only way to get DH there. So I compromised -:D These were the two cruises that I liked - trying to figure out which line would fit us best. We have only cruised on ships with 2300 passenger capacity. Princess is about 3080 and and Navigator of the Seas even larger with 3807. So it will be our first time trying a larger ship. I have read the ship reviews. Just looking to see what else people might be able to add to help in the decision making process

If X was a little too quiet for you, Princess may be as well. Royal will be a bit more active with evening entertainment.

In my opinion Celebrity and Princess are very similar, if anything Princess is likely to have an older crowd and quieter, so maybe give Royal a try.

Crown Princess almost killed me.

I vote for the Navigator of the Seas.

:D

We've been on 3 of the 5 Voyager class ships - Adventure, Mariner and most recently on the Explorer. We loved all 3 of them. The Voyager class ships which includes the Navigator was closest to Celebrity's S class ships in terms of size & number of people from the cruises that we've taken.

The onboard activities are great fun on Royal Caribbean, they definitely have more going on than Celebrity. For the ABC Islands, if there's no Celebrity S class ship, I would just go for the Navigator.

Do you really think people on the RCL forums would suggest Princess? Many of these folks have only cruised on Royal. You may want to ask the same question on the Princess forums and then you'll really be confused.

Are the Itineraries identical, same stops, same times at those ports. Sometimes that can be a determining factor if one line stops longer at a desired port. DH and I are high 30's but love Princess. Yes its not as lively as Royal, but its still a great time. I don't think you could go wrong either way. We are doing allure next year because the kids are going and for us, its the biggest factor since we want to make sure if they don't like the kids club, there is stuff to do elsewhere.

Good Luck in your search.

Many people here will blindly tell you the Navigator just because they favor RC.

I have been on both ships

And have no loyalty to particular brand.

Crown was one of my favorite trips.

Navigator was one of my worst cruises...

Crown Princess almost killed me.

 

I vote for the Navigator of the Seas.

 

:D

Do you say that because you were on the almost tipping over cruise off the Florida coast? That was myself and my wife, she was my GF at the time, first cruise. It was quite scary, but did not scare us from cruising, we just switched to RCCL.

Crown Princess almost killed me.

 

 

 

I vote for the Navigator of the Seas.

 

 

 

:D

I agree. I wasn't a fan of Crown Princess. Just a little to quiet/boring for me.

I'd pick Navigator. I agree with others who said Princess was more like Celebrity and we thoroughly enjoyed Princess. I just think there's more to do on Navigator.

Not sure where you are leaving from...if you are flying, you may want to consider going to San Juan and going on the Adventure of the Seas. We have sailed out of San Juan and Florida and prefer San Juan. If you are going as far as the ABC islands, you'll get there a lot quicker from San Juan. Airfare may be more, but cruise fare is usually cheaper. Check it out to see if any of the itineraries work for you.

Since you have not been on either to compare, we have found the rooms to be smaller on princess. A JS on royal vs princess is much larger because RCCL gives you the actual room size plus balcony side while Princess includes the balcony with the room size. Friends had a JS on the Star Princess & I was surprised to see how narrow it was. Comparing cruise experience, they are very close, but Princess still seems quieter then RCCL. We also feel there is more to do with RCCL. We have had wonderful cruises on both but prefer RCCL.

Do you really think people on the RCL forums would suggest Princess? Many of these folks have only cruised on Royal. You may want to ask the same question on the Princess forums and then you'll really be confused.

LOL! Pretty funny that you think you're the only one on this board that would give a balanced opinion. Nice to see you think so highly of yourself. You're a very special person. :D

Want to go to the ABC Islands in March 2018. Choice of Royal Caribbean - Navigator of the Sea or Princess - Crown Princess. Which would you choose and why? We have never sailed on either line before. Itinerary is basically the same. Will probably book a Balcony or Jr. Suite. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

I have sailed many times on both lines and I have sailed on both ships, I would take Navigator any day over Crown, I thought Crown felt crowded was not able to see many of the shows since there were no seat available. Navigator is my favorite RCCL ship, love the Ice show and rest of the entertainment. Even though I do not like flying to Florida, we did book same cruise for November 2017 on Navigator.

Want to go to the ABC Islands in March 2018. Choice of Royal Caribbean - Navigator of the Sea or Princess - Crown Princess. Which would you choose and why? We have never sailed on either line before. Itinerary is basically the same. Will probably book a Balcony or Jr. Suite. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

We had the ABC booked on Princess for next February. I just cancelled it after I researched Aruba weather and geography.

Hot, flat with cactus.

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Crown Princess almost killed me.

 

I vote for the Navigator of the Seas.

 

:D

Ok that is a story you will tell when we meet in January.;)

We had the ABC booked on Princess for next February. I just cancelled it after I researched Aruba weather and geography.

Hot, flat with cactus.

 

 

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Everyone on our ship loved Arubu. While it was very nice, being from Arizona, we felt like we were home but with an ocean. It actually reminded me a lot of Baja California.

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Thank you all for your input.

Deepcman - I posted this on both sites as well as ask a cruise question to see what responses I would get.

We like Princess WAY more than RCCL!

It's just that Princess is a better all around "fit" for us than RCCL. :)

Love the ABC islands, more prosperous than some other Caribbean islands, very safe, great shopping. Both Aruba and Curacao have wonderful little towns, all three have amazing beaches.

DH and I have done Caribbean Princess. Loved the cruise and the food. We found the stack back balcony set up odd as we could look down on others on their balcony. Loved the adult only pool overlooking the wake. I do not know if the Crown Princess has the same set up. We found the decor a little too ornate for us. The gym had the treadmills under the slanted ceiling, so as the ship plunged down, we would go up and it our head on the ceiling above us. Would we cruise Princess again? Absolutely.

However, since that trip we have been loyal to Royal. We love use of wood, the understated decor, the open spaces, the outside decks. The adult solarium is very nice. We really like the variety of live music available in the music venues as well as the shows. We always find something good to eat but admit after a dozen cruises that food is not a huge focus for us, as we are excellent cooks at home. We are very happy with the breakfast offerings, eat a light lunch, then usually eat in the MDR at night.

Although we are a bit older than you, we find X a bit stodgy and prefer the livelier atmosphere on Royal.

We enjoyed Navigator, definitely didn't feel too large. Junior Suite, you'll love the room & balcony, friendly crew. Haven't been on Princess

we enjoy both Princess and Royal Caribbean. We are going on the Caribbean Princess in Dec. which is going to the ABC islands. I like the night time entertainment on princess since there is usually a variety of things to choose from. I love the international cafe and the the grill for fresh hamburgers and hot dogs and the Pizza Bar. Both have similar daytime activities. The music choices are varied and better on RCL. I like the viking lounge and the solarium ( when I can get a chair) on RCL.

We decide which line we are taking based on itinerary and price since we have a great time on both lines.