New to Princess Enjoying Reviews and comments

[AmberTeka]

Princess seems to have loyal cruisers. I seem to be getting the impression that Princess has lots of Trivia type games and such. My DH, a Jeopardy Devotee, is looking forward to that. We have cruised Carnival several times, ditto HAL, NCL three times and Celebrity once. Enjoyed them all. We just hear people we met who are so impressed with Princess that we are going to book. Which One..Crown Princess..or Emerald Princess for the Caribbean..this fall? Is the dinner on Sail Away Night just a seafood buffet? Nothing wrong with that..just wondered. Are the casinos large and up to date on those two ships? DH donates there too. The only thing I wonder about is...the beds on Carnival are pure heaven. Is there really that much difference on Princess? Princess must be doing a lot right..to have such pleased repeat passengers. Happy Sailing to all of you!

[CruiseAdict218]

Princess seems to have loyal cruisers. I seem to be getting the impression that Princess has lots of Trivia type games and such. My DH, a Jeopardy Devotee, is looking forward to that. We have cruised Carnival several times, ditto HAL, NCL three times and Celebrity once. Enjoyed them all. We just hear people we met who are so impressed with Princess that we are going to book. Which One..Crown Princess..or Emerald Princess for the Caribbean..this fall? Is the dinner on Sail Away Night just a seafood buffet? Nothing wrong with that..just wondered. Are the casinos large and up to date on those two ships? DH donates there too. The only thing I wonder about is...the beds on Carnival are pure heaven. Is there really that much difference on Princess? Princess must be doing a lot right..to have such pleased repeat passengers. Happy Sailing to all of you!

 

You are going to love princess and im a newbie as well :o and the beds could be a tad better u get two pillows a hard and soft one, both casinos should be up to date, yes i never been on those two but i was just on the Caribbean and the three are practically sisters so i know a little

[jrzebird]

Princess seems to have loyal cruisers. I seem to be getting the impression that Princess has lots of Trivia type games and such. My DH, a Jeopardy Devotee, is looking forward to that. We have cruised Carnival several times, ditto HAL, NCL three times and Celebrity once. Enjoyed them all. We just hear people we met who are so impressed with Princess that we are going to book. Which One..Crown Princess..or Emerald Princess for the Caribbean..this fall? Is the dinner on Sail Away Night just a seafood buffet? Nothing wrong with that..just wondered. Are the casinos large and up to date on those two ships? DH donates there too. The only thing I wonder about is...the beds on Carnival are pure heaven. Is there really that much difference on Princess? Princess must be doing a lot right..to have such pleased repeat passengers. Happy Sailing to all of you!

 

I just got back from my first CB cruise. I have been a HAL fan for the last few years, and was very concerned about the beds on Princess, as I had also read they were very uncomfortable. While they aren't as 'sink in and sigh' comfortable like HAL's beds are, they are perfectly fine. I did ask for the egg crate mattress topper and I think that helped a lot. I slept extremely well, with no aches and pains, or tossing and turning.

 

I don't use the Casino, but it was very kind to my brother-in-law for the duration of the cruise.

 

All in all, I was very pleased with Princess, the ship, the crew, the entire staff. I enjoyed the food and the entertainment. My only problem with the CB was the size of the ship caused me to pause before deciding to go to another area; and the number of passengers - over 3,400, made it seem crowded in some areas. But, it wasn't a huge problem, and made the cruise seem very festive.

 

I know you will love your time on Princess, and if you keep your attitude positive, you can't lose!

[rdsqrl]

Princess seems to have loyal cruisers. I seem to be getting the impression that Princess has lots of Trivia type games and such. My DH, a Jeopardy Devotee, is looking forward to that. We have cruised Carnival several times, ditto HAL, NCL three times and Celebrity once. Enjoyed them all. We just hear people we met who are so impressed with Princess that we are going to book. Which One..Crown Princess..or Emerald Princess for the Caribbean..this fall? Is the dinner on Sail Away Night just a seafood buffet? Nothing wrong with that..just wondered. Are the casinos large and up to date on those two ships? DH donates there too. The only thing I wonder about is...the beds on Carnival are pure heaven. Is there really that much difference on Princess? Princess must be doing a lot right..to have such pleased repeat passengers. Happy Sailing to all of you!

The Crown and Emerald are identical twins (but do differ in some significant respects from the CB). Either would be great -- since they have the same features, I'd pick by itinerary.

As a Jeopardy fan myself, I can tell your husband that there is lots of trivia onboard: morning and afternoon, as well as the occasional evening team trivia -- usually with a theme of some kind.

Dinner the first night is a regular dinner. The seafood buffet you've read about isn't still the extravaganza of the past. There are still seafood treats on the buffet that first night, though. And there's nothing stopping you from hitting that to collect a few shrimp or some such, and then going to dinner in the dining room . . . !

The casino seemed large enough to me, as a non-participant. I would imagine it's about the same as that on your previous cruises.

The beds can be on the firm side. If you prefer soft, definitely ask your steward for an egg-crate topper as soon as you board and try the bed out. (On my cruise on the Dawn, just sitting down hard on the bed was enough to crack one's tailbone, it was so hard! You'll be happy to hear that the bed on the Crown wasn't nearly that bad!)

Hope this helps.

[JimnKaren]

Out of our 15 cruises, 6 were Princess. We really enjoy the crew and the demographics. Celebrity is similar in both respects. We believe that Carnival food is superior; however, Carnival ships are a bit to glitzy for our tastes.

 

Chose the itinerary and then the ship. Not the other way around. Where you go should be more important than the casino size. Most cruise lines update/upgrade their selection of machines and table games depending on the way the passengers are using them. For instance, Sea Princess has been set up so that the folks from the U.K. can play their table games which they prefer to the casino games. Thus the casino is compact.

 

Trivia games are fun, it seems though that Princess has cheapened their prize list a bit. Lots of fun anyway. If you win and don't want/like the prize, just give it away...you will make a new friend.

 

Jim

[financialgrl]

The way I choose a cruiseline is figure out where I want to go and who is going with me. I went to Bermuda and took two 17 y/o nieces with me. Royal Carlibbean has more available for that age (they ice skated, climbed the wall, etc). Went to Europe this year on the Grand Med cruise with Princess. On that trip I took one of the above nieces who is now 20 - we went for the itinerary since she's older and doesn't need to be enertained and we chose Princess for another reason - the laundry facilities.

 

We were gone a total of 3 weeks when you add in pre and post cruise days and didn't want to drag a lot of clothes or luggage with us. The self serve laundry on the Ruby was about 4 doors down from our room and using it twice allowed us to do laundry a few days into our 12 day cruise and right before getting off. Clean clothes the whole trip and all worked well.

[Dachsie5]

Princess seems to have loyal cruisers. I seem to be getting the impression that Princess has lots of Trivia type games and such. My DH, a Jeopardy Devotee, is looking forward to that. We have cruised Carnival several times, ditto HAL, NCL three times and Celebrity once. Enjoyed them all. We just hear people we met who are so impressed with Princess that we are going to book. Which One..Crown Princess..or Emerald Princess for the Caribbean..this fall? Is the dinner on Sail Away Night just a seafood buffet? Nothing wrong with that..just wondered. Are the casinos large and up to date on those two ships? DH donates there too. The only thing I wonder about is...the beds on Carnival are pure heaven. Is there really that much difference on Princess? Princess must be doing a lot right..to have such pleased repeat passengers. Happy Sailing to all of you!

I have sailed Princess 10 times and have never complained about the beds. We have never even asked for the egg crates. Just never had a problem. Don't worry in advance, it will ruin the fun of the cruise.

[AmberTeka]

Thank you all for responding. I think we will book, space available, the Crown Princess for the first of Nov. Our first grandchild is due to arrive the last of Sept., and God Willing, if that goes well, we want some time alone before we are doing diaper duty again. (Daughter returning to work) Hopefully, it will be the best of two worlds..a new cruise..a new baby. I will certainly ask for the egg crate topper. Thanks. It is good to hear that Trivia Games are frequent. Ditto on Celebrity and we enjoyed that a lot. Again...Princess must be doing a lot right..to have such loyal ,repeat passengers. The itinerary..is a biggie. I want to see the botanical garden in the Caymans. Happy and (many) sailings to all of you!

[Terre]

You will love Princess...we have sailed on the Crown, Golden and Star. Yes, there are trivia games and they're fun; they put you in teams.

I agree with another poster about Carnival's food being better; however, I have no complaints with Princess's food.

 

You can ask for the foam mattress pad if you need that and feather pillows. The stewards have always been just great. I do usually shower in the spas since the showers are a little larger than the ones in the cabins and the towels are larger! Enjoy your Princess cruise.

[AmberTeka]

We're booked. Nov. 13. Crown Princess. And the anticipating begins..Thanks agains for all of you..taking the time..to answer my questions. Happy, happy sailings to all of you!

[Woobstr112G]

There are mamny of us loyal Princess types. I personally think the MDR food has been very good to excellant. Specialty dining is so so. As far as trivia goes, I found that tere were too many people who took it way to seriously with some actually cheating. I'm still a big trivia buff and still attend, but it seems a little to serious....:(:(:(

 

Bob

[AmberTeka]

There are mamny of us loyal Princess types. I personally think the MDR food has been very good to excellant. Specialty dining is so so. As far as trivia goes, I found that tere were too many people who took it way to seriously with some actually cheating. I'm still a big trivia buff and still attend, but it seems a little to serious....:(:(:(

 

Bob

I agree. BUT..We were on the Westerdam this past January, and the CD took up the top four Team winning trivia sheets..had someone glance over them and I did like that. But even with the occasional cheater, we enjoy it, and we meet the nicest people at Trivia. On our last two cruises, the people we played Trivia with became friends at other activities too. Even our rivals..became friends. From the comments I have read on here, I will do Tea. I went to a High Dutch Tea On HAL several years ago, and it was a lovely experience. On Carnival, I think they do nice Teas also. They make little tarts that are beyond good. To sit in a comfortable chair, to gaze at the ocean, to listen to lovely chamber music while sipping tea and munching tasty tidbits....ah........I can hardly wait!!!