Celebrity or Princess for Hawai?

[travelberlin]

Hi dear CC members,

We are considering a cruise to Hawai. We have 2 offers ( one with Celebrity and one with Princess) for about the same price. I have sailed before with Celebrity and I like this cruiseline, however because of the datum we might get to choose Princess. Could you please let me know your opinion about Princess in relation to Celebrity?

Thanks in advance.

[chessbriar]

Which Princess ship?

When are you sailing?

 

There is a method to my madness, but it does matter. A ship that does Hawaii all winter long will have a better program than a ship that does just a couple cruises. The Golden Princess is the best option. But the on board experience changes with the change of CDs.

[vhoghul]

I can't speak for Celebrity, as my first cruise with them is coming later this year, but I did do the Princess Hawaii cruise several years back, when the Island Princess ran this cruise on repeat.

 

It was one of the better cruises I've been on, above par food, a great ship and very friendly staff.

 

Myself being in my early 30s, my only complaint was that I was about 30 years below the average age on the ship, so the 4 sea days each way were a little slow.

[Once Upon A Time]

I've done both Celebrity and Princess to Hawaii (Princess twice) and I'd probably do Princess again, only because of the perks I now receive. Both ships were equal in my mind in the food, service and entertainment departments.

 

I would base the decision on ports and length of time in ports. I miss that Princess no longer goes to Kona and if Celebrity stopped in Kona or spent longer in Maui... that would be a big plus.

[CRUZBUDS]

On the ones we looked at on the Century doesn't do Kona either. That's why we decided to cancel and go to Alaska ... burrr :)

 

HAL also dropped Kona when they went from 15 to 14 days.

 

Carnival Spirit has some coming up and they do go to Kona.

 

Hawaii is our favorite cruise -- We've done HAL, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean R/T and Carnival and Princess one way (Hawaii to Ensenada) We loved everyone of them.

 

Aloha!

[Denny01]

I just completed a Golden Princess Hawaii cruise but haven't cruised Celebrity Century to Hawaii, but I'm Celebrity Elite so I'll chime in:

 

Loved the Golden Princess cruise. enjoyed the islands and nice ship. The pluses for Princess was the pools and hot tubs are open later, the drinks seemed a bit cheaper, very nice service and good dining. I used their Coffee card and loved it. The issues (my way of saying what I like about Celebrity more) was Princess allows smoking in the SR and balcony. Our SR was smokey so they cleaned it again. Could still tell but we lived with it. Lots of smoke in the Casino. We got a mini-suite and loved it, but the standard Princess SRs don't have a sofa and extra chairs to entertain in the room. Liked the standard Celebrity SR much more. Princess had more hard-sell going on. Many times when I ordered a wine, the waiter asked if i wanted a ticket to the next wine tasting - big push. They had a 'how to pack efficiency' lecture which was just an infomercial for the vacuum packs for clothing. Loved the Golden decor, but the ship seemed more crowded, especially the Theater. People went in a hr before the show to get good seats and when we went in 15min before, as we usually do on Celebrity, there were no seats together - people were standing.

 

Enough. We enjoyed the cruise, but we went with Princess because when we made our reservations, Celebrity didn't have that itinerary - if I had the choice, we'd go with Celebrity - but we do cruise Celebrity unless there is a specific reason to go with another, so that is very subjective.

 

We enjoyed our Princess cruise and doing one again around the UK in Aug. You can't go wrong with either one.

 

Denny

[brissie]

We had a connecting cabin on Sapphire Princess and the cigarette smoke coming through from next door was very upsetting. Took six days from San Francisco to Hawaii to find us another cabin. We felt ill most of the time.

 

Sailing on Celebrity this time due to no smoking in cabins or on varandahs.

[travelberlin]

Thank you so much for your answers. The Princess ship is the Saphire and the Celebrity ship is the Century. Husband is concerned with the many seadays. How is onboard entertainment? Lectures for example?

[Once Upon A Time]

Thank you so much for your answers. The Princess ship is the Saphire and the Celebrity ship is the Century. Husband is concerned with the many seadays. How is onboard entertainment? Lectures for example?

 

We love the sea days... so relaxing, but lots going on if you're looking for that.. My husband loves to put on his headphones or read a book and just totally relax. His stressful job is a wisked away....sorry, don't do lectures unless they are of particular interest. Entertainment was very good on both.

 

Based on the ships you mentioned.. I'd choose the Sapphire Princess...hands down. That's a personal opinion..