Thinking Princess

[heeb]

:)Have been cruising on Royal and Celebrity and considering a cruise on Princess and the Ruby Princess out of Port Everglades. What's the good and ugly of this ship and cruise line?

[Tralynn]

:)Have been cruising on Royal and Celebrity and considering a cruise on Princess and the Ruby Princess out of Port Everglades. What's the good and ugly of this ship and cruise line?

We haven't been on Celebrity yet, but have done RCCL as well as Princess.

 

I would say in terms of service, food, and general entertainment, they are more alike than different. However, Princess does not "entertain" in the dining rooms like RCCL. There will also be no towel animals.

 

Now, both ships are beautiful, however RCCL ships have more of a WOW factor with the promenade and triple tiered dining rooms. Princess ships are more of an understated elegance with lots of beautiful woods and marble. You notice more of the "crowd" on RCCL where as the way the Princess ships are designed, you don't see the masses quite as much.

 

Princess does offer buffet options 24 hrs. (not a huge buffet, but decent). The late night buffet is in the Caribe all the way aft.

 

Princess does not have the "face recognition" computers set for pictures yet like RCCL. You will have to look for your pictures on the racks. I prefer RCCL for pictures. They don't have the pictures set up in a place where it gets in the way of people walking past and it is so much easier to use the face recognition computer to find pictures that seem lost.

 

RCCL's theatre is set up a bit better than Princess. They are both extremely nice, but there is more seating on RCCL. Princess will repeat some shows to allow for everyone to see them. You do not get "tickets" for any of the Princess shows.

 

I prefer RCCL's beds to Princess. (Princess' are a bit firmer.) I do prefer the "dressing area" on Princess. The closet is not in the walkway in front of the cabin door like on RCCL. It's situated next to the bathroom to allow for a dressing area, which is really nice.

 

Now, Princess does not have rock climbing walls, ice rinks, or flow riders. They do have MUTS (Movies Under the Stars) which is nice. They put nice cushions on the loungers and provide popcorn and blankets for late night movies on deck.

 

Enjoy!

[Pam in CA]

I'm trying to think of an "ugly" but I'm guessing it's a matter of personal preference. Some say the coffee from concentrate in the buffet and dining room is awful but the majority of passengers think its just fine. Some say the showers are too small but the majority are fine with them. I'm somewhat "fluffy" and have never had a problem with the shower sticking to them. Some say the passengers are too old but being 70 myself, I haven't found that the case. :) Seriously, on a 7-day cruise, the passenger make-up is similar to RCCL.

 

Overall, I have found the dining room and cabin service much better on Princess than on Royal.

[2theship]

We cruise both Celebrity and Princess pretty regularly and I think that Tralynn summed things up pretty well. The two lines are pretty similar but I believe that the dining room service on Celebrity is better. I don't care for the buffet arrangements on Princess (although there's some darn good food in Cafe Caribe!), it's just awkward to navigate.

 

We really book based on itinerary and go with whichever cruise line fits our interests at the time.

[lovevacadays]

Sorry, I can't really think of an "ugly" on Princess. I've cruised RCI, HAL, Carnival, and Princess. I have things I liked on each (although not a real fan of Carnival). Since your question is about Princess, I can't think of anything I would consider an ugly after sailing RCI.

[caribill]

You notice more of the "crowd" on RCCL where as the way the Princess ships are designed, you don't see the masses quite as much. There are times and places it is crowded, especially near the atrium where sale tables can block a good part of the passageway.

 

Princess does offer buffet options 24 hrs. (not a huge buffet, but decent). The late night buffet is in the Caribe all the way aft. The 24-hour buffet is no more, but the International Cafe is now open 24 hours.

 

Princess does not have the "face recognition" computers set for pictures yet like RCCL. That feature did not work too well when I was on RCCL.

a) Even though my cruise card was swiped for the welcome aboard picture and the formal night picture taking, none of these pictures appeared.

b) Pictures taken at ports appeared

c) Some pictures taken of others in our family who had their reservation linked to ours, but without me or my spouse in them, also appeared. Maybe our faces are similar enough?

d) A picture of total strangers (to us) also was in the displayed group.

 

 

 

see above in red

[sassyredhat]

I pretty much agree with them too. Even though I haven't sailed CCL, I have sailed HAL which is similar.

I do love RCL's Radiance class ships, and their buffet. RCL has bigger bathrooms, which is a plus with me.

However, I don't need climbing walls, or promenade parades or fancy pools.

I would also agree--go with itin. and price. :)

Pat

[geoherb]

We haven't sailed on Royal Caribbean since they started building mega ships. But we do sail on Celebrity, Holland America, and Princess. They're about the same. One will do something slightly better than the other, but across the board, we've always had a good cruise.

 

I used to think Celebrity did food in the dining room better than Princess, but I was disappointed the last time we were on Celebrity. I also used to like Celebrity's sommeliers, whereas Princess has one of your waiters taking your wine order. But the last couple of times we were on Celebrity, the wine stewards were overworked. Sometimes people did not get their wine for dinner until the second or third course had been served.

[Tralynn]

see above in red

Carbill,

 

The Cafe Caribe had food at all hours of the night in November. (Although limited) When did they stop offering late night food? This must be VERY new. (Like since November) I know they've had it every time we've cruised.

 

And I guess we got lucky with the 'face recognition' technology on RCCL. It worked like a charm for us.