We are booked, normally cruise Princess now trying Celebrity

[Rascal1]

Hi All, We've cruised with Princess 4 times so know we love cruising but have just booked our first cruise on Celebrity Eclipse for the 8 nights Norwegian Fjords in May 2014. We looked at Princess but they are so expensive for next year and thought we'd try a new cruiseline. Now we've booked I'm very excited about trying Celebrity, it kind of feels like it did when we booked our first one. I'm looking forward to the next 11 months planning. If you've cruised Princess before and have changed to Celebrity would love to know what you think the main differences are.

[luvtravel88]

As you can see from my signature, we have done both Celebrity and Princess. In my opinion, they are pretty interchangeable. We feel strongly enough about that though that I book our cruises based on the itinerary and the price when considering either of these two cruise lines.

Of course every opinion is subjective and I'm sure you'll hear from others that wholeheartedly disagree.

 

You'll have a wonderful time!! Have fun planning!

[julia]

We have cruised Princess often (and would still book with them), but now we prefer Celebrity.

 

Better itineraries, better beds, better coffee, nicer atmosphere, and MUCH better entertainment. You will enjoy trying Celebrity. Happy planning! :)

[celebrity]

I have sailed both and you can see from my screen name which line I prefer.

Bon Voyage!

[OCruisers]

We most often cruise on Princess ... but also enjoy Celebrity and have always had wonderful times. :)

 

LuLu

~~~~

[MicCanberra]

As you can see from my signature, we have done both Celebrity and Princess. In my opinion, they are pretty interchangeable. We feel strongly enough about that though that I book our cruises based on the itinerary and the price when considering either of these two cruise lines.

Of course every opinion is subjective and I'm sure you'll hear from others that wholeheartedly disagree.

 

You'll have a wonderful time!! Have fun planning!

I agree, the cruiselines are both great. Itinerary, timing and price picks our cruise, however we do tend to favour X at the moment but still check out the Princess cruises as well. Enjoy.:D

[sabookkeeper]

Hi All, We've cruised with Princess 4 times so know we love cruising but have just booked our first cruise on Celebrity Eclipse for the 8 nights Norwegian Fjords in May 2014. We looked at Princess but they are so expensive for next year and thought we'd try a new cruiseline. Now we've booked I'm very excited about trying Celebrity, it kind of feels like it did when we booked our first one. I'm looking forward to the next 11 months planning. If you've cruised Princess before and have changed to Celebrity would love to know what you think the main differences are.

We took our first Celebrity cruise on the Silhouette in February after only cruising on Princess. Some of the differences are: we had a couch in our 2C balcony cabin - on Princess you have to spring for a mini-suite. The MDR food is good, but the dessert selection is no where close to Princess. We missed the International Café, but they do have Café Al Bacio which serves some sweets free (specialty coffee costs). We enjoyed our cruise so much, that we cancelled our booked cruise on the Royal Princess in February 2015 and book a cruise on the Reflection. Bottom line is that if you like Princess you will also like Celebrity.

[BosoxI]

DW and I have been big fans of Princess for more than 35 years, mostly because of their itineraries but also because of the quality of their food. We had tried Celebrity during this period but found the food quality lacking. More recently, however, we returned to Celebrity and discovered the food had improved and was at that point equal to that of Princess. Our last dining experience on the Infinity, however, has given us pause and we are now considering a return to Princess to see what their food has become. We haven't been on a Princess ship in almost two years and recognize cruise lines are cutting corners. The question is how much.

We do like the Solstice class more than the Grand. At this point it appears cost could be the driver.

[Blazerboy]

I was never as big fan of Princess, except that I liked the mini suites on the "Sun" class ships. But then I had a wonderful cruise on the the Sapphire Princess to Mexico. We'd certainly consider Princess again, but keep returning to Celebrity, as the product seems to fit us well. To be fair, my first Princess Cruise was in 1994 on the old Golden, and that was a cheapo Ensenada cruise after 17 days on Crystal Cruises. Fortunately, we tried Princess again, and had a better time, eventually taking the great cruise mentioned above. I think you'll like Celebrity, but there is a slightly different vibe.

 

Andrew

 

Andrew

[Catalina56]

We are Elite with Princess, you are going to love Celebrity's S Class ships. You will probably never said Princess again after Celebrity

 

catalina56

[drakes2]

Love both cruise lines, but lately I have been on more Celebrity S class ships. I do agree about the desserts though, not as good as Princess, but that's never been a determining factor. Enjoy!

We are Elite with Princess, you are going to love Celebrity's S Class ships. You will probably never said Princess again after Celebrity

 

catalina56

[MicCanberra]

They are both 5 star + cruiselines, so if you enjoy princess you will enjoy X.:D

[We're The Groupnors]

We've sailed both lines and enjoy both, but for us Celebrity is a notch up from Priness for several reasons:

 

More elegant ships

Little service touches like sommeliers in the MDR vs having the assistant waiter serve your wine

Amenity touches such as cotton swabs and other little extras in the cabin bathrooms

Friendlier staff in general

Larger standard balcony cabins

Better bathroom layouts (on both m and s class ships)

 

Having said that, for the right itinerary and price we would still go with Princess.

[Waihekean]

My first cruise was on the Dawn Princess, so Princess will always have a soft spot with me. Would not mind going with them again, but at about double the price of Celebrity I do think Celebrity gives so much more value. Plus because I'm 'down under' there is always a flight as well and just can not afford Princess.

 

I did like the shows better on Princess and they had a great activities team (on X basically non existant). I liked their pools and the MDR better. Also found the Atrium quite fabulous.

 

But with Celebrity you get the lovely Solarium, much better buffet and more choice of restaurants. Lots of elegant lounges with beautiful restrooms. No need to come early to the theatre and they still have some good shows. But where X really excells are the cabins. They have such a great ambiance and a spacious bathroom and roomy balconies, especially if you book an angled one.

 

I was so surprised to see that the cabins on the Royal Princess are basically the same style as on the older ships. With still a shower curtain! And they made the balconies even smaller then they already were.

But the Atrium definitely has that Wow factor.

 

So, like a lot of others have already mentioned. It seems most pax that like Princess, do like Celebrity as well.

[wallie5446]

We were on the Ruby last Nov, nothing special, just another cruise. You will see why in 11 months :)

[Iamcruzin]

We reached Platinum on our last Princess cruise but we booked Celebrity for the first time because of the itinerary. I enjoy both lines but my next cruise will probably be Celebrity because they have much better Caribbean itineraries and the prices seem to be less expensive than Princess.

 

Celebrity has a better room set up. We had an ocean view room on the Summit and we liked it better than the balcony we had on Princess because of the of the sofa and because the shower in the bathroom was larger. I found the service to be about the same in the MDR but we always book anytime dining on both lines so I think you sacrifice some personal service when you don't have the same wait staff each night. The overall atmosphere and passenger demographic is about the same. I have never had a bad meal on Princess but I can't say the same about Celebrity. I think when you try a new cruise line there is a learning curve and now that I have experience I will know how and what to order in the future. The one down fall I found with Celebrity is that their specialty restaurants are over priced at $45 pp. The coffee in the buffet is fresh ground as apposed to the coffee that is piped in from the pits of Hell on Princess. I enjoyed the entertainment on Celebrity something that I could never experience on Princess because I refused to show up 45 minutes early just to get a seat in the theater. I prefer the pools on Princess but if you can stand the echo, the Solarium pool on Celebrity is a nice addition during poor weather conditions.

[MicCanberra]

The X ships (I have been on) definately have a more modern decor and feel about them, much more stylish.:D

[ChazR]

We've sailed both lines and enjoy both' date=' but for us Celebrity is a notch up from Priness for several reasons:

 

More elegant ships

Little service touches like sommeliers in the MDR vs having the assistant waiter serve your wine

Amenity touches such as cotton swabs and other little extras in the cabin bathrooms

Friendlier staff in general

Larger standard balcony cabins

Better bathroom layouts (on both m and s class ships)

 

Having said that, for the right itinerary and price we would still go with Princess.[/quote']

 

 

 

As you can tell from our signature our primary choice is X.....however, for you pizza lovers out there there is NOTHING close to the pizza on Princess......we're talking miles apart from the rest.

 

Charles

[MicCanberra]

As you can tell from our signature our primary choice is X.....however, for you pizza lovers out there there is NOTHING close to the pizza on Princess......we're talking miles apart from the rest.

 

Charles

You are absolutely right there, but a good pizza alone doesn't make a cruise.:D

[Keith1010]

You will find better food and better service.

 

I hope that you enjoy it.

 

Keith

[vickykay]

We did a cruise on Caribbean Princess a couple of years ago to Canada. Had a wonderful time but Celebrity still our line of choice. MDR food was good but we did not like the three separate small dining rooms, one of which seemed to be hidden. We love the traditional two story MDR. Also felt the buffet was lacking in both design and food options, felt like we were going through a HS cafeteria line, but maybe that is just the design of the Caribbean Princess. We really enjoyed the speciality coffee card. Had a difficult time sleeping as the beds were rock hard, much more comfortable beds on Celebrity.

 

Staff very friendly on both lines and service was excellent. Have to agree, the pizza was terrific on Princess but the waffles on Celebrity!!!

 

Enjoy your cruise. That is a trip we also would like to do in the future.

[KirkNC]

Not huge differences to us but we do like X better if for no other reason than their smoking policy.

[Vol fan]

We recently returned from a cruise on the Emerald Princess and had a lovely time. It was our second Princess cruise. We have been on Celebrity more often most recently and generally prefer it.

 

We greatly prefer the food on Celebrity. It seems healthier, less heavy, less seasoned. There are more healthy choices each evening with non-dairy, gluten-free, etc. options clearly noted on the menu as well. We did not care for the three dining room system on Princess. After the third night, we decided on one table and wait staff and went to the same place every night at about the same time. We choose Anytime dining on whatever line we sail, but we always eat early in the evening. We don't have any dietary restrictions. I just mentioned that as an example of the expanded menu.

 

On Celebrity there is only one announcement per day. They put the info in the Celebrity Today, so they don't have to tell you every hour or so that Bingo is starting up or gold chains by the inch are for sale or the hairy chest contest is starting by the pool. (By the way, there are are no hairy chest or best looking legs contests) It is nice not to hear the loudspeaker interrupt your day.

 

The shows are more spectacular on Celebrity, but there are fewer of them. We liked the shows on Princess. They were not intricate productions with big sets like on Celebrity, but they were fun and the quality of the entertainers (and quantity) was great. There are not as many ancillary shows in venues other than the main theater on Celebrity as there are on Princess. We really enjoyed all of the other shows on Princess (comedians, ventriloquists, hypnotists, pianists, etc.) in the other venues and would go from one venue to the next. On Celebrity, you have the main theater, then there is a production of some sort in the "central area" for about 20 minutes in the evening and different combos/musicians are playing in the bars/nightclubs. It's just a different feel/vibe.

 

The Solarium is wonderful when it is very windy outdoors, too cool to sit outdoors or when one has had too much sun. It can get crowded, though, so get there early on days when you think people are going to want to stay indoors.

 

The glass shower door is so much better than the shower curtain! It is a little thing, but so nice.

 

I felt like our balcony cabin on the Emerald Princess was bigger than our usual cabin on Celebrity and I liked the real nightstands by the bed. On Celebrity, there are just little pedestal things that don't hold much. Also, I like the way the closet/bath is arranged on Princess better than Celebrity. It affords more privacy and is just easier to navigate.

 

Love, love, love the aft pool on Princess and will miss it on our next Celebrity cruise. The Celebrity ships do not have an aft pool.

 

Our bed was very comfortable on the Emerald and comparable to the beds on Celebrity, so if you like the Princess beds, you should be okay. Celebrity gives you a top sheet without you having to ask for it. That is the weirdest thing on Princess. Also, if you are in Concierge Class or above, there is a pillow menu and you can request the type of pillow you want. Even if you aren't in CC, the pillows are much better than the pillows on Princess.

 

Pizza is not as good, but the grilled burgers by the pool are much better on Celebrity. Yum! And the fries! Yum!

 

No smoking in the casino on Celebrity.

 

I guess this is probably more than you wanted to know, but if there is anything else, just ask and I'm sure someone will know the answer.

[deelastcre]

We enjoy both, but the smoking policy and loyalty program gives Celebrity an edge. I enjoy the entertainment more on Princess.

[Rascal1]

Thanks to everyone for taking time to share their views, now just need to work out how to make the next 11 months go quickly. I never was good at waiting!