Considering Princess - Thoughts?

[Vikstar]

Hi All,

 

My Mum and I (63 and 33) are booked on RCI Voyager of the Seas for the NYE New Zealand cruise in 2015. I am reading mixed reports about Voyager with poor service, overcrowding and sub-par dining experiences being mentioned. I am also concerned that it is tailored more towards families with young children. Is Princess Cruises geared more towards an older clientele or younger families? Also, in a mini suite is it possible to dine on the balcony. I have only ever cruised with RCI and am not sure whether to make the switch. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

P.S the ship would be Sea Princess.

[likestorelax]

My husband and I have sailed Princess about 7 times. We have also sailed Celebrity and Carnival. I prefer Princess the most. We are in our late 40s and 50s. What I like about Princess is how beautiful their ships are. I feel they have the most activities that I enjoy and in the evening have more then one entertainment option. Often they will have a singers/dancer show and a comedian or something like that. They also have movies under the stars on the bigger ships. I sometimes don't want to go to dinner because I want to attend all the entertainment options. We are not "on the go" people-meaning we don't have to be doing something all the time. I enjoy the trivia games and game show type entertainment that they have during the day. We do not have children and I have seen lots of activities for kids but I never feel overrun by children and they have adult only areas on the ship. We have gotten balcony cabins on the Caribe Deck on the Caribbean Princess. The balcony is huge on this level. We did not need to book a mini suite because of the big balcony. We often just relaxed on our balcony. Food is OK-I think they have great buffet and love their new York style pizza. Burgers and Fries excellent too. Main dining room experience is OK. Not as elegant as Celebrity. I am an excellent cook so restaurant cuisine is usually a disappointment to me. I like Celebrity for its outstanding elegance and service but find their entertainment a bit boring. Carnival is very relaxed, affordable. Service is quite good but it is not elegant. Very kid friendly. I highly recommend you view the daily itineraries that people have posted for princess-or ask someone to post on to see what activities are available. How much you enjoy your cruise depends on finding the right match for your vacationing interest. Happy sailing.

[Kamloops50]

Hi All,

 

My Mum and I (63 and 33) are booked on RCI Voyager of the Seas for the NYE New Zealand cruise in 2015. I am reading mixed reports about Voyager with poor service, overcrowding and sub-par dining experiences being mentioned. I am also concerned that it is tailored more towards families with young children. Is Princess Cruises geared more towards an older clientele or younger families? Also, in a mini suite is it possible to dine on the balcony. I have only ever cruised with RCI and am not sure whether to make the switch. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

P.S the ship would be Sea Princess.

 

The number of families with kids can be hit or miss depending what is going on with schools and holidays.

[skynight]

Hi All,

 

My Mum and I (63 and 33) are booked on RCI Voyager of the Seas for the NYE New Zealand cruise in 2015. I am reading mixed reports about Voyager with poor service, overcrowding and sub-par dining experiences being mentioned. I am also concerned that it is tailored more towards families with young children. Is Princess Cruises geared more towards an older clientele or younger families? Also, in a mini suite is it possible to dine on the balcony. I have only ever cruised with RCI and am not sure whether to make the switch. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

P.S the ship would be Sea Princess.[/quote

The Sea Princess is a smaller ship with approx. 2000 passengers vs the Voyager's 3,600. Yes, you can dine on the balcony in any mini suite or regular balcony cabin. On most Princess ships the room service menu is smaller and not the full DR menu. Regarding children, this depends on school holidays, but the Sea Princess has no water slides, rock walls, zip lines, etc. that attract youth. You will find the experience different on Princess, but you still should have a nice time.

Edited December 27, 2014 by sknight

[golfb4cruzing]

Some will disagree but I think, when there are kids on Princess, they tend to be a little more behaved. I would say they are at a different level because, like their parents and grandparents, they are a little more travelled and understand the product. We haven't seen roaming boisterous groups like we suffered through on Carnival.

[Loucat]

Some will disagree but I think, when there are kids on Princess, they tend to be a little more behaved. I would say they are at a different level because, like their parents and grandparents, they are a little more travelled and understand the product. We haven't seen roaming boisterous groups like we suffered through on Carnival.

 

We have cruised Princess twice; the last on CB. Had to move in the MDR as a family with four kids had them sleeping on chairs put together for them to stretch out on; older ones loud and running around. Another table with the same type of behavior.

I do not think it is possible to make an assumption that kids on Princess or any cruise line are more traveled than others.

[Hlitner]

DW and I used to be regular RCI cruisers (we were Diamond many years ago before they even had Diamond Plus) and really enjoyed the line. But then RCI changed the focus of their entire product to larger ships (they still do have some wonderful Radiance Class vessels) and pushed their "WOW" factor. The name of the game for RCI is maximizing onboard revenue through all kinds or promotions, sales, constant attempts to separate passengers from their money, etc. The last time we cruised on the Explorer of the Seas, DW mentioned that it seemed like RCI was trying to make their cruises seem like you were not on a ship...but rather a land-based resort with co-located shopping mall. That was our last RCI cruise (about 6 years ago). When it comes to the mass market lines we now regularly cruise on HAL, Princess and Celebrity (over 70 days a year) and are fine with those products (far from perfect...but still pretty good). Our most recent Princess cruise was this past spring (25 days on the Ruby) and we were very satisfied. Princess still delivers a great product and has managed to avoid some of the annoying cut-backs we find on several other lines.

 

As to kids/families, the passenger demographics depend more on the length of cruise, itinerary, and time of year...then on the specific cruise line. Take a Caribbean cruise during a school holiday and there will always be hundreds of kids. But take a repositioning cruise (i.e. Florida to Civitavecchia) and you will have few kids/teens and an older more sophisticated travel crowd.

 

As to NZ (just returned from a few weeks driving on South Island) it is a fantastic place to visit on a cruise (but even better on land). A New Years cruise (anywhere) is going to have a decent number of families (and kids) and this is what you get on a holiday cruise. If you change to the cruise after New Years, there will be a dramatic drop in the number of kids and a major increase in the overall age of the passengers.

 

Hank

[swirlidz]

Hi Vikstar,

 

I am going on this exact cruise, leaving tomorrow (& funnily enough, we are the same age)!!! When I get I will try & do a review, or at the very least, come back to this thread. My parents did this cruise 2 months ago & had a great time. They are late 60s but said they felt very 'young'.

 

Being school holidays there may be more families on the boat, will let you know! :)

[ChiefSealthCruz]

We have cruised Princess twice; the last on CB. Had to move in the MDR as a family with four kids had them sleeping on chairs put together for them to stretch out on; older ones loud and running around. Another table with the same type of behavior.

I do not think it is possible to make an assumption that kids on Princess or any cruise line are more traveled than others.

 

Loucat is right, how well behaved children are depends on the parents not the cruise line. My own children, ages 7, 8 and 15 would never dare run around or sleep when not appropriate. They know that if they do, their next cruise will be on their own after they are adults.

 

My children enjoy the MDR and want to do it right. It is also our responsibility as parents to keep track of the time and not take them to a late seating after a full day of activity and expect them to not fall asleep. My wife and I do our best to set them up to succeed, no matter where we are.

[Kinkacruiser]

I would avoid a December -January cruise to NZ (school holidays). Princess does seem to fit the 50+ age group better. Although a loyal Princess cruiser, I've heard RCCL is fine. Don't take too many criticisms onboard. There could also be penalties for jumping ship/cancelling your RCCL cruise.

Love the size of the Sun, Sea and Dawn Princesses (under 2000 pax) and yes, a balcony dinner or breakfast is doable.

Enjoy your cruise.

Edited December 27, 2014 by Kinkacruiser

[sfpen66]

We first started our cruising life with RCCL and we had some grand times on Freedom of the Seas and Monarch of the Seas (our first cruise). Then we decided to try Princess! We have been on Sapphire, Emerald and Star. All are awesome ships. We do like the choices of entertainment on Princess and the cabins seem to be better. For one, they have more storage space. We are in our mid-50's so we like to relax on our balconies. We don't bring the children with us, so we haven't used any of those services. I hope this helps you. Have a great time!

[AspensMom73]

My husband and I were about 36 when we took our first cruise, and it was on the Ruby Princess. We found that most guests were older than us, but there were some families with children. We never experienced outright extreme misbehavior on our cruise by any children (or adults :p), but still felt comfortable. We didn't do a ton of activities on the ship, but we generally go to relax and enjoy the heat. We're going on our second cruise with Princess, leaving in 4 weeks on the Emerald, and looking forward to new ports of call, warm weather, and I'm looking forward to not having to cook for a week :D