Switching from Princess to Royal Caribbean...

[Doctor_Who]

For pre-cruise we've always come the day before (to FLL) but I see that RC usually goes to Port Canaveral. What airport is best to fly into? Best hotel to stay in? How to get from airport to hotel and then to port?

[Wehwalt]

You'll have a blast! That is a great ship![emoji2][emoji2]

 

I'm looking forward! Looks like plenty of trivia (I am, I think, the only Wikipedia admin who cruises, and can be bribed!) as well as other fun stuff to do.

[vanceml]

For pre-cruise we've always come the day before (to FLL) but I see that RC usually goes to Port Canaveral. What airport is best to fly into? Best hotel to stay in? How to get from airport to hotel and then to port?

 

 

Do you mean cruises out of Port Canaveral? They have a lot of trips out of Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, and even part of the year out of Tampa also. Those four towns are about five hours apart. If you are going out of Port Canaveral I would try to get a flight to Orlando, but if other cities were cheaper I would go to them, rent a car and go from their. The airport is less than an hour to the port. Very easy drive.

[Doctor_Who]

Yes, I meant goes out from lol. I think we will go to Disney for a day or so and then use a company like Mears to get us to the port. Then whatever shuttle RC offers for the way back to the airport. MCO looks like our best option (we are from Canada but fly from Buffalo).

[vanceml]

Yes, I meant goes out from lol. I think we will go to Disney for a day or so and then use a company like Mears to get us to the port. Then whatever shuttle RC offers for the way back to the airport. MCO looks like our best option (we are from Canada but fly from Buffalo).

 

 

That sounds like a great plan! I think that RC has deals with Universal studios if you like that.

[Doctor_Who]

Also we are thinking of one cruise this summer (as long as I don't get a placement by then) one night overnight before (possibly at Disney) and then a back to back once the adoption is finalized and baby is six months old. I originally planned for one week at Disney World and then one week on a cruise (two separate trips) but after seeing all the character fun and that they have parent/baby activities on the ships I think we are going to do Disney one or two days at Disney so we can just visit Magic Kingdom and then do two weeks on the ship :) . This way I get the fun and cute pics at Disney and then get to "relax for two weeks on the cruise! We will probably have to use the laundry bag service at least once and I'll hand wash baby's stuff as needed but I'm really excited now! After seeing the ship (both this summer trip and the future two week trip would be on the Freedom) the Princess ships I've been on seem so stuffy and outdated lol.

[Doctor_Who]

That sounds like a great plan! I think that RC has deals with Universal studios if you like that.

 

Yes, I think they do. I don't think we will right now (my brother doesn't like grown up rides lol) but when I have a child a bit older I would LOVE to do that. I've been to Universal twice and it was amazing :)

[vanceml]

Also we are thinking of one cruise this summer (as long as I don't get a placement by then) one night overnight before (possibly at Disney) and then a back to back once the adoption is finalized and baby is six months old. I originally planned for one week at Disney World and then one week on a cruise (two separate trips) but after seeing all the character fun and that they have parent/baby activities on the ships I think we are going to do Disney one or two days at Disney so we can just visit Magic Kingdom and then do two weeks on the ship :) . This way I get the fun and cute pics at Disney and then get to "relax for two weeks on the cruise! We will probably have to use the laundry bag service at least once and I'll hand wash baby's stuff as needed but I'm really excited now! After seeing the ship (both this summer trip and the future two week trip would be on the Freedom) the Princess ships I've been on seem so stuffy and outdated lol.

 

 

Sounds like you have it all planned out! Freedom is a really nice ship. We have been on it I think four times now. The winter of 2016 it is leaving and going to Ft. Lauderdale. The Oasis of the Seas will take its place.

[APDMOM]

Also is it just me or are the rooms BIG?!?! I'm looking at the interior stateroom on the Freedom of the Seas... there's a COUCH!!

 

 

Look at the Promenade (inside category PR) staterooms. They have 2 couches, one at the bay window where you can have a view of the action on the promenade. It is a good choice if you can't splurge on a balcony. :)

 

See this link for some pics of the PR cabins:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2137938

 

PS: You may already know, but Freedom is leaving Port Canaveral next spring and will be replaced with Oasis.

[WEGL81]

We have been on more Princess cruises than RCL, so I'll try to give some comparison. Our last RCL cruise was Indy last year. Since then we've been on Celebrity and Princess. We haven't stuck to one line (although all of our future booked cruises are with RCL and Celebrity). Food is an individual preference, of course, but I found the food on Princess better than the food on RCL, but not Celebrity. All cruise lines have "standard" fair that you can order from MDR menus that should satisfy someone who doesn't want "exotic", for lack of a better term. Heck, the best burger/fries I ever had was ordered in the MDR of Princess ship (who, btw, make the best fries).

 

Our kids are grown as well so I can't give advice on ships with kids' activities. I can say on our last Princess cruise (New Year) there were a lot of kids running around unsupervised both during the day and late at night. If I was starting out again with young kids I would compare Carnival, Disney, and RCL for value and kids programs. We took one Carnival cruise when our kids were 12 and 14 and swore that we would never do that again.

 

We are going to try and remain loyal to the RCI brand, but primarily thru Celebrity. But the choices are definitely more limited in the summer when most of the Celebrity and Princess ships go to Europe or Alaska.

[rollingstone]

We have cruised on all of the lines. All have their pros & cons. As far as perks go, Princess is the ultimate (IMO). We get free internet, unlimited laundry & dry cleaning, a bar set up, priority tenders, discount in all shops.

Also, it is the only cruise line that let's you combine future cruise certificates, stockholder credit, military credit ($100) & ship credit from your travel agent.

If another line has a deal we go with them but only if it is 7 days.

[Hotel CA]

We have sailed both and like both-- our comparison would be as follows

 

Pizza-- Hands down Princess -- Princess rules the waves in this category

MDR -- Like both but think Royal higher quality

Kids -- Hands down Royal-- Royal second only to Disney and as you noted 1/2 the cost of Disney (and they have the Royal Tots for young'uns)

Rooms-- slight nod to Royal

Service-- its a wash-- both good

 

as suggested above-- Freedom is a killer ship with both Kid and Adult appeal AND its out of Port Canaveral so you could combine a day at Disney World if you wanted...

 

BOTTOM LINE-- we do like the Vibe on Royal better then Princes although we do miss the British officers on Princess--so we are pretty much have converted to the Royal side of Royal V Princess debate

[Wehwalt]

We have cruised on all of the lines. All have their pros & cons. As far as perks go, Princess is the ultimate (IMO). We get free internet, unlimited laundry & dry cleaning, a bar set up, priority tenders, discount in all shops.

Also, it is the only cruise line that let's you combine future cruise certificates, stockholder credit, military credit ($100) & ship credit from your travel agent.

If another line has a deal we go with them but only if it is 7 days.

 

The Elite perks are nice. I am hoping Princess catches up with RCI and offers unlimited internet packages soon. There is some indication they are moving in that direction. I HATE having to slam the logout key to save minutes constantly.

[Doctor_Who]

Thanks everyone!

 

No, I didn't know Freedom was moving... I was looking at April 2016 and it was still showing Freedom. As long as it's a ship in the Freedom or Oasis class it's all good to me since those seem to be the most baby friendly, especially since they have the baby splash zone. Oasis scares me a bit because it's so big lol. It was in port with us when we went on Princess in August and it was overwhelming looking lol.

 

What is MDR? I'm guessing food related but I can't seem to figure it out :P

 

For excursions if it doesn't say "minimum age: X" does that mean young children can go on it? Also do you pay for the child even if they will be sitting on your lap?

[Clarea]

Thanks everyone!

 

No, I didn't know Freedom was moving... I was looking at April 2016 and it was still showing Freedom. As long as it's a ship in the Freedom or Oasis class it's all good to me since those seem to be the most baby friendly, especially since they have the baby splash zone. Oasis scares me a bit because it's so big lol. It was in port with us when we went on Princess in August and it was overwhelming looking lol.

 

What is MDR? I'm guessing food related but I can't seem to figure it out :P

 

For excursions if it doesn't say "minimum age: X" does that mean young children can go on it? Also do you pay for the child even if they will be sitting on your lap?

MDR is the Main Dining Room. It will be noted if there are age or weight restrictions on excursions. All must pay no matter the age,

Edited March 8, 2015 by clarea

[Doctor_Who]

MDR is the Main Dining Room. It will be noted if there are age or weight restrictions on excursions. All must pay no matter the age,

 

Thanks!

[nycruise]

We've traveled the 6 major cruise lines as you can see from my signature. Having said that we like Princess the best but we don't restrict ourselves strictly to one line. As a matter of fact we just got off the Quantum a couple of weeks ago and had a great time.

 

For someone with children I think RCCL is a better choice than Princess. Princess offers, in my opinion, a more traditional and elegant cruise and is geared more to an older clientele, not as old as HAL but definitely older than RCCL and Carnival.

 

My advice is to try all the major lines in the coming years and then you will know which works best for you.

 

Happy Sailing.

[NewSalt]

About half our cruises have been just DH and I, and the other half with DD and her DH and two small sons, who are 2 and 5 now.

 

We've found differences, not only between lines but between ships on the same line. Our last cruise last month was on Legend of the Seas, and our balcony cabin was the smallest we've ever had in that category by far. It would not have worked for DD and her family.

 

We've looked at Disney several times, but it seems that all the cruises at the times we are available are five days, and we prefer longer cruises, at least seven days and nine or ten is better. Getting ready to cruise with little ones is pretty complicated, and all that work for five days doesn't seem to be worthwhile.

 

I've found I liked the food on Princess better than RCI, but the food on Legend was much better than Explorer AND Princess. We hated the Wind Jammer on Explorer; it was much better on Legend, but not as good as Celebrity.

 

There was much more for the kids to do on RCI, and I understand that when we sail on Liberty this summer, there will be many more things. But activities for children aren't really an necessity until they are past the toddler stage. They're very easily amused. DGS was very content playing with his trucks and trains on the balcony.

 

Unfortunately, we've never sailed with them on a ship that has a self-service laundry. Both our grandsons have sensitive skin so using the ship's laundry is not an option, and hand-washing clothes is not a vacation activity in our world.

 

We book connecting balcony cabins. DD and her DH read on the balcony when the boys nap, and we can relax in our cabin with the door open if they want to go to a late show or to try out one of the bars after the boys go to sleep. We order OJ from room service for early morning, and love to hear their little tap-tap on our door early in the morning. They sit on our balcony and drink their juice and fill us in on their philosophy of life. Best cruise experience we've ever had.

[Doctor_Who]

Thanks for sharing your experience with little ones!

 

I was just looking at 4 and 5 night cruises but you are totally right, not worth it, especially when our flights are also the same cost as the cruise!

 

I'm only planning on sailing on the Oasis and Freedom class ships since they have the "baby splash zone" and seem to have the best options for babies. The biggest downfall to cruising with babies is no swimming so I love that those ships have that small area as an option.

 

If we do back to back we plan on bringing about 10 days worth, rewearing as we can, and sending off to the laundry people what we can't.

 

Does anyone know if you do a back to back if you have to get off the ship? Do you have to take your luggage with you?

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We book connecting balcony cabins. DD and her DH read on the balcony when the boys nap, and we can relax in our cabin with the door open if they want to go to a late show or to try out one of the bars after the boys go to sleep. We order OJ from room service for early morning, and love to hear their little tap-tap on our door early in the morning. They sit on our balcony and drink their juice and fill us in on their philosophy of life. Best cruise experience we've ever had.

 

Grandchildren are life's compensation for growing old. :):D:p

[Doctor_Who]

Double post and I don't know how to delete lol

Edited March 9, 2015 by Doctor_Who
Double Post

[rummenroman]

 

Does anyone know if you do a back to back if you have to get off the ship? Do you have to take your luggage with you?

 

If you said in the same cabin for both weeks, you don't even have to pack. If you have to move cabins, you would have to pack, but your stateroom attendant will move your things to the new cabin.

 

You do have to "get off" the ship. Basically you are taken from a special lounge with other B2B cruisers, and you check in at the pier, get new seapass cards and then get back on the ship.

[rummenroman]

Double post and I don't know how to delete lol

 

Haha, you can't delete an entire post, just edit. We have all done it, no biggie!

[Doctor_Who]

If you said in the same cabin for both weeks, you don't even have to pack. If you have to move cabins, you would have to pack, but your stateroom attendant will move your things to the new cabin.

 

You do have to "get off" the ship. Basically you are taken from a special lounge with other B2B cruisers, and you check in at the pier, get new seapass cards and then get back on the ship.

 

AWESOME! Makes me even more excited for b2b :)