Princess or RC?

[Kitey]

I'm not a new cruiser, but kind of newish. We're wanting to cruise to the Caribbean. Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao. I have found similar cruises on Princess and RC. We're all adults over the age of 40, and we are probably more interested in the food than the bars. What say you? Which cruise line would you select?

 

We're looking at Navigator of the Seas on RC and Crown Princess on Princess. Both balcony rooms.

[Aquahound]

I've been on Navigator and on sister ships to Crown. I recommend the Navigator. Navigator is an amazing ship and the standard balcony rooms are more spacious than on Crown. Plus, the public areas on Navigator are more wide open, spacious and have a "wow" factor that lacks on that class of Princess ships.

 

I'd rate the food the same. Good luck with your choice. :)

[cruise_mojo]

we've not been on navigator, but we have been on several royal ships

 

we celebrated our 30th anniversary on the Crown Princess, that was a pretty special cruise:)

 

we had a jr suite, with a larger balcony that would fit two chaise lounges and two chairs, I think at that time Princess food was a bit better than royal, their buffet was great, dining room food was really good, and their wine and cheese bar, sushi bar, and the Italian snack bar was great and we liked their pizza really well too

 

We didn't do any specialty dining on board Princess though. Royal C's Chops Grill we like really well. So, Id stick with the you can't really go wrong thing. Royal might appeal to the 40's crowd a bit better than Princess though.....

 

eh? whaddyagonna do?!?

[cb at sea]

Either/or, IMO!

[Hlitner]

A tough choice. But given your age and the fact you mention food....we are thinking that Princess might be a slightly better choice. We think that Princess compares favorably to Celebrity...which happens to be a more upscale product then RCI. For what its worth we are long time Diamond (would be Diamond Plus if we decide to ever cruise on RCI again) with RCI and Elite with Princess...so we do have substantial experience on both lines.

 

Hank

[welikepalms]

I don't have huge experience with either RCI or Princess but this is my 2 cents. We just returned from our first (and probably last) Princess cruise on the Regal Princess. We have done 2 RCI Cruises, 1 on Explorer of the Seas and one on the Enchantment as well as 2 NCL cruises.

 

My DW and I both agree that the Regal is a beautiful ship, the staff was good as well as the food and entertainment. We had a great time and really enjoyed the New England/Canada itinerary.

 

So now your wondering why this will probably be our last Princess Cruise. The best way I can describe it is that on Princess we never felt the personal touch's that we had on RCI. If you have ever been to Disney World and notice when you get on the property everyone makes you feel welcome and special that is the type of things missing from Princess. Everyone was nice and professional but for our dollar we will be going back to RCI for our next cruise.

 

Happy Cruising and what ever you decide it will be a great vacation I am sure. Again just my 2 cents from our perspective.

[SuperMommy]

Princess. It has been a long time since I've sailed either Princess or RC, but I did both relatively close together. The food and entertainment on Princess was WONDERFUL. The food was ok on RC, but the entertainment was downright high school amateur talent show at best. RC also had "commercials" everywhere to get you to book again while I hardly recall any promotions on princess besides the aptly played Love Boat theme. Good luck and have fun!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[DisneyDatknee]

I'm not a new cruiser, but kind of newish. We're wanting to cruise to the Caribbean. Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao. I have found similar cruises on Princess and RC. We're all adults over the age of 40, and we are probably more interested in the food than the bars. What say you? Which cruise line would you select?

 

We're looking at Navigator of the Seas on RC and Crown Princess on Princess. Both balcony rooms.

 

Looked at the same itineraries for next November.. We are leaning towards Princess as the port times are longer..

[OCruisers]

Crown Princess in a "heartbeat"! :)

[Hlitner]

I don't have huge experience with either RCI or Princess but this is my 2 cents. We just returned from our first (and probably last) Princess cruise on the Regal Princess. We have done 2 RCI Cruises, 1 on Explorer of the Seas and one on the Enchantment as well as 2 NCL cruises.

 

My DW and I both agree that the Regal is a beautiful ship, the staff was good as well as the food and entertainment. We had a great time and really enjoyed the New England/Canada itinerary.

 

So now your wondering why this will probably be our last Princess Cruise. The best way I can describe it is that on Princess we never felt the personal touch's that we had on RCI. If you have ever been to Disney World and notice when you get on the property everyone makes you feel welcome and special that is the type of things missing from Princess. Everyone was nice and professional but for our dollar we will be going back to RCI for our next cruise.

 

Happy Cruising and what ever you decide it will be a great vacation I am sure. Again just my 2 cents from our perspective.

 

Interesting perspective. We agree that RCI ships tend to have a lot more "hand holding" which for RCI means they hold one of your hands why they try to sell you something with the other hand :). Yes, there are certainly folks that love to see the crew coming around and pushing fu fu drinks...day and night. On Princess, you might actually be able to sit in your deck chair for hours without anyone trying to sell you a thing! Some complain that its being ignored, and others welcome the lower key approach. One of the things (among many) that drove us away from RCI (which used to be our favorite cruise line) was the feeling we were just on one big shopping mall where we were constantly bothered by announcements pushing sales, trying to squeeze past all the "sale" tables taking away space in the atrium, etc. And I will also admit we do not miss the hairy leg competitions, diving for spoons, etc. That is not to say that Princess does not try to maximize onboard revenue...but at least they are a bit more subtle :).

 

Another RCI issue (on only some of their ships) is the oft talked about fiasco called dynamic dining! In fact, a few weeks ago I gave DW a choice (for a last minute cruise) to either do a 10 day repo cruise (Brooklyn to Ft Lauderdale) or a 12 day Anthem of the Seas cruise round trip from Bayonne. The RCI cruise would have actually cost less money for more days and, personally, I was up for the idea of trying RCI's new ship (we have previously cruised on the Regal Princess). DW thought about it for less then a minute and said, "book the Princess cruise." Why? Because she said that after spending far more then 1000 days on various cruise ships...she just did not want to deal with the hassles of having to make reservations for dinner, shows, deal with the constant annoying announcements, etc. And the reviews of the RCI ship have been mixed to awful when it comes to this entire dynamic dining thing.

 

Hank

 

Hank

[cruise_mojo]

all upscale and all more laid back!

 

for sure

 

but OP is 40

 

so, royal, or princess, about the same for them

 

but for me, and my old lady at age fitty 7 I like royal fine, but if I could choose to do princess or celebrity the way we travel and cruise Id probably pick them at least half the time

 

for us, you can see we cruise a lot on carnival, but we also combine a couple days of traveling by car and staying in the cities and enjoying our favorite experiences on the way to and from the cruises

 

we cruise from Charleston, jax, cape C mostly in the last few years and tampa is in the mix as well as Baltimore - so for us, and a lifetime of flying as she works for the airlines, we are tired of all the crap involved in flying somewhere, with two knee replacements, screws in her ankle and the intense scrutiny, we just hop in the car and drive, though we could fly free!:( it just aint worth the hassle any more

 

until she retires, then, she says we gonna do that Hawaii cruise or some variation of it!!!! I'm looking at the fly to Hawaii, OR west coast and take the LONG cruise, Holland amer, celb, princess or even carnival or royal, we used to really love NCL but not since freestyle hit! A WHOLE NUTHER STORY!:eek:

[Aquahound]

Princess. It has been a long time since I've sailed either Princess or RC, but I did both relatively close together. The food and entertainment on Princess was WONDERFUL. The food was ok on RC, but the entertainment was downright high school amateur talent show at best. RC also had "commercials" everywhere to get you to book again while I hardly recall any promotions on princess besides the aptly played Love Boat theme. Good luck and have fun!

 

Having cruised several times on both RCI and Princess, I can tell you that ship makes a big difference. Your one RCI cruise was on Enchantment, which is a VERY different ship than Navigator. Voyager Class ships generally have much better entertainment, especially due to Studio B. Plus, especially after the recent refurbishment that added the Flowrider, Navigator has a lot more to do on board than the older RCI ships.

 

Ref the food, I think Princess has a better selection in the buffet, but RCI has the better specialty restaurants. Personally, I see no difference in quality in the main dining room. What I will say though, is that the Navigator dining room is a lot nicer than Crown's dining room. Navigator has a large, very impressive 3 story dining room, whereas Crown's are separated and 1 story. Crown's dining rooms are very cramped, especially if sitting at a 2-top.

 

This has just been my experience. Opinions vary, of course.

[George C]

I have sailed Crown once and Navigator twice ( also sister ships to both), food is close, entertainment and everything else is better on Navigator , I stopped sailing Princess a few years ago since I found Crown so crowed in public areas could not get seats for the shows. Ice show on Navigator is amazing, it also was refurbished 2 years ago and looks like new

[Cruzaholic41]

Navigator. Off hand, I can't think of anything on Crown that's better than Navigator.

[iheartbda]

I've been on Navigator and on sister ships to Crown. I recommend the Navigator. Navigator is an amazing ship and the standard balcony rooms are more spacious than on Crown. Plus, the public areas on Navigator are more wide open, spacious and have a "wow" factor that lacks on that class of Princess ships.

Funny but, everyone always seems to say that the Navigator, or Voyager class balcony rooms are more spacious than the Crown. I thought the Crown seemed more spacious. I also loved the closet on the Crown which almost seems like another room. One of us would dress in there and be out of the way of the other.

 

I'd rate the food the same. Good luck with your choice. :)

I agree that food is about the same but also agree with your other post that the buffet has a better selection on the Crown. However, I never went hungry and always found something on either.:)

 

Navigator. Off hand, I can't think of anything on Crown that's better than Navigator.

I can, I think The International Café knocks the socks off Café Promenade.

[cruise_mojo]

couldn't recall that area was called on the princess ship

 

:)

[Aquahound]

Funny but, everyone always seems to say that the Navigator, or Voyager class balcony rooms are more spacious than the Crown. I thought the Crown seemed more spacious. I also loved the closet on the Crown which almost seems like another room. One of us would dress in there and be out of the way of the other.

 

That design with the walk-in closet is nice. It makes for a nice dressing area. Unfortunately, and this is probably where everyone says the room is smaller, that design takes away from the living space. Every room on Navigator has a sitting area with a couch. Crown doesn't. You have to upgrade to a mini suite on Crown in order to get a couch in your room.

[iheartbda]

That design with the walk-in closet is nice. It makes for a nice dressing area. Unfortunately, and this is probably where everyone says the room is smaller, that design takes away from the living space. Every room on Navigator has a sitting area with a couch. Crown doesn't. You have to upgrade to a mini suite on Crown in order to get a couch in your room.

The only thing I used the couch for was a place to put clothes and all my bags of purchases.:o:D

[meadowlander]

I don't have huge experience with either RCI or Princess but this is my 2 cents. We just returned from our first (and probably last) Princess cruise on the Regal Princess. We have done 2 RCI Cruises, 1 on Explorer of the Seas and one on the Enchantment as well as 2 NCL cruises.

 

My DW and I both agree that the Regal is a beautiful ship, the staff was good as well as the food and entertainment. We had a great time and really enjoyed the New England/Canada itinerary.

 

So now your wondering why this will probably be our last Princess Cruise. The best way I can describe it is that on Princess we never felt the personal touch's that we had on RCI. If you have ever been to Disney World and notice when you get on the property everyone makes you feel welcome and special that is the type of things missing from Princess. Everyone was nice and professional but for our dollar we will be going back to RCI for our next cruise.

 

Happy Cruising and what ever you decide it will be a great vacation I am sure. Again just my 2 cents from our perspective.

 

This was an interesting read as having been a frequent Royal cruiser, I sailed Princess for the first time this past July. I found the service on Princess to be far superior. The service on Princess was the level of service I experienced on Royal a few years ago which due to personnel cuts, no longer exists. I did a back to back on Royal in August and upon boarding the ship for the first leg, I was not welcomed by anyone. I was welcomed onboard the second week as I have always been welcomed when first boarding, so when I was not the first week, it certainly made an impression on me and not in a positive way.

[bigsky]

Been on the Crown and Navigator class....For me, hands down the Navigator. I don't like Princess cabins. Layout seems like they're so small. Bathrooms tiny. Much older crowd as well. Unless I get an incredible deal, we don't cruise on Princess anymore.

[Aquahound]

This was an interesting read as having been a frequent Royal cruiser, I sailed Princess for the first time this past July. I found the service on Princess to be far superior. The service on Princess was the level of service I experienced on Royal a few years ago which due to personnel cuts, no longer exists. I did a back to back on Royal in August and upon boarding the ship for the first leg, I was not welcomed by anyone. I was welcomed onboard the second week as I have always been welcomed when first boarding, so when I was not the first week, it certainly made an impression on me and not in a positive way.

 

I don't agree with that at all. I'll admit it's a nice touch that Princess has officers at the gangway welcoming people aboard but beyond that one moment, I think the level of service is exactly the same on both lines.