Is Princess becoming the new X?

[Bolthead]

We have only been on one Celebrity cruise and although we found the ship more modern and fresh looking than most of the Princess ships we have been on we found the food and entertainment to be sub par compared to Princess. As for the cabin stewards we found no difference.

[shipfriend_max]

One question for those who sail Princess regularly, are their ships sailing full? And are they not heavily discounting near sale date?

 

That to me is a true test of how well a line is doing. Ships sailing with empty cabins and lots of late discounting obviously have room for improvement IMHO.

 

I can say how I PERCEIVE it.

Indeed Princess is seldomly doing special offers at really low fares and/or included beverage packages - Celebrity is doing so more often.

 

I think I started to understand the new Princess price model: When they're releasing the new summer/fall season 1.5 years in advance (around December), the prices are relatively high, and for the straight upcoming season the prices are lowered, same again in spring for the upcoming season.

This was the case for the 2016 season and also is now for the 2017 season, and the newly released summer/fall 2018 sailings are priced high.

I am sure they will get prices lower when the new 2019 season will be rolled out in Dec. 2017.

When in Dec 2015 Princess released the new 2017 sailings they were priced high and in the same time period the upcoming 2016 sailings got to be cheaper.

 

For all seeking a great comparison between Princess and Celebrity, have a look here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2317130

[cmcduff]

This is exactly what I've been reading/seeing! I heard that even the quality of entertainment is better on Princess.

 

 

 

Since I'll be doing both lines pretty close to each other, I'll be able to make a better assessment. Doing X with no kids, family or friends. Will be doing Princess with a good size group of friends and family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[deliver42]

We just got off the Regal Princess yesterday, Dec.17th. We were unimpressed. The ship is beautiful, but other than that, disappointing. Except for the last night, the production show were so-so at best. Three of the comedians were good, then on the last night they had a comedy group. Wow, about ten minutes into the show, there was a mass walk out, including us. We never walk out usually, even if it's not to our liking, but this was so bad. The food in the MDR was ok, but nothing to right home to other about.The buffet food was also ok, but it was like a search and destroy mission. There is no continuity to it. It's separated into 2 parts, and finding anything is hard. The aft elevator is something to behold.It goes from 16 to 6. It dead ends at 6, except for the Symphony dining room. You have to go back to 7, then walk forward to get to mid ship.

[deliver42]

By the way, we are booked on the Equinox for Jan, 2019.

[RDC1]

We just got off the Regal Princess yesterday, Dec.17th. We were unimpressed. The ship is beautiful, but other than that, disappointing. Except for the last night, the production show were so-so at best. Three of the comedians were good, then on the last night they had a comedy group. Wow, about ten minutes into the show, there was a mass walk out, including us. We never walk out usually, even if it's not to our liking, but this was so bad. The food in the MDR was ok, but nothing to right home to other about.The buffet food was also ok, but it was like a search and destroy mission. There is no continuity to it. It's separated into 2 parts, and finding anything is hard. The aft elevator is something to behold.It goes from 16 to 6. It dead ends at 6, except for the Symphony dining room. You have to go back to 7, then walk forward to get to mid ship.

 

Pretty consistent on Princess ships that the main dining room is located on 6 accessed by the aft elevator. The kitchen is located just ahead of that elevator bank. Which is why you cannot go anywhere else on 6. On the other side of the kitchen you have another dining room then the center stairs and elevators. As such you stop on 7 then go forward. Nothing other then the aft dining room is reachable. All public spaces are ahead of the dining rooms on 5 and 6. Same design was used on most of the Princess ship classes (Crown, Grand, Royal).

[OCruisers]

Looking forward to the Ruby!!! She's getting some great reviews too!

 

Ruby Princess is one of our favorite ships!

Look forward to having a great cruise! :D

[OCruisers]

Looking forward to the Ruby!!! She's getting some great reviews too!

 

Ruby Princess is one of our favorite ships!

Look forward to having a wonderful cruise! :D

[jayoldschool]

I was ready to book a March Break Princess sailing. Last (and only) time I was on the Grand for my honeymoon in 2003. It's been 15 straight X sailings since. I thought I would check them out again, then I started reading recent ship reviews here (main page). No thanks. I'll be on Ft Laud beach instead.

[juliesaddiction]

We had a large group try Celebrity for the first time this last month and I have to say I really really wanted to like or love them but it didnt happen. I am Elite on Princess, I dont enjoy the newer ships because the balconys are way too small. The food is ok in the buffet, like alot of others have said its hard to make a complete meal that is not mish mash, the dining room is good and the specialtys are good. Service in the dining room and specialtys have become so long that it is difficult to go without taking up your entire nite. Entertainment is good, lots to do all the time. Celebrity food was good, buffet really good, dining room just good and I didnt care for the specialtys. The ship is great the room was good, except for the waterfall of dirty water on our balcony whenever they washed the one above, even when we were there. I didnt care for the entertainment at all, it just seemed so discontected somehow. OUr room steward was excellent. But the deal breaker with Celebrity was the lack of connection between the working or service crew and the management. We were unable to esculate problems to higher up crew because they had to solve the problems within the team, cool if they could do that but they consistantly did not. And the excursions were a mess. We usually do private but this time did ship, totally bad decision. The descriptions of the excursions more often than not are not correct and you often end up on a bus for 3+ hours on a 4 hour tour. Big disconnect between the actual tour operators and the excursion department. And we had several people who had their tour times changed which split up our group. So all in all I would have to say Princess has the upper hand.