Opinions on which Princess ship please

[MMDown Under]

About 20 tables outside at the aft to eat buffet meals;

Pizzeria at the buffet;

A huge wood panelled library with lots of large armchairs;

Small theatre where the front circle of chairs are "ringside";

A dedicated Steakhouse.

Easy to get to know all crew; so quickly became very friendly ship on longer cruises.

 

The true highlight for us however, was being able to dock "downtown"

The last hour up the Saigon River and being able to walk into town.

Departing; sitting out on the aft tables having dinner watching the sunset as we twisted and turned back down the river.

 

That was the Ocean anyway.

The Pacific is generally dearer now however.

 

The Ocean was my favourite Princess Ship, for all the reasons already mentioned. However, she has now left the Princess fleet. She is now Oceania Sirena. I'd love to cruise on the identical Pacific Princess.

[rabbitoh_777]

Only two unfortunately Rabbit. Our first ever cruise with the Capt being now Commodore Romano.

 

Then with Capt Goidway, who was our Capt again on our most recent cruise and asked if he knew me from somewhere (but then total strangers think they know me), longest was 17 nights, sailed into the tail end of Cyclone Monica, which was fun on a little ship, but convinced Mrs Gut she need not fear rough seas any more.

 

It was just after that cruise that we had to take a lengthy break from cruising due to health problems, and in that time they replaced her.

 

But I'd be happy to do a long cruise on her.

 

However those who look to be entertained 24/7 may find her not to their liking, especially on a longer cruise.

 

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Thanks for that mate, for me it is not a matter of liking larger ships "bigger and brighter" :rolleyes: over smaller ones at all. It comes down to the length of cruise, I can completely enjoy any of them until over the between two to three week mark after that the familiarity, sameness, repetition, lack of amenities, entertainment choices available, the same faces & routine just does my head in and starts to erode the pleasurable holiday factor. ( don't get me wrong I would rather be on any cruise than at home on land any day of the week!)

 

We have done a 40 nighter on Dawn. a 42 night Cherry Blossom on Sea, a 45 night section of a Circle Pacific on the Sun so have given all the old sunny gals their due share to change our minds. The number of additional overnighters helps get you through the second half and a balcony is a must for us, but to contemplate 104 -110 nights on a Worldie on a very tired old Sun Class or Pacific, sorry unless the balcony price was a sub $200 bargain :eek: it's a pass for us especially if you had to be jammed into an inside or ocean view at the current price point...

 

Stir crazy, cabin fever call it what you like but with the number of sea days on a World cruise size does matter for us.

 

Cheers, r :cool:

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[GUT2407]

About 20 tables outside at the aft to eat buffet meals;

Pizzeria at the buffet;

A huge wood panelled library with lots of large armchairs;

Small theatre where the front circle of chairs are "ringside";

A dedicated Steakhouse.

Easy to get to know all crew; so quickly became very friendly ship on longer cruises.

 

The true highlight for us however, was being able to dock "downtown"

The last hour up the Saigon River and being able to walk into town.

Departing; sitting out on the aft tables having dinner watching the sunset as we twisted and turned back down the river.

 

That was the Ocean anyway.

The Pacific is generally dearer now however.

 

 

I'd agree with every one of those,

[GUT2407]

.

Thanks for that mate, for me it is not a matter of liking larger ships "bigger and brighter" :rolleyes: over smaller ones at all. It comes down to the length of cruise, I can completely enjoy any of them until over the between two to three week mark after that the familiarity, sameness, repetition, lack of amenities, entertainment choices available, the same faces & routine just does my head in and starts to erode the pleasurable holiday factor. ( don't get me wrong I would rather be on any cruise than at home on land any day of the week!)

 

We have done a 40 nighter on Dawn. a 42 night Cherry Blossom on Sea, a 45 night section of a Circle Pacific on the Sun so have given all the old sunny gals their due share to change our minds. The number of additional overnighters helps get you through the second half and a balcony is a must for us, but to contemplate 104 -110 nights on a Worldie on a very tired old Sun Class or Pacific, sorry unless the balcony price was a sub $200 bargain :eek: it's a pass for us especially if you had to be jammed into an inside or ocean view at the current price point...

 

Stir crazy, cabin fever call it what you like but with the number of sea days on a World cruise size does matter for us.

 

Cheers, r :cool:

.

 

 

Yep Pacif probably wouldn't suit you then.

 

Oneif things I loved was seeing the same crew every day.

 

They actually knew you by name.

 

You knew many passengers by name.

 

But I also grew up in a small town, where everyone knew everyone else.

[cheznandy]

About 20 tables outside at the aft to eat buffet meals;

Pizzeria at the buffet;

A huge wood panelled library with lots of large armchairs;

Small theatre where the front circle of chairs are "ringside";

A dedicated Steakhouse.

Easy to get to know all crew; so quickly became very friendly ship on longer cruises.

 

The true highlight for us however, was being able to dock "downtown"

The last hour up the Saigon River and being able to walk into town.

Departing; sitting out on the aft tables having dinner watching the sunset as we twisted and turned back down the river.

 

That was the Ocean anyway.

The Pacific is generally dearer now however.

 

Thanks so much for those points:)

Being able to dock at a lot of downtown places would certainly be good.

Having done 4 cruises on the Dawn Princess, one of them 23 nights, then doing the larger class for a while, we really enjoyed our 15 nights last April on Dawn Princess. I am not sure if it was a change of the usual itinerary, PNG.......plus it was ANZAC day when we sailed into Alotau, the intimacy of the ship, the forward buffet for a change, I don't know, but we have some great memories of that cruise. We have always had plenty of storage space on the ship even in the small inside cabins, we just don't like the design with the bathroom door backing ontp the desk area.

My best memories of that ship is getting up in the middle of the night to watch the lava flow of the big island Hawaii, hot chocolates in hand.........making the best of our cancelled visit to Rarotonga as the ship was unable to anchor....so our CC group had a "Sail Around " party on the aft deck as Captain lapped the island for us!!

and sailing away from Bora Bora and Moorea at sunset....ahhh....heaven.

 

I will miss that ship

[Brisbane41]

The problem with Majestic Princess for veteran cruisers is that its passenger capacity is getting way too large for the ship size. 3,600 passengers is a lot of people when their average size ships are roughly around 2,600 passengers.

 

I personally like the Diamond and Sapphire Princess that have been based here when brand new. I also like the Golden Princess and the Star Princess. I have been on Emerald Princess but its services are stretched due to its increased capacity over the original Grand class so my suggesting is if you pick Crown, Emerald, Ruby or Caribbean is to avoid school holidays and they will be more comfortable.

 

I am trying to stay away from the Sun, Sea and Dawn these days as they are getting on in age and have been surpassed by more modern and innovative ships that are an improvement in their design which set the trend for new cruise ship designs.

 

Some people are excited that Majestic Princess is coming here brand new almost. I say big deal because the Diamond Princess, Sapphire Princess and the Star Princess all came here when they were brand new as well.

 

I was just on the Golden Princess this week between Melbourne and Sydney and despite its age I think it is just as good as the Emerald Princess in terms of condition and wear and tear that I was on in January.