Princess vs Royal Caribbean

[big al]

We are not veteran cruisers. We sailed once with RC back in 2007 and loved it and last year we did a Mediterranean with MSC loved the itinerary but felt the on-board experience was substantially different (read inferior) from what we remembered on RCI. We now have to cruises book with RCI, one in Oct 2018 and another short one in April 2019. This week friends are trying to convince us to take a 10 day Alaskan cruise with them out of San Fran. Sept 2019. I feel like i have an idea about what my onboard experience will be like on our upcoming two RCI cruises thanks to all of you here at CC. I know Princess has a good reputation and I'm sure that it will be a great cruise, I'm just curious about the differences one might experience between these two lines. For information purposes we have and are planning on purchasing a balcony cruise on all cruises if that affects your experience it would be great to understand any differences you might know of

 

Regards

 

We are mid 60's and have cruised RCI 16x ( Diamond), Princess 5x, most recently on the Crown Princess to Alaska ( 5/2016), and twice on the Regal Princess..while the Regal is a nice ship, we found we were 10-15 yrs younger than the average passenger on board..average age was close to death, lol..ship shut down at 10, a graveyard by 11...we thought entertainment NO WHERE near as good as NCL, RCI, or Disney..dining options extremely limited for specialty dining ( 2 on Princess vs. 16 on NCL..), and we thought the MDR food was mediocre, like most MDR's....cabins were nice, HUGE 45" Samsung TV on the Regal w/ free HBO..but we don't cruise to watch TV..BUT due to the lack of shows & entertainment, we were back in our cabin many nights by 9 or 10 pm...Alfredo's Italian restaurant, which is free on deck 6, has wonderful pizza & Italian food..the Crown Grill steakhouse on deck 7, is also nice for extra $$..Sabatini's nice, too, but that's it...we like lots of dining options, and Princess does not excel in this area IMO...

 

Important: I am also a cruise agent and have cruised on all but Costa & MSC...after HAL, Princess has the oldest average passenger age, followed by Celebrity. You can always tell if a cruise line or ship has older passengers or younger passengers by whether or not you see SLIDES or water parks..HAL, Princess, & Celebrity do not have these because they want the clientele to be more mature/ older BY DESIGN..they leave the "family" stuff, younger adults cruises to RCI, NCL, Carnival, Disney & now, the new MSC ships ( which are really nice BTW..)

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Just to clarify: Royal Caribbean is BANNED from Glacier Bay.

what did they do????

 

We are mid 60's, while the Regal is a nice ship, we found we were 10-15 yrs younger than the average passenger on board..average age was close to death,

I highly disagree. We are in early 40s, with a 7 yo child, and found plenty (PLENTY!) of people our age and younger, with kids and without onboard.

 

I know you are just trying to be funny saying that the AVERAGE age of the passengers is 75-80, but it's simply NOT TRUE.

[Clarea]

what did they do???? ...

Dumping oil.

[Aggiebuttercup]

My only Princess cruise was in Alaska. An Alaskan cruise is such a special experience - I loved that part. I thought the crew was absolutely excellent and the ship was in great shape and spotless.

 

The crowd was...older. I was in my early 30s travelling with my mom. Most passengers were closer to her age - mid-50s and up. I found a handful of other people under the age of 40. We'd get together and dance at the "Piano bar" - a piano with four chairs around it. We were the only ones ever listening to him. Pretty much ALL entertainment ended at 11 pm. That wasn't as bad as it sounded, since it meant I could get up early to grab a good spot to look out the windows.

 

My mom had a great time. Princess is one of her preferred lines now.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Dumping oil.

yikes

[NateUpNorth]

Just to clarify: Royal Caribbean is BANNED from Glacier Bay.

 

To clarify, I thought they received massive fines for dumping. ($3.5 million?)

The fact they don't sail there is due to not being a successful bidder for the few permits that are issued.

 

But whatever, RCL doesn't sail Glacier Bay right now.