Why choose Princess?

[ged1967]

I’ve cruised many times with various cruise lines but never Princess. Why should I chose Princess over other lines. 
 

Here is a quick breakdown of cruise ships/lines I’ve used. 
 

Cunard Princess (way back in the 90’s) that was proper cruising. Midnight buffets, getting dressed up. This was my first cruise & loved it. 
Airtours Sunbird Older ship. Great food, poor entertainment 

Thomson Destiny (same ship) food not so good, great entertainment

RCL Adventure of the seas. Food good entertainment poor (similar to Butlins/Pontins) although the promenade shows were very good. 
Cunard QM2 fantastic food entertainment great. 
NCL Epic fantastic food & the best entertainment ever on a cruise ship. 
 

All the cruises (apart from Cunard) had drinks packages included either free or for a supplement. 
 

What makes  Princess your cruise line of choice?

[roxievegas]

We started out with Celebrity.

Now we are with Princess.

#1 - we sail out of Los Angeles (no air travel).  We are stuck with doing cruises that we have already done, but it is a vacation and no longer a destination.  

Why do you cruise ? - too many factors go into which cruise company

#2 - price - Princess offers a good product for the price, so we go.

 

 

[Tak8]

I have sailed several lines, but prefer Princess. Service is what keeps me coming back.  Also, some good perks when I do a suite.  

[skynight]

Itinerary meets your desires.

Older ships just as nice as newer ships.

Medallion service, meaning you can do lots of things on your phone if you want.

Good food, lots of different options some available 24/7, reasonable priced specialty restaurants.

Production shows entertaining. Good guest entertainers.

Great friendly crew.  

Lots of live music.

Day and evening activities.

Stackable OBC, including military benefit OBC for ex-military and Carnival shareholder benefit OBC.

Currently a nice Best Sale Ever which is pretty much all inclusive. Don't know if this is available in the UK, but you can check.

 

[CineGraphic]

Great crew, on board self service laundry facilities, good entertainment, no floating amusement park, good pricing.

[voljeep]

4 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

no floating amusement park,

yep - no rock walls, water slides, no surfing, no go carts, etc, etc, etc = less kids ...

[billco]

Actually, we had started leaning toward NCL as our first choice. But, we took the FCC option on last year's cancelled cruises. So, Princess will be our choice for quite some time after cruising resumes.

[mike x ftc]

We've sailed pretty much all the main lines but we have radiated to Princess, they seem to do things effortlessly well, freedom dining is a good example.  The new all in pricing is really good too. The staff are just so well trained, friendly and super efficient.  Princess just do things right if that makes sense.

[drsel]

1 hour ago, skynight said:

Itinerary meets your desires.

Older ships just as nice as newer ships.

Medallion service, meaning you can do lots of things on your phone if you want.

Good food, lots of different options some available 24/7, reasonable priced specialty restaurants.

Production shows entertaining. Good guest entertainers.

Great friendly crew.  

Lots of live music.

Day and evening activities.

Stackable OBC, including military benefit OBC for ex-military and Carnival shareholder benefit OBC.

Currently a nice Best Sale Ever which is pretty much all inclusive. Don't know if this is available in the UK, but you can check.

 

We're really excited about our Princess cruise next year.

what is this best ever sale all about

[neverbeenhere]

We choose Princess often because the name begins with a P.

 

Princess:

Plenty of food options to keep you satisfied

Pretty good entertainment, nothing to write home about, but pretty good

Pleasing staterooms with all we need for a cruise

Program - Top Loyalty status is easy to obtain, which adds a few amenities

Passengers are, in general, good folks, with good attitudes and lacking snobitude.

PInternational Cafe - Yup, like Psych they spell it with a P

 

[mjmalino]

1 hour ago, drsel said:

We're really excited about our Princess cruise next year.

what is this best ever sale all about

The Best Sale Ever for $40/pp/per day gives you the following:

Pre-paid tips (for a balcony, that is currently $14.50/pp/pd)

Premiere drink package including tips (so approx. $70/pp/pd. FYI, unlike some lines, Princess's Premiere drink package also includes specialty coffees, so no need for a separate coffee card)

Location upgrade

Wifi package (approx $10/pp/pd)

And for the time  being 1 specialty dining/pp. (not sure how long this one will last)

 

[ringers0815]

We have sailed Cunard, Costa, HAL, RCL, Carnival and Princess. We have done more cruises with Princess than any other line. We usually decide based on the itinerary and Princess has had many interesting itineraries especiallly with its smaller ships. Now that they have fewer smaller ships that may change. But we are booked with Princess for 3 cruises, 1 in late 2021 and 2 in 2022. Hopefully they will go ahead.

[Torfamm]

We are driven by itinerary first, but have sailed most often with Celebrity. The things we like about Princess are savory food at the International Café for a quick meal or snack, Alfredo's for a casual meal, self-serve laundry, especially on long trips, and formal nights.  What I would like to see changed is that they allow smoking in the casino, don't allow reservations except on the same day for dinner with flexible dining,  and the food quality in the main dining room is not as good as a comparable line like Celebrity. That said, I have been very happy with my experience with Princess and have plans to look at their options first going forward.

 

[skynight]

17 hours ago, drsel said:

We're really excited about our Princess cruise next year.

what is this best ever sale all about

If you are in North America go to the Princess web site. Select Plan a Cruise/Find Cruises. Follow the prompts to almost any 7 day or longer cruise. You will see two fares, Best Price which is the no frills fare and Best Value which is the Best Sale Ever. Select view details. As mentioned in post #11 the extra amount for the is $40/pp/day which includes the minimum of $14.50/pp/day auto gratuity. The real net extra is right around $25/pp/day for the beverage package, cabin upgrade and wi-fi.

[Esprit]

Fewer Brits on board. I like a mix on nationalities.

Food is good and much better than P&O or Royal Caribbean.

Prefer the entertainment compared with Celebrity. 

 

[PaperSniper4]

19 hours ago, skynight said:

..........

Older ships just as nice as newer ships.

.........

Stackable OBC, including military benefit OBC for ex-military and Carnival shareholder benefit OBC.

......

 

19 hours ago, skynight said:

 

In many cases the older ships are nicer than the newer ships....of course, it's all a matter of opinion. I avoid any ship that looks like Disneyland.😉

 

The Military and stock ownership and Medallion class are all great things in my opinion. Especially on 14+ day cruises, Princess is always the place I start when planning a new cruise. That $500 OBC is hard to ignore.

 

Doug

[satxdiver]

4 hours ago, Esprit said:

Fewer Brits on board. I like a mix on nationalities.

Food is good and much better than P&O or Royal Caribbean.

Prefer the entertainment compared with Celebrity. 

 

We were on the Baltic cruise in 2019 out of Southampton where we met this German couple.  We happened to have just been in a port with an Aida cruise ship.  We asked the German couple why they were not on the Aida ship.  Their reply was the same as yours to many Germans aboard.  We thought that was funny but they were very serious.  

[mtnesterz]

On 2/7/2021 at 8:31 AM, ged1967 said:

What makes  Princess your cruise line of choice?

1. Domestic currency onboard and no language issues. We go ashore for adventures, onboard is relaxingly familiar.

2. Drive-to ports. (Los Angeles) Sometimes we fly one way.

3. Small ship experience at an affordable price. Well, Princess said goodbye to that.

4. Few or no kids. Princess does not market to them.

If we lived in Scotland, I'd try Saga for it's adults only market, and Fred Olsen for their smaller ships. (They bought two ships from HAL this past year.) Princess isn't perfect, but a nice balance of most things that meets above criteria.

[satxdiver]

We started cruising about 20 years ago but now that we have joined the septuagenarian group floating amusement parks are no longer of any interest if they ever were.  We started out on RCL and decided to check out Carnival which was a complete disaster with rug rats every where in the pools, hot tubs and running the decks to all hours of the night.  Next cruise our TA convinced us that we would like HAL which did not work out at all where even a septuagenarian was a younger pax.  We returned to RCL with PCL in the mix.  Now we are mostly PCL.  Maybe next after reading what has been said on cc we need to check out X.  

 

I agree with what has been said.  We like PCL because of the older middle age and above pax and not too many children.  The crew has always been friendly most willing to please, our fellow pax more our age range, the entertainment particularly with the different types of live music every night, the better food offered and the good staterooms. 

 

Note to PCL:  put the barrel chair back in the balcony state rooms!  At our age sitting on the floor is a non-issue.  Last cruise in 2019 we brought one of the balcony chairs into the cabin to sit on.  

 

We have two DS with DIL and one DGD. 

[nini]

To the OP:

You have received many wonderful thoughts about Princess.

Princess is our favorite for many reasons including what you have read.

In the Fall of 2018, we were able to basically directly compare Princess

to Celebrity. Wow... we felt like second class citizens on Celebrity receiving

such snooty comments as, "Well, your alcohol package only includes two

white wines" (bartender). The food was very mediocre in dining room and buffet.

The buffet service was basically lacking and there were always flies around the fresh foods.

This was the Celebrity Reflection.

 

On Princess, the staff is so upbeat and friendly (including bartenders), the buffet

service is fantastic with staff walking around constantly to serve you more water,

drinks, remove your plates, etc. NOT on Celebrity- rarely saw staff in the buffet.

And the entertainment was so much better.

[snoozecrooze]

I technically start no cruise search with any preference but find myself gravitating back to Princess anyways. For one, the familiarity is the biggest factor. The itineraries also work out better. I also have no problem with any of the ships and particularly like the Royal-class. Also, when traveling with family, Medallion Class is very useful when none of us want to do the same activity at a certain time. So overall, it's just like an old habit at this point.