A question for X cruisers who also sail Princess

[RickT]

I had cruised Princess a lot and reached Platinum status.  My last Princess cruise was in 2011 so I suspect a lot has changed.  Since 2011 I’ve primarily sailed X (with the odd Holland cruise thrown in).  In a nutshell my March 2021 New Zealand cruise on Solstice was cancelled with no Lift and Shift options available. My 10 day cruise (2 perks) was $5,500 cdn and to rebook a similar 11 day cruise in 2022 under the new offer the cost jumps to $7,300 cdn.  Princess is offering a similar 11 day cruise and the price (similar perks) is only $5,000 cdn (refundable).  
 

I know back in 2011 I made the decision that I preferred X but 10 years later and looking at a significant cost savings I’m strongly considering giving Princess another try.  
 

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.  I’m leaning towards going for it, even if it’s not as good as X the variety wouldn’t be bad and the $2K I’d save would almost cover airfare.

[keesar]

36 minutes ago, RickT said:

I had cruised Princess a lot and reached Platinum status.  My last Princess cruise was in 2011 so I suspect a lot has changed.  Since 2011 I’ve primarily sailed X (with the odd Holland cruise thrown in).  In a nutshell my March 2021 New Zealand cruise on Solstice was cancelled with no Lift and Shift options available. My 10 day cruise (2 perks) was $5,500 cdn and to rebook a similar 11 day cruise in 2022 under the new offer the cost jumps to $7,300 cdn.  Princess is offering a similar 11 day cruise and the price (similar perks) is only $5,000 cdn (refundable).  
 

I know back in 2011 I made the decision that I preferred X but 10 years later and looking at a significant cost savings I’m strongly considering giving Princess another try.  
 

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.  I’m leaning towards going for it, even if it’s not as good as X the variety wouldn’t be bad and the $2K I’d save would almost cover airfare.

 

With a similar itinerary and comparable perks, I would definitely take the $$$ savings.  Especially with the refundable option.  

[Alakegirl]

Can you tell us what itwas you didnt like on Princess?  Maybe that has chaged for the better (or worse).  

[rhblake]

We have been on 18 Celebrity cruises and 18 Princess cruises. I like them both but I think the food is slightly better on Celebrity. Other than that they are basically the same.

[drsel]

You must give Princess another chance.

variety is the spice of life!

And you can't go wrong with both Celebrity or Princess. They like the Mercedes and BMW of mass market Cruise lines.

If I were you, I would choose to save cash.

[RickT]

42 minutes ago, Alakegirl said:

Can you tell us what itwas you didnt like on Princess?  Maybe that has chaged for the better (or worse).  

A couple things come to mind:

-DW and I like to dine alone and found that most 2 person tables were near inches apart.

-Dining room has less “wow” than Celebrity

-Outdoor areas seemed noisier due to MUTS

-Staff less responsive 

A couple things we really liked:

-Adult only pool aft

-Variety (and price) of Specialty restaurants

-Piano bar

[jmlh]

We were on 2 Princess cruises last year (just before the Covid shut down).  Food was very good and the staff were excellent. Sometimes it was a bit of a wait for a table for 2 but sometimes it was available immediately.  I would not hesitate to cruise with them again.

[RNCheryl]

Could your budget handle Aqua Class with the perk of eating in the Blu dining room on Princess?

 

I like both lines, but the availability of self laundry, Crooners bar and, in my opinion, superior staff would tilt towards Princess.

[George C]

On many ships princess ships seem way to crowded, could not get seats for some of the shows, entertainment is better on princess compared to Celebrity, and of course lots of smoking on princess.

[SHIP TRAVELER]

We are Platinum on Princess and Elite on Celebrity and I am going to give you some opinions good and bad here.

I like the loyalty perks better on Celebrity.   I like the rose.  I like the dry cleaning and laundry perks.

The so called Princess happy hour was apps only the last time we were on Princess but that would have changed with drink packages.

 

 I do not like the cabins on Princess.  One should not have to buy a premium balcony or mini suite to have a place for a second person to sit other than on the bed.  On Celebrity even inside cabins have sofa seating.

 

I like the dining and food better on Celebrity.  Celebrity seems to seat people in traditional setting with more thought.  We have had many more table problems on Princess.  One our last cruise there were some very long waits for any service on Princess in the "any time" even after being seated..

 

We were disappointed with the entertainment staff on Princess on our last TA.  They seemed to have rushed through activities with little interest, sometime not even showing up at the appointed time or at all.   I think this may have been a one off because the cruise director was not very present.  Princess had more entertainment staff but the activities were not as professional in my opinion.  We were on the Royal Princess and the venue (studio) used for trivia was very over crowded and hard to access.  On the same note we do not like it when Celebrity Central hall is used for events so there is that.

 

I agree that you should try Princess again.  We have been thinking about giving NCL another try.

Now that drinks packages and dining packages are within range even adding those required tips, the different style of entertainments and the variety of dining options seems intriguing.

 

I think it is best to keep all your options open with price increases on Celebrity.

 

[poffles]

4 hours ago, RickT said:

I had cruised Princess a lot and reached Platinum status.  My last Princess cruise was in 2011 so I suspect a lot has changed.  Since 2011 I’ve primarily sailed X (with the odd Holland cruise thrown in).  In a nutshell my March 2021 New Zealand cruise on Solstice was cancelled with no Lift and Shift options available. My 10 day cruise (2 perks) was $5,500 cdn and to rebook a similar 11 day cruise in 2022 under the new offer the cost jumps to $7,300 cdn.  Princess is offering a similar 11 day cruise and the price (similar perks) is only $5,000 cdn (refundable).  
 

I know back in 2011 I made the decision that I preferred X but 10 years later and looking at a significant cost savings I’m strongly considering giving Princess another try.  
 

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.  I’m leaning towards going for it, even if it’s not as good as X the variety wouldn’t be bad and the $2K I’d save would almost cover airfare.

 

Love this question as I have never sailed Princess and have been doing similar comparisons in price and Celebrity is just beyond the point of even considering with the current pricing.  Our CAD exchange inflates the increase which makes it even worse.  I cannot comprehend Celebrity pricing right now and keep hoping it settles in time, I would miss the no smoking ANYWHERE inside.

[landlockedinco]

We enjoyed the Royal class (Royal)  much better than the Grand class (Ruby).  I agree when people say there are more similarities than differences between Princess and Celebrity.

[davekathy]

We enjoy the differences and similarities between Celebrity and Princess. 

[downsmead]

Like all cruise lines, not all ships within a fleet are the same, leaving out the obvious. We sail both Princess and Celebrity, and on our last but one sailing on Princess (Sapphire), we came away feeling that something was missing but couldn’t quite put our finger on it. It was sufficient to not sail Princess for a few years. However we did return because of an itinerary that really appealed to us and found that once on board we enjoyed the trip very much. The ship felt happier to us and everything ran more smoothly and the crew were very friendly. It renewed our ‘faith’ in Princess again. We still book for the itinerary but will look at both Princess and Celebrity. 

[deliver42]

I've been on the Ruby  and Regal Princess, and the Equinox on Celerity. I would go on a royal Class Princess again, but liked the vibe on Celebrity better. However, I don't thin it was $2000.00 better. For the money difference, i would definitely choose Princess, especially if it was a Royal Class. With that much difference though, I would go on any Princess shup.

[leck57]

We also cruise both and, like others, find more similarities than differences.

I think Celebrities balcony cabins are better, except for storage space, but find there is much more to do on Princess. Princess has nightly entertainment spread across many venues whereas quite often we find that Celebrity has most things crowded around the atrium.

However itinerary and price are our main factors in choosing who we travel with. Mind you, we are so sick of being house bound we would travel on Noahs Ark if they had a place.

[lyndarra]

31 minutes ago, leck57 said:

 Mind you, we are so sick of being house bound we would travel on Noahs Ark if they had a place.

Nowhere near the poop deck I hope.🤣

[foodsvcmgr]

We have a number of cruises with both and I would choose based on pricing as to me there are not enough differences of any real substance.

[drsel]

11 hours ago, poffles said:

 

Love this question as I have never sailed Princess and have been doing similar comparisons in price and Celebrity is just beyond the point of even considering with the current pricing.  Our CAD exchange inflates the increase which makes it even worse.  I cannot comprehend Celebrity pricing right now and keep hoping it settles in time, I would miss the no smoking ANYWHERE inside.

Celebrity has had some amazing last minute price drops in the past, even 50%.

I just hope that history repeats itself because right now they have become too expensive.

[sandancer]

We have sailed 20 times with Celebrity and only once with Princess. That was many years ago on Sapphire Princess and we really enjoyed the cruise. So we had no reason to not cruise again with Princess but just got comfortable with Celebrity and enjoyed the Elite plus benefits. Now we have booked another Princess cruise for 2022 which is “Land of the Midnight Sun”. Most Norwegian Fjord cruises are for 7 nights but we prefer longer cruises and this one is 14 nights. So back to Princess we go. We definitely like the choice of booking with or without perks as opposed to AI with Celebrity. 

[Gracie115]

Which ship on Princess?  We've sailed on Regal a couple of times, the last one was disappointing.  Service was really poor in Club Class Dining and the food was mediocre at best.  They ran out of Pinot Grigio by the glass on day 2 of a 10 day cruise.

 

Regal class have the smallest balconies on any ship I've ever been on unless you book an aft cabin.  

 

We did like the piano bar.

 

Celebrity was/is several steps ahead of Princess but that doesn't mean we wouldn't sail on Princess again if the itinerary was right, we just know not to expect the same level of service that X provides. 

 

 

[sandancer]

It’s the Sky Princess sailing round trip Southampton which is a big plus for us. We have an aft balcony, SV on Celebrity. It was the itinerary that attracted us but we quite like this idea of a change but still have some Celebrity cruises booked so we may now have a foot in each camp. 

[drakes2]

16 hours ago, landlockedinco said:

We enjoyed the Royal class (Royal)  much better than the Grand class (Ruby).  I agree when people say there are more similarities than differences between Princess and Celebrity.

We loved the Royal Princess also the Crown princess. Always book a balcony cabin on the Caribe deck as its huge.  Also prefer the size of the Atrium and the Solarium on the Crown. I don't think it was on the royal. Love the aft pool with sundeck layout.  Food was very good but have not sailed the line since 2014.

[upwarduk]

8 hours ago, drsel said:

Celebrity has had some amazing last minute price drops in the past, even 50%.

I just hope that history repeats itself because right now they have become too expensive.

We took a late deal in 2017 on Crown Princess, sailing to the Mediterranean. 
Pros:

1)Many more Internet minutes for Platinum (250) compared to Celebrity Elite(90).

2)Invited guest speakers. We had Harry Rednapp, which delighted my husband.

3) The Captain took a Memorial Service for the victims of the Manchester Bombings at the Ariana  Grande concert. We were given flowers to throw into the sea. As a large number of passengers were British, this was very fitting.
 

Cons:

1)One toilet seemed to be permanently blocked in the Rest room above the steps to the Sapphire dining room.

2) We were denied entry into Genoa; no reason given, but we have always been informed of the reason when sailing on Celebrity.

We had booked to go to Portofino, which entailed quite a lengthy bus trip, which obviously didn’t happen. We were tendered into Santa Margarita. I claimed for the bus trip portion which we missed. I was told ‘ well you have been tendered,’ -but so was everyone else! Eventually, after a great deal of complaining I was told that we would get 35% back to my Credit Card. This was refunded late on the final evening to our OBA, but did not reach my credit card( CelebrityCruises refunds show on C.C on the final morning). I was then told it would reach my C.C in 4-6 weeks. This did not happen, so I phoned the Southampton office. I was told that was for US passengers only, I should have to claim it as I was a UK resident. I was eventually sent a cheque 8 weeks after we disembarked.

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by upwarduk

[mafig]

 

We stopped sailing Princess because we just did not like the way they handled their Anytime Dining.  

We always ask for a Table for Two.  On Princess every single cruise we were on, after we said "table for two" they would say "don't you want to share."  A couple of times they brought us to a large table anyway. This happened every cruise, every meal.  It got really annoying after awhile.

 

Then they allowed their Traditional Dining people to switch back and forth between Traditional and Anytime.  By the end of the cruise the Traditional Dining room was empty and Anytime had long lines.

 

This was several years ago.

With Covid I believe we would no longer have to argue for a table for two.

Also, now we would upgrade to Suites, so we would be able to have Club Class dining (although it is still only a section of the regular dining room, not a separate dining room like Blu or Luminae.)

 

With the above in mind, we might give Princess another chance.  Celebrity will be our first choice, but I was looking at prices for 2022 and Celebrity seems really high (for now).