Royal vs the other cruise lines

[scoochy12]

Hi all,

 

We have cruised the most on Royal and love them the most! We have also cruised Norwegian and Holland. How does Princess compare? A couple of their itineraries have me curious but hesitant. We love Royal for service, restaurant quality and all activities. What can you share / advise? Will be like Princess or be disappointed?

 

TIA!!
 

[George C]

We have not done Princess recently but it’s a good line , my big complaint is they seem so crowded they added cabins and there theater and other areas of the ship are just too crowded, could not get seats for some of the shows and actually saw a fight over saving seats in theater . They do have really good pizza. 

[cruiserking]

We've sailed Regal Princess three times and really love the ship and the line. The service, food is excellent, the decor is elegant with many great lounges and spots to people watch. The Grand Piazza is the main mid-ship area surrounded by shops and lounges on each deck over looking this central area. We typically book junior suites with Royal and while we love the cabin size and Coastal Kitchen, I would say that the equivalent junior suite category on Princess; Club Class is a step up. 

 

The Club Class Mini Suites are very comfortable with plenty of space, not as wide as the juniors on RCCL Quantum but, still have a nice seating area and decent balcony. The best part is that Club Class dining gets you all three meals in a suites only dining room. While it is part of the main dining room, it is a private section that is often very quiet with only a handful of tables occupied. 

 

You can arrive for meals any time between the given hours the restaurant is open and you are immediately seated. As soon as the Maitre D' spots you, they seat you. There are the usual array of activities, decent production shows and lots of neat places to grab a snack. I think you would enjoy a Princess cruise particularly the newer Royal Class. 

 

Jonathan

[tserface]

We will go on RCCL, Celebrity, or Princess depending on where they are going.  We like RCCL the best, but Celebrity and Princess are really great and have things we like about them as well.  I don't think you can lose on any of these three.

Tom

[Cruise a holic]

8 hours ago, scoochy12 said:

Hi all,

 

We have cruised the most on Royal and love them the most! We have also cruised Norwegian and Holland. How does Princess compare? A couple of their itineraries have me curious but hesitant. We love Royal for service, restaurant quality and all activities. What can you share / advise? Will be like Princess or be disappointed?

 

TIA!!
 

We have sailed on Princess and Royal.  IMO no comparison if you are comparing Oasis class ships.  So much more to do, so many restaurants, excellent entertainment, loads of activities and service on Royal Oasis class the best .  I was very disappointed with Princess.  I consider it a no frills cruise line, especially if you are a suite guest.  I will not sail on princess again- favorites are Royal or Celebrity.

[printingchick]

As others have mentioned, Celebrity is also worth trying. If you have at least 5 cruises on Royal, they recognize your loyalty status to an extent, which is also nice. Went on Celebrity Summit just before Covid hit in early 2020 and loved it. Similar to Royal, but minus a few of the more "cheezy" things that I actually like. (Such as the belly flop contest and the 70s party.) They offered a FREE galley tour (even gave us champagne.) Speaking of champagne, you get a glass just for boarding! It's a more upscale experience, but still in the Royal Caribbean family.

 

[AF-1]

Princess has nice ships, nice crews,  good food, fun and relaxing atmosphere.  They do not have any theme park type ships.  I like Oasis class ships if I am with grandkids.  But love Princess ships because they provide all the comforts without the theme park feel.

[Biker19]

34 minutes ago, printingchick said:

If you have at least 5 cruises on Royal, they recognize your loyalty status to an extent, which is also nice.

Matching status between RCI and X is at certain point levels, not number of sailings.

[coldflame]

I'm sure this will be a very useful and unbiased thread.

[matj2000]

All the cruise lines have their pro's & con's and everyone should try as many as possible.

 

As far as Princess,  I think they are my second favorite among the major lines.

 

Although we have only done 2 and they were "Grand Class" ships.

 

It was a great experience overall and would do Princess again, anytime.

 

However, unlike many people on this page,  I enjoy the variety of different cruises.

 

And do not pledge blind loyalty to just one particular company.

 

 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

We've sailed on both Princess and RCI, and did 1.5 cruises on NCL. Will not sail with NCL anymore, unless dirt cheap.

All IMHO:

Princess:  We love Princess for the food. If you sail on Royal Princess or newer, the food will be fantastic. I am talking buffet and MDR, since we don't do specialty dining. Nice entertainment. Kid's club is great, so I hear from our friends (our kid refuses to go). Princess is geared towards adults, so besides pools and hot tubs and 1 kid's party during the cruise, there is nothing for kids to do. Plenty of activities and entertainment for adults. On Royal and Regal Princesses (and I am sure on the newer ships as well) there is a great FREE on-demand movie and cartoon collection, which is wonderful if you are traveling with bored kids who don't do kid's club. Since we can only sail during school breaks, Princess itineraries are usually limited to Western Caribbean which gets boring.

 

RCI: we sail on RCI for wonderful family and kid activities. The food is very average (both MDR and buffet). Entertainment is fantastic. RCI ships are geared towards families with kids and active adults, and we always have a ton of fun, whether we travel with or without our kid.  Now that our kid is 10, he can do a lot more on the ship than when he was 3, so we LURRRRVE RCI for what it has to offer us.  Pros: Kids Sail Free promotion. Con: KDS is not available during school breaks 😞 Another con: we couldn't get into Windjammer on Allure because the lines were unbelievable. The Windjammer on Allure and similarly sized ships is just too damn small to accommodate all passengers who want to eat there.

Pricing is generally much higher on RCI.

Right now Princess is offering a great cruise for Nov 2022 at a great price with a great itinerary, so - yes, we are doing Princess next November. But this November - hello, Harmony of the Seas, can't wait to cruise with you!

 

Edited May 25, 2021 by Itchy&Scratchy

[lauren0309]

We've sailed Royal, Princess, Norwegian and Carnival.  Our favorite still is Royal Caribbean, the Oasis class ships.  We felt on Princess, although a very pretty ship and great service all around, there wasnt much going on at night as far as comedy shows, dancing, etc.  We are in our 60's but still young at heart and found ourselves roaming around at night looking for something to do.  Past 10 or 11 p.m. it seemed to us people were back in their cabins for the night.

[NightOne]

12 hours ago, scoochy12 said:

Hi all,

 

We have cruised the most on Royal and love them the most! We have also cruised Norwegian and Holland. How does Princess compare? A couple of their itineraries have me curious but hesitant. We love Royal for service, restaurant quality and all activities. What can you share / advise? Will be like Princess or be disappointed?

 

TIA!!
 

 

Princess is better than Royal in every single category plus you don't have to hear people constantly talking about their "loyalty status" on Princess.

 

[deliver42]

Princess, right now, is a much better deal financially. In fact, even Celebrity is if you add what Celebrity gives in it's All In pricing, and add them to Royal's prices, it doesn't make any sense. The same with comparing Princess with Royal.

[matj2000]

51 minutes ago, NightOne said:

 

Princess is better than Royal in every single category plus you don't have to hear people constantly talking about their "loyalty status" on Princess.

 

 

This is probably the best answer I have seen in a very long time...............

[Itchy&Scratchy]

3 hours ago, NightOne said:

Princess is better than Royal in every single category

except for one: activities for kids and adults, like water slides, rock climbing, surfing, iFLY, bumper cars, ice skating, a zip line, ice and water shows, etc. Entertainment in general was much better on RCI ships.

[George C]

1 minute ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

except for one: activities for kids and adults, like water slides, rock climbing, surfing, iFLY, bumper cars, ice skating, a zip line, ice and water shows, etc. Entertainment in general was much better on RCI ships.

Entertainment is what always brings us back to rccl, although we do cruise other lines.

[loman]

First cruise was on the RC Voyager 

Next one was on Star Princess .

We liked the promenade style ship and entertainment more on RC .

So now we only cruise on Oasis class after having cruised on most of the other class of RC ships . 

We cruise for the ship and not the destination . 

Yep , i know ... boring , but we like it .

[sellwingri]

2 hours ago, George C said:

Entertainment is what always brings us back to rccl, although we do cruise other lines.

I agree with this.  I love the entertainment on Royal!  Princess is a more elegant cruise line but lacking in entertainment.  I’m on a cruise to have fun  and it’s never lacking on Royal.

[tserface]

Probably not worth mentioning and certainly not a reason to choose a cruise line, but I love the International Cafe on Princess.  Best donuts on any ship (IMO). We also really love the Alfredo's pizza place.

 

It's fun to go on different lines because you get slightly different experiences.

 

The loyalty program on RCCL (at least before) is better than Princess, but I don't think a lot of people cruise for the loyalty program perks.  That's kind of a losing proposition. 

 

Tom

 

 

[George C]

8 minutes ago, tserface said:

Probably not worth mentioning and certainly not a reason to choose a cruise line, but I love the International Cafe on Princess.  Best donuts on any ship (IMO). We also really love the Alfredo's pizza place.

 

It's fun to go on different lines because you get slightly different experiences.

 

The loyalty program on RCCL (at least before) is better than Princess, but I don't think a lot of people cruise for the loyalty program perks.  That's kind of a losing proposition. 

 

Tom

 

 

Agree rccl has bad pizza and really bad buffet compared to most lines , only line with better pizza than Princess is MSC

Edited May 25, 2021 by George C

[neverbeenhere]

The international cafe definitely is a reason to choose a cruise line. 

 

All cruise lines are good, they're just not all good for us.

All lines have "deals", currently the Royal deals we have booked are the best.

 

[NightOne]

21 hours ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

except for one: activities for kids and adults, like water slides, rock climbing, surfing, iFLY, bumper cars, ice skating, a zip line, ice and water shows, etc. Entertainment in general was much better on RCI ships.

 

Depends on your definition of entertainment. Anyone considering Princess is not in the category looking for those activities.

 

Also, NCL may be better than Royal in that regard with their Breakaway and Breakaway Plus class ships.

 

 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

18 minutes ago, NightOne said:

Depends on your definition of entertainment. Anyone considering Princess is not in the category looking for those activities.

why not? We do love Princess, but not for the same reasons we love RCI. And yes - we are considering Princess and we are still looking for fun activities which the whole family can enjoy.

[NightOne]

1 minute ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

why not? We do love Princess, but not for the same reasons we love RCI. And yes - we are considering Princess and we are still looking for fun activities which the whole family can enjoy.

 

But you aren't expecting waterslides etc. 

 

If you are then you are looking at the wrong cruise line. 🙂