Thinking about Princess? Here is my comparison while on the Emerald Princess. Celebrity Wins!

[Sam.Seattle]

I am really going to have to think twice about sailing on Princess again.  Since the Pandemic, we have been cruising with Celebrity and were looking forward to checking out Princess again. This cruise has been just average for us. 

 

* The sofa in our Mini suite is in terrible condition.

*The bed is very comfortable.

*The stateroom attendant is very efficient and nice.

* The flour issue is really unfortunate. Not having white dinner rolls was disappointing. As I previously said, the pizza is yucky!

* No individual water bottles.  Really?

* On two different occasions, the desert I tried to order in the MDR was not available.

*The specialty Premium deserts are just soft Ice cream with assorted goodies.  They look fun, but were just soft Ice Cream and toppings in a very fun old school glass container.  

* The food in the MDR has been just average and only hot once. I am not exaggerating.  We have fixed seating at 8:40pm with the same servers who have been very good.

* The casino dealers are very nice and sociable.  I did get put off when I asked to play the Roulet table and was told there was not a dealer available.

* The posting of a sign in the MDR that simply says "10" is a tacky way to asked for a good rating.

* I wish the buffet had eggs benedick. 

* There were ladies walking the buffet asking for feed back and suggesting we provide them a 10-rating for service.  Again, this seems tacky.

* The International Cafe is excellent! The coffee was always good and we enjoyed the snacks.  Unfortunately, they were out of cookies on several occasions.  The staff was efficient, but seemed tired and just mechanical. 

*The Sanctuary is wonderful as it always has been.  Love it up there!  Just wish the weather was better on Sea days.

*The tender service in Maui is inexcusable.  Just do the math and they simply did not have enough boats in the water for the short amount of time we were in Maui.  Perhaps Maui could provide tender boats like in Cozumel that move people more efficiently.

*Kids....  Well, Kids will be kids and the parents are to be blamed for any bad behavior.  We are in the front of the ship and I really did not have negative encounters with the tweens or teens.  Actually, the few I did speak to were polite.

*The shows were good, We enjoyed them all.  Comparing to Celebrity, the new Edge class ships have an amazing round theater with a fully lighted wall that takes the live shows to a new level.  

*The gastro break out seem to be handled very well!  I appreciated the announcements and seeing the staff constantly washing tables, hand rails and other surfaces.

 

So, will I cruise Princess again?  Probably if the itinerary is good and the price is right.  I will comparison shop against Celebrity and see what best meets our needs.

 

I hope this brief review will assist those reading and shopping for their next cruise.  

 

 

[chemmo]

Thank you for your review. I do love comparisons when broken down into categories as you have done!

[basenji56]

Sorry to hear that the pizza was mediocre.  I remember Princess pizza as being among the (few) highlights when I sailed several years ago.

 

[Justpackingmybags]

From reading reports on this cruise, the problem is that, for whatever reason, they ran out of white bread flour & everything has been wholemeal from dinner rolls to pizzas. I’d guess that had the supplies been right, the pizzas would have been as good as you recall.

[basenji56]

1 minute ago, Justpackingmybags said:

From reading reports on this cruise, the problem is that, for whatever reason, they ran out of white bread flour & everything has been wholemeal from dinner rolls to pizzas. I’d guess that had the supplies been right, the pizzas would have been as good as you recall.

I had no idea white flour was in such short supply these days!  Maybe its tied up in Ukraine?

[mahdnc]

Thank you so much for posting this review!  Interesting.

[CruisinBanka]

Thanks for your review. I was expecting better than this out of Princess, as I had always heard good things from people I know who have sailed on them. What ship were you on? Is it an older ship? 
 

[sunkey1]

Again a reminder that you can't condemn or praise an entire cruise line based on one cruise. Last year we went on the Carnival Magic, the ship was terribly run down and service was not great. In contrast, we went on the Carnival Mardi Gras for the second time as the ship and service were so amazing the first time. The second time was just as good. I will say that I will not typically choose to sail old ships again (on any line), no matter the line. I just don't think they are able to maintain them the way they should with all of the budget cuts. I did read enough good reviews about the Equinox that I'm trying to be optimistic about that upcoming cruise. It was chosen primarily for the itinerary but I still hope that the ship is in good shape after all these years, especially as we sailed on her when she was much newer.

[Mike981]

Thank you for such a great comparison. We were toying with the idea of going with Princess for our January trip, but found a good deal on Celebrity. My DW and I cruised princess a decade ago and found it to be, just 'okay' in  many areas and since then never seriously considered them again. I do keep tabs on them, just in case.

[CruisinBanka]

I do like that 16-17 day round trip to Hawaii from California. Went on that a few years ago on Celebrity Eclipse and had a great time. Celebrity no longer offers roundtrip to Hawaii. I was looking into lines that do and am currently considering Viking, Holland America, and Princess. Pros and cons to each. 

[Sam.Seattle]

1 hour ago, basenji56 said:

Sorry to hear that the pizza was mediocre.  I remember Princess pizza as being among the (few) highlights when I sailed several years ago.

 

The pizza was fine until they ran out of white flour.

[Sam.Seattle]

50 minutes ago, CruisinBanka said:

Thanks for your review. I was expecting better than this out of Princess, as I had always heard good things from people I know who have sailed on them. What ship were you on? Is it an older ship? 
 

We were on the Emerald and she is an older ship.  The new Princess ship coming soon looks very interesting.  We will probably try the new ship.

[cbfb]

5 minutes ago, Sam.Seattle said:

We were on the Emerald and she is an older ship.  The new Princess ship coming soon looks very interesting.  We will probably try the new ship.

Yes. You really can’t compare a ship built in 2007 with the E class ships although I understand that isn’t your only comparison. We are elite on Celebrity but are excited to try the new Sun Princess next year. 

[CruisinBanka]

The new Sun Princess does look awesome! 

[mahasamatman]

2 hours ago, Sam.Seattle said:

* No individual water bottles.  Really?

We've never had a problem. This sounds like a one-off.

 

2 hours ago, Sam.Seattle said:

* The posting of a sign in the MDR that simply says "10" is a tacky way to asked for a good rating.

* There were ladies walking the buffet asking for feed back and suggesting we provide them a 10-rating for service.  Again, this seems tacky.

We get the exact same treatment on Celebrity, so I'd say no difference there.

 

2 hours ago, Sam.Seattle said:

* The flour issue is really unfortunate. Not having white dinner rolls was disappointing. As I previously said, the pizza is yucky!

It's really too bad about the pizza. Pre-pandemic, Princess had the best pizza by far - even comparable to good landside pizza. But nothing can be as bad as Celebrity's pizza.

 

2 hours ago, Sam.Seattle said:

* I wish the buffet had eggs benedick.

Maybe try asking for eggs benedict...

[skatelady]

26 minutes ago, mahasamatman said:

We've never had a problem. This sounds like a one-off.

 

We get the exact same treatment on Celebrity, so I'd say no difference there.

 

It's really too bad about the pizza. Pre-pandemic, Princess had the best pizza by far - even comparable to good landside pizza. But nothing can be as bad as Celebrity's pizza.

 

Maybe try asking for eggs benedict...

On the Celebrity Constellation over Xmas/NY the pizza was amazing. On the Eclipse in April/May it was OK. Seems to depend on the crew manning the pizza station

 

[hawkesbaynz]

We sailed Enchanted Princess in June. 100% Full. First time on the line after several Celebrity (all S class) and a mix of Oceania, RCI, Marella, P&O.
 

Pros: always plenty of space at bars and good pours too; Liked the Adult and Retreat pools as I find the main too noisy on X; International Cafe; buffet always had tables; liked the International cafe; basic wifi was good; the wardrobe

 

Cons: A little too noisy in the Atrium; queues for the MDR although we booked; ship a bit bigger than we like; dress code very casual (miffed I did not bring smart shorts too).

 

No issue with bottled water or soda. Hendricks was on the basic package too.

 

I would book either line dependent on price and itinerary. 

[RichYak]

6 hours ago, Sam.Seattle said:

The food in the MDR has been just average and only hot once. I am not exaggerating.  We have fixed seating at 8:40pm with the same servers who have been very good.

If your food arrives consistently cold, you have very bad servers, not “very good” servers. 

[NMTraveller]

9 minutes ago, RichYak said:

If your food arrives consistently cold, you have very bad servers, not “very good” servers. 

How does this happen?  Is the food not kept warm under heat lamps until it is served?

 

Or is that the restaurant model and not applicable in cruise ships?

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, NMTraveller said:

How does this happen?  Is the food not kept warm under heat lamps until it is served?

 

Or is that the restaurant model and not applicable in cruise ships?

I’ve never noticed heat lamps in a cruise ship dining room. If the food is cold by the time it is served, that’s 100% on the wait staff. 

[Sam.Seattle]

I was remiss not to mention the Medallion!

 

I love it.  I use the wrist band option.  The medallion works much like the room card, but does much more.  My favorite part of the medallion is the crew can easily identify you when ordering beverages etc.

[Algebralovr]

I was on Solstice in October of 2022, Reflection of November of 2022, then Emerald Princess over the Christmas holidays, then Constellation in February of 2023.  
 

The Emerald Princess was the only ship we sailed on that never seemed as clean.  We noticed that the bathrooms by the buffet, aft, were not cleaned nearly as frequently as the similarly placed ones on the Celebrity ships, and the carpet in the aft area of the buffet was not vacuumed sufficiently.  Also, the bases of the tables were not clean.  
 

So for cleaning?  Celebrity absolutely won.

Our thoughts of the International Cafe?  Their fancy tea isn’t.  I wasn’t impressed with their tea.  

[hubofhockey]

Celebrity constantly refreshes its ships.  Princess doesn’t.  We cruised Princess and went on the Royal Princess when it was Princess newest ship.  Princess cut corners, with small balconies and the elimination of the second club. It also seems a bit less casual than Celebrity.  Maybe it’s my tastes changing, but I believe that Celebrity does everything just a bit better (except for self serve laundry).  

[abbydancer2003]

12 hours ago, Sam.Seattle said:

I am really going to have to think twice about sailing on Princess again.  Since the Pandemic, we have been cruising with Celebrity and were looking forward to checking out Princess again. This cruise has been just average for us. 

 

 

* No individual water bottles.  Really?

*

* The posting of a sign in the MDR that simply says "10" is a tacky way to asked for a good rating.

 

* There were ladies walking the buffet asking for feed back and suggesting we provide them a 10-rating for service.  Again, this seems tacky.

 

10 hours ago, mahasamatman said:

We've never had a problem. This sounds like a one-off.

 

We get the exact same treatment on Celebrity, so I'd say no difference there.

 

...

  I tend to agree with @mahasamatman.  I never had a problem getting water bottles, and while this is not green, I prefer the plastic that Princess uses.  I can't drink directly out of an aluminum bottle (as a theoretical matter I applaud them, though).

 

And as far as asking for 10s - it's just as bad on Celebrity.  

Edited July 22, 2023 by abbydancer

[SoBe2010]

This "give us a 10" is often a pain in the ass, since crew Performance was often great indeed, however pressurising the guests at the end makes it look very unprofessional.