Princess compared to Celebrity

[doghog]

Staying on topic, does Princess allow you to go directly to your stateroom when you first come aboard to drop off you carry on(s) if you board the ship early? Celebrity does.  

[Hlitner]

27 minutes ago, doghog said:

Staying on topic, does Princess allow you to go directly to your stateroom when you first come aboard to drop off you carry on(s) if you board the ship early? Celebrity does.  

We have boarded both Celebrity and Princess (numerous times) when cabins were not available until after 2pm.  The biggest fiasco was on one Silhouette cruise when most of the cabin keys did not function.  They eventually had to set up a few desks, around the ship, to distribute new cabin keys and many of us were not into our cabins before 4pm...unless we could find the cabin stewards and convince them to open the cabin door (but we still had no keys).  We think the best line for getting folks into their cabins, early, is HAL.  

 

On the other hand, we have an upcoming Princess cruise (next week) that has a very large group aboard (a major auto club).  Large groups can be booked onto just about any mass market ships and are all too common on 7 day Caribbean cruises.  

 

Hank

[stevenr597]

1 hour ago, Incognito1 said:

Do a search engine check on your Celebrity dates.  We don't sail with them any more because the last couple of times we have, there have been HUGE groups of people that resulted in reduced availability of venues and services for those of us who were not part of those groups.

 

Celebrity won't tell you due to "privacy issues" but if you do a search, you should be able to find out.

Several years ago we had been booked on Celebrity (Millenium) to take a cruise around Japan.  We then noticed that our ship was no longer listed for booking.  We did find out that Celebrity had “chartered” the ship out to a large group” but kept previous reservations.  

We decided that the “group” would be dominating all the venues on the ship and elected to cancel this cruise. 

[stevenr597]

21 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

We have boarded both Celebrity and Princess (numerous times) when cabins were not available until after 2pm.  The biggest fiasco was on one Silhouette cruise when most of the cabin keys did not function.  They eventually had to set up a few desks, around the ship, to distribute new cabin keys and many of us were not into our cabins before 4pm...unless we could find the cabin stewards and convince them to open the cabin door (but we still had no keys).  We think the best line for getting folks into their cabins, early, is HAL.  

 

On the other hand, we have an upcoming Princess cruise (next week) that has a very large group aboard (a major auto club).  Large groups can be booked onto just about any mass market ships and are all too common on 7 day Caribbean cruises.  

 

Hank

We recently completed a Trans-Atlantic on Enchanted Princess.  Took no more than 15 minutes from arriving at the terminal to board the ship (around noon).  Our room was ready for us. 

[Incognito1]

I'm sure that any cruise line would be happy to have huge groups of chartered cruisers.  I don't buy the "privacy" excuse, though, when the groups have it up on a public website.  We always check now.  We've only ever experienced where it affected the enjoyment of the cruise on Celebrity.  YMMV.

[stevenr597]

19 hours ago, Incognito1 said:

I'm sure that any cruise line would be happy to have huge groups of chartered cruisers.  I don't buy the "privacy" excuse, though, when the groups have it up on a public website.  We always check now.  We've only ever experienced where it affected the enjoyment of the cruise on Celebrity.  YMMV.

Chartering boats is a double edged sword.  

Certainly it brings business to the cruise lines, especially if they feel that the need it.

But many cruisers would tend to avoid booking on these lines because they do not wish to be on a cruise in which the ship is dominated by a large group with a singular interest. 

[cruisinsince75]

We look at both.  Our friends prefer Celebrity as they get a lot of perks for being Diamond Plus on Royal and Celebrity shares their loyalty programs.

 

I have looked at Celebrity's pricing and found it to be significantly higher than Princess and Princess also wins out with their current Plus and Premier inclusive packages which also includes gratuities.  

 

The second thing is the lowest rate on Celebrity is a non-refundable rate.  The price is even higher if you choose to go with a refundable rate.  

 

That being said, I wish Celebrity sailed out of Galveston.  For us, being able to drive to the ship is a real plus.

 

 

[Cruise Raider]

1 hour ago, cruisinsince75 said:

We look at both.  Our friends prefer Celebrity as they get a lot of perks for being Diamond Plus on Royal and Celebrity shares their loyalty programs.

 

Even with the loyalty status reciprocal benefits, the highest level they can have is Elite (and not elite plus) on Celebrity.  
 

[Lady Arwen]

1 hour ago, Cruise Raider said:

Even with the loyalty status reciprocal benefits, the highest level they can have is Elite (and not elite plus) on Celebrity.  
 

You are correct.  We’re Elite Plus and above that is Zenith and no one can achieve those levels unless you have earned them yourself aboard a Celebrity ship.

[Flo71]

On 11/21/2023 at 11:32 PM, Lady Arwen said:

We’re booked on the July 2025 TA on Majestic!  Iceland, yahoo!  See you onboard!  Princess does indeed have some very imaginative itineraries and the reason why we also cruise with them.

I've just booked this cruise too, haven't been on Majestic before, haven't been to Iceland, Canada or New York so very excited (we're from Wales). x

[beltsbear]

I have been on both lines many times.  Rooms are available when they are.  There seems to be no difference between lines.  Sometimes I have gotten into our room early on both lines, and sometimes I have not been able to get to our room or it has not been made ready on both lines.   It is a matter of luck more than a difference between lines.  

As others have said, I prefer celebrity if money was not an object, specifically Aqua class.  But our last three cruises now have been Princess, both for itinerary and cost reasons.  And we have thoroughly enjoyed them though me miss Celebrity Blu dining.   Aqua class is so expensive now I can often get MSC Yacht club for the same price per day.  My Elite on Celebrity gets me more, than my status on Princess, but now with us always including drink packages, it means less than it used to.  

 

Our next cruise after our soon coming Princess cruise is another MSC Yacht club, so price is clearly driving us away from Celebrity after doing six Aqua class cruises.

Edited December 6, 2023 by beltsbear

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, beltsbear said:

I have been on both lines many times.  Rooms are available when they are.  There seems to be no difference between lines.  Sometimes I have gotten into our room early on both lines, and sometimes I have not been able to get to our room or it has not been made ready on both lines.   It is a matter of luck more than a difference between lines.  

As others have said, I prefer celebrity if money was not an object, specifically Aqua class.  But our last three cruises now have been Princess, both for itinerary and cost reasons.  And we have thoroughly enjoyed them though me miss Celebrity Blu dining.   Aqua class is so expensive now I can often get MSC Yacht club for the same price per day.  My Elite on Celebrity gets me more, than my status on Princess, but now with us always including drink packages, it means less than it used to.  

Just curious, have you tried booking a PCL Reserve Collection mini suite yet, which includes access to the "any time dining" Reserve Dining Room? We have cruised quite a few times in both Aqua and RC mini-suites, and much prefer dining in the Reserve Dining Room over Blu, whether it's during breakfast, lunch on sea days (which is not available with Blu), or dinner.

[doghog]

1 hour ago, beltsbear said:

Our next cruise after our soon coming Princess cruise is another MSC Yacht club,

I'm not impressed with MSC ships. 🤣

 

[swjumbo]

We’re Celebrity regulars and are very excited about our upcoming Princess cruise from Southampton!
 

Thought it would be nice to dip our toe into the ‘competition’ pool.

 

Thanks to all the contributors on this forum. Makes for interesting reading.

 

We’ve only eaten in the main dining room twice as on both occasions it was very average. We’re not fans of Luminae on Celebrity but love Blu and the speciality restaurants.

 

Should we stay with main dining on Princess or go speciality too?
 

 

[stevenr597]

54 minutes ago, swjumbo said:

We’re Celebrity regulars and are very excited about our upcoming Princess cruise from Southampton!
 

Thought it would be nice to dip our toe into the ‘competition’ pool.

 

Thanks to all the contributors on this forum. Makes for interesting reading.

 

We’ve only eaten in the main dining room twice as on both occasions it was very average. We’re not fans of Luminae on Celebrity but love Blu and the speciality restaurants.

 

Should we stay with main dining on Princess or go speciality too?
 

 

We completed a Trans-Atlantic on Princess from Southampton this past October.  

When we book Celebrity we usually go Aqua with Blu (although we were disappointed in the quality and variety of food the last time we sailed Celebrity Reflection.)

On Princess we go Mini-suite and Club Reserve.  On our last cruise on Princess with C.R., we ate primarily in the main dining room (great brunch on sea days), twice (lunch and dinner) at Alfredo’s and once we had dinner at Horizon Court.