Royal Caribbean vs Princess - JMO

[PVDCruiser]

Excellent comparison, Carol! You were unbiased and fair to both lines.

Cheers,

[WK-Orlando]

Having sailed both I will put my 2c in...

We have always felt that RC has better ships but Princess has a better system.

A lack of laundry rooms and no real perks for frequent cruisers has kept us off RCL for awhile along with a pref for personal choice dinning.

The free internet alone is worth a good chunk of money and we are not far from free laundry service... :-)

I actually like the staff on RCL better but the reality is that traveling on RCL, we have to take twice as many clothes (and we pref 10+ days rides), plan our evenings much more closely to make dinning times. The shows are not as good but the seating is much nicer...

Twice, they have ignored our dinner seating requests and placed us with folks on different schedules... ie little kids or 80 plus that want to make an entire evening at the table when we are trying to make the shows.

The horizen court on Princess is horrid from my perspective, RCL is much nicer on this but the main dinning on RCL is just not worth the effort. We almost do not go into the dinning room anymore on RCL rides. Last time we had several very rude servers and got seated very badly so we never came back and gave all of our time money elsewhere. Put a note in the dinning room tip pouch that explained that because of the rotten service and attitude of the head waiter, the steward made out very well...

As for the cabins, well, the shower and better storage on RCL is very welcome...

If we could just take the RCL ship and Princess operations and put them togther, that would be something...

Then again, we swore off the 2700+ ships a couple of years ago and now shoot for the mid-sized rides and 10 days+ routes. RCL does not really offer that... Too obsessed with biger and biger ships.. Meet more people and make more friends on the smaller ships. Less stress, fewer bozos.

It takes me three days to recover from the stress my wife puts me through getting ready to go and getting to the ship. Seven days is really six so that leaves me with only three peaceful days... :-)

Just my rambling. Who knows, Carnival may buy RCL someday and then it will all implode!!!!

Give Princess on thing... They don't lose as many people into the twilight zone and keep the booze away from the teenagers.

Now if they could just stop 'crashing the ships'... in last year, BIG FIRE, a couple of crunched piers, and now the mystery roll which I simply do not believe was the fault of the officer who is taking the fall. Lets see, if it was human error, the officer stays behind for an inquire and the ship goes on... if it is a systems error, the ship stays in port for a FULL mechanical inspection until the cause is isolated and repaired costing millions a day. hmmm wonder how much a fall guy costs....

Oh well, I like the rides too much to let any of it keep me home so sail on my friends!

[Desert Cruizers]

Carol enjoyed your review. my DH & I sail both Princess and RCL and love them both. I will agree, that Princess has some areas they need to improve on, specifically, the Horizon Court, needs a makeover to congested, yet when it comes to Staff Games, Trivia, Wacky Pool Games, the edge goes to Princess. RCL gives you that Elegance feel and we find them a big level up all around then Princess, so depending on Itnerary, Price it will determine our choice of lines.

[corkpopr]

I must say, very fair in the comments from everyone. I prefer princess but just barely so a toss up for picking one over the other. Personally though i think i would have a good time on a freighter with a folding chair on a deck.

[Sandytoes]

[quote name='corkpopr']I must say, very fair in the comments from everyone. I prefer princess but just barely so a toss up for picking one over the other. [B]Personally though i think i would have a good time on a freighter with a folding chair on a deck[/B].[/quote]
:D

LOL - Good One!

Been on both - RC & Princess
Each is different - yet so similar.
IMO Princess has the edge.

But I'm with you Corkpopr - I could be in a dingy - as long as I'm not working, sailing away with my feet up with a cool drink in my hand that's all that truly matters.

[FitzLA]

Wow, how does one dig up a post from 14 months ago? ;)

[taxatty]

[quote name='FitzLA']Wow, how does one dig up a post from 14 months ago? ;)[/quote] [FONT=Arial Black][COLOR=blue]Probably because of the 10,000 Princess v. RCI threads on both boards, this one is by far the best and most informative.[/COLOR][/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial Black][COLOR=blue]Les[/COLOR][/FONT]
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[Tasha999]

[quote name='brn2crz']Hi Carol..Excellent perspective...Thanks...I keep wanting to go on the Grand while it is so close...But have not been able to 'wean" myself yet:D

We are Diamond, but we went on the Grand in January 2007. We didn't like it as much as RCCL. The ship was showing it's age in the public areas. We had a suite, and the layout was not like the GS, it was chopped up with way too much furniture. I banged my foot several times when getting out of bed. The ship was not as lively as RCCL. The specialty restaurants were no big deal, and I missed the "shows" the waiters put on during dinner. Perhaps their newer ships are different.

Tasha