Celebrity or Princess???

[CruiseQueen13]

We like Celebrity the best - then Princess.

 

Differences I've observed -

 

1) Celebrity a bit more upscale and the service outstanding. Princess very very nice - service not quite as good.

2) Celebrity salt water pool - Princess fresh - we like fresh

3) Love the personal choice

4) Celebrity food better than Princess

5) Celebrity shows best at sea IMO

6) Princess a bit more to do

 

Either way you can't go wrong - enjoy.

[shipshape sam]

We also like the dancing on M class ships. On both or our cruises, the dancing was just prior to and after early/main seating in lounge and a short distance to dining room. It was nice to have a cocktail, have a few dances prior to eating.

[DeepWaterMariner]

rebeccalouise, I agree that the ships of today have much more to offer than the best ships of decades ago. Much nicer staterooms, terrific showrooms, spas and casinos which barely existed back in the day, alternative dinning, and unbelievable activity options like rock climbing walls, etc. Of coarse many of these improvements are revenue producers which are additions to the basic cost of a cruise. Many of us old school cruisers can do without the extras and miss ships like the old Royal Princess which was more about the itinerary than revenue producing extras, which is exactly why they are probably becoming harder to find. Obviously both Celebrity and Princess see a market for people like us with both lines using the R class ships.

[BrooklynGirl2]

We have sailed X four times and just got off the Crown Princess 9 day Caribbean sailing.

 

I have to say that X beats Princess in only one area and that is in the dining room service. We enjoy the polished but still friendly service on X. Our waiters on X have always interacted with us, remembered our preferences and generally went out of their way to accommodate our requests (we don't ask for much). They have entertained my child at dinner, done some magic tricks and still provided exemplary service. Also, we are wine drinkers and made good use of the sommelier on X. We missed the sommelier on Princess.:(

 

But while X dining room food may beat out Princess it's only by a very slim margin. Princess pizza, burgers and fries and ice cream are MUCH better than on X. Princess also has a better and more varied buffet and the food there was quite good while I never liked X's buffet. I also think that Princess dining room Lunch has X beat as well. The menu had more choices and the pastas were excellent (and I'm a NYer and Italian who is used to good pasta).

 

Our regular room on the Crown was spacious and our balcony was huge. The fresh water pools were great and there was always room somewhere on deck to lay out. We enjoyed the variety of entertainment on Princess although we felt that the X production shows were more polished and professional. The Crown itself is a stunning ship. Although it held 3300 pax on our sailing you would never know it. There were empty public rooms you could find to be alone and relax. The ship decor is all marble, wood, brass and pleasing colors. The chairs (except in the theater) are all very comfortable. The chocolate chip cookies are to die for and having food available all the time is very convenient.

 

While the service we received on Princess was very good it was not the personal interactive type of service we got in the Zenith's dining room. It could have been our waiters though because at open lunch and breakfast we had some excellent and personable servers. (We had late traditional dining.) We had excellent table mates and in general the pax were friendly and I did not see any disregard of the dress codes on our sailing. In fact you would see pax quite dressed up even on casual nights which was nice.

 

We sailed Princess for the itinerary and the price was excellent for a balcony cabin. X has abandoned the Caribbean in the summer which is when we can sail (child in school). They have really won me over and I would not hesitate to sail on Princess in the future.

[Tatka]

BrooklynGirl2,

 

Our opinions are so similar.. about EVERYTHING, it's scary.:D

 

We sailed on Caribbean Princess and 3 times on "C" class of Celebrity.

[momofmeg]

Well, maybe you had a bad stateroom attendant, or maybe we had the best Princess's attendant, but we were amazed with warm and personal service we got from him (in inside stateroom). We have 3 cruises on Celebrity, so yes we have something to compare. :)

 

We are Russians and had many opportunities to talk to the russian-speaking crew from Ukraine. They all talked about how great is to work for Princess and how happy they are. I previously talked to numerous russian-speakers on RCCL, Celebrity and Carnival and never experienced so much enthusiasm. They were naturally happy. They also said that main competition is RCCL, but condtions of work is much better on Princess.

 

That was during last summer on Caribbean Princess.. I also read couple of not so nice reviews about Sapphire Princess, so I wonder about difference between two ships.

 

What I was also impressed about was that on 7 days Caribbean cruise on Princess most of the people adhere dress code. My son said that there were alot of Britts on this cruise, who took b-to-b cruises.. but even on casual days a lot of pasangers went to the restaurants in nice cocktail dresses and jackets.

 

I was absolutely impressed with how many entertainment options were available even on the very last night up to 1 or 2 am. At least in 3 bars was live music with a singer.:)

 

Not a single minute of that cruise we felt bored. I liked some entertainment choices on Celebrity (especially production show), but acapella act is really getting old and duy in Michael's club was looking at his watches every 5-10 minutes. That was unfortunate as I was trying to impress my DH, who had neve sail on Century before.:o

 

Tatka I also read a couple of bad reviews about Sapphire Princess but I loved my Carribean Princess cruise. Like you, I decided I won't cruise the Sapphire Princess! This is so often true, certain ships within a line are no good, but that does not mean all-I look at ships and not line myself-heck I even had two very differant experiences on the same ship (Sovereign of the Seas) that I cruised twice two years apart.

 

I do feel overall Celebrity is nicer then Princess but I also feel Princess is much nicer then Royal caribbean or Carnival -and from what I have read Norweigen, although I have never cruised that line.

 

My thinking is for those of us who can't always spend alot of money on a cruise, Princess is the best budget line, as far as how far your money goes.

[Cachecara]

We have sailed X four times and just got off the Crown Princess 9 day Caribbean sailing.

 

I have to say that X beats Princess in only one area and that is in the dining room service. We enjoy the polished but still friendly service on X. Our waiters on X have always interacted with us, remembered our preferences and generally went out of their way to accommodate our requests (we don't ask for much). They have entertained my child at dinner, done some magic tricks and still provided exemplary service. Also, we are wine drinkers and made good use of the sommelier on X. We missed the sommelier on Princess.:(

 

But while X dining room food may beat out Princess it's only by a very slim margin. Princess pizza, burgers and fries and ice cream are MUCH better than on X. Princess also has a better and more varied buffet and the food there was quite good while I never liked X's buffet. I also think that Princess dining room Lunch has X beat as well. The menu had more choices and the pastas were excellent (and I'm a NYer and Italian who is used to good pasta).

 

Our regular room on the Crown was spacious and our balcony was huge. The fresh water pools were great and there was always room somewhere on deck to lay out. We enjoyed the variety of entertainment on Princess although we felt that the X production shows were more polished and professional. The Crown itself is a stunning ship. Although it held 3300 pax on our sailing you would never know it. There were empty public rooms you could find to be alone and relax. The ship decor is all marble, wood, brass and pleasing colors. The chairs (except in the theater) are all very comfortable. The chocolate chip cookies are to die for and having food available all the time is very convenient.

 

While the service we received on Princess was very good it was not the personal interactive type of service we got in the Zenith's dining room. It could have been our waiters though because at open lunch and breakfast we had some excellent and personable servers. (We had late traditional dining.) We had excellent table mates and in general the pax were friendly and I did not see any disregard of the dress codes on our sailing. In fact you would see pax quite dressed up even on casual nights which was nice.

 

We sailed Princess for the itinerary and the price was excellent for a balcony cabin. X has abandoned the Caribbean in the summer which is when we can sail (child in school). They have really won me over and I would not hesitate to sail on Princess in the future.

 

Hey Lori! I had eagerly been awaiting to see a review of your cruise, knowing you were going to be going Princess soon! So glad to see you had a great time! :)

I know you were an avid X fan and so I am happy to hear all about how your Princess cruised favorably and unfavorably compared. We are scheduled to take our first Princess cruise to Alaska after having been strong X fans too.

Thanks for your views. :)

[richsea]

Hi Brooklyngirl2! We are long time Celebrity passengers with one Princess cruise behind us (Crown Princess Souther Caribbean), & like Tatka, agree with everything you said.

 

While we do not cruise the Caribbean in summer, we do like November sailings to the Caribbean, which Celebrity basically no longer offers, which was why we tried Princess last year. Well, we tried it & liked it so now we will continue to look at Princess as an option for all of our cruises.

[BrooklynGirl2]

Hi Karen and Rich...

 

I'm going to do a more complete review today (I hope ;) ) and I will post it to the Princess Board and cross post it here too. We really did have a wonderful time and having perfect weather helped too. We will definitely sail Princess again and we are looking at booking the Caribbean Princess for next summer.

[Lois R]

:) Hi Lori, welcome back and glad the 3 of you had a good time:)

I keep saying I should branch out and try something else......Your review

is excllenent...well balanced. Gives me some more food for thought:eek: ;)

[Desertbelle]

My two Princess cruises were the worse we have had. My cruise from hell on the Dawn Princess is a long story, and I won't bore you here with the details. We actually have an outstanding onboard booking with Princess and I just haven't been able to bring myself to book something with it, so I guess at some point I will ask for my money back. :(

 

I hear so many wonderful things from other people about their Princess cruises, so maybe I just had terrible luck with my Princess cruises, but we put so much into our planning, paying for and taking cruises, that I just can't justify taking another chance on Princess.

[geoherb]

Our last few cruises have been on older ships. Our most recent cruise was on the Sun Princess. It wasn't a total let-down, but I would say it wasn't quite up to our previous Princess cruises. One reason was that the staff did not seem to have the guts to stop passengers from disobeying the rules--whether children in the adults only pool, smokers on the non-smoking side of the ship, or people cutting in lines at the buffet. The ship being extra vigilant due to a norovirus outbreak on the previous cruise may have had something to do with the staff members' attitudes.

 

We sailed on Century before the refurb. I was considering sailing on it again, but I knew I'd miss the thalassotherapy pool too much on a holiday cruise.

 

Overall, we'll sail on HAL, Princess or X again if the price is right and the itinerary works with our schedule.

[Tatka]

I hear so many wonderful things from other people about their Princess cruises, so maybe I just had terrible luck with my Princess cruises, but we put so much into our planning, paying for and taking cruises, that I just can't justify taking another chance on Princess.

 

You know, we had less tha average experience with HAL (Carnival is #1 worst experience :mad: ), but after reading so many wonderful reviews I understand, that it was just unfortunate experience. We are going to give HAL another try, maybe next Thanksgiving or when our teen graduates. :)

[shipshape sam]

Anyone done a comparison with Celebrity vs Greyhound/Motel 6? Wonder which would be preferred?

[larronry]

Our last few cruises have been on older ships. Our most recent cruise was on the Sun Princess. It wasn't a total let-down, but I would say it wasn't quite up to our previous Princess cruises. One reason was that the staff did not seem to have the guts to stop passengers from disobeying the rules--whether children in the adults only pool, smokers on the non-smoking side of the ship, or people cutting in lines at the buffet. The ship being extra vigilant due to a norovirus outbreak on the previous cruise may have had something to do with the staff members' attitudes.

 

We sailed on Century before the refurb. I was considering sailing on it again, but I knew I'd miss the thalassotherapy pool too much on a holiday cruise.

 

Overall, we'll sail on HAL, Princess or X again if the price is right and the itinerary works with our schedule.

I was on the Caribbean Princess last December because of the Canceled Millennium cruise and they weren't enforcing the non-smoking side of the ship either. Not even when requesting. I left the MUTS because I couldn't tolerate the smoke around me.

[richsea]

Anyone done a comparison with Celebrity vs Greyhound/Motel 6? Wonder which would be preferred?

 

Celebrity

[Tatka]

I was on the Caribbean Princess last December because of the Canceled Millennium cruise and they weren't enforcing the non-smoking side of the ship either. Not even when requesting. I left the MUTS because I couldn't tolerate the smoke around me.

 

Wow. When we sailed last summer MUTS were smoke free area, completely. Nobody smoked.

[larronry]

Wow. When we sailed last summer MUTS were smoke free area, completely. Nobody smoked.

 

Was that at night only or during the day as well?

 

At night it wasn't an issue because I could move to another location because the sun wasn't an issue, but during the day I usually watched from the side or all the way back on the main deck so that I would be under the cover of the upper deck and that was where I ran into problems.