Voyager Class VS. Crown Princess

[abschnick]

We have sailed on Navigator two times and once on Liberty. We were looking at the Crown Princess for a change of pace. Anyone been on the Crown that can give some insight or comparison?

 

Thanks

[qsuzi]

To better answer your question, will you please be more specific on what type of information you are looking for. We have sailed the Voyager (Explorer) class and the Grand (Emerald) class. They are both big ships with Voyager having more tonnage and decks. The Piazza and Atrium areas on Princess are separate while Voyager has a 3-tiered 3 times football sized length Promenade. Voyager does not have Movies under the Stars, laundry rooms, or anytime dining but the flow and service in the Windjammer is better. Voyager atmosphere is colorful vs casual elegant. Princess coffee is horrid while Seattle's Best is good :) The Explorer had ice skating, both have speciality dining, Emerald had entertainers in the Atrium as well as in the showroom. Anything else:confused: :)

[Pumbaamd]

We are on Emerald next year. Is she same/better/worse than Liberty of the Seas?

[Merion_Mom]

We have sailed on Navigator two times and once on Liberty. We were looking at the Crown Princess for a change of pace. Anyone been on the Crown that can give some insight or comparison?

 

Thanks

 

As ordered, sir: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=384375

[nancycara]

We sailed on the Crown last year and loved it. It is a beautiful ship.

[qsuzi]

We are on Emerald next year. Is she same/better/worse than Liberty of the Seas?

We have been on rCL 4 times and 5 times on Princess; large, medium. and small ships. Our favorite ship is the Emerald and all the reviews of her are excellent. You an find info on the differences but one very important one is ship atmosphere - the crew/staff are eager to please and friendly professional. The casual elegance, the venues, the atrium performers, the Piazza, etc. Even when you get off the ship months later you wish you were back on her. Did you have any specific questions?

[GarysGirl]

We were on the Voyager in 2003 and the Explorer in 2004, and we sailed on the Crown last year. We loved all of them, but there are definitely differences. Here's a quick comparison:

 

Layout: Voyager class ships have a fairly intuitive layout. We were easily able to find our way around the ship after the first day. The Crown layout was pretty confusing, and we definitely had some "you can't get there from here" moments. We hadn't completely figured it out by the last day of the cruise! That said, both ships are beautiful and elegant, and the layout of the Crown didn't bother us.

 

Public Rooms: The major difference between the two is the Royal Promenade on the Voyager class. The Crown has a small atrium in the center, and other public rooms scattered throughout, rather than one central place where people tend to gather. Bars and lounges on both ships a pretty similar. One feature unique to the Voyager class is the skating rink, which is a lot of fun for the shows as well as the group activities that take place there. One thing we really liked on the Crown was Club Fusion, which had flat screen TV's scattered throughout (great for Karaoke).

 

Pools: Here's where the Crown really beats the Voyager class, in my opinion. There are four pools on Crown: two main pools that are about the same size and separated by decking (the "movie" pool and the "music" pool, as we called them), and two adults-only pools, one of which has a "swim-against-the-current" feature. All are outside. We LOVED the pools on the Crown, especially the fact that the adults-only pools were outside. On Voyager class ships, it seemed like they never opened the Solarium (on a Caribbean itinerary), and we didn't like having to sit inside if we wanted to go to the "quiet" pool. Another plus on the Crown was that, because there were so many pool areas, we never had a problem finding a lounge chair by any of the pools, even on Sea Days.

 

Food: Totally subjective, but I thought Royal Caribbean had the edge here. On Crown, I found the dining room food to be just ok, and the buffet food pretty much inedible. I liked the food in the Voyager class dining rooms and buffets MUCH better. One thing that I liked on Princess, though, was that they have pizza, hamburgers and hot dogs available poolside, and that food is really good (we had pizza or burgers for lunch every day because we didn't like the buffet!). As has been noted many times on the Princess boards, there is no self serve ice cream available on Princess ships, which didn't bother me but may be a consideration for some.

 

Cabins: We had inside cabins on both. The standard cabins are about the same for both lines square footage wise, but the layout is different. The Crown has a "walk-in closet" type set-up for the bathroom and closet, which is nice for some privacy while you're getting ready. This set up makes the "living space" a little smaller, and there is no couch, just a bed and a desk. There are also very few drawers, but there is plenty of space in the closet to hang stuff, and there are cubby holes for folded items.

 

Atmosphere: I would say that Princess overall is a bit more sedate than Royal Caribbean. There's not quite as much going on at night (still plenty to choose from), no towel animals in the cabins, and no singing waiters in the dining room (they did do the Baked Alaska parade). We travel with a large group, so we bring our own fun, but Royal might be a better choice for people looking for nightlife. That's not to say that Princess is dead at night, because it's definitely not; it's just more subdued.

 

Overall: Loved all of the ships, and would sail any of them again without hesitation. However, we're booked on the Emerald Princess for this year, and I can't wait. It's the pools that do it for me!

[CruiserTK]

Pools: Here's where the Crown really beats the Voyager class, in my opinion. There are four pools on Crown: two main pools that are about the same size and separated by decking (the "movie" pool and the "music" pool, as we called them), and two adults-only pools, one of which has a "swim-against-the-current" feature. All are outside. We LOVED the pools on the Crown, especially the fact that the adults-only pools were outside. On Voyager class ships, it seemed like they never opened the Solarium (on a Caribbean itinerary), and we didn't like having to sit inside if we wanted to go to the "quiet" pool. Another plus on the Crown was that, because there were so many pool areas, we never had a problem finding a lounge chair by any of the pools, even on Sea Days.

 

 

I don't understand what you mean by RCCL never opening the Solarium and your not wanting to sit inside if you wanted to go to a quiet pool. The adults-only Solarium on Voyager ships is not covered; there is no retractable roof on this class of ship. The Radiance and Vision class ships have retractable roofs in the Solarium, but no promenade. The Voyager class ships have the promenade, but no retractable roofs.

[GarysGirl]

I don't understand what you mean by RCCL never opening the Solarium and your not wanting to sit inside if you wanted to go to a quiet pool. The adults-only Solarium on Voyager ships is not covered; there is no retractable roof on this class of ship. The Radiance and Vision class ships have retractable roofs in the Solarium, but no promenade. The Voyager class ships have the promenade, but no retractable roofs.

 

Oops, sorry about that. I've sailed on the Radiance class ships three times since sailing on the Voyager class, and I must have gotten them confused...The rest of my post still stands :-)

[qsuzi]

Good feedback Garysgirl.