We're big fans of RCCL - would we like Crown Princess?

[S.S.Oceanlover]

We tried to switch from traditional to anytime dining, but they told us that since the cruise was booked there was no chance of doing that except on the 2 nights when they had cancellations in the restaurants.

 

There is either some miscommunication here or this is a first.

 

I've never heard of somebody not being able to get out of traditional to switch to anytime dining. The puzzling part is that you say you couldn't get into anytime unless somebody canceled their reservation. I don't think most people even make reservations for anytime.:confused:

 

Bill

[LizC]

Here what I found IMHO:

 

*Princess had better:

Food,

service in dining room,

embaration and debarcation (10min max),

getting on and off the ship without wait at ports

Youth Security !!!! Never even saw the children and I heard there were several hundred.

Lots and lots of No smoking areas-smoke free casino night

Order spa services pre cruise

Laundry Room !!!

Quiet and relaxing

They don't push drinks on you.

I found Crown Grill better than Chops.

Anytime dining- LOVED IT

Ship-large ship small ship feel.

Sanctuary-great concept

 

*RCCL has better:

 

Ships we love the promenade(Freedom is my favorite).

Room service(MUCH MUCH better choices),

cost of photos less,

no charge for Pizza,

can find free tea and water in cafe(I ask the waiter for some and he said they did not have any on deck 5)

No charge for cheese plate

great entertainment

Ice skating

Ship seems more ALIVE.

Our room stewarts on RCCL was much better than Princess

Ships are kept up better, yes even the new Crown

Elevators-less wait

 

 

I would cruise on either line again, just MHO.

[dforeigner]

My post was not meant to be rhetorical - we are seriously considering the Crown Princess because of the itinerary and the price. We thought it might be possible that our less-than-wonderful experience on the Diamond Princess 2 years ago could've been that ship's issues, and not an issue across the board with all Princess ships. This is why I posted my question, and if you re-read my original post you'll see that we have cruised on Carnival as well as many cruises with RCCL, and we had a great time and actually found our Alaskan cruise on the Carnival Spirit to be a pretty close experience to our cruises on RCCL. Unfortunately, what we found on the Diamond Princess wasn't close to either RCCL or Carnival. There again, if we had sailed on one of Carnival's older ships with a different itinerary and reputation, our experience, I'm sure, would've been different. THIS is what I thought might be the case with a different Princess ship. Sorry if I bothered anyone with what might've been considered a senseless post.

 

I appears to me like you have an open mind and are willing to try Princess again. As long as you go with an open mind and do not try to compare RCL with Princess right of the bat, you may have better luck this time. As others have mentioned, the buffet has basically the same setting with the Grand class ships. Also, Princess does not have the big opened center promenade area with the Vegas type look. In my opinion, Princess is a step above Carnival. Also, if you have anytime dining and you do not like your waiter, you can always request to seat elsewhere. Also, Princess seldom does animal towels.

[ds521]

This was during the spring break period, and the ship was completely booked - at least that's what we were told. Believe me, we tried to explain why we wanted to switch from traditional......our waiter was rude, extremely slow, holding and playing with children while we waited for service - we've just never experienced anything like it on RCCL or on Carnival. What was really bad was that we had to go back to that same table even after we had made those complaints to the head waiter when we requested to make the switch. Obviously, our waiter was informed of our complaints and it was so awkward because he asked why we complained and didn't we know he could lose his job. He actually asked us to help him out by giving him a good rating on the review sheets they give you on the last night. It was ridiculous.