Star Princess or Norwegian Pearl

[Tapi]

I'm posting on the Norwegian board to give them a chance to reply as well.

 

I'm planning on cruising to Alaska (finally!) departing September 2009 and have narrowed it down to either the Norwegian Pearl or the Star Princess. Both sail roundtrip Sundays from Seattle which is my main driving force. I am looking at an oceanview stateroom (no balcony). Rates are very similar.

 

I have never cruised on Norwegian or Princess, but I've had the chance to sail on other major cruise lines (Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Costa, Cunard, etc).

 

From those of you who love Princess, why should I pick the Star Princess? What makes you keep coming back to Princess? Thanks for the input!

[Cathy p]

Our first Princess cruise was on CB and was not great. However, we went on the Star and what a wonderful trip we had. All of the servers were fantastic and we really enjoyed the food much more than the CB.

I am sure what ever you decide , you will have a great time. Enjoy!!

[GottaLuvCruising]

We've sailed Princess and NCL (including the Pearl).

 

I would only do NCL again if the fare was unbeatable and ship / itinerary desirable. We were very disappointed in their entertainment and not terribly impressed with the food. Service was very good and the Pearl is beautiful. "Freestyle" is not (just try dining when you want without making reservations).

 

My husband and I both strongly prefer Princess. Entertainment (IMHO) is much better and food more to our liking. Drinks are also less expensive.

[Travelrd]

I sailed on the Golden last September and I loved it. It wasn't as classy as HAL but it was still wonderful. The Star is the sister ship to the Golden. It is undergoing a three week drydock in SF this September to give it more dining venues and to give it a good makeover. I never felt crowded on the Golden even though it was a larger ship than the Oosterdam. The food and service was very good on Princess. I did find the Anytime Dining a nice feature on Princess too. Trust me, you won't go wrong with Princess and the ship will have been updated by the time for your cruise.

[Sea Hag]

I see a lot of posts on the boards here from people who didn't like Norwegian or had bad experiences of one kind or another on that line. We love Norwegian - and we love Princess as well. My DH would give the nod to Norwegian if forced to pick between the two. He likes the freestyle dining and the ability to nearly always get a table for two. I'd give the nod to Princess if I were picking, since I like traditional dining. We've had some really great food on both, and some not-so-great food also. The best lasagna I ever had was on Norwegian and the best french toast I ever had was on Princess.

 

Entertainment is iffy for us, since DH refuses to go to any "singing and dancing" at all. We end up seeing comedians, juglers and magicians. DH is so sweet about everything else that I don't mind working around never seeing anything else on cruises.

 

The happiest, friendliest, best service we ever had - get ready to gasp and disbelieve - was on a Norwegian Panama Canal cruise. Not dissing Princess at all on this. Their service has been uniformly great. But the Norwegian Dream on the Panama was the best service we ever got.

[CrusinAgain]

We made the major mistake of trying NCL on the Pearl in Nov. 07 and this was a cruise that you could not wait to end because the food was juswt plain awful as well as the service both room steward, dining servers, pursors desk, and maintenance were the worse we have ever experienced on any cruise.

 

Entertainment was sadly lacking when we were use to Princess showing movies, having game style activities day and night and 2 shows in the evening. NCL had 1 show and nothing nonpaying of any interest during the day.

 

NCL's buffet selection was good and I liked the fact hand santiziers were everywhere but that did not stop the Noro virus breakout on our cruise.

 

We are also going to Alaska next summer but the Star Princess does not go to Glacier Bay but Holland America (Westerdam and Oosterdam) do as well as NCL. We are going to try the Westerdam since only Holland America and Princess are the pioneers of the cruising industry in Alaska and do it right. We already know HAL is a cruise leader as well as Princess so we should not have the attitude problems and slow service that we had on the Pearl.

 

The Freestyle dining on NCL only works if you get up early and make those reservations by phone or in person as all the restaurants are small and can hold around 25 on average. Princess and HAL have anytime and as you wish dining meaning you go to the dining room anytime you want between the hours they are opened. That has worked well for us since we only experienced 1 specialty restaurant on the Pearl due to the reservation system.

 

I wish you luck in your decision.

[RSWBADGER]

The Freestyle dining on NCL only works if you get up early and make those reservations by phone or in person as all the restaurants are small and can hold around 25 on average. Princess and HAL have anytime and as you wish dining meaning you go to the dining room anytime you want between the hours they are opened. That has worked well for us since we only experienced 1 specialty restaurant on the Pearl due to the reservation system.

 

I wish you luck in your decision.

 

Princess is our cruise line of choice, having said that we had a great cruise on the NCL Pearl, Princess could learn from the great buffet set-up.

We loved the specialty restaurant choices and food. As for the size of the restaurants and availability we ate at Cagneys Steakhouse twice and Le Bistro French Restaurant twice, had no problems getting reservations.

 

Actual:rolleyes: Capacity of Specialty Restaurants.

 

Cagney's Steakhouse - 176

Le Bistro French - 129

LaCucina Italian - 96

Mambos Tapa's/Mexican - 96

 

http://www.ncl.com/nclweb/fleet/publicRooms.html?shipCode=PEARL

[CrusinAgain]

Princess is our cruise line of choice, having said that we had a great cruise on the NCL Pearl, Princess could learn from the great buffet set-up.

We loved the specialty restaurant choices and food. As for the size of the restaurants and availability we ate at Cagneys Steakhouse twice and Le Bistro French Restaurant twice, had no problems getting reservations.

 

Actual:rolleyes: Capacity of Specialty Restaurants.

 

Cagney's Steakhouse - 176

Le Bistro French - 129

LaCucina Italian - 96

Mambos Tapa's/Mexican - 96

 

http://www.ncl.com/nclweb/fleet/publicRooms.html?shipCode=PEARL

 

If you were in a suite there is no problem. However, I cannot picture 96 people fitting in the little area provided for the Mexican restaurant. And do remember some of these are fee based and not included in the cruiseprice. Guess the reservation clerk needs to be informed that she/he can book more than the 25 that we were told was the average. However, from reading other reviews, I see now that people are saying only 30% is reserved for reservation from the below suite folks. Lots of angry reviews, but I am glad you had a wonderful time since that appears to be a rarity on the Pearl since you went on her 1 1/2 years ago.

[Tatka]

We made the major mistake of trying NCL on the Pearl in Nov. 07 and this was a cruise that you could not wait to end because the food was juswt plain awful as well as the service both room steward, dining servers, pursors desk, and maintenance were the worse we have ever experienced on any cruise.

 

Entertainment was sadly lacking when we were use to Princess showing movies, having game style activities day and night and 2 shows in the evening. NCL had 1 show and nothing nonpaying of any interest during the day.

 

NCL's buffet selection was good and I liked the fact hand santiziers were everywhere but that did not stop the Noro virus breakout on our cruise.

.

 

I didn't sail on Perl, but on NCL Spirit and Caribbean Princess.

 

We found entertainment to be very close.. Production shows were good, but not great on both ships, but there were tons of an additional musical entertainment in different lounges.

 

Food in main DR was comparable on both lines, as was availability to get table for 2-3-4 etc. :) However, lunch buffet on NCL was very weak, while Princess had great buffets and seafood buffets.

 

We had much faster service from room attendant. On NCL we had to wayt past 12 pm and 9:30 pm to get our room done.. Rooms are smaller on NCL, I was surprised how small was space for clothes, and we only had 1.5 bags.

 

I would go on Star, as it (I think) has covered pool, which is important in Alaska.