2015 British Isles - Princess or Celebrity?

Hi everyone,

I'm in the early research stages of planning a British Isles cruise in 2015 and trying to decide between Princess and Celebrity. This will be our first cruise in Europe.

This is a once in a lifetime dream cruise that I'm planning so I would appreciate any help, advice, or tips that you can offer.

If you have been on the Princess or Celebrity British Isles cruise, or both of them, I would be very interested in hearing from you with your likes, dislikes, opinions, etc.

Thanks in advance!

Wouldn't itinerary be the primary factor? Celebrity's itineraries aren't out yet

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as you can see from our list, we have only sailed on princess & carnival

but you will find lot of good reviews on celebrity -

seems there are people who have favorite lines & have compared them

we are considering others for our next trip to caribbean & europe -

esp celebrity eclipse for 2 week 8 ports 6 we have never been on

1 feb 2015.

we loved all our princess cruises so far but esp the 2008 on grand & emerald

for greek isles & medit & TA and last summer on carib for brit isles -

the cc groups for all those were sensational - we met some in so calif for lunch

a few months before & enjoyed private tours with several cc members

re ship tours, princess always does an excellent job -

for out of the way places and in mexico, we choose the ship tours

if you have time - we are retired - consider spending as much time

as possible before and after the cruise - there is so much to do & see EVERYWHERE !!

if you can find it, i started a review of our trip - explaining in detail where we stayed &

what we did the 10 days prior in london & southampton -

still haven't finished the cruise part or the 6 days after :eek:

in fact we loved last year's trip so much, we are considering doing it all over again -

going to the places we missed plus time in wales ;)

whichever you choose you will love the british isles !!

p.s. forgot to say we almost always choose inside cabins on princess

so we have $$ for other things - however last year about a month before the

cruise the prices had gone down so much, i emailed our TA to see if princess

would give us some extra OBC - instead they gave us a balcony across from

the laundromat - which jim used the minute we got settled in our room

washing our 10 days of laundry from land & then the sea day before le havre

so we could pack everything clean for remainder of trip

i must say we really enjoyed the balcony a few times but we were so tired

every evening from the port intensive itinerary most nights we were asleep by 9 !!

we will not hesitate to book inside again if it means we can spend more time on land !!

My husband and I went on a wonderful British Isles cruise (our first) in June 2011. The itinerary included the Orkney Islands (not all of them do) which was a really interesting stop and one which we highly recommend. Our day in Wales was amazing too. Actually all of our ports were great but Orkney and Wales were my favourite. It was roundtrip from Southhampton and we stayed an extra 2 days in London afterward - which was not long enough but we didn't realize this at the time. This was a really, really nice cruise and we sailed on the Crown princess. Our room was a balcony on the Lido deck and we really enjoyed the location. I would recommend this cruise and would go again in a heartbeat. Have fun with whatever you choose!

We did the British isles on Princess and really enjoyed it. when you plan it you should try and pick a date during the Edinburgh Tattoo. We went to the tattoo when we were docked in Glasgow as it was the last day. It wasn't a bad drive and the ship was in port until about 1 AM so everyone could get back after the ship.

If you like the Beatles, we really enjoyed it in Liverpool. We were over at the Albert Dock area and booked it last minute.

We loved the scenery of Northern Ireland when docked at Invergordon. Our tour guide even snuck in a quickie tour of Belfast right at the end.

We have sailed both Princess and Celebrity and find them pretty equal. I would look at itinerary. And like others have said, you really don't need a balcony because you are so busy!

We planned on a British Isles cruise for June 2013. Comparing Princess and Celebrity for that time Princess was one day more for $1000 per couple more. We decided to go on Celebrity and save the money.Ultimately we had to cancel it.

Planning for 2015 also.We will wait for pricing and then we will pick. Can't go wrong with either as both lines are using their newer ships.Did the Silhouette in 2012 for an Adriatic cruise and loved it

I'd wait to see the X itinerary before deciding. But the two lines are more alike than different. And the new S class ships on Celebrity are knock outs!

Everyone,

Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts!

Happy cruising!

I loved the ship. The only thing I did not like is that Celebrity does not have washers and dryers. You need to either wash and hang in cabin, or have Celebrity do this for you. As I only wash my clothes in cold water, let's just say that my cabin looked like a laundramatt. I packed more clothes than I would have due to no washers and dryers. Now the food on Celebrity was excellent. The ship was very adult oriented. No extra charge for their version of sanctuary. Very comfortable padded loungers, etc.

If you don't plan on using Princesses Sanctuary, or don't really care one way or the other regarding Enclave, if you are satisfied with Princess food: then Princess would be easier in regards to laundry.

Now again, I loved Celebrity. But, if the itineraries were basically the same, and the food is good enough on the Princess ship- for an itinerary more than a week, I think I would choose Princess over Celebrity due to the laundry issue. It did drive me nuts on the Reflection for 10 days.

Have not cruised on Celebrity but would like to. We did our first dream Europe cruise on the Golden to the British Isles. We loved the ship and enjoyed the flexibility of the anytime dining. We enjoyed Dublin and Grenock Scotland for beautiful,scenery and a nice estate and castle tour. Bergen Norway was excellent . But our favorite stop was Brugges. Amazing. We stayed on in London for two more nights. A great trip and Princess did a great job with their organized tours and entertainment.

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Hi everyone,

 

I'm in the early research stages of planning a British Isles cruise in 2015 and trying to decide between Princess and Celebrity. This will be our first cruise in Europe.

 

This is a once in a lifetime dream cruise that I'm planning so I would appreciate any help, advice, or tips that you can offer.

 

If you have been on the Princess or Celebrity British Isles cruise, or both of them, I would be very interested in hearing from you with your likes, dislikes, opinions, etc.

 

Thanks in advance!

What did you ultimately decide, Princess or Celebrity?

We have sailed on both Princess and Celebrity. So far we have sailed 7 times on Princess and are tired of the older ships, most are. We tried their newest ship, the Regal for New Years and it was not as good as expected (see reviews on the Regal).

So now we're booked on the Royal Princess to the British Isles because we got a good deal, but after this one, we plan to go back to taking other cruise lines. We love Celebrity! We did the Baltics/Scandinavia cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse and loved it.

Whichever one you choose, they are both good, we would not hesitate sailing on Princess again if we like the itineray, but IMO, Celebrity is better ;)

We have sailed on both Princess and Celebrity. So far we have sailed 7 times on Princess and are tired of the older ships, most are. We tried their newest ship, the Regal for New Years and it was not as good as expected (see reviews on the Regal).

 

So now we're booked on the Royal Princess to the British Isles because we got a good deal, but after this one, we plan to go back to taking other cruise lines. We love Celebrity! We did the Baltics/Scandinavia cruise on the Celebrity Eclipse and loved it.

 

Whichever one you choose, they are both good, we would not hesitate sailing on Princess again if we like the itineray, but IMO, Celebrity is better ;)

Thanks for the feedback. We are currently looking at both cruises, Celebrity Silhouette and the Royal at the end of June. Celebrity has the 123Go all inclusive drink package included plus they embark from Amsterdam which may be easier logistically as airport to dock is concerned. But I know either cruise would be good.

I think you should be trying to decide whether to cruise the British Isles from London Southampton in a large or very large Princess ship or cruise the British Isles from London Dover in a smaller Princess ship. Neither of those ports are anywhere near London so any stopover pre/post cruise needs looking at. On top of that are there any areas of the UK you might like to focus on. Some people like to arrive in UK by flying into London Heathrow direct. It is possible to arrive in London at London Gatwick direct (nearer to Southampton than LHR) or at London City Airport (generally indirectly from Schipol etc.but closest to London by far) Virtually nobody has heard of London City Airport.

Regards John Watson

Hi All

Any British Isles cruise needs to be in August to catch Edinburgh tattoo,

almost ever post I have seen have said a cruise highlight,

the other is Orkney, more standing stones that Stonehenge,

buildings older than the pyramids.

yours Shogun

What did you ultimately decide, Princess or Celebrity?

Looking at signature, and post history, they didn't choose either. EM