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Anyone Else Noticing Than Princess Pricing is Higher Than Celebrity?


mnocket
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I hope your assessment of Princess food is accurate, since my next cruise is on Crown Princess. But I do notice that every one of your posts has been in the Princess forum. Have you ever sailed on Celebrity?

 

Yes we have one 7 day sailing on the Sihouete and could not wait to get off and back on a Princess the same day - I would not have made the statement if I had never sailed Celebrity - I do know I will not cruise X even it were free.

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I don't know about Princess being more than Celebrity, as we are loyal to Princess now. I do know our 2018 and 2019 cruises have gone up huge. We do a suite for 34 to 35 days and it has gone up an additional $8K+ for the same room. We just had the conversation we don't know how long we can cruise. All we do is the one time vacation and save through the year...no movies no going out to eat, etc. We got the suite one time and now feel we have to have it or not go. I asked on another post if people noticed the increase. Going for 35 days at a time you really notice the increase.

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I sailed on Emerald Princess for 32 days earlier this year found the food excellent dined Traditional and am Gluten Free

Horizon Court on the other hand can vary.Breakfasts very good wonderful choice with also personalized omelettes to your choice.With regular hot food unless you get there when it is first placed out, later on can look tired.The cold items like salads ,fruit and deserts are great.We had a European head Chef my preference .:)

 

Huh?

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The issue I see with Princess's pricing for the Sip and Sail package is they offer these itineraries so far out .... not available for sailings within the next couple of months. So, they see what they can fill with this promo and the pricing has not dropped as it sometimes tends to do for those last minute sailings.

 

Celebrity's offering of the one free perk (or more than one at times) is that you are still able to book using this promo for last minute sailings, oftentimes making them a better bargain than the Princess sailings. Plus, to get one of the free perks on Celebrity, you only have to book an oceanview and not a balcony.

 

You can still get some great pricing on Princess ... just probably not when combining it with the Sip and Sail promo.

 

 

 

PS ... the food on Celebrity is really good to excellent!!

 

 

Lately every time I look to book an ocean view on Celebrity they are priced the same as a balcony. I have also booked CC because they were the same price as a regular balcony. These are the games they play to fill the higher categories. But in general comparing similar itineraries on both lines Princess seems to be higher to start with and usually drops price closer to sailing. Right now I have 2 Princess cruises booked for 2018. When all is said and done I may cancel the Princess cruises and book Celebrity. One of my Princess cruises is 18 months out. Anything could happen by then.

 

 

 

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The perks are not free on Celebrity. They are built in to the price. You can ask for Celebrity pricing without a perk and it is significantly lower than with a perk included.

 

 

 

I have done that and the difference in price doesn't even cover paid gratuity or $300 obc which are among the 4 choices when booking.

 

 

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The perks are not free on Celebrity. They are built in to the price. You can ask for Celebrity pricing without a perk and it is significantly lower than with a perk included.

 

 

 

I agree with you for the most part, but recently we've come out with some phenomenal deals with X. In fact, for next April we booked a one week balcony on the Silhouette which includes two perks, $300 OBC plus $200 T.A. Credit plus classic drink package, and when compared to the cost for the Regal Princess, we are paying less, and we are paying what we usually pay from year to year. We booked in April, and I checked last week and the price is now way more and only includes one perk. I truly believe it all has to do with timing , and since 2014, we have not been able to find a good deal on X, until just recently.

We are very surprised how much Princess fares have increased within the last year though, and with fewer perks.

 

 

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After 11 or 12 on Princess, I've had some pretty dire meals on them including lobster tails that I swear had been washed in fairy liquid in the Crown Grill but no matter how bad a meal got, I would still never say Princess presents inedible food. Same should be said for Celebrity. Its a ridiculous comment.

 

 

 

Agree. We have 17 Princess cruises and have had some real clunkers for meals. We've also had some fantastic meals as well.

On Celebrity we've also had some good and some bad.

We love both lines for different reasons though. Heck, I even hated my Carnival cruise in 1992, but I sure don't think all Carnival, ships and food are horrible.

 

 

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I was disappointed in the food on our last Celebrity cruise, but I wouldn't say it was inedible. Just not as good as we had on our previous cruises on X. I've had some very nice meals on Princess in the main dining room, and overall I like the availability of food on Princess ships. On our HAL cruise in February, there were times when nothing I wanted to eat was available at that time. (I could have ordered room service, but that takes time.)

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After 11 or 12 on Princess, I've had some pretty dire meals on them including lobster tails that I swear had been washed in fairy liquid in the Crown Grill but no matter how bad a meal got, I would still never say Princess presents inedible food. Same should be said for Celebrity. Its a ridiculous comment.

 

Agreed re the comment being ridiculous and ill-considered. I've sailed Princess (Star) and Celebrity (Reflection) in the past 9 months and had enjoyable meals on both. I had a couple of clunker meals on Princess (MDR and Crown Grill which was laughably bad and the first such CG meal in my 10 Princess cruises) and in my two X Cruises to date only the MDR on the last night was a fail. Every other meal on X was good and in the case of Murano and the Lawn Club Grill the best food I have had at sea (to date).

If food was "inedible" the ship would surely sail empty and I could get a really good deal....but I can't. They all buy much the same "off-brand" produce (look at the names on the pallets when they are loading) and then what they do with it is up to the Executive Chef and his team. I don't expect them to be as good as a high-end city restaurant, although Murano could hold it's own. Even at $50 a head Murano is a steal.

I can't think of any land restaurants that have to make 12,000 or so meals a day with consistency and of course you can't please everyone is the bottom line, no matter how hard you might try."Inedible" may be a stretch and a First World one at that.

I know that whether I sail Princess or X I will put on weight within one week.

I have just booked our first Azamara cruise and expect my waistline will expand there too.

Off to the gym!

Norris

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Princess permanently raised the pricing on balconies to offset the "free" drink package that is sometimes offered. Prior to this "free" perk nonsense (which is here to stay), a balcony would only cost $100 more than an inside on a 7 night cruise. Carnival just reported better than expected profit and said that the raised pricing is paying off and will continue....duh! $$$

 

 

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The perks are not free on Celebrity. They are built in to the price. You can ask for Celebrity pricing without a perk and it is significantly lower than with a perk included.

 

It is included in the overall pricing on both lines ..... but have gotten some of my best bargains sailing on Celebrity.

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  • 4 weeks later...
I hope your assessment of Princess food is accurate, since my next cruise is on Crown Princess. But I do notice that every one of your posts has been in the Princess forum. Have you ever sailed on Celebrity?

 

Please do not judge all Princess ships by Crown. It has to be the least good ship in many ways of any Princess ship I have ever sailed on.

I had 14 days on Crown this spring and was so pleased to debark. Not how a cruise should be.

Then we embarked Majestic and had a wonderful cruise, best ever on Princess.

YMMV

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Please do not judge all Princess ships by Crown. It has to be the least good ship in many ways of any Princess ship I have ever sailed on.

I had 14 days on Crown this spring and was so pleased to debark. Not how a cruise should be.

Then we embarked Majestic and had a wonderful cruise, best ever on Princess.

YMMV

If they ever bring the Majestic over to the US I'd sail it without question over the Crown.

Not that the Crown is terrible but the newer class ships are just that much better.;)

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IMHO that really depends on the cruises you are looking to, one cannot generalize that Princess is higher prices than Celebrity overall.

 

For the Northern European cruises, mostly from Southampton in summer period 2018, for example, they are quite equally priced, and for several cruises, like Transatlantics, Celebrity is priced higher, as far as I have seen.

 

Further, as I understand the price system of Princess: When booking a cruise longer in advance (>1 year) the prices are relatively high, but the closer the cruise is to the departure date, the cheaper it gets, that's my observations so far.

Also when Princess has announced the news summer seasons (for example in Dec. 2016 the new 2018 runs were published), the cruises in the new season are prices high, while the cruises for the upcoming season (2017 summer, in that case) were getting lower.

 

Same is true for the actual Canada/NE program: The 2017 cruises are cheaper now than they've been last year, for example, while the 2018 ones are expensive.

I am sure, upon winter 2017/18 the prices for the 2018 runs are getting lower, especially when the 2019 program starts to be released.

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Probably because Princess serves edible food whereas Celebrity does not

 

Huh, drastically said, but not totally untrue... :D

 

I must say, when you consider both lines as "premium" or "upscale", Princess offers far more for your money and what you can expect from a premium line. Small nice extras like pub lunch, tea time, and IMHO more upscale food options in the MDR, while Celebrity's offerings have been turning into standard fare, IMHO. At least you can have "upscale burgers" when you PAY for them... :') :') :')

 

If Princess would always be prices higher than Celebrity (what is not the case in general), there'd be much reasons for that.

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