4 star mariner report on first Princess Cruise

HI-

Just got off the Grand Princess on a 10 day RT Mexico from San Francisco, going to share some comparisons between the 2 brands since they are often thought of as very similar going after the same market segment.

Pro's:

1. We live in Oakland so driving across the Bay Bridge beats having to fly to San Diego to start a similar HAL Mexico cruise. ( plus you get 5 total sea days when sailing to MX from SF instead of starting in S. California)

2. Had a Vista Suite which is sort of between what a Vista and Neptune is on a larger HAL ship, but it did come with full suite amenities including laundry and pressing. Bed was great, you get a bathtub an adult can fit in which blows anything away HAL has with it's Hobbit sized tubs. Sleeper sofa was really uncomfortable as a furniture piece and never used it as a bed.

3. Food in the dining room got better as cruise progressed and is comparable to HAL's food in the MDR, HAL has better soups but Princess seems to have better variety with main entrees.

4. Breakfast in the Crown Grill is an excellent suite perk on Princess, I think it's better than breakfast in the Pinnacle grill on HAL since the menu is different than what's offered in the MDR for breakfast.

5. Specialty dining in Sabitini's is excellent, too much food to fully enjoy, comparable to the experience you get in Tamarind which is our favorite HAL specialty dinning option.

6. Entertainment seems better on Princess I like the live music in the Piazza which is not something HAL can offer on their ships.

Cons:

1. Only 1 cabin steward, we like having 2 since we know what a demanding service job this is and it's always better to have a teammate when faced with such labor tasks than going it alone.

2. On HAL with anytime dining you can reserve the same table at the same time on the first night and then you have the same waiters for the rest of the trip. With Princess Club Class anytime dining you never get the same table and once we had to comeback an hour later when a table would be free, since the Club Class dining area is restricted in size. No deal breaker but just not as comfortable as HAL.

3. The fellow cruisers just seemed slightly different than the HAL crowd, about the same age but seemed to have different backgrounds. At the risk of being a HAL "elitist" we seem to have no problem finding "cohorts" with similar life experiences and education levels with us on HAL. And HAL people seem genuinely more friendly and willing to start up a conversation with you than the Princess cruisers did on this particular trip.

4. Disembarkation- We got to hang out in a lounge until our group was called because we where in a suite but the "Everyone out of your cabin by 8am" seems a little authoritarian if you don't have an embarkation time until 10:15.

5. Deck furniture cushions left out all night so they never really dry during the day, I like the fact the HAL stewards bring them in during evening turn-down.

OK that's my take on it, we return to HAL in Feb. 2019 for the South America 14 day cruise from Argentina to Chile.

-Paul

HI-

 

Just got off the Grand Princess on a 10 day RT Mexico from San Francisco, going to share some comparisons between the 2 brands since they are often thought of as very similar going after the same market segment.

 

Pro's:

1. We live in Oakland so driving across the Bay Bridge beats having to fly to San Diego to start a similar HAL Mexico cruise. ( plus you get 5 total sea days when sailing to MX from SF instead of starting in S. California)

 

2. Had a Vista Suite which is sort of between what a Vista and Neptune is on a larger HAL ship, but it did come with full suite amenities including laundry and pressing. Bed was great, you get a bathtub an adult can fit in which blows anything away HAL has with it's Hobbit sized tubs. Sleeper sofa was really uncomfortable as a furniture piece and never used it as a bed.

 

3. Food in the dining room got better as cruise progressed and is comparable to HAL's food in the MDR, HAL has better soups but Princess seems to have better variety with main entrees.

 

4. Breakfast in the Crown Grill is an excellent suite perk on Princess, I think it's better than breakfast in the Pinnacle grill on HAL since the menu is different than what's offered in the MDR for breakfast.

 

5. Specialty dining in Sabitini's is excellent, too much food to fully enjoy, comparable to the experience you get in Tamarind which is our favorite HAL specialty dinning option.

 

6. Entertainment seems better on Princess I like the live music in the Piazza which is not something HAL can offer on their ships.

 

Cons:

1. Only 1 cabin steward, we like having 2 since we know what a demanding service job this is and it's always better to have a teammate when faced with such labor tasks than going it alone.

 

2. On HAL with anytime dining you can reserve the same table at the same time on the first night and then you have the same waiters for the rest of the trip. With Princess Club Class anytime dining you never get the same table and once we had to comeback an hour later when a table would be free, since the Club Class dining area is restricted in size. No deal breaker but just not as comfortable as HAL.

 

3. The fellow cruisers just seemed slightly different than the HAL crowd, about the same age but seemed to have different backgrounds. At the risk of being a HAL "elitist" we seem to have no problem finding "cohorts" with similar life experiences and education levels with us on HAL. And HAL people seem genuinely more friendly and willing to start up a conversation with you than the Princess cruisers did on this particular trip.

 

4. Disembarkation- We got to hang out in a lounge until our group was called because we where in a suite but the "Everyone out of your cabin by 8am" seems a little authoritarian if you don't have an embarkation time until 10:15.

 

5. Deck furniture cushions left out all night so they never really dry during the day, I like the fact the HAL stewards bring them in during evening turn-down.

 

OK that's my take on it, we return to HAL in Feb. 2019 for the South America 14 day cruise from Argentina to Chile.

 

-Paul

We will both probably be castigated for saying it, but I had a similar experience as item 3 on my one and only Princess cruise. I travel solo, and that was the one and only time I never struck up a acquaintance, much less a friendship, on a two week cruise. Efforts at initiating conversations were brushed off or ignored.

The open, welcoming attitude of fellow passengers of all abilities, ages, incomes, and nationalities is what I love about HAL.

Thank you for taking the time to make the comparisons between the 2 cruise lines.

We sailed a couple of times on the Grand Princess many years ago before she had that big overhaul.

Great comparison.

Thanks so much for sharing :)

Very interesting and informative post. Appreciate the time and effort you put into this!

Thanks for the comparison. We're cruising in a Neptune on the Nieuw Amsterdam, then spending one night ashore and embarking on the Emerald Princess in a Vista.

Aren't Vista suites given one free stocked minibar? What's in it?

Do they still allow swapping of items in the minibar? in 2011, they switched all our beer w/ Dos Equis.

Do they still have that good french toast in Sabitini's for breakfast?

Thanks for the comparison. We're cruising in a Neptune on the Nieuw Amsterdam, then spending one night ashore and embarking on the Emerald Princess in a Vista.

 

Aren't Vista suites given one free stocked minibar? What's in it?

 

Do they still allow swapping of items in the minibar? in 2011, they switched all our beer w/ Dos Equis.

 

Do they still have that good french toast in Sabitini's for breakfast?

The mini bar is 2 mini bottles of Sky, Beefeaters, Dewar's and some Cognac. Also the fridge had 2 beers, 2 mini bottles of champagne and various sodas. We did receive 2 bottles of water every night. Yes French toast is available for breakfast and it's very good. On the Grand suite breakfast was in the Crown Grill not Sabatini's but I guess this varies from ship to ship.

-Paul

I am wondering what encouraged you to try Princess and if you plan to return?

Thank you for the comparisons.......interesting.

Thank you for taking the time to post your comparisons.

Very interesting.

I appreciate your taking the time to post this. Thank you.

I can claim with a fairly high degree of certainty that Princess does allow a lot of riff raff on their ships.

Cannot comment on the educational attainment though. Do Princess or HAL ask about this? Crystal certainly did not.

The proof...well they have let us board on numerous occasions.

I can claim with a fairly high degree of certainty that Princess does allow a lot of riff raff on their ships.

 

Cannot comment on the educational attainment though. Do Princess or HAL ask about this? Crystal certainly did not.

 

The proof...well they have let us board on numerous occasions.

Lol! Hope our paths cross one day.

Thanks for posting Paul. I've done 150 days or so aboard HAL, and there was not much I didn't like. I left HAL in 2013 because of the state of repair the Zuiderdam was in on my last HAL cruise. I moved over to NCL, and have been with them until I could stand the changes their new CEO put in to place. So, I'm booked on Princess for the 15 night LA to Hawaii RT, followed by an 11 day Panama Canal visit, aboard the Zuiderdam! I don't hold a grudge, and I love to cruise, and your comments reassure me about the two cruise lines as they are today.;)

Thanks Chieftom-

I didn't mean to insult anyone's intelligence about my not finding similar folks to us on the Grand Princess. And education level does not equivocate with intelligence (Abraham Lincoln never went to school a day in his life).

The was a noticeable absence of international cruisers on the Grand Princess compared to HAL cruises, couldn't even find one Aussie, and we all know how easy it is to find them on a HAL cruise especially after 10pm in any bar.;)

Thanks for the information. It was helpful.

Thanks for the comparison. We have tried different cruise lines but came back to HAL, it's like an old shoe it feels comfortable.

Allan

Thanks Chieftom-

 

I didn't mean to insult anyone's intelligence about my not finding similar folks to us on the Grand Princess. And education level does not equivocate with intelligence (Abraham Lincoln never went to school a day in his life).

 

The was a noticeable absence of international cruisers on the Grand Princess compared to HAL cruises, couldn't even find one Aussie, and we all know how easy it is to find them on a HAL cruise especially after 10pm in any bar.;)

Thank you for clarifying. I also did not refer to education or status. I commented on the lack social interaction I experienced (and those who know me would not call me shy or retiring).

I have found that the type of cruisers varies more by location of the cruise and length.

My wife and I (I'm 70, she's 65) have been on quite a few cruises together: HAL (9 times), Silversea (3 times), Oceania (twice), and Seabourn and the old Renaissance line (once each). A couple of years ago, curious as to what the experience on a 3,000 passenger ship would be like, I did two separate "solo" cruises on Princess, both of them four-night "California Coastal" cruises out of L.A., which is only an hour's plane ride from where I live. (My wife wouldn't go on a 3,000 passenger ship if you paid her). The ships were the Crown and the Ruby.

Because I was sailing solo and had booked an inside cabin, I spent all my waking hours exploring the ships and sampling virtually every food, drink, and entertainment venue. My opinion is that HAL is superior to Princess in most ways, but there are some things that Princess does better. In particular, the International Cafe on Princess---a 24 hour coffee bar/ sandwich shop---is a godsend for early risers. If I woke up at 6:00AM or earlier (as I do almost every day), I'd go down to the International Cafe, get a seat at the bar, order a double espresso, orange juice, and a freshly-baked muffin or croissant, and pretty much watch the ship wake up over the next hour or so. I'd talk to the baristas and the other early regulars, and also to some of the people getting to-go orders to bring back to their cabins. It was a great way to start every day, and I met a fair number of people I'd run into later in the day (and sometimes wound up having lunch or drinks with).

The other thing that Princess did well was their specialty restaurants: Sabbatini's (although I think that's been replaced on the Ruby by a Curtis Stone restaurant) and the Crown Grill. They were excellent---probably better than the Pinnacle Grill on HAL---and well worth the cover charge.

However, the flip side of Princess' specialty restaurant excellence is that the main dining rooms were barely adequate---not even close to HAL's main restaurants in service and food quality. So on Princess you pretty much need to spend $29 pp (or whatever the current surcharge is) to have a satisfying dinner.

As for fellow passengers, I had no problem meeting people when I was in the mood to. Some of them were around my age but quite a few were considerably younger. The ones I met were all friendly, but I would say that their cruising history was somewhat limited. Most of them had only sailed on Princess, Royal Caribbean, and/or Norwegian. Rarely an overlap with HAL, and most had never even heard of Silversea or Oceania.

I'll probably never sail with Princess again, but I have good memories of my two cruises with them. The key is to find early on what's good about the ship, and enjoy those good parts again and again.

Well I have a question, that might interest many on here: how was the Club Class Dining Room (other than seating), as I have heard they have table-side flambe? I don't believe HAL has a dining room, for suite guests, for all three meals a day.

We just finished a 7 night cruise on the Ruby Princess and have the following observations:

Princess strong points:

Princess has amazing entertainment. The shows in the main showroom are the best we have seen and the live music and acts in the other lounges are also the best. This is their strong point.

Princess is comparable to HAL in the main dining room, equal food as we saw it.

The Ruby has a lot of very interesting features - lounges, public spaces, large atrium, lots of restaurants. We were on the ship a week and did not see it all.

We enjoyed watching Movies under the Stars. It only works in warm, dry weather.

Princess weak points:

Cabins are much smaller than HAL. We stay in Ocean View cabins. They are 160 square feet on the Ruby - on HAL they are 194, 185 or 175 square feet depending on the age of the ship (older is larger). Biggest difference is in the bathroom. It is very small on the Princess Ships.

The library on the Ruby is one fairly small room, what a disappointment as compared the large, lavish ones on HAL. On HAL, the library is a great place to relax and look out the window.

The Promenade Deck was not as deep as HAL. It had chairs but not loungers. Not nearly as good.

We liked the food in the HAL buffet better than the Princess buffet.

The main showroom seated 800 people. There were 3200 on our cruise. Getting a seat for the early show was easy - the room did not fill up. For the late show it filled about 45 minutes before show time. If you had dinner at 6 PM, you could not go to the show - by the time you finished your dinner and walked to the showroom, it was full.

Princess had very loud music by the main pool. More like Carnival than HAL It was also very crowded.

It was extremely difficult to find a lounger in the shade on the Ruby. We just could not get one. On HAL, there is always the Promenade Deck but we can usually find a spot somewhere else.

The Ruby Princess had a Skywalker lounge at the rear. Nice room but smaller than the Crows Nest on HAL. Also, it faced to the rear, not the front and did not have reclining chairs like HAL has. Not much going on there at all.

Most of all, the Ruby did not have a retractable roof. On days when it is cool or rainy outside, you can't sit near the pool or outside on the Lido Deck. It is just too cold. A retractable roof is really important for cruises to Alaska, but it is important for sailing down to Mexico as well, the water is so cool the temperature is just too cold. I can't believe they take the Ruby to Alaska. Poor choice in my opinion.

Most of all, 3200 passengers is just too many. There were times it was just too crowded!

This was the Ruby Princess. We have also sailed the Golden and Sapphire Princess ships and they both had a glass roof in the middle. Much better, in our opinion. The other criticisms still stand.

Well I have a question, that might interest many on here: how was the Club Class Dining Room (other than seating), as I have heard they have table-side flambe? I don't believe HAL has a dining room, for suite guests, for all three meals a day.

There is a head waiter making a fresh pasta dish for lunch and dinner at a cooking station in club class dining. One night he did make a peach flambe night for desert. Other than that I couldn't tell the difference between club class than regular dining. You're not suppose to have to wait for club class dining but we did one night and others had to too.

We did enjoy the food and at the International Cafe and it's really cool it's open 24/7. There's nothing open 24/7 on HAL ships well except for the bridge and the officer on duty.

Princess buffet is not in the same league as the Lido Market on HAL ships, in my opinion.

-Paul

We have experienced a few very good cruises on Princess and a very mediocre one. Not much difference that our experience with the others in the pack.

We have met interesting and well travelled people on just about every cruise/every cruise line. Each also seeme to have their complement of boors and know it alls. Usually it seems that the latter often have geniuses for children or grandchildren! We see larger differerence between cruise length, itinerary, and time than we do between cruise lines or ships.

Thanks for your report :) It's been a few years since we were on Princess but they remain on our radar. It's helpful to get your perspective. Thanks :)