RCCL OR PRINCESS

AM CONSIDERING A FALL CRUISE TO EASTERN CARIB.
WHICH IS BETTER MARINER OF THE SEAS OR CARIB. PRINCESS?

ALSO HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT BALCONIES ON MARINER?
ARE THEY COVERED?

DEFF. PRINCESS... royal carribean really sucks lol. Ive taken one and wouldnt dare to go back, low cielings(sucks if ur tall luckily im not) bad food, rood serivce. Im going on princess this christmas and during newyears as well... 10 days!! Its beautiful and the serivce is GREAT... our family friends went on it!!

Visit the Princess and RCCL boards to get a feel for the different lines. Overall they are similar, though many prefer the RCCL ships to Princess in terms of design, layout and activities. I have been on RCCL and found the food, service etc just great.


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I'd be careful about the advice from crazyboutcarnival. Obviously a Carnival fan giving advice about RCCL and Princess. Kind of like a budweiser man giving advice about appropriate champagne. Besides, I think there are more than 10 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. How rood was that?

You can't go wrong with either RCCL or Princess. Both are in the middle of the road between the bottom (Carnival) and the top (Celebrity and HAL).

Peter

Princess has better food but RCCI has much better service. Entertainment is about equal but we find the rooms are larger on RCCI. BTW, typing in all caps is considered shouting at someone.

Tracie

Well I have been on RCCL, Princess and Carnival. Princess is the best and if there were more options to cruise out of ports close enough for me to drive to I would cruise Princess more . I just hate flying.

Crazyaboutcarnival did sound pretty opinionated but fodorspeter saying if you cruised Carnival you can't be objective about Princess is garbage. Yes I have cruised Carnival the most but only because of the home ports and ittineary. I will say this- Princess had the best chefs, the more talented performers and the best service I have seen on a cruise.( and this was on one of her old ships-not a nice ship) Now when I cruised Miracle this past April, she was only 6 weeks old and I found her food and entertainment much better then the usual Carnival cruise-I believe because she was brand new Carnival pulled out all the stops and put their best people on her. The Miracle cruise really rivaled my one Princess cruise.

Saying that also to be fair to RCCL I have only be on Sovereign one of her older and not as nice ships-so I can't help but feel if you pick a Voyager class ship you will find the food and entertainment much better then other RCCL ships.

By the way Sovereign was not a bad ship and really affordable and I did feel I got my money's worth-I have just been on nicer cruises.

Not that being on a nicer cruise really matters-any cruise is better then no cruise as far as I am concerned but it is true Princess and Hal both had the best food. I am sure if I could afford Cunard or Crystal I would find their food even better as they are much more expensive.

I do believe you get what you pay for-but that doesn't mean the budget lines are bad- or that you prefer beer to champagne-it just depends on your pocketbook.

One thing too as you have narrowed it down to 2 ships-go and read the reviews of the ships- (this board has a section titled "ship reviews")this can help you decide. Going either to the RCCL or Princess boards you will get alot of enthusiats of just the line of that particular board.

Anyway I like to try different things. I am no cruiseline loyalist and I am glad-people who are narrow minded miss out on so much.

P.S. by the way I am planning a cruise on Mariner this fall too. I want to try a voyager class ship and the fact she leaves out of Pt. Canaraval means I do not have to fly.
fodorspeter missed another point. Princess, HAL and Celebrity are considered the same level. Carnival and RCCL are considered the same level. Cunard, Costa,Crystal and I am sure many others are much more expensive lines then Celebrity, Princess or HAL.
Carnival Tropicale 10/15/98 Western Caribbean
RCCL Sovereign of the Seas 11/22/99 Bahamas
Carnival Fascination 09/23/00 Southern caribbean
HAL Statendam 05/20/01 Alaska
RCCL Sovereign of the Seas 11/08/01 Bahamas
Pacific Princess 09/29/02 Bermuda
Carnival Inspiration 12/14/03 Western caribbean
Carnival Miracle 04/09/04 Bahamas

[This message was edited by momofmeg on 06-10-04 at 11:17 AM.]

We've been on 2 cruises with Princess (Grand and Golden - both to the E. Caribbean) and going on our 2nd cruise with Royal (Serenade to S. Caribbean and Mariner to W. Caribbean on June 20th). We enjoyed both cruise lines equally.

We thought Princess had better food, including the Alternative Dining, better service and larger rooms. With Serenade, there were more activities and we loved the colorful decoration and layout of the ship. The food and service was good too.

As for the Mariner, I can provide a report when we return. We leave next Saturday for Orlando. We're taking my husband's 2 kids (11 and 14), my niece (15) and my mom (69). Everyone is excited about the ice skating rink and rock climbing wall.

Okay here is my 2cents:
I have taken 9 cruises so far (10th coming up in July on HAL) 7 on RCCL, 1 on Princess and 1 on Carnival. As far as comparisons. Carnival is a fun/party ship very low key and fun if thats what you are looking for. Kind of like having McDonalds - fun but not fine dining. RCCL is a very nice cruise line, service is excellent and rooms are nice, ship is decorated upscale and the food was great. Princess was a bit disapointing to us; maybe becasue we have been spoiled on RCCL. Personally I would not cruise them again, the service was fair, the room and food the same as RCCL (not any better) and the people on the cruise seemed a bit stuffy (don't flame me all you Princess fans) So for us it has always been RCCL. We are trying HAL in July and hopefully it will live up to RCCL, I have heard great things about HAL!

Fodorspeter: love your comments about Carnival fan [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] made me laugh and very true!

I would recommend going to some of the threads for these lines and asking. I really believe no matter what cruise line you decide you'll have a wonderful time......

Debi

I only have 2 cruises under my belt to compare from.

I found RCCL (Enchantment) awesome. Great service, great food, nice decor, layout. No complaints.

I would say Princess (Grand Princess) was just as good in all aspects, but more refined & upscale. We enjoyed everything just the same, but in a slightly more upscale environment. The food selection was 100% better than RCCL.

Overall, you can't lose. I personally preferred the more upscale feel of Princess a little more.
But I would do both again.


[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=dc143c&cdt=2003;5;18;17;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]So long suckers!!!! (Grand Princess May/18)