First time on Princess

Hello! Just booked our family of 8 on the Carribean Princess for June 5, 2004. I have sailed a many cruises, but never Princess. We were on Disney last year and the Voyager the year before that with our kids (8 an 11 currently).
Can anyone make some comparisons for me?
Also we booked 4 balcony cabins on the Baja deck for a great price. Is there anything wrong with this deck and/or thses cabins?? Just wondering why they were so cheap!
Do kids like this cruise line?

THANKS!!
Laura

Welcome to Princess. I can't speak for Disney, but have sailed RC. Princess limits children, so the staff is not overwhelmed. Also I have not been in a balcony cabin on Baja deck. You will get lots of replys . Have a wonderful cruise.

7 Days on The Star Princess OCTOBER,24,2004

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We had a balcony on Baja deck on the Sun Princess. It was small, but we loved having it! There is only room for chairs, not lounges. The room is slightly smaller since you have a balcony.

LindaKE

Sun Princess(Alaska)
Carnival Inspiration

We had a Baja balcony on the Golden, which the Caribbean will be similar to. Like LindaKE said, it is relatively small, with room for two standard chairs and a small table. It looks down on the open portion of the balconies of the next two lower decks, which have extra uncovered balcony space.

We also have a Baja balcony on the May 22 sailing of the Caribbean.

Tim and Joann

:confused: This will be our first cruise with Princess and with kids. My DH and I have travelled on two cruises on our own before (Norwegian and Carnival) but we picked Princess this time based on friends recommendation that the kids program was great for our age group (3 & 5).

Anyone had any experience with the Peligan Program (I think it's called)?

Welcome to Princess-

Your great pricing is probably due to the time you're going. We usually do our summer cruise in that time slot, the last one before the summer rates kick in and kick up the price 20%+.

While nothing can compare to a good Disney experience on land or sea for your kids in their current age group, Princess does offer some comprehensive kids programs and your kids will be togther in organized [I]Fun Zone [/I] activites for ages 3 through 12. There's no mouse but Princess' programs rank right up there or even with Carnival's acclaimed [I]Camp Carnival [/I] for fun. But don't forget about mom and dad, Princess offers babysitting services for kids up to 12 ($5.00 per hour).

As far as comparing to Royal Caribbean that's a tough call if your kids were big rock wall climbers, in-line skaters or helicopter pilots. If so, they may find most any other line pale by comparison. But a direct comparison kids program to kids program gives the edge to Princess from all I can gather.

But here's the kicker

Personal Choice Cruising, a Princess exclusive is a parents dream come true. The whole idea is to let you do what you want when you want to and is centered around Anytime Dining.

Before, when our kids were the age of yours, we were locked in to the restrictive early seating in the dining room and planned the last part of our afternoon and first par of the evening around it. I didn't realize how much that monopolized our day until I had the pleasure of trying Personal Choice's Anytime Dining which allows us to eat when we want, where we want and with whom we want.

I remember getting to know other parents when picking up or dropping off our kids from kids programs. One of the parts of the conversation that always came up was "Which seating are you?" If the answer was the same as ours then one thing might lead to another and we'd end up doing some things before or after dinner even though we were not at the same table because our schedules were close.

Now we can meet those same people and not only decide when we want to eat, we can eat with them at the same table. We have the control, something we've found is an integral part of our cruise experience.

As far as will your kids like Princess or not, a lot depends on your kids. I'd venture to guess that if they liked the other cruises you were on that they'd like Princess too.

[quote name='CruisingIsLife']
As far as comparing to Royal Caribbean that's a tough call if your kids were big rock wall climbers, in-line skaters or helicopter pilots. If so, they may find most any other line pale by comparison.[/QUOTE]
Too funny, Chris! I think that Travel Insurance companies must HATE RCCL. I wonder how many broken bones occur on those skating rinks and rock walls.