Newbie to Princess need input

[cruiseorbust]

We have cruised 26 times, but have never traveled on Princess. We have been pretty dedicated to Celebrity, with a few other lines included. We are a family of 5 (3 are young men ages 15-25). We recently returned from a Christmas/New Years cruise aboard Celebrity, and were unhappy about the recent changes/overall cruise experience.

 

We asked several people about Princess, and heard a lot of good things. We would appreciate hearing why you like Princess, and especially from folks that have traveled Celebrity. Also, what is your favorite ship in the fleet?

 

I look forward to your responses!

[crisp1]

I can't help much, but while you wait for the expierenced ones here to fill you in, try this http://www.lifeiscruising.com

[bdjam]

We recently returned from a Christmas/New Years cruise aboard Celebrity, and were unhappy about the recent changes/overall cruise experience.

It would be interesting to know what the changes were that you were unhappy with. There have been some changes at Princess too, and some people have found Celebrity to be a viable alternative.

[sprinkles]

Well, I'm sure I won't be the most experienced cruiser (10 cruises) to answer your question. But since you haven't had ANY replies, my two cents: We LOVE Princess. We tried the Celebrity Century a couple of years ago (family cruise including our Daughter and Son-in-Law who were 23 and 25 at the time - they had also cruised on the Grand Princess for their honeymoon).

 

We had been looking forward to trying Celebrity as I had heard so much about it being more up-scale and such (we have also cruised on RCCL several times). We were not impressed with our cruise on Celebrity, it may have just been a bad first impression, but we ran into employee after employee with bad attitudes, etc. We shared a cabin with my MIL and could hardly even get three bath towels in our cabin (even after a generous tip at the start of the cruise). I do remember the food being "slightly" better but really not that much. All the "kids" (23 and 25) kept saying the entire cruise was "we wish we were back on Princess".

 

We are loyal to Princess now. We just love the overall "atmosphere" of Princess and feel like we're home. Sorry if I can't be more specific about the differences. Try it and find out for yourself, my parents are also staunch Princess lovers now and only cruise on Princess after 20 years of cruising MANY different lines.

 

As far as favorite ship. Personally we love the Sun Class, it is the perfect size for us. But we have also been on the Grand Princess and had a blast on that ship (it was just a little too big for our taste, but like I said the "kids" were never bored on their honeymoon). We were on the Royal last May and found it to be the perfect size for a busy European itinerary. We are trying the Tahitian Princess in March which is even smaller. With the ages your talking about I would bet they would have more fun and find more to do on one of the larger ships. Hope my .02 cents helps.

 

Tammy

[cruiseorbust]

Tammy,

 

I very much appreciate your input. Princess sounds like it is worth a try. I am very dissapointed in Celebrity! They have made some negative changes in which I feel pleasing the customer is no longer at the top of their list. They still have many good employees that seem to give it their all, but the companys over all new attitude stinks in my opinion and I am not sure I want to go back. I believe they may lose some of their best supporters!