Ok...so I just returned from my first Princess cruise.....

[QTBabyNurse]

With all the recent discussions about how RCL has changed and how people feel that the service, food, etc has declined some...hubby and I decided to try Princess Cruises for the first time and I thought I'd share my opinions with fellow Royal Caribbean cruisers who might be thinking of doing the same thing. As you can see from my signature below, we have sailed Royal Caribbean more than any other line but we were ready to given Princess a try. We disembarked today from the Emerald Princess and this is a short synopsis on what we discovered. Keep in mind this is a comparision review...as you read this, don't think for a second that I didn't have a good time, because I did and remember....this is just MY OPINION....so accept it as such, please!

 

First of all (and this has nothing to do with Princess or RCL) but am I the only person that just despises sailing out of Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale)??? The whole port area is so disorganized...from the baggage unloading area all the way into the terminal. UGH! :eek:

 

The first thing I noticed is how small our cabin was compared to RCL's inside cabins....the bathroom was incredibly tiny and by the end of the week, the shower curtain and I became intimately aquainted...ick! I did like the safe however, that you programmed with a 4 digit code instead of using a magnetic card as in previous cabins. The beds/linens/comforter was very comfortable and our cabin steward took incredible pride in keeping us neat and tidy for the week. There was a mini fridge stocked with some water and soft drinks which we kindly asked him to remove as we brought our own bottled waters onboard that we wanted to keep in there. The room temp was easy to control and we were always very comfortable in that regard.

 

The design of the Princess ship is a bit unusual as on many decks you cannot walk from bow to stern without having to walk up or down decks and then come back around again because there were areas you couldn't get around. I didn't like that at all. I always felt disoriented! There were very few seating areas near windows in which you could just sit and gaze outside or read a book. I usually have no trouble on RCL ships finding such little nooks and crannies. I missed that alot!

 

The food in the dining room was pretty comparable on Princess and RCL...the edge for steaks would go to Princess....but the edge for everything else I would give to RCL. Desserts were pretty equal on both lines. Princess definitely has better coffee than Royal Caribbean however...and I was very grateful for that! RCL beats out Princess hands down with their buffet design....it's nice and open and easy to get around....with Princess it is small, confined and you are always bumping into people....there is no organization.....and there were also never enough tables to sit at. On the upside, there was plenty of variety for the lunch and dinner buffet on Princess....their breakfast buffet was not very tasty in my opinion though. The french toast was deep fried and when you took a bite of it, you could taste the oil seeping out....yuck! :eek:

 

I did notice that on Princess the passengers tend to dress a bit more formally for dinner than on RCL...more tuxes, more long gowns.....and on formal night I actually saw people get turned away from entering the dining room....never saw that happen before.

 

We tried "anytime dining" for the first time and it is nice to not have to rush for dinner if you happen to be on an excursion or sitting out by the pool....I really missed traditional dining and would probably go back to that option next cruise. We had to wait one night for a table for one hour, but other nights we were seated pretty much right away.....we also always chose to share a large table with others which helps to get a table sooner. I didn't think the dining room service was as good as RCL, but I attribute that to the "anytime dining" situation...they cannot get to know you and your preferences and they have passengers coming and going in their area all evening instead of the 2 seating times for traditional dining. The dining always seemed disorganized and lasted way longer than it should have because it would take 30 minutes sometimes from the time you would sit down til you ordered your meal. :confused:

 

Princess has an International Cafe which is similar to the Promenade Cafe on RCL. The pastries and other offerings on Princess were very tasty. They even offer gelato ($1.50) but you get ALOT and it was incredible!! What is missing is the coffee, tea, hot chocolate station that RCL has inside the Promenade Cafe. So while you are sitting at the Princess cafe, there's no coffee or tea to enjoy with your pastries....:confused:

 

The cruise director and staff on Princess were excellent! The games were fun and there was plenty to do. It was nice to experience different activities for a change since RCL seems to recycle the same games/activities with all their ships and they are all starting to get old. All the staff on Princess from the officers to the maintenance folks were all very friendly and hardly ever did you pass a staff member that they didn't wish you a great day...that was very nice! They love their job and it shows!

 

Princess offers the large screen pool area with Movies Under the Stars.....we didn't like it at all. All day long they show something on the big screen from concerts to sports to movies....it is very loud and takes away from the serenity that many of us look forward to when we cruise. The blaring speakers is horribly annoying! :( Thankfully there are other pool areas to lay out and enjoy some peace and quiet! Don't people get enough TV at home???

 

I'm not sure if I've forgotten anything...if you have specific questions, I'll try to answer them the best I can. All in all, we think that we'll return to RCL for our next cruise. We've accumulated many perks with our Platinum status on RCL and we thought the Princess experience would make up for what we would be giving up in perks, but it really didn't. Even though it sounds like I'm griping, I'm not, just comparing....we really had a wonderful time! :)

 

Hope my review will be able to assist those of you with similar ideas!

[ckrobyn]

Thank you for your honest review.

So far I have been loyal to Royal since I took my first cruise in February 2005......we shall see what the future brings....:o

[QTMichele]

Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us. :) Now that we're a family of five, I am more open to trying another cruise line in the future if the price is right, but.... we really love the experiences we've had with Royal and don't know that we want to risk trying another line until we've tried more Royal ships. Time will tell. Until then, I'll have to live vicarously through you and others. ;)

[ehfl]

How were the shows and musical entertainment?

[The Big Booper]

The safes on both the Explorer and Navigator also have 4 digit programmable codes to open.

 

The OP's views pretty much agree with ours.

 

I also ask, how did you like the shows in the theater. I know Princess' theaters contain far fewer seats then the RC Voyager class, even though it carries as many people as the Voyager class.

[kath00]

Thank you for the review -- I read it with interest. We are doing the opposite of what you did. We have sailed Princess 3x and loved all 3 sailings but could not pass up a chance to try the Mariner (Voyager class) right out of our home port of LAX. We are going next month and cannot wait to make a similar comparison.

 

Katherine

[depplep]

Glad to read this review as well. We had considered Princess as well as others this time around. Not sure we're ready to see if the grass is greener yet. Honestly think if we ever change lines it will be for Regent.

[amybeth4]

I loved both of my Princess cruises and while RCCL is now my go-to choice (and the one I've clearly chosen most often), I find both lines QUITE comparable.

 

I AM wondering, like perhaps the Big Booper above, who went on the Explorer and Navigator and found the same safes as I did on the Majesty and Liberty (4-number codes, NOT credit card sliding things) what RCCL ships you encountered with annoying credit card sliding thingies in their safes?

[depplep]

My parents just had to use a credit card on Grandeur. They by passed it by using their flexible spending account card as it's tied to the Visa network. This way they didn't have their credit card on them at all times and if it got lost it was no big deal.

[The Big Booper]

I vaguely remember when we went on the Enchantment in 2005 after the stretch that we had to use a mag card; that ship is the twin to the Grandeur.

[satxdiver]

Interesting contrast as I have sailed on both. I would agree with most but not all of course.

 

The stateroom safes that use the four digit code are a security risk. Anyone who knows the master four digit code can open the safe. While it certainly is kept secret, it can leak out to the wrong party and there have been reports on cc about safes that were opened and valuables removed. The safes that require a card with magnetic strip are more secure. You have to have the master card to open the safe which is more difficult than just finding out or guessing the four digit master code.

[Desert Cruizers]

My husband and I in our 4 cruises, have sailed twice with Princess and twice with RCL, & I agree, their bufffet area is poorly designed, yet have always been met with friendly staff. We have enjoyed our two cruises with princess, yet for overall cruise enjoyment, we give the edge to RCL. Depending on the itnerary and cost we wouldn't hesitate to sail Princess. We have also found that with the rooms, Princess figures their size, including the balcony, while RCL lists them separately, which we like and the rooms are larger on RCL.

[Happy ks]

Interesting comparisons. A lot of what the OP stated are similar to our RCI experiences, so my thinking is they are more similar than different.

 

We'll have to wait until May 2011 to find out for ourselves since it will be our first Princess cruise. The decision to try them was purely one of itinerary. The big plus is that Princess allows passengers to brng aboard their own wine.

[mrrobby]

We have sailed mainly on Princess, but are going on EOS for the 2nd time next week. We feel they are very very comparable and each line does a few things better than the other. I would sail on either in a minute and would go for price or the better itinerary. It usually seems that RCL is more money than Princess, but not always. The 1 big difference for us is the wine policy. You can bring as many bottles of wine on to Princess. Many times in the MDR they don't even charge the $15 corkage and naturally on your balcony they don't. That is a real cost savings to us. We like to drink good wine and it can get very expensive with the markups on wine. We do buy the wine package on RCL, but we are compromising on the quality there, but what can you do.

[CruisingWChrist]

I will give you a different perspective. I have never been on RCI, but did sail the Caribbean Princess last year and have cruised with Carnival 3 times. I will be sailing on the Liberty in April. I will agree with a lot that has already been mention above. I think that Princess Ships are chopped up. Every area seems to have an idea of a divider to separate one area from the other. I had a balcony room, the size was comfortable. Some balconies are uncover, be careful. I love MUTS, didn't watch during the day. I love the International Café, great location. The Princess crowd tends to be more mature (Nice word for older), which I like because of the peace and quiet. Princess Ship's lack the WOW factor, in the Atrium or Royal Promenade, and in the MDR's. Buffet design on Princess was not the best. I did like the 4 digit code for the safe. While on-board I tend to have nothing on me except my ship card. I really enjoyed my cruise with Princess, but this year I wanted a more lively cruise with more to do on-board that is why I choose the Liberty.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

I have seena few people ask about the shows but no response yet so I'll give my 2 cents.

 

We cruised on the Diamond Princess in September to Alaska and the shows they had were good but the shows were repeated 2 nights in a row so if you see the show the first night there was nothing to see in the main showroom.

 

Someone else mentioned above about the size of the theaters on Princess. They only hold about 900 people.

 

That was the first time in 3 cruises on Princess that they did the shows that way. I don't know if it was because it was an Alaskan cruise or it's the norm now.

 

Bill

[Jaxsonbrownie]

Great review!

 

We have sailed twice on Princess. Once on the Grand, and once on the Caribbean Princess. In between those sailings, we sailed on the Mariner of The Seas.

We loved Royal Caribbean, and are now booked on the Oasis. We thought the food was better on RCCL, and the shows were a bit better in quality. Princess ship layouts are quite confusing, and found ourselves still lost a few times by the end of the week. Didn't happen on Royal. In fact, we found Royal far easier to get around.

Loved the Royal Promenade on RCCL, Princess just has a large lobby, kind of like a large hotel.

We thought the lounges were larger on Royal, as was the balcony cabin we had. Princess showers are tiny, and was assaulted many times by curtain..:D

Overall, we just thought Royal scored higher on things that were important to us.

[rollie]

We've cruised only one time on Princess, [Grand] and were not overly impressed. That's way we haven't been back. For me, the dining experience is very important, and really didn't care for it on the Grand.

 

Rollie

[mgg42]

I couldn't agree more about the big screen! I haven't been on Princess, but I was on Carnival Liberty two years ago. And while I loved the whole ship, that screen was pure evil.

 

Starting early in the morning, they are constantly blaring music videos and other nonsense, and it totally dominates the pool deck. Then in the evening, the movies or other shows also overwhelmed the pool deck.

 

One of my favorite things on a cruise is to head up top at night. But on these ships, it's almost loathesome!

 

I could totally see doing a movie night or two. But to have it run incessantly is brutal.

[QTBabyNurse]

How were the shows and musical entertainment?

 

Thanks for reminding me of the entertainment! We thought the shows and entertainment were excellent! They had a few comedians onboard who performed different acts during the week. They had three different production shows performed during the week as well. We did have difficulty getting into one of the shows even 45 minutes prior to it starting because the seating was already full. There was a piano bar, a nightclub, an Irish pub and a couple other places where you could see karoake, etc. The Piazza (a scaled down version of RCL's Centrum) had acts/musicians playing for most of the afternoon/evening....pianists, string quartets, a brass band, magicians, etc.

 

I have to say...out of all the cruises we've taken, for nightly entertainment I would have to give the edge to Carnival. When we sailed on the Inspiration, each night they had different music playing in all their bars/clubs....LIVE entertainment....they had many venues and one place might have jazz while others had blues or rock & roll or swing and then there was a piano bar as well. You never were at a loss for something that you could enjoy!

 

One other thing I forgot to mention in regard to Princess is they have a program called Scholarship @ Sea...they have guest lecturers onboard and had discussions on the history of the islands we were visiting as well as art history and a discussion about pirates in the Caribbean. They also had book club and film club meetings onboard as well.

 

I think entertainment is one of the biggest things that RCL needs to pay attention to....mostly their games. I've been cruising with them for over a decade and yet you see the SAME games now that they had over a decade ago. :confused: I can't believe they aren't innovative enough in that regard.....that was one of the reasons we wanted to try another line...the boredom with the same activities was starting to set in. :rolleyes:

[DGNY]

Princess offers the large screen pool area with Movies Under the Stars.....we didn't like it at all. All day long they show something on the big screen from concerts to sports to movies....it is very loud and takes away from the serenity that many of us look forward to when we cruise. The blaring speakers is horribly annoying! :( Thankfully there are other pool areas to lay out and enjoy some peace and quiet! Don't people get enough TV at home???

 

On my Princess cruise I thought MUTS was an asset (although, admittedly, we didn't utilize it much). This was because they had 4 different pool areas (2 of which were quiet Adult only). So, if MUTS isn't for you, there are 3 other pools. I never found that the audio from the video screen bleed to other areas. But, maybe that was just me.

[MAZANDSTEVE]

An interesting review, the large TV screens are one thing to put me off any cruiseline, we dont watch much tv at home and would not want to be subjected to it on vacation.

[mgg42]

An interesting review, the large TV screens are one thing to put me off any cruiseline, we dont watch much tv at home and would not want to be subjected to it on vacation.

 

I'm going on Oasis in a few weeks. And I am thankful that so far, they are not constantly broadcasting on the screens in the aqua theater. I guess they showed a sporting event or something once or twice. But I am appalled at the people saying "they should play movies on there during the day".

 

Can you imagine paying all that money for an aqua theater suite, and having that racket going nonstop all day:eek:

[Hobiecat01]

DW and I sailed with Princess 3 times before giving RCCL a try. Princess was very nice and a very good value (all our crusies were prior to the Carnival takover...). Food, the ambiance (we were on the Grand Princess twice and Seas Princess once), crew and service was very similar to RCCL. We did find the cruisers dressed more formally but our big issue was their entertainment. It seemed mainly geared toward the Frank Sinatra age group cruisers and 50's Broadway shows. (Now before you shoot me ... I do like Frank and his music.:D) We thought the shows were stodgy and lacked excitement (especially after early cruises with Carnival).

 

Why did we switch to RCCL? Frankly, the ships. We tried the Navigator and have never looked back. RCCL's ships are hugely better than the Princess ships we sailed on. And we are on the Oasis in April!!! Weeee!!

----------------------------

Sea ya!

Ron and Lee

Canton, Ga

Proud RCCL Platinum Member

"In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom,

in water there is bacteria." – Ben Franklin

We are proud Oasis Camel Cruiser – April 17, 2010

The Oasis Camels Website

Previous Cruises – 59 Days at Sea!

Carnival Mardis Gras - 3 Day Bahamas - April 1982

Carnival Destiny - 7 Days Western Carib. - April 1998

Princess Grand Princess - 7 Days Eastern Carib. - April 1999

Princess Sea Princess - 7 Days Western Carib. - March 2000

Princess Grand Princess - 7 Days Western Carib. - March 2002

RCCL Navigator of the Seas - 7 Days Western Carib. - March 2003

RCCL Mariner of the Seas - 7 Days Western Carib. - April 2005

RCCL Freedom of the Seas - 7 Days Western Carib. - 6/18 - 6/25/2006

RCCL Liberty of the Seas - 7 Days Eastern Carib. - 7/19 - 7/26/08

Planned Cruises

RCCL Oasis of the Seas – Our Friends Cruise - April 17, 2010

RCCL Allure of the Seas – Our Neighborhood Cruise - 2011

The BIG One - Southeast Asia 14 day – 2012?

Princess Cruises - The Med – 14 day – 2013?

[NancyIL]

Thanks for your review. I have been on more RCI cruises than Princess, and have 2 future cruises booked on each. I agree with most of your comments. However, I found the insides on Princess (Coral and Golden) to be about the same size as RCI's newer ships - but with a better layout. (RCI's older ships have a wider range of inside cabin sizes.) I liked having the closet on the back side of the vanity/desk area on Princess, as there's more privacy. The showers on both are small - although some RCI showers have doors instead of curtains.

 

Both RCI and Princess have beautiful ships, and I would choose a future cruise based on the itinerary and price rather than the cruise line.