RCCL Jewel vs Princess ships

[bandit and babycakes]

Sailed on RCCl ships a long time ago but have been with Princess for the last 10 years. Can anyone tell me what they like better about RCCL especially Jewel of the Seas. We just got back from Princess Alaska and are thinking of RCCL in November.

thanks

[KKB]

We have done 4 Princess cruises & 1 RCCL (will do another in Dec.)

We liked RCCL MDR food better.

Princess we liked the activity choices better, especially in the evening. RCCL seemed to think you were either at dinner, show, bar or casino in evening--not really any other choices. Even during the day on RCCL we found fewer choices--I LOVE to have too many to choose from!

We also felt that Princess had more choices of where to eat during the day. (Crown/Star v. Mariner) We loved having pizza & burgers by the pool.

Luckily the Allure seems to have the many activities/more food venues to choose from (guess you have to w/ 6K passengers)

Overall, we have found DCL, RCCL & Princess more alike that different. My folks have also done several NCL & Celebrity cruises--they agree that lines are more alike than different.

If the price were the same, I would choose Princess---UNLESS it was Allure or Oasis of the Seas.

[negc]

Sailed on RCCl ships a long time ago but have been with Princess for the last 10 years. Can anyone tell me what they like better about RCCL especially Jewel of the Seas. We just got back from Princess Alaska and are thinking of RCCL in November.

thanks

 

It could vary, of course, from ship to ship, but we have found that the staff and crew on RCI ships tend to be friendlier and more outgoing than those we encountered on our Princess cruises. We also prefer Jewel to the Princess ships for its size, decor and deck plan (no dead ends on Jewel, unlike Sapphire and Dawn Princess, where you sometimes had to go up or down a deck, cross over and than back down or up to get to where you wanted to go on a particular deck.

We cruise RCI more regularly so we benefit from our membership in RCI's Crown and Anchor Society. Were we more frequent Princess cruisers, we would probably get similar perks, but our experiences on Princess have been more varied (some as good, but others not as good as those on Royal Caribbean. We find that Royal Caribbean's My Time Dining option works much better for us than did the Anytime Dining that Princess offers (no beepers with RCI, and no lengthy waits to be seated even without advance reservations). We found food to be similar on both lines but greatly prefer the layout of the Windjammer buffet restaurants on RCI to that in the Princess buffet restaurants.:) Overall you should find the two cruising experiences to be much more alike than different.:)

[kborth]

Have been on Caribbean princess 1 time and Jewel 2 times. Much preferred Jewel, beautiful ship!!! Went Transatlantic and was the best cruise of 9 for me. Jewel is the best imho