I need help deciding between Celebrity and Princess

[makkblin]

They were unable to regulate it. Fortunately the laundromat was cool.

[chemmo]

Time is very special.

 

Every time I go on a cruise I have downloaded a few books to read, spotted on CC a few events I want to join in on, have downloaded far too many pictures and historical background on every port of call (which I will read on sea days..), looked forward to just sitting and people watching on deck.....

 

I honestly think you will have a great time which ever cruise you book. If you choose the Celebrity one and feel it may not have enough activities to keep you busy get on the roll call and find some like minded people and arrange a few events/activities of your own.

[tbmrt]

Really enjoyed our Princess cruise and it may sound trivial, but we were very disappointed that the various lounges were absolutely freezing cold on numerous occasions. Having a sweater was not the answer...Lounges were empty unless you visited late in the evening....Felt like we were in an icebox!

 

Loved everything about the Equinox except the entertainment...Other than Jane Curry, it was absolutely boring.

[Jimbo59]

Don't go on the new Princess Royal or Regal ships. They did away with the outside Promenade deck on these ships. Also they did away with the "swim against the current" pools. The older Princess Ships have both of these features.

 

The S class Celebrity ships are beautiful, with many good features. But Celebrity also doesn't have the outside Promenade decks.

[jagoffee]

I am trying to decide if I should try Celebrity again. I have not been on Celebrity since a cruise on the Infinity in 2002. On my past five Celebrity cruises I found sea days boring, with nothing to do but sit and watch the ocean or spend time in the casino. I have found that Princess has lots of activities throughout the entire day. My question is, has Celebrity added day time activities? I have found a cruise on the Eclipse that I am interested in, but there are 5 sea days on the 14 day cruise. Princess has activities like: Trivia and other team games. Does Celebrity currently have day time activities like this?

 

Thank you everyone for your comments. I’ll have to think hard about this decision. The Celebrity 14 day itinerary is very tempting.

 

I cruise on both Celebrity and Princess, but more on Celebrity. As other have said Celebrity does not day time activities, but Princess probably has more. The 14 day Eclipse tour is an excellent itinerary. I have cruised it twice during and I have it worked twice more. I love the Solstice Class ships and I think you should give it a try. It is a great overall experience IMO.

Good luck with your decision.

[emmas gran]

One point is you have to get a mini suite to get a sofa if you want to relax in your room

[DebbieMacG]

I haven't tried princess yet (am about to because of the itinerary they are doing) and so can't comment on both cruise lines. I will say however that entertainment wise it varies vastly from ship to ship and cruise to cruise. Whilst you may get a lot of entertainment on a TA there can be very little on other cruises. Sometimes there are great speakers and then the next cruise there's nothing other than port lecturers. So if you are choosing a cruise for entertainment during the day then bear this in mind as it can be hit and miss. I've always found evening entertainment ok but a bit repetitive for the main shows, obv this only applies if you cruised on the same ship before.

 

 

That said I am happy to entertain myself and am happy with a book and a lounger or comfy chair :)

 

I don't think princess will beat the solstice class ships for style and design, service is very good on celebrity and so is the food, so far the customer service (land based) has been FAR superior with princess than celebrity's as to whether this will be the same ship side I'll tell you in a months time lol

Edited May 15, 2015 by DebbieMacG

[Jetswdo]

Both these cruise lines tend to be the ones we usually use. There are some things I prefer with Celebrity and same thing with Princess---

 

Personally, I try to avoid cruises with a lot of sea days, but sometimes that doesn't always work out.

 

Princess: DH and I just do trivia whenever we can. We also just do show with comedian, and broadway revue type thing. There was a very good Beatles tribute band on the Royal. We do the same thing with Celebrity-- I haven't found the shows that much different between the lines.

 

We haven't done the game show type things in years, but I think both lines have their own version.

 

There is more action altogether on Princess ships, if that is important to you.

 

I prefer the restaurant choices on Celebrity over Princess. That said, I found the food on the Royal Princess a close second to Celebrity Reflection.

 

It is very inconvenient for us that Celebrity does not offer self service washers and dryers. (I can only use hypo allergenic detergent, and due to only wearing cotton can't use commercial service (my clothes will shrink)--

 

So (we are in early 60's) if cruise is 1 week- would probably pick Celebrity over Princess if more port days. If cruise is longer than a week, due to laundry situation, we would probably pick Princess, unless there is a port that Celebrity stops at where we can spend a couple of hours doing our laundry.

 

We have enjoyed all the cruises we have taken with both lines.

[wendyatpml]

What?? Sorry, you said a lot of interesting things in your post, but your cabin was over 90F????:eek:

 

 

 

Just to be clear, are you saying that they only had 2 games of trivia on sea days (only?)?

On all of the X cruises we have been on, we have had trivia at least twice a day on all days (sea, port...)

 

Ah trivia. I believe this particular activity has suffered with the cut backs.

I guess because the activities employees are being stretched too far, trivia for me is no longer enjoyable. The games don't seem to have any thought given as to the questions and themes. My husband loves it and I enjoyed playing with him and meeting new people. But in thinking about our next cruise, I'm going to find something else to do. It's a big beautiful ship!

(I'll still play the progressive trivia though):D

Since we were on a British Isles cruise on Princess and it is COLD you don't have the opportunity to use the pools so a few activities would have been nice. Also to cold and windy to sit on the balcony.

[benjoon]

We haven't tried Princess yet but will do in December. We wanted to extend our South American cruise but the infinity wasn't going to to the ports we wanted. We are jumping ship in Chile. It's certainly going to be interesting doing the two cruise lines B2B. I will certainly post my experience afterwards.

[conwakr]

I would choose based on itinerary. But if both itineraries were identical I would choose Princess. I preferred the Princess mini-suite to the Celebrity concierge and I prefer the general layout of the ships and variety and open dining choices on Princess to what I experienced on Celebrity. But, take it with a grain of salt because I only have Princess Sapphire to compare to Celebrity Infinity...there are posters with much more experience with multiple ships on both lines.

[Jetswdo]

We used this ship for Alaska sailing 6 years ago. The ship and crew were great. The food was the worst ---lost 5 pounds, nearly starved, yes the food was impossible-apparently on that cruise, I'm guessing, the food was left overs from prior cruises-- salad wilted, moldy bread- many others said the same thing regarding the food on that sailing, which made me hesitant to use Princess again. My friend had the same situation on the Diamond, an Austrailia sailing.

 

But I heaven't read any complaints in the last few years regarding the food on the Saphire--- I gave Princess another chance on the Royal last year. The food was actually quite good- close to Celebrity--- We will be taking two Princess cruises over the next two years, due to itinerary.

We will be on Celebrity Summit for Bermuda.