Princess vs. Celebrity

[ano]

Were pretty experienced cruisers, and have done RCL/NCL/Carnival for many years. All have gone down hill over the years, to the point where we feel we are being nickle and dimed to death. NCL wasn't bad, and food was a bit better than RCL/Carnival, but the $7.95 room service charge leaves a bad taste, and for those that don't know, they have a new CEO which is making radical changes and not in a good way.

 

Were in our 50's so not 20 and not 85. How does Princess vs. Celebrity compare? I know this is subjective, but what would a RCL/NCL/Carnival cruiser notice different, if anything? We did like that NCL didn't shove drinks in your face like Carnival and RCL, and it didn't have the 24 hour cruise director announcements about bingo, a plus. Just looking for a bit more upscale, without overdoing it. We did like NCL's very casual attitude with only one dining room having a dress code and no reservations needed for dinner. Just interested in any thoughts. All you have to do is look at the titles of the posts in the Princess and Celebrity areas and you will see a BIG difference compared with RCL/NCL/Carnival. That alone speaks volumes.

Edited November 9, 2015 by ano

[icat2000]

Pretty much the same to me.

 

Some of the Celebrity ships are nicer but they are rabbit warrens too. I think the cabins on Celebrity are nicer than some of the Princess cabins. I didn't care much about the food service on Celebrity.

[moki'smommy]

Celebrity is definitely a step up from the lines you named.

 

Carnival obviously owns Carnival ships, but their upscale line is Princess.

RCL is the low end line, their upscale is Celebrity.

NCL doesn't seem to have an upscale that I know of......

 

My experience--Celebrity has better food. They have a few upscale restaurants, but the main dining room is fine. The brunch was included; I understand now that they are charging for it. Soda and drink packages are more than many other lines. We were not impressed with the entertainment on the main stage "The Stars of the Infinity", but the entertainers around the ship and the variety acts were good. The naturalist who did lectures about the port was excellent and quite entertaining.

 

There were lots of small touches that were nice. We were in Alaska. When coming back after an excursion, we were handed a steaming wash cloth and a cup of hot chocolate. Not a huge thing, but very welcoming. Our inside room was smaller than what we'd become used to on other lines. The room host was wonderful. The food servers were not so great. The covered pool was great for Alaska; it was open to kids 2 hours per day.

 

Honestly, our biggest problem was our dinner table mate. This lady had planned a cruise with her husband; he died before the cruise date came. The family put her on the ship alone. She had some form of dementia and should never have been anywhere without supervision. She would see us around the ship and latch onto us for help. On a couple of occasions, she was carrying excursion tickets but had no idea what they were for or what to do with them, she could never find her cabin, etc. It was sad, but after a couple episodes of trying to help, I started just walking her to Guest Services so they could sort out her issues.

 

This was a great cruise...probably as much for Alaska as for Celebrity.

Edited November 9, 2015 by moki'smommy

[nealstuber]

And you did change table mates.... Why?

[Go-Bucks!]

Were pretty experienced cruisers, and have done RCL/NCL/Carnival for many years. All have gone down hill over the years, to the point where we feel we are being nickle and dimed to death. NCL wasn't bad, and food was a bit better than RCL/Carnival, but the $7.95 room service charge leaves a bad taste, and for those that don't know, they have a new CEO which is making radical changes and not in a good way.

 

Were in our 50's so not 20 and not 85. How does Princess vs. Celebrity compare? I know this is subjective, but what would a RCL/NCL/Carnival cruiser notice different, if anything? We did like that NCL didn't shove drinks in your face like Carnival and RCL, and it didn't have the 24 hour cruise director announcements about bingo, a plus. Just looking for a bit more upscale, without overdoing it. We did like NCL's very casual attitude with only one dining room having a dress code and no reservations needed for dinner. Just interested in any thoughts. All you have to do is look at the titles of the posts in the Princess and Celebrity areas and you will see a BIG difference compared with RCL/NCL/Carnival. That alone speaks volumes.

 

 

Of the 3 lines you mentioned, I've only been on Carnival. I had 3 nice cruises on them (good food and service, plus large rooms) but I wasn't too impressed with the neon and gaudy decorating. Those aren't deal breakers, but I prefer a more sophisticated atmosphere.

 

That being said, I've been on both Princess and Celebrity. I like them both, but Princess is my favorite. They are alike in many ways with some differences. Both are nicely decorated and have good food. I love MUTS and the great loyalty benefits of Princess. Princess has always had good itineraries but Celebrity has been greatly improving theirs for a few years now. Prices are fairly comparable and both have "sales" and "deals" regularly. Hope that helps. :p

[Go-Bucks!]

RCL is the low end line' date=' their upscale is Celebrity.[/quote']

 

Celebrity's "upscale" is Azamara.

My experience--Celebrity has better food. They have a few upscale restaurants' date=' but the main dining room is fine.[/quote']

 

The specialty restaurants on Celebrity cost $40-45 for dinner, with a few costing a little less. Princess specialty restaurants cost $25.

 

Two other things I like about Princess is afternoon tea and the International Cafe. Their daily afternoon tea is in the dining room with table cloths, china, and waiters serving scones, cream (not real clotted cream, tho), strawberry jam, tea sandwiches, pastries and tea. Sometimes they have live piano or violin music. Celebrity has some of these items, but they're just in the self serve buffet; not real afternoon tea. The IC on Princess is in the atrium and serves free delicious food and pastries 24 hr a day, like chicken salad, croissants, tarts, cake, pies, pasta salad, & shrimp salad. Right next to it is the gelato bar and the place to get lattes and specialty coffee and tea drinks.

Edited November 9, 2015 by Go-Bucks!

[Gabrielle R.]

We have done most of the lines you have done/asked about- EXCEPT NCL.

 

When we went on Celebrity (SEVERAL) years ago, we noticed that they had more dressy/formal nights. Which my DH did not like.

 

My TA friend recently did Celebrity & Princess, she gave the nod to Princess for food and entertainment. Which I found interesting since most say Celebrity the better food line.

 

I think you may enjoy both lines... Perhaps Princess a bit more since you don't have to dress to impress. ;)

 

Try the one with the itinerary you want to try and have fun!!

Gabrielle

[Cruise Junky]

Celebrity's "upscale" is Azamara.

.

 

Yep. And Carnival's sure isn't Princess. That would be Seabourn and then probably Cunard.

[CineGraphic]

My wife and I have sailed on Princess, 4 times and sailed on X for the 1st time this past summer. Here's how I ranked them:

Here are the winners in my mind.

 

Food: Princess, the buffets are about equal

 

Waitstaff: Princess

 

Cabin Size: Celebrity

 

Cabin Furnishings: Princess

 

Restrooms: Celebrity

 

Production Shows: Princess

 

Musicians: Celebrity

 

Comedians: Celebrity

 

Cruise Director: Celebrity

 

Cabin Attendant: Tie

 

Casino: Princess

 

Daily Activities: Celebrity

 

Photo Department: Princess

 

Check-in: Celebrity

 

Bar: Celebrity

 

Wine Selection: Celebrity

 

Pizza: Princess

 

Baked Goods: Tie

 

Ice Cream: Celebrity

 

Coffee/Tea: Celebrity

 

Room Service: Princess

 

Muster Drill: Celebrity

 

Officer Visibility: Celebrity

[perditax]

Just popping in to say I always appreciate these comparison threads. Princess will probably be the next line I try after X.

[ano]

I think I might try Princess as well. I like the more informal atmosphere I'm hearing. Dressing up is too much like work. I liked how NCL had one dining room with a dress code (which they enforced) and another without. Same food in both.

[suzyed]

I think I might try Princess as well. I like the more informal atmosphere I'm hearing. Dressing up is too much like work. I liked how NCL had one dining room with a dress code (which they enforced) and another without. Same food in both.

 

Princess has formal nights with people still dressing in suits/tuxes and dressy dresses. Princess has two main specialty restaurants...cover charge $25

 

NCL is the most casual..."dress up or not" is their motto. We did not enjoy their MDR so we dined in specialty restaurants for 5 of the 7 nights on our first NCL cruise and dined exclusively in a specialty restaurant for all 7 nights of our second cruise. They range in price (or did at the time we sailed) from $0-$35. All were good...some excellent!

 

Lately we have become "Princess cruisers" mostly for their fabulous itineraries!

We like the atmosphere, although the typical cruiser on longer sailings are older than other lines.

Entertainment is just ok.

We have a 21 day sailing booked with Princess in the Spring.

 

We are Diamond on RCCL...we love their ships..so beautiful! We have enjoyed every RCCL cruise we have taken...food is good, entertainment is fabulous!

 

Cunard is what I consider the upscale version of Carnivals Corp fleet. We have sailed with Curnard 3 times and have our third sailing on the QM2 booked for the spring.

 

We sailed on Carnival several times and are Platinum on that line...I guess it would be the lower end of our cruising experiences, but we think their food is very good and the cruises fun!

 

I can't yet speak about Celebrity since, I am sailing on them for the first time in the spring....looking forward to it! I like that my Diamond RCCL status transfers to Celebrity!!

[OCruisers]

We have no problem cruising on Celebrity from time to time ... but Princess is a better fit for us. :)

 

LuLu

[caribill]

My wife and I have sailed on Princess, 4 times and sailed on X for the 1st time this past summer. Here's how I ranked them:

Here are the winners in my mind.

 

Muster Drill: Celebrity

 

 

Curious about this one. Why did you rate Celebrity higher?

[mkazmer]

Have to say we haven't sailed on either NCL or RCCL in years - did one Carnival cruise a long time ago and never went back. We have cruised with Princess, Celebrity and HAL for the past number of years and have just decided that we will limit our cruising these days to Princess.

 

We are older than you and my husband has mobility issues - so the Princess ships live well for him. All the venues that we use are close the cabin that we usually choose and the food is always good. It always feels like "coming home" to us.

 

We just got off Celebrity's Infinity and were disappointed - we have loved their M class for the size and it just didn't do it this time. The food wasn't that good and they keep changing the things that we have liked in the past. We do NOT like their S class ships at all - too gimmicky with the lawn and glass blowing and things like that - the decor doesn't seem to know what it wants to be - traditional or contemporary - we missed the feeling of the ship, service and food being a cut above.

 

We have enjoyed HAL - but like the Princess ships better - so..... try them all see what you like - definitely, in my opinion, a step above NCL, RCCL and Carnival.

[CineGraphic]

Curious about this one. Why did you rate Celebrity higher?

 

The Celeb crew was much more organized. No scanning of cards and the associated endless beeping of the scanners, and the drill was faster. No need to put on the life jacket either.

[sptrout]

FYI - - Annouced over night, effective in December, Celebrity has replaced formal nights with what they call "evening chic". That will stir things up today on the Celebrity Board.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/v-4/news/news.cfm?ID=6642

Edited November 9, 2015 by sptrout

[capriccio]

No scanning of cards and the associated endless beeping of the scanners, and the drill was faster.

 

Given that muster attendance is mandatory, if they don't scan cards how do they know everyone attended? I know on one of my B2B cruises last month when the bridge announced the follow up muster drill for later arrivals they actually mentioned that they knew a number of passengers had been on board on time and didn't attend the initial drill. If they planned to be on the cruise they needed to make sure they attended the make up.

[CineGraphic]

Given that muster attendance is mandatory, if they don't scan cards how do they know everyone attended?

 

They had several crew members checking passengers off of a printed list instead of scanning cards.

[sptrout]

FYI - - Announced overnight, effective in December, Celebrity has replaced formal nights with what they call "evening chic". That will stir things up today on the Celebrity Board.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/v-4/news/news.cfm?ID=6642

 

Just received the official announcement email from Celebrity: formal nights are history! No tears from me.

[sprint180]

Given that muster attendance is mandatory, if they don't scan cards how do they know everyone attended? I know on one of my B2B cruises last month when the bridge announced the follow up muster drill for later arrivals they actually mentioned that they knew a number of passengers had been on board on time and didn't attend the initial drill. If they planned to be on the cruise they needed to make sure they attended the make up.

 

I wondered that on our last NCL cruise. No one was scanning cards and no one asked who we were. People were coming in as the drill was going on. I guessed it wasn't that mandatory.

[capriccio]

I wondered that on our last NCL cruise. No one was scanning cards and no one asked who we were. People were coming in as the drill was going on. I guessed it wasn't that mandatory.

 

Wow that is surprising and a little disturbing since the drill itself is required by the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea. Pre-Concordia disaster I don't think Princess took attendance at the muster point but I heard that cabins were checked by crew. I think the sea pass attendance taking is quick and thorough, a definite improvement. And as I said in an earlier post, they know immediately who has boarded but not attended the muster.

 

Personally I would want all my fellow cruisers to attend so I can be assured that they too know what to do in an emergency. On our Royal Princess B2B last month we had 4 emergency announcements (the first we've ever had in 18 cruises) - 3 at night (11:30, 1:30 and 2:30 or so) and one around 8 in morning. Waking up from a sound sleep the first thing I did was think what I needed to do (gather passports and meds, etc.) if they told us to proceed to our muster stations. Thankfully we didn't and kudos to Captain Sagani and the officers on the bridge for keeping us informed every few minutes as to what was going on (one was a generator smoke issue, the other was an air conditioning unit fan belt that caught fire if I remember correctly, and 2 were false alarms). The first two were very scary and it understandably took a while to issue an all clear; the false alarms were over fairly quickly.

[suzyed]

Just received the official announcement email from Celebrity: formal nights are history! No tears from me.

 

I just got the email too! I think I will like this better and I know DH will definitely like it!

[ano]

Wow that is surprising and a little disturbing since the drill itself is required by the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea.

 

These are VERY important but they are also done VERY poorly. In a recent NCL, no scanning and I think only 80% of the people were there. They spent 90% of the time telling all the things you couldn't do at the drill, and maybe 10% on the actual drill. I couldn't see or hear a thing because the women showing use were very short and had no PA systems. There has to be a better way.

[capriccio]

These are VERY important but they are also done VERY poorly. In a recent NCL, no scanning and I think only 80% of the people were there. They spent 90% of the time telling all the things you couldn't do at the drill, and maybe 10% on the actual drill. I couldn't see or hear a thing because the women showing use were very short and had no PA systems. There has to be a better way.

 

I've always been impressed with the Princess method although carrying your life jacket from and to your cabin is a bit of a pain. In addition to recording the attendance using your sea pass, the entire drill is over the PA system in each muster station so everyone can hear it, and there are plenty of crew in each muster station (usually a lounge or the theater) so everyone has line of sight vision for the life jacket demonstration.

Edited November 9, 2015 by capriccio