Royal Princess vs Norwegian Jewel

[hakunamatata2020]

Hello everyone!

 

I am currently comparing the following two cruises for a honeymoon in Alaska in August 2020:

1. Royal Princess: 7-Day Voyage of the Glaciers with Glacier Bay (Southbound) 

2. Norwegian Jewel: 7-Day Alaska with Glacier Bay from Vancouver (Northbound)

 

I narrowed it down to these two cruises because they both go to both Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier, and the following three ports: Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan. Would you recommend one ship over the other? What are the pros/cons of these ships (food, activities, shows, etc.)? I have only done Caribbean cruises with RCL and Carnival in the past. 

 

Thanks in advance 🙂

[martincath]

Jewel sails the Inside Passage the whole way - Royal does not. That means you miss about a day-and-a-half of scenic sailing due to going out west of Vancouver Island on the Royal - which Princess continue to lie about and claim that they do sail Inside despite the BC Coastal Pilots flat-out refusing to allow Royal to take that route as it is too long and also maneuvers badly in high winds. This would be the single biggest factor for me and guarantee I wouldn't take Royal unless it was basically a free cruise - the BC coast is gorgeous and the narrowest parts are better than anything you'll cruise by in Alaska except on a Glacier day.

 

SOme more general and specific into though, to let you make an overall informed decision:

The bigger Royal will almost certainly offer more activities to do onboard - but that also means more people to fight with getting on and off at every port. NCL has more alternative dining despite being a smaller ship, but while I haven't experienced Royal as a broad-brush generalization Princess tends to do slightly better MDR food so if you are the kind of folks who eat in the MDR all the time/like to try other venues which is better for you will differ. NCL also have a greatly-superior beer selection, though in AK the Princess beer list sucks less than elsewhere as they do bring on some Alaskan beers (and thank Bob ditched their own Seawitch IPA, which was a travesty).

 

NCL's lack of a required dress code makes for less to pack (though Princess 'formal' nights also don't need actual formal dress these days either they do in theory want you to dress up a little more than usual to eat in MDR).

 

We've consistently preferred the entertainment on NCL compared to Princess, though not by a great deal, and if you haven't done Princess before their repertoire of the same old shows won't be a factor for you (whereas I don't think we bothered with a single theater show on our last two Princess cruises because there was not a single original show on either).

 

Enrichment in Alaska Princess do better than NCL - always a naturalist onboard and various Alaska-themed things like a chat from past Iditarod racers, axe-throwing contests, and husky puppies brought onboard. In Glacier Bay you'll have Park Rangers regardless of the line used.

 

So overall it's a bit tricky - if it was any other Princess ship but Royal, most things go in Princess' favour especially if you have OBC to burn on ship excursions (between them and HAL the Carnival group pretty much owns Alaska!) but the downsides of the Royal specifically are IMO so huge that it should never have been deployed in this region. When both BC and Alaska pilots have publically issued statements about how badly your ship handles, it's a pretty damning indictment of their design and deployment choices!