Princess compared to Celebrity

[KeepCalmBearOn]

7 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

Why?  Disney is 2x the price and Ovation might be a good ship but the itinerary is garbage.  

 

Disney is twice the fun, and as to Ovation, I am sailing for the ship, as anyone who is doing a Hawaii cruise should. If you want 10 days in Hawaii, fly to Hawaii.

[lx200gps]

12 hours ago, Hlitner said:

For us, this is somewhat simple and based on value.  The cost of a small SkySuite on Celebrity is more than twice the cost of a mini-suite on Princess.  Princess also has Alfredos and the International Cafe (both personal favorites).  

 

By the way, we do not have an issue with wine service in the Princess MDRs.  When the waiter comes, we order our wine and tell the waiter we will order food once we get our wine :).  Works every time.

 

Hank

We usually sail Princess  (just got off the Sky yesterday in fact) but have sailed X once, on the Silhouette a few years ago in the Med and loved it. We have a Celebrity trip booked to the ABC Islands for this May on the Equinox, and I decided to check the pricing for the same class balcony cabin we've had booked for months. You never know, maybe there's been a price drop or a sale going on. When we booked our balcony cabin a few months ago  we locked it in at a hair over $4000CAD for the two of us, (which is what we just paid to rebook a Minisuite on the Discovery Princess for this fall after the price dropped BTW). The cost of a basic balcony cabin on our May sailing on X, and there are very few left, is now $9200 for the two of us. If that's indicative of where Celebrity's pricing is going, we'll be sticking with Princess despite the ongoing issues with Princess's service and offerings.

[TenneSea]

On 12/11/2022 at 3:52 PM, iamaqt2 said:

The biggest and most glaring difference between Celebrity and Princess IMO is in the MDR.  Celebrity has dedicated wine stewards who quickly learn your favorite wine and rarely leave your glass empty. And their servers aren't harried by this task.  Princess expects your servers to take your wine or beverage order and bring it back all while trying to get food orders taken and delivered to multiple tables.  It might be 20-30 minutes before that glass of wine shows up. 

I find the quality of food on Celebrity to also be slightly better.  

For the night owls Celebrity also offers more evening activities after 9 pm than Princess.  My personal favorite is the Silent Disco.

But Princess has better enrichment lectures and the 24 hour International Cafe. 

I cruise both lines.  I like them both.  I found the Celebrity food to be a bit more bland tasting than Princess.  We often joke that we should bring a case of seasonings to the table on Celeb - maybe they'd get the message.  But everyone has different tastes.

[TenneSea]

People have mentioned the laundry facilities on Princess.  These are so nice to have.  We're spending almost 2 weeks in England this summer (2023) after a week long cruise in Norway.  We chose Princess because of laundry.  I will be doing laundry on the last full day of the cruise so I won't have to do it again until we fly back to the US.

 

One thing I loved on Celebrity -that Princess used to have but not on their ships for quite a while - is the lovely solarium at the front of the ship with huge glass windows. You could sit there while sailing and see so much beautiful scenery go by (i.e. glaciers !).  The most recent Celebrity ship I've been on was Silhouette and they still had that area.

[malba2366]

We have had enjoyable cruises on both, we have been on Princess much more than any other line.  We prefer the vibe of the crowds on Celebrity.  IMHO Celebrity skews more towards the active 55+ community crowd, and Princess seems like it has been skewing more towards an older crowd.  The new leadership at Princess is trying to market to a younger crowd...and hopefully they succeed because Princess has some great itineraries.  Most of the other aspects such as food and drink are pretty equal to me.  We typically find the fares on Princess are better than on Celebrity as well.

Edited February 27, 2023 by malba2366

[malba2366]

2 minutes ago, malba2366 said:

 

Delete.  Repost

Edited February 27, 2023 by malba2366

[Fortunatefew]

On 12/12/2022 at 2:20 PM, Ramblergirl said:

I totally agree with the above.  The std balcony state rooms in Princess are smaller. You need to book Princess  Mini-Suite to get the same floor space and facilities than in standard Celebrity balcony cabin.  

That’s true about the size and sofa in Celebrity but I love the big wardrobe space in Princess and the  laundromat. We have been on both recently, both have likes and dislikes but can’t wait to go on one again sooner rather than later  

[iamaqt2]

8 hours ago, TenneSea said:

I cruise both lines.  I like them both.  I found the Celebrity food to be a bit more bland tasting than Princess.  We often joke that we should bring a case of seasonings to the table on Celeb - maybe they'd get the message.  But everyone has different tastes.

They're actually both bland.  But I take that with a grain of salt lol.

[caribill]

7 hours ago, malba2366 said:

The new leadership at Princess is trying to market to a younger crowd...

 

Not based on all the TV advertising for cruises in our area.

 

Princess ads show couples having cocktails, being served Champagne, eating fancy dinners, etc.

 

Royal Caribbean and Carnival ads show families with children doing things together and kids having a great time with in board water activities.