Celebrity vs. Princess: A recent comparison

[Ken the cruiser]

3 minutes ago, hubofhockey said:

Grand Class ships have around 3,000 passengers and M Class has a little less than 2,000, so they are not comparable.  Princess has two ships similar in size to M in their coral class.  One, Island, they refitted with 10% more cabins and the other is the Coral.  I would consider the Coral and Club Class, IF I found an itinerary I liked and the price was competitive with M class and less than Azamara/Oceania.  

Good point. The Summit actually has a capacity of 2158, Millennium 2138, and the Constellation and Infinity 2,170 whereas the Princess Grand-class ships definitely vary in capacity - Grand 2,600, Emerald 3080, Sapphire 2670, Caribbean 3140, Crown 3080, Diamond 2670, and Ruby 3080. The Island has a capacity of 2200 and the Coral 2000. 

[MamaFej]

We've got 28 days circimnavigating Australia coming up soon. I've read that Coral is a favorite Princess ship for many. I'm beginning to understand why. 

 

Thank you. 

[hubofhockey]

17 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Good point. The Summit actually has a capacity of 2158, Millennium 2138, and the Constellation and Infinity 2,170 whereas the Princess Grand-class ships definitely vary in capacity - Grand 2,600, Emerald 3080, Sapphire 2670, Caribbean 3140, Crown 3080, Diamond 2670, and Ruby 3080. The Island has a capacity of 2200 and the Coral 2000. 

 

When we first started cruising, we loved the bigger ships with the latest gimmicks.  When we started cruising more for itineraries, kind of fell in love with the M class and Celebrity, for constantly refreshing and updating them (solsticizing - not sure if revolutionizing is a big deal).  Now, if price is close, I would even look to Azamara (our favorite cruise was on the quest) or Oceania over the M class.  Still love the M class though and they hit a good price point, even when they require all of the extras on Aqua.  For those who like the typical Caribbean cruises, maybe some see more value in Princess (and of course, Alaska).  I have no desire for Caribbean cruises of the Edge class.

 

[hubofhockey]

1 minute ago, MamaFej said:

We've got 28 days circimnavigating Australia coming up soon. I've read that Coral is a favorite Princess ship for many. I'm beginning to understand why. 

 

Thank you. 

 

Yup, that is the one Princess ship I would look at and Australia / New Zealand is on our list.  It would be an option.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

4 hours ago, reedprincess said:

Ooh, that's rough. The Island Princess is not a great introduction to the Princess line. She's very much a one-off.  And- by far - my least favorite Princess ship.

 

She was refurbed in 2015 and basically, butchered. They removed the spacious 2 story Universe Lounge and added 130+ cabins aft. Then, shrunk the casino and added another 20 or so cabins. Moved the gym downstairs to an indoor black box. And did not add any public space, including no additional dining space. She also has no International Cafe, which is a Princess win over Celebrity (24/7 coffee shop with light bites, both savory and sweet).  She's old, rattles a lot and  she's crowded. And it shows, on the pool decks, in rhe buffet, atrium, etc... And she's ugly! Lol.  The refurb really ruined her lines, to say the least.. 

Be prepared!   

 

The SHC and military OBC are nice though.. and you'll have good sized balcony, if you're in a balcony or higher type of cabin. And loads of closet space! 

 

She's basically the only Princess we won't sail again, unless, for some reason, she's the only ship from ANY line sailing an itinerary we really want to do..   

Good luck... 

thank you for that information, 

I did like the ports 

I think all gyms should be in the basement 😉

[Ex-Airbalancer]

They should take m-class ship and make them do 2-3 week cruise to usually ports 

[MamaFej]

14 minutes ago, hubofhockey said:

 

When we first started cruising, we loved the bigger ships with the latest gimmicks.  When we started cruising more for itineraries, kind of fell in love with the M class and Celebrity, for constantly refreshing and updating them (solsticizing - not sure if revolutionizing is a big deal).  Now, if price is close, I would even look to Azamara (our favorite cruise was on the quest) or Oceania over the M class.  Still love the M class though and they hit a good price point, even when they require all of the extras on Aqua.  For those who like the typical Caribbean cruises, maybe some see more value in Princess (and of course, Alaska).  I have no desire for Caribbean cruises of the Edge class.

 

We've done several smaller ship cruises since the restart, and have discovered that we really enjoy them. I should be on the last ight of 28 nights aboard the Azamara Pursuit right now, but life had other plans. We really like the Azamara "Intensive" itineraries. We are finding that Azamara pricing has been similar to or better than Celebrity's Aqua at times, and we prefer the smaller ship for the frequently cited reasons. 

 

We've never done a bells and whistles type ship, and we've never been to the Caribbean, despite having cruised to 6 continents and having seen Africa from a cruise ship. We will cruise to Africa in 2025. We will get to the Caribbean eventually, I imagine. 

 

I think it's great that there are so many different types of cruising, and so many types of ships. Different strokes for different folks... and some folks' strokes change for a variety of reasons. 

[fsdorado]

We just came off a 10 night Alaska Inside Passage cruise sailing from San Francisco on Ruby Princess.  X is by far our favorite cruise line but my whole family lives in the Bay Area and Mom was paying for everyone's (16 in total) stateroom so sailing from San Francisco made sense.  My wife and I shared a Family Suite with my Mom and my sister's MIL (who recently lost her husband), so we got the full suite benefits.  We usually sail on Sky Suites on the Edge-class ships.  We were fully prepared to be disappointed with Ruby, given her age and the things we'd been hearing about the food recently on Princess.  I must say, we were pleasantly surprised with Ruby.  She was in pretty good shape for a ship her age.  She's a very traditional ship, with lots of wood and brass (which is not generally to our liking).  The food was actually very good.  The service was generally very good as well.  Where Ruby really shined was with the Cruise Director and his staff.  They were by far the most engaged, entertaining group we've ever had.  Overall, we thought the food and service on Celebrity is better.  Would we sail on Princess again?  Sure, given the right itinerary.  We were supposed to visit the glaciers but very poor visibility prevented us from getting into the fjords.  I think it's really hard to compare an older ship like Ruby to a newer Edge-class ship on Celebrity.

 

 

Frederick

[hubofhockey]

2 hours ago, MamaFej said:

We've done several smaller ship cruises since the restart, and have discovered that we really enjoy them. I should be on the last ight of 28 nights aboard the Azamara Pursuit right now, but life had other plans. We really like the Azamara "Intensive" itineraries. We are finding that Azamara pricing has been similar to or better than Celebrity's Aqua at times, and we prefer the smaller ship for the frequently cited reasons. 

 

We've never done a bells and whistles type ship, and we've never been to the Caribbean, despite having cruised to 6 continents and having seen Africa from a cruise ship. We will cruise to Africa in 2025. We will get to the Caribbean eventually, I imagine. 

 

I think it's great that there are so many different types of cruising, and so many types of ships. Different strokes for different folks... and some folks' strokes change for a variety of reasons. 

Our first Azamara cruise was on the Quest because M class was docking 2-3 hours away from Saigon and Bangkok and the Quest was docking right in the cities.  Wasn’t expecting to be blown away by the experience.  Bid a $600 for the suite upgrade and the cruise part of the vacation was the best we’ve had at sea.  We booked the Journey for next December Panama Canal.  That’s as much for the Azamara experience.  We’ll look again for another after that.  

[wineoclock]

We are on Apex in a CS next June. Baltics. We will make elite+ if we do it. 

 

Sky Princess for a similar cruise is just over half the fare in a PH. Dh a creature of habit, won’t want to switch, but I’m tempted. He’s a big casino man, is smoking a big thing anyone know please? 
 

How will it compare? 

 

Looking at Oceania for 2025 special birthday. I keep saying 50 when it’s going to be 60 🤣 wishful thinking! 

[Tom47]

For anyone who has access to Smithsonian(streaming/cable) they are showing reruns of Mighty Cruise ships, Saturday, 6 episodes, 6 cruise lines, incl Celebrity, RCI, HAL, Azamara

[wineoclock]

On 8/17/2023 at 6:42 AM, wineoclock said:

We are on Apex in a CS next June. Baltics. We will make elite+ if we do it. 

 

Sky Princess for a similar cruise is just over half the fare in a PH. Dh a creature of habit, won’t want to switch, but I’m tempted. He’s a big casino man, is smoking a big thing anyone know please? 
 

How will it compare? 

 

Looking at Oceania for 2025 special birthday. I keep saying 50 when it’s going to be 60 🤣 wishful thinking! 

Well couldn’t switch as dates didn’t work. However have cancelled CS and moved to SV. A proper balcony. So I’m happy with money saved will do more speciality dining.