Princess Cruises Ranked Last?

[cheese please]

This U.K. consumer group "Which" has ranked Princess Cruise as last place on their list of cruise lines. Having in June sailed on Regal I find that hard to believe. 

 https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/cruise-lines/article/best-and-worst-cruise-lines-aXDfX7O9uJEz

But that is what they have in reviews. And reading the boards on C.C. I guess I am wrong and they and a lot of you are right. But I can not wait to board the Crown in 13 days for Alaska. I love those old ships. They may not be big and glittery but comfortable like a pair of old shoes and easy on the feet. And when it comes to cruising Princess is our go to line.

[Coral]

It is a pretty small sampling based in the UK. 

 

Though - I have to say I would not rank Princess high based on my last few cruises. And it has nothing to do with age of ships.

[TashaB]

I wouldn't take the survey too seriously.   If you click on the "i" to the right of each cruise line you will see the sample size.  Princess had one of the largest sample sizes and most of those that are rated higher had much, much smaller sample sizes.     Seems larger the sample more complaints!   Likely the people who took the survey and liked their cruise are in the small samples for the other cruise lines.

 

These days there are many surveys and they often contradict each other.   On CC you get a number of consistently positive posters for one cruise line and then the many complainers who may have a legitimate reason to complain or be loyal to the competition who can do no wrong!

 

The only way to be sure is to take a cruise and do your own comparison.   My last cruise was on NCL transatlantic in 2019.   I swore I would never sail with them again as the food wasn't good.  But my opinion was tainted as I had Accute Bronchitis part way through the cruise and nothing tasted well and my appetite disappeared with the days.   So now we are booked again on both NCL and Princess for 2024 and deciding which one we will actually take.   I haven't sailed Princess since 2008 but am Elite.

[cruising.mark.uk]

I agree that the sample size makes this almost meaningless.  Only 1700 people were surveyed in total and some of the 'top' ratings are based on just over 30 responses.  So, I wouldn't read anything into this at all.  And, Which? has produced similarly unreliable findings on cruising in the past.  It is a pretty good source of fairly impartial advice for UK consumers of many things, but cruising isn't one of them!

[c-boy]

the top five are boutique cruise lines, small to medium sized ships. Princess caters to twice the amount of passengers per ship, then the number of people who took the survey. Value is in the eye of the beholder. We have been on two of the boutique lines, other than space ratio being good, we didn't disembark feeling we will rebook anytime soon. 

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

Also the survey was carried out in Nov 2022. I’ve seen quite a few references to things improving over the past 6-9 months.

 

and as others have said, it’s a very small number surveyed for Which?

 

id rather Experience a cruise for myself & decide

or, if I’m trying to research before I part with cash, check many review sites with much larger samples, with both quantitative and qualitative data. Which? Isn’t the best place for this. If you want to compare toasters & cameras, they’re great. Any type of Holiday, not so much

 

 

[cheese please]

Yes sample size is small. But this survey got alot of TV air time regardless of its merits. And as I go through the Princess boards if I was a new cruiser I would wonder if it is true. The negative comments so out weight the positive that sometimes you have to wonder if anyone should cruise on Princess. So newby's if you're reading this I almost always cruise Princess they are my favorite. 

[beg3yrs]

Oh please, everyone start sailing those higher ranked cruise lines Lower prices and less people on board will mean more cruises on Princess for me.

[hogwildcruzers]

I won't trust or believe any poll that has Carnival ahead of Princess!

 

[luvtravel]

In May we’re on the Celebrity Solstice in Alaska - first cruise post pandemic. In July we were on the Island Princess in Iceland/Norway.  To us the experience totally different - Celebrity is much better.  The staff on each did a good job but the food, the ship, entertainment, the activities - so much better on Celebrity.  We are elite on Princess.  We did like the medallion device for opening doors and tracking drinks - we did not use it to order anything. We found the Island Princess depressing. The cabin was ok but the speciality restaurants had few if any in them. They looked so outdated esp. compared to Celebrity.   

[cheezenip]

1 minute ago, luvtravel said:

In May we’re on the Celebrity Solstice in Alaska - first cruise post pandemic. In July we were on the Island Princess in Iceland/Norway.  To us the experience totally different - Celebrity is much better.  The staff on each did a good job but the food, the ship, entertainment, the activities - so much better on Celebrity.  We are elite on Princess.  We did like the medallion device for opening doors and tracking drinks - we did not use it to order anything. We found the Island Princess depressing. The cabin was ok but the speciality restaurants had few if any in them. They looked so outdated esp. compared to Celebrity.   

Your comments match my experiences on both Celebrity and Holland America but I used Ruby and I too am elite w/ Princess. Princess has definitely fallen behind the competition due to CEO John Padgett's cost cutting strategies. Every cruise line has taken cost cutting measures but in the end it's the experience "after the cost-cutting" that matters. I encourage everyone that is dissatisfied w/ Princess to try other lines and then make your decision afterwards. For me, I want to try Discovery Princess in January and see how it compares with my recent non-Princess cruises.

[cheezenip]

2 hours ago, hogwildcruzers said:

I won't trust or believe any poll that has Carnival ahead of Princess!

 

<<post deleted by user>>

Edited August 13, 2023 by cheezenip
Decided to delete post

[Lady Arwen]

40 minutes ago, luvtravel said:

In May we’re on the Celebrity Solstice in Alaska - first cruise post pandemic. In July we were on the Island Princess in Iceland/Norway.  To us the experience totally different - Celebrity is much better.  The staff on each did a good job but the food, the ship, entertainment, the activities - so much better on Celebrity.  We are elite on Princess.  We did like the medallion device for opening doors and tracking drinks - we did not use it to order anything. We found the Island Princess depressing. The cabin was ok but the speciality restaurants had few if any in them. They looked so outdated esp. compared to Celebrity.   

We much prefer the Celebrity experience, too.  However, there are times that Princess will offer an itinerary that is much less expensive than Celebrity.  Our British Isles sailing in three weeks gave us a mini suite at less than half the price of a Celebrity balcony.  We do have two booked on Celebrity Ascent and Beyond and one on HAL Rotterdam.  We’ll see after these cruises if we decide to return to Princess.  Celebrity Edge class ships are a world apart from any Princess ship, IMHO.

[Steelers36]

On 8/12/2023 at 5:06 PM, cheese please said:

Yes sample size is small. But this survey got alot of TV air time regardless of its merits. And as I go through the Princess boards if I was a new cruiser I would wonder if it is true. The negative comments so out weight the positive that sometimes you have to wonder if anyone should cruise on Princess. So newby's if you're reading this I almost always cruise Princess they are my favorite. 

Perhaps Princess Legal should sue them for poor sampling and what use is a survey from almost 10 months ago.

[cruzsnooze]

Based on the more inclusive cruises they compared Princess to I would agree with the ranking. Compared to other large mass market lines I think Princess falls in the middle. Lately with their horrible tech and nickel and diming I find them to be slipping below other mass market lines like Celebrity and RCL. 

[cheezenip]

1 hour ago, Steelers36 said:

Perhaps Princess Legal should sue them for poor sampling and what use is a survey from almost 10 months ago.

Please don't give Princess Management any NEW ideas for cutting costs. It will be their new excuse for making further cuts. "We are diverting operational funds to protect the interests <<translation: reputation>> of Princess Cruises. We apologize in advance to our loyal customers that we will have to cut back in XXX, YYY, and ZZZ ..."

[mskaufman]

I was on NCL and Princess in the last month an Princess comes out ahead.  See review on separate thread.

[Lady Arwen]

12 hours ago, mskaufman said:

I was on NCL and Princess in the last month a Princess comes out ahead.  See review on separate thread.

Agree with you 100%.  We tried NCL three times over the years and then we were done.  We even preferred Carnival to NCL, it was that disappointing.  

[mskaufman]

Don't want to go that negative on NCL.  We had been on them previously and they were much better than this most recent cruise. 

[roadster08]

15 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

Based on the more inclusive cruises they compared Princess to I would agree with the ranking. Compared to other large mass market lines I think Princess falls in the middle. Lately with their horrible tech and nickel and diming I find them to be slipping below other mass market lines like Celebrity and RCL. 

Thanks for not just giving your opinion but for also providing the context for your opinion. It is so much more helpful than posts that only say I love it or I hate it. 

[mskaufman]

We were on Regal last week and thought that Princess did a really nice job.

[Guest ldtr]

On 8/13/2023 at 3:00 PM, Steelers36 said:

Perhaps Princess Legal should sue them for poor sampling and what use is a survey from almost 10 months ago.

The biggest is is that there no separation for the different types of cruise lines.  Those that like small ships will rate Princess lower.  Those that want family focused facilities will rank Princess lower.  Princess came in the middle on most categories.  Not on top but not at the bottom of each category.  The design of the survey basically means that middle ratings without any top level ratings puts you at or near the bottom.

 

Largely because it is a value brand with larger ships, that is primarily adult focused, and a relatively low price point compared to the other lines.  Couple that with the fact that it was a survey in the UK wile Princess is a US focused brand will put it below a number of the others listed.

Edited August 15, 2023 by ldtr