Celebrity Vs Princess

[lightsleeper]

Having sailed on 9 Princess cruises, looking to try something new.

Would like your opinion on similarities and differences between lines, especially those who have cruised both. Does Celebrity have self-debarkation?

We are 64 and 60 and love cruising.....

thank you in advance for your time

[Sky Sweet]

Having sailed on 9 Princess cruises, looking to try something new.

Would like your opinion on similarities and differences between lines, especially those who have cruised both. Does Celebrity have self-debarkation?

We are 64 and 60 and love cruising.....

thank you in advance for your time

 

Hi lighsleeper :)

 

My husband and I have been on over ten Celebrity Cruises, but have not tried Princess yet.

 

However, we have a number of friends who have been on both Princess and Celebrity. Most of them feel that the two cruise lines are very similar and the main difference is that Princess offers a choice between assigned seating and anytime dining, while the overall ambiance on a Celebrity ship is more formal in every way.

 

I don't know how you feel about anytime dining, but if that is important to you the option does not exist on Celebrity. However, its sister cruise line, Royal Caribbean does offer the choice between anytime dining and assigned seating.

[eetonaee]

We (ages 57 & 59) sailed the Crown Princess last November and just completed our first Celebrity cruise on the Summit.

 

After reading some comments on this board about how Celebrity "was not like it once was" I was pleasantly surprised and delighted to see that it is still a notch above Princess and RCCL in providing a great cruising experience.

 

I can't comment on the suites as we tend to take smaller rooms and spend our time on deck and in the restaurants. The food in the dining room was very good and the tables were set more like you would expect in a gourmet restaurant. Little touches like sorbet to cleanse the palate on a couple of evenings were nice. I would also say that the level of compliance with the suggested dress code were higher on Celebrity.

 

We enjoy assigned dinner times (late) so the lack of anytime dining was not an issue for us.

 

There are lots of choices in the buffet for breakfast and lunch and if one of the lines was long you could find another station with no lines at all farther back.

 

There are fewer announcements pushing bingo and other ship activities.

The crew members were very friendly and accessible. The quality of the 2 Broadway type reviews that we saw on the Summit were miles ahead of what the Crown gave us. The other nights however were a little weak as well as the cover band that played by the pool. I would have preferred a Cartibbean band as we have had on Princess and RCCL.

 

I don't recall if they had self disembarkation but I can tell you that both coming on and leaving the ship were smooth and quick. We had an escort to our room upon arrival which I don't think we had on the Crown.

 

Our next cruise is already booked on RCCL because the AOS may have more activities for our young adult children but I can tell you that from now on I will be doing whatever I can to sail Celebrity.

[jt1120]

I think it is fair to say that Princess was not as consistent as Celebrity in our point of view. Sometimes the food was good, sometimes not. Sometimes the service was good, sometimes not. On Celebrity, things either meet or exceed our expectations every time.

[CathyCruises]

I'd say they are more similar than different, but I thought the food was better on Celebrity, and I hated coming back to my stateroom on Princess every time to find my 'mailbox' (yes, an actual box on the wall) chock full of flyers for everything available on the ship--nothing subtle about it.

 

I have been on every major cruise line and for the mass market lines, I really feel Celebrity is a notch above--not a ton, but enough to be noticeable. And I also have been checking prices and I think their prices are excellent in general for what you get! Much lower than some competing lines, I have found.

 

cathy

[JRarey]

DH and I just returned from a cruise on the Summit.

We sailed last year on Princess and sailed Princess our last 3 or 4 cruises with a Windstar in there also.

 

I found the service better on Celebrity overall. On Princess we had those few people who were outstanding but the rest we just ok. On Celebrity we had excellent service in stateroom, dining rooms, (we tried many dining venues also and they were all excellent at service) Bar staff service much better on Celebrity than Princess.

 

Food- Celebrity had better food than Princess with the exception of appetizers we thought. Princess does great appetizers and souffles. The food on both lines is not what it was 5 or 10 years ago, or any cruise line I think. The specialty restaurants are the exception. All are good or they couldn't get away with charging us.

 

Entertainment and things to do- Princess seems to have evening entertainment other than the main theater, where Celebrity only seemed to have music at different venues. I enjoy having a choice of different entertainment other than music and Princess gives that to you. Princess also has Movie under the Stars which surprisingly we enjoyed a few times. Princess also has better in room TV selections. Daytime activities Princess had many things to do, where Celebrity offered a couple of Trivia games or lectures in a 8 hour period.

 

Embarkation and Debarkation- Celebrity is much easier and they don't have you standing in long lines, they have chairs!

 

Sales pitches, announcements, pictures, etc. Celebrity does it so quietly that you forget that any of it around. Princess has tables everywhere and announcements and flyers, very annoying i feel.

 

POOLS- Princess wins here! Fresh water and many of them. Celebrity all salt water and not many.

 

Princess International Cafe is much better than the Cova Cafe on Celebrity IMHO.

 

I would certainly cruise both lines again, a cruise anywhere with anyone is better than freezing in Ohio.

 

I hope this is of some help to you.

 

Jan

[kubies]

DH and I are fans of both lines for different reasons. Princess wins in the areas of at sea activities and entertainment, as well as the fresh water pools. Celebrity wins for food in the buffet, cabins, and service. All that said, we like to move back and forth (depending on itinerary) between Princess, Celebrity, and HAL for a change in menu. Each of these three has quite decent food!

[kubies]

We favor Celebrity, Princess, and Holland America in the following areas:

 

Cabins: Holland America, Celebrity, Princess.

Service: Celebrity, Holland America, Princess

Entertainment: Princess, Celebrity, Holland America

At Sea activities: Princess, Celebrity, Hollland America

Buffet: Holland America, Celebrity, Princess

Dining Room: All three (get tired of the same menus!!)

Pools: Princess (fresh water), Celebrity, Holland America

 

 

The bottom line is that these are our best choices. We like to mix it up depending on itinerary and price.

[Brad1185]

On Princess pizza $3, ice cream extra, sushi extra, intl cafe snacks extra, deck chairs are extra costs on Celebrity disappointed with crepes $5, cup of coffee with tip is $4.60

[denims]

3 Princess crusies , 4 Celebrity:

 

It's a wash!!!! Princess has her positives and negitives....so does Celebrity!

 

Love them both! (And don't forget Azamara! Their staff and crew are the best!!!)

[Clutterlady]

On Princess pizza $3, ice cream extra, sushi extra, intl cafe snacks extra, deck chairs are extra costs on Celebrity disappointed with crepes $5, cup of coffee with tip is $4.60

 

Brad, why do you constantly give out false information about Princess?

 

All the free pizza you want!! The $3.00 charge is for a whole pizza delivered to your stateroom. Plenty of free ice cream (homemade) at the Horizon Court every day for one hour. Free at all of your meals. Free sushi at the Cafe Caribe almost every day. International Cafe has wonderful food, most at no charge. Charge is for large candy apples, some tapas dishes, galato.

[willysgrandma]

I'd say they are more similar than different, but I thought the food was better on Celebrity, and I hated coming back to my stateroom on Princess every time to find my 'mailbox' (yes, an actual box on the wall) chock full of flyers for everything available on the ship--nothing subtle about it.

 

I have been on every major cruise line and for the mass market lines, I really feel Celebrity is a notch above--not a ton, but enough to be noticeable. And I also have been checking prices and I think their prices are excellent in general for what you get! Much lower than some competing lines, I have found.

 

cathy

 

I agree with Cathy - they are very similar, but Princess has a lot of seafood on their menu, which I don't care for. I think the food with Celebrity is a bit better.

 

But I tend to like Princess' itineraries a little more.

 

And Celebrity doesn't have Anytime Dining, which I do miss.

[lightsleeper]

Does Celebrity have a dinner buffet or must you eaat in the dining room?

[Fleuve51]

Try Oceania.

Good if you want a relaxed, well traveled crowd & no kids. They do not cater to kids so there are usually only a few on board.

Smaller ships--680 passengers.

Great food, comfortable rooms.

Low key shows.

The ships are smaller, so it is very good in Europe-as you get into ports closer to the main cities.

Quick moving lines on & off the ship.

Princess & RCCL are great with families -crowded, noisy, lots going on & fun!

Trying a celebrity soon-for a change.

[Lois R]

Does Celebrity have a dinner buffet or must you eaat in the dining room?

 

To answer the specific question~X does not offer a

"regular buffet" for dinner BUT they do offer alternatives to

the Dining Room.

There is Sushi, Pizza and Pasta stations.

 

They also offer what is called "Alternative Dining" which is located

upstairs, near the buffet BUT you are served on linen, off a menu.

It is a more casual atmosphere and the wait staff is in training.

They request you make reservations but if space is available you

can be seated without and they also sugget a 2.00 per person tip.

 

And of course there is Room service.

 

And for something extra nice, there are the ships with

"Specialty Restaurants"..which are an experience in themselves:)

[CathyCruises]

Lois, that was my experience on Century. But I was surprised to find on Summit that they DID have a dinner buffet--one line was open, in additional to the sushi and pizza and pasta. We really enjoy the MDR dining so we never ate there (and I really dislike buffets!) but we did see it when we went up for our nightly sushi raid--a great way to hold out for late seating! I'm not sure why they had it on Summit and not Century, since it was a very similar Med itinerary; maybe just the size of the ship?

 

I have never done anytime dining but I don't think I'd like it--one of the highlights of our cruising is having a great table full of fun folks and enjoying the evening with them. That being said, I have never had a bad table--that might change my mind!

 

And one item about Oceania--I would love to sail with them, but just can't justify the increased pricing. I looked at one cruise that was about $3Kpp with 'free air'. Well, by the time they added in all the taxes and air fees, etc., it came out to $9K total! The amount of the air taxes and fees alone was enough for me to buy my own tickets! That was very disappointing. Considering that we did 14 days in the Med on Celebrity for $2500/pp including air in a balcony cabin, with pre-paid gratuities, I just couldn't see paying that much more for Oceania--just my opinion, however.

 

Cathy

[geoherb]

I'll sail on Celebrity, Princess, and HAL ships. They're almost interchangeable. A lot of the things that people think set them apart don't really. We've had great waiters on Princess and mediocre ones on Celebrity. I've had fabulous meals on Princess and unappetizing ones on Celebrity. Even people on the same cruise will come back reporting different experiences--one will rave about how good the dining room food was while another will talk about how bad it was.

 

Just go with an open mind, prepared to enjoy everything. And when something is not quite right, speak up pleasantly.

[Lois R]

Lois, that was my experience on Century. But I was surprised to find on Summit that they DID have a dinner buffet--one line was open, in additional to the sushi and pizza and pasta. We really enjoy the MDR dining so we never ate there (and I really dislike buffets!) but we did see it when we went up for our nightly sushi raid--a great way to hold out for late seating! I'm not sure why they had it on Summit and not Century, since it was a very similar Med itinerary; maybe just the size of the ship?

 

I have never done anytime dining but I don't think I'd like it--one of the highlights of our cruising is having a great table full of fun folks and enjoying the evening with them. That being said, I have never had a bad table--that might change my mind!

 

And one item about Oceania--I would love to sail with them, but just can't justify the increased pricing. I looked at one cruise that was about $3Kpp with 'free air'. Well, by the time they added in all the taxes and air fees, etc., it came out to $9K total! The amount of the air taxes and fees alone was enough for me to buy my own tickets! That was very disappointing. Considering that we did 14 days in the Med on Celebrity for $2500/pp including air in a balcony cabin, with pre-paid gratuities, I just couldn't see paying that much more for Oceania--just my opinion, however.

 

Cathy

 

Cathy, itinerary varying, they do offer an ocassional buffet.

First time I sailed to Alaska was May 2006 and one evening

they offered a Seafood buffet. I didn't eat there either, as I much

prefer the main dining room too:)

As you mentioned, they offered one on your cruise. I think

it is the exception to the rule and better that folks don't

go on the ship thinking the "regular buffet is the usual"

because its not.

[shofer]

We made a lot of comparisons on our first cruise with the Princess line after 6 cruises with Celebrity. This is what we found:

 

The bathrooms on Celebrity were bigger with shower stalls that were more rectangular in shape and height adjustable shower heads. Celebrity also had dispensers on the walls in the shower with shampoo and conditioner. Princess had all the bath amenities in cardboard containers on the vanity. We had 3 sets of towels in the bathroom on Celebrity but only 2 sets on Princess.

 

The Princess room was lovely. I was surprised at how spacious it seemed. There was a very large, open closet with lots of hangers and a cupboard which contained the safe and shelves for our clothes. There were drawers in the nightstands and in the desk. There was bottled water to purchase in the room and an ice bucket in the small fridge but no pitcher of ice water changed twice daily like on Celebrity. The trash baskets had plastic liners on X but not on Princess which made you hesitate to throw anything messy in the container.

 

Celebrity had robes in the room. We had to ask for them on Princess. We have since discovered you can request them online prior to departure. But we still had to request them from the cabin steward even after doing this.

 

The freshwater pools were great with plenty of deck chairs. Celebrity has saltwater pools. Celebrity also has unlimited pool towels out on deck. On Princess the pool towels placed in your room also doubled as your beach towels. Beach towels were separate on X and were bigger and thicker.

 

I thought the food on Celebrity was more upscale. I was surprised to see plain white rice served with some of our entrees. We liked that the alternative selections were printed on the menu and you did have your option of white rice, French fries or baked potato with your entrée On Celebrity you get whatever is plated by the chef with your entrée. But they will bend over backwards to give you boiled or baked potatoes or any vegetable that you request. It may not be at that meal, but every meal after that.

 

I LOVED the dessert soufflés on Princess. Some other differences we noticed was that hot cocoa was free on Celebrity whereas you pay for it as a specialty drink on Princess. Of course it is served in a tall glass with whipped cream and sprinkles on top.

 

You also had to pay for ice cream when you finally found the counter by the Spa pool. It was free at certain times in the buffet but we really never made an effort to find it since they moved the location around and did not direct the passengers to it. They would ather you paid for the sundaes and shakes by the pool. It was always available in the buffet on X as well as soft serve.

 

The service is more formal on X. If my DH chose not to order an appetizer or soup, they brought his salad out while we were eating the other items. On X, he would be served the same course with everyone else. The bus boy acted as your wine steward, no sommelier making suggestions. The wine list on X is much more extensive.

 

We liked the dispensers for the hot beverages which came out very hot. This made for a nice cup of tea. The cups were also bigger than on Celebrity which offerd a barely 4 ounce cup. Princess had a decent sized cup for coffee or tea. The coffee ranged from the merely adequate to the downright execrable. I stick to tea bags since I can control what I get.

 

Celebrity does have nice trays with cloth placemats and cloth napkins in the buffet and waiters to carry it for you instead of just large platters that you have to juggle with your drink. They also have a sandwich station all during lunch where they will make your sandwich to order. They would have these scrumptious pretzel rolls that we would keep going back for. It seemed that Princess only had sandwiches from 3-4 PM in the buffet. I didn’t see it as a food option in the Princess Patter. Maybe it was only for those coming back from a late shore excursion.

 

The pizza on the Coral Princess was very good with an excellent crust and they would make you whatever you wanted, just like Celebrity would.

 

I do have to hand it to Princess for the continuous buffet even if I don’t see the need for it to be 24 hours. Celebrity would shut down breakfast an hour before lunch where on Princess they would close one side of the buffet to get ready for lunch and continue serving breakfast on the alternate side until lunch was up and running. We never tried the buffet for dinner as we really liked the dining room experience for that meal.

 

Shore excursions: Princess really shines on this part of the experience. The shore excursions were many and varied, with some unusual choices. You could be as active or sedentary as you liked. Celebrity’s excursions are rather humdrum with more of an emphasis on shopping.

 

When coming back from shore excursions on Celebrity there is a tent set up on the dock for passengers where you could get a drink of cold water and/or fruit punch and a cold cloth for your fevered brow when you are returning to the ship. There was nothing like that on Princess.

 

The production shows were terrific on the Coral Princess and most of the other entertainment was pretty good too. We liked the option of 2 different shows a night but the seating in both theaters was limited. The theater only had a capacity of 600 on a ship with 1980 passengers. The sightlines were excellent but this was not set up as a "show lounge" like the Universe Lounge. If you were not sitting on the aisle, you could forget about that after-dinner drink as the theater was stadium seating and the poor drink servers would have to crawl over several people to serve you. Because we had early seating we found ourselves racing to the theater a half hour before the show if we wanted to get 4 seats together.

 

Celebrity’s theater will hold half the passengers on the ship and is set up as a “show lounge” with loveseat style seating and small tables to hold your beverages. It was much more conducive to ordering that after dinner drink.

[shofer]

In addition to my long post above, I would like to comment that we are finding it difficult to find a reasonably priced X cruise in comparison to Princess. We get emails and mailings several times a month from Princess offering us great deals because we are past passengers. I think we rec'd one item from RCCL. Maybe because Princess has so many ships compared to X and really needs to fill them is why they are offering so many deals? Maybe because they also have the behemouth Carnival Corporation behind them to underwrite their losses? I don't know why.

 

We feel that Celebrity is our favorite cruiseline but we have turned to Princess for pricing and itineraries. Princess really goes after past passengers to get you to come back. After 6 cruises w/X, I have never felt once that they were glad to see me return. Or that they even cared if I returned.

 

Only on our last Hawaii cruise in Jan, 2006 did we get an acknowledgement from them and it was because we had booked our hotel through them and several passengers got bumped from the Hyatt to a lesser property. We did not get bumped because our TA talked to the manager of the hotel and convinced him it would be too stressful to move all 10 us. I guess because our names were still on the list, we got chocolate covered strawberries and a bottle of sparkling wine in our rooms. The passenger services agent called us several times during the cruise to ask if everything was to our liking!

 

We are not ones to complain about small inconveniences, rather letting it roll off our backs and enjoying our vacation so we don't expect to be treated like royalty. But an upgrade even one time or an invite to the Captain's table would sure put us in a great frame of mind and make us loyal customers and not looking to spend our thousands of vacation dollars elsewhere.

[CathyCruises]

All good observations and accurate from my experience. But I am finding significantly cheaper fares on =X=; which itineraries are you seeing on Princess that are less expensive?

 

Also really agree about Celebrity's focus on shopping--that was one thing that really turned me off. If you asked for a port map, it had all the recommended shops very boldly marked and little information on anything else. But what REALLY got me was the day we were in Rome; the map was all geared to shopping, with a little paragraph that said: "Sights to see While Shopping" and then mentioned The Vatican, the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Forum, etc! That blew me away. I guess there are SOME people who go to Rome for the 'shopping', but they HAVE to be in the minority! Don't they? :confused: Cathy

[junglejane]

We feel that Celebrity is our favorite cruiseline but we have turned to Princess for pricing and itineraries. Princess really goes after past passengers to get you to come back. After 6 cruises w/X, I have never felt once that they were glad to see me return. Or that they even cared if I returned.

 

I agree with this! We really loved both our Celebrity cruises and would like to sail X more often, but we keep getting lured back to Princess for (1) nice price breaks for being past pax, and (2) itineraries that work for us. I would love to have booked a British Isles cruise on X for this summer, but there wasn't one. So I booked the Crown Princess. I have a larger OBC for my future cruise deposit than I would get on X, and didn't have to pay the regular deposit. I've also gotten two great price reductions and am now paying 1/2 of the original booking price. I desperately want to go on Solstice for our Spring Break 2010, but the ship is chartered for the week I need. In the meanwhile, hardly a day goes by without my getting another brochure or email from Princess about some promotion.

 

--Junglejane

[sns1]

Can you order a full breakfast using room service on Celebrity? We are Princess cruisers and that is one of our complaints. We can only get a continental breakfast. The full suites can have a full breakfast but they are the only ones.

[shofer]

Can you order a full breakfast using room service on Celebrity? We are Princess cruisers and that is one of our complaints. We can only get a continental breakfast. The full suites can have a full breakfast but they are the only ones.

 

We have never been in a suite on X but could always order a full breakfast. People have noted on these boards being able to write in requests and receiving them. You are right about Princess and the continental breakfast; it isn't worth the tip to receive it. They have instituted the Ultimate Balcony Breakfast that you pay $32 for and it was all about the split of champagne you received, not the actual food which we found pretty bad.

 

X also starts room service at 6 AM whereas on Princess it starts at 7:30 which is not good if you have an early excursion.

[shofer]

All good observations and accurate from my experience. But I am finding significantly cheaper fares on =X=; which itineraries are you seeing on Princess that are less expensive?Cathy

 

If you compare brochure rates, there is not much difference but I get astounding offers in email and snail mail as a past passenger w/Princess that make me want to jump on them. For example, we have our eye on a NY to San Juan 8 day cruise by way of Bermuda in October. Right now you can get a balcony guarantee for $799/pp and $75 OBC.

 

Celebrity has no ships for a 7 day cruise in the Caribbean in the fall at all. They are a 10-11 day Southern Caribbean for twice the price, are in Europe or transitioning from Alaska by way of Hawaii or the Panama Canal.

 

If Celebrity/RCCL wanted to reward past passengers, they could take a page from Princess' book.