Traveling RCCL – from the view of a Princess Elite Cruiser

Baltimore is the Grandeur of the Seas. I got off a nine-day Canada and New England today. She has her plusses and minuses.

Rather than create a new topic I will just add to this one.

We are also Elite on Princess and just completed an Alaska Cruise on Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas (sailing with daughter, son in law and grandson). It is a 3100 passenger with a max capacity of 3900.

We were sailing full.

1. Embarkation Procedure - Very quick on to the ship at 11 am, though rooms not available until 1. A nod to RCCL.

2. Room - while the room was laid out a bit differently. A bit longer, but narrower. The bathroom was similar size, with the shower being round with doors. Prefer Princess on this one.

3. Steward - Extremely friendly, excellent steward.

4. Dining - The buffet was laid out nicely, while it seemed that there was a good selection the first day, there was very little variance and got boring rather quickly. A major portion of it was aimed at kids with burgers and pizza. The main dining room food was of good quality, but also did not seem to have as much variety as Princess. Service in the MDR was excellent. Princess gets the edge.

5. Entertainment. I was a bit surprised after hearing how good the entertainment was on RCCL to be disappointed with the main theater. RCCL had 9 people in their band and 10 singers in dancers so they did use more people in their production shows. However, in our 7 day cruise we only had 2 production shows and I would not rank them any higher than Princess. During the 7 nights the main theater entertainment was introduction show, mostly with a comedian, production show, a movie, a magician, production show, 3 tenors, variety show. As such the entertainment in the main theater was not any better and actual seemed a bit poorer than Princess. The ice show was very nice, but there was only one of those during the cruise (offered 4 times with show assigned by muster station number). I would rank this neutral

6. Disembarkation. They offered a valet service (port of Seattle) at no cost, where bags placed in the hall were taken to the airport and delivered to the airline. Boarding passes were delivered to the room along with the airline bag tags. Worked very well. Give the nod to RCCL in this instance since we have not seen that yet on our Princess cruises.

In general we prefer Princess, though we will sail RCCL again when cruising with our grandson and his parents.

6. Disembarkation. They offered a valet service (port of Seattle) at no cost, where bags placed in the hall were taken to the airport and delivered to the airline. Boarding passes were delivered to the room along with the airline bag tags. Worked very well. Give the nod to RCCL in this instance since we have not seen that yet on our Princess cruises.

 

This is a service provided by the port authority in Seattle and has nothing to do with the cruise line. It is also available on Princess, Disney, Celebrity, and virtually every other line when disembarking in Seattle!

This is a service provided by the port authority in Seattle and has nothing to do with the cruise line. It is also available on Princess' date=' Disney, Celebrity, and virtually every other line when disembarking in Seattle![/quote']

 

Thought they might, but our Princess cruises for the last few years have tended to be international and not ending in Seattle.

Thank you for your review! We, too, are elite on Princess and will be first-timers on RCL on an upcoming TA. I'm sure I will miss the free laundry most of all. But, we will manage.

Melissa

Thank you for this review! We’ll be sailing Ruby Princess for NYE this year for the first time. We’ve been sailing RCCL and Celebrity since the early 90s. They sound very similar and I’m positive we’ll enjoy Princess too :)

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For me' date=' it is less the number of kids than the lack of any supervision. Too many parents think they don't need to be aware of what their tweens/teens are doing when they board a cruise ship. And I do realize that it is only a small number of kids causing problems.....but those give the rest a bad name.

 

Sorry, but the kids need to be under parental supervision or in the programming. Roaming the ship in gangs is rarely and event with a positive outcome. Yes, we've seen a few ill behaved kids on Princess, but overall the parents seem to be a lot more aware of where their kids are and what they are doing.[/quote']

 

Have you ever cruised with Princess during the summer months or during school breaks on 7 day cruises? I know you have said you do longer cruises which usually don’t have as many children. I can tell you that on 7 day cruises during these time frames, the kids on Princess are just the same as they are on other lines. I’ve seen plenty of kids without their parents being aware of what their kids are up to on Princess, including kids who have clearly been drinking. It’s one of the reasons that at this point, I don’t cruise over spring break!

OP, thank you for the wonderful review. Always great to read such a well balanced review. Glad you had a great cruise!

Thanks for your thoughts.

We are Platinum on Princess but the last several cruises have been on Oceania. Going back to Princess in January due to the good price and itinerary. Last year we did an RCCL cruise in Europe and the one thing that sticks out in my mind is that there was no shampoo or conditioner in the shower! Have other cruisers experienced the same situation? Cost-cutting I guess. I was told that this is standard and indeed those amenities were quickly provided when I asked for them. First world problem I know - a small thing but enough to put me off :(

OP;

Thank you for taking the time to post your thoughts.....:):):)

Bob