Symphony of the Seas VS Royal Princess VS Celebrity Reflection

Hi, we are a family of 10 and wanted to take a Mediterranean cruise around the June period to celebrate our parents anniversary. The age variation is a lot with the smallest in the party bein 9 years old and the oldest being 78. Therefore, we needed help to decide on which of the three (Symphony of the Seas, Royal Princess or Celebrity Reflection) cruises to go on. We heard that Royal Caribbean service has been deteriorating and therefore were reluctant to book with them as we heard the quality of food and service was much better on the latter. However, the other two offer limited entertainment options and we were quite sceptical if we would be able to go through around 7 days without being bored. We also wanted to know if the Symphony of the seas would be very crowded and if we would have to wait in line everytime we wanted to do something.

I've been on all 3 of those ship classes. Since your group is multi-generation, I recommend Symphony. RCI Oasis Class ships have the best entertainment at sea and there are a ton of activities on board. No, it is not crowded. The ship was designed to separate crowds. You can pre-book all your entertainment to avoid ever having to wait in lines.

My second recommendation would be Reflection. Entertainment and activities are about the same on Reflection and Royal, but Reflection is a much nicer ship.

Med cruises are port intensive. Typically you get up around 7:30 am, have breakfast and get ready to go on an tour around 8:30am. You are off the ship until 5 or 6pm and in the evening have dinner and then just pass out in bed only to get up the next morning and do it all again. Because of this, IMO, the ship does not matter that much as you are not going to have much time onboard except in the evening and perhaps 1 day at sea where you will be resting because you are so tired. In this situation, I find that I want to have a nice dinner and a comfortable bed. All 3 of these ships can prepare a competent breakfast and if you prefer a better included dinner, then I would choose Princess or Celebrity. However Symphony has great specialty restaurants. You need to make advance reservations and yes they cost extra but I have not eaten in a RCCL MDR for dinner in almost a decade as the specialty restaurants are fun to go to and the food is good, so we just do that. Princess and Celebrity also have specialty restaurants but not as many as RCCL. The other thing to consider is timing. In the Med before school is out Princess and Celebrity will be mostly older adults with few kids. I was on a Celebrity cruise of the Med out of Southampton and at ages 50 and 51 we were among the youngest onboard. LOL! At every port there was one or two ambulances taking off some unfortunate passenger. It didn't detract from the cruise, but on our other Med cruises on NCL, we did not see similar goings on. So, RCCL is going to have more families and I would expect the kid's club to be more active which is nice for the 9 year old.

What I would do in your position is look at the port times - how long these ships will be in each port. Decide which ports are important to you. It may be that one of the ships has shorter port times which may cause you to eliminate that cruise. Then I would look at pricing for similar accommodation on each ship and choose based on the best price for the best itinerary for your family.

I would look closely at the itinerary as that is very important to a Med Cruise.

I would also read the reviews about each ship.

Keith

I've been on all 3 of those ship classes. Since your group is multi-generation, I recommend Symphony. RCI Oasis Class ships have the best entertainment at sea and there are a ton of activities on board. No, it is not crowded. The ship was designed to separate crowds. You can pre-book all your entertainment to avoid ever having to wait in lines.

 

My second recommendation would be Reflection. Entertainment and activities are about the same on Reflection and Royal, but Reflection is a much nicer ship.

I would also agree that the activities on Symphony would be important to the younger members of the group.

The itineraries of these three ships are more or less similar. To my knowledge, the Reflection is also a big cruise ship, however, it seems like it still does not have much onboard to keep the one in his late teens entertained. Saying that I don't know much about the cruising experience. I have only cruised once before and that was in 2004. I am sure much has changed after that. So basically, I'm looking for a cruise that would fit well with all the various age groups and would be a good "first" cruise.

I have also heard that Princess's quality of service has fallen, but it stills offers a much better experience than RCCL. However, level of service and the quality of offerings is judged by different people in different ways. I am quite unsure myself about what line would fit our needs.

I have also heard that Princess's quality of service has fallen, but it stills offers a much better experience than RCCL.

I do not agree with that at all. There have been cutbacks on all the major lines but to say Princess is a much better experience than RCI, I think, is totally false. I've been on enough cruises between those 2 lines that I'd rate service exactly the same between RCI and Princess.

I've sailed on all 3 of these cruise lines within the past 2 years and I would say service is about the same. The differences are:

Princess: Good food in MDR and buffet, no need to pay for specialty restaurants. Traditional Cruise ship entertainment. Movies under the Stars. Good kids club. Feels uncrowded.

Celebrity: Good food in MDR and buffet, no need to pay for specialty restaurants. Entertainment is their downfall, but in the Med, you probably will only go to 1 or 2 shows. Kids club more of an afterthought. Feels uncrowded.

RCCL: Food that is equivalent to MDR food on Princess and Celebrity can be found in the specialty restaurants which cost extra. MDR food is just OK from what other cruisers told me. I did not like the RCCL buffet as they never seemed to have anything I wanted to eat, but thought that the Promenade cafe was good for sandwiches as well as the Central Park Cafe. LOTS of activities for kids, really good Theme park like shows: Ice skating show, high diving show, acrobatic show, Broadway show (Hairspray). The thing about Symphony is that this ship is made to BE the destination, but in the Med, you are off the ship most of the time, so you are not going to have a ton of time to enjoy all that is on this ship. I've been on sister ships Oasis and Allure and even if you stayed aboard all week, you would never have time to do it all. The kids in your group may not want to get off the ship at all if you go on this cruise what with the waterpark and rock climbing wall, zip lining, mini golf and all the other attractions geared for kids onboard this behemoth ship. Being on this ship feels like staying at a large amusement park such as Disneyworld. The ship has a huge number of passengers but normally it doesn't feel terribly crowded as the passengers are spread out all over the ship, but do expect lines getting off and on at ports and plan accordingly. For shows and specialty dining you make reservations and show up on time and then there is no issue with getting in immediately. If you don't make reservations, expect to wait up to half an hour. You do have to have reservations for shows in order to get good seats. You might make it in the stand-by line but the choice of seats will be gone and you might have to sit separately.

I do not agree with that at all. There have been cutbacks on all the major lines but to say Princess is a much better experience than RCI, I think, is totally false. I've been on enough cruises between those 2 lines that I'd rate service exactly the same between RCI and Princess.

I second that as well. I would say service on both Princess and RCI are about the same. With that being said, the I thought the main dining room and buffet food on RCI was slightly better that Princess, while the specialty restaurants on RCI are much better. The only exception to this was the pizza. Princess offers much better pizza, where as Papa Johns puts the pizza served on RCI to shame.

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