Tell me about princess!!

[mommiemudd]

What do I need to know about Princess? We mainly cruise NCL, recently sailed Disney. Thinking about booking a Southern Caribbean Melody on the Emerald Princess in October next year-we love the ports of call! Is Anytime Dining similiar to Freestyle Dining on NCL? How does tipping work? Are the kids clubs good? Thanks in advance for sharing with me!:D

[whatsnext]

We loved the Emerald - so far our favorite Princess ship. We found their staff to be some of the nicest we've met on any of the ships we've been on. My daughter, a pre-teen at the time, loved their kids program. She stayed busy all of the time. The tipping works the same as for most other cruise lines - they put it on your shipboard account daily. If you want to increase/decrease the amount, you can. We found the Anytime/FreeStyle dining to be very similar. Hope that helps.

[Sillyjilly]

What do I need to know about Princess? We mainly cruise NCL, recently sailed Disney. Thinking about booking a Southern Caribbean Melody on the Emerald Princess in October next year-we love the ports of call! Is Anytime Dining similiar to Freestyle Dining on NCL? How does tipping work? Are the kids clubs good? Thanks in advance for sharing with me!:D

 

If you like NCL, you will love, love, love Princess.

 

It isn't as casual as NCL. No shorts in the DR. More people seem to dress up for formal night too.

 

Anytime dining is so much better than Freestyle, IMHO. I never make reservations and I never have to wait.

Each dining room has a specialty menu item and then the regular menu available in each dining room. (These menus change daily)

 

The food & service are waaaaaaaaay better than NCL. I would absolutely give Princess a try. You may never go back to NCL. :)

[2Ports]

You may never go back to NCL. :)

 

You WILL never go back to NCL...

[catergirl]

you can bring your own wine and soda on board!

[caribill]

If you like NCL, you will love, love, love Princess.

 

Each dining room has a specialty menu item

 

 

This is only true on a couple of the ships.

[kooljamming]

The kids program seems to be hit or miss. It depends on the ship and sailing, so luck of the draw. I observed the kid's program on Sapphire Princess which was interesting with challenging activities for the kids.

On Golden Princess it was watered down to crafts, which turned out to be a major disappointment for my 11 year old daughter. My son was in the teen program and really enjoyed it. I was a bit uncomfortable because he was one of the youngest in the group of 13-17. The teens program was more of a hangout, lacking much structure.

 

I haven't done NCL but Carnival and RCCL. I did not care for the food on Princess. Most of the dishes I ordered were bland, saucy and tasteless. They were not horrid but far from impressive. The buffet was nice with lots of choices. We finally gave up the MDR and took our chances in the buffet on our most recent cruise

 

Based on the food and child care, I would not book Princess again but cruising can be about so much more. The ships are absolutely beautiful. If you enjoy learning new and interesting things, there offer classes@sea. Afternoon tea is a total delight and the pools are simply marvelous. If you have enjoyed NCL, then surly there are things you will miss.

 

Princess met and exceeded our expectation in some areas while falling short in others. Overall I like a cruise with a livelier vibe during the day but I enjoyed the live bands and dancing at night.

 

Enjoy, you can't go with with a ship that is so stunning to look at:D

[kooljamming]

double post..ops!

[karatemom2]

I will try to answer based on personal experience as we have been on two Disney cruises and two NCL cruises in addition to our six Princess cruises so I will do my best to offer a comparison.

 

The kids program on DCL is of course very good but on our two cruises it was VERY crowded. It tended to be a little loud and overwhelming. My daughter didn't enjoy the kids program on NCL as much because it tended to focus more on rambunctious games than other types of activities that she likes better and the staff to child ratio was not as good as it is on Princess. My kids really love the Princess kids program. They are kept to a manageable size, there are always adequate counselors for the kids and we have found the activities are engaging and varied on all of our Princess cruises, appealing to a wide range of interest. Plus the kids get a schedule for the entire week so together you can plan to make sure they are in the club for their favorite activities.

 

Food is very subjective. We really thought the food on DCL was great, very comparable to Princess although I would probably give Princess the slight edge for a more varied and exotic menu. (Except for Palo on DCL - 14 cruises now and nothing has lived up to that!) NCL main dining room food is just OK, but some of their specialty restaurants are very good. But with Princess you get that level of food quality in the main dining room and aren't required to pay extra.

 

We have found Princess anything but boring, but I guess it depends on what you are looking for in the way of activities. There are lots of things to do everyday from trivia, games, demonstrations, dancing classes, ceramics, afternoon tea, crafts, karaoke, WII challenges, pool games etc. We sometimes have a hard time fitting everything in. What you won't find on Princess is hairy legs or hairy back contests and the like, which personally I find revolting. But I don't remember those on either DCL or NCL, so I don't think you will miss that. In the evening there are great bands, dancing, deck parties, theme parties. And most everything is family oriented so you can feel comfortable having your kids with you. That is one place where I think Princess really shines. They are very family unit friendly. Many of the activities allow us to participate as a family and spend time together which is very important to me.

 

One area where I do feel that both DCL and NCL excel is production shows. I would say that with the Disney productions and with the Jean Ann Ryan company on NCL, you are getting really top notch shows. Princess shows are good, but just not quite up to the same level.

 

Princess pools are fabulous. Way bigger than DCL and I love having the freshwater as opposed to salt water like you do on NCL. There is also wonderful pizza, burgers, omelettes and waffles served in the pool area everyday. The pizza is especially good. And now Princess also has free soft serve ice cream which is far superior to any soft serve I've had elsewhere.

 

The crew on DCL is among the best we have ever seen. That Disney level of customer service is truly unique. But we have found the staff and crew on Princess to be almost at the same level as far as friendliness, efficiency, and overall wonderful attitude. We didn't find the service to be quite at the same level on NCL.

 

The ships are stunning and more visually comparable to DCL, although as pretty as the DCL ships are, I think that Princess has some of the most beautiful ships out there. Decorwise definitely more elegant and upscale than NCL with a more refined and dressier feel.

 

I hope this has helped. As you can tell I do have a bias toward Princess, but we really enjoyed our NCL and DCL cruises too. It's just Princess is the best overall fit for what we are looking for in family cruise. I will say that Princess is more similar to DCL and NCL in many ways than it is to Carnival or RCI based on our experiences, so you should find it very enjoyable.

[mommiemudd]

I knew I would get all the facts from fellow cruise critics! We are really looking for relaxation. I loved DCL but felt that I was so scheduled and there was not a lot of down time. We are really not into the shows but on DCL we really liked them and felt we had to go to every one of them! We do use the kids clubs. My daughter loved them on NCL but cried when she had to go to them on DCL? Go figure, I thought that was strange. Can you really bring soda and wine on board?

[mr green]

Lets just say that our TA does not advise anyone to tavel NCL. We did at one time, now we know better.

 

john

[SingerEsq]

Can you really bring soda and wine on board?

 

Yes. I think the So. Carib. Medley sails from FLL. There is an excellent wine shop (Total Wine & More) right next to a Publix (major food chain) right on 17th Street just before the port. You can even order online and they will have it ready for you to pick up. You just have your cab driver stop there from the airport. Or, if you're coming in the day before, the Embassy Suites is located right there too. Very convenient.

[kooljamming]

You are heading in the right direction if you seek relaxation. The beauty and elegance of the ship induce you want to slow down and take it easy at times, even for someone who loves being on the go. On Sapphire Princess (2-14-09) sailing, they did schedule a sexy leg contest but it was canceled due to weather and lack of participants. Of course I was disappointed because I was willing to volunteer to be a judge. They do add the silly/fun passengers pool deck games on that ship and sailing. It was a nice surprise to see it on the patter:D. Yes, you are allowed to take wine and I do believe sodas

 

Princess is like a box of chocolate you never know what you are going to get until you bite into it, or check out the patter. Each ship and sailing tend to offer something a bit different.

 

Here is a special album will cabins (side-by-side), pools, dining area, buffet (Horizon Court), and balconies taken on Sapphire Princess. Some maybe similar to the Emerald: http://travel.webshots.com/album/570254128ZwSkkg

 

Enjoy!

[karatemom2]

We do use the kids clubs. My daughter loved them on NCL but cried when she had to go to them on DCL? Go figure, I thought that was strange.

 

How funny, we had a very similar experience with DCL. Our son was a tween and probably enjoyed it more than my daughter who was 5 and 6 on our Disney cruises. She absolutely hated the clubs on DCL. I think it was just too crowded and chaotic for her in that age group. She was just a little overwhelmed by it all. If you ask her she would probably put DCL on the bottom of the list of her kids program preference out of all the cruises she has been on. Like you said, go figure! :D

[klbermudez]

I am also looking forward to trying Princess for the first time. We have primarily gone on NCL because we liked the freestyle dining but our last cruise I think we spent most of our time in the Specialty restaurants which cost extra. We are fairly casual people and like to relax and not worry about dressing up, and on formal nights you would probably find us in the buffet but we like having a choice. Our last cruise with NCL was a disappointment and now that other lines have the option of anytime dining we are happy to give them a try.

 

In the end - we are easy to please and feel like any cruise you are on is a great cruise because you are on vacation. People all have different likes and needs and if I get 1/2 of them met than I will be a happy camper.