Any cruised with Princess?

[cruise pup]

As we can all read. Everyone has a choice between the various cruise lines. That's what make cruising fun. Cruise the one you like, others cruise the ones they like. Can you imagine if we all like the same cruise line? They could not build a ship big enough for all of us at one time. Cruise if you can afford it. Enjoy life while you can. Happy Cruising!!

 

True, but the o.p. did ask for a comparison of these two lines.

[sjaak]

Only have cruised with Princess once. Not really a good startingpoint to already have an opinion.

 

But the one thing we really didn't like was the fact that it was very hard to find a nice quiet spot to sit down and - for instance - read a book. There was (too loud) music everywhere!

[Decoydonna]

We usually sail Princess; however, we decided to try Celebrity. We just got off the Celebrity Summit yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought that Celebrity's food overall was much better than Princess. We too had issues in the past with our room smelling like cig smoke on Princess and had to have housekeeping clean the room to try to get the smell out. It was so nice walking through the Summit, even the Casino, without the smell of smoke and no smell of smoke in our room or while sitting on our balcony. I thought the quality entertainment on the Summit was lacking. I also enjoyed the low-key atmosphere on the Summit. We chose select dining and loved it. We never had not problem getting a table to two every night without waiting. Entire staff was pleasant and professional. Overall I would sail on Celebrity again just for their smoking policy.

[shagdancer]

We usually sail Princess; however, we decided to try Celebrity. We just got off the Celebrity Summit yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought that Celebrity's food overall was much better than Princess. We too had issues in the past with our room smelling like cig smoke on Princess and had to have housekeeping clean the room to try to get the smell out. It was so nice walking through the Summit, even the Casino, without the smell of smoke and no smell of smoke in our room or while sitting on our balcony. I thought the quality entertainment on the Summit was lacking. I also enjoyed the low-key atmosphere on the Summit. We chose select dining and loved it. We never had not problem getting a table to two every night without waiting. Entire staff was pleasant and professional. Overall I would sail on Celebrity again just for their smoking policy.

 

I also had an issue with cig smoke in cabin on Princess. I was told I was mistaken that smoking was not allowed in the cabins. Then another time I was told that one side of the ship allowed smoking in the cabins and one side did not. Of course I was on the side they said allowed it. I have never seen it advertised if there is smoking in the rooms or not (inside cabin). I have never seen an ashtray in the rooms. Does anyone know the answer? Is smoking allowed in the cabins or on only one side of the ship?? :confused:

[judyfssw]

I do know that smoking is allowed on Princess. We were on the Starboard side in a minisuite and there was smoking on this side. There was smoking in the casino all over except for 2 nights on a 14 day cruise. There is not smoking in the MDR or the Select DR. Smoking is allowed in the cabin and I know people who were smoking on the balcony. If you look on the balcony, you see a sprinkler system out there also. I prefer not to go on Princess but we have friends that we cruise with who are smokers and I choose not to give up these friends.

[oratheeexplorer]

Yes, Princess does allow smoking in the cabins and on balconies and in the casino.....and certain parts of open decks.....there are several "non-smoking" nights in the casino.....I hope we don't have the same problem on our 2nd cruise that we had on our first.....if so, will probably be looking at Celebrity for our 3rd!

[h & m]

I have been on each once and they both have their pros (to be honest a cruise rarely has true "cons")

 

Pros:

Celebrity:

- No smoking policy - more cruise lines should adopt this rule.

- food was better than princess (but only by a bit)

- Service - much more attentive on Celebrity

- they are not always trying to sell you something

 

Princess

- nicer ship areas (golden princess vs Celebrity Summit)

- better late night entertainment

- younger crowd than X ( but hey I am getting older too), and to be honest X had people of all ages.

- I enjoyed the itinerary more here, and the line has a greater variety vs X.

 

I would say the entertainment was about the same - OK, but what do you really expect on a cruise. It is something to do in the evening.

 

I travel solo frequently and while Celebrity will occaisionally have great deals (not really advertised but they show up when pricing other specials on X). Princess never has them for solo travelers. Always it is 2x the fare for a room. I know they have lost some of my potential busness because of this. But i am sure they found a couple to put tn the same room! :-)

 

I got such a great deal on Celebrity for mid Nov. that I decided to make it a back to back sailing (my first).

 

I am sooo ready to get this started and leave the restof the world behind for a couple of weeks.

 

Kevin

 

 

I agree with Kevin's comparison. On Princess (Sapphire and Diamond) we loved the larger swimming pools, and the self-service laundry was great. Coming from Australia our cruise is usually part of a longer vacation, and I will gladly spend a couple of hours doing laundry so I can leave the ship with clean clothes.

 

We recently cancelled a Panama Cruise on the Island Princess and booked with Celebrity. We preferred the timing and itinerary of Princess, but to us the BIG difference is Celebrity's smoking policy.

 

After experiencing a cabin on Princess that was filled with a smoky haze from our neighbours, we are not prepared to pay for an expensive balcony cabin, then hope that no smokers are around us so we can enjoy it .

 

If Princess changes their smoking in cabins and balconies policies then we will gladly cruise with them again.

 

2 of the older ships, Dawn and Sun are now permanently based in Australia, and they do not allow smoking in cabins

 

Hilary

[eandj]

In our opinion the nonsmoking policy on X will keep us cruising them. Nothing worse than not being able to sit on your balcony because the neighbors are smoking up a storm! :mad: The new S class ships are very hip and modern.

[oratheeexplorer]

I agree with Kevin's comparison. On Princess (Sapphire and Diamond) we loved the larger swimming pools, and the self-service laundry was great. Coming from Australia our cruise is usually part of a longer vacation, and I will gladly spend a couple of hours doing laundry so I can leave the ship with clean clothes.

 

We recently cancelled a Panama Cruise on the Island Princess and booked with Celebrity. We preferred the timing and itinerary of Princess, but to us the BIG difference is Celebrity's smoking policy.

 

After experiencing a cabin on Princess that was filled with a smoky haze from our neighbours, we are not prepared to pay for an expensive balcony cabin, then hope that no smokers are around us so we can enjoy it .

 

If Princess changes their smoking in cabins and balconies policies then we will gladly cruise with them again.

 

2 of the older ships, Dawn and Sun are now permanently based in Australia, and they do not allow smoking in cabins

 

Hilary

 

 

Thank you for sharing your experience of the smoke problem too.....on the Princess FB page, there is one lady that keeps saying how she's been on like 8 or 9 Princess Cruises and never had this problem.....in a way, she was insinuating that I was making up that we had this problem......I don't wish it on anyone, but interesting to hear when other people have had the same problem......

 

I really liked Princess, but as I have said, if we have the problem again on our 2nd cruise, I would like to give Celebrity a try after that......we felt we needed to use the credit Princess gave us.....each $150.....it can't happen 2 times in a row, can it? Oh my, I hope I didn't just jinks our cruise!

[grandgeezer]

We just got off the Sun Princess yesterday. After trying all the other mid priced lines, we had settled in with X and HAL as our favorite lines. About two months ago, we found this 14 day Caribbean cruise that was "practicaly free". Some of the pluses were: easy embarkation and early luggage delivery as we had it by 1:30 pm. Domestic beer is 50-75 cents cheaper. Great pepporini pizza. Overall, the best entertainment we've ever seen. We grew up in the 60s and their production show "British Invasion" was the best we've ever seen. Music, dancing and costumes were out of this world.

The food and service in the main dining room was as good as any other cruiseline we've been on. The only exception was the N.Y. strip steak I had the last night was very tough and chewy.

Two areas that was disappointing were the stateroom and the buffet area. The Sun is scheduled to go into drydock in May, but based on the condition of the room, that's about six months too late. The bed was lumpy and bowed badly in the center. We complained and their answer was putting an "egg crate foam on it. The pillows weren't any better. We got a complimentry upgrade to a "D' which was good, only it was a room that could house four. The "bunk beds" hung from the two wall which made getting in and out of bed an adventure. You had to either sidestep along the side or crawl in and out at the foot of the bed.

The buffet was rectangular in shape with an island down the middle for more food. You entered from one end and exited from the other. Some people went to the right when they entered and some went to the left. This caused gridlock as noone would give up the right of way at each dish. Food was sometimes good and sometimes bad. We ended up eating mostly at the pizza place and hamburger bar which was at midship, about 100 yards away.

There are alot of little things that HAl and X do that Princess doesn't.

1) They don't have an custom made omelete station. If you can flag down a server, he can get you either a cheese or ham and cheese one. On HAL or X, you have at tleast a dozen choices for fillings.

2) The only choices for toppings on the belgian waffles is butter, maple syrup, or some buttersctoch syrup in a bottle. On X or HAL you have several fruit choices.

3) During the day, lemonade is your only juice choice at the drink station. X and HAL have several other choices.

4) Your only choice for keeping abreast of what's happening in the world is CNN, on tv. X and HAL have a mini version of the N.Y. Times published daily.

5) No sticky buns

6) Eggs Benedict not available every morning in the main dining room.

7) No deli sandwich station. Every day they had a few different premade sandwiches set out but they were more in the line with what you would find in a vending machine.

There are probably more but being tired and still a bit jet lagged, that's all I can come up with now,

Don't get me wrong, it was a nice cruise but not up to the standards that X and HAL have set with us.

We got a low price and we got what we paid for.

[KruzPrincess]

I'm going on my first Celebrity cruise this month, so I can't compare yet. I hope to love it. I have been on 20 Princess cruises as well as most of the other cruise lines. I love Princess and their loyalty program keeps bringing me back. I suggest you go ahead and try other cruise lines and find the best fit for you. For me, I'm happy at Princess, but decided it's always good to try the competition. I have had inside, outside, balconies and mini's on Princess depending on what was a good deal at the time I booked the cruise. I'm not a smoker, but it doesn't annoy me too much if I smell an occasional whif of smoke. It would annoy me if I had someone smoke 24/7 on the balcony next to me. So far, that has never happened yet and I'm fine with Princess and their policy. I've read reports from people who have smokers near them on Celebrity. If you cabin is over the smoking areas on the X ships, I understand you may smell smoke there, too. Even if I love Celebrity, I know I'll still go back to Princess. Hopefully, I'll want to go on both. On Princess, I really like how they do business and I've always been treated well. Not so much by Celebrity's land staff so far. On Princess, I like the International Cafe, Movies Under the Stars, great pizza, very nice evening buffet choices, anytime dining works great there, great intineraries. I could go on and on. Good luck with whatever you choose.

[KruzPrincess]

I have been on each once and they both have their pros (to be honest a cruise rarely has true "cons")

 

Pros:

Celebrity:

- No smoking policy - more cruise lines should adopt this rule.

- food was better than princess (but only by a bit)

- Service - much more attentive on Celebrity

- they are not always trying to sell you something

 

Princess

- nicer ship areas (golden princess vs Celebrity Summit)

- better late night entertainment

- younger crowd than X ( but hey I am getting older too), and to be honest X had people of all ages.

- I enjoyed the itinerary more here, and the line has a greater variety vs X.

 

I would say the entertainment was about the same - OK, but what do you really expect on a cruise. It is something to do in the evening.

 

I travel solo frequently and while Celebrity will occaisionally have great deals (not really advertised but they show up when pricing other specials on X). Princess never has them for solo travelers. Always it is 2x the fare for a room. I know they have lost some of my potential busness because of this. But i am sure they found a couple to put tn the same room! :-)

 

I got such a great deal on Celebrity for mid Nov. that I decided to make it a back to back sailing (my first).

 

I am sooo ready to get this started and leave the restof the world behind for a couple of weeks.

 

Kevin

 

I've booked 2 solo cruises on Princess and both were at about 130% when I booked them. It depends on what cabin you want and when you travel. Balconies on most cruise lines go for 200%.

[rallycaps]

This year we have taken 2 cruises: Ruby Princess, platinum level, and our first Celebrity cruise on Equinox.

 

Celebrity wins in the following areas:

-ship design and layout

-buffet food and service quality

-cabin design

-overall service

-Murano specialty restaurant

 

Princess is better at:

-entertainment shows and live music

-Movies Under the Stars

-MDR food and service

-specialty steak house

 

All of this is very subjective, but I have to admit that Celebrity exceeded my expectations. We have booked our next cruise on Eclipse July 2011 in Baltics after comparing itineraries among several lines and factoring in our platinum benefits on Princess. The attraction of Eclipse and the itinerary were too tempting. After booking, Celebrity was kind enough to upgrade us which was a bonus. This time Celebrity came out ahead but next time I will compare the different options again and the result may differ. So I do not think that there is a better cruise line because it is really a personal choice based on the type of vacation that you are looking for.

 

 

Finally, as cruisers I believe that we are very fortunate to have so many choices in a truly competitive market place.

[Kirsten T]

We were die-hard Celebrity cruisers on the C-class ships until we couldn't get an itinerary that worked, then went to Princess. We've just booked on Celebrity again, on Eclipse (skipping over the M-class, going right for the gusto.) ;)

 

Love Princess for Anytime Dining, which has its own dining room (2 on newer ships), some MDR food (Princess pasta dishes are outstanding), fresh water pools that stay open late for star gazing, very affordable mini-suites, lots of itineraries that work with our schedule, no limit on the bottles of wine brought on board and a reasonable corkage fee (15 last cruise.) We've found service to be comparable on Princess, and the passenger demographic wasn't much different (all 10-day itineraries, so that probably trends a little older.) We're paying less for our 10-day January Princess cruise, mini-suite on Emerald Princess - than we are for our March 7-day Eclipse cruise, C2 "hump" cabin. But we've been very happy with Princess and would cruise with either line. (As for smoking, we had more trouble on the Celebrity cruises than on Princess, but that was before the policy change. We're really happy about the smoke-free veranda on Eclipse.)

[London25]

I think you also need to take a look at how they will treat you if the cruise runs into any problems. So far Celebrity isn't really standing up on their recent blunder from the October cruise. I'd be interested to know if anyone has had a breakdown on a Princess cruise and how it was handled.

[smoosh21]

Thanks for the correction. That's $1.83 per cup. OMG that is really 'nickel and dime - ing' use Princess cruisers. I will not allow that anymore. LOL

 

I also received a buy one get one free coupon for the Coffee Card, so It was 30 coffees :)

Came in handy on a 2 week cruise.

 

I think that Princess offers more entertainment around the ship too. For example, they had a battle of the sexes Drink making contest by the pool one afternoon. I also liked the Cruise Staff on Princess better. Princess encourages their staff to mingle with the passengers a lot. I really liked that aspect of the cruise line.

Food wise, I think they are very close.

[We're The Groupnors]

How would you compare the food, service and entertainment on Celebrity and Princess?

 

We find the food on both lines about equal, though we prefer the X specialty restaurants to the Princess specialty restaurants.

 

For service we find X a notch above Princess. We are also wine enthusiasts, so like having a sommelier in the MDR on X vs. the Asst Waiter bringing wine on Princess.

 

For entertainment we find them about equal, with the exception of the X Cirque shows, which are out of this world.

[tispwisp]

We were very loyal Princess cruisers until we went on Royal Caribbean. While we would still sail on Princess, we personally prefer Royal Caribbean (especially the Radiance class) and are anxious to sail on our first Celebrity cruise next week. In our opinion, while Princess has many fine features: Movies Under the Stars, great stateroom attendants, excellent food, good entertainment; there are also some negatives for us: poor ship design (with the exception of the Coral & Sun class), the buffet area is horribly designed and turns out to be a free for all, not enough storage room in the cabin, do not like the staggered balcony design (if you want a mini-suite virutally all of the balconies are completely open - no shade and no privacy from the cabins above).

 

Of course this is strictly our opinion. We would still sail again on Princess if the itinerary and price were right, but for us I think RC and probably -we'll find out for sure next week- Celebrity are better options.