Princess vs Carnival

[ksaunders]

Have been on several Carnival Cruises and one Royal Caribbean, but never Princess. Am really interested in the Ruby--anyone have feedback for me? Is the Princess a fun ship? Do they have deck parties and music like Carnival? We are by no means huge partiers, but we don't want string quartets playing when we sail away either. Thoughts anyone?

[tcs1366]

I'm right there with you... but we took the plunge and booked our first Princess cruise on the Ruby for this Feb.

 

While we enjoyed both our Carnival cruises, we are by no means "party people"

 

[i've been asked about the midnight buffets and i was like HUH? i'm in bed by 10pm]

 

and I did find some of the "games" silly... though i did see 50 something engaging in said games... they are just not for me.

 

With the research i've been doing on Princess... I do believe we will be very pleased... but then, how could you not be?

 

we are both very casual people... i'm just hoping we both feel comfortable... but I feel we will.

[paul929207]

We have 21 cruises on Princess and two on Carnival. For my first Carnival cruise I was about 45, for the second 61 (last July).

 

Yes, Princess music at sailaway. Some is live, some is recorded. They sell lots of DOD's during the sailaway.

 

We find the service on Princess far ahead of Carnival. Two examples. On our last Carnival & Princess cruises, I asked our cabin stewards for fresh ice each afternoon when they came on duty at 5pm. On Carnival, every afternoon, I had to track him down go get ice. On Princess, I asked once and never had to ask again. For dinner, on the Carnival Cruise there were 12 of us. Every night, every course, our waiter served our table over a 5 to 10 minute period. First, three would get an appetiser, the five more, finally the last four. The same would happen with salads and soups, the main course and dessert.

[cruiser92804]

I have cruised several times on Princess and Carnival. I like them both. I go with the cruise line that has an itinerary that I like at price that I like. Anecdotal stories from a cruise don't have any affect on me. Every cruise I've been on I could find bad customer service somewhere, but the good customer service I've had on every cruise line far outweighs the bad. I would find out for yourself (as you are) and form your own opinions. Out of 16 cruises on 4 different cruise lines, I have only been on one cruise that I really didn't care for, but I would rather be on that cruise than at work.

[cruisenuts4life]

I have been on 2 RC,1 celebrity,1 Carnival and last year we did the Ruby.The Ruby is a beautiful ship and by far my favorite ship.We are going again in April on Ruby,you will love the ship.:)

[ksaunders]

We're thinking about the Ruby also and it does look very nice. What's the sail away party like? Is there line dancing and steel drums like on Carnival or is it more subdued. ANd what about on board activities?

[rdsqrl]

Have been on several Carnival Cruises and one Royal Caribbean, but never Princess. Am really interested in the Ruby--anyone have feedback for me? Is the Princess a fun ship? Do they have deck parties and music like Carnival? We are by no means huge partiers, but we don't want string quartets playing when we sail away either. Thoughts anyone?

I like string quartets. Just sayin' . . . ! Seriously, you may very well run into one playing in the atrium in the afternoon/early evening -- just a head's up!

 

We're thinking about the Ruby also and it does look very nice. What's the sail away party like? Is there line dancing and steel drums like on Carnival or is it more subdued. ANd what about on board activities?

Yes, dancing (line and non-line!), and a live band, albeit not with steel drums -- haven't seen steel drums onboard in eons, sadly. But it's a fun, wholesomely-rowdy time. Onboard activities will include trivia (at least twice a day!), bingo, pool games, martini-mixing contests, movies, other random stuff. . . . The daily newsletter is called the Patter; if you do a search of this board for the word Patter, you may find some examples -- I know one or two posters have scanned in recent ones.

A 7-day Ruby cruise will have a wide range of ages and should be fun but not wild.

Hope this helps.

[lovevacadays]

No string quartets playing for the sail away party. Probably playing in the atrium in the evening. My experience has always been live band music. We've always had a lively sailaway on Princess. Line dancing, lots of drinking, they whole YMCA thing. Actually, we did have one cold weather sailing out of Southern California and that one was pretty subdued. I've cruised Carnival twice and Princess many times. I'm not a Carnival fan so may be a bit biased but I do wonder why people think Princess doesn't have a variety of activities and entertainment. I've cruised with 3 different nieces - all 30 or under and they all loved their Princess cruises. I think you will be fine and I think it's always nice to try different lines. If I survived a 10 day Holland America cruise on their ship the Statendam several years ago where there were more walkers and canes than in our local nursing home I think you'll be good on Princess.

 

Sincerely hope you enjoy your cruise

[Vanilla]

I have sailed on Royal Caribbean, Carnival & Princess. The color scheme is the main difference that I notice - Royal Caribbean reminds me of fun primary (red/blue/yellow/green) colors with a fun active lively crowd, Carnival is more gawdy (chrome/dark purple/gold) colors with a wild party crowd and Princess is elegant colors (soothing pastels) with a laid back relaxed crowd. All three had deck parties, all three had fun activities, all three had good/bad service, music and food (which is subjective).... Which did I prefer in my 20s ~> Carnval. With my family of teens and when I am in an active mood ~>Royal Caribbean. As I get older, children are grown and out of the nest and I need a relaxing vacation ~> Princess. Would I sail all three again !YES!...Do I like one more than the other? Well Princess and Royal Caribbean rank #1 side by side and Carnival would be my least favorite of the three. Are you gonna have a great time on the Ruby?... its really what you make of it and what you go into it expecting. Unless the ship tips over or runs into a Hurricane or Typhoon - any day at sea on a cruise ship is a good day! :)

[tuffyiscruisin']

We have recently returned from a 17 Day cruise on the Coral Princess. It was our first cruise with Princess after 4 with Carnival. We heard from several previous Princess cruisers "we would find it a step up". Well if I had based my decisions on that comment the cruise would have been a disappointment. We found the that the 2 lines are very similar in many respects and didn't feel that one was better than the other. We found the food quality to be of equal value, in fact Carnival probably offers a bit more variety. The service was equally as good but in some respects felt that the staff on carnival in general are more friendly and willing to engage which we like. The entertainment was on par. The one thing I did like like was the fresh water pool as opposed to salt water. Overall the experience for us was very similar, as a younger couple on the cruise we did find it lacked a wee bit of the fun, we have experienced with carnival but we still had a great time. We chose this cruise because of the itinerary which is what is most important to us, if i had to choose between Princess and Carnival doing the same itinerary then i may well choose Carinval because I think price wise they offer better value for money.

[Kmkub]

tuffyiscruisin' - thanks for that review. Very helpful for me. We were just discussing earlier that we need to try another line before we get too far into the Princess swing of things.

 

We're also considering trying HAL, but your review gives me another reason to try Carnival.

 

(My only experience with carnival was when I stayed on the ship in Cozumel, we were next to a Carnival, which was super noisy, engines running, all day, whereas the Princess ship I was on was quiet.. even when I went onto the pool deck it was far less noisy than the deck noise on Carnival I was hearing from my balcony.)

[vmom]

We have recently returned from a 17 Day cruise on the Coral Princess. It was our first cruise with Princess after 4 with Carnival. We heard from several previous Princess cruisers "we would find it a step up". Well if I had based my decisions on that comment the cruise would have been a disappointment. We found the that the 2 lines are very similar in many respects and didn't feel that one was better than the other. We found the food quality to be of equal value' date=' in fact Carnival probably offers a bit more variety. The service was equally as good but in some respects felt that the staff on carnival in general are more friendly and willing to engage which we like. The entertainment was on par. The one thing I did like like was the fresh water pool as opposed to salt water. Overall the experience for us was very similar, as a younger couple on the cruise we did find it lacked a wee bit of the fun, we have experienced with carnival but we still had a great time. We chose this cruise because of the itinerary which is what is most important to us, if i had to choose between Princess and Carnival doing the same itinerary then i may well choose Carinval because I think price wise they offer better value for money.[/quote']

 

Its not really fair to compare a 17 day Princess cruise with a 7-8 day Carnival cruise. Really different demographics.

 

I am glad to hear about your review of Carnival. I had considered Carnival for our next cruise, but when I compared prices, the prices for Princess vs Carnival Legend was basically the same so we booked the Princess cruise. Will consider Carnival for the future tho..

[lovevacadays]

Its not really fair to compare a 17 day Princess cruise with a 7-8 day Carnival cruise. Really different demographics.

 

I am glad to hear about your review of Carnival. I had considered Carnival for our next cruise, but when I compared prices, the prices for Princess vs Carnival Legend was basically the same so we booked the Princess cruise. Will consider Carnival for the future tho..

 

That was my thought too. You can't even compare a Princess 7 day cruise against a Princess 17 day cruise. A different crowd that is able to take a 17 day cruise and therefore, I'm sure, activities are planning around the majority of the demographic for the given cruise which on a 17 day cruise is going to be older than a 7 day cruise.

[Whimsy]

I have been on 5 Princess cruises, 3 were 7 days, 1 was 4 days and one was 10 days. All but the 4 day cruise were very enjoyable with people who were more experienced and relaxed on vacation. We have been on 2 Carnival cruises, one 3 nights and another 5 nights. Shorter cruises tend to have a rowdier crowd that are first time cruisers and that was evident on our 2 short Carnival and one short Princess but we had a great time on all of them. Our preference lies to Princess though. We think the food is better and the entertainment. Good comediens, mentalists, etc. There is always sail away parties and a deck party one evening. We like the game shows as well as watching the pool games which are more relay type in teams. Hairy chest, belly flop contest are just not that entertaining to us but we do like to watch people have fun and participate in trivia or game shows.

[tuffyiscruisin']

That was my thought too. You can't even compare a Princess 7 day cruise against a Princess 17 day cruise. A different crowd that is able to take a 17 day cruise and therefore, I'm sure, activities are planning around the majority of the demographic for the given cruise which on a 17 day cruise is going to be older than a 7 day cruise.

 

Fair call, on activities, although I thought they tried to cater to everyone with Pool games and etc quite well. I guess my overall point I was trying to make was that they are more similar then not in most respects.

It makes me laugh about the hairy chest competition comparisons... on the Coral Princes they had a Mr Coral Princess which was essentially the same thing with a different name. Certainly agree the 3-5 day cruisers are more Party and rowdy. Must say the comedians on the Coral were less than average many fellow passengers commented on this as well.

[Whimsy]

I remember my first cruise. We were coming back from a water outing and a guy was sleeping (passed out) on the boat. He was covered in thick hair from head to toe. DD and I thought it looked pretty bad and wondered if he was on our ship and if he would enter the hairy chest contest. Sure enough, the next day he was up there being judged.

[jetwet1]

tuffyiscruisin pretty much sums it up, we normally take two cruises a year, one on Carnival and one on Princess.

 

Princess is more laid back, the colour schemes are more relaxed, the food is about the same, service has been good on both lines, Carnival has better bedding.

[dclark]

The quality of much of the cruisers who sail CCL has declined a lot. Over on the CCL, do search on the number of people who pay cash for the cruise, don't have the $ for last payment,want to know if they can sail with outstanding warrants, etc. It is getting rough looking out there.

When LA Tines did their expose on welfare fraud, guess which cruiseline had people making welfare withdrawls from the atm? CCL!

According to the FBI, which cruiseline has more violent crimes than all other combined? CCL!

When people get popped for smuggling drugs, it usually is CCL. I wasn't surprised one bit when they found a dead baby in a woman's cabin last week.

CCL knows their market and that is why they are offering mac and cheese in the mdr and have replaced guest entertainers with audience participation fluff.

CCL is the only cruise line where I have seen grafitti! Miscreants like to carve junk onto the mirrors of the elevators.

Kids are always out of control, hitting all the buttons in the elevators, mobbing in the hallways late at night, ripping room service tags off of doors.

Out on the lido deck, you see lots of tatted out people, looks more like a prison yard.On my last cruise, saw the carpet driers out a lot, evidence that someone drank to much and puked (and no it wasn't the caused by ocean as it was still in the carribean!).Those who object to my description most likely "resemble that remark".

I am plat on CCL, sailed them since '98 and they have taken a nose dive in quality, both ship ad cruisers. The topper was the drunk who came to the jacuzzi we were in with his dirty socks and proceeded to "wash" them in the bubbling water!

[vmom]

The topper was the drunk who came to the jacuzzi we were in with his dirty socks and proceeded to "wash" them in the bubbling water!

 

Oh my....not sure if would laugh or be outraged on that one : ).