4 Day Cruises on Princess

[Stateroom_Sailor]

We were considering doing a 4 Day Baja cruise on Carnival to introduce a few family members to cruising, and perhaps find an inexpensive getaway on our off cruising years. After watching a few videos and questioning other CC members, there's just going to be too much drunken rowdiness for our taste.

 

What would a 4 Day Baja cruise on Princess be like in comparison?

[mrstmaxx]

My DH and I have done a number of 3-4 days California Coastal cruises and never experienced any rowdiness or drunken behavior. Take your family on the cruise and let them experience the wonderfulness of Princess. And enjoy the cruise!!!:)

[Colo Cruiser]

Not that we have ever seen.

[Thrak]

Princess seems to attract a bit older demographic. It's definitely not known as a party line. My wife and I find it perfect. Our son thought it could use more party atmosphere. :)

[Stateroom_Sailor]

My DH and I have done a number of 3-4 days California Coastal cruises and never experienced any rowdiness or drunken behavior. Take your family on the cruise and let them experience the wonderfulness of Princess. And enjoy the cruise!!!:)

 

That's great to hear. Even though we know that Princess is a more mellow and elegant ship, we were concerned it might get hijacked by some of the same Spring Breakers looking for a cheap thrill.

 

Besides, how would we explain this to an 8 year old?

 

 

There's plenty more footage of craziness in the hallways, lido deck, the MDR, and of course Ensenada! Our 7 day Carnival cruise out of San Juan was nothing like his, people were having fun yes, but more upbeat relaxed.

 

We'll give our family the choice between a 3-4 day Gold Princess cruise, or the 7 day Carnival Miracle Mexican Riviera. Either way, we're planning to do both!

Edited March 4, 2014 by Stateroom_Sailor

[Colo Cruiser]

If thats in one of the bar venues at night why would your 8 year old be there in the first place?

[shredie]

There are plenty of YouTube videos of more sedate cruisers. I think loud drunks just like to watch themselves on TV.:) And isn't that Carnival?

Edited March 4, 2014 by shredie

[Stateroom_Sailor]

If thats in one of the bar venues at night why would your 8 year old be there in the first place?

 

We're just bad parents ;(

[Stateroom_Sailor]

There are plenty of YouTube videos of more sedate cruisers. I think loud drunks just like to watch themselves on TV.:) And isn't that Carnival?

 

No doubt the videos are over exposing the party scene, but according to most commenters on the Carnival thread, the 3/4 day Carnival Inspiration is no place to take a family:

 

"In my experience (taken 3,4,7,8 and 12 day cruises)... The shorter the cruise, the more tattoos, cussing, beer consumption, loud drunks, and overloaded plates at the buffet. After all, they're trying to squeeze every last dollars worth in, right?"

 

"I don't think the ones that do the Mexican Baja are family friendly. I did one once a long time ago on RCCL and it was full of Californians looking to get away and party it up."

 

"I have experienced a huge difference between Carnival weekend cruises and week-long cruises. The 3-4 day weekend cruises have been non-stop drunken party cruises from start to finish with no real escape from the chaos."

[Gunner22aa]

Did one last Nov when Princess was running their 100% fare back as a FCC. Very laid back and the furthest thing in the world from a booze cruise. Even though it wasn't a school holiday there were a fair number of families with children on board. The ship only sailed half full so it never felt crowded anywhere. I'm certain you would enjoy it more than Carnival.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Gunner22aa

[sassyredhat]

Princess seems to attract a bit older demographic. It's definitely not known as a party line. My wife and I find it perfect. Our son thought it could use more party atmosphere. :)

 

This is exactly the consensus in our house. :)

 

We have taken several of CCL's short cruises because that was our only choice. We always book up on verandah deck, in what they call suites, to get away from the crowds.

Choose your sailing date carefully to avoid bachelor parties, graduations, and college breaks.

In our experience, the children are not the problem. It's the rowdy 20-30 year olds.

 

That said, if PCL pulls their short getaways, we would probably sail CCL again.

In the mean time, we are loving every minute of al the short cruises PCL is offering.

 

Pat

[4x4bob]

Last October we also signed up for a 4 day cruise out of San Pedro on the Golden Princess. My wife's Sister and Husband came with us.

 

We had a very relaxed cruise with no problems from other passengers acting up. There were kids and they behaved also.

 

This cruise was over Hollow Ween and most of the crew and part of the passengers dressed up in costume. Plus the ship was decorated for the occaision. We saw no evidence of drunken out of control parties.

 

We plan another 4 day this next September.

 

Bob

[alexspepa]

 

Besides, how would we explain this to an 8 year old?

 

 

!

 

just say tequila

[mellapl]

We did the four day in January we normally do longer cruises but thought we would give it a try. We had a great time, great food and booked a seven day for April. Try Princess!

[Thrak]

That's great to hear. Even though we know that Princess is a more mellow and elegant ship, we were concerned it might get hijacked by some of the same Spring Breakers looking for a cheap thrill.

 

Besides, how would we explain this to an 8 year old?

 

 

There's plenty more footage of craziness in the hallways, lido deck, the MDR, and of course Ensenada! Our 7 day Carnival cruise out of San Juan was nothing like his, people were having fun yes, but more upbeat relaxed.

 

We'll give our family the choice between a 3-4 day Gold Princess cruise, or the 7 day Carnival Miracle Mexican Riviera. Either way, we're planning to do both!

 

Even though that was obviously in a bar venue where your 8-year-old wouldn't be I still can't imagine wanting to be on a cruise where this was the type of behavior. I cruise to relax - not to have some out of control people acting like morons. If you act like a moron when drinking the chances are that you are a moron all the time. This video was vulgar and the people have zero class. I sincerely doubt we will ever book a cruise on Carnival.

[MoyCoy]

We did the four day in January we normally do longer cruises but thought we would give it a try. We had a great time, great food and booked a seven day for April. Try Princess!

 

Which ship did you cruise?

[mldiluna]

Even though that was obviously in a bar venue where your 8-year-old wouldn't be I still can't imagine wanting to be on a cruise where this was the type of behavior. I cruise to relax - not to have some out of control people acting like morons. If you act like a moron when drinking the chances are that you are a moron all the time. This video was vulgar and the people have zero class. I sincerely doubt we will ever book a cruise on Carnival.

 

To be fair, previous experience on Carnival hasn't been rowdy debauchery in the public areas of the ship, but this particular cruise is definitely not one to which I wish to subject never-cruised family members. Like you, we cruise to relax and enjoy ourselves. We just want to introduce some of our family members to the "cruise bug", and something like what was portrayed in the various videos which we saw of the CCL 3-4 day cruises out of LA, would guarantee that neither of us would be trusted to take nieces and nephews out for so much as an ice cream cone ever again.

 

Oh, for the record, I'm with Stateroom Sailor on this venture, I just can't remember my husband's log-in.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Three of my six Carnival cruises have been the Baja cruises and only the first one was a "party" one. That was Easter Weekend in 1997 so there were plenty of college spring breakers on board. It made for a lot of laughable moments as these kids must have spent all of their spare cash on booze. When we were in Ensenada, hubby and I were watching from the deck as many college aged kids staggered back to the ship from taxis. It was sooooo quiet the next morning as undoubtedly many were praying to the porcelain gods in their bathrooms. The other cruises were in July (our daughter's first cruise) and June (our last Carnival cruise in 2002), and those ships weren't overrun by college kids. Of course, switching to Princess was a major change (more about the type of activities by the pool and the PA announcements).

 

If you do go on a short Carnival cruise, try to avoid between late February and mid-April and it might be okay. I would imagine any mass market cruise around that time (7 days and shorter too) would have college aged kids looking to party. We did go on a Caribbean cruise in March 2001 on the Paradise and it was a great cruise (that was when it was a no-smoking ship), but afterwards we stayed a week in Miami and the Keys, and there were plenty of spring breakers.

[mellapl]

MoyCoy, It was the Sapphire

[critterchick]

This is exactly the consensus in our house. :)

 

We have taken several of CCL's short cruises because that was our only choice. We always book up on verandah deck, in what they call suites, to get away from the crowds.

Choose your sailing date carefully to avoid bachelor parties, graduations, and college breaks.

In our experience, the children are not the problem. It's the rowdy 20-30 year olds.

 

That said, if PCL pulls their short getaways, we would probably sail CCL again.

In the mean time, we are loving every minute of al the short cruises PCL is offering.

 

Pat

 

I agree with everything you've said, including where to book a cabin on the Fantasy class ships. And I wish I had a dollar for every time DH said, "THIS IS SOOOOO MUCH BETTER THAN CARNIVAL!"

 

I did 4 3-night cruises on Golden last fall, and I saw plenty of imbibing - the disco was a crazy place, which was a real shock to the crew, since it's normally dead as a doornail. But revenues were great and the bar manager was likely in heaven. Three of the four cruises were Friday-Monday, so there was a much higher concentration of younger, working age passengers than one would find on a midweek cruise. However, we never once saw a bathrobe in the casino or thong swimsuit in the buffet (saw both on Carnival), just a lot of happy faces and a few drug busts as we came into port on Monday morning (and on the day before Thanksgiving on my midweek cruise).

 

One huge difference is that Carnival encourages the party atmosphere while Princess doesn't. I also think that the Carnival ships here squeeze a lot more people into smaller venues, and there's a bar every three feet, or so it seems. On Golden, everything is more spread out and there are a lot more places to hide from it all.

 

So yes, there will be individuals and groups who are drinking and/or partying, but you likely won't see that much of them.

[seacruise9]

Hi,

 

I have done two of these 4-day Princess cruises from Los Angeles (Golden Princess to Catalina Island and Ensenada in September 2013; Sapphire Princess to San Diego and Ensenada in January 2014). I enjoyed both cruises and did not find them to be much different than the longer Princess cruises (except for no formal nights). The other passengers were fine. I did not see any bad behavior.

 

Chuck

[DrivesLikeMario]

I've done about 4 short Carnival cruises (mostly due to DH's company using them as 'rewards') and about 4 short Princess cruises. IMO and IME, there is no comparison. You're talking apples and oranges.

 

Although they won't get a "real" cruise feel onboard the short Princess cruises, it's a great way to get their feet wet. Give your newbies some cruising tips and enjoy their excitement!

[Stateroom_Sailor]

So yes, there will be individuals and groups who are drinking and/or partying, but you likely won't see that much of them.

 

I'm ok with a bit of partying and drinking, just as long as it's respectful, not rowdy, and not overrunning the ship. On our last cruise we had 188 people (mostly middle aged) from one bar in IL. Many of them drank the whole time, but they were quiet and kept to themselves. As long as they were having a good time, and it wasn't bothering anyone else, why not?

[Iamcruzin]

We're just bad parents ;(

 

If you were bad parents then you wouldn't need to explain. The 8yr old would have already witnessed poor behavior at some other point. The only bad behavior you would see is people dancing and having a good time. I have never experienced any bar brawls or pole dancing on Princess. Princess draws a middle aged crowd. Their short cruises seem to cost more per day than a 7day cruise unless it's a last minute deal. The Spring break crowd are drawn to Carnival, and NCL as the prices are usually less and the atmosphere is either the Fun Ship or Freestyle.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

If you were bad parents then you wouldn't need to explain. The 8yr old would have already witnessed poor behavior at some other point. The only bad behavior you would see is people dancing and having a good time. I have never experienced any bar brawls or pole dancing on Princess. Princess draws a middle aged crowd. Their short cruises seem to cost more per day than a 7day cruise unless it's a last minute deal. The Spring break crowd are drawn to Carnival, and NCL as the prices are usually less and the atmosphere is either the Fun Ship or Freestyle.

 

Hopefully we can plan a cruise on the Golden September/October 2015, my wife and I are looking forward to trying it out. If the family want to do the 7 day Carnival Miracle instead, it will only be postponed. We have no intention of being loyal to any line, it's itinerary 1st, bang per buck 2nd ;)