Thinking about Princess...Help!

[Suzerstar]

Have been on quite a few luxury cruises...which lacked fun and entertainment, also Carnival, RCCL which were great. How would you compare Princess against the other lines? Similiar? Stufffy? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!

[CruiseFever]

We just did try Royal Caribbean last week and just on one small ship so I'll leave them out of this but we've sailed a bunch of Carnival and Princess cruises so here's some comparisons between those two that might be helpful

 

Some easy to identify differences include

• Princess Grand Class ships have Skywalkers- a nightclub that blows away anything Carnival ever thought of having
  
• Carnival is "the fun ships", that's true and they're proud of it.
  
• Princess is "the Love Boat", it's no big deal and they're trying to shake that image.
  
• Carnival is the most successful cruise line in the world
  
• Princess does a better job of breaking up huge, open deck space into smaller more intimate areas
  
• Carnival has FunVision, an in-cabin interactive system that lets you view your shipboard charge account, buy shore excursions and watch pay-per-view movies
  
• Princess gives suite passengers lots of goodies, Carnival lets them on the ship earlier
  
• Carnival has Bob Dickinson. Highly visible and involved. I really couldn't tell you who runs Princess off the top of my head
  
• Princess has better, sometimes excellent food but lacks consistency
  
• You can buy cartons of cigarettes on Princess and they hold them until the end of the cruise, on Carnival you can have them when you buy them
  
• You can buy bottles of booze on Carnival and they hold them until the end of the cruise, on Princess you can order bottles from room service and have them right now
  
• Carnival has an incorrect reputation for being a big drunken party all the time (not any more), Princess has an incorrect reputation for catering to boring old people (previous posters indicate that's Holland America now- not sure about that one)
  
• Carnival has a better kids program- Princess' is good but inconsistent from ship to ship
  
• Pricing is competitive, comparing numbers to numbers Carnival will come out less expensive but Princess might be a better value
  
• Princess ships all seem to have a similar layout and decor, each Carnival ship has a different theme
  
• Princess rules embarkation, Carnival is trying but still not there
  
• Carnival has the reputation for the best shows, I rate both lines the same
  
• Princess sails to more places
  
• Princess gives free fruit bowl to each cabin
  
• Carnival has mixed amenity basket in each cabin
  
• Carnival management is totally accessible, good luck emailing somebody important at Princess
  
• Carnival has a signature water slide on each ship. Princess tried to adopt a signature Movies Under The Stars on each ship but crumbled to pressure from old-time stick-in-the-mud Princess cruisers who did not care for it. Now Carnival has the screen on selected ships.
  
• Princess employs more muted tones and promotes a subdued but semi-elegant ambiance, Carnival is very glitzy, fun, Vegas style with lots of neon
  
• Carnival is more casual. Princess is more dressy.

[jennew]

you guys do realize that carnival owns princess, HAL and windstar- right? Princess is simply a brand under the Carnival corp.

 

I met with a HAL agent last week for a work related meeting, she gave me a crash course in all this...lol

[mek]

Princess has Personal Choice Dining, no midnight buffets, but offers 24 hour dining options, and fresh water pools - all ++++++'s for me. (And, great itineraries.)

[irislady]

Suzerstar, we've sailed on Carnival twice, Princess 3 times, and HAL once. Even though they are all owned by Carnival Corp, each line still has it's own distinct style. Overall we love Princess best, but would sail on HAL again, especially on another of their smaller ships. The only short coming on our HAL trip was the poor quality of the shows. However, we always found other fun things to do. The musicians in the lounges were wonderful. I did find the HAL dining room meals to be too fancy for my comfort level on several occasions. I missed the "always available" plainer choices of Carnival and Princess. I'm not sure we've given Carnival a fair try since both our cruises were to the Caribbean which often has a more boisterous group of passengers, but right now our opinion is that we won't sail on Carnival again. We had excellent service on all 3 lines, but we did notice that they were even more eager to please on HAL than on the others.

 

I think you should give Princess a try and decide for yourself.

Shae

[wka_orlando]

My 2c...

 

Princess has the best food and entertainment within the middle tier of lines (e.g. RCL)

 

RCL has the nicer ships in terms of layout, cabin space, and things to do.

 

Princess passengers tend to be about ten years older than RCL and Princess is a bit stricker when it comes to problem drinkers and bad behavior.

 

RCL lets kids drink at 18 with parents permission and too many give it... Also the permission is indicated by a hole punched in the kids cruise card. Care to guess how long it takes them to find a hole punch?

 

I personally like the admin staff on RCL better. They are much more customer oriented than Princess staff which would likely watch you sink before getting out of a chair. On the flip, RCL uses steward teams so you do not always get a particular steward. On Princess you get the same chap for the entire trip and that allows you to estabilish a better relationship and let them know what you want.

 

All in all, they are equivalent in my mind. Just depends on which area is your most important.

 

As for Carnival, yes they own damn near everything now and it has hurt Princess greatly over the last three years. The Princess I sailed five years ago was much better than any of the main stream lines... still good though...

 

WKA

[Pam in CA]

Excellent comparisons between the cruiselines.

 

Chris... just a quick comment that I don't think that MUTS was re-evaluated because of a few stick-in-the-mud old fogie passengers. I suspect that it is a great idea for Caribbean and warm-weather cruises but the CB is the only ship that is strictly in the Caribbean. It's horrible if it's raining and the sound is goes wonky -- if you're under the deck above and try to listen, the sound bounces off the metal deck, pillars, ceiling, etc.; plus, almost every Princess ship does cold weather as well as warm weather itineraries. And, many of them do longer cruises that appeal to a different passenger than the CB.

[CruiseFever]

Excellent comparisons between the cruiselines.

 

Chris... just a quick comment that I don't think that MUTS was re-evaluated because of a few stick-in-the-mud old fogie passengers. I suspect that it is a great idea for Caribbean and warm-weather cruises but the CB is the only ship that is strictly in the Caribbean. It's horrible if it's raining and the sound is goes wonky -- if you're under the deck above and try to listen, the sound bounces off the metal deck, pillars, ceiling, etc.; plus, almost every Princess ship does cold weather as well as warm weather itineraries. And, many of them do longer cruises that appeal to a different passenger than the CB.

 

Ahhh that makes sense!

[traci28]

Chris - thank you for the excellent comparison. I have only cruised once in my life - and it was on Princess. I absolutely loved it - but who wouldn't??? I had nothing to compare it to.

 

Next time - I might try Carnival.

[Suzerstar]

I loved reading the opinions....I am 33 yrs old & married. I think I am going to give Princess a try...

[stoneharborlady]

I loved reading the opinions....I am 33 yrs old & married. I think I am going to give Princess a try...

 

 

I dont think you will regret it.

[SailAways]

Could you please tell me about the Princess dining options.

Is there a buffet which is open all day long, or separate restaurants?

Do they have something similar to the "Freestyle" of NCL?

How is the dress code - is it Resort Casual, except for Formal Nights?

We are considering the Panama Canal in the Fall of 2006, and would

love to hear more about Princess.

Thanks,

[tnf]

We are trying Princess for the first time in December. We have sailed with Royal on the Monarch and always with Carnival i am hoping that we like Princess at least half as much as we love carnival. But a cruise is a cruise no matter what line your on!!

[Guest AdiosReality]

We just LOVE princess, we have sailed twice with carnival, loved that too, but its such a "busy" ship, always party party party, lots of fun, but the distinguishing line is, do you want to relax with the "option" to be the joiner and party? Princess does this for us, its so relaxing you have no idea what day it is, or what time it is, we love that, but then, you can say "hmm.. I think I'm in for some action and excitement, lets go to the club, casino, shows etc" theres plenty to do, or nothing at all. My vote's for Princess. :o