Princess vs. Celebrity Any experience with British Isles?

[dulcemariamar]

This post may be a little all over the place but I would like some feedback. I have sailed on every major cruise line except for Celebrity. How does it rate against Princess? Is quality pretty much the same between the two companies?

 

Can I have some feedback for my next summer plan? The idea was to go to the British Isles with Regal but I am not super excited about the ports. We did a Baltic cruise this summer and it was great. So great that we are even considering repeating the cruise again. How would you rate your experience on your British Isles? Were the ports some of your favorites that you have ever been to?

 

And on the hand, we have Celebrity Reflection. They have a cruise from Ireland that visits some parts of the UK but two ports in Iceland. It sounds interesting but it is more expensive. I have taken two Princess cruises and they have been some of my favorites so I am a bit nervous to try out Celebrity.

 

and we will be traveling with my 7YO. So I want it to be somewhat kid friendly.

[Tatka]

We have 6 cruises with each. Not this itinerary.

We sailed on Royal (sister to Regal) and Silhouette (sister to Reflection).

 

Celebrity pros:

• Celebrity has more upscale feel. Like.. when you come to the pool you have towels placed on loungers. All loungers on this class of ships are padded. Staterooms are cozier. Not sure if Reflection will be revolutionized (updated), but even without it they are nicer than Princess staterooms.
• Theater size on Celebrity ships are more adequate to the number of guests
• Reflection still has normal outside promenade. Regal has just pieces of it
• Reflection has covered pool, which can be handy for this itinerary

Princess pros:

•    I am not sure if it changes based on region, but in Caribbeans Royal class ships have the best buffets on high seas. Including variety of seafood!
•   I just love Piazzas with entertainment that goes there. I find Celebrity to be more subdued.
•   I am not sure if it is done everywhere, but on most Princess cruises some local folkloric or similar entertainers were invited onboard.

Both lines are our top favorites although we don't get to sail with them often as we would like. I like Princess a bit better overall, but Celebrity in coziness department 🙂 . You will have great vacation with either line.

 

I do not find either line to be the best line for kids (this goes to RCI, NCL etc), but I find Princess pax on average a bit younger with more kids. Of course during school vacation there are 300-400 kids/teens under 18. Both have kids/teens clubs.

Edited October 10, 2019 by Tatka

[seacruise9]

Hi, 

 

I recently did the 12-day British Isles cruise on the Crown Princess (Sep. 10-22, 2019) and had a wonderful time. Similar to you,  I also have done the 11-day Scandinavia / Russia cruise with Princess (on the Emerald Princess back in 2012). Both cruises were excellent but very port intensive.

 

On my recent Crown Princess cruise, I did shore excursions in all nine ports and visited such places as Dublin, Edinburgh, the Scottish Highlands, several historic castles and Loch Ness. In Liverpool, I did a very interesting "In the Steps of the Beatles" tour. In Belfast, I did a tour that included the outstanding Titanic Museum. From Le Havre, France, I visited stunning Mont Saint Michel. I honestly enjoyed this cruise more than expected. The ports were interesting and the people were very friendly.

 

There were very few children on this particular cruise, but this probably is due to the fact that the cruise was in September.

 

Princess and Celebrity are two of my favorite lines. I have taken 21 Princess cruises and eight Celebrity cruises. Each line has its own strengths and weaknesses, but I think they are fairly comparable overall. If you like Princess, I think you would like Celebrity.

 

I have never visited Iceland, but I know that it is becoming very popular.

 

Chuck

[need2cruisesoon]

Did BI's a couple years back in the X Silhouette, and can say wasn't that impressed with service on the ship.

 

For this one I would go Princess, also does Princess overnight at any ports? Does it stop at Liverpool?

 

 

 

Royal (Dublin Port)

[reedprincess]

4 hours ago, dulcemariamar said:

This post may be a little all over the place but I would like some feedback. I have sailed on every major cruise line except for Celebrity. How does it rate against Princess? Is quality pretty much the same between the two companies?

 

Can I have some feedback for my next summer plan? The idea was to go to the British Isles with Regal but I am not super excited about the ports. We did a Baltic cruise this summer and it was great. So great that we are even considering repeating the cruise again. How would you rate your experience on your British Isles? Were the ports some of your favorites that you have ever been to?

 

And on the hand, we have Celebrity Reflection. They have a cruise from Ireland that visits some parts of the UK but two ports in Iceland. It sounds interesting but it is more expensive. I have taken two Princess cruises and they have been some of my favorites so I am a bit nervous to try out Celebrity.

 

and we will be traveling with my 7YO. So I want it to be somewhat kid friendly.

We just did British Isles and Baltics cruises essentially back to back with Princess, so they're both fresh in our mind.

We were absolutely blown away by the BI and how much we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was an afterthought cruise, as add-on to the Baltics and some London travel to make our airfare more worthwhile, and some ports turned out ti be amkng the best if the entire cruises. It was outstanding, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

 

We're regular cruisers of both Princess and Celebrity (elite and Elite Plus accordingly), so we're pretty darn familiar with both.   We prefer Princess cabins actually, for the storage alone! On regal, you have the Deluxe balcony cabin which is perfect for us, all the normal amazing Princess storage plus small sofa sitting area.  We strongly dislike Celebrity's continued expansion of their class system, with some lounges, deck area, restaurants, etc only for certain classes if staterooms, and they're moving more and more with that rather than less. Unfortunately, Princess is following along, albeit a very far distant behind... 

For a young kid like that, Princess for sure. Better kids programming,more odds you'll have other kids, etc. 

Celebrity has a great buffet, but it closes throughout the day versus Princess being open continuously. And Celebrity doesn't have anything that compared to International Cafe. 

Better theater, by far, on Celebrity, but worse show times for us night owls.  Love music is generally equal between them. More activities overall in Princess, IME..

Food is comparable, service is comparable, etc. 

Given the two, we'd likely pick Princess over Celebrity (and usually do, all things being equal)

 

But - and this is important, at least to us - if the Princess itinerary isn't doing it for you, then don't pick it. Why sail to places you don't really want to go? 

 If the Celebrity itinerary is more interesting and visits more of the places you want to go, then that's the one you should go with. You won't be disappointed in Celebrity (unless you're one of those who can't do change or is constantly looking for problems). 

Celebrity is great, lovely shiosships, etc. You'll enjoy either way..

[villauk]

More alike than different; possibly X get the edge for food and Princess win on entertainment/activities. You’ll not find so many kids on X, especially for the cooler climate itineraries, even in the height of summer (and we’ve completed an Iceland itinerary and Baltic on X - not a BI as we live here 😉). They grouped the kids’ clubs together as there were so few children on our Baltic cruise.

 

TBH, Reflection is not a ship that we particularly like - mainly due to the extra deck of cabins compared to all the other S class ships (obviously, this is only my opinion). It’s one of the reasons we started looking at other options for cruise lines (a very overcrowded sailing on Reflection in the Med over the summertime), that and the ridiculous prices for the Med in the summer, especially on Edge (their new ship). We found that Princess were offering far more choices for itineraries.

 

We still have placeholders with X, so we do sail both lines. I’d say go with the itinerary that you most want to do, providing it gives good value for money, and check out those ports before you commit either way. The BI is very different from one place to another - just the same as each of the US states. On a side note, beware if you are taking the ‘free’ beverage package with X (as one of your perks) because there is now a $14pp per day fee chargeable when booking.

 

I’m sure you’d have a great time on either cruise.

[sunsetbeachgal]

We absolutely loved the British Isles ports on our Princess Cruise last year.  So much to see, we would actually love to do this cruise again soon.  Like you, We also loved Baltic, have done this twice.  In my opinion I would do BI next, then another Baltic.

 

I have not sailed Celebrity so can’t compare.  Last year the Celebrity BI cruises left from Amsterdam and the Princess cruises left from Southampton, and we wanted  to spend our pre cruise vacation in London, so decision made.  I choose my cruises based primarily on itinerary and I thought Princess had a fabulous itinerary.  One of my good friends just did a BI cruise in August on Celebrity and their cruise didn’t include a port for Edinburgh, for us that would definitely have been a deal killer! 
 

if you could provide the list of ports each of the two cruises you are considering I’d be happy to comment.  

Edited October 11, 2019 by sunsetbeachgal

[geoherb]

Our British Isles cruise two years ago on Princess is one of my favorite cruises. I loved all the ports. We did the itinerary that overnighted in Dublin, giving us more time to see that city. Our last Celebrity cruise was disappointing in terms of food and service. 

[dulcemariamar]

6 hours ago, geoherb said:

Our British Isles cruise two years ago on Princess is one of my favorite cruises. I loved all the ports. We did the itinerary that overnighted in Dublin, giving us more time to see that city. Our last Celebrity cruise was disappointing in terms of food and service. 

 

Thanks for this info! I thought the Baltic cruise was exciting so I was nervous that the British Isles would be hard to live up to. 

 

Are te most of the ports, ports you can just get off and enjoy the area or do you need to do extensive additional traveling. Like in Sweden is was an additional 50 minutes to get to Stockholm 

[dulcemariamar]

8 hours ago, sunsetbeachgal said:

We absolutely loved the British Isles ports on our Princess Cruise last year.  So much to see, we would actually love to do this cruise again soon.  Like you, We also loved Baltic, have done this twice.  In my opinion I would do BI next, then another Baltic.

 

I have not sailed Celebrity so can’t compare.  Last year the Celebrity BI cruises left from Amsterdam and the Princess cruises left from Southampton, and we wanted  to spend our pre cruise vacation in London, so decision made.  I choose my cruises based primarily on itinerary and I thought Princess had a fabulous itinerary.  One of my good friends just did a BI cruise in August on Celebrity and their cruise didn’t include a port for Edinburgh, for us that would definitely have been a deal killer! 
 

if you could provide the list of ports each of the two cruises you are considering I’d be happy to comment.  

 

To be honest I think it will be in the end another Princess club since my daughter adores the kids club and I thought the entertainment onboard is really nice for all of us.

 

How is is getting to the port in London. It is looks like a bit of a trek. 

[dulcemariamar]

10 hours ago, villauk said:

More alike than different; possibly X get the edge for food and Princess win on entertainment/activities. You’ll not find so many kids on X, especially for the cooler climate itineraries, even in the height of summer (and we’ve completed an Iceland itinerary and Baltic on X - not a BI as we live here 😉). They grouped the kids’ clubs together as there were so few children on our Baltic cruise.

 

TBH, Reflection is not a ship that we particularly like - mainly due to the extra deck of cabins compared to all the other S class ships (obviously, this is only my opinion). It’s one of the reasons we started looking at other options for cruise lines (a very overcrowded sailing on Reflection in the Med over the summertime), that and the ridiculous prices for the Med in the summer, especially on Edge (their new ship). We found that Princess were offering far more choices for itineraries.

 

We still have placeholders with X, so we do sail both lines. I’d say go with the itinerary that you most want to do, providing it gives good value for money, and check out those ports before you commit either way. The BI is very different from one place to another - just the same as each of the US states. On a side note, beware if you are taking the ‘free’ beverage package with X (as one of your perks) because there is now a $14pp per day fee chargeable when booking.

 

I’m sure you’d have a great time on either cruise.

Yes, Celebrity is quite expensive and so far we have good experiences on Princess. Food is important. I am not a super adventurous eater by I like good quality meat and fresh products. What grade would you give Celebrity food and which grade would you give Princess?

[dulcemariamar]

19 hours ago, reedprincess said:

We just did British Isles and Baltics cruises essentially back to back with Princess, so they're both fresh in our mind.

We were absolutely blown away by the BI and how much we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was an afterthought cruise, as add-on to the Baltics and some London travel to make our airfare more worthwhile, and some ports turned out ti be amkng the best if the entire cruises. It was outstanding, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

 

We're regular cruisers of both Princess and Celebrity (elite and Elite Plus accordingly), so we're pretty darn familiar with both.   We prefer Princess cabins actually, for the storage alone! On regal, you have the Deluxe balcony cabin which is perfect for us, all the normal amazing Princess storage plus small sofa sitting area.  We strongly dislike Celebrity's continued expansion of their class system, with some lounges, deck area, restaurants, etc only for certain classes if staterooms, and they're moving more and more with that rather than less. Unfortunately, Princess is following along, albeit a very far distant behind... 

For a young kid like that, Princess for sure. Better kids programming,more odds you'll have other kids, etc. 

Celebrity has a great buffet, but it closes throughout the day versus Princess being open continuously. And Celebrity doesn't have anything that compared to International Cafe. 

Better theater, by far, on Celebrity, but worse show times for us night owls.  Love music is generally equal between them. More activities overall in Princess, IME..

Food is comparable, service is comparable, etc. 

Given the two, we'd likely pick Princess over Celebrity (and usually do, all things being equal)

 

But - and this is important, at least to us - if the Princess itinerary isn't doing it for you, then don't pick it. Why sail to places you don't really want to go? 

 If the Celebrity itinerary is more interesting and visits more of the places you want to go, then that's the one you should go with. You won't be disappointed in Celebrity (unless you're one of those who can't do change or is constantly looking for problems). 

Celebrity is great, lovely shiosships, etc. You'll enjoy either way..

Thank you for your feedback about the British Isles cruise. It actually made me excited to try it out. 

 

And my kid loves Princess

[dulcemariamar]

22 hours ago, seacruise9 said:

Hi, 

 

I recently did the 12-day British Isles cruise on the Crown Princess (Sep. 10-22, 2019) and had a wonderful time. Similar to you,  I also have done the 11-day Scandinavia / Russia cruise with Princess (on the Emerald Princess back in 2012). Both cruises were excellent but very port intensive.

 

On my recent Crown Princess cruise, I did shore excursions in all nine ports and visited such places as Dublin, Edinburgh, the Scottish Highlands, several historic castles and Loch Ness. In Liverpool, I did a very interesting "In the Steps of the Beatles" tour. In Belfast, I did a tour that included the outstanding Titanic Museum. From Le Havre, France, I visited stunning Mont Saint Michel. I honestly enjoyed this cruise more than expected. The ports were interesting and the people were very friendly.

 

There were very few children on this particular cruise, but this probably is due to the fact that the cruise was in September.

 

Princess and Celebrity are two of my favorite lines. I have taken 21 Princess cruises and eight Celebrity cruises. Each line has its own strengths and weaknesses, but I think they are fairly comparable overall. If you like Princess, I think you would like Celebrity.

 

I have never visited Iceland, but I know that it is becoming very popular.

 

Chuck

Thanks for the info. Celebrity is more expensive so I never tried it because I have always found a cruise for a better value. I would like to try it out since it is the last company I haven’t been on but I guess I will try when I stop enjoying Princess or if they offer a super exciting route

[BrennerM]

4 minutes ago, dulcemariamar said:

 

Thanks for this info! I thought the Baltic cruise was exciting so I was nervous that the British Isles would be hard to live up to. 

 

Are te most of the ports, ports you can just get off and enjoy the area or do you need to do extensive additional traveling. Like in Sweden is was an additional 50 minutes to get to Stockholm 

 

For the British Isles, most of the ports are right at major cities with lots to do, but there are also many things to do on excursions further from port.  As an example in Belfast we went to the Giant's Causeway and it was amazing but it was about 90-minutes each way although the drive was along the coast and was very scenic.  But we could have done the Titanic museum instead which was right at the port.

After we finished the BI cruise we agreed that it would be great to do it again someday because there were many good choices at each port so you could do a totally different cruise the second time around.  Our only criticism was that it was extremely port-intensive and we were pretty exhausted by the time we got to the 6th port day in a row (Glasgow in our case).  We were so thankful when the first sea day arrived!  But that's a minor quibble at best.

[geoherb]

14 minutes ago, dulcemariamar said:

 

Are te most of the ports, ports you can just get off and enjoy the area or do you need to do extensive additional traveling. Like in Sweden is was an additional 50 minutes to get to Stockholm 

 

It's a split. We walked around Guernsey on our own. We took an independent excursion in Cobh that went to Blarney Castle and Kinsale. We walked around Dublin on our own the first day and did the hop-on/hop-off bus the second. We walked around Belfast on our own. We took an independent excursion in Invergordon to Urquhart Castle, a Loch Ness cruise, Clava Cairns, and Cawdor Castle. We took the train from Greenock to Glasgow and did the hop-on/hop-off bus there to see several places. We took the train from South Queensferry to Edinburgh and went to the castle. (I understand there has been a shuttle bus added that wasn't available when we were there two years ago.) We walked around Le Havre on our own. Many people did excursions to the Normandy battlefields or Paris from there. Be sure to visit the British Isles board and search for info on each port. Our roll call thread had great tips. That's how I found out about the two independent excursions we took.

[villauk]

28 minutes ago, dulcemariamar said:

Yes, Celebrity is quite expensive and so far we have good experiences on Princess. Food is important. I am not a super adventurous eater by I like good quality meat and fresh products. What grade would you give Celebrity food and which grade would you give Princess?

 

 

Just a notch or two above, nothing that would prevent me booking either line. We do like the IC on Princess and much preferred the new World Fresh Market Place on Caribbean Princess (more like S class ships on X) compared to the Grand buffet last year. I do think there are good/not so good points on both lines.

[sunsetbeachgal]

1 hour ago, dulcemariamar said:

 

To be honest I think it will be in the end another Princess club since my daughter adores the kids club and I thought the entertainment onboard is really nice for all of us.

 

How is is getting to the port in London. It is looks like a bit of a trek. 

Hi,

 

Yes Southampton is quite a distance from central London which is where we came from as we flew in five days early.  If you and your family have not been to London it is beyond fabulous!  We used private car service since we had a group of seven.  I booked it along with airport transfer with Blackberry Cars and would highly recommend them.  
 

 

[SkystheLimit]

3 hours ago, dulcemariamar said:

Yes, Celebrity is quite expensive and so far we have good experiences on Princess. Food is important. I am not a super adventurous eater by I like good quality meat and fresh products. What grade would you give Celebrity food and which grade would you give Princess?

We have sailed on both Princess and Celebrity several times.  As of late, we prefer Celebrity's dining.  The S class ships have several different speciality options depending on the ship.  We like the spa cafe at lunch.  Limited but very good place for light lunch. The main dining rooms are pretty and feel much more spacious because of the openness and higher ceilings.  We like the always available options if menu items don't appeal. Princess gets the edge in desserts but that's because I like the chocolate desserts offered. Another category to consider is Aqua class and the Blu dining room.  Do some searching and you can find menus from both cruise lines posted.  As for the Reflection, we have sailed her twice with another cruise booked in Feb.  We did not feel the ship was crowded any more than any other but neither cruise had many children aboard.  Reflection has Lawn Club Grill which we really like for a speciality restaurant.  Also, for now room service is no charge on Celebrity with a few exceptions(i.e. steak for breakfast). Princess does win for pizza but not by much. As for grades Celebrity A-,  Princess B.

 

Edited October 11, 2019 by SkystheLimit

[BarbinMich]

We've done 50 ocean cruises since starting in 1994:  Princess - 31 cruises (347 days); Celebrity - 11 cruises (96 days); HAL - 8 cruises (71 days).  Obviously, we came to prefer Princess after starting on Celebrity, but are now Elite on both.  Our last cruise on X was in 2015 on the Summit for Can/NE, an itinerary we had done by car, but never by sea.  It was our first as Elites and we enjoyed their nightly cocktail party which is better than Princess' IMHO:  a menu of cocktails and copious and varied hors d'oeuvres passed by wait staff.  It's held in their Revelations Lounge (fwd on Deck 11); that was also a great place to enjoy the sail up the St. Lawrence, even on a rainy day.  However, Princess is certainly at a better price point for folks who cruise several times a year.  Prefer Princess's US embarkation port (FLL) to having to sail out of Miami for most of X's Caribbean itineraries or NJ for others like the Can/NE.  We did a 14-day X cruise (Eclipse) from Southapmton to the Med to get to Elite in 2014.  While we enjoyed the itinerary which had many new ports for us (Gibraltar, Villefranche, Civitavecchia, Livorno, Genoa, Malaga, Lisbon), we didn't like our balcony cabin set-up ("couch" was actually twin bed size, desk very small, closet faced bed, etc.).  The buffet space and organization was superior to that on the Royal, however.  Finally, we haven't done the BI itinerary on any line so can't comment on that.

[HappyCruiserettu]

On 10/11/2019 at 4:04 AM, villauk said:

More alike than different; possibly X get the edge for food and Princess win on entertainment/activities.

 

We still have placeholders with X, so we do sail both lines. I’d say go with the itinerary that you most want to do, providing it gives good value for money, and check out those ports before you commit either way. The BI is very different from one place to another - just the same as each of the US states. On a side note, beware if you are taking the ‘free’ beverage package with X (as one of your perks) because there is now a $14pp per day fee chargeable when booking.

 

I’m sure you’d have a great time on either cruise.

 

that $14/day would cover the gratuities for the beverage package. Those gratuities are included in Princess' package. Friends, who only occasionaly have a glass of wine, gave up the free beverage package on a 12-day NCL cruise, and saved $480 in gratuities which would have been assessed. They had all the wine/drinks THEY WANTED for a lot less than $480.

[cruisequeen4ever]

I recommend sticking with Princess. We wandered over to Celebrity for a unique itinerary and were very underwhelmed. The food was mediocre, there was a definite class system aboard, and some of the crew was not very professional. 

 

We did the Royal to the British Isles, and it was absolutely fabulous! 

 

Also, I saw you mention having a daughter who loves the kids’ club. Celebrity does NOT cater to children. 

[villauk]

On 10/11/2019 at 8:34 PM, dulcemariamar said:

How is is getting to the port in London. It is looks like a bit of a trek. 

 

 

London is nowhere near Southampton, but there are transport links.

 

45 minutes ago, HappyCruiserettu said:

that $14/day would cover the gratuities for the beverage package. Those gratuities are included in Princess' package. Friends, who only occasionaly have a glass of wine, gave up the free beverage package on a 12-day NCL cruise, and saved $480 in gratuities which would have been assessed. They had all the wine/drinks THEY WANTED for a lot less than $480.

 

Which is why we won’t bother taking the ‘free’ package in the future. With our status, we’ll stick with the nightly unlimited free HH drinks 😉.

[villauk]

14 minutes ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

Celebrity does NOT cater to children. 

 

 

X does have kids’ clubs which are great for those children who don’t want hundreds of kids - they are far more personal, nothing like Royal. I know as my kids have been on 11 sailings with them 😉.

[2theship]

We cruise both Celebrity and Princess and make our choice based on itinerary. So far, for cruising the British Isles, Princess has gotten our business because we like the ports better.

When we've sailed out of Southampton, we've used Woodford Chauffeur Cars - they're great. There are also trains and the cruise lines operate buses from London to the port. At the end of the cruise we usually take the cruise line transfer because it's easy.

[BrennerM]

After your cruise if you are going to London from Southampton I recommend looking for third-party cruise transfer tours.  We did one with a company called  "International Friends" that went to Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral, and Windsor Castle, and then dropped off at Heathrow plus a few hotels.  It was fantastic!  I suspect you could get similar tours that go in the opposite direction as well to get you to the cruise ship (London->Southampton).