Princess only wins two categories in Porthole Magazine's reader poll

[donaldsc]

I am surprised that Princess won in any categories.

 

DON

[Coral]

16 hours ago, PoohUnderstands said:

Using your reasoning, I don't see why.  Those people that like NCL, RCCL, etc., are going to get older.  As people get older their tastes change and guess what?........... they will become Princess cruisers!!!!

 

Pooh

Think of all those young people (underage kids) who sail RCCL and NCL - they will take their kids on RCCL and NCL when they are adults.

[BarbinMich]

IMHO any poll that says St. Thomas is the "best Caribbean cruise destination" will not sway me about its other "bests".  It's an OK port, but there are others that are more interesting, esp. if you're interested in doing something other than laying on a beach.  Snorkeling is OK, but better at other ports.  More interesting historical sights on other islands.  If one goes on a cruise mainly or partly to shop, then maybe St. Thomas is the best (we're not shoppers so don't really know).  Our preferred islands are St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Barbados for their natural and/or historical features and the ABC's for snorkeling.

[geoherb]

I also discount the validity of any cruise survey that has Norwegian winning so many accolades. We won't sail on them again. 

[Cruisercl]

On 11/2/2019 at 5:25 PM, getting older slowly said:

the other thing is Princess Cruisers wouldn't bother with such a poll......

 

they just go on cruises............

 

Cheers Don

This is very true for every cruiseline, IMHO.

I have cruised on all of the main stream cruiselines and they pretty much are all more similar than different. (Not meant to start a 'discussion') 🤗

Cheers to you too.....

 

[Cruisercl]

12 hours ago, geoherb said:

I also discount the validity of any cruise survey that has Norwegian winning so many accolades. We won't sail on them again. 

We have had our challenges with Princess, Carnival and Celebrity so it is all subjective.

We like NCL. 😊

[Iamcruzin]

While I haven't sailed all of the lines I will say that Princess is not the best in any of those categories. I don't even know why they won for the best shopping experience. I also don't think Celebrity is the best for multi generational cruises. After sailing on Anthem I would say that Royal Caribbean should have won that category  We are in our 50's and were traveling with children in their 20's. They would have been bored out of their minds on Celebrity.  The Anthem was so well designed with the adult area forward and the kids activities Aft that we only saw teens and children during diner or in Royal Esplanade in the evenings. There really was something for everybody. I haven't sailed Princess in a while because there really isn't anything exciting on those ships. The new ships just carry more passengers but it's still the same bland product.

[USCcruisecrazy]

The beauty of cruising is that you can get out of it what you want or what you need.  If you want or need constant excitement and lots of high level activity, go on a ship that provides that.

 

We like Princess because it's more refined, we can relax (which is the main goal of vacationing) and we have no complaints with the food, the drinks, the service, or the entertainment for the most part.

 

Our children (all of which are between 31 and 39) love Princess as well, so not sure it only attracts the "Older" crowd.  Actually, they are the ones moving into that group of "having more disposable cash then they can spend" so Princess attracting some of them is a smart business model.  And that's what things like The Medallion or high speed internet tend to do.

[Skai]

The reality is that there really isn't anything exceptional about the Princess brand.  While Princess might not do much great, they do most everything good enough.  For many, familiarity = comfort.  That's not necessarily a bad thing for those passengers that prefer (and are ultra-loyal) to the line. 

 

I liken it to those that prefer to dine at Marie Callender's, Howard Johnson's, Steak & Ale etc.

 

[Vexorg]

In my experience, it's little things that point people's preferences one way or another.  For my parents, they stick with Princess because the ships have freshwater pools (which I understand wasn't particularly common when they started cruising.)  For my wife, she likes Princess because the ships have self-serve laundromats.  I'm not sure I'd care too much about either of those items, but most of my cruises have been on Princess, and I've generally had good experiences with them.  That's not to say I won't try other lines (I've done one cruise on RCCL and still want to go try an Oasis class ship at some point) but for the most part I stick with what I'm familiar with.