Princess vs Royal Caribbean

[walsky]

I have sailed RCL 11 times and Princess 8 times. Food about the same on both. Entertainment on RCL was slightly better; more variety. Size of average cabin was a little smaller on RCL. Really enjoyed them both.

 

walsky

[walsky]

Just wondering if there's anyone out there that has travel on both Princess and Royal Caribbean. I usually travel Royal Caribbean, but am considering a Princess cruise. What's your favorite and why. Thanks!

 

Have sailed both many times. Find that RCL has more of a variety of entertainment. Selection of food about the same. Cabin size on RCL smaller than Princess. Truly one will enjoy tham both. Hate Costa.

 

walsky

[cruiserfan]

I have done 3 RCI and 1 Princess and I prefer RCI. The staff on RCI was much friendlier. RCI has more entertainment by the pool with a band. Our princess ship had no entertainment by the outdoor pool. That was a huge dissapointment for us. I am sure if you post the same question on the RCI page you will get different answers. It all depends on what helps you have a great time. I go with my sister and we like to interact with the staff and bartenders. We got to know several on RCI and actually corresponded with them for awhile after our cruise. PRincess bartenders could not even remember our names.... all just personal preference

[negc]

I have sailed RCL 11 times and Princess 8 times. Food about the same on both. Entertainment on RCL was slightly better; more variety. Size of average cabin was a little smaller on RCL. Really enjoyed them both.

 

walsky

Generalizations are always dangerous and in this instance I think you really need to indicate which ships you are comparing when you state that one line's average (?) cabins are smaller than another's. In comparing an outside room with verandah on RCI's Rhapsody of the Seas (a Vision class ship) to a similar room on Princess' Dawn Princess, RCI's room was actually larger and the bathroom was significantly larger. If you are talking about other classes of ship, the same may not be true.

According to Princess, an outside room with verandah on Dawn or Sun Princess is 179 sq. ft including the balcony while on Rhapsody of the Seas, an outside room with verandah is 195 sq. ft. and the balcony is 41 sq.ft.

We enjoyed our time on both ships and the difference in room sizes, while noticeable, did not play a major role in our enjoyment of either cruise.

[msred3041]

Just wondering if there's anyone out there that has travel on both Princess and Royal Caribbean. I usually travel Royal Caribbean, but am considering a Princess cruise. What's your favorite and why. Thanks!

 

Hi,I have been on NCL, Carnival, RCI and Princess. I thought no ship that I thought no ship I have been on beat Royal Caribbean, but I like Princess a little bit more.

 

Why don't you come join our May 20-27, 2006 cruise on the Caribbean Princess. We will be going on the Western Caribbean.

 

Let me know what you decide. My opinion is, if you like Royal, you will love Princess.

 

See you in May.

 

Sherry

[Twice_a_year]

May be great for Elvis but not on cruising.

 

That tip from the message above is most likely the most important. Look for more docking than tendering and enjoy the trip much, much more.

[negc]

We are just off a pre-inaugural cruise on RCI's Freedom of the Seas and sailed on Sapphire Princess only a few weeks back. On both sailings we had an outside room with a balcony (Aloha deck on Princess and Deck 9 on Freedom). The room on Freedom was substantially larger than our room on the Sapphire Princess, with a full sofa instead of the barrel chair we had on SP, a slightly larger bathroom with a nice shower with sliding doors, new and greatly improved beds, bedding and linens and a flat panel plasma tv. Closet and storage space was also noticeably better on the Freedom. The placement of the chair in our SP stateroom required that we continually move it in order to access either the balcony or the refrigerator. Table on the Sapphire Princes balcony was larger and more conducive to having breakfast out on the balcony. Our balcony on SP looked directly down on the uncovered balconies of Coral and Diamond(?) decks. Balconies on Freedom were covered.

Food in the dining room on Sapphire Princess was IMHO much superior to my first dinner on Freedom where I was reduced to ordering my entree from the alternative (or always available) menu. That, however, is as likely to be due to my particular tastes than to the selections offered on the particular menu. Souffle on the Freedom was, again in my opinion, far superior to those served to us on Sapphire Princess, but the rest of the desserts we ate on Sapphire Princess were as good as I have had in the best land-based restaurants. One thing about the dining rooms onboard Freedom was the availability of true tables for two, which is not the case in Sapphire Princess' dining rooms, where the placement of those tables involves on one side a long bench at one end of four tables and a chair on the other side of those tables (reminded me of seating in MacDonald's) so that any private or intimate conversation was impossible and you could reach out and touch the people beside you at the other tables.

Strangely, although the Freedom is approximately two hundred feet longer than the Sapphire Princess, I found that it did not seem that much longer and the traffic patterns were considerably better. Entertainment on Freedom was excellent as you should expect with the introduction of a new ship. Entertainment on Sapphire Princess was less inspired but equal to most of the entertainment we have experienced on RCI and other lines. Audience participation shows on Princess were new, different and very imaginative and superior to what we have found on RCI.

Obviously the Freedom of the Seas has many bells and whistles that you won't find on other lines or even on other ships in RCI's fleet, but not all of those features will appeal to or be attractive to all cruisers so the presence of those differences may not make much difference to you.

We had an excellent time on Sapphire Princess and would gladly sail on her and her sister ships if the occasion arose. However, our preference for RCI was reinforced by our most recent trip on Freedom.

[merrynite]

We were on the Dawn Princess last week, and it a very nice ship. However, I found the food not to be consitent. Most of the time, it was excellent, and the service was wonderful. However, on RC, if we wanted a late night snack, the room service menu was not limited like it is the princess. We did go to the Buffet one night after the disco closed, and found only a few items. So we skipped it and did a hamburger in the room.

 

I would like to warn you, we did the anytime dining, (and I think it is a wonderful idea) however, we never planned on doing any of the formal nights. Call it naive on our part, we thought we could still eat in the dining room. We made reservations the first formal night, and were embarrased and humiliated when we were told we were not dressed appropriately. I had on a cocktail dress and my husband had on slacks and a polo shirt. The matrie d made such a fuss, we walked out. He told us that if he sat us with anyone, we would be a dissapointment for them. When I made the reservations, I told the lady that we would not be participating in the formal night. She had told us that was ok, just not to wear shorts, tank tops, swimsuits, etc. After we were embarrased, I called the reservation line to let her know, and it was closed. I then called the purser/information line and explained what had happened, and was told to put it in writing, as he did not have time to deal with problems. This experience was not pleasant. We never went back to the dining room, and I know missed some wonderful meals. I made sure we ate in port before getting back on. So, please if you don't want to do the formal night, DO NOT go to the dining room, eat at the pizza place instead, and don't get embarrased. Then on the other evenings, enjoy the anytime dining. I have written a letter to Princess regarding the incident. Hoping to get a reply.

[TexasMom2]

negc, thanks for the honest feedback on the Freedom. Do you plan to sail her again later this year?

 

Merrynite, I wish the Maitre 'd and the reservationist had been in sync that evening, and further that the Maitre 'd hadn't said you would be a disappointment to the other guests. That is not for him to say, only that formal wear was required and that if you would like to change and return he would be happy to seat you. Please let us know your response from Princess. I hope the rest of your cruise was enjoyable.

[LARGIN]

I do not know if your cruise Patter defined dress codes. Ours did and it said that polo shirts and slacks were for smart Casual, not formal nights.

[bdjam]

I do not know if your cruise Patter defined dress codes. Ours did and it said that polo shirts and slacks were for smart Casual, not formal nights.

All Patters identify the evening’s dress code. Normally the first Patter of the cruise identifies what is acceptable (it did when I was on Dawn Princess in December). And there are signs at the dining rooms that ask passengers to dress appropriately in the dining room.

[cruiseapril]

We have been on both. Each offers a good cruise- in different ways. Princess is classy and more subdued. RCI is upbeat and hopping, by comparison.

 

The pool areas on Princess are more refined, RCI has more activity-in our experience.

 

Princess offers the wonderful Personal Choice Dining, which we like because we do lots of long shore excursions and don't like to feel rushed to be at dinner at a certain time.

 

RCI offers a wealth of good entertainment of all types. There seems to be more variety and more entertainment for families. RCI is more of a family cruise, a younger crowd.

 

All that being said, we love the Princess itineraries. We feel they have the best and that calls us back.

[PhilsGirl]

We just booked the Crown Princess for next March. We originally had an RCI ship on hold but switched because we wanted to try something different; our last 2 cruises being on Voyager-class ships. After reading these posts, I'm getting a little nervous seeing that most people liked the food and activities on Royal Caribbean better. I hope we made the right choice but I guess that's a decision only I can make.

[vacationhappy]

We cruise both lines and choose based on itinerary and price -

 

- Princess has fresh water pools, RCL is just begining to have fresh water pools

- Princess has self-serve laundry which is very convenient on longer trips

- On port intensive, touring cruises, we prefer the flexibility of PC dining however we do like traditional dining on cruises where we consider the ship as part of the destination.

- The layout of Princess ships "hides" all the people, you never have a true sense of how many people are on board. The public areas are split into smaller spaces. The atrium style layout found on RCL ships provide a "WOW" factor however you see how many people are on the ship and we have felt crowded.

- Princess has more excursions that are focused on learning while I think RCL has more active excursions - just my perception.

[negc]

We cruise both lines and choose based on itinerary and price -

 

- Princess has fresh water pools, RCL is just begining to have fresh water pools

Actually RCI does not have fresh water pools. We are just off the Freedom of the Seas and the pools, despite rumors to the contrary, are salt water. Personally I don't think the difference is important since most of us will be swimming in salt water when we go to the beaches in the Caribbean and Mexican Riviera, and heavily chlorinated pools are, IMHO, more objectionable than clean, filtered salt water pools. Whenever I am in a hotel that has an indoor pool, I can find it blindfolded because of the overwhelming smell of chlorine which permeates an area that extends well beyond the pool area.

Rooms on RCI, which used to be notorious for being tiny, are now much larger than rooms of similar category on Princess and storage space, at least comparing our most recent E1 stateroom on Freedom of the Seas ( I thought it had to be a D1) to the BA stateroom on Sapphire Princess, was vastly superior.

[negc]

negc, thanks for the honest feedback on the Freedom. Do you plan to sail her again later this year?

Yes, we will be on her with our kids and grandkids in October. I know that the kids and grandkids will enjoy and take advantage of many of the bells and whistles she offers, and now I know that we will have a wonderful time as well. Radiance class ships are still our favorites, but if you are going to sail on a larger ship, Freedom can't be beat.

[TexasMom2]

I do not know if your cruise Patter defined dress codes. Ours did and it said that polo shirts and slacks were for smart Casual, not formal nights.

 

Which is all well and good, but the reservationist said that smart casual was OK, then the Maitre 'd proceeded to embarrass them. The phone call to make reservations would have been the perfect time (and pretty painless) to have the attire question answered appropriately, not when they showed up. They asked and were told smart casual was OK, so I can see how this mistake was made.

 

The reservationist and the Maitre 'd were not in sync as to enforcement (which is known to go either way) and it resulted in the Maitre 'd being rude. The rudeness was not OK.

[bdjam]

There’s no way to substantiate the level of rudeness of the Matre’d. I would suggest that he may not have been rude at all – given the position this person holds on the ship, I wouldn’t think rudeness would be allowed. Maybe on RCI.

[negc]

There’s no way to substantiate the level of rudeness of the Matre’d. I would suggest that he may not have been rude at all – given the position this person holds on the ship, I wouldn’t think rudeness would be allowed. Maybe on RCI.

Brian - I'm surprised at you for that low shot.:( Rudeness is unacceptable anywhere but it can occur. In fact, we encountered an extremely rude person at the pursers desk on our Dawn Princess Panama Canal cruise a few years back. When we mentioned the situation to another member of the cruise staff, he was able to name the individual without needing any additional identification. I don't believe that Princess or RCI (or any cruiseline for that matter)condones rudeness from any of its employees and would take seriously any reports of such behavior. Rude behavior is not usually an isolated event and I would think that in the presence of a number of complaints about an individual behaving rudely, that employee would be dealt with or terminated.

[TexasMom2]

I still wish the reservationist had told them that smart casual was not OK. I am willing to bet they wouldn't have gone to the dining room and that would have saved some embarrassment. I guess it boils down to the inconsistency problem.

[merrynite]

TexasMom2..thank you. We would of indeed not gone to the dining room at all and avoided the embarrasement. When I went to the room, I called the reservation desk to let the lady know smart casual was not ok, I didn't want her to inform an other person incorrectly and have the same thing happen. Unfortunately it was closed by then.

 

We chose anytime dining because we knew we would not be participating in the formal nights, and assume (and you know what happens when you do that.. LOL) that anytime dining was not part of the formal nights since it has it's own dining. My husband is retired, and that means...NO TIES!! I don't blame him. We now understand that both choices of dining are included, and will never make that mistake again. I was hurt for him because the Matri'd humilated a very wonderful man.

 

As for the Matri 'd...he was rude and I have made that clear to Princess. I am a top loan originator for one of the largest bank, and if anyone ever does that to a customer, I will come unglued. My reputation is my based on my customer service to my clients.

 

It is over and done, and I learned a valuable lesson. Next time I will take the cocktail dress off, and put on my shorts and swim suit..see who get's the last laugh then. (JUST KIDDING!!!)

 

Onwards and upwards to a better crusing experience next...now that I am smarter about the situation.

[Cruising89143]

I still wish the reservationist had told them that smart casual was not OK. I am willing to bet they wouldn't have gone to the dining room and that would have saved some embarrassment. I guess it boils down to the inconsistency problem.

 

Don't you love it when a person that was not there tries to tell you that what you perceive as someone being rude wasn't???:rolleyes: Nice that some people know everything.

[TexasMom2]

TexasMom2..thank you. We would of indeed not gone to the dining room at all and avoided the embarrasement. When I went to the room, I called the reservation desk to let the lady know smart casual was not ok, I didn't want her to inform an other person incorrectly and have the same thing happen. Unfortunately it was closed by then.

 

We chose anytime dining because we knew we would not be participating in the formal nights, and assume (and you know what happens when you do that.. LOL) that anytime dining was not part of the formal nights since it has it's own dining. My husband is retired, and that means...NO TIES!! I don't blame him. We now understand that both choices of dining are included, and will never make that mistake again. I was hurt for him because the Matri'd humilated a very wonderful man.

 

As for the Matri 'd...he was rude and I have made that clear to Princess. I am a top loan originator for one of the largest bank, and if anyone ever does that to a customer, I will come unglued. My reputation is my based on my customer service to my clients.

 

It is over and done, and I learned a valuable lesson. Next time I will take the cocktail dress off, and put on my shorts and swim suit..see who get's the last laugh then. (JUST KIDDING!!!)

 

Onwards and upwards to a better crusing experience next...now that I am smarter about the situation.

 

What a wonderful attitude you have. I am sorry that it was an embarrassing situation and didn't have to be. May all your future cruises be fabulous and tie-less. :)

[TexasMom2]

Don't you love it when a person that was not there tries to tell you that what you perceive as someone being rude wasn't???:rolleyes: Nice that some people know everything.

 

I hope you're zipping up your flame-retardant jumpsuit 'gator. ;)

[Cruising89143]

I hope you're zipping up your flame-retardant jumpsuit 'gator. ;)

 

I have thick skin. Doesn't bother me one bit!!!!!:) Let em at me.