Regal Princess v P&O

[Presto2]

Hi,

 

We are having a look at cruises for 2022 at the moment and stumbled on the fact that a cruise on Regal Princess was a really good price for the Med Aug 2021. Their prices are not out yet but if similar in 2022 it is tempting. We love Britannia and understand that there are extra costs like tips and drinks. We've done Celebrity a number of times and have been told that Princess is an up market P&O and better than Celebrity. Just wonder what your thoughts are. Thanks everyone.

 

(Great to talk cruising again 🙂 )

[Esprit]

I know I am bias towards Princess but Royal Princess (Regal’s older sister) was superior to Britannia IMHO.

The atrium for starters is vibrant compared with Britannia, which was more like a hotel lobby.

We liked Royal so much I booked Enchanted Princess three times (twice cancelled) for next July. I’m that keen to get aboard.

We’ve  cruised with Celebrity a few times too and was wowed by the Edge, but Princess edge above Celebrity for entertainment, bars and dance venues.

Food is much better on Princess and Celebrity compared with P&O, but I’m not a foodie. I’d rather be drinking and larking about!

[Britboys]

I've never sailed Princess ex Southampton but if the food and entertainment are as good as Princess ex-USA, then I would agree that it is definitely superior to P&O. This year they were offering inclusive gratuities, drinks and wi-fi for £35 pppn, which was a very good deal.

[majortom10]

Usually in the past Princess prices on brochure release have always been very high and have always been reduced as it gets closer to sail date, opposite to what P&O currently do. But I wouldnt expect Summer 2022 prices to be anywhere as cheap as current August 2021 prices are.

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, Presto2 said:

Hi,

 

We are having a look at cruises for 2022 at the moment and stumbled on the fact that a cruise on Regal Princess was a really good price for the Med Aug 2021. Their prices are not out yet but if similar in 2022 it is tempting. We love Britannia and understand that there are extra costs like tips and drinks. We've done Celebrity a number of times and have been told that Princess is an up market P&O and better than Celebrity. Just wonder what your thoughts are. Thanks everyone.

 

(Great to talk cruising again 🙂 )

Just had a newsletter from my TA and, in case you weren't aware, it looks like Princess are sailing Sky and Crown Princesses ex Southampton for the Summer 22 season. Regal to be based in the Med.

[Presto2]

6 minutes ago, Britboys said:

Just had a newsletter from my TA and, in case you weren't aware, it looks like Princess are sailing Sky and Crown Princesses ex Southampton for the Summer 22 season. Regal to be based in the Med.

Thanks for that. Not too keen on Crown and not sure about Sky. Have you got more details? Is Crown like Ventura and Sky like Britannia?

[majortom10]

Our last Princess cruise was on Crown Princess last August around the British Isles and although we love the cruise we were not impressed with Crown Princess the changes they had made and was not impressed with the food. Not sure if the changes were just ship or across the fleet but its put us off Princess for the future and for the first time in years we didnt have one booked for 2020 and havent booked for 2021 and 2022.

[Esprit]

44 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Thanks for that. Not too keen on Crown and not sure about Sky. Have you got more details? Is Crown like Ventura and Sky like Britannia?

Yes. Crown is a Grand class ship and Sky is a Royal class ship

[ann141]

We have sailed on Crown and Emerald Princess.Both have similar layouts to Ventura and Azura.We are considering a cruise on Regal Princess in June 2021 and possibly one on Island Princess in Oct/November 2021 but are waiting to book until we see how covid affects things.We like Princess and think the food is slightly better than on P and O.(free ice cream!) Prices are dearer for drinks and excursions.Generally we choose  a cruise by itinerary and given the choice of same itinerary with P and O or Princess, price would probably be the deciding factor.

[Captain_Morgan]

Crown Princess was the first of this class which is effectively a Princess Grand Class with an extra deck.  There were 5 total built off the same spec with brand specific changes built in the following order:

Crown Princess

Ventura

Emerald Princess

Azura

Ruby Princess

Personally I find Princess' decor is gaudy with too much brass and 'bling' whereas at least with P&O its a little more bespoke by comparison.

As for the Royal Class, again the Princess offerings are very shiny and bright with a sweeping atrium that feels wide open in comparison to Britannia which seemed a little more enclosed.

[P&O SUE]

I agree that Princess prices are really high on launch but at this time of year they have ‘Black Friday’ deals which are really good as I’ve been following their prices for a couple of years. This last couple of weeks they have been doing a balcony for the price of an inside. 7 nights up to Scandinavia something like £799 for a balcony! 
I’d definitely be up for trying Sky Princess in 2022 but I wouldn’t book it until about the November 2021. In 2019 I did 7 nights for £599! It was an inside though.

[ann141]

1 hour ago, P&O SUE said:

I agree that Princess prices are really high on launch but at this time of year they have ‘Black Friday’ deals which are really good as I’ve been following their prices for a couple of years. This last couple of weeks they have been doing a balcony for the price of an inside. 7 nights up to Scandinavia something like £799 for a balcony! 
I’d definitely be up for trying Sky Princess in 2022 but I wouldn’t book it until about the November 2021. In 2019 I did 7 nights for £599! It was an inside though.

We did similar  in 2018 and would book today for the cruise we are interested in as the Black friday deals are usually very good 8 nights balcony £749.However we are going to wait until the New Year before we book any cruises.We also want to make sure our insurance through our bank covers co vid which it doesn t at the moment.

[majortom10]

Sky and Crown will sail from Southampton in 2022 and will be on sale from 2nd December.

[terrierjohn]

6 hours ago, Captain_Morgan said:

Crown Princess was the first of this class which is effectively a Princess Grand Class with an extra deck.  There were 5 total built off the same spec with brand specific changes built in the following order:

Crown Princess

Ventura

Emerald Princess

Azura

Ruby Princess

Personally I find Princess' decor is gaudy with too much brass and 'bling' whereas at least with P&O its a little more bespoke by comparison.

As for the Royal Class, again the Princess offerings are very shiny and bright with a sweeping atrium that feels wide open in comparison to Britannia which seemed a little more enclosed.

I much prefer Princesses shiny brass and glamorous Atriums, rather than the bland ones of P&O, and the RCI  and Celebrity ones are even better, IMO.

[Josy1953]

It's really a personal choice but I would go with Princess every time if we could.  We go with P&O because OH can't fly for health reasons and Princess offerings are limited from Southampton.

[Bazrat]

we booked a cruise for next year with Princess but they changed the ship not a problem but they also changed the itinerary twice so we cancelled, it as not put us off going with them just annoying.

[Esprit]

1 hour ago, Bazrat said:

we booked a cruise for next year with Princess but they changed the ship not a problem but they also changed the itinerary twice so we cancelled, it as not put us off going with them just annoying.

Maybe the Pandemic had something to do with the itinerary change!

Our Enchanted Princess 2021 cruise was cancelled and then the itinerary for the replacement cruise was completely changed. The uncertainty of the ports of call being one reason. 
Fly cruises to the Mediterranean are also causing issues particularly when they embark in Italy and disembark in Spain for instance.

Our latest booking now starts and finishes in Civitavecchia after two weeks cruising.

[Josy1953]

13 hours ago, Esprit said:

Maybe the Pandemic had something to do with the itinerary change!

Our Enchanted Princess 2021 cruise was cancelled and then the itinerary for the replacement cruise was completely changed. The uncertainty of the ports of call being one reason. 
Fly cruises to the Mediterranean are also causing issues particularly when they embark in Italy and disembark in Spain for instance.

Our latest booking now starts and finishes in Civitavecchia after two weeks cruising.

We have booked Sky Princess around Britain for next year because we are not sure about Mediterranean ports at the moment.  I hope that we get to go but even around Britain is not a sure thing at the moment.  It was originally on Crown Princess but was changed by Princess to Sky Princess after we had booked.

Edited November 28, 2020 by Josy1953

[Presto2]

I think that we will prefer to sail from Southampton for a while to come, until things calm down I suppose. We are now looking at a cruise on Britannia for late July 2022 which goes to France and Spain - many ports we have not done before. The cost is coming out at just over £4000 for an aft cabin we have had before that we love so not a bad price. If Princess had one of Britannia's 'sister ships' doing something similar we could be tempted just to give them a go. Have to say, we were really not keen on Ventura , though we loved Azura, so we any Princess ships that resemble Ventura never really tempt us. 

[Ehg]

On 11/26/2020 at 7:30 PM, Presto2 said:

Hi,

 

We are having a look at cruises for 2022 at the moment and stumbled on the fact that a cruise on Regal Princess was a really good price for the Med Aug 2021. Their prices are not out yet but if similar in 2022 it is tempting. We love Britannia and understand that there are extra costs like tips and drinks. We've done Celebrity a number of times and have been told that Princess is an up market P&O and better than Celebrity. Just wonder what your thoughts are. Thanks everyone.

 

(Great to talk cruising again 🙂 )

👋🏻 Hello,

we have sailed on all 3 lines and my thoughts are that P&O and Princess are very similar and Celebrity is far superior to both.  
 

Food in particular is on another level on Celebrity.
 

We have so far only done a very short Princess cruise though so my judgement may not be entirely fair.

 

Hope that is if some help. 😊

 

[Presto2]

5 minutes ago, Ehg said:

👋🏻 Hello,

we have sailed on all 3 lines and my thoughts are that P&O and Princess are very similar and Celebrity is far superior to both.  
 

Food in particular is on another level on Celebrity.
 

We have so far only done a very short Princess cruise though so my judgement may not be entirely fair.

 

Hope that is if some help. 😊

 

Thanks for that. Have to say we have done Silhouette, Constellation and EDGE on Celebrity. We loved Silly and EDGE was just another world. We really did not warm to the Constellation at all though and would not sail on this class of ship again. Our dream cruise for 2022 would be EDGE again but it cost us a fortune....

[Ehg]

6 hours ago, Presto2 said:

Thanks for that. Have to say we have done Silhouette, Constellation and EDGE on Celebrity. We loved Silly and EDGE was just another world. We really did not warm to the Constellation at all though and would not sail on this class of ship again. Our dream cruise for 2022 would be EDGE again but it cost us a fortune....

I know, it is flipping expensive, but you can get good deals. Not that I’ve noticed any recently. The Celebrity prices have gone through the roof!

 

Interesting To hear your thoughts on the Millennium class ships. We’ve only sailed on Silly and Eclipse so far. We’re due on Apex in April but of course was cancelled. 😭

[Presto2]

1 minute ago, Ehg said:

I know, it is flipping expensive, but you can get good deals. Not that I’ve noticed any recently. The Celebrity prices have gone through the roof!

 

Interesting To hear your thoughts on the Millennium class ships. We’ve only sailed on Silly and Eclipse so far. We’re due on Apex in April but of course was cancelled. 😭

If she is anything like her sister EDGE you will be blown away. 

[Ehg]

35 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

If she is anything like her sister EDGE you will be blown away. 

Sorry, I misled you. We should have been on Apex April this year - the maiden voyage, but obviously it was cancelled. Gutted!  And no Edge class ships sailing from Southampton next year. 
 

Oh well, I'm sure Edge or Apex will sail from UK soon enough. 
 

We have a very long Princess cruise booked for September. Really looking forward to that. 🥳

[ann141]

Did anyone watch the programme showing Regal Princess which was broadcast this morning? Definitely made me eager to cruise with Princess again!