Thinking about taking a Princess Cruise

[cruisegirl1976]

Hello .. I have sailed RCCL and Norwegian.. and was thinking about taking a princess cruise, to the Caribbean, just wondering if princess is similar to the other cruise lines.. I am in my mid forties and hubby is 50, we usually hit the bars on the ship at night, and hang by the pool during the day, we don't really do any of the theater shows, just wondering what age group tends to sail on princess (heard before it was for an older crowd).  Any help would be great.

Thanks 

[Jadn13]

29 minutes ago, cruisegirl1976 said:

Hello .. I have sailed RCCL and Norwegian.. and was thinking about taking a princess cruise, to the Caribbean, just wondering if princess is similar to the other cruise lines.. I am in my mid forties and hubby is 50, we usually hit the bars on the ship at night, and hang by the pool during the day, we don't really do any of the theater shows, just wondering what age group tends to sail on princess (heard before it was for an older crowd).  Any help would be great.

Thanks 

I prefer Princess and I’m in my early forties. 
I have found that the crowd/energy depends on the sailing but I have always had a great time. I don’t enjoy theatre  shows but I’m also not a fan of theme parks. 

[Lady Arwen]

Princess cruisers are of all ages.  Yes, you will find some very senior folks, some like myself who are older, but feel younger,  lots of middle aged and lots of millennials.  Caribbean, short cruises tend to attract a younger crowd, longer cruises to Europe and further abroad will attract an older crowd.

I think you would totally enjoy Princess and I was curious which ship you were looking at.  Each ship tends to have a bit different vibe, as well.

 

 

 

 

 

[cruisegirl1976]

11 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

Princess cruisers are of all ages.  Yes, you will find some very senior folks, some like myself who are older, but feel younger,  lots of middle aged and lots of millennials.  Caribbean, short cruises tend to attract a younger crowd, longer cruises to Europe and further abroad will attract an older crowd.

I think you would totally enjoy Princess and I was curious which ship you were looking at.  Each ship tends to have a bit different vibe, as well.

 

 

 

 

 

The two ships I am looking at our the Caribbean Princess, or the Regal Princess

[cruisegirl1976]

14 minutes ago, Jadn13 said:

I prefer Princess and I’m in my early forties. 
I have found that the crowd/energy depends on the sailing but I have always had a great time. I don’t enjoy theatre  shows but I’m also not a fan of theme parks. 

Ok.. I just want to make sure there is night life. I went on the NCL jewel years ago and all the bars were empty around 10pm

[WillCruiseForMoney]

1 minute ago, cruisegirl1976 said:

Ok.. I just want to make sure there is night life. I went on the NCL jewel years ago and all the bars were empty around 10pm

If you found the night life on NCL to be a bit lacking, you may experience the same feeling on Princess.  For me the Night Life on NCL is more active than Princess.  I do like both lines, but find Princess a bit more subdued than NCL.

[cruisegirl1976]

Just now, WillCruiseForMoney said:

If you found the night life on NCL to be a bit lacking, you may experience the same feeling on Princess.  For me the Night Life on NCL is more active than Princess.  I do like both lines, but find Princess a bit more subdued than NCL.

Good to know.. thanks for the tip 🙂

[Jadn13]

2 minutes ago, cruisegirl1976 said:

Ok.. I just want to make sure there is night life. I went on the NCL jewel years ago and all the bars were empty around 10pm

You would find that more on the longer TA but not on a normal Caribbean cruise.

I always find people where the live music is and that late crowd  usually ends up in  the nightclub 

[cruisegirl1976]

11 minutes ago, Jadn13 said:

You would find that more on the longer TA but not on a normal Caribbean cruise.

I always find people where the live music is and that late crowd  usually ends up in  the nightclub 

Oh ok.. I will do more research and watch youtube videos to get the feel of the ship. Thanks.

[CountryCruiser]

Princes is our favorite by far. We are 50 and been cruising Princess for over 10 years. With that said, don’t expect much night life. Carnival or Royal would be your best option for the party crowd. 

[AF-1]

Here is my take.  I have sailed twice with Princess;  one trip was on Caribbean Princess.  Club Fusion was jumping all the time with bands and dancing.  Skywalkers had a DJ for late night;  but it wasn't overly crowded.  Crooners had a piano bar most nights; and Explorers lounge was busy every night.  My take on Skywalkers is;  it is located way up high in the back of the ship.  People don't want to walk that far; so they choose the bars and lounges mid ship.  You should have fun on a Princess cruise

[Tak8]

I have been on all 3 lines and Princess is my favorite.  I find the service and food a step above.  Good mix of ages 

Caribbean Princess is a little older ship, but I really like it.  Regal would give you the latest class ship.

[CruisinFinsUp]

The age of the crowd depends on when you go.  School holidays and Christmas & New Years attract more multigenerational families, all ages.     Peak in school times has more older folks or childless adults.   
 

We travel when kids our out of school so with more "all ages" groups.   We like to hang out at a bar at night, listen to the entertainment.   There is usually a nightclub with dancing running from 11 pm, but we've not gone to it.   Princess is not a party crowd usually, but there is enough to do for us.  
 

 

[dog]

Princess sounds like a good match for you. Get the Princess Plus perks fare- on sale now— drinks, Gratuities, wifi etc

[Lady Arwen]

3 hours ago, cruisegirl1976 said:

The two ships I am looking at our the Caribbean Princess, or the Regal Princess

 Different class of ships.  Caribbean is older style ship, Regal is  newest class.  My preference is definitely Regal Princess.  Look on YouTube for some videos to see the difference.  We preferred the food on Regal, by a lot!  Whichever ship you choose, you’ll have a good time!

 

[Esprit]

We hit the bars and hang by the pool too but we are a little older.

I think you will fit right in with Princess.

[skynight]

From observation on a week long Caribbean cruise the age will range from 40's to 80's with the men being probably in the 50's. If you choose a longer voyage, 10 days, or maybe the few true 14 day cruises, not 7 day b2b's, the age will tend upwards. There will be more minors on board if you cruise during a school holiday period.

Caribbean Princess has more pools. Two main pools on the Lido deck, two adult only pools terrace pool aft and lap pool forward (not really a lap swimming pool). There is also a kids play pool on deck 17. In the evening there will be plenty of live music and activities in all the lounges as well as in the Piazza. Plenty of bars. Late evening Skywalker's opens as the night club. From experience there isn't tooo many there. Most hang on in the lounges. The ship kind of quiets down around 11/midnight.

The Regal does not have as many pools. Lounges in the shade are difficult to find. There are plenty of bars. Evening activity on the Regal tends to center in the Piazza area.

There are no water slides, rock walls, surf riders or those kinds of things on Princess ships.

[cruisegirl1976]

19 minutes ago, Lady Arwen said:

 Different class of ships.  Caribbean is older style ship, Regal is  newest class.  My preference is definitely Regal Princess.  Look on YouTube for some videos to see the difference.  We preferred the food on Regal, by a lot!  Whichever ship you choose, you’ll have a good time!

 

Thank you for the info 🙂

[cruisegirl1976]

10 minutes ago, skynight said:

From observation on a week long Caribbean cruise the age will range from 40's to 80's with the men being probably in the 50's. If you choose a longer voyage, 10 days, or maybe the few true 14 day cruises, not 7 day b2b's, the age will tend upwards. There will be more minors on board if you cruise during a school holiday period.

Caribbean Princess has more pools. Two main pools on the Lido deck, two adult only pools terrace pool aft and lap pool forward (not really a lap swimming pool). There is also a kids play pool on deck 17. In the evening there will be plenty of live music and activities in all the lounges as well as in the Piazza. Plenty of bars. Late evening Skywalker's opens as the night club. From experience there isn't tooo many there. Most hang on in the lounges. The ship kind of quiets down around 11/midnight.

The Regal does not have as many pools. Lounges in the shade are difficult to find. There are plenty of bars. Evening activity on the Regal tends to center in the Piazza area.

There are no water slides, rock walls, surf riders or those kinds of things on Princess ships.

Thank you for the detailed information.. I like that the princess has more pools. 

[mjmalino]

I am 50 and have been cruising Princess since my 30's, with kids in tow. We all love Princess. We have also cruised a variety of destinations such as the Mediterranean, Baltic, Alaska and Caribbean and on some ships the nightlife was almost non-existent, on others it was non-stop. I was actually surprised that one of the cruises that had the most nightlife was our 14 day Baltic a few years ago. But, our last cruise, Sky in Jan 2020 also had a lot of nightlife, but if I remember correctly, I am not sure Alaska did (but this was back in 2007, so I might not be remembering correctly).

 

[jondfk]

We've sailed NCL, RCL and Princess plus a few others.  Amongst the big 3 we prefer Princess.  

 

Here's why:

We don't use and have no interest in "theme park" sorts of things.  Go cart tracks, zip lines and climbing walls hold no appeal.  Princess has none of these, the others do, to varying degree.  So folks love this stuff and it's great that there are options for them.

 

We like a more traditional dining experience, and Princess offers this on every ship.  If you prefer anytime dining, Princess has that too and the majority of folks do take advantage, but like the things above it's nice to have a choice.

 

Here are a few Princess facts that might push you away:

Dining choice.  There's no doubt NCL has more options on every ship than any Princess offering.  Some included many extra charge but overall more selection.  When we last sailed NCL we never at in the MDR and never dined the same place twice in the evening.  On Princess you WILL be using the MDR or buffet a number of nights the alternative options are typically two (steak & Italian, both with an uncharge).

 

Princess has a kids club, but without the features above, kids are left largely to find things on their own to keep busy.  Some have no issues with this, others are bored almost from boarding.

 

As for nightlife and evening entertainment, and especially how many folks take part, this has much to do with the destination.  We've been on Princess sailings to Alaska where the promenade was cranked in and the lights turned off (not literally) by 10PM, we've been on Caribbean and Med sailings where the bars were lively well past midnight.  Really depends who's on board and how lively they like to be - Princess are good IMHO at reading the wants of the passengers on a particular sailing and keeping things cranking to meet the demand (or not).  That said typical Princess passengers are 50 something, some longer cruises off season skew far older.

 

Hope this helps a bit.

[rbtan]

8 hours ago, cruisegirl1976 said:

Hello .. I have sailed RCCL and Norwegian.. and was thinking about taking a princess cruise, to the Caribbean, just wondering if princess is similar to the other cruise lines.. I am in my mid forties and hubby is 50, we usually hit the bars on the ship at night, and hang by the pool during the day, we don't really do any of the theater shows, just wondering what age group tends to sail on princess (heard before it was for an older crowd).  Any help would be great.

Thanks 

In most cases, you'll find Princess(Royal class) a few steps above NCL. Food is generally better than NCL in the MDR. Some of the specialty rest. on NCL are pretty nice. Shows(which you don't care about) are generally better on the big NCL ships. Bars are pretty similar. The pools depending on the ship are similar. Chair hogs are common on both lines(actually, ALL lines) Star Princess on our Jan.-Feb 2020 trip had pool staff who actually seemed to enforce rules about leaving your chair for over 30 min..(about time!) Staff on Princess is generally second to none, & this comes from us, who cruised on Oceania & Cunard. Food on Oceania IS second to none in the "near" luxury market. We cruise Princess when the itinerary meets our needs. Age-wise, you'll find many pax older than you, but still a large group will be in your mix as well. Older pax(we're 66/59)generally like a lot of "longer trips"...10+ days for cruises. If you're a smoker, it's getting harder to smoke on many lines these days(which is fine by us) If you really want to go all out, I'd recommend the "Circle the Caribbean" trip. It's 14 days out, but you'll really get your feet wet, as they say.

[rbtan]

8 hours ago, cruisegirl1976 said:

The two ships I am looking at our the Caribbean Princess, or the Regal Princess

Big difference in ship. CP is a lot older & needs some TLC. Regal(our first Princess trip) is a big ship. We found Royal class ships to have much better food overall(we're both foodies) Regal had the most varied & largest buffet we ever saw on a ship. This was in 2016, so I can't say how the food is now. Our most recent trip on the Star had by far the most bland food(except Ultimate Balcony dinner) The buffet on that ship was pretty bad. I would definitely recommend the Regal in this case. Much more diversity in scale of the ship. The "Grand" class is, I think, being slowly phased out. I believe the Star is going to P&O if it hasn't already.

[skynight]

2 hours ago, rbtan said:

Big difference in ship. CP is a lot older & needs some TLC.

Caribbean Princess was in dry dock in 2017 and again wet dock in 2019. In 2017 lots of renovations. In 2019 she had her generator(s) repaired and some other passenger goodies. Of course, now she has been sitting for 13 months, and it will be additional months before she returns to service. She had a great family lounge area and splash pool added on deck 17. When very few children are on board it's a nice place to lounge. We sailed on her in August 2019. The ship was in nice condition then and very well run. The downside is that when she was built Princess added one additional passenger deck, 500 passengers, but kept the same basic design as the previous 2,600 passenger Grand Class ships. Even so we were happy with the Caribbean Princess and like it better than the Royal and Regal.

[trbarton]

13 hours ago, cruisegirl1976 said:

Ok.. I just want to make sure there is night life. I went on the NCL jewel years ago and all the bars were empty around 10pm

The Explores Lounge might have one program & then dancing later. Club Fusion is another good place with different programs & usually dancing. The Wheel House bar also has dancing. For a real disco club there is Skywalkers at the top of the ship. If there is a special occasion there will be live music in the Atrium. One place that is usually crowded is the piano bar. Many places with a bar opened. 
 

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