Thinking of trying Princess

[superduper123]

I've done many Royal Caribbean cruises, and one Celebrity so far. Thinking of trying Princess. How similar, or different is the experience? Can anyone offer comparisons on dining, onboard activities, entertainment, etc? Also demographics of fellow cruisers? Looking at Western Caribbean in January from Galveston. Thanks for any feedback.

[SargassoPirate]

We are D+ with Royal and Elite with Princess, so we have obviously had experience with both.  We find Princess to be a notch above Royal with regards to logistics.  Some ports and excursions with Royal seem like they've never done something like that before, where Princess is more organized.  We notice more upselling and marketing announcements with Royal while Princess is more subdued.  We like the buffet arrangements much better with Princess.  We like the cabin layout and storage much better on Princess.  Also, the guest laundromats on Princess are a real plus on longer cruises.

 

Given a similar itinerary and comparable pricing, Princess would be our first choice.

 

I'm sure you'll gather a lot more opinions here soon.  

[mtnesterz]

Our cruises with Celebrity were a few years ago and they've made some susbtantial changes with the newer ships, but you probably will read many here compare Princess with Celebrity with only small preference to tastes. Princess usually has more going on during the daytime seadays than X. We cruised RCL once and never went back, but Elite with Princess.

The Western Caribbean offers more what I'll call active excursions. The Eastern side more cultural ones. Haven't cruised out of Galveston, this is new for Princess, but Disney uses the port. If you have questions about that, post them in Port Departures.

[neverbeenhere]

dining - about the same as Celebrity

onboard activities - perhaps more than Celebrity, but way less than Royal

entertainment - Royal Rules with these three lines

demographics of fellow cruisers - Oldest to youngest - Princess, Celebrity,.....................Royal

[Rick&Jeannie]

We generally consider Princess as our "go to" cruise line...but we have cruised Celebrity once; Solstice to Alaska.  I think they compare very well...very similar atmospheres.  We intend to do Celebrity again...just have not yet found that itinerary that calls our name yet.  I don't think you'll be disappointed with princess....REGARDLESS of all the negative comments you may find in this forum.  Just human nature, I guess...people like to moan and groan!

[Roneill76]

I've done Princess more than any other line.

I found the food and service to be much better than RCL and on par with Celebrity and has been pretty consistent. I like to chill during the day by the pools or with a great view of the ocean, so I don't need many activities to entertain me during the day. 

I've only been on Celebrity once  and were bored at night with the entertainment options.

[RedIguana]

3 hours ago, superduper123 said:

I've done many Royal Caribbean cruises, and one Celebrity so far. Thinking of trying Princess. How similar, or different is the experience? Can anyone offer comparisons on dining, onboard activities, entertainment, etc? Also demographics of fellow cruisers? Looking at Western Caribbean in January from Galveston. Thanks for any feedback.

I am in a similar situation as you. Made it to D on RCI, but since the restart have been on HAL (Rotterdam, the new one) and Celebrity (Infinity), along with 4 RCI cruises.  Going on Princess (Crown) in 2 weeks. The similarities and differences will vary considerably depending on if comparing to Oasis and Quantum class vs the smaller ships. If you enjoy the radiance class, HAL, Princess, and Celebrity have ships that match nicely. If you don't care for the smaller ships and love the Oasis class you might be disappointed (but would say look at the Sun Princess when she launches). Minus the amenities found on the large RCI ships, I have found the food to be equal or better, the entertainment very good and comparable to radiance class style (except HAL comedians...55 ain't old enough for that). Adult ages may be a few years older, but not much. No where near as many kids or young adults. Personally I am enjoying trying different lines. I would say give it a try.

[phatlad]

Was on the Ruby Princess April 2-9 sailing out of Galveston.

 

It was my first time with Princess. I was not impressed at all.

 

I originally was excited, because my understanding was that Princess was a "step up" in the cruise experience I'm used to.

 

It was my fourth cruise overall. The three previous with Royal Carribbean. All four cruises have departed out of Galveston. Also this is my first post-COVID cruise. 

 

Overall, my experience was extremely underwhelming.

 

I was extremely disappointed in Main Dining Room. From service to options, it was incredibly subpar. Definitely not a 5-star experience I’m used to on RC. I don’t think they have enough wait staff. I was constantly waiting for refills on water/tea/soda. On RC, my cup never even had a chance to reach less than half full before it was filled back up. Alcoholic drinks took quite awhile in the MDR. Overall, the MDR was uninspired with a lack of options. On RC I struggled to pick just one from each option and often would order more than one. Not the case on Princess. Severely disappointed in each night’s options. It tasted fine. Not amazing; just fine. There was an overall lack of taste in the courses and desserts, as if the meals were prepared for people whose palate were incredibly bland. Two meals stood out as “great” – surf and turf (the steak was really good) and the jerk chicken (the most flavorful thing that entered my mouth all week). MDR breakfast and lunch were poor compared to RC, with a complete and utter lack of choices (No eggs benedict for breakfast?!) Service was extremely slow for both breakfast and lunch. On RC, I ate at the MDR every meal it was available. On Princess, I skipped all but one lunch and all but one breakfast. The menus kept me from even attempting to go back to the MDR for breakfast or lunch after my first experience with those meals.

 

Buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner was on par with Golden Corral with less choices.

 

(However, after reading many reviews of RC's recent dining changes, I'm afraid I would be underwhelmed on RC now as well.)

 

Layout of the ship’s common area is closed, confined and confusing.

 

Entertainment (shows) was D+. I walked out of two of them. Just BORING. Activities a D+. They often overlapped activities, so you would either have to leave early from one to make the other or arrive late to the other.

 

Princess app showed different times/info than the daily patter. App can't be trusted; you should just take a picture of your patter and refer to it throughout the day instead of the app.

 

Slice pizza: One of the top five worst things I’ve ever voluntarily put in my mouth. Looked amazing but Christ was it awful. Nice big piece. Took one bite and left the plate where I was. My god was it bad. Equally as bad was the BBQ sandwich from the Salty Dog. I’ve had tastier BBQ sandwiches at gas stations.

 

Room service. Tried thrice. Canceled our first order after we didn’t have it after waiting 100 minutes and we had somewhere to get to. Other two times the food was delivered in about 45 minutes (These were post-9 p.m. orders, so I think if you order later, it will be delivered quicker).

 

As much as they tout Princess Anywhere, it should work. It was awful. Over an hour wait time for a drink and food to be delivered. By no means was I expecting it to be there in an instant but if they make it seem like this magical thing, it should be. They tout it like it’s amazing. It’s not. (In theory, it is, but the fastest we ever received anything was 45 minutes).

 

Pros: Princess Plus (if you want the drink package) is worth it. I'm always going to prepay gratuities, and I'm always going to get internet. Never had the drink package on RC as it was too expensive and I'd never drink 15 drinks in a day; always just used a couple of rumrunners instead. But the Princess Plus was the right pricepoint for me.

 

Dirty banana drink was better than any dessert I had all week.

 

Beds and pillows. Absolutely amazing.

 

Bars were better and larger than RC. (Service was slow, but not the fault of the bartenders. They need to hire more employees in just about every area of the ship).

 

Sports betting was a huge plus.

 

Casino was roomier and way less smoky than RC, but still way too smoky for my liking.

 

Goat cheese soufflé 100 percent lived up to the hype/its billing. Unfortunately one of the best things I had all week.

 

Burger from Salty Dog was really tasty. (Fries, however, were not. You can safely skip them).

 

Overall I’m extremely disappointed in my experience. Didn’t do near enough to make me want to make the switch. I won't go as far to say I won't say Princess ever again, but that was my first thought the entire time "I'll never sail this cruise line again." However, after coming back and reading on RC's recent changes and people having similar experiences on RC, clearly something has changed across the cruiselines for the worse. It was just an incredibly average experience.

 

They didn’t do anything to make me want to stay with them. In fact, I’d pay more to sail RC than Princess again. And if you put a Carnival Cruise for the same price as Princess, I’d pick Carnival (I have no experience with Carnival, but prior to this Princess experience, I easily would have picked Princess over Carnival based on their reputations alone).

 

Demographics were slightly older. Wasn't a noticeable difference from previous cruises with RC. 

Edited May 10, 2023 by phatlad

[superduper123]

Thanks to everyone who has responded, appreciate the feedback.

[stevenr597]

We have sailed Carnival and RCCL....loved them

We have sailed Celebrity......no complaints.

But our first choice is Princess.  Especially the Royal Class Ships.  

They are what I would define as "upscale" or "near-luxury."  

They are devoted to cruising, you will not find go-karts, or waterfalls.  Good food, and plenty of it, with great entertainment.  

Highly recommend. 

[nini]

I can only share our experiences with Celebrity (2X) and Princess (8X).

We feel "at home" on Princess for numerous reasons. Are they perfect? Of course not.

However, our last Celebrity cruise was pre-covid; snooty describes the crew and atmosphere. Our cabin steward was a sweetie and we tipped him extra.The food was quite mediocre with no caring about flies all over the buffet area. The entertainment was quite repetitive (each show had acrobatics from the ceiling).

 

[Poulsbo Cruisers]

We sail primarily with Princess. I will point out that even though the cabins have great layouts, they tend to be on the small side. If you choose a Royal class ship be sure to pick a deluxe balcony so you have a place to sit other than on the bed. 

[Torfamm]

8 hours ago, superduper123 said:

I've done many Royal Caribbean cruises, and one Celebrity so far. Thinking of trying Princess. How similar, or different is the experience? Can anyone offer comparisons on dining, onboard activities, entertainment, etc? Also demographics of fellow cruisers? Looking at Western Caribbean in January from Galveston. Thanks for any feedback.

I think Princess and Celebrity are much more alike than different.
 

Celebrity allows no indoor smoking at all, has slightly better food, and is somewhat more expensive than Princess.

 

Princess has more unique, longer itineraries, huge closet space and offers self-service laundry which is very convenient on longer trips. We have easily had room for golf clubs in Princess cabins. I included a closet photo below

 

I like both much better than Royal Caribbean, but it is definitely a personal preference.

[sammyjoanne]

8 hours ago, superduper123 said:

I've done many Royal Caribbean cruises, and one Celebrity so far. Thinking of trying Princess. How similar, or different is the experience? Can anyone offer comparisons on dining, onboard activities, entertainment, etc? Also demographics of fellow cruisers? Looking at Western Caribbean in January from Galveston. Thanks for any feedback.

Im not so much in the way of differences as Ive only done 2 cruises, the Ruby and Emerald princess. One was the californian coastline, the other LA to FLL via panama canal.

Both of them was very quick in checking in process. Ruby was about half an hour and that was still restrictions and tests back then. Emerald took 10 mins.

Both food was excellent. I ate more on the MDR of the 2nd cruise on the Emerald because the food ws superb and wanted to experience more sit down service. Crown grill on both ships the fillet was well worth it, not any fat on there at all. Sabatinis, it had that many courses, I never finished the desert. The spaghetti bolognaise, husband said that it even beats his home cooking of it, and its true it was super fresh pasta. On a 7 day cruise its worth going to Crown or Sabatinis, but a two week cruise its worth going to try both.

The entertainment can be to each persons taste. For me Im not so keen on the impressionist as some can be hit and miss and im from the UK, so did not know many country and western singers, but I did like the Elton John tribute that came on board, and the show Rock Opera is well worth the watch. Crooners is always busy with people. If you want to socialise thats the best place to be because everyone loves the pianist and everyone has a good singalong.

The explorers lounge (princess Live in some ships) has these game shows. Im on the Royal next which has princess live, so I believe its similar to the Regal. The Emerald and Ruby has explorers lounge which has relaxed seating and tables and a stage. Princess live is like cinema style seats and a stage. They have like the game shows and I love them. My favourites are Majority Rules game show, then the Marriage match game, and Hollywood Hiccups. There are also quiz type games such as True or Moo (basic true or false of some bizarre statements)

The rooms, ive only ever had a balcony, but I hear the inside cabins have some good storage space also. I love the dressing area with the open section to hang your clothes. Its very spacious and was enough for us to put 2 weeks worth of evening wear, plus our t-shirts and shorts in the cupboard as well.

We prepaid wifi ad the set up was very simple and they had an insert in the cabin how to set up. The medallions and ordering drinks, no problems inside. We did order from the aft pool once and it was not quite connecting, but room ordering was very quick.

Piazza, In the day im one for people watching. Love the set up of the international cafe/ good spirits at sea and Vines, because you can get a bite to eat and drink, sit in the piazza and people watch, or see what activities are taking place there. Anything from bean bag toss, to shooting a paper plane through a hoop from a height, chefs doing fruit carving. We also saw lots of people play cards and checkers. The days at sea I have loved and not found boring.

 

With us being on the Royal next year to Aus/NZ and its got like an extra 1000 passengers, so I dont know whether this will be a different experience, since the Ruby/Emerald are smaller. I am looking forward going back with Princess; the ones ive seen on other companies just seem a bit more expensive, and our next cruise we really saved a lot of money.

 

[nini]

@superduper123

I forgot to mention about the balconies. Not all balconies are created equal. We are always careful to book a balcony cabin with one of the larger balconies. You can see them on the deck plans of the Princess website.

[ldubs]

9 hours ago, neverbeenhere said:

dining - about the same as Celebrity

onboard activities - perhaps more than Celebrity, but way less than Royal

entertainment - Royal Rules with these three lines

demographics of fellow cruisers - Oldest to youngest - Princess, Celebrity,.....................Royal

 

We have been on several Princess, RCI, and Celebrity (not the newer Edge ships).  If comparing RCI Oasis or Allure, then the differences are pretty significant.  For the similar size ships, I think you make a pretty fair comparison.    

[Russ Lomas]

I am not going to be the best to compare the cruise lines, as we have not yet sailed Princess as passengers (I worked for them 26 years ago).  We have done a dozen cruises with RCCL and love them and one with Celebrity and enjoyed it, but found the activities on the ship lacking in the daytime.

 

I know exactly where you are coming from with thinking about trying a Princess cruise.  We always cruise the same week each year, and RCCL prices and Celebrity prices are through the roof now.  Princess was VERY reasonable.  We looked at the Harmony out of Galveston, but they wanted almost triple the price as they did for the Regal Princess the same week, so we booked the Regal for that week.  I will miss the activities and shows that RCCL offers, but am excited to try what appears to be a much more upscale dining experience in the MDR (most people say it is comparable to Celebrity).  An earlier poster here said the food on his Princess cruise had very few choices and was not good.  I am guessing he has not cruised with RCCL in 2023 since they have cut their MDR menu in half and Princess' menus look incredible next to RCCL's current menus.

 

As for the Princess Plus package, that seals the deal for us because you can get the Princess Plus package (great if you intend to drink) for about 2/3 of what you pay for the same on RCCL, BUT Princess throws in your daily gratuities, internet, and some other perks.  Factor this in, and RCCL is about 4 times the cost for the same week to cruise.  We have had several families cancel their RCCL cruises for the same week and will be sailing with us on Princess that week instead to try something different.

 

We love RCCL and have 4 upcoming cruises booked with them (including one in March 2025 on the Harmony out of Galveston, which was about half of what they wanted for March 2024 for the same cruise).  We booked them when prices were much more reasonable.  We hope to continue to book with RCCL, but we are excited to try a different cruise line for comparison (plus the money we save will pay for another cruise).

[nini]

3 hours ago, Russ Lomas said:

I am not going to be the best to compare the cruise lines, as we have not yet sailed Princess as passengers (I worked for them 26 years ago).  We have done a dozen cruises with RCCL and love them and one with Celebrity and enjoyed it, but found the activities on the ship lacking in the daytime.

 

I know exactly where you are coming from with thinking about trying a Princess cruise.  We always cruise the same week each year, and RCCL prices and Celebrity prices are through the roof now.  Princess was VERY reasonable.  We looked at the Harmony out of Galveston, but they wanted almost triple the price as they did for the Regal Princess the same week, so we booked the Regal for that week.  I will miss the activities and shows that RCCL offers, but am excited to try what appears to be a much more upscale dining experience in the MDR (most people say it is comparable to Celebrity).  An earlier poster here said the food on his Princess cruise had very few choices and was not good.  I am guessing he has not cruised with RCCL in 2023 since they have cut their MDR menu in half and Princess' menus look incredible next to RCCL's current menus.

 

As for the Princess Plus package, that seals the deal for us because you can get the Princess Plus package (great if you intend to drink) for about 2/3 of what you pay for the same on RCCL, BUT Princess throws in your daily gratuities, internet, and some other perks.  Factor this in, and RCCL is about 4 times the cost for the same week to cruise.  We have had several families cancel their RCCL cruises for the same week and will be sailing with us on Princess that week instead to try something different.

 

We love RCCL and have 4 upcoming cruises booked with them (including one in March 2025 on the Harmony out of Galveston, which was about half of what they wanted for March 2024 for the same cruise).  We booked them when prices were much more reasonable.  We hope to continue to book with RCCL, but we are excited to try a different cruise line for comparison (plus the money we save will pay for another cruise).

 

Have a great time. we love the Regal!

[CruizinSusan70]

OP...the ship you're thinking about is a Royal Class ship that was the second in that class and is 9 years old.  If you like to imbibe, the Plus package that Princess offers is the deal maker versus the dynamic pricing policy of RCI, which can be a deal breaker.  60.00 a day for drinks, grats, & wifi is great compared to the majority of their competition.