Celebrity vs. Princess: A recent comparison

[AbbyCruiser45]

 

Hello everyone! I am not sure if people are interested in a post like this, but I shared at the end of my live trip report this June that I would do a comparison of Celebrity and Princess after a recent trip. Well, I just got back from Alaska with Princess, and I thought the comparison might be interesting for people here to read. First, why do I think this? Princess is usually the line I see recommended here after Celebrity in terms of how they compare to each other. It seems that a lot of people here have experience with both lines. I also think taking the Celebrity and Princess cruise within a month of each other allows for a good comparison because cruise lines can change quickly in terms of the offer. 

 

So, why did I book the Princess trip? This was a family cruise with my parents, sister, and my boyfriend. We wanted to see Alaska. Previously, we sailed Disney to Alaska over 5 years ago. We went to Tracey Arm Fjord (Sawyer Glacier). While this was beautiful, we really wanted to go to Glacier Bay. This meant knocking Celebrity out of the options, as that is now our go-to cruise line.  

 

I’ll provide a breakdown of the different areas below, but here is my takeaway for those who don’t want to read all of that. For Glacier Bay alone, I would book Princess again for Alaska. The Glacier Bay day was stunning and long. We were there from 6 AM to 4 PM. For any other cruise, I would only choose Princess over Celebrity if the price difference was above $1,000. Otherwise, Celebrity is the better product in every category. Overall, the service and quality were just really lacking. The crew was strangely unfriendly, and often any request was met with resistance or confusion. 

 

Dining
All right, we know dining is a big issue for Celebrity. I was a part of the ever-so-lucky two-week trial on the Equinox with the severely limited menu. The Princess menu was more expansive than the typical Celebrity menu. It offered five starters, one pasta, six entrees, and three desserts each night. This is on top of the every night items, which included three starters, one pasta, and two entrees. So, Princess wins in terms of menu diversity and size. However, Celebrity won in terms of the quality of the food. Even with the limited menu I had on the Equinox, the quality of each item was excellent. And from what I’ve read, the menu is back to normal, so the diversity of the menu is less of an issue. 

 

Drinks
I am not really one to be super picky about wines, but I learned that I actually might be. Princess has a tier of all-inclusive offerings, and I was on the first tier, including drinks up to $15. The biggest issue here was the wine. On this tier, they do not tell you the wine that you are drinking. The menu only offered the variety (e.g., Merlot, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, etc.). They also did not have sommeliers in the dining room. When I asked the dining staff what type of wine it was, they could not answer. The lack of sommeliers was a huge issue, too, because our dining team had to run to the bar for each order. There were no bottles of wine waiting at the dining station, as with Celebrity. This resulted in wine taking as long as 20 minutes to arrive to the table, and usually the white wine was room temperature by that time. In this regard, Celebrity is also the winner. Celebrity also has better quality wine glasses, with the wide mouth and customized to red or white wine. On Princess, it was one type of glass, which was shorter and thicker. 

 

 Service 
The service was also superior on Celebrity than on Princess. On Princess, it took two days to meet my stateroom attendant. He did a great job, but I thought it was strange that I did not know who it was for so long. The bar staff on Celebrity also cannot be beaten. They are always so friendly and personable. At the coffee bar on Princess, the same crew member was there every morning and did not greet me when I went to order. He just would stay silent until you ordered. Maybe this is a petty thing to compare, but it made the Celebrity experience far better. The officers were also not visible on Princess if this is important to you. One super strange thing on Princess is that I asked a few crew, while attempting to chat, where home was. They all answered something along the lines of “oh I am from XYZ but my home is this ship”. At the beginning of a show, the cruise director said for the crew this ship was home, and we are all family. I thought this was incredibly strange and really dehumanizing, and it seems this is a point Princess is trying to make and seemingly instruct their crew to say. I know there contracts are long and they are on the ship more often than home, but on Celebrity, it is always interesting to hear the crew talk fondly about their home and family. 

 

Cost
I do not have a comparison of the cost for the cruise I took because I did not know I would be making this comparison. Instead, I went ahead and priced out both a trip to Alaska and the Caribbean in 2024. Both inclusions are similar (tips, wifi, drinks), time of year (June 2024), ports (Eastern Caribbean) and the stateroom (inside). For a Caribbean, Celebrity didn’t offer a 7 night and Princess didn’t offer an 8-night, so the price comparison is by night. Celebrity comes out to $430.25/night and Princess comes to $397.57 a night ($3,011 vs $2,783). For the same trip I went on this year, but in 2024, the price difference comes to $396.28/ night with Celebrity and $371.42/night with Princess ($2,774 vs $2,600). For these could hundred-dollar differences, I would choose Celebrity any day (with Glacier Bay access as the exception). If that price difference grows substantially, I would consider giving Princess another chance. 

 

Final Thoughts
The one category I’m missing is entertainment, that is because it was a cruise to Alaska, so I was on the deck basically all day. Otherwise, my final thought is that Celebrity has been experiencing a lot of cuts lately, but they still are a better product than other cruise lines in their category. Hopefully, this trend continues. I won’t be sailing Celebrity again until June 2024, but I’m hopeful that the experience will be as good as my last time on board, and I am really looking forward to it. 

[jelayne]

Thank you.  We haven’t sailed on Princess so it was informative.

[bikerunner]

This is what I have heard from a couple people who have done both lines also.  

[rcssmom]

I totally agree with you.  I would choose Celebrity over Princess any day.  Our cruise to Hawaii on Princess (Crown) in April was a huge disappointment except maybe one or two crew members.  The overall vibe was totally different.

 

Karen

[Travelw]

In general we prefer Princess over Celebrity.  Some of the reasons are the ship layout and designs, also we find the entertainment to be better on Princess.  The food quality, in our opinion, is the same.  I agree having sommelier to help choose wines at dinner is a big plus.

[doghog]

I find these type of threads interesting. We don't book our cruises based on others positive or negative opinions and experiences.

[CruiseDad-NYC]

Thanks for the comparison with Princess, a cruise line I have been curious about but never sailed on. I have only been on Royal and Celebrity (and 1 Mein Schiff) for the 20 cruises I have been on.  With all of the cuts post pandemic (particularly on Royal) I am open to trying other cruise lines whereas I wouldn't have before. Your perspective confirms what I have read elsewhere.

 

Alaska is definitely on my bucket list!

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, CruiseDad-NYC said:

Thanks for the comparison with Princess, a cruise line I have been curious about but never sailed on. I have only been on Royal and Celebrity (and 1 Mein Schiff) for the 20 cruises I have been on.  With all of the cuts post pandemic (particularly on Royal) I am open to trying other cruise lines whereas I wouldn't have before. Your perspective confirms what I have read elsewhere.

 

Alaska is definitely on my bucket list!

We enjoy both Celebrity and Princess. In fact we just got back from a B2B cruise on the Diamond Princess cruising around Japan for 17 days. If you'd like to see what type of entertainment happens on a Princess cruise, I've got a Live From thread covering that cruise posted in my Signature area below.

[paulh84]

We did our first Princess cruise on the Regal Princess in April. The common description of the cruise amongst us was mediocre. The attention to detail, the finishes (as you mentioned, chunky hotel wine glasses opposed to Riedel you'll find on Celebrity), food that was not horrible but not great, mystery wine, friendly but indifferent service. The shower curtain in the cabin. For a ship that debuted after Celebrity's S class, the cabin finishes felt very dated like a 90's hotel. This was a pretty inexpensive cruise. If I was comparing Celebrity vs. Princess solely on price, my opinion is that Princess should be cheaper. It felt more like Royal Caribbean without the kids and waterslides than it felt like Celebrity. 

 

I was shopping a Mediterranean cruise for next year. Longer than 7 nights but we can't commit to 14+ cruise nights + travel days. Princess has a big weak spot in that segment. Celebrity excels in the 9/10/11/12 day cruises. 

 

I would maybe try it again for the right price and itinerary on the new Sun Princess. Princess seemed to have pulled more Carnival features on to that ship than I would prefer so I'm not rushing to book yet. 

[doghog]

Looking forward to our 6th Princess cruise March 2024. We'll be on the Enchanted. Our last Princess cruise was 2010 on the Grand. We like the differences and similarities between Celebrity and Princess. 

Edited August 2, 2023 by doghog

[horseymike]

6 hours ago, AbbyCruiser45 said:

 

Hello everyone! I am not sure if people are interested in a post like this, but I shared at the end of my live trip report this June that I would do a comparison of Celebrity and Princess after a recent trip. Well, I just got back from Alaska with Princess, and I thought the comparison might be interesting for people here to read. First, why do I think this? Princess is usually the line I see recommended here after Celebrity in terms of how they compare to each other. It seems that a lot of people here have experience with both lines. I also think taking the Celebrity and Princess cruise within a month of each other allows for a good comparison because cruise lines can change quickly in terms of the offer. 

 

So, why did I book the Princess trip? This was a family cruise with my parents, sister, and my boyfriend. We wanted to see Alaska. Previously, we sailed Disney to Alaska over 5 years ago. We went to Tracey Arm Fjord (Sawyer Glacier). While this was beautiful, we really wanted to go to Glacier Bay. This meant knocking Celebrity out of the options, as that is now our go-to cruise line.  

 

I’ll provide a breakdown of the different areas below, but here is my takeaway for those who don’t want to read all of that. For Glacier Bay alone, I would book Princess again for Alaska. The Glacier Bay day was stunning and long. We were there from 6 AM to 4 PM. For any other cruise, I would only choose Princess over Celebrity if the price difference was above $1,000. Otherwise, Celebrity is the better product in every category. Overall, the service and quality were just really lacking. The crew was strangely unfriendly, and often any request was met with resistance or confusion. 

 

Dining
All right, we know dining is a big issue for Celebrity. I was a part of the ever-so-lucky two-week trial on the Equinox with the severely limited menu. The Princess menu was more expansive than the typical Celebrity menu. It offered five starters, one pasta, six entrees, and three desserts each night. This is on top of the every night items, which included three starters, one pasta, and two entrees. So, Princess wins in terms of menu diversity and size. However, Celebrity won in terms of the quality of the food. Even with the limited menu I had on the Equinox, the quality of each item was excellent. And from what I’ve read, the menu is back to normal, so the diversity of the menu is less of an issue. 

 

Drinks
I am not really one to be super picky about wines, but I learned that I actually might be. Princess has a tier of all-inclusive offerings, and I was on the first tier, including drinks up to $15. The biggest issue here was the wine. On this tier, they do not tell you the wine that you are drinking. The menu only offered the variety (e.g., Merlot, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, etc.). They also did not have sommeliers in the dining room. When I asked the dining staff what type of wine it was, they could not answer. The lack of sommeliers was a huge issue, too, because our dining team had to run to the bar for each order. There were no bottles of wine waiting at the dining station, as with Celebrity. This resulted in wine taking as long as 20 minutes to arrive to the table, and usually the white wine was room temperature by that time. In this regard, Celebrity is also the winner. Celebrity also has better quality wine glasses, with the wide mouth and customized to red or white wine. On Princess, it was one type of glass, which was shorter and thicker. 

 

 Service 
The service was also superior on Celebrity than on Princess. On Princess, it took two days to meet my stateroom attendant. He did a great job, but I thought it was strange that I did not know who it was for so long. The bar staff on Celebrity also cannot be beaten. They are always so friendly and personable. At the coffee bar on Princess, the same crew member was there every morning and did not greet me when I went to order. He just would stay silent until you ordered. Maybe this is a petty thing to compare, but it made the Celebrity experience far better. The officers were also not visible on Princess if this is important to you. One super strange thing on Princess is that I asked a few crew, while attempting to chat, where home was. They all answered something along the lines of “oh I am from XYZ but my home is this ship”. At the beginning of a show, the cruise director said for the crew this ship was home, and we are all family. I thought this was incredibly strange and really dehumanizing, and it seems this is a point Princess is trying to make and seemingly instruct their crew to say. I know there contracts are long and they are on the ship more often than home, but on Celebrity, it is always interesting to hear the crew talk fondly about their home and family. 

 

Cost
I do not have a comparison of the cost for the cruise I took because I did not know I would be making this comparison. Instead, I went ahead and priced out both a trip to Alaska and the Caribbean in 2024. Both inclusions are similar (tips, wifi, drinks), time of year (June 2024), ports (Eastern Caribbean) and the stateroom (inside). For a Caribbean, Celebrity didn’t offer a 7 night and Princess didn’t offer an 8-night, so the price comparison is by night. Celebrity comes out to $430.25/night and Princess comes to $397.57 a night ($3,011 vs $2,783). For the same trip I went on this year, but in 2024, the price difference comes to $396.28/ night with Celebrity and $371.42/night with Princess ($2,774 vs $2,600). For these could hundred-dollar differences, I would choose Celebrity any day (with Glacier Bay access as the exception). If that price difference grows substantially, I would consider giving Princess another chance. 

 

Final Thoughts
The one category I’m missing is entertainment, that is because it was a cruise to Alaska, so I was on the deck basically all day. Otherwise, my final thought is that Celebrity has been experiencing a lot of cuts lately, but they still are a better product than other cruise lines in their category. Hopefully, this trend continues. I won’t be sailing Celebrity again until June 2024, but I’m hopeful that the experience will be as good as my last time on board, and I am really looking forward to it. 

Thanks for sharing your comparison. I really appreciate it and do use threads like this when making decisions about future bookings.

[PurpleTraveller]

Very interesting comparison, thank you.

 

I find that the crew on Princess ships can vary significantly. On our 2019 Sapphire Princess and 2023 Crown Princess cruises the crew were fantastic. On our 2018 Majestic Princess cruise the crew were not engaged and the service was terrible.

 

The food on our latest Crown Princess cruise was better than we have had for a long time on Princess but still not as good as we had on Reflection last year. The service on Reflection was also excellent. 

 

We like to cruise in the Mediterranean and Princess has seven day cruise segments that you can add together to make 14 or 21 day cruises. Those itineraries have barely changed in the last ten years. Celebrity wins hands down for their varied Mediterranean cruises of varying lengths and itineraries.

 

When booking my Celebrity seven day Greek Islands cruise for June 2024 the cost of the Celebrity cruise was less than a seven day Princess cruise leaving from Athens. Admittedly the Celebrity ship is a lot older than the Princess ship but the Celebrity itinerary is much better. I also have a ten day Italy and Croatia Celebrity cruise booked for 2024 and Princess has nothing like it. It certainly pays to shop around!

 

[mrgabriel]

Thank you for your review! This was really interesting and well balanced. 

[kwis29]

I am also a loyal Celebrity customer who cruised with Princess this summer to Alaska. I agree with your comparison. Most aspects of the cruise with with Princees were just OK or medicore or in some cases not good. The only thing I really liked better was the set-up of the closet in the stateroom, and the fitness center was never busy. I would not return to Princess. No cruise line is perfect, but Celebrity is doing a better job and will keep my business going forward.

[Baystate]

It is completely different from my experiences with the exception of the wine glasses and sommelier. 

 

I have experienced only excellent, friendly service on princess along with good food. Personally, while Reidel glasses are nice, it doesn't affect my cruise that they don't have them. I can understand the frustration with the long wait for the wine, though. 

 

My next cruise is on Celebrity, but the following cruise is on Princess. They are very much alike, but like all things, people view things differently. 

 

Happy cruising! 🛳  

[Esprit]

We switch year on year between Celebrity and Princess. Last week we were aboard Reflection in the Med. Next year I'm looking at Sky Princess to Iceland.

 

For us Princess win on entertainment day and night. I always feel disappointed with the Grand Foyer and Sky lounge as the Atriums on the Princess ships are so much better.

 

Food last week on Celebrity wasn't as good as our Princess cruise the year before which surprised me!

 

But for anyone that hasn't tried either I would strongly recommend both lines.

[Stealthdog]

We just did a sailing on the Majestic (also Alaska, so really can't judge the entertainment either) and I think I agree with every point you made.  Princess is a more affordable line compared to Celebrity and I absolutely would go on another one if the price and itinerary were right (or we go on a Princess Casino cruise from the offers we started to get).  And the sailing into the fjords and straits were awesome with Princess that you may not get with the other lines, so Princess would be a go-to for Alaska.  But, I just don't see Princess and Celebrity being peers.  Princess and Norwegian are more similar to me than Princess and Celebrity.  

[Ken the cruiser]

For us I have to admit since we started booking Princess Reserve Collection (formerly Club Class) mini suites a few years back, the dining experience in their "private" RC dining room during breakfast, lunch (on sea days), and dinner has definitely improved our experience in a major way!  OTOH we enjoy dining in Blu, since downgrading our bookings last year from sky suites to Aqua cabins when the suite prices started to soar, but the Blu menus are usually pretty "light weight", especially when it comes to the lack of chocolate desserts. In fact, on our recent 33-day transpacific on the Eclipse, we usually headed to buffet where my DW could choose a gluten-free dessert. 

 

As far as evening entertainment goes, we enjoy what is offered on both lines, as we do like to laugh at game shows as well as go to the evening theater shows. But we have found Princess definitely leads in the area of offering unique 2-4 week cruises, to include a wide variety of Alaska itineraries every year.

 

@AbbyCruiser45, in your initial post you didn't mention anything about a professional naturalist (lecturer) being onboard providing lectures about Alaska, other than maybe the park ranger than comes onboard when touring Glacier Bay. On our first Alaska cruise on the Solstice back in 2015, Brent Nixon was one of the highlights we still remember from that cruise. Do you remember if there was one on your recent Alaska cruise?

[cw2go]

15 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

For us I have to admit since we started booking Princess Reserve Collection (formerly Club Class) mini suites a few years back, the dining experience in their "private" RC dining room during breakfast, lunch (on sea days), and dinner has definitely improved our experience in a major way!  OTOH we enjoy dining in Blu, since downgrading our bookings last year from sky suites to Aqua cabins when the suite prices started to soar, but the Blu menus are usually pretty "light weight", especially when it comes to the lack of chocolate desserts. In fact, on our recent 33-day transpacific on the Eclipse, we usually headed to buffet where my DW could choose a gluten-free dessert. 

 

As far as evening entertainment goes, we enjoy what is offered on both lines, as we do like to laugh at game shows as well as go to the evening theater shows. But we have found Princess definitely leads in the area of offering unique 2-4 week cruises, to include a wide variety of Alaska itineraries every year.

 

@AbbyCruiser45, in your initial post you didn't mention anything about a professional naturalist (lecturer) being onboard providing lectures about Alaska, other than maybe the park ranger than comes onboard when touring Glacier Bay. On our first Alaska cruise on the Solstice back in 2015, Brent Nixon was one of the highlights we still remember from that cruise. Do you remember if there was one on your recent Alaska cruise?

 

Brent Nixon is amazing! So fun and animated! 

 

Not @AbbyCruiser45 sailing... BUT... Aug 2018 On Princess besides the Park Ranger we had Nik Jans, he's the author of A Wolf Called Romeo and Libby Riddles, first woman to win the Iditarod.  

 

Patty 

[Ken the cruiser]

5 minutes ago, cw2go said:

 

Brent Nixon is amazing! So fun and animated! 

 

Not @AbbyCruiser45 sailing... BUT... Aug 2018 On Princess besides the Park Ranger we had Nik Jans, he's the author of A Wolf Called Romeo and Libby Riddles, first woman to win the Iditarod.  

 

Patty 

Believe it or not, Brent Nixon was providing whale lectures on the Hawaii to Vancouver leg of our recent Apr/May Eclipse B3B but was disembarking in Vancouver instead of staying on to provide lectures on the ensuing Alaska cruise. We also had Eddy Jenkins as our CD for our entire B3B, and he as usual organized an awesome entertainment program the entire cruise. 

[AbbyCruiser45]

38 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Do you remember if there was one on your recent Alaska cruise?

We had Mark the naturalist! I only attended one talk and it was good. He also narrated us exiting Glacier Bay after the National Park rangers left, as well as the College Fjord Day. The only (humorous) complaint is that he started every comment over the speakers with "Hello, it is Mark, your onboard naturalist" and by every comment, I mean every time he came on the speakers. By the 10th time on College Fjord day, we and the people around us were joking that we didn't know who was speaking! He also had a catchphrase of "This is Alaska, this is why you are here", which we quoted for the rest of our self-guided land portion. 

 

In contrast, our NPS ranger was Carly. She was great also but only introduced herself twice 🙂 We didn't forget who she was in that time though!

[AbbyCruiser45]

1 hour ago, Stealthdog said:

We just did a sailing on the Majestic 

I was on the Majestic! I failed to mention that. Maybe we were on the same trip, Northbound on the 22nd. 

[Stealthdog]

20 minutes ago, AbbyCruiser45 said:

I was on the Majestic! I failed to mention that. Maybe we were on the same trip, Northbound on the 22nd. 

 

We were June 10th.  I loved Mark the Naturalist - he was awesome.  We went to a couple of his lectures and listened to his narrations as we were sailing.  They were great.  We did the same thing - "this is Alaska, this is why we are here" during our excursions and post cruise land tour. 🙂 

[Purplsmurf]

We will be doing our second Princess cruise in October. Our first was MANY years ago. We are going because it will likely be my parents last cruise. They have been Princess cruisers for a long time and they wanted us to go with them, along with my brother and sister in law. It will be 15 nights on the Sapphire to Hawaii and back. I really wanted to do a Celebrity TA, but for some reason they pushed this one. I’m still hesitant, but going into it with an open mind. Will let you know how it goes! 😂

[bjahil47]

Thank you for your review comparing Celebrity and Princess!  Your reviews are always informative