My View: Will we be Enchanted by Princess? (Live Views from a Princess Newbie)

[APDMOM]

On 7/31/2024 at 7:53 PM, ebeluga said:

@APDMOM Thanks for the great review and comparison with a few other lines. Is there a reason you did not include MSC in your comparison? I just happen to be curious about MSC. Thx!

Hi @ebeluga

My comparison was to help Princess cruisers understand why we prefer other lines over Princess.  MSC used to be great prior to being discovered by the masses in the US.  Cruises were super cheap - as low as $105 per person per day in a balcony.  Yet, it was not crowded.  We enjoyed the European flair in 2019, including healthy Mediterranean dishes.

 

 MSC made big changes for the US-based cruises during the past 3 years to draw more business, which changed the atmosphere quite a bit.  The longer cruises are still okay, but nothing like what we experienced in 2019.  MSC did a very poor job with crowd control and did not address inappropriate passenger behavior on our last 4-day cruise, so that has scarred us a bit for future MSC consideration.  

Still, we looked into yacht club prices recently, as that may be a great option - it is just too expensive at this point. We prefer to cruise more frequently, rather than paying a high price for one cruise experience.  🙂

[APDMOM]

On 7/31/2024 at 6:27 PM, Scottdalfonso said:

I'm curious about the dress code hang up- I haven't sailed Princess yet but will be on this ship in exactly a month. From everything I read here and elsewhere, the dress code seems to be on par with RC- dress up if you want, but shorts or jeans\slacks and polo\nice t-shirts are just as common. I don't plan on dressing up- I'll bring some long pants and a polo for the dressy night, but otherwise my Khaki  shorts were in my plans for the week.  

At the main dining room there is a sign that says shorts are not allowed at dinner.  On the first night, DH and DS were wearing shorts and we told the hostess we didn’t mind going to the buffet, as we had not known.  She stated that shorts were allowed the first and last night, but that they also don’t really enforce the rule other nights.  I am a rule follower 😄  If there is a sign, I am going to adhere to the rule.  I don’t care what other people wear - it is just engrained in me to do what is asked…LOL!

 

We only saw 2 people wearing shorts at the main dining room the rest of the week, with no problems entering.  So, most people we saw followed the ‘no shorts’ rule on our cruise.  Evenings were much more dressy the first half of the cruise, but overall more dressy than we are used to on NCL, RCL, and even Celebrity (at least for Caribbean sailings).  It is not a deal breaker for me - DH just does not like wearing long pants on a cruise.  

[edspec]

@Scottdalfonso My adult DS wore shorts every night in the mdr on Sky Princess and this was a European cruise which generally trends towards more formal. No one batted an eye. 

[555]

7 hours ago, APDMOM said:

At the main dining room there is a sign that says shorts are not allowed at dinner.  On the first night, DH and DS were wearing shorts and we told the hostess we didn’t mind going to the buffet, as we had not known.  She stated that shorts were allowed the first and last night, but that they also don’t really enforce the rule other nights.  I am a rule follower 😄  If there is a sign, I am going to adhere to the rule.  I don’t care what other people wear - it is just engrained in me to do what is asked…LOL!

 

We only saw 2 people wearing shorts at the main dining room the rest of the week, with no problems entering.  So, most people we saw followed the ‘no shorts’ rule on our cruise.  Evenings were much more dressy the first half of the cruise, but overall more dressy than we are used to on NCL, RCL, and even Celebrity (at least for Caribbean sailings).  It is not a deal breaker for me - DH just does not like wearing long pants on a cruise.  

I wore shorts a few nights on the Enchanted (deck 5) and even though I prefer it on the cool side, I was just more comfortable in my jeans.

Our same seating location in the center was quite cool.

No one minded if shorts were worn, even on formal evenings which some choose to wear.

We do appreciate the relaxed dress code of the past few years which allows everyone to choose for themselves. 

[APDMOM]

I finally got some time to sit down and start my Breakaway Review... If you are interested in following along, it can be found here:

 

 

[KKB]

16 hours ago, APDMOM said:

At the main dining room there is a sign that says shorts are not allowed at dinner.  On the first night, DH and DS were wearing shorts and we told the hostess we didn’t mind going to the buffet, as we had not known.  She stated that shorts were allowed the first and last night, but that they also don’t really enforce the rule other nights.  I am a rule follower 😄  If there is a sign, I am going to adhere to the rule.  I don’t care what other people wear - it is just engrained in me to do what is asked…LOL!

 

We only saw 2 people wearing shorts at the main dining room the rest of the week, with no problems entering.  So, most people we saw followed the ‘no shorts’ rule on our cruise.  Evenings were much more dressy the first half of the cruise, but overall more dressy than we are used to on NCL, RCL, and even Celebrity (at least for Caribbean sailings).  It is not a deal breaker for me - DH just does not like wearing long pants on a cruise.  

We met a couple who are Princess loyalists (tho we are getting them on Celebrity Ascent in Dec). And they wore shorts every night except formal nights--DH was in heaven. He wore golf shirt/ shorts each night, so looked nice. No one cared! (this was the Caribbean Princess)

[555]

19 hours ago, KKB said:

We met a couple who are Princess loyalists (tho we are getting them on Celebrity Ascent in Dec). And they wore shorts every night except formal nights--DH was in heaven. He wore golf shirt/ shorts each night, so looked nice. No one cared! (this was the Caribbean Princess)

As time goes by, people wearing shorts is becoming more acceptable with everyone. 

[Daniel A]

13 minutes ago, 555 said:

As time goes by, people wearing shorts is becoming more acceptable with everyone.