Princess is the real Gem

[mistyPA]

Hi all - Just off the NCL Gem and though we had a fabulous vacation, which is a tribute to my fellow travelers, certainly not the ship. 

 

We traveled the Enchanted Princess in April and loved it so much we booked the 10 day next April and we are looking forward to it.

 

There is absolutely no comparing the Princess crew when compared to NCL. In 2010, we sailed the NCL Epic and it was our best cruise up until Enchanted in April. We are Platinum on Princess and Silver on NCL. I can honestly say there was a time that the comparison between the 2 lines were strong, but over the past several years there is just no comparing them in my mind. The staff, food, the upgrad packages are all better with Princess. We will continue to build on our Loyalty status as we will be Elite after completing the next cruise.

 

Just figured I would give a shout out to our happiness with Princess!

 

[DUCHESSRN]

We love Princess also .

[walkingsoon]

I cruise both and still find them similar. Post Covid, some ships in both lines have temporarily struggled, so I'd avoid letting a single bad sailing steer you totally in one direction.

 

Trying to be balanced here...

 

Advantage NCL: Specialty restaurants, loyalty program and mega-ship design (dislike mega-ships, but at least they've got promenade decks, very nice ones). Also their freestyle dining has been smoother than that of Princess for the last several years.

 

Advantage Princess: OBC programs (with the value gained), booking process/CVPs (mine's great), quieter more relaxed vibe, and (maybe, if it works) their return to traditional dining.

 

I'll continue to book both, but at the smaller end of the range. 

 

Walkingsoon

[Kenosha Cruiser]

We we're on the Enchanted Princess Sept. 7-14 for a Canada/New England cruise round trip from New York. We loved the ship and the crew. Jody Miles the cruise director and her staff made the cruise so much fun with all the trivia and game shows they arranged for the passengers. The royal class ships are our favorites in the Princess fleet. Looking forward to checking out the new Sun Princess in November.

 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

 

[Cajuntraveler]

Thanks for posting this.  We favored HAL and X before trying Princess  2 year ago and have really enjoyed Princess.  We have been considering NCL but may stick with Princess.

[justjan2]

On 9/29/2024 at 8:19 PM, mistyPA said:

Hi all - Just off the NCL Gem and though we had a fabulous vacation, which is a tribute to my fellow travelers, certainly not the ship. 

 

We traveled the Enchanted Princess in April and loved it so much we booked the 10 day next April and we are looking forward to it.

 

There is absolutely no comparing the Princess crew when compared to NCL. In 2010, we sailed the NCL Epic and it was our best cruise up until Enchanted in April. We are Platinum on Princess and Silver on NCL. I can honestly say there was a time that the comparison between the 2 lines were strong, but over the past several years there is just no comparing them in my mind. The staff, food, the upgrad packages are all better with Princess. We will continue to build on our Loyalty status as we will be Elite after completing the next cruise.

 

Just figured I would give a shout out to our happiness with Princess!

 

Couldn't disagree more. The only think better on Princess is the inclusions with the Plus Package. Food, drinks, public areas, entertainment, ALL better on NCL. Just returned from a 16 day Princess cruise to Hawaii. All I can say is Embarkation was Awesome.

[cheetosrevil]

3 minutes ago, justjan2 said:

Couldn't disagree more. The only think better on Princess is the inclusions with the Plus Package. Food, drinks, public areas, entertainment, ALL better on NCL. Just returned from a 16 day Princess cruise to Hawaii. All I can say is Embarkation was Awesome.

Curious about your HI cruise as I will be doing my third with Princess next year. What ship and what were the real negatives to you? It doesn't sound like you had a good experience at all.

[justjan2]

Just now, cheetosrevil said:

Curious about your HI cruise as I will be doing my third with Princess next year. What ship and what were the real negatives to you? It doesn't sound like you had a good experience at all.

Ruby Princess leaving from Vancouver. Embarkation was great. Food average at best. We generally had lunch and dinner in the main dining rooms. Same menu was served multiple times. Sometimes food was wonderful, but more often, not good. It got to the point that we just ordered the salmon because it seemed the most consistent. Dinner service became slower and slower as the cruise went on. At first dinner would be about 75 minutes. At the end, over two hours. We really enjoyed the small venues for entertainment and service. Were never able to attend the "big shows" because venue was full 40 minutes before show would begin. We thought the value of the PLUS package was exceptional, except for the included drinks... especially the wine- Worse than box wine. Ship was clean, well maintained. Debarkation awful.

[cheetosrevil]

14 minutes ago, justjan2 said:

Ruby Princess leaving from Vancouver. Embarkation was great. Food average at best. We generally had lunch and dinner in the main dining rooms. Same menu was served multiple times. Sometimes food was wonderful, but more often, not good. It got to the point that we just ordered the salmon because it seemed the most consistent. Dinner service became slower and slower as the cruise went on. At first dinner would be about 75 minutes. At the end, over two hours. We really enjoyed the small venues for entertainment and service. Were never able to attend the "big shows" because venue was full 40 minutes before show would begin. We thought the value of the PLUS package was exceptional, except for the included drinks... especially the wine- Worse than box wine. Ship was clean, well maintained. Debarkation awful.

I get where you're coming from. I have read many negative reviews about the wine choices so that doesn't surprise me. That's unfortunate, but I hope your overall memory is a good one. Thank you for sharing your experience.

[Zacckie]

We were on a NCL Cruise in June to Europe 14 Days, I will never cruise them again if I can help it. They nickel and dime you to death. They followed us around for photos to the point they were pissing us off. The package they give you at booking only provides the very basics anything else you need to upgrade. We ended up paying over $5,000.00 to upgrade Wi-Fi, drinks, and specialty dining. We were lied to when we booked and told this package included everything at a premium level and when called back about it a few days before the cruise and asked for them to review the tape they told us that they didn't record bookings. Which is an outright lie, because when we booked and again called the booking line to test this out. It clearly states they record all calls. Thus our decision to never cruise them again. We are trying Princess for the first time and so far everything they have told us including the girl on the phone who explained the specialty dining and advised that not everything on the menus are included. This alone impressed me.

[555]

On 9/29/2024 at 9:15 PM, Kenosha Cruiser said:

We we're on the Enchanted Princess Sept. 7-14 for a Canada/New England cruise round trip from New York. We loved the ship and the crew. Jody Miles the cruise director and her staff made the cruise so much fun with all the trivia and game shows they arranged for the passengers. The royal class ships are our favorites in the Princess fleet. Looking forward to checking out the new Sun Princess in November.

 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

 

Did Jody happen to say where she was headed to in the near future? We enjoyed her on the Enchanted a few years ago.