Same Ship Design - Different Company

[Ron n Jon]

We will be sailing the Royal Princess for the first time and have been told it is a mirror copy of Oceania's Insignia, which we have sailed before.

 

As almost everything about the ship will be the same for us, we are wondering how will things like dinning, service, etc., differ. Has anyone sailed both vessels and if so can you comment on the differences, if any?

[suzieque]

The Pacific Princess and the Tahitian Princess are also former Renaissance ships, like Oceania's Insignia,Nautica & Regatta. I thought the Royal Princess was a different design?

Suzie

[Druke I]

Deck 8 on the Royal Princess is different than Deck 8 on Oceania's ships.

Royal Princess and the two Azamara ships were built with standard balcony cabins on Deck 8. Azamara did remodel their ships when they put them into service, adding mini-suites on Deck 8.

 

We sailed on Pacific Princess, another of the Renaissance class ships. Princess sails their three (Royal, Pacific, and Tahitian - soon to be renamed Ocean Princess) with fixed traditional dining in the Grand Dining Room, rather than open seating like Oceania.

 

The two alternative restaurants are open on alternate nights.

 

Princess does put on production shows, albeit with a much smaller number of line dancers.

 

Royal Princess carries slightly more passengers than Oceania's ships, while Pacific Princess and Tahitian Princess carry slightly fewer.

[WindrunnerII]

We will be sailing the Royal Princess for the first time and have been told it is a mirror copy of Oceania's Insignia, which we have sailed before.

 

As almost everything about the ship will be the same for us, we are wondering how will things like dinning, service, etc., differ. Has anyone sailed both vessels and if so can you comment on the differences, if any?

 

While the ships are similar, you should not expect O's level of food and service or attention to detail.

 

I have always found Princess to offer a good, solid cruise product in that they do everything well and everything is satisfactory.

 

The main dining room is set dining times, two seatings, main and late. The food, while good, is not exceptional. The bedding has not been upgraded to the same level as O. Other than a few pieces of furniture, the ship is largely original to her Renaissance days, as are all the Princess R-ships.

 

What Princess has effectively and successfully done is to offer their mass-market product on smaller, more intimate ships.

 

I've never had a bad Princess cruise, on their large and small ships but do not expect the same experience that you would find on Oceania or Azamara which are decidedly more upscale.

 

Hope this helps!

[Ted43]

Hi Ron and Jon:

 

Thanks for all the info. Can you also tell me - are the cabins the same size as O's in the "B" categories?

 

Theodore ( Ted )

[neepawa]

We have sailed twice on the Oceania Regatta, the sister ship of the Insignia and will be on the Royal Princess out of Montreal tomorrow.

 

Have the brochures for both cruise lines which show the following:

 

Oceania A1, A2, A3, B1,and B2 cabins - 214 square feet which includes the balcony

 

Princess BA, BB, BC, BD, BE AND BF cabins- 214 square feet which includes the balcony

 

In other words, the same size and the same layout.

 

This is our first cruise with Princess after many with Celebrity and the last two with Oceania. Will post a comparison in two weeks.

 

Don

[Ron n Jon]

...This is our first cruise with Princess after many with Celebrity and the last two with Oceania. Will post a comparison in two weeks. Don

 

Really appreciate everyone's input on this and look forward to your comments, Don, as to the current comparison. Obviously we are not talking about two peas in a pod, here. Thanks again.

[tak2]

........ Azamara ships were built with standard balcony cabins on Deck 8. Azamara did remodel their ships when they put them into service, adding mini-suites on Deck 8.

 

.......

 

Any difference in bathroom layout/size between O's PH and Azamara Sky Suites?

[StanandJim]

Tak2-

 

The bathrooms are the same size, but I'd give Azamara a slight edge on the finishes.

 

T

There is a video on this site that shows the Sky suite bathrooms:

 

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3109/2609440188_7956587be5.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.avidcruiser.com/blog/2008/05/20/suite-life-azamara-quests-sky-suite-8069/&h=500&w=333&sz=82&hl=en&start=1&sig2=dD6bOrsIBIU7pE1lMr2qqg&um=1&usg=__XGsJdKIw1DtKeYcOVghmQ8ljFd8=&tbnid=RYaQ1JkdgB3NUM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=87&ei=8V3YSLrwBpGwesSLnJMK&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dazamara%2Bsky%2Bsuite%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4ADBF_enUS275US275%26sa%3DN

[Aussie Gal]

We have just returned from 14 days on the Tahitian Princess in Alaska. We were on the Nautica for 35 days in April/May this year so have a good comparison of both lines.

 

We found that the food in the dining room each night on the T.P. to be of a higher standard than on Oceania.

 

We loved the alternate restaurants on Nautica and found the buffet on Nautica to be of a higher standard than on the T.P.

 

The staff on both ships were excellent and we couldn't differentiate between the two for service.

 

We also love the non smoking policy on Oceania, I wish Princess and HAL would take this on board. We had a verandah cabin on Deck 7 for our Nautica cruise and a mini suite on Deck 8 on the T.P. The mini suite on Deck 8 is roomy and the bathroom and balcony are larger.

 

We loved the entertainment each night on the T.P. The dancers were of a very high calibre as well as the solo acts. There was practically nothing on the Nautica, mainly only the Cruise Director and his offsiders singing.

 

We do love anytime dining and missed that on the T.P. Both cruise lines have a good product and we are happy to cruise on both. We will be on Azamara's Quest in February so will be able to compare the 3 cruise lines then.

 

Jennie

[alanpast1]

I can't speak to the same size ships but we just finished a coastal cruise on the Golden Princess from VC to LA and remembered why we are willing to pay more and go on O. I forgot that they have a lot of children on Princess, maybe not on the samller ships? The smoking was horrible on Princess with smoke in the bar with the excellent small band (we love to dance), in most open areas and anywhere need the casino. They had a pool for ADULTS ONLY, only they did not enforce the rule and ended up getting splashed and had to leave. The main dinning room food was fair but not to the standard of O. We waited in lines for the buffet and paid $15 per person for the Steakhouse restaurant. They started the cruise with staff serving food and thought maybe they were getting the idea of potential illnesses but then found out that they had a 24hr stomack virus strick the day before we embarked and the second day we served ourselves (this was better because they did not have enough staff to serve the food causing even longer lines). Pictures everywhere, like it or not and finally the staff was fair to rude compared to O.

[Aussie Gal]

I think you will find that on the 3 smaller Princess ships there are very few children in fact there were none on our trip a couple of weeks ago on the T.P., whereas on our 35 day cruise on Nautica in April/May we had 5 children on board. We wondered how they would amuse themselves as they are not really catered for as there are no children's club etc. but they were all well behaved being around the ages of 10-12 years.

 

Jennie

[pacmom]

Just returned from the Royal. Cabin was on deck 6, as was our Regatta in May. The only thing better about Royal was a fridge in the closet with the drawers. REALLY GREAT. Don't like traditional dining. We were 6 to begin with at a table for 8, dwindled to 4 after 2 days. We had late seating--don't do it if at all possible. Never got out of dining room before 10pm. On formal nites we opted for the bistro--part of the buffet area with a good limited menu and table service. The pizza was fantastic. The library was cluttered with unshelved books. David S. would have some type of attack. Deck 5 had very little seating. The portside shop was enlarged. Two desks, one for future cruises and one for the Art auction person made it look very commercial. Deck 4 was just about the same. The self-serve laundry had full size washers and dryers--very little sitting space. While we thoroughly enjoyed our cruising companions, we felt that the food in the dining room was not good, especially the beef and the veal chop. We did not eat in either specialty restaurant. They were open on alternate nights. The scallops brought aboard in St. John were probably the best meal I had. Breakfast buffet had NO blueberries, melons were fresh all other fruit appeared canned or frozen. One item on the breakfast buffet that I became addicted to was the bread and butter pudding. Am in withdrawal. It is nice to know where everything is, but we kept calling it by the O names, as did our Trivia mates. Pat

[Ron n Jon]

Having attempted to convince diehard Princess friends of the pleasures of our Oceania vessel sailings, they decided to first book the Pacific Princess and are currently on the Med. We just received the following e-mail from them:

 

"We now know what you were raving about with Oceania... This ship is a jewel box. I guess my fair comparison would be - large Princess cruise is a Marriott experience - this ship is a Four Season Hotel on water. I honestly can stay onboard and never go ashore, this ship is so wonderful. Yes, I know you told us."

 

So even with the pro and con discrepancies outlined in the above posts, our upcoming and first Royal Princess sailing should not be that much removed from our Oceania experiences. We'll see.

[Druke I]

I'm certainly not trying to be argumentative, but I think you will find a world of difference between Royal Princess and an Oceania ship.

 

We also have been on Pacific Princess and enjoyed it very much - but it is not Oceania. We've been on Regatta twice and Nautica once.

 

Oceania's food is very much better than Princess', which is not shabby at all.

 

Perhaps one area that Princess beats Oceania is in shows in the main lounge. Princess does put on production shows, with a reduced cast, and does it quite well.

 

One area that both could improve on (my opinion): get rid of the Art Auctions, which take up valuable floor space and often create congestion.

[Paulchili]

I agree with Druke I's assesment and would add that Oceania's excursion desk and destination information are poor. This could use some attention.

[Druke I]

Absolutely correct re Shore Excursions desk and personnel.

 

Princess is much "more together" in that operation.

[tiny_traveler_15]

Absolutely correct re Shore Excursions desk and personnel.

 

Princess is much "more together" in that operation.

 

I definitely agree - particularly when your Oceania ship is diverted to a different port than scheduled. The Excursion desk personnel don't seem to have any info on the ports they end up in (even though it's happened several times before) so that leaves the surprised traveler with little option. By the time the 'local experts' arrive, you've lost several hours of the day.

While some people enjoy exploring, some of us (for various reasons, including physical considerations) can't just wander the streets. It's hard to know what potential ports to research ahead of time if you're not familiar with the ports you could be diverted to. That makes some ports disappointing when you end up there unprepared.

TT15

[Aussie Gal]

I would not say like Duke that Oceania is a world of difference from Princess. As I mentioned in my two previous posts above, there is a little difference between the two cruise lines on these smaller ships but not such a huge amount.

 

In fact we have booked the Tahitian Princess, which will become the Ocean Princess, for May, 2010 when we cruise from Capetown to London. We have not booked another Oceania cruise at this stage as we have found that there too much of a difference in the pricing between the two cruise lines to be realistic for a similar product.

 

We are also cruising on Azamara in Feb/March and that will be another interesting comparision between these 3 cruise lines who are all using the same Ex "R" ships.

 

Jennie

[Paulchili]

I would not say like Duke that Oceania is a world of difference from Princess. As I mentioned in my two previous posts above, there is a little difference between the two cruise lines on these smaller ships but not such a huge amount.

 

In fact we have booked the Tahitian Princess, which will become the Ocean Princess, for May, 2010 when we cruise from Capetown to London. We have not booked another Oceania cruise at this stage as we have found that there too much of a difference in the pricing between the two cruise lines to be realistic for a similar product.

 

We are also cruising on Azamara in Feb/March and that will be another interesting comparision between these 3 cruise lines who are all using the same Ex "R" ships.

 

Jennie

 

Jennie,

We have an Oceania cruise coming up to Oz followed by some B2B cruises down under on Princess.

Beyond that I am getting more & more interested in Azamara as they seem to be similar to Oceania at a better price (at least for now).

I will be interested in reading your impression of Azamara as our "cruising tastes" seem fairly similar.

[Aussie Gal]

Paulchill,

 

I will let you know about our experience on Azamara in late March. You mention you are doing some B2B cruising on Princess whilst down here. If it is on the Sun Princess, then it will be a completely different experience from what we are used to on the Tahitian Princess. We had friends from Canada who did the circumnavigation cruise around Australia on that ship and were very disappointed with the service, food, etc.

 

Jennie

[Paulchili]

Paulchill,

 

I will let you know about our experience on Azamara in late March. You mention you are doing some B2B cruising on Princess whilst down here. If it is on the Sun Princess, then it will be a completely different experience from what we are used to on the Tahitian Princess. We had friends from Canada who did the circumnavigation cruise around Australia on that ship and were very disappointed with the service, food, etc.

 

Jennie

 

Yes it will be on the Sun & the Diamond (first time on either one).

While we do prefer the R ships, the itinerary is the most important parameter in choosing any cruise for us.

We'll get to compare these Princess ships to their other ones (we have been on Princess R ships three or fou times before).

Paul

[Aussie Gal]

Pauchili,

 

Enjoy, we too always book for itinerary but also weigh up the pros and cons of each ship.

 

Just don't expect your experience on the Sun Princess to measure up to your cruise on Oceania - chalk and cheese! I cannot speak for the Diamond.

 

Jennie

[Paulchili]

Thanks Jennie - will report back.

Paul

[myrtlewinston]

...this ship is a Four Season Hotel on water...

 

Ron n John,

 

I beg to differ with your friends' characterisation of an Oceania ship as a "Four Seasons hotel on water." I agree that the Nautica (on which I have sailed twice) is well-appointed and assume that the same is true of the Insignia and the Regatta. However, as a Four Seasons regular, I can attest that Oceania and the Four Seasons are in entirely different classes. Unlike the former, the latter actually reads the departure questionnaires and addresses and resolves issues individually. One doesn't even have to file a complaint.