Cruise line "personalities"

[ocicat]

We booked a cruise on Princess because we were told that line's "personality" would be a good fit for us. (Holland America was also suggested).

 

Since we are new to cruising but think we will be doing more of it... just what are the different "personalities" of each cruise line?

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

Cruiselines break down by "mass market", premium and luxury. Well known mass market cruiselines include Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruiselines. They cater to families (especially Disney) and to a broad spectrum of passengers.

 

Premium Cruiselines such as Princess, Holland America and Celebrity do charge more and are said to have a higher quality of food, service and amenities.

 

Luxury lines such as Crystal, Seabourne and Oceania, as the term "luxury"suggest, charge the highest prices. Their passengers expect more in terms of food, services and the elegance of the ships.

 

If you can assign personalities to each of these categories, probably Disney and Royal Caribbean have the best personality for kids, Carnival and Royal caribbean have the best personality fit for young couples, singles and first time cruisers.

 

But I don't like to make such generalizations. The personality of any particular cruise, I have found, depends on the length of the cruise, the time of the year of the cruise, the itinerary of the cruise, the age and size of the particular ship, the crew and other factors more dificult to define.

 

Thus while Royal Caribbean is sometimes called a mass-market cruiseline, it does offer very luxurious grand suites, it does have some fabulous itineraries and a passenger can do them back-to-back making the cruise even more awesome, and it offers a variety of restaurants.

 

Norwegian Cruiseline has special penthouse apartments that require the occupants to run their passcard in a special slot in the elevator. No one else can get to that part of the deck. Norwegian also offered every passenger champagne upon boarding the ship. That is a treat not offered on Royal. One thinks of that as an amenity of a premium cruiseline.

 

So you can't always say for certain that a cruiseline will give you a sought-after personality. Many things enter into the formula on any given cruise anbd they combine in a unique way on each and every cruise and ship.

[KKB]

But honestly, you are going to find few differences between the mass market lines (Carnival, RCCL, Princess, Celebrity, NCL, Disney, Holland).

 

Prices for all are fairly similar (except Disney runs a bit more).

 

Shorter cruises & Caribbean cruises get younger crowds.

 

Longer cruises, Alaska, & Europe get older crowds.

[krystalkruzer]

I think it is mostly defined by the type of people that are on board for the cruise. You can have two different cruises on the same line and each one have a different "personality".