In your opinion which line is more upscale.. Celebrity or Princess.. We have only cruised Celebrity and a friend says that its a step up from Princess.. is it or does it depend on the ship?

yeah, it depends

Here's a very recent Cruise Critic discussion of that very topic, ParrotMom. It seems very balanced.

http://tinyurl.com/599lfy

Based on our limited experience (Celebrity to Caribbean in 2007 and Princess to Alaska 2 weeks ago) I would rate total experience as roughly comparable. For example, Celebrity had slightly better food, but Princess had 24-hour food. Princess food service staff better, but cabin staff better on Celebrity.

And, of course, it all depends on itinerary and specific ship - but when I see lists grouping cruiselines, the 2 are usually together.

Celebrity offers 24 hour room service.

I took one ghastly Celebrity and 35 wonderful Princess, but that may have been just a one-off.
I felt that Celebrity wanted to be upscale but there were aspects I didn't care for. For example, I was told that I must never again put my room service tray outside the door again (oops) but must call room service to pick it up!! The food was only average (South America cruise).
Having said that, I don't think you can go far wrong as long as you stick to any of the major cruise lines with great reputations.

Having sailed on both cruise lines' ships several times, I would give the slight nod to Celebrity as being more upscale (in general) - more expensive, more "sticky" about dress code on formal nights, etc. But it does depend on the ship as well (how old the ship is, etc). Princess has been slipping steadily under the Carnival label (very unfortunate, as it used to be a great cruise line).
You can get a lot of good information on Cruise critic (as pointed out above)

We did one Celebrity cruise and we were very disappointed in the condition of the ship. Shabby and run down. Food service were fine. We have sailed Princess and HAl wihtout having problems with the condition of a ship

Celebrity is a HUGE step up from Princess.

Actually in a recent issue of Travel and Leisure Princess rated, per a readers poll, not far from X and above RCI.

We have only sailed Carnival, RCI, Princess, & NCL(which was awful and will never do again). Princess food is above the others, cabin stewards not so. Have never had a problem with RCI. We are going on our first Celebrity (Soltice sp?) in Nov.09. Looking forward to it.

Celebrity has better food than most, including the Princess. The princess food is about average except for their souffle.

The Princess had lost our luggage among other things but we stil cruise with them.

I am still trying to figure out why but we like the Princess better in general. There is something about the Princess ships that we liked but we can't pinpoint it. Maybe because it is the original love boat? Or maybe that they just do everything average and you won't be disappointed.

Except for one trip (NCL), we have not been disappointed by any cruise line. Set your expectation low and you are bound to be happy with everything!

New feature on the Celebrity if you are a golf fan: real grass for their putting green on baord the ship.