Celebrity vs. Princess
 

In the past 4 years we have gone on 3 Celebrity 10-11 day cruises in the Carribean with several other couples. The ships were the Constellation, Solstice and Equinox. We enjoyed them all. We thought the food and service were excellent. Now a member of our travel group has suggested Princess for a Southern Carribean Cruise on the Emerald Princess. None of us has cruised with them. Knowing in advance that there will be pros and cons, can anyone who has been on BOTH lines and preferably the same class ships give us the differences we can expect with Princess?

I myself have been on all three of the Celebrity ships (Soltice last May and Equinox in October) you have mentioned..but not that particular Princess ship. The Princess ship we did take from Manaus to Ft. Lauderdale via the Amazon...there was no comparision.. Celebrity won hands done for service. cleanliness and entertainment Our friends on the Princess ship no sooner got off in Ft. Lauderdale...then the booked a Celebrity ship through the Panama Canal.. We have decided that there are loyal Princess cruisers and loyal Celebrity cruisers and we just don't agree..The only saving grace for our Princess cruise was the laundry, food in dining room great. We are now Elite members as of last May and enjoyed all the perks of the Equinox.

ParrotMom's reply is, to a large extent, comparing apples to oranges. The ship she sailed down the Amazon was no doubt the Pacific Princess, a ship a decade older and a third the size of the Equinox; it's only fair to assume the ship would be less impressive and entertainment options would be limited. I can't speak to service and cleanliness; one would certainly expect the additional decade to result in some wear and tear. I've been on four Princess cruises and one Celebrity, the older Mercury. Service is to some extent dependent on the luck of the draw; on the Mercury, I had my least favorite waiter of the seven cruises I've sailed, but then, after switching tables, one of the best. I was on the Emerald's near-sister, the Sapphire, last month. While I prefer Celebrity's decor to the Princess look, the service was great, the ship sparkling, and the cruise wonderful. Most ratings - like the Conde Nast poll - would place Celebrity on the top of the mass-market heap, with Princess placing second overall. If Celebrity sailed the itineraries I was interested in, I'd sail X again in a heartbeat, especially Solstice class. But I love Princess, and you might give it a try. You might miss daily sushi but love daily afternoon high tea and Princess' 24-hour dining options. You might even prefer the whole Princess experience. Worth a shot.

One aspect of the Solstice class we really liked was that Celebrity's buffet set up for breakfast and lunches never resulted in long lines because the stations were separated from each other. Is this unique to them?

Your correct Shepps... it was the Pacific Princess and we were very underwhelmed by the efficiency of the dining room staff. Many of the regular Princess passengers were actually complaining especially at breakfast... where they weren't guaranteed that what they ordered would be what they were served. The wear and tear on this older ship had nothing to do with the cleanliness, even on the NCL Gem where I couldn't believe the cleaning of the baseboards a11:00 p.m. at night and any drip or dirty table seemed to be an insult.. Whereas, on our Princess experience at the buffet dirty tables seemed to be the norm. Finally, Parrot Pop asked the Maitre de to have somebody clean the tables...he insisted they were clean until he took a second look. Another difference between Celebrity and our Princess cruise was at the buffett if you wanted coffee you had to go OUTSIDE on the Aft deck to get your own.. whereas on Celebrity there are roving waiters and carts with coffee and drinks.. The reason we took that particular ship (and it was a wonderful throwback to old fashioned cruising)was the fabulous itinerary.. On the whole after cruising more than 25 years I can honestly say that the cruisers on this Princess acted "entitled" and are extremely brand loyal. There is a good reason that the Solitice class ships are rated over the Princess..elegant service oriented and especially on the Equinox the happiest crew I've ever met.

Been on both ships vary in quality and age and staff.

Always best for me to check recent www.crusecritic.com

reviews on the specific ship not so much the line both are

good for me the newer bigger ships

have the best lodgings staff amenites.

Did a Barcelona Olympics Western Med Cruise in the early 90s

that was awesome but a very dated ship now so

the newer the better but generally prefer

Celebrity these days.

PM: BTW how's the coffee on X? On Princess its terrible unless to buy the coffee card. As for the Solstice its ranked as top in its class per a CN Travelers poll.

WOULD you believe I'm a tea drinker, iced and herbal and no coffee maven. Princess people say CN is a snob magazine and refuse to recognize the standing of the line.. What I find interesting is that Disney outranks many cruise lines including Celebrity. On Princess I wanted badly an iced coffee and the charge was $5.00 at the buffet...and they were going to only use one scoop of coffee, not for $5.00 they didn't.lol. What I do enjoy is iced tea mixed with lemonade... so refreshing. Since we are not big drinkers we don't buy the wine or drink card either.. A fellow cruiser found she saved lots of $$ because she is an Elite member and at the Elite cocktail party evenings she was able to bring her wine or mixed drink to the table at supper.

Hmmm. CN traveler polls actually rate Princess petty high though not as high as X obviously. Yes, Disney is ranked very high too for its class. I would like to try disney once but my better half is against that so..... Dream on. :D I am not a big drinker either as alcohol makes me sleepy so if I drink its at bedtime though I usually try a local brew in every port. Once on a land vacation in Fiji I had one of the best brews I've ever tasted. Its called Fiji bitter but its not available here. Anyway from what I've read it seems if we do take that X cruise in Oct. I'll have to bring my own coffee and a French press. Cheers, Larry :-)

Sorry, ParrotMom...now you're losing me. "Princess people say CN is a snob magazine and refuse to recognize the standing of the line?" Making wild generalizations, are we? Just how many "Princess people" have you discussed this with? I recently posted on cruisecritic about the latest CN poll results and got not one response even remotely like your statement. Granted, readers' polls are self-selectingly biased anyway, but if you combine the "large ship" and "megaship" categories, Princess had 9 out of the 34 non-premium top-ship cites...not too shabby. In "large ship," the Coral Princess was in a virtual tie with the Summit and outscored the Constellation. And, granted, X has fewer ships, but the only Celeb ships to place in Megaships were the Solstice and Equinox, none of the Millennium class, while Princess placed 7, including the Emerald. So...whatever. Your iced coffee complaint? On any Grand-class ship, there's an ice dispenser right next to the coffee spigot, both INSIDE the buffet, and it's a cinch to make a good iced coffee; I've done it many times myself. (The OP, remember, asked to compare similar-class ships.) And lastly, your mentioning that Princess regulars complained about the service would, um, indicate that the usual Princess standard was considerably higher than what you experienced, right? Like I said, I have nothing against Celebrity...I loved my one X cruise. You apparently have something or other against Princess though. Enjoy!

Whoops...slight correction..the Millennium class ships would have placed in the large-ship category, not the megaships. Not one of them got a nod, though. And actually, jacketwatch, the only X ships to meaningfully - not to mention "obviously" - outscore Princess were the Equinox and Solstice. But like I said, the whole thing should be taken with a grain of sea salt. The Coral Princess outscored the Island by several points on Design/Layout - the ships are identical twins.

shepps: What ships have you cruised on?

Oh and BTW as this is your very first post welcome to Fodors.

Hi TeacherD,

Since I've not sailed on a Celebrity ship (would love to try one sometime), I can't make a valid comparison. However, I have sailed on three different Princess ships. Last year, we did a 7 day S. Caribean cruise on Caribbean Princess, a 14 day TransAtlantic on Crown Princess and a 12 day Italy/Croatia/Greek Island/Turkey cruise on Sea Princess.

What I can tell you is that on all three cruises, sevice was outstanding, and food was excellent. As a matter of fact, service and attention was almost more than I wanted at times -constantly replenishing iced tea, new napkins, etc., even when we were just sitting by the pool or relaxing on deck.

Crown and Caribbean both look like almost new ships - everything absolutely beautiful: they were constantly cleaning and polishing. Sea Princess showed just a tiny bit of wear here and there - mostly carpet in some hall ways.

Entertainment was best on Caribbean Princess and so were acoustics in the theater. Sound was not well adjusted on the other two cruises (for my taste), and I didn't think the shows were as good. They rotate those though, so you never know which will be best.

Buffet service is divided into four areas, two on each side of the ship, so they had overlapping service at all times. A few times it was a little crowded for perhaps a few minutes, but never did we have to wait in any lines for buffet food. The buffet offered a big variety of packaged teas all day.

I just looked at our bill on Crown. I had cokes and DH had coffee or club soda a lot. Price ranged from $1.95 to $2.95, depending on location, but most of the time it was around $2.00 - no more than at a local restaurant. I am really surprised that iced tea would be so much more than cokes and coffee. DH didn't really like the coffee, but that is because he thinks nothing is worth drinking except for Dunkin Donut or some other name with Mountain in it. He did have it for breakfast anyway, and at dinner, but in between he got coffee at one of the specialty places and it was only a couple of dollars.

Embarking and disembarking were a breeze on all the ships.

Don't know how Emerald Princess ranks with Caribbean Princess, but I liked the Caribbean Princess and would highly recommend it.

If the itinerary is one you like, don't be afraid to try Princess.

oh, duh, correction of a correction..the Constellation and Summit, are, of corse, Millenium-class. Sorry about that - I should never do three things at once. My bad...very bad. Still, if we're playing statistics, both the Summit and Constellation were in a virtual dead heat with the Coral Princess. And, jacketwatch,since you seem to be suspicious of first-timers...I'm nearing 100 posts on cruisecritic, and only wandered onto this thread by accident. Been on the Westerdam, Zuiderdam, X Mercury, and Princesses Dawn, Sea, Crown, and Sapphire.

No, not really. Just those who seem to be argumentative. Too bad its seem like you have win all the time.

hey jacketwatch...wasn't trying to "win all the time," just pointing out that some of parrotmom's criticisms seemed unfounded and/or unfair, and that most folks - including people on the Princess cruisecritic board and the respondents to the CN poll - feel the two lines are pretty similar in quality. (As opposed to, say, Princess and NCL.) There's currently a thread just like this on cruisecritic, and the consensus is "some things better on X, some things better on Princess." Like I said, if X had an itinerary I wanted at a good price, I'd absolutely sail on the line again. Have a good one. :)

Thanks. Disagree. Have a good one too. :-)

SORRY SHEPPS, but on Cruise Mates and Cruise Critics I've been slammed and flammed for my comments on our one Princess cruise. On one of those boards there is a poster whose name I won't mention when ANYBODY and I mean ANYBODY says something positive about Celebrity goes off on a rant about her one bad experience maybe 10 years ago.. We have been cruising for more than 25 years, I do not list our cruises..and frankly... at this stage in my life I cannot afford to pay $$$ for a possible repeat on a particular cruise line where we h ad a bad experience..Our very first cruise was on the brand new NCL Seaward, we have cruised Carnival (once), Dolphin, Royal Majesty, NCL Majesty, etc. etc. and yes we were drawn back to cruising and our first cruise was on the Celebrity Century, then the Galaxy and the Constellation..I could list the differences in service that we found, but you might think it was petty..but to us now..it is the little things (by the way as I wrote earlier we were with friends on our Pacific Princess who NEVER ate in the MDR because of the way they were treated and pulled all their tips)..that matter..As a final note...it now appears sadly that Parrot Pop and I have cruised our last cruise together and it was on the Celebrity Equinox and please check out my review of the experience..

PM: You are entitled to your opinions and after all its your money. I am sorry to hear your cruising days are over. I do hope all is well. Take care. Larry

Sadly, our cruising days are over, but "jackewatch" we have such great memories of our travels and pictures to boot and that's what it's all about isn't it? Going through the tree tops of the jungle in Dominica, seeing the sun set over the Arno River, Sunday on a glorious day in Rome at the Spanish steps, La Rambla in Barcelona, Machu Picchu in 1986 before it became overun, the Pyramids... and the wonderful people we have met on this board and on our trips who have been so helpful. So, I say to you all....ENJOY

Hi...Princess and Celebrity are two different lines with two different feels. The good news is that I don't believe you will be dissatisfied with any cruise on Princess. Both lines have great dining (I'll let others argue which is better) and they both have great service. I've sailed on the Grand Princess and the Celebrity Mercury and found both to be wonderful means to see remarkable destinations. Have a great trip.

PM: I certainly hope your days of posting here are not over. I've always enjoyed your posts. Larry :-)

Hopefully Larry I can still help other cruisers the way people on this board especially have helped me.. I believe in playing it forward.

I hope so too. You are awesome!

The newer grander ships are better assignments for the crew, so you are always going to feel you have more attentive service on them.

Crews bid for the jobs on different ships, they prefer the newer more "gleaming" ships.

As for comparisons between them, the truth is service is the luck of the draw at times, the cruiser composition is also important and sometimes that is determined based on the port the ship departs or returns to.

From what I have been told by crew members that the more experienced and older staff are transferred to the newer ships.. One waiter had told us he wanted the Equinox because it was closer to his home in the middle East, unfortunately, he was kept on the ship we met him on which only does the Caribbean. What I continue to wonder about is with all these cruise ships where is all the staff coming from. I did meet a young lady who gave up her job in Europe because of the economy and said it was a chance to get to visit many countries, learn english and to have a steady job.. She loves cruising and has met many new friends among the crew members and was a complete delight and excellent enough that she was stationed evenings in the Murano restaurants.

With any cruise line, there are better and worse trips, cabin stewars, etc. But for me, Princess wins, hands down. They have wonderful food in the dining room and buffet and their trattorias are the best alternative restaurants I have experienced on cruise ships. Afternoon tea is lovely. They are good at making sure everything goes smoothly. There are port talks and shore excursion talks. There is plenty of on-board entertainment. Their itineraries are good with a generous number of port stops. I highly recommend Princess.

We recently took our first Celebrity cruise. Having been on various cruise lines (including Princess to Alaska). I'd go Celebrity hands down. The staff is extraordinary. Ship was immaculate. Food was mixed but most good with some very good. Enjoy, whichever you choose!

We used Celebrity only once and will never, ever, ever use it again. The other couple we traveled with use Princess and they feel it is the best. The ship we were on was the Infinity and we were sick the whole time because of their faulty sewage system and poor sanitation. The corporate response to our complaints was nil. You only get once to make a good first impression.

After reading these replies, I have to add that you will be traveling with friends, both lines are very good. Attitude and expectations go a long way to making any travel fun and interesting. We have been very lucky to have traveled the world on cruises and land trips and never had a bad one. Keep that smile on your face, a good sense of humor, and expectations realistic and you will have a grand time no matter what.

I thank everyone for their comments. An update is that another couple and we booked a Mediterranean cruise for mid September on Princess. We're both celebrating our 40th anniversaries and decided to do something very different. Princess had the itinerary we both wanted. So we're hoping to get recommendations about that cruise in the near future. Right now our concern is whether to book anytime dining or the late seating since most of the land tours are very long. We are used to early seating but that's been in the Caribbean where most tours were 3-5 hours. We've read that anytime dining may involve more than 30 minute waits Comments?

Unless you want to eat with the same people at the same table every night, you do not have to choose your dining ahead of time. You can reserve on the ship every day for the time you want that day. We have always choosen anytime dining. In three cruises on Princess, only a couple of times did we not get right in with anytime dining. Once, we had to make a reservation for a little later. Once we had about a ten minute wait. You also do not have to choose early or late seating. You can choose a time and reserve that time every day.

We love being on the water and the views, so enjoy being on the open deck in nice weather. I found the buffet food quite good at dinner, and sometimes DH and I chose to get food there and sit out on the back deck that is reserved for adults so we could be outside and enjoy the sunsets while we ate.

Sometimes, we choose dining times/venues based on our plans for the day. Sometimes, we based it on what shows we wanted to see and the times they started.

The advantage is flexibility, you are not stuck at a table with a group you may not enjoy and you can meet new people. The disadvantage is your waiter does not get to know you or your tastes - if that is important to you.

What ship will you be on? What cruise? We were on Star Princess on our Med/Greek Island cruise, and did the one that departs Venice and ends in Rome.

We will be on the Ruby princess on the 12 day Grand Mediterranean cruise. It starts in Barcelona and ends in Venice.

Can you ask for a table for four in anytime dining or is it only large tables?

teacherD,

You must choose an option for dining. Anytime dining can provide you with a table for four. There might be a wait during the popular times 6 pm on. Or, you can choose to 'sit with anyone' and that will get you in almost immediately.