Can anyone here compare Princess to Disney for me?

[strawberryblonde]

Hello all. We learned so much on this board before our first cruise. Our DCL cruise was a great experience and am wondering how our upcomming Princess cruise will compare.

We are taking the Sapphire Princess 12 day cruise from New Zealand to Australia next Jan. Sadly Disney does not cruise Australia (yet!) or that would have been our choice.

We booked a mini-suite so that the kids will not be above our heads, it looks to be about the size of our cat. 6 on the Magic.

We are going in knowing it will be different from DCL but still excited. Thanks all.

 

[Miss Eeyore]

We sailed the maiden voyage of the Sapphire Princess to Alaska this summer, and it was wonderful. The ship is absolutely fabulous. The only drawback was dining. You have to choose between "traditional fixed" or "freestyle" I believe it was called. The trouble with freestyle was that although you had your choice of restaurants, each morning you had to decide EARLY where and when you wanted dinner, since reservations seemed to go quickly. But that was the first voyage. The health spa is much more like Disney.....has a relaxation room much like the rainforest if you go before your treatment. They were not allowing day passes to the rainforest=like area, but again this may have changed after the shakedown time.

The entertainment was hands down the best technical musical theater I have seen on board any line (and that praise does not come lightly from this technical theater professional). Their on-stage talent was so talented. And be sure to take the dance lessons....what a hoot. Bingo was fun and civilized on Princess. They have not allowed it to turn into the kid-screaming zoo that Que and company have fashioned on the Magic. Children are allowed to play, but they play on "kid" cards, and win prizes. I know that Disney is breaking all sorts of regulations allowing children to play on legal gambling cards for cash prizes......but that is one area that DCL sees as a real cash cow and feels they will loose a dollar or two if they follow the legalities.

Princess brought abaord an excpert in some area at each port who gave an entertaining lecture, and there are lots of adult-ed opportunities. The kids seemed content in their clubs, and no snerty teens invaded adult-only spaces.

Your mini-suite should be very comfortable. Our balcony cabin was wonderful, and the extra bunks were not overhead.

Any more questions you can e-mail me.

Marilee

 

[smchan]

I know that Disney is breaking all sorts of regulations allowing children to play on legal gambling cards for cash prizes......but that is one area that DCL sees as a real cash cow and feels they will loose a dollar or two if they follow the legalities.

Are you sure Disney is openly breaking the law? I thought drinking and gambling age limits in international waters were governed by self-policy - not law.

I know some cruise lines lower the drinking age to 18 when in international waters; Disney holds theirs at 21.

Sam

 

[Miss Eeyore]

I asked a lawyer friend about the legal gambling and drinking age thing as it applied to passenger ships. He said that some lines, depending on nation of registry, may choose to recognize 18 as "legal" age, and that is fine with me. But six year olds playing bingo for cash is not legal......and DCL does recognize this when they say that only an ADULT may claim winnings. So other lines that allow children to play Bingo have them play on "kiddie cards" that are not regulated Bingo cards, and award non-cash prizes like they do during other competitions. I don't like the "wink wink" way that DCL does Bingo.....we'll just look the other way when kids are playing regulated cards; purchased by legal adults because they will not ALLOW children by regulation to purchase regulated gambling.

 

[strawberryblonde]

Thank-you so much Miss Eeyore! You have told me things I wasn't able to find out on the CC board. I didn't know that the bunks weren't above the queen bed in the reg. balcony rooms. Had I known, I would have stayed with the reg. balcony stateroom. Ah well, it was about $700 more for nearly two weeks, we will most likely appreciate the extra room.

The dining "issue" is something that has been brought up on the other board. We are confirmed for early traditional dining and I couldn't be happier about that!

I'm so excited to hear about the dance lessons and kid's cards for bingo ( I think my kids would like that). If you think of anything more, please let me know. Thanks again for posting.

 

[Miss Eeyore]

Heidi-

You do realize we sailed together on the Magic last March? I was the other crazy red head at the DIS meet.

 

[Ladyhawke10]

I asked a lawyer friend about the legal gambling and drinking age thing as it applied to passenger ships. He said that some lines, depending on nation of registry, may choose to recognize 18 as "legal" age, and that is fine with me. But six year olds playing bingo for cash is not legal......and DCL does recognize this when they say that only an ADULT may claim winnings. So other lines that allow children to play Bingo have them play on "kiddie cards" that are not regulated Bingo cards, and award non-cash prizes like they do during other competitions. I don't like the "wink wink" way that DCL does Bingo.....we'll just look the other way when kids are playing regulated cards; purchased by legal adults because they will not ALLOW children by regulation to purchase regulated gambling.

Wow, this is interesting considering a young teenager (maybe 13-15) won the jackpot on the Magic during Thanksgiving week worth about 7,000. She had a relative (that was over 18) claim the jackpot with her, but I heard a lot of guests grumbling about it. I didn't even know about the legalities of it...I thought people were just unhappy because they wanted that money!

 

[smchan]

I didn't even know about the legalities of it...I thought people were just unhappy because they wanted that money!

I think your original feelings are true. I suspect if one of the disgruntled passenger's children had won the jackpot, concerns over legal issues would've blown right out the window.

That said - I won't allow my kids to drink or gamble for both legal and moral reasons.

Sam

 

[cjsmith]

I don't know about the Sapphire Princess, but I can tell you that our mini suite on The Golden Princess was larger than our balcony stateroom on DCL and the size of the balconies is amazing compared to Disney. We had a lot more storage space and even though it was only 1 bathroom, it was pretty large. The size of the balconies are tremendous compared to Disney, we were quite surprised by this and therefore spent a lot more time out there.

As far as the dining situation is concerned, I LOVED the anytime dining on Princess so much more than the traditional dining. We very rarely had dining reservations and never had to wait for a table more than a few minutes. I really did love being able to go eat whenever I felt like it. You can also make your dining reservations for the whole week if you find a time and servers that you really like. I don't like DCL's set times, 6 is too early for my family and 8:30 is too late so this anytime style is great for us.

My husband and I prefer DCL over Princess just because we love the lines and feel of the ships plus the staff can't be beat, but Princess is great as well. We actually booked another Princess cruise for July of 2005 for our family leaving out of Southampton England since we can't do that on Disney.

 

[tecdavidt]

Hi Heidi and Marilee, this is Kathy aka. tecdavidt from your cruise last March.

Heidi, we were on the Dawn Princess last January. We were in a mini suite and it was wonderful. Dave and I both agreed we had plenty of room if we would of brought Stephanie along. The balcony on the Dawn was huge, almost like our Cat. 3 and the bathroom was a split arangement. The shower and whirlpool tub were seperate from the sink, toilet room. We had a lot of storage. There was a heavy curtain separating the bed from where the children would sleep. I would guess it would be similar if not the same on the new ship. I would take a guess that the mini suite was larger than the cat. 6 but it just might of seemed that way. The service was wonderful.

Going to Australia, NICE!!! Enjoy your cruise. Happy Holidays to you all. We leave on Dec. 26th for 2 days at the world then off on the Magic's New Year's Eve cruise. Kathy

 

[strawberryblonde]

Hello Marilee, hi Kathy ! I thought that was you, Marilee, but with the different look of the board, I wasn't sure. Couldn't find the search so I could look up our old thread, glad you said something.

cjsmith- I was counting on the balcony being bigger , four chairs (two recline) and a table are out there. I was thinking that big balcony would account for most of the extra square footage (354 vs. 268). It's fun to think there will be extra room in our stateroom as well! I didn't want to set ourselves up for disapointment by expecting bigger, if you know what I mean. The reports I am reading on CC about anytime dining, is that it works fine on the other ships but not the Diamond and the Sapphire. You can have a long wait or be told to eat at the buffet on formal nights when they can get booked up through the evening . With young kids, I like knowing we have a table waiting for us. If traditional turns out to not be for us, we can always switch to anytime. Very hard to get traditional as there is a long waiting list. I'm glad to read that you like Princess and have booked another cruise with them.

Kathy, a New Year's cruise sounds wonderful! Hope your family has fun. We are doing the Australia/New Zealand route not only because we have always wanted to visit these countries but because there will be no jet lag for our family! That is a biggie.