Considering Royal Carribean or Princess? Maybe?

[MrsPete]

Oh, it pains me to even ask these questions . . . but I'm considering a non-Disney cruise. Don't get me wrong: we LOVE Disney, and I really do want to do at least one more Disney cruise while the kids are still young (they'll be 9 and 12 when we sail again). But I've been looking at prices, and it's awfully hard to justify the huge difference! We're looking at a difference of about $1000 for a one-week cruise with a balcony. I think we'd be most interested in Royal Carribean or Princess. Can anyone help me with these questions so I can make an informed decision?

Does anyone have any personal thoughts on either Royal Carribean or Princess? These companies each have so many ships -- how do you ever decide between them? Is there much difference?

Pools and kids' clubs are big deals for us -- any info on these?

I've heard that other lines tend to be somewhat more formal at dinner. True or false?

Can anyone recommend some reading for either company? I'd love to find something really detailed like the Passporter, but that's probably not realistic.

I heard that RC nickles and dimes people. I know that other lines don't allow you to bring your own sodas/alcohol, but I'm thinking that the price difference would more than make up for it. Can anyone comment?

I heard that Princess is a floating retirement village? Can anyone comment?

We LOVED Castaway Cay. Do either of these companies have a private island? What about other companies that I may not be considering?

Any information whatsoever would be appreciated. I am not well-informed about other cruise lines! Thanks in advance.

 

[TheWog]

go to cruisecritic.com or cruisemates.com they will help you.

Nickel and diming is people complaining, they charge for sodas outside of restaurants, they charge for alternative restaraunts (Palo's), stuff like that. It's just people complaining.

go to each website and look at the classes of ships and the intinerary you would want to go on. Some ships are huge and have ice rinks and movies under the stars with 3000 passengers or you can be more intimate like the Magic, Enchantment of the Seas is one and we are going in January w/out the kids. We chose Enchantment for the 5 day itinerary because we don't want to be away too long and don't want to see all the same places we will see in Jan 06 on the Western Magic with our DS7.

Don't know of any passporter type book, but those boards are good, and you can see some good "fights" on differences of opinion. I have heard pools are smaller, but Carnival has adult slides. Like any other if you put soda in your checked luggage, will they take it out? RCI has a private island on Haiti but it is closed due to the unrest right now.

Do you have a TA? They should be able to help.

 

[lori saxman]

We have yet to cruise with DCL. Our trip is sch. for late July of this year and I too feel DCL is more, however, just from doing some research, I think they will be better. 2 years ago we went with RCCL. We are a family of 5 at that time our kids were 10,6,3. We booked a suite on Monarch of the Seas due to our # per cabin. First thought: cabin was dirty, run down a bit, balcony carpet was always wet, ship was also run down, kids programs were "ok" not good for our 3 year old. Food at every meal was cold. Staff was good though. Even with my complaints we had a good time as a family and I thought the value was ok. But I would not consider that ship again, but would do one of the newer Voyager class ships. Hope you have a great time.

 

[greenhornet]

We just came back from eastern carabian on rccl I hated the cruise but the ship was great. (I am not a cruise person) there is nothing to do on the ship while at sea and our first two excurens were canceled due to weather. but ship and everything was great.

 

[prymsu]

Today i just booked a three day cruise for 10/15/04 on RCCL out of port canaveral. For an ocean view room guarantee, it was $367 total apiece for two adults. This included the port charges, the taxes, prepaid vouchers for shipboard gratuities, the cruise and round trip transfers from the airport. It is hard to complain about that price!

 

[prymsu]

hope i don't get flamed for this, but in my opionion, the snorkeling on the RCCL private island Cocoa Cay is much better than at CC...

 

[Shebbieal]

We have done all 3. Disney has the best kids stuff, I would say Royal Caribbean 2nd, Princess 3rd.

On RCI consider the Voyage class 1st on number of activities. The Radiance class is gorgeous, tad smaller than Voyage class (a few less things to do) The Vision class is also a winner.

I have only done Princess once, the Grand Princess, nice ship but really prefer RCI over Princess. Nothing bad about it tho.

To me the biggest difference is the casino. I do enjoy blackjack!!
I also love Disney, our 3rd cruise is coming up.

You would probably prefer RCI after Disney, tons to do and a lot cheaper than Disney.

Disney is Disney, but I am booked on Panama Canal and a 13 day cruisetour with Royal Caribbean. I just love to be on a ship!!!

 

[TheWog]

prymsu, better get your fire suit on ... hehehe

we went with RCI because they offer a 5 night and the casino as well. $749 including port charges and taxes and one transfer each for my wife and I in a D1 balcony

 

[rw2dodge]

My dh and I cruise on RCCL's Nordic Empress in June 2000. We went to Bermuda. Loved everything about it. It helped alot that we saved on air fare due to the ship sailed out of New York and we live in New Jersey.

 

[Mjasp]

Like I stated in another thread on this board. Because DCL is going to CA. in 2005 we are forced to try another line, which we always wanted to do.

Anyone want to try the Voyager out of NY the new Carnival Miracle to Bahamas, or the Legend to Tortola?

Maybe we can start a summer 2005 cruise out of NY thread.

Joanna

 

[Skywalker]

Originally posted by MrsPete

I heard that Princess is a floating retirement village? Can anyone comment?

When we cruised on Princess, it seemed to be more young couples than anything! Not a particularly high number of elderly people so I really wonder where that comment came from? We went a number of years ago so maybe it has changed?

 

[tecdavidt]

We were on the Dawn Princess this past New Year's Eve cruise and it had a lot of elderly people as in older than my parents who happen to be in their early 70's. I expected a more balanced mix of ages. I felt I was on a retirement cruise. We saw a lot of people using walkers and wheel chairs. Who knows, maybe some retirement group booked a huge amount of rooms. More power to them and I hope I go on cruises at their age. Also, we were told that Princess was more formal than other lines. Not so for this cruise. Very few tuxes on formal nights and most changed back into casual clothes after dressing formal or semi formal on those nights. It was also not what we were expecting. The ship itself was gorgeous. We had a mini suite and that made our trip wonderful. At night the ship looked deserted, we finally began to realize the passengers went to bed early and this was around 9:00 pm! One plus of the line, service was wonderful and it was the easiest check-in we every had. Most was done on-line before we received our docs. That was so nice.

Can't comment on RCCL but out TA loves the line. We have been on Celebrity which is owned by RCCL and we love Celebrity. We are in our mid 40's and most passengers were in the 40 to 50 bracket with some retired couples and some young couples. Very nice ships. Huge spas and I mean huge.

I also like Carnival. The 7 day & up cruises and newer ships tend to draw passengers no different than RCCL or Princess. The old party hardy crowd is more on the short little 3 day cruises. Carnival and Disney are suppose to have the largest staterooms of all lines.

As far as nickle and diming you, I think Disney is the only line that includes pop for free during dining room meal times. All lines have a service charge for the specialty reastaurants. As cruise prices drop the list of included items have also been shrinking. Have fun picking a new line to try and post how you liked it. Variety is the spice of life. Kathy

 

[ksmom]

Becuase of Disney's change we are now looking at RCCL. Would rather do Disney

 

[staylor]

So far DH and I (we're in our 30's) have cruised with Costa, RCCL, Celebrity, and Disney. Celebrity is hands down the most upscale and gourmet. The food is absolutely wonderful. RCCL was a blast! The food was okay, like Disney. The price was great. The ship was great. The activities where awesome. Great activities for the kids and the adults (like adult "horse races" by the pool). Princess is coming into Houston this Fall and we are looking forward to cruising on them. You'll have more children on the other cruise lines when school is out (of course).
I priced the transcanal cruises (out of galveston) on Celebrity and Princess and the price was half of disney, for a better room. I looked at vacationstogo.com and dynamictravel.com.
I hope this helps!
Staci

 

[drarill]

Hi;
We were on the Radiance of the Seas a year ago. And we loved it. They have a good kids program. And I hate to tell you, but the difference in price is huge. To give you an example we are taking the Magic in two weeks and we paid $8900 for a Cat4 for two adults and two children, western caribbean. The same islands plus Jamaica on a Junior Suite was $6500 in june with RCCL. Also the upgrades when you check in are great. When we took the Radiance we were booked on a Cat F (like a Cat 5 on DCL), when we were doing the check in I asked if they had something for an upgrade, and for $600 they gave us a Grand Suite with concierge service, and I'm telling you it was worth every dollar. Well, hope it helps, I still love DCL but RCCL comes in a close second.

 

[Tigfanjeff]

Originally posted by prymsu
hope i don't get flamed for this, but in my opionion, the snorkeling on the RCCL private island Cocoa Cay is much better than at CC...

No reason to get flamed at all. Everyone here is entitled to an opinion.

 

[NCRedding]

We did the Radiance of the Seas to Alaska. The ship is beautiful on the inside; I don't care for the lines of the ship on the exterior. I think the classic lines of the Magic and Wonder are perfect. I found the food and service on RCCL to be several steps below that on DCL. We didn't try the specialty restaurants at $20 per person. My DD liked the kids clubs on RCCL-the groups involved were much smaller, which made it easier for DD to make friends. She liked the prizes that were given for attending functions. The hours were limited--not all day like on DCL. I had several problems with customer service. As to the formality: on the whole, I think Alaskan cruises are a little more informal with dress--at least ours was more informal than on DCL. There were a larger number of tux on formal night with the Alaskan cruise though. I had hoped to like RCCL because of the price differences, but I just don't like them, based upon this one RCCL cruise--I really don't want to spend more money on another cruise to get an opinion. I'll just stick with DCL for the foreseeable future.

Also, as to the nickel and diming, I did feel there was more of that on RCCL--the sodas, pics were more expensive, they charged for child care after 10 pm, the more things were not included, but it didn't add up to $1000; maybe about $250.

 

[PatriciaH]

I love RCCL and Celebrity. Carnival is a little more "Vegas." The newer Carnival ships are nicer than the older ones. Celebrity has great food and beautiful, huge spas on the newer ships. RCCL's Voyager and Radiance class ships are wonderful! We sailed on the Mariner of The Seas out of Port Canavaral in February and the cruise was amazing. The ship is so beautiful. The service was wonderful and the food was very good. Our balcony stateroom was huge. I do not sell Princess in my agency so can't comment but we may add them since Carnival bought them out. We may cruise with RCCL in January again. The price is right

 

[Jimbo]

We've cruised Royal Caribbean a few times, although not for several years. And they have definitely changed their whole way of doing business since then. Their TV ads alone make that obvious. So we liked them then, but that doesn't mean anything now.

We cruised a few times on Princess, and like them. They've got several classes of ships, though, so do your homework. We loooved the Royal Princess, for example, but thought the Dawn Princess was so-so. I think it was the Dawn; it was one of them with a bulgy looking forehead-type thing in the front.

One of the big bennies if you go on Princess is that you will be absolutely flooded with discounts on future cruises. I'm talking a couple of brochures a week. We took a 10 day Panama Canal cruise on the beautiful Royal Princess, and got a buy one get one free discount. They said that something like 90% of the passengers on that cruise were repeat customers.

We didn't find the clientele to be especially old on Princess. The average age was higher on the 10 day Panama Canal cruise, but that's probably because retirees can take 10 days off at a crack easier than most.

 

[sitchu2]

I cruised the Mariner this past feb out of port canaveral because I just couldnt justify the cost of the disney cruise.

The ship was amazing, the service excellent, the crowd mixed old young couples teens tweens babies in betweens. Some of the older folks were shocked at the kids on board (disney has attracted famalies to cruise at port canaveral)

The food was ok, disneys better. There was something missing and we cant describe it easily but we prefer the disney cruise experience. We love the warmth of the smaller ship, the family enviornment and family style entertainment combined with world class service and excellent quality food. There was no castaway cay on the itinerary which is our fav. island.

We now have 2 disney magic cruises planned for the future, and we feel you get what you pay for. We were considering the caribbean princess, its a big georgous ship, but they are all basically the same , missing that disney magic.


Its just so comfortable for us to sail with disney, its our style, and on vacation we will feel truely relaxed.