EWL said:
Just curious-- we have sailed Princess once before and loved it. Of course, that was before we had kids so we paid no attention to the kids's programs, etc. Now we have a DD3 and just got back from the Magic and had a great time, despite the weather. But we're curious how Princess compares-- or does it? Anyone have thoughts? Thanks!
We've done 4 Disney cruises and just took a cruise on the Golden Princess out of San Juan on 10/24/04 (without the kids on this one). We liked Princess so much that we're taking the kids on a 10 night Golden Princess cruise out of Southampton England on 7/11/05!
While I love Disney, Princess is also great. They each of their strengths and their minus'. Let's see, I personally prefer the look of the Disney ship, much more like the old time cruise ships, very traditional, but that's me. The Princess ship is also beautiful, very muted in colors which is great. We had a mini-suite on the Golden, which was wonderful, nicer than our balcony cabin on Disney, but I guess you can't compare the 2 as they're different. ONe thing that was hugely different was the size of the balconies on this ship, even in the regular balcony cabins, HUGE compared to Disney. We had a table and 2 chairs as well as 2 lounge chairs on ours! The fridges are larger and are real fridges.
As far as dining is concerned, Princess had anytime dining, Personal Choice they call it and traditional dining. This is a huge difference and a big plus for Princess. 6:00 is way too early for us and 8:30 is too late. I really loved going when I wanted or having the choice of making a reservations early in the day for the time I wanted. I want to say that the food was comparable, with the exception of Palo. Nothing can touch that on Princess. I can't really compare service because though our service in the dining rooms were great, we didn't get to bond with the servers because we had PC dining. If you did find a team that you loved, you could request them for the rest of the cruise.
We did notice that the employees of Princess were not as friendly as the Cast Member on Disney. We have such fond memories or everyone that works on Disney and didn't have this on Princess. Don't get me wrong, the service was good, just not Disney! One exception was our cabin steward, he was fantastic and very friendly. The bartenders were not as friendly at all!
YOu can't bring alcohol on board with you with the exception of wine, champagne and beer on Princess where you can do that on Disney. However, you can order a "gift" to your stateroom of alcohol and it will be waiting for you. The prices are the same as if you bought it here in the states. I did love the convience of this. Drinks cost about the same and they also have the drink of the day program. Soda is not free ever on board, big negative. However, you can buy the soda program just like you used to on Disney.
I can't comment on the kids programs as we didn't have ours with us, but we did check out the teen area and it was great. They also have their own pool area/deck area on the ship. I guess we'll find out how it is this summer! They don't have a movie theater but show movies throughout the day. They also show movies in your rooms alittle more than Disney. TV programming was about the same, maybe alittle better because you go channels that aren't owned by Disney.
Disney wins big time on disembarkation...big time. You have to wait for your color to be called to leave Princess, I understand it's like this on all other cruise lines. If you crusie a lot with them you do get off early though. I also was able to get off first because I went down to guest services and showed them my plane tickets so they changed my color for me.
Shopping is better on PRincess, more stores, not as much for kids though. There are more activites geared towards the adults, which was great for us. One thing I do think that Disney is lacking on is activites for the adult age group.
Another big plus are the choices of ports of course. We tried Princess because we wanted the southern Caribbean. And now we're trying Europe and we can't see Oslo, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Brugges, and Paris on Disney!
On board booking with Princess wins out. You can book another cruise for only $100 per person and you only need to pay for the 1st and 2nd and also get the onboard credits like Disney. You can either pick a cruise date or do an open booking good for 4 years. That's how we booked Europe and it was great only having to leave a $400 deposit for the 5 of us versus the $2400 it would have cost if we booked Princess back on land. (It's $600 per person for 10 night Europeon cruises.) And it certainly beats Disney's deposits.
Disney is still my favorite cruise line and I do miss them terribly. Alas, my kids are 12, 14, and 16 and we wanted to try something and some place different. Believe me, if Disney had more choices, I would be going with them first and foremost. We did think about doing the cruise out of California but taking the kids to London for 4 nights followed by a 10 crusie through Europe won out big time!!!!
