Has anybody been on a Princess Cruise? and how does it compare to disney?

[jazstar87]

This year in august were going on a princess cruise to alaska from seattle (I think the ship name is sapphire princess ). Since my whole Dad side of the family is going we decided to go too. So my mom is the type of person to has know every thing about the cruise and since The boat hasn't set sail yet, there's nothing. Hoping It is probably going to be like all the other princess ships, I was just wondering does princess has good service, are the rooms nice, stuff like that. and is it better or worse that disney? I know you really can't compare because they will both be different experiences. and me and my mom aren't trying to compare it to disney when we go (so if my disney-haters family goes " how this better than the disney cruise"(or something like that), i'll go " why don't you figure that out for your self and i'll just tag along" ). If anybody has any information upon the princess cruises it would be greatly appreciated. thank you!

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I have done both and found both to be very good.

Princess part of P&O I feel is a bit more formal than DCL, and when I was on their ship the age group appeared ot be a lot higher than DCL.


DCL has a lot of families on it and caters directly for families, Princess whilst having facilites attracted more couples only.

The rooms were fine, I had an inside room on two Princess cruises and a Cat 4 on DCL so you cannot really compare these, but for the money paid all were very good.

Princess seemed to have more going on in the day than DCL, with a full programme of events, talks etc, DCL has better shows.

Princess and DCL the food is simular, but kids are better catered for on DCL.

Shore trips in my opinion were exactly the same.

Service of staff again was exactly the same people say DCL is good, it is, but Princess equalled it in my opinion.

In summary, a bit more formal, and a slighlty older group of passengers.

 

[SC Minnie]

We just got back from our first Princess cruise to the Caribbean. We have sailed Disney twice. We have a 9yo DD who was 7 when we sailed Disney.

Anyway here are my thoughts-

-They were both good trips. Isn't it ALWAYS better to be on a beautiful ship than at work????

-The room sizes and categories are different. We had a verandah on Disney and booked a verandah on Princess. We didn't do enough homework on the room sizes. To get a comparable verandah room on Princess you have to book a mini suite. The bathroom on Princess are also much smaller- they don't have the split baths like Disney.

-There seemed to be the 'magic' missing on the Princess ship that we experienced on the Disney ships although we still had a good time.

-The broadway type shows in the main theatre were much better on Disney. We just didn;t enjoy the one we saw on Princess.

-The food was about the same.

-Princess has a casino on board while Disney does not. We are not casino people and walked around in there but did not gamble.

Princess limits the number of kids on board.


What other questions do you have???

 

[jazstar87]

thanks for your information

I do have some question that we need help in
Dining
Is there rotation dining like disney or we have to reserve seating at different nights?

and how is the food?

Oh my mom want to know what kind of kid programs do they have for the kids? also for teens?

I can't think of any more but i probably do have more

thanks again..

 

[SC Minnie]

They do not have a dining rotation like Disney. They have what is called Personal Choice dining. You can do the traditional seating where you go every night at the same time or you can do Anytime dining which is supposed to be where you can go to the dining rooms at anytime during dinner and be seated within a few minutes. It is not working out that way. We were able to be seated fairly quickly (within 5 minutes) last week but some people were told they didn't have space until 2-3 hours later. The dining rooms have almost identical decor and I couldn't tell them apart. I missed that from Disney.

We thought the food was good. As usual some people complained but it was much better that what we usually have at home.

DD9 was in the kids program every day. She had sign in/out privileges and went to most activities. The programs are not open while in port or during meal times.

They had a teen program but I don't know much about it since I didn't have a teen with us.

We really missed sailing Disney but I think that had a little to do with the people we met while sailing the first time & sailed with the 2nd time. But we would do Princess again.

 

[greytlady]

If you are considering Princess, you might want to read the following thread.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread...5&perpage=15&highlight=\\ horror&pagenumber=1

 

[jazstar87]

Don't worry my mom's smart she booked the flight a day ahead because we have never been to Seattle before. It would nice to see the city. But my aunt's booked with a TA and are flying on the day of the cruise, so if they miss the cruise - oh well! This TA told my aunt that you are only allowed a 30 pound bag on board the ship. Has anyone heard of that before? They are paying $450 for their flight with an hour layover in Atlanta, we got our tickets for $296 with a nonstop flight, from Newark, NJ - They're flying out of Scranton,PA. We didn't book our flight with Princess, so I'm praying that nothing happens like that.