Princess Cruise Line vs Disney

[castawayfan]

We too are considering Princess over Disney for spring break. We have cruised 7 times on Disney and love it, but DD did not enjoy the Stack on our last cruise and the price difference is worth considering Princess.

Has anyone had experience with smoking/non-smoking cabins? I have to say the one thing we love about Disney is no smoking in the cabins. When I called Princess they were vague on this issue. I kept pressing but all they would say is they have great air purifier systems in the rooms. That's nice, but I have ashtma and really have to be careful about smoke.

 

[my3kids]

I've been on both. I was on Princess a number of years before Disney though, so a lot has probably changed.

You mentioned the loyalty programs of Princess, and I have to say, it is nice to be rewarded. One neat thing is because we are past Princess cruisers, we got returning cruiser benefits on our next cruise which is on Holland America. I think the group is called the World's Greatest Cruiselines, and if you have been on one of the ships in one of the fleets, your ability to book at special prices and onboard credits and such carry over.

The food on Princess, I'd have to say, was much better and much more plentiful. We had course after course with separate menus for each. Very fancy and elegant, but again, this was a while back.

The cabin was a good size, the public areas nice and everything was beautifully maintained. Tons of pool chairs and very gracious service.

My husband and I went without kids and I remember one of the staff saying they only had the children's staff onboard if there were a certain number of kids set to sail that trip. It may have changed since then, and I feel sure more families are cruising now. Off season, if they have not changed the kid's policy, it could affect some families.

Princess goes to great ports. Very different often times than the stock ones Disney visits. We went through the Panama canal on princess on a 14 day trip. It was heaven.

I am leaving on a Holland American trip in a week or so, and will compare the 3 when I get back. I would absolutely try a different line if you have sailed on Disney in the past. DCL was great, but so are a lot of others. For a family with active kids or a family whose children typically stick with them in a resort setting, I think there are a lot of choices that make a lot of sense, both for fun and finances. While not Princess, but HAL, we have booked a Superior Verandah Suite, the third category from the top, for less than Disney was charging the same week for a category 12. There really is a huge premium in pricing for Disney.

 

[cjsmith]

Originally posted by lsmac
Hi Ann! As you know I cruise Disney quite often too, but we just got back (in June) from the Golden Princess (sister ship to the Star). So here are my thoughts:

Like you, I always think we are going to try something new as we get tired of our Disney cruise by about Weds of the week we are sailing. Of course then we hit CC on Friday and don't want to leave! We actually went for it this year as we wanted a better itin. Golden went to the Southern Caribbean and let me tell you...other than San Juan...we LOVED the ports! As for the ship: they are HUGE, but we were getting around just fine within the first day or two.

The things we liked (btw, we have also cruised Grand Princess)
about Princess:

**Loved the mini suite, with the Grand (several years back) we had concierge service, this time. No.

**Food was so much better on Princess, at least for myself and I am a very picky eater. (ducking now for all the die hard Dis fans will surely dispute this one!)

**Kids club...ok, Ryan is a teen so he "did his own thing". They have a great teen area and on our trip there were quite a few teens. They actually had more planned activities for this age group than Disney. That said, he loved the Disney teen group as well, yet never hung out at the Stack. They basically hooked up with a group on the first day and then did their own thing. (I am seeing a pattern with the teens here.)

**Service: before our last Disney cruise I would give the edge to Disney, but now I would definately say Princess is heads and tails over Dis. This may just have been our experience, so take it for what it is worth, but our last Disney cruise (in November 2003) just didn't meet up to our expectations.

**Ports: WOW! All I can say is that we had the best time in June. Aruba is great, Grenada was cool tromping through the jungle..well you get the idea.

While I still love Disney, I would definately give the edge to Princess. I love the personal choice dining (we never had to wait for more than 10 mins), I love the mini suites (so much more spacious for the three of us), and the ports are far more interesting. BTW, on the Grand we did the same ports as Disney's Western, but went to their private island. Princess has a very nice island (I believe it is on the other side of Elethura?) but you do tender into it. CC still holds the edge there.

Any other questions just ask or email me! We would love to go with you btw (in reference to your earlier email), but I won't have Ryan's school schedule until next summer! Since he will be a junior in high school (gasp) I am more hesitant to take him out for trips. (thus the June trip)

Have fun at the Cape!

Lisa

We're doing this exact same cruise on 10/24 to the same ports and also have a minisuite booked. This will be our first cruise on someone other than Disney and our first without the kids. We told them that we had to "check things out" to make sure the Princess cruise line was good enough for them! Needless to say being 16, 14, and 12 they didn't buy the explanation. I'm glad to hear how much you loved the cruise and would love to hear all about it.

 

[cjsmith]

Originally posted by AnnMorin
Ok do you opt in for that or would ou choose like first seating and then say nope I will do personal choice?
We are really thinking about this but will make the final decision when we get back from DCL in December, it seems like each year I say lets try something new, go on DCL and say nope lets stay with them.
Since we have to go on a school vacation week after this year (DS will be in middle school then) and the price difference is amazing, coupled with the lack of new ports and returning cruiser rewards on DCL Princess is looking very attractive right now.

Ann, I know exactly how you feel. We did 4 Disney cruises withing a year and a half and though we LOVED them and want to go back, we're trying another cruise line. I love Disney, but sometimes question the prices, especially since we get two cabins as I have 3 kids. I have the Golden Princess booked out of San Juan doing the ports of St Thomas, St Kitts, Grenada, Venezula (Isla Margarita) and Aruba plus a day at sea. I loved the different ports and I'm looking forward to a different ship. I do worry that it won't live up to Disney, but I was able to book a the top tier mini suite for less than what a verandah for have cost for my husband and I to only see St Thomas and St Martin.

I'll be sure to let you know my thoughts if you want when we return in October. If we do like Princess, we're going to book another cruise with them on board for summer 05 through Europe. Princess allows you to re book on board either open booking or set booking for only $100 per person plus the stateroom credits.

 

[lsmac]

Carolyn,
I pm'd you!

 

[trishy]

We are cruising on the Regal Princess through the canal over the holidays (see below ) - the last time we were on Princess was over a decade ago, but it did leave a wonderful lasting impression on us. It's definitely more adult oriented. Now that the kids are a little older, we are looking forward to trying something new that dh & I can enjoy. After 3 DCL cruises in a row, we felt it was time for a change, too - though, we'll be back on DCL for Halloween 2005.

I love the Personalizer on the Princess.com page where you can fill out all of your documentation, set up preferences for dining, cabin, etc., and book excursions - right there in one place. Also, if you pick a GTY category, you can keep checking your Personalizer for upgrades - it's a great feature. But it's a little addicting, in that you'll want to keep checking it all the time.

I've pm'd you, Ann, with where we got a really great deal for the cruise. (If that's not allowed here, then I've pm'd you with some really useful info about the cruise I think you'd like.)

 

[allears]

A couple of thoughts to share. We are still fairly new to cruising, just about to go on our fourth. Disney was our first and only at this point, though we're not oposed to trying other lines, as the ships fascinate me. And for all of us here who make cruising our vacations of choice, it is very exciting to see the continued adding of ships and itineraries, it just makes it better for all of us.

As far a pricing, I think this has been covered and most of us understand this, Disney is pretty much a premium line. A couple of factors affect this. One, they don't have a casino, whose revenue help bring down the cost of the cruise. Also Disney still only has two ships, which are full or close to almost every sailing. So they have no real incentive to offer a lot of deep discounts or even enhance the cast a way club program. They're selling trips and the market seems to be bearing it. I would think as the Disney fleet expands, as we all hope it will, that may help drive down prices and increase benefits to repeat cruisers. But we apparently have a few years to wait for that.

 

[wide awake]

Hi Ann,
We haven't sailed on Princess, but I can understand why you're looking around. We did the Western last year, will do the Eastern in October, and the repo next year...then we're done with DCL until there are some new ships on board...terrible pun ! I love DCL, not the characters, but the little extras...the white suited staff on the dock at Grand Caymen handing out ice water while the passengers from other ships are lining up with no attention...the REAL answers to my questions instead of passing them off to another staff member...the cleanliness...the high quality of the food on the ship...not necessarily the most innovative dishes or presentations, but EXCELLENT groceries....that kind of thing is a big deal to me...We'll probably go with Holland America as a family and Windjammer as a couple because we want to see new things. Now that we finally have money to travel there are a zillion places I want to go, and I am unable to do so with DCL.

 

[DonnaDavid]

I highly recommend www.cruisecritic.com to research other cruise lines. They have a discussion area that has lots of info regarding the other cruise lines.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I have been on both Princess and DCL in my view the best is as follows:-

SHOWS Disney
FOOD The same, very close call
KIDS CLUB Disney
DAYTIME ACTIVITIES Princess
KEEPING YOU INFORMED Princess
POOLS and Area The same
SERVICE Deck Princess
SERVICE inside DCL
GUEST SERVICES DCL
INFORMATION ON PORTS Princess
MIDNIGHT BUFFET Princess
TENDERING Princess
Bridge crew public relations Princess

Note food was in one assigned location when I was on Princess some have now changed to freedom choice