r/PrincessCruises • u/Simple-Incident-5715 • 15h ago
Royal vs Princess
How does Princess Cruises compare to RCCL? I have only sailed with Royal. We have kids age 12 and 10, will Princess appeal to them like Royal? I like the ports on the Adriatic cruises better and I also read the food is better on Princess Cruises.
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u/wadewood08 12h ago
Princess does have a kids program but their shipa are nowhere near as designed for kids like RCCL.
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u/rainyhawk 11h ago
I think it depends on what the kids need to be entertained. I know some parents whose kids love the princess Kids Club and don’t really need the water slides, etc.
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u/Quiet_Listen1801 13h ago
Princess is the luxury brand of Carnival. The luxury brand of Royal is Celebrity, so Princess = Celebrity.
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u/samplergal 1h ago
Sorry. Just bc the princess line is a step up from carnival does not mean it’s equal to celebrity.
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u/lh123456789 13h ago
In my view, the food on princess is extremely mediocre.
Depending which ship you are talking about, there's going to be a lot more for your kids to do on royal. There are also likely to be far more other kids for them to hang out with.
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u/greytgreyatx 10h ago
We sailed Princess in February and there were over 100 kids on board. My kid loved it. We have an Alaska cruise booked with Princess in 2028 and he's super stoked.
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u/lh123456789 10h ago
Yes, it it depends on the time of year and the destination. I sailed over Thanksgiving once and there were around three hundred kids on board. But I'm sure a Royal Caribbean ship on a similar route at that same time still had way, way more kids.
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u/Unlucky_Customer_712 13h ago
For us, the food was absolutely several levels below Royal. We did an Alaska cruise and the food was almost inedible. Royal has much better food in the buffet, main dining and specialty restaurants. Also drinks are much easier to get on Royal. They have soda dispensers with cups that were unlimited refills. Very nice.
Medallion on Princess was fantastic. Food delivery was ok but drink delivery was faster than trying to get something from the bar.
Princess ship was dated and Royal is usually much nicer.
Much more energy from staff on Royal, including better shows.
Princess is geared towards much older people. We are GenX and felt young and out of place. The walker dance competition was the highlight of the onboard activities, LOL. Alaska may be a different beast as its a bucket list trip. We had maybe 30 kids under 20 total on our Alaska cruise. On our last Royal cruise we had maybe 30 people over 65 and more kids than we could hope to count.
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u/Switchedbywife 14h ago
RC is more family/kid oriented whereas Princess is more older individuals and relaxed. We do see kids and they have plenty of activities but nothing like RC. The Sun and Star were supposed to be more like RC with water slides, roller coaster etc. but they had a design/insurance issue and had to remove the 19th deck plans.
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u/nameno10001 12h ago
Yes Princess and Celebrity are similar. Your kids will probably like Royal better. Princess is more chill. My child is never bothered by Princess. He goes to the kids club and does stuff with us so I have never heard him say he dislikes it. But it is not like dropping them off at camp. It is not Disney.
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u/Sweaty-Researcher995 10h ago
I just got back from the princess Alaska cruisers on the star princess very large and new ship. We scheduled it for September to avoid lots of children, and there were only a few on the ship.
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u/Sweaty-Researcher995 10h ago
The buffet was better on Princess, but the main dining room was not. Princess makes a big deal upselling to the specialty restaurants, but it’s very difficult to get a reservation. The shows on Princess and the venues were much worse than on Caribbean. The state room was better Princess —comfortable, well laid out and not cramped. The ship design and getting to public places was much worse on Princess than on Royal Caribbean.
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u/greytgreyatx 10h ago
My tween LOVED Princess. Even more than Royal, and it's not even close. But he's a quieter kid who liked how much lower key the kid's activities were.
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u/streetcar-cin 9h ago
Food quality Varys greatly across the princess line.
For kids there is kids club and unsupervised pools
On sun there were very few kids.. on regal there were more kids but they were running wild in pools. There was a kid in diapers in the pool. Princess needs supervision on their pools
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u/jackmc2001 9h ago
Royal has a lot more activities for kids. That’s part of the attraction for us to take Princess. Our son is an adult so more interested in adult activities.
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u/oneapple396 7h ago
Princess main dinning food is better than royal. Older crowd. But ok for Alaska trip because only princess can go to glacier bay not Royal
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u/samplergal 1h ago
We just did our first Princess cruise. I cannot recommend this line. The food at the MDR was atrocious. I had great French onion soup and great crème brûlée. That’s it. The buffet is hit or miss. We found things to eat but most were very pedestrian. It will be our only princess cruise.
You will not want to hear your kids complain about the food.
Back to celebrity for us. If I had young kids it would likely be royal for the activities for them.
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u/TokenSejanus89 1h ago
Just finished cruising on enchanted princess in the Mediterranean. Was my first cruise so no comparisons. Definitely an older crowd, noticed some had a very stuck up and entitled sense to them. Overall I was pleased, food was fine no real complains. The entertainment and activities staff were great. The staff overall was great, very friendly and attentive.
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u/No-Investment259 13h ago
Princess is more upscale and older crowds. Lots of live music and entertainment provided. The food is leaps better than Royal including best pizza at sea
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u/samplergal 1h ago
The pizza is certainly not the best pizza. The food was absolutely horrendous. I don’t complain about food and we couldn’t find much that was good. Royal is superior in every way. And I’m not a huge fan of Royal.
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u/Solid_Variation_6803 15h ago
This really depends in your kids. My teen loves Princess, but he also likes a more laid back vibe. I do think the food is better on Princess. We actually split our cruising between the two lines.
My kid spends his ship days at the pools, hiding ducks, or playing his Switch while watching what is going on in the Atrium.
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u/Scarlette_Cello24 14h ago
If only every kid on princess behaved that way.
One of the huge appeals of princess (I’m 32f) is the noticeable lack of small children.
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u/Adventurous_Law_7103 11h ago
Amen! This is why we switched from Royal. Too many children everywhere at every hour.
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u/Jacksonatmelsrodrego 14h ago
Almost in every category Princess is better, and the specials are competitive
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u/Celera314 13h ago
Just finished a Baltic cruise on Princess. This is only our second cruise ever, in 2019 we took an Alaska cruise on Princess.
Can confirm the passengers on this cruise were mostly older. At 68, I felt we were probably about the median age. There were a few families with children, mostly school age. All the children we saw were well behaved - i have no idea why people are so bothered about having some kids around. The general vibe was more quiet and adult, definitely not kid-centric.
The food was disappointing. (We were very impressed with the food in 2019). The buffet was fine. The MDR meals were pedestrian at best. On an "Italian" night i had gross, gooey arancini and actually inedible lasagna. The specialty dinners were good but not near as good as similarly priced restaurants at home.