Princess Cruises reviews

One of the things I like about Princess Cruise Line is how they contain smoking in areas that do not allow smoke to bleed out into other areas of the ship. As someone who is sensitive to smoke, this mattered. Even when walking near the smoking areas, you were not overpowered with smoke. It was like this on both Princess cruises we took.

I loved the wearable OceanMedallion device that provided personalized service everywhere you went. No more worrying about your cruise card. The Medallion is about the size of a quarter, and it performs an array of useful functions: unlocks your cabin as you approach the door, checks you off and on the ship and allows you to order beverages on demand and have them delivered anywhere on the ship.

Be aware that this particular cruise in the fall is mostly senior citizens. At 59 and 72 years old, we were the young bucks on the ship. It wasn’t a problem — just be aware and know that many of the activities and times of events are geared to an older age group. I was told it’s different in the summer when young families are on board.

The one thing I wish I had known before setting sail was the early turn-in time of the majority of passengers. Music and everything shut down before midnight in most cases. We were used to dancing the night away or just listening to music and chatting until a bit later. Everything was pretty much closed by midnight.

Also, several of the ports are newer and do not have as many excursions and activities available. Another thing: All of the pools were outside, and October in Canada is pretty chilly.

About Robin’s cruise

Ship Sailed: Caribbean Princess

Date of Cruise: Oct. 4, 2019

Length of Cruise: 10 days

Departure Port: Quebec City, Canada

Destinations visited: Saguenay, Quebec. Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Sydney, Nova Scotia. Halifax, Nova Scotia. Bar Harbor, Maine. Boston. New York City.

We are travel bloggers, and this was our 17th Princess Cruise. I have also cruised on Royal Caribbean, Costa and NCL. But Princess is my favorite.

Regarding Antarctica, it was everything I had expected. A long journey, a little seasickness and the most incredible sights I’ve ever seen. I don’t think I can ever go back on an Alaskan cruise now!

For new cruisers, I recommend picking port-intensive itineraries. For this reason, the cruise ship generally sails at night, allowing the passenger the most flexibility with their time. For example, will they visit the port or hang out at the pool?

About Andrea and Rick’s cruise

Date of cruise: Jan. 5, 2020

Length of cruise: 16 days

Ship sailed: Coral Princess

Destinations visited: Santiago, Chile. Puerto Montt, Ushuaia. Antarctica. Falkland Islands. Montevideo. Buenos Aires.

We loved our Princess Cruise. Our balcony stateroom was the largest and most well-designed of all the Caribbean cruises we’ve been on. We love that Princess gives $250 onboard credit per stateroom to military and retired military personnel — my husband is US Army Ret. The service was excellent, as was the food — and I don’t say that lightly, as my husband is a chef — and we loved their elegant Cigar Bar, where we enjoyed cocktails and met a lot of nice people! We really liked that the ship stayed late in several ports (10 p.m.), which enabled us to have some very fine dinners in both Aruba and Curacao.

I will say that the cruise was more for older people — we are 60 and 73 — and there weren’t a lot of children on the cruise or children’s activities such as water slides.

About Elisse and Dan’s cruise

Ship sailed: Caribbean Princess

Date of cruise: February 2017

Length of cruise: 14 nights

Destinations visited: Belize. Cozumel. Curacao. Aruba. Bonaire.

The highlights are numerous, but on this trip, it was definitely visiting Fiordland National Park, sailing through the towering cliffs of Milford Sound and seeing Doubtful and Dusky Sound — two fiords that are very difficult to get to any other way.

I was actually really disappointed by our room. We booked an interior room right in the middle of the ship. These are the most expensive interior rooms. On the second night, the wall right above our bed starting bowing and flexing with the ship movement. This created a loud bang and vibrated through the bed. It was impossible to sleep through. We were moved to a room right at the front of the ship. It was the only room available and was unfortunately very rocky compared to our original room in the middle. While this disappointment was frustrating, the highlights far outweigh it.

Princess looked after us and made sure the rest of our cruise was very enjoyable. If you are thinking about going on a cruise for the first time, make sure you are prepared with some motion sickness solutions. I’d also take a highlighter. That way you can highlight everything you want to do or see each day on the daily planner that gets delivered to your room. This makes it so much easier to keep track of what you want to do, when it is and where it is!

About Matthew’s cruise

Ship sailed: Golden Princess

Date of cruise: October 2018

Length of Cruise: 10 nights

Departure Port: Auckland, New Zealand

Destinations visited: Tauranga, New Zealand. Akaroa/Christchurch, New Zealand. Dunedin, New Zealand. Dusky Sound, New Zealand. Doubtful Sound, New Zealand. Milford Sound, New Zealand.