A Tale of Two Cruises

Princess and Royal Caribbean have distinctively different cruising philosophies.  It really takes a full weeklong cruise to appreciate all of the differences.  Doing the two lines about two months apart starkly reveals how the philosophies translate into the onboard experience.

Princess has long said that their changes in new ship designs are always an evolution, not a revolution.

Given that and factoring in that Julie and I have cruised about once a year on Princess ships for 15 years prior to Covid-19 raising its ugly head, you shouldn't be surprised to learn that we immediately felt right at home aboard Majestic Princess, especially when departing from Los Angeles World Cruise Terminal, which we've cruised from many times, although some beautiful new design elements kept the experience fresh.

Montana Skiing to California Dreaming

Finally Cruising Again!

Sea Life In Cabo San Lucas

Meandering Mazatlan

Easy Beachy in Puerto Vallarta

Rounding Out Our Cruise Vacation in Redondo Beach

Upon boarding Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas, my brain immediately started calculating the differences, and not generally in favor of Royal Caribbean.

That was a rational response, both because our past memories may sweeten over time and because this immediately seemed like a much different ship than the last time we'd been aboard Royal Caribbean 11 years ago.

Incidentally, we didn't stop cruising with Royal Caribbean because of anything being wrong with the line, but rather because Princess more regularly seemed to be going where we wanted to go at the price we were willing to pay.  For example, Princess cruises roundtrip to Hawaii multiple times every year from California, and that is a trip that we love which was especially easy to do living in Redondo Beach.

The Majestic Princess is a mega-ship, but that cruise had recently returned to service with only about 25% occupancy, whereas this Royal Caribbean ship was departing at about 75% of capacity on a spring break cruise, including lots of families with children.  Walking aboard to encounter a crowd waiting for elevators and going immediately to the bustling buffet left a negative first impression, despite the Windjammer putting out a lovely spread of delicious food.

By evening, however, we had already started staking out our own slower-paced spots on the ship and were into the groove.  Spoiler alert: we enjoyed another great cruise.

Cruising From Cape Liberty, NJ

Anthem of the Seas

Do You Dream of Peacocks in Port Canaveral?

Perfect Day at CocoCay?

Nirvana in the Bahamas

Rock Anthems of the Seas

Just because their approaches are different doesn't mean you can't have a wonderful voyage on either Princess or Royal Caribbean.  Most cruise lines do a fantastic job in their own lanes.  The question is what matters to you for the particular destination you choose for your next great vacation?

"Better service leads to better trips!"