I have just taken my first ever cruise with the Princess cruise line and as is the case no matter which line you sail with, there were something I really liked about the line, some I didn’t whilst there were plenty of things that I think other lines do better with plenty of things that I thought Princess did better than other lines.

Whenever I get back home, thoughts tend to go straight to researching my next cruise which includes the thinking about the lines that I want to sail on.

My adventure with Princess was onboard the Sapphire Princess, sailing around Patagonia and Antarctica and whilst it was an incredible one, how much of that was down to where I was sailing and the ports we visited and how much was down to the line themselves?

That is just what I hope to come up with an answer for in this article where I go through all of what I believe makes up a cruise experience to see where the line excelled, where they struggled with the of coming up with an overall view of the line.

Would I Sail With Princess Cruises Again?

If you have cruise over the last 5 years or so, you will know the process for the majority of lines is to know complete just about everything you need to before you even get to the cruise terminal to board your ship and that was the case with Princess.

I completed all of the usual pre-cruise check list items, such as entering my passport details, payment details, make booking for restaurants and pay for any add-ons including shore excursions etc on the app and website well in advance of sailing.

That’s all well and good and made the check-in process at the airport much easier but there were some issues and they were a couple of big ones, more on that to come.

Verdict: I have to say that the app wasn’t the easiest to use and to achieve something, it would take 4 or 5 steps when it only needs to be 2-3 max, but that’s only a little issue, so I give the pre-cruise experience a positive overall for this one.

The app made the check-in process at the airport much easier but there were some issues and they were a couple of big ones.

Firstly, ever other cruise line we have sail with, you have had to complete a health questionnaire style check list around 24 hours before cruising and whilst I understand many will just answer no to every symptom on it even if they do have something such as a sore throat, it does at least put people in mind that there cold could be an issue when onboard.

The next issue to crop up was when we had to queue up to hand over our passports, only to be told that British passport holders didn’t need to do it but then for us to be told we would need to be in our cabin on the first sea day at a certain time for the stateroom attendance to come and collect our passports.

When you are handing over something so important to somebody and especially when you are in the middle of travelling, you really want to feel that it is safe to do so but when the line seemed confused by what’s happening, it just niggles at the back of your mind.

The last area of concern was during the muster drill which started well as you watch the safety video via the app and then go to your muster station at your own convenience, before you set sail off course.

Where it fell apart was when we got to our station and there was no staff there waiting for us, so we kind of stood there, wondered around a bit trying to find anyone but more and more people started to come to the same station and a crowd was soon gathered.

It didn’t take long until people were tapping their medallions on the reader themselves and heading off.

About 10 minutes later somebody did turn up, and we checked with them that we were registered as doing the muster correctly and got signed off, but it meant lots of people had completed the muster without anybody checking it was the right person doing it.

Verdict: With little issues of health protocols and safety protocols, it was a little bit of a concern, especially when sailing on a new line, so whilst lots of positives, I can only give the line a negative for this one.

For me and my wife, the entertainment offered by a cruise ship is highly important, especially what is offered in the theatre as it is part of our daily routine.

We will head into the theatre most nights of our cruise and from time to time, we will catch musicians and singers as they perform in the bars, lounges and other public spaces around the ship and that was the case for my first cruise with Princess.

All in all, I probably saw around 90% of the entertainment that was offered onboard the ship and whilst I saw much less in terms of the activities offered, I did see a mix of different activities run by different members of the crew and in different parts of the ship- so I believe I got a decent overview of all of that as well.

To be as fair as I can be, I am not going to include the extra things that were added to our journey due to sailing over Christmas and the New Year period although I will add that I felt the New Year experience was better than the Christmas Day experience.

My last cruise before my first sailing on Princess was with Royal Caribbean and the experience onboard was chalk and cheese to the one I experienced on but that was to be expected, as they target different markets and their entertainment programmes are aimed at their clientele.

I knew that going into the cruise and after sailing with Celebrity numerous, a similar standard of line aimed at a similar clientele, I had an idea of what to expect.

It that regard, it lived up to my expectations as every night had an act or production show in the theatre and there were a few lounges and bars around the ship that offered musicians playing there.

The atrium acted a hub of entertainment and activities with lots of activities also taking place throughout the day in other locations, such as lounges.

So far, so good and I should also mention that on my cruise there were a number of lectures in the theatre throughout the cruise from experts on the wildlife we would see and also the regions we would visit such as the Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica.

With the basics out of the way, the overall set up for the entertainment on Princess is decent but there were a few issues that I had with it all and that was the downtime with entertainment and the reputation of it.

In the theatre, all but one of the entertainers and show was to a high standard and there were enjoyable in their own right but they were all incredibly similar.

Many of the shows had the same songs in them and the production shows all of the same set up, I actually heard one of the performers complaining about the lack of variety as they preferred musical theatre type shows, something lacking on my sailing.

For the performance taking place around the ship, these two were of a good standard but they were also repetitive and it was here where the downtime problem came in.

On my favourite ships/lines, there is something happening somewhere all of the time and you will often be able to hear music if you are somewhere in the belly of the ship.

With Princess, I would go grab a drink or play some cards, where even if in and around the atrium, I would just be met with silence.

As I personal preference, I do prefer it when there more happening around the ship and I also prefer more variety in the theatre- a theatrical production show and a magician would really have broken things up for example.

Verdict: With that in mind, I am actually going to give the line a negative in this regard, although it was so close between negative and positive that neutral would actually be thought as the good kind of cancelled out the bad.

This is a tough one for me the judge as the journey I undertook was completely different from a regular cruise and is likely to be different from any other cruise, so for this I will try to ignore the experience I had whilst sailing in Antarctica.

I will however mention that I really did appreciate that the line had experts onboard the ship to give talks in the theatre and commentary over the tannoy system and they also gave us a certificate to say that we had been to Antarctica, and we got a commemorative mug to mark the occasion.

Another big difference was the make-up of the passengers onboard where the bulk of passengers were Spanish speaking, the next largest group was Mandarin speaking and then it was English speakers.

That led to announcements and interactions with staff/entertainers and passengers often been bi or multi-lingual which is something probably not the norm.

So away from that, there was lots that I liked about life onboard the ship including the fact that it had a decent range of options for most aspects of things onboard.

Food wise, there was grab and go spots, the buffet, a choice of MDR’s and speciality dining, entertainment wise, there was a choice of lounges, the theatre, bars and more.

Then there were multiple pools and outdoor areas to relax in and the bulk of it is included.

It was the sort of experience that I like where you could be as busy or as relaxed as you liked although things do tend to be quite relaxed and slow paced on Princess.

Every member of staff we interacted with were friendly and although one small issue did crop up that we needed to go to guest relations to sort, they went over and above to help us.

So all-in-all, the onboard experience makes for a great holiday although if you are looking for more of an all-action get away, it may not be right for you and the same can be said if you are cruising as a family, as it is certainly more aimed at couples and older cruisers in the main.

Verdict: Whilst not perfect for me, it’s close enough and for the overall onboard experience, I give Princess a thumbs up.

On my cruise with Princess, I ate in a variety of places including the buffet, the main dining room, grab and go spots and I drank at a few different bars, lounges and via the delivery service on the app.

Food wise, the quality was excellent across the board and whilst there will always be things that you like and don’t like, on the whole, it was up there with some of the best quality I have had on a cruise ship.

I really like that they have a café with included food that is open 24/7 and I also like that they have a couple of grab and go options on the pool deck- a great option for when you just want a afternoon snack after getting back onboard after a day of exploring.

In the main dining room, I had 2 meals in there and one was really enjoyable, whilst the other was just ok, but I did like that they have a choice of dining rooms and that you can select the serving speed you want via the app.

Another great thing was the delivery service offered by the app if you have a drinks package and I found the medallion system great for ordering at bars where bartenders new your name and payment details before you even order.

As a teetotaller, it was also great to see they had a range of mocktails, with the ChocoBanana drink been my personnel favourite!

With so many positives for this category, I should balance it with a few negatives that cropped up, with the first been something a bit sneaky.

With the Princess plus package, you get soda included but not cans of pop (something not really explained too well) and that’s fair enough but where it kind of falls apart is that many of the outside bars don’t have soda machines, so they have to open a can for you.

Now comes the sneaky bit, if they hand you the can, you pay, if they poor the can into a glass, it’s free.

This caught me out a couple of times on the first day but after speaking to guest relations, who it should be said told us themselves how daft it was and that they had mentioned it over and over as been a problem, but I guess it’s a big money earner for corporate.

The next issue was with the delivery service eon the app that when it worked, it was great but far too many times we ordered something, waited for around 20-25 minutes as it went through the process of order, been made, delivering but to see it go to delivered despite not getting a drink.

Verdict: Those are just small things and things you can work around, so for the food and drink service offered on Princess, I can only give it an up.

This is always the most important aspect of a cruise line for me as it is the places that I will visit on a cruse that makes or breaks my decision to book an itinerary.

For my first sailing with them, they simply offered the best itinerary sailing in Antarctica, so I booked with them. My first sailing was actually the 3rd booking that I had with the line as I had a booking in 2020 with them which got cancelled and moved to a 2021 booking, again it was cancelled and I took a refund.

Those were cruises in the Baltic Sea and again, they simply offered the best itineraries for the dates I wanted to cruise and that is often a theme with the line.

I prefer port intensive journeys and repositioning routes and they both areas that the line excel in. They also offer plenty of really long itineraries but make it easy to break them down into segments you want to do, or you can easily add back-to-back itineraries to create your deal getaway.

Verdict: The line also have one of the biggest fleets at sea, operate across the globe and have a huge range of homeports so for this one, they really only have positives and a big uptick from me.

This is something that is really difficult for me to judge the line on, firstly the value of a cruise is subjective and secondly, my cruise with them was far from normal.

With only 4 cruise ships offering trips down to Antarctica and each only going over a 6-8 week period, those trips are always going to cost more than a week sailing around the Med, for example.

To be fair to the line, I will use the experience of what I received on the more regular parts of my cruise sailing around Patagonia and the cost of a cruise sailing in that region.

The entertainment was high quality, if repetitive, the food was excellent and ship had everything you need for a great holiday but as a premium line, that does come at an extra cost over other lines, although their prices are often cheaper than similar rated lines.

Verdict: So for now, I will say that they do offer decent value for money, if you can get them at the right price.

Overall, that give the line 5 positives and 2 negatives but with some of those areas been quite tight, it could easily change and the only way to really know what my true thoughts on the line are, is to sail with them again and on a more regular cruise over the one I did originally.

Verdict: With that in mind and to answer the question poised in this article, yes, I will sail with Princess Cruises again.