We chose a 6 day cruise as the itinerary complemeted what we had don earlier in the summer with Viking and Saga ie no repeat ports.
Princess was the least expensive of the 3 but probably the best value for money.
We booked the best balcony category but were upgraded to a mini suite on day 2 as we could not get hot water in the original.
The room was therefore the best of the 3 cruises but would have been equal to the others if we had stayed put.
Service on all 3 excellent.
Ships either new or almost,in all 3 cases.
As to food quality there was little difference in breakfasts and lunches but the dinners differed greatly.
We thought Sag offered the best–in quality and coice,Viking not quite as good on this occasion and Princess lagging in 3rd place.
However when comparing the price we paid, Viking was almost 90% more expensive and Saga just under 50% more.
So for the price saving on Princess we could have booked and paid $30 a head each in a speciality restaurant there every night and still been in the money.
But it would have been costly to take some of the Princess excursions–the Giants Causeway trip was almost 3 times the price of a similar one organised by the Irish Tourist Board.
And a shuttle from the dock in Belfast to the city centre was $16 each! We did not like the new Medallion and its App.On Google Play Store it is rated 1.4 out of 5,or was when we cruised.I can see why.It worked fine to open your room door,clock on and off the ship and to give restaurants and waiters relevant info.We could use it for little else as our RAM on our phone is 2gb and it needs 4gb allegedly for full operation.
We could only book Sabatinis onboard and none of the other 3 specials as prime times had all been booked in advance.
Given that we cruised with 1600 and not its full capacity of over double that I have to say we were unimpressed.
