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It is amazing that our experiences with staff and crew vary so much. We find the service of the Indonesian and Filipino crew members to be outstanding on both Celebrity and HAL. We find the officers on HAL to be very cool and distant compared to Celebrity officers. We have been invited to bridge tours frequently on celebrity, never on HAL. We have had pictures with every Celebrity Captain, none with any HAL captain. We know most of the Celebrity cruise directors and met only one HAL CD in 14 weeks in the last two years.

On N Statendam in Sept 2023, the duo were fantastic. In Dec, the two never clicked and the guy hammered the piano and sang poorly. The person picking the talent does not seem very talented.

Once you are old enough, every repeat performance is a new one. No matter how good a performance is, eventually it is time for a change.

Thanks for a great review.

You can order a pizza on Celebrity as well. You don't have to settle for the slices on display.

I am in total disagreement. We are 4**** with Hal and have been on Zuiderdam, N Statendam, Zaandam for about 20 weeks in the last two years. We were also on Constellation for ten weeks from Nov to Feb 2024. Food and especially the desserts are better on HAL. The service on both lines are similar.. fantastic. The food on Constellation was stellar over Christmas and New Year but deteriorated after that. The entertainment on Celebrity is much better and varies whereas on HAL it was dismal. On the N Statendam in September 2022 the music walk was great but Lincoln centre has been cut. If you have a great Piano couple, the experience is magical. You get a clunker as we did 4 months later, the experience is to be avoided. The dance bands on Celebrity are fantastic. Trivia on Celebrity is much better . Our Zuiderdam experience last September was enough to wonder what happened. We are booked on Volendam in September for a back to back from Quebec, but we chose Celebrity for a 10 week ocean side condo this winter. There are no two cruise lines that are more similar than HAL and Celebrity. A different ship can make a world of difference.

Sorry. One of our favourite dance songs is Crazy Patsy Cline.

We're on the same wave length regarding "music"

You mean a lot of awful music.🙃

That's CRAZY,

We found the crowd on our recent Constellation sailing out of Tampa much older than our HAL cruises. The parking lot in the dining room was overflowing with scooters. I'm just glad that golf carts are not allowed. Having said that, I'm glad that my parents gave me the genes to postpone that necessity at my age. (old)

Because the ship is no longer a maiden! Was I the first? Well, no not exactly.

On this basis go with X. Savings in tips and lower cost will buy a lot of excursions.

Same here. We normally have our first snowfall mid November. Yesterday the temperature was in the mid 60's but today temperatures are falling as we prepare for our yearly trek to the Caribbean. We have raced ahead of fronts bringing freezing rain and snow squalls down I-75 but I hate sitting in a plane getting de-iced and delayed.

The service on both lines is very similar since both companies employ many Filipinos and Indonesians, outstanding service training. In September a year ago we took our first HAL cruise in 14 years after dozens of Celebrity Cruises. The food was great, the music walk on the Nieuw Statendam was fantastic but their nightly shows were a big yawn. We liked our experience so much we booked 8 one week B2Bs over the holidays. I never eat desserts on Celebrity. To me they are tasteless. On HAL I had dessert every night. We loved this class of ship. On one of our Back to backs, there were 700+ repeaters, a number we have never seen on Celebrity. We are about to go on 7 B2Bs on Constellation, our favorite Celebrity ship, and because we get a lot of perks for our status. Both lines will give you a great experience but you may have fewer repetitions on a longer cruise than on a shorter one. You have not mentioned price or ships that you are considering.

6 hours ago, hrhdhd said: I'm not sure why everyone takes such satisfaction in pointing to one rare occurrence and saying, "Toldja so!" Well we did. I remember the shooter at FLL I remember the time a fire extinguisher went off and disembarkation was stopped. I remember the time when customs and immigration guys went on strike/slow down or did not bother to show up. I remember the time when the "jetway" would not connect. Ship happens and be prepared for the unexpected.

I own the Carnival stock for an OBC. I paid my AARP dues and the benefit shows up on my booking. I now realize that I could have been getting another OBC as a retired teacher for spending 35 years in the class room . I only spent three years in the military reserve but others can get an OBC for that as well.

I never get bored watching the ocean. Menus might be a problem but I would be happy with a bowl of soup and a BLT every night. It's the wine glass that makes me overlook any food shortcomings. About entertainment: HAL entertainment is horrible in the theatre. You can only watch National Geographic pictures on the main screen once and get a book instead of going again. If the right bands are playing, HAL has great live music. Entertainment on Celebrity depends on the quality of guest entertainers. We've seen their production shows too often. If the price is similar and you have no loyalty status, I would pick the HAL cruises. Loyalty on X gives more perks than on HAL.

The same questions come up for Tampa disembarkation as well. Fog has shut the port down for hours on occasion. You can't fight mother nature. In our case we get a hotel the day we get off and take a flight the next day. Having a few more Bloody Caesars is a great stress reliever when weather disrupts the best made plans.

Our favourite cruise on Celebrity used to be the Newark NJ 14 day cruise to Quebec. That itinerary was changed to a 12 day cruise out of Boston. That has now become an 11 day cruise. Prices for Boston pre cruise Hotels and parking are outrageous. We have repeatedly booked HAL cruises out of Quebec and Montreal to Boston B2B and are booking again for 2024 in response. The quality of food and service on HAL has been great over the last year. Getting to the port, accommodation cost, and parking fees now determine our cruising plans. No cruise line is perfect but the experience of HAL and Celebrity is very similar.

We're booked B2B Montreal to Boston in May. If anyone needs any crows to munch on, we have nearly a million here.😀