Comparison of HAL, and Princess after recent Princess Cruise

Last year we completed two cruises on the Rotterdam, and just disembarked from the Coral Princess.

Prior to this month’s Princess cruise on the Coral, our two most recent cruises, both last year, were on the Rotterdam.

Both ships are older and smaller ones in their respective fleets. Our 2017 winter cruise was a 21 day Caribbean circle and then another on the Rotterdam when it was heading to dry dock at the conclusion of our New England to Florida run. And it was the Coral Panama cruise from which we just disembarked.

Now here’s the trivia:

The blue rubber tiles on the Princess balcony meant for quiet chair shuffling in early mornings and late evenings.

Princess still serves real jams from a gravy boat which I much prefer to the plastic stuff now served on HAL. I MUCH prefer HAL breads though and HAL breakfast room service has more options.

The daily Princess Patter was ‘chuck’ full of activities unlike the daily HAL update. We simply enjoy shipboard life and don’t usually participate in on board activities, but we appreciated that Princess offered several unhosted events: Bible Studies, LGBT meetings, Friends of Bill, Knitters, Singles, Aviation Enthusiasts, Emergency Services people, and Game Players. Surprisingly one for educators was hosted as were ones for Canadians and later one for Birts both hosted by the Canadian CD. These cost the line nothing but we appreciated the offered Bible Study which consistently gathered a good group on sea days. I must say I’m surprised they didn’t have one called, “Meeting for anyone feeling left out”!

On recent HAL cruises port lectures were just about shopping opportunities. When we did a partial Panama with HAL a few years ago, they had transit commentary but Princess offered daily lectures related to the general area and the canal in particular. These offered ‘light’ historic information - more entertaining than anything but they were well attended for sure.

Much to our delight both ships were ‘quiet’ with minimal announcements and hype. Neither was ‘hard sell’ for photos, coffee cards or alcoholic beverages.

Both were staffed with professional workers. Princess staff appeared to represent more diverse nationalities than the more overtly gracious and warm Indonesian staff on HAL.

We found dining on each line comparable, ranging from okay to very good depending upon the day’s offerings. We missed the Crown Grill on the Coral and almost always enjoy the Pinnacle Grill.

On Princess we missed HAL’s s daily news flyers which would be available first thing in the morning. We're news junkies.

The age demographics on each ship appeared identical, to be expected given the cruise lengths.

We request early traditional and were disappointed that our confirmed Princess sitting of 5:45 morphed to 5:00 or 5:15 once on board. Since we had a table for two we told our stewards we’d compromise and arrive by 5:30 and be finished well before their late sitting. This wouldn’t work at a larger table. We sure wouldn’t request early traditional again if this is the norm on Princess ships. HAL times were as confirmed on our documents.

Formal nights on both ships saw a healthy smattering of tuxes, a few traditional gowns and what I perceived to be a dressier event than other evenings.

Our Princess guides were not as good as those we had on HAL but I suspect that was more a function of our group assignment as others in another group on the same tour had excellent ones.

We missed HAL's blue bag laundry system and Princess' paper bag equivalent was not offered on Coral so I had to use the laundry once.

We enjoy, HAL, Princess and Celebrity.

Next winter's cruise is back to HAL for the 30 day round trip to Lima, Peru.

Ruth

Thank you for taking the time to write your comparisons on the two lines.

Thanks for taking the time to post your comparisons.

 

 

We request early traditional and were disappointed that our confirmed Princess sitting of 5:45 morphed to 5:00 or 5:15 once on board. Since we had a table for two we told our stewards we’d compromise and arrive by 5:30 and be finished well before their late sitting. This wouldn’t work at a larger table. We sure wouldn’t request early traditional again if this is the norm on Princess ships. HAL times were as confirmed on our documents.

 

I wish that Princess would explain that their system of giving a time for early dining is just a place holder until the number of passengers in each traditional seating are obtained and dining rooms and times are assigned. Start times for each dining rooms are different and may be earlier than the place holder time on the reservation. Likewise, the start time for open dining in the various MDRs will also vary.

I, for one, appreciate the fact that Princess will assigned another dining room for the overflow of passengers requesting early seating. And yes, each time for us our table has been in the overflow dining room that starts service earlier so that anytime diners can also be accomandated in the same MDR.

In any case, I would expect experience cruisers to know that traditional seating start times are not available for negotiation and compromise. To arrive late each night is rude and does affect service for everyone in the assigned service area for the wait staff as they have to play catch up with the late table.

If one finds that the start time for the assigned traditional seating is not to their liking, a change can always be made to open dining.

To arrive late each night is rude and does affect service for everyone in the assigned service area for the wait staff as they have to play catch up with the late table.

 

If one finds that the start time for the assigned traditional seating is not to their liking, a change can always be made to open dining.

In fact we often at 15 or 20 minutes late arrived well before the other tables for 6 or 8. And we in no way held up service being ready for salad while others were on coffee and dessert.

And we alerted our stewards when an excursion or alternative restaurant meant we wouldn't be there.

However now that we know the originally assigned time is not honoured by Princess we would choose differently should we again sail on Princess.

Ruth

Thanks for taking the time to post this review. We always have late dinning at a large table. We enjoy talking to our table mates about our day, enjoy a slow meal & get up in time for the late show.

Allan

Thanks for taking the time to post this review. We always have late dinning at a large table. We enjoy talking to our table mates about our day, enjoy a slow meal & get up in time for the late show.

Allan

And if we were at a large table we would have respected the time change to the minute, but were disappointed with Princess' change of time once on board.

We'll probably revert to table mates on our next cruise; though unlike you we prefer to eat closer to 6:00.

Ruth

Thank you for taking the time to write this comparison report.

Very well done.

Keith

Thank you for comparing the two cruise lines.