After 13 cruises on Carnival

[AllenF]

[AllenF]

[JudiinMt]

Any day cruising is a GREAT day!

[glrounds]

I too am glad you liked HAL. If you look at siggys I have only been on 4 cruises, all of them HAL. I think I prefer the quiet too but I don't know, that's one of the reasons I am trying the 4 day CCL cruise next year, see what the FUn Ship is all about. The big advantage (aside from price) for CCL is I can take cruises from a home port and stay off of airplanes,,albiet I cant go far, like Mexico is about it. IF HAL had cruises out of Los Angeles a lot I probably wouldn't try CCL, just save $$ a little longer. But I'll try anything once.

 

Every HAL ship I have been on has had the comedian, the las vegas style show, the magician, and some type of virtuoso in some field for thier shows (on the Eurodam we had a British stage actress one night and she was awesome, if I could remember her name our Brit friends would all know her).

 

A few have asked me when I retunr next March from a CCL ship to try to do a comparison too, I will try but I will preface it now and then that I don't eat the the buffet on HAL and probably won't on CCL either,,,just not into pushing and shoving and they do that on HAL too (and cut in lines).

 

I really love HAL, hope I can love CCL too,,,I am willing to try.

 

FWIW, Hal cruises out of San Diego (the Oosterdam, I think). Just a couple hours south. Beautiful drive down the I-5 freeway, beautiful port.

[WooWooGirl]

We just got back from our 1st cruise on HAL we had a deluxe wrap around suite 4180 on the Westerdam. We did the 7 day southern caribbean out of Ft. Lauderdale (Half Moon Caye, Aruba, Curucao). My last cruise on Carnival was the 7 day swine flu cruise with the CC group on the Splendor. Before that cruise we were already thinking of trying other cruise lines. There had been a few small issues already that wanted us to try other lines but nothing major, I guess the Splendor issues (the way they handled the whole thing) finally made it easier to try HAL.

 

Let me say I think Carnivals food and service are very good and I found HALS to be not much different or better. But what we really liked about HAL was the atmosphere compared to Carnival is was very quiet what I mean is on Carnival there is always a dull roar in the background definately at dinner. Also the ship was easier to look at while I never thought about how the carnival ships look I never had anything to compare it to until now. There were not a ton of annoucements and no cheesy same ole same ole pool games. We did not go to any shows on HAL and we stopped going to the ones on Carnival after the 2nd cruise. While there were not alot of kids on board HAL the ones there behaved alot better and since this was a 7 day there was a good cross selection of ages. Here is what we liked best about HAL over Carnival.

The Suite perks were better by far the neptune lounge was outstanding,

free laundry plus many others that I dont even get being platinum on Carnival. Getting on the ship was a breeze but the BEST thing by far was being able to eat dinner on our Balcony 5 out of 7 nights.

We also enjoyed the Thermal suites and Hydro pool very relaxing.

Now let me say if you want a more drink till you drop cruise HAL is not for you Carnival is the FUN Ships and I have had lots of fun on them for sure. Now there were plenty of people drinking on HAL also but is was just not as loud. Before I went on the cruise I had worked close to 50 days straight and really needed to relax and recharge I think I could have dont that on both lines but is was really easy to do on HAL. We enjoyed HAL so much that I cancelled my 50% off cruise Carnival finally broke down and gave us after the Swine flu Splendor will I cruise Carnival again maybe but I would be by myself cause my wife loved HAL. We are next sailing on Celebrity in April and I rebooked another aft suite on HAL in Nov. to do the Mexican Rivera that we missed because the Swine Flu which was not Carnivals fault but it was just the straw that finally broke the camels back and made us try other lines. Carnival introduced me to the wonderful world of cruising and I will always love them for that cause we had some great times for sure. But now i know there is more than just one flavor cause my taste have changed. I go on vacation to relax now and HAL gave me a little more of that and that is just me cause there are many who go for just the opposite and Carnival provides a great service and a great cruise also.

 

( ps I am a Nuclear eng. not a writer so sorry for the hard read)

 

 

 

 

Nice!!! And I love the idea of getting to have dinner on your balcony!!!!!

 

I sail Carnival for the price but have sailed RC and gotten some good deals. I agree that many parents do not supervise their kids! Those are the kids that are banging on my door as my kids are sleeping..lol..and I have to open the door and threaten to pull them in my cabin and make them wait while I call the purser's desk! :eek:

[Oceangrace]

Allen,

Great information and pictures! It looks like you and Shelly had a great time. When I saw you went on a cruise line other than Carnival, I was curious as to what made you decide to try something else. I remember you telling us that y'all always cruised Carnival.

I am glad that you got to experience something new and different.

 

I will be very curious to see how you like the Celebrity cruise this spring compared to HAL and CC. We are cruising the Mercury out of Charleston about the same time you will be on the Summit. I enjoyed getting to know y'all when we all cruised on the Pride a couple of years ago. But to be quite honest, I am not sure I will cruise carnival again. I was not that impressed, especially compared to our Cruise on the Celebrity Century a few years back. For my tastes, I thought the Celebrity cruise was far superior in every way. The food was much better IMHO on the Century, but I have been reading that while the food is still very good on Celebrity, it is a notch down from where it use to be.

 

We are like you are, we enjoy being able to relax more than anything. Thats why the 10 night itinerary with 4 sea days on the Mercury with only a 90 minute drive from home seemed perfect. One of these days we will make it up to Alaska, and we might have to give HAL a look also. I always thought and had heard that if you haven't hit retirement age yet, you would be greatly outnumbered.

[buckirj1]

Thanks for the comparison. I've been considering a HAL cruise, so it's nice to read such good things about HAL. Pricing and airfare will have to drop, though. We'll see.

[salsanut]

Haven't been on HAL, but it seems to have a reputation as being mostly for elderly cruisers. What's your take on that? Did any of the venues offer slow or ballroom style dancing? What about the typical "shake your booty" music?

 

We been on one HAL and one princess and 12 CC so this is my feeling.

We love HAl the service superb, food great ,no shaking your booty they might break:) and we are in our 60th , by 10pm it was a empty everywheel chair and walker parked.

Pleasure to seat at the dinning table and have mature intel agent converststion no running kids.

More or less princess the same.

Why we been on CC 12 times? Price! I think it time to change again , we getting tried of the same food on every ship the loud crowd ,running kids and not so great show.

I must say the comedy is good and if they have a live band for dancing they usually very good.

We shook our booty to Latin dance and on the last cruise FREEDOM there was a great Latin band.

[Dorene1]

10:00 pm!!!

I guess that answered my question. The price on Carnival vs Hal, maybe one day but we are in our Mid 50's and enjoy the night life. I can buy dinner at the specialty restaurant every night if I wanted to on Carnival and still be less expensive.

 

Thank you for the info

 

Dorene

[champagne123]

This thread is from 2009. :confused::confused::confused:

[pe4all]

This thread is from 2009. :confused::confused::confused:

I saw that, and wondered how/why it had been resurrected from the dead!!:D

Edited November 17, 2014 by pe4all

[Orison]

I saw that, and wondered how/why it had been resurrected from the dead!!:D

 

I've search on subjects, founds threads with info, and posted on them as well, not looking on when the thread was started.

 

And then see nonsense posts like this which I'm not sure the intention.

[champagne123]

I've search on subjects, founds threads with info, and posted on them as well, not looking on when the thread was started.

 

And then see nonsense posts like this which I'm not sure the intention.

 

I don't agree. A post that is over 5 years old, usually is not correct information anymore.

[susie8862]

I've search on subjects, founds threads with info, and posted on them as well, not looking on when the thread was started.

 

And then see nonsense posts like this which I'm not sure the intention.

 

 

I would NEVER rely on 5 year old info. You may feel free to do so though.:eek::eek::eek:

[gregg204]

We love HAl the service superb, food great ,no shaking your booty they might break:) and we are in our 60th , by 10pm it was a empty everywheel chair and walker parked.

 

Pleasure to seat at the dinning table and have mature intel agent converststion no running kids.

 

More or less princess the same.

 

Why we been on CC 12 times? Price! I think it time to change again , we getting tried of the same food on every ship the loud crowd ,running kids and not so great show.

 

I must say the comedy is good and if they have a live band for dancing they usually very good.

 

 

Wow, a 5 year old post. Had to dig deep to make your point huh.

[Orison]

I don't agree. A post that is over 5 years old, usually is not correct information anymore.

 

I would NEVER rely on 5 year old info. You may feel free to do so though.:eek::eek::eek:

 

I guess you're all missing my point. I read this thread this morning, and now three times I come back because I think there is new info, only now to be bumped three times for a time check. This page is slow enough as it is without wasted bumps with zero input.

[sandij]

We cruised a lot of different lines, most of the biggies, and I really find little difference in the food, the people or the ships. a cruise is really what you make of it not everyone else on board.

[champagne123]

I guess you're all missing my point. I read this thread this morning, and now three times I come back because I think there is new info, only now to be bumped three times for a time check. This page is slow enough as it is without wasted bumps with zero input.

 

You mean like YOU just did? :D

[pe4all]

As this thread is so old, more info would be gotten on the HAL boards by searching for the Westerdam. This ship doesn't even do that itinerary any more out of FLL. More recent cruisers can definitely give you a better idea of the differences between the lines.

[Lace]

As this thread is so old, more info would be gotten on the HAL boards by searching for the Westerdam. This ship doesn't even do that itinerary any more out of FLL. More recent cruisers can definitely give you a better idea of the differences between the lines.

 

Have you seen the "CARNIVAL SECRETS" thread?