Torn between Princess and HAL

[PunkiC]

While we are primarily Princess people, HAL ships are beautiful and they have decent dance music, although the dance floors are quite small. DH likes their food. I don't care very much about food one way or the other as long as they have lots of big salads available.

 

It is hard for us to sail on any other ship because of all of the perks we get on Princess as an elite, not to mention military, FCC, and shareholder benefits, but I would not be against sailing on HAL if the itinerary and price were right.

[caribill]

The Diamond's dry dock next Fall has been canceled. Not sure when it's been rescheduled.

 

I think March 12, 2014.

 

Many have posted being upset that the March, April and May 2014 cruises they were booked on have been cancelled.

[RickEk]

FYI, most Princess Alaskan itineraries include Glacier Bay. You must have selected one of the few that didn't. :(

 

Food and entertainment are subjective. Overall, I've found Princess food and service better than on HAL, and the Princess production shows better as well. HAL does their version of Anytime dining much better (it's better managed) and they have a full breakfast, lunch and dinner room service menu. You can even ask for the dining room's menu delivered to your cabin and order from that. The HAL buffet closes very early for breakfast, then early for lunch and dinner. It's not open all day with a full selection the way it is on Princess. HAL bathrooms are larger than on Princess and many have tub/showers. However, storage is stingy compared to Princess.

 

Well, next year, out of 38 sailings, only 10 cruises out of Seattle will go to Glacier Bay (all on the Star Princess). Golden Princess will go only to Tracy Arm Fjord the entire season...:(

[traveling psych nurse]

We have been to Alaska twice on Princess. The ships were beautiful. The food was good. Have never been on Hal. What ever you decide have a wonderful trip.

[Arwen]

And the ships are sisters, at one point identical. When the Diamond gets it's dry dock, it will be as good as the Sapphire.

 

Agree, but being a long time cruiser, I have decided I am not interested any longer in a ship that is due for a dry dock.

 

I will soon be posting a review of our 24 day Yangtze Trip (8 day land, 16 day cruise) on Diamond. But, I will leave with this parting shot.....we had stateroom Aloha 705 and the first night I barely slept. Next morning we checked the mattress and it was completely broken down (could see it!) and both hubby and I felt the mattress springs!

 

Next day, called housekeeping. The supervisor came up, took one look at the mattress and said "yes, I can see it is broken down and I will take care of it".

 

The "taking care of it" was a mattress topper. I will not go into details on how I had to sleep on that bed (I have a lower disc issue), but it is obvious that with some of these ships ready for dry dock, that the cruise line won't put an extra penny in for even the basic comforts. Never, in my life, on any other cruise ship or cruise line, or low cost hotel encountered an aged mattress. In this case I blame the Hotel Manager....where the buck should stop. I would imagine there are other staterooms with much needed to be replaced mattresses. C'mon Princess, you may be waiting for a drydock, but your pax deserve a decent bed to sleep on!

 

OK over with my rant. But be forewarned, that if my stateroom had a rotten mattress, yours may, too. If I ever sail on Diamond, it will be after her drydock. :mad:

[Princess Chatterer]

The Diamond's dry dock next Fall has been canceled. Not sure when it's been rescheduled.

 

March, 2014 in Singapore is your answer.

 

As far as the HAL question goes some say that HAL caters to the newly wed and nearly dead.

[Pam in CA]

Arwen, I understand your pain, meant literally. One thing to know is that mattresses aren't replaced during drydock. They are continuously replaced, depending on where the ship is sailing. It's not unusual to see mattresses being replaced during a cruise, and not just because a mattress has worn out.

[geoherb]

Price is always the deciding factor for us when it comes down to choosing between HAL, Princess, and Celebrity. Unlike others have reported, I've been able to find some bargains still on Princess cruises--but we generally book after the final payment date. It turned out this fall, however, that HAL's date for a Caribbean pre-Christmas cruise worked better for us--a Sunday departure instead of Saturday.

[Tripper10]

For that cruise and price point I would choose Hal.

[caribill]

Agree, but being a long time cruiser, I have decided I am not interested any longer in a ship that is due for a dry dock.

 

 

When a ship is due for dry dock, it is because work needs to be done in the hull of the ship that requires it to be out of the water. This covers matters from removing barnacles to repainting. Orther maintenance such as on engines and navigation equipment will be perfomed at the same time.

 

I cannot understand why you would not be ineterested in being on a ship before the barnacles get scraped and the hull painted.

 

Sometimes the dry dock will be scheduled for longer so that contruction activities can be done such as rennovating the atrium and adding an International Cafe. Also major refurbishing changes such as rugs in common areas and reupholsetering chairs in the dining rooms.

 

As Pam pointed out, replacing mattresses is ongoing although it could also happen during a dry dock period.

 

For your experience, the housekeeping supervisor's response was totally unacceptable. You should have taken the issue to a higher level of management. such as the Hotel General Manager.

[Coral]

Agree, but being a long time cruiser, I have decided I am not interested any longer in a ship that is due for a dry dock.

 

I will soon be posting a review of our 24 day Yangtze Trip (8 day land, 16 day cruise) on Diamond. But, I will leave with this parting shot.....we had stateroom Aloha 705 and the first night I barely slept. Next morning we checked the mattress and it was completely broken down (could see it!) and both hubby and I felt the mattress springs!

 

 

Beds are not changed during dry dock. They do this when the ship is normally scheduled to sail. I have seen beds loaded and unloaded a ton during my sailings. I can also tell you that the bed I had on the Sapphire after dry dock was not new. I had been on the Sapphire about 1.5 years earlier then this summer and saw beds being loaded over Christmas.

[DebJ14]

Thank you all for your comments. We are locked into that specific week due to DS's work schedule and a Sat. Departure on the Star or Westerdam doing Glacier Bay was just not an option for us.

We have decided we are going Princess.

 

Everyone sat down over the weekend with the shore excursions and we read as much as possible on the internet. This will probably be our first and last trip to Alaska. We are beach people, so this is a one off for us. Having seen the Norwegian fjords in I don't expect to be all that impressed by the scenery in Alaska. DH will not get to Norway to see them because his doctor has placed his flying limit at 5 hours due to health issues. We are pushing it getting to Seattle (4hrs 40 min), but flying First Class should help.

Although I am very interested in the Russian history relating to Sitka, it looks like the way to experience that is walking. DH has mobility issues due to calcified blood clots in one leg and DS has a permanently damaged knee from a car accident. His last surgery did nothing to fix it.

 

None of the other Sitka tours are of any interest to us. We're not into otters and have done more than our share of whale watching in the Sea of Cortez. The guys however are big fans of gold rush and the Princess tours from Skagway won the day. Also, don't want to have to miss a port due to tendering and Sitka is a tendered port. When we sailed HAL to Hawaii Maui was canceled due to it being too rough to tender. DH will not see Maui unless we do the round trip LA or San Diego again. Frankly, I don't envision us ever going back to Alaska.

 

I will just keep a close eye on prices and maybe snag a price drop on Princess or an upgrade.

[Arwen]

Arwen, I understand your pain, meant literally. One thing to know is that mattresses aren't replaced during drydock. They are continuously replaced, depending on where the ship is sailing. It's not unusual to see mattresses being replaced during a cruise, and not just because a mattress has worn out.

 

Thanks for letting me know. How in the world no one ever complained about that particular mattress is mystifying to me. I would have followed through to the top on the issue, except that I fell ill with a horrible cold/virus the day at sea and had little energy for a number of days. I found a way (creative) to make the sleep situation work. But, I have no idea why that particular mattress wasn't taken care of long ago. Like I said, I have sailed on three different cruise lines and the best ships are run by the best Hotel Managers, IMHO :)

[wizard-of-roz]

FYI, most Princess Alaskan itineraries include Glacier Bay. You must have selected one of the few that didn't. :(

 

Food and entertainment are subjective. Overall, I've found Princess food and service better than on HAL, and the Princess production shows better as well. HAL does their version of Anytime dining much better (it's better managed) and they have a full breakfast, lunch and dinner room service menu. You can even ask for the dining room's menu delivered to your cabin and order from that. The HAL buffet closes very early for breakfast, then early for lunch and dinner. It's not open all day with a full selection the way it is on Princess. HAL bathrooms are larger than on Princess and many have tub/showers. However, storage is stingy compared to Princess.

 

Word for word, exactly the way I feel about Hal and Princess. I like them both for different reasons.

My final choice.......Princess....If I want to eat in the buffet; the hours and choices are perfect and plentiful! The ships are ideal for me in every way!

[joanna111]

I've sailed Vancouver to Anchorage on the Veendam and on the Coral Princess and I have some major (to me) complaints that I don't see others mention. They all have to do with how Princess impedes the views. Princess puts up sheets of blue plastic or glass on most of the forward facing decks. That means that you are either looking at the scenery through the blue or (and this seems really pathetic) trying to peer through the spaces between the blue sheets. Even if you have a balcony you should be on deck for the times that you have scenery on all sides. The Veendam had multiple open decks for this. On the Coral Princess in addition to the blue stuff there were some decks that you couldn't even get to.

 

On the Veendam the MDR was in the stern -- two stories with walls that were pretty much all window. On the Princess the MDR was amidships with ordinary windows covered with both draperies and sheers. Even the Princess buffet in the bow had enormous potted plants in each of the windows. I finally got tired of peering around them and just moved one to the applause of everyone sitting around me.

 

YMMV, but I just wanted to let you know my experience.

[SoBaycruiser]

I agree completely with you about the lack of windows...especially forward facing. That's why I said in one of the first posts that I don't like the Grand class configuration such as the Golden. The only Princess ships I want to sail on any more are the Ocean and the Pacific- the small R-ships. They have that wonderful forward facing lounge and a dining room surrounded by windows. We did a 14 day Alaskan cruise on the Pacific and have great memories.

[caribill]

I've sailed Vancouver to Anchorage on the Veendam and on the Coral Princess and I have some major (to me) complaints that I don't see others mention. They all have to do with how Princess impedes the views. Princess puts up sheets of blue plastic or glass on most of the forward facing decks.

 

The Coral has several decks where both forward and aft there is no plastic or glass at all to impede the view. Relatively few passengers ever discover these excellent viewing areas.

 

A picture of these aft decks is shown below. There are two similar decks at the front of the ship.

[caviargal]

We have had SB suites on HAL's Vista class ships 4x and they are wonderful! The balcony is amazing and the suite amenities on HAL, including the Neptune Lounge, are wonderful.

 

Those are my favorite cabins ever.

 

We really enjoyed our HAL cruises but it has been about 5 years since we sailed on the Osterdam. Having not sailed on Golden, I personally would still choose HAL though over the Golden based on ship size and number of passengers as well as Pinnacle Grille and Neptune Lounge.

[UpcountryTravelers]

Does HAL have anything to compare with the Princess lodges and train? We have done 2 cruises to Alaska on Coral Princess and wouldn't consider anything else!!! Absolutely awesome!!

[caribill]

Does HAL have anything to compare with the Princess lodges and train? We have done 2 cruises to Alaska on Coral Princess and wouldn't consider anything else!!! Absolutely awesome!!

 

I do not know about the lodges, but they do have similar train cars.

 

 

 

And their own busses