Torn between two cruise ships!

[Mare10]

I'm hoping someone can help. My friend and I are planning a New England cruise for Oct. 2013. We're interested in a 7 day cruise. Given the dates it looks like we could go on the Carribean Princess rd trip NY.... or the Holland America Veendam.. Boston to Quebec.

 

One concern is the size of the Princess Ship. We haven't travelled on that large a ship and are wondering about wait times debarking, meal times etc.

 

The itineraries are very similar.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Marilyn & Mary Ellen

[Keith1010]

I think both are good options.

 

If this was me, I would read some of the member review for each ship to get a feel for what the majority of the reviewers think are the positives and the negatives of each ship.

 

I happen to prefer Princess over the two choices but would recommend reading some of the reviews on each.

 

Keith

[Mare10]

Thank you Keith for the response. I spent alot of time on the weekend reading reviews and we made our decision! We hope to book the Oct.12, 2013 New England cruise on the Carribean Princess! We had some concerns about the size of the ship but I've been on the Golden and loved it.

 

We also look forward to spending a couple of pre or post cruise days in New York City.

 

Thanks again... now on with the planning which is so much fun.

 

Marilyn

[emcee207]

Don't know all your ports but prob Boston, Bar Harbor and maybe Newport are on the itinerary. This is a good board for "tips" so I if you have any questions fire away!!

[Nitemare]

Princess has open seating for meals (or fixed, if you prefer).

 

Are you over or under 70 years old?

[Mare10]

Under 70.... does that make a difference?

[emcee207]

Under 70.... does that make a difference?

 

LOL, I can think of lots of responses here but I"ll be good!;)

[Nitemare]

Under 70.... does that make a difference?

 

HAL has a reputation for having the oldest cruisers of any of the mainline cruiselines. Whether or not that's still accurate I couldn't say (but your travel agent could), but that might be important to some people.

 

We've cruised Princess and Celebrity and had great times on both, and didn't find the Princess ships in the same class as the Carribbean Princess to be too big for us. Big, yes, but not crazy like some of the RCL ships.

[Mare10]

I thought that's what you meant! I haven't cruised that much but after taking the two Alaskan cruises... one on Princess and one on Holland I would agree that the average age is a bit older on Holland.

 

We are close to booking now... the round trip on Princess out of New York. Looking forward to planning our pre-cruise days in New York and then the fun part of planning days in the ports.

 

I love to cruise!!!!!

[CMM]

I wouldn't factor in age as a deciding factor with which line. We sailed on 3 different lines for cruises to Canada/New England : Princess line's Caribbean Princess, Carnival's Victory, and Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas and ALL were a very old crowd including Carnival which is suppose to be younger.

The itinerary will bring an older crowd on Princess. We were in our 40's and one of the very youngest. In the summer there would be younger families due to school being out, but once school is back just expect an older crowd regardless of what line you choose.

That being said they were great trips with friendly people.

[Twinkstarr]

I wouldn't factor in age as a deciding factor with which line. We sailed on 3 different lines for cruises to Canada/New England : Princess line's Caribbean Princess, Carnival's Victory, and Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas and ALL were a very old crowd including Carnival which is suppose to be younger.

The itinerary will bring an older crowd on Princess. We were in our 40's and one of the very youngest. In the summer there would be younger families due to school being out, but once school is back just expect an older crowd regardless of what line you choose.

That being said they were great trips with friendly people.

 

Would agree with you on Princess, we did the Canada/NE cruise back in 2011 and my sister and I were also in our 40's and we were among the youngest on the ship.

[jkrislc]

HAL has a reputation for having the oldest cruisers of any of the mainline cruiselines. Whether or not that's still accurate I couldn't say (but your travel agent could), but that might be important to some people.

 

We've cruised Princess and Celebrity and had great times on both, and didn't find the Princess ships in the same class as the Carribbean Princess to be too big for us. Big, yes, but not crazy like some of the RCL ships.

 

I think this is mostly accurate. We did the Massdam from Montreal to Boston with DS (5) and he was only one of 32 under 18 year olds on onboard. For other itineraries, on their larger ships, and during holidays, the demographic runs younger. However, even on a New Years cruise the number of kids (300) paled in comparison to the other lines.

[Keith1010]

I would have gone with Princess.

 

Keith

[Nitemare]

I would have gone with Princess.

 

Keith

 

Why, Keith?

 

It's helpful to the posters if you give a reason for your recommendation.

[SpokaneDan]

HAL and Princess are very similar in services, amenities. I'd rank them as equal. I personally prefer HAL, with their well appointed library with a vew, their more "sophisticated" movie selections, slight edge in food (my subjective opinion) and the offer of classic string quartet concerts (no, I'm just barely over 40 :)). My wife and teenage kids perfers Princess for its more modern atmosphere. I'd agree with the adage of pick the itinerary and not the ship. I am going to the similar region as well. HAL offers Quebec city, which for me, is the expected highlight of the trip. I also prefer PEI over Rhode Island.

[cruiserfromalabama]

My husband and I did this same trip on the Caribbean Princess in Sept. 2011 and loved it! This was our first time on a Princess ship and we thought that the overall service and the ship itself was more upscale than our previous two cruises on Carnival. The people were a little older and very few children, but I am guessing that Caribbean cruises are more partylike than New England/Canada cruises are. We absolutely loved the beautiful ship, the staff, and the food. The shows were great and the ship excursions were wonderful. We also took a cruise on RCCL last summer to Italy, Greece, and Turkey. Loved RCCL and are doing another one this summer with them. My two favorite cruise lines are now Princess and RCCL!

[Mare10]

Nice to hear you did our same cruise with Princess! We go in Oct. and are getting very excited. Would you mind sharing which excursions you did and how well you liked them?

 

Thanks!

 

Marilyn

[cruiserfromalabama]

Marilyn, This is a great cruise with wonderful ports! We did the Peggy's Cove ship tour in Nova Scotia and then had time to walk the port boardwalk. Beautiful port! In St. John we did the ship's tour of the reversing falls and sea caves with a lunch of seafood chowder. Great picture excursion with the last part being a stop at the city market(very interesting)! Lots of bus time, but I enjoyed the scenery. In Bar Harbour we did the Acadia Tour with lobster lunch at Bar Harbour Club! Absolutely loved this ship's tour. The trip through the park was amazing! The lunch was great with a loster boil dinner and dessert included. It concluded with the bus letting you off in city to do shopping and sightseeing on your own.

 

In Boston we did a ship tour and it went to Harvard, North Church, City Market. Just liked this tour a little, but was a great way to get a taste of Boston.

 

In New Port, we did a tour of the Breakers and Marble House. Love this tour as well. We had time before tour to walk around port and eat at a local pub. You can tender in early before your tour. We are a couple in our 50's and these tours were great for us! We had never been to New England or Canada and loved this itinerary!

[Mare10]

Thank you so much for sharing more about your cruise. Hearing how much you enjoyed it is helping me get really excited. Appreciate your input on the excursions too!