Regal Princess vs Nieuw Amsterdam

[lwright991]

We are currently booked for a Western Caribbean on the NA departing on Nov. 15 but for a couple of reasons have been rethinking it and considering booking the Regal Princess instead for same dates with slightly different itinerary. We have cruised HAL twice in recent years on Eurodam but haven't cruised Princess since 2007. Any insights would be appreciated. Especially interested in Princess speciality restaurants and also comparisons of balcony or mini-suites vs HAL verandahs. Thanks.

[iceleven]

My personal experience only--we enjoyed HAL's specialty restaurant much better. The service, the experience, AND the food is far better.

[Woobstr112G]

The Regal is quite a bit larger than the NA. While The Pizza is amazing on the Royal/Regal, I'd pick the NA because of the balconies on the P ships, along with other things I've posted about in the past.....:):):)

 

Bob

[ar1950]

And for us, having never sailed on the NA, but, did a B2B on the Regal, we would definitely sail on the Regal again. Our experience was that the food was good, the ship was really nice, the entertainment was good, and as far as the balcony, yes it was smaller, but adequate for us (we don't do suites so our perspective is different than Bob's). We enjoyed the ship enough to book it a again next December and this time in an aft, deluxe balcony. Guess we will see how we feel about the soot issue that everyone (and, yes Bob, I read your "live from" on the Royal and was glad that you did it) has commented on. I guess my point is that the Regal may not be for everyone, but, it may be good for the OP.

 

YMMV :cool:

[sunsetbeachgal]

We have sailed on the Eurodam (sister to NA, I think!) and both the Regal and the Royal. If I had to choose for overall experience, my preference is the Regal! She is such a beautiful ship with so many options for eating and entertainment. I can not comment on the surcharge restaurants, frankly between the fantastic buffet, the great little Italian bistro Alfredo's, the International Café' and the MDR, we felt that we had plenty of great food!

 

While the Regal balconies are a bit narrower, the cabins themselves are great for us. Another great feature of the Regal is the large interactive flat screen TV's with a library of free on-demand recent movies and TV series. I felt the entertainment on the Regal was far superior than what we experienced on HAL, both in terms of variety and quality.

 

I'm sure you will be happy whatever you choose. HAL has great itineraries, matter of fact we just booked the Eurodam for a cruise in Europe!

[Daisyloo]

We have sailed both the Regal and the NA. Last year in Nov.-Dec. we did one week on the Regal, got off and got right on the NA for a 2 week B2B.

We enjoyed both cruises very much.

Our observations: The Regal is a beautiful ship, new and bright and airy feeling. Love the Piazza area with all the entertainment options there, the International cafe, Alfredo's pizza etc. The NA does not have a comparable area.

The buffet restaurant on Regal is large and much better laid out than the NA. We never had trouble finding seats in the Horizon Court on the Regal whereas we did on the NA in the Lido. Food is subjective, but we liked the food on both ships about the same.

We had regular balcony staterooms on both ships. The Regal's balcony was tiny, but adequate to sit out on and watch the world go by. The NA cabin had a small sofa whereas the Regal only had a chair. The beds on HAL are wonderful, on the Regal it was good, definitely better than the usual rock hard mattresses Princess is known for. The bathrooms were very similar in size and amenities.

The entertainment was slightly better on the Regal we thought, but again that is subjective.

We think the MDR on the NA is better than the Regal, but only slightly.

Overall, we don't think you would go wrong with either ship.

As a matter of fact, we just got off the Royal Princess and loved it, and we have 3 weeks booked on the NA for Nov - Dec this year.

If you have any other questions I would be happy to try and answer them for you.

Happy sailing.

[Hawaiidan]

To be direct Regal and most all of Princess is on a lower class tier across the board than Holland

 

Its very different between the two... but that's by design

 

To compare as hotels ; Princess is like Best western, Holiday inn Holland would be Marriott or Westin

[Working 2 Cruise]

To be direct Regal and most all of Princess is on a lower class tier across the board than Holland

 

Its very different between the two... but that's by design

 

To compare as hotels ; Princess is like Best western, Holiday inn Holland would be Marriott or Westin

 

Yikes, that's harsh... another thing is that Princess may be a bit livelier...

[PescadoAmarillo]

Our Nieuw Amsterdam cruise was really wonderful. We were in a balcony and it had comfortable wicker furniture and an ottoman for one chair. The balcony alone would make me choose that over the Regal. We thought the food on our NA cruise was in the top 5 of all of our cruises. Loved Tamarind (I think that is what it's called), loved the buffet. The Crows Nest and the library doesn't have an equal on the Regal Princess. Also enjoyed the wide walk-around promenade and covered pool.

 

However, I don't think any HAL ship is truly pretty. The Lido Deck area is nice but their ships certainly have no other wow factor. And I really don't enjoy the crew as much, with all waitstaff being from Indonesia and bar staff from the Philippines. Princess mixes it up more. And conversations with the crew on HAL always feel a bit more stilted to me, and I think it's because their ability with English is not as good as on Princess.

 

But I'd choose the NA without a second thought.

[sweetsleep]

You have obviously never sailed on the Maasdam. Total rust bucket, horrible DR service-they ran out of food on a 7 day Canada cruise.

Average dining time was THREE hours-no ability to ever see even one show-but I doubt we missed anything.

Air conditioning never worked-we had to keep our cabin door open at all times while we were awake,safe never worked so we had to bring ALL valuables with us at all times. Other prior HAL cruisers were disgusted with the ship,lack of service and appalling decor and amenities.

I will never sail with them again.Period.

Couldn't even get coffee at 7am.

Room service was a total joke.

Princess is sooooooo much better.

[Aquahound]

We are currently booked for a Western Caribbean on the NA departing on Nov. 15 but for a couple of reasons have been rethinking it and considering booking the Regal Princess instead for same dates with slightly different itinerary. We have cruised HAL twice in recent years on Eurodam but haven't cruised Princess since 2007. Any insights would be appreciated. Especially interested in Princess speciality restaurants and also comparisons of balcony or mini-suites vs HAL verandahs. Thanks.

 

That's a tough choice. I cruised the Mediterranean on NA on a 12 night itinerary. My biggest disappointment about that cruise was the fact NA was a dead ship at night. However, I did love their specialty restaurants, especially Tamarind. We ended up eating 3 or 4 times in there because we loved it so much. NA's steakhouse, Pinnacle Grill, I think, is exactly on par with Princess Crown Grill.

 

So entertainment wise, I'd choose Princess. But specialty restaurant wise, I'd choose HAL. What I think would tip the scales for me toward NA is their noticeably larger staterooms and much larger balconies. Plus, not once have I ever felt crowded on a HAL cruise.

[modes]

Hal is great if you want to be asleep by 730

[geocruiser]

I have been on both ships. If had had to choose between the two of them, I would choose Regal. I just love Regal Princess. She is a beautiful ship. We sailed on her 3/8.

[kovhanperl]

I guess my point is that the Regal may not be for everyone, but, it may be good for the OP.

[moonhunter]

We didn't start cruising until 2007, but since then have taken longish cruises twice a year. All have been on Princess except for one cruise on the Oesterdsm in 2008. It was a week long Caribbean cruise, but long enough to convince me to never take Holland again. On Princess, you can go sit in a bar and read and while you will be asked if you want a drink, you don't have to order one to stay there. On Holland, after the second time they asked us if we wanted to order drinks and we said no, they said we should leave. Not that we have a problem with ordering a drink, but it was early on a sea day. Then on the last day, we choose the latest departure time, 10 am. Around 9 we were waiting in our cabin and our room steward told us that if we did not leave immediately we would be fined. The public areas of the ship were dirty and not well maintained (on Princess it seems there are always people out putting varnish on the teak railings and dusting pretty much everything). We could never get a table for two even though we eat late. After that experience, even though it may have been atypical, I will never sail again on Holland.