Assessment of Better and Best Ships

[one2fish]

A question for you folks who've been there and know.... which ships of Celebrity and/or Holland America do you folks like BEST...and WHY ??????:confused:

[K&RCurt]

I personnaly can't offer an informed opinion as we've only been on one cruise. HOWEVER, this is a very subjective question. Both lines have older, smaller ships each with a devoted following. People will say these are the lines "best" ships due to the more intimate size, fewer passengers more "classic" decor etc.. On the other had, both lines also have larger, newer ships with more varied facilities. Fans of these ships will say that they offer more things to do, better kid's facilities, more up to date decor.

 

 

Each sip will have folks who love it and folks who would never sail on it again.

 

My advice is to do searches on the respective forums for the ships you are interested in and read all you can to get an idea of the majority opinions on that ship.

 

Alternativly, post a question on each line's forum. Make sure to include detail about what's important to YOU in a ship. Your prefferance to size, stateroom types, facilities which are important to you etc.

[TrentS]

Personally I can't stand HAL or any of the other Carnival owned lines. I would go with Celebrity over HAL, but that's just me... There's no way anyone can answer that question for YOU... Go on them both and make up your own mind. What one person loves, another hates.

[poppabear]

For what it's worth----

 

Celebrity has 7 Large ships and all 7 have achieved the honor of being rated in the Conde Nast TOP 10 LARGE CRUISE SHIPS.

HAL has none.

 

Having cruised on both the Century and the Summitt, my feeling is the only reason they only hold 7 of the top 10 spots is because they only have 7 large ships. If they had 10 ships they'd probably hold all 10 spots --- they're that good.

HAL on the other hand is a take it or leave it line. They're OK but that's about it (again, this is only my opinion) Too stuff shirt for me. I'm sure there are others who will disagree with me, but hey, the majority of the worlds cruisers have voted Celebrity as the best in class for all of their ships year after year.

 

I should note that I'm also very, very happy with Princess.

When I'm looking to cruise I pick an itinerary and then see if Celebrity or Princess go there.

I only use HAL, NCL, Carnival as a last resort.

As for RCCL, it's OK but not on par with Celebrity or Princess.

 

Again, just my own personal opinions here. Not looking to start a debate.

poppabear

[kitty9]

According to Conde Nast, large cruise ships are rated the following:

 

Crystal 90.2

Radisson 88.5

Holland America 81.9

Celebrity 80.0

 

It's interesting because when Conde Nast rates individual cruise ships, they rate them as large, medium and small. Celebrity and HAL are in the large ship category and Crystal in the medium. But when they rank cruise lines, they only rank large and small, with Crystal going into the large ship category.

 

When ranking the large ships it's:

 

Constellation

Summit

Radiance of the Seas

Century

Mercury

Galaxy

Coral Princess,

Millennium

Golden Princess

 

Interesting how they rank HAL higher overall in the large ship category, but they don't rank any of their indivudual ships.

 

Travel and Leisure Magazine ranks the large ship cruise lines as follows:

 

Crystal 88.27

Radisson 86.98

Oceania 82.10

Disney 78.21

Celebrity 78.11

Princess 76.66

HAL 76.07

Cunard 75.52