Hal or Celebrity

[Living4acruise2day]

Hello. Yes, I am new and just starting searching for a cruise to Alaska, but my head is spinning to the point of being dizzy. I have not cruised in 7 years and only on Celebrity twice. My co-worker swears by HAL and it does sound intriguing. Are there any pluses for HAL as opposed to X? Any particular ship you would recommend? Please forgive all of my questions. Just getting my feet wet and trying to narrow everything down.

[Lady Arwen]

We've been to Alaska with both Celebrity and HAL. S class ships are terrific, but Celebrity does not have the license to enter Glacier Bay and HAL does. Loved Celebrity Solstice for many reasons, but disappointed in their Alaska itinerary.

 

HAL goes to Glacier Bay, and it's not to be missed.......breathtaking! My only issue is that HAL still allows smoking on balconies, so this may be a concern for you, since you will spend so much time out there taking in all the amazing scenery.

 

I, personally, would choose HAL just for the itinerary.

[Living4acruise2day]

Thank you. I do not smoke, but smoke does not really bother me much. Well, pipe and cigar smoke does, but I can deal. Is there a particular ship you like or are they all pretty much the same? I see that there are a couple of different ones.

[StartrainDD]

We like both, but for Alaska go with HAL and agree with Arwen make sure Glacier Bay is on the itinerary if at all possible.

 

Good luck!

[avian777]

There are many similarities between Celebrity and HAL but IMO only one significant factual difference between them - only HAL has a Roman Catholic priest (who celebrates daily Mass) on board every one of its cruises. Since spiritual renewal is an important component of our vacation experience, HAL is the hands-down choice for us.

For reasons that I don't even understand myself, our favorite HAL ships are Zuiderdam and Zaandam. We have sailed on most of HAL's other ships and enjoyed all of them, but Zuiderdam and Zaandam are our favorites.

Our favorite Alaska itinerary is the round-trip out of Seattle, followed closely by the round-trip out of Vancouver BC. Whichever you choose, I think you'll have a great time because HAL pioneered the Alaska cruise and IMO does it better than anyone else.

Smooth sailing ...

[Living4acruise2day]

Wonderful input from everyone. Back to the HAL website for a little more investigating. Thank you again.

[kelmac]

Hello. Yes, I am new and just starting searching for a cruise to Alaska, but my head is spinning to the point of being dizzy. I have not cruised in 7 years and only on Celebrity twice. My co-worker swears by HAL and it does sound intriguing. Are there any pluses for HAL as opposed to X? Any particular ship you would recommend? Please forgive all of my questions. Just getting my feet wet and trying to narrow everything down.

 

Hi L,

 

My standard answer -- "why not do both?" Take one ship north; spend some time in the Seward area; take another ship south. You will end up doing both Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier (I think Hubbard is more spectacular). I prefer Celebrity to HAL, but we are going to give them another try this December. Smoking policy on HAL sucks.

North/South bound cruises tend to be less expensive and it's nice to see some "mainland" Alaska.

 

Example:

 

(2017) Vancouver to Seward 7 nights on HAL's Noordam 4 June 17

Rent a car and spend 5 nights in Seward, Kenai & Anchorage

Seward to Vancouver 7 nights on Celebrity's Millennium 16 June 17

 

Enjoy!

Kel:)

[mafig]

When I first started cruising, one of the first things I learned was if you're going to Alaska go Holland America (or Princess).

 

I believe that advice holds true today.;)

[grayjay]

Hi L,

 

My standard answer -- "why not do both?" Take one ship north; spend some time in the Seward area; take another ship south. You will end up doing both Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier (I think Hubbard is more spectacular). I prefer Celebrity to HAL, but we are going to give them another try this December. Smoking policy on HAL sucks.

North/South bound cruises tend to be less expensive and it's nice to see some "mainland" Alaska.

 

Example:

 

(2017) Vancouver to Seward 7 nights on HAL's Noordam 4 June 17

Rent a car and spend 5 nights in Seward, Kenai & Anchorage

Seward to Vancouver 7 nights on Celebrity's Millennium 16 June 17

 

Enjoy!

Kel:)

 

I second that! Having sailed on both cruiselines I'd certainly choose the 7-day cruises northbound/southbound from Vancouver to Seward and vice versa. That would give you both spectacular Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay.

If you only want to do one cruise I'd also suggest looking at one of the 10 -to14-day itineraries that go to Sitka, Homer etc. as an alternative to a 7-day cruise. There's 9 days on Celebrity Solstice and longer cruises on HAL's Amsterdam, for example.

[RuthC]

Rather than asking about which HAL ship, you should decide first on which HAL itinerary. There are mainly four from which to choose.

You can do a 7-day round trip from Seattle, a 7-day round trip from Vancouver, a 7-day one-way (north or southbound) that routes between Vancouver and Seward, or a 14-day round trip out of Seattle.

 

Once you have that decided, then take a look at the ship choices. If there's more than one ship doing the same route, look at what day of the week it sails, and see how that fits in your schedule. Ships that sail during the work week tend to have fewer people sharing the ports with you (making for a better experience), but they can be harder to arrange if you are still working.

 

Although I love Glacier Bay on a good day, it doesn't compare to the sail up Yakutat Bay to Hubbard Glacier on a good day. That is one spectacular glacier!

In any case, just going to Alaska is the treat, and whatever you miss this time, you can get the next time you go there.

[OlsSalt]

We always prefer the smaller ship the better. Advantage HAL. And in Alaska, the fewer ships in port on the same day the better. This can also gives the advantage to HAL - depends on ship and departure days.

 

That would take a little more digging on port schedules but could make a difference too. The worst part of Alaska cruise can be the back up at boarding and immigration upon disembarkation, when there is really a crowded port calendar.

 

One really silly reason to not do a HAL ship is this means you get to look at them with their gorgeous classic lines and stately dark blue hulls and have them in your background photos from your non_HAL ship, instead of the other way around. Hated having those ugly Princess ships show up in our photos. :cool:

 

7 days is not going to make or break a trip on either cruise line from all reports. Alaska is your goal, and each offers a comfy cabin, good viewing decks and nice food. Have a wonderful time.

[Caribbean Chris]

One thing I enjoyed on our August 29 Maasdam HAL cruise (2 weeks) was the open bow. When we cruised toward glaciers (Dawes and Hubbard on that itinerary which goes west to Kodiak Island), the captain opened it to all passengers for many hours. Waiters offered hot pea soup and had plaid blankets for those who hadn't bundled up enough. It wasn't crowded and was a fun thing to do.

 

(The bow was also opened to passengers during our Panama canal cruise on Zuiderdam in April.)

 

I noticed on a review of a Celebrity Solstice Alaska cruise that all passengers apparently do not have a similar experience since the bow is much smaller with a helipad. So "exclusive invitations" were issued that the reviewer assumed were only for suite passengers.

 

We cruise Celebrity and HAL each year. In Alaska, however, I was glad we were on a much more traditional ocean liner with a full promenade and more nautical atmosphere, rather than on one of the much-larger, glitzy X floating resort ships.

[Living4acruise2day]

Such a lovely group of people with such great advice. I am not sure why I was so fixated on the ship. I think I was just getting confused. I am taking into consideration all of your suggestions and hopefully I am able to narrow it down. I am sure I will be back with more questions. Oh, my husband wants to know if there are fewer children on an Alaskan cruise. It's not that he does not like children, but he prefers more of a quiet type atmosphere.

[serendipity1499]

We've been to Alaska with both Celebrity and HAL. S class ships are terrific, but Celebrity does not have the license to enter Glacier Bay and HAL does. Loved Celebrity Solstice for many reasons, but disappointed in their Alaska itinerary.

 

HAL goes to Glacier Bay, and it's not to be missed.......breathtaking! My only issue is that HAL still allows smoking on balconies, so this may be a concern for you, since you will spend so much time out there taking in all the amazing scenery.

 

I, personally, would choose HAL just for the itinerary.

 

Why do many posters seem to "Assume" that everyone will book a balcony.. We booked an outside cabin when we cruised to Alaska.. We also took a HAL 7 day land tour prior to our cruise, which the Op may also want to consider..

 

Both our land tour & our cruise were awesome!

 

OP...IMO. Ruth C an experienced traveler has it right..You have to decide how many days you want in Alaska first.. Then figure what itinerary & ship would suit your needs..

 

Have no idea how many children were on our trip.. We began our land trip on Aug 08, 2008 & boarded the Veendam 7 days later for our Northbound cruise to Vancouver.. Obviously children were not a problem... But, HAL is well known for their great children's program & they probably kept any children on our cruise quite busy..

 

I've never been on Celebrity but I have been very happy cruising on HAL..

 

BTW would love to go to Alaska again.. There is still so much left to see!!

Edited September 20, 2016 by serendipity1499

[TheCalicoCat]

1. Choose an itinerary that has Glacier bay, it is a World Heritage Site for a reason! (So between your 2, that would be HAL.)

 

2. On our first AK cruise we chose an inside & LOVED our cruise, when viewing the scenery, we loved the 360 & never missed having a limited viewing balcony. (We spent that money on excursions instead.)

 

3. Our next AK is the 14-night round trip - another only on HAL option.

[kelmac]

Such a lovely group of people with such great advice. I am not sure why I was so fixated on the ship. I think I was just getting confused. I am taking into consideration all of your suggestions and hopefully I am able to narrow it down. I am sure I will be back with more questions. Oh, my husband wants to know if there are fewer children on an Alaskan cruise. It's not that he does not like children, but he prefers more of a quiet type atmosphere.

 

Hi L,

 

Most of the kids will be on Royal Caribbean, Princess and NCL sailing out of Seattle. HAL and Celebrity will have fewer kids, and north/south bound cruises will have even fewer children. Off season (May/late Sept, Oct) will have almost no children, but the weather can be iffy. The longer the cruise, the less children will be on board.

 

Planning can be fun too!

Kel:)

[themerle]

My vote would be to go with HAL. I like HAL's itineraries much better than the other cruise lines. I like that they go to Glacier Bay. I like that you can leave from Vancouver and end in Seward if you chose. Seward is such a quaint fun town. There are many of things to do there if you have the time.

I find that HAL has few kids than other lines.

[Cruiser Andi]

We've done this cruise 3 times now. The advice I'd offer regarding kids is to cruise in more of the "off" season, either May or September when they are in school. We've done May, September, and July. The cruise in July was horrible with the number of kids. We prefer leaving out of Vancouver which is a more inland route and has great scenery.

 

 

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[sabrefan]

Not an easy question to answer. I elite on Celebrity but have never taken X to Alaska. I have been to Alaska twice, once on a Cruisetour on Princess and once on Oceania aboard the Regatta. On Princess we went to Glacier Bay and on Oceania we went to Hubbard Glacier. IMO I thought Hubbard Glacier was more impressive. We recently were on our first HAL cruise in Scotland, Iceland and Norway. IMO I think Celebrity is much better. I would suggest going to Denali National Park and taking the Tundra Tour, just spectacular. The area around Seward and Resurection Bay is beautiful. Whatever decision you make Alaska is awesome and after your trip you will want to go back. Anther port where we did a whale watch and saw many humpbacks was Icy Strait Point. There were also many bald eagles there as well.

[Fouremco]

We more or less alternate between X and HAL and are equally happy on either one. Each has its pros and cons, but overall they are very similar.

 

In your shoes, there are three criteria I would base my decision on: the itinerary, the available shore excursions and the price. Not necessarily in that order.

 

We very seldom book ships' shore excursions, preferring to book independently, but for Alaska we've found that ship and private excursions were more or less on a par. If you prefer to book ships' excursions, you might want to see what each line has to offer before making your decision.

 

Making choices can be difficult, but I think that you'll be very happy with whichever one you finally decide on. :)