NCL Cheerleader takes HAL Charter

[kollegekreed]

Howdy. I recently went on theKoningsdam (Charter) which was my first experience with HAL. I havebeen on one Celebrity, one Carnival, and 9 NCL cruises so I figured Iwould post a small comparison between NCL and HAL in my eyes.

 

 

 

 

Embarkation:

 

 

 

 

Took over an hour. I am used to Port ofMiami/NCL getting me onboard in under ten minutes. It really seemedto be some deficiencies with Port Everglades. At one point thesecurity line was wrapped around the building; once it started movingwe assumed they opened several more lines. Nope! They doubled them,from one open line to two.

 

 

 

 

Food:

 

 

 

 

I loved HAL's Lido Market concept. Thesalad bar is a particularly big win for HAL. I only ate in the MDRonce, but the food was fine. Something very similar to NCL is thatalmost every dessert seems to be made with a packet of Jello. I justdont get that...

 

 

 

 

Lots of people were big fans of Dive InBurgers, but I didn't love it. We all enjoyed the pizza at NY Deli,but their sandwiches were lacking.

 

 

 

 

I also loved the Grand Dutch Cafe –Grilled ham and cheese with tomato and the steak fries were the bestfries on the ship. The servers always had a scowl on though! Not sureif it was just our week or what.

 

 

 

 

If I were to compare to NCL, I likedNCLs MDR menus much better. HAL's buffet clearly wins. NCL has abigger win with their 24 hour Osheehans, while HAL doesnt haveanything 24 hour but room service.

 

 

 

 

Staterooms:

 

 

 

 

I loved my inside stateroom on HAL. Forsome reason the arrangement just worked better than NCL's insides ontheir newer ships. It was a perfectly fine size for two of us andthere was plenty of storage. The bed was very comfortable.

 

 

 

 

TV was sorely lacking in Live channels,but they made up for it with movies. I didnt have time to watch asingle one, but many of them were new-ish. NCL has way more livechannels, but only one movie channel. The on demand feature on HALwas nice.

 

 

 

 

The stateroom stewards ticked me off onday one and never recovered, unfortunately. Just like all ships withthe new “electricity” technology that requires your room key, Iput a plastic card in the slot to keep the lights on. Returned tofind the card gone. When I asked the steward he pulled over 200plastic cards out of his pocket for me to go through. How ridiculousis that. And no, my card wasnt there. They also got pretty pushy atturndown time one time knocking a second time and asking “if I wasdone yet” when I had told them id be out in a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

Pools:

 

 

 

 

Hands down, HAL wins. NCL's newer shipshave ridiculously small pools and HAL having two alone makes them thewinner.

 

 

 

 

Casino:

 

 

 

 

HAL loses this one. Im not sure itcould be much smaller. For a ship that even the staff refer to as “afloating retirement home” you would think they would make thisspace bigger for the older gamblers.

 

 

 

 

Staff:

 

 

 

 

I can honestly say we didnt have asingle real issue with any staff all week. They were friendly,attentive, and in many cases were visibly laughing and smiling. Therewas a common theme during the week (again, a charter) where the stafftalked about how much more fun it is not to have the regular crowd onbecause it was a lot more laid back with a charter etc.

 

 

 

 

Shows:

 

 

 

 

Since this was a charter, there wasvery little HAL entertainment. I did catch the shows they put on(Billboard and One World) and they were “fine”. There/s not muchcompetition with NCL for entertainment; their production shows arefar better and the newer ships of course have the broadway stylestuff.

 

 

 

 

Overall:

 

 

 

 

I would sail HAL again on a charter,for sure. I would never sail a normal HAL voyage as the activitiesjust arent there to hold my interest. As I said the jokes were flyingall week from the captain, cruise director and on down about thenormal HAL passengers and how they were looking forward to thecomplaints resuming on the sailing after ours about scheduling shows“so late, at 8:30 PM”. It seemed to be a nice break for them tohave our music piped across the ship, no real limits on language andcontent, etc.

 

 

 

 

For me NCL on a normal day is just waymore laid back and, to steal their word, freestyle. That said, nowthat i've gotten a taste of the slightly more upscale I would like toget over to Royal at some point to compare as well.

 

 

 

 

Great trip either way...sorry for thesegmented thoughts but no time to put four hours into a formalreview:)

[Linda the Book Lover]

What type of charter was this? Thanks!

[Cruiser Bruiser]

What type of charter was this? Thanks!

I'm guessing it was RSVP. Having done four RSVP charters and other HAL cruises too, there's no comparison.

 

I'm glad you liked your cruise, OP. HAL and NCL have a lot of similarities, from friendly crews to thermal suites to forward observation lounges. In fact the Lido decks on Jewel class and Vista class ships are nearly identical.

 

I still sail NCL, but as I approach 50, I appreciate the chill vibe on HAL more and more. Thanks for sharing your impressions.

 

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