Princess vs. Holland America

[Jimbo59]

We sailed on Royal Princess this past summer. Food quality and service were so far below our experiences on previous Princess cruises (14 cruises) that we cancelled our Winter 2019 Princess cruise on Royal Princess.

 

We booked Holland America (2 cruises this winter), primarily because of the excellent service, food quality, and the Lincoln Center Stage music program. Holland America and Cunard (Queen Mary, Queen Victoria) have become our favorite cruise lines.

 

[Grburkart]

??? Huh???

 

Glenn

[Grburkart]

Please forgive me in advance but I’m relatively new to CC. I actually can’t believe that there’s so much Princess bashing on the Princess board. I’m proud to be sailing on Princess so it becomes disconcerting to me. 

If I don’t like something, I’ll change things to improve my situation but I sure wouldn’t begrudge others for their loyalties. 

 

Glenn

[PrincessLuver]

11 minutes ago, Grburkart said:

Please forgive me in advance but I’m relatively new to CC. I actually can’t believe that there’s so much Princess bashing on the Princess board. I’m proud to be sailing on Princess so it becomes disconcerting to me. 

If I don’t like something, I’ll change things to improve my situation but I sure wouldn’t begrudge others for their loyalties. 

 

Glenn

 

Obviously the natives are restless and Princess is making a number of changes that are not making all passengers happy and they are comparing, sharing and evidently considering going to try other cruise lines.

Edited February 10, 2019 by PrincessLuver

[foodsvcmgr]

Jimbo we sail these three superior mass market category lines regularly as well as Celebrity.

While there are certain things about each that we prefer, overall we find more similarities than major differences other than the formal dress unique to Cunard.

We can’t pinpoint anything to exclude any of these from consideration, looking more to select based on itinerary, pricing and promos.

Again there is much to like and a few things not to like with any of the players in this market segment.

[getting older slowly]

Just an observation, it is interest that most people whom find Princess not up to their expectation... seam to end up at other Carnival Corporation owned lines.... they are all under the same executives.. with the same ideas...... even though each brand is different... there will a culture from Carnival Corporation which will flow down though the brands.. particularly with ebit ( profit for investment )  and global agreements

 

I have look at HAL, but compared to Princess it is more expensive, and a lot of their itinerary are not out and back. ( in our region ) which again adds extra costs.

 

So for the moment Princess is the one for us   ( as with everything it comes down to the money )

 

Cheers Don     

[geoherb]

We've taken five HAL cruises and would gladly do so again if it worked out to be the best option. There are always things we like better about sailing on HAL, but also things we miss about Princess.

[bemis12]

2 hours ago, Jimbo59 said:

We sailed on Royal Princess this past summer. Food quality and service were so far below our experiences on previous Princess cruises (14 cruises) that we cancelled our Winter 2019 Princess cruise on Royal Princess.

 

We booked Holland America (2 cruises this winter), primarily because of the excellent service, food quality, and the Lincoln Center Stage music program. Holland America and Cunard (Queen Mary, Queen Victoria) have become our favorite cruise lines.

 

 

That’s super interesting

[OCruisers]

While we've enjoyed cruising on HAL (and still do from time to time), we find Princess is a much better all around fit for us.  

[Tapi]

Interestingly, we found the food on Princess to be of better quality and variety than on HAL. And unfortunately for me, I got pretty severe food poisoning when we sailed to Alaska on HAL. I almost had to cut my cruise short in Juneau. So it's hard for me to look at HAL's cuisine and food handling practices too fondly after that experience. 

[RMMariner]

I have not been on HAL, but my father just returned from a 17 day trip. He also went on the Golden Princess to Alaska with us last summer. He said the food on Princess was much better than on HAL. I would say that each cruise line has positives and negatives, but in the end the product depends very much on what you pay.

 

I would suggest that food is subjective, and if any one line was so much better than the others for equivalent prices, it would soon put the inferior lines out of business.

 

Go try other lines. We have tried Celebrity - liked it about as much as Princess. Carnival - not to our taste. Oceania - liked some things more than Princess, but it did cost over twice as much per day. Norwegian - did not like it as much as Princess. Overall, despite the cutbacks, Princess still remains our line of choice, but I can say that each line had something to recommend them.

[Jimbo59]

For those who like music, Holland America has the “Music Walk” with BB Kings, Lincoln Center Stage, and Billboard pop/rock music. HAL’s production shows are not as good as some other lines.

 

MSC has full production shows almost every night (no comedians, though, because of the international audience). MSC even had an abbreviated (45 minutes) opera performance one afternoon.

[hobbyfarmer2]

Sailed on Princess many times and bad service has been quite rare.  As for food, someone at our table on Coral last month complained there was too much garlic in her dish.  DW and I were having the same dish, love garlic, but could hardly taste any.  There lies the problem.  We find cruise food generally quite good but not very exciting in flavour.  The chefs cook that way on purpose IMO in an attempt to minimize complaints but food is very subjective and you can't please everyone. 

[kennicott]

We have cruised only on Regent, Princess and HAL. Have just shy of 200 days sailing on HAL, 145 days sailing on Regent and a little over 300 on Princess. Regent is our number one line, followed by Princess, the Seven Seas Voyager is our favorite ship. We quit HAL five years ago. We feel that Princess has a significant  edge over HAL. No particular reason why we left HAL other than their loyalty perks are the most stingy we have experienced and their overall cruise experience was in retrogress. That was a while back, but recently confirmed by Berlitz as far as cuisine and service goes: 

 

The 2019 edition of Berlitz contains some Interesting changes on the cuisine scores among the nine majors. A few years ago they dropped Cunard as a major. They now define "major" as those with 10 ships or more. The rest are in their "The smaller Lines" category.

 

In 2018---MSC #1, Celebrity #2, Princess #3, HAL #4, NCL & RCI tied #5, Carnival #6, AIDA # 7, COSTA #8   

 

In 2019---MSC #1, Princess #2, Celebrity #3, RCI #4, NCL #5,  HAL #6, COSTA & AIDA tied #7, Carnival #8  

 

Congratulations to RCI and Princess   Condolences to Celebrity, Carnival and HAL   

[floridalover5623]

16 hours ago, Jimbo59 said:

We sailed on Royal Princess this past summer. Food quality and service were so far below our experiences on previous Princess cruises (14 cruises) that we cancelled our Winter 2019 Princess cruise on Royal Princess.

 

We booked Holland America (2 cruises this winter), primarily because of the excellent service, food quality, and the Lincoln Center Stage music program. Holland America and Cunard (Queen Mary, Queen Victoria) have become our favorite cruise lines.

 

Although we haven't sailed on HAL & been on the Royal so many times I forget how many, the food on Holland must really be great. 

Maybe I am missing something. 😁

[Coral]

16 hours ago, Grburkart said:

Please forgive me in advance but I’m relatively new to CC. I actually can’t believe that there’s so much Princess bashing on the Princess board. I’m proud to be sailing on Princess so it becomes disconcerting to me. 

If I don’t like something, I’ll change things to improve my situation but I sure wouldn’t begrudge others for their loyalties. 

 

Glenn

I think those who are critical of Princess also have been loyal to Princess and don't like the changes that are being made. They hope that some vocal criticism will help the cruise line see that the decisions they are making will affect their decisions in the future. 

 

I thought the food was poor on my last Princess cruise. My next 2 cruises booked on Princess are booked solely based on itinerary. I can say that I am also actively looking at cruises on another line with higher quality.

 

If I remember correctly from your posts - you took a break from Princess and are now returning. I hope your cruise meets your expectations.

[SandyLynn]

We like Holland America and Princess equally and will choose which one based on itinerary.  Took our best cruise ever on Holland America in the Mediterranean with special events and foods that matched each of the places we stopped.  If I remember correctly, and it has been five years, the cruise was twenty-four days with only three sea days - lots of wonderful stops. 

Looking forward to a South America Princess cruise coming up soon.  Aren't we lucky to be on these beautiful ships, meeting new friends, and seeing terrific sights?!

[1025cruise]

Its been many years since I've cruised on Princess (timing just hasn't worked out), but I also sailed on HAL, again quite a few years ago. While I'm sure things have changed in the years, I found the food to be much better on Princess. In fact, on my post cruise survey from HAL, I wrote to send the pastry chef back to school.

[Grburkart]

19 minutes ago, Coral said:

I think those who are critical of Princess also have been loyal to Princess and don't like the changes that are being made. They hope that some vocal criticism will help the cruise line see that the decisions they are making will affect their decisions in the future. 

 

I thought the food was poor on my last Princess cruise. My next 2 cruises booked on Princess are booked solely based on itinerary. I can say that I am also actively looking at cruises on another line with higher quality.

 

If I remember correctly from your posts - you took a break from Princess and are now returning. I hope your cruise meets your expectations.

No sorry, wrong person. I’ll be on my first Princess Cruise ever in October, my first cruise since 1978. 

The point of my rant is the OP bashes Princess on a Princess page and praises another cruise company at the same time. In this case, the post should be made on the HAL site, and the OP did the copy and paste thing to do just that. 

I’ll admit I am wrong because I’ve been the only one complaining and I might have to concede that Princess is a dirt bag operation. 

 

Glenn

[Coral]

7 minutes ago, Grburkart said:

No sorry, wrong person. I’ll be on my first Princess Cruise ever in October, my first cruise since 1978. 

The point of my rant is the OP bashes Princess on a Princess page and praises another cruise company at the same time. In this case, the post should be made on the HAL site, and the OP did the copy and paste thing to do just that. 

I’ll admit I am wrong because I’ve been the only one complaining and I might have to concede that Princess is a dirt bag operation. 

 

Glenn

Got it - you hadn't cruised since 1978. I knew there was something unique about your situation. You will definitely notice cruising has changed a lot since your last cruise.

 

I see nothing wrong with comparing cruise lines. There are definitely times when other lines do things better than Princess. Hopefully if Princess sees enough of these comments, they will up their game. For example - Princess had the worst beds at sea. They were awful. After years of complaining - they rolled out some wonderful beds. Progress can come from criticism. Some of these individuals want Princess to setup up their game and be the company they used to be.

[Hlitner]

30 minutes ago, Grburkart said:

No sorry, wrong person. I’ll be on my first Princess Cruise ever in October, my first cruise since 1978. 

The point of my rant is the OP bashes Princess on a Princess page and praises another cruise company at the same time. In this case, the post should be made on the HAL site, and the OP did the copy and paste thing to do just that. 

I’ll admit I am wrong because I’ve been the only one complaining and I might have to concede that Princess is a dirt bag operation. 

 

Glenn

Dirt bag operation?  No way.  Different from what it was forty years ago.....absolutely :).  The entire cruise industry has changed since the 70s and Princess is certainly no exception.  We like HAL (5 Star Mariners) and we also like Princess (Elite for a few decades) so perhaps that makes us weird :).   Personally, we have never bought into this "loyalty" thing when it comes to cruise lines.  There are some things that HAL does better and there are some things that Princess does better.  Food on both lines really varies from cruise to cruise and probably has more to do with the Executive Chef then many will believe.  But we can gain weight on either line :).  One major difference between the cruise lines is what happens after 10pm.  On many HAL cruises (especially longer cruises) the ship can feel like a morgue by 10.  On Princess, there are usually many more folks up until midnight (or later) and the cruise line does often provide some incentive for staying awake.  On Princess you might actually find a late night adult comedy show (usually around 11:30) but this is not something you would see on HAL (unless its a new trend on the larger ships).  We have also been on HAL when they have "dark nights" with no major entertainment (except a movie) which does not happen on Princess.  

 

Hank

[eclue]

We have no complaints about Princess - have been elite for a while and plan on continuing to travel with them.......although HAL has a very interesting itinerary in May returning to Kusadasi in Turkey and in May, 2020, they will be going to Istanbul for an overnight and also Kusadasi so I am thinking we will be on that ship.

[floridalover5623]

2 hours ago, 1025cruise said:

Its been many years since I've cruised on Princess (timing just hasn't worked out), but I also sailed on HAL, again quite a few years ago. While I'm sure things have changed in the years, I found the food to be much better on Princess. In fact, on my post cruise survey from HAL, I wrote to send the pastry chef back to school.

Many (not all) of Princess's desserts at the buffet are provided by an outside concern.

Didn't you even notice how similar they are from ship to ship? 

[rlt1]

I just got off the Eurodam a HAL cruise ship and even though we had a great time I don’t think they compare well with Princess or Royal Princess.

As I said in my review to HA I felt there was lack of entertainment, lack of service on the lido deck outside, a dirty ship( lido deck) where a beer bottle stayed for over two days and the deck was dirty . I enjoyed dinner however the head waiters were not as friendly or helpful as there counterparts at Princess. I loved the dueling pianos however after several days I was looking for something knew. I was excited about BB Kings because I love the Blues but after going there three times I found that they really played rock and roll which was not bad but not the Blues.

I enjoy the Piazza in the middle of the ships with Princess where there is constant happenings going on and is a constant buzz, I didn’t have that with the Eurodam. I had the specialty coffee package with HA and since it’s only offered on deck 11 foward I only used it once since it was not convenient to get to or where anything was happening on the ship.

The cruise director was nice but only had one staff member, with Princess the cruise director usually has a team of five. 

I also don’t think you can compare the ships since the Royal is much newer and HA is much older and the decor is very old fashioned.

Just one persons opinion.

Rick

[AZ Stan (FKA Stan in Chicago)]

Just want to add my two cents, even though I have never sailed HAL.  In my humble opinion, food quality (taste) is dependent more on the executive chef than on the particular cruise line.  Many moons ago, we sailed on the Vistafjord for a 14 day cruise.  After one week we decided the food was poor, then decided to avoid the fish, and move more to a meat based offering.  What a difference...who would have thought they could not cook fish properly on a Norwegian shp.

 

We have found the food on RCI to be bland.  So bland to the point of being tasteless.  Celebrity and Princess are much superior to this, and about on a par.

 

On river cruises, Viking has really good food, but not as much choice as the ocean-going ships.

 

BTW, the best cruise ship food we have ever tasted was on a Star Princess cruise several years ago.  Wish I could tell you who the chef was!  He and his staff were spectacular.

 

But, all being said, I have never gone hungry on a cruise ship.

 

Stan