Transatlantic Cruising

[Tampa Girl]

On 2/12/2019 at 7:57 PM, Oahucruiser said:

Cunard's QM2 has an indoor pool as well as an outdoor one, excellent speakers on transatlantics and it's a comfortable ship if you happen to hit rough weather.

 

But that is not a small ship, albeit a very comfortable ship.  As for food, it such a subjective issue that I hesitate to comment on it.  However, the bland British food (with the exception of their delicious rack of lamb) has left us with little or no intention of sailing Cunard again.  And that is a disappointment because their ships are beautiful and have good libraries.  OTOH, perhaps I would not have to be concerned about gaining 10 lbs or so on a TA.

[Hawaiidan]

On 2/12/2019 at 2:45 PM, molemaui said:

We enjoy transatlantic cruising and are looking at HAL for our next cruise. Our last TA was on Viking Ocean (920 passengers) and we totally loved the ship. In our opinion however, the food was average at best.  Can anybody on this thread who has sailed Viking Ocean, Regent, Silversea or Oceania make a comparison to HAL with regards to food, amenities and service?

 

Although we prefer smaller ships (1000 or less passengers), I think we need a ship with at least two pools (one indoor)  when doing a TA as the weather is often uncertain especially during repositioning season. The smaller ships only have one pool except Viking Ocean.

 

Thanks in advance for any information. 

You bet Mole....

   I have done Regent  some 80 days and Oceania some 100 including 2 crossings from Venice and Malta.   

 Regent and Oceania  both offer  in addition to their main dining room, Lido buffet grill, and Pool grill offer 4 other specialties.  French, Asian, Italian and Steak and Chop house Plus a wine tasting dinner for 20 in special dining room.   All these  cost NOTHING   only the Wine dinner about $80 pp.      HAL on the same size ships  offers 2... a disgusting  excuse for the cuisine  italy and there pinnacle.....

 

   The food in the main dining room is continental and surpasses the best a HAL Specialty  like Pinnacle  or Rudy can produce.. The specialties blow anything except  De Lebrje away on  HAl.

 

Lobster, ( Yes they have tails and Whole maine steamed) Crab, Scallops, Tuna, Swordfish, Mahi fresh served at every venue...even the pool grill every day  .... rather than taco and hot dogs......  they serve Kobe beef and lobster sandwiches... grilled to order.  ( O even has a fresh lobster tank on board  and imports french butter and flour for their cooking)   soda, juice, smoothies, coffee's all no charge.   Nothing HAL has  unless you  $$$$$

 

HAL Has  chef Rudi...O and Regent have Jaques Pepin... Crustal  has Thomas Keller.    

    

Service.   50% more staff to passenger ratio.   Rather than being all from the Philippines their staff is western European,  trained and brought up in Europe. its more international.  Cabins cleaned and stocked 2 x a day complimentary soda juice throughout the ship and cabin.

 

Liquor package is available  or  in it place  you can have Shore ex instead     or a large OBC   you get to choose which one suits you best.Entertainment about the same as on HAL,  The main entertainment is conversation with other well traveled and mannered passengers. Dining is the event of the day and

NO set dining  in time or table.  no formal nights or gala...

2 to 3 hour dinners are the norm, visiting  They have a free DVD library of some 400 titles.   

 Few if any children present,  no kids program   kids are discouraged.   Most retire after dinner around 10 for the next day     Only 1 pool  no cover    Plenty of chaise for ALL... 

 

SO why am I writing this on A HAL site  and not sailing on the others?   Good question  the answer is HAL offers some better Asian itineraries, it is cheap to get an Ocean view even for a solo passenger..    and I wont sail on any ship over 1200 passengers...not ever.    I dont like the carnivals at sea and the silly games    HAL is a good mainstream mass market middle of the road choice.  not bad but not great

  Viking  is new  but  is nickel and dime and like a bus tour of Europe .... you see it the way we tell you.   Food is poor unless you crave sardine sandwiches rather than  a filet and lobster one.  The best part of a viking cruise is  getting off and their ads which they plaster everywhere.

Take  care....You need a break from Maui... 

Edited February 18, 2019 by Hawaiidan

[AncientWanderer]

On 2/12/2019 at 6:38 PM, OlsSalt said:

We did a transatlantic on the Maasdam, the smaller older ship, a few years ago and the food was really very nice - they know they need to vary the menus for the longer cruises, and HAL has been at this for a long time so they do keep things relatively interesting - the variety of dining options on board break up the routine too.

 

The food is good - but it is by necessity hotel banquet quality -  but definitely a good hotel banquet quality - since all ships, even the high end ones,  have to turn out thousands of meals a day in limited facilities under all sorts of conditions with ingredients that have to be shipped from elsewhere and pass sanitation inspections.  That puts a damper on any dining possibilities right away. 

 

So it will not be fine, individualized dining on HAL ships, if this is an expectation. Just good dining, definitely better than reports from other ships in the same class.  But even on our Crystal Cruises which is known for its fine dining, we found it was really more just frou frou added in presentation than any major refinement in the basics of what they offered which will always be pretty standard - appetizers,  meat, vegetables, sides, salads and dessert.

 

HAL breads are delicious so often just the simplest of choices are good enough - HAL fresh baked bread and butter could keep me happy for weeks.   And quite frankly, I am glad HAL food is not totally delicious - I have a hard time saying no to start out with even when it is just plain good enough. I personally like HAL's breakfasts and lunches best of all - very interesting variety - so by the time dinner rolls around I am good for just  a large dinner salad anyway. 

 

 HAL has added a lot more interesting and international items to their menus too, a fresher approach with ingredients, and some really good vegetarian entrees that can easily compete with the main courses,  even if one is not a vegetarian.  

 

I'm chuckling about your being glad HAL food isn't  "totally delicious."  I agree!  I want it very good, but great would just be a real killer!  We sailed with Celebrity years ago when Michel Roux was their head chef, and each and every thing was melt-in-your-mouth wonderful.  My arteries couldn't take that for too many days in a row!

[Mary Ellen]

21 hours ago, kazu said:

I only sailed her once.  Considering the reply I got from their Head Office (and I’m not a complainer) once was enough. I’m not risking my hard earned money on this line again.

 

I’ll sail on HAL or  another line - but I couldn’t drag DH back on O for love or money.

 

O’s rooms were lovely and I enjoyed it - had the cruise experience been as good as the room, we would have been happy campers 😉 

 

 

Like you we’ve only done one Oceania cruise (Riviera) and had the same reactions. The cabin and our steward were wonderful. The food and service elsewhere.... 🤬 One more than one occasion the menu description did NOT match what was served (example tarter sauce and ranch dressing aren’t interchangeable 🤔).

 

I didn’t bother contacting the head office after our cruise. When we realized nothing, absolutely nothing (not even a free cruise) would get us back on one of their ships - I wasn’t going to waste my time.

[kazu]

1 hour ago, Mary Ellen said:

I didn’t bother contacting the head office after our cruise. When we realized nothing, absolutely nothing (not even a free cruise) would get us back on one of their ships - I wasn’t going to waste my time.

 

I totally get where you are coming from. DH feels the same way.

 

I did write as I am a believer in “if you don’t let them know, they can’t fix it”.  

 

They were not the least interested in fixing it.  I wasted my time and wrote my carefully documented letter in vain. 

[OlsSalt]

3 hours ago, Hawaiidan said:

You bet Mole....

   I have done Regent  some 80 days and Oceania some 100 including 2 crossings from Venice and Malta.   

 Regent and Oceania  both offer  in addition to their main dining room, Lido buffet grill, and Pool grill offer 4 other specialties.  French, Asian, Italian and Steak and Chop house Plus a wine tasting dinner for 20 in special dining room.   All these  cost NOTHING   only the Wine dinner about $80 pp.      HAL on the same size ships  offers 2... a disgusting  excuse for the cuisine  italy and there pinnacle.....

 

   The food in the main dining room is continental and surpasses the best a HAL Specialty  like Pinnacle  or Rudy can produce.. The specialties blow anything except  De Lebrje away on  HAl.

 

Lobster, ( Yes they have tails and Whole maine steamed) Crab, Scallops, Tuna, Swordfish, Mahi fresh served at every venue...even the pool grill every day  .... rather than taco and hot dogs......  they serve Kobe beef and lobster sandwiches... grilled to order.  ( O even has a fresh lobster tank on board  and imports french butter and flour for their cooking)   soda, juice, smoothies, coffee's all no charge.   Nothing HAL has  unless you  $$$$$

 

HAL Has  chef Rudi...O and Regent have Jaques Pepin... Crustal  has Thomas Keller.    

    

Service.   50% more staff to passenger ratio.   Rather than being all from the Philippines their staff is western European,  trained and brought up in Europe. its more international.  Cabins cleaned and stocked 2 x a day complimentary soda juice throughout the ship and cabin.

 

Liquor package is available  or  in it place  you can have Shore ex instead     or a large OBC   you get to choose which one suits you best.Entertainment about the same as on HAL,  The main entertainment is conversation with other well traveled and mannered passengers. Dining is the event of the day and

NO set dining  in time or table.  no formal nights or gala...

2 to 3 hour dinners are the norm, visiting  They have a free DVD library of some 400 titles.   

 Few if any children present,  no kids program   kids are discouraged.   Most retire after dinner around 10 for the next day     Only 1 pool  no cover    Plenty of chaise for ALL... 

 

SO why am I writing this on A HAL site  and not sailing on the others?   Good question  the answer is HAL offers some better Asian itineraries, it is cheap to get an Ocean view even for a solo passenger..    and I wont sail on any ship over 1200 passengers...not ever.    I dont like the carnivals at sea and the silly games    HAL is a good mainstream mass market middle of the road choice.  not bad but not great

  Viking  is new  but  is nickel and dime and like a bus tour of Europe .... you see it the way we tell you.   Food is poor unless you crave sardine sandwiches rather than  a filet and lobster one.  The best part of a viking cruise is  getting off and their ads which they plaster everywhere.

Take  care....You need a break from Maui... 

 

If HAL small  ships were all Neptune Suites and each cabin was able to charge $300 plus per person, then it would be reasonable to compare these brands.

 

 Sure one can compare prices for a Neptune versus an all suites cruise line and have plenty of reason  to complain, but HAL is also carrying the vast majority of its passengers at far, far less than Neptune prices.  

 

Consequently, the HAL overall experience will deliver a lot less - which is just the way it goes under those circumstances. Nor are HAL ships set up to provide the overall full ship ambiance the upscale brands offer.. So HAL Neptune passengers will simply have to choose HAL for other reasons. And we can only hope they know this up front. 

 

You raise the reasonable point when comparing solely the Neptune experience to other upscale brands.  One will not get the all ship experiences the upmarket brands offer, even though these few Neptune cabins are paying a similar per day price.  It just seems to keep  comparing any HAL ship overall to the upscale brands is really an exercise in ridiculousness. 

 

Let's run a small HAL ship on $300 a day per total passenger number and see what else HAL could offer.  But it can't - the real estate is not designed for it. Plus now there is too much competition. Probably HAL's best bet is to just eliminate the Neptunes entirely,  and turn them back into two regular verandah cabins or three solo cabins.  And keep its niche as a mainline, value cruise line with intriguing itineraries - the everyman's cruise line. 

[Cruzin Terri]

Well I must be the lucky one here with Oceania.  We have done four and have another booked.  I find the food to be much better than HAL and service quite good.  On our last few HAL cruises we could never get the wine steward to return to  give us more wine and we were totally disappointed with the food.  On HAL we avoid the Lido like the plague, but have no problem with the Terrace Cafe on O.  We like the fact that we are allowed to bring on as much wine as we want and only pay the corkage if you bring the bottle to the restaurant and not HAL’s wine police at embarkation and the ports.  

I do agree that O is not perfect and we do have another cruise booked on HAL becaise we are going with friends,but given the choice, O wins out hands down.

DH keeps asking why we didn’t switch to O sooner.

Terri

[Ken the cruiser]

We are in our mid 60s and are now Silver on O and 4 star on HAL, so we've had experience on both. For us choosing between HAL and O purely comes down to itineraries. As many folks have said in the past, food is subjective, but I have to say we do love eating meals out on the Terrace Café on the O ships and the free multiple specialty dining meals add a nice change of pace to the evening dining schedule. The per person cost point is about the same as we usually book "A" category veranda cabins on O (for the laundry perk and cabin location on their R-class ships) and Vista Suites on HAL (for the cabin location and double points). But if we were to book OVs or lower, HAL would definitely get the nod as they are a lot cheaper. O has more elegantly designed ships, but for some reason it always feels "like we're coming back home" when we board a HAL ship.

 

But, we do like to be entertained on sea days rather than relax, so we have now started to drift to lines that do that kind of thing. However, as I said, we have no problem booking a cruise with either HAL or O if they offer a unique itinerary that catches our eye. 

 

 

[Hlitner]

We have done more then 3 dozen TAs on quite a few different vessels including several HAL ships and the QM2.  Bottom line is that we love sea days (trans pacific cruises are even nicer) and the actual ship is not overly important since we just adapt.  Yes, the QM2 is a very large vessel (especially for many HAL fans) but it has a lot of very nice public areas.  And some of the smaller HAL ships (our favorite was the Prinsendam) are also very nice and have enough public space.    But the reality is that HAL has cut-back (in a big way) on activities and activity staff.  At times it seems like the only real HAL activity is Trivia....morning, afternoon and night :(.  Fortunately for us, DW and I could care less as we entertain ourselves with lots of reading and relaxing.  What we do miss on HAL are some of the excellent lecturers we had come to expect on most cruises.  And when they do have a decent lecturer it is often somebody we have seen on 1 or more previous HAL cruises.

 

When we did a crossing on the QM2 there were some nice daytime activities such as shows in their Planetarium or perhaps a truncated Shakespeare play performed by their onboard company.  The QM2 also had some excellent lecturers.  For those that were into more physical activities there were various dance classes, exercise classes, etc.    Our most recent TA was on the Regal Princess and their atrium was really alive during much of the day with popular dance classes, aerobics (with over 200 participants), cooking demonstrations (not crammed into a small theater), drink making demos, silly passenger participation games, etc.  This all took a cruise director staff of more then 2....and they did seem to have plenty of staff.    My goodness...one could do a crossing on the Regal Princess, not play a single Trivia game, and still stay very busy :).

 

As to HAL Trivia, we used to participate but finally gave up because it was becoming too cut-throat with even some cheating (unreal).  The team thing  can be fun, but there are some that always seem to take it too seriously.  And yes, we understand that HAL can easily handle trivia 35 times a day (it only takes a single staffer) but it would be nice if they found some new questions :).  On the other hand, DW still mentions one long Prinsendam cruise when Thom Faulkner (the best CD ever) had daily "animal toss" games (passengers tossed stuffed animals at targets) and somehow made it a popular activity :).  The good ole days.

 

Speaking of lecturers, the two best "ever" where on our HAL cruises.  1.  Danny Catt  and 2.  Alan Wright (who got a long standing ovation after his 9th lecture on a Trans Pacific cruise).  In fact, Dr. Wright was probably the best lecturer I have ever heard in my entire life...and I am a senior.

 

Hank 

[Hawaiidan]

14 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

 

If HAL small  ships were all Neptune Suites and each cabin was able to charge $300 plus per person, then it would be reasonable to compare these brands.

 

 Sure one can compare prices for a Neptune versus an all suites cruise line and have plenty of reason  to complain, but HAL is also carrying the vast majority of its passengers at far, far less than Neptune prices.  

 

Consequently, the HAL overall experience will deliver a lot less - which is just the way it goes under those circumstances. Nor are HAL ships set up to provide the overall full ship ambiance the upscale brands offer.. So HAL Neptune passengers will simply have to choose HAL for other reasons. And we can only hope they know this up front. 

 

You raise the reasonable point when comparing solely the Neptune experience to other upscale brands.  One will not get the all ship experiences the upmarket brands offer, even though these few Neptune cabins are paying a similar per day price.  It just seems to keep  comparing any HAL ship overall to the upscale brands is really an exercise in ridiculousness. 

 

Let's run a small HAL ship on $300 a day per total passenger number and see what else HAL could offer.  But it can't - the real estate is not designed for it. Plus now there is too much competition. Probably HAL's best bet is to just eliminate the Neptunes entirely,  and turn them back into two regular verandah cabins or three solo cabins.  And keep its niche as a mainline, value cruise line with intriguing itineraries - the everyman's cruise line. 

 

Just to clarify,  I only wrote this at the request of Maui Mole  who wanted a comparison of Food, entertainment ambiance  and experience  on those lines.    By the way O cruises run about 210-280 pp  for a  veranda  cabin of 285 sq ft.   O offers  50%  surcharge for single passengers   Hal is at 100%    . Hey, HAL is a good option and offers  the next best thing than the LUX  lines... In  my opinion, for me,  HAL  is the best in its class... . 

[*Miss G*]

My solo premium for HAL was 75%.  I have seen where some were 25-50%.  As with all prices, it varies.

Edited February 20, 2019 by *Miss G*

[comcox]

9 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

My solo premium for HAL was 75%.  I have seen where some were 25-50%.  As with all prices, it varies.

This past weekend through AAA website I was able to get a 50% solo supplement on a fall TA, which I though amazing as lately all HAL has offered me is 100% in the past few years.

[Hawaiidan]

7 hours ago, comcox said:

This past weekend through AAA website I was able to get a 50% solo supplement on a fall TA, which I though amazing as lately all HAL has offered me is 100% in the past few years.

I just booked a 29 day in Tokyo to Sydney  and it was 100%....  but still cheap     I got a OV full, for about 210 a day.... I was happy