Princess from a HAL cruiser perspective?

[dave_k58]

On 1/22/2021 at 1:57 PM, TriumphGuy said:

Princess removing the one upholstered chair from their standard balcony cabins and below proved to be a deal-breaker for us and is the main reason we booked with HAL (although our first HAL cruise was cancelled due to the Scourge). While neither of us is disabled, we do like to spend time in our room and eating breakfast in bed or watching TV from a desk chair is not what we considered comfortable. I also don't believe we should have to "request" a chair from our steward.
Apart from that, Princess was fine although really heavy on jewelry and shop promotions.

I would never sail in a cabin without a sofa

[ontheweb]

12 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

This may be typical of a Princess ship.  I experienced the same on my 2019 Coral Princess cruise as well on the new Royal Princess.  Not wanting to dine at "prime dining time" may allow for more seats to be available.  

 

But, for the Royal Princess' Horizon Restaurant/Horizon Terrace, the set-up was the most confusing as any that I have experienced.  I actually lost where my table was in the maze when I returned to the buffet for some other items.  Finally, found the table, somehow.   

 

 

I have been known to get lost trying to find where my table is in the buffet, but that may be because I may very well have the world's worst sense of direction. A few examples---On our very first cruise in the port for Florence, I got us on the train going the wrong way! Recently, I happened to look in my senior high school yearbook and saw a comment that someone had only been in my car once when going to a party and I got us lost. So I guess my sense of direction has always been bad.

[rkacruiser]

11 hours ago, ontheweb said:

So I guess my sense of direction has always been bad.

 

I hope you don't mind me adding my "ha ha" symbol in response to your post.  

 

When I had difficulty returning to my table on Royal Princess, I sort of panicked.  My travel journal and the book I was reading was "saving" my spot.  I didn't want to loose them!  

[deliver42]

No sofa or chair besides the desk chair. Plastic shower curtain even on their newest ships. Miserable buffet layout. It's split in 2 sections, and easy to not be able to find your table. You are also comparing a rather old Princess ship with a new HAL ship. St. Kitts is a wonderful stop. The people there are great. I jus booked my first HAL cruise (on the Nieuw Statendam), so I can't give a comparison, just my imput on Princess. Beautiful ships, both the Ruby and the Regal. The Ruby is a lot like the Caribbean.Food generally good, and the entertainment was very good. Cabins, as stated , leave a lot to be desired.

[ontheweb]

12 hours ago, rkacruiser said:

 

I hope you don't mind me adding my "ha ha" symbol in response to your post.  

 

When I had difficulty returning to my table on Royal Princess, I sort of panicked.  My travel journal and the book I was reading was "saving" my spot.  I didn't want to loose them!  

No problem with your ha ha, though getting on the train the wrong way for Florence was really not funny especially when married to an art teacher.  (In my defense, the signs were in Italian. And DW originally had us going the right way and after 25 years with me should have known better.)

 

But the other examples I cited are funny, so no problem.

[antmaril]

 

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by antmaril

[Hlitner]

On 2/1/2021 at 2:03 AM, dave_k58 said:

I would never sail in a cabin without a sofa

Oh my!  We have been on over 100 cruises with 15 cruise lines on ships ranging from 400 passenger to over 3000 passenger.  On some of those we had sofas, some we had a chair, some we had suites, etc.  But one of the best of all the cruises was not even on a cruise ship but rather on a 20 passenger boat (which some called a yacht) that had 10 cabins.  Each cabin had two small twin beds, a tiny bathroom where the toilet paper had to be put into a box (flushing it down the toilet would have jammed the system) and there as hardly enough room for both of us to move around the cabin at the same time.  If you are disbelieving here is a link to a picture of that boat:

SEA CROWN Yacht Charter Details, Castors | CHARTERWORLD Luxury Superyachts

 

This was on a simple 7 day cruise of the Ionian Islands with a long gone company called Zeus Cruises.  I mention this because there was no sofa in that cabin (not even room for a chair) but the cruise was absolutely wonderful and surpassed some cruises we have had on luxury lines while in suites.

 

So my message is "Do not judge a cruise by a sofa."   :).

 

Hank

[rtdiva]

I concur with Interline traveler! Unless you are sailing on a long itinerary both ships are fairly equal. However I’m 76, it seems to me a younger person would prefer Princess which I feel has a wider variety of entertainment throughout the day and evening. However HAL had excellent lectures.
Ann 

[wander]

If the itineraries you list are accurate - I would select the HAL cruise!  Overall I prefer the ports and there is one more with HAL - which for very active folks like you describe yourselves that would be a preference for me - plus I like more of the ports for interest.

[Lizzie1213]

On 1/22/2021 at 5:23 PM, USN59-79 said:

I can't help trying to understand why Princess decided to remove existing chairs from the cabins.  Obviously it wasn't done for the comfort of the passengers.  We typically take longer (30 days average) cruises and enjoy a glass of wine or a good book in the cabin.  Of course now that HAL has decided to remove its libraries that is another slap in the face of passenger comfort.  It will be interesting to see if the cruise lines rethink some of these policies when they try to attract customers as they return to cruising.

HAL removed the libraries? I am so sorry to hear that!

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Lizzie1213 said:

HAL removed the libraries? I am so sorry to hear that!

So is everybody else except some bean counters at the HAL headquarters.

[RuthC]

3 hours ago, Lizzie1213 said:

HAL removed the libraries? I am so sorry to hear that!

Not on all the ships. The two remaining R-class ships, Volendam and Zaandam, still had them when cruises ended a year ago. 
I don't recall if the Noordam still had hers; I believe she did, as hers was never in the Crow's Nest, as the other Vista ships had. 
We'll see what happens when cruising starts up again. 

[rkacruiser]

25 minutes ago, RuthC said:

Not on all the ships.

 

Yes.  Another thought:  my last cruise pre-Covid on HAL was on Westerdam.  The library was a shadow of what it had been.  But, during the reincarnation of this space, many empty shelves appeared.  I was pleased to see that some of those shelves were being used by the ship's guests leaving their now read books.  I left mine.  

[Lizzie1213]

Thank you!

[GCHAN]

On 3/7/2021 at 8:51 AM, rkacruiser said:

 

Yes.  Another thought:  my last cruise pre-Covid on HAL was on Westerdam.  The library was a shadow of what it had been.  But, during the reincarnation of this space, many empty shelves appeared.  I was pleased to see that some of those shelves were being used by the ship's guests leaving their now read books.  I left mine.  

It was the same on the Rotterdam when we did our Transatlantic in November 2019. They had a games area near the coffee bar where they had board games in the book shelves and also a number of books which guests swapped or left there after reading them.