Holland America vs Princess

[Hobbes67]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences.  We have been very loyal Princess cruisers, but we should probably branch out a little.  

[iancal]

Cannot imagine limiting ourselves to one cruise line.

 

There are so many great ships.  We enjoy the differences between cruise line and cruise ships.  We find that there are pro and cons to each line.

 

The one thing that all of the mass market lines have in common is inconsistency. 

 

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by iancal

[iancal]

Not being loyal to any one cruise line has  saved us a fair amount of money over the years-especially on late booking cruises.

 

.....and provided us with so much more flexibility on booking.

Edited July 12, 2021 by iancal

[Hlitner]

I will jump on the iancal bandwagon with our agreement that so-called "loyalty" to any cruise line causes folks to miss many opportunities.  In fact, when we start looking for a cruise we first look at all the available itineraries for the time period we are researching and also at the total number of days (we like longer cruises).  Once I see what is available (on any line) I then give some consideration to the cruise line, ship, and price.   Over the years HAL has gotten a lot of our business because of their decent itineraries.  But just because we happen to be 5 Star Mariners, HAL (or anyone else) would be wrong to think we are "loyal" to HAL.  In fact, other factors such as itinerary being equal, there are several cruise lines we prefer over HAL for multiple reasons.

 

Hank

[iancal]

Here is a great example.  We got off a 14 day  Princess Fiji cruise in Sydney.  Picked up an 21 day RCI cruise to NZ and Oz.  $87. per diem each for a great balcony cabin...booked last minute with RCI in Sydney.

 

Original plan was to fly to NZ for a 2 or 3 week driving holiday.  But, DW fell and cracked three vertebrae while we were in  Kuala Lumpur.  An extended car trip was no longer in the cards.  A 21 day cruise was ideal. 

 

The closest competition was more than double the price that we paid on Radiance.  That was more than enough reason not to even consider another Princess or a HAL cruise.   

 

We have done the same with 3 or 4 Med cruises and on numerous Caribbean cruises. 

 

We simply do not feel that the particular attributes of any of the mass market cruise lines/ships are worth a 15-25 percent (or more) price premium on those standard cookie cutter itineraries.

Edited July 12, 2021 by iancal

[Coffeeluvr05]

About to take my first HAL cruise in August, but as much as I love Princess, the one think that really irks me about them is that they fail to provide a sitting area in any of their cabins except for "deluxe" balcony rooms and above on their newer ships.  You shouldn't have to get an upgraded room just to have a small sitting space other than your bed.  I also really like that HAL has tubs in their rooms.  I hate those small showers where you might as well just shower without the curtain and get water everywhere.  I hate a wet bathroom!  The lack of a sitting area is one of the things that will likely draw me to other lines to try though.  We just booked two cabins on a Carnival cruise on one of their newer ships for 7 people and it was about what we pay for a Princess cruise for the two of us.  Carnival provides sitting areas too.  Don't get me wrong, we are only doing this for the kids.  I can't do a "fun" ship on the regular.    

 

Don't get me wrong though.  I do love princess for lots of reasons though.  I'm hoping to love HAL too!

Edited July 12, 2021 by Coffeeluvr05

[geoherb]

I'm contrary to most people who have responded so far. I find the food better on Princess--or at least the food on my recent Princess cruises was better than on my last HAL one. The thing I like the most about HAL is the culinary hostess. I try to make all the events she does. I hope they'll still have one on board when they start cruises again.

 

The thing I dislike is the cutbacks to the cruise director's staff. On our last HAL cruise, there was just the cruise director, port lecturer, DJ, and culinary hostess doing activities--so there were not that many. Entertainment was also cut back drastically. That said, HAL gets some quirky entertainers that I enjoy. Princess seems to always have comedians and singers in addition to the production shows. And of course Princess has a variety of acts going on during the evening. 

[misha227]

On 7/12/2021 at 1:10 PM, Coffeeluvr05 said:

About to take my first HAL cruise in August, but as much as I love Princess, the one think that really irks me about them is that they fail to provide a sitting area in any of their cabins except for "deluxe" balcony rooms and above on their newer ships.  You shouldn't have to get an upgraded room just to have a small sitting space other than your bed.  I also really like that HAL has tubs in their rooms.  I hate those small showers where you might as well just shower without the curtain and get water everywhere.  I hate a wet bathroom!  The lack of a sitting area is one of the things that will likely draw me to other lines to try though.  We just booked two cabins on a Carnival cruise on one of their newer ships for 7 people and it was about what we pay for a Princess cruise for the two of us.  Carnival provides sitting areas too.  Don't get me wrong, we are only doing this for the kids.  I can't do a "fun" ship on the regular.    

 

Don't get me wrong though.  I do love princess for lots of reasons though.  I'm hoping to love HAL too!

 

I agree about the lack of cabin seating on Princess. I took a Panama Canal cruise with them in February 2019. It was my first Oceanview room (I'd always had Verandahs before), so I thought perhaps that was the problem? No, it was a Princess "thing." I was cruising solo so it wasn't such a big deal, but if there had been two of us, having to sit on the bed the whole time? No thank you!

 

I also enjoy the bathtubs on HAL, but not all cabins have them. I don't mind having only a shower...I just wish they had glass doors instead of those awful, cannot-ever-get-them-clean, clingy shower curtains! Eeeeewwwww!  I never considered going without the curtain...Hmmm.

[bennybear]

3 hours ago, misha227 said:

 

I agree about the lack of cabin seating on Princess. I took a Panama Canal cruise with them in February 2019. It was my first Oceanview room (I'd always had Verandahs before), so I thought perhaps that was the problem? No, it was a Princess "thing." I was cruising solo so it wasn't such a big deal, but if there had been two of us, having to sit on the bed the whole time? No thank you!

 

I also enjoy the bathtubs on HAL, but not all cabins have them. I don't mind having only a shower...I just wish they had glass doors instead of those awful, cannot-ever-get-them-clean, clingy shower curtains! Eeeeewwwww!  I never considered going without the curtain...Hmmm.

All the Pinnacle class ships have beautiful showers with glass doors,  others on HAL always had at least a bath tub, sometimes tub and separate shower in the suites.    We’ve cruised on all current ship classes on HAL from Oceanview to suite.     In my experience it’s only been  Princess that has had the small showers.  

Edited July 15, 2021 by bennybear