Veteran cruisers but never on HAL - seeking input

[judatt]

Greetings everyone. We have been on several cruises on Celebrity (20+) and almost as many on Royal Caribbean. Several on Carnival (with kids and grandkids). One each in NCL and Princess but never on HAL and honestly don’t know why. HAL has some longer itineraries that look very interesting to us but before we sign up for a 30+ night cruise we thought we’d try a shorter one to see how we like it. We’re thinking of the Eurodam to Alaska Oct 1. 
I realize this is the HAL board so we expect most if not all replies to be positive and frankly I’ve heard nothing but good things about HAL.  only negative I’ve heard is that it tends to be an older crowd but hey - that’s us - we are 69 and 70. For those of you who have sailed Celebrity or RCCL as well as HAL I’d be interested in any comparisons you might have. 
thanks for any and all input you might give us. 

[crystalspin]

We have one cruise on Rhapsody of the Seas and seven on HAL. We found RCI more like HAL than "different". But there were differences, sure. RCI much more activites in the Attrium, mostly with music as I recall. High-loyalty members MUCH more cohesive and fancy when they would go to their private cocktail parties. No Crows Nest which we missed from HAL (Crows Nest AKA Exploration Cafe is a large lounge at the front of the ship on a high deck, basically 180-degree views.

 

We have one sailing on the Eurodam's sister ship, Nieuw Amsterdam. I believe it to be my husband's favorite ship so far! 

 

You may miss production shows (we don't). We enjoy the classical music on all HAL ships (performing in the Lincoln Center Stage on Eurodam). Billboard Onboard is two pianos playing pop hits, and the Queen's Lounge will become BBKings Blues Club in the evenings. There used to be a little combo in the Ocean Bar pre-dinner but that may have been discontinued... 

[USN59-79]

We have done 7-day and 30+ day cruises on HAL and the onboard experience is very different.  On a 7-day, everyone is in a hurry to make sure they do everything that is available in that short week.  On a long cruise, people have time to meet and get to know their fellow cruisers and plan to do something together ashore.  Anyway, that is our experience.

Ray

[crystalspin]

2 hours ago, judatt said:

We’re thinking of the Eurodam to Alaska Oct 1. 
thanks for any and all input you might give us. 

While Ray is right about short vs. long cruises (on any line), HAL to Alaska will not be a "party cruise". HAL does Alaska very well, and it should give you a nice feel for the service and amenities Holland America and her crew will provide. I forgot to say the attitude of the crew (or should I say staff? I never know!) on RCI vs HAL were what made the experiences quite similar.

[retird]

4 hours ago, judatt said:

Greetings everyone. We have been on several cruises on Celebrity (20+) and almost as many on Royal Caribbean. Several on Carnival (with kids and grandkids). One each in NCL and Princess but never on HAL and honestly don’t know why. HAL has some longer itineraries that look very interesting to us but before we sign up for a 30+ night cruise we thought we’d try a shorter one to see how we like it. We’re thinking of the Eurodam to Alaska Oct 1. 
I realize this is the HAL board so we expect most if not all replies to be positive and frankly I’ve heard nothing but good things about HAL.  only negative I’ve heard is that it tends to be an older crowd but hey - that’s us - we are 69 and 70. For those of you who have sailed Celebrity or RCCL as well as HAL I’d be interested in any comparisons you might have. 
thanks for any and all input you might give us. 

We are same age as you and like you have several Royal Caribbean and Celebrity as well as Azamara.    We did HAL to Alaska and loved it.    Quieter than Royal but the service was excellent,   Loved their piano bar and always found lots to do on the ship.   Being an Alaska cruise we were not looking for late night entertainment as the days were very busy.   I think you will enjoy Hal .  We did

[Crew News]

Cruising Alaska in October is not wise.  It is one of the most rainy months, many of the shops and excursions are not available, typhoon season, and the temps are quite cold.

 

I would recommend a Pacific Coastal cruise from Vancouver to San Diego (5 days) on one of the HAL ships leaving Alaska and heading to Fort Lauderdale via the Panama Canal. The weather along the California coast will be much better/warmer and you can get an idea of life aboard a HAL ship.

 

[VennDiagram]

I'm with Crew News on this.  October in Alaska may not be a good experience, on any ship, on any cruise line.

[Mary229]

I agree that HAL is vastly different on long and short cruises.  I would not even think taking a short cruise on HAL would be informative.   On short cruises it is just another mass market cruise though it does do very well in Alaska I don’t think it is any better than Princess in Alaska.  
 

I continue to hear from HAL, most recently from the captain of the Zuiderdam, that HAL understands it’s unique position in the long itinerary cruise market and will continue to honor that tradition.   Most definitely choose HAL for a long itinerary if you are going for the travel. If you want the lap of luxury or resort entertainment you may not be satisfied 

Edited September 11, 2022 by Mary229

[killsport]

I'll chime in, but not on the Alaska component (still on my bucket list). My wife and I (50's) have done 12 cruises on Celebrity and 3 on HAL with our next HAL at Christmas (plus some additional cruises on Royal, Princess, and Carnival). We did a HAL 7-day cruise in the Caribbean over Spring Break (wife is a teacher). A number of families, but not a party trip. The 10-day Caribbean was also Spring Break but very few younger people (21 people under 40). The 7-day New England/Canada cruise had a similar clientele to the 7-day in Caribbean.

We find the HAL service to be better than Celebrity (especially recent Celebrity cruises). And the standard dining food is significantly better on HAL.  I like the beverage package on Celebrity better (unlimited vs 15 drinks on HAL) as it means I don't have to allocate my waters, sodas, vitamin waters, coffees, etc I have had so I preserve drinks for alcohol. And yes, I drink > 15 drinks (of all types) a day when cruising.

The HAL ships (newer ones) are great, and the older ones have a different charm. It depends what you're looking for. If you do AquaClass on the Solstice or Reflection, we think that is great. We REALLY like the music on HAL (vs the solo or duets we had on our recent Celebrity sailing) and find it is a (albeit small) step up from Celebrity. Both are nice lines with HAL having more interesting itineraries.

[Ken the cruiser]

17 hours ago, judatt said:

Greetings everyone. We have been on several cruises on Celebrity (20+) and almost as many on Royal Caribbean. Several on Carnival (with kids and grandkids). One each in NCL and Princess but never on HAL and honestly don’t know why. HAL has some longer itineraries that look very interesting to us but before we sign up for a 30+ night cruise we thought we’d try a shorter one to see how we like it. We’re thinking of the Eurodam to Alaska Oct 1. 
I realize this is the HAL board so we expect most if not all replies to be positive and frankly I’ve heard nothing but good things about HAL.  only negative I’ve heard is that it tends to be an older crowd but hey - that’s us - we are 69 and 70. For those of you who have sailed Celebrity or RCCL as well as HAL I’d be interested in any comparisons you might have. 
thanks for any and all input you might give us. 

We're the same age as you two and I will say HAL just got too "relaxing" for us about 5 or so years ago, and it appears nothing has changed from the comments I've been recently reading on this forum. As you can see from my signature, we cruised with HAL quite a bit in the beginning and are currently 4 star for what it's worth.

 

For us we usually like to book 3-5+ week cruises, whether it's a single itinerary or B2B, and enjoy sea days now more than ever. One of our big issues with HAL is that there really isn't a lot to do on sea days whereas on Celebrity or Princess they usually have 4-5 assistants on their entertainment staff and usually one very engaging CD to keep us all busy, if we so choose. Also, there are usually 2-3 lectures on sea days provided by guest speakers rather than maybe one given by the HAL EXC (excursion) staff or the Cruise and Excursions Director. At least, that's how it used to be. Maybe things have changed. If it has, nobody seems to be raving about the quality lectures they've been hearing.

 

One other note. HAL has not offered a variety of quality evening production shows in the theater for quite some time, but rather select guest entertainer appearances in the various lounges found on their Music Walk. On a ship with 2,000+ passengers, I wonder how many people can fit into one of those lounges? 100 - 150? Sorry, we very much enjoy the option of being able to go to an evening production show in the main theater, if we so desire, like on Celebrity, Princess or pretty much any other cruise line we've sailed with. 

 

But that's cool. People keep booking their cruises, so their strategy seems to be a positive for some. Anyway, since you asked, I just thought I'd pass along some thoughts from "the other side". 😎

 

Edited September 11, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[oaktreerb]

Eurodam is a very nice ship.. Excellent service and pleasant dining experiences.  Alaska in October can be rough cruising.   Holland America captains have lots of experience in Alaska/Canadian waters and the ships are well built so for October they would be the best choice.  

[PROCRUISE]

Greetings,

 

I agree with just about everything that the previous responders have noted. At age 75yrs I don't need the climbing walls, go carts, water slides etc on the ships anymore. Those kinds of activities I still do at ports of call like: zip-lines, snorkeling, ATV's.

I do enjoy the relaxation on HAL, pleasant fellow passengers, excellent service. The only thing I miss on HAL is better evening shows like those on Celebrity, Princess etc. I do enjoy Lincoln Center Stage and music walk venues.

One thing I have most recently noted with HAL is that they have not drastically raised their cruise prices when compared to some other lines, especially compared to Celebrity which I also favor as a cruise line. I've already booked two HAL cruises for 2023 because of price and perks currently available.

I think you'll find HAL very pleasant but I also would not go to Alaska in October.

 

[MISTER 67]

We are 4 star with HAL and love their ships, especially Signature and Vista class ships, they are just the right size and and the decor is beautiful and classy.

We have sailed with Princess and are Elite with them and now have sailed with Celebrity 7 times.

We believe that Celebrity has the best food both in the MDR and the buffet. HAL and Princess are pretty good but I had a bad meal on both lines in the last year.

Service is excellent on all 3 lines. All 3 lines keep their ships spotless but Princess has had some engine problems with some of their ships which has led to short times in ports and missing a port altogether.

Best entertainment goes to Celebrity and Princess is also pretty good.

Music Walk on HAL gives you different options every night but the Main Showroom has been very disappointing the last 5 years with very few shows, entertainment is not the Planet Earth video, cheap way to entertain passengers. 

What we don't care with Celebrity is the constant Electronic Dance Music that is blaring almost every hour of the day and sometimes very loud, even at early morning breakfast in the buffet. It's hard to find a quiet spot on the ship except for outside on the promenade deck.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Try the Rotterdam ship. 

[tupper10]

We gave up on Celebrity due to the blaring music as well as the fact that the last cruises we went on with Celebrity/RC they did a poor job of accommodating my food allergies.  I had no issues with Holland America - they did a much better job.   

 

  Holland America also has music 24/7 in the Lido, hallways, pool decks etc.  but there are still a few spots you can find w/o it.    This is one of my major complaints with all cruise lines especially now that we can listen to the music we like with our own devices.  

[Mary229]

@Ken the cruiser I don’t think I would include B2B in the category of HAL’s  long itineraries.   I don’t know if you have ever done one of their 30+ day cruises, grand voyages or grand voyage segments but they are an entirely different product than the 7-14 day products

[Ken the cruiser]

42 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

@Ken the cruiser I don’t think I would include B2B in the category of HAL’s  long itineraries.   I don’t know if you have ever done one of their 30+ day cruises, grand voyages or grand voyage segments but they are an entirely different product than the 7-14 day products

That’s good to hear! The longest we’ve done on HAL was a 30 day Australia circumnavigation on the Maasdam in Oct 2019 which was actually a 40 day B2B where we went to some New Caledonian islands first. It was an In-Depth EXC cruise where they had 4-6 lectures on each sea day, multiple production shows and all around was simply an awesome cruise in our VS cabin!
 

If you’re telling me the In-Depth EXC program (minus the zodiac excursions, of course) is back and they have quality production shows in the evening on these longer cruises, you have my attention.
 

We also did a 22 day Antarctica cruise on the Zaandam back in Jan 2018, where they had multiple guest lecturers focused totally on Antarctica, great evening production shows and, in fact, it was on that cruise when we first heard about the In-Depth EXC program. 
 

If you have time, please tell me more as we have no issues cruising on 3-5 week “single itinerary” cruises, especially if we know there are going to be multiple lectures on sea days, an evening show every night in the main theater, as well as a bunch of other fun things to do on sea days. However, if we have to book 50-90 day “single itinerary” cruises to get that type of entertainment value, those are just a little too long for us.

 

Edited September 11, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[papadave]

I would recommend HAL without much hestitation, but not Alaska so late in the season.   We were on the newest ship, the Rotterdam, this summer and the newer ship had its good points and bad points.   My preference with HAL would be to find the oldest vessel still in service, as the size of the ship can make it feel more luxurious.   My best guess is that any 30 day cruise on any line is going to skew towards retirees and people taking what may be their last voyage in life.   We have been on a number of HAL cruises, back when they used to port in NYC, one from Florida and 5 in Alaska.   If you are on a ship for 7 or 14 days in Alaska in the summer, the passengers aren't going to be much different on HAL than on other lines.   If you are taking a world voyage that few working people or families can fit into their lives, you are going to have a bunch of old folks and a ship that gets pretty quite after dinner.

 

A strong plus for HAL over some other cruise lines is that there is very little pushing of product whlie on board.   That is, you are less likely to be bombarded with advertising in the form of announcements.   You can still opt for a set dining time and have the same dinner table nightly.   They still offer more cruise ship food than "comfort" food, if that is your thing.

 

Right now, because of COVID, they seem to have scaled back on some things.   Maybe they don't have enough trained staff on board, maybe some folks were sick, or perhaps they won't be doing as many communal activities until COVID is no more than another background thing, like the common cold.   It was hard to tell.   

 

Bottom line, I recommend HAL but don't think that taking a cruise to Alaska in October will do what you want in the way of introducing you to the line to see if you like it.

[Mary229]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

That’s good to hear! The longest we’ve done on HAL was a 30 day Australia circumnavigation on the Maasdam in Oct 2019 which was actually a 40 day B2B where we went to some New Caledonian islands first. It was an In-Depth EXC cruise where they had 4-6 lectures on each sea day, multiple production shows and all around was simply an awesome cruise in our VS cabin!
 

If you’re telling me the In-Depth EXC program (minus the zodiac excursions, of course) is back and they have quality production shows in the evening on these longer cruises, you have my attention.
 

We also did a 22 day Antarctica cruise on the Zaandam back in Jan 2018, where they had multiple guest lecturers focused totally on Antarctica, great evening production shows and, in fact, it was on that cruise when we first heard about the In-Depth EXC program. 
 

If you have time, please tell me more as we have no issues cruising on 3-5 week “single itinerary” cruises, especially if we know there are going to be multiple lectures on sea days, an evening show every night in the main theater, as well as a bunch of other fun things to do on sea days. However, if we have to book 50-90 day “single itinerary” cruises to get that type of entertainment value, those are just a little too long for us.

 

I think you will find an enhanced enrichment program and a more diverse menu.   I am not a good critic of cruise entertainment 

[Ken the cruiser]

41 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I think you will find an enhanced enrichment program and a more diverse menu.   I am not a good critic of cruise entertainment 

Understand. But these are the reasons why we have moved away from HAL and book most of our longer 3-5 week “single” itineraries with Princess and most of our B2B itineraries with Celebrity because they do offer the variety of entertainment options I referenced above. Trust me when I say, we wish HAL did still offer these things as we are 4 Star and love the free laundry perk! 😄

[judatt]

Thanks to everyone for some excellent responses. I probably should have said we’ve done some longer cruises - 35 nights in Europe which was actually a b2b2b and we’ve done almost 40 nights which was USA to Australia and then around New Zealand. We enjoyed both of those very much. 
we agree with several of you that cruising to Alaska in October probably wouldn’t be a good way to find out anything about HAL so we’re not going to. We do plan to do a HAL cruise soon though - maybe this winter to a tropical place.
thanks again to everyone for some great input. David 

[Btimmer]

We did two Alaska cruises in the summer of 2022.  The first was on the Quantum of the Seas and the second was on the Noordam.  For our cruising style, the Noordam won hands down.  Two principal things stood out:  First the Crow's Nest was open to all for viewing what was out in front of us.  the Quantum just didn't have anything similar.  Second, Quantum had no cruise narration, but the Noordam had frequent narration.  Plus we could go out on the bow on Noordam in special situations. 

 

We've done many Alaska cruises on various HAL ships and the Noordam experience was consistent with all of them.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

I have spent 7 nights on RCL, 27 on Celebrity, 26 on Carnival, and 8 on Holland America.  The better comparison is Celebrity vs HAL.

 

Celebrity is better at:

Innovation

Modern and surreal decor

Galapagos

Entertainment

 

Holland America is better at:

Food

Service

Cabin quality and value

Enrichment

Live Music

Itineraries

[taxiang]

On 9/11/2022 at 10:24 AM, killsport said:

I'll chime in, but not on the Alaska component (still on my bucket list). My wife and I (50's) have done 12 cruises on Celebrity and 3 on HAL with our next HAL at Christmas (plus some additional cruises on Royal, Princess, and Carnival). We did a HAL 7-day cruise in the Caribbean over Spring Break (wife is a teacher). A number of families, but not a party trip. The 10-day Caribbean was also Spring Break but very few younger people (21 people under 40). The 7-day New England/Canada cruise had a similar clientele to the 7-day in Caribbean.

We find the HAL service to be better than Celebrity (especially recent Celebrity cruises). And the standard dining food is significantly better on HAL.  I like the beverage package on Celebrity better (unlimited vs 15 drinks on HAL) as it means I don't have to allocate my waters, sodas, vitamin waters, coffees, etc I have had so I preserve drinks for alcohol. And yes, I drink > 15 drinks (of all types) a day when cruising.

The HAL ships (newer ones) are great, and the older ones have a different charm. It depends what you're looking for. If you do AquaClass on the Solstice or Reflection, we think that is great. We REALLY like the music on HAL (vs the solo or duets we had on our recent Celebrity sailing) and find it is a (albeit small) step up from Celebrity. Both are nice lines with HAL having more interesting itineraries.

I find this fascinating! I couldn't disagree more. We like Celebrity but just got off Eurodam in Alaska. We found the service to be much better on Celebrity as well as the food. Service was hit or miss, and the food was just meh. Service and food was good in the specialty restaurants, however. We were in a Neptune suite, and while we loved the space, the value for the money was not there. We had to sign out cans of water (not refrigerated) in the lounge if we wanted them. Canned beverages were not restocked frequently. For us, HAL is one and done. We even got a free cruise offer and we passed. It just is not for us at all. 

[Stateroom_Sailor]

On 9/13/2022 at 7:41 AM, taxiang said:

I find this fascinating! I couldn't disagree more. We like Celebrity but just got off Eurodam in Alaska. We found the service to be much better on Celebrity as well as the food. Service was hit or miss, and the food was just meh. Service and food was good in the specialty restaurants, however. We were in a Neptune suite, and while we loved the space, the value for the money was not there. We had to sign out cans of water (not refrigerated) in the lounge if we wanted them. Canned beverages were not restocked frequently. For us, HAL is one and done. We even got a free cruise offer and we passed. It just is not for us at all. 

 

We sailed on Celebrity in 2019, 6 months after doing a short Halloween cruise with them.  They were suffering from a massive shortage of ingredient, which stemmed back at least 2 cruises, and there were complaints fleet wide.  They had very few vegetables, no hummus, chocolate syrup, pancake batter, and even managed to run out of pineapple while anchored in Maui.  Even in Blu, there were often ingredient missing.  I was vegetable starved, trying to make up for it at lunch in port.  The last night, they brought in frozen mixed vegetables for the buffet, obviously picked up in port.

 

Having seen how much a cruise line can change in 6 months, I have no idea if Celebrity is still this way, and hope not with their increased fares.  You may be 100% right about HAL in 2022.  Now we have cruise lines in financial trouble and supply chain shortages, so we're going into this mentally prepared for cuts.