HAL "S" Class Vs. Oceania

[mike35]

We recently booked Statendam's 12/22/06 holiday cruise to New Zealand and Australia, based on the wonderful itinerary and the size of the Statendam. This will be our first HAL experience, and I just finished reading the 12-page "HAL Secrets" thread, which was highly informative.

 

We are avid fans of Oceania, and we would love to hear comparisons from those cruisers who have experienced both HAL's S-class and Oceania's 684-pax ships. We are active seniors who are hesitant to book cruises with lots of children (except when we take our grandkids;)). Obviously, when we take them on cruises, we search for ships with lots of teen activities. This won't be the case on our 12/22 cruise.

 

Many thanks...

 

Mike

[Druke I]

Senior here.

 

We were on Maasdam's trans-Atlantic, way back 11-95. She did not handle heavy seas particularly well, with pronounced pitching, and water entering the hawsepipe (anchor chainway), and flooding some dozen cabins (including ours) on Main Deck forward. Luckily there were other cabins to which we could be moved. The S class sorely needs the omitted midships elevator bank/stairwell. We did not care for the design of the main show lounge - a dual purpose room with flat floors, and resultant poor sightlines.

 

We like HAL, and particularly liked the old Westerdam, which has been transferred to Costa. With more ships, HAL does have a better range of itineraries than Oceania, but neither offer the wide range that Princess does!

 

We sailed Oceania's Regatta into the Baltic last Aug., and really enjoyed the small ship experience. We have also been on Princess' new Pacific Princess, which is a sister ship to Regatta. The food we had on Regatta was the best we have had in some 35+ cruises, surpassing even Crystal. We also enjoyed Oceania's dress code,which greatly simplified the packing process.

 

We are booked on Oceania's Nautica, 11-06, Instanbul to Singapore via the Suez.

[mike35]

Thanks, Michael. I've enjoyed your many postings on CC's Oceania board, and we tend to agree on just about everything. Couldn't agree more re Oceania's food - and they just announced even more cuisine upgrades, including Versace china and Riedel crystal, plus many more offerings in the free alternative restaurants Polo and Toscana. The postings on this board are generally quite complimentary regarding HAL's cuisince - quality and variety - and I'm really anxious to compare it with Oceania's.

 

I fully agree re the dress code differences, but this subject has been covered ad nauseum on many CC boards, so we'll go with the flow and pack tuxes, gowns, etc.

 

I would be curious about the on-board entertainment comparisons. We've always enjoyed Oceania's rather limited entertainment - a far cry from Crystal and even Princess, but I haven't read much - either pro or con - about HAL's.

 

Mike

[lizf]

Gee Michael, your description of the Masdaam sounds just like our Regatta cruise last November transatlantic. Don't know what happened but our food was not good and the sight lines in the theatre were really bad unless you were in the first rows. It was all on one level as I remember. The ship seemed to bob like a cork (on a very rough sea) and I got seasick for the first time in my life. That ship also flooded and I suspect the bathrooms overflowed by the smell :eek: that developed over the rest of the cruise. I still don't like to talk about that trip.

 

We recently went on the Prinsendam for 25 days to the Amazon, returning a week ago today. It was so wonderful we booked a 46 day trip in October, also on the Prinsendam. We had been on Holland 10 years ago and enjoyed it but got started on NCL and took quite a few cruises on that line until the food went downhill. DH liked the 'freestyle' dining.

 

We had our hopes up that it would be Oceania for us, but it seemed as if everything was against it. But we're very happy now to be back on HAL and will never leave. By the way, the food on HAL is really top notch. As an example, the Lido cooks everything fresh, scrambled eggs, french toast, eggs benedict. Even the toast was fresh toasted. We never had to wait in a line and the food always was hot and fresh. Also the hamburger place by the pool never pre-cooked the hamburger. Not once. Every one was fresh on the grill and cooked through. We really loved it. I hope you do too. By the way the Prinsendam carries under 800 passengers. Only bad thing might be that there is no childrens program from what I hear, at least on the Prinsendam. They mostly do longer trips but in 2007 they have some shorter ones. Good luck. Be sure to report back and let us know how you came out. Oh, a real biggie for us is the size of the rooms and bathrooms on HAL. You'll really notice the difference between the two lines there I think. The Prinsendam is not an S ship but it sure is great!

 

All comments in this post are based on the Prinsendam. (Re fresh cooked breakfast items in the Lido.) I don't know if the other dam ships with more passengers do this. We had never seen this before on any ship.

[Druke I]

Reference entertainment HAL vs Oceania:

 

We did find Oceania somewhat lacking in organized entertainment, other than their very good string ensembles. Entertainment is very subjective - my wife and I don't need organized activites all the time - we are very self-sufficient in that regards.

 

We found HAL's production shows generally very good - perhaps on a par with Princess, but again, hampered by poor sight lines in flat floored theaters.

 

HAL does have some very good guest lecturers.

 

One feature on HAL ships that I enjoy is the dedicated movie theater, with complimentary hot buttered popcorn!

 

Oceania's libraries are huge, and I understand most of the books have been recently updated. We were somewhat disappointed with the selection on Regatta last August into the Baltic - the bulk of the books left over from its days as a Renaissance ship - with too much emphasis on "ladies' romance novels".

[dougnewmanatsea]

I haven't been on Oceania (would love to try them though) but I think the biggest difference is probably the size of the ship.

 

The S-class ships are about twice as big as the Oceania ships. The S-class size is nice, but the size of the Oceania ships... For me, perfect!

 

If you like Oceania, there is no reason not to stick with them. If they don't go where you want, when you want, I guess HAL might be a good alternative, though the Oceania product has its own special market niche that nobody else really fills.

 

If you are over 50, you might also want to take a look at Saga, whose ships are about the same size as Oceania's. I visited SAGA RUBY today and she is an absolute delight.

 

(This is the second post on the HAL board today that I've mentioned Saga - people are going to start thinking I'm advertising for them ;) !)

 

Other than Saga and Oceania, HAL's PRINSENDAM, and Princess' PACIFIC, TAHITIAN, and ROYAL PRINCESS (sisters to the Oceania ships), there are not too many lines with ships this size these days. This is a pity, because as I said, I find it perfect... Neither too big, nor too small. Goldilocks sized, I guess :) !

[mike35]

Thanks, Doug and all who have responded. We specifically wanted to cruise New Zealand and Australia, and the only two cruise lines who visited the ports we were interested in were HAL and Princess. Princess uses their Sapphire Princess ship, which is is listed as 2670 passengers - WAY too big for our taste. The Statendam's passenger capacity, while twice that of Oceania, is still, in our opinion, manageable. Hence our booking on the Statendam.

 

Mike

[jnh]

Mike, I think I gave you this advice on the O board already, but here it is again. We are O people but the Statendam Hong Kong to Osaka Itinerary this past April was the right one for us and we took it. We had been on HAL before 5 times so knew that the S suite was a must. The room and the Neptune lounge are very important for this ship. The food is typical mass market and the one speciality Pinnacle steak place was under-whelming. The steaks were all frozen a long time ago as no restocking was done during the cruise.

The Statendam is smaller than the typical mass market and that is good. It is old and that is bad. While they keep it clean like all ships , leaks occur all the time(5 S suites had water leak that took 4 days to go away) and even an equipment fire(put out in 15 scary minutes) during our cruise. We also were on code Red for all the trip which was no fun.(no cards or library)

Passengers are older and quieter than Carnival, More economy minded than O (the daily rate is much higher on O). The Casino is dead mostly and the entertainment is typical mass market.

That being said , we did take the ship and had a wonderful time due to the Itinerary and you will also if you are pumped up for the places to visit.

You must take an S suite to make it a good ship time ( like, getting off early for S suites in a tender port or special rights to get the table you want or Neptune suite person to make phone calls for you or to get a ressy)

Any other questions, Mike- please ask

[dougnewmanatsea]

We specifically wanted to cruise New Zealand and Australia, and the only two cruise lines who visited the ports we were interested in were HAL and Princess. Princess uses their Sapphire Princess ship, which is is listed as 2670 passengers - WAY too big for our taste.

In that case, STATENDAM would be the obvious choice.

 

Princess is fine, but most of their ships are now much too large for my taste, too.

 

It is old and that is bad.

Old?

 

She was only built five years earlier than REGATTA!

 

She is now reaching early middle age but is definitely not old.

 

Next week I am visiting a ship called THE TOPAZ... Built 1956... Now that is old :) !

[jnh]

Dear Doug, Age is not just a function of years- in women and ships. If you have not been on Statendam recently and you have never been on an O ship. I have. Trust me, Statendam is "old" compared to O ships. It went thru the S of E thing but we all know that was not a re-furbishment like what the O ships did. It was new sheets and pillow cases not refurbishment.

If you have been on both ships it would be easier for you to understand the comment that Stat. is 'old". Mike will understand what that means when he sees the ship.

I was not trying to criticize( I am old- for goodness sakes)just to help Mike understand the differences. Sorry if I offended a HAL advocate.

[dougnewmanatsea]

Sorry if I offended a HAL advocate.

No, not offended at all! I just have to laugh when I hear ships that are only 10 or 15 years old described as "old".

 

I am a lover of old ships but to me that means 30+ years old.

 

I guess if I had to classify ship ages, I'd do it like this

 

New - Under 5 years

Newer - 5-10 years

Middle Age - 10-20 years

Older - 20-30 years

Vintage - Over 30 years

 

The ships in the last category are eligible for my Vintage Passenger Ship Census.

 

I must take issue with your assertion that "that SOE thing" was "not refurbishment". Actually, it was very similar to the refurbishment the Oceania ships got.

[esther e]

Mike

Celebrity is also starting up in Australia and NZ sometime this fall. We have been on all 3 lines and love each for different reasons. Oceania's OS is great--Penhouse, o.k. HAL's S wonderful. Will let you know about Celebrity's Royal Suite. We are booked and have been before in their CS and love it!

 

Oceania's food wins heads down. Entertainment on HAL and Celebrity is outstanding. Hate the location of the d**n art auction on the Regatta, though! Both specialty restaurants on Celebrity and HAL were wonderful, also. Hard choice, but someone's got to do it!!! Let us know what you decide.

 

Esther

[Aussie Gal]

I too like the smaller ships as we have been on the Tahitian Princess and in January we will be on the Pacific Princess which are sister ships to the Oceania's three ships.

 

We have been on a number of HAL "S" ships and always enjoy the experience but if I had the choice I would choose the smaller ships that Renaissance built in the late 1990's.

 

There is one drawback though to these smaller ships and that is, there is no complete promenade deck. It stops at the end and you have to return back. I miss walking completely around the ship. I don't call the running track above the pool a promenade walk.

 

The nearest HAL has to these ships is the Prinsendam which again we love though it is a much older ship but that doesn't worry us at all as I like a ship to be a ship and not a floating hotel.

 

Unfortunately, we have yet to try Oceania but hope to do so in the near future.

 

Jennie

[Aussie Gal]

Next week I am visiting a ship called THE TOPAZ... Built 1956... Now that is old

 

Doug,

 

You have brought back memories regarding the Topaz. We sailed on her when she was the Olympic, way back in 1995 around the Greek Islands. We had one of the suites which was quite big. She had not long come over to the Epirotiki Line from Carnival, (a line I had never heard of down here) and whom had painted out all her lovely woodwork in the garish colours of turquoise and purple.

 

We had a great cruise and met some lovely people. Here is a website I just found before:

 

http://www.maritimematters.com/topaz7.html

 

Jennie

[dougnewmanatsea]

There is one drawback though to these smaller ships and that is, there is no complete promenade deck. It stops at the end and you have to return back.

This is definitely a major flaw to me... I haven't sailed in a ship without a full-circuit promenade deck in years, and I would really miss it.

 

That said, it's important to remember that the R ships were really built "on the cheap"... Given that, they look remarkably nice and I look forward to trying Oceania sometime soon.

 

We had a great cruise and met some lovely people. Here is a website I just found before

I occasionally contribute to it - see here.

 

Frankly she looks like a bit of a wreck these days, but all the more interesting for it!

[amusea]

I have sailed Statendam three times, the first in its inaugural year. Even by the second year I felt that there was a deterioration in maintenance and service.

I have sailed Regatta twice and had fabulous experiences both times, especially in the areas of service and cuisine. But I would be reluctant to sail across the ocean in such a small ship which was not specifically built for ocean travel.

There was one memorable cruise on the old Nieuw Amsterdam which had food rivalling Oceania but those days have long since vanished.

Other HAL trips seem to be hit and miss and I am a little wary of my latest booking - 64 days on the Amsterdam in Sept. 2007 but the itinerary is unique and that has dictated this booking.