Carnival vs. Holland

[gossimer]

Hi,

We are trying to decide among three trips for a December cruise: Carnival Victory, Holland Zuiderdam or Holland Westerdam. It will be for a 7 day balcony room.

I have been on Carnival twice, always on an inside room and my husband hasn't been on a cruise yet.

So I guess I sort of know what to expect with Carnival. How does Holland compare as far as rooms, food, entertainment, etc. We have no kids, and are in our 30's. Not big partiers, like the casino and relaxing and some fun excursions (tubing, snorkeling)

Thanks for any comments.

[Ellya]

Well I can't speak for Carnival, but it sounds like you would fit right in on the Zuiderdam. There is a good mix of ages on the boat with a wide variety of activities. The excursions include quite a few "active" type activities, or you can also book those on your own. I didn't use the casino, but it looked very nice and busy but not too crowded. The food was great, everywhere from the buffet to the alternative restaurant! We really enjoyed the shows which included a comedian, juggler (the best!), magician, and Elton John impersonator as well as their own cast. We looked at a lot of Carnival cruises as well, but finally it came down to the best value and the ports, so you might want to compare the destinations and see if that makes a difference to you.

[momofmeg]

Rooms are bigger. Our outside cabin on Statendam was as big as our extened balcony on Miracle. We also had a bath tub but it was dinky so I showered anyway as I had a hard time getting out of the tub as I was like stuck in it and I am not huge a size 12-14. Food was excellent and top notch on HAL so were the Broadway style shows. Besides that though-it was VERY sedate-besdes the show and gambling nothing going on past 8p.m. The "late" night buffet was at 10:30 p.m.

I will say this though. If you take one of the newer Carnival ships you will find the food and entertainmentshows a better quality as good as HAL-at least that was our experience on the Miracle.

I guess the bottom line is do you like dancing and piano bars etc. If you do you will be bored stiff on HAL but if things like that are no big deal you may like HAL. Everything is top quality on HAL-it is just it is very sedate. Now we are pretty sedate ourselves-not night owls but we do enjoy live music in the lounges-we are not ready to go to bed at 9 p.m.-so we were a little bored on HAL as far as entertainment goes.

[CaribbeanCruisesRock]

[b][size=5][color=plum]Holland America, much nicer [/color][/size][/b]

[doone]

HAL has kereoke(sp) in the Crowe's Nest each night.

The aft balcony cabins have larger balconies than the ones on the sides of the ship. We booked the Zuiderdam and got an aft suite and booked the mini suite next door.

Your on a cruise, how can you go wrong.

[LoneStar72]

[quote name='gossimer']So I guess I sort of know what to expect with Carnival. How does Holland compare as far as rooms, food, entertainment, etc.[/QUOTE]
[list]
[*]Rooms -- we had a larger cabin in the same class on Carnival Inspiration than we did on HAL Ryndam.
[*]Food -- HAL, hands-down!
[*]Entertainment -- about equal for shows, lounges, etc.
[*]Service and amenities -- HAL, hands-down!
[*]Price -- Carnival, hands down!
[/list]John

[day-day]

Does Holland do photographs like Carnival? (I find it a little annoying and pricey on Carnival.)

Does Holland have trivia games? What other on-board activities?

Are cokes included with Holland?

[jstducky]

yes the photographers are on every cruise ship. pictures when you get on the ship at embarkation as well as pictures every time you get off the ship at a port. on formal nights, on other nights wandering the dining room, etc. you may be annoyed with the pictures, but obviously a lot of people must like them and purchase them or else the cruise lines wouldn't constantly have photographers all over the place.

as far as cokes... no soft drinks are not included at any time or with any meal, they are separate. does carnival include cokes? to my recollection, they don't include soft drinks either.

[day-day]

jstducky, Carnival doesn't include cokes. There is a drink card which allows users to get unlimited cokes from the bars on the ship; the card costs $5.50 per day for adults, $4 per day for guests under 18. I don't remember the price on individual cokes; seems like $1.50 or $2.00 for a 20 ounce bottle.

[momofmeg]

I did a little research and discovered the HAL ship you referred to is a new ship; since that is a brand new ship maybe the HAL would be better. If it was me though I would go for Miracle out of Tampa or Valor out of Miami as they are Carnival's newest ships. The ships you mentioned though If you are chosing those Carnival ships against the HAL Zuideram I would go for HAL as both of those Carnival ships have a little age on them and won't be so nice; and while Carnival's older ships may be a good value the chefs and entertainers tend not to be as good on them.

My experience with Miracle was Carnival pulled out all the stops on her and the food and shows were both super-not the usual Carnival stuff. I did not find that Miracle the ship was that much nicer then the Inspiration; but there was so many more choices of live music every night (like 4 in diff. lounges beside the Broadway style show) was what made Miracle so much nicer then Inspiration.

As I said too the HAL food is really top notch-as my experience with Princess too but I also found Miracle had really great chefs. I just wonder though once Valor is launched if all the great entertainers and chefs will go to Valor. You may want to check out Valor as an option instead of Victory and Triumph (are those the Carnival ships you mentioned?) Anyway HAL is not super great on entertainment; (I am not into karoke-but love the bands and paino bars) but I would still pick that new HAL ship over those old Carnival ships.

Also when we were on Statendam 3 years ago-my daughter had a sprite at dinner. They did not charge at dinner but did ofcourse in the lounges.

[jstducky]

day-day... 5:50 per person sounds kind of high per day? for HAL they also offer a soft drink card that allows a person unlimited fountain sodas in the dining room or any of hte bars. for a 7 day cruise its $27.95 i beleive

[day-day]

jstducky, I agree $5.50 per day is high. It doesn't include drinks from the room either. It would be a big inconvenience to have to wander out of the room to a bar somewhere on the ship just to get a coke. We brought our own drinks from home; a couple of 12-packs of cokes at $2 a 12-pack is cheaper and more convenient.

[pg.]

Hi, op, have you thought about a Princess ship? We had done Carnival twice then tried Princess when we were in our early- mid thirtes, and LOVED them!

I would choose Hal for food and sercive, but if your hubby is a super active type then may be Carnival. I would agree to go on a newer Carnival ship, the older ones are often well worn and the staff on them is often the less experienced and the best staff are the ones who get to transfer to the new ships.
Hal does sound nice, but I know my hubby likes a little action at night, he isn't a big drinker or partier( we are now in our forties) but he does like the way on Princess you can walk into one lounge and hear a comedian, then wander down the way and find another lounge with a piano player, then may be hit the big show , lots of choices on Princess( Grand Calss Ships)

Any cruise is a good cruise!

[day-day]

On HAL cruises, does the dining service get interrupted so the servers can sing and dance?

[Ellya]

Holland does offer a soft drink card, I think the cost was $35 for a 7 day cruise. There was no singing/dancing waiters with the exception of the farewell baked alaska parade and song the last formal night. Oh, and a few out of tune happy birthdays.