Switching to HAL

[wolfgang36]

Because of our recent experience on Mariner, we are considering switching to Holland America. Can you tell me what their best ships and itineraries are? What age group? How is entertainment? Food? Thank you!

[Davey Interweb]

Wouldn't it be better to ask this question in the HAL forum?

[irb33785]

Personally, I like the elegance of HAL and I loved the Greenhouse spa but the group is much older. We had late seating and lingered over dinner every night but by the time we got to the clubs, they were pretty much closing down. RCCI is much livier.

[Cruisin'40]

Princess may be a nice compromise between RCI and HAL.

[abridalmaven]

I think you should switch, but be aware groups like that go everywhere, and do not be so niave as to think all will be perfect there everytime you sail.:p

[mojo4trav]

Because of our recent experience on Mariner, we are considering switching to Holland America. Can you tell me what their best ships and itineraries are? What age group? How is entertainment? Food? Thank you!

 

We've been mulling over Princess...let us know what you think if you end up trying HAL.

[RDeagazio]

HAL and all the other lines also accept these same large groups. Atlantis Gay Charter Cruises also charter the vessels of HAL and the other lines as well.

 

As for HAL, I would sail the Vista Class-- Zuiderdam, Oosterdam, Noordam and Westerdam-- these are the newest,largest ships in their fleet. HAL attracts an older clientele and the ships roll up the carpets early-- there aren't any reggae poolside bands, the live entertainment is mostly jazz, and lighter music... the ship will be dead after 11pm.

[Old As Dirt Mom]

Because of our recent experience on Mariner, we are considering switching to Holland America. Can you tell me what their best ships and itineraries are? What age group? How is entertainment? Food? Thank you!

 

Hi Wolfgang, I am a regular over at the HAL board. I second Davey's recommendation to come on over and ask your questions about HAL over there. The HAL forum does tend to get a little quiet after 11 pm or so.....;)

 

In the meantime, here is HAL's website, to get you started and to help answer a few questions. And here is Cruise Critic's own review of Holland America, which may help you as well.

[Mrsg324]

Mojo, will you email me, agrigar at msn dot com

Thanks

[KAYEF]

I get SO tired of the "old people" mentions when it comes to HAL.

HAL is our favorite cruiseline. The Vista ships are big.............and nice. Personally, I love the smaller ones, like Veendam (1250 passengers)......I've taken our grown kids (in their 30s ) and they've had plenty of younger company.

There's NO comparison when it comes to beds and bedding and service. We tried Princess and are on a Princess repo cruise next week.......but there's a BIG difference.

Cabins, for one..............196 sq. ft. on HAL and much smaller on Princess and 142 sq. ft. on Norwegian.

Just skip around until you find what you want..............but, remember, HAL has assigned dining................not personal choice.........however, the Lido (buffet) at dinnertime has tablecloths and candles and the same foods offered in the formal dining room..............VERY nice when you come back too late from a shore excursion to get to your assigned table on time.;)

[Davey Interweb]

One of the "oldest" cruises I'd ever been on was a Jewel cruise out of Boston. I swear, the average passenger age must have been somewhere north of sixty, and I'd never seen so many oxygen tanks outside of a welding shop.

 

I'm kinda a young 'un at 32, but I'm going to try HAL's Caribbean itineraries nevertheless. Maybe a South Pacific, too. We're going on a 10-night Noordam cruise out of New York next month, and I'm eager to see how it compares with X. The Vista-class ships were designed specifically to cater to a younger crowd, or at least a crowd younger than HAL's traditional clientele.

[ozzie63]

One of the "oldest" cruises I'd ever been on was a Jewel cruise out of Boston. I swear, the average passenger age must have been somewhere north of sixty, and I'd never seen so many oxygen tanks outside of a welding shop.

 

I'm kinda a young 'un at 32, but I'm going to try HAL's Caribbean itineraries nevertheless. Maybe a South Pacific, too. We're going on a 10-night Noordam cruise out of New York next month, and I'm eager to see how it compares with X. The Vista-class ships were designed specifically to cater to a younger crowd, or at least a crowd younger than HAL's traditional clientele.

Have you not heard the "old" saying you are just as old as you feel. I guess I am one of those "old" people as I am 33 years Old but with 31 years experience. I am up at 3:00 AM every morning, when most younger ones are going to bed and stay up until anywhere 11:00, 12:00 and I like the lively crowd and the action and I like being around younger people. In fact I really enjoy life and I am sure I can and will keep up with the younger crowd. Make the most of your life that you can, because believe me you will be joining one of those "older" cruise ships faster than you think. Have a blessed day! Ozzie63:D :D

[dfishner]

I have been on two HAL ships the old rotterdam which was fantastic and one of the best cruises I have been on. We had the best tablemates that kept us laughing the whole cruise and that staff was fantastic.

And the Zuiderdam which is a nice ship but I found it to be boring also had the worse dinner experiences there with staff slowwwww service. Even though we do not stay up late we like a ship to have alot going on and felt that it was to laid back for us and not cruise on HAL since.

 

I want to add another comment and that is what happened on the Marnier could of happen on any other cruise line. I just read about a large group of swingers on Carnival that had the same kind of problem and this was a straight group, I believe that large groups that are on the fringes should charter their own cruise. I think it was a poor choice on RCL and on Carnival to have such a large group like that booked and expect it to go smoothly

[jules815]

HAL and all the other lines also accept these same large groups. Atlantis Gay Charter Cruises also charter the vessels of HAL and the other lines as well.

 

As for HAL, I would sail the Vista Class-- Zuiderdam, Oosterdam, Noordam and Westerdam-- these are the newest,largest ships in their fleet. HAL attracts an older clientele and the ships roll up the carpets early-- there aren't any reggae poolside bands, the live entertainment is mostly jazz, and lighter music... the ship will be dead after 11pm.

 

My parents, who are both retired, sail on HAL sometimes. They like it, but they also sail on RC. In fact, they recommended RC to my family, and it's a perfect fit for us. It's unfortunate that some of you had this bad experience.

 

Also, I didn't realize HAL had no caribbean band poolside. That's one of my favorite things! Do they have a teens program/area?

[Jumbiecruiser]

We've been mulling over Princess...let us know what you think if you end up trying HAL.

 

I hope you know that this same bear group was on Princess last year and the complaints were the same. Princess did nothing to stop the activities of this group.

[teajak]

One of the "oldest" cruises I'd ever been on was a Jewel cruise out of Boston. I swear, the average passenger age must have been somewhere north of sixty, and I'd never seen so many oxygen tanks outside of a welding shop.

 

I'm kinda a young 'un at 32, but I'm going to try HAL's Caribbean itineraries nevertheless. Maybe a South Pacific, too. We're going on a 10-night Noordam cruise out of New York next month, and I'm eager to see how it compares with X. The Vista-class ships were designed specifically to cater to a younger crowd, or at least a crowd younger than HAL's traditional clientele.

Wow, somewhere north of sixty, thats incredible, were they still standing? I am somewhere north of seventy, where does that put me?

[MrPete]

It seems the longer cruises attract the octenogerians and greater.

 

I did a 12 day cruise on a Carnival ship. Half the audience was sleeping during the early shows, and the ship shut down about 10 every night.

 

There were still clusters of other age groups around, but I've NEVER seen so many old people in one place. And it wasn't a group cruise! :eek:

 

But I'd do it again in a heatbeat. Our destination was Hawaii. :)

[The Big Booper]

It seems the longer cruises attract the octenogerians and greater.

 

I did a 12 day cruise on a Carnival ship. Half the audience was sleeping during the early shows, and the ship shut down about 10 every night.

 

There were still clusters of other age groups around, but I've NEVER seen so many old people in one place. And it wasn't a group cruise! :eek:

 

But I'd do it again in a heatbeat. Our destination was Hawaii. :)

 

As a rule, long cruises, especially during the school year, attract an older crowd. Who else has the time to take 2+ weeks off work. And younger people either frequently work in the schools or have school age children.

 

We are just back from the Radiance Panama Canal Trip and the crowd onboard was mostly 60+ with a few kids and some adults in the 35-50 range. But the ship was active until 11 PM +, unlike the Constellation repo we took in 2005 where nothing went on after 9:30 PM. And the crowd did participate in all the many onboard activities including all the trivia, Love and Marriage, Quest, pool games, etc. Totally unlike Celebrity.

[Davey Interweb]

Wow, somewhere north of sixty, thats incredible, were they still standing? I am somewhere north of seventy, where does that put me?

Come on, you know what I mean. Many folks roll out the usual "isn't the crowd really old?" question in respect to HAL; I was just trying to illustrate that this isn't always confined to a few select lines. I was part of a group of ten family members and friends on that Jewel (Caribbean) cruise, our ages ranging from 21 to early fifties. We all felt that we were among the youngest guests on the ship. If the average passenger age on a sailing is deep into the sixties, well....yes, it's an old crowd.

 

To answer your question, though, if you were on this same sailing you would have been somewhere slightly above mid-pack I think :D

[thomasale]

I don't know why the offense to the "old" reference. It is important that potential cruisers know this. This Volendam cruise had the oldest average age person that I have been on. I took one picture in the main pool area and all I could think of was the movie Coccoon. I looked in the pool to see if pods had landed during the night. :)

 

I hope to one day join them and I hope my sense of humor will allow me to see the funny in it.

[JABTPS]

I don't know why the offense to the "old" reference. It is important that potential cruisers know this. This Volendam cruise had the oldest average age person that I have been on. I took one picture in the main pool area and all I could think of was the movie Coccoon. I looked in the pool to see if pods had landed during the night. :)

 

I hope to one day join them and I hope my sense of humor will allow me to see the funny in it.

 

I would also attribute many of the comments on these threads of warm Dining Room and other areas on the ship due to the fact that when you age, your body feels comfortable at 75 to 80 Deg F while many young folk would say that it is soooo uncomfortable (hot). We were at a table where all but 2 of us were over age 70 and felt the temperature was just right and didn't need to wear sweaters. The 2 of us were warm at times, but taking off a sport coat helped.

 

I would say that HAL tries to control the temperature for the majority of its customers and the rest of us young blood either need to understand this or just choose another line. You just can't please everyone all the time and the saying goes. We would cruise with HAL again and loved it!

 

Personally I would love if HAL would coordinate a dance class where the very agile seniors teach us youngins some of the classic steps!

[seaisme]

perhaps you have "selected eyesight"...but we have always experienced a nice assortment of age groups on HAL. And I would never discount the "older cruisers". On one of our recent cruises, two of our table mates were lovely ladies in the 80's and we couldn't keep up with them. They drug my husband dancing and the poor guy was exhausted by the time they finally decided to head to their cabin at 1:00 AM. (he's in his early 50's and a HUNK!!!).

 

What I will tell potential cruisers is that you won't find High School/college kids on the ship drunk and passed out in the hallways like on some lines. If that's the type of cruise you are looking for, PLEASE do not sail on HAL...I don't want to have to walk past you in the hallway.

[San Diego Cruzer]

I think the cruise age average depends a lot on the time of the cruise (day/month) and the length. The shorter cruises (3-7) tend to be a younger median age than the 10 plus days. We have friends who are in their late 40's and early 50's and they took a Princess cruise through the Panama Canal and swore they were the youngest couple aboard.

 

We took a HAL repo cruise in April from San Diego to Vancouver and were actually very surprised that there were a lot of families and younger kids (I mean under 10 years old) on our cruise.

 

That being said, we actually really like HAL - we are in our late 30's, but find that HAL offers wonderful services and love the larger cabins. We do like RCCL and NCL as well, and would not rule those out. We have not tried Celebrity yet, but plan to.

 

Our experience is that HAL has been a bit more laid back, the "disco" (I think it is called Northern Lights - but I may be wrong) was only mildly busy during our Zuideram cruise. However, we found that the casino was equally busy on all the cruises we have been.

 

I think if you are looking for a "party" cruise - probably HAL isn't for you

[teajak]

I don't know why the offense to the "old" reference. It is important that potential cruisers know this. This Volendam cruise had the oldest average age person that I have been on. I took one picture in the main pool area and all I could think of was the movie Coccoon. I looked in the pool to see if pods had landed during the night. :)

 

I hope to one day join them and I hope my sense of humor will allow me to see the funny in it.

Most of us do keep our sense of humor. One lady on these boards told us about a younger couple approaching their table and in a loud voice asked for another table without old people. This lady replied to them, thats alright old age is not contageous you will get it all on your own.Love it. We do laugh at ourselves because the alternative is boredom. If you don't believe me read a few of the Maxine cartoons.LOL.

[Atomica]

Definately consider the Vista class ships - Zuiderdam, Oosterdam, Westerdam and Noordam. They're HAL's largest ships, and are large enough that they have most anything you could want.

 

We've always had a nice mix of people on our cruises, of all ages - everyone from 8 to 80, and back again. You'll meet some truly nice people. We're in our twenties, and although we're up until midnight most nights, there's frequently people that are far older than us who are just getting started at that hour!

 

If you're looking for a nice cruise that's elegant without being stuffy or boring, HAL fits that bill. There's always something to do!