HAL Vs Oceania

[mike35]

We are avid fans of Oceania, a true 5-star cruise line in our opinion. We'll be sailing 12/22/06 on our first HAL cruise - the Statendam - on its New Zealand-to-Australia itinerary. We've seen HAL promotional literature, where it refers to itself as a 5-star line, and we would love to hear from those who have sailed both Oceania and HAL to get their true impressions.

 

We're in our early 60's, active, love gourmet cuisine, drink moderately, and enjoy on-board entertainment and enrichment lectures.

 

Mike

[AZjohn]

Hi Mike.

I have sailed on the Inaugural cruise of Insignia a few years ago and our first Hal cruise was on the Volendam last year to Alaska. We enjoyed both cruises very much, but there was a difference to us. First, the comparable verandah cabins (not suites) I would say HAL was much better (standard bath tub for the wife and a few more feet of room). Food goes to Oceania because we enjoyed the no set time dinning and resort casual dress code (any quality of food was better but than can be subjective). On board entertainment I would guess go to HAL because there wasn’t much entertainment on Oceania when we sailed. Obviously your HAL ship will be larger than Oceania which has both pros and cons. We enjoyed the larger ship when having several sea days where we enjoyed Oceania when we were at port almost everyday (never spent much time around the pool when at port).

Bottom line, I would consider Oceania a 5 star cruise line and HAL a 4 star. But I also think the prices from each cruise line reflect that. That is why our next cruise is with HAL (more bang for the buck) but will likely cruise Oceania when we decide on a port intensive schedule around Europe.

Enjoy your cruise,

John

[dakrewser]

We are avid fans of Oceania, a true 5-star cruise line in our opinion. We'll be sailing 12/22/06 on our first HAL cruise - the Statendam - on its New Zealand-to-Australia itinerary. We've seen HAL promotional literature, where it refers to itself as a 5-star line, and we would love to hear from those who have sailed both Oceania and HAL to get their true impressions.

 

We're in our early 60's, active, love gourmet cuisine, drink moderately, and enjoy on-board entertainment and enrichment lectures.

 

Mike

 

Haven't sailed Oceania yet, but we were big fans of Renaissance and the "R" boats. You'll find the Statendam similar, but a tad larger. Traditional dining (as opposed to open seating) is a decided change but each has big fans.

 

We've heard complaints that Oceania likes to "nickel & dime" passengers (but the same has been said about HAL) so that could be a wash.

 

I will be interested in your comparisons of food quality and selection, though.

[Druke I]

Three times on HAL, once on Oceania, with a 2nd Oceania trip coming up 11-27-06.

 

We think the food on Oceania is much better than HAL (which does have good food).

 

We really like Oceania's dress code - it so simplifies the packing process.

 

We've not been on Statendam, but were on her sister, Maasdam, and have mixed feelings about her. I think the naval architect who designed her made a huge mistake by not including a center (midships) elevator bank/stairs (corrected on later class of ship), and why they put the escalators where they did baffles me. We also did not care for the flat floor design of the main show lounge - it made for some poor sight lines. It is obvious that the room is designed for several different purposes.

 

When we sailed Maasdam, 11-95, Lisbon to Fort Lauderdale, we hit very heavy seas W of the Azores, and some half-dozen cabins forward on Main Deck (including ours) flooded to a depth of approximately 6 inches, when water entered the hull via the hawsepipe (anchor chainway). Luckily, they had vacant cabins to which we could be moved. I don't think that class of ship handles rough water very well - very evident bow slap, and lots of wallowing.

 

The old Westerdam, which is now sailing as Costa Europa, certainly handles rough water better than Maasdam.