HAL or Princess for Med.?

[goldiep]

Planning a trip in June to Eastern Med. Husband and I are professionals in our 50s. We like to be onshore and exploring for the most part. Would rather not have a ton of kids in the pool but not willing to go to bed at 9:00 either. Considering a 12 day on either Oosterdam or Ruby Princess. Any thoughts out there?

[AZjohn]

Hi Beckie,

Well, I would pick the Oosterdam… actually we did;) (lol). But there is really not much night life on board so you might try the Ruby. Our cruise on the Oosterdam is Eastern Med so we are doing a lot of ports and exploring. Thus we are going to be very tired at night so not an issue for us. Just looking for a nice dinner and a comfortable bed in a clean room.

Good luck!

John

PS: You have my wife’s maiden name (I like it:D).

[chipmaster]

Planning a trip in June to Eastern Med. Husband and I are professionals in our 50s. We like to be onshore and exploring for the most part. Would rather not have a ton of kids in the pool but not willing to go to bed at 9:00 either. Considering a 12 day on either Oosterdam or Ruby Princess. Any thoughts out there?

 

I'm a believer that in that part of the world its all about the ports. Dates, price, ports, specials exactly the same?

 

I'm a Princess fan, don't they have an adult's only pool? No question during the summer there are enough kids that the main pool and the hot tubs have a lot of them, not so many you can't relax in them but at least there isn't the hairy man contest :rolleyes:

[Keith1010]

I would let the itinerary be the driver of this. I would look carefully at all ports and also at the ports of embarkation and disembarkation for ease of airline flights. Be sure to arrive there a few days early if possible to allow yourselves to get over the jet lag and to ensure that you do not miss the ship due to any delays.

 

As noted, a Mediterranean cruise tends to be on the port intensive side. You will find more children on a Princess ship than the HAL ship. But, it is the Med and it is June so you'll find many less than say on a Caribbean or Alaska cruise.

 

HAL is more quiet at night.

 

Again, I would look carefully at the itineraries.

 

Keith

[nitnyleo]

I'm a believer that in that part of the world its all about the ports . . . but at least there isn't the hairy man contest :rolleyes:

 

True. But, I find the hairy woman contest to be more disconcerting . . .

 

I would let the itinerary be the guiding light (RIP). It'll be June and the "kid" factor will be about the same between the 2 lines.

[agabbymama]

I would definitely pick HAL. I like the size of their ships, as well as the service and ambiance on-board. Nothing like it. I only wish they had the itinerary that Princess offered. We wanted Rome, Venice and Greece so our options were limited.

 

We did the Grand Princess (110,000 gross tons) for 12 days, and was terribly disappointed in the size of the ship, the service, the information or lack thereof, and downright rudeness of some of the personnel. We had more problems on Princess than our other 6 cruises combined.

 

We still had a good cruise, not everything went bad, but had been anticipating a GREAT one.

 

Have a great cruise whatever you decide.

[goldiep]

Thanks for the input-we chose HAL.