comparing Carnival and HAL

[jacketwatch]

I suppose this will be construed as a bit of snobbery, but we have been frightened away from Carnival by the appearance of the passengers in port. Every time we have been on a HAL cruise and ported with a Princess ship they have appeared raucous and a tad redneck looking.

 

Although not quite through middle age my DH and I tend to be a little more conserved, and I've always been afraid we would not fit in well on a Carnival ship. After reading some of the comments I am wondering if my judgment is incorrect?

Yes.

[jbeb]

I agree that it is hard to leave assumptions and expectations behind. Where ever you go there you are! We have more fun when we take the high side and look for the good in people and the up-side of iffy situations. We love our memories of our HAL and Carnival experiences due mostly because someone extended themselves to us.

Thanks for sharing!

Jan

[airlink diva]

I suppose this will be construed as a bit of snobbery, but we have been frightened away from Carnival by the appearance of the passengers in port. Every time we have been on a HAL cruise and ported with a Princess ship they have appeared raucous and a tad redneck looking.

 

Although not quite through middle age my DH and I tend to be a little more conserved, and I've always been afraid we would not fit in well on a Carnival ship. After reading some of the comments I am wondering if my judgment is incorrect?

I learn a long time ago when I was working at a major casino to never judge a book by it's cover. Some of our high rollers,people with bank accounts in the mid to high six figures would come in in faded overalls,jeans and t-shirts. Some of them look like rednecks,but were some of the most well travel and well verse people that I ever met.

I can tell you that on some of the other boards, people have said some unkind things about HAL cruisers (a floating nursing home and more walkers and wheelchairs among it's cruisers are things that I've come across).

Trust me, I don't look like a typical HAL cruiser (trust me I stand out when I'm on board!!) and some people are shock when I tell them that I love sailing on HAL (I got questioned about HAL on my Fantasy cruise by some.).

While you may never sailing on no one but HAL,never just assume that the so call redneck cruiser is less refined than you.

[jacketwatch]

Mr. Oregon thank you for being honest. I commend you for that. I'd also like to add my own story about not being able to tell about someone by just looks. I once saw a rather shortish man in Harrods dressed in running shoes that were a bit "worn" and wearing jeans and a T-shirt In other words he looked ordinary. However he looked familiar so I looked again and recognized who he was and he is NOT ordinary. It was George Lucas.

[geoherb]

Getting back to the cleaning comment, I noticed on our Westerdam cruise in March that our cabin stewards were not as efficient as I would have liked. There were several days that they did not get the first cleaning of our cabin until lunch time. On the first evening, they saw us in the hallway as we were going to dinner and asked if it was ok if they did not bother to turn down our bed that night.

 

I place the blame on having them assigned to do too many cabins.

[lstrong]

My best cruises have been on Carnival - comparing traditional late dining on both lines, the absolute best service was on Carnival Spirit, next Carnival Pride, next Hal Zaandam, and the very worst of many cruises would be my recent Ryndam cruise. I think HAL spreads their dining room servers too thin. However, servers are always the luck of the draw on any ship. But HAL'S reputation for great service just was not true for my two recent cruises. On the Zaandam, our cabin was not made up until mid to late afternoon, we always had to call room service for ice, our towels were usually still wet, etc. when we wanted to shower.

 

I am 60++ and enjoy any ship, going anywhere at anytime. I will select my next cruise by the itinerary, the price, and the ship layout.

[noteasilyimpressed]

I will tell you this: I have never cruised before. I wasn't really too concerned about the cruise line, just the itinerary (Baltic) for our upcoming cruise. However, our travel agent seemed to really make a big deal about the fact that Holland was a more 'premium' cruise line and that we would enjoy it more. (Then again she always is trying to sell us 'up' to something else-she also was convinced we'd enjoy Regent or Oceania even MORE than HA. Hmm...;) me thinks she likes to spend our money). So, what I'm trying to say, is that Holland America, at least among some travel agents, still has a more 'premium' reputation and Carnival will have to continue striving to beat that for the different demographic it hopes to lure away from Holland...at least in the eyes of some travel agents.

[jacketwatch]

I will tell you this: I have never cruised before. I wasn't really too concerned about the cruise line, just the itinerary (Baltic) for our upcoming cruise. However, our travel agent seemed to really make a big deal about the fact that Holland was a more 'premium' cruise line and that we would enjoy it more. (Then again she always is trying to sell us 'up' to something else-she also was convinced we'd enjoy Regent or Oceania even MORE than HA. Hmm...;) me thinks she likes to spend our money). So, what I'm trying to say, is that Holland America, at least among some travel agents, still has a more 'premium' reputation and Carnival will have to continue striving to beat that for the different demographic it hopes to lure away from Holland...at least in the eyes of some travel agents.

Actually as CCL owns HAL, and Princess and several others it all goes into the same pocket anyway.

[Dancer Bob]

I have traveled a number of times with Carnival, HAL, and Costa (they are all different "brands" within Carnival Corporation- HAL is supposed to be a bit more upscale). Overall, on average I didn't see much difference between ships, except that Costa does have a little more "European" atmosphere.

 

An earlier post mentioned dancing; I now travel only Costa because they offer far better dance floors and dance music than Carnival, at about the same price. On HAL, I was almost always pretty much the only person still awake by midnight. I may not be a wild'n'crazy party type, but I still found it pretty boring. It certainly wasn't worth paying a premium over Carnival.

 

A word of caution- I travel off-season. I was on one Carnival ship in January, with 400 kids. I hardly ever saw any, the childrens' programs were very good. But I was told there had been 1700 on the Christmas sailing- presumably a much different experience. So passenger demographics can be very important.

[fun_seeker]

I will tell you this: I have never cruised before. I wasn't really too concerned about the cruise line, just the itinerary (Baltic) for our upcoming cruise. However, our travel agent seemed to really make a big deal about the fact that Holland was a more 'premium' cruise line and that we would enjoy it more. (Then again she always is trying to sell us 'up' to something else-she also was convinced we'd enjoy Regent or Oceania even MORE than HA. Hmm...;) me thinks she likes to spend our money). So, what I'm trying to say, is that Holland America, at least among some travel agents, still has a more 'premium' reputation and Carnival will have to continue striving to beat that for the different demographic it hopes to lure away from Holland...at least in the eyes of some travel agents.

Carnival pulled all of its ships out of the European market for 2009, so HAL is probably the best bet. We sailed Carnival in the Western Med last year and HAL in the Baltic this year. Comparable in many aspects, but we enjoyed HAL more. Just our opinion.