What's so special about HAL??

[Polly Purebred]

So, what's so great about HAL??

Sorry, but I just have to ask.

I've been reading this and other cruise NG sites for years and have read all the rave reviews about HAL and a lot of negative (not all, of course) stuff about NCL, especially when comparing the two lines. I've been cruising for years and usually travel with NCL.


This year, I took my first cruise with HAL. I just got off a 17-day South American 'Wild Side' cruise on the HAL flagship, Amsterdam. I was so excited about finally getting to experience one of those exceptional cruises that HAL fanatics are always raving about.

Know what? It was a simply wonderful cruise! Everything was just great. Fantastic! Top notch! Know what else? My NCL cruises have been just as nice.

So this lead me to beg the question: What do you all find so special about HAL??

I couldn't help myself. I found myself comparing HAL with NCL throughout the cruise. Here's my take on a comparison with NCL. Just for the record, I traveled with my parents. My parents had a category 'S' suite and my dh & I were in a mini-suite. Met and visited a couple of people on board and got some good looks at the standard outside cabins.


Food quality---Edge, HAL. Personally, I find the food on both lines to be good, but I would probably have to give the nod to HAL on this one, especially for presentation.
All their food was top quality. One nasty little experience, though. One day, I visited the taco bar out by the pool and made myself a big plate of

Dining options--Nod goes to NCL---NCL offers more restaurant options on their ship. The Amsterdam had only the Lido and Main dining room during evening hours.

Dining Hours---Hands down, NCL---I'll freely admit that I'm a Freestyle fan, but I had no real problems with the 'scheduled sitting' times on HAL, except for one BIG problem: I don't ALWAYS want to go to sit down and I found that the Lido buffet was only open for dinner every night until 7:30pm! Egad! Just because I don't want to go to sit down doesn't mean I want to be an 'early bird' either. NCLs buffets are always open until at least 10:00pm every night. This one really irked me. :mad: My only other option was room service. Also, HAL's sit down restaurant was only open for 1 hour per day for lunch and wasn't even open every day!
Freestyle VS. Sit down?? I won't even go near that one! :D It's been done to death and to each his own. (Goooooo Freestyle! ;) )

Ship conditions--Tie. I just don't see how HAL is any cleaner, nicer, classier, etc. than the NCL line.

Cabins---Mmmmm. Depends. I found the standard cabin on the Amsterdam to be a bit larger than those I can compare to on NCL. Don't know if that size is pretty standard for HAL, though, or just on the flagships.

The mini-suites were nice, but I found they were quite nearly as expensive as a full suite on NCL and not nearly as large.

The 'S' suites on HAL are about the same as NCL, but I find the perks to be a near toss-up and the price much better on NCL. HAL passengers have the Neptune Lounge, which offers food and beverages all day long--that's a good one! They also offer free laundry, dry cleaning, and pressing service--another plus. They have a full time concierge available for all their needs, but you have to go to them. NCL not only provides a concierge, but a butler, too. The concierge comes to you, every day, to take care of all your needs--Your butler keeps your fridge stocked with water and any other soft beverages, free of charge for your daily consumption, and delivers a tray of goodies to your stateroom every night, arranges goodies, etc. for any little 'party' you may want to have in your cabin, and does other 'butler-ly' stuff. NCL also gives you 3 free bottles of liquor for your personal consumption in your cabin. I was a bit chagrinned to be charged 'mini bar' fees for soft drinks and water on the 'Dam. On the other hand, NCL doesn't clean your clothes for free.

Staff & Service---Tie. I find the service and staff to be quite comparable on both lines. There are only minor differences in certain areas, such as being 'served' your entrees in the buffet line on HAL, as opposed to spearing your own meat and spooning your own veggies on NCL.

Entertainment: Dunno. Gotta admit, I'm not much of a 'show' person. I did notice, though, that HAL had a lot more 'concerts' and less 'plays' than I usually notice on NCL. Maybe this was just MY voyage, though. Personally, I prefer to see a play rather than a cellist, but that's a personal thing. I suppose of one really enjoys shows, and the quality of entertainment on HAL is superior to NCL, that could well make a difference, but I won't personally judge either line, in that department.

Value for the $----NCL. Especially for the high class cabins. HAL is nearly double the cost of NCL for full suites.


Some other minor stuff:

Gotta love the big, fluffy towels on HAL! Also, that lido deck swimming pool with the retractable roof is totally SWEET. First class, there, for sure!
Prices for beer and cocktails are way overpriced in the HAL cocktail lounges. NCL isn't much better, but they are somewhat better. $6 for a drink and $3.54 for a beer on HAL?? Yikes!



HAL has better TV, for what it's worth. Satellite TV service with several channels, along with 2 movie channels that played 4 movies each day, every day. Good selection of new and old movies. I get sick of watching reruns of 'king of queens' and 'west wing' on NCL. And don't start picking on me about the TV thing, either. Not everyone runs 24/7 on those ships and it is nice to be able to turn on the tube occasionally and find something worth watching, for those of us who care.

Shore excursions---Sure seems like HAL is more expensive for 'their' excursions, but maybe that was just my imagination--selection and quality were about the same for both lines.

I really loved my cruise with HAL and I would love to cruise with them again, someday, if the price is right. I just can't justify all the extra money for, what appears to me to be, nothing really special.

I'm eager to hear what I'm missing, what I'm not tasting, seeing, or experiencing with HAL. Is there something wrong with me???

Polly

[doone]

So glad you enjoyed the Amsterdam, Polly. I have to say she's my favorite of the HAL fleet. I don't think there is anything wrong with you, just different strokes for different folks.

I enjoy all my cruises, can't think of one that was really all that bad, with the exception of a 3-day Big Red Boat cruise, but that's another story. I have sailed on NCL for my first cruise, I was hooked. We tried Home Lines after that and found that one to be even better. A few years past and we decided to cruise again, wanted to do Home Lines again, but found out they had sold out to Holland America. Being disappointed about Home Lines, we decided to give HAL a try, I found HAL to be everything in a cruise I have ever wanted. I find I am treated more of a guest than a passenger, the service has always been outstanding, the cabins are a bit larger than what I had on NCL, I just find that I feel that I am at home when I sail HAL.

For me, HAL is my cruise line.

[Polly Purebred]

Well, Doone, I admit that the service on HAL was most excellent and the staff was extremely nice. Guest vs. Passenger. Hmmmm. I'd have to think about that one, but I readily admit that I couldn't have asked for more from the staff of HAL. My cabin steward, especially, was perfect. Possibly the best I've ever had.

Just to finish a piece of post that got missed in my original, I made myself a nice plate of nachos with wonderful seasoned chicken, fresh guacamole, etc. at the taco bar. Took one bite and realized the cheese had gone bad/sour. YUCK! I never visited the taco bar again. Stuck to the pizza.

[doone]

Polly, it wounds like you enjoyed every minute on the Amsterdam, that's wonderful. I just find HAL to be a very special cruise line for me.

Glad you had a wonderful experience on your first HAL cruise. Hope to see more of you on these boards.

[obriendan]

We've always have greatly appreciated the service of the Indonesian and Phillipino staff on HAL. Not only do they do an excellent job in their duties in the dining room and in the cabins, but they are always friendly. We have had several instances where staff from a previous cruise remember us by name on a subsequent cruise. An we get the feeling that their friendliness is sincere. The only comparison we can make is with Cunard. Although the service was ecxcellent, it was not as friendly.

[twoatsea]

been on many hal cruises; two ncl cruises (also princess & x). for the last several cruises, we eat only at the buffet (hal), so we like buffet type food :D & we are not "picky" about our food.

our ncl cruises were our first cruises, so it has been maybe 6 to 8 yrs ago. on the norway, the buffet food was horrible :eek: - i cannot stress enough - i mean horrible (we referred to it as "garbage")! on the other ncl ship (can't remember the name) the lunch buffet was very lean - mostly lunch meat, salads, minimal cheap desserts, etc. i may be wrong, but at that time i don't think lunch was served in the dining room. anyway, with those 2 experiences, since food is an important part of the cruise for us, we tried other lines. however.......we love the prices of the ncl cruises. so maybe polly's post will convince us to try once more - maybe. (ugh, makes me shudder when i remember that buffet on the norway!!)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for taking time to do a comparison between HAL and NCL.

We have been on the Amsterdam - love that ship.

You mentioned that tours seem to be more expensive on HAL - have you done a South American on NCL to compare those prices - just wondering - not trying to cause any trouble. Need to store these things in my mind for future reference.

Also - you mentioned that the full suites on NCL get 3 free bottles of alcohol - what size are they? Do you get to choose what you want?

[Cally]

Just got off the October 25th sailing on the Amsterdam as well. Although I think the ship was beautiful and well kept I would probably not go on another HAL cruise again. I thought the food left a lot to be desired as well as a lack of activities. They gear everything towards a much older crowd, not that there is anything wrong with that but there are lines that are far better choices for active 50 year olds.

I have cruised with Princess, Royal Carribbean, Costa and Celebrity. My favorite is definately Celebrity.

[RuthC]

What's most special about HAL---at least to me---is the feeling when I board that I have come home.

I can't count the number of times I've been recognized by name---and by cocktail preference!---when spotted by a steward from even many years ago. I'm greeted by a great big smile---and sometimes even a hug. It's the staff and crew that makes my ship my home, even if it's for only a few weeks.

Oh, yes, the fresh flowers and cloth towels in the restrooms are a special touch, too; and the artwork creates a lovely setting.
I'm in the group of active 50-somethings and love the quiet, refined atmosphere that abounds all over the ship. The lack of many young children only adds to that.

I love the activities, and the sense that I don't have to participate in anything if I don't want to.
I'm a picky eater, but have never missed a meal; I must like the food. And I love that HAL still has traditional dining.

For all these reason HAL is very special to me. Isn't it nice that there are other lines to provide different things that can make a cruise special to others.

[Polly Purebred]

twoatsea, I'm not really picky about food either, but I definitely like good food! I've always had good experiences with NCL's food, for the most part. HAL's buffets may be a little better, to be honest, but I certainly never considered NCL's food to be bad.
My experience, cruising with NCL 2x in the last 2 years has been a wide variety of food on the buffets for both lunch and dinner--lots of choices and always plenty of good roasted/baked meats to choose from. No complaints about the desserts either, but HAL's may be better. Personally, I wasn't that impressed with HAL's dessert selections. I found they didn't taste as good as they looked, most of the time. Just my opinion.

NCL's sit down restaurants serve lunch every day from about 11:00am till about 2:00pm. Hours & locations may vary ;-). Every day's menu was different. Speaking of which, their breakfast menus for the sit down is also different every day, except for the 'standard' items, of course. Our sit down HAL breakfast was just open, again, usually for only 1 1/2 hours and the menu was the same every day. It got old for a 17 day cruise.

[Polly Purebred]

Krazy Kruizers,

I took the first 'half' of the SA cruise last year with NCL, on the Crown.
We cruised from Miami to Valparaiso, Chile. 16 days. I could be totally off on the prices, but this HAL trip just seemed more expensive for certain types of excursions. Hard to explain, and I may be wrong, but for an example I would say that a tour that I would expect to pay about $99-109 on NCL seemed to be costing me around the $139 area on HAL. Some tours were quite reasonable, though, so it may even itself out in the end, or as I said before, I may be quite mistaken. I usually travel with my elderly parents and they will NOT do excursions through private tour companies in foreign countries. I realize that may seem silly to many, but they are just too timid for it. As a result, even though I often book different tours than they do, I always book with the ship, too, so I have tons of experiences with 'ship' shore excursions.

As for the booze, they are standard sized bottles. I think one litre, but they could be 750ml. Yes, you get to choose what you want and they have a pretty good variety of choices, including choices like Courvoisier (sp?) VS or VSO (no vsop). All brand name booze--good vodkas, gins, whiskeys, etc. You're not going to get a bottle of Tanqueray or Grey Goose, mind you, but it's not cheap stuff. Just that one little perk can save you tons of money, if you're a drinker. Plus all your mixers are free, too, since the fridge is free.

Polly

[Polly Purebred]

Obriendan, I also got the warm fuzzies from the Indonesian crew and I also felt it was sincere. As I previously stated, my cabin steward was great. It was uncanny how he always managed to time my exits perfectly so as to always have my cabin ready when I returned, without even once inconveniencing me! One odd little thing though: My cabin steward spoke very good English. My parents' steward, otoh, spoke practically NO English. It was impossible to ask him about anything other than 'ice'. As a result, they had to go to the Neptune for even the smallest requests. No real hassle, but I just found that a bit odd, since they were in the La-Dee-Da suites. Was I just lucky?

Polly

[Polly Purebred]

RuthC,

Yes. You have reminded me of some very nice special touches on HAL. Although NCL also has fresh flowers everywhere, the Amsterdam had ORCHIDS on every table! I must admit, I was impressed by that. The towels in the bathrooms were also nice, although I have little personal struggles with myself over that, since I'm a conservationist. Detergents or trees? Hmmmm. Also, HAL seems to have a good reputation in that arena. I liked the fact that they recycled their papers.

See? You all are reminding me of all kinds of little things that did make this ship and cruise quite special!

Polly

[Tatka]

Polly,

You can't really expect whole different experience from massmarket line (even with some upscale touches). For that you should try luxury lines like Raddison, Silver Sea or Seabourn. You could try Celebrity also.:)

About the age...I am not sure which cruises you had with NCL but somehow I think on 17 day cruise to South America you want meet younger crowd, too expensive and time consuming. ( I would love to sail there, but my vacation time is 10 working days :( ) We sailed on Zuideram to Western Caribbean this summer and found many people of our age (32+32+12) sailing with us.
About the cabins..I think HAL beats all mass lines in this category! Our inside cabin was almost 200 sq feet. Price was also cheapest we could find for August.

I am glad you liked cruise overall.:D

[OCruisers]

Polly .... Enjoyed reading your review! Never hurts to have as many different opinions as possible.

When you have time, please tell us about your port stops.

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)