Princess fan wants to try Westerdam - please advise

[drjochen]

We have done several cruises on Princess and would like to ty the MS Westerdam. Will we be disappointed? Any insight is appreciated!!!!!
We are 42, 39 and have a 7 year old.

[Mary Ellen]

What is it that you like/disappointed about Princess that you'd like to see on HAL?

[drjochen]

The food was decent on Princess, we did RCC once and will never again because of the food and not so good service in general.
The 2 warm pools for our daughter were always good.

[Sunsailor]

Princess is our favorite line BUT their newer ships are just to big and crowded for us so we are going on our second HAL cruise on 11/17. We were on the Zuiderdam a few years ago. Loved the cabins and the design of the ship. HAL was a little quieter, food was better, service was very good but less personal than the service on Princess. Entertainment good, movies (inside) with popcorn -good.I hate Movies under the stars. All in all, a very good experience - obviously or we would not have booked 10 days on the Noordam- but Princess is still our #1.

[wwinfl91]

We have cruised multiple times on both Princess and on HAL and count the two of them as our two favorite cruise lines. Generally HAL cruises are a little more laid back and will have an older clientel than a regular Princess cruise. The cabins are a little bigger and on all the newer ships the bathrooms all have a tub shower combination in every cabin except the inside cabins. The crew will mainly be indonesian for cabin stewards, waiters and most of the "sailors". The bar staff will be from the Phillipines mainly. The officers can be from anywhere but many are American, British or Dutch. Generally they are all very friendly and really make you feel welcome.

Most of the ships are smaller than the typical Princess ship and generally are designed in a more restrained fashion.

One of the things we really liked about Princess over HAL was PC dining but HAL is now offering their option of the same thing which we wil be trying for the first time in two weeks.

I would consider the food on the two lines as very similar but then I also have enjoyed the food on our RCL cruises so maybe my taste buds aren't the best.

One of our favorite places on HAL ships has always been the Crows Nest which is a bar high up on the ship with forward facing windows. We have enjoyed many a drink before dinner watching the sun set from there.

We don't usually go to a lot of the shows but others who we have eated with have always seemed to enjoy them.

I would suggest giving HAL a try and you may find you now have two favorite cruise lines like we have.

Have a great next cruise.

[Pam in CA]

If you like Princess, you'll like HAL. There are some things that HAL does very nicely, some things better on Princess. Overall, they're both good and offer similar experiences. HAL has hot and cold appetizers in all of the bars/lounges from about 5PM on; and, you can order a full breakfast via room service which is great for early morning tours, which I think are two nice things about HAL. The pizza is pretty bad compared to Princess; I thought it was the equivalent of reheated frozen pizza; the soft ice cream wasn't very smooth or creamy -- had lots of ice crystals in it. Dinner in the Lido is much better on HAL than on Princess as you can get your appetizer, soup and salad, and order your entree (and modify it any way you want) and it'll be delivered hot to your table about 20 - 25 minutes after you sit down. On HAL, muster is at the life boat which made it extremely confusing to most of the passengers on my recent Prinsendam cruise when the 7 short/1 long alarm sounded at 2AM. People rushed to put on clothes, grab their life jacket and run to their lifeboat only to have the Captain say to stay in your cabin. (There was a fire in the Lido -- the transformer on the industrial cooler apparently was smoking; it was put out in minutes.) I much prefer the Princess muster where you go to a central place indoors but that's a small thing.

HAL prides itself on it's service but I didn't think that overall, it was much, if any, better than I've had on Princess. Dinner service was excrutiatingly slow and made for over a 2-hour dinner which I've now experienced on two HAL cruises (18 and 28 days.) "As You Wish" dining on HAL seems to work better (at least from my short experience) than Princess' "Anytime" dining so far as waits for a table were concerned. Lunch in the Lido was better on HAL and they offered some delicious wraps at the Grill, i.e., Thai Chicken Wrap, Chicken Caesar Wrap, etc. If you like salads, Princess offers lots more dressing choices (14 on the Crown in July, 6 or 7 on the Prinsendam) but HAL has a better salad bar set-up. I found getting breakfast in the HAL Lido very, very slow as every egg and dish was personally prepared so that you will often wait in like for 15 - 20 minutes just for a poached egg. On early port mornings, this just isn't practical and doesn't work well.

So far as food goes, Princess is much better when it comes to Italian dishes, i.e., their lasagna, pasta and pizza is much better; HAL has wonderful Dutch and Asian food that's excellent. The Dutch split pea soup is a meal all by itself.

[roohound]

I should be able to answer this better in a few weeks after I disembark the Westerdam :) DH and I are a tiny bit younger than you and we don't have kids - just for a bit of perspective. :)

I'm also a huge Princess fan and have sailed many times with them - all different classes of ships. While I have sailed with HAL a few times before now, this will be my first experience with a Vista class ship.

As far as HAL vs Princess, I think HAL does have better food overall although honestly I think my biggest issue is I've experienced the same (or very similar) menus over and over so I'm a bit jaded <g> HAL's Pinnacle Grill is way better than any of Princess' extra fee restaurants. Overall HAL's service is better - although I have met some incredible crew members on Princess. I think Princess has better entertainment and entertainment staff. I can still name almost all of my Princess Cruise Directors and for the life of me can't think of one from HAL. The CDs on Princess struck me as being much more outgoing and passenger friendly whereas the HAL CDs were MIA except for maybe at bingo. I will never forget watching a show on HAL that was soooooo bad I literally felt sorry for the dancers and singers. They weren't completely horrid (close though) but the overall production, from costumes to choreography and everything was baaaaaaaaaaad. The first time I sailed HAL I was so excited about the idea of fresh popcorn while watching a movie. I guess someone thought burnt/rancid = fresh LOL! Plus, and this is a pet peeve of mine, they showed a PG movie and bleeped out every curse word - and with PG movies there's nothing that bad! Even mere "damn" was enough to get beeped and that was just frustrating - very distracting. I thought that was ridiculous - I think on the sailing we were on they announced there were 4 kids so I like to think most of us could handle watching a PG rated movie in public. Princess' loyalty program is waaaaay better than HAL's IMO- we're only a few cruises out from hitting Elite status with Princess. The little coasters you get with HAL are nice, but the Princess perks appeal to me more.

We left HAL to try some other lines and we decided to give them another try - we're excited to try a new (to us) class of ship with HAL and we're on an itinerary that includes 2 places we've never been before. Who knows, maybe we'll stick with HAL for awhile :) They'll have to really wow us to keep us from going back to Princess since we are so close to elite status with them.

Hope this helps for now!

PS - one other thing Princess does better than HAL (unless this has changed) is the lifeboat drill. Every drill on Princess I've experienced our lifeboat drill location was indoors. Every one I've done on HAL has been outside on deck. This isn't the most fun in the heat and on each HAL cruise we've seen at least one person get woozy (and once even passed out) from the heat. Plus they also called roll which they don't do on Princess. Not sure if this has changed but I will say I will give the nod to Princess for the drill.

[oceanview585]

We got off Westerdam last week trying it after 6 Princess Cruises. The rooms are much bigger and in our mini suite equivalent (SS Cabin) we had a double sink and both shower and tub. I like Princess' new bedding better with the duvet though.
The food was equally comparable on both lines but I disagreed with previous poster as I thought the Pizza and Burgers on the Westerdam were much better than Princess. It was a nice touch that the lido dinner food is that which was served in dining room except on the night there was surf and turf, that was not available at the buffet.
Westerdam did offer ice cream free all day after 11 which is a bonus over Princess who offers it only several hours a day and otherwise you have to buy it.
I believe the staff on the Westerdam was the friendliest and happiest staff I have ever encountered.
Because the cruise we took was only 7 days there was a younger crowd. There were even kids but mostly preschool age. I heard parents comment that their kids loved the HAL kids program.
I was disappointed with the atrium as on all Princess ships it is huge and stunning and the hub of many activites. I did not feel that on the Westerdam. One surprising thing to me is that the shopping on the Westerdam seemed like and after thought. Even on our last evening I went to the gift shop about 5 pm to buy some souvenirs but they were closing. On Princess ships the last nights they lay out all the shirts, hats, jewelry and it is crowded with shoppers spilling over into the Atrium and they seem to make a lot of revenue on that.
One very good thing HAL does is that on diembarkation AM you stay in your rooms until your time is called to leave. You can even order a full breakfast that morning. On Princess there is no in room breakfast that morning and you have to be out of you room at 8am. Luckily we now have platinum status so we get to stay in the lounge with continental breakfast.

We will sail on both lines again but HAL may be our new favorite!

[roohound]

I believe the staff on the Westerdam was the friendliest and happiest staff I have ever encountered.

We will sail on both lines again but HAL may be our new favorite!

This is so exciting to hear :) Overall DH and I keep each other amused and don't need a constant lineup of entertainment, but I will say when the staff as a whole is really friendly and happy it really does impact our cruise in a good way :)

Oceanview - you mention the rooms are much bigger - do you usually book minisuites on Princess?

[drjochen]

Thank you everyone for your insights!
We'll make up our mind tonight.

[swscruiser]

I'll throw one more review at you. We do not like the food nor the service on Princess. Also the ships are just too big. Never had a really good meal on Princess, several good meals on HAL, plus HAL's soups are great. HAL is definitely more laid back, and seems to be a lot more refined. Although we enjoy them both we will probably not sail Princess again for a while.

Keith

[toodycat]

Have done both, but prefer HAL. I am 45, DH is 48 and DS is 14. HAL's food is better whether you mean buffets, dining rooms, room service or specialty dining. HAL staterooms are larger and service is superior. Princess has better and more entertainment, though some HAL acts such as Julie Barr and Joel Mason are outstanding. My son has enjoyed the kids' programs on both, but feels that playing Rock Band on the Princess MUTS screen may have been one of the best experiences of his life.The HAL library and computer area are much better than Princess.

Whatever you choose, have a great time.