Going to go outside my box and try Princess...

We have only sailed on HAL ships and have been very satisfied. But, we would like to "branch" out and be able to compare and try another cruise line so decided to do baby steps. Booked the 5 day repositioning cruise from L.A. back to Vancouver on the Star Princess in early May.

Am I nervous-you bet. I like my comfort zone and am definitely stepping out of it. :eek:

If you liked HAL, you will like Princess. I think you picked a great way to sample the other offerings. Bon Voyage.

Agree with bumper. I like both for different reasons. Just keep in mind sometimes the shorter cruises might now be the very best the cruise line has to offer. That said, i think you'll be happy. I hope you come back and let us know.

My biggest objection to Princess was the hard beds, bad pillows, and no covered pool. Everything else was very acceptable and, in some cases, superior to HAL. Having said all that, I can't wait to return to HAL in July.

Good! Enjoy that cruise, and let us know your thoughts, please :)

Agree with bumper. I Just keep in mind sometimes the shorter cruises might now be the very best the cruise line has to offer. That said, i think you'll be happy. I hope you come back and let us know.

I agree. We have done several repo cruises on Princess and they are very nice.

I have been on both and and enjoyed both! HAL was our 1st cruise & we loved it. Great service, food, etc... We also wanted to try other lines & found

Princess to be equal in both food and service to HAL - IMO. We enjoyed the activities & entertainment more on Princess. We are in our late 40's and we were definitely in the "younger" group on Holland. Although we really enjoyed HAL, we have recently booked our 2nd cruise with Princess... That speaks for it's self.

My biggest objection to Princess was the hard beds, bad pillows, and no covered pool. Everything else was very acceptable and, in some cases, superior to HAL. Having said all that, I can't wait to return to HAL in July.

The bed was too firm for my back, but I had read here on CC that you can ask for a mattress topper. I did that & it was added to our bed right away. I felt it made a huge difference & the bed was fine for us.

The mattress in our cabin on a recent Crown Princess cruise (Jan 2014) had been upgraded to a very comfortable one with a topper. Don't know if they were new in all cabins or have been changed out fleet wide yet.

We mostly cruise on Princess ... better fit for us and we enjoy having more activities and better bar/lounge entertainment ... BUT still cruise on HAL from time to time. Don't hesitate to give Princess a try! :)

LuLu

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Please do report back! I was in your shoes -- loved HAL -- Zuiderdam, too, like you! (also was happy on Celebrity and even Carnival) but had long wanted to try Princess. I had read so many glowing posts from so many Princess loyals, I just had to try it! Sailed on the Caribbean Princess out of Houston on a 7-night western Caribbean itinerary just last month.

At the risk of coloring your attitude toward Princess, I will simply say I wasn't a fan. Can't wait to get back to HAL! But certainly want to hear your impressions!

I agree, the beds haven't been the best on princess. That said, I had a cruise on the sapphire princess in february and the bed was every bit as good as hals.

I will definitely report back my thoughts. I know everyone has their own favorites and reasons for cruising certain lines and I'm going with an open mind-no snark remarks on that ok! :p :p

I was tempted to go back to my "comfy" zone and board the Zuiderdam again for the repo but this Princess deal was just too tempting. I must admit too that I LOVE the beds on HAL so am sure hoping I sleep well on the Star. Time will tell-I know it's not far off but seems like forever!

The one thing so far that I'm not impressed with though is that Princess told me I had to FAX or snail mail my proof of CCL stocks.....whereas I've always been able to e-mail it to HAL. But that is a minor blurp that I will put on my comment card, if I get one?!

Thanks everyone-I knew you would all understand.

I will definitely report back my thoughts. I know everyone has their own favorites and reasons for cruising certain lines and I'm going with an open mind-no snark remarks on that ok! :p :p

 

 

I was tempted to go back to my "comfy" zone and board the Zuiderdam again for the repo but this Princess deal was just too tempting. I must admit too that I LOVE the beds on HAL so am sure hoping I sleep well on the Star. Time will tell-I know it's not far off but seems like forever!

 

The one thing so far that I'm not impressed with though is that Princess told me I had to FAX or snail mail my proof of CCL stocks.....whereas I've always been able to e-mail it to HAL. But that is a minor blurp that I will put on my comment card, if I get one?!

 

Thanks everyone-I knew you would all understand.

Yeah I hate that too about faxing it but Hal is getting pretty snarky about emails too.

I also enjoy both lines for different reasons, though I find the food and dining options superior on Princess. I'm sure you'll have a great cruise!

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That's a great way to try out a different cruise line, and even better sailing back to your home port, so only a flight one-way.:)

From what I read on the Princess board, there seems to be a significant amount of ship-to-ship variability, but then, a reader of the HAL board could come to the same conclusion. All I can say is that our one Princess experience, on the Grand last Fall from San Francisco around Hawaii and back, was superior in every way to our last cruise on Zuiderdam, especially regarding service and food in the MDR. The Grand was large for our taste, but the crew seemed far less stressed and far more eager to please than we've seen on our last two HAL cruises. But everyone's mileage varies.

We do mostly Princess but did the Eurodam in November and just booked the Prinsendam for Europe this fall. I love Princess, but their itineraries are mostly the same year after year so HAL's are a fresh change for me. The lines are very similar and we enjoy the subtle differences!

We have only sailed on HAL ships and have been very satisfied. But, we would like to "branch" out and be able to compare and try another cruise line so decided to do baby steps. Booked the 5 day repositioning cruise from L.A. back to Vancouver on the Star Princess in early May.

 

Am I nervous-you bet. I like my comfort zone and am definitely stepping out of it. :eek:

I believe the Star Princess is the same size as the Grand Princess at 109,000 GT. The Zuiderdam (Vista Class) is around 82,000 GT.

We found the Grand just too much walking for us, and inconvenient to get around. We only made it to the showroom in the bow ONCE. We usually settled for the lounge mid-deck. Also be aware the Promenade Deck does not encircle the ship as it does on HAL. We often had to go up a deck or down a deck to get where we wanted to go.

And we found it very difficult to get answers from the personnel on the Grand. They often times didn't know the answer but never volunteered to find out the answer either.

The one big complaint was toward the end of the 12 day cruise, there was paperwork in the cabin to complete as to your departure time, your plans. I completed the paperwork that we would be staying in Venice for 3 days before flying home. When our luggage tags arrived, the letter stated "Gold tags attached" only when I looked the tags were Silver. I went to the Purser's Desk to ask and the girl said "OH NO, Silver tags your luggage would have gone straight to the airport", she laid the Gold tags on the counter and walked away, didn't even attempt to apologize. I envisioned our luggage at the airport and us running around like chicken's with heads cut off trying to find our luggage, with our letter stating GOLD tags, anyone would think the tags attached were indeed GOLD.

We did find the food, cabin size & beds comparable to HAL,

I just felt the personnel were not happy in their work at all.

Hope you have better luck!

Only thing I disliked on both the Crown and Caribbean Princess was ships were too crowded very hard to get seats for shows, but I thought ships were nicer than Hals and food was about the same.

<snip>but the crew seemed far less stressed and far more eager to please than we've seen on our last two HAL cruises. But everyone's mileage varies.

Agree 100%. I think we've had this conversation before:).

One other comment. We started with Princess and after 5 cruises got tired of the same thing. We always had a mini-suite and the balcony on a lot of the ships are not covered. In fact, one of the comments you see quite often and everybody above you can see what you are doing. No shade, etc. So, when you pick a cabin, make sure it is under a overhang if a uncovered balcony bothers you. The other thing we noticed was the constant announcements that we could hear everywhere - including when we were ashore. In all fairness, we have not sailed Princess in over 5 years so things might have changed. After our last TA on Princess, we decided to try HA. We found that HA fits our cruising style. Rest, relaxation, laid back, etc. And we were by that time able to do a Neptune Suite. You know what they say, once you sail in a suite, tough to go back to something else. So any comparison I might make would be skewed toward HA. By all means, try other cruise lines and see what fits for you. We tried Carnival - and that did not fit at all for us. I hope you have a great trip. You might want to try the Coral Princess or Island Princess if you desire a smaller ship. We loved both of them but did not like the Star or Golden Princess because of their size. But we are all different. Enjoy.

It is good to compare..

Let us know how it turns out.

We may be contemplating a Princess cruise in 2015.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, suggestions, hints, etc!

I am already taking back my "not impressed" about having to fax the proof of CCL stocks in-I went to Staples and paid to fax it (and it's the same price as snail mail and a LOT faster) and by the time I got home I had an e-mail from Princess showing the credit already...that is service!

I also have a couple other e-mails from them welcoming us as first time passengers on Princess with what I consider great stuff-a couple of videos of their dining areas and where places are, etc. I think that is great customer service to newbies. They also have links on just about everything you could imagine aboard the ship on these e-mails so very informative in my opinion.

We are not picky by any means so unless something disastrous happens I think we will be quite satisfied. I did book us in a mini-suite but no idea if the balcony is covered or not. Doesn't really matter (this time) as it's a short cruise and weather might or might not be nasty. (I'm just one that needs to know I could go on the balcony-little bit claustrophobic).

Thanks for the info on the Promenade deck-my husband won't be thrilled about that. :o I'm not going to tell him-he can find that out himself!

I don't want to start a smoking thread issue here but I was happy to be told they do not allow smoking on balconies on Princess but HAL still does.

I am hoping I like Princess-gives us more options for itineraries and change is the spice of life, right? :D

Glad your obc worked out well. I've had some problems getting mine applied.