need advice....celebrity v Holland American

Hi,

We are researching cruises to Asia early in the new year.We have narrowed it down to 2 cruises both with similar itineraries. One cruise is on Volendam ,the other on Celebrity Millennium.

We have cruised with celebrity before and loved it.....however we have not cruised with HAL.

The cruise will be for us one based on sight seeing so the size of the ship or the cabin category does not matter.

I know HAL do not have a drink package while in Australia but I don't know if they do overseas.

Can you please help us if you have sailed on both lines....your opinions would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Col & Di

Hi,

We are researching cruises to Asia early in the new year.We have narrowed it down to 2 cruises both with similar itineraries. One cruise is on Volendam ,the other on Celebrity Millennium.

We have cruised with celebrity before and loved it.....however we have not cruised with HAL.

The cruise will be for us one based on sight seeing so the size of the ship or the cabin category does not matter.

I know HAL do not have a drink package while in Australia but I don't know if they do overseas.

Can you please help us if you have sailed on both lines....your opinions would be most appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Col & Di

Like you, I have only cruised on Celebrity. However, if you are a non smoker, I recommend you check out HAL's smoking policy.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2084364

Holland America does have a drinks package. I guess they don't offer it in Australia. Some reading on the HAL board would give you lots of details.

It is likely that HAL will have an older average age PAX than X.

Pretty certain HAL offer packages in Asia.

Have never understood why CCL don't n Aus, but they don't.

Cruised on Volendam last November. We chose V because of the ports (Albany, Esperance, K.I. Etc) which we enjoyed very much. The ship is older, smaller but in very good condition with interesting decor. Staff members were very nice to the older passengers. But it was very quiet onboard during the day but ok in the evening with a small dance band, piano bar and theatre on offer. Most were very loyal cruisers to HAL, av age supposedly 77.

Alternatively we have cruised Celebrity on Solstice so could not compare Millenium but we really did enjoy the Celebrity experience.

I would choose either but would probably choose based on 1. the ports visited and 2. value for money. Enjoy whatever you choose.

HAL is very "traditional" if that makes sense, has slightly more refined service (best staff to guest ratio in the industry +mid sized ships), I would say the food is slightly better too, but their entertainment leaves a fair bit to be desired, especially if you're under 50.

X is more modern/hip, is more innovative and a lot better in the entertainment department + their entertainment appeals to a wider demographic. Personally I think X is a better "overall" product, but that probably has a lot to do with me not being in HAL's target audience of retired/semi retired cruisers.

Best way to decide is to go for yourself and try HAL, there's a reason why some people love cruise lines that others don't, the cruise lines deliberately target different audiences for their product so you never know until you try it for yourself, if HAL sounds like the kind of experience that would suit you.

We have cruised on both Millennium and Volendam in Asia.

Food on Volendam was miles ahead of Millennium.

The age profile you would expect on each of the lines is not the same in Asia, both were fairly similar.

Whilst Millennium is Celebrity it's not as upmarket or luxurious as Celebrity solstice.

The Celebrity cruise was a very mixed crowd, a lot of Americans and Russians very few Australians. The Volendam was a very mixed group, lots of Australians.

Our Millennium cruise was the first on the route from Singapore to Hong Kong, there were issues with visas and timing, Celebrity didn't handle it particularly well, a lot of the American passengers didn't cope at all well. I am certain they have it all running like clockwork now! Our Volendam trip was also the first on the route to Burma, there were a number of issues but HAL handled them exceptionally well.

Both ships are fine although I would prefer the Volendam if I had a choice. I would choose based on itinerary and dates. If you are looking at the Singapore to Hong Kong via Vietnam itinerary I would choose the cruise with the most overnights in port as a lot of the ports are a long way from the cities.

You will have a great time whichever you choose, it's a great area to cruise.

We have cruised both an equal number of times. We give the nod to Celebrity but they were/are very close. I think the food selection, variety and standard was slightly better on Celebrity. Service was equally good with both. We sailed the Volemdam from Sydney to Singapore as it had more port calls than Celebrity. The other thing you should look at at is any advantage with perks you may acquire by sticking with celeb.

Passenger age seemed to us to that HAL was maybe slightly older but on a recent Princess cruise we felt like teenagers (we're in our mid 60s).

Whichever you choose you wont be disappointed.

We have sailed on both the Volendam and Millie and HAL wins hands down. The service, food p, ambience is much nicer on HAL. HAL generally attracts an older crowd so the activties are geared towards an older age group. The Millie on the other hand did have a mix of ages on the cruise so there was more happening in terms of activities. We did find the mix of nationalities on the Millie a bit challenging esp at meal times and whenever there was a need to queue. We have not sailed on the Volendam in Asia so we cannot really comment as to whether the same mix of nationalities are on there but if we were to sail Asia again and the itineraries were similar, we would pick HAL. :)

We have sailed on both the Volendam and Millie and HAL wins hands down. The service, food p, ambience is much nicer on HAL. HAL generally attracts an older crowd so the activties are geared towards an older age group. The Millie on the other hand did have a mix of ages on the cruise so there was more happening in terms of activities. We did find the mix of nationalities on the Millie a bit challenging esp at meal times and whenever there was a need to queue. We have not sailed on the Volendam in Asia so we cannot really comment as to whether the same mix of nationalities are on there but if we were to sail Asia again and the itineraries were similar, we would pick HAL. :)

May I throw 2 questions in here:

What was the mix of nationalities and

What problems did that mix cause.

I have never had any real problems with the situation and am interested to know,

May I throw 2 questions in here:

 

What was the mix of nationalities and

 

What problems did that mix cause.

 

I have never had any real problems with the situation and am interested to know,

A mix of Chinese, Russians, Australians, Americans with the Chinese and Russians being the majority. There was no concept of queuing and it was interesting how they all had a "friend" at the start of the queue...so the front of the queue pretty much became a massive group of people - who funnily did not seem to know each other :rolleyes: Meal times were the same where they would cut in line because they had a "friend" in the line or felt that they needed to be served first. It is like there is no consideration for anyone else that might be there.

They also found it hard to understand the whole - "do not touch food and put it back if you don't want it" etiquette as well. :(

Oh and the noise - don't really have an issue with general chatter but when they are constantly talking (quite loudly) in the corridor - and not walking past mind you - congregating and talking loudly in a group in the corridor - irrespective of the time of the day. Quite frustrating as again it was like there was no respect or care for anyone else around them. :o

A mix of Chinese, Russians, Australians, Americans with the Chinese and Russians being the majority. There was no concept of queuing and it was interesting how they all had a "friend" at the start of the queue...so the front of the queue pretty much became a massive group of people - who funnily did not seem to know each other :rolleyes: Meal times were the same where they would cut in line because they had a "friend" in the line or felt that they needed to be served first. It is like there is no consideration for anyone else that might be there.

 

They also found it hard to understand the whole - "do not touch food and put it back if you don't want it" etiquette as well. :(

 

Oh and the noise - don't really have an issue with general chatter but when they are constantly talking (quite loudly) in the corridor - and not walking past mind you - congregating and talking loudly in a group in the corridor - irrespective of the time of the day. Quite frustrating as again it was like there was no respect or care for anyone else around them. :o

:eek:

And I know some people who think Aussies are rude.

:eek:

 

And I know some people who think Aussies are rude.

I guess each culture view things differently and we all have our "quirks" :p

I do think though that a number of "non English" speaking nationalities - use the language barrier as an excuse for not following the rules.

That being said - I did have one American lady who put in her order for toast as I was waiting to give mine (the server was busy and I was waiting for her to finish what she was doing before giving her my order). The lady noticed me and gave me some excuse for cutting in (can't quite remember what is was but it was really something along the lines of needing to tell the server what you wanted) and I just told her that I preferred to wait for my turn given the server was clearly busy and I was waiting for her to be able to take my order. I did get a sheepish apology though :p

While it is interesting to cruise with different Nationalities and Cultures , the language barrier does become a big hurdle.....especially when its applied selectively....:rolleyes:

While it is interesting to cruise with different Nationalities and Cultures , the language barrier does become a big hurdle.....especially when its applied selectively....:rolleyes:

 

 

 

I often tell my Pommie friends that I don't speak English, I think that they believe me

While it is interesting to cruise with different Nationalities and Cultures , the language barrier does become a big hurdle.....especially when its applied selectively....:rolleyes:

 

 

 

True...:D

There were quite a lot of Russians on our Millie cruise too, we were several hours late leaving initially because a few of them didn't hand in their passports to ship staff to enable final clearance out of Singapore. Despite staff making constant announcements and searching the ship it took a few hours to locate them on board. Meant the ship had to go flat out to get to the first port on time costing X a fortune in extra fuel.

There were quite a lot of Russians on our Millie cruise too, we were several hours late leaving initially because a few of them didn't hand in their passports to ship staff to enable final clearance out of Singapore. Despite staff making constant announcements and searching the ship it took a few hours to locate them on board. Meant the ship had to go flat out to get to the first port on time costing X a fortune in extra fuel.

We had a similar issue too but we did leave on time. We just had to wait a lot longer at muster as they made announcements for those passengers who had not handed in their passports. :cool: