Help wanted celebrity vs HAL vs Royal

hi

We are planning a cruise in July with our three adult children and their spouses /significant others. We have cruised a lot in recent years but not with adult kids, I’m leaning towards the Northern European Hal cruise or the Mediterranean with celebrity , princes or royal , E want a good mix of entertainment and food (food being impt to husband and son!) , any input would be appreciated , the celebrity ship would be the constellation and the princess ship is the crown while the royal is the jewel of the seas

Thanks !

Have sailed on all three...elite on X, four star on HAL and a couple of cruises on Royal. Royal has by far the best entertainment of the three and by far (in my limited experience) the worst food.

Celebrity and Holland America both have good food and a somewhat older demographic. This won't be so evident on a cruise 14 days or under. HAL's long cruises are the ones that draw the really older group.

I think you will enjoy whichever you choose but it might be a choice between entertainment or food, lol. The itinerary and price would be deciding factors for me.

The most important difference to me is X no smoking anywhere indoor policy. Second is the food on X is the best of the three. I prefer X's service as well.

Which HAL ship are you considering.

Constellation is on of Celebrity's "older" ships, Jewel is several generations old within Royal, not one of the newer mega ships (which means I like it better :D)

Hal will generally have the oldest demographic, with Celebrity 5- 15 years younger, and Royal would be the youngest. Not always true, but generally.

Which HAL ship are you considering.

 

Constellation is on of Celebrity's "older" ships, Jewel is several generations old within Royal, not one of the newer mega ships (which means I like it better :D)

 

Hal will generally have the oldest demographic, with Celebrity 5- 15 years younger, and Royal would be the youngest. Not always true, but generally.

Our first HAL cruise was when we were in our early sixties and we qualified for the kids program.....if that gives you an idea of the demographics. They don't call it God's Waiting Room for nothing.;)

There are really not enough differences between the 3 lines to really get excited about .

The key here will be the price we would pay & the ships itinerary . That would be our first consideration & we have sailed 4 lines many times :D

If it is a longer cruise line 14 + days generally HAL has the better itineraries . The demographics are usually 60 + . .Celebrity is 40 + & Royal is any age .. Princess is also any age ;but more 30 to 50s

Food for all 4 lines is good in the MDR & Buffets . If you want the better food you need to pay extra for the specialty restaurants ..Princess ,Royal & Celebrity would have the better entertainment .

Best of luck in your selection of a cruise:)

Thanks everyone, we are leaning towards celebrity and princess, but as my husband says, theres really no such thing as a bad cruise!

Thanks everyone, we are leaning towards celebrity and princess, but as my husband says, theres really no such thing as a bad cruise!

Your husband is a wise man....wait are we married to the same person?;p

In your position I’d say Celebrity

Royal

HAL

Been on all of them and would choose Celebrity or HAL. Your adult kids would enjoy X better. The entertainment on X is much better and food about the same.

Of the three cruise lines I prefer Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. They all have plus and minuses, but I think Celebrity and Royal Caribbean are more similar to each other than Holland America.

We have been on HAL once and Celebrity once. I call our HAL ship a

"bucket of bolts"- very worn down ship and not much going on.

We are looking forward to our next Celebrity experience next year

on the Reflection. Our daughter and her husband had a negative experience

on HAL and will not sail with them again. We love Princess too.

Is HAL on the Kongisdam? Love that ship. HAL and Celebrity are very similar but HAL continually has the better itineraries.

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hi yes, HAL is the koningsdam, and i actually love the itinerary myself

Food on HAL and Celebrity are comparable...although each line has their pros and cons. Food on RCI is a step down fromt he other two lines. As to entertainment, much will depend on the actual ship. You can also expect an older passenger demographic on HAL....with Celebrity not far behind. RCI tends to attract more younger adults...many with even younger family.

Hank

P.S. 5 Star Mariner on HAL, Diamond on RCI and Elite Plus on Celebrity. Only posting this to show that we do know all three lines.

hi yes, HAL is the koningsdam, and i actually love the itinerary myself

Than go for HAL.

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The most important difference to me is X no smoking anywhere indoor policy. Second is the food on X is the best of the three. I prefer X's service as well.

We have never done HAL, due to their smoking policy. This policy changed last year to prohibit smoking on balconies.

However, my sense is that HAL had become a magnet for smokers. When we were in Denali, Alaska on the TNT day bus tour, when about 40+ people from HAL got on the bus, you could smell the cigarette smoke on their clothes. It filled the air on the bus, since the windows were closed.

Even with the HAL smoking change, I will stick to Celebrity, NCL and Royal.

Just to add in, we did a HAL to the Caribbean and Alaska. While the demographics was older (I was in my 60s, husband in 70s), there were people of all ages so I didn't feel like we were in the nursing home. As far as entertainment, it wasn't great except for the BBKing Jazz shows that were on both cruises. Loved it.

We've been on all three (or 4) lines. We agree that X has the best food & service of the 3 (or 4 including Princess) with less announcements and R probably has the best entertainment with a younger demographic. HAL is more traditional. We actually prefer the older, smaller, well maintained ships for better service. Larger ships tend to have a lot of long lines & waits, something I prefer to avoid while on vacation.

Although we prefer Celebrity, if I was cruising with my adult children I would choose Royal or Princess for the atmosphere and entertainment for them. However, if smoke bothers you, they allow smoking in “half” the casino. Like smoke doesn’t drift?

RCCL by a mile.

hi

We are planning a cruise in July with our three adult children and their spouses /significant others. We have cruised a lot in recent years but not with adult kids, I’m leaning towards the Northern European Hal cruise or the Mediterranean with celebrity , princes or royal , E want a good mix of entertainment and food (food being impt to husband and son!) , any input would be appreciated , the celebrity ship would be the constellation and the princess ship is the crown while the royal is the jewel of the seas

Thanks !

We would go with Crown Princess because both the entertainment and food will be good.

I’m going to take a different tack. We went on a western Med Cruise for our 20th wedding anniversary, so we would have been in our early 40s. Had never been to Europe. We were so busy doing the ports it didn’t matter what the food and entertainment was like! All we cared about was bed and the temp of the shower water.

My point is that the itinerary may be more important than typical cruise issues in this case.

If food is important than Royal is NOT the way to go unless you plan to spend the $$ and use their specialty restaurants regularly. Food in the MDR on Royal is very mediocre.

We would most likely opt for Celebrity...however since Koningsdam is such a new ship....it might be your best...the X ship is much older and more limited in what it can offer, although we did love Connie the last time we sailed her in 2014

Although our favorite is Celebrity, we sailed RCI Indy this past May and found the MDR food to be quite good. I would definitely choose Royal if sailing with my adult children. Although we would probably return to our cabin on the early side, they are able to dance the night away and still get up and tour.