Princess Ruby vs Holland Nieuw Amsterdam

[victorpunto]

Hi. I want to book a cruise and I have not decided yet.

 

I am intersted in Princess Ruby and Nieuw Amsterdam, but I do not know which one is better for me.

 

Would anybody tell me pros and cons of each one?

 

What is it include with standard fare in each one? Which one has better food?

 

Princess is bigger than Nieuw Amsterdam and the first one can accomodate up to 3000 passengers. Is it possibly to see long queues? Is it so much crowd?

 

Has anybody got ocenview staterooms' pictures (obstructed view)?

 

Thanks!!

 

Victor

[cwtravel]

Hello,

I have sailed on the Oosterdam (Alaska) and the Zuiderdam (Caribbean) and also on the Ruby. The wife and I are both in our late 40's and we generally cruise a few times a year with 20+ cruises under my belt. We also usually cruise in the spring/summer and fall and prefer to not have loads of kids on the sailing. Previous cruises have been to the Caribbean, Europe, Alaska and one trans-Atlantic from England to San Juan. While price and ports of call definitely weigh in our ship decision I very seriously doubt we will cruise HAL again anytime soon, if at all.

 

HAL Vista class ships have nice, comfortable staterooms, the service is generally very good, we like the wide, teak promenade deck, pricing is usually pretty good and they usually have good location options (they were the first line to have 7-night cruises to Aruba and Curacao). However, for us, in our late 40's, the demographic of the passengers is just too old with entertainment that appeals to that demographic. So, in my opinion it depends, especially on your age.

 

Chris

[pris993]

We are 63/77 love cruising, have nearly 40 cruises under our belt. We are elite on Princess, will be elite on Celebrity, have 3 stars with HAL. We have cruised 8 different cruise lines but prefer Princess, HAL and Celebrity primarily. We feel for our age group all 3 meet our needs and are very similar relative to food, service and entertainment.

 

We like traditional style cruising, love to dress for dinner and are not much interested in MUTS on Princess.

 

We generally book a balcony or mini suite but do sometimes book a sea view cabin. The cabins on all lines are similar. Location of the cabin is most important to us, we avoid cabins below the pool deck, above or below a show room to void noise problems.

 

We have cruised to Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, the Carribean, Western and Eastern Europe and the Middle East, plus Transatlantics and Pacifics.

 

We prefer the lounges on HAL and Celebrity for dancing. The entertainment on Celebrity is more original and varied -- sometimes we enjoy it - sometimes we don't but we give them credit for trying something different. Princess and HAL have typical Las Vegas style entertainment and lounge entertainers.

 

Relative to your question -- we have cruised on the Ruby, did a 16 day Transatlantic and loved it. Beautiful ship, did not feel crowded but we don't lay out near the pool. We prefer to find a more secluded spot.

 

We did a 7 day on the Eurodam in the Carribean last spring, which we also enjoyed. We are booked on the Rotterdam in the Middle East in 2012, here we booked an ocean view to save money.

 

The age of fellow passengers may vary by itinerary on the lines. The longer cruises do attract old folks but we always find a good mix on both lines.

 

Don't think you can go wrong on either ship.

[victorpunto]

Thank you very much! I really appreciate all comments.

 

In Princess Ruby, do you think Deck 8 - Emerald could be noisy?

 

Thanks again.

 

Victor

[lovevacadays]

Thank you very much! I really appreciate all comments.

 

In Princess Ruby, do you think Deck 8 - Emerald could be noisy?

 

Thanks again.

 

Victor

 

I've cruised Emerald deck a couple of times on other Princess ships and didn't find any problem with noise. We cruised mid-ship on Emerald. What cabin numbers are you looking at on Emerald? I think I've only heard people comment on some noise from Club Fusion on the Emerald mini's even numbers but that even sounded like it was minimal