HAL vs Princess

[jody]

I've taken 5 Princess cruises (Med, Caribbean, Tahiti and Alaska) on different sized ships and all of them have been excellent cruises. There might have been small bumps along the way, but nothing that wouldn't be expected on any cruise. I'm taking my first HAL cruise this summer (a family member's choice), so I will truly be able to compare after that, but from my research a HAL plus is bathtubs in most cabins (even if they are small mini-tubs) versus tubs generally only in mini suites and full suites on Princess. It appears that Princess room layouts are a bit superior with plenty of cubby and closet space that is well placed. I hear the closet situation on HAL can be annoying.

 

I think Princess has a nice clientele age, with an average in the 40's and 50's, which obviously skews higher for longer cruises and those to Alaska and a bit younger for shorter and Caribbean cruises. My personal concern with HAL will be that I will be sailing with an older and more sedate clientele. I enjoy a bit of nightlife on my cruises and I like when others on the cruise are participating in that also. It sounds as if HAL's ships are a bit more 'nautical' with more of a classic cruise liner look, but I purposely select Princess ships that have the wrap around promenade deck, so I can have the full nautical experience on those ships.

 

People say HAL has great stewards and staff but I've always experienced great stewards and staff on Princess too (with the occasional minor exception here or there).

 

I'm excited to try HAL to check it out. I expect that I won't turn into a HAL convert, but one never knows until you try it. I suggest you try Princess and either you'll have a great time and will have more cruising options or else you'll know that HAL is the best option for you in the future. Knowledge is powerful!

 

Happy sailing.

[zookiebird]

Thank you all so much for your teriffic comments and advice. Like many of you we're itinerary driven and the British Isles cruise sounds really special. So, I think we'll be giving Princess a try.

We do love HAL but like DeepWaterMariner said "If you try a cruise line different than what you are use you can't expect things to be exactly the same. We just go with the flow and don't dwell on what we miss from another line."

Again, many thanks to you all.

[zookiebird]

Thank you all so much for your teriffic comments and advice. Like many of you we're itinerary driven and the British Isles cruise sounds really special. So, I think we'll be giving Princess a try.

We do love HAL but like DeepWaterMariner said "If you try a cruise line different than what you are use you can't expect things to be exactly the same. We just go with the flow and don't dwell on what we miss from another line."

Again, many thanks to you all.

[iancal]

Cruised on both, and like them both. Many similarities, some differences. We find the service to be of the same quality, as is the food in the MDR. We prefer HAL's Lido, HAL beds, and HAL coffee. We prefer Princess entertainment and to a certain extent their sun decks on certain ships.

 

Some folks on this HAL board think HAL is the best which means every other cruise line is is sub standard in all areas. Same on the Princess board-some feel Princess is best and the others less so.

 

Reality is they both have many ships, many choices, lots of happy customers, and their ships sail full. After that it is down to the specific ship/crew/itinerary and of course each cruiser preference.

 

I do not think you can loose by booking either one.

[m steve]

If you like coffee, don't sail Princess.

[West Coast Couple]

We've cruised HAL once (booked for our second cruise this summer) and Princess once. While there were some things I really liked about Princess, there was one situation which happened (employee attitudes) that turned me off Princess. Each night, we had gifts delivered to us which didn't belong to us. The names on the cards were different each night. The first night I had to call back our stateroom attendant to pick up the wine. Second night, I had to chase the attendant down the hall to give the next bottle of wine back (he didn't want to take it back), and then the third night the attendant refused to take the chocolate covered strawberries back, saying that it's not his problem, he has delivered it to the right room. That's when I went to guest relations and was told that our cabin # and the cruise # were the same and this happens on most cruises. (People buy gifts for delivery to passengers and instead of putting the cabin # on the form, they put the cruise # instead). So I asked why if this happens often, has it been so hard for me to return these to the room attendant. I also asked if they even bother to find the correct cabin to deliver the items to by looking up the names on the cards. She wouldn't answer that question so my guess was they didn't. It really bothered me that someone out there paid good money to buy gifts to have delivered to loved ones and the employees cared very little that these gifts arrived to the correct people.

[Bugslyboo.com]

I have sailed HAL 4 times and Princess 3 times. We enjoy both lines. I would compare them as follows (in my personal opinion).

 

HAL advantages:

Softer beds and roomier cabins

Service tends to be a touch friendlier

Nicer promenade deck and dining room

MDR menu available for room service

Smaller MDR portion sizes (I actually have room for dessert!)

Better breakfast entrees and breakfast pastries

MDR tables for two with more privacy

 

Princess advantages:

Better shows, music, and nightlife

Better pizza, pasta, and desserts (in my opinion)

International Cafe with delicious salads, quiches, sweets

More interesting itineraries (for us)

Pub Lunch available on sea days

More flexible buffet / eatery hours

Movies Under the Stars

 

Basically, I would give HAL an advantage on cabin/ship comfort, enthusiastic service, and room service options. I think Princess has more interesting entertainment, especially at night, and slightly better food (based on my priorities; each line has their specialties). I wouldn't hesitate to book either line. In fact, we had booked a Princess British Isles cruise for July and had to cancel due to scheduling conflicts. We will be sailing HAL to Bermuda instead.

 

Having sailed both, I think these comments are spot on! IMHO the two lines are very close, I was telling somebody the other day that HAL is, for me, one notch up from Princess, but not at the Cunard level. The smaller ships w/princess, like the coral princess & island princess, seem to be better overall with the service, public/staterooms ratios versus the larger ships like Grand and Sapphire. Coming from Europe (with jet lag) having a buffet open 24 hours a day is big plus for princess. The deserts are def. better on princess according to my wife. Overall I like HAL better - the beds and the service do it for me. My wife says they are equal for her and she would just choose based on the itinerary.

[hrhdhd]

I agree with previous posters that the lines are very similar. Lately we've been cruising Princess more. We sailed on the Emerald Princess last December even though I was afraid I wouldn't like such a big ship, but we liked it so much we've booked the Emerald again for the other itinerary it sails. I like a 10-day cruise, as well, and HAL doesn't seem to have as many of those and they are usually much more expensive than the 7-day. (Of course, I expect them to be more expensive, but they are usually a lot more expensive.)

 

I think the service on Princess is terrific; everyone always says HAL personnel are a step above other lines, but I don't see it in comparison to Princess. We've always been treated well on our Princess cruises. And the front desk is always helpful.

[readytogo2]

I have sailed with HAL once and 6 times with Princess. We very much enjoyed our time on the Zaandam in 2004, even though we were in a minority,very few children and younger people, there were many wheelchairs and scooters, one which rolled over my foot:eek:. The food was better on HAL as was the service.Even the Lido service was better with the Lido crew helping find us a table. Not saying Princess was horrible but just not as good as HAL. Coffee was much better on HAL. Our cruise on HAL was a very relaxing family vacation that even my kids thoroughly enjoyed(their first cruise) but there weren't many activities by the pool but many chair hogs. On HAL there wasn't much going on at night time either. It just was a very relaxing cruise with extremely good service. The reason we have cruised more with Princess is mostly because the fare was more in our budget and the night life was more active. I must say I do enjoy the perks of being Platinum :).

We now are about to book a cruise in September on the Nieuw Amsterdam with my sister and her husband, I am sure we will again enjoy HAL:)

[TraelorMex]

Wife and I spent the week on a princess cruise wishing we had stayed with HAL :rolleyes:

[mightycruisequeen]

IMO, the Caribbean Princess should have about 1000 less passengers on it. It just feels so very crowded, especially at the pools.

If there is a comparable itinerary/price on a HAL ship, I'd recommend staying with HAL.

[3rdGenCunarder]

IMO, the Caribbean Princess should have about 1000 less passengers on it. It just feels so very crowded, especially at the pools.

If there is a comparable itinerary/price on a HAL ship, I'd recommend staying with HAL.

 

It has been a while since I looked at one of the Fromer/Fodor guidebooks to cruises and ports of call. But I think at one time, they included in the data an estimate of the ratio of public space (area) to number of passengers. HAL ships probably have a much better ratio.

[jerseyridgearts]

We sailed the British Islands on the Grand Princess last May and were flabbergasted by the rude and inexperienced staff - with 4 exceptions (our room steward, our dinner dining room waiters and the ship's dr.).

 

The itinerary was the first for the Grand after drydock and the ship was not ready- a separate issue. The shore excursion staff was beyond rude and the excursions were a mess (waiting two hours to board bus transportation leaving the ship....excursions cut short to allow additional time to shop at tourist traps...very poor tour guides). Specialty restaurant staff were terrible in general - and the food was unacceptable (especially the Italian restaurant). Bar staff routinely did not offer table service for some reason and were generally unfriendly. The re-designed center of the ship lacked sufficient seating - was generally jammed with long lines from morning until night.

 

The lower level staff made an effort to be friendly despite the ship's condition and their obvious inexperience but the upper level staff/management were terrible....one officer knocked into an elderly woman at the buffet, turned and muttered something at her while a bus boy hurried to help her up and to gather up her tray...the officer made it very clear to all how important he was and how unimportant guests were.

 

Our room steward was good and did his best to make up for the shortcomings of our mini suite cabin (flooding etc.) - he was professional and a credit to Princess as were our two dining room waiters. Our dinner waiters were exceptional men. I was mortified by the way their supervisors spoke to them and treated them. They asked me to ignore the supervisor's behavior for their sake.

 

So, instead of making the best of a bad situation (deplorable ship conditions) Grand Princess staff went out of their way to ensure that few if any cruisers enjoyed their time on board. And to add insult to injury, public comments were made by Princess headquarters staff after the cruise in response to overwhelming customer complaints stating that we got what we paid for....sadly untrue.

 

I am sure there are many enthusiastic, loyal Princess cruisers but our first cruise on Princess was our last cruise on Princess. We'll be back to HAL.

[Miss Elli]

DW and I love HAL and have totally enjoyed all our cruises with them. We have not been on Princess yet but because of what we think is a great itinerary we are now considering a British Isles cruise on the Caribbean Princess in May, 2013. Would greatly appreciate any comparisons of HAL vs Princess and insight on this particular cruise. Many thanks.

 

Although we like a lot of things about Princess for us Hal is a star above. What spoilt our last trip with Princess was the constant pressure from the crew trying to sell. They thought that at every port all we wanted was shopping advice and vouchers. Hal crew for us are much better at customer service!

[3rdGenCunarder]

Although we like a lot of things about Princess for us Hal is a star above. What spoilt our last trip with Princess was the constant pressure from the crew trying to sell. They thought that at every port all we wanted was shopping advice and vouchers. Hal crew for us are much better at customer service!

 

I forgot about the selling on Princess. The first day the crew were very aggressive about selling soda cards. I told one waiter to come back when they had champagne cards. He looked at me like I was crazy, but at least he went away.

 

And on the day of the galley tour, they had tables set up at several points in the tour (in the galley itself) where you could buy their cookbooks. At the first table, they told us it would be the only opportunity to buy the cookbooks. Maybe the first table didn't know about the second and third tables???

[pris993]

We are elite on Princess, 3 star on HAL, find the two lines very similar, actually prefer Princess. We typical cruise Princess, HAL, Celebrity and Cunard. We were very impressed with Cunard, specifically the Queen Victoria. If I was considering a British Isles cruise may check out Cunard. If you like HAL, Cunard is like HAL, only more formal.

[Corinne Marie]

We are elite on Princess, but tried HAL this month and it was wonderful. We were upgraded to a large suite and had all the emenities, including Neptune Lounge. Would much prefer HAL and all of the workers were very friendly and they seemed to care about you as an individual. Princess must be hurting as they have some sales going on right now....I am also very disappointed in Princess, for not rendering aid to the stranded fishermen, 2 of which died, back in February, There were passengers who saw them in the water and were notifying crew,....I am done with Princess...HAL you do such a better cruise than Princess and I am glad to be part of your family.....