REVIEW: B2B-Royal Princess and HAL Eurodam

[tennisobo]

About me: I am a female in my 50’s and have taken 13 cruises. 10 were with Princess. Two were with Holland America and one was with NCL.

I was on the January 26 sailing of the Royal Princess with my husband. We stayed in an inside stateroom on Lido deck. I was on the February 2 sailing of the HAL Eurodam with my sister-in-law. We also stayed in an inside stateroom. We reserved one of the extra-large insides (category K) on Main deck.

 

 

I really enjoyed the Royal. Some of the things I liked were:

Nice shady choices on deck. My favorites were on deck 17 under the jogging/walking track and far aft on the Promenade deck just outside the Vista Lounge.

The TVs in the staterooms are great. There is about a 32 inch flat screen in the room that features in-room movies that you can start and stop whenever you want. The movie selection was not huge but was more than adequate for a seven day cruise. There were some movies I wanted to see but didn’t have time to view before the end of the cruise.

The photo studio is finally in a good location. It’s easy to access without clogging up hallways during the busy evening hours.

I enjoyed the fountain shows at the Lido midship pool area. They weren’t wonderful but were a nice way to pass the time before the MUTS movie in the evening started.

The larger piazza is lovely with lots of scheduled entertainment.

The larger Horizon Court/Horizon Bistro/Horizon Pastry Shop was great. It’s almost too big…but notice I said almost. I never had trouble finding food I wanted to eat or a table. The table service was nearly always prompt with dirty dishes cleared away and clean silverware wrapped in napkins replaced ready for the next occupant. There were some times in the Horizon Terrace (outside area just aft of the Horizon Court) where we had to search for silverware, however. I liked being able to get my own water, tea, coffee, milk, and hot chocolate from the beverage stations including at the Horizon Terrace. There were staff there to get drinks for me if I wanted them to.

Evening activities were many and varied and typical of other Princess ships.

I enjoyed the displayed photos from Princess cruisers that were featured as wall art on the cabin decks. They were beautiful. Each deck seemed to feature a different region. Very nice.

Muster was quick, informative, and efficient.

 

 

Some of the things I didn’t like and are worth noting (to me, anyway)

The library is very small. I was not surprised but it was still a disappointment. The glass doors were always open and there was no sign-out. You just took the book you wanted to read and they trusted you to bring it back.

The Promenade deck is different as everyone has said. I didn’t dislike it but missed being able to walk around that deck and I still miss the full size loungers that are found on the promenade deck of other ships and other lines. I didn’t miss it that much, however. The walking/jogging track was fine for my daily walk. The workout stations at the track are a nice addition. The soot issue is clearly a problem on the track. It didn’t impede my walk but just looked bad. Some pieces of soot were as big as a quarter.

 

 

Now on to my cruise on the Eurodam:

I’ll state upfront that this ship was a disappointment to me. I had a lovely time with my sister-in-law but we both wished we were back on a Princess ship. I really wanted to like this ship since it would give us more options for future cruises.

 

 

Here’s what I liked about my cruise on the Eurodam:

As stated earlier, we had a category K inside on Main deck. These staterooms are huge by cruise line standards. The room is significantly bigger and even the bathroom was bigger. Very nice!

Half Moon Cay is really beautiful. The beach is much nicer than Princess Cays with lovely white, fine sand and no rocks in the water. We did a ship’s excursion here to swim with the stingrays. Great excursion with only five of us and the stingray handler in the water with the rays. And it was only $25. Amazing…both the experience and the price!

The Promenade deck was a true promenade. It was wide enough that there were many full size loungers that didn’t get in the way of walkers. There were also shuffleboard areas on this deck. That was fine but there was one day when some shuffleboard players were quite noisy. That wasn’t a huge problem since we could move to another part of the Promenade that was quiet, but it was a little annoying.

The Crow’s Nest/Exploration Café is a fantastic space. If Princess would have an area like this I would never even consider another line again. On the Eurodam this is on one of the top decks all the way forward. It is a combination of Library (with a large and varied selection), coffee bar, internet area, game tables, board games, traditional bar, and recliner-type loungers facing the windows. This was by far our favorite part of the ship. I can’t say enough how much we enjoyed it and will miss it when we are back on a Princess ship. (PCL…please, please consider a space like this on future ships.)

Here’s a small plus for the Eurodam: There were never any housekeeping carts in the hallways. How do they do that?

I heard some nice jazz in several locations in the evening. Sometimes it was a trio but usually it was a single performer singing and accompanying himself on guitar or piano.

There were excellent adjustable reading lights for each bed.

The in-room dvd selection was very large…over 1000 titles to choose from. If the title you wanted was already checked out you had to choose another one. (On the Royal there were much fewer movies but anyone could access them at any time)

There was a part of the cabin waste basket for paper to be recycled. We all know how much paper we end up tossing out on a cruise. I think Princess recycles it but it must be sorted by crew. It seems more efficient for cabin occupants to separate the trash from the paper.

The towels in our bathroom were not changed unless we left them on the floor. I’m in two minds about that. Part of me thinks that is good because I really don’t need clean towels every day and I’m sure it saves lots of water and manpower. But I did like getting clean towels every day on the Royal. This may not be the way all stewards supplied towels, but this was our experience.

 

 

Things I didn’t like about the Eurodam:

The atrium is very small and dark. Basically it’s just three levels with a lounge on each level. The passenger services desk is on the lowest level. I never wanted to be in the atrium except when I needed something from passenger services.

Now here’s a pretty silly complaint: The carpet in the public areas on the Eurodam looked bad. They really looked like something you would expect in a budget motel. They were very plain and had little to no padding. It was like walking on indoor/outdoor carpet and didn’t look much better than that. They were very plain. The carpets on the Princess ships we have been on were beautiful. The carpet on the Eurodam sometimes didn’t even match the other carpet they were next to. For instance there would be dark red carpet in the elevator foyers and orange carpet on the adjoining stairs. I know…it seems kind of petty but I thought the ship interior would be more attractive than it was.

Muster was not well done. We had to assemble at our muster station outside without our lifejackets. You checked in with a crew member who had a sheet of paper so he could cross your name off the list for that station. Then he had a bull horn that he used to call out names of people who hadn’t checked in with him. There were quite a few missing. That went on for about 30 minutes. You could barely hear the poor guy but you could also vaguely hear the crew at the adjacent muster stations trying to take a roll call for their station. Finally they let us leave. Very inefficient. (The Royal muster was in lounges and our cruise cards were scanned as we entered. This was much quicker and less disruptive to embarkation day activities. On the Royal more information was given about what to do in an emergency)

There was not enough space for sitting outside in the shade. The aft pool is uncovered with no deck above it. So there’s no shade there. The midship pool area is small and nearly all of the loungers are in the sun. The only shady areas were in the for-fee cabanas that took lots of deck place including the deck above the midship pool area which is off limits unless you’ve paid for a cabana. The only option we could find was the Promenade deck. That’s a great option but it would have been nice to have another choice.

The buffet was always crowded and always had lines. Bummer! For the first 48 hours there was no self-service of anything. That was fine with me since it would probably limit the cases of illness. However, they did not have enough staff to clean the tables during those two days, making it difficult to find a table without dirty dishes on it.

One day in the Exploration Café our dirty cups and napkins were still on the table when we came back to the same area in the evening. And that was later in the week when self-service was allowed so there should have been enough staff to take care of glasses, cups and napkins.

 

 

Now here are a few things that were okay on both ships:

Elevators: I read lots of complaints by Princess cruisers about the elevators on the Royal. I never had to wait any longer than I would in a hotel or office building. I thought they were pretty quick. Certainly they were often full, but I was able to get on every time. They were not slower than any other elevators, either (IMO). The elevators on the Eurodam were the same size and had the same wait times.

I always enjoy the art displayed on Princess ships. The addition of the past passenger photos on stateroom decks was nice. The Eurodam had nice art too, but the subject matter was limited. The hallways display black and white photos of Holland America ships from the past and present. Nice, but not colorful at all in an already dark area. Other areas featured art either by Rembrandt (not originals, of course) or self portraits of Rembrandt. In one of the main stairways there were 8 self portraits of Rembrandt displayed on three decks. So the art itself was fine but there was too much that was without color and too much in similar style. That’s not a big issue, of course but added to the general darkness of the décor on the Eurodam.

 

 

In conclusion, I will not likely book another Holland America cruise. The overall darkness of the Eurodam’s interior didn’t impress me. It may be just what others are looking for, but not me. The small number of onboard activities and the lack of variety of activities were also disappointing. There was only one comedian with one show given at 11:00 PM on one night. The Royal had many more evening activities and a wider variety of activities both day and evening. There were several days and nights on the Eurodam that there was nothing we wanted to attend. The Royal was very bright without being garish. Even the casino was bright. The Princess carpets are gorgeous and the Eurodam carpets were awful. I don’t choose a ship based on carpeting but it is just an example of why the Eurodam didn’t appeal to me.

[slc22]

Hi, thanks for the comparisons of both ships. Good comments.

 

I agree with the Royal elevator comments. Same experience from my cruise ... Response time just not an issue. With your comparison that the elevator size and wait times were similar in both ships, this may help others.

 

Thanks!

[Luvmyrotti]

Thanks for the well stated comparisons and the likes and dislikes of each. We've considered booking HAL, and now I'm glad we didn't.

[InTheWASide]

In conclusion, I will not likely book another Holland America cruise. The overall darkness of the Eurodam’s interior didn’t impress me. It may be just what others are looking for, but not me. The small number of onboard activities and the lack of variety of activities were also disappointing. There was only one comedian with one show given at 11:00 PM on one night. The Royal had many more evening activities and a wider variety of activities both day and evening. There were several days and nights on the Eurodam that there was nothing we wanted to attend. The Royal was very bright without being garish. Even the casino was bright. The Princess carpets are gorgeous and the Eurodam carpets were awful. I don’t choose a ship based on carpeting but it is just an example of why the Eurodam didn’t appeal to me.

 

I would recommend try again with Nieuw Amsterdam. It's a sister to Eurodam but much lighter and brighter. Eurodam was designed to have a little more of an old-world European vibe. The browns, oranges, reds, etc. Nieuw Amsterdam is much lighter, brighter, blues and tans and silvers. A truly beautiful ship I think you would be highly impressed with

[tennisobo]

I would recommend try again with Nieuw Amsterdam. It's a sister to Eurodam but much lighter and brighter. Eurodam was designed to have a little more of an old-world European vibe. The browns, oranges, reds, etc. Nieuw Amsterdam is much lighter, brighter, blues and tans and silvers. A truly beautiful ship I think you would be highly impressed with

Is the deck plan of the Niew Amsterdam different? The layout of the Eurodam was not very open.

[janetz]

Thank you. We are booked on the Lido deck. Did you feel much movement? :)

[riclop]

Thanks for both reviews.

[tennisobo]

Thank you. We are booked on the Lido deck. Did you feel much movement? :)

No. We didn't feel much motion. The seas were not rough on our sailing. We like motion so I'm not sure I'm the best judge. We were in L111...which is the most forward inside stateroom. It's nice and quiet and close to pools, etc. Have a great cruise!

[need2cruisesoon]

You should post your review on the HAL forums as well, people there would be interested in reading it.

Edited February 16, 2014 by need2cruisesoon

[sunsetbeachgal]

Hi Susan,

 

We sailed on the Royal in July in the Med., and then our next cruise in November was on the HAL Eurodam. We sailed on the Eurodam with friends and chose it based on itinerary, and we had adjoining balconies on the 10 th floor so spent a lot of time in the Crows nest. While I liked the coffee bar there, I missed the international cafe on the Royal. Just not the same...

 

Agree with much of what you said.. The two ships really can't be compared in terms of the piazza and decor. We loved our Eurodam cruise, but would choose the Royal and Princess hands down over HAL any day. But HAL has some great itineraries, especially in Europe so I anticipate sailing them again sooner rather than later. I did love the Eurodam.'s promenade deck...we were so busy on the Royal with our port intensive Europe itinerary that I hardly missed it, but on another itinerary I might. Don't remember if you talked about the production shows...on the Eurodam they really weren't very good and the costumes seemed sad after the over the top ones on the Royal's shows.

 

The highlight of our Eurodam cruise was the BB King jazz Club. Did they have this going on the Eurodam when you were there? Apparently HAL has this on some of the ships, but not all the time. It was fabulous!

Edited February 16, 2014 by sunsetbeachgal

[tennisobo]

No...the BB King jazz show was not on the Eurodam when we sailed. That would have been cool.

 

Production shows. We haven't been to one on Princess in years so I didn't include it in the review. They're just not our thing. My husband and I are professional (classical) musicians and don't usually go to shows with lots of pre-recorded stuff. We do enjoy jazz and like to do some ballroom-type dancing. We did a little of that in the Piazza on the Royal. There are usually quite a few opportunities for dancing on Princess.

Edited February 16, 2014 by tennisobo

[janetz]

No. We didn't feel much motion. The seas were not rough on our sailing. We like motion so I'm not sure I'm the best judge. We were in L111...which is the most forward inside stateroom. It's nice and quiet and close to pools, etc. Have a great cruise!

 

Thanks! We are in 215. We have never been on the Lido deck and it sounds like a great place to be. :)

Edited February 17, 2014 by janetz

[orangetabby]

We have similar cruise experience as the OP...10 cruises total, 9 on Princess and one on HAL. We obviously do prefer the Princess cruise experience but we would not hesitate to cruise HAL again based on itinerary and/or price. We agree with the OP regarding the Crows Nest/Explorer lounge space. It is a fantastic area on sea days to relax, read and watch the world go by. If Princess could incorporate this type of setup into their ships we would probably never leave Princess again.