HAL vs X

[curiouscat]

Thank you all who were kind enough to respond!

Now, having researched it, I agree with those who responded here and posts I’ve seen elsewhere – Captain’s Club definitely has better benefits than the Mariner’s Society. Disclaimer: That’s JMO and it is with regard to things that are important to me – points awarded commensurate with the single supplement that I must pay, internet benefits, and laundry benefits.

I’m also glad to learn of the demographic fit – can’t really see myself on Carnival, RCI or NCL :). And I’d quit cruising before I’d board a ship whose pax capacity is greater than the population of my home town. Again, I’m just expressing my preferences.

Having said all that I hope that I won’t have to make the change. I’m old so I doubt that all of the S class and R class ships of HAL will be retired during my lifetime. And company policies can always be revised. If I do jump ship (the dam ship) I’ll miss the unique HAL ambience – I was a sailor when I was younger and I LOVE the nautical theme of the HAL ships and the priceless artifacts.

Looking forward to updates from curiouscat and Jalex63 when they complete their cruises.

 

You got it..I'll write a review upon my return.

 

I have been aboard the Eurodam for a lunch and tour... It was much more of a wood/nautical theme than the older Celebrity ships had. The Eurodam has an elegance to it that the S class ships don't have. S class reminds me of the W hotel.. More "chic" and modern. And the staterooms were definitely larger on HAL.

 

CC

[JanDom]

In Germany more people know and Cruise X.

This is why we tried X for a 14days Caribbean Cruise, for a 10 days christmas cruise and 14 days in northern Europe.

We went two times in a "normal" balcony cabin, one Time Aqua class...

The result - we like the style of the Solstice Class Ships, the Infinity was old and Most of the Doors were really hard to open!

On our christmas Cruise the Food was very good, in the other cruises it wasn't as good as we thought and we would only Book aqua Class again if it has the Same price then the other cabins.

On Sea days the Ships seem very full and it was not possible to find a place Outside for two, Or Even Four.

We also did not like the Music in the ships, only live ... And Most of the Time not good!!

Because we recognized X is getting more expensive with every cruise and not better, we tried HAL Last Time....

The ships seem older, smaller and darker with more Gold... But they are cleaner, the Crew is much more friendly, the Food was much better the Entertainment also, You get free fresh Orange juice, it seems like there is more Space per passenger .... To make it Short : we loved it and booked two more HAL cruises already !

 

Greets from Germany

Janine

[curiouscat]

Thanks... Great post.. on my last X sailing there were lots of Germans they even did the announcements in German....

 

I can't wait to compare.. It appears HAL is more structured and being 50 % German American I can understand the connection...:p

 

 

CC

[lcand1923]

My statistics: Solo cruiser, 3 star on HAL, took first Celebrity Cruise last September on the Celebrity Infinity.

 

My Celebrity cruise was of the western coast of Europe. It left from southern England, so the demographic was a bit skewed towards the British. I found the people onboard very friendly. As a solo cruiser, I book ship sponsored shore excursions. I was in an Aqua Class cabin, so I had access to BLU. I do not frequent the MDR as a general rule, so cannot speak to that on either line.

I do not frequent casinos.

 

Here are my ratings.

 

Cabins: HAL

Lido: HAL

Entertainment: Celebrity

Shore Excursions: Celebrity

Bars: a toss up

Lectures: a toss up

Front Desk: HAL

 

I found BLU an excellent place to eat.

 

I greatly missed the Promenade Deck on HAL.

 

I personally found Celebrity to be noisier than HAL.

 

Personally, as things stand at the moment, I must say a prefer HAL because it is quieter and has that lovely Promenade Deck. However, I would book Celebrity again without any difficulty.

[iancal]

HAL could get back to being with X at the top of our list if they did a few simple things..

 

-add some zip to their MDR menu offerings-they have become very bland

-extend the Lido hours to reflect what passengers want, not what HAL wants

-have more choice of optional pay dining venues

-drag their smoking policy into the 21st century, or even the 20th century

-spend a little more money on maintenance-especially AC, Plumbing, and elevators

-enhance the Mariner Program. Given a choice between medals, pins, Mariner lunches, advertising brochures on HAL Or free internet minutes, Elite lounge benefits (complete with fresh orange juice or mimosas), additional discounts on our balcony cabins, etc on X, we will take the latter over the former all day long.

Edited February 11, 2015 by iancal

[Hlitner]

HAL could get back to being with X at the top of our list if they did a few simple things..

 

-add some zip to their MDR menu offerings-they have become very bland

-extend the Lido hours to reflect what passengers want, not what HAL wants

-have more choice of optional pay dining venues

-drag their smoking policy into the 21st century, or even the 20th century

-spend a little more money on maintenance-especially AC, Plumbing, and elevators

-enhance the Mariner Program. Given a choice between medals, pins, Mariner lunches, advertising brochures on HAL Or free internet minutes, Elite lounge benefits (complete with fresh orange juice or mimosas), additional discounts on our balcony cabins, etc on X, we will take the latter over the former all day long.

 

Like :)

[MadManOfBethesda]

For us the breaker is the itinerary, and that (or the lack of "that") is what has kept us off of X in the recent past and on HAL. On each of our last three cruises (Alaska, Antarctica, far east) HAL has put the competition to shame, with more ports, and longer stays in those ports than any of their "mass market" competitors. The same holds true for our upcoming cruise around Australia/New Zealand.

 

Interesting comment about the port times; my experience has been the opposite. I just debarked a few days ago from a 12 night Sydney to Auckland cruise on Celebrity's Solstice and on a couple of days we were shadowed by a HAL ship which arrived in port after us and left quite a bit before us. In fact, one port I remember in particular was the Bay of Islands this past Saturday. We were there from 7:00 - 5:45 (last tender at 5:30) and we had booked a private sailboat excursion from 10-4. I don't remember exactly what time the HAL ship (I believe it was Amsterdam) arrived in port, but I recall vividly that they were being escorted out at about 3:45 while we were still on our sailboat and had almost 2 more hours before we needed to be back aboard Solstice.

 

But that's just an anecdote; the cruises you're looking at may be different. But more to the overall discussion, I agree with many of the comments that have been made comparing X & HAL, especially in relation to their loyalty programs. I've been sailing HAL off and on for over 20 years (all on S ships) and I am Elite on X. IMO, Celebrity's program is the best in the business. And there is no runner up.

[JanDom]

I just read about the Loyalty Programm and the itinerary....

You are right that X has the better programm but what I have never experienced on our three X cruises :

We booked the Summer Sail special on our Alaska cruise. We will get three bottles of wine, 100 $ Soda Cards and 300§ OBC. We are also shareholder of X and HAL - we knew it from X that you can get one or the other, so you have to choose if the shareholder benefit or the Special is better ...

on HAL we now got the special and the shareholder OBC !! :D

 

The itinerary is often better on HAL because they have the smaller ships.

First we thought HAL is more expensive then X and because there are only a few Germany who book HAL we never thought about until our last cruise with X, were we did not like so many things ... after all we need to say :

HAL has the same prices in Germany then X (without the drink package - if it is included X is more expensive). But the prices for drinks are much higher on X then on HAL !

[HokiePoq]

My statistics: Solo cruiser, 3 star on HAL, took first Celebrity Cruise last September on the Celebrity Infinity.

 

My Celebrity cruise was of the western coast of Europe. It left from southern England, so the demographic was a bit skewed towards the British. I found the people onboard very friendly. As a solo cruiser, I book ship sponsored shore excursions. I was in an Aqua Class cabin, so I had access to BLU. I do not frequent the MDR as a general rule, so cannot speak to that on either line.

I do not frequent casinos.

 

Here are my ratings.

 

Cabins: HAL

Lido: HAL

Entertainment: Celebrity

Shore Excursions: Celebrity

Bars: a toss up

Lectures: a toss up

Front Desk: HAL

 

I found BLU an excellent place to eat.

 

I greatly missed the Promenade Deck on HAL.

 

I personally found Celebrity to be noisier than HAL.

 

Personally, as things stand at the moment, I must say a prefer HAL because it is quieter and has that lovely Promenade Deck. However, I would book Celebrity again without any difficulty.

 

 

I would agree with all your comparisons except for shore excursions. On the two cruises we've had with Celebrity, the excursions were not as good as those on any of our HAL cruises. That may be port dependent, though, as some ports lack the capacity to accommodate visitors. We do sometimes get evaluations on HAL about excursions. When we had a huge excursion problem with Celebrity in New Zealand, I took it all the way to corporate without resolution. Stayed away from X for five years because of it, but have decided I was cutting off my nose to spite my face. I do try to minimize my X shore excursions in favor of independent ones whenever possible.

[kenevenpar]

It does seem like Orange Juice has taken on its own life here on CC :). But regarding Celebrity, unless they have changed since December (our last X cruise) there actually is fresh squeezed OJ (although it is squeezed in the galley). It is available at the Elite Continental Breakfast (free) for those who are Elite or Elite Plus and it is also sold at the bar located in the Lido/buffet area. If one has a drink package they can get it at the Lido bar for no additional cost.

 

Hank

 

They have changed. We were on Reflection in Dec ... fresh squeezed. Now, previously frozen fresh squeezed:confused::eek:

 

We didn't have fresh squeezed OJ on our X cruise last week. We received towel animals twice during the 7 day cruise. Chocolate covered Oreos were provided on the last night of the cruise - they weren't very good at all.

 

 

We thought the Oreos were great.

 

=X= is bringing back the pillow chocolates. According to a Hotel Director, the number one complaint was the elimination of the chocolates. If I were to complain, I think I could find bigger issues.

 

I do wish HAL would upgrade the Pinnacle experience. While =X='s Murano and the like are more expensive (you can get discounts), the quality is significantly better.

 

=X= is also adding an upgraded dining room for suite pax (installing now, ready in April).

 

YMMV, just my .02 worth.

 

Ken