HAL vs Royal (thoughts on changing)

[Jingerwoppy]

My wife and I have stuck with Royal Caribbean to build some points but we’ve come to realize that the points probably aren’t worth it and there are a lot of other itineraries we’d like that RC really doesn’t service much. We’d also like a little something different to do on the sea days and a change of pace.

 

In looking around and speaking with some friends that cruise other lines, Holland America is one of the cruise lines recommended to us.  It looks like the layouts of the ships are somewhat different and I also see other activities such as the EXC Talks. When we took an RC transatlantic cruise a while back, they had lectures during the crossing and they were pretty good but I haven’t seen them on any other cruises.  How are the talks on HAL?

 

We’re pretty laid back cruisers and I’d like to hear about differences from some of you that have cruised on both cruise lines.

 

Thanks

[Hawaiidan]

1 hour ago, Jingerwoppy said:

My wife and I have stuck with Royal Caribbean to build some points but we’ve come to realize that the points probably aren’t worth it and there are a lot of other itineraries we’d like that RC really doesn’t service much. We’d also like a little something different to do on the sea days and a change of pace.

 

In looking around and speaking with some friends that cruise other lines, Holland America is one of the cruise lines recommended to us.  It looks like the layouts of the ships are somewhat different and I also see other activities such as the EXC Talks. When we took an RC transatlantic cruise a while back, they had lectures during the crossing and they were pretty good but I haven’t seen them on any other cruises.  How are the talks on HAL?

 

We’re pretty laid back cruisers and I’d like to hear about differences from some of you that have cruised on both cruise lines.

 

Thanks

A change to HAL  would be an across the board step up. in my opinion,  Better food,  and less people  They have started their new EXC  program  but it is too earliy to tell.     As cruise lines  rank in general, HAL is far ahead of Royal Carib.   For me, just the sheer size of the RCCL ships is a turn off...

[knittinggirl]

We're Diamond Plus on Royal Caribbean.  HAL generally has smaller ships than Royal Caribbean, but the newer ones are getting bigger.  Freedom class is the largest ship we've been on.  I think HAL's larger ships, like the Noordam are roughly the size of Royal Caribbean's Vision Class.

 

We enjoyed our lectures, but I don't remember many lectures on the shorter cruises on HAL.  We had some good lectures on the South Pacific portion down to Sydney, but no lectures during the 11-day Sydney to Auckland cruise.  The cinema was  tied up for two out of four sea days due to New Zealand Customs.   BTW, EXC is HAL's term for shore excursions.

 

We decided to try out HAL.  Basically, we spotted the Voyage of the Vikings 35-day round trip to Europe and decided to try it out.  We'd been on some B2B on Royal Caribbean for around 24-days. 

 

Advantages for HAL:

 

Laundry special - daily laundry is $7 ($9 for Europe) per day.  After 200 cruise points, this  becomes free.  Last time we were on Royal Caribbean, we had planned to use our Diamond Plus free bag of laundry on day 2 after a four-day pre-cruise train ride, and were told we could only use our free bag on day 4 and get it back on the evening of day 6.

 

Royal Caribbean has the BOGO specialty restaurant discount for only days 1 and two.  While Hal has 25% off all specialty restaurants starting w/ 3 Star, and 50% off with 4 star (200 cruise days).  You can use it on any day.  But we don't see the multiple specialty restaurant specials like I've seen on Royal Caribbean.

 

Dining rooms are much less crowded on HAL.  Room service on HAL is still mostly free.  Better included hamburgers.  Crowded dining rooms turned out to be one of the drawbacks to Royal Caribbean.  On our last cruise on the Radiance to Alaska, the dining room was so crowded, we opted for specialty dining nearly every night.    We also didn't care for the location of their Brazilian steakhouse.  It was accessible only via an outside deck.  And I had to visit the restroom on an outside deck in the rain.

 

Aft elevators on HAL.  Most ships have midship, aft and forward elevators.  With Royal Caribbean, they don't have an aft elevator for passengers.    On the back  cabins, we must (and have) walked down half of the ship to get to an elevator.

 

No equivalent of a Diamond Lounge on HAL.    There Neptune (Suite) lounge is available for suite passengers only.  The concierges are working it the entire time it's open, instead of only a few hours a day.  No free alcohol in the Neptune lounge except on embarkation night.

 

Neptune suites have really nice real estate, but they generally have fewer perks.  They still have breakfast in the specialty restaurants.    We tried suites in HAL and Princess last year, and also have tried out Celebrity a few years back.

 

HAL loyalty points are also earned on onboard expenses. 

 

HAL offers much worse forced cruise cancellation deals.  We had the Rhapsody of the Seas cancelled and were given $400 OBC on any cruise in a suite.    HAL cancelled a couple of our cruises on a redeployment, and we were offered $150 OBC on only two cruise options.

 

HAL is not as good at refunding shore excursions than Royal Caribbean.  I'd seen a doctor over an ingrown toenail, and they wouldn't refund my EXC.  Bad reviews on shore excursions don't get OBC.   We had a terrible tour in Boston to Salem where no one could see out the bus.  And we missed seeing things mentioned in the description due to poor bus visibility, and no partial refund.

 

I don't think HAL gives free doctor's visits/treatment for norovirus.

 

Royal Caribbean still has the best junior suites we've come across.  Love the junior suites on the Radiance, Voyager and Freedom class!

 

No noisy Centrum bands!

 

DH says he likes Holland America better until something breaks.  Royal Caribbean seemed much better.  Not sure what happened on the air conditioning malfunction I recently read about on Royal Caribbean.

 

DH's feet always stick off the rounded corners of Royal Caribbean's Royal King beds.  Beds on HAL are squared off.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited February 3, 2019 by knittinggirl

[Curly-Q]

Have to agree with Hawaiidan hands down!  We are diamond cruisers on Royal, but after taking one HAL cruise,  we were hooked and committed to HAL for our future cruises much for the same reasons -- better food, especially the fact that buffet food items are served to you instead of everyone's nasty hands handling all the serving utensils; better service (IMHO); way better selection in cruise length, itineraries, and ports of call; a better non-smoking policy (a couple of ships have non-smoking casinos); and their ships actually have promenade decks where you can actually walk around the ship--seems every time we've been on Royal, their promenade is blocked off and you can't really walk the "loop."

 

Royal is a good line, but I think we've just outgrown it as they try to be everything to everyone.

[Spunky946]

We are the opposite.  We’ve gone from Holland to royal and it would take a fantastic itinerary to get us to go back to Hal.  We are a family of 4 with 2 kids now 14 and 10 and my in laws travel with us.  We’ve done 4 on Hal and on each cruise there has been fewer and fewer activities.  I don’t like that by 10 the ship starts to close up.  We needed more.

This past Christmas we went on a 9 night cruise on the Navigator which was fantastic.  We all loved it.  There was trivia 5-7 times a day along with shows, game shows, plus mini golf, flow rider, and the rock wall.  I love that you could sit on the promenade at 11 at night and there were still people about.  To us, that is more important then lines in the windjammer.  We are going on a 8 night cruise on the adventure of the seas during this Christmas.  I won’t say I’ll never go back to hal for the right itinerary, but I think I’ll stick with Royal.

[DaveOKC]

Just a note on getting to 4 Star (where the good perks really start) - it is not 200 cruise days, but rather 200 Mariner Days.  You earn 1 Mariner day for each day you sail and if you are in any type of suite (even what I would call a mini-suite) you then earn a total of 2 Mariner days.  PLUS, you earn 1 Mariner day for each $300 you spend on your cruise (over and above the base fare and taxes/fees.  

 

We really like the Signature Suites (cost about 1/2 the price of a full suite) and spend about $1000 in other items (hotel serive charge, wine packages, excursions, drinks, etc.) on a 7 day cruise.  Thus, we earn about 18 Mariner days (HAL is generous in rounding up the purchases).  So, for us about 11, 7 day cruises will get us to 4 star, even though we only have 77 cruise days.

 

 

[teacherman]

We are D+ on RCCL, but now have 3 HAL cruises scheduled because of the itineraries.  We have done 3 HAL cruises, but they were long ago.  We will be going on Koningsdam simply because we wanted to try a larger HAL ship.  

[mcrcruiser]

Diamond on Royal , Elite +  on Celebrity  ,Ruby on  Princess & 2 star Mariner on HAL  .We prefer HAL & Princess now  mainly because they sail from our home port of San diego & San Pedro for Princess near to LA .both ports we can drive . Although we are doing in March koningdam 10 night So Caribbean & in April rotterdam Western Caribbean.  We do find HAL even a better fit for us than Celebrity .Imo the food is better on HAL & Princess  . fir us we prefer now a lesser  amount of people on a ship  . Both RCCL & Celebrity newer ships carry more people than typically HAL ships .We have plenty of activities during the day to occupy our time  during sea days with both HAL & Princess  . This is not saying we would not sail RCCL or Celebrity if the itinerary interested us 

[Jammu2]

I imagine people with kids prefer Royal. If I had seen an Oasis class ship when I was a kid I would probably have exploded on the spot.

 

We cruise Royal occasionally because the inlaws like their perks - no other reason - and they insist. We are trying to get them to switch to HAL.

[DC1979]

8 hours ago, Jammu2 said:

I imagine people with kids prefer Royal. If I had seen an Oasis class ship when I was a kid I would probably have exploded on the spot.

 

We cruise Royal occasionally because the inlaws like their perks - no other reason - and they insist. We are trying to get them to switch to HAL.

 

Sorry for the unrelated message, but I noticed you screen name.  Just curious if you were from there?  I tried to send a private message but Is as not able to send one!!

 

And to keep it somewhat related to the topic at hand welcome to HAL! I have only sailed on HAL.  I am planning on trying something different in 2020 as I am traveling with a friend instead of family.  Originally was considering a RC cruise but ended up booking with Celebrity.  

[terrydtx]

17 hours ago, knittinggirl said:

Royal Caribbean still has the best junior suites we've come across.  Love the junior suites on the Radiance, Voyager and Freedom class!

I would disagree with this, we did a Junior Suite on the Rhapsody of the Seas and I was no where close in size or amenities of HAL's Signature Suites, which are the equivalent Junior Suites.

[chill6x6]

Cruise line loyalty just doesn't work for me.  Between itineraries, prices, and when I can get off word it just doesn't work for me.  Sure I COULD do it and I honestly would like to but would be subject to same ships, same itineraries, and potentially higher prices.  I just got off Royal Caribbean and next up is HA then Celebrity then MSC then Princess.  All have their good point and not so good points.  I also find I enjoy change but I admit it takes a couple of cruises to fully appreciate what a particular cruise line has to offer.  

 

I thought the Eurodam had about the best MDR food and service of anyone.  We stayed in a suite(NS) which we usually do.  Warm hand towels in the restrooms was a nice touch!  I found entertainment on the Eurodam to be excellent though it seems that varies widely ship to ship.  I'll have comments of the Rotterdam after next month.  Overall I found the average cruiser on HA a little older AND a little nicer than average.  Elevators were EVERYWHERE.  During the day on the ship we went to the pool so can't comment on lectures.  

[EbayCruiser]

We cruised exclusively with HAL for several years but then tried a few cruises on RC.  We love the Oasis Class ships for the entertainment, but do not like the crowds.  

 

HAL has better food, great ambiance, great service and just all around beats RC in my opinion.

 

If you have small kids or teenagers, they would probably prefer RC but I have heard really great things about Club Hal and there are way fewer kids on HAL.

 

I think you should try it, you may never go back.  I would try one of the newer ships or if the itinerary is more important then pick one based on that.  All of HAL's ships are great.

 

We are going on the Nieuw Statendam next month and can hardly wait!!  

[knittinggirl]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

I would disagree with this, we did a Junior Suite on the Rhapsody of the Seas and I was no where close in size or amenities of HAL's Signature Suites, which are the equivalent Junior Suites.

Rhapsody is a Vision class ship, not one of the ship types I mentioned.   It's closer to a Vista Suite.  I liked the JS on the Vision Class ships.  They're wider than the long narrow Vista Suites, at least the one we used on the Rotterdam.  Comparing the floor plans for JS on Majesty and the VS on Rotterdam.  I found the JS on Majesty to be wider.    JS on Freedom and Voyager Class are closer in square feet to the Signature suites on HAL.

 

Vision Class are about 78,000 tons, while the Voyager class are 137,000 tons, and freedom class is even larger.

[terrydtx]

45 minutes ago, knittinggirl said:

Rhapsody is a Vision class ship, not one of the ship types I mentioned.   It's closer to a Vista Suite.  I liked the JS on the Vision Class ships.  They're wider than the long narrow Vista Suites, at least the one we used on the Rotterdam.  Comparing the floor plans for JS on Majesty and the VS on Rotterdam.  I found the JS on Majesty to be wider.    JS on Freedom and Voyager Class are closer in square feet to the Signature suites on HAL.

 

Vision Class are about 78,000 tons, while the Voyager class are 137,000 tons, and freedom class is even larger.

HAL's Vista Class and Signature Class ships do not have Vista Suites so in their case the Signature Suites are their Junior Suites. The new two Pinnacle Class ships however do have the Vista Suites which are more of a Junior Suite as well as Signature Suites which are now in-between the Vista and Neptune Suites in size.. The older R and S Class HAL ships have the Vista Suites but no Signature Suites.

Edited February 4, 2019 by terrydtx

[knittinggirl]

 

20 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

HAL's Vista Class and Signature Class ships do not have Vista Suites so in their case the Signature Suites are their Junior Suites. The new two Pinnacle Class ships however do have the Vista Suites which are more of a Junior Suite as well as Signature Suites which are now in-between the Vista and Neptune Suites in size.. The older R and S Class HAL ships have the Vista Suites but no Signature Suites.

We do miss the coffee pot and tea kettle in Royal Caribbean's JS and up.  But we prefer the ships that have a Signature Suite on HAL.  After so many years in the Royal Caribbean JS on Radiance, Voyager and Freedom class ships, the Vista suites seem more like Deluxe balconies to me.  But I think there's about 30 square feet difference between the VS and the Balcony.  We went from a Mini Suite on Star Princess to the Concierge Class on Celebrity side by side.  We liked the extra room on the Princess and the superior service on Celebrity Concierge Class.   Princess Mini Suite had bulk shower gel and shampoo, one cake of soap and just one tube of lotion.  Celebrity had a nice spread of toiletries (as does HAL).  The interesting thing was we had norovirus on both of the ships, and it was interesting how they handled it.  Celebrity emptied out their library, and that turned into a good place to hang out since it was just outside our door.

[richstowe]

On 2/3/2019 at 4:57 PM, Spunky946 said:

We are the opposite.  We’ve gone from Holland to royal and it would take a fantastic itinerary to get us to go back to Hal.  We are a family of 4 with 2 kids now 14 and 10

Can't see travelling with teenagers on Holland (or Princess or Celebrity) . Your decision makes sense . Much more for them on Royal or Carnival or Norwegian . Without kids , or young adults, I prefer the first 3 . Having said this, all cruises are great and most kids will enjoy any cruise . Most adults too . 😉

[Mimiya11]

Just back from our first cruise on HA (Eurodam).  Been on Carnival years ago with our then young kids, then Princess because of itinerary, and mostly on Celebrity.  We are not loyal to any one cruise line but Celebrity works for us.  We did the mega  RC ship Allure of the Seas a few years ago and found it to be the best time as far as so many things to do on a ship (not for everyone) and would do it again.   As far as the talks, we were not at all interested in HALs computer classes and although we were on a Mexican Riviera cruise, was not interested in any of their talks or flower making.  We did enjoy most of the entertainment but found the food choices in the dining room all nights but galas boring and ended up at specialty restaurants 3 times.  But we found the main dining food on the Allure awful and ended up only eating there once.   The average demographics on the HAL were older than us early 60's, and as other posters suggested I would never do HAL with kids, teens or young adults.  We found RC had a wide range of ages (for obvious reasons).  Try it once, no need to feel loyal to any one line.  We choose by itinerary.  

Edited February 5, 2019 by Mimiya11

[Coolcruise02]

I don't think you mentioned your age. We are in our early 60's and know when we take a HAL cruise it is going to be an older crowd and the late night dancing (10:00) will be dead!!  But, that is ok on some itineraries. 

 

We are not loyal to any cruise line. We pick the time we want to go, the ports we want, and a good price. We have never had a bad cruise. They all have their good and bad points.

Edited February 5, 2019 by Coolcruise02

[jb008]

Since you have status on RCL have you considered Celebrity?  They'll transfer your RCL status into their loyalty program.

 

We just did our first cruise on HAL for a New Year's voyage and very much enjoyed it, but I'm not so much that we're willing to go "exclusive" with HAL.  I agree MDR food and service was great, probably one of our top 2 or 3 experiences across PCL, X, HAL, and RCL as far as MDRs go... (cautionary note that I haven't been in X's MDR now since Jan. '16) - I didn't find it to be markedly different than my last to PCL cruises though.  I also preferred the buffet food on Equinox and Silhouette as I felt they had better options and variety... but all of the buffet foods across X, PCL, and HAL have been fine imho.

 

I hate hate hate the new internet package on HAL, they were doing 24-hour passes that are capped at a fixed amount of data or a voyage-long pass (still data capped per day though).  I needed about 1-10 megabytes and 2-5 minutes of internet a day as all I wanted was to check my email; at something like $25/day that's some expensive email though.

 

I'm happy to consider HAL on a future cruise, but would happily sail on X or PCL too (and would prefer PCL a little since my loyalty status now gets some amount of internet credit... which is something I've paid for on basically every cruise to date).

[jhannah]

OP, for the very reasons you mentioned I believe Royal Caribbean is the line for you at this stage of your lives. We love HAL, but have taken our grandkids on Royal Caribbean cruises. They loved it! Now we're sticking with Holland America as it offers the product most aligned with our desires in a cruise. Good luck to you!

[Nymich]

On ‎2‎/‎3‎/‎2019 at 4:57 PM, Spunky946 said:

We are the opposite.  We’ve gone from Holland to royal and it would take a fantastic itinerary to get us to go back to Hal.  We are a family of 4 with 2 kids now 14 and 10 and my in laws travel with us.  We’ve done 4 on Hal and on each cruise there has been fewer and fewer activities.  I don’t like that by 10 the ship starts to close up.  We needed more.

This past Christmas we went on a 9 night cruise on the Navigator which was fantastic.  We all loved it.  There was trivia 5-7 times a day along with shows, game shows, plus mini golf, flow rider, and the rock wall.  I love that you could sit on the promenade at 11 at night and there were still people about.  To us, that is more important then lines in the windjammer.  We are going on a 8 night cruise on the adventure of the seas during this Christmas.  I won’t say I’ll never go back to hal for the right itinerary, but I think I’ll stick with Royal.

I would imagine for the kids that Royal would be a far better choice.

[SargassoPirate]

One thing to be aware of when switching from Royal to HAL - the balcony doors on HAL swing out instead of sliding.  Plus, they don't maintain the pneumatic devices that help the door close slowly with the result that they slam when clueless passengers step out and let the door slam behind them.  It was so annoying on a transatlantic while we were trying to enjoy our balcony that I dubbed the ship the Euroslam.

[Katie52]

I too think that Royal would be good for kids. We gave up sailing worth Royal for a couple of reasons:-  we don’t like the mega ships, trying to get a table in the buffet restaurant is a nightmare and, hard to believe, I actually had difficulty finding something that I fancied eating.  It all seemed very “samey”.  The lack of “enforcement of dress code” in the dining room was atrocious, jeans and trainers on a formal night!  In fact the whole cruise was a holiday camp at sea, in our opinion. Food in the dining room was “cheap” food, something we can get at home!  So no more Royal for us. Ever.

[Hawaiidan]

On 2/4/2019 at 5:58 PM, Coolcruise02 said:

I don't think you mentioned your age. We are in our early 60's and know when we take a HAL cruise it is going to be an older crowd and the late night dancing (10:00) will be dead!!  But, that is ok on some itineraries. 

 

We are not loyal to any cruise line. We pick the time we want to go, the ports we want, and a good price. We have never had a bad cruise. They all have their good and bad points.

I think your shortchanging yourself.....  Brand loyality, Airlines, Hotel and Cruise ship really do pay off big benifits   I would rather pay a bit more and get reliable quality  and have my patronage rewarded.   In the beginning be patient...  build miles, points that you have concentrated on  Then the rewards start and dont stop.   I have been doing this for 25 years and   get the best cabins and rooms at the best prices or even free    I can fly  to Europe or Aisia   business class for $5.60 !!!     I use only a hotel Marriott and UAL/ Star alliance  cc   and use it for EVERYTHING  not just travel paying it off at the end of each month.

Jumping from line to line, over time will not benefit you the way you think it will!!!