Princess vs. Holland America

[Hlitner]

Just a related BB King comment.  The first time we encountered a BB King group was on the Rotterdam (they are no longer on this ship after cut-backs) when we did the Voyage of the Vikings cruise a few years ago.  The group was great and the venue really "hopped" until after the last set....helped by a large group of European teens who gave some life to the ship (and I am a senior).  But the BB King played mostly rock and even old disco music.  One evening I met the group leader at the bar and I asked him if they could do a set of BB King music and some other Blues.  He told me that the group knows and loves blues music, but they had various "restrictions" on what they were supposed to play during their sets.  Late one night they actually did play one BB King number (dedicated to me).  

 

What confuses me is why HAL decided to call it a BB King group when they primarily play rock and disco.  Using the name, BB King, would lead any music lover to expect a fair amount of blues favorites.  

 

Hank

[BarbinMich]

We've done 31 cruises on Princess and 8 on HAL.   Seven of the latter were between 2003 and 2011, but in May 2017 we did a TA on HAL's Zuiderdam because it offered us a new new ports like Cherbourg, France.  While it was a "quieter" experience than on a Princess TA, that's partly because of the fewer # of pax.  As an earlier poster mentioned HAL sometimes offers unique experiences one will never experience on a Princess ship and we had one of those.  One of our ports was Amsterdam.  We docked right near the train station because the ship was small enough to sail up the river.  As we sailed away, 3* pax and above  were invited to the bow of the ship (outside) for hot toddies, coffee, etc. and snacks.  It was a bit cool since we were moving, but it was a very nice experience.  Many of the officers were there, too.

[rdsqrl]

5 hours ago, floridalover5623 said:

Many (not all) of Princess's desserts at the buffet are provided by an outside concern.

Didn't you even notice how similar they are from ship to ship? 

Why do you make stuff up that's so easily proved untrue?  On the Ultimate Ship Tour, with my very own eyes, I saw the pastry chef on Princess making desserts.   And duh, the reason the desserts are similar is because they use the same recipes.   Have you never cooked anything?  Just like the  eggplant parmigiana looks the same and the goat cheese souffle looks the same.  One chocolate chip cookie looks like another chocolate chip cookie. 

[OCruisers]

6 hours ago, floridalover5623 said:

Many (not all) of Princess's desserts at the buffet are provided by an outside concern.

Didn't you even notice how similar they are from ship to ship? 

 

Only know they are made on the ship.  Our bartender's husband was  one whose job on the ship was to make them freshly each day.  

[floridalover5623]

15 hours ago, rdsqrl said:

Why do you make stuff up that's so easily proved untrue?  On the Ultimate Ship Tour, with my very own eyes, I saw the pastry chef on Princess making desserts. Which ones?   And duh, the reason the desserts are similar is because they use the same recipes.   Have you never cooked anything?  Just like the  eggplant parmigiana looks the same and the goat cheese souffle looks the same.  One chocolate chip cookie looks like another chocolate chip cookie. 

Yes, Princess does prepare some of them but many of the "standard" desserts that are put out at the buffet are purchased from an outside concern.

This is from someone who posts on this board, is in the restaurant business & knows it for a fact.  

And yes the cookies are baked on board. 

[BarbinMich]

58 minutes ago, floridalover5623 said:

Yes, Princess does prepare some of them but many of the "standard" desserts that are put out at the buffet are purchased from an outside concern.

This is from someone who posts on this board, is in the restaurant business & knows it for a fact.  

And yes the cookies are baked on board. 

Personally, it is hard to believe that the huge quantity of desserts needed, esp on the Royal/Regal where there is a separate room for the desserts, could be loaded in FL or any of Princess's other ports.  Especially for a TA which can be 14-18 days long.  After all, they do have kitchens on the ships .

Edited February 11, 2019 by BarbinMich

[floridalover5623]

2 hours ago, BarbinMich said:

Personally, it is hard to believe that the huge quantity of desserts needed, esp on the Royal/Regal where there is a separate room for the desserts, could be loaded in FL or any of Princess's other ports.  Especially for a TA which can be 14-18 days long.  After all, they do have kitchens on the ships .

They transport very easily when frozen. 

I usually don't eat them,  especially if I see something that they personally prepared which is definitely a better choice. All of the pies are made very thick so they freeze well & transport better. 

Hasn't anyone even noticed that on every Princess ship the buffet desserts are almost identical and all taste exactly the same. 

[gwade]

We've sailed plenty of times on both. We feel HAL continues to go downhill while Princess retains some level of consistency. My opinion is 90% of the cruise is based on what kind of crew you get. Crap crew = crap cruise. That formula has born out several times for us (on both lines mind you). We feel that the crews (and some of the line's changes e.g. less entertainment offerings, decline in food quality, etc.) are consistently going downhill on HAL. Princess has had a few bad cruises, but overall the consistency of "at least better than average" has held true for us. We've gotten to the point we won't take HAL anymore at all and focus on Princess (for a mass market line) with a dabbling of Crystal and Disney.

[rogerdawhip]

I have traveled on HAL twice in the past two years and will jot go back.  I do not like their restricted buffet dining times and the ship seem to go to bed after 9 PM.  During the day is seems like a rest home waiting area (IMO).

[Aplmustdie]

I have been on 2 cruises with Holland America and have my first cruise with Princess in April. I have no complaints with Holland . . . food was great . . . entertainment was so so. Felt like I was nickel and dimed the entire time, but no complaints. I just signed up for a 30 day Princess cruise, starting in Sydney, Australia visiting New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, ending in Vancouver. I was impressed with the price, $1650, which is awesome for a single traveler in an internal cabin by myself. The best part is I instantly become a Platinum member because instead of being credited with 30 days, it doubles to 60 days. I'll be looking for longer cruises in the future. I figure I can be top tier with one more trip. 

[Gabrielle R.]

On 2/10/2019 at 11:35 AM, 1025cruise said:

Its been many years since I've cruised on Princess (timing just hasn't worked out), but I also sailed on HAL, again quite a few years ago. While I'm sure things have changed in the years, I found the food to be much better on Princess. In fact, on my post cruise survey from HAL, I wrote to send the pastry chef back to school.

We sailed HAL once.  The food was not very good.  We had a gentleman at our table who graded chefs for a living.  He said “this guy can’t even make a soup taste good.”  We’ve sailed Princess, Royal Caribbean, celebrity and carnival.  All had good food- I could always find something I liked. But HAL…. Well…. Not my favorite 

[PMGS247]

Well this is an ancient thread brought back to life.  I went on my first & only HAL Cruise not too long ago.  It was a break away from our usual Princess cruises, it just worked from a timing perspective a lot better.

 

Long & short we enjoyed the food but we're always a little skewed in that we do almost entirely premium dining.  Enjoyed the premium dining and enjoyed the casual Lido food & buffet food as well.  No MDR experience.

 

Entertainment was the biggest difference we noticed.  The things we disliked compared to Princess were entirely personal preference, and I could see someone else saying these things are exactly what they enjoy MORE about HAL compared to princess and that would be totally fair.  Having said that, entertainment on HAL was almost exclusively centered around music.  There was one comedian that we enjoyed but everything else was 100% music.  We enjoy music and most of what they offered was quality but found ourselves wishing for just a little bit more variety.  Even more nit-picky, their on-board movie screen was only used for 1 movie (or sporting event) per evening and that was it. Chairs were turned away from the screen and it was off the rest of the day.  My wife and I enjoy sitting out and watching the random stuff on throughout the day on Princess and found we missed having more use of the screen.  So, yeah, a lot of people are really into the music and would love the massive amount of live music available on HAL, and a lot of people find the amount of MUTS they're subjected to on a Princess cruise to be too much, so someone could go just the opposite direction based on these things, but for us they both fell in the "con" side.

[NavyVeteran]

4 hours ago, Aplmustdie said:

I have been on 2 cruises with Holland America and have my first cruise with Princess in April. I have no complaints with Holland . . . food was great . . . entertainment was so so. Felt like I was nickel and dimed the entire time, but no complaints. I just signed up for a 30 day Princess cruise, starting in Sydney, Australia visiting New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, ending in Vancouver. I was impressed with the price, $1650, which is awesome for a single traveler in an internal cabin by myself. The best part is I instantly become a Platinum member because instead of being credited with 30 days, it doubles to 60 days. I'll be looking for longer cruises in the future. I figure I can be top tier with one more trip. 

Welcom to Princess.

Unfortunately, you are not credited double days for single occupancy. You are credited double cruise credits but only the actual number of days. You need either 5 cruise credits or 50 cruise days to become Platinum. As a single, you will have 6 cruise credits after 3 cruises, but the days do not double.

Look at the fine print at the bottom of the Membership Benefits page under note 3: "Princess Captain's Circle Double cruise credits for booking and sailing in a full suite (mini-suites excluded) or sailing at the exclusive occupancy fare are effective with sailings beginning on or after December 7, 2008. Cruises only, and not cruise days are doubled. The exclusive occupancy fare is for solo guests occupying a stateroom alone and who paid the single traveller supplement."

[rideev]

We took out first HAL cruise on Rotterdam last fall.  We thought the food on the MDR was very good and the service was superb.

 

We had an interior cabin and it was good.  Loved the shower.

 

Also loved the breakfast room service.  And actual breakfast.  Since it was a very pretty intensive cruise we utilized that on numerous occasions.

 

We like all the trivia games and the games and stuff the cruise staff does in the evenings in Princess Live.  Yeah, that is all non existent on HAL.

 

We did love the Grand Dutch Cafe.  If they had that on Princess I would be extremely happy.  So much better than the IC.

 

All that said, probably won't go back to HAL as the stuff we enjoy the most they didn't have.

[greenbeanie]

As yet we've not cruised on Princess, but are booked for Pacific Coastal on Discovery in April.  Not ever sailed on HAL, either.

 

In January I booked a HAL roundtrip 16 day San Diego to Hawaii over Christmas on the Zaandam.  I booked before doing my normal amount of research; I knew the ship capacity is 1400 which I did like.  But further research showed the Oceanview rooms (which is about all the ship has; no balconies) looked very small and very tired (last refurb was in 2017).  The main plaza seemed kind of weird with a pipe organ as its main feature.  No dancing, and the entertainment would likely be lacking, not good on a cruise with 10 sea days.

 

For some reason I didn't know Princess did R/T Hawaii cruises from Los Angeles, but shortly after booking the HAL cruise ($600 deposit for two!) I stumbled on Grand Princess 16 days to Hawaii!  

 

Canceled HAL and booked Princess.  I like the size of the Grand.  For the same price as HAL's tiny, tired Oceanview, on Princess we are sailing in a mini suite.  Will be a far better experience I am certain of it.  Deposit was $200 for two!

 

Someday we'll likely take a HAL out of San Diego, but it will have to be one of their newer ships.

 

(I enjoyed the recent thread about Hawaii R/T from SFO or LAX on the Ruby or the Grand.  Since we live near LA, it's an easy choice ... the Grand out of LA ... and I like the covered pool!  Will be fabulous for the cold Pacific sea days in December.)

[Ken the cruiser]

For us we’re looking forward to our HAL 21-day Panama Canal cruise in April 2025. After 6 years of “moving on” after HAL switched to their Music Walk entertainment strategy, we have decided to give them another shot. Of course, it helps that we’re 4* Mariners and get free laundry! 😁

 

We were also enticed by their lower aft-facing veranda cabin fares, even when compared to what they were back in 2019, as well as their new Early Booking HIA perks, and different ways to get additional OBC posted to our shipboard account.

 

But for us it’s also all about the itinerary. And as is the case with Princess, HAL offers some pretty unique 3-5 week itineraries, to include a 4-week Alaska cruise that goes to Nome that no other line we cruise with currently offers.

 

As far as entertainment goes, each cruise line has their own unique offerings. It’s just a matter of learning to appreciate what each one has to offer. In the case of HAL, I have a feeling we will be doing a lot more dancing to rock and roll music on their ships! 😂

[LynnSD]

Princess has been our go-to for years, but we tried HAL because they sail from San Diego.   
Entertainment is important to us, and HAL was sadly lacking.  The bands were good but not good enough to be the only thing to do every evening.  Daytime activities were non-existent.

We liked the variety of dining choices, but only because I booked them in advance.  Once onboard there were no times left, and the MDR was overcrowded and unfriendly, with limited choices.  

 

So- it’s back to San Pedro and Princess for our local cruises.