How does Celebrity compare to Holland America?

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

My reason for avoiding HAL (I did one Alaska cruise on them because that is what the group I was with was on then - they have since changed to RCCL) is not AS applicable now that they have restricted smoking (FINALLY) from balconies - but after that one experience I avoided them because they had such a liberal smoking policy. (It's why my cousins pretty much exclusively cruise HAL - now it's just habit with them but for the longest time it was because they could smoke pretty much wherever.)

 

Now...I'd possibly consider them if the itinerary was right, but they do seem to be a little more expensive as a solo cruiser. And so often I have planned so far out there's nothing that fits into my vacation.

[bEwAbG]

2 hours ago, TeeRick said:

Thanks for your thoughts on my question.  I appreciate it.  I do think they are distinct but related questions.

1)  Why do much older people prefer HAL ?  over Celebrity?

2)  Why do younger people turn away from HAL ? or Celebrity?  You definitely answered this from your perspective.

Perhaps it is different for HAL on Alaska cruises where they dominate the market?  Younger and more family oriented?

 

 

I have done a HAL Alaska and Caribbean within the past two years. 

 

The Caribbean was on a ship that was similar in size to M-Class, and I didn't find it appreciably different than my cruise on Constellation, both in programming and demographics.  There was usually something in the main theater every night (comedian, magician) plus the different programming in the Music Walk venues.  There were three music venues with two shows , e.g., Lincoln Center would do an hour at 7pm and BB King Blues would do an hour at 8pm and each would repeat their sets a little later in the evening.  Then the venue where BB King Blues played had a DJ with dancing and music hosted by either the CD or asst CD for several hours.  Sometimes Lincoln Center would do a matinee and early evening and then there was different programming in the evening.  It was a good mix, in my opinion.

 

The Alaska trip seemed quieter after the late show, but I think that was mainly a factor of people going to bed in preparation for early morning excursions.  Isn't that part of the allure of that trip in general?  I haven't done Alaska on X but looking at the dailies, it doesn't look like they do anything special for late night partying.  HAL had a lounge open with music and dancing but few people were sticking around for it.  I've seen the same thing on X a few times, too, though (in the Caribbean).

 

There were certainly family groups and a mix of age ranges on both.  Like X, HAL has kids programs but not the bells and whistles elsewhere that cater specifically to kids.  HAL does offer longer and more varied itineraries.  Last-minute cruises on HAL seem to me to be a lot cheaper.  I could see how that combo would mean that older people with flexibility might choose HAL more often, especially if they've built up loyalty over time.  But I didn't really see the stereotype of "floating nursing home" that so many around here seem to throw around casually.  Perhaps that's true on the really long itineraries, but I would think that would also be the case on X if they even offered longer voyages like HAL.  I also ran across many people who had sailed both lines.  I think X fans like to think that there is a huge difference, but I didn't really see that in practice on sailings that are routine for both lines. 

[Fouremco]

3 minutes ago, bEwAbG said:

I didn't really see the stereotype of "floating nursing home" that so many around here seem to throw around casually.  Perhaps that's true on the really long itineraries, but I would think that would also be the case on X if they even offered longer voyages like HAL.  I also ran across many people who had sailed both lines.  I think X fans like to think that there is a huge difference, but I didn't really see that in practice on sailings that are routine for both lines. 

As a regular HAL cruiser I couldn't agree more. Many of the X fan comments tend to be based on their experience during cruises taken well in the past.

[Ken the cruiser]

One thing we found on X cruises on sea days that we don’t see on HAL cruises, unless they are 15 days or longer (and not a combined cruise), are professional lectures. HAL might offer port lectures by their EXC staff, but that’s it. 

[bEwAbG]

I've already rambled on a lot, but I did also want to mention that time of year is likely to affect perceptions, too.  We do our winter cruise outside of the holiday periods to avoid busy times & lots of kids.  I have been on Reflection (the alleged "party boat") in February, and it was dead at 10pm.  They closed the late night "party" in the upstairs lounge at 11pm because there were only a handful of people at it.  There was another handful in the Martini Bar that we joined, and they closed up at midnight.  So maybe a little over a dozen people were enjoying themselves at a bar late at night but certainly not the entire ship.  Notice that their bar hours are almost always listed as until "late" rather than a hard cutoff time.  I suspect that's to give them flexibility to shut earlier rather than later, if needed.  Now if you go during Spring Break or Christmas, that may offer a different vibe later into the evening.  I just don't think there's a way to categorize one as better than the other in that department without taking a variety of factors into consideration.  X "feels" more glitzy, but I don't know that it necessarily translates into reality on every cruise.

[bEwAbG]

7 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

One thing we found on X cruises on sea days that we don’t see on HAL cruises, unless they are 15 days or longer (and not a combined cruise), are professional lectures. HAL might offer port lectures by their EXC staff, but that’s it. 

 

I believe this is a fairly recent reintroduction of more stuff to do during the day on X, which is a welcome change.  For several years the daytime activities were very limited.  Mainly product pitches, art auctions, and the like.  Oh, they would set up an X-Box console in a lounge where two or three people (maybe) could watch each other play video games.  The lack of daytime activities on X was always very disappointing to me.  HAL had the Microsoft studio lectures and cooking demos (though those recently decreased in frequency when their affiliation with America's Test Kitchen lapsed) throughout the day.  HAL has been tinkering with everything for the past year, so hopefully they'll settle on a winning formula once things settle down from the current crisis.

[Ken the cruiser]

We’ve been cruising with X since 2012 and they have always had professional lecturers on sea days, even on their 7 day cruises. On the Alaska cruise we went on a few years ago, they had 2 lecturers as well as a naturalist.

 

They also usually have between 3-4 trivia matches on sea days. But then they usually have 3-4 assistant CDs whereas HAL usually only has one. 

Edited June 13, 2020 by Ken the cruiser

[bEwAbG]

3 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We’ve been cruising with X since 2012 and they have always had professional lecturers on sea days, even on their 7 day cruises. On the Alaska cruise we went on a few years ago, they had 2 lecturers as well as a naturalist.

 

They also usually have between 3-4 trivia matches on sea days. But then they usually have 3-4 assistant CDs whereas HAL usually only has one. 

 

I've seen you say similar before but I can say that I did not always have the same experience.  Zero lectures and 1 or 2 assistant CDs.  My last cruise on Reflection featured trivia twice a day, and the first one got skipped three times on a 7-day cruise because staff didn't show up to run it.  I have never seen a lecture offered on a 7-day cruise on X, and I look for them.  I do see evidence of them being programmed on other trips but certainly not a guarantee on every cruise.

[Ken the cruiser]

13 minutes ago, bEwAbG said:

 

I've seen you say similar before but I can say that I did not always have the same experience.  Zero lectures and 1 or 2 assistant CDs.  My last cruise on Reflection featured trivia twice a day, and the first one got skipped three times on a 7-day cruise because staff didn't show up to run it.  I have never seen a lecture offered on a 7-day cruise on X, and I look for them.  I do see evidence of them being programmed on other trips but certainly not a guarantee on every cruise.

The only 7 day X cruise we’ve been on was to Alaska where they had Brent Nixon, a naturalist, his wife who is a great speaker and one other lecturer who plays on Suits. All of our other cruises were between 10-14 days, so you may be right when it comes to 7 day cruises not going to Alaska.

[Fouremco]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

One thing we found on X cruises on sea days that we don’t see on HAL cruises, unless they are 15 days or longer (and not a combined cruise), are professional lectures. HAL might offer port lectures by their EXC staff, but that’s it. 

We've only done one Alaskan cruise, 7 nights on HAL's Oosterdam, and they offered some excellent lectures by naturalists. For Glacier Bay National Park, a park employee spent the best part of the day giving highly informative commentary in the Crow's Nest and answering questions posed by passengers. I don't know if you would view these as "professional lectures", but they were as good as anything I've experienced on X.

 

Last summer, we took HAL's 14-night Voyage of the Midnight Sun to the Northern tip of Norway. An EXC staff member hired because of her in-depth knowledge of Norway provided the lectures and was every bit as professional as X lecturers. These covered the history and many other aspects of the ports and their surrounding region and were far from the normal port overview. One lecture included an excellent the history of the Hanseatic League and its influence on Norwegian ports. Another lecture, not specific to any port, provided a fascinating recounting of the development, history and current days status of stave churches in Norway.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

The only 7 day X cruise we’ve been on was to Alaska where they had Brent Nixon, a naturalist, his wife who is a great speaker and one other lecturer who plays on Suits. All of our other cruises were between 10-14 days, so you may be right when it comes to 7 day cruises not going to Alaska.

 

We had an astronomer (I forget his name) on the Edge in the Caribbean in February.

[Ken the cruiser]

33 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

We've only done one Alaskan cruise, 7 nights on HAL's Oosterdam, and they offered some excellent lectures by naturalists. For Glacier Bay National Park, a park employee spent the best part of the day giving highly informative commentary in the Crow's Nest and answering questions posed by passengers. I don't know if you would view these as "professional lectures", but they were as good as anything I've experienced on X.

 

HAL didn't provide that lecturer. The Glacier Bay NPS did. We've been on HAL's 14 day Alaska cruise that went to the Tracy Arm Glacier rather than Glacier Bay and all they had was an EXC person reading from a script while we cruised the Tracy Arm on the way to viewing the glacier.

 

33 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

 

Last summer, we took HAL's 14-night Voyage of the Midnight Sun to the Northern tip of Norway. An EXC staff member hired because of her in-depth knowledge of Norway provided the lectures and was every bit as professional as X lecturers. These covered the history and many other aspects of the ports and their surrounding region and were far from the normal port overview. One lecture included an excellent the history of the Hanseatic League and its influence on Norwegian ports. Another lecture, not specific to any port, provided a fascinating recounting of the development, history and current days status of stave churches in Norway.

 

We were on a 14 day HAL Norwegian cruise in 2017 on the Koningsdam and had a lady from the Netherlands, who was also the EXC Director, give a variety of talks on the same Norwegian subjects you mentioned which were pretty much IMHO elaborate port talks. I don't remember one "lecture" on the Kingdom of Norway or the history of the Vikings.

 

But that's fine. Everyone has different experiences and expectations. Ours is just different. That's why we choose to sail for the most part with Princess and Celebrity now, and occasionally Crystal and Oceania if one of their itineraries really catch our eye.

[Ken the cruiser]

6 minutes ago, WrittenOnYourHeart said:

 

We had an astronomer (I forget his name) on the Edge in the Caribbean in February.

Cool!! I'll bet that was an interesting lecture. We had the Public Relations person for the Apollo program on our Jan 2019 10 day Caribbean cruise on the Reflection along with 2 other lecturers.

Edited June 13, 2020 by Ken the cruiser

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

1 minute ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Cool!! I'll bet that was an interesting lecture. We had the Public Relations person for the Apollo program on our Jan 2019 10 day Reflections cruise along with 2 other lecturers.

 

He did 2 or 3 and a stargazing night. I missed one of the lectures because it was during my ship tour, and I fell asleep too early and missed the stargazing, but the other two were really cool.

[Fouremco]

32 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

HAL didn't provide that lecturer. The Glacier Bay NPS did. We've been on HAL's 14 day Alaska cruise that went to the Tracy Arm Glacier rather than Glacier Bay and all they had was an EXC person reading from a script while we cruised the Tracy Arm on the way to viewing the glacier.

Wow, splitting hairs much? HAL didn't provide the lecturer, the park service did? SMH

 

We'll continue to enjoy lectures with both lines.

[Bill Miller]

Thanks, this is why this is such a great site. I love all your comments and the fact that you took time to share.  Would have enjoyed some more Princess in the mix but happy for all of your opinions. Most Awesome

See You soon. Bon Voyage.

[Ken the cruiser]

56 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

Wow, splitting hairs much? HAL didn't provide the lecturer, the park service did? SMH

 

We'll continue to enjoy lectures with both lines.

No, I'm not splitting hairs. When Celebrity hires a naturalist for one of their Alaska cruises, that's what they are, professional naturalists. Here is a link to the bio associated with Brent Nixon who we saw and still gives lectures on the Solstice,  http://www.naturetalksbybrentnixon.com/brents_bio.html.

 

When we were on the 7 day Solstice Alaska cruise, he gave 3 lectures in the main theater and discussed a wide variety of Alaskan wildlife and their associated habitats. Definitely much more in-depth than on a HAL cruise where "For Glacier Bay National Park, a park employee spent the best part of the day giving highly informative commentary in the Crow's Nest and answering questions posed by passengers."

 

But I will say we have been wowed on some of HAL's longer specialty cruises when they actually booked professional lecturers for multiple days like on their full Panama Canal, Antarctica and Australia circumnavigation cruises. But those occurrences are rare and only on specialty cruises over 15 days. Whereas OTOH there have always been at least two professional lecturers on the 10-15 day Celebrity cruises we've been on the last few years, once on a 10/15 day B2B on the Eclipse in 2017 where there were actually 3 lectures each sea day and once on a 10/11 day B2B on the Reflection in the Caribbean where there were 2 lecturers each sea day.

[BSinPNS]

Definitely agree with Ken.  We were on the NS last summer to Norway.  No guest lectures (14 day cruise) with several sea days.  The EXC guide (who now doubles as the CD) gave a 15 minute memorized script with slides and disappeared as soon as she was done. No questions - nothing.  Although the HAL crew was pleasant, there seemed to be little enthusiasm.  What I enjoy about X is seeing the officers who are willing to sit a talk with you, listen to any concerns and rectify the problem, volleyball in the pool - O's vs. pax, etc.  On HAL, one rarely sees the officers unless you go to the buffet and they sit together inviting no pax interaction.  After two cruises on HAL (better price and itinerary) we are back to X.