HA vs. Princess : recent comparisons.

[blueexpedition29]

I have sailed HA 5 times in last 2 years and have not sailed princess in many years. However, considering some princess sailings with others who are princess fans.  Anybody have recent experiences and willing to share  their thoughts on the two lines  and their experiences would be appreciated. 

TIA

[Hlitner]

8 hours ago, blueexpedition29 said:

I have sailed HA 5 times in last 2 years and have not sailed princess in many years. However, considering some princess sailings with others who are princess fans.  Anybody have recent experiences and willing to share  their thoughts on the two lines  and their experiences would be appreciated. 

TIA

We have always found pros/cons to each cruise line (HAL and Princess).  Princess does some things better (such as expanded hours in the Lido, MDRs, 24/7 International Cafe, Production Shows, activities, etc).  Some used to argue that HAL had better cuisine (this may no longer be the case) and was more "laid back."   Also keep in mind that many Princess ships are substantially larger than quite a few HAL vessels and some folks prefer the smaller ships.  Princess also does not have any forward facing lounges and their ships do not have wrap around promenades.  I am also unhappy with the size of the regular cabin balconies on Princess Royal Class vessels.  

 

One other issue is that Princess has MUTS (Movies Under the Stars) which are large movie screens on their main pool deck.  These days, Princess will blast out sound, day and night, including moves, shorts, music videos, sports, etc.  For those who prefer to quietly sit near the pool, this is a major annoyance...although one can usually find quiet seating elsewhere on the ship.  On the other hand, you will not find Princess showing a BBC Documentary in their main theater and passing it off as the major night's entertainment.  

 

Hank

[disneyochem]

We cruise both lines (7 Princess cruises this year, 4 on HAL) and are happy with both cruise lines.  For us, there are pluses and minuses on both lines.

 

What we like on Princess:  MDR, International Cafe, Alfredo’s/Gigi’s Pizza, more varied evening entertainment (shows, games, etc), MUTS, day activities, the Medallion app  (Yes, we love being able to order a drink and have it delivered to us anywhere on the ship), Princess Plus package includes crew gratuities.

 

What we like on Holland America:  the Dive In, the Crows Nest, the Music Walk, cabins with sofas, Tamarind and the Pinnacle Grill.

 

Misses on Princess:  the lack of back/front viewing areas (no Crows Nest!  Some ships do have a Skywalkers Lounge which is great), having to upgrade room type in order to get a sofa/seating in cabin.

 

Misses on HAL:  no Medallion (hate carrying the cruise card), lack of daytime activities, no production shows (how many times can one see the Origin Story?), no MUTS, MDR, poor choices for my dietary issues.

 

Most Princess ships do have a quiet pool where one can relax without blaring music—aft and Lotus Spa/Retreat pools.  Outside of Royal class, the ships do have full promenades.

 

I do have to say there was one thing that happened on our November 2022 Koningsdam cruise that made us never want to cruise HAL in the fall again.  We enjoy watching NFL games and other sporting events.  HAL did not show any games (no NFL, no World Cup) during the Thanksgiving week—not in a public venue or in our rooms!  Fortunately the WiFi was good enough to stream the games!  By contrast, Princess always shows major sporting events on the big screen and in staterooms.  

 

[FlaMariner]

I'll try to be nice but we are 3 star HAL Mariners and cruised Princess (Sky, TA) for the first time last March and we are not going back.....some of the differences we noticed:

 

• no fixed dining (we had to beg every evening to be seated at our preferred table/servers at the same time every evening)
• no retractable roof over lido (so this area is of no use in inclement weather)
• loud lido pool deck with gambling on the TV screen and other loud events/annoyances
• atrium/decor was more like being at the mall food court than on a ship 
• no furniture to sit on in the balcony cabin/closet is open like motel 6
• pizza restaurant required 11am line up on sea days or long wait (no reservations taken)
• lido was difficult for us to figure out....salad bar was hidden in an alcove area, orange juice glasses were shot glass size, lots of going "here and there" to fill the plate...difficult to get a cup of "free" coffee.  wait in line for them to serve or perhaps someone may come by after finished with eggs. 
• reliance on the medallion thing (size of quarter, lost in day 2) but it did not work for fetching drinks or whatever. 
• no reasonable "wine package" at dinner
• not much live music....jazz club was more like "brunch jazz" nothing like Music Walk choices.
• no reasonable laundry package....did clothes dorm room style down the hall.
• Thermal suite hidden in inside windowless area of ship....not as nice as HAL
• no shaded walking area around the ship

 

 

Food was fine. Staff was great. But Holland America Line has spoiled us w/the way they roll and it more fits us.  

 

Disclaimers:  These bullet points are my personal views and experiences and I understand others see things much differently.  I am open to other cruise lines as we have sailed Carnival, Celebrity, NCL other the years (with a Carnival cruise booked next year) but we are not interested in cruising Princess again.  And I understand YMMV. 

 

 

 

 

 

[shorefolks]

We have sailed HAL before and will again this fall. We liked our previous cruises with them, although they were several years ago. We sailed with Princess this past November, our 10th cruise with them and the first time that we did NOT buy Future Cruise Credits. From our first meals, it was obvious that there was rampant cost-cutting going on. The steaks, even in the steak house, were just poor- very tough. Plus, the number of entree options was reduced in the MDR. To make things worse, the chef (not one of the Italian chefs that Princess likes to tout) assembled dishes using an odd and inappropriate collection of flavors and accompaniments, none of which seemed to add much flavor, interesting or otherwise. The International Cafe, by contrast, did its usual bang-up job, even better than ever. The service on board Princess was very good, as has usually been the case. All of the staff seemed very eager to please. Entertainment was of meager quality, and there was no staff show.

 

Whether the problem with food on our Princess cruise was due to the individual chef or overall cost-cutting, I can't say, but it was sufficient to make us look elsewhere.

 

A much better experience, food-wise, was the cruise we took in January with Oceania. (Yes, I know Oceania is a premium-priced line, above mass-market lines like Princess and HAL but below luxury lines like Seabourn.) As opposed to Princess where we had to try to pick a meal choice that we would dislike least, on Oceania we had a tough choice picking the dish we would like the most. Generally great food all around. This cruise, by the way, was to Antarctica and South America. I must say that the enrichment team (4 in all) were above and beyond, with numerous lectures regarding Antarctica. General staff were also excellent, with top-notch cabin stewards.

[LAFFNVEGAS]

13 hours ago, disneyochem said:

We cruise both lines (7 Princess cruises this year, 4 on HAL) and are happy with both cruise lines.  For us, there are pluses and minuses on both lines.

 

What we like on Princess:  MDR, International Cafe, Alfredo’s/Gigi’s Pizza, more varied evening entertainment (shows, games, etc), MUTS, day activities, the Medallion app  (Yes, we love being able to order a drink and have it delivered to us anywhere on the ship), Princess Plus package includes crew gratuities.

 

What we like on Holland America:  the Dive In, the Crows Nest, the Music Walk, cabins with sofas, Tamarind and the Pinnacle Grill.

 

Misses on Princess:  the lack of back/front viewing areas (no Crows Nest!  Some ships do have a Skywalkers Lounge which is great), having to upgrade room type in order to get a sofa/seating in cabin.

 

Misses on HAL:  no Medallion (hate carrying the cruise card), lack of daytime activities, no production shows (how many times can one see the Origin Story?), no MUTS, MDR, poor choices for my dietary issues.

 

Most Princess ships do have a quiet pool where one can relax without blaring music—aft and Lotus Spa/Retreat pools.  Outside of Royal class, the ships do have full promenades.

 

I do have to say there was one thing that happened on our November 2022 Koningsdam cruise that made us never want to cruise HAL in the fall again.  We enjoy watching NFL games and other sporting events.  HAL did not show any games (no NFL, no World Cup) during the Thanksgiving week—not in a public venue or in our rooms!  Fortunately the WiFi was good enough to stream the games!  By contrast, Princess always shows major sporting events on the big screen and in staterooms.  

 

Excellent comparison. in the past 7 months we have done one HAL, and one Princess and two NCL and you gave an excellent comparison between HAL and Princess.

[leck57]

20 hours ago, disneyochem said:

We cruise both lines (7 Princess cruises this year, 4 on HAL) and are happy with both cruise lines.  For us, there are pluses and minuses on both lines.

 

What we like on Princess:  MDR, International Cafe, Alfredo’s/Gigi’s Pizza, more varied evening entertainment (shows, games, etc), MUTS, day activities, the Medallion app  (Yes, we love being able to order a drink and have it delivered to us anywhere on the ship), Princess Plus package includes crew gratuities.

 

What we like on Holland America:  the Dive In, the Crows Nest, the Music Walk, cabins with sofas, Tamarind and the Pinnacle Grill.

 

Misses on Princess:  the lack of back/front viewing areas (no Crows Nest!  Some ships do have a Skywalkers Lounge which is great), having to upgrade room type in order to get a sofa/seating in cabin.

 

Misses on HAL:  no Medallion (hate carrying the cruise card), lack of daytime activities, no production shows (how many times can one see the Origin Story?), no MUTS, MDR, poor choices for my dietary issues.

 

Most Princess ships do have a quiet pool where one can relax without blaring music—aft and Lotus Spa/Retreat pools.  Outside of Royal class, the ships do have full promenades.

 

I do have to say there was one thing that happened on our November 2022 Koningsdam cruise that made us never want to cruise HAL in the fall again.  We enjoy watching NFL games and other sporting events.  HAL did not show any games (no NFL, no World Cup) during the Thanksgiving week—not in a public venue or in our rooms!  Fortunately the WiFi was good enough to stream the games!  By contrast, Princess always shows major sporting events on the big screen and in staterooms.  

 

 

Having cruised both lines recently I'd pretty much agree with most of your points.

I might differ with the MDR as we found our recent HAL cruise dining room offerings to be marginally better than Princess (subjective I know). Along the lines of what you said, we found the entertainment on HAL to be sadly lacking in comparison to Princess and the Princess entertainment is spread out around the ship, not confined to a general area or a venue that adjoins the Casino. A big plus for us with Princess is the self service laundries on every deck.

Overall we would cruise with either line. I have done 10 Princess cruises and finding the itineraries to be lacking variation, they seem to be doing the same old trips. HAL have some different cruises (eg Canary Is) which are attracting my interest. Even though we are nearing Elite level on Princess, I can't understand why people stick with one line to attain benefits which when compared to the cost of the cruise, are negligible. So, in summary, if we are happy with the cruise line and the costs are similar, the itinerary will be the major factor.

Edited February 26, 2023 by leck57

[mahi mahi]

Agree with many of the comments already made.  We have now done 3 cruises with Princess and I think we are now done.  Went to Alaska in June last year on the Zuiderdam and it was honestly one of the best cruises we have ever done.  We had a credit with Princess from 2020 to use up and applied it to a 10 day Alaska on Majestic 3 months later - that experience made us decide we will in future avoid the line.

Food is a big deal for us and it was very disappointing compared to HAL.  We have always gone with early dining but prefer not to eat at 5 pm or whatever time they say fixed early is.  When we board we go directly to the dining room and request a table for 2, not in a traffic area.  Once we find a table and servers we really like we have always been able to get that table after promising to turn up at the same time every night (before 6).  On Princess it was a battle every single night.  We never had a bad meal on HAL but on Princess there were numerous times we were hard pressed to find something on the menu to like and often times did not finish (we are not picky eaters either).

Don't get me started on the medallion!  It was difficult before the cruise, trying to do everything on the app and we never used it to order anything on board.  Was never able to get the "green lane", trying up to leaving for the airport!

Much prefer smaller ships and don't need to be entertained every minute.  We saw most of the shows on Majestic and were not wowed, with the exception of the naturalist on board who was wonderful.  Love the music walk on HAL, hated MUTS.  Our cabin, a deluxe balcony was fine, Princess is known for their tiny balconies on the newer ships.  One thing we did NOT appreciate was the automatic night lights in the cabin - had to get our steward to block the one outside the bathroom otherwise you feel like a deer in the headlights!  Had to place sofa cushions in front of the one by the desk.

Staff on both lines are fantastic, no complaints there.  Self serve laundry on Princess is a really nice feature, especially on longer itineraries - wish HAL had them.

[MISTER 67]

We have sailed with both lines over 20 times each. In 2021 after the start up we sailed on the Caribbean Princess twice in November and again in December, both cruises were great with only 1,700 on board for both cruises. Food and entertainment were very good and the service was outstanding, even the Medallions worked well. The only thing amiss was none of the clocks on the open decks were working. As with most lines, we have been reading that things starting in January have gone downhill with Princess.

We sailed on the Rotterdam in April of 2022 and it was a decent cruise with pretty good food in the Lido and fair food in the MDR. Service was for the most part pretty good with some snags here and there. Entertainment was decent with Music Walk but as usual entertainment in the main showroom was pathetic. We sailed on the Nieuw Amsterdam in December of 2022 and things really took a nosedive with food, entertainment and service, it was for us bad enough that we will not sail with HAL again. Looking back to 2022 we had 3 great cruises on Celebrity but I'm reading on the Celebrity boards that things have have taken a turn for the worse with Celebrity also, we will find out on a April 2nd cruise on the Reflection. We have also booked a cruise on the Sky Princess for December and will probably sail on MSC this summer.

Food and entertainment are very important to us as the ship is the destination as we just sail in the Caribbean and very seldom get off the ship. If itineraries are important to you then I think all the lines have great itineraries and you can't go wrong with Princess, Celebrity and HAL.

 

Edited February 26, 2023 by MISTER 67

[CNSJ]

23 hours ago, FlaMariner said:

I'll try to be nice but we are 3 star HAL Mariners and cruised Princess (Sky, TA) for the first time last March and we are not going back.....some of the differences we noticed:

 

• no fixed dining (we had to beg every evening to be seated at our preferred table/servers at the same time every evening)
• no retractable roof over lido (so this area is of no use in inclement weather)
• loud lido pool deck with gambling on the TV screen and other loud events/annoyances
• atrium/decor was more like being at the mall food court than on a ship 
• no furniture to sit on in the balcony cabin/closet is open like motel 6
• pizza restaurant required 11am line up on sea days or long wait (no reservations taken)
• lido was difficult for us to figure out....salad bar was hidden in an alcove area, orange juice glasses were shot glass size, lots of going "here and there" to fill the plate...difficult to get a cup of "free" coffee.  wait in line for them to serve or perhaps someone may come by after finished with eggs. 
• reliance on the medallion thing (size of quarter, lost in day 2) but it did not work for fetching drinks or whatever. 
• no reasonable "wine package" at dinner
• not much live music....jazz club was more like "brunch jazz" nothing like Music Walk choices.
• no reasonable laundry package....did clothes dorm room style down the hall.
• Thermal suite hidden in inside windowless area of ship....not as nice as HAL
• no shaded walking area around the ship

 

 

Food was fine. Staff was great. But Holland America Line has spoiled us w/the way they roll and it more fits us.  

 

Disclaimers:  These bullet points are my personal views and experiences and I understand others see things much differently.  I am open to other cruise lines as we have sailed Carnival, Celebrity, NCL other the years (with a Carnival cruise booked next year) but we are not interested in cruising Princess again.  And I understand YMMV. 

 

 

 

 

 

The lack of a promenade deck (Pinnacle class is still better than nothing!), lack of a small loveseat in non-suites, and the loud music/party on lido deck areas are enough to keep me on HAL.  Plus I don't want much bigger than Pinnacle class is today.

 

I'll sail with HAL.  May try Oceania, but price compares seem high, especially since we hit 4 star with HAL. 

[Andi Land]

9 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Excellent comparison. in the past 7 months we have done one HAL, and one Princess and two NCL and you gave an excellent comparison between HAL and Princess.

Thanks for this! We booked NCL for next August and we’ve never sailed them. The itinerary looks like a great one we haven’t found anywhere else (Iceland, Greenland that is RT Reykjavík). So, the fact you’ve sailed them twice recently gives me hope I’ve chosen wisely. 

[Lady Arwen]

We like Princess, but we love HAL and Celebrity.  Our next Princess cruise is in September on Regal to use up a bunch of FCC and it will probably be our last for the near future.  We have a few booked on Celebrity and HAL for 2024.  The non smoking policy keeps calling us back to Celebrity and now HAL has a few nonsmoking ships, too.

The food in the MDR is comparable on all lines and is so subjective.  

 

Princess cabins are small and unless you have a deluxe balcony on Royal class or a suite, there is no loveseat or sofa to relax on while watching tv or even having a coffee.  
 

The bathrooms on Princess are very sad.  Very small showers with a silly old shower curtain.  Most cruiselines, including HAL, have switched to larger, glass enclosed shower stalls.  Celebrity Edge class ships have bathrooms, in all categories, that are simply wonderful.  

 

No upper forward facing lounge, such as the incredible Crows Nest, on HAL.  No retractable roof over the pool.  HAL buffets are not self serve, eliminating substantial germ cross contamination.

 

We will enjoy our Regal cruise because we love the itinerary, staff and crew are always exemplary, IC is delightful, and we have a mini suite giving us a large sofa and a nice sized bathroom.  We are very much looking forward to this sailing, but then it will be time to move on.  We may consider Princess again in the future, if it ticks all the boxes.

[*Miss G*]

We sailed Sky Princess, Koningsdam, and Oosterdam in 2022 but I will just do the comparison between the Royal-class (Princess) and the Pinnacle-class (HAL).

 

Both ships are beautiful and very well kept.

 

They both cut through marine conditions quite well but the Sky has a bit more of a roll to it.  I would expect this, however, since the Sky has more decks (15) than the Koningsdam (12).

 

Loved the pizza restaurant (Alfredos) on the Sky (eat in).  K’dam has NY Pizza (take-out) but not as good.  

 

After a few misses in the Sky MDR (Cielo) food-quality wise, we really enjoyed our meals there.  Their inability to hold to reservation times and tables was a complete disaster.  Imagine being lead to your table, and then left standing awkwardly next to other diners whilst your attendant abandons you to find an actual free table because “yours” is occupied.  This happened not once, not twice, but 5 times.  Five times!!!  We took to eating dinner the moment the dining room opened to save everyone the embarrassment and frustration.  Holland America wins this round.

 

The Sky has the International Cafe.  We were told it was open 24 hrs but it closed at midnight.  I tried their food offerings a number of times and they were all pretty terrible.  Their coffee was okay.  Koningsdam’s version is the Grand Dutch Cafe.  Their offerings are far superior to the IC.

 

Room service breakfast on the Sky was a joke.  The only “hot” item was a truly disgusting kind of Egg McMuffin thing.  We threw them out.  Complimentary room service items are limited.  HAL wins this round.

 

We loved our mini-suite beds and seating area on the Sky.  It was great to be able to pull a beautiful heavy curtain across to divide the two areas, which each have their own TV.  I am an early riser so this was perfect for me.  Did I mention how much I loved the bed?  It was like sleeping on a cloud.  ☁️ 💤

 

The Sky balcony was much smaller than the K’dam.  Unfortunately, due to our location on the Sky, we were also unable to use it due to the constant cigarette smoke wafting up from the crew smoking area directly underneath us.  Gross.  

 

I won’t even begin to rant over the constant BOOM BOOM BOOM and THUMP THUMP THUMP from the Princess Theatre, which went on beneath us from 10:00am to 10:30pm.  Don’t get Emerald Deck 8:  Room E209. 

 

The bathrooms don’t even compare.  I hate (hate!) high-stepping it up into a rub-a-dub-dub washtub and pulling a shower curtain.  (The Sky.)  I also don’t think that anything with the word “suite” in its name should have only one sink.  The K’dam has a beautiful glass walk-in shower with two sinks.  Plus a separate full-size jetted tub in the suites, along with a separate water closet.  Enough said.

 

Why does the Sky have a Motel 6 closet?!!!  I did not appreciate having all of our clothes and personal items on full display.  I still find this shocking.

 

Entertainment-wise, both ships had their hits and misses.  I’ll call this one a draw.

 

A serious draw-back, for me, was the lack of a full prom on the Sky.  You could only walk about 1/3 of the way (one person width) before having to walk inside to get to the other side.  There was no access to the forward or aft areas.  There was also nowhere to go on the ship if you wanted to see forward unless you paid extra for private access.  Want to see forward?  Turn on your bow cam.

 

The medallion on the Sky didn’t work for ordering but I did like the handy location finder when searching for my travel companions.

 

There was no retractable roof on the Sky Lido deck, making this two-deck area virtually useless during inclement conditions.  If you did happen to have a nice day, the big screen was blaring all kinds of noise at you constantly.  Big fail for us.

 

The aft pool on the Lido deck was a tiny little plunge pool.  But it had to be to make room for the tiny little seating area.  Another big fail.

 

When we first disembarked, we all agreed that Princess was a one-and-done for us.  (My parents, myself, and my sister.)  We were very disappointed because all the things which mattered to us on a cruise were absent.  But this was one ship in a specific class so I would be willing to find another class which may be more suitable.

 

Our first choice remains HAL.

[Sea42]

12 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

Why does the Sky have a Motel 6 closet?!!!  I did not appreciate having all of our clothes and personal items on full display.

It's been many years for us but I liked the closet set up on Princess. I liked the placement, out of the way of the entry to the cabin. We don't entertain in our cabin so no one sees our clothes except us and the stewards.

On HAL, the closet doors block the doorway if someone is going in or out of the cabin or the bathroom and the doors block the overhead light making finding things in the closet a little more difficult. I find it an awkward set up.

[*Miss G*]

46 minutes ago, Sea42 said:

It's been many years for us but I liked the closet set up on Princess. I liked the placement, out of the way of the entry to the cabin. We don't entertain in our cabin so no one sees our clothes except us and the stewards.

On HAL, the closet doors block the doorway if someone is going in or out of the cabin or the bathroom and the doors block the overhead light making finding things in the closet a little more difficult. I find it an awkward set up.

 

For me, I like to be able to separate our items and close the doors.  My sister uses scented laundry products and I am fragrance-free.  This means that her clothes scents travel over to mine, as well as to the room.  When you have fragrance sensitivities it’s an cumulative effect.  (Migraines and asthma.)  I am also a little OCD when it comes to clutter.  If I can’t see it, I can deal with it.  I do understand your perspective, though.

 

Edited February 26, 2023 by *Miss G*

[LAFFNVEGAS]

4 hours ago, Andi Land said:

Thanks for this! We booked NCL for next August and we’ve never sailed them. The itinerary looks like a great one we haven’t found anywhere else (Iceland, Greenland that is RT Reykjavík). So, the fact you’ve sailed them twice recently gives me hope I’ve chosen wisely. 

To be honest my absolute favorite cruise line is NCL, For years in the early 2000's we sailed just HAL but then started to branch out a bit in 2009 and found we really loved NCL. Through the years and well before covid we started to see a decline of HAL and what we first enjoyed with the cruiseline but found NCL. I will say with NCL we have only cruised in full suite or Haven so our experience could be different from others. We compare NCL Suites to Neptune Suites of HAL and Full Suites of Princess and find their suite life far exceeds. We just got off the NCL Encore 2 weeks ago today having had an amazing cruise. We mostly dine in their specialty restaurants which everyone was excellent. We returned and I thought i could scrape up enough extra days off from work to add in an extra cruise to Alaska over Labor Day so placed a Haven suite on hold, we so wanted to go back on the Encore. Before I paid for it I figured I better check pricing for that same date for a HAL cruise or Princess. Discovery Princess was about $2200 less for a Penthouse Suite category S4 on Riviera Deck (we were last on Discovery in December, good cruise although food not great except for going to their new 360) and with HAL it was going to be $4000 less for SB category deck 5 corner aft on the Westerdam. Under a Mariner promotion and if I added the Have It All it was $3300 less than NCL. We ended up booking HAL. If in this case the difference in price was less than $1000 we would have stayed with NCL over HAL but the price difference was just too much. Of these cruise lines they all have their pros and cons. I think you will totally enjoy NCL, in many ways NCL and their crew reminds of how HAL was 15+ years ago.

[avalon1025]

Just off the Discovery Princess sailing with over 4000 passengers.  Ships was nice but looking forward to a better over all experience on my next cruise on the Westerdam.  The Princess ship was so over crowded,  the main pool area was extremely loud with a DJ most times,  food was better in the main dining room than many of the alternative restaurants,  cabin was fine for a solo but small bathroom and verandah. Crew was overwhelmed but tried and were nice.  Ship also ran out of many items and had no ship specific product in the shops. Tendering in Cabo took hours,  just over two hours waiting for a tender.   Overall a throw away cruise to Mexico,  I would be hesitant to sail this class of ship for a special or expensive cruise. 

[SumoCitrus]

Just sailed Regal Princess in Dec 2022. My last HAL cruise was on Koningsdam in Dec 2019. So, I have no "recent" HAL experience but here is what I noticed after Princess:

 

• HAL has (or had?) better food at the Lido - much better. This may no longer be the case as I understand all cruise lines have been making significant cutbacks in food quality.
• HAL and Princess MDR food quality were about the same. Still get lobster on Princess. Access to the dining room and dining scheduling was easier with Princess.
• Conceriege lounge on Princess far superior to Neptune lounge on HAL.
• Cabins larger on HAL for the most part. Balconies also larger on HAL.
• Ship layout better on HAL in my opinion. No crow's nest on Princess. No promenade deck on Princess.
• More kids on Princess.
• More shows on Princess although the quality was not very good. The entertainment on HAL clearly geared toward 50+ crowd.

 

I still think the ports are the most important factor when choosing a cruise. I'll add that I am *more* likely to book w/ HAL or another cruise on a future cruise than Princess after sailing with Princess. Not that I didn't have a good time, I just enjoyed my HAL cruises more.

Edited February 27, 2023 by SumoCitrus

[hdcanal05]

Wow! So much experience and information in these posts. THANK YOU everyone. We have only cruised on HAL ships. The main stage entertainment has become poor, in our opinion. We usually avoid them since we didn’t like the multimedia stuff, don’t like the BBC origins film, and the dancers don’t really sing anymore. We have noticed the quality of the food in MDR has decreased a lot. We have changed to flexible dining because we don’t want to be on a schedule every day. We like the smaller ships, and quietness of the HAL ships. Last winter we were waiting to sail away in port Everglades when one of the party ships blared their music … simply reinforcing our desire to avoid that line. We have another cruise scheduled in 2023 and 2024. The itineraries are great for us. The crew always spoils us. Since the ships were still gearing up by becoming fully loaded, we understand there are learning curves. We are hoping the quality goes back to the quality we enjoyed in years past.

[Guest ldtr]

We have sailed both lines recently.  Both are getting more back to normal compared to earlier in the restart when occupancy was lower, and so was staffing, with lots of supply chain issues.  On recent cruises Princess had more entertainment options both during the day and during the evening.  HAL entertainment is much more focused on Music Walk which might appeal more to some people.  Food is getting back to more normal quality and quantity with both lines having some changes to the menu.  I would give the edge to HAL.

 

Basically you have some features that people love and others hate on both lines.  It really depends upon your tastes to determine how you feel about each of those features.

[leck57]

5 hours ago, avalon1025 said:

Just off the Discovery Princess sailing with over 4000 passengers.  Ships was nice but looking forward to a better over all experience on my next cruise on the Westerdam.  The Princess ship was so over crowded,  the main pool area was extremely loud with a DJ most times,  food was better in the main dining room than many of the alternative restaurants,  cabin was fine for a solo but small bathroom and verandah. Crew was overwhelmed but tried and were nice.  Ship also ran out of many items and had no ship specific product in the shops. Tendering in Cabo took hours,  just over two hours waiting for a tender.   Overall a throw away cruise to Mexico,  I would be hesitant to sail this class of ship for a special or expensive cruise. 

 

It's interesting, and good, how people have different perspectives on ships. We just finished a cruise on Westerdam and we would easily prefer cruises on the Princess Royal class ships anytime. We were quite happy with the Westerdam overall as we are just happy to be cruising again, but found it poorly laid out, particularly the Lido, coffee up on deck 10, no atrium, Billboard on top of the casino, and terrible tendering. We also found areas just as crowded as we've found on bigger ships. We wouldn't go on Westerdam again.

That said, I have no doubt we'll be on HAL again as we go by the itinerary as our main point of choice and HAL have some more varied itineraries than Princess at present. 

[MISTER 67]

On 2/26/2023 at 12:35 PM, Sea42 said:

It's been many years for us but I liked the closet set up on Princess. I liked the placement, out of the way of the entry to the cabin. We don't entertain in our cabin so no one sees our clothes except us and the stewards.

On HAL, the closet doors block the doorway if someone is going in or out of the cabin or the bathroom and the doors block the overhead light making finding things in the closet a little more difficult. I find it an awkward set up.

We love the open closet on Princess, seems like things are easier to access plus there’s room to store your luggage.

[OlsSalt]

HAL crowded Lido: wonder if HAL has more "early eaters"  than Princess ships, because we find the way to avoid Lido crowds is to not go right after it opens - wait at least a half hour or so.

 

Early MDR as-you-wish seating on HAL ships also seems to have the same back up crowding problem, when it first opens.

[Shippy]

Holland Neptune Suite vs Princess Suites (several categories).

ALL Princess suites win hands down on most Princess ships.

There is the ability to close off the sleeping area from the living room area on Princess.

AND their bathrooms are the best. There is a toilet/sink area that totally closes off from the bathtub/shower/sink area. Almost like having 2 bathrooms !

Their concierge lounge has snacks 24 hrs. & a complementary cocktail time in the evening.

It is also set up more for visiting others.

[*Miss G*]

So as not to confuse things for the OP (per Shippy’s comments, above), I was recently in a Koningsdam Neptune Suite which had a separate water closet from the main bathroom area (two sinks, separate glassed-in shower; and a jetted tub with shower). The bathroom in our mini suite on Sky Princess was not as nice as a lower category pinnacle-class HAL bathroom.