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Hi - We are die-hard Princess fans but have an opportunity sail with Holland America in Europe. Has anyone sailed on both lines. If so, how do they compare? Any info would be appreciated.

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I suspect that you'll get a variety of opinions! I've sailed on both of them 3 or more times, and frankly, I could hardly tell them apart. Good service, good food, friendly staff. HAL has more ships with a capacity of less than 2,000. This is a good thing, IMHO. But we're now so invested in Princess because we've got more than 50 cruise days, that I rarely look elsewhere. We're signed up for a Holy Land cruise this Fall on the Royal Princess (assuming that the repairs from the fire go well), and I'm looking forward to sailing on a 600 pax ship.

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We've sailed both.

 

If I had to choose by itinerary, I would go for Princess, which I think has a better variety.

 

HAL has the edge, my opinion, in food quality and larger sized cabins.

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I like HAL....the staff/entertainment/decor/and cleanliness are even on both ships.

HAL: You will have someone carry your tray in the buffet area

HAL: Better beds

HAL: High Tea's are wonderful

HAL: Fewer families with children like this line

HAL: You will receive a collectible trivet after your first cruise

HAL: Truly caters to the "older" set, with automatic doors out to the Promenade.

PRINCESS: High Tea's are also wonderful

PRINCESS: There can be lots of children [depending on when you cruise]

PRINCESS: Has lots more drawers and closet space than HAL

PRINCESS: Has the best embarkation and debarkation procedures on the high seas.

Both lines do not do much PA announcements and "shouting in your face."

Neither line do much dancing in the restaurants

Neither line is well known for "towel animals"

I, personally, like both lines for their food.....DH like Princess better.

All open areas of either line are very nicely appointed with either teakwood or rattan deck chairs and lounges.

 

Lots of brass and glass on either line.

No matter which one you choose.....you'll love them both.

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I love Princess because they give better perks when you are a returning cruiser. Also I like their itinerary better.

Love the space for clothes.... much better than HAL.

I love HAL's food, attention to your every need, and friendliness and of course I love HAL's private island. It's the best island in all of the Caribbean.

Princess is a bit more "lively" than HAL.

Either way you won't be disappointed.

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We've only done one cruise on HAL and that was way back in 96 on the Veendam. From what I can remember, it was great. Nowaays though, I'm a Princess fan thru & thru. IMHO, the food in the main dining room was out of this world. For us it's Princess for the forseable future...:):):)

 

Bob

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I only sailed HAL once on Westerdam.

Decor and Ship Layout: We definitely like Princess better

Friendliness of Staff: We like HAL better

Efficiency: We like Princess better

Food: Princess--longer serving hour and better layout in lido, better pastry, better diary, lots of chocolate item

Hal--waffle is very good, better vegetable choice, meat cut is leaner

Ambiance: Hal is too subdued for us but it did have an advantage that nobody is hard selling to you like on some of the Princess ship.

 

We would prefer to sail on Princess, but it could be highly subjective

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In the past two years, I've sailed 67 days on HAL and about as many (or more) on Princess. If you like Princess, you'll like HAL. In some regions, HAL has much better itineraries and/or ships for doing the itineraries. For instance, Princess uses a large ship for the Norwegian fjords, HAL uses a much smaller ship which can go into the fjords much further and the itinerary includes Spitzbergen. I would also recommend a HAL ship for cruising Antarctica than Princess because again, the smaller ship can go places the larger ship can't.

 

Overall, they are very similar cruising experiences. I think the food and service is better overall on Princess, and I like the Princess beds better. I get a really bad backache when on HAL cruises and have to bring tons of IB; not sure why.

 

HAL is decidedly quieter at night after dinner; you wont' find many people wandering around, the lounges are pretty dead. On the other hand, they serve hot hors d'oeurves in the lounges from about 5pm on, which is nice. I also like the Lido dinner better: you serve yourself your soup and appetizers and order your entree cooked the way you want it. The entree is then delivered to your table when you've finished your appetizer, soup, salad, etc. The negative about the Lido is that it's shut up tight at 8pm sharp so if you want to go back to get anything or get dessert, you're out of luck so you really need to be there before 7:30pm unless you get everything you want from the buffet when you first sit down. Personally, I think 8pm is way too early but that's what they do. One night, we got there at about 7:30, waited in line to order our entree and sat down. Our entrees were delivered at about 8pm; I'd ordered lamb, which was still raw inside. Really raw. I went back to see if I could get it cooked a little more and was told, too bad, they were closed. They'd closed up everything else so I had only an appetizer for dinner that night. None of us got dessert. So, if you're planning to eat in the Lido at night (and it's normally a very pleasant experience), make sure you get there early.

 

I've had great cruises on HAL and am going again next April. You really can't go wrong.

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We had a bad time on HAL in May so I might be a bit biased. We had hot water in the shower 2 out of 7 days, you couldn't turn the A/C down or off in the room, you could only change the temp (I'm still sick). They served fake crab in the dining room in place of Alaska King Crab and Dungeness Crab. Really blah dinners in the MDR. All the good entertainment was scheduled in the middle of late seating. Lunch service closes at 2. Now I realize that HAL just can't be that bad all the time or they'd have no following at all so we must have been blessed :rolleyes: with all the bad demons. There were some things they did very well, the Pinnacle Grill was fantastic and a steal at $20 pp. We complained to HAL after our cruise about the service issues and especially the fake crab and they've offered us all kinds of incentives to book again with them....I highly doubt I'd ever be able to convince my DH to go on HAL again.

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Each Cruise line has there own identity.

 

HAL is the one which started Cruising via NYC/NY and the Kingdom of the Netherlands ( Holland )..

 

Yes they are the ones which started and lead in the Alaskan waters, tours, locations , transportation, lodging and as well in the Canadian Western Provinces ..

 

In shipping NYC. NY is where the ole time Schedule was created.. HAL was there too and across in the City of Hoboken , New Jersey.

 

Princess has so many wonderful ships and ports of call too..

 

What really matters most and well should is how each ship and trip is run..

 

Well or not so well.. Responsibility is the KEY...

 

In other words attention to detail..:cool:

 

Since HAL does not use the Ports of NYC/NJ now much if any.. I have to give a stiff and large advantage to Carnival's Princess Cruise Lines VS there HAL..now..

 

 

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Wow, our sailing on Westerdam the end of May also had service issues:

Bathroom was not cleaned on the embarkation day. twice in main dining room one of our party did not receive her order until everybody else almost finished eating. 2 out of 7 room services were delivered wrong.

We also believe HAL can't be that bad since our parents really liked it in the past. I guess we were just as blessed as you were.

We never complained to HAL since their staff were very friendly and humble people and we don't want to ruin the individual's career. Plus we did not find the ship ambiance and the meal hr work well for us and may not stick with them anyway

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I've been on three lines: Princess, HAL & Costa. I would (and have) book(ed) with Princess and/or HAL again without hesitation... not so with Costa.

 

Princess does some things better than HAL... and HAL does some things better than Princess. I'd love to combine the best of both!

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We have cruised twice on HA and many times on Princess. The only thing we like better on HA is the hot room service breakfast, and we did prefer their smaller ship in Alaska. Don't like that on HA you get charged for shore excursions as soon as you book them rather than have the charge put on your onboard account like Princess - makes it much easier to cancel or change excursions onboard. We really prefer everything about Princess from booking to disembarkation.

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Hals balcony cabins are the same size as P's mini suites. HAL offeres full breakfast in your cabin. P's specialty restaurants are more diverse than Pinnacle. HALs stewards are Phillippino or Indonesian and much friendlier than Ps mixed bag. Had towel animals on HAL. Coffee better on HAL. Liked morning TV on P. Food, shopping and layouts about equal. P won't let you buy cigs for onboard use in DF shop. Shows and casinos about equal. My preference is HAL if the itinerary is available. Also I can get fresh squeeze OJ every morning.

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Yes they are the ones which started and lead in the Alaskan waters, tours, locations , transportation, lodging and as well in the Canadian Western Provinces ..

 

 

 

Not true, actually Princess was the first to cruise to Alaska. HAL started shortly after. And both have built quite an infrastructure there.

 

I think the most glaring difference is the size of the ships. I sailed the Grand Princess in the Med in Oct '08, and at 110,000 gross tons, wore us completely out trying to get from our cabin to the show room., and with 2600 passengers, there were lines to use the restroom, to purchase a soda, to get a hamburger, to purchase in the ships, there always seemed to be lines everywhere. The HAL ships are around 90,000 gross tons with around 2000 passengers. That's plenty large for me.

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Fang and I have 127 days on HAL but the last 2 cruises have been on Princess:

Most has already been said but I will say again that if you like one the probability is you will like the other. I posted 2 comparisons on the HAL and Princess boards-don't know how to do that link stuff!

That having been said I find it very difficult to compare ships within a line let alone lines but some quick notes from us:

Larger rooms on HAL

Good closets on Princess

Good service both lines

Overall younger group on Princess but not as big a difference as some would have you believe.

More pre-dinner cocktail opportunities on Princess

More late night choices on Princess

Better show hours on Princess

Have found great crew members, and some not so great, on both.

It's like the days of choosing between Buick and Oldsmobile.

In this case different is fun, not bad.

We will continue to cruise both.

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Hals balcony cabins are the same size as P's mini suites. HAL offeres full breakfast in your cabin. P's specialty restaurants are more diverse than Pinnacle. HALs stewards are Phillippino or Indonesian and much friendlier than Ps mixed bag. Had towel animals on HAL. Coffee better on HAL. Liked morning TV on P. Food, shopping and layouts about equal. P won't let you buy cigs for onboard use in DF shop. Shows and casinos about equal. My preference is HAL if the itinerary is available. Also I can get fresh squeeze OJ every morning.

 

I quite agre with these comments. I would add that I have a preference for small, less crowded ships which gives an edge to HAL. We were aboard the CB last July and the crowding at times was quite off putting. HAL generally has an older crowd and if you are looking for late night activity, Princess has the edge. HAL has also cut back on the cruise director's staff and daily activities suffer as a consequence. We prefer the cuisine on HAL but this is almost too subjective a category to offer real advice. HAL also brews the real thing if you relish your coffee.

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We have been on many Princess cruises so my wife wanted to try another line recently. We tried HAL. Like others have said comparisons are very subjective. Obviously some people like HAL because the ship was full but we will not travel HAL again. The food was not as tasty, the waiters were not friendly and forgot things frequently, unlike Horizon Court the buffet was closed frequently. It was a bit sad because it appeared like HAL was trying, but it appeared that they were out of their league. It is just a choice but we could not wait to get off, (that is also unusual for a cruise). The cruise just made me want to write to Princess and reinforce how professional they are in providing overall quality.

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Sailed on HAL's Rotterdam Holiday cruise Dec 2008-Jan 2009. Sailed on Princess 4 times.

 

HAL adantages: (1) On nights where we rushed back to the ship and did not want to dress for dinner, we ate at the buffet which served the same entrees available in the regular dining room. (2) Smaller ships mean less walking to get from one place to the other. (3) Fresh squeezed orange juice at the breakfast buffet. (4) Several Eggs Benedict variations at breakfast. (5) Friendly staff.

 

Princess advantages: (1) More entertainment options. On HAL, after the main show, there wasn't much else to do. (2) The bigger ships have more spaces and lounges to relax or chat with new friends. (3) Younger demographic/passengers. (4) Nicer, better equipped gyms.

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Several people commented on the size of Princess ships but they're not all like that. We recently cruised Alaska on the Island Princess which supposedly has 1970 or so passengers. It was full and they announced there were almost 2100 passengers (how did that happen?)

 

At any rate, it never seemed crowded to me. I was amazed at how often I went to the stairs/elevator and there was no one in sight. The few lines we encountered on board moved quickly. It was quiet and peaceful, and we enjoyed our cruise immensely.

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Hi - We are die-hard Princess fans but have an opportunity sail with Holland America in Europe. Has anyone sailed on both lines. If so, how do they compare? Any info would be appreciated.

 

Our feeling is that the cruise industry is so competitive that you can not make a gneral statement about one line being better than the other.

 

We have sailed RCCL, HAL, Carnival, Princess and have a Celebrity cruise booked for next year. In terms of food, the very best non-speciality dining room food we had was on a single Carnival cruise - by far beat out HAL and Princess, and the very worst food we had was on a different Carnival cruise (made Denny's food look upscale). On HAL, we have had an excellent experience in their speciality restaurant and another experience that we thought it was a complete waste of money. On Princess we have liked and loved different speciality dining experiences. Our friends swear by the Celebrity food.

 

Chose based on itinerary and other factors - what age group is the cruise marketed to? (do you really want to go rock climbing, not at our age). Dancing? - Carnival thinks that passageways by the casino makes a great dance floor (we beg to differ and like Princess better for dancing). What kind of deal can you get?

 

The Captain, officers, crew, and staff really make the distinction between ships in the same line and different lines.

 

Have fun!

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We recently cruised Alaska on the Island Princess which supposedly has 1970 or so passengers. It was full and they announced there were almost 2100 passengers (how did that happen?).

 

Capacities for all cruise ships are calculated at two peolpe per cabin. Having third or fourth persons in the cabins is how you get above the capacity. This routinely happens in Alaska during season when lots of families travel.

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