Holland America VS Princess

Hey everybody!

Okay, so my boyfriend and I are planning our first cruise together, my first cruise ever. And I am having the hardest time trying to decide between the two. Celebrity and Norwegian aren't a huge option because we need something roundtrip out of the US. And we aren't really interested in cruising Carnival at this time.

I have read mixed reviews that Holland caters to an older crowd and Princess to a younger one. Is this true and should we take this into consideration since he is 28 and I'm 21?

Any tips and knowledge on the lines/ships would be greatly appreciated!

(We are thinking of sailing to Hawaii for our first cruise and want it to be 10+ days!) We are planning in advance so money isn't a huge concern either.

I would recommend Princess for you, you Will have a great time on Princess.

I think you would find more people in your age group on Princess than on HAL.Princess has round trip Hawaii cruises from the West Coast and they will have a passengers of pretty much all ages.

I love HAL on port intensive cruises but find the nights very quiet on sea days.We cruised from Hawaii to Sydney last year and the ship was too quiet for my liking. I'm 60 and am a bit of a bar fly and like some tunes in the background. Other than BB KIngs and the occasional good show HAL is pretty quiet at night. If you like the nightlife I suggest you look elsewhere. However if you are happy to have a drink and a yarn with an old fossil like me, go HAL- the service is great, food is really good and the passengers largely in bed by 10:00.

We cruise both HAL and Princess and love them both. I would think Princess might be a better fit for you because of your ages, but it really depends on you. I have to add - all 3 of my kids (25, 29, 31) prefer HAL. They like Princess too, but given a choice they would pick HAL.

We have been on several Princess cruises and they have been awesome. We are planning a transatlantic cruise for summer 2018 and we booked HAL instead of Princess because their departure date/destinations were more in line with our needs than Princess. We're not night party folks (although my husband does enjoy a good midnight buffet) but hopefully will enjoy HAL as much as Princess.

In the words of Carnival Cruise Lines corporate CEO Arnold Donald, who runs both lines, he described each cruise line on a recent Celebrity Apprentice program as follows:

1. Holland America is "midwestern", for people who don't even live in the mid-west.

2. Princess has a more California vibe

(Whatever each of those geographical terms means to you)

PS: we love HAL for their traditional ship design and features, open 360 degree promenades, sense of being at sea and their wonderful crews. But we are also in bed by 10pm with little interest in onboard entertainment or bars. And since I am from California, I guess we want to get away from any "California vibe" on our vacations - not sure which part of California he is talking about.

Not sure HAL has any cruise itinerary that meets your criteria of Hawaii, round-trip from the US (and not Canada). The best I could find was Eurodam leaving Seattle but coming back to Vancouver. So it would have to be Princess. In any case, with a Hawaii cruise leaving from the US Mainland, there are a lot of sea days and you may find more suitable activities available on the larger Princess ships. NCL does have the Pride of America ship doing trips within the Hawaiian islands, but its pricing is a lot more expensive per night due to the requirement of having an all-US crew.

Between Princess and HAL, Princess is your only option. However, you need to keep in mind that the cruise is 15 days with only 4 in Hawaii. That's an awful lot of sea days, especially for your first cruise. I suggest you take a look at NCL's Pride of America. We took this cruise a few years ago and found it very worthwhile. Its an excellent 7-day, 4 island, round trip Honolulu cruise that hits all the high spots. Not taking anything away from Princess, but you may find NCL to be a better overall fit for you. Whichever you choose, I hope you have an awesome trip. Aloha!

We cruise both. We like both. We choose based on 1.itinerary, 2.price, 3.ship, 4.rooms available--in that order. We've enjoyed every cruise--both port intensive and sea day intensive.

That said, we're pretty much loners who enjoy good food, some down time, entertainment options ranging from big shows to musical duets. We can always find something on every ship. We don't look for raucous activities or things centered around booze.

For those port intensive cruises, we want the best shore experiences we can have. For the sea day intensive cruises, we really want lots of opportunities to relax and do what we want, when we want.

Not sure HAL has any cruise itinerary that meets your criteria of Hawaii, round-trip from the US (and not Canada).

Off the top of my head, San Diego is a round trip US port.

1. Holland America is "midwestern", for people who don't even live in the mid-west.

2. Princess has a more California vibe

To me, a "California vibe" is to be healthy and take care of your body. Is "California Cruise" an oxymoron? :confused:

Off the top of my head, San Diego is a round trip US port.

 

 

To me, a "California vibe" is to be healthy and take care of your body. Is "California Cruise" an oxymoron? :confused:

Here is an informal video of the Crown Princess (8 years old).

I can see many differences between HAL ships and Princess ships from this video - finding the informally produced videos by passengers is one way to explore each brand before you buy, but stay away from the commercially prepared ones. They make them all look like very different ships than "real life"

There are plenty of old crows on Princess also. We enjoy both, Princess and HAL. The longer cruises attract an older crowd. If younger crowds are desired, We suggest Carnival or Royal. Celebrity is also a good mixed crowd. Princess and HAL (our favorite cruise lines) will be a little more subdued with a matured crowd...JMO Never been on NCL, but that might be a good choice for Hawaii.

There's always a chance (I hope) that one will enjoy the company of other persons due to their personalities and their interests, regardless of age. But if you want to party, I can see why the age demographic would be a key factor.

OP: Can you tell us more about what you want in a cruise? What ships you are considering? What type of room? What activities do you like? What would make your vacation good for you? If you want lots of people your age to share your time with, probably not HAL, but maybe not Princess either; on a 14 or 15 day cruise, any cruise line will have a minority of people in their 20s.

We've done the Princess R/T Hawaii from CA twice, and done HAL CA to Hawaii and beyond twice.

Princess ships are larger so they have more entertainment venues than most of the HAL ships. Princess will have the shows in the theater-like show lounge, but they will also have an alternative show in a large bar lounge. And short acts in the Atrium, but they are repetitive and I lose interest after seeing one or two.

Princess rooms are generally smaller than HALs, note especially that Princess only has couches in mini-suites and higher categories on most of their ships. I always miss the couch on a Princess ship; they have a small round coffee table and 1 or maybe 2 chairs. If you have a balcony at least you will have chairs out there.

Princess has their buffet open almost all day and night, almost. HAL's buffet hours are much shorter, breakfast, lunch and dinner with closed hours in between although you can get a sandwich, hamburger or pizza in the off hours.

Princess has more limited room service menus than HAL, and on HAL you can get the main dining room menu items of the night delivered to your room as room service.

I find activities on the sea days to be similar on these types of cruises. They each have had a guest presenter with talks on sea days for enrichment. HAL's spas have beautiful views on all their ships (as far as I can tell, not sure about Prinsendam) whereas Princess's spas are internal, attractive but no windows.

I do think that Princess has a more upbeat feel, HAL a more laid-back feel. I do find things to do on HAL after dinner: show, piano bar or dancing, movie. I prefer the Movies Under the Stars on Princess - cozy up with a blanket on the thick padded loungers with snacks, works for me.

Depending on which ships, some have Movies Under the Stars (Princess), or free DVD movies on HAL, or on newer ships HAL has on-demand movies in room.

I've found good food on both, good service on both... in many ways they are more similar than different, but not the same.

Itinerary, price, then ship and room... our formula also! m--

Off the top of my head I'd even say something like Celebrity? But like others I choose itinerary first. Doing my first HAL this weekend actually and I'm closer in age to OP than the 'average age' on HAL. But that's generally been the same across the board.

We've found people to make friends with on all ships so far. Even the Japanese cruise in Japan on the Sun Princess.

We like HAL and we like Princess. There are many similarities. Although their respective cheerleaders wax poetic about both lines, on balance we do not really see any difference in quality of service etc. Perhaps the preference for one over the other comes from knowing the crew or seeing the same crew members frequently.

Having said that, this does not mean that we like all HAL ships and all Princess ships. We don't. We have zero interest in the older HAL ships (especially the ones that they have been trying unsuccessfully to unload) nor do we have interest in the big Princess monster ships.

Likewise there are some itineraries/times on both that we would avoid for our own preferences.

But this aside, liking both of these cruise lines does not mean that we overlook their deficiencies. We don't. We view cruise lines as a commercial enterprise and we expect to get what we pay for. We don't make excuses for any cruise line or wax over any obvious failings of ship, crew, whatever. We do not want to fool ourselves, or fool others when it comes to expectations.

Food and entertainment? Can't say food is better on either. It is so variable by ship, sailing, etc. It will be good to mediocre, to poor at various times on various sailings on both cruise line ships. We could never say that one is particularly better than the other however we do have preferences for hours of operation and dining choices. Entertainment is the same. Variable with a slight edge to Princess because HAL cannot seem to get themselves past the late fifties/early sixties when it comes to live music. Not sure why.

The big difference that we have seen in the past is innovation. HAL has been very slow whereas Princess has introduced positive changes over the years. Hopefully HAL's new management team will move the company a little faster and a little further when it comes product and service innovation. Looks like Kdam may be a result of some forward thinking.

The one deficiency that we see on HAL (and this is based on personal preferences) compared to Princess (and others) that we enjoy is the frequent cruiser reward program. HAL's is at the absolute bottom of the list on frequent cruiser benefits...real tangible benefits. But this deficiency only impacts frequent cruises or those who stick with one cruise line.

Entertainment is the same. Variable with a slight edge to Princess because HAL cannot seem to get themselves past the late fifties/early sixties when it comes to live music. Not sure why.

 

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Would you provide some examples of music that you feel is outdated, and some examples of what you would prefer? It would help, otherwise one doesn't know whether your perspective is at all in line with another's preferences.

Our very 1st cruise was on NCL..Pride of Americas touring Hawaii. We loved it. Saw the high points and didn't have the sea days, which we are not fans of doing.