Princess Fan tries Holland America--Zaandam Mexican Riviera & Copper Canyon

[nreeder]

I've posted my review below to the "Reviews" section, but was also told to post here too. So here goes! We had a wonderful time, so read on.

 

This will be a long review of our Holland America Zaandam 10 day cruise from San Diego to Mexico and the Copper Canyon. We chose this cruise because of the itinerary. No one else does this particular route. Besides the usual Cabo San Lucas, Matazalan, and Puerto Vallarta, that everyone does, this cruise adds Loreto, Guymas, and Topolobango (port for Copper Canyon.)

 

Personal Background Information

 

We are Princess Cruise fans and it’s been over 20 years since we were on a Holland American ship (the old Westerdam, no longer in the fleet). So there will be a number of comparisons as we kind of viewed Holland America with fresh eyes. We both retired last year and while we worked we were both librarians so that’s our background.

 

Travel To Port of Embarkation

 

We live in a suburb of Los Angeles (Torrance) and traveled via Amtrak train to San Diego from LA’s Union Station. The great thing about doing this is that instead of 4 inches of legroom, you get 4 feet between rows and coffee served at your seat in business class. But the best thing is that when you arrive at San Diego’s Union Station, you are just across the street from the cruise ship. So we just wheeled our bags over there and dropped them off in no time.

 

Embarkation

 

Embarkation went relatively smoothly except that the checkin computers went dead just before we walked in so we had to wait about 20 minutes before they got those working again.

 

We had a CruiseCritic Meet and Greet that I contacted Holland America to arrange. As usual great people. You learn so much talking to them. They reserved the Piano Lounge and had the bar open and music. They didn’t provide the coffee and cookies they promised, but everyone was happy to have a reserved space and to order their own drinks.

 

The Ship

 

The Zaandam was built in 2000 and just came out of dry-dock after two weeks of refurbishment. They did a 14 day Hawaii cruise right after that, just before our Mexico cruise. During the Hawaii cruise, they ran into a giant storm and the ship was really banged about from what we heard from some passengers who continued on after the Hawaii cruise to our Mexico one. The ship’s crew said the same thing. They lost the use of 5 elevators during this storm. They were able to fix three of them with spare parts on board, but 2 remained out of service during our cruise because they needed more parts which they will get in San Diego.

 

The dry-dock was not a major remodel. The dining room got all new chairs (quite comfortable). The verandas got new loungers and chairs too. At a focus group meeting that we were invited to at the end of the cruise, the hotel manager reflected on the fact that the dining room chairs were one inch wider, so he could now only get 7 chairs at a table that used to hold 8. Additionally, the lounge chairs on the verandah are 10 inches longer than before. They now span the entire depth of the verandah from the glass railing to the glass doors. It’s difficult to move them as they are so tight a fit. But they sure are comfortable!

 

So here’s our personal take on the ship. We don’t expect that everyone will agree with us, but it’s our experience this time.

 

Nice HAL touches

 

You can have hot items on the room service breakfast like scrambled eggs (even with egg beaters if you wanted) or a ham and cheese omelet and a choice of ham, bacon, or sausage. Princess doesn’t offer anything hot for breakfast on the room service menu. Holland America prints a 4 page folded mini version of the daily New York Times and this is distributed to every room. I think Princess may do this but there’s a charge if they do. Holland America serves appetizers in the lounges prior to dinner, Princess doesn’t. We didn’t actually see what was offered because we usually had “happy hour” out on our balcony each night. There were nice canapés in the Exploration Café stand where they do the fresh coffees. Princess offers something similar on the new ships in their atriums and that feature is being brought to their older ships as they go into dry-dock.

That’s the good news for Holland America.

 

Essentially we were not impressed with the design of the Zaandam. This is a ship built in 2000 the year Grand Princess was built and we’ve been on her a number of times. So we couldn’t help making comparisons. They are very different ships. Grand Princess is of course much bigger—2,600 passengers versus 1,400 on Zaandam. Many Holland America cruisers prefer these smaller ships. They are more compact and easier to get around for mobility impaired passengers.

 

Stateroom

 

But we kind of felt cramped both in the cabin and in the public areas. The Verandah Suite we stayed in is comparable to the mini-suites on Grand Princess and her sisters. There was a Jacuzzi tub which in not on the Princess ships, but these cabins are considerably smaller than Princess mini-suites. They run about 295 sq. ft versus around 325 sq. ft. on Princess. This was OK for this cruise for the two of us. However, I love to SCUBA dive (not on this trip), and in the future there would really be no room for my diving gear in these type cabins whereas there is plenty of room on the Princess ships. Part of this is the design of the “living room” area where the couch is. On Holland America the desk and mirror is directly across from the couch so this narrows the room for that section. On Princess the desk is angled out between the bedroom areas and living area so the living room has nothing across from the couch but a l chair. There’s more a feeling of open space and more storage space because of the two dividing partitions on the Princess ships which have lots of shelves, TV’s and the refrigerator.

 

We weren’t too impressed with the public spaces on this ship, but I think this relates to what the interior designers chose to do with this particular version. The three story atrium is completely filled with a giant white ornate pipe organ. It goes from floor to ceiling and is so wide that it really fills up the atrium. You gain no sense of open space on any of the three floors of the atrium. Princess atriums are all spectacular spaces with most of the public rooms connected around them.

 

That’s the other weird thing in the Zaandam design (shared by the smaller Holland ships), the real “promenade” deck where you can walk completely around the ship is not a public deck. It is filled with passenger cabins. There are lots of outside cabins whose picture windows look out to this deck. They have a mirrored covering so you can’t see in during the day but you have to be sure to close your drapes at night because you would be able to see in then. The good news for Holland is that this design gave them more outside rooms with unobstructed views as the two public decks are above this is where the life boats hang and block any possible views. To make things even more confusing they called all three of these “promenade—upper, lower and main.

 

There are relatively few cabins with balconies in this design. Grand Princess has four and a half decks of balcony, mini-suite, and suites with balconies. There are two decks on Zaandam with either full suites, or “verandah suites”. There are no standard balcony cabins. Holland is trying to fix this in a kind of strange way. On the four smaller 1,200 passenger versions of this design, they are taking out the picture windows on the promenade deck outside cabins and putting in a single glass door. They are trying to give the effect of a balcony cabin, except that your “balcony” is really the promenade deck which is public and everyone walks around it. The deck chairs outside your room wouldn’t be “yours” either because they are the public ones. We don’t think we would like this lack of privacy but its’ a kind of desperate attempt to update these older ships with more balcony type cabins.

 

Many of the public corridors on the two public decks are paneled in a kind of grey weathered wood effect. We found this a little dark and depressing. We are used to lighter and brighter colors on Princess ships. Their lounges are very nice but some of them open up to the casino where they permit smoking. This drifts into the piano bar and we aren’t fans of breathing other peoples smoke. They are doing a survey of current passengers on smoking on board so they may change their policy in the future.

 

The gym was perfect. It was up top and in front so had great views. Precor treadmills and Cybex weight machines were great. We spent a lot of time up there trying to work off all of the food.

 

Dining

 

Food is my next comparison. The food overall was very good, we never had a bad meal. But we do think Princess has an edge here. The quality and presentation are nicer on Princess and the extra cost Pinnacle Grill on Zaandam (and all other Holland ships) is blown away by the Crown Grill on the newer Princess ships. The biggest disappointment was the Canaletto Lido restaurant just installed on Zaandam. There is no cost to this one unlike Pinnacle, but the extra cost Sabatini’s on board most Princess ships put the Holland version to shame. It’s kind of heavy pasta in Canaletto not the wonderful quality and presentation that Princess does.

 

This brings me to my worst grade for Holland America. It’s their wine list. They get a big fat “F” for outrageously overpricing. Princess markup is around 3 to 4 times from retail. Holland was 5 or 6 times markup. Example, our house chardonnay at home is Chateau St. Michelle. It’s a very nice chardonnay and not that expensive for everyday. We bought 4 bottles of it at Ralph’s supermarket in downtown San Diego (we actually live in LA and took the train down to San Diego). It was on special for $7.77 a bottle. They don’t have it on the regular wine list on the ship, but it’s on the Pinnacle Grill wine list for $59 a bottle. That’s almost insulting. Eighty percent of the Holland wine list would cost $8 to $11 per bottle in the supermarket, but costs roughly $49 to $59 on the wine list. The result is that despite their very high corkage fee ($18) far more people bring their own wine bottles into the dining room than any Princess ship we’ve ever been on. In desperation, I purchased four $25 bottles of great quality California cabernet and chardonnay and brought them into the dining room too. Adding the corkage fee of $18 made that come to $43. If they would have had those particular wines on their wine list, they would have charge me $100 plus 15% tip for the wine steward. What’s really bad is that Holland America doesn’t pay retail prices for wine, they buy in bulk wholesale so the markup is really huge. So it’s really a big rip off.

 

Holland has a “coke” card that’s cheaper than the Princess one but here you get what you pay for. Holland’s version is a punch card setup where they punch the coke card each time you have one and you are maxed out at 20. You are also limited in the size glasses as they won’t give you really large glasses of Coke but kind of regular iced tea size. On Princess you pay more for the card, but the Coke is unlimited with it for the cruise. They also have much bigger glasses than Holland. When we are in the hot and humid Caribbean I can down three of the large Princess ones at lunch alone. While we didn’t need that much drink on this cruise because it wasn’t very hot, I would be in big trouble in the Caribbean on Holland.

 

Holland also has a wine card which Princess does not. I did buy one of these to use in the public lounges. It works out roughly to $4 per glass which is cheaper than the regular list price of glasses of wine. However as other Holland passenger have recently pointed out, most of what you are limited to is really not very good. The cabernet is “red” I’ll admit, but it doesn’t taste much like cabernet. Many people have stopped buying the wine card since they changed whatever brand they are now using. The only decent wine is the Pinot Grigio which is imported from Italy so it’s relatively light and drinkable.

 

Staff & Service

 

The staff was outstanding from top to bottom. The Indonesian and Phillippino crew were just wonderful and cheerful. When we were on Holland American about 25 years ago, we found them to be very polite and give wonderful service, but they were a little more formal and reserved that we were used to on Princess. That is no longer the case. They always said hello and bartenders and waiters quickly learned your name even after going for just one night. The shore excursion people were great even accompanying us on the buses and train to Copper Canyon to ensure things went OK. At the end of the cruise, we were randomly selected for a focus group session with the Cruise Director , Hotel Manager, and Shore Excursion Manager. There were a couple of travel agents there that had a few complaints about the condition of the cabins (due for refurbishment next year) and the good old “what happened to the trays in the Lido buffet?” thread. The Hotel Manager gave a good account of the tray thing. This was deliberate decision by Holland America after much study.

 

What happens when the trays are used is that passengers get into the “cafeteria” mentality—I must take my tray, and start at the beginning and run it along every station serving food whether I want food from that area or not! What this does is clog the Lido buffet to extreme. Also people tend to pile up lots of food this way, and then leave lots unfinished on their plates after they have eaten and leave. The elimination of the trays has altered this pattern. People go to the specific station they want i.e. salad bar, sandwich station, Italian or entrée station and get specifically what they want. They then sit down and eat it. If they are still hungry, they come back for more. This allows people for example to get a salad and eat that, and then go to the buffet for their hot entrée and the entrée is hot when they eat it. If they do the “cafeteria” thing, then they get everything on the tray, eat the salad first, and their entrée is almost cold by the time they get to it. Finally, Holland discovered there has been a lot less wasted food left on the tables (that was an inadvertent consequence that they actually hadn’t planned on). So the trays are definitely not coming back!

 

Entertainment

 

We didn’t hit any of the shows as we had late seating and just felt like listening to the string quartet in the lounge or the last few nights the woman at the Piano Bar who was excellent. No one commented at our table on the shows, so we don’t have any feedback there.

 

Shore Excursions

 

We did the following things at each port (all booked through Holland):

 

Cabo San Lucas

 

We did the deluxe whale watch tour on a large catamaran. It was great. Just by luck we sat up front and that’s where the whales appeared. We saw them swim, dive and later followed a mother whale and her calf. The calf just loved to jump up out of the water repeatedly so he/she put on quite a show. I got great photographs.

 

Loreto

 

We did a van tour way up into the mountains to see the best preserved Spanish mission church in Baja. It is not the earliest, but it is still almost like it was in the 1600’s and yet in a great state of preservation. Had a great ride up to the town. The first 10 miles were paved, but the next 10 miles were gravel road and a little bumpy. But we had great views from the top of the canyons. We had lunch at a local restaurant in the little village at the top. We also walked through some local gardens. They were healthy and used a well designed hand built, gravity reclaimed water irrigation system.

 

Guymas

 

We hadn’t booked anything here and planned just to walk around the downtown area. When we docked, we were kind of outside the downtown area in an industrial port area. The surprise was that there were free shuttles into downtown. When we got downtown, there were a number of teenagers with T-shirts that said in big letters “May I help you”. They were great. They spoke perfect English. I had forgotten our map of the downtown area from the ship and they gave me a new one. Guymas is famous as a fishing port especially for shrimp. I asked them for a recommendation for a restaurant for lunch with shrimp and they gave me a color flyer for what turned out to be a giant shrimp fiesta out on the plaza facing the bay. They had craft booths set up, tented areas for you to sit down and have lunch too. On one side were individual food vendors where for a “tasting fee” of $2 you could have shrimp any of about six or seven ways. I OD’d on not just large, not just giant, but colossal shrimp (2 plus some nice rice). Beers were a $1. So for about $12 Maureen and I had some great shrimp and two beers each. They also had folklorico dancers who put on a show for everyone there. The town really celebrated. We heard later that we were the first cruise ship of the year so I guess we were special. I don’t know whether they will do that for later ones (they only get about 6 cruise ships per year).

 

Topolobango

 

This is the port for Copper Canyon. We chose this cruise primarily because it had this trip. The only other way to see Copper Canyon is to drive or take a bus tour from Texas south to the inland end of the Copper Canyon.

 

On Holland, this was an almost 16 hour trip in total and was over $400 per person. It’s a pretty expensive tour. We had to get off the ship at 4:30 am. We then boarded very nice clean and newer Greyhound type buses which were very comfortable. There was an hour and a half bus ride to the El Fuerte where we picked up the train. The reason they don’t board the train in Topolbango is that the section of track between Topolobango and Las Fuerte where we boarded hasn’t been improved. It took an hour and a half by bus, but it would take 4 hours on the train making it impossible to do this trip in one day. So they use the buses.

 

The train cars are restored 1950’s and the seats were wide and probably three to four feet between rows. They were very comfortable. There was a tour guide on each train car who narrated the trip as you went up the canyon. The route is very scenic as you climb up the canyon. There are 86 tunnels and lots of bridges as you climb up the sides of the canyon. At one point there are three switchbacks up the side of a canyon wall that climb 1,000 feet in elevation. The turnaround points for each level are the tunnels so you kind of never see yourself turning around. At the end of 6 hours on the train, we reached the top. They took us to an overlook where we could see the Copper Canyon proper and a lot of other canyons too. It is not as big, nor quite as colorful as Grand Canyon in Arizona. There’s more white rock than Grand Canyon although there’s lots of red rock too. There’s more vegetation in the Mexico version too. There were native Indians selling handmade baskets as you walked up to see the view. Next we went to lunch at a hotel nearby. The dining room had a spectacular view of the canyon while you had your buffet. Holland has also given up a box breakfast on board the train up, and a box snack coming down. The local Indians gave us a short program of their native dances with music from rustic handmade instruments.

 

It was then time to take the train and bus back to the ship. That’s another 6 hour train ride and one and a half hour bus ride. The fun thing we did was to go back one train car to the bar car. They had a Mariachi singer who sang songs and they provided fresh popcorn and peanuts while you sipped your beer or margarita. That made some of the time fly. We got back to the ship at 10 pm and the Captain and senior officers were all out on the tarmac to welcome us back. They gave us all a glass of champagne and announced there was a prime rib buffet up in the Lido for the returning passengers if you wanted it. It really tasted great after a long trip!

 

Matzalan

 

We did a walking tour of the old historic Colonial city here. Had a great time and learned a lot. Stopped by a restored old mansion, the opera house, an art gallery being restored, the Melville Hotel and we started with the cliff divers. We also stopped at a wonderful old panderia for baker items. Tthe guide took us out to the plaza in front where there were a lot of restaurants facing the central square. He treated us to a beer while we sat outside on the patio. Finished with a tour of the cathedral. Matzalan was ready to start Carnival that evening. We were tempted to jump ship!

 

Puerto Vallarta

 

We did a van tour which took us downtown to see the older part of town. After doing some shopping and walking we stopped for lunch and had a cooking school at a local restaurant which has an open front wall facing the bay. We made salsa by chopping up fresh tomato, onion, cilantro, and serano peppers and tasted our creation with some chips provided. They told us to save most of our salsa and then gave us a half avocado to chop and mash into the salsa. That made great guacamole! We also made a chicken tostada. Finally we made mole chicken enchiladas. I’m not a big fan of “mole” which is a dark brown chocolate sauce that the Mexican’s love. It’s not sticky sweet as it’s more like dark chocolate and it was OK. There was a spectacular sunset here while we relaxed out on our balcony as we didn’t sail until 10 pm.

Finally we had two days at sea returning to San Diego.

 

Disembarkation

 

Disembarkation went very smoothly. They asked that you vacate your cabin by 8 they planned to start at 8:15. Customs delayed that a little so they didn’t start until 8:45 but we were off the ship by 9:30 am.

 

Summary

 

All in all we had a wonderful time. But we have come to the conclusion that we do prefer Princess to Holland America. We would consider Holland again if the price and itinerary were really great, but we’d had to make some adjustments to our normal cruising experience on Princess. We would go again, but our first choice would be a Princess ship if the routes were the same. I’m sure others would disagree, and I’m only expressing our view. Other people have different priorities than we do and that’s great. It’s “whatever floats your boat”!!!

Thanks

Norm

[HALGirl]

I've posted my review below to the "Reviews" section, but was also told to post here too. So here goes! We had a wonderful time, so read on.

 

This will be a long review of our Holland America Zaandam 10 day cruise from San Diego to Mexico and the Copper Canyon. We chose this cruise because of the itinerary. No one else does this particular route. Besides the usual Cabo San Lucas, Matazalan, and Puerto Vallarta, that everyone does, this cruise adds Loreto, Guymas, and Topolobango (port for Copper Canyon.)

 

Personal Background Information

 

We are Princess Cruise fans and it’s been over 20 years since we were on a Holland American ship (the old Westerdam, no longer in the fleet). So there will be a number of comparisons as we kind of viewed Holland America with fresh eyes. We both retired last year and while we worked we were both librarians so that’s our background.

 

Travel To Port of Embarkation

 

We live in a suburb of Los Angeles (Torrance) and traveled via Amtrak train to San Diego from LA’s Union Station. The great thing about doing this is that instead of 4 inches of legroom, you get 4 feet between rows and coffee served at your seat in business class. But the best thing is that when you arrive at San Diego’s Union Station, you are just across the street from the cruise ship. So we just wheeled our bags over there and dropped them off in no time.

 

Embarkation

 

Embarkation went relatively smoothly except that the checkin computers went dead just before we walked in so we had to wait about 20 minutes before they got those working again.

 

We had a CruiseCritic Meet and Greet that I contacted Holland America to arrange. As usual great people. You learn so much talking to them. They reserved the Piano Lounge and had the bar open and music. They didn’t provide the coffee and cookies they promised, but everyone was happy to have a reserved space and to order their own drinks.

 

The Ship

 

The Zaandam was built in 2000 and just came out of dry-dock after two weeks of refurbishment. They did a 14 day Hawaii cruise right after that, just before our Mexico cruise. During the Hawaii cruise, they ran into a giant storm and the ship was really banged about from what we heard from some passengers who continued on after the Hawaii cruise to our Mexico one. The ship’s crew said the same thing. They lost the use of 5 elevators during this storm. They were able to fix three of them with spare parts on board, but 2 remained out of service during our cruise because they needed more parts which they will get in San Diego.

 

The dry-dock was not a major remodel. The dining room got all new chairs (quite comfortable). The verandas got new loungers and chairs too. At a focus group meeting that we were invited to at the end of the cruise, the hotel manager reflected on the fact that the dining room chairs were one inch wider, so he could now only get 7 chairs at a table that used to hold 8. Additionally, the lounge chairs on the verandah are 10 inches longer than before. They now span the entire depth of the verandah from the glass railing to the glass doors. It’s difficult to move them as they are so tight a fit. But they sure are comfortable!

 

So here’s our personal take on the ship. We don’t expect that everyone will agree with us, but it’s our experience this time.

 

Nice HAL touches

 

You can have hot items on the room service breakfast like scrambled eggs (even with egg beaters if you wanted) or a ham and cheese omelet and a choice of ham, bacon, or sausage. Princess doesn’t offer anything hot for breakfast on the room service menu. Holland America prints a 4 page folded mini version of the daily New York Times and this is distributed to every room. I think Princess may do this but there’s a charge if they do. Holland America serves appetizers in the lounges prior to dinner, Princess doesn’t. We didn’t actually see what was offered because we usually had “happy hour” out on our balcony each night. There were nice canapés in the Exploration Café stand where they do the fresh coffees. Princess offers something similar on the new ships in their atriums and that feature is being brought to their older ships as they go into dry-dock.

That’s the good news for Holland America.

 

Essentially we were not impressed with the design of the Zaandam. This is a ship built in 2000 the year Grand Princess was built and we’ve been on her a number of times. So we couldn’t help making comparisons. They are very different ships. Grand Princess is of course much bigger—2,600 passengers versus 1,400 on Zaandam. Many Holland America cruisers prefer these smaller ships. They are more compact and easier to get around for mobility impaired passengers.

 

Stateroom

 

But we kind of felt cramped both in the cabin and in the public areas. The Verandah Suite we stayed in is comparable to the mini-suites on Grand Princess and her sisters. There was a Jacuzzi tub which in not on the Princess ships, but these cabins are considerably smaller than Princess mini-suites. They run about 295 sq. ft versus around 325 sq. ft. on Princess. This was OK for this cruise for the two of us. However, I love to SCUBA dive (not on this trip), and in the future there would really be no room for my diving gear in these type cabins whereas there is plenty of room on the Princess ships. Part of this is the design of the “living room” area where the couch is. On Holland America the desk and mirror is directly across from the couch so this narrows the room for that section. On Princess the desk is angled out between the bedroom areas and living area so the living room has nothing across from the couch but a l chair. There’s more a feeling of open space and more storage space because of the two dividing partitions on the Princess ships which have lots of shelves, TV’s and the refrigerator.

 

We weren’t too impressed with the public spaces on this ship, but I think this relates to what the interior designers chose to do with this particular version. The three story atrium is completely filled with a giant white ornate pipe organ. It goes from floor to ceiling and is so wide that it really fills up the atrium. You gain no sense of open space on any of the three floors of the atrium. Princess atriums are all spectacular spaces with most of the public rooms connected around them.

 

That’s the other weird thing in the Zaandam design (shared by the smaller Holland ships), the real “promenade” deck where you can walk completely around the ship is not a public deck. It is filled with passenger cabins. There are lots of outside cabins whose picture windows look out to this deck. They have a mirrored covering so you can’t see in during the day but you have to be sure to close your drapes at night because you would be able to see in then. The good news for Holland is that this design gave them more outside rooms with unobstructed views as the two public decks are above this is where the life boats hang and block any possible views. To make things even more confusing they called all three of these “promenade—upper, lower and main.

 

There are relatively few cabins with balconies in this design. Grand Princess has four and a half decks of balcony, mini-suite, and suites with balconies. There are two decks on Zaandam with either full suites, or “verandah suites”. There are no standard balcony cabins. Holland is trying to fix this in a kind of strange way. On the four smaller 1,200 passenger versions of this design, they are taking out the picture windows on the promenade deck outside cabins and putting in a single glass door. They are trying to give the effect of a balcony cabin, except that your “balcony” is really the promenade deck which is public and everyone walks around it. The deck chairs outside your room wouldn’t be “yours” either because they are the public ones. We don’t think we would like this lack of privacy but its’ a kind of desperate attempt to update these older ships with more balcony type cabins.

 

Many of the public corridors on the two public decks are paneled in a kind of grey weathered wood effect. We found this a little dark and depressing. We are used to lighter and brighter colors on Princess ships. Their lounges are very nice but some of them open up to the casino where they permit smoking. This drifts into the piano bar and we aren’t fans of breathing other peoples smoke. They are doing a survey of current passengers on smoking on board so they may change their policy in the future.

 

The gym was perfect. It was up top and in front so had great views. Precor treadmills and Cybex weight machines were great. We spent a lot of time up there trying to work off all of the food.

 

Dining

 

Food is my next comparison. The food overall was very good, we never had a bad meal. But we do think Princess has an edge here. The quality and presentation are nicer on Princess and the extra cost Pinnacle Grill on Zaandam (and all other Holland ships) is blown away by the Crown Grill on the newer Princess ships. The biggest disappointment was the Canaletto Lido restaurant just installed on Zaandam. There is no cost to this one unlike Pinnacle, but the extra cost Sabatini’s on board most Princess ships put the Holland version to shame. It’s kind of heavy pasta in Canaletto not the wonderful quality and presentation that Princess does.

 

This brings me to my worst grade for Holland America. It’s their wine list. They get a big fat “F” for outrageously overpricing. Princess markup is around 3 to 4 times from retail. Holland was 5 or 6 times markup. Example, our house chardonnay at home is Chateau St. Michelle. It’s a very nice chardonnay and not that expensive for everyday. We bought 4 bottles of it at Ralph’s supermarket in downtown San Diego (we actually live in LA and took the train down to San Diego). It was on special for $7.77 a bottle. They don’t have it on the regular wine list on the ship, but it’s on the Pinnacle Grill wine list for $59 a bottle. That’s almost insulting. Eighty percent of the Holland wine list would cost $8 to $11 per bottle in the supermarket, but costs roughly $49 to $59 on the wine list. The result is that despite their very high corkage fee ($18) far more people bring their own wine bottles into the dining room than any Princess ship we’ve ever been on. In desperation, I purchased four $25 bottles of great quality California cabernet and chardonnay and brought them into the dining room too. Adding the corkage fee of $18 made that come to $43. If they would have had those particular wines on their wine list, they would have charge me $100 plus 15% tip for the wine steward. What’s really bad is that Holland America doesn’t pay retail prices for wine, they buy in bulk wholesale so the markup is really huge. So it’s really a big rip off.

 

Holland has a “coke” card that’s cheaper than the Princess one but here you get what you pay for. Holland’s version is a punch card setup where they punch the coke card each time you have one and you are maxed out at 20. You are also limited in the size glasses as they won’t give you really large glasses of Coke but kind of regular iced tea size. On Princess you pay more for the card, but the Coke is unlimited with it for the cruise. They also have much bigger glasses than Holland. When we are in the hot and humid Caribbean I can down three of the large Princess ones at lunch alone. While we didn’t need that much drink on this cruise because it wasn’t very hot, I would be in big trouble in the Caribbean on Holland.

 

Holland also has a wine card which Princess does not. I did buy one of these to use in the public lounges. It works out roughly to $4 per glass which is cheaper than the regular list price of glasses of wine. However as other Holland passenger have recently pointed out, most of what you are limited to is really not very good. The cabernet is “red” I’ll admit, but it doesn’t taste much like cabernet. Many people have stopped buying the wine card since they changed whatever brand they are now using. The only decent wine is the Pinot Grigio which is imported from Italy so it’s relatively light and drinkable.

 

Staff & Service

 

The staff was outstanding from top to bottom. The Indonesian and Phillippino crew were just wonderful and cheerful. When we were on Holland American about 25 years ago, we found them to be very polite and give wonderful service, but they were a little more formal and reserved that we were used to on Princess. That is no longer the case. They always said hello and bartenders and waiters quickly learned your name even after going for just one night. The shore excursion people were great even accompanying us on the buses and train to Copper Canyon to ensure things went OK. At the end of the cruise, we were randomly selected for a focus group session with the Cruise Director , Hotel Manager, and Shore Excursion Manager. There were a couple of travel agents there that had a few complaints about the condition of the cabins (due for refurbishment next year) and the good old “what happened to the trays in the Lido buffet?” thread. The Hotel Manager gave a good account of the tray thing. This was deliberate decision by Holland America after much study.

 

What happens when the trays are used is that passengers get into the “cafeteria” mentality—I must take my tray, and start at the beginning and run it along every station serving food whether I want food from that area or not! What this does is clog the Lido buffet to extreme. Also people tend to pile up lots of food this way, and then leave lots unfinished on their plates after they have eaten and leave. The elimination of the trays has altered this pattern. People go to the specific station they want i.e. salad bar, sandwich station, Italian or entrée station and get specifically what they want. They then sit down and eat it. If they are still hungry, they come back for more. This allows people for example to get a salad and eat that, and then go to the buffet for their hot entrée and the entrée is hot when they eat it. If they do the “cafeteria” thing, then they get everything on the tray, eat the salad first, and their entrée is almost cold by the time they get to it. Finally, Holland discovered there has been a lot less wasted food left on the tables (that was an inadvertent consequence that they actually hadn’t planned on). So the trays are definitely not coming back!

 

Entertainment

 

We didn’t hit any of the shows as we had late seating and just felt like listening to the string quartet in the lounge or the last few nights the woman at the Piano Bar who was excellent. No one commented at our table on the shows, so we don’t have any feedback there.

 

Shore Excursions

 

We did the following things at each port (all booked through Holland):

 

Cabo San Lucas

 

We did the deluxe whale watch tour on a large catamaran. It was great. Just by luck we sat up front and that’s where the whales appeared. We saw them swim, dive and later followed a mother whale and her calf. The calf just loved to jump up out of the water repeatedly so he/she put on quite a show. I got great photographs.

 

Loreto

 

We did a van tour way up into the mountains to see the best preserved Spanish mission church in Baja. It is not the earliest, but it is still almost like it was in the 1600’s and yet in a great state of preservation. Had a great ride up to the town. The first 10 miles were paved, but the next 10 miles were gravel road and a little bumpy. But we had great views from the top of the canyons. We had lunch at a local restaurant in the little village at the top. We also walked through some local gardens. They were healthy and used a well designed hand built, gravity reclaimed water irrigation system.

 

Guymas

 

We hadn’t booked anything here and planned just to walk around the downtown area. When we docked, we were kind of outside the downtown area in an industrial port area. The surprise was that there were free shuttles into downtown. When we got downtown, there were a number of teenagers with T-shirts that said in big letters “May I help you”. They were great. They spoke perfect English. I had forgotten our map of the downtown area from the ship and they gave me a new one. Guymas is famous as a fishing port especially for shrimp. I asked them for a recommendation for a restaurant for lunch with shrimp and they gave me a color flyer for what turned out to be a giant shrimp fiesta out on the plaza facing the bay. They had craft booths set up, tented areas for you to sit down and have lunch too. On one side were individual food vendors where for a “tasting fee” of $2 you could have shrimp any of about six or seven ways. I OD’d on not just large, not just giant, but colossal shrimp (2 plus some nice rice). Beers were a $1. So for about $12 Maureen and I had some great shrimp and two beers each. They also had folklorico dancers who put on a show for everyone there. The town really celebrated. We heard later that we were the first cruise ship of the year so I guess we were special. I don’t know whether they will do that for later ones (they only get about 6 cruise ships per year).

 

Topolobango

 

This is the port for Copper Canyon. We chose this cruise primarily because it had this trip. The only other way to see Copper Canyon is to drive or take a bus tour from Texas south to the inland end of the Copper Canyon.

 

On Holland, this was an almost 16 hour trip in total and was over $400 per person. It’s a pretty expensive tour. We had to get off the ship at 4:30 am. We then boarded very nice clean and newer Greyhound type buses which were very comfortable. There was an hour and a half bus ride to the El Fuerte where we picked up the train. The reason they don’t board the train in Topolbango is that the section of track between Topolobango and Las Fuerte where we boarded hasn’t been improved. It took an hour and a half by bus, but it would take 4 hours on the train making it impossible to do this trip in one day. So they use the buses.

 

The train cars are restored 1950’s and the seats were wide and probably three to four feet between rows. They were very comfortable. There was a tour guide on each train car who narrated the trip as you went up the canyon. The route is very scenic as you climb up the canyon. There are 86 tunnels and lots of bridges as you climb up the sides of the canyon. At one point there are three switchbacks up the side of a canyon wall that climb 1,000 feet in elevation. The turnaround points for each level are the tunnels so you kind of never see yourself turning around. At the end of 6 hours on the train, we reached the top. They took us to an overlook where we could see the Copper Canyon proper and a lot of other canyons too. It is not as big, nor quite as colorful as Grand Canyon in Arizona. There’s more white rock than Grand Canyon although there’s lots of red rock too. There’s more vegetation in the Mexico version too. There were native Indians selling handmade baskets as you walked up to see the view. Next we went to lunch at a hotel nearby. The dining room had a spectacular view of the canyon while you had your buffet. Holland has also given up a box breakfast on board the train up, and a box snack coming down. The local Indians gave us a short program of their native dances with music from rustic handmade instruments.

 

It was then time to take the train and bus back to the ship. That’s another 6 hour train ride and one and a half hour bus ride. The fun thing we did was to go back one train car to the bar car. They had a Mariachi singer who sang songs and they provided fresh popcorn and peanuts while you sipped your beer or margarita. That made some of the time fly. We got back to the ship at 10 pm and the Captain and senior officers were all out on the tarmac to welcome us back. They gave us all a glass of champagne and announced there was a prime rib buffet up in the Lido for the returning passengers if you wanted it. It really tasted great after a long trip!

 

Matzalan

 

We did a walking tour of the old historic Colonial city here. Had a great time and learned a lot. Stopped by a restored old mansion, the opera house, an art gallery being restored, the Melville Hotel and we started with the cliff divers. We also stopped at a wonderful old panderia for baker items. Tthe guide took us out to the plaza in front where there were a lot of restaurants facing the central square. He treated us to a beer while we sat outside on the patio. Finished with a tour of the cathedral. Matzalan was ready to start Carnival that evening. We were tempted to jump ship!

 

Puerto Vallarta

 

We did a van tour which took us downtown to see the older part of town. After doing some shopping and walking we stopped for lunch and had a cooking school at a local restaurant which has an open front wall facing the bay. We made salsa by chopping up fresh tomato, onion, cilantro, and serano peppers and tasted our creation with some chips provided. They told us to save most of our salsa and then gave us a half avocado to chop and mash into the salsa. That made great guacamole! We also made a chicken tostada. Finally we made mole chicken enchiladas. I’m not a big fan of “mole” which is a dark brown chocolate sauce that the Mexican’s love. It’s not sticky sweet as it’s more like dark chocolate and it was OK. There was a spectacular sunset here while we relaxed out on our balcony as we didn’t sail until 10 pm.

Finally we had two days at sea returning to San Diego.

 

Disembarkation

 

Disembarkation went very smoothly. They asked that you vacate your cabin by 8 they planned to start at 8:15. Customs delayed that a little so they didn’t start until 8:45 but we were off the ship by 9:30 am.

 

Summary

 

All in all we had a wonderful time. But we have come to the conclusion that we do prefer Princess to Holland America. We would consider Holland again if the price and itinerary were really great, but we’d had to make some adjustments to our normal cruising experience on Princess. We would go again, but our first choice would be a Princess ship if the routes were the same. I’m sure others would disagree, and I’m only expressing our view. Other people have different priorities than we do and that’s great. It’s “whatever floats your boat”!!!

Thanks

Norm

Hi Norm,

 

Enjoyed reading your review of the same cruise I was on. I agree with most of your posting with the exception of the food. The one and only Princess cruise I went on, 2 years ago to the Caribbean, had the WORST food on any cruise I had ever taken. My balcony cabin on Princess was comparable to HAL's standard balcony cabin. I happen to prefer the antiques and interesting artwork on HAL as opposed to the glitz of Princess but that is a personal like. Also HAL has their parties in lounges, Princess's formal welcome party was in the atrium which I found to be uncomfortable.

 

Glad to hear you will give HAL another try in the future.

 

Joanne

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thanks for taking the time to write your review.

 

We gave up Princess years ago -- because at that time the food was terrible.

 

I have posted the wine list several times on this site and will do so for you. This list is the one for the main dining room on all ships.

[Krazy Kruizers]

White Wines:

Kreusch Piersporter Riesling Spatlese, Germany - $25

Beringer Pinot Grigio, CA - $25

Ruffino Pinot Grigio, Italy - $39

Blackstone Sauvignon Blanc, CA - $35

Silverado Sauvignon Blanc, CA - $49

Kenwood Sauvignon Blanc, CA - $37

Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand - $45

Michel Redde Pouilly Fume, France - $59

Hedges CMS White, WA State - $39

Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc & Viognier, CA - $45

Chateau Ste Michelle Riesling, WA State - $29

Robert Mondavi Sauvignon Blanc, CA - $35

Caliterra Sauvignon Blanc, Chile - $25

Laboure-Roi Pouilly Fuisse, France - $54

Santa Carolina Chardonnay, Chile - $22

Alice White Chardonnay, Australia - $27

Georges Duboeuf Macon-Villages, France - $35

Footprint Chardonnay, South Africa - $29

Monkey Bay Chardonnay, New Zealand - $37

Rosemont Estate Chardonnay, Australia - $35

Caliterra Chardonnay, Chile - $29

Domaine Laroche Chablis ier ccru, France - $49

Louis Jadot Puligny-Montrachet, France - $89

Beringer Chardonnay, CA - $45

Horse Heaven Sauvignon Blanc, WA - $55

Franciscan Chardonnay, CA - $47

Merryvale Starmont Chardonnay, CA - $59

Lanzerac Chardonnay, South Africa - $65

Ferrari-Carano Chardonnay, CA - $69

Canoe Ridge Estate Chardonnay, WA - $69

Apex Chardonnay, WA - $75

Conundrum, CA - $39

________________________________________________________________________________________

Red Wines

castle Rock Cuvee Pinot Noir, CA - $37

Meridian Pinot Noir, CA - $37

Sokol Blosser Pinot Noir, Oregan - $69

Laboure'- Roi Pommard, France - $69

Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Villages, France - $25

Villa Fiorita Barbera D'Asti Superiore, Italy - $54

Antinori Santa Cristina Sangiovese, Italy - $29

Perrin Reserve Cotes-Du-Rhone, France - $39

Les Closiers Chateauneuf-Du-pope, France - $59

Marques de Caceres Rioja, Spain - $29

Arboleda Camenere, Chile - $49

Domaine de la Serre Cailboux, france - $65

Niebaum-Coppola Claret, CA - $49

Rosemont Estate Shiraz, Australia - $39

Marques Shiraz, Australia - $54

Footprint Shiraz, South Africa - $29

Alice White Shiraz, Australia - $27

Cline Cellars Zinfandel, CA - $35

Trentadue Old Patch, CA - $49

Columbia Crest Grand Estates merlot, WA - $45

Beringer Stone cellars Merlot, CA - $27

Robert Mondavi, CA - $37

Hedges Red Mountain Three Vineyards, WA - $69

Columbia crest Estates Cabernet Sauvignon, WA - $45

Twin Oaks Woodbridge Cabernet Sauvignon, CA - $27

Spellbound Petite Sirah, CA - $45

Beringer Founders' Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, CA - $39

Guenoc Cabernet Sauvignon, CA - $35

Wolf Blass Cabernet Sauvignon, Australia - $42

Meritage Franciscan Magnificat, CA - $79

Silverado Cabernet Sauvignon, CA - $79

Northstar Merlot, WA - $89

Castello Banfi Brunello di Montalcino, Italy - $108

________________________________________________________________________________________

Champagnes & Sparkling Wines by the Bottle

Domaine St Michelle Brut, WA - $39

Domaine Chandon Brut, CA - $47

Nicolas Feuillate Brut, France - $59

Moet & Chandon brut Imperial, France - $89

Taittinger Prestive Rose, France - $99

Moet & Chandon Dom Perignon Brut, France - $199

[reefisher]

The OP was pricing the Chard not the Riesling. But yes , I think HAL wines prices are pushing the envelope for price gouging, but HAL does let you bring wine on board without restriction.:D:D

[Storylady]

You might consider a cruise on a HAL Vista or Signature class ship. They have staterooms that are the slightly larger in size (389sq ft) as the mini-suites on the Grand with less passengers (2000 - 2200).

[airlink diva]

Thanks for the great review for your recent cruise on the Zaandam Nreeder.

This particular cruise is on my do sail list. Like you,mainly because half of the ports are ones that most cruiselines don't visit.

I also like the comparison to the Princess ships. I receive alot of info via reg and e-mail on Princess and might try them one day.

Did you talk to anyone who didn't do the Copper Canyon cruise? While I really want to do the Copper Canyon tour, what options are in Topolobango?

[Nancyquilts]

Thanks for the great review for your recent cruise on the Zaandam Nreeder.

This particular cruise is on my do sail list. Like you,mainly because half of the ports are ones that most cruiselines don't visit.

I also like the comparison to the Princess ships. I receive alot of info via reg and e-mail on Princess and might try them one day.

Did you talk to anyone who didn't do the Copper Canyon cruise? While I really want to do the Copper Canyon tour, what options are in Topolobango?

There's a bus into town, and sometimes to the beach. Otherwise, it's a great place to take a "day at sea" and enjoy the ship when it's quiet.

[KAYEF]

Topolobango

 

"This is the port for Copper Canyon. We chose this cruise primarily because it had this trip. The only other way to see Copper Canyon is to drive or take a bus tour from Texas south to the inland end of the Copper Canyon. "

 

This just isn't so................we had a FANTASTIC tour to Copper Canyon through CARAVAN TOURS. We did board a bus in Texas but we did the train both ways, in Caravan's own private car, with meals.

We stayed in top notch hotels with meals included.....as were side tours.

All for $995.

I would never "do" Copper Canyon from a cruise ship for 16 hours. Our tour was a full week and much cheaper...............they provide a private guide as well.

[CowPrincess]

Thanks for the great review for your recent cruise on the Zaandam Nreeder.

This particular cruise is on my do sail list. Like you,mainly because half of the ports are ones that most cruiselines don't visit.

I also like the comparison to the Princess ships. I receive alot of info via reg and e-mail on Princess and might try them one day.

Did you talk to anyone who didn't do the Copper Canyon cruise? While I really want to do the Copper Canyon tour, what options are in Topolobango?

 

Topolobampo -- it is a working port, and if you don't take one of the shuttles to the beach or to Los Mochis, you were (when we were there Nov/08) pretty much restricted to a ship shore excursion, or a taxi tour around Topo itself. There is nowhere to walk to, except around the port area (not exactly scenic or relaxing, y'know?) There is a dolphin who lives alone (without a group) in a cove near there, and there are boats that will take you to visit him (or her?) from Topo -- if he is still alive. The "birds, bay & dolphins" shorex gets consistently good reviews. We shuttled to Los Mochis and the beach, and THEN when back onboard got treated to a major dolphin display right at the port, beside the ship. I'll see if I've got pics of the port, but I suspect not.

 

We are booked to go back Feb 2011.

[TraelorMex]

Very good review. Thanks. DW and myself much prefer HAL over Princess. To each his/her own I guess. Glad you enjoyed the trip though...

[RevNeal]

Thanks for your review! I appreciate a different perspective. If you would like to see photos from the Hawaii cruise that sailed just before yours, you can do so here:

 

http://web.me.com/revneal/RevNeals_Photos,_Vol._2/RevNeals_2010_Hawaii_Cruise.html

 

My photos include a "tour of the ship," which you might find interesting.

 

They did a 14 day Hawaii cruise right after that, just before our Mexico cruise. During the Hawaii cruise, they ran into a giant storm and the ship was really banged about from what we heard from some passengers who continued on after the Hawaii cruise to our Mexico one. The ship’s crew said the same thing. They lost the use of 5 elevators during this storm. They were able to fix three of them with spare parts on board, but 2 remained out of service during our cruise because they needed more parts which they will get in San Diego.

 

This isn't a big deal, but it was a 15 day cruise to Hawaii just prior to yours. HAL doesn't shorten the Hawaii round-trips out of San Diego to 14 days until next season.

 

Yes, we had some bad weather in-transit to Hawaii from San Diego on that cruise. However, two of the four forward elevators were out of commission before the storm (they were non-functional when we boarded). The storm put a third out and caused havoc with two others, but they were able to get one in the forward bank partly working again, and the other two back up to full-function with spare parts. The parts that they were waiting for in San Diego were electronic boards that had to be flown in from their supplier in Italy.

[rimau]

Caravans is no longer entering Mexico thorough El Paso/Juarez due to the drug violence there. The tour now starts in Phoenix. You miss Creel, which we loved.

[jmk22574]

RevNeal - thank you so much for posting your photos of the Zaandam. We will be sailing on her in May, our third cruise to Alaska. However, this will be our first "non-Vista" experience. The ship looks beautiful - I can't wait!

 

Jill

[P&T]

NReeder

 

Thanks for a thorough and detailed review.

 

I'm with you, Princess seems to have the edge over HAL for many aspects of cruising.

 

Our trip in Sept last year on the Ryndam to Alaska was a disapointment - the food was just not up to scratch and the decor dreary and tired.

[RevNeal]

Our trip in Sept last year on the Ryndam to Alaska was a disapointment - the food was just not up to scratch and the decor dreary and tired.

 

It is amazing how different people, with different tastes encounter the same things in such radically different ways. I was aboard the Ryndam in May of 2009 for an Alaska cruise and I thought the food was excellent and the decor an example of classy, yet reserved, elegance much like that of Ocean Liners of old.

[Tampa Girl]

It always strikes me a overgeneralization (is that a word?) when anyone compares one cruise line to the other. We will be taking our first Princess cruise next winter on the Princess Royal, which apparently is unlike any of the other Princess ships. OP's review was excellent and well balanced. However, the comparison was between two different classes of ships, which may or may not have made a difference. I am very much looking forward to the Princess Royal, but I already miss the fluffy white robes! If the OP has sailed on that ship, please give me a review. Thanks.

[nreeder]

I can comment on Royal even though I haven't been on board her. Princess purchased three Renaissance ships when Renaissance wen't bankrupt. The R-3 and R-4 became Tahitian Princess (now renamed to Ocean Princess?) and Pacific Princess and we have been on board both of those ships. Royal is a slightly different design in that it eliminated the "to die for" mini-suites that Renaissance had on the others in favor of more standard balcony cabins.

 

All three of these are 700 passenger ships, much smaller than anything else Princess or HAL has. The joy is that most of these were built around the year 2000 give or take a year or two. In that era (think Grand Princess and Zaandam which I compared on this cruise), balconies, extra restaurants, gyms/spas etc were being expanded. Therefore, despite the 700 passengers, these ships had all of these "features". Even the standard balcony cabins have a couch not just a chair like the "standard" Princess balcony cabins. The closets are like HAL--cupboard type, not "dressing area" type of Grand Princess and after.

 

Two lovely reservation restaurants are up top in back, a steakhouse and an Italinan Restaurant--Sabitinnis! Both wonderful. Nice gym. There's even a "Crows Nest" type lounge up top and in front like HAL has and most Princess ships don't. Since there's only one main dinning room (under Renaissance is was "anytime"), Princess does "fixed" seating on this ship as it won't accomodate all passengers at once. I don't think they do "anytime" dinning, but that could have changed. Originally, the balcony cabins didn't have a refrigerator in them, but that could have changed too. We love these ships and would sail on any of them in a heartbeat. We did Tahiti twice on them (once on Renaissance, and again after Princess bought both of them and offered a great deal including airfare from LA.)

 

Bon Voyage!

Norm

[donaldsc]

We have sailed on Princess many times. We are going on a 35 day Maasdam cruise this summer. Should be interesting to compare.

 

DON

[JAMS1]

It always strikes me a overgeneralization (is that a word?) when anyone compares one cruise line to the other. very much looking forward to the Princess Royal, but I already miss the fluffy white robes! If the OP has sailed on that ship, please give me a review. Thanks.

I don't think the OP understood they were comparing apples & oranges. OP seemed to like glitzy Large ships, where you seldom run into the same person twice, its hard to compare that to the Zaandam. But it is their perspective between Princess & Hal different ships for different folks. That's a nice thing for all of us, ships to suit every ones likes and dislikes.

 

The Royal is a beautiful old world style ship with a very professional crew, food was ok, shows were just as good as HAL, shower was painfully small. Smoke on the balcony was an issue. Paid for a balcony we seldom got to use. Had a nice cruise, just missed the finishing touches & the happy crews HAL has. I think you can ask for a waffle robe. We were just on the Diamond Princess and hated it, just too big for us, food was not our cup of tea. You choose well in booking the Royal, she is the better Princess ship.

Have a great cruise.

[KAYEF]

Caravans is no longer entering Mexico thorough El Paso/Juarez due to the drug violence there. The tour now starts in Phoenix. You miss Creel, which we loved.

WOW!

We could have saved a long drive over from Phoenix but we, also, loved Creel. Our tour was top notch and really a great bargain.

[KAYEF]

NReeder

 

 

Our trip in Sept last year on the Ryndam to Alaska was a disapointment - the food was just not up to scratch and the decor dreary and tired.

We cruised back to back (14 days) on Ryndam in Alaska last summer and our food was fantastic every day.

You can't beat the beautiful artwork on HAL ships...........every type of art.................many ancient artifacts...........truly elegant decor.

[themerle]

I enjoyed reading your review. Thanks for posting it. HAL and Princess are my favorite cruiselines so I really like to read reviews comparing the two.

[BEENAROUNDTHEBLOCK]

Don't dispair........just returned from 14 days on the Grand Princess, fluffy white robes just like the ones on our 14 day HAL cruise last year. If you are in a suite, you also get slippers. We always ask the steward to remove the robes as they take up so much space and it's just too hot for them in the Caribbean.

 

If you don't get robes, slippers or a pillow menu, JUST ASK and your steward will magically appear with just about anything you want. Also don't forget to ask for your foam mattress cover if you think the bed is too hard on just about every cruise line. It also masks that darn split that comes from pushing two singles together. WHAT CRUISE LINE IS GOING TO START PROVIDING KING SIZE BEDS???????

 

 

 

WHAT