Hal vs. Princess

[cruz chic]

We prefer HAL. The staff was great on both lines, but level of service was far superior on HAL. If a mistake happened at dinner on HAL, it never happened again. On Princess, we went 10 days in a row before we actually had an error free dinner service. They would bring out the wrong meal, get tables mixed up, and forget desserts, etc. Our servers were very personable and we thoroughly enjoyed them, but there didn't seem to be the same attention to first class service as we get from HAL.

 

Tendering is far better on HAL. On Princess it was chaos. There was a lineup that snaked around 3 decks and all the stairwells that took over 2 1/2 hours to clear. Anyone not waiting to get off ship couldn't navigate the aisles due to the crush of people.

 

:)

I've been on 4 Princess ships and never had that experience with the DR.

 

About the tendering I'm wondering why the line would be like that. You have to get tickets so why would there be such a line? I just got off the Sapphire on Saturday. The tendering was much better then HALs.

[Davidson Duo]

The ship was not quite one hour late because of a customs delay. No one wanted to wait for their number to be called, and then they were worried that others were jumping line and getting ahead of them, and then it seemed everyone just decided to get in line. Princess did not make any announcements or attempt to dissipate the crush. They even stopped handing out numbered tickets - actually said "just get in line" to friends of ours when they asked how long before people without booked excursions would be able to tender. I know it is not how all their tenders are, but this one was beyond crazy. Even all the stairs in the atrium were solid with people and we could not get from one end of the ship to the other without taking the stairs at the front of the ship, up 5 decks, across the decks, then down the stairs again at the back to where we were going to relax for the morning with friends.

 

A second tender went better, but still there was confusion when loading even when your number was called and you were in line to board the boat. We stood on the stairs for almost 1/2 hour waiting after our number was called. There were no boats ahead of us, and our tender was there waiting, but they didn't seem to know what number was to board next.

 

I'm sure they are usually better organized :), but our experience was challenging to say the least.

[cruz chic]

The ship was not quite one hour late because of a customs delay. No one wanted to wait for their number to be called, and then they were worried that others were jumping line and getting ahead of them, and then it seemed everyone just decided to get in line. Princess did not make any announcements or attempt to dissipate the crush. They even stopped handing out numbered tickets - actually said "just get in line" to friends of ours when they asked how long before people without booked excursions would be able to tender. I know it is not how all their tenders are, but this one was beyond crazy. Even all the stairs in the atrium were solid with people and we could not get from one end of the ship to the other without taking the stairs at the front of the ship, up 5 decks, across the decks, then down the stairs again at the back to where we were going to relax for the morning with friends.

 

A second tender went better, but still there was confusion when loading even when your number was called and you were in line to board the boat. We stood on the stairs for almost 1/2 hour waiting after our number was called. There were no boats ahead of us, and our tender was there waiting, but they didn't seem to know what number was to board next.

 

I'm sure they are usually better organized :), but our experience was challenging to say the least.

Wow...that sounds like a huge PITA. This has got to be an isolated incident.....Princess really screwed up on that. The only bad tendering situations I had have been on HAL and they haven't been terrible. That said I've been on 4 Princess cruises and about 12 HAL so the odds would be that I noticed more problems on HAL. Thank you for answering me.