HAL cruiser back from my RCI cruise

[arewethereyet]

I just returned from a 7 day Freedom of the Seas cruise from Port Canaveral. I took this cruise to explore options for cruises from Tampa or Port Canaveral.

 

My last HAL cruise was on Ryndam, so we are talking about very dissimilar ships. Nevertheless, I will compare the experience.

 

Port Canaveral is about an hour drive for me. So, that's a big plus. Parking was easy, boarding was a snap. We boarded around noon, and the cabins are not ready until 1:00 pm. We went to the Windjammer buffet (think Lido) and had lunch. I was pleasantly surprised that it was easy to get a table, and the crowd was less noticeable than on HAL's Lido. The food was fine, the service very attentive. This is a big plus for RCI. Downside? They play some strangely inappropriate (to me) techno music at breakfast and lunch. I didn't care for the music, and considered paying them to stop. ;)

 

Our cabin was a junior suite, plenty roomy, with a very efficient Indonesian steward. The AC worked, the toilet flushed, life is good!

 

We booked MyTime dining (Open seating) and made reservations for every night that we intended to eat in the MDR. This worked out fine. Our waiters were the best I've had on HAL, Princess, or Celebrity. The food in the MDR was very good, but the presentation was lacking, IMO. HAL does a much better job with that.

 

We booked a 5 bottle wine package after studying the list carefully at home before booking. We found about 10 wines I would drink very happily. That worked out fine. On two nights we ordered off the regular wine list and selected some wines we have been meaning to try for some time. IMO, there wines are very fairly priced (much better than HAL). Having said that, HAL and RCI have completely different approaches in pricing and policy. RCI allows only two bottle per cabin to be brought aboard. We knew that ahead of time and planned accordingly. I wouldn't say one policy is better than the other, but they are very different. This ship has a wine bar called Vintages which I found to be almost completely useless. The hours are still unknown to me. They do have the wine dispenser machines in Vintages. But most of the machines were not working. The three times I tried to purchase wine from a dispenser, the pour failed before completion. It was, however, smart enough to not charge me for the interrupted pours. In any case, for me, the failure rate was 100%. Not good for marketing.

 

A word about the elevators :mad:: Almost unusable. They have 14 elevators for 3600+pax, and 14 decks to service. Contrast that with the Ryndam, with 8 elevators, about 1250 pax, and 10 decks. That means you're much more likely to get to ride in an elevator on Ryndam. For the mobility impaired, this could be a significant problem.

 

That was really the only time I was aware of the number of passengers. The public spaces were not crowded except sometimes on the Royal Promenade when something special was going on. The space ratio on Ryndam and FOS is the same, despite the difference in size.

 

Specialty restaurants: Chops is the RCI steak house ($30 pp). The filet mignon I had there was the tenderest I've had on any cruise ship. It was excellent, but I think I prefer the Pinnacle on HAL by a very small margin.

 

Ports: Labadee was a surprise to me. If you are a beach lover, you'll be in heaven. Very nice facility with several beach options all within walking distance of the ship. Otherwise, ports are ports. The only tender port was Grand Cayman. I never go ashore there so I can't comment on the tender service.

 

The library was noisy because there was a lot of traffic through a portion of it, and there are a lot more children (more noise). At times it was like being at Disney. I think the average age on the FOS, even factoring out the children, is a good 15 years younger than any HAL ship I have been on. It's a very big difference. There certainly were some very elderly people on the ship. But, frankly, they appeared curiously out of place. I don't know how else to explain it. It's just a very different clientele in many ways. I'm not so sure I'm comfortable with it.

 

We only went to a couple of shows, and never had any trouble getting decent seats. The ice show had me crawling out commando style after 15 minutes. It's just not my thing. If you are going to skate around, you should have a hockey stick in your mits. :D Others around me seemed to be enthralled. All I can say is "different strokes for different folks".

 

Bottom line is that I would cruise RCI again, but they aren't going to be my first choice.

 

OK, I'm tired now. Maybe more later?

[Friend100]

.... But, frankly, they appeared curiously out of place. I don't know how else to explain it.....

 

Curious to know more about this.

[arewethereyet]

Curious to know more about this.

Picture an 80 year old couple with no other family with them, walking through Disney. That's the best I can do.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for making the comparison between the 2 lines.

I alread know that we will never go back to RCI.

[George C]

Thanks for info, we are fans of Hal and RCCL, I did not even attempt to see ice show, not my thing

[Friend100]

Picture an 80 year old couple with no other family with them, walking through Disney. That's the best I can do.

 

Understand. But I do wish myself and DW when we are 80 can still be walking through Disney Park, then do a B2B2B hopping between a DCL, RCI and HAL ship.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for the comparison review of Hal and RCI. We have done several cruises on RCI and that was enough for us.:(

[DeepWaterMariner]

Thanks for your comparison of RCI and HAL. I mostly agree with your observations. I'm a Diamond + on RCI and just shy of 4 stars on HAL. I've discovered a few tricks to avoid most of the elevator problems you encountered and usually only get hung up trying to go from the Viking Crown Lounge to the dinning room at diner time. Our repeater status on RCI comes with some nice perks (use of the Diamond Club which is a bit better than the Neptune Lounge). I agree that RCI passengers on an RCI 7 day cruise run a bit younger than HAL but that comes with RCI being more attractive to families. It doesn't stop us from cruising on RCI although we fit a bit better with HAL these days.

[portofrome]

Thanks for your comparison.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for your post.

 

Keith

[erewhon]

Thanks for the comparison.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report, sounds like you had an enjoyable experience.

[hawkeye3d]

We started with RCI over 10 years ago and we thought it was fine until the bean counters took over and they started nickel and dimeing you to death, crews seemed unhappy etc. So we went the Oceania, Princess, HAL and Celebrity route. We wouldn’t, if there was any other choice sail RCI or Celebrity again. HAL remains our first choice with Princess a good second except for their penchant for skipping ports on what seems a race from start to finish. Oceania is great but priced out of our range. Next up, if I can convince DW, round the horn next April

[Tapi]

We are Platinum cruisers on Royal with our first HAL cruise coming up in a few days. :D Our last Royal experience was on the Allure of the Seas so needless to say, our upcoming Westerdam cruise will be quite a change (and we are looking forward to the experience!)

 

About the comment concerning older people looking out of place on a Royal ship, I believe I understand what the OP meant. While ships like the Allure do have plenty for all age groups, many of the activities are very high energy or geared towards a younger age group. Zip lining, rock climbing, the surf simulator, a huge are devoted to Adventure Ocean (kids program) including a large section of the lido deck with their own pool and water park. Dreamworks characters walking throughout the ship (the Sailaway Party featured Shrek and Alex the lion dancing to the beat). Parties like Rita's Fiesta (with people spilling to the Boardwalk, dancing and doing shots).

 

The beauty of ships like the Allure is that there's plenty to do for all age groups and tastes. People looking for a more traditional and refined cruise experience can find it, but at times it can be challenging with so much going on. I guess anybody could feel a bit out of place in a ship like that.

[Riversedge]

Enjoyed reading your comparison. We like both lines for different reasons but we do feel that being on RCI makes us FEEL younger!!!

[JamesEM]

Thanks for the review, this past Oct we had our had our family vacation on board the Oasis of the Seas and understand what you saying about the older folks.

[HokiePoq]

Thanks for your post, very interesting. Look forward to hearing more.

Have sailed both lines and prefer HAL but would sail RCCL if price and itinerary were right. HAL was first choice for cruise just completed but price made the difference. That said, we got what we paid for.

Loyalty program on RCCL is far superior and that results in many repeat cruisers. There were many problems on our recently completed RCCL cruise and many Diamond members said the Crown and Anchor program was the only reason they stuck with RCCL. (The drinks were very expensive with no happy hours so the Diamond lounge free drinks was indeed a valuable perk.)