unscientific surveys

[TraelorMex]

A recent thread on cruise ship comparisons prompted this post. Whenever we are in a port with other cruise ships, I enjoy questioning other passengers about their likes, or dislikes' about 'their' cruise ship. Just a little background, we have been cruising for many years and are 4 star mariners on HAL.

 

I have 'surveyed' appx 1800 pax from different (other than HAL) ships. What I find is that those pax who have only cruised one line tend to favor that line by a wide margin...naturally. Those pax that have cruised both HAL and another (mass market) line tend to favor HAL by an equally wide margin. Interesting.

[kazu]

A recent thread on cruise ship comparisons prompted this post. Whenever we are in a port with other cruise ships, I enjoy questioning other passengers about their likes, or dislikes' about 'their' cruise ship. Just a little background, we have been cruising for many years and are 4 star mariners on HAL.

 

I have 'surveyed' appx 1800 pax from different (other than HAL) ships. What I find is that those pax who have only cruised one line tend to favor that line by a wide margin...naturally. Those pax that have cruised both HAL and another (mass market) line tend to favor HAL by an equally wide margin. Interesting.

 

Having sailed on numerous mass market lines (other than Carnival and some now extinct), HAL has been our cruise line of choice.

 

So, you can add one more to your unscientific survey:D

[trixiee]

Having sailed on numerous mass market lines (other than Carnival and some now extinct), HAL has been our cruise line of choice.

 

So, you can add one more to your unscientific survey:D

 

I'll be 1802, and you can add me to the list of folk who sail HAL as their cruise line of choice!

[iancal]

Accountants and those who conduct polls/surveys have a time tested saying.

 

Figures lie and liars figure.

[sapper1]

We have only cruised HAL and will continue to do so. We are comfortably familiar with HAL and are under no great illusion that another line would make us any happier by being perfect.

[Typhoon1]

Polls are pretty useless. Many people don't give truthful answers.

[sail7seas]

Useful or useless, I let you (and others) decide but we have sailed five cruise lines and HAL is by miles our favorite. :)

 

[pris993]

To add a little variety to your thread, I will tell you we have cruised on 9 different lines over 30+ years, well over 45 cruises.

 

We are 2 star on HAL, elite on Princess and elite on Celebrity.

 

We are booked on the New Amsterdam for April 2014 on the TA, got a very good price for a VB cabin. Booked on Celebrity Silhouette in October 2014 going to the Holy Land, booked it for the itinerary. We just finished a cruise on the Grand Princess in October. Did a Holy Land cruise on the NCL Jade and Cunard Queen Victoria a few years back.

 

Over all our experience on the Cunard Queen Victoria in terms cabin (mini suite) food, service and entertainment was a edge above all cruise lines we have been on over the years.

 

Our favorite HAL ship is the Westerdam - did a TA, Mediterranean and Carribean cruises on it. The Westerdam is the only ship we repeated 3 times.

 

We have repeated only a handful of ships 2 times: the Sky Princess, the Grand Princess, Star Princess and the Queen Victoria.

 

Presently we prefer Princess, Cunard and HAL over Celebrity and NCL in that order. We select cruises based on itinerary and price.

 

We are lucky we have so many choices out there, variety is the spice of life.

[world~citizen]

Accountants and those who conduct polls/surveys have a time tested saying.

 

Figures lie and liars figure.

 

Very good.

 

You made my year and its only 2 days old.:D

[world~citizen]

To add a little variety to your thread, I will tell you we have cruised on 9 different lines over 30+ years, well over 45 cruises.

 

We are 2 star on HAL, elite on Princess and elite on Celebrity.

 

We are booked on the New Amsterdam for April 2014 on the TA, got a very good price for a VB cabin. Booked on Celebrity Silhouette in October 2014 going to the Holy Land, booked it for the itinerary. We just finished a cruise on the Grand Princess in October. Did a Holy Land cruise on the NCL Jade and Cunard Queen Victoria a few years back.

 

Over all our experience on the Cunard Queen Victoria in terms cabin (mini suite) food, service and entertainment was a edge above all cruise lines we have been on over the years.

 

Our favorite HAL ship is the Westerdam - did a TA, Mediterranean and Carribean cruises on it. The Westerdam is the only ship we repeated 3 times.

 

We have repeated only a handful of ships 2 times: the Sky Princess, the Grand Princess, Star Princess and the Queen Victoria.

 

Presently we prefer Princess, Cunard and HAL over Celebrity and NCL in that order. We select cruises based on itinerary and price.

 

We are lucky we have so many choices out there, variety is the spice of life.

 

Of the lines you mention we would have given Celebrity the edge. HAL is fine but for us it has moved farther away from the experience we look for in a cruise than Celebrity.

 

In truth, we have found better lines than either of these (lines that better meet our expectations).

 

I couldn't agree with you more though, the choices are wonderful and any one of the above lines are capable of delivering a satisfactory experience.

[donaldsc]

deleted

Edited January 3, 2014 by donaldsc

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Our new bookings tell our story ...

[brazilgirl]

I have sailed on 5 different cruise lines and prefer Celebrity and HAL so far...would like to try Azamara and Oceania.

[iancal]

Never had a bad cruise, or a bad ship on any of the cruise lines that we have been on. Your comment about variety being the spice of life is right on. We enjoy cruising on different ships, different lines. They all have their strengths and weaknesses given our particular preferences.

 

We decided to try Princess again (Golden this time) but it just got cancelled-well we were offered an extremely attractive move over offer that we could not refuse. So it is back to reviewing short notice cruises or doing a land trip.

[dadroy]

Different people equals different views.

 

HAL is MY favorite line, but DW prefers Carnival.

 

Go figure. And no, she is not 30 years my junior:D

[GeorgesGal]

We like HAL, Celebrity, Azamara and Oceania best, and make our decision on which to sail based on the itinerary, nothing else. Each line has its' pros and cons, but have to say HAL stands above ~X~ for stateroom size, but the other two are head and shoulders above them for food and itineraries in Europe and the Caribbean.

[shrimp56]

Another vote for HAL since we resumed cruising last year.

 

Ignore that upcoming Celebrity cruise down there. I'm being dragged kicking and screaming by our "Veendam family." What I won't do for friends.

 

And yes, I will try to do a balanced comparison.

[Taxguy77]

Accountants and those who conduct polls/surveys have a time tested saying.

 

Figures lie and liars figure.

 

Sure do, and just being on this thread makes the "survey" suspect.

 

Retired CPA

(I can figure or lie :D )

[PunkiC]

The HAL ships are certainly beautiful, we really like that they always have a priest on board, and we like the poached egg station. DH enjoyed the cooking classes. We also liked the cabin, but the storage was a bit awkward.

 

Their pizza was awful and their "Dancing with the Stars" program is a cruel joke. The teachers didn't understand the dances so it all degenerated into an exercise of arm flinging. So sad.

 

Still, HAL was our #2 choice until they came up with their new wine policy. Boo! That sent us running back to Princess, fantastic pizza, Zumba and real dance classes.

[sailandcruise]

 

I have 'surveyed' appx 1800 pax from different (other than HAL) ships. What I find is that those pax who have only cruised one line tend to favor that line by a wide margin...naturally. Those pax that have cruised both HAL and another (mass market) line tend to favor HAL by an equally wide margin. Interesting.

 

I wonder if passengers who have cruised only one line do so because they favor it, or if they favor it because they do so? Probably even more complicated because a choice of cruise is influenced by one's previous experience -- if a passenger has a good experience on a cruise line, he/she will be more likely to choose it again, while if he/she doesn't like his/her current line, he/she will be more likely to choose a different one for his/her next cruise (if there is a next cruise). This is an example why designing scientific surveys is hard. :)

[debijaynes]

Had been loyal to HAL til we sailed Regent. We will book HAL only if we can't find the the itinerary on Regent. So our list of favorites is based on past sailings is:

Regent, HAL, Celebrity (9 years ago) Princess (14 years ago), NCL (11 years ago) and way way down the list American Cruise Lines-- the most awful value for the dollar ever. We did a steamboat cruise on the Columbia that was wonderful in 2005 and can not remember what line it was-- but it was lovely in every way!

[iancal]

Professional pollsters often ask clients what they hope to achieve from a poll prior to the engagement.

 

The questions are formulated accordingly, and the potential respondents (demographics) are sometimes also 'selected'. The clients goals often determine the size of the sample, and thus the degree of accuracy.

 

Polls are for dogs.