HAL vs CCL

[tunafish]

I was searching for comparison myself, so I wanted to give my opinion after my return from Eurodam.

 

I did not find a reason why anyone would pay anything extra to sail in HAL over CCL in my humble opinion. I would go from a price/ports from now on.

 

We had an awesome time, but after reading other reviews I was looking for better service/program on HAL comparing to carnival. One also has to consider that Eurodam is bigger and newer ship in HAL fleet.

 

Food is the same in my opinion as CCL. No addition of any exotic/upscale/refined dishes. I felt like availability (not my problem) is also worse on HAL. It seemed like lido was closed more often than open. Had good burger place - open till 6 only. Pizza is uneatable and closes at midnight, but realistically earlier. Late snack had only one line open with lines all the time. Deli at lunch had no clue what rueben sandwich is.

 

Dining room service felt less attentive compared to CCL, no personal touch, every night was a different crew despite the fact that we had a fixed dining time as I opted out of open seating. Breakfast had better variety on LIDO. I felt like majority of dining folks were overworked and looked very tired.

I never care about activities but they were very strange regardless: some ms windows workshops on basic computer literacy, cooking classes were very boring (and I LOVE to cook and consider myself a foodie). Ship is dead at 11-11:30. It looks like everything is happening from 6 to 9 and if you lets say dine at this time you are out of luck. Musicians are gone, bars are empty.

Casino... I have never seen a pit boss closing the table that is FULL of people betting 10X the min table bet. WTH????? 1:30am... go home, last 3 hands of black jack for you all. That is absurd!

 

For a fee restaurants... in my opinion not worth the price at all. Fixed menu, can not try several items, food is mass prepared anyway (they swear it is made to order - it is not) $29-39 buys you nothing but a better seating and better service. food wise you might as well eat in a dining room for free. From culinary standpoint the menu is also very generic: if I'm buying sushi for $29 up charge I do not want to see frozen tuna and salmon. It felt like yet another money sucking methodology. Photo ppl also did not care much for a good shot. Another thing that I always could do on carnival is ask them to print portraits on matte paper and remove that cheesy blur filter they apply digitally. Not on Eurodam for $39 a sheet. 80% of our shots were out of focus. I know I am picky but for $39 a shot I want to be picky. None of photographers tell people to tuck in the shirt, straighten the neckless or tie, fix hair. Little things, right? If my tie is off center and you blow it 8X10 it ruins everything...

 

Ship inside is somewhat dark and lacks the wow effect, what I hated most is they removed the teak decking and put some artificial plastic stuff on the decks. WHY??? Even Carnival had teak on lido and other public areas. Eurodam only has it on deck 3 and around pools border. I was so expected to see more brass and wood on "refined" ships. In all honesty this was something that I truly did not like. all the things above is nothing, just to give reference to carnival.

As I said we had a blast, there are more food that is healthy for anyone and when you are in warm sea in january - it is blessing on its own. We made all ports and the weather was fantastic!

Edited January 24, 2015 by tunafish

[SuiteTraveler]

tunafish, I agree with much you said about HAL. The quality of the food was puzzling to me. Why is it not better when they charge more?

 

One point of interest: All Sashimi grade fish, and this is what SHOULD ALWAYS be used in sushi, is flash frozen on the ship on which it is captured and sold and shipped frozen. This kills bacteria and also parasites.

 

Read here for more information on this:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/nyregion/sushi-fresh-from-the-deep-the-deep-freeze.html

[fishywood]

Not questioning the validity of any of your observations. But HAL's Eurodam (and twin Nieuw Amsterdam) are the same generic Vista-class ships found throughout the Carnival Corp family of lines. The HAL experience that draws praise from regulars is found on the smaller R- and S-class ships where the superior atmosphere and service derived from the higher space-per-passenger and lower passenger-to-crew ratios does justify the higher fares. On Maasdam in fall 2013 I had excellent service at late seating dinner, did not feel I missed out on any entertainment and (unlike on Celebrity) did not emerge from the dining room thinking I was on the Mary Celeste; there was plenty of live music until midnight or later.

[big al]

I was searching for comparison myself, so I wanted to give my opinion after my return from Eurodam.

 

I did not find a reason why anyone would pay anything extra to sail in HAL over CCL in my humble opinion. I would go from a price/ports from now on.

 

We had an awesome time, but after reading other reviews I was looking for better service/program on HAL comparing to carnival. One also has to consider that Eurodam is bigger and newer ship in HAL fleet.

 

Food is the same in my opinion as CCL. No addition of any exotic/upscale/refined dishes. I felt like availability (not my problem) is also worse on HAL. It seemed like lido was closed more often than open. Had good burger place - open till 6 only. Pizza is uneatable and closes at midnight, but realistically earlier. Late snack had only one line open with lines all the time. Deli at lunch had no clue what rueben sandwich is.

 

Dining room service felt less attentive compared to CCL, no personal touch, every night was a different crew despite the fact that we had a fixed dining time as I opted out of open seating. Breakfast had better variety on LIDO. I felt like majority of dining folks were overworked and looked very tired.

I never care about activities but they were very strange regardless: some ms windows workshops on basic computer literacy, cooking classes were very boring (and I LOVE to cook and consider myself a foodie). Ship is dead at 11-11:30. It looks like everything is happening from 6 to 9 and if you lets say dine at this time you are out of luck. Musicians are gone, bars are empty.

Casino... I have never seen a pit boss closing the table that is FULL of people betting 10X the min table bet. WTH????? 1:30am... go home, last 3 hands of black jack for you all. That is absurd!

 

For a fee restaurants... in my opinion not worth the price at all. Fixed menu, can not try several items, food is mass prepared anyway (they swear it is made to order - it is not) $29-39 buys you nothing but a better seating and better service. food wise you might as well eat in a dining room for free. From culinary standpoint the menu is also very generic: if I'm buying sushi for $29 up charge I do not want to see frozen tuna and salmon. It felt like yet another money sucking methodology. Photo ppl also did not care much for a good shot. Another thing that I always could do on carnival is ask them to print portraits on matte paper and remove that cheesy blur filter they apply digitally. Not on Eurodam for $39 a sheet. 80% of our shots were out of focus. I know I am picky but for $39 a shot I want to be picky. None of photographers tell people to tuck in the shirt, straighten the neckless or tie, fix hair. Little things, right? If my tie is off center and you blow it 8X10 it ruins everything...

 

Ship inside is somewhat dark and lacks the wow effect, what I hated most is they removed the teak decking and put some artificial plastic stuff on the decks. WHY??? Even Carnival had teak on lido and other public areas. Eurodam only has it on deck 3 and around pools border. I was so expected to see more brass and wood on "refined" ships. In all honesty this was something that I truly did not like. all the things above is nothing, just to give reference to carnival.

As I said we had a blast, there are more food that is healthy for anyone and when you are in warm sea in january - it is blessing on its own. We made all ports and the weather was fantastic!

 

I had a similar reaction as you when DW & I took the Westerdam 10 years ago and did so because we heard so much about HAL's great service & food...I am both a cruise agent & have done 30+ cruises on all but MSC & Costa for mainstream lines..we felt food ( which IS very subjective, I know) was quiet mediocre..in fact the Pinnacle Grill, HAL's specialty venue, still holds the record for the longest wait in our cruise history for a salad- 45 minutes! You read right, we waited 45 minutes for our salad to start our dinner..the meal overall was OK, but the damage had been done..MDR food was average, at best on all 6 other nights..entertainment was pretty bad..ship does pretty much die down by 10-11 PM..Things we liked: Cabin was very nice, balcony was A+..liked the aft pool, although it was packed every day AND both hot tubs were broken the entire cruise ( I love hot tubs)..Half Moon Cay was gorgeous, I rank it # 2 private island right behind Disney's Castaway Cay...we also like the suffles they would set up outside The Explorer's Lounge around dinner time..another thing- we were 53 & 51 when we went on that cruise..that was about 25 years younger than the average age of the passengers..I wrote in my review that I thought the average age was death, and that it was first time I saw Metamucil on draft ( LOL)..the HAL cheerleaders had an absolute fit over my review- also I wrote that the CD was the worst CD I ever saw- she was a young blonde, very pretty, but awful as a CD..no personality, no jokes, no nothing..

 

As an agent I only recommend HAL to those who are 1) more mature & want a more mature cruise..2) People who are not interested in activities & entertainment...cruises tend to attract certain groups of people..we know as cruise agents, that if you have a young family with young kids (under 10) that Disney, RCI & Norwegian are pretty good choices..CCL is OK, as well..Celebrity, Princess & HAL tend to attract a slightly older crowd ..the newer & upcoming MSC ( 4 ships in the next 4 years) are also a good choice..there's nothing wrong with being a cruise line that attracts a certain age group- different strokes for different folks, I say...

 

Big Al

[Krazy Kruizers]

Thank you for your review and opinion of the Eurodam.