HAL Vista vs. X Millenium

[DavidLloyd]

Cruiser Mo's - We absolutely love cruising Celebrity on the Millenium class ships but are considering a Jan 06 voyage on the Oosterdam. A travel agent said we'd have fun no matter what since we're bringing a group along, but also warned that HAL is still an older crowd. Is iy REALLY like a Grey Line Bus tour, or is he, like many of us, adding a little too much drama to the reality?

[bryanjaync]

My patner and I have been on the Millie twice (with a very large gay group), and loved it. This December we are trying the Westerdam (sister to your Oosterdam). We are curious too as to how we will like a different cruise line, and also not going with a group. But from all I have read, HAL seems like a comparable line to Celebrity, so I think all will be well. Hope you find the same experience. Shoot me an email after Dec 11, if you want details/tips about our HAL experience.

[ahoymatey3]

I was on the Maasdam (10 night eastern carib.) and observed maybe half were over 65, 40% 30 to 65 and the rest under 30. Very few children and well-behaved at that.

 

 

I’ve read the mix varies by length (longer = older) of cruise and time of year.

[eroller]

I've sailed on an HAL Vista Class (OOSTERDAM) and a Celebrity M-Class (INFINITY). I felt the INFINITY was a far superior ship. More sophisticated decor, higher grade of finish, superior layout, etc. Celebrity was an overall better experience, although both HAL and Celebrity are quality products. I personally found the decor of OOSTERDAM to be a bit bizarre. Lots of red, orange, purple, etc. Very dark colors, with odd-ball art placed here and there that didn't really seem to fit. The OOSTERDAM was much more flashy than I expected, almost to the point of reminding me of a Carnival ship. Onboard INFINITY, the ship was modern, bright and airy, but also with eclectic and whimsical features and touches of tradition here and there. Very well done.

 

One thing goes to HAL. The beds. They have luxury bedding and it's fantastic!

 

Good luck with your choice.

 

Ernie

[eroller]

Dup post. Sorry.

[DavidLloyd]

Ernie,

Thanks - I think you've nicely summarized the impression I was collecting by reading reviews. My partner says the pics of the Oosterdam look like the set of "Beauty and the Beast!" I'd rather be on a ship I know I love and not take a gamble with one of my beloved cruise vacations.

[Bramcruiser]

Just finished an Oosterdam repositioning cruise (Vancouver-San Diego) with my other half. Its all a matter of opinion but I liked the Vista class Oosterdam. Yes, the crowd is more mature on HAL compared to something like Carnival but..........we are not big party animals and were looking for a classy ocean liner style trip. We also don't group travel preferring to stick to ourselves. We didn't pick HAL for being HAL but mainly for the cruise inteniary itself. Still, I walked away thinking that HAL was more my style than I was expecting. I guess I'm just a very old 41 year old.

 

Was it like a grey line tour? Well I never felt like it was an old age home but i did notice the lack of children and twenty-somethings. Word of warning, if you want to shop and gamble then maybe something else is more your style. IF these two things are not all that important then the classy Oosterdam is worth it.

 

Best thing, the beds. A great sleep. And our cabin steward was the best. We arrived half expecting two separate beds in our cabin and found the two beds put together to make one. No signs of homophobia from HAL on the cruise I did. Definitely will sail with HAL again.

[garykool81]

I would have to agree with eroller on this one. I have sailed on the Millennium-class with Celebrity and on Holland America's Vista-class ships.

 

I found Celebrity's ships to be far superior in the sophisticated, contemporary ambiance of the higher-end that the line has become so good at over the years. We found Zuiderdam with Holland America to be visually offensive. Walking into a foyer filled with banana yellow sofas, aqua colored stools and bright red carpet is just disgusting visually. To compare it to the gaudiness of Carnival would even be an insult to that line, in my opinion :-)

 

The sad thing is that by simply changing nothing but the colors they choose to use, Holland America's Vista-class would truly be remarkable ships. Unfortunately, the ridiculous combination of colors they spilled throughout the vessel don't do the trick.

[Bramcruiser]

garycool81 could be right. I heard a lot about the Zuiderdam being far too colourful and clash is definitely a word I heard quite a bit. However, I can only speak from my own experience. The word on the Oosterdam is that they downplayed the bright colour combination so a bad experience on the Zuiderdam should not transfer over to another ship. eroller mentioned the bizarre layout and coordination of the Oosterdam - I'll give him half points. I never found the art bizarre or the colour scheme bizarre but did find the choppiness of the layout in some areas a bit annoying. For example the shops and casino stops one from venturing past to the other side of the ship.

 

All in all, it sounds like Celebrity fans love Celebrity and I know there are lots out there. On our HAL cruise all we ever heard was "It's not as good as Celebrity". Oh well! Just means I gotta try Celebrity. Still compared to Carnival, I loved my first time on HAL and would never say no to them either - at least until I try Celebrity. LOL!

[Oppgaard]

We did the repositioning on the Oosterdam from San Diego to Vancouver in May and then did an Alaskan cruise on the Infinity in September. We were in suites on both and the service on the Infinity was superior while on the Oosterdam it was only fair. Although our suite on the Oosterdam, cat. S, was quite a bit larger than the one on Infinity, cat. SS, the service more than made up for the difference. The butler service on the Infinity is a lot better than the Concierge service on the Oosterdam in our opinion. Given a choice, I would definitely take Celebrity over HAL.

[Blazerboy]

Can't comment on HAL, but did want to say that not all 'M' class have the same decor and artwork. Decor was bright on both that I've been on, but not offensive. But the art was MUCH more subdued on Infinity. On Constellation, I HATED the art work, especially on the stairs! (Not enough so that I didn't book our next two cruises on her. :rolleyes: ) But, bad??? OOOOOOEEEEEE!!!!!! Hold-your-nose-from-the-stink bad!

 

Is it my taste in art? Maybe at 43, I'm an old fogey who belongs on HAL after all? :D Where's BepSF? He's got a lot of experience with HAL, and is, or at least looks, years younger than me!

 

I have met people on Infinity who said they preferred the food and decor on HAL, so maybe it's just all too subjective.

 

Andrew

[BEAV]

We love both Celebrity Millie-class as well as Century-class ships. We've enjoyed 6 great cruises w/Celebrity...no complaints.

 

We're going to give HAL's Vista-class ships a try next month when we sail Westerdam. I hope it's not the same garish colors as I've seen in the photos of Zuiderdam and has been described here.

 

As to the OP's question about age groups, I think you'll find a much wider range of age on a 7 day cruise vs 10 days or longer. I'm sure it's no coincidence HAL schedules the Vista-class ships in the 7 day cruise market, while leaving the Statendam class and Rotterdam class to the longer voyages. I'm sure their goal is to attract a more youthful crowd on the Vista class, while leaving the more traditional ships to the HAL faithful. HAL will be in trouble before too long if they don't recruit new blood!

[DavidLloyd]

We booked ourselves Concierge class verandah on the Infinity for Jan. 8, 2006 out of Lauderdale. Your comments helped convince us to stick with what we love.