How does HAL compare with Celebrity & P&O?

[Hawaiidan]

On 2/23/2019 at 3:41 PM, Aquahound said:

 

To be honest, if HAL and Celebrity offered the exact same itinerary at the exact same price, I'd pick Celebrity every single time.  My HAL cruises were very similar to cruises offered by Celebrity (and other lines) but I only chose HAL because they were significantly less expensive.  

 

I prefer Celebrity because they are more modern, have better entertainment and I think their ships are nicer.  HAL is kinda stuck in the past and a little sleepy on board.  

One factor  to me, at least, is the size of the ship.   On Most celeb ships your sailing with double or more human bodies... Stuck in the past? 

 Maybe thats not such a bad thing.    Let Celeb attract the party types, the rock around the clock and dont forget  the kids....   I enjoy the pleasure of  being on a ship, being on an ocean...traveling.   Thats all the entertainment I need... a floating Las Vegas  modern and shiny  is exactly what I do not want.

[Aquahound]

35 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

One factor  to me, at least, is the size of the ship.   On Most celeb ships your sailing with double or more human bodies... Stuck in the past? 

 Maybe thats not such a bad thing.    Let Celeb attract the party types, the rock around the clock and dont forget  the kids....   I enjoy the pleasure of  being on a ship, being on an ocean...traveling.   Thats all the entertainment I need... a floating Las Vegas  modern and shiny  is exactly what I do not want.

 

A floating Vegas ship, party type, rock around the clock is not even close to how I'd describe Celebrity.  That's not an accurate description in the least.  Maybe lines like RCI, NCL and Carnival, but not Celebrity.

 

And by the way....fact check....Celebrity has several ships that are MUCH smaller and have FAR less passengers than even the smallest HAL ship.  

Edited February 27, 2019 by Aquahound

[Hawaiidan]

1 minute ago, Aquahound said:

 

A floating Vegas ship, party type, rock around the clock is not even close to how I'd describe Celebrity.  That's not an accurate description in the least.  Maybe the family lines like RCI, NCL and Carnival, but not Celebrity.

 

And by the way....fact check....Celebrity has several ships that are MUCH smaller and have FAR less passengers than even the smallest HAL ship.  

Sorry  but the Celeb ships.. I was on   Mellinum, sure was WAY that way to me, compared to HAL.  

    HAL has 1250 pax ships  What Celeb ships are smaller...help me

I wont sail on a ship over 1250.......................Well I did , some time ago .but it launched and recovered high speed aircraft.

[Aquahound]

24 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

What Celeb ships are smaller...help me

 

Celebrity Flora

Celebrity Xpedition

Celebrity Xperience

Celebrity Xploration

[Ken the cruiser]

I have to agree with both of you. X has way more energy and a lot more things to do on sea days than HAL does, independent of which ship you’re on. Heck, HAL doesn’t even offer any professional lecturers on sea days where as X usually has at least 2 on most of their cruises 7 days or longer. X also has a lot more cabin categories with plenty of extra perks than HAL does, especially when you consider their AQ class cabins and higher. 

 

But X does have some pretty cool expedition ships as well. We’ve been on their Xpedition ship around the Galapagos and plan on going again in Jul 2021. If you have never been to the Galapagos and like animals, this cruise is definitely a must!!

[OlsSalt]

21 minutes ago, Aquahound said:

 

Celebrity Flora

Celebrity Xpedition

Celebrity Xperience

Celebrity Xploration

 

Quito-based very small passenger fleet running $600-$1000 a day per person. Not sure this is good example when comparing cruise lines, but good to know when searching Galapagos expedition cruises.

Edited February 27, 2019 by OlsSalt

[Aquahound]

Just now, OlsSalt said:

 

Quito based very small passenger ships running $600-$1000 a day per person. Not sure this is good example when comparing cruise lines

 

Sure they're expensive, but that wasn't the context of the conversation.

[Fouremco]

We more or less split our cruises between Celebrity and HAL as there are far more similarities than differences. To suggest that Celebrity attracts party types on its regular cruises is simply untrue, although I can't speak to who is attracted to some of its charters. The age demographic runs lower on Celebrity, but the the passengers are otherwise quite similar.

[Cruzaholic41]

6 hours ago, Aquahound said:

 

A floating Vegas ship, party type, rock around the clock is not even close to how I'd describe Celebrity.  That's not an accurate description in the least.  Maybe lines like RCI, NCL and Carnival, but not Celebrity.

 

I’ve been on about 40 Celebrity cruises and I agree with you. Hawaiidan’s description is way off - so much so, I have to wonder if he ever actually cruised Celebrity. Unless it was one of their rare 3 or 4 night cruises 

 

By the way, I cruised Xpedition to the Galapagos a few years ago. It was amazing. HAL can’t touch Celebrity regarding small ship cruising. I’m looking forward to my Flora cruise next year. 

[OlsSalt]

2 hours ago, Cruzaholic41 said:

 

I’ve been on about 40 Celebrity cruises and I agree with you. Hawaiidan’s description is way off - so much so, I have to wonder if he ever actually cruised Celebrity. Unless it was one of their rare 3 or 4 night cruises 

 

By the way, I cruised Xpedition to the Galapagos a few years ago. It was amazing. HAL can’t touch Celebrity regarding small ship cruising. I’m looking forward to my Flora cruise next year. 

 

At $1000 a day , that is probably true. HAL is not even in that Quito- Galapagos RT market. 

[philbob84]

On this note what is the value difference between HAL and Princess?

[Ken the cruiser]

8 hours ago, philbob84 said:

On this note what is the value difference between HAL and Princess?

The best way to find the answer to your question is book a similar cruise on each line and see if one of them impresses you more than the other.

 

As you can tell from this thread as well as the many others on this subject, everyone’s opinion differs because we all have different needs and expectations. 

[mcrcruiser]

19 hours ago, Aquahound said:

 

A floating Vegas ship, party type, rock around the clock is not even close to how I'd describe Celebrity.  That's not an accurate description in the least.  Maybe lines like RCI, NCL and Carnival, but not Celebrity.

 

And by the way....fact check....Celebrity has several ships that are MUCH smaller and have FAR less passengers than even the smallest HAL ship.  

Please take note that Millenium class  of Celebrity at approx 91000 tons are larger than may of HALs ships . In fact  they are just under the  99500 ton new Koningsdam & Statensam class of Pinacle ships  ;which are the very largest of HAL's fleet .

[mcrcruiser]

Having done over 40 Celebrity cruises & many HAL cruises   ,today I can candidly say that HAL's food quality ,presentation & service in the MDR is above what Celebrity does in all 3 of those categories   . The Buffet  variety  ,pizza  goes to HAL  When Celebrity discontinued serving Ahi Tuna   for lunch ,we knew that RCL had it's deep hand into the Celebrity  food budget .There has been too many cut backs with Celebrity for us to continue cruising with them & we are Elite +   .

 

I would not give the entertainment edge to Celebrity over  the new music  venues found on the  Eurodam  class or Koningsdam  ships of HAL  .The only area that Celebrity has performed better is on their Soltice class  ships main theatre  & since they brought that entertainment back to  Miami for in house  production  design ,I now give that edge to HAL  as well 

 

 Oh I forgot to say that HAL's itineraries are far more diverse & interesting than Celebrity

Edited February 28, 2019 by mcrcruiser

[Hlitner]

10 hours ago, philbob84 said:

On this note what is the value difference between HAL and Princess?

That is an excellent question!  Each person has their own ideas about "value" in travel.  Some find a Days Inn to be a good value, and another person finds a Four Seasons (at 10 times the price of the Days Inn) a tremendous value.  We know both lines well (and have future bookings with both lines) and much of our decision-making is based on Itinerary and price.  Both lines can offer some amazing value if one shop's around and books with the correct agency.   And value is not always about price.  Consider that HAL's Voyage of the Vikings cruise is one of their highest priced product (per passenger day) and yet is a very popular cruise.  Most of take that cruise do it for the itinerary (and not needing to spend money on International Air).  Princess does not offer anything comparable.  On the other hand, Princess has some terrific itineraries in Asia and for repo cruises from Asia to the USA..that is not matched by HAL.  But HAL also has some fantastic repo cruises (especially across the South Pacific).

 

Hank

 

 

[Aquahound]

11 hours ago, philbob84 said:

On this note what is the value difference between HAL and Princess?

 

There's a current thread running...

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2638686-hal-and-princess-comparison/

[jkgourmet]

I've asked a similar question to OP in a new thread, but this thread has brought up some specifics of like to understand better.

 

Several posters commented about the new ships being very different.  Which ships are those?

 

Does HAL have separate, exclusive areas for suite and other high end cabin passengers?  Separate, exclusive bars for loyalty members at a certain level?

[RuthC]

1 hour ago, jkgourmet said:

Does HAL have separate, exclusive areas for suite and other high end cabin passengers?  Separate, exclusive bars for loyalty members at a certain level?

There is the Neptune Lounge for Neptune Suite and Pinnacle Suite passengers. This is a quiet 'living room', with some snacks, juices, coffees, and an honor bar. There are also concierges available to take care of things for those suite passengers.

[OlsSalt]

2 hours ago, jkgourmet said:

I've asked a similar question to OP in a new thread, but this thread has brought up some specifics of like to understand better.

 

Several posters commented about the new ships being very different.  Which ships are those?

 

Does HAL have separate, exclusive areas for suite and other high end cabin passengers?  Separate, exclusive bars for loyalty members at a certain level?

 

HAL is currently going in two directions right now. Maintaining a significant number of now older and  smaller ships (2000 and under) that are travel oriented and have never had the need to create "smaller exclusive high end areas".  The size of the ship and the variety of their itineraries have made the entire onboard experience for everyone feel more intimate and unique without the need for specially segregated areas.

 

But the larger, newer HAL ships are losing that prior sense of onboard intimacy and  are experimenting with this "ship within a ship" concept that seems to be a growing signature of the competition's floating behemoths.  Since the industry trend and HAL's acceptance of larger and larger ships with more onboard attractions than travel attractions, I suppose one will find these similar  "exclusive" onboard enticements on the newer HAL ships.

 

If one does not want to travel with the masses without an exclusive segregated area, I'd recommend cruising on smaller ships to start out with.

 

 

Edited March 9, 2019 by OlsSalt