HAL vs. Princess

[ModMs]

Hi Cruisers: We've done seven cruises with Princess, but just don't care for movies on deck all day. Considering sailing with HAL this summer. If someone has sailed on both, can you let us know of any significant differences between the two. For example, we like having access to coffee/tea on deck -- does HAL do the same? Any replies will be appreciated. Thanks so much.

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by ModMs
Errors

[Mary229]

The size of the ships, Princess ships are larger overall. Generally  the larger the ship the more venues available for entertainment.  The Princess demographic is slightly younger than HAL.  I find there are more active option shore excursions with Princess. 
 

HAL is more sedate.  There is not as much hawking in my experience on HAL and considerably less noisy activities.   I found HAL to have slightly better service and food but have heard that Princess has really stepped up their food in the past few years.  
 

they are very similar and would sail either depending on the itinerary I prefer.   The DH definitely likes the smaller, more intimate HAL ambiance.  We sail Princess for family cruises for the variety of activity and entertainment 

[zhuangcorp]

How is the entertainment of princess vs HAL? Especially the production shows?

[deliver42]

Princess has MUCH better shows.

[Roz]

On HAL there is coffee and tea available 24 hrs. a day in the Lido.

[ShipWalker]

2 hours ago, Mary229 said:

...HAL is more sedate...

I prefer referring to HAL as the cruise line of subdued excitement.

Edited April 10, 2022 by ShipWalker

[zhuangcorp]

Maybe I should've tried Princess for my first cruise. 

[ModMs]

Thank you to everybody. As you can see, we've been doing independent travel the last few years and haven't cruised in a while.  I agree about Princess having sparkly entertainment; we don't go to the shows, but really prefer listening to music in the evening -- jazz, etc., so that attracted us to HAL. Again, thanks for the replies.

[RuthC]

18 minutes ago, zhuangcorp said:

Maybe I should've tried Princess for my first cruise. 

Did you discuss this with a travel agent before making a decision?
Travel agents have experience in drawing out your interests and personality to get a feel for what would be a good match for you, and for what you want to get out of your cruise. 

People sail HAL for the travel experience, more than a 'fun' atmosphere.

[MISTER 67]

23 cruises with HAL, 22 with Princess, obviously our favorite lines.

I found food to be about the same on both lines. Both lines have great buffets with Princess a little better on desserts especially when it comes to chocolate but HAL has their great Bread Pudding. 

A little more sedate on HAL however we sailed on the Rotterdam last month and things were not quite as sedate as in the past.

Both lines have very nice ships but if I had to pick a favorite it would be the Signature Class Eurodam with the full promenade with steamer chairs. Princess on their Grand Class ships have full promenades but they are much narrower than HAL and have padded chairs that just recline a bit, not all that comfortable.

Entertainment is about the same, better production shows on Princess but HAL has the  Music Walk.

Service is excellent on both lines with a slight edge to HAL.

Cabins a little smaller on Princess but I like the open closet space. The Rotterdam and her sister ships have cabins that are smaller than other HAL ships but the shower was much larger than Princess. 

Edited April 10, 2022 by MISTER 67

[patches33]

I just did a transatlantic on Regal Princess and totally agree with you on the movies at the pool, very annoying. I did a two week cruise on Niew Amsterdam in November 2021 and loved it. My preferred line would be HAL but they don't offer good solo rates. 

I find the food on HAL to be better but really enjoyed Alfredo's on Regal. 

Like having the covered pool on HAL so even on bad weather day you can be at the pool. Also pretty at night with the different lighting. 

The atrium set up on Regal is nice. I enjoyed hearing music  while having a drink at different levels of the ship. 

I don't typically do the shows so can't comment on that but LOVE BB King and the other music venues on HAL.  

I had a balcony room on Regal, which was a first time having a balcony. The room was fine but would have liked a comfortable chair to read in.  I typically have an inside cabin on HAL. The inside cabins have enough space for a couch which I really like. 

I found different spots to read and relax at on Regal but none as enjoyable as the Crows Nest on HAL where you get a great aft view and lots of comfortable seating. 

One of the great features of HAL is The Retreat area. You have to pay for it but well worth it. The cabana's get booked up quickly so reserve when you make your reservation. 

For the price I paid for my Regal cruise I have no complaints but I definitely prefer HAL.  I have a two week Australia to NZ planned on Noordam in 2023, which I'm very excited for!!

Enjoy what ever cruise you choose!

[FlaMariner]

3 Star Mariners who just got off the Princess Sky 3/28 (TA)....We are "one and done" with Princess and much better appreciation (even more so) for what Holland America Line offers us for traveling.....

 

Our top reasons:

 

1). Medallion pre check in was a mess.  It was not easy and a time waster to do what was required pre cruise.

2). Medallion app onboard....never worked except for being a key card.  They hype this but none of the stuff really works.  

3). Lack of retractable roof on lido pool area.....Several rainy days and the lido pool is useless..  Also, agree with you...Odd that it's movies all the time....Awkward.  Also, they don't encourage eating out there....

4). Cabin....We are balcony guarantee folks.  Princess cabins are sparse.  No short couch.  Only a straight back desk chair for furniture.  Shower is small w/curtain.  Closet is open and is visible.  

5). No traditional dining.  We made reservations (thru the hideous app) for same time MDR every night but had to always queue up and ask, beg, plead for a certain table so we could enjoy the great waiters.  They would never guarantee us that table.  

6). Lido buffet...Nowhere near the quality and prepared onsite food of HAL.  Silverware was not on the table and was sometimes a hunt.  You could not get your own iced tea/coffee/water.  Had to wait in line or wait for them to come to the table.  Fried eggs were under a heat lamp, for instance.  I could go on and on but missed the HAL Lido for sure.

7). The burgers were horrible.  Dive in is so much better quality.  Pizza was fine.  Neither of those venues on Princess allowed you  pre order on the app.

8). Entertainment.  It's all about the nightly show.  Nothing like music walk with the variety and the more intimate surroundings.  Tried the princess jazz club and it was the brunch type jazz music. Boring. 

9). Ship size....we were at 67% capacity and still could not get a table at the pizza joint if arrived at noon.  Elevator queues sometimes.  Cannot imagine being on the ship at capacity. 

10). Staff.  Crew was good on Princess but there is something more with the Holland crew.  They seemed to work better together and we find the HAL service with the HAL crew to be some sort of "secret sauce" that is difficult to describe. 

 

We enjoyed the cruise but realize Princess is not for us and will cling to the dark hulled 'dam ships.  There is more but that's enough.

 

We did enjoy the ports and the price.  We paid half what the similar TA on HAL is going for this spring.....But never again.

 

 

[hmorrow]

We're also 3 star mariners on HAL, soon to be 4. We also just returned from the trans atlantic on the Regal Princess.  Our first and LAST cruise with princess. I also didn't like the movies all day, at the pool.  Although he weather was so bad, you could hardly be outside. (not princess' fault- obviously)

Service was very good, menus, were totally, uninspired, and management was TERRIBLE.  Had to wait on line an hour, many times,  to have anything fixed onboard. 

Started with 2 hours to board in FLL. No place to sit, No Air conditioning, no water, no anything. One man fainted.  Not a good way to start.

Why would I go back on Princess, when I have status on HAL, Royal and Celebrity?

[ModMs]

What everyone said about Princess is sadly so, so true.  We also said we were done with Princess on our very last cruise in 2015.  We haven't wanted to cruise until now because of it. My impression is that we are really going to like HA -- anyway, we hope so. 

[*Miss G*]

I am in the middle of refining my summary of HAL vs Princess after taking our first cruise with them last month.  I will post that within the next few days.  The Reader’s Digest version is that I found the Princess ship to be very inward-focused while the HAL ships are very outward-focused.  Princess’ Main Dining Room experience was a complete disaster, as well as their non-existent internet and Medallion program.  The majority of the crew were excellent but many were a lot less customer service oriented than HAL’s crew.  I’ve learned never to say never (someone asked me what I thought of Florida after my first visit and my response was “It’s nice but I wouldn’t want to live there.”  (Guess what happened.)) but it’s not likely I will sail with them again.  

 

Here is a link to the thread which was never Live.  😂

 

 

[iancal]

Our experience is that service is sometimes inconsistent across all lines.

 

We do not see any appreciable difference between the level of service or friendliness between HAL, Celebrity, or Princess.   All the same to us.   Perhaps we are missing something.

 

 This could be because we are not married to any one cruise line.  We have had first rate service on all three with rare exceptions.

Edited April 10, 2022 by iancal

[ModMs]

We have been trying to book a cruise on the HAL website, but having a lot of trouble with the website itself (won't go into all the problems). Needless to say, I was unable to book on line so called to book over the phone this a.m. The agent told me HAL wasn't letting her do further bookings on the particular cruise as they were working on the itinerary and that it had to do with Trieste, etc.  She advised that I wait a couple of days.  Since I am also having problems with logging in (have a Mariner number and password is correct) and she wasn't able to help me with that, we are now considering another cruise line -- but we really like the itinerary on the cruise (Rome, Greece, ending in Venice).  Have concerns about HAL's management since their website never seems to work properly.  Is this par for HAL or does everything eventually work out? Any advice or comments would be appreciated.

[Mary229]

@ModMs. The easiest thing might be to click the contact me form and have a HAL Personal Consultant work with you.   Many rave about their level of service  

[Cruise Suzy]

@ModMs Did you try another browser? If I want to check on particular staterooms, I have to use Chrome. Everything else I can access in Edge.

[Aquahound]

On 4/9/2022 at 3:34 PM, ModMs said:

Hi Cruisers: We've done seven cruises with Princess, but just don't care for movies on deck all day. Considering sailing with HAL this summer. If someone has sailed on both, can you let us know of any significant differences between the two. For example, we like having access to coffee/tea on deck -- does HAL do the same? Any replies will be appreciated. Thanks so much.

 

 

 

Simply put...

 

Princess for the better entertainment.

 

HAL for the better staterooms.  

[SetAnOpenCourse]

Some of HAL’s ships have fabulous outdoor promenade decks.  Some Princess ship have good ones, but not the steamer chairs.  I don’t like the outside  movie screen going throughout the day but for me that area is somewhat avoidable if the ship has one of these outdoor promenades.  Then again on HAL one could also find the music in the pool area disagreeable.  It comes down to the design of the ship for me.

[kangforpres]

This issue is always debated on CC. Because both lines are similar and cater to the same demographic. Although both market to different demographics in attempts to widen their market share.

 

What stands out to me for HAL is Service. All around the ship, Cabin Stewards, MDR Stewards, Bar Staff, Front Desk staff (some of the most patient people on Earth) and even Casino staff.

 

The Food is slightly better and more diverse on HAL. Main Stage entertainment better on Princess, Musical entertainment better on HAL.

 

-Paul

 

 

[GulfShoresCruiser]

14 hours ago, ModMs said:

The agent told me HAL wasn't letting her do further bookings on the particular cruise as they were working on the itinerary and that it had to do with Trieste, etc.

 

I'd consider this a good thing...They are adjusting their itinerary before adding more bookings so folks will know what they are buying.....Changes with ports do certainly happen before sailing and during sailings but it's good to know they are holding off on bookings until the new itinerary is entered. 

 

Just got off Princess and they kept telling us our cruise would include a stop in Casablanca but we knew that was not going to happen (Covid).  They waited until after we re-boarded from the port right before Casablanca to tell us of the change and they had tours available to buy in the new port 5 minutes later!  

 

Also, I'll take a slow HAL website over the nightmare we endured w/Princess and their medallion app that does not work but is hyped like it's the second coming. 

 

HAL is worth it all, in our experience.......

[zgscl]

On 4/11/2022 at 6:11 PM, ModMs said:

We have been trying to book a cruise on the HAL website, but having a lot of trouble with the website itself (won't go into all the problems). Needless to say, I was unable to book on line so called to book over the phone this a.m. The agent told me HAL wasn't letting her do further bookings on the particular cruise as they were working on the itinerary and that it had to do with Trieste, etc.  She advised that I wait a couple of days.  Since I am also having problems with logging in (have a Mariner number and password is correct) and she wasn't able to help me with that, we are now considering another cruise line -- but we really like the itinerary on the cruise (Rome, Greece, ending in Venice).  Have concerns about HAL's management since their website never seems to work properly.  Is this par for HAL or does everything eventually work out? Any advice or comments would be appreciated.

Their website and IT have always sucked and are marginally functional at best. That being said they are well worth putting up with it. Eventually you will be able to book online or by phone and from there things should get better. HAL excels in their itineraries particularly once you get longer than 7 days. The crew is outstanding onboard. Entertainment often focuses around enrichment with great talks, cooking demos, etc.  Music walk concept is fantastic particularly on the newer ships. Hopefully they get the itinerary sorted out and you will be able to book soon. I promise they are worth the wait. 

[Hlitner]

We are 5* on HAL and long time Elite on Princess.  Both are decent mass market lines with their pros and cons that do vary by class of their ships.  Princess has an edge on entertainment and we like their longer hours in the various dining venues.  HAL has nothing to compare with the 24/7 International Cafe on Princess.  We find food quality on both lines to be somewhat underwhelming.

 

Hank