Regal Princess vs HAL Nieuw Statendam

[brovol]

looking to book next April, and both are out of Ft Lauderdale.  We have sailed both HAL and Princess many times, and really have enjoyed each; including our Sky Princess cruise this past November. Love the Princess Plus and medallion technology on Princess, and the internet was incredibly good, allowing me to stream live football games perfectly.  The Regal is a sister ship, and therefore would be a similar experience.  The Statendam looks like a perfect ship for my wife and me.  The music venues and entertainment options on that ship are right in our wheelhouse, and everything else I have been reading excites me about the Statendam.  Would likely book either a balcony or low suite on either of the ships.  I'm worried that the internet on the Statendam will suck, which would be a drag, both with respect to what I do online personally, as well as professionally, as I stay connected with my staff while on vacation.  Princess is more of a know quantity to us as we sailed so recently on the Sky, and we have always really enjoyed our Princess cruises, but the Statendam looks perfect, with the exception of the internet.  Another smaller factor is the ship gym.  I like to start the morning with a workout, and would like to be able to grab an elliptical without much wait.

 

Any thoughts or insight would be appreciated; particularly from those who have sailed the Statendam, and are familiar with the quality of the streaming internet, as well as the gym.

[FlaMariner]

I can speak to the gym.....and can compare it to having just gotten off the Sky.  Both gyms are very similar.  Same kind of new, clean, shiny equipment.  Never had an issue getting a treadmill, elliptical or using the weight machines.  I like the "front of the ship" location on the Nieuw Statendam but that's about it as far as differences that I experienced.  

 

As far as the internet, we were on the Sky last month (TA) and the internet was non-existent and everyone on the ship was refunded their internet fee....because it was not there. 

 

We were on the Nieuw Statendam in 2019 (TA) and Rotterdam in 2021 (her sister and also a TA) and had no problems w/internet except slow from time to time.  

 

The Nieuw Statendam (& her sisters the Rotterdam & Koningsdam) is a beautiful ship and has a great layout.  I took for granted the ships complete walk around promenade deck, the retractable lido pool roof (for inclement weather), the awesome lido buffet, the dive in burgers, music walk, traditional dining, wine bottle package, internet, app that you can order burgers and pizza instead of standing in line, the great HAL crew, the lower capacity ship and many other things until we cruised on the Sky.

 

We will no longer take HAL for granted after cruising Princess Sky. 

[bmc alabama]

Just to pose a different viewpoint concerning the Regal.  We sailed her twice in 2019 and it was the best internet experience that we've ever had on a ship.  

 

Not sure what was going on with the Sky.  I thought I had read it had changed providers?

[Lady Arwen]

The Pinnacle class ships with HAL are outstanding.  Our first cruise of this class was Koningsdam and then Nieuw Statendam.  Internet was spot on most of the time with only occasional blips.  Really not an issue.  Royal class ships are very nice, too.  I would lean towards HAL.

[*Miss G*]

I echo everything @FlaMarinersays as I was on the same Sky TA.  Had to raise my eyebrows when you wrote “the internet was incredibly good”.  It was not.

 

We sailed the Nieuw Amsterdam in December and have also sailed the Koningsdam a few times.  In October we are booked on the Rotterdam so you could say we love the Pinnacle-class ships.  One thing I did note about the Sky was that it doesn’t cut through the waves as well as the Nieuw Amsterdam.  Plus we LOVE the walk-in glass showers and everything else FlaMariner mentioned.  We also prefer HAL’s ability to communicate as well as the handling of dinner reservations, larger balconies, and interactive TV’s which work and have better programming.

[bmc alabama]

2 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

I echo everything @FlaMarinersays as I was on the same Sky TA.  Had to raise my eyebrows when you wrote “the internet was incredibly good”.  It was not.

 

We sailed the Nieuw Amsterdam in December and have also sailed the Koningsdam a few times.  In October we are booked on the Rotterdam so you could say we love the Pinnacle-class ships.  One thing I did note about the Sky was that it doesn’t cut through the waves as well as the Nieuw Amsterdam.  Plus we LOVE the walk-in glass showers and everything else FlaMariner mentioned.  We also prefer HAL’s ability to communicate as well as the handling of dinner reservations, larger balconies, and interactive TV’s which work and have better programming.

Note that I was talking about the Regal (which the poster was asking about), not the Sky...

[*Miss G*]

7 minutes ago, bmc alabama said:

Note that I was talking about the Regal (which the poster was asking about), not the Sky...

 

Yes, but I was responding to the OP, who stated the internet was great on the Sky.

[brovol]

12 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Yes, but I was responding to the OP, who stated the internet was great on the Sky.

We were on the sky this past November, and the internet was nothing short of incredible.  We were in the Caribbean, where princess low flying satellite system works very well. I am curious, were you sailing in Europe when you are on the sky? I think that would make a huge difference. I am confident that the princess ship internet will work quite well if we sail again in the Caribbean. I'm less confident that the Holland America ship will.

 

Tough choice. Both cruises have pros and cons for sure. Appreciate everyone's input.

[*Miss G*]

2 hours ago, brovol said:

We were on the sky this past November, and the internet was nothing short of incredible.  We were in the Caribbean, where princess low flying satellite system works very well. I am curious, were you sailing in Europe when you are on the sky? I think that would make a huge difference. I am confident that the princess ship internet will work quite well if we sail again in the Caribbean. I'm less confident that the Holland America ship will.

 

Tough choice. Both cruises have pros and cons for sure. Appreciate everyone's input.

 

Yes, we left out of Fort Lauderdale on March 12th on a TA.  The internet was excruciatingly slow in Fort Lauderdale and worked sporadically (but still excruciatingly slow) for three days.  (Note we didn’t leave port until 7:20pm.)  Over a week went by before it showed up again, but it was hit or miss and still excruciatingly slow.  A few hours of that and then it was gone, never to be seen again.  This was a 16 day transit and I would say I got about a half hour total of internet the whole time.  Lots of posts on this if you do a search.

[brovol]

3 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Yes, we left out of Fort Lauderdale on March 12th on a TA.  The internet was excruciatingly slow in Fort Lauderdale and worked sporadically (but still excruciatingly slow) for three days.  (Note we didn’t leave port until 7:20pm.)  Over a week went by before it showed up again, but it was hit or miss and still excruciatingly slow.  A few hours of that and then it was gone, never to be seen again.  This was a 16 day transit and I would say I got about a half hour total of internet the whole time.  Lots of posts on this if you do a search.

Thats terrible.  Wonder what the issue was. I was actually shocked at how good, fast and reliable it was in November.  Live streamed several football games from my ESPN app throughout the cruise, and without even a single slowdown. Ten times better internet than I have ever had on a ship, in over 30 cruises.  My wife and i were on the NCL Breakaway a couple weeks ago, and the streaming internet wasn't nearly as good as what we had on the Sky.

[FlaMariner]

Given all the drama, pain and suffering experienced by the lack of internet, I think that anyone taking a cruise should consider that it is possible that there may be little to no internet available....and have a contingency plan (or pills) to deal with it.

 

We chatted with one couple on the Sky "internet free TA"....They were getting off the ship two days early because of no internet and they said his job depended on the internet and this has just been a disaster.  They were, based on our conversation, having major internet withdrawal symptoms and needed high speed internet quickly or they were going to need a defibrillator.  

 

Seriously, internet may or may not work and you need to be able to cope with that. 

 

We would never cruise if our livelihood depended on the internet.  Stress.