HAL compared to other lines?

[petuniaflower]

Looking at what seems to be an incredible deal we are looking at HAL for the first time.. on the Nieuw Statendam for a Carib itinerary.  We have been on RC, MSC, Disney, NCL and Carnival and really enjoy them all but love Carnival and MSC..we have 2 teens and we're into shows/comedy/watching action at the pool etc.  How does HAL compare to other lines?

[RuthC]

If you love Carnival and MSC, and enjoy Royal Caribbean, and NCL, plus have two teens, then HAL is likely not for you. 

HAL is relaxed, much quieter that those lines. The food is good---sometimes excellent. Entertainment is poor, at best. There are few activities during the day; sea days may have a lecturer, and there are trivia games. 
The cabins are generally larger than comparable cabins on other lines, with very comfortable beds. Service is excellent. The ships are kept very clean. 

[petuniaflower]

Thank you..fwiw we are not drinkers and havent been to 2 ports that this itin is going to which also peaked interest with the low price..on sea days we like some family/pool time, like I said shows etc, and sometimes the kids will go to the teen club.  

[robotpony]

8 minutes ago, RuthC said:

Entertainment is poor, at best.

 

The entertainment is definitely a matter of taste!

 

The entertainment focuses on live music, dance, BBC Earth, Comedians, learning talks, and trivia/bingo. For us, the music can be fantastic or mediocre (depending on the band), but when it's good it can be very good. There are 4-5 different musical groups (rock, blues/R&B, strings, and a few types of piano bars).

 

My partner and her best friend are both dancers and highly recommend the HA dance troupe (on the cruises we've been on at least). I can say that even I was entertained by the programs, and have seen a few multiple times. Production quality on the larger class ships can be fantastic, if you like dance at all.

 

My favourite things (other than the music) are the various talks and BBC Earth/string quartet presentations, as I'm a bit of a nerd. As a musician, I also enjoy BB King's and the Rolling Stone room, as well as the "duelling" pianos, of course depending on the artists. On our last cruise, the Rolling Stone Room band was absolutely fantastic (and the previous one, BB Kings was especially great). Even in 14 days, we did not get bored of the music or talks.

 

The bingo and trivia are fun, but pretty low key. We like to read, relax, and wander around ports as well (so some downtime if fine for us). I can imagine some would prefer the larger stage and game shows.

[Destiny0315]

Like anything in life a cruise holiday is what you make of it and everybody has there own things that they enjoy or do not enjoy and many will tell you on here those things about every cruise line. If it's an incredible deal then that may be enough reason alone to go for it and try it out. 

[petuniaflower]

Yes, thats usually our thinking-we're not picky people by any means.  I wondered more so about if there were things like some action in the afternoon by the pool/ comedy show for under 18/shows aside from musical type in the evening (ie the BBC earth one sounds cool).

[Destiny0315]

Check out this current thread in this forum...richwmn Goes around the world in a daze...for details on a cruise on the HAL Zuiderdam in the Caribbean right now.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Destiny0315

[jimbob22]

we've done the other two pinnacle class ships, and we have two teens, but ours are sort of lazy and content in general.  Hal does not do a ton of comedy.  And there's not a lot of action by the pool, but they do now play music by the pool.  We did quite a bit of trivia, but there are no prizes (it was often pretty hard trivia).  They do have a nice room where they have tons of puzzles and board games.  If your teens really need the staff to keep them fully entertained, then it's not for you.  Overall, we liked it. In the last 6 weeks we did Mardi Gras and Rotterdam, and I liked Rotterdam a lot better mostly b/c I really like a good lido and did not like how Carnival has made the mdr very mediocre.  Hal does not have big chicken or blue iguana, but Dive In burgers is really good, and the food overall was way better.  Our mdr dining experience on Hal were considerably better than on Mardi Gras (Hal has nearly all the mdr entrees on the lido too). 

 

There is a teen club but I'm not sure how organized it is.  There are no flowriders, waterslides, roller coasters, ropes courses, or arcades (but I think teen club has video games).  So if your teens need these things, it may not be for them.  

 

As others mentioned: there is quite a bit of live music (classic rock from 60s-80s at rolling stone), the theater shows are dance-oriented, some are similar to national geographic type shows with live musicians playing, so they are sort of 'adultish', but many teens still enjoy them.  Overall it's probably a somewhat more 'adultish' cruise experience than they are used to.  

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by jimbob22

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, petuniaflower said:

Yes, thats usually our thinking-we're not picky people by any means.  I wondered more so about if there were things like some action in the afternoon by the pool/ comedy show for under 18/shows aside from musical type in the evening (ie the BBC earth one sounds cool).

The major action at the pool is watching fellow passengers (including me) nap.  As to BBC Earth, just understand it is watching a BBC documentary (similar to what you can find on TV) on a move screen.  This is the main entertainment during some evenings.

 

Hank

[petuniaflower]

12 hours ago, Hlitner said:

The major action at the pool is watching fellow passengers (including me) nap.  As to BBC Earth, just understand it is watching a BBC documentary (similar to what you can find on TV) on a move screen.  This is the main entertainment during some evenings.

 

Hank

Ok thanks, so no entertainment by the pool like the belly flop comp etc?

[jimbob22]

54 minutes ago, petuniaflower said:

Ok thanks, so no entertainment by the pool like the belly flop comp etc?

correct, no belly flop, no hairy chest, no hairy leg contest.  So if you/your teens were really into that on prior cruises, you'd possibly not like Hal.  We always find the main pool scene kind of loud and mostly dodged that stuff, so Hal works fine for us.  Hal is not an amusement park at sea.  Our kids would do some of that stuff on carnival/ncl, but often not for that long (i.e. they did not spend 1-2 hours doing the waterslides).

 

I just wouldn't want you to take the Hal and then report back, 'oh we were bored, they didn't do enough stuff, etc.'.  It's always good to bring a backup book or kindle on any cruise imo.

 

I will say that our Rotterdam Christmas cruise was full, had many families, many with fairly young kids, and I'd guess that most came away happy with it.  

[lcand1923]

From what you’ve said, I don’t think HAL would work for your teens.  HOWEVER, how long is the cruise?  How many port days vs sea days?  Could you tolerate X number of days without “action” at the pool?  If so, AND the price is that good, I would give HAL a try.  

 

Entertainment other than music is not a “biggie” on HAL, but the food is good and the cabins are nice.  The vibe on HAL does not match what you have described as what you like, but you may find it is acceptable if the price is right.

[Hlitner]

3 hours ago, petuniaflower said:

Ok thanks, so no entertainment by the pool like the belly flop comp etc?

ROFL, we have never seen that on HAL (and hope to never see it).  No belly flops, hairy legs, diving for spoons, etc.   I think, for the most part, we would sum up HAL with the word "sedate."  The line has always been somewhat low key and I do think this does best suits a majority of the clientele (including moi).  Nobody aboard would confuse HAL with RCI or Carnival.  Traditionally it has been a line with an amazing crew and decent cuisine.  But these days, based on multiple posts here on CC, it sounds like the cuisine has suffered from cutbacks and the crew might be hurting from understaffing.

 

Hank

[petuniaflower]

Thanks all!  And would the Statendam and Amsterdam generally offer the same stuff?

[terrydtx]

We did a 14 night cruise of Greece and Croatia on the Oosterdam last August and were very disappointed in the main theater entertainment. The shows were mostly dancers and too many BBC Earth films, not one comedian or magician in 14 nights. I think they design the shows to put passengers to sleep early. I think your teens would be bored to death. We did find the MDR food to be very good but on a 14 night cruise they repeated the same 7 day menu for the second 7 nights which was also boring. We were is a Signature Suite and for the cost it was extremely nice and had been refurbished in 2019. Keep in mind that on HAL a Signature Suite is a suite in name only, other than a nice larger cabin and balcony there are no suite amenities like Celebrity, MSC suites or even upper RCL suites.

[Donald]

Some might describe HAL’s onboard ambience as SedateD.

[2LoveBikes]

Something that your teens may enjoy is the full-size basketball court above deck 10.

The gym is also quite nice with fairly modern equipment.

[oaktreerb]

I have noticed that teens will find other teens and make their own fun, play board games, and just hang out and talk a lot!  Go for it.  They probably don’t need organized entertainment.  

[Mary229]

I am afraid if you go you will be back with a never again thread. I like HAL and for my two travel companions, sis and DH, it is their only cruise line.  If I were sailing in the Caribbean without them HAL would not be my choice.  

[TexasBrit]

We, in our mid to late 70s, were tempted by a "good deal" on NS in the S. Caribbean in December, and we had not been to those islands before so we booked it, out first HAL cruise.

 

It turned out to be the least enjoyable cruise we have ever been on. Very little to do during the day on sea days, and just the Music Walk in the evenings. Basically sitting and listening to the different genres one at a time. There were no production shows, they used the beautiful theatre for a comedian. We are not fans of the 3rd rate comedians that perform on cruise ships so didn't go, but heard mixed reviews. One of the other reasons we went was that we had always heard that HAL had excellent food and service, better than the other popular lines. However the food was mediocre in all the venues, with just a few exceptions, and the service was very substandard everywhere.

Several people we met who were previous HAL guests told us that things used to be much better.

 

The cabin was clean and in good condition, and the attendant did a very job of cleaning and service.

 

Reading some other reviews of this particular cruise and one or two others of different ships, it seems that our experience was not unique.

 

Very disappointing, and so for us no more HAL cruises.

[REOVA]

I would think if you have a good deal, you havent sailed HALand 2 ports that you haven't been too, then book it. We cruise for the ports. (We've even cruised CCL which we hate 🤪) The Pinnacle Class ships are larger and offer more dining and music venues (even if you don't drink) and are the newest ships for HAL. For that reason, I would say book it, try something different and enjoy yourselves. 

 

That being said, we call HAL the "geriatric" cruise line (we fall in that demographic) and we love the older ships and crusing the oceans and visiting ports. We like to relax onboard and going to shows. Unfortunately the shows and entertainment repeat across HAL ships so if you've seen them once, there isnt much else to watch. We used to travel with a teenager and she never had a problem finding something to do (and probably would book HAL on her own). But if it wasn't a Pinnacle Class ship, I would say not a good fit for you. 

 

So enjoy a new ship, the ports you haven't been to and the short cruise. Then you can compare your experience since you will never know what it will actually be based on the varied opinions that you will get here. Many of us have been crusing HAL for years and don't like the changes (some do) so to have a fresh perspective may be nice. Then you can come back and opine on your pros and cons so others will know. 😁

[jimbob22]

13 hours ago, TexasBrit said:

There were no production shows, they used the beautiful theatre for a comedian. We are not fans of the 3rd rate comedians that perform on cruise ships so didn't go, but heard mixed reviews. One of the other reasons we went was that we had always heard that HAL had excellent food and service, better than the other popular lines. However the food was mediocre in all the venues, with just a few exceptions, and the service was very substandard everywhere.

Several people we met who were previous HAL guests told us that things used to be much better.

 

Just to clarify, your sailing did not have 3 or 4 dance shows in the main theater?  I'm just wondering if something was going on on NS (maybe one or two of the 6 dancers were sick?) b/c Rotterdam and K-dam seem to have been operating as normal.  

 

Bummer about the food, I guess Rotterdam got the good tenderloin and lambchops. I ate quite well on Rotterdam.

 

I do agree wrt to comedians.  Tbh, in the current era, I think they're under such tight reign that it's very hard for them to generate huge laughs.  The comedian on Rotterdam tried her best, but it was not an easy gig.  

[albingirl]

We've been on a number of cruiselines, NCL, Carnival, Celebrity, HAL, and have noticed that teens will do their own thing, no matter what is offered.  There are plenty of people here who say HAL is for old geezers and too sedate, but we found, with our kids, they find plenty to do on their own.  Some kids don't need an organzied entertainment schedule, and mine sure didn't, and you'll do just fine.  Just depends on their personalities.

[petuniaflower]

Sorry more questions..is there an arcade?  We often will stop in for half hour and play air hockey etc as a family.

 

And is there a list of movies currently playing?

And where can I find a recent daily?

How many times is the comedian on for a week cruise, assuming the under 18s can go?

Edited January 3, 2023 by petuniaflower

[jimbob22]

4 minutes ago, petuniaflower said:

Sorry one more question..is there an arcade?  We often will stop in for half hour and play air hockey etc as a family.

I'm pretty certain there's no arcade.