Crown princess versus Westerdam for NZ

[Sallyandtex]

Hi, We had to cancel a HAL cruise to Japan for this year due to illness.

Looking closer to home things have gone up in price dramatically, and the ships don't seem to do many Sydney round trips.

We liked the size and feel of Westerdam,  but we would have to get a flight 1 way to or from Auckland.

Friends gave warned us of the uncomfortable beds and bad food, and crowds on Princess ships that are large.(crown and royal seem to be the ones that go to NZ)

Is this unfounded?

Princess have more offerings Sydney return.

P.s not wanting fabulous shows but like trivia and other smaller crowd activities 

We would try out of school holidays like end of Jan or February or March.

Thanks

[Ozwoody]

Hi @Sallyandtex

 

I have not sailed on Westerdam, however I have travelled on three different lines.

Mostly on Princess, and have found no problems with Princess beds, food, or crowding.

 

Maybe your friends sailed during a holiday period? and had a bad experience.

 

Compared to the other lines we sailed on Princess was equal or better.

 

We have around 400 days sailing with Princess and never felt crowded.

Food has always been very good, but like any food establishment you can get an odd meal that your not fond off, but we have found it rare.

 

I would give it a go and make up your own mind up as to the feel of Princess cruising.

 

Regards

John

 

 

Edited June 23 by Ozwoody

[Cbtours]

23 minutes ago, Sallyandtex said:

Hi, We had to cancel a HAL cruise to Japan for this year due to illness.

Looking closer to home things have gone up in price dramatically, and the ships don't seem to do many Sydney round trips.

We liked the size and feel of Westerdam,  but we would have to get a flight 1 way to or from Auckland.

Friends gave warned us of the uncomfortable beds and bad food, and crowds on Princess ships that are large.(crown and royal seem to be the ones that go to NZ)

Is this unfounded?

Princess have more offerings Sydney return.

P.s not wanting fabulous shows but like trivia and other smaller crowd activities 

We would try out of school holidays like end of Jan or February or March.

Thanks

We have had 21 cruises with princess and only one with another line. We live princess and have had no complaints with beds, food or crowds including our first ever cruise was Princess cruise at Christmas which we absolutely loved and it got us hooked for life 😁

[Sallyandtex]

Thankyou!

Any preference Crown or Royal?

We like a promenade walk for exercise

[Cbtours]

Just now, Sallyandtex said:

Thankyou!

Any preference Crown or Royal?

We like a promenade walk for exercise

Actually have not been in either of those yet. We always stuck to the smaller ones, dawn, sun, ruby, coral, then went on the Grand. We always said we wouldn’t want bigger, but chose the majestic for Alaskan cruise last year. Loved it. Now we’re planning to cruise in the sky after our UK trip next June.

 

[arxcards]

We could go with either, and our choice would be based on the convenience of the itinerary, then price.

- Westerdam is smaller and quieter, and more comfortable in the public areas.

- Most Westerdam cruises will turnaround in Sydney at White Bay - perhaps less convenient than OPT, but you do cruise under the bridge.

- Crown will be busier than Westerdam, especially during the holidays. Activities attract crowds, but that includes HAL's cooking demos.

- Depending on cabin type, I find Princess cabins almost as comfortable as HAL. For a mini, I prefer Princess' current spec.

- Food varies from cruise to cruise across both lines, and I find Princess food to be generally a match for HAL. In my opinion, Westerdam has a better buffet, Princess is better with International Cafe, deck pizza & burgers. I prefer Princess MDR, slightly.

- Crown & Pinnacle Grill are a near match on quality, but Pinnacle Grill has a bit more choice.

- Crown Princess is $AU.

 

Royal is bigger. We have cruised on Majestic, and prefer the grand class in preference. Not a good & bad thing, just different. The promenade is much better on Crown, although there is a bit of up and around to get around the bow.

[Sallyandtex]

14 minutes ago, arxcards said:

We could go with either, and our choice would be based on the convenience of the itinerary, then price.

- Westerdam is smaller and quieter, and more comfortable in the public areas.

- Most Westerdam cruises will turnaround in Sydney at White Bay - perhaps less convenient than OPT, but you do cruise under the bridge.

- Crown will be busier than Westerdam, especially during the holidays. Activities attract crowds, but that includes HAL's cooking demos.

- Depending on cabin type, I find Princess cabins almost as comfortable as HAL. For a mini, I prefer Princess' current spec.

- Food varies from cruise to cruise across both lines, and I find Princess food to be generally a match for HAL. In my opinion, Westerdam has a better buffet, Princess is better with International Cafe, deck pizza & burgers. I prefer Princess MDR, slightly.

- Crown & Pinnacle Grill are a near match on quality, but Pinnacle Grill has a bit more choice.

- Crown Princess is $AU.

 

Royal is bigger. We have cruised on Majestic, and prefer the grand class in preference. Not a good & bad thing, just different. The promenade is much better on Crown, although there is a bit of up and around to get around the bow.

Mmm thankyou. One of our company is a vegetarian.  I was telling her about the Westrdam buffet how there are lots of healthy choices, as many of the other boats we have been on have loads of meat and very poor vegetable dishes.

In terms of getting a seat at shows, dining rooms, is there any difference with either of the princess ships?  We liked on the Westeram if there was no tables immediately,  they gave us a buzzer and we could sit in the nearby bar and have a drink listen to the live quartet.  Was never much of a wait.

[Galesa]

Done 3 with HAL, 1 with Princess. Far from perfect but for me HAL by a mile. Less crowds. Feels much less than frenetic than our Majestic cruise and Noordam was full. Even when full you could still finf a cosy intimate are.

 

Great food on HAL. Love the Rolling Stones bar too. Other entertainment not in same class as Princess. 

 

Note: my idea of a good cruise may be different to yours.

[arxcards]

2 minutes ago, Sallyandtex said:

Mmm thankyou. One of our company is a vegetarian.  I was telling her about the Westrdam buffet how there are lots of healthy choices, as many of the other boats we have been on have loads of meat and very poor vegetable dishes.

In terms of getting a seat at shows, dining rooms, is there any difference with either of the princess ships?  We liked on the Westeram if there was no tables immediately,  they gave us a buzzer and we could sit in the nearby bar and have a drink listen to the live quartet.  Was never much of a wait.

Princess has added a few vegan options. I haven't taken much note though, and certainly can't make a current comparison with what Westerdam is offering.

Seats at shows - if I really want to see it, I get there early to get a good seat. Mostly, we don't bother with shows.

Seats at dinner. Princess are switching to 3 version dining in September. You can prebook traditional dining (early late for all of cruise). You can pre-book casual dining via the app, then vary your plans and adjust your bookings for each day once aboard. You can also do walk-up dining. They have separate dining rooms for each. Apart from a day when the booking system crashed, we have never had to wait for a seat on Princess. We have only ever had buzzers on P&O and Carnival. Up till now, we have rarely done a walk-up dinner on Princess, so it will be interesting to see how it works.

[Sallyandtex]

2 minutes ago, arxcards said:

Princess has added a few vegan options. I haven't taken much note though, and certainly can't make a current comparison with what Westerdam is offering.

Seats at shows - if I really want to see it, I get there early to get a good seat. Mostly, we don't bother with shows.

Seats at dinner. Princess are switching to 3 version dining in September. You can prebook traditional dining (early late for all of cruise). You can pre-book casual dining via the app, then vary your plans and adjust your bookings for each day once aboard. You can also do walk-up dining. They have separate dining rooms for each. Apart from a day when the booking system crashed, we have never had to wait for a seat on Princess. We have only ever had buzzers on P&O and Carnival. Up till now, we have rarely done a walk-up dinner on Princess, so it will be interesting to see how it works.

Thanks I really appreciate the info. 

So in a nut shell considering if the cabin availability,  itinerany and price were equal,  you think the Royal might be best as there won't be long waits and big crowds?

Or just pick either?

We wouldn't get any perks that many others do like skipping lines or free stuff

[cruiser3775]

I did a NZ cruise with HAL on Noordam, and enjoyed it greatly.   The ship was small enough to feel more personal, and I liked the food and drinks choices better than Princess. I also liked the choice of port visits, which were more varied than those offered by Princess.

[arxcards]

2 minutes ago, Sallyandtex said:

Thanks I really appreciate the info. 

So in a nut shell considering if the cabin availability,  itinerany and price were equal,  you think the Royal might be best as there won't be long waits and big crowds?

Or just pick either?

We wouldn't get any perks that many others do like skipping lines or free stuff

If the price and itinerary were equal, I would likely go with Westerdam.

As for Crown vs Royal, personally I would like to get one on Royal before she departs at the end of this season, but then we do have two cruises booked on Crown. I don't think the two ships are so much good & bad, just different.

[Sallyandtex]

The Royal is one less day/port by the look of next season.

 

Hi cruiser3775 yes I really liked the Westerdam compared to Royal carribean and p and o. We wish they had a syd return trip , only 1 is over Xmas

[Blackduck59]

I know the circumstances are totally different for me. We chose Westerdam for our down under adventure. For us a "round trip" wasn't an issue, there were flights involved for us either way. In the grand scheme of things a flight from Sydney or Melbourne to Auckland really isn't that far, or expensive. There will also be port stops on the one way voyage not on the "return" voyage.

Choose the cruise for the itineray, not whether it is a return voyage. Whichever choice you make I bid you fair winds and a trailing sea.

[Sparky74]

This thread has piqued my interest as we are considering cruising on BOTH the Westerdam AND the Crown Princess next year. 😱

 

We've only cruised once with HAL so far (Alaska in 2022) and thoroughly enjoyed it. We sailed with Princess three times so far and enjoyed those cruises also. 
 

This doesn’t help answer your question, though. 🤷‍♂️

[arxcards]

26 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

This thread has piqued my interest as we are considering cruising on BOTH the Westerdam AND the Crown Princess next year. 😱

 

We've only cruised once with HAL so far (Alaska in 2022) and thoroughly enjoyed it. We sailed with Princess three times so far and enjoyed those cruises also. 
 

This doesn’t help answer your question, though. 🤷‍♂️

Easy solution that you have chosen which is great advice. Do both.

[cruiser3775]

4 hours ago, Sallyandtex said:

We wish they had a syd return trip

On the other hand, the flight to or from Auckland will save you two days of sea travel out of sight of land.  You could use those two days to do some sightseeing from Auckland. There are some great places to visit.  I got off in Auckland, stayed overnight, then took the train from Auckland to Wellington. It's a full day trip through amazing scenery. Then I spend two nights in Wellington and flew home to Australia from there.

[Sparky74]

2 hours ago, arxcards said:

Easy solution that you have chosen which is great advice. Do both.

If only it was that easy. 🤣

[lyndarra]

I have done six or seven cruises on HAL, including Westerdam (Sydney-Singapore) and all have been great. Beds are very comfy with extra large pillows. Bathrooms have been roomy with shower over bath. Excellent choice of food in Lido, no worries if vegetarian. MDR food was excellent. HAL don't do the big production shows any more which suits me fine. There is plenty of live music and fun trivia. As previouly mentioned spend a coup[le of days pre or post cruise. My last NZ cruise, which was a few weeks before COVID shut down, we went a week early and rented a car and, staying in B&Bs, toured lots of interesting places.

Westerdam is a Goldilocks size - not too big, not too small.🙂

[Porky55]

On 6/23/2024 at 1:07 PM, Sallyandtex said:

Thanks I really appreciate the info. 

So in a nut shell considering if the cabin availability,  itinerany and price were equal,  you think the Royal might be best as there won't be long waits and big crowds?

Or just pick either?

We wouldn't get any perks that many others do like skipping lines or free stuff

If you like a promenade deck it's Crown … Royal doesn't have one at all. Just book a suite ( full) or Reserve Class and some perks are included.
 

Suggest you spend some time on the Princess website looking at deckplans, ship sizes, dining rooms, inclusions and itineraries to help make your personal decision.
 

We have been on both HAL and Princess and don't think there is much difference between them. 

Edited Wednesday at 05:14 AM by Porky55