A Cunard vs HAL Alaska Comparison

[Masticon]

 

My wife and I just came off the Queen Elizabeth (QE) from a 10 day cruise in Alaska for our 20th anniversary. Our only previous cruise was a 7 day Alaska cruise on Holland America’s (HAL) Eurodam for our 15th. Below is a comparison of the two.

 

TLDR
All things being equal, I’d easily take a HAL cruise over a Cunard cruise, though possibly not for the reasons you’d expect. The technology, entertainment, and food experience on HAL was far superior in almost every way. Meanwhile the Cunard experience only really shined as far as the room steward and port timings. I’d happily take another HAL cruise but would probably give another line a try before going back on Cunard unless the price was a mitigating factor.

 

BOOKING
We booked the 10 day QE cruise and decided to take the train up from Washington rather than trying to find parking in Vancouver. It looked like parking was either a nightmare or excessively expensive. The booking was a pretty solid deal at under $100/day for our full view balcony room. Five years ago we paid a similar rate and had originally booked a guaranteed oceanview on HAL before being upgraded. Cost is a significant factor for us, we’re not looking at a suite or any of the fancy amenities that come with the trip, we’re also not really looking at excursions as we are perfectly happy to wander around each town and have a coffee.

 

SEATTLE VS VANCOUVER
Vancouver had four ships departing the same day which meant they were processing over 10K passengers onto ships that day. Considering this the process was smooth and well executed with a lot of walking and waiting in line. All in all it took us about an hour from dropping off luggage to boarding with check in as well as security and customs. It was crowded and not particularly interesting but you’re in line to get onto a cruise so there’s an air of excitement. It was pretty clear as to where we should go and there were numerous people there directing you to the next step. Seattle was much more straightforward where we dropped off luggage and were on the ship in about 20 minutes.

 

Queen Elizabeth vs Eurodam
All things considered the ships were very similar in general layout with a big dining room in the back on the lower floors, shops, restaurants, casinos and such in between the MDR and the theater in the front. On the Lido deck was the similar back of the ship deck and bar with a pool and couple of hot tubs, followed by the buffet area, followed by the main pool deck, followed by the spa. Above this was a couple of bars and lounges as well as a games court area. Outside of the English versus Dutch theming, there wasn’t a significant difference between the two ships.

 

DRESS CODE
Considering this is Cunard and everyone talks about the dress code on Cunard we went out of our way to be sure we would be up to snuff. I had spent months putting together a tuxedo set with vests to match my wife’s gowns she had picked up. Considering I was in a Tux and my wife in a gown, we were by far among the best dressed on the ship. I would actually have considered us to be overdressed. Numerous people in the MDR were in button up shirts and jeans. The average man wore a light colored sports jacket or blazer and probably didn’t have a tie, the average lady had pants and a blouse. Tuxes and dresses were by far in the minority and gowns were essentially absent. While we would have been perfectly happy to just wear a button up shirt or blouse, this was not what we expected on Cunard. There were a small handful of people in tuxes and a few very nice dresses which were largely absent on HAL. I feel that if I were to travel on Cunard I most likely wouldn’t bring more than a vest or blazer and button up shirt and my wife would have been fine in any of her nice knee length dresses. The evening didn’t really feel in any way more elevated than the formal nights on HAL.

 

STATEROOM AND TECHNOLOGY
A cruise ship room is a cruise ship room unless it’s not. These were. The biggest difference was the presence of the kettle in the room on QE which got extensive use. You’ve got a bed which was fine but kept gapping between the two twins, tv, desk, and couch. Plugs were an issue on the QE in a way they weren’t on HAL as many of the plugs were European style rather than US style. We had to get an adapter that our room steward happily supplied and we had a power strip to meet our device charging needs. Cunard provided a free bottle of champagne rather than stocking the mini-fridge with an array of overpriced goods we didn’t need as we had to ask to have removed on the Eurodam. 
The stateroom attendant, Michael, was top notch, very quick and everything was put away, cleaned up, and restocked twice a day without fail. My wife kept saying we really don’t need them to tidy up the room but I figured it was a nice touch we never got at home. Any glass, spoon, or toiletry used was immediately replaced. 
While not an issue for a significant number of people, the TV was terrible leading me to one of the biggest complaints of the entire cruise. Technology just felt way behind what I’d consider acceptable everytime we tried to use it. The TV would glitch out the stream, didn’t have anything on demand, and didn’t even have a guide station. There were only about 15 channels that worked and weren’t playing music or the same ship based ads on repeat. We’re not huge TV people but enjoy throwing on a cooking show or HGTV when we’re relaxing after walking around town for three hours. There was very little to watch and you never had any idea when anything was going to be on. Additionally, we could never hear the ship announcements even when we were on the proper channel. This meant we couldn’t hear the commentary in Tracy Arm Fjord or Glacier Bay and oftentimes missed other announcements.

 

PASSENGERS
There were certainly more international passengers on the Cunard cruise than on HAL. We chatted with several Australian and British couples and Americans certainly were not the norm. There seemed to be a significant number of Asian families for whom English was clearly not their first language. The people we talked with were all delightful but it’s not like we had any problems with passengers on the HAL cruise.

 

DINING - MDR
To carry on the previous technological complaint, the cunard app was not particularly useful beyond a regular accounting of on ship expenditures and looking at the day's program and it lacked the ability to message one another than HAL’s app had.  There was the ability to book a table in the MDR–we chose not to have timed seatings–or join the queue for a ready table but it never actually seemed useful. We basically had to walk up and wait in line for a table regardless of which method we had used. The food was of similar quality between HAL and QM however Cunard offered some more interesting and international choices while HAL’s food choice felt fairly typical upscale American. HAL did have a decent selection of “always on” options such as caesar salad, soup, pasta, steak, or chicken but the choices felt otherwise similar.
One small issue we had was that the servers kept forgetting to come through to provide final chocolates leading to some truly extended dinners that weren’t necessarily intentional. I’m not sure if this was a training issue but it was something that happened multiple times, one of which we were finally encountered by the dining manager who was clearing out the area for a later seating which quickly got the issue rectified. We also felt that there was a lack of skill on the QM with a number of dropped dishes and seeing (but not hearing) servers getting a dressing down for screwing up. For those only familiar with American service etiquette, the British style was far more standoffish than we were used to or saw on HAL. The idea of being present but invisible was very prominent everywhere but the room steward. You didn’t have the feeling that servers were being friendly and personable, they were there to serve in the most colonial way possible. It wasn’t a problem but just a notable difference we felt pretty much everywhere on the ship.

 

DINING - LIDO
If there was a big failing of Cunard it came to the Lido and other included dining options. There’s really two threads into the problems here, choice and timing. I’ll tackle timing first as this one was the one that annoyed me most. The lido closed for breakfast at 10:30 reopening at noon which is when both the Golden Lion and Lido Grill open. This means that there isn’t any food available for an hour and a half before lunch. Similarly, lunch closes at 2:30 with only tea served from 3-5, however the Lido Grill is open during this time so that’s fine. The worst issue for me was that after exiting the 8pm shows in the theater, everything was closed until 10pm when the late night opened, having ended dinner service at 8:30. Now it is not like I went hungry but I always felt like I was working around their schedule instead of being able to be on my own. An early lunch before heading out for the day simply wasn’t an option. A mid-afternoon split dish in the pub wasn’t possible as they shut down at 2:30 as well. The grill closing at 5pm was a significant issue due to the incredibly limited lido buffet options for dinner. Followed by the choice of either staying up until 10 to have a late desert by killing over an hour waiting for the buffet to reopen was just terrible timing. None of these timing issues were a problem on HAL, where it always felt that the buffet was open and had numerous choices.
Choice was my other issue on the lido. The ship has two parallel main buffets with a shared drink area in the middle where the pizzeria was (only open during lunch and dinner times) which is where the late night and tea were served. However, these two long buffets were identical during breakfast (other than one side had congee at breakfast and the other did not) and lunch service, and one side was closed for specialty dining in the evening. All of this space offering identical food meant the dinner selection felt incredibly limited. Now the quality was always fine but with a total of nine stations with two taken up by the salad bar, one by sushi, one by cold cut meats, one by cheeses, one by bread, and one by pastries/deserts meant there were really only two hot food stations at meals, plus the pizzeria. One of them had some kind of stirfry/soup custom to order (where they did omelets in the morning) and one had a carving station. There was always beef, chicken, curry, and a handful of vegetable dishes. But it really felt like a minimalistic buffet considering the overall space they had. 
It also may have been the British style but the idea of regular standbys was once again absent. With the grill closed at dinner you couldn’t have a fall back of a hamburger, hot dog, french fries, or perhaps some kind of roast or fried chicken unless that was at the carving station. Even white rice wasn’t regularly available. The carving station usually had pork loin but occasionally had a turkey, chicken, or striploin which was always acceptable but never good. Considering the space available having more non-rotating staples on one side seems like it would have been a good idea. What was available at breakfast never changed at all except for the flavor of smoothie and cinnamon twists shifting to hazelnut twists or lemon donuts shifting to chocolate donuts. While none of the food was bad, it certainly didn’t have the feeling of a plentiful spread and started to feel pretty repetitive by the third or fourth breakfast. 
One of our dining tablemates noted that the overall the gap between the Lido experience and the MDR experience was much larger than any other line they had been on but considering that dinner tended to be a two hour experience, we weren’t necessarily driven to head there for lunch. Food in the MDR seemed to be very well prepared while the lido just felt more haphazard. Having the pub atmosphere available was a great option but their menu was only six items and after a couple of visits we didn’t ever really feel the need to return considering the options at the Lido grill allowed for more customization.

 

ENTERTAINMENT
While it would be easy to discard our concerns about entertainment as not being a fit for cruises aimed at older passengers, this was not really the issue. While the performers were clearly all very talented musicians, I don’t feel like their performances were particularly impressive. The flutist played lots of great flute music, the broadway singers sang a strange array that my wife only recognized one out of seven of. I went alone to one of the piano shows which left me thinking that he plays quite well but I ended up leaving after a few songs because there was little more than that going on and the comedian was clearly aiming for a much older, much Trumpier audience than we were interested in. Most of the rest of the onboard activities consisted of a handful of lounge singers. I never did make it to the Trad/Folk who we heard was quite good and the string trio playing in the atrium was always nice but there was never much else we sought out to engage with. HAL offered a kitchen tour, cooking classes, and a bit more lively action with dueling pianos and a blues band. Everytime we walked by the queens ballroom on the QE it very specifically felt not for us other than watching the procession for tea one day which was amusing but not something we felt we needed to participate in. We’re not much for trivia or other bar games which was the only real entertainment outside of the musicians on the ship so we didn’t engage much in any of that.

 

ITINERARY
The overall itinerary on Cunard was much better than on HAL. First of 10 days felt like just the right amount of time after our 7 day cruise left us heavily wanting more. Also, waking up already in port cut down on the sudden rush for the door that was more common when arriving in port in the late morning or early afternoon. Other than the tender in Juneau and the late disembarkation in Victoria, getting on and off the ship was a pleasant experience. Having the time to make a morning trip into town, come back for lunch, then return to town (which we only did once) made us feel like we had far more freedom to explore and while we were aware of the all aboard time, it never felt like it was getting in our way. I’d much prefer the overall schedule of the 10 day QE cruise in the future as it allowed us days in both Glacier Bay and Tracy Arm Fjord which were among my favorite days.

 

DISEMBARKATION
It was never really clear to us when our disembarkation time was supposed to be. At 8:45 while they were calling various groups our room steward let us know it was 8:30 and we began to head out. We were off the ship and on the street by 9:10 giving us 7 hours until our train was due to board. We were hoping to push this back as far as possible but it seems like everyone was off the ship by 9am. 

 

SUMMARY
We certainly didn’t have a bad time on the cruise and I wouldn’t mind cruising on Cunard again, but I wouldn’t seek it out either. Considering price is a significant concern for us I probably wouldn’t pay $300/pp to go on another line, but if it was a matter of a couple hundred dollars between the two of us I’d rather be on HAL or give Princess or Celebrity a try. The “elevated experience” we expected really didn’t feel like it was there, the ship showed similar signs of wear that other ships have had, and the service wasn’t generally of any higher quality than we had found on HAL. Pairing that with an overall worse food, entertainment, and technology experience, we’d probably look elsewhere on future cruises.
 

[D&N]

10 hours ago, Masticon said:

DRESS CODE
Considering this is Cunard and everyone talks about the dress code on Cunard we went out of our way to be sure we would be up to snuff. I had spent months putting together a tuxedo set with vests to match my wife’s gowns she had picked up. Considering I was in a Tux and my wife in a gown, we were by far among the best dressed on the ship. I would actually have considered us to be overdressed. Numerous people in the MDR were in button up shirts and jeans. The average man wore a light colored sports jacket or blazer and probably didn’t have a tie, the average lady had pants and a blouse. Tuxes and dresses were by far in the minority and gowns were essentially absent. While we would have been perfectly happy to just wear a button up shirt or blouse, this was not what we expected on Cunard. There were a small handful of people in tuxes and a few very nice dresses which were largely absent on HAL. I feel that if I were to travel on Cunard I most likely wouldn’t bring more than a vest or blazer and button up shirt and my wife would have been fine in any of her nice knee length dresses. The evening didn’t really feel in any way more elevated than the formal nights on HAL.

Thank you for the review. It's interesting to have such comparisons.

 

Your dress code comments are quite disappointing.

However I'd not be happy just wearing a button up shirt without a jacket and tie, and my wife might wear a blouse with a skirt during the day unless it was part of a dress suit or matching ensemble, that she might wear in preference to a dress at night.

But we're not really concerned what other folk wear, so seeing what others wear wouldn't encourage us to dress down on a ship.

 

From a positive point of view, can I take it that if we ever did decide to take a trip on a HAL ship we wouldn't get too much flak if we dressed for a Gala every night?

[3rdGenCunarder]

3 hours ago, D&N said:

Thank you for the review. It's interesting to have such comparisons.

 

Your dress code comments are quite disappointing.

However I'd not be happy just wearing a button up shirt without a jacket and tie, and my wife might wear a blouse with a skirt during the day unless it was part of a dress suit or matching ensemble, that she might wear in preference to a dress at night.

But we're not really concerned what other folk wear, so seeing what others wear wouldn't encourage us to dress down on a ship.

 

From a positive point of view, can I take it that if we ever did decide to take a trip on a HAL ship we wouldn't get too much flak if we dressed for a Gala every night?

 

You wouldn't get flak for dressing to "Cunard standards" (as you and I think of them), but you wouldn't have anywhere to go to dance. 

 

I saw a lot more formal wear than @Masticon did. I was in the grills, so I didn't see everyone in the MDR, but walking around the ship after dinner, I saw more people dressed for the evening than dressed casually.

Edited August 26 by 3rdGenCunarder

[3rdGenCunarder]

Thank you for the report, @Masticon, but I think it's important for readers to know that you're comparing HAL 5 years ago (precovid) to QE now. I bounce back and forth between the two lines. I sail HAL for itinerary, Cunard for the experience. 

 

The HAL you remember isn't there now. Yes, the service hasn't changed. That's the one constant on HAL, even with the cutbacks in staff. Cunard's service is excellent, but you're right, the style is different. 

 

The entertainment on HAL has changed a lot since 2019. If you thought entertainment on QE was lacking, I can tell you there was way more entertainment on QE in July than on Eurodam this past January. The dueling pianos you mention are gone, replaced by one person due to the end of the contract with "Billboard." The contract with BB Kings ended, too, as did the Lincoln Center Stage group, although they do now have a classical duo.

 

HAL has no more production shows. You many not have enjoyed QE's shows, but at least they offer something on the main stage with LIVE musicians. HAL only has a sort of modern dance group who perform to recorded music with video in the background. For a while, they showed nature videos with the classical group playing along with the prerecorded track. That may have existed pre-covid, but I'm not sure. Anyway, that stopped when they dropped the Lincoln Center group. You said the Queens Room wasn't for you, but you have to admit, there was a LIVE orchestra. 

 

HAL hasn't done a kitchen tour or ship tour since the covid break. The cooking class hasn't come back, not even the ATK lectures. Cunard hasn't restarted kitchen tours or cooking demos, either. I wish they would bring back the cooking demos. Those are always fun to watch.

 

I mainly use the Lido for a light lunch, and I like the salad bar on both QE and Eurodam. HAL's Lido is almost completely served since the restart, but the server at the salad bar will assemble what you want. One thing Cunard does at the Lido is offer a different international dinner every night. I wish they would offer it in the dining rooms, too. The night I had a late tour, I ate in the Lido and had a wonderful German dinner. Yes, there are "blank" times in the food schedule at the Lido. HAL is like that, too, has been for a while. There's definitely a break between the end of dinner and the "late snack" at the Lido on both lines. 

 

You're right about tech. As much as people on the HAL board grumble about the Navigator app, it's way ahead of what Cunard offers. I don't watch the TV in the room much, but HAL definitely offers more choice of TV programming. 

[exlondoner]

One thing I am baffled by is ‘they were there to serve in the most colonial way possible.’ What on earth is a colonial way of serving, let alone a most colonial way?

 

My own experience of service in Cunard restaurants is one of warmth and efficiency.

[RK-NC]

On 8/26/2024 at 12:57 AM, Masticon said:

We also felt that there was a lack of skill on the QM with a number of dropped dishes and seeing (but not hearing) servers getting a dressing down for screwing up. For those only familiar with American service etiquette, the British style was far more standoffish than we were used to or saw on HAL. The idea of being present but invisible was very prominent everywhere but the room steward. You didn’t have the feeling that servers were being friendly and personable, they were there to serve in the most colonial way possible.

 

Read this with much interest as we are on QM2 now with Holland America Rotterdam up next in March. We have seen the same "dressing down" in Britannia dining room and find it off-putting. And we are also missing the friendly and personable exchanges that we have had with crew on both Celebrity and Azamara. Our room steward has also been excellent so that is a positive. 

[*Miss G*]

On 8/26/2024 at 6:10 AM, D&N said:

From a positive point of view, can I take it that if we ever did decide to take a trip on a HAL ship we wouldn't get too much flak if we dressed for a Gala every night?

 

I find the Alaska and Caribbean sailings are less formal on HAL than the European and Med sailings (including the TA’s). It is always nice to see the dressy attire when on the latter, although you will see those who dress on the other sailings, as well.  (You can include my family in the “dressed” list.)

 

They do have the daily ballroom dancing (mid-afternoon) but the evenings are spent dancing to blues/soul/motown (BB King’s), the Rock Room, or the Piano Bar/Billboard Onboard.  Venues vary, depending on ship, though.

[*Miss G*]

 

35 minutes ago, RK-NC said:

We have seen the same "dressing down" in Britannia dining room and find it off-putting.

 

 

Oh my. I have never been witness to that.  Well… I have…. in a way.  I lied my way into a waitressing position when I was a teen because they had the hottest disco around.  (I worked upstairs in the restaurant… not the disco.) Well, I certainly got a dressing down from the Greek owners, on occasion, but those gruff exteriors hid hearts of gold and I learned a lot.  They used to let me sneak in the artist’s entrance so I could skip the cover charge and the ID check.  (I may have been a bit underage at that time.  😇 ) Anyway… that’s all to say… don’t take the dressing down to heart.  It’s not as bad as it seems.  Although, I wouldn’t expect to see it in the MDR, that’s for sure.  Maybe overhear it in the back room though.  lol 

 

[NE John]

I like the warm and reserved “British” style service we see on Cunard; I don’t like center of attention waiters on land or sea. I’m too easily distracted to begin with to then have to focus on a waiter too. 😕
Maybe this British style is the “Colonial” way as described above? 

[D&N]

I'm not keen on people that I don't know well being overly friendly to me. Whether that be shop staff, restaurant staff, folk in the street, or cold callers that want to sell me something.

If I've met them already and struck up a rapport with them that's fine.

I'll vote for the “Colonial” way please.

 

I was quite amused earlier today. A call supposedly from a Glasgow number came in on my UK sim card. Indeed the lady calling sounded as if she was Glaswegian. She was calling about "my life insurance". As a French resident most UK companies can't sell me life insurance. She went on to say the obligatory "How are you today!" So I truthfully replied; I've got Covid.

I'm not sure her script covered that. Her response was "that's fine, I'll update our records" and rang off.    ?????????? 🤣

[reeves35]

Carnival is unique in that it has 3 brands in the premium sector, Cunard, HAL and Princess.  It competitors RCL and NCL have one and none respectively.  Obviously, some differentiation is required or there may as well just be a single brand.  As it stands, HAL is the most American, Cunard the most traditional and Princess the most international.  Some of the differences the OP noted relate to these historical factors.

 

It appears the formality of a Cunard cruises does vary depending on the voyage with TA being the most formal and traditional whereas cruises in regions such as Alaska, Mediterranean, Caribbean, Australia are less formal and that obviously reflects customer feedback that Cunard has received over the years.

 

HAL and Princess have both been more aggressive in revising their food offerings in recent years compared with Cunard.  Only now, with QA, had Cunard started to seriously update its food and it will be interesting to see how many of these changes percolate down to the other ships as they cycle through their next refurbs. The OP does note the "always available" options on HAL; apparently Cunard does also offer these also but, for some reason, does not publish it on their Britannia Room menus.

 

Cunard, along with P&O UK, do seriously lag in the technology stakes. I do find it somewhat baffling that Carnival Corp even allow their brands to have different technology approaches in this area of passenger apps.  Surely it would be more efficient to identify the best product from their suite (as it stands, that is probably Princess) and develop it as a white-label product with the necessary branding changes as the product is used by each brand.  

 

Itineraries obviously vary but HAL, with its American focus, probably leans more towards 7 night cruises reflecting the lesser amount of holiday (vacation) time available to US employees. HAL, Princess and Cunard do have the historical advantage of preferential access in Alaska to areas such as Glacier Bay as well as more preferred docking locations.

 

Passenger mix is an interesting topic and will vary from the individual's perspective.  Some find some Cunard passengers a bit snobby whilst others enjoy listening to Cunard veterans "war stories."  Some find the more American lines full of loud and brash Americans whilst others don't mind.  As has been said upthread, it is often best to not worry about what others are doing and just enjoy yourself as long as it is not interrupting others.

 

 

[Victoria2]

10 hours ago, NE John said:

I like the warm and reserved “British” style service we see on Cunard; I don’t like center of attention waiters on land or sea. I’m too easily distracted to begin with to then have to focus on a waiter too. 😕
Maybe this British style is the “Colonial” way as described above? 

Colonial style?

That's a new one on me and like you, I like the amount of 'attention' shown by Cunard staff. We are not there to 'become friends' and the recognition shown to returning passengers hits the mark too. No effusiveness, just a warm  greeting.

 

As to the mentioned difference by reeves35 re passenger attitudes, as mentioned by others. not him/her I must explain, as an ex HAL cruiser, I would say apart from Americans seeming more 'open' with thoughts, there is little difference but if not being so open counts Cunard passengers [the British contingent in particular?] as some seem 'snobby', well that's in the eyes of the beholder.

[exlondoner]

I think one of the things about Cunard is the mix of nationalities. Obviously, this applies on TAs, where there are many Americans and sometimes Canadians, but I have also sailed with over 500 Germans on a TA, and 400 Australians on a European cruise, as well as numbers of many other nationalities. We once waited hours at Hamburg for the arrival of a train from Spain with many passengers for a  Norwegian cruise.

[NE John]

5 hours ago, exlondoner said:

I think one of the things about Cunard is the mix of nationalities. Obviously, this applies on TAs, where there are many Americans and sometimes Canadians, but I have also sailed with over 500 Germans on a TA, and 400 Australians on a European cruise, as well as numbers of many other nationalities. We once waited hours at Hamburg for the arrival of a train from Spain with many passengers for a  Norwegian cruise.

Lots of Aussies and a fair amount of East Asian pax in Alaska. 
As for British snobbery, I’ve found most Brits I know well and have met the opposite: self-deprecating humor and liking to share a few laughs. Especially after a few beers…

Anyway, shyness is often confused with “snobbiness”. 

[exlondoner]

5 minutes ago, NE John said:

Lots of Aussies and a fair amount of East Asian pax in Alaska. 
As for British snobbery, I’ve found most Brits I know well and have met the opposite: self-deprecating humor and liking to share a few laughs. Especially after a few beers…

Anyway, shyness is often confused with “snobbiness”. 

I think inverted snobbery is currently much more prevalent in the UK.

[*Miss G*]

7 hours ago, reeves35 said:

As it stands, HAL is the most American, Cunard the most traditional and Princess the most international. 

 

I find Princess more “American” than HAL. In fact, Princess is the least “international” of the three, IMHO.

 

7 hours ago, reeves35 said:

Itineraries obviously vary but HAL, with its American focus, probably leans more towards 7 night cruises reflecting the lesser amount of holiday (vacation) time available to US employees. HAL, Princess and Cunard do have the historical advantage of preferential access in Alaska to areas such as Glacier Bay as well as more preferred docking locations.

 

Princess has the most bus runs in the American market.  HAL’s focus is on longer, more unique, itineraries.

 

HAL, then Princess, have the most historical presence in Alaska, so they will always get the docks.  Cunard draws the short straw (tendering); probably due to their long absence from that region.

[3rdGenCunarder]

8 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

Princess has the most bus runs in the American market.  HAL’s focus is on longer, more unique, itineraries.

 

HAL, then Princess, have the most historical presence in Alaska, so they will always get the docks.  Cunard draws the short straw (tendering); probably due to their long absence from that region.

 

HAL does the bus runs, too (and they load them up with "third and fourth passengers sail free" or "Kids sail free"). The short cruises don't seem as visible when you do a search because HAL likes to offer combined 7-day cruises as 14-day B2B cruises. They combine other lengths, too. I'm on an 11-day Caribbean in January. I could also book it as 21 days combined with the one before mine or 21 days combined with the one after it. In either case it's booked as one cruise, one booking number. 

 

I agree about historical presence. Cunard had a presence in Alaska with Sagafjord (and Vistafjord?) when they owned NAC. But then they were away from Alaska for many years. Cunard has been getting the short straw at Alaska ports. Five or six years ago, when Sitka had docking for only one ship, QE had to tender. For all three of my QE cruises to Alaska, we tendered in Juneau. 

[*Miss G*]

1 minute ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

HAL does the bus runs, too (and they load them up with "third and fourth passengers sail free" or "Kids sail free"). The short cruises don't seem as visible when you do a search because HAL likes to offer combined 7-day cruises as 14-day B2B cruises. They combine other lengths, too. I'm on an 11-day Caribbean in January. I could also book it as 21 days combined with the one before mine or 21 days combined with the one after it. In either case it's booked as one cruise, one booking number. 

 

 

I see what you mean, but I was thinking along the lines of the longer voyages, away from the Caribbean runs.  Princess stays there all year round, while HAL’s presence is more seasonal.

[3rdGenCunarder]

27 minutes ago, *Miss G* said:

 

I see what you mean, but I was thinking along the lines of the longer voyages, away from the Caribbean runs.  Princess stays there all year round, while HAL’s presence is more seasonal.

 

HAL definitely does some long and interesting voyages. If you read some of the comparisons between the long voyages and the short ones, you'll see that it's almost two different lines. No speakers, no music during the day (and not much choice at night) on the bus runs. On the longer voyages ("grand" and "ultimate"), there are speakers, more entertainment, more afternoon teas, like Dutch tea and Indonesian tea. I read some of the comments about the longer cruises and think, that isn't my HAL experience. 

 

I give Cunard a lot of credit for consistency in their effort. Time constraints limit options on the little 3 or 4 day hops, but beyond that, whether you're on for 7 days or 21 days, you get good entertainment, and enrichment, (and proper tea) EVERY day. 

[Victoria2]

10 hours ago, reeves35 said:

 

... HAL, Princess and Cunard do have the historical advantage of preferential access in Alaska to areas such as Glacier Bay as well as more preferred docking locations...

 

 

 

 

HAL and Princess are historical lines and are granted Glacier bay concessions and  ' under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act to continue the same level of service they were engaged in prior to 1979.'

Another five concessions were up for grabs in the 2019 round of  grants and Cunard picked one up.

Concessions last for ten years, apart from for HAL and Princess.