28 year old 2* Mariner compares HAL to Royal Caribbean

[FlaMariner]

Our kids (28 and 31) grew up cruising with us starting with Carnival and quickly graduating to HAL.

 

Daughter is 8 points from being 3*.

 

She just got off her first Royal Caribbean cruise.....Caribbean run out of Miami with friends celebrating a friends upcoming wedding.....

 

Her phone call to us started with:  "I get it now why you sail HAL". When asked why?....Her response/review of the cruise:

 

• It was soooo crowded
• the passengers were pushy and some of the passengers were mean to the crew
• the food is so much better on HAL
• the crew seemed happy and were better on HAL
• I just like the HAL cabins better...they seem bigger
• the lido deck area was so loud with "boom/boom/boom" music blasting that we laughed how we had to raise our voices to talk to each other
• there were chair hogs just like HAL
• no free sushi and they charge for everything & too many "charge" restaurants
• ship was so big...I'm sure I never went to many of the areas
• their private island was nice like HMC and it did have a pool which was good

 

She's looking forward to sailing with her Grandma and cousins on the Nieuw Statendam in a few months. 

 

Also, the son (31) is getting married next year and he asked me to find him a Holland America Line cruise for the honeymoon. 

 

My conclusions:  The apple does not fall far from the tree and HAL will be fine with the next generation.

 

 

[puppycanducruise]

Glad your daughter likes HAL.  Thanks for sharing the comments.

[wdw1972]

My son grew up cruising HAL starting around age 11, so that's what he knew. He's an only child and was used to being around adult company. I always rented the tux package for him so on formal nights he was properly dressed. On land I made him order from the kids' menu but on a cruise he could eat whatever he wanted, and that ended up including escargot, jumbo shrimp, lobster, steaks, etc - all the adult stuff.  He enjoyed Club HAL, with the limited # of kids generally meaning they got to decide each day what the activities would be. Before dinner we'd sit in the Ocean Bar and watch the couples dancing - me enjoying the cocktail of the day, him the mocktail of the day. After dinner we went to whatever show was in the World Stage. He loved it all. I was younger then too (almost 30 years ago) and we really enjoyed the older passengers.

 

At age 13 I threw a Disney cruise into the mix - I remember him asking me if his future cruises could please be on HAL. His reason - too many kids! As a young adult he did a Carnival cruise with a bunch of buddies. I assumed he'd love it - drinking, eating, partying - he was in the demographic.  He came back saying it sucked - lousy food, drunk/obnoxious passengers, just really tacky overall. 

 

A couple years later he & his girlfriend booked a 7-day Eurodam cruise, where he proposed at the Pinnacle Grill. They'll be on Nieuw Amsterdam in Alaska next year to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. Other than a couple Disney cruises they've done with their son (he's 8 now), they seem to be fine with HAL!

 

Sue/WDW1972

[Mary229]

I have often heard from reports and directly from the crew that HAL is one of the best employers in the industry.  To me that is very important. I always like to do business with people who are doing the basics right.  Good crew and good mechanical - they have both 

[FlaMariner]

1 hour ago, wdw1972 said:

but on a cruise he could eat whatever he wanted, and that ended up including escargot, jumbo shrimp, lobster, steaks, etc - all the adult stuff.

 

That was an important part for us too in raising our kids.....Today, they seem to enjoy a wide variety of foods...they really learned to enjoy fish from HAL. Also, they had to order their own food at the MDR and discuss with the waiter....no chicken tenders or ranch dressing....Helped later in life, so we think.

 

 

[FlaMariner]

1 hour ago, wdw1972 said:

A couple years later he & his girlfriend booked a 7-day Eurodam cruise, where he proposed at the Pinnacle Grill.

 

Awesome!

 

Edited 15 hours ago by FlaMariner

[mcrcruiser]

RCLs new huge ships are a destunation in themselves . however ,RCL does have ships that are similar in size to some HAL ships . We found RCL food as good as HALs MDR food . RCL has stage shows every night where HAL does not have stage shows every night  .   we also found  that Celebrity ,RCLs upgrade cruise line was excellent in all regards . 

[mcrcruiser]

Just now, mcrcruiser said:

RCLs new huge ships are a destunation in themselves . however ,RCL does have ships that are similar in size to some HAL ships . We found RCL food as good as HALs MDR food . RCL has stage shows every night where HAL does not have stage shows every night  .   we also found  that Celebrity ,RCLs upgrade cruise line was excellent in all regards . 

Yes we certainly can make accurate comparisins being 3 star on HAL ,diamond on royal ships & Elite Plus on Celebrity ships .. There is truly no bad ship .what is different is what a person gets use to in selection of cuise lines  

[albingirl]

1 hour ago, mcrcruiser said:

RCLs new huge ships are a destunation in themselves . however ,RCL does have ships that are similar in size to some HAL ships . We found RCL food as good as HALs MDR food . RCL has stage shows every night where HAL does not have stage shows every night  .   we also found  that Celebrity ,RCLs upgrade cruise line was excellent in all regards . 

NCL has wonderful stage shows, too, but you couldn't get me on one of their mammoth ships again.  Too big, too loud, and just a crazy feeling upon embarking.  Like, uh oh, what have we done?  I'll happily skip stage shows in exchange for sanity.

[srsurman]

7 hours ago, FlaMariner said:

My conclusions:  The apple does not fall far from the tree and HAL will be fine with the next generation.

In other words, plenty of snooty and/or introverted and/or quiet and reserved youth to follow in their parents' footsteps (my children included).

[shiner6]

My children also like HAL better than all the others except for Disney.

[Happily@Sea]

8 hours ago, FlaMariner said:

Our kids (28 and 31) grew up cruising with us starting with Carnival and quickly graduating to HAL.

 

Daughter is 8 points from being 3*.

 

She just got off her first Royal Caribbean cruise.....Caribbean run out of Miami with friends celebrating a friends upcoming wedding.....

 

Her phone call to us started with:  "I get it now why you sail HAL". When asked why?....Her response/review of the cruise:

 

• It was soooo crowded
• the passengers were pushy and some of the passengers were mean to the crew
• the food is so much better on HAL
• the crew seemed happy and were better on HAL
• I just like the HAL cabins better...they seem bigger
• the lido deck area was so loud with "boom/boom/boom" music blasting that we laughed how we had to raise our voices to talk to each other
• there were chair hogs just like HAL
• no free sushi and they charge for everything & too many "charge" restaurants
• ship was so big...I'm sure I never went to many of the areas
• their private island was nice like HMC and it did have a pool which was good

 

She's looking forward to sailing with her Grandma and cousins on the Nieuw Statendam in a few months. 

 

Also, the son (31) is getting married next year and he asked me to find him a Holland America Line cruise for the honeymoon. 

 

My conclusions:  The apple does not fall far from the tree and HAL will be fine with the next generation.

 

 

 

For me it was the constant announcements. Even with the speaker turned off in your room, the hallway ones were still loud enough to hear clearly in your stateroom. Plus I didn't need 'toys' I would never use.

[a.madruga]

we began with Carnival when the kids were small then tested Celebrity(when they were on their own) which we loved now gotten older and HAL or Princess will do us fine....usually it's the ports that we chose from. As much as we hate to say loyalty does not mean anything to cruise lines and to us more bang for our retired bucks.

[MaxThrusters]

I always knew I would not enjoy the big RCL, Carnival, etc ships with the slides and noise and party-party atmosphere. My first cruise was on a Cunard ship, and while I enjoyed it, the fussiness and class separations were a bit tiresome. We couldn't have new friends from the Britannia class dine with us in our Grills dining room. We dined with them one evening in the Britannia dining room instead, and joined for dessert on other evenings.

HAL was chosen for our second cruise, and we have returned again and again since. It's had just the right amount of 'fussy', which was practically none at all (and likely less these days). The MDR, Lido, and pool areas can get noisy/busy but it was quite tolerable.

[QuattroRomeo]

Some great HAL stories here.. thanks for sharing!

[PrincessTraveller]

I have only sailed HAL and Seabourn previously until this simmer when I went on a family cruise which other family members chose Royal Caribbean,  Brilliance of the Seas to be exact. It was my first and will be my last RC cruise.  Only positives were:  1) one of the paid restaurants we went to for lunch and 2) MDR stuff, who were all excellent.  Since a smaller RC ship was selected (~2,600 passengers), I thought it would be a decent comparison to HAL.  Boy, was I wrong!  Everywhere on the ship felt crowded, cabin and public areas were very worn and in great need of attention or refurb.  RC food at breakfast and lunch would best be described as institutional cuisine in selection, preparation and quality.  My university had much better food.  I could go on and on but I will simply end on the fact that I will not be utilizing a FFC credit RC provided for an issue that occured while on board. They can keep it.