Comparing Zaandam and Diamond P for Hawaii

[happy cruzer]

I am trying to help a friend book their Hawaii cruise for March.

 

She is thinking about the Zaandam. Which I think is great.

 

So I started looking at the details for her. I noticed that the Zaandam does not stop at Kuaia but it does an extended Honolulu visit. Diamond Princess does stop in Kuaia.

 

Also Zaandam departs from San Diego vs. LA for Diamond. I think San Diego pier is a bit closer to airport.

 

And finally right now Diamond is showing to cost about 400 pp less than Zaandam. I even noticed that on Zaandam the balconies are priced more than the suites?

 

Anybody have any other things to throw at the comparision shopper??

 

Thanks in advance

[shotei]

We had the same decision to make for our January Hawaiian circle cruise. In addition to some of the points you made in your OP, we chose the Diamond Princess for these 3 reasons:

 

- Kauai is a beautiful island. The trade-off of 2 days in Honolulu in return for missing Kauai is not a good trade-off for us. On some cruises the Zaandam does stop in Kauai, so you might want to look at the next or previous departure date and this may not be an issue for your friend.

 

- It is more expensive for us to fly into San Diego than it is to fly into LA. We're booking a hotel through Princess for one day both before and after the cruise. Transport to and from the cruise port is included in the hotel packages, so no extra expense there. The airport in San Diego is very close to the cruise port. In LA, it is usually an extra expense.

 

- With 10 sea days, there are more activities available on the larger DP than there are on the laid-back Z.

 

Marc

[sassyredhat]

I don't have much experience with any of the other questions, but our cruise out of San Diego (April 3, 2008) DOES include Kauai. :)

 

Pat

[sweet sheep]

Sassyredhat-I am on the same cruise you are on April 3rd.

Yes, it does go to Kauai-it started out not going there but changed a couple of months ago. Kauai is probably the prettiest island.

Yes, the pier in San Diego is so close to the airport that you can see the airport itself. San Diego pier is easy to get to. I took this trip in 2005 on Statendam and find San Diego to be a nice place to visit. If you can stay an extra day or more.

In my opinion HAL is better with larger outside stateroom and larger bath rooms with a tub!

I am not too thrilled with Princess because they nickel and dime you to death for things that should be included in the cost. (My opinion of course) Their service in the Lido is very poor as it is mostly do it all yourself, not the service you get from HAL.

[Xoe]

For most of Zaandam's itineraries, Kauai is included. We're booked for the April 22 R/T out of Vancouver, which includes Kauai. I just checked several of the San Diego R/T's, and Kauai appears on all those I checked.

 

The R/T out of Vancouver is a good choice for us because my husband dislikes flying, and we can easily drive to Vancouver. My sister and her husband live in a condo that overlooks Zaandam's Honolulu docking location, so we'll have a family visit, and we love sea days -- I hope for bridge games, my husband looks forward to playing poker.

 

I've not been on Diamond Princess, but have been on her "sister" Sapphire, and although we are fond of both HA and Princess, given the choice, we prefer the smaller ship. We very much enjoyed 14 days to/from Alaska on Coral Princess, which is smaller than Sapphire/Diamond.

[RuthC]

I took the Zaandam 15-day cruise last year. I didn't lack for activities on the sea days over and back. As a matter of fact, I never found time to do some of the things I wanted to do!

[kakalina]

Ruth, you are so right. I have taken the S&R class Circle Hawaii many times and never lacked for things to do. Let's see:

Pilates and Yoga classes, Gym equipment, spa pampering, numerous board type games during the day, golf chipping into the pool, golf putting in the atrium, chicken throws, team trivia, first run movies, dancing to live music, dining to live music, Piano bar music, pool side music, etc, etc, etc.

 

There is plenty to do.

[camrosegirl]

I am on the March 19 Zaandam. I have been on the Sapphire--sister to Diamond--she is a beautiful ship--the negative that sticks in my mind is the lack of seating in show room , at pool and in Lido--I will only do Princess if the price is better than HAL.I love the smaller HAL ships--even the Vista class are smaller than most Princess ships.

 

They will have a great cruise on either ship!!

[happy cruzer]

Well, shame on me for only looking at one site. It did not have Kuaui listed on any of the Zaandam itineraries. I checked another and on the main search page it was still wrong but when you asked for details, it had the right ports, and on the third site I checked the itineraries looked updated.

 

I bet alot of folks are being confused.

 

Thanks for the help. With itineraries being closer the decision will be easier between the two.