Hal, Princess & Caribbean - Who's been on all 3?

[fmax]

Trying to book a new year cruise which is filling up fast.

 

Have only cruised Royal Caribbean but for this cruise am considering Carnival Freedom, Ruby Princess or HAL eurodam. As Princess and Hal aren't in service, yet, not expecting reviews of ship.

 

Love, Carnival's price and HAL's route.

 

Just want to hear from anyone who's cruised all 3 lines to get their opinion. I know it's all personal choice and you can have a variety of opinions from people sailing on exact same cruise but just wanted to hear the overal positive and negatives of the lines.

 

Looking at general input on Cabin Size, decor, entertainment, spa/pool areas, atmosphere etc.

 

I know I'm going to love the cruise no matter what, but one of the group has never sailed before so want it to be a good first experience.

 

Frances

[hammybee]

I have sailed with RCL , Carnival and NCL and come home to HAL.

 

You do not say what you value in a cruise or when you are thinking of cruising, so it's impossible to say which one might be a better experience for you.

 

If it's the evening entertainment and ship on a stick day time activities, you might be happier with Princess or Carnival. If you are looking for a substantially better pointed cabin and a relaxing cruise, then HAL might be the right choice for you. If it does not matter, why not choose by intinerary and price.

 

There is no way, with certainty, to predict the demographics onboard any 7 day sail, outisde of school break time.

[fmax]

Sorry, should have mentioned, it's New Year's cruise... idea is just to be away for new year's and I love cruising.

 

Carnival and Princess have same itinerary - western caribbean - have been to these ports but no issue going again. Hal's is southern caribbean - new ports - which is swaying me.

 

Carnival is about $600 cheaper for outside cabin but I've a feeling with it being much cheaper line for holiday season that there might be loads of kids/teens on board.

 

 

Frances

[las313]

We did a carnival 4 day just before school started last summer and it was awful. Kids all over the place, not being watched, hard to find a quiet place to sit and read, and the ship was dirty.

OUr favorite is HAL. It's a step above Princess. Food is good on both. But the service on HAL is top drawer.

Hope this helps.

Louise in FLA

[Maryandi]

I've been on all 3 and I like the ambience of 1 and the fun of another and the ports of the 3rd.

 

If I had to put them in order:

 

HAL #1

Carnival #2

Princess #3

 

Just a caution about all but HAL - pay particular attention to avoiding anytime there would be alot of children onboard (Carnival & Princess). Otherwise you will hate it if you want to relax. That is why HAL is #1 with us especially 10 days or more. Very few and well behaved kids !

 

Have fun whatever you choose, MaryAnn

[tayl]

You're right. Carnival is more geared to families and a party atmosphere. Princess also caters to families but perhaps a bit more upscale in delivery of service, and fun. I was on Princess last year for 2 weeks and did not find the food quality as good as I thought it should be.

Holland America,is very nice,both in service and food. The rooms are larger. In my opinion,it's worth the money.

It depends what you are looking for. If you're on a tight budget, then Carnival would be fine. If money isn't an issue,then there are many options,depending on what type of atmosphere you want. you really can't go wrong with any cruise.

We recently returned from a cruise on Seabourn. While it is considerably more money, there was no nickel or diming of the passengers. Everything except shore excursions( actually one excursion is included) is included. There are no extra costs for resaurants,all drinks included, gratuities included and excellent personal service. We found it a great value for the money. We never had to sign for anything.And at the end of the cruise, I owed nothing.

New years will be fun no matter what ship you're on. You need to decide if you want a cruise with a lot of kids or not. that will help you in narrowing it down.

[hammybee]

Sorry, should have mentioned, it's New Year's cruise... idea is just to be away for new year's and I love cruising.

 

Carnival and Princess have same itinerary - western caribbean - have been to these ports but no issue going again. Hal's is southern caribbean - new ports - which is swaying me.

 

Carnival is about $600 cheaper for outside cabin but I've a feeling with it being much cheaper line for holiday season that there might be loads of kids/teens on board. Frances

 

Given it's New Years Eve, my choice would be HAL because, as you say, it is likely to not have as many children and ensuing craziness onboard, as Carnival and Princess. The private island, Half Moon Cay, on day 2 of the Eurodam sail make this intinerary really special as well as not having a port call on 1/1/2009.

[fmax]

Thanks for the input.

 

You raise another good point - what other additional costs are there other than drinks, photos, spa and shops, which I found to be the standard on Royal.

 

I recall reading, and not sure with regards to which cruiseline, that there's additional cost for some pool/spa area, or something.

 

 

Frances

 

tayl - which part of Ontario, I'm just outside Hamilton.

[jtl513]

Other than HAL we've only been on the RCCL Sovereign of the Seas. Since that is an older ship, it is probably not a good representative for all RCCL ships, but on the basis of just that one I would say we find HAL head and shoulders above SotS in all aspects. The only thing we liked better on SotS was the comedian. :)

 

One more plus for HAL, IMO: the Eurodam will be just 6 months old by New Year's. That should impress the new-cruiser of your group! (We're looking at taking just a 3-day cruise on the E'dam just to check it out.) :)

[Aunty Pat]

I was on HAL’s Oosterdam for Thanksgiving (400 kids on board) and the Zuiderdam for New Years (not sure of the exact number of kids). In both cases the kids on HAL were less apparent and much better behaved than on Princess or Carnival. This maybe because most of the families traveling included their grand parents who won’t put up with anything less than good behavior.

Because we had late seating for dinner there were few little kids in the areas where adults hang out after dinner and usually the teenagers were out of sight in the teen disco, teen pool party and the Loft in the evenings.

On New Years Eve the teens that joined in the count down to mid-night were dressed up (formal night) and well behaved.

One thing to keep in mind about HAL is that they have more space per passenger so even with a full ship there are always places to go on sea days where you won’t find any kids and few adults and on port days the families all seem to leave the ship.

I say go for the Eurodam and you won’t be disappointed. Book 2nd seating for dinner, use the dining room over the Lido for breakfast & lunch, use the sea view pool at the back of the ship, select a state room in an area without quads or conneccting cabins, and don't book on the main deck (lots of quads and the less expensive cabins) and you will run into fewer kids.

Aunty Pay

 

Barefoot Windjammer - Phantom ‘81

K&D German Rhine Line ‘84

NCL - Norway ’85, Pride of America ’05, Southward ’87, Star ’97 & ‘05, Starward ’92, Sun ’02 & Windward ’93

RCC - Song of America ‘89

American Hawaiian - Independence ‘98

HAL - Volendam ’99, Noordam ’06, Oosterdam ’07, Statendam ’02, Prinsendam ’03 & ’06, Zuiderdam ’04, ’06 & ‘07

Carnival - Spirit ‘05

Celebrity – Summit ‘05

Cruise West - Yorktown Clipper ‘06

Princess - Golden Princess ‘07

A & K - East Queen ‘07

Pending Cruises – QM2 Feb. 2 ’08 & Eurodam Oct.1 ‘08

[Peggy Sue]

Never sailed on Royal Caribbean, but have sailed HAL and Princess ...HAL has it over Princess (but Celebrity is tops on our list)

 

Our last two cruises were on Princess ... Caribbean and Emerald ..sister ships ..We sailed Caribben in 06 and really didn't care for it ...we booked the Emerald becaue a group of friends was sailing ...otherwise we would have booked princess again. The Ruby will be the sister of the Emerald.

 

We didn't care for the layout of the Princess ships ...very chopped up, and you found yourself trying to figure out how to get around the galleys ..up, down, all around ...the ship sways ...the seas were calm, but there was still a lot of side to side motion. The service and food were OK ..but not outstanding.

 

We won't be returning to Princess ..but would return to HAL, as we enjoyed our HAL experiences very much.

 

We did like the balcony cabins on Princess ..they have a great closet/dressing room area ...not those annoying individual closets ..but one long bar and lots of storage space. But the bathroom was tiny ..the shower was very tiny.

 

We had about 400 kids on board the Emerald ..never really saw them, as they were involved in kids programs, etc.

 

Good luck with your decision!

 

Peggy

[EGG]

We are in our late 50s and we've sailed HAL once, Celebrity 5 times, Carnival twice, Princess once and our most recent cruise was RCL for the holiday cruise on Explorer. We cruise for the itinerary and each cruise is different and each ship has a different feel.

 

Although you didn't ask about RCL, our absolute favorite was the holiday cruise on Explorer of the Seas to the eastern caribean from NJ. There were 800 children of all ages and we knew this when we booked. There was an energy on the ship that made the holidays special. Nothing can compare to New Years Eve on the Royal Promenade with a thousand other people when baloons and confetti fall down on you. I booked the cruise for that and I was not disappointed. Half the passengers were British and I'm guessing another 20% were from Canadian. The ice shows are fantastic. It was snowing from the ceiling of the ice skating rink as Santa gave out presents to the children. I can't wait to do this cruise again. I would like to add we did this by ourselves without children. Forget the advice to take late seating. Take the seating you prefer. They sat us with other couples without children. The children we saw were very well behaved at dinner. Late seating was the preferred seating on our cruise, even with all the non-adults.

 

The cruise before that was in Oct. - HAL (Volendam) for a Panama Canal cruise. It was a much older age group and while we enjoyed the cruise it was too quiet for us and not enough activities. Not one person got out of their seat for quest. The best part of the ship was the library. The theatre was a poor design, although the seats were comfortable you had to come early to get seats.

 

We sailed PRINCESS to Alaska. They had anytime dining and my husband didn't like having to call every day for reservations. We enjoy sitting with other people. This is probably more of a non issue now because HAL now has anytime dining also. I also did not like their theatre. I couldn't cross my legs. (Sapphire Princess).

 

We've cruised Carnival (Victory) out of NY twice and it is just more of a party atmosphere. More drinking and people staying up all night - a problem we did not have on our RCL cruise. I think this was because it was shorter cruises out of NY so people try to make the most of the time. The room felt smaller. I remember we kept the beds separate because otherwise one of us would have to climb over the other to get out of bed.

 

 

We've found the food and service to be good on all the ships. The best dining experience is on Celebrity but because of the way they separate courses. Otherwise the food is pretty similar on all ships. I hated the fact that HAL does not have punch or lemonade during the day. It is water, buy a soda or nothing. I think Princess might charge for ice cream.

 

The service on all the ships has been super. Even though we usually take an inside cabin, we are always treated like king and queen. The dining room service was probably poorest on Princess. I blame that on the anytime dining.

 

The theatre entertainment is important to us and we like the house shows and the special guest entertainment. The house shows are all similar and good. It is the luck of the drawer with the other theatre entertainment. My husband loves when there is a classical pianist on Celebrity. I go to a movie.

 

If I had to put them in order

1-RCL

2-Celebrity

3-HAL

4-Princess

5-Carnival

 

We like to mix it up and sail on different ships. We love the days exploring a new ship. Whatever you choose you will have a great cruise if you have the right attitude.

 

Hope this helps.

[LovesCruisin]

We were on the Zaandam a few years back for a New Years cruise and we really did enjoy our first experience on HAL. Adding that the crew did it up right for New Years Eve - everything was wonderful. We did have our kids and our parents along for that one - HAL is the perfect choice for an inter-generational cruise.

 

We have also been on the Caribbean princess and did not like that ship at all. It is quite apparent that they added a deck to that ship - boy was the ship crowded. Please dont think that we didnt enjoy ourselves, as we did and loved dining anytime, but the ship was def crowded. I would try Princess again but not on the Caribbean.

 

As far as Carnival goes - it all depends on which ship you are choosing. We have been on three Carnival cruises and really enjoyed each one. Nope, the food is not as good as HAL or Princess - but in our opinion it was heads above Royal. In fact RCI has been our least favorite cruiseline to date.

 

Hope this helps :)