Differences Between Celebrity and HAL

[velvetred]

Hello - thought I would post my question on the Celebrity board to get some different perspectives. I posted on the HAL board and I have received some good responses but I would information specific to the activities and entertainment on board the two lines. I have booked the HAL Noordam (FLL, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Grenada, Dominica, Martinique, Half Moon Cay) for January 2009 with my 20 year old daughter but then I read there are concerns about the decline in activities on HAL.

 

I noticed there is a 10 day Galaxy cruise out of San Juan (SJ, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Curacao, Aruba, Tortola) during January 2009 and I am considering switching. Can anyone comment on the activities and entertainment or anything else you care to share? This will be my daughter's first cruise and I have not been to any of these ports before as my previous cruises have all been Mexican Riviera and Western Caribbean routes.

 

Thanks.

[terrydtx]

You ask a very good question. I personally prefer HAL over Celebrity only because the cabins are much larger on HAL. On our last HAL cruise we had a Cat C outside cabin with no balcony but 195 Sq ft, in our cat 2A balcony cabin on the Century in September we will have only 170 sq ft. Most HAL balcony cabins have over 200 sq ft. I think when you compare the activities and entertainment there is not much difference except Celebrity is a little younger in their demographics (maybe 10 years in age) and HAL a little more laid back on the activities. In my opinion the food and service are almost the same. I think in your case you need to look at the itineraries of the 2 cruises which is always the deciding criteria for us whether to cruise with Celebrity or HAL. The Noordam in my opinion has a far inferior itinerary. I think Dominica is a terrible place to visit, it is among the poorest and most backward islands in the Caribbean and not even as hi rated to call it third world. The other stops on the Noordam are just OK, but the itinerary for the Galaxy looks so much better. Granada, Aruba, Curacao and Tortola are some of the more prosperous islands and great places to visit in my opinion and probably the only Caribbean Islands I would want to visit more than once.

[diboja]

We have cruised only HAL and on our last cruise one of the stops was Dominica which we found to be one of the highlights of the cruise. I agree with the last poster that the island is poor but the locals are an admirable people and the beauty of the Island is amazing- the Island tours are fantastic.

 

We have booked on Celebrity Constellation for a 11 day cruise next February and I am disappointed that the cabins are so small compared to HAL plus the stops at Colon(Panama) and Puerto Limon(costa Rica) look like the two ports from Hell in comparison to where we have been with HAL (which we read about on the Net after we booked). We are going on the cruise because of a "group" from CAA and we will make the best of it.

 

HAL seems to cater to an older cliental and we are in our 60's - at times we felt that we were the "youngsters".. It will be interesting to see what Celebrity is like.

[hylasgirl]

Hello - thought I would post my question on the Celebrity board to get some different perspectives. I posted on the HAL board and I have received some good responses but I would information specific to the activities and entertainment on board the two lines. I have booked the HAL Noordam (FLL, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Grenada, Dominica, Martinique, Half Moon Cay) for January 2009 with my 20 year old daughter but then I read there are concerns about the decline in activities on HAL.

 

I noticed there is a 10 day Galaxy cruise out of San Juan (SJ, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Curacao, Aruba, Tortola) during January 2009 and I am considering switching. Can anyone comment on the activities and entertainment or anything else you care to share? This will be my daughter's first cruise and I have not been to any of these ports before as my previous cruises have all been Mexican Riviera and Western Caribbean routes.

 

Thanks.

 

With these two lines, I would pick from the itinerary and not the ship. They are pretty similar in activities. I would DEFINITELY go with Celebrity's itinerary. St Lucia is gorgeous!!! Curacao gorgeous!!! and Tortola is one of my favorite stops!!! Aruba... Oh my!!! Very very nice itinerary on the Galaxy. I wish I was doing it with you :D

[barbels]

I sailed on the Galaxy three times and the Noordam twice.

 

In your case I would sail on the Noordam. Yes there is definitely an issue with entertainment on the Noordam. There is not as much live music on the ship as there is on NCL or Princess ships. But it is not all that different from the entertainment on Celebrity ships. Food and service are comparable on both lines. The Noordam's itinerary includes their private island which is supposed to be beautiful.

 

The Galaxy is a much older ship which Celebrity is transferring to another cruise line in the near future. The Noordam is still the newest HAL ship and is in great condition. I loved both ships but I'd chose the Noordam over the Galaxy today.

 

Furthermore I absolutely hate the San Juan airport and avoid it if I can. Fort Lauderdale is a lot more comfortable place to spend some time if you have to.

[terrydtx]

The Noordam's itinerary includes their private island which is supposed to be beautiful.

 

.

 

Unless you want to lie in the sun on a beach all day the HAL private island Half Moon Cay is not that great. You have to eat a buffet lunch on the island and I have found the food to be not very good. You also have to be tendered to shore and can not come and go off to the ship. If more than one HAL ship is at the island it gets very crowded on the beach you will wait in long lines to get food and drinks. I would trade HMC for St Lucia or Aruba in a heart beat.

 

Again I was in Dominica on a cruise in 2001 and it was a nasty smelly port city full of poverty, children begging and drug dealers (5 passengers on our cruise were arrested by the local police buying drugs) with open running sewers in the streets. The only good thing on the island is the rain forest and the scuba diving, again for your first Carribean cruise there many better islands to visit on the Galaxy itinnerary.

[Napi's Mom]

Again I was in Dominica on a cruise in 2001 and it was a nasty smelly port city full of poverty, children begging and drug dealers (5 passengers on our cruise were arrested by the local police buying drugs) with open running sewers in the streets.

 

I'm sure you blame the Poor Dominicans for that???? Bet they dragged them into an ally and forced them to buy. (More likely the whole idea of their trip was to buy same!)

[ablumenfeld]

I wouldn't switch.

I just came off an 11-day Souther Caribbean on Galaxy in April, and even though it just came off dry-dock, it still is a very old ship. Noordam is brand-new.

 

Even though my wife and I are in our mid-30s, I still prefer HAL over Celebrity, albeit by a slim margin.

 

Again I was in Dominica on a cruise in 2001 and it was a nasty smelly port city full of poverty, children begging and drug dealers with open running sewers in the streets. The only good thing on the island is the rain forest and the scuba diving, again for your first Carribean cruise there many better islands to visit on the Galaxy itinnerary.

 

I completely disagree - if you had left the port you would have seen how beautiful the island is. Dominica was the best island we visited the entire cruise - there is a reason they filmed Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3 there.

Titou Gorge is spectacular, and was one of the highlights of the entire trip. Middleham falls, Trafalgar falls, the hot springs, as well as the snorkelling. I'd rather go back to Dominica than several of the other islands we visited on that trip.

[Pilot70D]

We have sailed on Princess, HAL and then we took our first Celebrity cruise this past December. Here is my over all rating of these three mass market cruise lines:

 

1) Celebrity

2) Princess

3) HAL

 

We started out cruising with Princess and we really liked their product. We never had a major problem on any of our cruises with them and we would sail with them again IF the price and itinerary meshed with our desires. The food was just as good as that on Celebrity and we really liked their anytime dining. The only reason we left Princess was their itineraries. We wanted a 10 to 14 day cruise to the Caribbean and Princess didn't offer such a product.

 

We then cruised with HAL three cruises in a row. The first two cruises were really great. Unfortunately the third cruise, while not the cruise from hell, was pretty close consequently we decided that there had to be a better way and we tried Celebrity. On our third and last HAL cruise the quality of both the food and service had declined noticeably. We encountered numerous service lapses in the main dining room which we think are directly attributable to staff cutbacks put in place by HAL's management. The food in the main dining room on our last HAL cruise was mediocre at best. We found that both food and service were better up in the Lido buffet so we dined there most of the cruise. Embarkation and disembarkation were events from HELL. Disembarkation was so bad that I swore never to cruise with HAL again. Several other CC members noted in their posts how bad disembarkation was for this particular cruise.

 

We tried Celebrity and we once again had a really great cruise experience. Embarkation and debarkation were efficient. Celebrity's disembarkation process is the best that we have seen out of three cruise lines. The food was very good on our cruise and the level of service throughout the ship was excellent. Our next cruise will once again be on Celebrity.

 

Cabin comfort and layout on the three lines goes something like this. First is HAL, second is Princess and third would be Celebrity. Let me state that VERY LITTLE separates first from third though. We have always had either minisuites (Princess & HAL) or a CC cabin. The cabin layout on HAL we think was better then that found on Celebrity. There was more closet space and storage in each of our HAL cabins. Princess wasn't far behind in these categories though.

 

Evaluating the entertainment on any cruise is highly subjective. Some will love a particular entertainer or show while others will hate the same things. Overall I would say that the entertainment on Princess was a half step better than that on HAL or Celebrity. Public rooms and spaces on all three were very good we felt and were just about equal.

 

We definitely like the Celebrity demographics better than that which we encountered on HAL. All of our cruising has been done during the same time of the year and to roughly the same destinations so we do have an apples to apples comparison. On HAL we were definitely younger than the overwhelming majority of passengers. We are both divers so we went diving in almost every port. We were the ONLY two divers on all of our HAL cruises. HAL didn't even offer any dive excursions. A lot of the time I wondered if we had sailed on the Geritolendam rather than the Volendam or the Veendam. On Celebrity we found that there are many, many more passengers in our age group (late forties to late fifties).

 

One the enjoyment scale there is one thing to take note of. The War Department (aka Mrs. B) is a rabid BINGO addict......oops, I meant dedicated BINGO enthusiast. She rates the BINGO on HAL to be a little bit better followed by Celebrity and Princess in a dead heat.

 

I hope that our opinions help but whatever line you cruise on next, enjoy it to the max.

[terrydtx]

I completely disagree - if you had left the port you would have seen how beautiful the island is. Dominica was the best island we visited the entire cruise - there is a reason they filmed Pirates of the Caribbean 2 & 3 there.

Titou Gorge is spectacular, and was one of the highlights of the entire trip. Middleham falls, Trafalgar falls, the hot springs, as well as the snorkelling. I'd rather go back to Dominica than several of the other islands we visited on that trip.

 

I did leave the port for a scuba dive in the morning and it was great after that my DW and I took a tour to the rain forest, while it was very pretty, it doesn't come close to the Rain Forest in the Olympic Peninsula, Kauai or Maui, and you still have to get off the ship in the port and travel through the nasty city to get to the rain forest. My point is the Noordam, while I agree the better ship of the 2 has a bad itinerary for any one’s first cruise in the eastern and southern Caribbean. Noordam stops at St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Grenada, Dominica, Martinique, Half Moon Cay in 10 days. In my opinion Martinique, HMC and Dominica are sub par to all of the stops on the 10 day Galaxy of St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Curacao, Aruba, Tortola.

[ionsys]

I've been to the vast majority of the stops on both trips you mention.

 

I would choose the Galaxy itinerary over the HAL list

 

Barbados, Old San Juan and Curacao are "must do's" imo particulalry for a 1st time cruiser

 

Also, my sense is that a 20yr old might prefer Galaxy since HAL guests are maybe 10-15yrs older than Galaxy guests imo.

 

Maybe arrive in SJ the day before so you could look around OldSJ?

 

The only thing that I'm wondering about Galaxy is the possible effect on the remaining staff re service and food quality-Celebrity's new ships (Solstice and Equinox) will have brought some of the better waiters and chefs from Galaxy I would think and I would wonder about the after effect on Galaxy--if any.

[toban]

We have cruised on Carnival, Princess, Celebrity and HAL. In our opinion, in terms of food, activities, and entertainment, we would place HAL at the bottom. If we were travelling with our elderly parent we might consider HAL but with a 20 yr old that would not be a good first experience in crusing.

[SusieV]

We did that exact trip on Galaxy last year and loved it! We wrote it up in our travel blog if you are interested.

 

Galaxy is not in bad shape. We're booked on her again this year!

[ejgravatt]

We have traveled with our children (in their 20's). I cannot comment on HAL but the kids prefer RCCL over Celebrity. There is so much for younger people to do on RCCL, especially on the Voyager or Freedom class ships. Many more "young" people. If you're looking to make the trip for your daughter, check out the itinerary on RCCL ships.

[velvetred]

Thanks to everyone who has responded to this thread today. Seems like the majority think the itinerary on the Galaxy makes it worthwhile even though the ship is older. I noticed the Galaxy is returning from a refurbishment soon. It will be interesting to read new postings after her next sail. SusieV, I loved your pics - thanks for sharing.

[gatorbaby1]

I asked my dd20 which she would prefer and she said HAL over celebrity anyday-food,service, cabin size. As for the activities she said they were similar, and neither was a standout for her. As a family Half Moon Cay is one of our favorite stops, and is always a fun day. as is Grenada which is on both, so no help there.

[velvetred]

Hi Gatorbaby1 - thanks for the help. I have noticed there is a 10 day Emerald Princess that goes out of FLL to Aruba, Bonaire, Grenada, Dominica, St. Thomas, and Princess Cays. I see you have been on Princess before. Do you think your dd20 would still prefer HAL out of FLL to St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Grenada, Martinique, Dominica, and Half Moon Cay over the Emerald Princess ? I am very interested in your dd20's preference between the Emerald Princess and the HAL Noordam for a 10 day cruise. Thanks.

[Lsimon]

We are frequent Celebrity cruisers and while we've gone on a couple other lines over the years we've never been on HAL. So I can not comment on the differences.

 

I can say that I've been on the Galaxy South Caribbean cruise twice - the 10 day itinerary at the end of this past March and the 11 day itinerary a year ago. The itinerary and islands are just fantastic. Most of the islands are amount our favorites and the others are very nice - none are in the "may as well stay on the ship" class.

 

We've also found the service, food and entertainment on the Galaxy to be amount the best we've found on Celebrity in the past few years. The senior officers, especially the hotel staff (hotel director, cruise director, Food & Beverage director, front office manager, etc) where often mingling with passengers and very open and friendly.

 

On our most recent Galaxy cruise the entertainment included a very good Caribbean party band which played by the pool and in a couple different lounges - a wide variety of reggae, island, older rock, and other dance music. A more mature style dance band. A guitar player who played both background style music and light rock style songs - usually by the aft pool area. A classical quartet which also played a nice variety of not so classical music in one lounge (the martini bar area). A piano bar singer (didn't listen much). There is also the stage shows - mostly song and dance, music from plays and a comedy act. A lot of people love these shows but we didn't go to any this cruise as we've seen lots of similar ones on past cruises. Of course there is the disco area as well which had different themed nights and where the party band occasionally played as well. The Galaxy has one or two lounges more than the newer M Class celebrity ships: There is the Savoy lounge with no similar lounge on the M class, and the martini bar (which is on plaza deck 5 and not in the middle of the Savoy lounge as indicated on some outdated deck plans) also has a small area for lounge entertainment like a piano player, guitarist, or quartet. As a result they can offer a bit more entertainment options and spread things out a bit more.

 

For some reason we've found the party bands on some recent M class cruises to be sadly lacking in talent, but on our '07 Galaxy cruise the Caribbean party band was OK and on our recent one they were very good.

 

We really didn't partake of many of the other ship activities - although there are things like trivia in lounges and poolside, bingo, pool games, and other typical cruise activities (shouldn't say typical as I don't know what HAL offers). In the evenings they also have some activities such as Karaoke and guest shows such as the "Newlywed and not so Newlywed game" which are designed largely for watching.

 

It is true the Galaxy is an older ship. As such you will find some design differences from newer ships. While we found the ship very well maintained, even before the recent sprucing up, we did find some areas showing a bit of wear - although nothing that took at all away from our cruise. However there are some people that will not be happy unless their ship is in the kind of pristine shape that only comes on a ship that is at most a couple of years old. If you are one of those people, then the Galaxy, and any other older ship, might not be right for you. For example, while much of the carpeting and upholstery looked like fine and like it had been recently replaced there are some areas that look slightly worn and might be the next areas due for replacement. Same for painting, etc. I suspect that after the recent dry dock the ship will be in even better shape in this regard.

 

Hope this helps a little!

[Schplinky]

We've sailed HAL and X in the past year. One was a 4-day (X) and one a 7 day (HAL) and we found the HAL ship to be rather dull and the entertainment to be of poor quality in the theatre and fine elsewhere. We thought the food a bit beetter on HAL and the cabin to be a bit nicer but the activity schedule was incredibly thin. They are posted in my signature. We've been on 12 cruises and HAL was the very first time we have ever been bored. There are folks who say you should make your own fun but on HAL, you more or less had to.

[gatorbaby1]

Glad I could help "velvetred", while HAL's dining,service, and cabins are a LITTLE better."I(dd20) would perfer the Princess as there are slightly more activities to do, and the nightlife(trivia,movies,dance parties,ect.) tends to be a little more active." We actually take a big family cruise(20 people, ages 97 to 20) over Thanksgiving and had to decide between HAL and Princess,we went with Princess for that reason, more things to do for a wider age group. Whatever you decide I'm sure you and your daughter will have a fantastic cruise.

[velvetred]

Thanks for the comments. I really want my DD20 to have a great time on board. I think she would like something fun with a little excitement. The movies under the stars (MUTS) that Princess offers sounds enjoyable. As far as the age of a ship: A new ship would be nice but I don't live in a new house so I can make do with an older ship that is well-maintained with lots to do on-board. Also, I could put my daughter in a brand new car but if it's not going anywhere exciting or doesn't drive well, she will be bored or unhappy. I could put her in a beat up jalopy that was cruising the sand dunes or beach and she would be thrilled.

 

For those of you that have children in the younger generation, I am sure you know what I am talking about. Kids today are technologically savvy and are used to multi-tasking more than previous generations and to some extent, I think they bore much more readily than the previous generations. When I was a kid we basically had 3 tv stations and 3 flavors of ice cream (chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry) but now there are so many more options (and choice is a wonderful thing). My daughter would be ok with an older demographic as I work in the nursing home industry. From the time she was a small child she has visited nursing homes so she is able to have a good rapport with the elderly. However, I want this trip to be extra-special for her and I want to go on a 10 day cruise. To those of you that have commented about the specific activities on board, an extra thank you - these are exactly the type of comments I was seeking. Gatorbaby1-thanks for checking with your dd20 again.

[usha]

Velvetred, my youngest DD (now 28) has been on Celebrity, Holland America & Princess so far. Her favorite is a tie between Celebrity & Holland America, with Princess trailing way behind. She loved the friendly, professional service & the spaciousness of =X= & HAL, and didn't much care for the noisy, crowded feel and hit-or-miss service on Princess.

DH & I were on Galaxy in Feb, 07 on pretty much the same itin. you were considering, and it was such a wonderful cruise! We loved the islands, and we really enjoyed the pampering we got from the staff on Galaxy! If I were choosing, I'd probably pick Galaxy, unless Noordam was a little cheaper, or Emerald was darn-near free. JMO...:o

(BTW, you'll notice I'm going on Carib. Princess in a few days. It was darn-near free! :D )

[Orlandocruiser]

I would like to add a thought to Terry's comments regarding HAL's private island Half Moon Key. While it is a lovely place when there is only one ship "in port" that day, it can be quite crowded there are two at HMC. One can always return to the ship for lunch, but the biggest caveat regarding HMC is that it is a tender port. We have been there twice when it was too rough to tender in so it is wise not to base your entire cruise on HMC.

[Jade13]

We have sailed on both lines and pretty much found everything superior on HAL including staterooms and amenities (Elemis Spa products and a fruit basket in all cabin classes and great beds), better theater entertainment (both dancers and singers and special entertainment), better itinerararies on HAL in general, better food on HAL, better pre-cruise customer service (including Custom Air department, Guest Services Department and Shore Excursions Department), and better Guest Relations on board, better overall staff (although we gave excellant marks to our Cabin Steward Waiter and asistant on Celebrity we prefer the Asian staff onboard all HAL ships), better daily activities on HAL (note that Celebrity had a lot of invitation only events and if you haven't had 5 or over 10 cruises on Celebrity you are out of luck). On HAL everyone gets invited to Formal Tea (Royal Dutch) and Indonesian (if available), and a backstage tour (if offered) and everyone is invited to the Kitchen Tour. HAL will have a Meet & Great for Cruise Critic members no matter what the length of the cruise where Celebrity refuses on anything under 7 nights.

 

Note that our one Celebrity cruise was on Century (a 5 night) and someone, I believe our Celebrity Cruise Critic Host said they feel these short cruises are "dumbed down". That may well be the case but from my perspective there was no late night buffet and no BBQ either.

 

Note that this ship was very very clean, so no issue with that but there was def something missing that I find on HAL ships.

 

Century does have the 4 and 5 night product not offered by HAL, but I wish they actually tried to do some things to win you to cruise with them again (such as the mentioned Midnight Buffet and BBQ, and formal tea for all). I was in a CC class cabin and received no "Special invitations" as indicated on the Celebrity web site.

 

Hope this helps.

[Jade13]

The Noordam in my opinion has a far inferior itinerary. I think Dominica is a terrible place to visit, it is among the poorest and most backward islands in the Caribbean and not even as hi rated to call it third world. quote]

 

I guess that is why different strokes for different folks. Dominica is the number one Island in the Carribean that I want to visit (I have already been to Aruba and Grand Cayman etc). I heard it is just beautiful.