At Sea with the Holland America cruise ship
Here we go again!
We had a conference in San Diego, and on our last Princess cruise, we heard a lot of people compare Princess to Holland America. So, we found a cruise that left San Diego on the day after the conference ended, so decided to give it a shot.
Therefore, you’ll find that I compare this cruise to our Princess cruise. Both boats were built the same year and hold about the same number of passengers, so they will be good comparisons.
One of the reasons we wanted to make this comparison is that we are interested in doing a big Alaska cruise. They are expensive, so we wanted to look at these different lines in order to make a decision.
The cruise left from San Diego, and spent the first two days at sea going down to Mexico. That’s where we are now - the start of the second day at sea.
During days at sea, the ship puts on many activities that you can enjoy. One of the things on the HAL (Holland America Lines) ships is a cooking demonstration area. They set up shows like the Food Network, with cameras for close-ups and the like, and teach how to cook. We were looking forward to these demonstrations, but the problem was that the person giving the demonstration didn’t follow the recipes that were handed out! In addition, his spoken English was not strong, and I had a hard time understanding the intent of some of what he was saying. So, while I liked the idea of the cooking demonstrations, the one we attended was disappointing.
The food seems to be a little better than the food with the Princess ship we were on. Not by much, mind you, but just a little tastier. The service, however, is not as good. The Princess boat had several smaller dining rooms, while this one has one large room. There seems to be significant lines and grumpy people if they did not make reservations for dinner. (You can either eat at the same time every night, or eat when you would like, but then it’s like a normal restaurant.) There is a buffet open much of the time (but not all of the time); however, it’s unusual in that there are servers at the buffet to help you with food. I think this has been done to avoid passengers touching the same spoons and controlling germs. So, the food quality is a little better on HAL, but the service was better on Princess.
The shows are equally cheesy, although we’re only in 2 nights on the the HAL ship. The HAL theater is bigger; one of the problems with Princess is that you had to get to shows 10 minutes early or you would not get a seat. There doesn’t seem to be that much of a problem here.
I much preferred the ship layout on the Princess. It was a bigger boat (although for the same number of people), and felt less cramped. I do like the style of the HAL line - very art deco (although Ken doesn’t care for it).
Both boats had a special “VIP Spa” area, and I joined it each time. The VIP spa here is nicer than the one on Princess; while they both had steam rooms, saunas, and heated ceramic beds, this ship has a swimming-pool size hot tub. One side has these series of bars that create lounge chairs in the water, and with the bubbles coming from underneath, are VERY relaxing.
The casino on Princess was much better than the casino here. The casino here also seems to be more tight - I don’t hear as many people winning. I haven’t done as well, to be sure.
The library and game-playing areas on HAL are much better. There wasn’t a card/game room on Princess, but there is one on HAL. There is a very nice library on board as well.
There were several drink cards on Princess to get unlimited soda or a number of brewed coffee drinks; here, the best they offer is a discount card to save a little money if you pre-buy the card. It’s a much worse deal.
The staff, overall, have been less friendly on HAL. Our cabin steward has been surly at times, so that hasn’t been as pleasant of an experience.
So, we’re still not that far into the cruise, but as of now, we’re giving the nod to Princess over HAL. Not by much, and HAL has some areas in which they area better.
We will see!
Today is another day at sea, and then tomorrow, we go into Puerto Villarta. (why do I hear Rod Roddy from the Price is Right saying the name of that city?)
We had a conference in San Diego, and on our last Princess cruise, we heard a lot of people compare Princess to Holland America. So, we found a cruise that left San Diego on the day after the conference ended, so decided to give it a shot.
Therefore, you’ll find that I compare this cruise to our Princess cruise. Both boats were built the same year and hold about the same number of passengers, so they will be good comparisons.
One of the reasons we wanted to make this comparison is that we are interested in doing a big Alaska cruise. They are expensive, so we wanted to look at these different lines in order to make a decision.
The cruise left from San Diego, and spent the first two days at sea going down to Mexico. That’s where we are now - the start of the second day at sea.
During days at sea, the ship puts on many activities that you can enjoy. One of the things on the HAL (Holland America Lines) ships is a cooking demonstration area. They set up shows like the Food Network, with cameras for close-ups and the like, and teach how to cook. We were looking forward to these demonstrations, but the problem was that the person giving the demonstration didn’t follow the recipes that were handed out! In addition, his spoken English was not strong, and I had a hard time understanding the intent of some of what he was saying. So, while I liked the idea of the cooking demonstrations, the one we attended was disappointing.
The food seems to be a little better than the food with the Princess ship we were on. Not by much, mind you, but just a little tastier. The service, however, is not as good. The Princess boat had several smaller dining rooms, while this one has one large room. There seems to be significant lines and grumpy people if they did not make reservations for dinner. (You can either eat at the same time every night, or eat when you would like, but then it’s like a normal restaurant.) There is a buffet open much of the time (but not all of the time); however, it’s unusual in that there are servers at the buffet to help you with food. I think this has been done to avoid passengers touching the same spoons and controlling germs. So, the food quality is a little better on HAL, but the service was better on Princess.
The shows are equally cheesy, although we’re only in 2 nights on the the HAL ship. The HAL theater is bigger; one of the problems with Princess is that you had to get to shows 10 minutes early or you would not get a seat. There doesn’t seem to be that much of a problem here.
I much preferred the ship layout on the Princess. It was a bigger boat (although for the same number of people), and felt less cramped. I do like the style of the HAL line - very art deco (although Ken doesn’t care for it).
Both boats had a special “VIP Spa” area, and I joined it each time. The VIP spa here is nicer than the one on Princess; while they both had steam rooms, saunas, and heated ceramic beds, this ship has a swimming-pool size hot tub. One side has these series of bars that create lounge chairs in the water, and with the bubbles coming from underneath, are VERY relaxing.
The casino on Princess was much better than the casino here. The casino here also seems to be more tight - I don’t hear as many people winning. I haven’t done as well, to be sure.
The library and game-playing areas on HAL are much better. There wasn’t a card/game room on Princess, but there is one on HAL. There is a very nice library on board as well.
There were several drink cards on Princess to get unlimited soda or a number of brewed coffee drinks; here, the best they offer is a discount card to save a little money if you pre-buy the card. It’s a much worse deal.
The staff, overall, have been less friendly on HAL. Our cabin steward has been surly at times, so that hasn’t been as pleasant of an experience.
So, we’re still not that far into the cruise, but as of now, we’re giving the nod to Princess over HAL. Not by much, and HAL has some areas in which they area better.
We will see!
Today is another day at sea, and then tomorrow, we go into Puerto Villarta. (why do I hear Rod Roddy from the Price is Right saying the name of that city?)