Why Holland America?

kim wrote:
Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply. How would the Princess
experience be different than NCL? I take it that Personal Choice dining is
the same as freestyle?

Both dining options are available on Princess, traditional dining and
Personal Choice. I like Personal Choice.

Becca -----likes the soufflés on Princess...

MOAGC http://www.motherofallgroupcruises.com/
Miracle in May http://www.cruisemaster.com/miracle.htm
Canada - New England http://www.cruisemaster.com/carnivalFall.htm
Caribbean Princess http://www.cruisemaster.com/caribprin.htm

Kim... I think HAL would be the ship for you. Many think it is the ship
for old folks. ..Not true!! However, the passengers are basically a
slice of the general population without a pile of screaming kids, so it
appears that way. ...One does not have to dress up for dinner, as
there is always the lido restaurant (open for every meal) with plenty of
tables for two. ...Further, as for viewing the sites.... If you cruise
on a smaller ship, like the HAL Ryndam, as opposed to one of the bigger
ships, there is lots of deck space per person. (Remember, there is still
only so much top deck space even though on some of the larger ships:
"Queen Mary 2, for example", it looks like multiple apartment blocks
below deck) ...I cruised on the Ryndam through the Panama Canal.
Everyone told me to stake out a good viewing location first thing in the
morning. I never had any trouble, at any time during the day, to find a
good viewing location. Trust me... HAL is the best-- based on price
per cruise comparison. ...Jon

HAL used to be our favourite line and still ranks near the top with us
even though we now tend toward Celebrity. As far as the age issue is
concerned, I've never noticed much of a difference among the
mainstream lines. HAL ships have wonderful (and plentiful) deck
chaises along the promenade deck where you can quietly read just gaze
at the sea. Some ships (like many if not all of NCL's) have no
seating to speak of on the promenade deck. This is but one of several
reasons why we no longer consider NCL when booking a cruise. But to
each his own. JOHN

Would Holland America be a fit for me? I am in my late 30s. I do not
care for dressing up for dinner, I have to do this every day at work and do
not enjoy this during my vacations. I really like the freedom of not having
a set meal time. I do not enjoy eating dinner with strangers. I enjoy quiet
time. I love sitting in out of the way areas reading books, every now and
then gazing out to sea, sometimes these quiet areas are hard to come by.

I have cruised HAL twice and definitely found it is the "oxygen tank"
crowd. Think seniors cruising with their parents. On previous cruises
our travel agent would not recommend them to my DH and myself saying
that the average age was 70 and we would not enjoy it. The only reason
we cruised with them was it was dirt cheap for one cruise and the
other was a family reunion cruise. I must say that they did try to
find younger people for us to sit with at breakfast and lunch (I
noticed the maitr'd scanning the dining room - then understood he was
looking for 'suitable' dining companions) They also asked our ages
when booking the dining room seating. Not that I mind dining with
seniors - lots of good stories and such...but please I have absolutely
no interest whatsoever in prostate problems, arthritis blah blah. We
also found their was little action on the ship and they closed the
disco at midnight!!!

One solution for your dressing/eating concerns is to book a cabin with
a balcony - you can lounge there and eat there as well. Lots of space.
Also if you like to do active shore excursions, book them privately.
We found we did one with HAL and it was too crowded and the elderly
people had difficulty getting on an off the boat, making it slow and a
real time waster. My children thought the kids program on the Maasdam
was pretty poor - all crafts all the time, no sports etc. I personally
would choose another line. Another thing that annoyed me were the
endless announcements for Bingo - but there was a plus all the seniors
were playing bingo and were not at the pool, so lots of loungers!

YES! Princess has the best of both worlds in their dining experience. I highly
recommend it.

Lindsay

Charles said:

Holland America is known as a more traditional cruise line. It sounds
like other then NCL, you might find Princess more suitable. Princess
has a dining option that is similiar to NCL.

--
Charles

Technically they call the whole thing Personal Choice and when you don't eat in
the Traditional Dining setting, they call it Anytime Dining. But, most of us
just call that Personal Choice (PC

Lindsay

Both dining options are available on Princess, traditional dining and
Personal Choice. I like Personal Choice.

But with NCL you get about 10-12 different restaurants (at least on the new
ships) to pick from.

--Tom


"Linsifer" wrote in message
...
YES! Princess has the best of both worlds in their dining experience. I
highly
recommend it.

Lindsay

Charles said:

Holland America is known as a more traditional cruise line. It sounds
like other then NCL, you might find Princess more suitable. Princess
has a dining option that is similiar to NCL.

--
Charles

kim wrote:

I was reading the thread entitled, "Alaskan Cruises" posted on 11/24/04 with
interest as we are thinking of taking our first Alaskan Cruise. I really
appreciated the information regarding Glacier Bay.

However, one of the authors of a post in the same thread suggested that
Holland American has the best viewing area for the Alaskan Cruise. What
ship(s) would this refer to? I have never considered a cruise on Holland
America. I have heard this line referred to as the "Blue Hair Line" and
this doesn't inspire a desire to give it a try. Are the demographics of the
Holland customer older? If so, how much older? Recently a new friend of
mine has done nothing but rave about Holland America and I am starting to
wonder what I am missing. In your opinion, what makes Holland America
"stand out". What differences would I see between Norwegian, Carnival and
Holland America? Of the two lines that I have cruised(Carnival and NCL, 4
past cruises ---5th cruise booked for Jan 05), I felt that Carnivals food
was better, but I greatly preferred Freestyle dining on Norwegian.
Carnival's cabins were bigger, but I preferred the decor of the NCL ship. I
would cruise either line in a heart beat, but I did prefer NCL.

Would Holland America be a fit for me? I am in my late 30s. I do not
care for dressing up for dinner, I have to do this every day at work and do
not enjoy this during my vacations. I really like the freedom of not having
a set meal time. I do not enjoy eating dinner with strangers. I enjoy quiet
time. I love sitting in out of the way areas reading books, every now and
then gazing out to sea, sometimes these quiet areas are hard to come by.

Sometimes we cruise with our children, sometimes we leave them home! I do
not enjoy the disco, some of my favorite evenings have been sitting at the
piano bar. I do not enjoy the "party" scene. I do not stay up late, however,
I hate that the pools always seem to close so early. I hate that the pools
are salt water. I would love to be able to order from the regular dining
room menu for room service!

What would I enjoy about the Holland America Experience? What would drive
me crazy?

The part that enjoys piano bars and quiet areas and gazing out to sea.
But, not the part that doesn't enjoy dressing for dinner as HAL tries to
keep the spirit and essence of a bygone era, and this includes dressing
for dinner. They also have set times and aren't into the freestyle
dining of NCL or personal choice of Princess.

You go on a line for your own tastes, not for anyone else's. They may
enjoy HAL, but you may not.

Does HAL stand out? Depends really on what weight you put in HAL's
strengths. If you enjoy having a line with HAL's service style, ship
style, activities favoring some traditional aspects, then it may stand
out. It may seem like any other mass market line if you don't care for
these things or don't even notice them much.

From your list of tastes, and you do yourself a great service in
listing what's important to you, I'm not convinced you are a great fit
for HAL, but I think there are some aspects of HAL you might enjoy.

Ben S.


KimMCarr

That's if you want to pay EXTRA for many of them.

Lindsay

Tom said:

But with NCL you get about 10-12 different restaurants (at least on the new
ships) to pick from.

--Tom

The Lido isn't a pay restaurant. They have much of the same menu as the
dining room, and you don't have to dress. Plus, in Alaska, the formal
nights aren't all that formal. We did them with dressy black slacks and
tops. Men in suits mostly. Very few tuxes. Alaska is so different. Those
who haven't cruised there shouldn't assume that the experience in warm
weather is the same. It isn't.

HAL is great in Alaska. We did Lido dining when we wanted to stay late in
Juneau and we missed our seating.

You have major flexibility including having anything from the dinner menu
sent to your cabin as room service. Plus, the cabins are bigger than
Princess, and you can find room for two people to sit and have dinner,
something sorely lacking in my Princess balcony cabin. There was only one
chair in that cabin.

Diane


"Linsifer" wrote in message
...
| But who wants to pay big bucks to eat in the Lido restaurant?? Not me. I
like
| being able to be wined and dined in the REAL dining rooms and maybe not
have to
| dress up as much.
|
| Lindsay
|
|
|
| Jon said:
|
| One does not have to dress up for dinner, as there is always the lido
| restaurant (open for every meal) with plenty of
| tables for two.