My husband and I just returned from an 11-night Eastern Caribbean cruise on Holland America. This was a first time experience for both of us (we are late 40s) and had chosen a cruise because we were travelling with my parents and my dad has some mobility issues. We always thought we would hate cruising, mainly because of crowds & kids, but HAL was a pleasant surprise. We enjoyed every minute, our verandah room was delightful, service and food were great. The crowd was a little older than I expected but I did enjoy the (relative) quiet around the people and public areas.
We are looking forward to crusing again and are planning next year's trip. I'm looking at Celebrity as well as HAL and was hoping you might let me know why you prefer Celebrity. What is the age range of Celebrity passengers? Are there more families with small children? How does the food and service compare? Thanks !
My husband and I just returned from an 11-night Eastern Caribbean cruise on Holland America. This was a first time experience for both of us (we are late 40s) and had chosen a cruise because we were travelling with my parents and my dad has some mobility issues. We always thought we would hate cruising, mainly because of crowds & kids, but HAL was a pleasant surprise. We enjoyed every minute, our verandah room was delightful, service and food were great. The crowd was a little older than I expected but I did enjoy the (relative) quiet around the people and public areas.
We are looking forward to crusing again and are planning next year's trip. I'm looking at Celebrity as well as HAL and was hoping you might let me know why you prefer Celebrity. What is the age range of Celebrity passengers? Are there more families with small children? How does the food and service compare? Thanks !
Celebrity and Holland America Line (HAL) are both "premium" cruise lines, so their amenities, facilities, and level of service should be pretty comparable overall. Nonetheless, Celebrity seems to cater more toward the intellectually and socially sophisticated upper middle class of all ages, with a considerable variety of enrichment lectures as well as cullinary demonstrations geared toward conoisseurs. HAL, by contrast, has long been marketed as a "traditional" cruise line catering toward an older crowd, becoming notorious for having a median age of about eighty (80) on many of its cruises, but now seems to be trying to reverse that reputation to attract a younger clientelle. Along that line, HAL dropped its "informal" evenings a while ago and now has only "formal" and "casual" evenings whereas Celebrity still continues the tradtion of "informal" evenings, when gents wear sport coats, in addition to the "formal" and "casual" evenings. Also, I understand that a lot of HAL's shipboard activities still are geared toward the line's traditional older crowd.
My husband and I just returned from an 11-night Eastern Caribbean cruise on Holland America. This was a first time experience for both of us (we are late 40s) and had chosen a cruise because we were travelling with my parents and my dad has some mobility issues. We always thought we would hate cruising, mainly because of crowds & kids, but HAL was a pleasant surprise. We enjoyed every minute, our verandah room was delightful, service and food were great. The crowd was a little older than I expected but I did enjoy the (relative) quiet around the people and public areas.
We are looking forward to crusing again and are planning next year's trip. I'm looking at Celebrity as well as HAL and was hoping you might let me know why you prefer Celebrity. What is the age range of Celebrity passengers? Are there more families with small children? How does the food and service compare? Thanks !
Hi Sandy:
The age range depends on where you are cruising too. I have sailed Princess, Holland America and Celebrity and would honestly say that there was no age difference on any of my cruises. Cruises to Alaska, for example, do tend to have a little older average passenger age and that is true for all cruise lines, even Carnival. For me, I will go for an older crowd any day. Of all three cruise lines Holland America has by far the largest bathrooms of any cruise line. You might also want to consider Princess as they have many new ships and offer a great cruising experience.
If you are thinking of Celebrity, I would do some research on whatever ship you are thinking of choosing as there is a great difference between some Celebrity ships.
Also be aware that you may be denied boarding a Celebrity ship if you are considered not to be "an intellectually and socially sophisticated upper middle class, connoisseur", because it would hurt Celebrity's image! There is a screening process at the gang way! Just kidding!
BTW, does anybody know how to drag the smiles down to a post? I have tried everything and can't get those puppies to move.
Debra
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With integrity nothing else matters; without it nothing else matters.
Nonetheless, Celebrity seems to cater more toward the intellectually and socially sophisticated upper middle class of all ages
Norm... I covered my computer screen with the drink in my mouth at this one. I was just on Celebrity in Dec, and none of those qualifiers describe me
I'm afraid you are being a bit presumptious in your descriptions again
A month after my Celebrity cruise I was on a Holland America ship.
Both were excellent cruises, and service was close to excellent on both. I preferred the dining room food on Celebrity. Holland America is better in the lido deck breakfast and lunch offerings.
HAL has larger cabins with perhaps the best beds in the industry. Celebrity got the edge in Entertainment.
Demographics on both cruises was very similar..... but I couldn't really judge the "sophistication level"
Norm... I covered my computer screen with the drink in my mouth at this one. I was just on Celebrity in Dec, and none of those qualifiers describe me
I'm afraid you are being a bit presumptious in your descriptions again
A month after my Celebrity cruise I was on a Holland America ship.
Both were excellent cruises, and service was close to excellent on both. I preferred the dining room food on Celebrity. Holland America is better in the lido deck breakfast and lunch offerings.
HAL has larger cabins with perhaps the best beds in the industry. Celebrity got the edge in Entertainment.
Demographics on both cruises was very similar..... but I couldn't really judge the "sophistication level"
Hey, historical fact is historical fact! There's no doubt that, for a solid decade after acquiring Holland America Line (HAL), Carnival Corporation pitched HAL as a traditional cruise product for older people while pitching Carnival as a party line geared toward a younger market. I think my post was fair in noting that HAL has changed its marketing strategy to attract a younger crowd.
But I'm glad that I gave you a good laugh, anyway!
BTW, does anybody know how to drag the smiles down to a post? I have tried everything and can't get those puppies to move.
Just click on the emoticon to the left of the edit window. It will insert the code for that emoticon into your post, wherever the cursor is. If you prefer, you can just type the code. Typing "LOL", for example, produces and typing ";-)" produces ;-).
Hi We have been sailing with Celebrity since 1997. Would say we are very experienced. We know good food, entertainment, service. you name it. We just returned from Europe in 2007 on the Century. It was the worst cruise we were ever on with Celebrity. THs ship is getting old. Lots of creeks and vibrations. SO many people were trying to change their rooms. It was a mess. Service was terrible.The ship should be docked. The food on a scale of 1-10 was a 4. Really bad. Can't believe they have the Century cruising Europe again this year. Try one of their other ships. Holland America's Zaandam also is like the Century. No complaints on the others. Also call to find out how many people have been sick with the nuro virus before you cruise. Remember if someone in your party gets sick everyone in that room are quaranteed for 48 hours or more. Plus they are constantly spraying bleach and other chemicals on the ship as well as the buses that transport you to and from the airport. We had hundreds of people sick on the cruise in Nov 2007.Barcelona. IF YOU CHECK everything out before hand and ask lots of questions. If it doesn't feel right don't go. Sorry..We weren't smiling when we got home.
I sailed with HA to Alaska (June 2004) and Baltic Sea (July 2006). Both cruises were wonderful regarding the food and attentiveness from ALL the staff. Yes, we sailed with older people (we're in our 30's), but that was fine with us.
We just came back from a Celebrity Cruise (Century) in the Caribbean, the experience was really dissapointing. There's is no point in even try to compare the food. It was tasteless, frozen dinners are much better. If you don't mind the food, it may work for you, but after HA you'd hate the food on Celebrity. We were welcomed with a Mimosa when we entered the ship, and that was it. The service was really . . . absent. Even in the dining room, we had a somewhat rude sommelier, and the waiter? well he just did his job.
In addition, I got norovirus and was confined to my stateroom for 48 hours. They never cleaned the room during that time. I was provided food, but the service was slow and the food (chicken soup) was salty and cold!
Yes, I was totally dissapointed by this cruise. I wondered if having so wonderful experiences in HA and Costa has something to do with it. i'm curious if someone out there enjoyed this cruise as much as I didn't.
Well, perhaps I should not answer as I have yet to sail with HAL but the
full transit we did on Celebrity's Summit in Jan, 2007 was outstanding.We have done a Costa (our first) and a Princess (probably our last !) prior to that. Everything about the ship was great - the service, the food, our
balcony cabin - the bathroom was wonderful (much better than Princess) and the Aqua Spa was to die for. Entertainment was fantastic - the
singers and dancers put on 4 different Broadway type musicals that
ran an hour and half each during the 14 days in addition to some other
fine performers. I love to shop so that was kind of disappointing (my
DH disagrees !!) but I would go with Celebrity again in a minute.
We sail only Celebrity and RC. I just booked another X cruise for June '09 today--Summit Classical Med. That will make 6 X cruises; 5 in a row. We booked Galaxy to the S. Carib. while on Mercury this past Jan.
I suppose there are glitches on any ship, but we've always had great food and service on all our cruises on both lines. (And, trust me, we are not Lah-De-Dah sophisticates, lol)
1/02 Explorer E. Carib. 1/03 Explorer W. Carib.
8/03 Summit Alaska cruise/tour 2/04 Adventure S. Carib.
2/05 Galaxy Panama Canal 6/06 Jewel Brit. Isles/Nor. Fjords
1/07 Mercury Mexican Riviera 1/08 Mercury Aust/NZ
1/09 Galaxy S. Carib. 6/09 Summit Classical Med.
A previous poster made comments reguarding the Century in Europe for summer 07.
My wife and I sailed the Artic Circle cruise and found the ship to be just fine. We have been sailing sailing Celebrity ships from the days of the Meridian.
While the Century is an older ship it is not in bad shape. If you are expecting a brand new Mega ship it might not be for you, but is is comfortable and the staff do an excellent job. The food on Celebrity overall has declined from what it one was, but still is better than any other medium priced line. The size of the vessel to us is just perfect. We don't want to be on a ship with over 3000 other passengers.
We have never sailed Holland but currently have a Transatlantic for Spring 2009 booked on the Noordam.
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Celebrity vs Holland?
(And, trust me, we are not Lah-De-Dah sophisticates, lol)
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