Help us decide which way to go...

[Rashomon]

Hi everyone!

Me and my wife have just got married and we are planning a wedding trip. This might include a 7 or 10 day caribbean cruise with either Holland America Line or Royal Caribbean. The problem is deciding which company to go with.

A bit of background first. We are around 30 years old, we love food (not in the terms of "all you can eat" but rather in terms of excellent dining) and fine wines.
We don't have kids, we don't dislike kids but we don't want hordes of them running around everywhere. In the same manner we don't want the cruise to be vast quantities of senior citizens. All in all, we want a good and balanced mix I guess. Oh, and we have never gone on a cruise like this before.

Reading various internet pages and guides (here and others) you can easily get the impression that Royal Caribbean has extremely large ships, are family oriented, has tons of activities, has quite good food and might also be prone to excessive partying (thus my mind wanders overly drunk people wandering the ship at night screaming).
Holland America Lines on the other side has smaller ships taking fewer passengers thus more crew per passenger, better food, not so much activities as Royal Caribbean, has a higher average age (and it's here you sometimes read about ships being deserted at 9 pm etc).

I guess that the truth sits in somewhat in between these two rather simplified descriptions, and this is where you, the cruiser aficionados come in. Help us decide by giving us some insight or asking us further questions, perhaps even advice us if you think we should look at a third or fourth company. It might even be so that the only way to decide is to try both companies.

This has forum entry will be placed in both the Royal Caribbean forum and the Holland America Line forum, I hope that is fine with you. Our guess was that this was the best way to get answers from both Royal Caribbean fans and Holland America Lines fans.

Thank you for your help!

[lak1]

I've been on both and my own preference would be HAL. HAL has excellent service, but depending on what time of year you go and how long the cruise is, you may, in fact, see an older crowd of passengers. If it is a time when schools are out, RCI will be packed with kids and HAL will have some (not as many). I do not like a lot of kids running rampant and while I'm around your age, the older crowd does not deter me. I'm not a fan of the behemoth RCI vessels - too many passengers for me. In all fairness, I have not tried any of their smaller ships.

Another option is to try Princess - maybe a happy medium. The food and service are good and the crowd is a bit younger than HAL. Plus, they have Movies Under the Stars and fresh water pools, which are both nice.

There are plenty who love RCI, but my own opinion would be Princess or HAL. Best of luck - I'm sure you'll enjoy it whichever line / itinerary you choose!

[big apple]

Agree that Princess might be in the middle however would also look at Celebrity which will offer some nice additions such as cold towels delivered by the pool and sorbet also free by the pool. Their age group tends to be less than Holland for the most part and they are a class act from the time you board with the free champagne and escorted to your room by one of the stewards.You will not go wrong with any choice and as I always say it sure beats staying at home.

[jena1]

You don't tell us the time of the year for your Caribbean cruise. Holland America only sails the Caribbean from approx October through April. If that is the time frame you are considering, then I would absolutely pick HAL. We have been in 1 RCL and 6 HAL cruises and IMHO there is no comparison. We also like good food and nice wines, and not a rowdy crowd. We have found after 19 cruises in different cruise lines that HAL is the best fit for us. they have ample lovely cabins, subdued elegance, again good food and wine. You can bring aboard all the wine you want, which is a plus. If you drink it in your cabin there is no charge, but if you want to drink it in the DR there will be a corkage fee ($18.00). If you have more questions do not hesitate to ask. Have a great cruise!

[Ford_Racing_Ron]

Well I;ve only been on HAL but let me tell you something anyhow.

I am taking a Carnival cruise next year for reasons I won't go into here,,but I have been looking at a lot of Carnival forums (like this HAL one). One thing I have learned is HAL costs a lot more, but Carnival is less refined,,more of a boozing party type ship. Why do I say this is someone did a pretty unbiased comparison of Carnival to RCCL and they are pretty similar. Also, the arguements they have on the CCL forums make me wonder. Always fighting about drinking (prices of booze) and smoking on the ships.

I will have fun on CCL because I have that type of persoanlity and I adapt easily,,but if HAL did the same 4 night type cruise as I am taking I would be on the HAL ship, hands down, cost making no difference. there are just smaller things , and a few larger ones, that HAL has that I will miss on CCL. CCL has things like the hairy chest competition,,right. HAl has 5 star dining. HAL has 5 star prices,,but you get 5 star quality (I even have a Holland America bed at home for sleeping).

As far as kids,,I was on the Eurodam in Northern Europe,,there were a lot of kids, they all seemed to be having a good time.

[momofmeg]

My preference is HAL, but I am 55 years old. So I am not sure HAL is best for you. I also do not think RCI is the best choice either, because of your hordes of kids comment. Perhaps you would like Princess.

Princess and HAL are owned by the same company. HAL is Carnival corp's the premium mainstream line-Princess is their in between HAL and Carnival. Not a lot of kids on Princess, but the PAX are a little more youthful

Check out Princess and see if you feel that is a good fit for you.