A tale of two cruise lines

I'm home! I came back to Fall at Woodhaven. It's beautiful.

I'm inching my way towards this time zone. I think I'm somewhere between Chicago and Cedar Rapids at the moment. I'm rarely this awake at this early hour, even when insomnia or an airplane ride are involved.

My suitcases are empty. My laundry is done. I am caught up with 9 hours of stars dancing. Poor Misty May. Mom returns to work today and I return to the gym. I don't have a scale so I don't know about me, but Mom lost -- lost -- two pounds on the trip.

I still need to weed through emails and snail mail. Three issues of People await my leisure time. I've loaded my photos onto my computer but haven't taken a deep breath to dive into Mom's yet. I've set a November 1 goal of finishing my photo album. We'll see how that goes.

I think I have one more cruisey blog post after today. Then it will be back to the randomness of my daily life on the outskirts of a small rural town.

While we were cruising along on a really big Princess ship, it was impossible for me not to make comparisons to the only other cruise I've been on. Since I now understand the allure of cruising, I hope to take lots more trips in the future. So for my future reference -- and hopefully yours -- here's my two-data-point analysis of Holland America versus Princess.

Advantage Holland America:

Bigger rooms. For the same class of room (basic with a veranda), the Holland room had an extra couch worth of space. That additional seating area allowed for more relaxing in the room as well as more storage. The Princess room was surprisingly roomy enough for two women on a 12-day cruise, but it was more of a hotel room and less of a haven.

Better service. OK, I'll admit it: I missed the personal service and friendly smile of the plate-hander-outer at the breakfast buffet on Holland. The buffet on Princess was totally self-service. The Holland wait-staff also seemed more experienced and attentive. And I felt like I got to know our personal room steward, Didi, on our Holland trip. On Princess, I was tempted to dock some of the discretionary but automatically added daily tip since I really wasn't sure Marlon's service was worth $10.50 per day. But since it didn't go entirely to him, I resisted my tight wad inclinations and only insisted the double booking for our shore excursion to Pompeii be deducted from my final bill.

Towel animals. Yes, it's goofy, but I really enjoyed coming back to our Holland room each night to find our hand towels contorted into the shape of a new creature. Marlon, our Princess room steward, provided a single towel animal late in the cruise. But we're not sure what it was. Without my sunglasses - which Marlon pilfered out of the case on my nightstand - we would not have even known it was a creature at all. It would have simply looked like a pile of rolled up towels. I was so wistful for the linen fun, I actually took pictures of towel monkeys hanging in the windows of a Holland ship next to us in port in Kusadasi.

Wine. I'll try not to sound too snobby here. On Holland, we had a really nice selection of wines that were local to the general area (Pacific Northwest) in addition to some good favorites from California and some fun new things to try. On Princess, the only interesting wines were on the exorbitantly priced “premium” list. Otherwise, everything was pretty much stuff I can find at my local grocery store. Nothing from the regions we were traveling through, aside from Italy. And the offers by the glass were things I can find at Target. At over $7 a glass, I decided instead to buy a bottle of wine in Dubrovnik and sipped on it on our veranda before dinner. For a future Princess cruise, I might bring my own wine stash from home and pay the corkage fee at dinner. I'd still come out ahead.

Sheets. I'm not terribly green, so maybe others would react differently to this. But I was surprised and disappointed that my bed sheets were never changed during the entire 12 day cruise on Princess. Since I did my fair share of tossing and turning, and also had smeared remnants from one of the chocolates on the pillow, I really would have liked new sheets at least mid-way through. Honestly, it felt cheap. On Holland, I don't remember the sheets being an issue at all, so I suspect they changed them every other day at least.

Advantage Princess:

Better info about upcoming ports. We had an awesome Port Lecturer named Rusty Wilson whose resume was long and schizophrenic. He taped a thorough half-hour or so talk the day before we arrived in each port. The lecture was then broadcast on a loop on one of the ship's TV channels. Not only did Rusty provide info about what to see and do, he gave history and geographic info as well as political, economic, and cultural insights. He also showed photographs of landmarks for those wanting to venture out on their own. We relied heavily on the photos when finding our way to the bus station in Santorini. Holland America didn't have much of anything beyond the nightly map of landmarks and jewelry stores. I felt much better prepared by Princess each time we arrived at a new destination.

Better buffet set-up. Oddly, on the Holland ship, we always had to track down someone to give us silverware and a napkin. We were very confused why they just couldn't have basket or something. Well, Princess had a basket. Small detail but it meant we didn't start each morning trying to flag down a server in order to begin our breakfast.

Cleaner hands. Twelve days – instead of seven -- on a ship that was 50% larger and the only walking I did was with my feet. Phew! Interestingly, on the Holland ship, there were Purell-type hand sanitizer stations every 50 feet of so. Passengers were pretty constantly rubbing their hands together. Stations at every entrance and exit to every public place – dining rooms, bathrooms, lounges, elevators, gang planks. All this and Holland has one of the worst records in the cruise industry for norovirus (I know this now). On Princess, there was a letter with our Welcome packet explaining the importance of washing one's hands. There were discreet sanitizers at the entrance to the buffet and at the hot dog/hamburger grill, but that was it. And I probably saw them used less than a dozen times the entire cruise. All this and I didn't hear a single story about someone getting sick. What's the secret? The clue is the sign that Princess posted next to its sanitizers. It reminded people that the sanitizers were not a replacement for washing one's hands. On Holland, I think people got a false sense of cleanliness and used the Purell in place of soap and water. I know I washed my hands less since I was always Purelling them. And Purell doesn't kill the norovirus germs (I know this now, too).

Draw:

Entertainment. The Movie Under the Stars on Princess was great fun. You lay in the lounge chairs around the pool and watch movies at night on a huge screen. Blankets, popcorn, and cookies provided. But, this was balanced by really amateurish singing and dancing shows. Honestly, theme parks have better talent. We didn't take advantage of much organized entertainment on the Holland ship but the Baked Alaskan parade was great fun. Holland also did a more elegant Afternoon Tea than Princess.

Size of the ship. The Holland ship was smaller and had fewer passengers per square foot. Yet the huge Princess ship with lots more tourists for the space only felt crowded when we had At Sea days. Otherwise, people were going in enough different directions that we were always able to find a seat and eat when we wanted without long lines. And I got equally lost on both ships for the duration of the cruises.

Food. The food on both ships was just fine. Tasty but not so tasty that I gorged myself. I saved that for the cafes and restaurants in port. At first I thought the Princess food was great, but then I started eating in Greece and the Princess food suddenly transformed into somewhat bland, institutional stuff. The food in Holland's fancier, pay-a-service-charge restaurant was better than Princess's version, though.

Ship. Holland did a better job with windows. The dining rooms had huge windows so you could easily enjoy the view over your prime rib. Princess's dining rooms had small windows with curtains. Holland also had a great area at the front of the ship so you could watch the upcoming scenery as if you were the captain. Princess's sprawling view was at the back. Holland also had a lovely library area with recliners where you could read and watch out the windows. The Princess library was about twice the size of our cabin and was tucked away behind the coffee bar. To Princess's credit, though, the ship had lots of lounges and places to escape crowds. It also had a big atrium with a circular marble staircase that made it feel very Love Boat-y (a good thing). Both ships had quiet rooms. The only time I ever heard neighbors on either cruise was when we were on our verandas. And this includes being near the stairwell on the Holland ship.


Overall, I'm not sure which line I like better. I guess for a trip with a lot of historical ports, I would prefer Princess simply for the highly informative and helpful port lectures they provide. For a trip seeking more relaxation and attentive service and simply enjoying the view, I'd pick Holland.

The bottom line is that I am beyond lucky and grateful to have had two fantastic trips with few complaints or glitches. And yes, that even includes Norwalk.