This does not make me look good. The people who prefer Holland America think of Carnival as really trashy. I think of them as snooty. It's a basic difference of opinion.
It started with the booking. The agent asked if I had been on a cruise before and I told him, and with whom, and he just went on and on about how much more I would like this, and all of the fine art on the ship, and how it would all be so much classier. It was great that he was enthusiastic.
First off, I didn't think the artwork was that great. One of the things he said was that you could check out an audio guide for a tour of the artwork, and I planned to do that, but after being around the ship for a while, I didn't want to. It's not that it was horrible, but it wasn't that great. The literature about the ship kept referring to the Waterford Crystal globe, and it's fine, but I guess I am just not that into it.
We probably just have different aesthetics. That definitely came into play on the food. The food looked great, especially the desserts, but they tasted pretty bland. I don't really like rich food. I want it to be flavorful, but not heavy. For example, and some bags taste better than others, but I prefer Hershey kisses to Godiva, for example. Hey, I have conceded that I am trashy. I spent the first six years of my life in a trailer park.
I didn't really like their food that much. This was good, actually, because it kept us from overeating, which is easy to do on a cruise. On the other hand, my brother's neighbor came along too, and he said it was the best food he had ever eaten, so, it's taste.
The other area where it was kind of disappointing was the entertainment. Cruise ship entertainment is cheesy. That's to be expected. On Carnival, they knew they were not that great, so they just tried to have a lot of fun with it and to make sure that we had fun with it. On Holland America they actually seemed to think they were good. They were wrong.
I may have been somewhat prejudiced. Our first day on board we were eating and there was an area roped off for crew, and there was a group of guys talking and being kind of catty and looking really stuck up, and it turns out they were dancers. So every time I saw the one I thought of as "Scarfy" dancing with a big grin plastered on his face, I just thought of his as a faker. Incidentally, no one thought the entertainment was good except for the entertainment staff. That's not just our group. I heard other people making fun of them too, especially the comedian.
For service, it was okay. The people who cleaned our stateroom were great. Our dining hall staff was slow, but I don't think that was them specifically. I enjoyed eating in the dining room on the Carnival cruise, here it was a chore that we did for the family togetherness.
I think my main thing with preferring Carnival was the convenience. They specifically scheduled things so they did not interfere with shore excursions, and they had two shows, so if you were the early dining you had the late show and late dining had the early show, and all of it started after you were back on board. On this cruise, there was only one show, starting at 10, and not worth staying up for. They had one thing we really wanted to do but it conflicted with the Victoria stop, and then once we were running late, you would think they could have rescheduled it, or done something to try and make the wait time a little better, but they didn't.
Some of this is actually problems with that particular cruise, I think. Later on my brother was asking one of my sisters if she would go on another cruise. She said not for a while, and he said he didn't blame her because that was not a good crew, and they really needed to start over with staffing.
I can see how that might help with entertainment and efficiency, but I think I would still find it snooty, and yet for my brother and his wife, that is the way to go. Not the snooty part - they wouldn't call it that - but the higher end experience.
One last thing, as we were getting into Victoria, another ship, Norwegian Pearl, passed us, and again, this is not just my group but the other passengers as well, felt really jealous. There they were all big and brightly colored and going faster than us. That was also the worst day of the cruise though, so timing was an element.
If there is something helpful in this, it is to find the line that is right for you before you take a cruise. I am sure Celebrity would annoy me. Disney would probably be great, but maybe not great enough to justify the extra cost. The thing is, they all know their niche, and it is something where you can get a good idea from their advertising and literature and word of mouth.
Apparently I'm the trashy party girl type. Who knew?
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