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As for the Seabourn triplets...their standard-sized cabins are 275 sf. Nice sized. Comparable in size to the mini-suites on the Grand Princess. But only french balconies are available on a few.. at a steeper price. Even comparing Seabourn to HAL..........nah........full suite on HAL....that's the way to cruise :-)
However, in our opinion, they had no clue as to service and amenities suite passengers are accustomed to receiving on other comparable cruiselines.
There were no fresh flowers in the suite at any time during back-to-back cruises, no wine or champagnes from captain or hotel manager, no cocktail parties or special events, no tender passes, no NY Times Fax delivered, no menues delivered each afternoon, no "little gifts", no "first-off" disembarkation, etc etc
On HAL, we have always had the amenitites as listed above...and we love the lay-out of the suite. The dressing table with second sink is very convenient .... although I must say we did enjoy having the toilet area with a second sink in the Princess suite and a door from both the hall and the main bath.
Just the amenitites would not be enough reason for us to be absolute in our preference for HAL suites over Princess' without our whole cruise experience being much more to our liking.
The service on HAL is always so genuine and the food is far more to our liking as we think the dining rooms on HAL are more elegant and the service and quality and choices of food superior. I find their menus to be somewhat more sophisticated and interesting.
I don't think any of the mass market cruiselines have a buffet that comes anywhere close to HAL's Lido...at least on the Statendam class and newer ships.
Sorry it took me so long to say that, in my opinion, with the alumni discounts available, the cost of a HAL suite and one on Ocean Princess (and her sisters) is in the same general range but the product is very different.
I was just wondering when you sailed on the Ocean???
For we had priority tendering, debarkation, the menus, flowers, goodies at 5 pm, champagne on arrival, etc. And we were only in a mini-suite on the Grand Princess!!
In the Cunard brochure for example, I see a best fares of £952 for an inside cabin and on the same cruise, a Grand Suite for £11,152. After all you could buy 11 inside cabins for 20 guests and still have some change!
[This message has been edited by Malcolm (edited 03-28-2001).]
It wasn't a "bad" cruise and nothing seriously wrong with it. It just didn't meet our expectations and compared, in our opinion, very unfavorably to HAL.
We didn't feel that those particular Princess cruises on those particular dates were on a level with what we have consistently experienced at HAL.
My husband literally had to "argue" our way off for early disembarkation. Because we had a post cruise stay planned for San Juan, the Purser's Office said they didn't care we were in a full suite for back-to-backs, they couldn't and wouldn't allow us an early disembarkation.....said it would create "chaos on the gangway"!!!!!! They did finally manage to allow the two of us to leave in order for my husband to be prompt for an appointment he had at the Ritz Hotel....but why should he have had to dance through hoops? Seems a small enough courtesy you can offer a suite passenger...and didn't even cost them any of their precious profit dollars...this was a free way to make a back-to-back suite passenger at least leave with a smile instead of an argument.
Suffice to say, we have run back to HAL. This was just our individual experience and I can't speak for anyone else.
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