For a bit of context, my wife and I have been on 12 cruises and this was our first time with Holland. We have cruised with Princess and Royal and once each with Celebrity and Carnival. I think we have developed a pretty decent perspective on cruising over the years and before we cruised with HAL my perception was that HAL was likely a 3.5 star cruise experience compared to Carnival at 2.0 , Royal at 2.5, Princess at 3.0, Celebrity at 3.5 to 4.0 and the real high-enders at 5.0. I use Cruise Critic for 2 reasons: to gain insight into private excursion possibilities and to get familiar with the ship we are sailing on. In doing my research prior to our HAL cruise on the Oosterdam I saw a significant range within the reviews from readers on their cruise experience with this ship. I'm accustomed to seeing this -- where we have been very satisfied with the same cruise that other fellow passengers have been highly critical of. So with this being our first HAL cruise I was curious to see if the same would hold true.

Having just returned from our first cruise to Alaska with HAL, I can report that our cruise was excellent, HAL and the Oosterdam were just fine, and I'm further convinced that there are people out there that just should not cruise.

My perceived ranking of 3.5 for HAL would remain largely unchanged compared to the other lines and I would most certainly cruise with HAL again. As I had thought, HAL is a cruise offering that is more suited to mature adults, has a more refined culture about it, has a quieter atmosphere and delivers above average service and food quality. Based on the reviews and the passenger experience on our cruise, it had the same spectrum of people when it comes to outlook and attitude that I'm pretty sure you will find on every cruise. Quite simply, no matter what line you cruise with there are going to be people that apparently can't be pleased and are not happy unless they find something to complain about, there are those that choose to focus on the good versus the bad and are determined to enjoy the their holiday despite the small issues, and there are those that fall somewhere in the middle. My wife and I are of the opinion that there can be no such thing as a bad cruise holiday. Sure there are things that may not go right or as expected, but surely even a bad day on a cruise is still better than a good day off a cruise!! Surely there are more reasons than not to be happy and positive. Yet, it seems that some people are simply not happy unless they are whining or complaining or sending a message about how important they are relative to others. The absolute worst thing about cruising -- we have found -- is not the level of service or the food or the state of the ships furnishings, it's some other people on the cruise. Don't get me wrong, one of things we love about cruising is the people we meet and the ability to meet people, but the behaviour of too many people on cruises is appalling and reprehensible. For as nice and as well-raised as many of these people appear to be, they can be the most inconsiderate, rude and obnoxious people you could ever meet. They act as if they are above others and are entitled to act however they choose. We call them "cruise-spoilers" and while we largely try to ignore them, we have at times 'called them out' if their behaviour is bad enough to affect other people than just ourselves. Read more