I once read a question on the HAL forum about why it was that the Prinsendam cruises were more expensive than other HAL cruises and the answer was because they can get it. Having sailed many HAL cruises on other various ships, with the Amsterdam being our favorite, we wanted to try the Prinsendam to see if it was worth the extra money.

Aside from the fact that the Princendam, at a little over 800 passenger capability, is one of the smallest of all mainline cruise ships which means that things like tendering, embarkation and debarkation are a bit easier, we saw little difference in her. Basically we found the Prinsendam to be much the same as any HAL cruise ship, just in a scaled down version. We did not find the crew to be any more or less friendly or accommodating than on any other of HALs ships. We found the same deficiencies of service in the main dining room and the food was just the same as the rest of HALs fleet.

On the good side, we found in general the entertainment to be a notch above what we had previously experienced on other HAL ships. However that may just be due to what particular performers are scheduled at any given time. I also enjoyed that being a smaller ship, one could feel the motion of the boat upon the sea, something you usually don't get on the larger cruise ships, barring heavy seas. Read more