Background - This is our 2nd HAL cruise. The first was a 10 night cruise out of Rome. We usually cruise on NCL.

Service is great. That's something we remembered from our last HAL cruise. I can't think of one negative to say about the crew. Always friendly, and if you met someone more than a couple of times, they remembered your name.

Food. Spotty. The good - Specialty dining is top notch. Better that NCL. The Pinnacle Grill and Taramind are both worth much more than the up charge. We also did the night of Le Cirque - fabulous. We were in a Neptune suite, so we could eat in the Pinnacle Grill for breakfast, and it was too was very good. The buffet for lunch was good with a large variety, and different countries stations each day. A nice touch. The bad - soft server was terrible in the buffet. Always runny, and always the server apologizing for it. They didn't have near the variety at dinner that they had for lunch. It was mostly dishes similar to the MDR. If I wanted that, I'd go to the MDR. They also had very short hours at the Dive In. Their burger and hot dog stand. Always closed at dinner time, and you couldn't get a hamburger in the buffet. The main dining room food is about the same as NCL. Nothing to write home about. You really notice the difference in quality between the up charge dining and the MDR. No comparison there. For surf and turf night the lobster was tasteless and the steak was Outback quality. Read more