Eurodam Review
Rating by category
Additional details
HAL vs Princess
This is a review after taking back to back 7 day cruises. The first week (Feb7-14) was spent on the Ruby Princess, the latest addition to the Princess fleet. The second week (Feb14-21) was spent on the Eurodam, the latest addition to the Holland America fleet. This review will be focussed on comparing the ships and services of these competitors versus our particular itineraries which were both out of Fort Lauderdale, the western Caribbean on Princess and the eastern Caribbean on HAL.
First the cabins: We had a balcony stateroom on Princess, an obstructed view on HAL but, other than that, here are the differences we observed: Bathroom: The bathroom on HAL is bigger than Princess, with a bath/shower combination vs a small shower on Princess. The towels are bigger on HAL, softer on Princess. The shower hardware on HAL allows for more adjustment. Storage: Although HAL has closets with doors which are aesthetically more pleasing than Princess which is basically an open closet rod adjacent to the bathroom, we found the Princess setup more practical. The closets on HAL are adjacent to the cabin and bathroom door which creates congestion. Also, because there are several closets (3 separate compartments) you need to remember where everything is and you are constantly opening and closing doors in competition with each other when getting dressed or undressed. Combined with the desire to get in and out of the bathroom it can make for some comical results! With Princess the storage area is open and well lighted....not so aesthetic to see all your cloths hanging there, but it is well lighted and just works better. Mini Fridge: the HAL fridge was fully stocked with beers, wines, Perrier, soft drinks and bottled water. The Princess fridge had a few cans of coke and bottled water. They are essentially the same size. Furniture: The HAL bed was adjacent to window with a couch adjacent to the bathroom and across from the desk/TV. It had a table in front of the couch. The Princess bed was closer to the cabin door and had a desk and console adjacent to the balcony doors. We find the beds on HAL more comfortable than Princess. The bedding on HAL has you sleeping between sheets, while Princess has you sleeping under a duvet. The waste can on HAL has separate compartments for paper and waste, Princess has a single compartment waste can. HAL's desk comes with a lighted magnified make-up mirror. None on Princess. One thing we like about Princess is that their balcony door is a sliding patio door versus a hinged door on HAL. It is great to leave that sliding door open on Princess and go to sleep with the sound of the water on the hull of the ship. It is harder to do that on HAL as the hinged door of their balconies are spring loaded and designed to stay closed. In the past we have wedged them open with a chair. I believe the TV was larger on the Princess than HAL, however, I did not see a DVD player on the Ruby. The Eurodam comes equipped with a DVD player and the library has a good selection of movies for rent. The bedside tables are similar on each ship...a couple of drawers each with a cubby. The Princess bedside tables have deeper drawers which make them more useful. Princess has bedside table lamps which take up space. The Eurodam has neat wall mounted reading lamps on each side of the bed, leaving the top of each bedside table available. Cabin Amenities: The bathrobes are better quality on HAL and are available when you arrive. The Princess robes arrived on the second day of the cruise as they were being cleaned. The soaps and shampoos are better quality on the Eurodam. No towel animals on Ruby. On the first three nights we received small presents at turn down in the evening on the Eurodam. The first night we had a special plate of sweets to celebrate Valentine's day. The second night we received complementary Pinnacle invitations and a nice HAL tote bag for the beach or shore excursions. The third night we received our Mariner tiles. We were also impressed with the amount of personalized mail we received on the Eurodam. Dining arrangement confirmations etc. The small newspapers provided on HAL are not provided on Princess. HAL even provides an edition for Canadians!
Cabin Review
Large Outside Stateroom (fully obstructed views)
The cabin was as expected with a restricted view. One thing we suspect is that the better cabin stewards are assigned to the better cabins....logical. This was an economical choice for a cabin and served our needs, however, the cleaning and care of the cabin fell below HALs usual high standard. When we checked in there were several clues that showed a less than thorough cleaning had been done. After informing the front desk, an inspection was done and the issue was rectified.