The Alaskan Inside Passage on Norwegian Cruise Lines.

We like going on a cruise. Why? Because we wake up in a new place without having to fly or drive there. Because we settle into one “hotel” room, unpack our stuff and don’t have to lug luggage around the world. Because we can do what we like: just have meals at a table for two, choose what we like, attend a good lecture or evening show if we feel like it, or just sit and read a book in the library.

Kees likes the walking deck and put in several kilometers a day, or uses a fitness centre if the weather isn’t great. I can swim anytime and even have breakfast in bed if I feel like it.

Kees walks the promenade deck, which was much better on HAL than the way-too-narrow track on Cunard’s Queen Anne.

We have been on different cruise lines in the past: Norwegian, Celebrity and several others. Sometimes these were just short repositioning cruises. We did our longest voyages with Holland America Lines (HAL) and Cunard. We usually select a cruise based on the itinerary offered rather than on the cruise line itself.

And, unwittingly, we keep comparing. “This was so much better on HAL”, or “This is much nicer on Cunard!”.

So here, for whatever it’s worth it, are the scores…

Docks in ports are more convenient than tender ports.

The facts: we traveled to the South Pacific in Fall, 56 days on HAL’s smallest vessel, the Zaandam. It’s passenger capacity is 1,400. Plenty!

With Cunard, on their 2 year old Queen Anne, we did a 42 day voyage from Europe to Africa and Asia, in winter. It’s capacity is a whopping 3,000 - we found it too big even though there are larger cruise ships.

Breakfast (bread) station on the Queen Anne.

Both times we had an inside cabin because we like the dark, quiet nights and I always think I’d get seasick if we had a window looking out on the ocean. I never have been seasick (yet!). Inside cabins have much less motion than ones on the outside of the ship. An inside cabin is also much less expensive than a room with a window or balcony. Inside cabins are small but have enough space to store our stuff. Plus, we have often camped and once lived in a camper for a year with our kids, so we’re used to small spaces. And, another bonus, we get along well.

Our welcome gift on the Zaandam was a handy shoulder bag and a Delft blue tile on departure. On the QA, a bottle of bubblies was waiting for us.

Each stateroom has a kingsize bed that can be made into two twin beds if you choose. The mattress and bed linens are superb, slightly better quality on Cunard.

Each stateroom also has hanging cupboards and shelves, some hooks on the wall and a small desk with a chair. On Cunard we asked for a second chair so we could watch movies on TV. The screen here was flat against the wall along the side of the bed, which is very awkward to watch. The TV in our HAL cabin was at angle facing the bed, much better. Our room on the Zaandam was slightly larger than the tiny room on QA.

Both bathrooms are small but adequate with lotion, liquid soap, shampoo and conditioner provided. And fluffy white towels. HAL gave us a large pool or beach towel we could take along. On the Queen Anne pool towels are offered by the pool and we simply took one of those to a beach if needed. Each shower has a retractable clothes line - very handy! The QA, being much newer, has a glass shower with door while the Zaandam still had a plastic shower curtain.

On both voyages, our cabin attendants were absolutely wonderful: kind, friendly, helpful and they looked after everything, spoiling us rotten.

On the QA we had a kettle on our desk, which we didn’t have on the Zaandam but each has a small fridge. We asked the room steward to remove all drinks for purchase so that we could actually use the fridge. Each cabin has a hairdryer, the QA a nice portable one; the Zaandam one of those horrible contraptions on the wall with a hose attached.

The pools on both ships were very similar and lovely.

One huge difference is that Cunard allows you to bring one or two bottles of wine, beer or soft drink on board, per person, at each port! HAL confiscated any drinks brought on board, even water!

When we booked our cruise with HAL, we were immediately assigned a ’personal cruise assistant’. We could either call or email him at any time and he would answer any questions immediately.

With Cunard, we phoned to book and then never heard anything again except received a receipt. We had no idea whom to approach with questions.

From HAL we received updates on our voyage and upbeat messages. From Cunard we received almost no communications except advertisements for other cruises. I wanted to tell them, look - we already booked. Make this one great first… I received several promotions a week to the point where I wanted to unsubscribe to anything from Cunard but was afraid to miss any pertinent emails.

I kept having to go to their website and, cumbersomely, log in each time I wanted to find something out. The site was not user friendly to navigate. I finally figured out most things out but not thanks to any helpful information on the Cunard side. We were bombarded by emails trying to sell us drink packages, spa packages, upgrades and restaurants that were not included. I do realize that’s how the Line makes extra money but it was too much and really turned us off before we even left.

Perhaps the biggest difference was found in onboard information. HAL has a fabulous, interactive app. Without needing wifi (just the onboard wifi which is free for the app) we could peruse the daily schedule and create our own personalized program. The app gave us a reminder when a show or talk was about to start. We could read daily newspapers and even text each other! That last feature was fabulous when we had two boys with us and we could contact each other, any time on the ship. With Cunard, the app its pretty useless and not accurate.

Once we arrived at the departure port, both cruise lines were quick and efficient.

The day before the cruise, and once we had already left home, we received an email from Cunard telling us about a new visa requirement for Namibia. It was a mad scramble to get that organized! Internet access on both Lines is prohibitively expensive. Apparently many people didn’t get the visa on time because, once on board, a new help desk was erected for just that purpose. We had to arrange almost all visas for different countries ourselves. On HAL we visited many more countries but never had to make those arrangements ourselves. We handed in our passports and all was arranged for us.

Vancouver from the deck of Norwegian Cruise Lines.

Then there is the onboard entertainment. Some of the singers, musicians or magicians are very similar on both boats. There were excellent presentations on both ships, for instance on HAL we enjoyed great talks on the geology and wildlife of South Pacific atols. On Cunard we had the executive producer of Human Planet who did a slideshow, a safari guide from Namibia and a great publisher/speaker from Malaysia as well as a 5 day writing course. But the port talks on the QA are dreadful compared to what we had on HAL. There we had a gracious, knowledgeable man from the South Pacific who, together with the entertainment director, did excellent presentations about the history, geography and pertinent information for each next port. They gave us maps, told us where to find wifi, how best to get around etc. etc. On Cunard, these talks are mostly a sales pitch for shore excursions. The info talk on Capetown was done 10 days before we even got there.. But.. we can also watch them on our TV which we started doing because we could not ask any questions during the presentation anyway.

The TV in our room on QA has some nice movies showing. The Zaandam has a small movie theatre, complete with popcorn, where we watched a few fabulous movies.

HAL had more sugar free options than Cunard.

And then there’s the food. Both the formal dining room and the buffet are very similar with a wide range of choices. Both ships have a similar number of specialty restaurants for which you pay extra. However, HAL always had choices in sugar free dishes and desserts. On QA it proved much more difficult to get diabetic friendly food even though we indicated during booking that one of us needs sugar free. There are no sugar free drinks in the buffet, you have to ask for a sugar free dessert which is then found but not readily available with the other desserts. Dining room personel were baffled for the first several weeks when we asked for a sugar free dessert. There is no sugar free option for ice cream while HAL had these every day, with different flavours. Overall, the food on QA was very bland and monotonous. Each night, dinner in the dining room was very similar and the stations in the buffet don’t change so, eventually, there’s not much variety. On the Zaandam, they used more local food. For instance a huge Hawaiian buffet when we got to the Hawaiian islands, including fresh fruits, local dishes and even a roasted pig. On QA we did not notice any local varieties.

What I like better on QA is the fact that the casino is tiny and there’s no smoking! On the Zaandam, this was a large enclosed space and when you had to walk through it, it was awful and stinky. They also had a smoking area on an outside deck where I had to take a deep breath to rush through the cloud of smoke. I was not impressed knowing people were smoking on a ship on the sea. On Cunard I don’t even know where a smoking area might be since I haven’t seen any.

Queen Anne’s Library is small and tucked away.

Light and cozy library on Norwegian Cruise Lines.

And finally, we get to the Library! An important place for us to hang out! To my surprise, the library on the smaller Zaandam with fewer passengers, was much bigger than the one on the QA. The former was located mid ship and, though freezing cold during our entire voyage, a hugely popular place to sit and read. The library on the QA is tucked away in a corner on one of the upper decks. You have to make a special effort to visit it. In both, it’s hard to find an empty seat! And while HAL’s library was much bigger and had more books, the little library on the QA has perhaps newer titles and is better organized with a real Librarian on duty.

Zaandam’s library is the best but freezing cold!

All in all, some interesting differences and comparisons. Would we pick one over the other for a next trip? It will entirely depend on the itinerary!

RESOURCES:

The carpet in the Norwegian Cruise Lines library.

Watch a very detailed intro video to inside cabins on the Queen Anne, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H6BijPvUtc

A Walk Through of the Zaandam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNSB6akO8QM

BOOKS:

A very interesting book is CABIN FEVER, a true account of a cruise on the Zaandam during Covid.