Thank you f-mattox for the frank review. I had expected a diehard Princess fan to be very critical of HAL and I believe you were. Your comparisons are clear and you gave the good and bad for both Princess and HAL.
I cannot make comparisons having only sailed on HAL (Zuiderdam & Amsterdam) but I have to agree about the HAL staff. I was so impressed by the cheerful attentive service in every part of the ship from wait staff, to bar staff to housekeeping.
I look forward to more details (both good and bad) in the days to come.

A belated welcome back, Rick.

We've only done one HAL cruise and that was 15 years ago. But I still recall how wonderful the service staff was to everyone. I'm not sure if they still do it, but HAL has/had their own training school in Indonesia for prospective staff members. And HAL has always enjoyed a high reputation for their buffets.

I agree about the "island" concept for the buffets - it always seems needlessly frantic to me.

Thank you Dave; I just finished reading your day by day log of your cruise and it sounds like you and your family had a wonderful time--and so generous of you to share your thoughts while on the cruise.

I usually skip the Captain's Welcome Aboard parties too, but I was curious to see how HAL handled it--very nice! After going through the receiving line and meeting the Captain, we were escorted right to a table and immediately served hors d' oeuvres and champagne. The showband played for dancing. Then the Captain introduced the heads of each department and other key personnel--including the "employee of the month", a young housekeeper who had just been promoted to cabin steward. He looked very nervous amongst all the brass but it was a touching gesture.

Anyway, I'm so glad you had a great cruise, as did I.

Next stop for me--Panama Canal; and then the cruise-chat cruise, which I'm actually looking forward to more than the other. I can cruise any ship anywhere I want; but getting this wonderful bunch together is going to be a rare opportunity.

Take care and welcome back.

Rick