I will not bore you with our normal routines, because, well, it’s the same every day and do you really care anyway?  No, you do not. There are lectures, there is trivia (no, we are not partaking in that), there are cooking shows and an absolutely hysterical competition between the Captain and Hotel Director, there are shows, comedians, etc. There. Daily activities.

So, while we won’t bore you with the details, what we will do is give a HAL overview and comparison to NCL just for reference with a few different activities and sunrise and sunset pictures thrown in for good measure.

Activities: HAL 1, NCL 0. What can we say? NCL focuses on party, party, pool party, woo hoo, let’s party some more. Even in Europe it still feels more like a Caribbean cruise, belly up to the bar everyone. Sailing with HAL is more adult focused.

• Interesting lectures about travel and nautical topics – ok, so I didn’t like the guy and his style, but Ed enjoyed him, personal taste – the point being, there was a lecturer.
• HAL is famous for the cooking demonstrations and they didn’t disappoint with 3 on this sailing, including the above mentioned competition.
• HAL has special presentations
  • By the Claire, the cruise director on ports of calls – not trying to sell us shore excursions, but giving us port by port info on what to see, how to get around, etc.
  • By the Captain all about meteorology.
  • By Claire recounting the HAL story – which was fascinating by the way
  • “Meet the (fill in the blank)” – “coffee chats” with all the different entertainers – from the dancers, to the band to the fly on magician and comedian – with Claire as the emcee. Then an interview with Claire conducted by the magician.
• NCL had gift shop sales, bingo and sexy legs competitions

We know this was a crossing, which means that the staff put on additional activities to keep us busy during sea days, but still. Having crossed with NCL, we can pretty much guarantee they didn’t have anything near this type of varieety of quality activity list.

Entertainment: NCL 1.5, HAL 1. Yes, I know I’m cheating, but NCL just has the hands down best production shows. We were on that ship for 3 back to back sailings and went to every production show each sailing. That is how good they are. HAL by comparison only has a Dance team now. Don’t get me wrong, the dancers are really great and totally talented, and super sure on their feet because they even danced one night we thought for certain they’d cancel it was that rocky. But it just isn’t the same as a full fledge, fully choreographed production show with singers and dancers. Even on a small scale. I’ll tell you that Azamara’s singers and dancers ptu on better shows than these now. They do use the other singers aboard for live music – like the dueling piano guys (who were so-so) and the lead singers from the Rolling Stone Lounge band who are fabulously talented. But it still isn’t the same. Not the same polish.

The fly on entertainment though was equally good. The magician was fabulous – Spanish and does one show as a mime, the 2nd show talking. The two comedians where both hysterical with 2 different shows each.

The movies in the theater were surprisingly good on HAL. Even the original Top Gun. The other selections were just as good except they showed two of them at 10 pm. Bullet Train and something else. We were sort of like: “read the room!” Nobody on this ship is going to stay up that late for a movie. NCL had super heroes (lots and lots of Marvel), animated features and a full length documentary on animals. A big meh.

Honestly, the production shows is what pushes NCL over the top, but only by a bit, which is why the score gets a .5 bump and not a tie.

Food: HAL 1, NCL 0.5. Both lines have good food, with some dishes that qualify as excellent. But from an overall comparison, I think HAL has better quality and choices. Ed doesn’t necessarily agree, so I’m taking this one on me. I just like the preparation and menu choices better on HAL. Now, it isn’t truly a fair comparison because we rarely if ever ate in the dining room because it was a nightmare of crowded craziness. But we did eat in the specialty restaurants which were quite good (except for one special) and the buffet was fabulous. Even if it did get annoying that you couldn’t serve yourself and had to wait for really indecisive people to figure out what they wanted on their salad.

Staff: HAL 1, NCL 1. Both equally excellent. As was the service – yes, even in the crazy busy dining room on HAL. Those guys and gals ran their butts off for you. And one night there weren’t any servers in the theater, so I walked down to the Ocean’s bar for drinks. When the bartender figured out I was going back to the theater, he had a waiter walk the drinks back for me. 100% excellent service. We have absolutely no complaints on either cruise line.

People: HAL 1, NCL 0. Not really a fair comparison, we know. We are talking about completely different clientele and completely different cruise types. The NCL cruises were shorter, European trips where there were far more Europeans aboard. Although, there were a fair share of American and Canadians. HAL was a trans-atlantic which always skews olders, and we think in general HAL skews older anyway.

That being said, the NCL passengers did buy into the Woo-Hoo let’s party atmosphere, whereas we felt that the HAL passengers were more interested in traveling and having a good time, just not woo-hoo, party hardy. Does that make sense? And while I’m trying not to generalize, most everyone on this ship are very nice!  People walk up and just talk to you, rand conversations, commenting on just about anything. Very sweet. And when we were waiting for some show or presentation one day, a couple asked if we could see if they sat in front of us!  It’s quite nice. 

Total score: HAL 5, NCL 3. Scientific? Nah, not by a long shot. But it does sort of sum up the whole experience. We’ve sailed NCL a ton and really do enjoy it. Heck, two of our favorite “sons” work on NCL ships. We’ve had great experiences, fun trips, met lovely staff, and yes have had one really bad NCL sailing, but overall we have been very happy with them. HAL is just a different type of cruise. It felt different, and better to us. Calmer, more “mature,” pun not intended….well, maybe it was! Maybe that’s just where we are in our lives right now too, and it all just fit.

We shall see going forward as we have a few HAL booked. We’ll be able to see if different ships deliver the same quality as the Oosterdam and if the passenger composition changes on different itineraries. It is all an adventure. One we are happy to tackle!

So now we will leave you with sunrise and sunset pictures taken over the course of our 6 1/2 days at sea.

Red Sky in the morning, sailor take warning! And it was a little rocky and bumpy for the first couple days.

Sunset at sea

The housekeeping staff worked overtime to populate the Atrium pool with towel animals! (Actually, they got up 2 hours early this day to complete their task.) Hundreds, if not 1,000s, towel animals on every surface imaginable. Hate that they do that, but it was magical, we have to admit.

As well as photos of the NCL Dawn as we crossed paths while she steered toward Tampa and we made our way at tope speed for Miami to disembark a sick passenger a day early. And yes, we waved like fools at all our buddies who were still aboard, and WhatsApp’ed Kadek to tell him to look across the water. LOL.

More beautiful sunsets.

And finally, we docked in Miami, with good tidings and wishes to the ill passenger. It was a beautiful evening and we hope all turned out well for them.

And that, as they say, is that. A lovely way for us to cross the Atlantic back to the United States, ending our 63 day, 42 port odyssey.