What does Holland America do differently to and the same as other premium cruise
lines? I'm Gary Bembridge, this is another of
my cruising tips for travellers. Holland America is one of the longest
established cruise companies in the world. It's been going for well over 140
years. It's part of the Carnival Group. It operates 14 ships with many more
on order. It operates in the premium sector, so it competes with lines like
Celebrity Cruises, Princess Cruises and probably also brands like P&O Cruises
out of the UK. So I want to look at four things that I think Holland America does
differently, better and four things that they do broadly the same. Let's start
by taking a look at what they do differently. The first thing I think that
Holland America really does differently is they definitely have a much more
classic maritime look and feel to their ships. Celebrity is moving more and more
modern, more contemporary. Princess I guess is probably sort of more Resort
Hotel like in terms of design, but Holland American because of its
long-established heritage in the whole world of cruising and maritime feel. I feel
they do have a much more traditionally maritime linked design, and I really think
that sets them aside from other cruise lines in their category. The second thing
that they do differently, which I think is a fantastic innovation, is the Music
Walk. Now depending on what ship you're on, they have all or some of these in
place, but the entire Music Walk which is on their newer ships consists of the
following: you have Lincoln Center Stage, this is a partnership with the famous
New York Center and it's classical music, classical concerts. Then you have one of
the really popular of the Music Walk venues the BB
King's Blues Club, so linked to the famous musician. It plays kind of jazzy funky
music, and it's a really popular place and they have an eight-piece band, with
really fantastic musicians. Great great venue. Another really popular part of the
Music Walk is Billboard Onboard. This is two pianists sitting opposite each other,
and they have different themed sessions. It might be 90s, it might be requests, it
might be Beatles, it might be Brit Invasion whatever it is.
They play really high-energy sets, really really popular
whatever set they're playing. It's really busy and crowded, really good fun. One
of the newer venues on the newer ships is the Rollingstone Rock Room.
This is a partnership with the magazine, and as the name suggests it is rock
music based, and then you have the Main Theatre, which is now called the World
Stage and here you have the traditional production shows, song and dance shows, you
have guest artists of course, and on some of the newer ships it's very high-tech
in the round type theatre, but definitely without a shadow of a doubt
the Music Walk is one of the things that they do differently. A real big focus on
music which I think is fantastic, and the venues are really really popular. The
third thing that I think they do differently and in many areas uniquely
is their real focus on excursions. What they've done on those ships is the old
Crow's Nest area has been converted into
Explorations Central or EXC, this is where they really focus on destinations
You have the shore excursions up here, but you have your EXC guides of
course that can help you and of course they have all their tours as well, but
what they also have up here are interactive tables where you can go and
you can interact with your itinerary, you can look at facts and figures, look at
the excursions, look at maps of the place. They have an interactive wall as well
here, they have a library area with guide books and then also up here you
have a cafe area as well where you can get, during the day, coffees and teas
and also in the evenings you can get drinks. Also linked to the whole
EXC experience, there's a couple of other things which they've done. On the
television in your stateroom you have the EXC channel where you can learn
and watch documentaries about where you're going, and you also watch various
videos about the different tours etc that they have. They've also created a
couple of other really interesting things, so they now have what's known as
the EXC Port-to-table. These are cooking demonstrations which are linked
to different destinations, where you can learn how to cook different dishes from
around the world. They also started introducing some EXC Photography classes
to help you, when you go out on tour, to take even better pictures. The real
focus on excursions is a big part of what I
think makes it different. They've converted this whole area into a special
excursion destination focused area and they create all these various
products around the whole excursions processes. I do you think that is
different to the other lines. The fourth thing that I think they do differently is
they have a range of partnerships which are very different to the other
competitors in the premium area. One of those is with Afar, which is a Travel
Magazine and Afar have created lots of destination guides, the port guides and
various different port related information around the places that
you're going, so all the stuff you watch on the EXC channel for example on the
television is developed in partnership with Afar. hey also have a partnership
with Oprah Winfrey, of course she is actually a godmother to one of the ships,
and they have a whole wellness program and a book club program linked to O by
Oprah Winfrey. They have a partnership with Microsoft where they run digital
workshops, and there's a lot of digital workshops taking place on board and
these are really popular - really nice high tech venue with lots and lots of
different classes. Another great partnership they have
which is also very popular is with the BBC Planet Earth. They have various
documentaries they run, but one of the really popular innovations they've
created are concerts around some of the big BBC Earth programs with the show
footage, sometimes exclusive footage and the
music that goes with it. So live music concerts using the BBC earth programming.
So, what does Holland America do broadly the same as the other premium lines? Well
first of all, when we take a look at the fares they are pretty similar. So, both in
terms of the kind of the level of the fares but also importantly what is
included, and what's excluded in the fares. If you take a look at most
premium lines, and and you take a look at Holland America: accommodation is included,
Dining is included, all the entertainment is included, access to pretty
much all of the facilities like the fitness centre, pools, all those kind of
things are included. The key exception all the Cabanas, which are the premium
little cabanas that you can rent out on sea days (or even on port days) which is a
little private area away from the main swimming pools,
non-speciality teas, coffees, water, ice tea is available in all of the
restaurants and the buffet areas and also the Club HAL
program. They have a whole kids' Clubhouse area, which is also included
within the fare. So, what does the fare exclude? It excludes gratuities,
which are Auto-added on to your bill on board or you can also find ways of
pre-paying those before you go on board. Excursions are not included, drinks are
not included, they do offer drinks packages, specialty dining is not
included. Within your fare you're going to get the main dining room, you're
going to get the Lido buffet, you're going to get some of the other more
informal dining venues but speciality dining is not included. Wi-Fi is not
included, that's an extra charge and, of course, if you do things like shopping or
use the Medical Center that's very consistent with the other premium cruise
lines. The second thing they do the same is they offer a pretty traditional
cruising experience, so if you look at the premium lines, first of all you'll
find there's pretty classic cruise ships. You're not going to find water slides and
theme parks and ice skating rinks and all that kind of stuff, it's very much
focused on a more traditional cruising experience with the real focus on dining
and bars, and some of the enrichment side, and of course fitness and sports. So
you'll find there's a pretty traditional ship that you're going to be
experiencing, which is consistent across the other lines. Secondly you'll find
that the entertainment offered is very similar in the daily program, in terms of
activities it is fairly similar: you have those production shows, you can have
quizzes, you're going to have bingo, you will have a casino, so all the entertainment is all
pretty traditional. Also pretty similar to the other lines terms of dress code.
It's also very similar as well so you have your Gala Nights. where you're
encouraged to dress up - but it's not as formal as some of the lines like Cunard
for example where you have to wear tuxedos. You can if you want to, but you find
even on Gala Nights a lot of people just wear long sleeve shirts and smart
slacks. If you go to the specialty dining, you're encouraged to
dress up more smartly, but the dress code is pretty relaxed. On casual nights
although you can't wear things like shorts, you can wear smart jeans into the
dining room - so pretty similar to the other lines these days. You'll also find
the range of itineraries very similar. They have, as I mentioned, 14 ships and
growing. They pretty much cruise all around the world but their
itineraries are pretty similar, all the destinations that you can go to on the
other lines you can also go to on Holland America. And then of course on
the ships you'll find that the range of cabins is
this very similar. You can choose from inside cabins right through to Suites,
Ocean View, balconies - so a wide range of cabins as you do on the other
lines. Holland America I would say appeals large to the same audience as
the other premium Cruise Line. You'll find the bulk of passengers are American,
although you'll find quite a diverse range of find lots of Brits onboard,
Australians onboard and increasingly more and more nationalities as cruising
does become more kind of diverse - but it's very much American focused. You'll
find that the profile is a little bit on the older side you'll find 50, 60, 70 s
and above normally. Of course during the more peak holiday time you'd likely
find more families, more multi-generational groups but it tends to be
slightly older, and has a reputation for having a slightly older profile probably 50s
60s at its kind of core. It does also tend to have lots of couples on board, so
it's not necessarily a big family Cruise Line although it does have the clubhouse
facilities. You'll find lots of couples on board. In terms of solos, they're
starting to cater more to solos, on some of the newer ships they do have
solo cabins, but you won't find a lot of solo facilities although solo
travellers do like Holland America. They do have programs once you're onboard, but
did you end up having to pay often the premium for traveling solo.
They have a good range of accessibility cabins which the other cruise lines in
this category do as well. The other thing they do relatively similar, is the range
of dining options. Although of course they are slightly different across all
of those lines, so let me talk a little bit about dining because I think the
quality of the food is consistent with those premium lines which are of a
high standard and diverse with lots and lots of choice, and they do cater for
all different types of dietary needs whether it's gluten,
vegetarian or whatever. They have the main
dining room, which all of the others do at this point of time and they offer you
early seating, late seating or you can go for anytime dining. They have a buffet
option which, of course, is always very popular, they have 24-hour room service
which is included within the fare and they have a couple of other more
informal dining options. For example you have Dive In, which is around the
pool which is the more burger place, also on some of the ships around the
pool area also have a pizza option which is called Slice Pizza. When it comes
to specialty dining, again does differ slightly by ship but
they have a couple of really core offerings that they have. Pinnacle
Grill which is sort of a flagship which is their Steakhouse option that is on
pretty much all of the ships, you'll also find that they have Rudi Sale der Mer which
takes place in the Pinnacle. It's a pop up it's their big seafood night. They
have on some of the ships Tamarind, which I really love, which is like an Asian
fusion option. They have Canaletto which is an Italian, which actually takes over
part of the buffet restaurant area - that's also really really popular. They
also offer a great afternoon tea, which normally takes place in the main dining
room and that's also included within your fare. So dining options are very
similar although each of the cruise lines do have slightly
different speciality restaurants and those are the ones that you have on
Holland America. Holland America a very well-established, well-loved line with people
very passionate about Holland America. I've had great great trips on Holland America.
Those are the four things that I see as being very different and those are the
four things are seeing being very similar. I have loads more videos about
Holland America and cruising in general so why don't you watch another one of
those right now?