TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums Afloat Holland vs. Celebrity?

I go on annual jazz cruises. For the last 15 years, they have been on Holland (Eurodam, Maasdam, Oosterdam, Rotterdam, Westerdam, perhaps others). In 2017, the travel agency that puts these together (they buy out the whole ship, then hire musicians, then resell to us) is switching to Celebrity (Summit).

For those of you familiar with both lines, how would you compare them?

We prefer Holland only because smaller ships but now all lines are growing. If you book Celebrity I'd be interested in your take.

I do not think that there is a lot of difference in the passenger experience generally between Holland and Celebrity. The bigger difference is between ships, time of year, length of cruise, etc. Like RonDon, we often enjoy the smaller ships more - we really enjoyed the Maasdam on a 2018 cruise, for example, in part because of the significantly smaller size - about 1200 passengers to the well over 2000 on Summit. We cruised Summit in 2008 and enjoyed the ship very much, but all other things being roughly equal, we would choose a Massadam size ship (or other smaller Holland ships) over Summit size. Holland has the reputation of having older passengers, but I do not think you will feel any difference between Holland and Celebrity on that measure, in part because you are on a specific theme cruise which probably has lots of repeaters and in part because I think the two lines have become more similar in the demographics.

We found the age groups are different. Holland American usually has an older clientele than Celebrity. Celebrity is a bit more upscale than Holland America as well. Just what we have seen.

Like others have said, Holland is an older crowd than most cruise ships’ older crowd.

I typically wont go on Holland unless the itinerary and price beg me to go.


If you were content with food, service and crowd on Holland on previous trips, I would think Celebrity might be a bit better all around.

And as others have said, your crowd is a std Jazz cruise crowd vice a std HA cruise crowd.

The Jazz Cruise has switched to Celebrity Infinity this year, which is due for reno November 2020; we are boarding February 1. I can't articulate my reasons; but based on the Summit in 2019, I preferred Holland to Celebrity. Celebrity was fine, but it just didn't have Holland's "charm." And passenger age doesn't apply on the jazz cruise; as PelicanPirate said, it's a jazz crowd. And we are almost all old!