WAshgirl

3 hours ago, Tudy said:

Thank you OP for asking this question! I am currently trying to arrange a trip with 3 of my siblings and their spouses. Some siblings are tighter with their money than others and it really helps to have this thread to refer them to.

You’re welcome! We booked a category D. It was $5346 less than category B. Maybe one day will splurge on a higher level room, but for our first trip, we just can’t justify the extra expense. We still have airfare to pay for, so the saved money will come in handy for that! Really looking forward to our cruise in 2025!

3 minutes ago, hmcrn said:

This is a bit late, but wanted to say we have stayed in both categories, so were able to directly compare.  We decided that we would never pay for the upgrade again.  The size difference of the room is minimal, we didn't even notice it.  We spent so little time in the room, and any "down' time was spent up on deck or in one of the lounges.  Avalon has wonderful spaces to relax in.  We would rather spend the money for special excursions, and you can do several for the money you save.  

Good luck with your choice!  I do hope it is a wonderful cruise!  

That is exactly what we are thinking! More money for shopping etc. Can’t wait for June 2025😊

Thanks for weighing in on our debate. We are going to go with the deluxe stateroom! Just glad to go on the cruise! 

Hello,

We are looking to book an Avalon cruise in 2025 (Magnificent Rivers of Europe) and are looking at the huge price difference between the deluxe stateroom vs the panoramic suite. It would be about $5000 more to stay in the suite vs the deluxe stateroom so it’s a huge difference. Can anyone who has stayed in the deluxe stateroom give us their honest opinion of these rooms? Although we’d love to have the French balcony of the suite, this cruise is pricey and a big splurge for us even with the deluxe stateroom. I am looking at category D to get us more mid ship. We noticed the shower in the bathroom looks a bit small. How bad is it? For the $5000 we’d save booking this room, it seems like the most economical way to go. Thanks for any input before we make our choice!

2 minutes ago, Woofa said:

Glad you had a great cruise.

But next time why not think of skipping olife completely.  If you don't take the excursions and don't plan to drink, shipboard credit has nothing to offer as it is just you giving O your money to hold onto and if by chance you don't use it all, you lose the remainder.

Remember, O confuses the issue but Olife has nothing to do with flights or the internet.  Cruise only and you can keep the flights or remove that as well and lower your fare by DIY air.  See what works better for you and each cruise can change what makes the most sense.

 

Yes, we definitely need to look at what will give us the best value. We are waiting for more itineraries to be be released for 2025. For the cruise we took last month, we booked our own airfare, got 3 excursions, and a bit of OBC, which we easily spent. Looking forward to seeing what kind of pricing we will get for 2025. Love our travel agent who we will use again for 2025 booking. 

We did not have an issue with the price of the Oceania excursions. We just did not feel they are our style for having only a limited time at each port. There were several times that our excursions were shortened by an hour or more or changed by Oceania with very short notice. We just did not feel that the way they are organized worked well for us. Once our cruise was under way, we found out that our Amalfi/Positano excursion would NOT in fact go to Positano at all due to an issue with the pier. This was a huge disappointment. Had we known this, we would not have booked that excursion as the substitute to Cetera was in a word, LAME. Next time, we will take the shipboard credit in lieu of Oceania excursions. Overall, we loved our trip and for this reason, we will sail with Oceania again.

Hi yall! I posted a review of Riviera in the review section of this website. In a nutshell, we enjoyed the cruise very much! Highs were the amazing itinerary, beautiful ship and amazing crew! It wasn’t a perfect trip, but it was close! The only thing we would probably do differently next time is to go with independent tour operators versus the cruise sponsored excursions. We felt a more personalized smaller group experience would have suited us better. All in all, we loved Oceania and plan to take another cruise in 2025. I am happy to answer any questions. 

Oceania also cancelled one of our excursions without any sort of notification. In my opinion this is very unprofessional. They should at least give passengers the courtesy of a cancellation email. Fingers crossed no more surprises with our current excursions. 

I have been watching flights for PDX to VCE, then BCN to PDX for months now. Our travel agent said to wait until about 6 months out to book flights so i am hoping the prices drop a bit. We would love to book Delta One, but right now its $3600 each! Ouch! That pretty much equals the cost of our cruise!

Just returned today from our 7 night Alaskan cruise on the Golden. We had an awesome trip! I want to tell y'all about our experience while its still fresh so here goes! Feel free to ask questions!

1) Embarkation- was around an hour. Considering the cruise was full, they seemed to do a good job of getting LOTS of people onto the ship. We used the Seattle Cruise Park for our car. It saved us $$ and it was a short shuttle ride to Pier 91.

2)Impressions of the ship-The ship is obviously not brand new but was still lovely. It is elegant and understated with soft colors rather than flashy like other lines we looked at. We enjoyed the Skywalkers club and the Explorers lounge. Did not use the pools/hot tub but many people did. Looking at the Golden in port next to the Holland ship, we felt the Golden just looked nicer.

3) Cabin-We stayed on the Caribe level in a mid-ship inside cabin room C537. It was perfect for a couple, nice and quiet, little motion, and the bed was very comfortable. It was so nice and dark with the lights out, I got spoiled for naps during the day. There was plenty of closet place and the bathroom was adequate. The shower is very small but had great water pressure. Ariel was our room steward. He was polite and was like a fairy god-father. Our room was spotless twice a day. No complaints whatsoever about room cleanliness or comfort.

4) Food-We ate at Sabatinis on our 2nd night. Wow! It was soo worth the extra $50. We were stuffed with lobster, steak, pasta, etc and the napoleon dessert was to die for! We ate at Crown Grill on our 5th night. It was also a great meal but we really loved the food and atmosphere at Sabatinis. We did eat lunch and dinner in two of the dining rooms and found the food to be quite good. Service was also excellent. We ate at the buffet several times, mostly for breakfast. Nothing out of the ordinary but it met our needs. We really liked the International Cafe for great coffee and treats. They had a croissant donut that was so good! I did purchase the coffee card and used all 15 punches. We had pizza and burgers at the Trident grill and found them to be good. DH loves his beer so we ended up purchasing the $49/day drink pkg. It ultimately saved us $$. We tried the Tapas/sushi at Vines. It was a nice treat with the wine we had.

5)Juneau-Beautiful weather! we did the ultimate zipline excursion. It was very fun and the guides were super nice. I was a little scared but got the hang of it pretty quick. We wanted to have Alaskan crab so we ate at Tracy's crab. It was yummy but expensive. I don' think I could afford to get full at this place:) The shopping is typical. Nothing I really wanted there. Lots of jewelry shops!

6)Skagway-Beautiful weather! we did the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari. It was top notch!! We took a boat out the the glacier, seeing porpoises, mountain goats,and sea lions along the way. From there we canoed out to the glacier and actually got to walk on it! Word to the wise, pack mosquito spray. Collected some beautiful rocks for our daughter and got lots of great photos. We were served a picnic lunch right next to the bay and got to pick/eat wild strawberries. Our guides Lee, Nate, Joe & Jake were great and we even learned some Native American words on the way back! In town, we went to the Skagway brewing company. Had good halibut fish & chips and beer. Got some yummy fudge. Did not shop here as much of the same as Juneau

7)Glacier Bay-It was cloudy. We got to see glacier calving and whales from a distance. I was bummed we didn't see more wildlife but that's luck. We did a couples massage and it was great!

8)Ketchikan-Beautiful weather! Again! How lucky! We did the Misty fjords plane tour. it was worth every penny. Our pilot was Chris who was very nice. He landed the plane during the tour so we could take photos. I got a little queasy on flight but otherwise it was a one of kind experience. We had great chowder at Annabelle's. Yum! Did my shopping here. Got souvenirs for selves and kiddos. I heard there are good deals on jewelry but we broke the bank on excursions:D

9)Victoria-yes, we did stop here. I had heard others did not get to go there on prior trips. We did the Butchart Gardens excursion. It is breathtaking. We did not feel we had enough time to truly experience it. It was quite a long bus ride round trip. Great gift shop where i spent the most on souvenirs. Sure wish we had gotten there earlier in the day.

10)Disembarkation-we had an 8:40am depart time. We were off the boat a little after 9:00. Got our luggage and went through customs within 30 minutes. No issues.

In conclusion, we had an awesome trip! I really want us to take the Princess Cruisetour to Alaska in a few years. I can understand what draws people to see this pristine part of our country. I feel fortunate to have had this wonderful vacation with my DH. It felt like a 2nd honeymoon! I would not hesitate to cruise with Princess again.

Thank you for the review! We leave on the same cruise this Saturday!!! I was happy to read a mostly positive review! Thanks for the advice too!:D

Thanks for the honest review. Its always nice to read positive reviews, but reading the negative can also be helpful. Since our last cruise was with Disney, I have high expectations. I am hoping we have a great experience. Sounds like Sabatini's is not to be missed. How do we book that? We also want to get the specialty coffee card. How can we get one of those? :)

Thanks for the detailed review! We will be on the same cruise July 19th! Can't wait!:)