Vallesan

We have sailed Nautica, Riviera and Sirena in the last 12 months. The service on all three was really fine. The food was good on all except of course you have more speciality restaurants on the larger ships. As this is your first O cruise you won’t have a comparison of food now with the ‘olden’ days! IMHO the food is probably just as good but the choices are not as extensive but in saying that you’ll never go hungry!

I’m not sure that you can compare the two ships. I’ve not sailed on the Vista but have sailed on the Riviera a few times and on both the Sirena and Nautica several times and the experiences are quite different. The Insignia is old, the Vista is new. The Insigia is small, the Vista is a lot larger. I’ve enjoyed all my trips with Oceania, apart from a B2B in the Caribbean when the second, shorter 7 day leg, was a bit rowdy. Also you can’t compare longer voyages to the shorter ones they have a different atmosphere. Enjoy your cruise but if your Insignia experience isn’t 100% ( I’m not saying it won’t be great) don’t let it put you off the Vista.

Think your TA is probably right. You have all three OLife promotions but with simplyMore you would have only the beverage package plus an allowance for tours, the amount of which varies by length of you cruise. You would lose the onboard credit. You would gain the ability to have two, rather than one, connection to the internet per cabin at anyone time. You will be liable for gratuities with either program but they are voluntary. In saying that I think most people pay them, we always do. You have $800 OBC so you could use that towards the gratuities. Some TA’s do give free gratuities as a perk I think those who will lose out most with simplyMore are the people who book cruise only which looks like it’s no longer available.