FeliciaLee

Cruise reviews are so subjective that it can be impossible to know which cruise line is the best one for you until you experience the one that fits best for your needs. So many of us on this board loved @Sthrngary 's review, not only because it was thorough, but because his family truly enjoyed their first cruise on Oceania and their joy shined through in every sentence. My husband and I really enjoyed our second Oceania cruise. Our first was in January on Sirena. Usually the second cruise on the same line suffers by comparison. But not this one. Not at all. It was awesome. Unfortunately, this is the point where I might start sounding like an Oceania cheerleader and I apologize in advance for that, but once again, cruising is so subjective! Our Christmas cruise aboard Insignia from December 17-29th was even better than our cruise on Sirena in January. Oddly, we thought it was getting off to a bad start due to the late arrival of the previous cruise and waiting in the terminal for many hours. But in some ways, this was a great opportunity. We found a couple of cruisers from our Sirena cruise. We met new cruisers. We had some great conversations and were just happy that we weren't on that previous cruise that went through such horrible weather. This was a relatively last minute cruise that we managed to get for only $1699. Of course at that price we were in an inside cabin, at the very front of the ship, on the seventh floor. The cabin wouldn't be our first choice, for sure, but it was fine. We had great room stewards. Nothing was overlooked. If we thought that the passengers and crew were awesome on Sirena, this cruise proved to be even more of a great social connection. Virtually everyone we met were absolutely fabulous. We also lucked out with Dottie as the CD and her husband Tom was the comedian. We would gladly have that duo on every future cruise. Pretty much all of the meals were great, too. One night the MDR wasn't so great, but it wasn't horrible, either. We only ate in the buffet for dinner twice. We are definitely MDR people. One day we went on a little tour of the ship and ran into a familiar face. He was Norman, our previous room steward. And not only did he remember us, but even remembered our names! What a nice guy. Several times we went to the front desk to lodge compliments. It was such an incredible cruise for us that we couldn't help but continually let our pleasure be known to the staff. Games, activities and trivia were awesome, as before. Nothing is perfect, so yes, there were a few things that could be made better: Why wouldn't they allow us to upgrade to a more midship cabin, when there were clearly some available? Couldn't be done even for a fee. Weird, that. Sometimes our meals were so slow that we eventually gave up on dessert (not my jam anyway, but my husband loves dessert). In the buffet, the made to order lobster isn't great. We will be glad that all future cruise have two wifi connections. The little ships have that painfully small bathroom. But besides these things that pretty much everyone here already knows about, everything was as close to perfect as a cruise can get. Our next cruise will be on Vista, in March. Can't wait!

We were on the Sojourn. Definitely felt much more spacious than the R ships. Have a great time!

Ditto on the buffet opinion! That being said, our one and only cruise on Seabourn was Sojourn, Nov/Dec 2022. The buffet was the best we've ever had on a cruise line. The wait staff was phenomenal and the manager was formerly the TK manager, but filling in for someone on vacation. So maybe that made a huge difference? Hopefully, he has gotten a huge promo, because he was the best of the best.

Thank you! We had Dottie in January on Sirena. Hope she will still be on Insignia later this month. She was fab.

Apologies for not reading the pinned comment! This is terribly disappointing, but on the plus side, the videos were in depth and very nice.

Having watched their videos with regards to that cruise, it seemed that yes, they paid their fares and were not compensated. Crossing my fingers on that one 🙂

If these videos have already been posted, I apologize. They are some great, in depth reviews from non-sponsored YouTuber's. Enjoy!

After so much research, I can't wait to hear your impressions!

And some sites have it at $1799 (inside), $2149 (window). Sure, a far cry from the $700 earlier this year, but it does include SM, and who knows, next spring/summer it could drop even further.

Shop around. I would never do the mock booking to price check because yeah, you'll get shell shock. We just got 12 nights on Vista for $2199 with SM. So deals are to be had.

Same with us. We booked the cruise following yours. Also had to pay in advance. We got all of the SM perks.

This is so subjective and my completely biased take! But since you asked...we spent a long time in every port. Seabourn had to cancel St. Barts, due to weather, but we had been there twice before and we also know that it is canceled quite a lot. Oceania didn't cancel any ports, but cut the time back on all of them. Their private island, Harvest Caye was awesome and we had a great time. Seabourn's private beach experience at St. Kitt's was the best private island experience we've ever had. Everything is included and relatively unlimited.

For our two Carib cruises: Seabourn wins hands down in every possible way.

Seems like Seabourn has been dropping in the past 18 months. We had never tried them due to the 7pm+ dining time. But got a good deal at 3k pp, 11 nights (great cruise; prefer Oceania though). Even more recently, I've seen lots of deals in the $2xx pp/pd range and even a few non-repo's in the $100's!!!

I would definitely go for Seabourn. The price alone. We have been on Sojourn only once, but had a great time. The things we like better about Oceania are just personal (dining at 7pm earliest; not having many activities). We felt the food wasn't quite as good as Oceania, but definitely comparable. The buffet was excellent, Both the service and the quality. Like Oceania, extremely friendly passengers and crew.

We were on Seabourn last December and the activities weren't so great. 11 nights, but they only had trivia five days. Sometimes the sports didn't go at all. As far as the ship, the food, the buffet and the overall experience, we had a wonderful time on Seabourn. But if you are one of those people who enjoy activities and saving up points for the end of the cruise, Oceania is awesome. Just like the old days of HAL.

Things might have changed, because we were on Voyager in Nov/Dec of 2018, but iirc back then they did have a small buffet in the evening. Sort of like you get your own salad, soup, desserts if you want, but the main course is served? Surely people who sail Regent often will know for sure, though.

We always loved the feel of HAL. Smallish ships, very personalized warm service. Lots of activities. But of course everything changes and HAL isn't quite the same. It is still an excellent experience for the price point and versus the direct competition, it just isn't for us anymore. Oceania has that same feel and since there are so many things included in the fare, the cost is not that different from HAL.

If you like activities, Oceania is a great cruise line for you! They had almost as many activities on port days as sea days and the solo's that we hung out with seemed happy and as busy as they wished. Sorry that I can't provide more with regards to solo-only activities as my husband and I were together on our Oceania cruise earlier this year. Have a great cruise!

Ditto. That is the thing we loved most about Crystal. But we found a very good alternative to the GDR for lunch: Waves. It is legit the best outdoor grill type lunch venue on any cruise line we have tried. Also, as an alternate to the buffet, Oceania has the best room service pizza we've had, too. But it is definitely a personal preference thing. If you like super thin crust. St. Louis style pizza, perhaps.

Sorry for being a late poster on this awesome review. It just now caught my attention. This mirrors our dining room experiences on Sojourn. There were a few good services over 11 days, but most were misses. OTOH, the buffet was an awesome experience. Day or night, no matter what server or host, we found it the best buffet atmosphere we'd ever had on any cruise line.

They are having the 4 category upgrade sale right now. Good luck!

We splurged for a Vista cruise in Dec '24. It cost more than our Regent cruise! It was $5500 pp. But we did get $1200 obc and it is also for PH3 instead of the lowest cabin category that we booked on Regent. In comparison, on our other two Oceania cruises, we paid 1k and $1699.

This is where Oceania really shines. Waves is the best outside grill type set-up we have experienced on any cruise line (including Crystal). Keto would be super easy there, too. It is definitely a must.

As someone who has appreciated your cruise review posts many times, I'll just add my little bit of an opinion and hope it helps you, since your posts have helped me so much. Oceania was a lot like Regent for us, minus the alcohol and excursions. We liked the food and cabins better on Regent, but the super friendly passengers and crew better on Oceania.