Croooser

Platinum on Princess. Sailed 10 days on Enchanted in December, now finishing 10 days on Riviera - our 4th time on her. Our opinions: Princess has much more and much better activities and entertainment. O is less crowded and has much better food and service. A search of previous threads will help understand the differences in pricing and inclusions, the policy on bringing your own beverages onboard, drink packages, and the O air and O Life options. We recommend taking the time to do this to determine how it would work for you

Thanks OP This info is helpful. FWIW, we do not share the somewhat rampant negative opinions. If we decide to skip MDR, what you have reported will work for us. Thanks again for taking the time and effort.

Very nice comments. Much appreciated. We get on Riviera in two weeks and it is reassuring that you found the refurb well done. Any comments on food and food service other than baristas?

Not agreeing with the policies and business model demonstrates a failure to gain an understanding of what the O experience is BEFORE boarding. Being an informed consumer is to your advantage.

One additional question. We have IHG points that will put us in either the Intercontinental or the Crowne Plaza in Budapest. Anyone have any opinions regarding the preferred location for touring Budapest precruise? Is one more convenient to the boarding location than the other? Thanks

Yes. Should be fine. Just confirm with the TA that your Amex will be billed directly to Celebrity.

We consider ourselves Celebrity refugees. Meaning Elite Plus on X, but booking more O these days. Our take confirms some of the opinions voiced here: O is quite a bit different in several ways. You really need to spend some time to understand how it is different and then evaluate how those differences affect YOU. It is not the same as comparing X to - say - Princess. The food on O is generally superior - especially the dinner buffet with steak, lamb chops and Caribbean lobster tails every night along with plenty of other choices. The Waves lunch menu includes Waygu burgers and a lobster tail and filet sandwich. Also a decent Cuban - every day. The specialties on O are better than on X and there is no surcharge. EXCEPT for Eden. Eden is the very best that we have ever had at sea. We can not speak to Luminae but we would rather eat dinner on O than in Blu. The entertainment on X is far, far better than on O. We are on the wrong side of 70 and think that the entertainment on O would be good for our parents generation. It pays to take the time to understand O life, O air, the O beverage package, etc. Because it is all different. Spend time on the O Board and all of the info is there. O air can be purchased without O Life. On the O board O air generally gets bad reviews except their pricing on Premium Economy. But then they have each way deviation fees for early arrival or departure. You have to crunch the numbers and the schedules. Even without a bev package O gives you soft drinks, bottled water and the barista coffee. You are permitted to bring your own alcohol on board O for in cabin consumption. Corkage fee of $25 for wine taken to a restaurant. Getting on and off the ship is easier on a smaller ship in our experience. We sailed the Sirena (an R class) on a port intensive cruise and we were happy. On a TA we would not do it. On a longer cruise with sea days X has a big advantage with more activities. We love aft balconies on X but they are few and pricey on O. If evaluating price and value is important, it really pays to put the data on paper or a spreadsheet.. Especially - beverages and what you will consume, specialty restaurants, the O Life Confusitorium, etc. Having said all of that...we will be on Riviera in a few weeks and have two bookings on Vista. But we sailed Apex early in 2022 just to get back on a ship and to try the Edge class and we liked it enough to book the spring TA on Apex. So what do we know???? HTH

Lots of good info lately on this thread. Thanks to all for sharing. We are also River Cruise Rookies and are booked on Westbound Danube Dreams on 9/10/23 with the 2 day extension to Prague booked with Avalon. We plan to arrive Budapest on 9/7. Appreciate the ideas for what to see and do in Budapest. FWIW: We booked the Prague extension with Avalon to simplify the transfer process from the ship to Prague. Thinking that in the event there are issues with the river and the itinerary, Avalon will make any adjustments and get us to Prague. The Avalon booklet that we received shows the Prague hotel as the Marriot and that seems to be fine. We looked at airfare (BIZ) on Avalon's website and we were able to get a schedule that we liked better at about $1000/pp less by arranging our own air - YMMV.

Would stay in the aft and use the move up $ to book specialty for some nights.

This thread is a good example of how many different opinions there are from different people experiencing each cruise line. We are 70ish and elite plus on X, platinum on Princess and about to go on #5 on O. We had all but given up on S class after several very good experiences because, for us, over time the experience was not as good. We consider ourselves X refugees. However, in January we tried a 7 day on Apex - just to try the Edge class. We will likely never book an IV. Not for us. We are aft balcony junkies and our balcony on Apex was great. We thought that Celebrity had upped their game with the 4 mdr and the themes in the buffet. We liked it enough that we are booked on the spring TA n Apex. Each to their own.

OK. Help me understand. We have a Vista cruise booked in 2024. In order to avoid what lawyertx is experiencing... Can I work with O several months out and, if we find something agreeable, can I pay for the flights in full - even before final payment - and have them ticketed at that time? Or do I still have to wait for O to ticket until a few weeks in advance no matter when I pay for the flights? Trying to lock in current pricing as a hedge against flight price increases in the next year and a half.

The D4 aft facing balconies are much deeper than those on the side. So plenty of room. Just can't remember whether or not they provide a footstool. We have something similar to this but would leave them home if we knew for sure that Princess would have a couple on our balcony.

Sailing in an aft D4 on Enchanted Princess. Are there always footstools/ottomans on the balcony? Or not necessarily? Or never? Thanks,

Princess IT, or the lack thereof, strikes again.

OP: Sounds like you are happy with Viking and are probably headed back to Viking. Fair enough. At least you know that you like their offering - and that's much more important than anyone else's opinion. But, just in case... The only thing I might suggest with respect to Oceania is in terms of price comparisons - since you referenced price as a key consideration. Oceania makes it very difficult to understand the pricing options. You can book any Oceania cruise a few different ways, with each having a different price: Listed price for any given cruise/category which includes coach air and "O Life" Cruise with O Life but without air Cruise with air but without O Life Cruise only with no O Life and no air Note that that these options are not all displayed on the O website or marketing materials. Website will give you a quote without air if you want. The credit for not taking O Life option will be the $ amount of OBC that O Life option offers. It is my understanding that Viking places limits on Travel Agent incentives offered to clients who book Viking. There are many people on the Oceania CC forum who always book with a TA who offers rebates on Oceania. We typically receive about 10% of the cruise only invoice on our bookings. Also, it is sometimes possible for a TA to also provide prepaid gratuities via their consortium. Also, Oceania does not include wine and beer with lunch, but does allow you to bring alcohol onboard for private consumption or bring wine on with a corkage charge if used in restaurants. All of these things can affect the price/person/day, depending on personal choices and are definitely not readily evident when comparing prices between lines. (I DID say that Oceania makes it difficult) 😝 We have been on Oceania 4 times and have 2 more booked. We now book cruise only, with no air and no O Life with a TA that rebates. FWIW, in 2023 we have a 10 day Caribbean booked on Oceania Riviera in a B3 with an extended balcony for $324/pp/day net and a 16 day Panama Canal on Oceania Vista in a A1 extended balcony for $309/pp/day net (prepaid gratuities + rebate). HTH

Looks like they have someplace to go that they need to start on the 17th, but no schedule yet posted. Also, curious that they did not try and shorten the original itinerary instead of deep sixing it. OP, disappointing once you have plan in place, for sure. At least you have 2 years notice. Plenty of time to go shopping for a worthy substitute.

Going on Princess for 10 days starting 11/29/22. Have always been happy with Park n Go, but it looks like they have raised their rates. For a few $/day, we would prefer to park at the port and eliminate the shuttle van. Handling our luggage from/to the garage is not a problem. Question: Has anyone parked a large (F-250) sized pickup truck in the Heron garage adjacent to Terminal 2 which Princess uses? Port says that they charge more for "oversize" vehicles but does not specify what the definition of oversize is. Thanks for any info

Our solution.,. folding step stool from Walmart or Amazon. Not too heavy and very sturdy. Folds flat on bottom of luggage. YMMV

Disclaimer: we are not trying to derail this thread or turn it into a Princess/Oceania comparison. FWIW. Lobster lovers do well on Oceania. On the menu every night in each of the (no extra charge) specialty restaurants and all you can eat warm water tails on the buffet for dinner every night. Also, lobster and steak sandwich available every day for lunch in the grill.

I just looked it up when I saw HappyCamper48's post and my Florida Aetna Medicare Advantage Plan does cover international travel. As does Janet's Florida Blue Plan. We use Chase sapphire Reserve for cancellation and interruption. Need to think about whether we can drop Geo Blue Coverage.

Thanks for posting. I switched this year from Humana Medicare Advantage to Aetna and did not realize that Aetna coverage includes international travel.

So, we booked Avalon View 9/10/23 Budapest - Prague which is a 7 Day Danube with a 2 day Prague extension. We plan on a few days in Budapest on our own prior to the cruise. We did change to the Sapphire deck midship. We understand that the lowest level would save us $$$, but we want the window and are willing to pay for it. Hated to walk away from a $2000 saving on Emerald for basically the same itinerary with similar excursions but... The low water levels are a concern, but September fits our schedule and seems like a good time to be on the Danube IF the water levels are OK. There have been several comments that Avalon is taking care of it's guests when trips are interrupted by low water levels. That was a factor in our decision. Also, the Globus connection has been mentioned as giving Avalon an advantage on dealing with hotels and excursions. Deposit is $500. So, we have until next June to walk away at a cost of $500 which is acceptable to us. Emerald would have been a $1000 deposit. We gave Avalon's ships a small advantage compared to Emerald because we like the bed orientation and the window slider better. Also, the pool/movie theater on Emerald is innovative but wasted space for us. Reviews on CC from this year seem to be somewhat inconsistent on Emerald. Emerald's issues this year in recovering from the hacking and the pandemic were a concern. Who knows where they will be a year from now? Thanks again to those who provided some really on point first hand info. It is greatly appreciated and was very helpful. 🤞 Fingers crossed that it will be a great trip.

We tried to look at AmaWaterways but could not find pricing online. Apparently you must call? We spend a LOT of time comparing various lines, sailings and cabins when booking. And we do it online. See next reply.

Thanks very much to each of you for the detailed responses. They are very helpful and I know that they take some time. Much appreciated. Sounds and looks like Avalon might be our best bet, but hate to pay approx. $2000 more for one day less. OTOH, if we are taking the time, effort and expense to go, we should do everything that we can to make it as good a trip as possible. Thanks again.

Looking for some informed opinions from those of you who are well versed on River Cruises. We are an early 70s couple with no mobility challenges who would like to take our first river cruise in 2023 after 30+ ocean cruises. We have spent a lot of time understanding how river cruises differ from ocean cruises and are ready to make a deposit. We are looking at a Budapest to Prague itinerary to give us a good intro cruise. We have never been to that part of Europe - all would be new for us. Here is our situation. We have narrowed our choice down to either: A 10 day (2 nights in a Prague hotel) Avalon Cat P which is currently $11196 without air and includes tips. A 11 day (3 nights in Prague) Emerald Cat C which is currently $8740without air and includes tips and a $250 fee to allow cancel for any reason up to 90 days prior to departure. Based on our research, it appears that Avalon and Emerald are comparable in terms of the experience that they deliver, albeit not identical. We know that Scenic/Emerald has had issues related to being hacked and we figure that spending $250 to lock in the price is a reasonable risk that will allow us to cancel if it appears that Emerald continues to have issues. Questions: It looks like a no brainer - are we missing something? If anyone has sailed on both Avalon and Emerald, we would greatly appreciate any comments?