ak1004

but in Atlantide and few other venues they won’t let you in without a jacket on formal and informal nights. La Dame for sure, I think also Silver Note.

Thank you for the review. Very balanced and objective. We sailed on Oceania, old Crystal and Silversea and found the service overall comparable. Maybe slightly more personal on Crystal, but only slightly. Please help me to understand: what's the importance of the crew remembering your names? I hear this a lot, and while it could be nice, I don't really understand why it's so important for some people. A genuine question, really.

Helps to keep perspective, thanks a lot! Jacket, tie. who cares. those things are so insignificant. We travel to see the world. Who cares what people are wearing.

Exactly! This whole discussion about olive oil cart is ridiculous. Don't want it - just tell them which olive oil you want. End of story.

I strongly object people wearing shorts and t-shirts after 6pm, but theoretically, people can do now as well. They can dine in the Grill, not to go to more formal restaurants etc. I have seen someone wearing shorts in the Venetian lounge on the formal night. Agree 100%. But it will attract new cruisers. I know some people who won't go back to SS because of the dress code (including few on CC). And people who want to dress up can still continue doing it.

Agree. To me, Oceania and Azamara was a huge step up compared to Celebrity and Holland. Small ships, no crowds, no lines, no nickel and diming. To me, this is huge. Then you go up another step to luxury, which to me is much smaller. We sailed on old Crystal and SS. In my opinion, you get a slightly better service, maybe a bit more personalized. Food is not necessarily better, I would say comparable. Of course the fact that they are all inclusive is a huge factor to some people - not to me.

So you would consider Azamara below Oceania/Viking? Would you mind to elaborate? We sailed with them in 2019 and liked them. Maybe not as much as Oceania, but pretty close. The cabins are a big minus of course, but everything else was pretty good. Maybe things have changed in 4 years.

I agree. it probably also depends on the region, maybe number of the ships in the specific port that day (if too many, they might not have enough buses or tour guides). Semi private excursion is definitely a good solution (15-20 people), but it's not always possible. This is why it's important to know what's the cruise line policy. Will they hire more buses/guides when possible and put 25 people in a bus? Or is it matter of policy to have 40+ people?

Agree about Luxury, but Ocenia, Viking and Windstar don't belong to same category as Celebrity and Holland. I would call them premium plus, and they are much closer to luxury (SS/SB0 than to Celebrity. And Azamara blongs to the same premium plus category.

50% of the bus capacity you mean? So around 25 people on average?

Thank you Keith. I'm not looking for guarantees, just some estimates. On our last O cruise the groups were consistently 35-40 people, which for me is way too much. It's better on SS (around 30 people on average). I think it's matter of policy. If 120 people registered for a tour, they can book 5 buses, 4 buses or 3 buses. Depends how much they want to save on a bus/guide/driver.

As a regular cruiser on Oceania, I don't find this to be true. There are always exceptions (I have seen a guy in Venetian lounge in shorts on a formal night), but overall people dress very respectfully even if the dress code is casual.

Pretty sure that this is the case. As it's not enough to have 3 different dress code levels (formal, informal and casual), having different dress codes on different ships would make SS the most confusing cruise line (not to mention 3-5 levels of pricing).

Well, specific excursions are a different matter, but still would like to know the average group size. This is an important factor to me. With all other factors equal, if I look at two similar itineraries on two lines, and I know that line A puts on average 40 people on a bus and line B 25 people, this will be a big factor, even if line B is more expensive.

The problem is that dress code is not symmetric. If the formal night is mandatory, all men have to wear jackets, like it or not. If it's optional, men who like to wear a jacket (or a tux) can still do it. Men who don't, can just put a nice dressy shirt. See the difference? Oceania is always casual, but you still see some men wearing a suit and a tie (and occasionally even a tux). Choice is good. Why force people to dress up on vacation if they don't want to?

To me, those prices look a bit on a higher end, but they might be justified if the groups will be as small as @bayonejoe mentioned. I don't expect them to be 12 people, but even 20-25 is significantly less than most other lines, even the luxury ones. This is pretty close to semi private tours that usually have 16-20 people. If this is indeed the case, I might change my mind about Crystal pricing in general. The devil is in details.

Outstanding! If this is typical, this definitely gives Crystal a big edge. Oceania now puts 35-40 people in buses.

This is pretty cheap actually. How many people were on tours on average?

Nice. To me those cabins look perfectly fine. We spend very little time in the room, so having a larger room is more like "nice to have".

Looks very nice. You mentioned that double rooms are the same? Also redone?

Well, they almost doubled the cruise prices, why not the excursions prices? If people are willing to pay, why not? (although looks like the Inaugural Sailing was only 60% full, despite significant capacity reduction)

SS allows to book excursions once you book the cruise, even if it's 2 years in advance. Oceania - one year in advance. btw, I'm surprised that nobody asked any questions about the excursions quality on the Inaugural Sailing topic (my questions remained unanswered). 266 posts so far, discussing all kinds of so called "enhancements" like new lounge chairs (wow!), but nobody mentioned anything about excursions. To me, the quality of the excursions is one of the most important parameters of the ship. This is why we cruise.

Well, the prices and the offerings of the beverage packages are well known in advance. All cruise lines have wines that are extra (including Crystal that markets itself as all inclusive). The quality of those wines is a different issue and has nothing to do with Nickel and Dimed. Oceania is not all inclusive and doesn't pretend to be, this is why it costs less (which is beneficial to people who don't drink). Some people like the all inclusive model, some prefer a la carte. I do agree that entertainment and activities are not the strongest aspect of Oceania, but what does it have to do with Nickel and Dimed? Oceania has some shortcomings, Nickel and Dime is definitely not one of them. But of course you need to realize that this is not an all inclusive line and there will be some extra charges.

Thanks for the review. We also prefer the O ships. More dining choices and much better cabins. Yes, more guests, but the ships are more than double larger, so space/passenger ratio is actually better on the O ships.

Same for us.