ak1004

I'm happy to report that our TA requested the excursion to be cancelled on Monday morning. I logged in to My account and the excursion was gone. Today I got notification that our credit card was already has been credited. Most people are very loud about their negative experiences and very silent about their positive experiences, so I thought I would post my positive experience and give a credit when it's due. My experience with refunds from most other cruise lines was very different. Well done Oceania!

Yes, on the Riviera - this is why I mentioned in my other post that in my opinion, OV on Riviera/Marina provides the best value. And yes, per night per person - again, I believe I mentioned it. All prices we discussed were per night per person. P.S. the prices you mentioned - are they reflected on the website? There are two Riviera cruises in Nov.2023, both show around $4,200 CAD for B3 per person (over $3k USD)

100% agree about paying double. Mercedes is better than Honda, but probably not twice as better. We have friends who sailed on Celebrity for years. Last year I finally convinced them to try O, after they found out that the price difference between O and C was about 10%, and when you account for all inclusions, O was actually cheaper. So maybe C became too expensive, I'm not sure, but the difference is definitely not double. Not even 50%. In fact, most cruises I priced, the difference between O and C was around 20%. You also have to compare apples to apples in terms of ships. C and Princess have some very old ships that are not very well maintained, so those will be cheaper. Prices on the newer ships like Edge and Beyond are insane, in some cases more expensive than O. NCL is one level below Celebrity and Princess, so their prices would naturally be cheaper. Personally I would not go again on a 6,000 ship even for a half price (maybe might consider doing it in a suite if the price is reasonable) - but that's just me.

I didn't look at Japan itineraries, so maybe Japan is more expensive. I think it's important to compare apples to apples. For example, Europe would be typically more expensive that Caribbean. So comparing Europe on O with Europe on NCL would be a more fair comparison? As I mentioned, OV on European cruises is typically around $300 per person, which of course is still more expensive than NCL, but this is to be expected. No, O cannot offer $202 per night - in the same way that nobody expects a Mercedes to cost like a Honda. If you want to compare O and NCL in terms of service/food and the overall experience, NCL Haven would be a better comparison. But NCL Haven starts around $500/night, significantly more expensive than O. Some people are willing to pay it. To me, it doesn't make sense.

@DCGuy64 I cannot comment on the price you paid for the Japan cruise because I don't know how many nights it was. But $3,500 for 7 nights Mediterranean in inside cabin sounds expensive and not typical. We typically pays around $300/night for OV cabin. For example, our upcoming 10 day cruise in May was $4,150 CAD (around $3,100 USD or $310/night). Our cruise from Barcelona next November was around $220/night for OV. In my opinion, OV on the Riviera/Marina offers the best value for money if you don't care about veranda. It's only slightly more expensive than inside, but you get significantly more space and much larger bathroom. PH is nice of course, but the price is not justified (for me). OV is 240 sqft which for me is more than enough, and suites on O don't provide too many perks (except for butler which we don't really use), so you are paying mostly for the extra space.

Hello everyone, I logged in to my account, and all booked cruises are gone. I tried to add our upcoming cruise but got an error: "Please contact our Reservations Department for assistance with your booking." Anyone else has similar experience? On related note, the trigger was when the couple that travels with us tried to cancel one of the shore excursions that they booked, but did not find how to do it. It should be possible to cancel an excursion online, right? The cruise is on May 22th.

You are making excellent points. And yes, there are some things on the big ships that we do miss sometimes. We do miss the much better entertainment. We do miss more activities. We do miss the skating arena on RCI ships and the skating performances. We do NOT miss lots of children. We do NOT miss the party ship atmosphere, with a lot of drunk people. We certainly do NOT miss belly flop contests. And so on, you get the point. Price is not the major factor to us (unless it's something really crazy), but it's still a factor. I just checked the Haven prices - for a typical European cruise, they start around $500-600 USD per night. For that kind of price (sometimes even cheaper), I can sail on SS, SB or Crystal, and have a truly luxury, all inclusive experience. To me, it just doesn't make sense to pay those prices for a mainstream line, even VIP experience but still a mainstream line with 5-6k passengers. But some day we might try it, especially for less port intensive sailings. As an expert to those "Ship-Within-A-Ship", I'm curious how would you compare NCL, MSC and Celebrity.

I talked to enough people who experienced NCL Haven or MSC Yacht, and I sailed on enough big ships to know the facts. Nothing that I said was inaccurate. What was inaccurate was your interpretation. I'm well aware that suite passengers get priority embarkation - my comment was about getting off and on the ship in ports of call as I mentioned in my previous comment. What else was inaccurate? The fact that outside your little paradise, you are still on a big ship, with lots of children, and completely different demographics compared to lines like Oceania or Silversea? The fact that typical size of O excursion is 25-30 people while big lines fill buses to capacity? My main point was that there are areas that it simply doesn't matter that you are in a suite. We will just need to agree to disagree..

I was actually referring to ports of call, not embarkation ports. Do Haven passengers have a separate line to get on the ship when going off shore? And then a separate line to get back on the ship? Do they enjoy smaller groups when booking ship excursions? Or still get buses packed to capacity? Do they have separate areas in the ports apart from other passengers? Or they still share the ports with the other 6k people? We were on the Allure of the Seas a few years ago. Never again on a ship this size. Yea.. I have seen this on Celebrity. It was not on all shows, and the reserved area was on the balcony..

No I haven't and have no intentions to.. same for Celebrity Retreat. Once you tried a Mercedes, there is no going back to Fiat. I just like the lines where everyone is treated the same, and don't like segregations. Not to mention that each time I checked prices, suites on Celebrity, NCL or MSC were actually more expensive than Oceania.

I think you nailed it. You are still on a big ship, with all the crowds, lines, children etc. once you step outside your little "Haven". You still spend much more time getting off and on the ship. You still share the ports with 5,000+ people. What if you meet some nice people and want to have dinner together? They cannot go to your little "Haven", so you cannot dine together. Personally, I don't go back to the big ships (unless with our kids and grandkids).

I cannot comment about other people, but I can comment about our experience. We sailed on O 3 times. Inside, veranda and PH. On all 3 cruises we had the same expectations because we knew that the main difference will be the cabin size (aside from few minor things like extra specialty reservations etc.) The only case I can see why people would have different expectations would be on lines like Celebrity or NCL where you know that booking a suite will give you a completely different experience - separate restaurant with much better food and service, separate area on the ship etc. On lines like O where everyone is treated the same outside their cabin, I just don't see why people in different categories would have different expectations. And if they do, then they probably are not aware what they are paying for (which is mostly the cabin space).

I agree regarding sleepy.. there are always tradeoffs. If we could have Oceania food, Silversea size of the ship and the cabins, NCL/RCI entertainment, Azamara itineraries and Carnival price.. this would be a perfect cruise!

@DCGuy64 thank you for sharing your experience. I find your post very balanced and objective. We are all different and have different priorities. I think comparing O with NCL is not exactly apples to apples. Even in Haven on NCL, you are still on a big ship. We are done with crowds and lines of the big ships. We are done with the "party ship" atmosphere. We are in our late 50th, but "older" demographics doesn't bother us at all. To me, O provides an excellent value. yes, it's more expensive than NCL or RCI - but you cannot expect to buy a Mercedes for the price of Honda. I'm willing to pay for a Mercedes while my wife is perfectly happy with her Honda. P.S. Paying for the drinks shouldn't really come as a surprise, especially to CC regular 😊

Same here. Both cruises we booked in May 2022 are now more expensive by $600 CAD per person.

I don't understand the source of frustration. You booked early and got a better price by locking a small amount of your money as a deposit. Now the price is higher but they offer more perks. There is no reason for them to add the perks on the top of the lower price you paid, but you always have an option to re-book if it makes sense to you. I'm not sure what's the issue with O pricing model. For people who don't drink or take ship excursions this is a good opportunity to pay for only what they use.

Last year the itineraries for 2024 came in late April.

On our SS World Cup cruise, two ports were cancelled, including 3 night in Doha. The reason given? Qatar banned all cruise ships for the duration of the World Cup. The only problem? They announced the ban back in April 2022, and SS waited till October (6 weeks before the cruise) to cancel Doha. Some people called be bait and switch. But we don't know all the facts. They also went to India and failed to notify us that India does not issue e-visa to Canadians. We almost had to cancel the whole cruise. Was it their fault? Some lines did cancel India, but SS didn't. You can blame the cruise lines, or you can accept the fact that port changes are inevitable. You can blame the cruise lines for going into war zones, or you can accept responsibility that it was YOU who booked the cruise knowing all the facts, and it was YOU who failed to cancel before the final payment. It's all about the attitude. As I mentioned, some people just like to blame everyone else. Oceania changed ports more than once. So did SS. We still continue sailing with both.

Agree. If you go to a good steakhouse in Toronto, only the steak would be around $60 USD when you account for tax and tip. As other mentioned, I would try it at least once and the decide. The only opinion that matters is yours.

100% agree. And the problem is that you don’t really need a reason or grounds to sue anyone. People will sue just because they can, especially if they know the system and it won’t cost you much, and you hope that the other side will prefer to settle instead of wasting their time and money. There should be significant fines for bogus lawsuits, but this is probably not going to happen. It’s much easier to blame others than to take responsibility for your own actions and failures.

Are people aware that not every coughing is Covid? You know that people were coughing long before Covid, right?

We booked two tours with them on our upcoming cruise in May, Bilbao and Cadiz. Very responsive, never waited more than 48 hours for a response. Maybe different areas are handled by different people, not sure. Our contact person was Emilia.

La Dame on the Spirit was one of the best meals we had on any ship. The food, the service, the atmosphere were outstanding. We had OBC, so I cannot say if the $60 is worth it, but on our next cruise we will definitely do it again even if we don't have OBC.

Agree. They don't pretend to compete with the mega ships in the entertainment department, it would be impossible. But the fact that they are trying to improve is positive.

When most people can still cancel, i just don't see how this is bait and switch.