ak1004

Well, Silversea is not mass market and they have three venues open till 11pm.. I believe it was the same on Crystal and Azamara.

Thanks a lot for this topic and sharing your experience! We were on the Spirit in December 2022, our first SS cruise as well. We sailed on 11 different lines, so have some perspective. I share a lot of your sentiment. Service and food in La Terazza was between mediocre and good, never great. Arts Cafe was fantastic, service and food! Atlantide hit and miss. La Dame outstanding, food and service. Overall we had a great time, but we expected more from a line like Silversea, and I'm glad it's not just me. I hope this is not their "new normal", and things will improve in our next cruise in December on the Dawn.

This is not the point. Room service sometimes takes a long time to arrive. On most other lines there is at least one option to have some snacks, pizza etc. after 9pm. Why Oceania cannot do the same? This is pretty basic..

Does anyone know when 2025 itineraries expected to be released?

And the cabin size itself without the veranda is 175 sqft vs 260 sqft. Yes, it is very noticeable, and if you insist on sailing on the R ship (maybe a very attractive itinerary), it might the worth the extra price. But your comparison to SS entry level cabins is absolutely correct, and this was exactly my point - the price of PH in many cases is comparable to SS, while on SS you get more inclusions and many times a much newer ship.

We like Oceania for its food and service and port intensive itineraries. There are very few activities on sea days, so personally I wouldn't sail TA on Oceania, unless you are okay with keeping yourself busy, just reading a book or relaxing at the pool. But this is probably true for most luxury/premium lines.

SS includes alcohol anytime anywhere. Also unlimited black caviar anytime anywhere. To me PH prices on the R ships just don't make sense. They are just slightly larger than regular veranda on O ships but priced 40-50% higher. And yes, some cruises on SS are actually similar price to PH on R ships, especially when you look at P2P pricing (no flights).

Well, when they cancelled cruises back in 2020 due to Covid, they promised refunds within 6-8 weeks. It took 8 months.. Now it's a new management, but looks like they continue the same tradition..

Any update on when the itineraries are expected to be released? Wasn't it Q4 2022 originally?

This is why it's so personal. We drink a lot of specialty coffee and tee and non alcoholic drinks which are included in O. But we don't drink alcohol, and we like to do a mix or ship and our own excursions. We also book our business class flights with points. We also don't mind to be in OV cabin on the Riviera, don't really need a balcony. So for us Regent would be a terrible value for money. But I'm sure it provides an excellent experience.

Again, it really depends on your personal preferences. For use 1200 is still small enough to not have any lines, crowds and feel very spacious. In fact, to me Riviera felt more spacious than Regatta. Regarding the cabins - for us veranda on the Riviera is more than sufficient. I agree it's not apples to apples comparison, but when comparing veranda on the Riviera to entry level cabins on Regent, the price gap is huge.

Being all inclusive is not necessarily an advantage. If you don't drink and want to do your own excursions, then on SS and Regent you would be paying for something that you don't use. Crew to passenger ratios are similar, space to passengers ratios are slightly better, depending on the ship. We just returned from SS cruise, and I cannot say it was in a different league compared to O. Food and service was comparable in my opinion. Cabins are nicer, and there is a butler in every cabin. So yes, if the price was similar to O, I would probably go with SS. But this is not typical, usually their prices are much higher, and I'm not convinced that I can justify the extra cost.

O ships have 1200 passengers, but the ships are also more than double size, so space to passengers ratio is actually better on the O ships. Crew to passengers ratios are also similar. O ships have more dining options and a real theater, not to mention much larger cabins. So it is obviously a personal choice, but to me the O class is a clear winner. But in this case I believe OP mentioned that the deciding factor is the itinerary.

Seabourn prices in the Mediterranean are surprisingly cheap this summer for an al inclusive line, and Silversea also has some good prices if you take P2P. In my opinion, PH prices on the R ship are not competitive at all. PH size is smaller than SS or SB entry level cabins, and SS prices also include excursions. On the other hand, veranda prices on Riviera and Marina are not bad.

This is very interesting. Would you mind to mention the specific itineraries where the other lines are cheaper?

Very good point. However, in case of USD/CAD, the exchange rate is in 1.25-1.35 range since 2015, and I believe Oceania is using 1.25 rate for years, so this is not the reason.

Regarding specialty restaurants reservations: We usually booked table for two, but our next cruise will be with friends. How we book a table for four? Do we need to provide their cabin number or reservation? Or just book and all of us show up?

Absolutely. But this is true for any ship and any cruise line. We rarely had the final itinerary exactly the same as the original.

What is the new policy? Doesn't Oceania always say that they have long stays in ports?

We were on Riviera and Regatta. Riviera is newer and nicer. It has higher space/passengers ratio so feels more spacious. More dining options. The buffet area feels a bit tight on the Regatta. There is also no real theater on the Regatta. And the bathrooms are really small on the Regatta in the entry level cabins, I would go with a suite, while on the Riviera balcony cabins (or even OV) are very nice size. That said I would sail on both given the right itinerary. Both have excellent food and service.

Thank you, very helpful. The slogan is "Oceania is about food, Azamara is about destinations"? That said, I did a quick search and Oceania does have a few very intensive itineraries in this region. For example: https://www.oceaniacruises.com/mediterranean-cruises/venice-to-athens-SIR231002/ https://www.oceaniacruises.com/greek-isles-cruises/venice-to-athens-VIS230520/ https://www.oceaniacruises.com/greek-isles-cruises/athens-to-venice-RVA241015/ But you probably wanted some of those Croatian ports?

@Host Jazzbeauthank you for the outstanding review!! We are considering cruising in this region, probably in 2024 or 2025. May I ask why did you choose Azamara for this specific cruise? We sailed with Azamara once, and enjoyed it very much, but the cabins were really small compared to Oceania newer ships, so I would probably go with the lowest suite if sailing Azamara again. Oceania has similar itineraries, and when comparing O standard cabins with Azamara lowest level suites, Oceania is significantly cheaper. Was the itinerary the main factor for selecting Azamara?

Our first cruise with Oceania was in September 2018, 10 nights Rome to Barcelona on the Riviera. We paid $4,399 CAD for the inside cabin. Booked 20 months in advance. Checking prices for similar cruises today, on the same ship, a typical price for the inside cabin is around $3,200-3,500. We recently booked two cruises for similar price (around $4,400-4,600) in the same region, but OV. So at least with Oceania, based on this (limited) sample, the prices are actually down compared to pre Covid.

Matter of perspective I guess.. You can call it 50% but it's still only $10. I agree that it's matter of principle, but it's still a very small increase compared to the total cost of the vacation. This is how I look at it, no matter if it's my money or other people's money. And again, any price increase of items that are not pre paid is not illegal.

Huge? As I mentioned, this is about 2-3% of your total cruise cost (depends on your cabin, it could be less). Personally, I'm not sure it's worth all the time and energy wasted here and on Facebook. Better to just enjoy the cruise..