Vineyard View

Wow. Not sure how that makes much sense in their response, but way to go in yours. Class act!

We do not book without the intent on taking that trip. Sometimes life or circumstances get in the way and we need to change our plans. We also use rewards points. Much more difficult than the past. We had banked miles from a cruise SFO to Europe that had to be cancelled due to Covid. We banked the miles and one year later tried, not quite a year later, to book similar flights for this Spring cruise. It was 2.25x more miles to book similar BC flights. So now we also weight in on the cost of flights more so than we had to in the past. BC out of the West Coast is crazy to Europe….$5-$6k per, so it can impact our trip decisions. I think that allowing the fee to be transferred to a future cruise would be a smart idea. AZ would not let us do that last year. We had not sailed on them previously and it did, along with new ownership, impacts out interest in them. If O follows suite, it will become one of the things we keep in mind when looking. Not because we book with the thought in mind we have a high percentage of cancelling.

We do not cruise on those big ships. Been there, done that, years ago when big wasn’t even close to what it is now. For this category Oceania has joined Azamara and Viking with non refundable deposits. I am not sure about Regent, but I believe that SS has non refundable. SB so far does not.

Cruisemom42, how are you enjoying your Oceania cruise? Would be interested in your perspective, and hoping it is a completely enjoyable time!

Thanks Pinotlover. We are truly about spending as much time off ship in ports as makes sense, so itinerary is important. No cruise line hits it out of the ballpark all the time. So if O mostly has a better than good average, with significantly above mass market food and service, and a great itinerary then it seems like a good option. And yes, those meals in ports are the good food memories mostly, totally agree. I just don’t want a number of bad food on board memories. I always Appreciate your feedback. Thank you

The old HAL with the small ships is a good memory so I understand that statement. Thanks for that comparison. We also enjoyed Viking in the past so it really sounds like there are some similarities- and based on the SM model, even more moving forward. Thanks for your input. Very much CurlerRob. When adding up all the costs between SB and O, it can sometimes be fairly close, and lower than V now days - so for us our eyes are on others than the past.

Great information and way of looking at this. I wondered if we would experience the same. Valid observation for sure. Gives me more data to consider. Oceania has changed their booking now that includes basic wine/beer at lunch and dinners, and “x” included excursion credit based on length of cruise. They are definitely targeting Viking…..and probably the heels of luxury lines.

Thank you for this. I appreciate your insight between the two. It is helpful.

Viking has multiple excursions in every port. They have one specific excursion in each port that is included. It consists of a bus ride or walking tour. In the past, their charged excursions were at lower price points that I see for O. You can choose any excursion on O to apply whatever cruise credit you have. I think that is an advantage over Viking, even though we do not take excursions. We chose two, one being on a boat (so no busses). Still on the fence on the other one.

Describes us quite well, which is why we don’t cruise on big ships. No need for all that. Ship within a ship….no thanks. So our expectations are more in line with our experiences on Viking and our one experience on SB. Those are my yardsticks for setting expectations. One SB cruise, multiple Viking. SB is definitely a step up in a whole lot of ways….what should be my expectations with O in comparison? As you said, setting them would be an important factor.

Thanks tv24. Both itineraries are port intensive so I will admit we are not late night people. If I were on a transatlantic, it might be a different story. Oceania boasts the best cuisine at sea, which I believe is more marketing than anything, but our recent SB cruise was certainly a step up in food and dining experience over Viking (although we could get extra specialty dining on board ahead of time on each of our cruises with them). Sounds like you were not very impressed with their food even pre-pandemic compared to SB?

That would catch my attention of there was an itinerary I wanted to book.

Like you, I am an avid walker and could physically do what you just described…..but I wouldn’t want to. I want time to enjoy the places I am visiting. So it’s either a land trip with 2-3 home bases to explore from, or a cruise. Moving hotels every night holds no appeal to me/us. Close friends are getting ready to take a DIY Scotland/Ireland for two weeks, changing hotels nightly - I hope they have as great a time as you did! I am glad you had a great experience

I agree with you. It is the long term O cruisers who are seeing things not meeting their expectations that catches my attention. A there are those, so it’s caught my attention as someone who has their first O cruise booked. I now think maybe the real issue is what are my expectations supposed to be? I shouldn’t expect the same experience as mass market, but should I expect similar to Viking? How about Seabourn? I don’t know how to set them, but I am sure concerned.

So far SB does not charge a cancellation fee 181 days out. Viking always has, as has Azamara. My own opinion, all these changes O is making more closely reflect the Viking strategy than anyone. We used to sail on them but they are now more expensive than luxury lines, and in our opinion, the product is not worth the cost anymore. Their “included” excursions in every port are bus rides or walking tours. We generally don’t do excursions, so we sure don’t participate in those.

I was not arguing with you. Not sure why you responded this way. We have sailed in extreme weather, and that is a different dialogue than what is being discussed here.

Maybe true on some itineraries. I would argue that there are other lines who have the same strategy and the shortened port times are not reported on them like they are on Oceania (Seabourn, etc) Nor as many skipped ports. SB ports we visited this year were majority tendered, with some having no docks due to locations being so small. No issues. Maybe we were just lucky, but I don’t read about these issues with them. So IDK

That is a lot of sea days in the past 12 months, regardless of how many cruises or areas of cruising. So…Thank you for providing these details. They do matter in the analysis.

mauibanes, we were just over in your area last weekend for twin granddaughter’s softball tournament! Stayed with long time friends in El Dorado Hills. Small world. Safari West is very cool and glad you were able to experience it with yours. thank you for your input and feedback

All true and valid points. So since there does not seem to be these stats available, the chat rooms are pretty much what we have for understanding experiences with cruise lines? IDK. Maybe you have that information I certainly do not have the depth of knowledge to argue. I am not saying these are statistically correct by any means, but they are what we’ve got. And so if that’s the hand we are dealt, then looking at the different cards in the deck on a chat room are what we have to base our decisions upon. And if the cards are stacked in one direction or another, both favorably or unfavorably, then likely that will be how those on here will make decisions. Along with TA recommended. Others not connected here will likely just choose on price and itinerary. I don’t know FB, but if you have a better idea, I a, sure open to exploring - - and sincerely not disrespect meant.

Thank you marazul. We have sailed other lines on B2B, so I get the normal change that can occur with a different mix of passengers. I also know that other lines book groups, although we have been fortunate not to experience that. I have just read quite a number of posts over the past year on SB calling out all the group charters on their 7 day itineraries. Seems like a higher concentration than other lines that i follow. So that makes me concerned. I sincerely appreciate (once again) your input. Thanks much

Even though Viking is not part of the luxury market with exception to pricing now days, their rapid expansion has certainly generated a lot of dialogue around experienced crew members, and lack thereof. We read this across all lines. There are only so many in the industry, and a reduced number post pandemic. I believe after reading quite a bit on Viking, whom we sailed multiple times pre C, that there are growing pains. How that plays out remains to be seen.

I am by no means an authority on all of this. I am a traveler who enjoys spending as much time in port as possible. I am not disputing weather forecasting vs present time tender cancellation. Because I just don’t know. But shortened port times that I keep reading about over and over again on CC with respect to Oceania, and not other lines I am watching, have me suspicious. Clearly, I do not have the background and knowledge of many here, but I do read other threads on other lines, and of the ones that I do read, Oceania sure seems to be #1 on the list in frequency. That to me is not a good indication. When we previously sailed on Viking they did not publish their port times on the website. It was a huge bone of contention, and I still do not see that on a cursory glance just now. If I remember correctly, when you put your deposit down you received the detailed itinerary with the port times. They are the only line I follow who has done that, but for the most part, they had decent port times and did not change them from the after booking schedule.

I love your passion for O. It never wavers. I think it must be incredible to have found a perfect fit for your travels. Started out with main stream years ago. Upgraded to Viking and took multiple cruises with them. Thoroughly enjoyed our experiences and we were big cheerleaders! We have not sailed on them post pandemic. Their pricing now is off the charts in our opinion for the product. So we started looking. We found a great sale on Seabourn and tried them for the first time this year. We were very impressed with the whole product - food and MDR seating superior to Viking, as well as cabin. Small ship was wonderful. ‘Now we are looking at both Oceania and SB based on time of year and itinerary. Itinerary is important and we spend full days off the ship on our own or private. We enjoy soaking up the local experiences in port as much as possible and always have lunch off ship. I believe there are a lot of people looking at cruise line options post pandemic. There are a lot of posts on most boards comparing “pre and post” and a lot of them are disappointed in “post”. On most lines. We had no barometer with SB, but we thoroughly loved the product. I find myself struggling with whether Oceania will be able to provide the premium experience we had earlier this year. A lot of that trepidation is based on so many reviews on so many threads, and that I have no barometer to “pre”, so setting expectations is difficult.

We had zero problems with tendering or with restaurants on our SB cruise. We DIY or private, so excursions and any priority of booking them does not impact us. Thanks for confirming