Coming Back to O (You Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Till It’s Gone)

Just musing that we sailed exclusively with O on 9 cruises since 2011, on either the Riviera or the Marina,

Too much familiarity with the ships, restaurants, shows, etc. led to waning excitement as the next cruise planning approached.

So last winter we tried Viking Ocean. I had written in other threads on comparison details, but I’ll just say that the bottom line is there were disappointments, and O seems superior in many ways.

So we have booked with O again. Familiarity now is seen as reliability, and we are so excited about going back!

Harry and Carol

Thank you for sharing.

We had a similar experience with Crystal recently.

While is was a very nice cruise there was not enough reason for us to change and we are back with Oceania.

We felt the same about Regent, Seabourn and Silversea before that - all very good but not overall better than Oceania FOR US. Oceania is not perfect but it fits us best.

Thank you for sharing.

We had a similar experience with Crystal recently.

While is was a very nice cruise there was not enough reason for us to change and we are back with Oceania.

We felt the same about Regent, Seabourn and Silversea before that - all very good but not overall better than Oceania FOR US. Oceania is not perfect but it fits us best.

+1 tried Regent and Crystal - both were good, but for US also, just didn’t fit as good as O. Have not tried Azamara or Viking Ocean (and probably won’t), so, O is our preference at this time.

Welcome back

We saild on O in 2004 then tried a couple of other lines but found ourselves comparing things to O even though we tried not to

Yes everything seems the same on O & we are comfortable with that

As the others said O is not perfect but it suits us fine

Enjoy your cruise

Oceania is by far the best fit for us.

We think Viking ocean has a nice product. I also kept comparing to Oceania and it came up short.

Viking and Oceania are my favorite lines, and I like them about equally.

harryw, I'm curious: What was it about Viking that fell short for you - or what did Oceania excel at?

If you read my Viking Sea review from February, it touches upon the key comparison points -

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=609341

We have sailed exclusively on Marina since 2011 (only 5 cruises) but our most recent Transatlantic cruise in May has prompted a decision to try something different.

We have booked on Viking for June 2020, mostly for Itinerary and timing, but also for many of the same reasons as “harryw”.

While the cleanliness of ship, service, ambience and general comfort of Marina could not be criticised, we felt the food was not up to the standard we had come to enjoy and expect.

While food is not the be all and end all of a cruise it is something we look forward to enjoying.

I know the grass is not always greener on the other side of the mountain but you will never know until you try it, and you can always come back to what you are familiar with and have always enjoyed.

I do enjoy Oceania and have tried others, regent, Crystal and Seabourn. All very good lines but for me the restaurants on O just give it the edge. Crystal was ok, but not the wow I was expecting. Regent I loved and Seabourn was very good.

I tend to just like them all for what they are. Out of the 8 cruise lines that I've been on, Princess is the only one I really disliked. It and Carnival I wouldn't cruise on again. The rest it would depend on situation and itinerary.

I do enjoy Oceania and have tried others, regent, Crystal and Seabourn. All very good lines but for me the restaurants on O just give it the edge. Crystal was ok, but not the wow I was expecting. Regent I loved and Seabourn was very good.

Greetings, firsttimers, from South Beach. Our first O cruise in 2004 was on Insignia from Venice to Athens. It was a revelation. All the things we disliked about cruising were gone. Photographers, forced dining hours and seats, loud announcements and more. Clearly, we went for this approach. Altogether, our next cruise on Riviera will be our seventh O cruise. We really like the itinerary on this cruise and expect to have a wonderful time. We agree that O is exceptional.

Mary