Oceania VS HAL

We are HAL vets considering a transatlantic cruise on-board the Marina. I am trying to get a feel for Oceania, passenger mix, dress code, good/bad, style of the ship but their website appears strangely silent on many of these matters. I have read some of the threads in this forum but still can't get a comparison contrast to what we are used to. Any help is appreciated. We are a couple in our early 50's.

Thanks,

Kirk

I have not sailed HAL in many years but there are other threads in the Oceania forum that compare the two lines

If you have specific questions not just general ones

I am sure you will get many answers

Since the Marina is new to everyone we can only go by the brochures

The cabin sizes will be larger than the current ships but you can compare size to the HAL ships your self ..you know what Cat works for you

I am sure they are about the same or better than HAL

Some of the highlights for us are:

No formal nights, no children's programs, Limited smoking areas, no charge for the specialty restaurants, sodas & bottled water included

the dress code: is country club casual ...no jacket or ties required

most passengers clean up pretty well

A polo shirt & dress pants for men at dinner, for the ladies a nice dress or slacks with a nice top will do

No shorts at dinner ..except in the Terrace where dress shorts are permitted

Passenger mix: usually 40's to 80's some younger & older but i think the mid range is 60's

I am sure others will chip in

I am sure you would find Oceania suitable

Lyn

We've been three times on HAL, and three times on Oceania, out of 3 dozen cruises.

We prefer Oceania - smaller ships, better food, more relaxed dress code, fewer passengers, great libraries, more relaxed atmosphere.

Marina (and her sister Riviera) will feature larger cabins than the current ships, more dining venues, and probably more organized professional entertainment.

I'm sorry that Marina and Riviera will not feature a full Promenade (current ships don't either), and think there are too few outside (without balcony) cabins.

If you are big room service person, O does not include some of the things like HAL for all cabin types. O does not do full hot breakfast or orders from dining room menu for lunch and dinner as HAL does for all cabins.

Two reveiw that you might check out are

MightQuinn 's and mine from 2008. I think they both have some info that might be helpful, they are of the smaller ship but they cover TAs.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=61359

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=41072

I forgot one more important feature that we like

OPEN seating

I am sure you have read the reviews but just in case check the ship reviews...of course Marina will be a bit different

http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/cruiseline.cfm?CruiseLineID=75

Lyn

Thanks for the comments and links, I had not thought to look at ship reviews, my bad. We like open seating, don't like HAL's smoking policy, I like the sound of country casual. Do people ever wear jackets to dinner? O's website shows alot of people in pretty formal attire so that kind of threw me.

Again thanks for the comments.

Kirk

Sometimes men wear jackets to dinner but that is entirely their choice. It is certainly not required.

Sometimes men wear jackets to dinner but that is entirely their choice. It is certainly not required.

Ahem, it might just be their wife's choice.;) We love HAL and O (as well as Celebrity and Regent). You really can't compare the two lines as they are different. I am waiting to try the Marina's beds because HAL has the BEST bedding on the seas.

We have never had a bad cruise on either line. HAL is more reasonable and their suites are huge. You won't be unhappy with either line. Incidentally, I am a reformed smoker -- the worst -- and I have never had any problem with smoke on HAL.

We will only sail lines with open seating, and never had any problems with HAL, including a dreaded wait.

We've sailed both. HAL Westerdam to Alaska, in a "suite" size cabin and Oceania Insignia in the "Concierge" level. At that level, Oceania does serve hot room service breakfast. I thought I heard they were going to expand that on the Marina. From what I see, the Marina has much larger staterooms than Insignia, Regatta or Nautica. So the cabin sizes will be equivalent to a verandah suite on HAL. I suspect there will be minimal use of a veranda on a transatlantic cruise, due to temperature at that time of year. The verandah on our Alaska cruise, first week in September, was unused: it was cold and wet as you headed north to Alaska, and I'd anticipate the same type of weather on a transatlantic cruise.

It was interesting, but on deck 7 of HAL Westerdam, I felt the ocean rolling more than I did on the smaller Insignia. I think the higher up your deck is, the more you will feel the ocean rolling. I used Bonine everyday on both cruises, didn't want to chance seasickness.

I thought the food on Oceania was marginally better than HAL, with the main dining room being the consistent star. The no extra cost reservations in the specialty restaurants were nice as well. Restaurants were not as "mobbed" as on the Westerdam.

Oceania will have no art sales or lectures, they got rid of that. We kind of enjoyed the art lectures on HAL. Oceania's library is wonderful. Internet service on Oceania was slow and expensive, and for some, that may be the deal breaker if they need internet service.

For a transatlantic cruise, you may want more activities on board than Oceania offers. We don't do the late night shows, casino or bar scene but if you enjoy those, HAL would have more to offer in my opinion.

HAL excursions were less expensive than Oceania's. On a transatlantic cruise, there will be limited opportunities for excursions however. I felt the excursion quality on both lines were equivalent.

We like smaller ships so vastly preferred the 700 passenger size of Insignia to the 2,000 passenger size of Westerdam. The Oceania service is also a bit more personalized.

I'm looking for the next cruise and have ruled out Oceania as being "too large," for our tastes. I much preferred the smaller Windstar ships, so am looking at Seabourn, Silverseas and other lines with ships under 400 passengers. I felt Oceania had more of a "big ship" feel than a small ship feel, in comparison to other cruises I've taken.

Hope this helps sort things out for you.

Thanks Winegirl, a great response. We decided to go ahead and try the Marina. I had not thought about the temp and the impact on a veranda. Hopefully crossing the Gulf Stream into Bermuda it will be a little warmer. I doubt we will sit out there too much but I did want the view plus with so many sea days (9 out of 14) we opted for the veranda. Usually we get an inside cabin but on Marina there are not many and they were already taken. My thinking is that travel agents must get them as soon as they are available. We are exited to try Oceania, the dress code, smoking policy and at least for us, smaller ship are all right up our alley. I also like the sound of the multiple restaurants with no surcharge as well as free sodas. I don't drink coffee but do drink a diet cola in the morning. It will be the complete opposite of our western Med cruise in August where we had three sea days on a seventeen day cruise. We spent zero time in the cabin and seemed to always be on the go. This will be a much slower pace.

Kirk

Usually we get an inside cabin but on Marina there are not many and they were already taken. My thinking is that travel agents must get them as soon as they are available.

Kirk

People book over a year in advance on Oceania & when there is a limited number of cabins in a specific Cat they usually sell out first.

Usually the insides & Ocean view cabins will go first on the Marina as there are not many available

The crossings are becoming more popular so that is also a factor

You can always ask to be waitlisted for an inside in case someone should cancel before the cruise

so the old saying the early bird gets the choice of cabins holds true with Oceania :D

Enjoy the cruise

Lyn

We are exited to try Oceania, the dress code, smoking policy and at least for us, smaller ship are all right up our alley. I also like the sound of the multiple restaurants with no surcharge as well as free sodas. Kirk

We took our first Oceania cruise this summer. We LOVED it and it will be difficult to sail on any other cruiseline now :p

You will have a wonderful time, have fun!

We took our first Oceania cruise this summer. We LOVED it and it will be difficult to sail on any other cruiseline now :p

 

You will have a wonderful time, have fun!

Thats my fear, that we will be ruined :D.

Kirk

It sure hapened to us! We tried Oceania and were hooked. Now every cruise we take gets compared to Oceania and is found wanting. Our problem is that during the school year we can only take 1 week cruises and O's cruises are longer than that. But then comes summer... :)

To be honest, I didn't think the extra cost compared to HAL and X was a great value- this is not a complaint about my experience, but I didn't come back loving O more- I would a consider a cruise with them again if they were those only ones with an itinerary I wanted, but that's all. We did a TA on X last year and had a lovely time- O is low on activities, and my fantasy is they would offer board games and trivia on sea days and not much else. The average age on our cruise was easily late 60's to early 70's. On a TA you might want to consider a ship with an indoor pool as well as a outdoor one- the pool was quite small on the Isignia and if it is cool or windy it might not be a good place to sit. The gym facility was small and the weight equipment not great. They didn't have many fitness classes. These are things that may not matter on a port intensive trip but could on a TA. I can't wait to do another TA- but want to come East to West to get the extra hours at sea you lose going West to East.

knitter,

with all due respect, unless this was your first cruise on Oceania (and it doesn't sound like it was), you knew about the activities onboard, the pool (or lack there off), the gym, etc

We don't go on Oceania for any of those things; we go for food, service, ambience, itineraries, etc

Like you said, a larger ship (?Marina) or a mass market cruise line is probably better suited for TA. Consider it a "lesson learned".

Sorry about your disappointment.

To be honest, I didn't think the extra cost compared to HAL and X was a great value...<snip>...

I understand your feelings. On our first Oceania cruise, a 26 day cruise with a good mix of sea days and port days, we became friends (and are still close) with a couple who were more accustomed to larger ships. What they missed were the deck games and such that are often found on larger ships, such as "horse" racing. Their basic feeling was there was not enough activities and not enough to do when not in port. They chose to not book Oceania again. I respected their feelings. The smaller ships are not for everyone.

We're in the age group you mentioned, we don't like a lot of activities, we don't use the pool, we sit on our balcony and read and I take a nap most afternoons, even on port days if we return early. Oceania suits us fine, but I understand that it's not for everyone,

Thanks for giving it a chance.

I'm a HAL veteran and love this cruiseline (big cabins, great food, good lecturers, etc.) but I can no longer tolerate the smoke problem. They still permit smoking in the cabins, on the verandahs and on the promenade deck; it spreads to the hallways and other cabins, etc. I just can't take it anymore so we've switched to Oceania even though it's costing us more money.

Our first Oceania cruise is next month but we've done two sailings on her sisters ships owned by Azamara. The cabins are much smaller than HAL's and Oceania does not have refrigerators except in concierge level cabins. The pool is not much to speak of. But other than than the ships were fine.

I'm a HAL veteran and love this cruiseline (big cabins, great food, good lecturers, etc.) but I can no longer tolerate the smoke problem. They still permit smoking in the cabins, on the verandahs and on the promenade deck; it spreads to the hallways and other cabins, etc. I just can't take it anymore so we've switched to Oceania even though it's costing us more money.

 

Our first Oceania cruise is next month but we've done two sailings on her sisters ships owned by Azamara. The cabins are much smaller than HAL's and Oceania does not have refrigerators except in concierge level cabins. The pool is not much to speak of. But other than than the ships were fine.

Agree 100% with your comments -- same feelings about HAL.

Half the fun of cruising is the food and the other half are the ports/itin.

Oceania has HAL beat certainly on the food (but HALs food is not bad)

"Oceania does not have refrigerators except in concierge level cabins. "

Someone can either correct or confirm this but I believe I've read that they have either added or are adding the coolers to all the rooms.

knitter,

I see from another thread that this was your first Oceania cruise.

That puts your post in a different light and my appologies to you.

We love Oceania but I do understand that not everyone will (for reasons of their own ).

I believe they have added fridges to all cabins in recent dry docks.

Kirk - It's all been said here already but I'd like to reinforce your decision to try Oceania. We're long-standing 4* HAL Mariners & much as we've enjoyed our cruises over the years, there's just no comparison with Oceania. If you love what HAL used to be, you will love Oceania.

Unlike many cruiselines that over-promise & under-deliver, Oceania does just the opposite. I think you should go on Marina with high expectations & be prepared to be wowed.