Is Oceania over priced?

[CruseKrazy]

Hello, we have taken two Oceania cruises and were most satisfied with the service, quality and overall value.

 

However, since we retired our "cruise budget" ain't what it used to be. Each week it seems, we receive 1 or 2 glossy Oceania cruise brochures/catalogs. I pour over these dreaming. I compute the per day per person cost for the inside and veranda cabins - $200 - $500. That is pretty steep for us.

 

Well the other day, I finally found a cruise we might afford - Lisbon to Rio a year from now. Most of the cheapest inside cabins are already booked and wait listed. Hence others seem to be looking for an Oceania bargain too.

 

An alternative is to go back to one of the cheaper lines. However we decided to take up RVing instead as we have more time now. We can generally be on the road for 3 mos. for about the same price as a 2 wk O cruise.

 

Hence my question. What do you think? Is O over priced?

 

Best,

 

Dave

[JPR]

Not based on quality, particularly if you are a foodie. Law of supply and demand.

[pthjudy]

Hello, we have taken two Oceania cruises and were most satisfied with the service, quality and overall value.

 

However, since we retired our "cruise budget" ain't what it used to be. Each week it seems, we receive 1 or 2 glossy Oceania cruise brochures/catalogs. I pour over these dreaming. I compute the per day per person cost for the inside and veranda cabins - $200 - $500. That is pretty steep for us.

 

Well the other day, I finally found a cruise we might afford - Lisbon to Rio a year from now. Most of the cheapest inside cabins are already booked and wait listed. Hence others seem to be looking for an Oceania bargain too.

 

An alternative is to go back to one of the cheaper lines. However we decided to take up RVing instead as we have more time now. We can generally be on the road for 3 mos. for about the same price as a 2 wk O cruise.

 

Hence my question. What do you think? Is O over priced?

 

Best,

 

Dave

 

We have yet to sail with Oceania but do have 2 booked. The Lisbon to Rio we booked the first day it was listed and, yes, it is more than fairly priced. That being said, our Caribbean cruise in February is 3 or 4 times more than similar cruises we've taken. We are doing that cruise with older family members who need a smaller ship so the price is being disregarded. I do think in the future if I like O as I'm sure we will, we will pick and choose which cruises are worth it. In between, we will cruise Princess and similar lines. Is O worth it? I'll let you know!

[Noxequifans]

The usual pattern is for the bottom cabins and top suites to fill up first. This is also a function of the number of accomodations in each category.

 

Only each individual can answer the question on pricing. The market is near perfect in that it has a number of cruise lines and varying prices within each line. One can choose what is best for themselves.

[JimandStan]

Sadly, for those who demand a higher level of quality and service, many other Cruise Lines are no longer an option, so the price must remain a secondary consideration.

[orchestrapal]

Sadly, for those who demand a higher level of quality and service, many other Cruise Lines are no longer an option, so the price must remain a secondary consideration.

 

Agree 100%.

[pacheco18]

Whether anything is "overpriced" is a function of how much anyone is willing to pay. Apparently there are plenty of cruisers willing pay the price Oceania demands. There's your answer.

 

A secondary question is whether a cruiser can comfortably "afford" the price. The fact that Oceania may be out of one's reach or represents a financial stretch, does not make it "over priced."

 

There are plenty of things I can afford that I think are ridiculously overpriced -- e.g. a Louis Vuitton "vinyl" bag -- but it is not overpriced to those who buy them and treasure them.

 

"Afford is a funny word." Could be "willing to pay." Could mean "I want to take two cruises next year but if I take Oceania I can only take one."

 

I used to believe that the expression "you get what you pay for" applied across the board. It no longer does. But in the case of Oceania -- you do get what you pay for.

[Hawaiidan]

Agree 100%.

 

Your falling for the low price leader with other cruises. Your costs with Oceana are pretty inclusive tips,taxes,port, any and all speciality dining, all beverages except booze,Rt Air fare , and on ships that are 1/2 to 1/3 the size.

 

Holland,Princess,RCL,Celeb, all advertise bare bones prics with everything added....that in most cases doubles the base price.... or more.

 

I recently compared a 40 day Holland to Oceana of 40 days.... the results were shocking. All things counted Holland would have ended up costing $443 a day pp!!! Oceiana all things considered was$ 262.pp/pd

Then considering the Holland trip was on a ship 2 x the size where everything was nickel and dime...with modest food Pizza Burgers,buffet and fix seating dining.

 

Like buying a car the price is only the starting point.... and thousands later you get what you wanted.

 

You can save by taking longer cruises. Shorter cruises cost the most and longer ones can reduce by 40 to 50%. Try 28 day+ ones and the cost comes way down. Take fewer but longer cruises one every 18 months say

 

RV cost too... When I took a trip with my wife for 28 days it cost all things considered about $275 a day..... staying in campgrounds and national parks not fancy parks. And that was when gas was $2.39 a gallon.... not todays $4

RV's are fine but your very limited in mobility and time... its not as free and fancy as one might think.

You could save even more siting on the porch or watching TV !

 

Cruise ships are the paths of discovery...Hong Kong, Rome, Bangkok , Venice, Greece, Tahiti, that only discovery by the sea reveals .

 

Pretty tough in an RV... each has its rewards and each its limitations. Its what you want out of life because you only get 1. You can always get more money

However, you can not get more time.........

[hypercafe]

I think the price of the cruise, especially in the lower cabins is ok for what you get. The rest of what they sell, spa, transfers, Internet, hotel's, drinks, is very high in MO.

[LHT28]

We looked at the price of RV's & travelling around for 3 months but it is too much $$ for us

We will stick with cruising once or twice a year on O

 

It is all a personal choice & perception ;)

 

 

Lyn

[bornfreenowexpensive]

We have owned motorhomes, and now a travel trailer and new Suburban. Trust me they are money pits. We're not mechanics so everything is done by the RV service people.

They're great for the national parks and the beach, but give me my luxury too. I am at the point that if I can't go O, I'd rather not cruise.

[LHT28]

I am at the point that if I can't go O, I'd rather not cruise.

 

Ditto ;)

[Host Jazzbeau]

Determining whether any cruise line offers good value is a very personal thing. Each line includes different things in the base fare - if you really want each and every thing that a line offers you may get best value there because you would have to pay extra for them on another line. But if you don't care about those things, that line is a poor value for you because you have to pay for stuff you won't use.

 

As an example, Regent has a section on their website with charts that compare the total cost of a sample Regent cruise with other cruise lines (HAL, Princess and Celebrity in two comparisons; Crystal, SilverSeas and Seabourn in two others). Not surprisingly, Regent comes out the cheapest in all the comparisons. But they are using high-end accommodations on the other cruise lines and adding in the cost of everything that Regent includes in their base fare, assuming you will drink lots of alcohol and take the plain-vanilla shore excursion in every port. I very much doubt that any cruisers on those other lines would utilize exactly that selection of services, so the Regent price advantage probably disappears for the majority of customers.

 

And then there are the posters who say they are willing to pay a premium for the convenience of never having to sign for anything on board. To them, Regent is a better value even if it does cost more.

[wripro]

Regent's comparison is a lot of bunk. They are the most expensive luxury cruise line out there.

[orchestrapal]

Whether anything is "overpriced" is a function of how much anyone is willing to pay. Apparently there are plenty of cruisers willing pay the price Oceania demands. There's your answer.

A secondary question is whether a cruiser can comfortably "afford" the price. The fact that Oceania may be out of one's reach or represents a financial stretch, does not make it "over priced."

There are plenty of things I can afford that I think are ridiculously overpriced -- e.g. a Louis Vuitton "vinyl" bag -- but it is not overpriced to those who buy them and treasure them.

Afford is a funny word." Could be "willing to pay." Could mean "I want to take two cruises next year but if I take Oceania I can only take one.

I used to believe that the expression "you get what you pay for" applied across the board. It no longer does. But in the case of Oceania -- you do get what you pay for.

 

What I agreed with was that "price is a secondary consideration" especially when one is addicted to O?

[pacheco18]

I am at the point that if I can't go O, I'd rather not cruise.

 

I can't say that

I'm itinerary driven

I have discovered Azamara is a viable option and the itineraries differ.

Would I prefer to go on O? Yes, if they have the itinerary I want.

[caviargal]

We had given up on ocean cruising until we experienced O last month. It was one of the most expensive cruises we have taken but we found it to be a good value overall.

 

We appreciated the overall quality of the O experience and O will likely be our choice (or Windstar) when we choose to ocean cruise again.

 

Cruising is not our preferred travel type but we enjoyed O enough that we will likely cruise again with them in the future. This time, I doubt we will do so in Europe as we prefer land based independent travel to visiting ports frequented by cruise ships.

 

We may try a Caribbean cruise on O and just enjoy the amenities and service O offers, versus focusing on itinerary. Their selection of shorter cruises is quite limited, however, and that makes it more challenging to find an itinerary that works for us.

 

I do wish O offered an Alaska itinerary on Riviera or Marina as that would be of great interest to us. We really enjoy Alaska but are not enthused about trying the smaller O ships.

Edited November 30, 2013 by caviargal

[CanadaTraveller]

I greatly appreciated Regent's cost comparisons. It actually tipped the scales for me when it came to booking with Oceania. I knew I wanted to sale Oceania, but struggled with justifying the cost. But when I saw Regent's comparison to Princess, the lead contender for us on a cruise in Asia, i realized Oceania's price was going to be reasonable. And because I don't use a travel agent, Oceania would take care of everything I did when I booked our previous cruise in Europe. Most important, country club casual and amazing food, rather than packing to dress on Princess for food that reports say is ok. We didn't do Regent as it is too inclusive, and we don't drink and the excursions looked a bit anemic.

 

So, for me, Oceania came out on top. I expect it will live up to my expectations, because I just keep booking more cruises. It appears that the only thing holding me back is getting the time away from work! I am going to be so well travelled and completely broke after I retire.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[willidc]

Hello, we have taken two Oceania cruises and were most satisfied with the service, quality and overall value.

 

However, since we retired our "cruise budget" ain't what it used to be. Each week it seems, we receive 1 or 2 glossy Oceania cruise brochures/catalogs. I pour over these dreaming. I compute the per day per person cost for the inside and veranda cabins - $200 - $500. That is pretty steep for us.

 

Well the other day, I finally found a cruise we might afford - Lisbon to Rio a year from now. Most of the cheapest inside cabins are already booked and wait listed. Hence others seem to be looking for an Oceania bargain too.

 

An alternative is to go back to one of the cheaper lines. However we decided to take up RVing instead as we have more time now. We can generally be on the road for 3 mos. for about the same price as a 2 wk O cruise.

 

Hence my question. What do you think? Is O over priced?

 

Best,

 

Dave

 

 

In today's mail we received a brochure titled "Caribbean Dreams" and the prices appear to be much lower. On second look, the prices do not include air or taxes, but are still quite reasonable once I added those in and went to the website.

 

For instance, "Traveling the Tropics" on page 22 shows a 12 day November 11, 2014 sailing from Miami to San Juan on Insignia. The ports are interesting even for someone who has traveled the Caribbean since they are not all the 'same old, same old'.

 

Even if one does not even get off of the ship, it is 12 days on Oceania with the same exceptional food, service, ambiance, etc. An inside is $1862 and was available earlier today. Add to that $300 if you need Oceania air (which sounds like a bargain from PA for us). And then add the $137 taxes. Still $2299 for 12 days inclusive of air and taxes. And on page 24 is "Tropical Breeze" for a 7 day total of $1799.

 

Cabin choice is a personal thing. We have sailed Oceania in Concierge through Inside categories. One thing we have noticed --- no matter which cabin category we choose, the food is still outstanding, the itineraries are just as magnificent, the string quartet sounds as lovely, the wine tastes as good, and the crew is just as gracious.......... Before we retired we chose the more expensive cabins. After retiring we realized that we could cruise more if we tried to save money where we could on O.

 

One thing that we decided would not be a compromise is the cruise line.

[rallydave]

And because I don't use a travel agent, Oceania would take care of everything I did when I booked our previous cruise in Europe.

 

Am really shocked that someone who will do all the comparisons and compare dollar for dollar to get the best bang for the buck would also say and proudly that they don't use a TA.

 

You are leaving 10% or more of your cruise cost on the table by not using a TA who rebates that much or more. Plus you are allowing the fox to guard the hen house so to say as a good TA will go to bat for you if any issues come up and provide you much more help than a cruise line (any cruise line) in house salesperson who of course will side with the cruise line rather than you if any problems occur.

 

It is truly a no brainer to use a TA rather than go direct; simply can't fathom anyone who uses the in house salespeople. In addition, we all know how misinformed the customer non-service is at cruise lines; no doubt that goes double for their salespeople as their only job is to bring in the biggest revenue so of course they are more concerned over pricing than anything about the ship or cruise you choose. Difficult to believe that any group could be worse than the PCH customer non-service people but, would certainly put the salespeople in that category.

[CanadaTraveller]

Am really shocked that someone who will do all the comparisons and compare dollar for dollar to get the best bang for the buck would also say and proudly that they don't use a TA.

 

Hmm, well, I definitely didn't think I was sending a message of pride. But if that was the way it was received, I will try and be more careful. You're experience has been with a TA, and since it is a no brainer I am assuming that you have never used the in house service. Well, I have used them to book 6 cruises in all, and have been quite pleased so far. I have gone on three of those cruises, and any concerns have been handled in a timely and helpful manner. My experience so far with Oceania has been great. Is that worth it to me not to have to deal with a middleman? Yes, and to send you into more shock, I also booked my air, hotels and excursions with them. Not pride, just fact.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Edited December 1, 2013 by CanadaTraveller

[Host Jazzbeau]

When we booked our first recent cruise, on Oceania, we were steered by their website to a TA. We didn't get any rebates, but she was very helpful in planning that first trip since we didn't know Jack.

 

When we went to book an AMA river cruise, again their website steered us to a recommended TA. She is wonderful. She gets us a discount and/or on board credit for every cruise. I prefer to do all the research, but she can give me advice based on her own travels and feedback from her clients. More importantly, she deals with the cruise lines -- from NCL to Crystal -- she spends the time on hold, plus she has contacts that passengers don't so she can get through quicker and can get to Yes when I wouldn't be able to. So I feel that I get very good service and some savings besides.

 

Other posters on Cruise Critic use TAs who give them bigger discounts (some claim to get 10% or more on every cruise). I don't know who these TAs are, but I'm very happy with what I get from mine.

 

I can't see any downside to using a good TA. The only issue is avoiding the bad ones. [it's too bad we're not allowed to share our TA recommendations on Cruise Critic, but I understand why that is the case.]

[Travelcat2]

We sail on Regent and have sailed once on Oceania. The main reason for not sailing on Oceania is the cost. On Regent we book a penthouse suite, have included internet, included tips and, of course, included alcohol. When we look at Oceania's prices - for approximately the same suite as on Regent's Mariner and add on the "extras" (especially the upgrade to business class air -- usually higher on Oceania), we simply cannot justify sailing on Oceania. Regent has better prices. If we are going to pay more, we will book the Vista suite on Oceania's Riviera and make the extra cost worth it.

 

In terms of using a TA..... you are definitely missing out if you do not use one. However, if the previous poster is using a TA that rebates 10%, that TA could be removed from Oceania's (or Regent's) list of TA's since the maximum advertised rebate is 5%. That was a press release issued regarding rebates by PCH.

[rallydave]

 

In terms of using a TA..... you are definitely missing out if you do not use one. However, if the previous poster is using a TA that rebates 10%, that TA could be removed from Oceania's (or Regent's) list of TA's since the maximum advertised rebate is 5%. That was a press release issued regarding rebates by PCH.

 

Have commented several times regarding the 10%+ rebates and they are completely within Regent and Oceanias policy and completely allowable. In fact our TA is on the board of TA's who advise Regent and Oceania regarding issues and Regent/Oceania is completely aware of these rebates and has no problems with them since the TA follow all of the rules completely. They don't advertise the rebates and there is no limitation on rebates that are not advertised as you correctly stated. No reason to be removed from any list.

 

Just because your TA only provides 5%, please don't pick on TA's who follow the rules and provide better rebates and service.

Edited December 1, 2013 by rallydave

[Travelcat2]

Have commented several times regarding the 10%+ rebates and they are completely within Regent and Oceanias policy and completely allowable. In fact our TA is on the board of TA's who advise Regent and Oceania regarding issues and Regent/Oceania is completely aware of these rebates and has no problems with them since the TA follow all of the rules completely. They don't advertise the rebates and there is no limitation on rebates that are not advertised as you correctly stated. No reason to be removed from any list.

 

Just because your TA only provides 5%, please don't pick on TA's who follow the rules and provide better rebates and service.

 

So, you say exactly what I said and berate me for it? I specifically mentioned "advertised" rebate. If any TA advertises a rebate over 5% they are going against the rules. Since we are not permitted to state who our TA is, why would you assume you know who mine is ? Please stop the harassment! I am not picking on anyone -- just stating the rules. Besides, how can I "pick on" a TA when I don't even know who you are talking about? If you would like to refresh your memory of the policy, here it is http://www.rssc.com/media/hostedfiles/PDF/AntiRebatingPolicy.pdf · PDF file.

 

As we head into a new year, it would be really nice if posting on Cruise Critic became a bit more civil. Leaving my post stand would not have hurt anyone and was providing information to help answer a question.

Edited December 1, 2013 by Travelcat2