Oceana Comparison

[Tedferg]

Mediterranian 2014

 

Oceana Holland Princess Celebrity

TOTAL per person $6,931 $5,248 $5,161 $4,866

COST PP PER DAY $495 $525 $430 $406

Ship Riviera Ryndam Regal Equinox

Cruise Length 14 10 12 12

 

I have always thought Oceana was much more expensive than Princess. A friend who travels both said Oceana is about 30% higher - but worth the difference. Whenever I ball park a cruise Oceana seems much more expensive. I recently got an email from Oceana with the above price comparison. I did not include the complete email because the format changes from cut-paste make it hard to read. So just included the bottom line.

 

Oceana includes air fare, alternative dining, shuttle, soda / coffee, Govt fees etc to show that cost per day is less with them.

 

Can anyone shed any light on this ?

[RickEk]

Mediterranian 2014

 

Oceana Holland Princess Celebrity

TOTAL per person $6,931 $5,248 $5,161 $4,866

COST PP PER DAY $495 $525 $430 $406

Ship Riviera Ryndam Regal Equinox

Cruise Length 14 10 12 12

 

I have always thought Oceana was much more expensive than Princess. A friend who travels both said Oceana is about 30% higher - but worth the difference. Whenever I ball park a cruise Oceana seems much more expensive. I recently got an email from Oceana with the above price comparison. I did not include the complete email because the format changes from cut-paste make it hard to read. So just included the bottom line.

 

Oceana includes air fare, alternative dining, shuttle, soda / coffee, Govt fees etc to show that cost per day is less with them.

 

Can anyone shed any light on this ?

 

I'm assuming you're talking about Oceania Cruise Lines? Oceana is a P&O cruise ship.

[Tedferg]

Right Oceania Cruise lines - missed that one :-(

[geoherb]

The OP's post made me want to check out Oceania again. Whenever I've priced their cruises, they've been a lot more expensive than Princess, HAL, and Celebrity. The one I priced still is. It's the July 31 cruise on the Regatta to Alaska. It broke down to $350 per person per day for an inside cabin. If we book without airfare, the price is reduced, so it's not really free airfare. From our airport, the airfare isn't even free. It's a reduced rate of $199 (vs. $500 for buying air on our own).

 

I compared the Oceania cruise to a cruise on the Pacific Princess. With airfare added to the cruise fare, it worked out to be $228 per person per day for an ocean view cabin-- a lot less per person per day. But it's the difference in total cost that really makes me go back to Princess--more than $7,000 for the Oceania cruise versus $3,200 for the Pacific Princess.

[hulamoon]

Oceania and Azamara often include some of these items as Tedferg said. Wine coffee, soft drinks water, tips and air. It is worth it to consider if any of these items add value to you or not.

I do know Oceania will give air credit if it is not used.

 

Not sure about the others, but Equinox just left drydock with some added features other ships in Celebrity do not have.

 

Best of luck with your shopping comparisons and your cruise. A fun yet highly frustrating process. :eek:

[sammiedawg]

Oceania includes specialty restaurants at no charge but alcohol is not free. Oceania has a different level of food and service around the ship but it is going to be more expensive than Princess. It is hard to quantify the value of better food, to some it is worth it.

I talked to a couple that canceled a Holland America Amazon trip in order to change to Oceania and they said they saved money with the inclusive airfare. I think it depends on when you book the cruise and when you get airfare as prices change every five minutes.

[Tedferg]

Thanks for responses - pretty much as I expected. I thought maybe the advertised prices were higher than actual and there were discounts I was not aware of.

 

My friend raved about the 'Five Star Food'. We really like food but find Princess food to be just fine.

 

We do not have a specific cruise in mind but think we'll do the Baltic - St Petersburg in 2015.

 

Ted

[Aussie Gal]

We are doing a Singapore to Cape Town cruise next year in a Mini Suite on the Ocean Princess which is costing us $17520.00US for the two of us and is 32 days. We were looking at a similar cruise on Oceania's Nautica for 30 days and the cost was going to be $16,000 per person which is $32,000US for the two of us in exactly the same cabin.

 

We have cruised with Oceania before and loved the food but there is very little entertainment at night and the cabins are exactly the same on both ships. We could not justify the extra $14480.00 for the food as we have just returned home from 20 days on the Ocean Princess and the food was excellent. That extra $14480.00 can go a long way towards another cruise. The itinerary on both ships is similar and both visit interesting ports.

 

Jennie

[truckmaker]

We recently cruised from Auckland to Papeete on Oceania's Marina. Our original booking was for an A1 balcony stateroom on their cruise from Papeete to Callao, Peru. They offered us a move over offer that included (in addition to the air fare) free unlimited internet, free gratuities, $1050 onboard credit, and an upgrade to a Penthouse suite, if we would agree to take this trip instead. This suite cost for this trip was over $20K pp and on sale for $7K+ pp. We agreed to pay less than $5K pp for the original balcony and that was our cost.

 

Food was superior to any cruise ship we have been on, whether in the MDR, or one of the specilaty restuarants. For example, one day on the lunch buffet they had a 3 foot fresh tuna with pieces pre-carved, that you could have prepared any way you wised. Maybe it looked bigger on the buffet but it was huge.

 

Entertainemt was pretty bad. There were 3 - 4 production shows during the trip and they were very good but everything else was poor poor poor. In our opinion the tours were OK but we felt not up to Princess standards and the organization clearly was way down the scale.

 

We think we would cruise O again but perhaps when we are a little older.

 

Oh, one other thing, we found that the passengers were not friendly. There is no MDR assigned seating so you sat with someone different each night but no one seemed to be interested in us. What we did. Where we were from. And pretty much ignored us of they saw us later. We don't feel that it was just us because other passengers shared the same thing on the flight home. We have spoken with friends of ours who cruise O all the time and they agreed that this seems to happen quite frequently.

 

We did find that the butler was kind of nice, especially when he brought the afternoon treats and surprised us with speciaty restarant reservations.

[Sag13]

I love Princess, having sailed with them for 13 cruises. However, after three cruises with them during the course of last year, I feel I needed a change. My main reason is the lack of variety or change in the MDR dining menus on Princess. Last year, we sailed on the Ocean Princess in Europe, the Emerald in the Caribbean, and the new Royal in the Caribbean. It got to the point that we knew exactly what was on the menu from previous cruises. Even the lunch menus were the same on all three ships. Thank God for Alfredo's on the Royal.Why doesn't Princess change their menus from time to time, especially with the new ships.

 

Thus, we've booked an Oceania cruise on the Insignia for later this year. After reading this thread, I wonder if we made a mistake. Our main reason was for the food, but it's true we are :mad:paying much more than we ever would on Princess.

[Emma Chisit]

We are doing a Singapore to Cape Town cruise next year in a Mini Suite on the Ocean Princess which is costing us $17520.00US for the two of us and is 32 days. We were looking at a similar cruise on Oceania's Nautica for 30 days and the cost was going to be $16,000 per person which is $32,000US for the two of us in exactly the same cabin.

 

We have cruised with Oceania before and loved the food but there is very little entertainment at night and the cabins are exactly the same on both ships. We could not justify the extra $14480.00 for the food as we have just returned home from 20 days on the Ocean Princess and the food was excellent. That extra $14480.00 can go a long way towards another cruise. The itinerary on both ships is similar and both visit interesting ports.

 

Jennie

We have also cruised on both Pacific Princess and Oceania Nautica and agree completely with Jennie. In our opinion Oceania had better beds, wine list and buffet restaurant. MDR very similar in both, maybe Princess had a slight edge in fact. You would not choose either for the evening entertainment, and shore excursions were variable on both. While we enjoyed our Oceania cruise we do not feel that they are worth the increased price difference. But maybe we will be singing a different tune after 62 days on Ocean Princess next year (Singapore to Dover) - unless Princess changes its wine list in the interim. It's not too interesting at the moment, and they always seem to run out of the wine I like before the end of the cruise. However, the itinerary is great, and to do something similar on Oceania (or the few other cruise lines which go to West Africa) would have been way more expensive.

[Aussie Gal]

Emma,

 

Since the Ocean Princess changed their mini suite beds at the end of 2009 when they had their major refit, we cannot complain at all about the beds. We have not needed an egg crate mattress for the past 4 cruises on the Ocean. I must admit though that the wine list is sadly lacking, especially when they ran out of New Zealand Savignon Blanc about a week before we reached Singapore.

 

Jennie

[Starlaker]

We had one cruise with Oceania and wish that we could afford to cruise with them more. The food and service were exceptional. We were on a 28 day cruise to the Amazon and loved it. It was an older age group than most cruises we have done, but that may have had partly to do with the length and timing (Dec.) of the cruise. We found that Oceania was very port intensive so we didn't mind the lack of entertainment. After full days of touring, and very few sea days to recuperate, we were ready to go back to our cabin and get ready for the next day. We thought that the passengers were very nice and with a small ship (around 800 passengers) and so many days together we got to know many of them. Much more so than we do on the big ships. We hope to sail with Oceania again one day.

[Minoushka]

I found people onOcean to be very friendly . I am still in touch with many I met on this ship .I even met a Canadian diplomat and his family because we needed to bring our passports to the pursers office prior to landing in Iceland and recognized my passport .so he struck up a conversation..i hooked up with people on the roll call for group excursions which were excellent .i advise you to do the same

At night entertainment was really poor so we would sit around the shops and chit chat ...I got very friendly with many other passengers . our cruise was 18 days long from New york up to Canada,Iceland ,Greenland and Norway,Scotland ending in England

It was a very interesting cruise but it was a small ship so think of everything as scaled down ..no fancy shows no great casino but the people on board made it wonderful except for our very rude nasty table mates ...but thats another story .....everyone else was really nice

During the day we played silly games with the staff ...like golf in a cup etc

We went to places no big ship could so that was the advantage

But i must say Ocean Princess is more expensive because its smaller ......i prefer big ships but the experince of a small ship is special

I would do one again if the price and itinerary were good

 

Bon Voyage ...contact fellow cruisers ahead of time ....enjoy

[Emma Chisit]

Emma,

 

Since the Ocean Princess changed their mini suite beds at the end of 2009 when they had their major refit, we cannot complain at all about the beds. We have not needed an egg crate mattress for the past 4 cruises on the Ocean. I must admit though that the wine list is sadly lacking, especially when they ran out of New Zealand Savignon Blanc about a week before we reached Singapore.

 

Jennie

 

Hi Jennie.

Truth to say the only time that we experienced the supposedly uncomfortable Princess beds was on Emerald Princess in 2012. Those were awful, and I woke up in pain every day even with the egg crate topper. (Husband had no problems, I am clearly the princess here.). Might still take my own egg crate topper next year anyway, as some of those supplied by Princess have definitely lost their bounce! Also think the beds on Oceania were superior because of the quality of the pillows and bed linen. Ditto the towels......

Now, about the wine.....I am very fond of NZ Sauvignon blanc. The only one stocked by Princess is Nobilo, which is OK - if pretty average. Twice now on longer cruises on Princess they have run out - also one week before the end of the cruise. Interesting that you have had the same experience....we have speculated it is an artificially created shortage - because they want to shift some of their less popular wines instead. However, some friends were recently on one of the Aussie Princess ships and - wonder of wonders - reported that Princess now stocked a second NZ Sauvignon blanc. We are cruising on Diamond Princess round Japan in August, so hoping for the best!

Incidentally, for those looking for the small ship experience, we just completed a short Mediterranean cruise on Windstar. Our first time on Windstar and could not fault it.

[Woobstr112G]

We are doing a Singapore to Cape Town cruise next year in a Mini Suite on the Ocean Princess which is costing us $17520.00US for the two of us and is 32 days. We were looking at a similar cruise on Oceania's Nautica for 30 days and the cost was going to be $16,000 per person which is $32,000US for the two of us in exactly the same cabin.

 

We have cruised with Oceania before and loved the food but there is very little entertainment at night and the cabins are exactly the same on both ships. We could not justify the extra $14480.00 for the food as we have just returned home from 20 days on the Ocean Princess and the food was excellent. That extra $14480.00 can go a long way towards another cruise. The itinerary on both ships is similar and both visit interesting ports.

 

Jennie

 

That is definitely a lot of money. You made the right decision.....:):):)

 

Bob

[MV400]

Tedferg

 

 

We've sailed with Princess 8+ times, and with Oceania twice. Our next cruise is also booked with Princess.

 

 

I would suggest instead of comparing the 2 lines - you ask yourself what type of cruise experience you want. Just like driving the Pacific Coast Highway - you can take a min-van or a convertible. Both move you along the coast - just the experience is vastly different. Here are my thoughts

:

 

Size of the ship

Oceania 650 or 1,200

 

Princess 2,500+

 

 

Demographics of passengers

Oceania: - 50+ (saw less than a total of 5 children under the age of 10 combined on both cruises). Yes there were also newlyweds, 30's and 40"s. Only

"scooter" I ever saw on our cruises was due to a broken leg.

 

 

Princess: 9 months to 90 years

 

 

Stateroom:

Oceania: A bed so comfortable they actually offer to sell it. Really! Bathrooms (our experience) all done in marble/granite. Shower with a door (not a curtain) with 2 shower heads, AND ALSO a separate tub with an additional shower head.

 

 

Princess: it's clean

 

 

Food:

Oceania: Fabulous, Awesome - a key point to the cruising experience. You should expect your dinners to take 2 to 2.5 hours. It's an experience every night. And as other posters have noted all of the restaurants are free. Note: The one compliant I heard was that the fish wasn't "fresh." However, in all of our cruises I've never seen fishing lines over the back of any of the ships.

 

 

Princess: You have the International Cafe, the pizza .. and of course the Love Boat dessert.

 

 

Entertainment:

Oceania: 1 show per night. It's ok - but you are on this ship for the experience, and the food.

 

 

Princess: Lots of options every night. From the games in the lounges, to production shows - all kinds of options.

 

 

Excursions:

Oceania - Expensive - so either use their excursion bundle, or since most fellow passengers are well-traveled - join the roll call and find local options.

 

 

Princess: We've always found value (yes, at a premium), and well organized excursions.

 

 

Pre/Post Hotels and transfers:

Both expensive - Oceania even more so.

 

 

Our future decisions will be based on number of vacation days we have available, the itinerary, and the type of vacation experience we want. If we're traveling with family - probably with Princess. If we're traveling just as a couple or with another couple - probably Oceania.

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

MV400

[Emma Chisit]

That is definitely a lot of money. You made the right decision.....:):):)

Bob

 

To put it in perspective, we are doing the same cruise on Ocean Princess as Aussie Gal next year, only with the Capetown to Dover leg as well. Total will be 62 days Singapore to Dover (and also in a mini suite). So, for much the same price as Oceania's 30 day cruise on Nautica mentioned by Aussie Gal, we get to visit West Africa and other places as well! We spent 35 days on Nautica in 2012 and enjoyed it, but the differences between the Oceania and Princess experiences, at least on exactly the same type of "R" class ships, just do not justify the extra expense. Princess is not perfect (neither is Oceania), but Princess offers a reliable product, and interesting itineraries, at a reasonable price. Even if I am less than impressed with the recent switch to shampoo and shower gel dispensers! :( Which admittedly have yet to experience.

[Woobstr112G]

To put it in perspective, we are doing the same cruise on Ocean Princess as Aussie Gal next year, only with the Capetown to Dover leg as well. Total will be 62 days Singapore to Dover (and also in a mini suite). So, for much the same price as Oceania's 30 day cruise on Nautica mentioned by Aussie Gal, we get to visit West Africa and other places as well! We spent 35 days on Nautica in 2012 and enjoyed it, but the differences between the Oceania and Princess experiences, at least on exactly the same type of "R" class ships, just do not justify the extra expense. Princess is not perfect (neither is Oceania), but Princess offers a reliable product, and interesting itineraries, at a reasonable price. Even if I am less than impressed with the recent switch to shampoo and shower gel dispensers! :( Which admittedly have yet to experience.

 

I would have to agree with you.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Colo Cruiser]

:princess 2,500+

 

 

1900+

[sammiedawg]

The Oceania experience is terrific with the focal point the food and restaurant experiences. Dinner does not begin until 6:30 pm, no reservations in main dining room, many tables for two. We consistently got seats at the window. We met very lovely people each night, they have their two top tables grouped closely together so you can chat. The dinner menus are so extensive it is hard to decide what to order. Very high quality cuts of meat and seafood. They fly most of their food in. Service in the main dining room very good, sommelier comes right away and is attentive. Waiters, assistants, food runners, supervisors working hard but dinners are a two hour process. Sunday brunch was lavish as was the afternoon tea, especially the grand tea at the end of the cruise.

Specialty restaurants are superb, the level of food and service is terrific. The Italian restaurant especially was superb. No cost, you must have reservation. Every passenger is entitled to rebook a certain number of dinners, then each day you have the option of booking up filled seats it wasn't difficult to get more dinners there.

The poolside grill cooks to order Kobe beef burgers, fine cuts of chicken fish, surf and turf is very popular. They serve you at the table with assistants bringing soft drinks, milkshakes, smoothies, specialty coffees anything you want at no charge.

Free soft drinks bottled water all over the ship. At the pool they circulate nonstop with drinks.

The buffet has lovely food but is open limited hours, everything served to you and many things cooked to order.

Alcohol was expensive but people flock to happy hour.

One show each night at 9:30, no fancy production shows. Lots of cabaret singing, a comedian, a comedy magician.

The destination lectures were beyond superb with three different people speaking on ports. The main guy presented fifteen one hour lectures filled with personal photos and experiences.

The bedding, linens, public spaces very luxurious.

To die for library, thousands of books. Nothing locked up, the honor system.

Luxurious padded loungers poolside.

Small ships, unique itineraries.

No formal attire ever which we loved.

Edited May 10, 2014 by sammiedawg

[Cruise Junky]

We priced the 10 day Tahiti cruise last year and Oceania's marina was cheaper than Ocean Princess for a balcony. Mainly because Oceania included the air which is a killer to Tahiti. Definitely do the math, you might be surprised.

[basor]

Another difference is Oceania allows you to bring aboard wine and liquor for consumption in your stateroom. Many people will bring a case of their favorite wine, label it, put with their luggage and it is delivered to your room. If you would like to enjoy one of the bottles of wine with your dinner in one of the restaurants , they will charge a $25.00 corkage fee.

 

On several European cruises, we enjoyed being able to bring aboard a local wine to enjoy on our verandah at sail away. No "sneaking" the bottles onboard or "rum runners" necessary.

 

We enjoy both Princess (Elites) and Oceania. We choose our vacation based upon itinerary and type of onboard experience we want. Both cruise lines have their advantages and disadvantages.....glad we have a choice!

[8pawz]

We took a 16 day Oceania cruise on the Marina and based on our experience would not book Oceania again. Food was great but spent 8 days at sea in bad weather with nothing to do. I read 8 books. No regularly scheduled movies. They added two but during lunch time. Big daytime activity was scarf tying demonstration or bridge. We had a penthouse and butler was useless, didn't even do the few things we asked. Our cabin steward on the Coral Princess was more attentive.

 

On a very port intensive cruise the experience would likely be different but Oceania is not the line for us. We are much happier on Princess and HAL which we find have a good mix of available activities, good service and good though not great food which is fine with us as we mainly like a simple fresh fish for dinner

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Aussie Gal]

Tedferg

 

 

We've sailed with Princess 8+ times, and with Oceania twice. Our next cruise is also booked with Princess.

 

 

I would suggest instead of comparing the 2 lines - you ask yourself what type of cruise experience you want. Just like driving the Pacific Coast Highway - you can take a min-van or a convertible. Both move you along the coast - just the experience is vastly different. Here are my thoughts

:

 

Size of the ship

Oceania 650 or 1,200

 

Princess 2,500+

 

 

Demographics of passengers

Oceania: - 50+ (saw less than a total of 5 children under the age of 10 combined on both cruises). Yes there were also newlyweds, 30's and 40"s. Only

"scooter" I ever saw on our cruises was due to a broken leg.

 

 

Princess: 9 months to 90 years

 

 

Stateroom:

Oceania: A bed so comfortable they actually offer to sell it. Really! Bathrooms (our experience) all done in marble/granite. Shower with a door (not a curtain) with 2 shower heads, AND ALSO a separate tub with an additional shower head.

 

 

Princess: it's clean

 

 

Food:

Oceania: Fabulous, Awesome - a key point to the cruising experience. You should expect your dinners to take 2 to 2.5 hours. It's an experience every night. And as other posters have noted all of the restaurants are free. Note: The one compliant I heard was that the fish wasn't "fresh." However, in all of our cruises I've never seen fishing lines over the back of any of the ships.

 

 

Princess: You have the International Cafe, the pizza .. and of course the Love Boat dessert.

 

 

Entertainment:

Oceania: 1 show per night. It's ok - but you are on this ship for the experience, and the food.

 

 

Princess: Lots of options every night. From the games in the lounges, to production shows - all kinds of options.

 

 

Excursions:

Oceania - Expensive - so either use their excursion bundle, or since most fellow passengers are well-traveled - join the roll call and find local options.

 

 

Princess: We've always found value (yes, at a premium), and well organized excursions.

 

 

Pre/Post Hotels and transfers:

Both expensive - Oceania even more so.

 

 

Our future decisions will be based on number of vacation days we have available, the itinerary, and the type of vacation experience we want. If we're traveling with family - probably with Princess. If we're traveling just as a couple or with another couple - probably Oceania.

 

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

MV400

 

MV400,

 

I am actually comparing two identical ships both carrying around 680 passengers. The two ships being Oceania's Nautica and Princess's Ocean Princess.

 

We also go for itinerary and if Oceania's itinerary had of been more exciting, then we would have definitely booked her but as the two itineraries were both good, we chose Princess as we couldn't justify the extra $14,000.

 

We had excellent entertainment on our recent Ocean Princess cruise. Besides the singers and dancers who do a great job, we had 6 other entertainers brought on for the 20 day cruise and they were all good.

 

Also, the library on the Ocean Princess is exactly the same as the library on Oceania's 3 smaller ships and it is not locked. Anyone can take a book at anytime.

 

We didn't have any children on either of our cruises.

 

As I have mentioned, if we find an itinerary that we love and Oceania offers it, then we will definitely book it.

 

On our Oceania cruise of 35 days, we had a great fun group of passengers and we are still in touch with a lot of them today and that cruise was back in 2008, Hong Kong to Athens. By the same token, we are still in touch with the cruisers from our Ocean Princess cruise of 32 days when we cruised from Cape Town to Dover in 2010. The small ships do make it easy to make friends.

 

Jennie