First time on Oceania

[2910car]

We have been on many cruises but never on Oceania. We are considering trying it. Would like to hear about some of the differences, due to the much higher cost.

 

Any information welcome. Thanks

[LHT28]

I would read through some of the threads below then come back with more specific questions

 

Also check out the FAQ's on O website

http://www.oceaniacruises.com/guestservices/default.aspx

 

Not sure what lines you are comparing with Oceania

Edited January 7, 2015 by LHT28

[2910car]

We have sailed many times on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Holland America. Also 2 Viking River cruises. We have done a lot of Caribbean since we live in Florida, but also 2 transatlantics and five European cruises. We always take balcony cabins. We have also done quite a few land tours around the world. We are in our early 70s.

 

We are considering a Caribbean cruise on the Riviera. I understand the ship is much smaller than the cruises we have experienced, so probably a lot more personal service.

 

I have looked at some of the menus on the website you suggested. Much of the food seems gourmet and I'm really not, although I'm sure I will find things to eat I enjoy. I have read a few post on this board and it seems wine and alcohol are very expensive.

 

We would really like to try Oceania as we have heard raving reviews from friends. We are just wondering if it is for us, and if it would be worth the additional cost (about twice the price) for us.

 

So I guess I am looking for people to tell me why they prefer Oceania over say Celebrity.

[critics0001]

Much better than Celebrity and Holland in food and cabin service. You get soft drinks and bottle water for free, bring on unlimited amounts of liquor and wine to drink in cabin free and pay corkage for your own wine in restaurant. Individual drinks are slightly more expensive than cruise lines mention but they also run comparable happy hours at 2 for 1. No additional charges for specialty restaurants.

Casino is smaller, entertainment is comparable to Celebrity and HA but with less cast members. What is a benefit is less bothersome announcements for money charging activities but we have noticed this is increasing on recent cruise.

Oceania is a ripoff on cruise ship excursions and internet charges.

Hope this helps.

[RetiredFL]

From what I have seen, Viking River cruises is probably the closest in ambiance and service to Oceania.

We are just about to leave on our 16th cruise on Oceania so are a bit biased but we find everything a bit better on Oceania. Our next cruise will be a Western Caribbean on Riviera which we have not been on but we have been on it sister ship Riviera.

As to food we love trying new things but there will always be "plainer" things if you want them. Every night in the GDR there is always Jacques roast chicken and a steak. Since everything is cooked to order the wait staff can usually request the chef modify the dish, leave a spicy sauce off or on the side, etc.

We made our decision some time ago that we would rather enjoy less cruises on an upscale line than more cruises on mainstream lines.

The Preismans have many photos of the interior of the ship and discussions of the staff if you read the whole post.

It is difficult to translate ones experience to others but Oceania is the only line we will consider except for the new Viking Ocean Cruises which is a new part of Viking River cruises and seems to have copied much of their ideas from Oceania. So far they look more expensive but more is included.

[Paulchili]

There have been threads comparing Oceania to Celebrity & HAL before.

These might help you some:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2102247&highlight=oceania+vs+celebrity

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1987129&highlight=oceania+vs+celebrity

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1889262&highlight=oceania+vs+celebrity

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1914743&highlight=oceania+vs+celebrity

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1788748&highlight=oceania+vs+celebrity

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1738901&highlight=oceania+vs+celebrity

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1768331&highlight=oceania+vs+celebrity

This should keep you busy for a while as well as hopefully help to answer many of your questions. If you have more, specific questions after this, please ask.

[Hambagahle]

I have been on Viking River cruises and on Oceania. To me there is no comparison possible in the quality of the food, nor the service. Oceania is much better. Bu that said, on a river boat you cannot possibly offer the same quality as on an ocean liner.

 

To the person who said s/he doesnt like "gourmet" food I say- real gourmet food is about good tasting, nicely presented food. What is not to like? It can be very simple. And simple is often the best.

[planitohio]

We just got off of the Oceania Regatta yesterday. We had a very nice cruise and this was our first time on Oceania. Our previous sailings are in my signature. Our favorite is still probably Celebrity AQ class and Viking.

 

We really liked the ship size, decor, lack of photographers and formal nights. However, we did not find the Regatta Lounge (where shows are held) to be good for shows or comfortable. We also found the shows (with a few exceptions) to not be very good. We missed having a small theater and more activities. While this line claims to not be "selling" items, most of the activities for the day (and some of the announcements) did just that. The majority of the activities were bingo, casino games, martini or other drink tastings, jewelry stuff, spa related - all items to sell things. The activities beyond that were bridge, a few exercise classes, needlepoint, history of old songwriters, a destination lecture and tea. We had a lot of sea days due to our itinerary and also missed ports/bad weather and we got bored. Because of rough seas and a leak in the pool, the pool was empty for several days.

 

We did like the Polo grill, but did not care for Toscana. My husband did not care for the food on board. I really struggled because I have a food allergy and they just were not able to handle that well at all - so I was limited as to what, when and where I could eat. Celebrity and RCCL do not have difficulty with my allergy - the only one that has - is Norwegian.

 

One thing that we did not realize is the extent to which they would dock in container ports. I believe we did this three times. This made us far from anything and in two cases you had to take a rather lengthy bus shuttle to even get to the terminal. With short port times and later arrivals, you are really limited as to what you can see.

 

They do handle anytime dining well (some ships do not) and we found the passengers on board to be delightful. Our room was very quiet and while smaller than on the other ships, it was fine.

 

While there were a lot of things we did like, we aren't sure that it justified the price differential. We would not rule this out for a future cruise, if the itinerary or others traveling justified cruising this line.

[Floridiana]

About the commercial ports on your Panama Canal itinerary: All ships on the same itinerary with the same stops dock at the exact same port facilities. Some places just don't have a designated cruise port. We did that itinerary with a HAL ship.

 

Which ports did you have to skip? It's always annoying and it happened to us on a South America itinerary.

[Mura]

Dawn,

 

I'm surprised to hear that the Regatta staff couldn't manage your food allergy difficulties because that is not at all what I have heard from others. I myself don't have such a problem so I can't speak from personal experience but I've seen many positive reports here from people who do.

 

Did you notify the ship in advance of your problems? That has seemed to be the answer for others.

 

Also sorry to hear your husband just didn't like the food on Oceania because that is definitely a minority opinion! (We agree with you about Toscana, however ... it's always been the least favorite of ours in terms of specialty restaurants.)

 

Mura

[planitohio]

We kind of missed Cartagena. We were to get in at noon one day, but didn't arrive until about 10 p.m. and docked overnight at a different location than originally planned. We had to cancel Nassau completely. And we ended up transiting most of the Canal at night. We went through the first two locks eventually (about noon instead of 7 am) and they held us there until 9 p.m. when we were able to finish the locks - exciting about 2:30 a.m.

 

For the food, I did tell them at least 90 days ahead and talked to them repeatedly. I'm gluten free. They had one bread option - one - for 16 days. It was a small piece of wheat like toast. Sometimes they had it and sometimes they did not. For most items, they just removed offending items and did not do substitutes. For example, for some strange reason they do not use a GF soy sauce. So for an asian salad, they will substitute red wine vinegar or serve it with no dressing. One morning they had potato and spinach waffles with poached eggs and cheese. I asked if that was or could be GF. They said sure. They made me awful pancakes and put an egg on them and said I couldn't have the cheese, but thought I'd want syrup over the eggs. I had to order my meals 2 days ahead, which is a bit difficult to do when you don't know what you are exactly doing or will want. For the first half of the cruise, for every meal they told me I could only have fruit or sorbet for dessert. Even when I'd see things that seemed like they should work (such as the marshmallows in polo). I finally got the chef involved and he talked to the wait staff and things did improve in the restaurant dessert department. Waves did not want me to eat there. Terrace would allow me to eat there, but they would have to track down the chef each time as they don't mark the items. For a cheeseburger, they asked that I order it 24 hours ahead. Some recipes would also change mid-cruise. I was getting mango smoothies every morning. All of a sudden - I told them they were putting cereal in them. First they said no - but then they agreed that they had. And continued to usually do so. The ingredients were not consistent - so you could not just stick to A, B & C as safe.

 

In their defense, due to rough seas, they were scrambling to have enough staff to serve the meals - and I'm guessing possibly cook them as well. The sea bass was excellent - especially the Miso glazed and most of their breakfasts (especially the lamb chops!) were excellent. So all was not bad. It was just more tedious than on other ships (where I could order off of a menu when eating and see what my choices were) and got rather boring sticking to the same things. Gluten Free is not overly difficult. There were never any items in Horizons, at the coffee bar, etc. It was also difficult to be able to decide to do something with friends or change our mind about what meal we wanted (breakfast, lunch) as I ordered everything two days ahead.

[Floridiana]

I am sorry about your struggle with the gluten free food. That must have been very annoying.

 

As to missed ports, you did not miss Cartagena altogether? Could you go to the historic downtown? The entire port is commercial wherever the ship is located.

 

I haven't been to Nassau, but it seems that lots of people are so fed up with the crime rate that they do not get off the ship or go directly to a resort. That's what I understand from many, many posts on cc.

 

Panama Canal, Regatta must have missed her spot in the line. Rough weather must have created havoc with her schedule. Did you miss any of the ports on the Pacific Coast? I love small town Huatulco and Puerto Quetzal for the opportunity to go up to beautiful Antigua.

[planitohio]

Cartagena - We had a tour booked for the previous day that we were not able to rebook. We had to be back on the ship by noon. There is a passenger cruise terminal (at least that is what the local information woman indicated and showed me on the map), but we did not dock there. We had three out of the way docking because of issues with taking on fuel and off sludge. The passenger cruise terminal that has some basic amenities was not in walking distance. We could walk about two blocks and end up in a residential area. We did go out and walk around thinking we could get to an interesting area, but we really didn't see anything where we were. We were originally told we'd dock at the passenger terminal, but that was changed.

 

We did not miss our ports on the Pacific. We had our Huatulco raft trip cancelled because of an accident with the raft van - but that had nothing to do with Oceania. The Antigua stop we did not dock until 12 or 1 so we did not have time to go that far and do anything. The ship did not offer any tours to Antigua. Those that went weren't sure it was worth it by the time you took 30 minutes to get out of the terminal - and then get on a local tour to go a few hours to Antigua. They felt like they only had a little bit of time to walk around before heading back.

 

Costa Rica - This was a good stop - but I wish we could have been there before noon. There is only so much you can do and so far you can go before dark, especially with traffic.

 

Leon was wonderful. Three buses were late getting back because of the traffic. They only get two ships a month so it makes me wonder if this will continue for long with the delays.

 

Our canal pilot was to have boarded at 6. He boarded at 7:45. Then there was an issue with the anchor the canal had asked us to drop. Then we apparently missed our window, even though nothing seemed too busy. The bad weather started up when we left the canal. The issues in the Caribbean stemmed from the late canal departure and the weather. It was interesting to me that a lot of loyal Oceania cruisers told us they expected missed ports as they often have them. This was the first time we missed a port, although it was understandable. We had just booked a beach day in Nassau to soak up some sun and swim before heading home. I'm hopeful they will refund my money.

 

A plus for Oceania is that they have a decent DVD lending library and DVD players in all of the rooms. This was nice to have something to do during the bad weather.

[Mura]

I've seen many compliments to the staff from gluten-free people who had no problems getting the food they needed -- although everyone does have to order in advance, you weren't unique there. This may have been pertinent to your specific sailing ... which doesn't make you feel any better, I know.

 

I'll be interested to see if complaints like yours continue.

 

Mura

[Floridiana]

Cartagena - We had a tour booked for the previous day that we were not able to rebook. We had to be back on the ship by noon. There is a passenger cruise terminal (at least that is what the local information woman indicated and showed me on the map),

 

The 'passenger cruise terminal' is a souvenir store with some nice and some tacky stuff. You enter on one side and exit on the other side. It is located in a residential/commercial area and taxis are waiting 'on the other side' to offer tours to the city.

 

We have missed ports on 1/3 of our cruises with different lines. The fine print tells you that there is no compensation.

[LHT28]

Sounds like the cruise was one with many issues

 

 

I can say that we have maybe missed 2 ports in 9 cruises

just lucky I guess

[babysteps]

For the food, I did tell them at least 90 days ahead and talked to them repeatedly. I'm gluten free.

 

me too on Gluten free. For non-GF diners, apologies for the length of this post. But hopefully will help all us hungry GF types :) I have only been on the "O" class ships, not "R" class, based on Dawn (PlanitOhio)’s experience that may make a difference...

 

Bottom line, I felt very safe eating GF on O. BUT but the food-restricted diner will be making some adjustments vs. a non-restricted diner. If the O dining restriction procedure isn't your cup of tea, one could always do a search on CC or one of the GF forums for other cruise lines that accommodate GF diets.

 

 

Dawn (Planitohio), maybe after your tracking down the chef, your experience was shared across all ships? If so, many thanks. In Polo on Marina Dec 2014 I was specifically suggested to order the marshmallows :) Have to admit I am not a dessert person, so many nights I didn't order anything - a personal blind spot.

 

The one GF toast is indeed almost everywhere on O. On Marina in Dec 2014, there was also a mini GF popover type that appeared in the specialty restaurants (except Red Ginger, where bread is generally not offered). There are plain & fruit GF scones for Tea in Horizon if you ask (hockey-puck like, but a little clotted cream goes a long ways!). Another personal blind spot on my part - I have 2 GF cousins that both make their own bread but GF bread is something I usually skip.

 

Ordering ahead is the standard O procedure, for better or worse. Possible work-around: order more than one item per category. I discovered that O is happy to prepare 2 items per course - once I circled and labeled "first choice" and also circled "second choice, if 1st is not possible" - and they were prepared to serve both (but happy to bring just 1).

 

I've found if I eat at Terrace early in the cruise I quickly get to know one or two staff that can give me the quick GF tour - doesn't take much longer than my DH's initial "what's here?" walkthrough.

 

Waves, there appear to be differences that are staff/ship specific. I was accommodated at Waves on Marina Dec 2014 (and Riviera in 2012 & 2013) - usually I ordered a kobe burger, no bun, no fries and then added some salad bar items (lentil salad was my Dec 2014 favorite). Marina's Waves order taker would write "Gluten Free" in big letters (his idea) down the side of my ticket ;)

 

Have to admit I have avoided the smoothie station, due to use of malt powder in some shakes (makes DH very happy) and re-use of mixing cups (they use a hot, soapy on-site soak, not a dishwasher) - sanitary, but not necessarily GF safe.

 

Gluten free pancake request at breakfast always got me 2 questions: are you registered as GF?, and do you mind waiting 15 minutes?

 

Horizons at breakfast had yoghurt (individually packaged) and fruit, and for Tea GF scones. Not sure otherwise, didn't really ask and haven’t actually eaten breakfast in Horizon yet.

 

Baristas coffee bar has no GF snack options that I saw. Not sure I'd trust other passengers to not (inadvertently) cross-contaminate GF selections in the self-service area.

 

Group meal arrangements can indeed be a challenge (even without food restrictions! Herding cats, anyone?). There seems to be more flexibility than I had assumed in some cases. We got a same-day “extra” slot at Polo; the reservation desk handed me the Polo menu on the spot and I made my selections then. Also, it may be possible to get your selected GDR meal delivered to Terrace with a slight delay (can't promise - I did this once our last O cruise, and staff reaction was initially an apologetic "no", but they were able to do after checking when I said I'd been told it could be done and understood if it couldn't).

 

On Marina and Riviera, I haven't been directed to order lunch ahead - may be different on "R" ships?

[planitohio]

I have a feeling O ships may be different than R ships.

 

Tea and other times - no scones. Just said toast with salmon.

 

Smoothies - these were the made to order in the dining room.

 

I always ordered and indicated GF. They would still bring ice cream with cookies stuck in them or what not.

 

Waves asked me to eat on 5.

 

Terrace asked for 24 hour notice for burgers and when I did eat there they did go get the chef. Again, I think this is because of the smaller boat. I only ate there twice other than picking up something I knew I could eat.

 

I never ordered pancakes - I honestly tried to make it easy for them. It was the potato spinach waffle that I merely asked about. Otherwise I ordered eggs. I mainly ordered easy things. The things they could not make involved Osso Bucco (Toscana) and Mahi Mahi and something I can't recall. Then they would tell me what our options were - which is what I really wanted all along. I personally prefer options to pick from and the ability to eat with friends as I make them and decide. I'm not saying anyone who is GF can't make it work on Oceania or that it was awful, I was just saying that I found Celebrity and RCCL to handle it better and allow me more flexibility and choices. Just my personal preference.

 

They did have us order lunch and dinner two days ahead - not breakfast. I usually do two meals, so I just had to try to figure out what I was going to do on what day - without knowing what the activities might be.

 

They actually have a lot of things that are or can be GF - creme brûlée, panna cotta, etc. It is easier for the wait staff to say "fruit or sorbet" than deal with differences. This did change after I talked to the chef. He didn't know why no one was eating the GF desserts that were being prepared. Things did improve after he got involved, although they declined a bit late in the cruise. I do think that was due to so many being seasick as they were really scrambling.

 

As far as the ports, I understand the missed ones and have been very lucky. I never asked for or indicated I expected compensation. I am hoping my excursion will refund what I paid, but if they don't they don't. I would not ask Oceania to pay for that.

 

The main reason we wanted to go to the terminal is to get internet which you can purchase there reasonably. I know this is petty, but we had planned to have internet in Nassau and with missing that had hoped to handle a few things easily in Cartagena. Not a deal breaker - just something we were hopeful to do. We wandered out looking for a hotel chain or restaurant, but couldn't find any nearby.

[babysteps]

I have a feeling O ships may be different than R ships.

...

I'm not saying anyone who is GF can't make it work on Oceania or that it was awful, I was just saying that I found Celebrity and RCCL to handle it better and allow me more flexibility and choices. Just my personal preference.

...

 

Exactly :)

Happy cruising!