NewbieCruiserNL1234 Posted April 6, 2017 #1 Share Posted April 6, 2017 My husbandand I are trying to plan a cruise for next May (2018) for our five yearanniversary. We have been talking about doing a Mediterranean Cruise for yearsnow and are finally going to go for it. We are trying to decide between a 8 day on the Oceania Riviera cruise or the 10night Celebrity Reflection cruise. Can anyone provide any insight to this decision? We are big into food and drink, so the Oceania looks like it offers better dining. But the ports seem to be less know, which makes me nervous. The ports of call are as follows: Oceania: Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy Amalfi/Positano, ItalyCatania, ItalyArgostoli (Cephalonia), GreeceKotor, MontenegroSplit, CroatiaKoper, SloveniaVenice, ItalyVenice, Italy Celebrity: Civitavecchia, , IT, Messina, , IT, Valletta, , MT, Mikonos, , GR ,Rhodes, , GR ,Santorini, , GR ,Athens, , GR ,Naples, , IT, Civitavecchia, , IT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ORV Posted April 6, 2017 #2 Share Posted April 6, 2017 My husbandand I are trying to plan a cruise for next May (2018) for our five yearanniversary. We have been talking about doing a Mediterranean Cruise for yearsnow and are finally going to go for it. We are trying to decide between a 8 day on the Oceania Riviera cruise or the 10night Celebrity Reflection cruise. Can anyone provide any insight to this decision? We are big into food and drink, so the Oceania looks like it offers better dining. But the ports seem to be less know, which makes me nervous. The ports of call are as follows: Oceania: Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy Amalfi/Positano, ItalyCatania, ItalyArgostoli (Cephalonia), GreeceKotor, MontenegroSplit, CroatiaKoper, SloveniaVenice, ItalyVenice, Italy Celebrity: Civitavecchia, , IT, Messina, , IT, Valletta, , MT, Mikonos, , GR ,Rhodes, , GR ,Santorini, , GR ,Athens, , GR ,Naples, , IT, Civitavecchia, , IT They're both good port stops, I'd focus more on deciding which cruise line would work better for you. There are a lot of threads here comparing the two if you search for them. If you choose Celebrity good luck with the tendering at Santorini with the other 3000 people on board. I've been to most of those ports, even if you're not familiar with them doesn't mean you wouldn't enjoy them, such as Split or Montenegro. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted April 6, 2017 #3 Share Posted April 6, 2017 I personally have a slight preference for the Oceania itinerary but both are good. I doubt you'd be disappointed with the ports on either one. As Orv says, check out comments about both lines. The ship as a "good fit" is more important to me than the itinerary. Others will say differently ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted April 6, 2017 #4 Share Posted April 6, 2017 What ports are you most interested in seeing ? Check how long you are in the port ? If you are only in a major port for part of the day it may not be long enough for touring away from the area Do you prefer lots of people on the ship? Do you like smaller ships with less passengers/line ups? Only you can choose what works best for you & your needs/wants Enjoy what ever cruise you choose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimandStan Posted April 6, 2017 #5 Share Posted April 6, 2017 Oceania itineraries deliberately avoid the better known Ports where possible, because amongst those who have "been there, done that", which is Oceania's core demographic, more variety is desperately sought. In your case, everything will be new and wondrous anyway, so if I were in your position (fetch the digitalis, Martha) I'd go with Celebrity because that cruise will undoubtedly be less expensive. The food is better on Oceania, but eating ashore is a definite temptation when sailing the Med, especially on long shore excursions, and rushing back to eat meals which you have already paid for on the ship, gets old fairly quickly. BTW, please do enjoy the luxury of choosing, the early planning stages are the best! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buggins0402 Posted April 6, 2017 #6 Share Posted April 6, 2017 The O itinerary has the advantage of being a point to point, allowing land time in two different cities (both Rome and Venice). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wripro Posted April 6, 2017 #7 Share Posted April 6, 2017 The fact that the Oceania ports are less well known is a positive, not a negative. These are terrific ports and you'll have fewer crowds and gorgeous scenery, especially in Croatia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted April 6, 2017 #8 Share Posted April 6, 2017 The O itinerary has the advantage of being a point to point, allowing land time in two different cities (both Rome and Venice). Yes that would be a big advantage to me. Being able to stay and spend time before and after in two great cities would be great. But either one sound terrific. :):):) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janecambridge Posted April 6, 2017 #9 Share Posted April 6, 2017 All the replies here are correct but...... Kotor ,wow wow wow.Wake up at 6am and watch the amazing,beautiful scenery for 3 hours cruising into the fjord as dawn breaks.Breath taking. Read 'Amazing Cruise into Kotor',on trip advisor. Our Rome to Venice cruise with Oceania was our favourite to date and this port was amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawaiidan Posted April 6, 2017 #10 Share Posted April 6, 2017 My husbandand I are trying to plan a cruise for next May (2018) for our five yearanniversary. We have been talking about doing a Mediterranean Cruise for yearsnow and are finally going to go for it. We are trying to decide between a 8 day on the Oceania Riviera cruise or the 10night Celebrity Reflection cruise. Can anyone provide any insight to this decision? We are big into food and drink, so the Oceania looks like it offers better dining. But the ports seem to be less know, which makes me nervous. The ports of call are as follows: Oceania: Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy Amalfi/Positano, ItalyCatania, ItalyArgostoli (Cephalonia), GreeceKotor, MontenegroSplit, CroatiaKoper, SloveniaVenice, ItalyVenice, Italy Celebrity: Civitavecchia, , IT, Messina, , IT, Valletta, , MT, Mikonos, , GR ,Rhodes, , GR ,Santorini, , GR ,Athens, , GR ,Naples, , IT, Civitavecchia, , IT The real question is what cruise will be a better experience for you.. This boils down to the size of the ship... getting on and off daily will wear you down fast...like a see europe in 7 day tours of the past. In this respect O will always be a better choice because many of those ports, Rhodes, Santorini and Mikonos will be tendering. Tendering on a ship of 1000 is way different than tendering with 3000. Not to mention the passengers "overwhelming" the port where once you get to shore everything is crowded and lines/waits everywhere.. In my experience/opinion I would not take a med cruise that was shorter than 14 days and had not less than 3 sea days to recover. Otherwise it is port-port-port dawn to dusk and after a few days it all becomes a blurr. Ya, technically you can say you were there but you will not remember much. after a few days. Again size...the more passengers the more the stress, getting off. gettting on, crowds ashore crowds on the ship.....AhHHHH ! If flying from the US your first 2 days are whacked and the last day is stressed because of packing.. Longer time space between ports It not so much what you get to see, but how enjoyable the experience is....less is more... unless your just trying to rack up places to impress others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewbieCruiserNL1234 Posted April 6, 2017 Author #11 Share Posted April 6, 2017 Thanks everyone - you have been so helpful:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cahpek Posted April 6, 2017 #12 Share Posted April 6, 2017 (edited) My husbandand I are trying to plan a cruise for next May (2018) for our five yearanniversary. We have been talking about doing a Mediterranean Cruise for yearsnow and are finally going to go for it. We are trying to decide between a 8 day on the Oceania Riviera cruise or the 10night Celebrity Reflection cruise. Can anyone provide any insight to this decision? We are big into food and drink, so the Oceania looks like it offers better dining. But the ports seem to be less know, which makes me nervous. The ports of call are as follows: Oceania: Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy Amalfi/Positano, ItalyCatania, ItalyArgostoli (Cephalonia), GreeceKotor, MontenegroSplit, CroatiaKoper, SloveniaVenice, ItalyVenice, Italy Celebrity: Civitavecchia, , IT, Messina, , IT, Valletta, , MT, Mikonos, , GR ,Rhodes, , GR ,Santorini, , GR ,Athens, , GR ,Naples, , IT, Civitavecchia, , IT If you are big into food , then Oceania is for you. The food on Celebrity is not too bad either but it would be hard to beat Oceania. Moreover, with Celebrity, you have to pay extra if you wish to go to their speciality restaurants whereas it is complimentary on Oceania ( if it is for 7 day cruise, if I am correct, you can choose up to 2 out of 4 of their speciality restaurants). Actually most of the ports you have listed may be less known to many folks in North America, but for Europeans (and also to frequent American cruisers to Europe ), they are actually ones which are on the "well-trodden" paths for cruises. For instance,the Riviera is such a regular visitor to Koper , if you go on YouTube on that town/city, you could even see the ship docked at the pier ! Both cruises offer very nice stopovers, but 7 days on Oceania (with 6 stopovers) may seem a bit hectic. If your budget allows, a 10-14 day cruise with Oceania is a better bet. Check and do some research. Don't be too surprised that Oceania may offer quite good discounted fares for their Adriatic cruises (including on the Riviera) that start in Venice , with some stops along the Adriatic coasts and ending up in Athens. Or vice versa. As someone mentioned if you are taking the Celebrity cruise to Santorini, having the use of the tender to ferry 3000 passengers in a hurry may be quite a challenge. Once on land, it is advisable to take the cable car rather than walk 600 steps to Fira, their main town on top of the cliffs. Also, please be aware that in addition to Santorini, some other stops need to use tender to take passengers to land. If the sea is choppy, they may even cancel the stop . Stops that need tender on your mentioned cruise routes include Mikonos, Santorini, Amalfi/Positano, When we were cruising on the Regatta, because it was quite windy and the sea was a bit rough that day when we reached Santorini, we were prevented from using the tender, and the ship just sailed on as we sadly waved the island good-bye. (Fortunately, two years later, on a cruise on the Riviera, we managed to land on that island.) One tip: if like us, where we have a budget for our cruises, we tend to avoid excursions offered by the cruise companies. Oceania excursion prices (along with their drinks prices) are relatively high. The excursion prices offered by Celebrity are quite expensive too. If you would like to check online for companies that offer alternative excursions (and there are a few), you could save hundreds of dollars. Dare I say, the excursions offered are usually just as good as those sold by the cruise lines. Another tip: If you are purchasing drinks on board, the Italian authorities makes a surcharge to the price if the ship is on Italian waters.(on top of the service charge which American cruise companies charge for drinks) When it is out of Italian waters, the ship will not be obliged to do so. Check with the reception when you on board. Whichever cruise you choose, may I wish you a pleasant cruise and BON VOYAGE !!!! Edited April 6, 2017 by Cahpek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted April 6, 2017 #13 Share Posted April 6, 2017 All the replies here are correct but...... Kotor ,wow wow wow.Wake up at 6am and watch the amazing,beautiful scenery for 3 hours cruising into the fjord as dawn breaks.Breath taking. Read 'Amazing Cruise into Kotor',on trip advisor. Our Rome to Venice cruise with Oceania was our favourite to date and this port was amazing. That's good to hear, Jane, since we are booked for May 2018 ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ORV Posted April 7, 2017 #14 Share Posted April 7, 2017 If you are big into food , then Oceania is for you. The food on Celebrity is not too bad either but it would be hard to beat Oceania. Moreover, with Celebrity, you have to pay extra if you wish to go to their speciality restaurants whereas it is complimentary on Oceania ( if it is for 7 day cruise, if I am correct, you can choose up to 2 out of 4 of their speciality restaurants). Actually most of the ports you have listed may be less known to many folks in North America, but for Europeans (and also to frequent American cruisers to Europe ), they are actually ones which are on the "well-trodden" paths for cruises. For instance,the Riviera is such a regular visitor to Koper , if you go on YouTube on that town/city, you could even see the ship docked at the pier ! Both cruises offer very nice stopovers, but 7 days on Oceania (with 6 stopovers) may seem a bit hectic. If your budget allows, a 10-14 day cruise with Oceania is a better bet. Check and do some research. Don't be too surprised that Oceania may offer quite good discounted fares for their Adriatic cruises (including on the Riviera) that start in Venice , with some stops along the Adriatic coasts and ending up in Athens. Or vice versa. As someone mentioned if you are taking the Celebrity cruise to Santorini, having the use of the tender to ferry 3000 passengers in a hurry may be quite a challenge. Once on land, it is advisable to take the cable car rather than walk 600 steps to Fira, their main town on top of the cliffs. Also, please be aware that in addition to Santorini, some other stops need to use tender to take passengers to land. If the sea is choppy, they may even cancel the stop . Stops that need tender on your mentioned cruise routes include Mikonos, Santorini, Amalfi/Positano, When we were cruising on the Regatta, because it was quite windy and the sea was a bit rough that day when we reached Santorini, we were prevented from using the tender, and the ship just sailed on as we sadly waved the island good-bye. (Fortunately, two years later, on a cruise on the Riviera, we managed to land on that island.) One tip: if like us, where we have a budget for our cruises, we tend to avoid excursions offered by the cruise companies. Oceania excursion prices (along with their drinks prices) are relatively high. The excursion prices offered by Celebrity are quite expensive too. If you would like to check online for companies that offer alternative excursions (and there are a few), you could save hundreds of dollars. Dare I say, the excursions offered are usually just as good as those sold by the cruise lines. Another tip: If you are purchasing drinks on board, the Italian authorities makes a surcharge to the price if the ship is on Italian waters.(on top of the service charge which American cruise companies charge for drinks) When it is out of Italian waters, the ship will not be obliged to do so. Check with the reception when you on board. Whichever cruise you choose, may I wish you a pleasant cruise and BON VOYAGE !!!! Just one small correction, if you are on the Riviera, even for a 7 day cruise you will get a reservation in all 4 restaurants, not just 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mancunian Posted April 7, 2017 #15 Share Posted April 7, 2017 We would choose the Oceania ports, though to be fair we have been to them all over the years. We now prefer the smaller ports and as someone has said Kotor is brilliant. We also prefer not to sail to or from Rome, though again we have many times. It is a long way to the airport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cahpek Posted April 7, 2017 #16 Share Posted April 7, 2017 Actually most of the ports you have listed may be less known to many folks in North America, but for Europeans (and also to frequent American cruisers to Europe ), they are actually ones which are on the "well-trodden" paths for cruises. For instance,the Riviera is such a regular visitor to Koper , if you go on YouTube on that town/city, you could even see the ship docked at the pier ! I made a mistake here, I meant to say Kotor instead of Koper. And yes, as someone said, the views of Kotor is WOW, WOW, WOW! However, the town itself is not so mesmerizing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cahpek Posted April 7, 2017 #17 Share Posted April 7, 2017 Just one small correction, if you are on the Riviera, even for a 7 day cruise you will get a reservation in all 4 restaurants, not just 2. Is that right? Thanks for correcting me, but I am glad, that's great news. If on the Riviera, for a 7 day cruise, we can get reservations in all 4 restaurants, does that mean that on a 14 day cruise on the Riviera, we can get reservations up to 8 times in their speciality restaurants? I know some people do not rave about Red Ginger but for me, some of their "fusion" dishes were "revelations"! For me, the Polo Grill, I can give it a miss. But then, food is very subjective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare ORV Posted April 7, 2017 #18 Share Posted April 7, 2017 Is that right? Thanks for correcting me, but I am glad, that's great news. If on the Riviera, for a 7 day cruise, we can get reservations in all 4 restaurants, does that mean that on a 14 day cruise on the Riviera, we can get reservations up to 8 times in their speciality restaurants? No, not guaranteed reservations, but if you're diligent while on board you can get plenty of extras. Here is some information that will help. How many dining reservations am I allowed in each specialty restaurant? Guests are permitted to make the following reservations in our specialty restaurants - which vary by ship, category and length of cruise: Marina and Riviera Owner’s Suite, Vista Suite and Oceania Suite Cruises 7 days or less: 1 reservation at each restaurant Cruises 8-17 days: 2 reservations at each restaurant Cruises 18 days or more: 3 reservations at each restaurant Penthouse Suite Cruises 17 days or less: 1 reservations at each restaurant Cruises 18 days or more: 2 reservations at each restaurant Concierge Level Veranda, Veranda, Ocean View and Inside Stateroom All cruises: 1 reservations at each restaurant Insignia, Nautica, Regatta and Sirena Concierge Level Veranda and above Cruises 7 days or less: 1 reservation at each restaurant Cruises 8-17 days: 2 reservations at each restaurant Cruises 18 days or more: 3 reservations at each restaurant All other categories Cruises 17 days or less: 1 reservations at each restaurant Cruises 18 days or more: 2 reservations at each restaurant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnies Posted April 7, 2017 #19 Share Posted April 7, 2017 We cruised on Nautica last September from Rome to Venice. This is the most wonderful itinerary with so many beautiful ports and for us we prefer a cruise that has a different port for embarkation and disembarkation. Also Oceania cuisine is hard to beat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
globevest Posted April 7, 2017 #20 Share Posted April 7, 2017 +1 An excellent cruise and Rome and Venice are great starting and finishing ports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawaiidan Posted April 9, 2017 #21 Share Posted April 9, 2017 Is that right? Thanks for correcting me, but I am glad, that's great news. If on the Riviera, for a 7 day cruise, we can get reservations in all 4 restaurants, does that mean that on a 14 day cruise on the Riviera, we can get reservations up to 8 times in their speciality restaurants? I know some people do not rave about Red Ginger but for me, some of their "fusion" dishes were "revelations"! For me, the Polo Grill, I can give it a miss. But then, food is very subjective. Yes/NO you will only get 4 pre-cruise reservations in 14 days, However, once on board you can show up at Terrace cafe 8-9 and get specialty reservations with no limit... you could, if space was available and your flexible dine at a specialty restaurant every day of a 14 or 21 day cruise even....limited ONLY by space and time available !!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I_r_a Posted April 10, 2017 #22 Share Posted April 10, 2017 Hey NCNL, Lesser known?????????? The Celebrity cruise is a trip to Greece. Ira Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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