Scenic Opal vs. Amber

[DougK]

We recently completed a Scenic river cruise which involved a ship swap from the Opal to the Amber. These are sister ships, but they are not identical. Somebody asked me to post differences, so here goes. I should note that I was fortunate enough to travel in a Royal Panorama Suite, so I can only comment about that suite. I suspect the changes are similar in other cabins, but I don't know for sure.

 

The Amber is a year newer than the Opal, I believe. The ships are, of course, very similar, but apparently they made some changes in technology in the intervening year, or perhaps just decided to change the decor somewhat.

 

As mentioned in a previous thread, the Opal has only the retractable window in the sun lounge; the Amber also has a rectractable screen. While the screen is certainly handy to keep insects out, it's a pretty bulky black mesh, and definitely interferes with the view--far more than a typical home screen. Unless the bugs are bad, I'd be inclined to use it only to get fresh air while leaving the window down, but not if I were actively watching scenery go past. There is still a sheer and curtain between the sun lounge and the rest of the cabin (as well as the complicated multipanel glass door which I found pretty much unusable and left always open). In the Panorama suite, the rear window on the Opal also has a drape as well as a retractable sun mesh; on the Amber the mesh is still there, but the drape is replaced by a retractable blackout screen.

 

The Amber has newer technology for some controls, including the room locks, which seem to work more reliably (on the Opal, it sometimes took multiple activations of the card before the lock would actually unlock). But the manual deadbolt is now gone; there is only the electronic door lock. The thermostats have gone entirely digital on the Amber. In theory, I would think that was better, as they show current temperature as well as the setting. But in practice, the temperature seemed much more erratic on the Amber, with the temperature often being at extreme variance (4 or more degrees Celsius, or over 7 degrees Farenheit) from the setting, even when the setting hadn't been changed for hours. We weren't in particularly adverse conditions, so I have no idea why the HVAC system had such difficulty; perhaps it was just a glitch in our cabin.

 

The door to the bathroom on the Opal is a pocket door; on the Amber it is hinged. That made using the light controls a little more complicated (blocked by the door), and also seemed to have more rattles. On the plus side, the Amber shower is much nicer than the Opal, with multiple settings and a hand wand along with the overhead. But the Amber is missing a pull-out clothesline in the shower.

 

The Opal had multiple medicine chest type areas in the bathroom, with conventional swing-out doors. The Amber has a single medicine chest, and open shelves next to it, with a sliding door that covers one or the other.

 

The decor is much brighter on the Amber, with less wood tone and more marble, mirrors, and chrome. Personally, I prefer the more subdued ambience of the Opal, but others may prefer the brightness instead.

 

The safe on the Opal is a standard hotel safe on a shelf, opening outwards. On the Amber, it's on a pull-out shelf, and opens upwards, which is more convenient for laptops or the like. The bed side panels are simple mechanical devices on the Opal (which we didn't discover until the butler explained them); on the Amber, they're a little less bulky, and secured by magnets.

 

The rear TV on the Opal has a pretty standard swivel wall mount. On the Amber, it is instead built into the wall, but a whole section of the wall panel pulls out as a swivel. In theory, that's nicer, but the wall panel is really heavy, requiring a lot of muscle to pull in or out. And for some reason perhaps related to that mounting, there is always some light coming from the TV on the Amber, even when it's off, which was annoying at night--the first night, both my wife and I woke up and independently thought we must not have turned the TV off. After that, we made sure the TV was pushed fully into the wall and blocked the view to avoid the light.

 

I'm sure there are some other changes which I've forgotten.

 

To be clear, none of these are huge differences. I would happily sail on either ship. But the changes are noticeable, some for the better, and some for the worse (in my opinion).