Please give me the low down on why you enjoy Oceania

[LHT28]

8 minutes ago, hubofhockey said:

 It would be nice if they had Chef's Tables, but I looked and couldn't find that option.

 

 

I suspect Chef's Table is like La Reserve  but only available on the 2 larger O ships

 

[Petoonya]

35 minutes ago, Lois R said:

I don't do Tequilla so I am not sure what was offered...…...but everything I wanted was included...…..I enjoy after dinner drinks....

Bailey's,  Grand Marnier, etc...etc...were all included.  And yes, many choices of wines as well.

Believe I never paid extra for any drinks.  Of course if you wanted Dom, I do believe that is extra...….or maybe something I have not heard of in the Wine Category but everything I wanted was included.

 

Hi Lois,

It's Nancy again from the old Slamo thread.

Think you'll be happy with pay as you go drinks. We are 2-a-day/bottle-of-wine-every-other people and SBC from our TA alone covers what we drink. The drink package has never made sense for us or we'd not have anything to spend the SBC on.

 

Hope that you have found yourself an Oceania Cruise Connoisseur TA who will get you the best bang for your buck. Glad that you're getting in on the lower single supplement cruise deal too- great way to give O a whirl. You are such a bubbly personality people will be vying for your dining company!

[hubofhockey]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

I suspect Chef's Table is like La Reserve  but only available on the 2 larger O ships

 

 

Too bad because my booking is on the Nautica.  

[Flatbush Flyer]

1 minute ago, hubofhockey said:

 

Too bad because my booking is on the Nautica.  

You'll be fine. 

BTW, I had to chuckle at a comparison of some mass market line's "chef's table" to LaReserve. Do a side-by-side comparison of just the menus and you'll chuckle too.

[hubofhockey]

17 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

You'll be fine. 

BTW, I had to chuckle at a comparison of some mass market line's "chef's table" to LaReserve. Do a side-by-side comparison of just the menus and you'll chuckle too.

 

Some on Mass Market lines are great and some are awful.  When we get a chance, we do them all.  If we ever get on the newer Oceania ships, we'll definitely do it.  On most, the food is great and they're kind of like parties.  Always have fun and the cruise lines provide great wine.

[UDSpud]

WHY?   The passengers, the officers and the crew (short version - the people) 

[clo]

52 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

chuckle

and drool.

[Flatbush Flyer]

11 minutes ago, clo said:

and drool.

What starts on a menu and ends up in your mouth can be vastly different things.

[Paulchili]

10 hours ago, Lois R said:

Well, you are partially correct though my river cruise was much less money and all my drinks were included.

But could you have lobster tails, jumbo shrimp every night - just to mention a few of the wonderful food/tea items available on Oceania vs the river cruise.

I know none of my river cruises food came even close to that of Oceania and I also know which of the two choices I prefer - great food vs free drinks  😀

[clo]

14 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

tea items

I'm already readying myself to have one tiny thing at tea so as not to fill up 🙂 And I can carry on my 'adult beverages.'

[Paulchili]

8 minutes ago, clo said:

I'm already readying myself to have one tiny thing at tea so as not to fill up

Some of our favs are Paris-Brest and Victoria cake.

[clo]

9 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

and

Didn't you mean to write "or"?  🙂

[Paulchili]

7 minutes ago, clo said:

Didn't you mean to write "or"?  🙂

No 😀

They are both our favorites.

[clo]

2 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

No 😀

They are both our favorites.

Just kidding, darlin' 🙂

[Lois R]

8 hours ago, Paulchili said:

But could you have lobster tails, jumbo shrimp every night - just to mention a few of the wonderful food/tea items available on Oceania vs the river cruise.

I know none of my river cruises food came even close to that of Oceania and I also know which of the two choices I prefer - great food vs free drinks  😀

I guess I got myself into this mess because I questioned the drink thing...….the original question was why everyone  likes/loves Oceania....I get it----everyone loves line.

 

 As for my food on my recent river cruise, the cuisine was wonderful,

locally sourced......so I enjoyed it very, very much. But I get that there are differences.

 

[Lois R]

I should have said, everyone loves THE line.  but it is the Oceania board, so that would be normal...…...

 

Again, thank you everyone for the replies. I will have to decide if it is the right line for me now.

[LHT28]

33 minutes ago, Lois R said:

I should have said, everyone loves THE line.  but it is the Oceania board, so that would be normal...…...

 

Again, thank you everyone for the replies. I will have to decide if it is the right line for me now.

Lois

I think with all forums   if you say something the regulars do not approve of you will get "beat up" on  the forum

Most people on ship  are very nice  unlike some bullies on this forum

I have the same feeling as you  on the Crystal forum ...I have been  told off there  a few times  so wondering if I will like  Crystal unfortunately  we are booked 

I am hoping the people onboard are friendly & not as condescending as they are on the forum

All you can do is give O  a try  & decide  for yourself

If people were to judge the line by some posters in the forums  we probably would not cruise 😉

 

Enjoy  what ever cruise you choose

[Lois R]

Thank you for the kind words.  I think (honestly) it is has been pretty civil but I do think the tone is harsher with some

of the replies....I should probably have one of the moderators just close the thread because I really haven't decided

if am sailing or not.

[StanandJim]

It should also be noted that not every comment on this thread needs to be addressed (answered?) by the OP.

Although it would be tough to get north of fifty thousand posts, if you didn't-

 

Take a step back, stop looking at each individual tree and enjoy the forest  😊

 

[hubofhockey]

25 minutes ago, StanandJim said:

It should also be noted that not every comment on this thread needs to be addressed (answered?) by the OP.

Although it would be tough to get north of fifty thousand posts, if you didn't-

 

Take a step back, stop looking at each individual tree and enjoy the forest  😊

 

 

Great advice and this is a very general thread as opposed to a specific question, so there is no "hijacking" per se.  As someone who booked our first Oceania cruise (16 months away), I get try to learn things from all responses.  For the most part, what I'm getting is similar to Azamara, but definitely some differences and different strategies needed going in.  

 

 

[Mura]

11 hours ago, LHT28 said:

I think with all forums   if you say something the regulars do not approve of you will get "beat up" on  the forum

Most people on ship  are very nice  unlike some bullies on this forum

I have the same feeling as you  on the Crystal forum ...I have been  told off there  a few times  so wondering if I will like  Crystal unfortunately  we are booked 

I am hoping the people onboard are friendly & not as condescending as they are on the forum

All you can do is give O  a try  & decide  for yourself

If people were to judge the line by some posters in the forums  we probably would not cruise 😉

 

Enjoy  what ever cruise you choose

Lyn, we haven't tried Crystal but I suspect it's the same as here ... most passengers are not CC participants.  I am sure that you  will meet plenty of compatible people.  The others you can ignore.  Or at least TRY to ignore!

 

Mura

[kitty9]

Hi Lois, good to see you on this board.  We gave up on Celebrity 5 years ago, and happily moved over to Oceania.  I’ve taken 8 cruises on O in 5 years and we have four more booked this year and next.  We will be on Riviera for 24 days starting in Feb, and will most likely be on board on the one you’re considering.

 

As far as beverages, you can bring on wine with no problem, so that would help as far as extra charges.  They also have happy hour drinks and a drink of the day with decent prices.  We purchased a drink package on our first cruise, but we don’t do that anymore and just pay as we go.  

 

There is a culinary kitchen on Deck 12 that offers cooking classes that are really fun and interesting.  There’s also the Artist Loft where a guest artist gives lessons on drawing and painting.  Both those classes are very popular.

 

We like the trivia games, including general team trivia and the evening trivia that include Name That Tune.  The Martini Bar pianist provides a nice evening entertainment venue, and there’s dancing up in the top deck venue.

 

But for us, the restaurants are the best part on O.  No extra charges for the specialties, with the exception of La Reserve and Prevee. The buffet for breakfast is really good, and we enjoy Waves Grill for lunch.  Another must for us is the daily High Tea at 4pm.  We love Red Ginger, Polo and Toscana and dine in those venues at least twice every cruise.

 

I hope you’ll give Oceania a chance. 

[Lois R]

Hi Darcie, good to see you again and thanks for the reply. Appreciate your insight.

[pinotlover]

On 11/16/2019 at 9:16 PM, Paulchili said:

But could you have lobster tails, jumbo shrimp every night - just to mention a few of the wonderful food/tea items available on Oceania vs the river cruise.

I know none of my river cruises food came even close to that of Oceania and I also know which of the two choices I prefer - great food vs free drinks  😀

1. I have found the food on Uniworld to be equal to or better than on Oceania. 

 

2. I went to Nova Scotia and PEI in September and had wonderful lobster, mussels, and scallops. All local and  fresh daily. When we went to Transylvania last year,  we had equally really good, fresh, and tasty local food. We didn’t go there to eat lobster, mussels, and scallops. We went to Egypt with Uniworld and had a large variety of really tasty locally sourced Egyptian foods and wines. We didn’t go to Egypt to eat lobster, mussels, and scallops daily. On our Uniworld China tour we had a wide selection of just incredible local cuisines that varied tremendously depending upon which part of China we were in. We maybe had shrimp once or twice.

 

If having lobster, mussels, scallops, and shrimp daily ( even if prior frozen) is a primary qualifier for a good cruise, river or Ocean, then river cruises are probably not right for you! 

 

3. If eating fresh lobster, mussels, scallops, and shrimp daily was an important thing to us, we’d limit our travel to areas where we could get them fresh daily.

Edited November 18, 2019 by pinotlover

[Paulchili]

Pinot,

 

Feel free to continue cruising on Uniworld - I’ll stick with Oceania.

FWIW, I have taken several river cruises and have several others booked.

That said, I book them STRICTLY for the itinerary and not for the price, food, cabin, service or any other reason as I prefer Oceania for all of those items.

There is a lot more to Oceania than lobsters, mussels, scallops and shrimp.