First time on Oceania - some impressions

[CurlerRob]

We just completed our first trip with Oceania – Insignia, from Montreal to Miami. We decided to post our impressions as data points for other people considering a first O cruise. By way of background, we are experienced cruisers, sailing previously with HAL (their older ships) and Viking.

 

Booking / Embarkation

 

• We found the booking and pricing information more complex than necessary. OLife with airfare was contrasted with cruise-only pricing but does not clearly identify the actual OLife cost. While the math can be done, why make it so obtuse? And, quoting astronomical “brochure fares” is utterly pointless.
   
• The timeliness of information regarding requirements (vax, travel authorizations, country entry requirements) prior to the cruise was poor. Requirements were only finalized shortly before the cruise – although the various country requirements were available from country websites much earlier. As well, there were numerous discrepancies between the various documents on the O website – consistency is critical.
   
• Embarkation itself was well handled and quick - only 1/2-hour in total. Our cabin was ready by 1 pm. It was a nice touch to have our steward’s name up on the TV screen upon arrival.
   
• Overall rating B.

 

The Ship

 

• Insignia is a smaller ship, which very much suits our preference. We found her clean and well maintained. Getting oriented was very easy – this may have been due to the very similar layout to the older HAL ships.
   
• The decor is more the traditional style, as opposed to Viking’s contemporary approach.
   
• A strong plus was the great forward lounge (Horizons) that has copious seating all along the windows with quality views forward and abeam.
   
• Regretfully, I was unable to find any exterior spot with an unobstructed view forward for pictures, unlike HAL or Viking.
   
• The lack of a full, covered promenade deck was a minus for us as walkers. In order to walk a complete lap, one had to go up to the fitness track on Deck 10, which is completely open to the elements and was closed on occasion due to winds.
   
• Overall rating A.

 

Cabin

 

• We chose a ‘Concierge’ cabin, with a balcony. It was advertised as 216 square feet, which was somewhat smaller than the ~270 square feet on our comparative lines.
   
• In general, we found the cabin itself quite adequate, with more than ample storage. An oddity was that our one large suitcase would not fit under the bed, as it usually does, but it did fit nicely into the closet.
   
• The bed was very comfortable. The pillows were feather, which is not our preference but we did not request a change. The toiletries provided were highly scented, but scent-free versions were available from the cabin steward.
   
• The balcony was quite standard in our experience – a sliding door opened to two chairs and a small table – worked fine for two people.
   
• The bathroom was VERY small - to the point that the commode lacked the necessary legroom. Worse was the shower - it’s tiny and a strange trapezoidal shape, with maximum dimensions of about 22” by 34”. It was extremely difficult to use and would be dangerous in a seaway as there is simply not enough room to brace oneself. It was pretty clear where the sacrifice was made regarding the lower square footage. There’s obviously nothing to be done about the configuration, but new pax should be aware.
   
• Our rating would have been an A but the bathroom was so awkward to use that it dragged it down to a C.

 

Dining / Drinks

 

• Oceania says they have the “finest cuisine at sea”. Not having sailed on every line, I can’t confirm or deny that statement. I can say that their food was, in general, every bit as good, and frequently a notch above our previous experiences. There were usually five choices for each part of the meal, with good variety. Meats, fish and poultry were all cooked perfectly to order. The soups were uniformly excellent. There were a few failures (baked Parmesan-crusted chicken, I’m looking at you), but not a significant number.
   
• The Grand Dining Room was, in our view, the least distinguished from our other experiences – we’d be hard pressed to identify much that was different. Seating was reasonably prompt, other than on the first night crush. The tables are well-spaced so you can enjoy some privacy from your neighbours.
   
• The Terrace Cafe was a delight, not only for the variety and quality of the food, but especially for the large seating area on the stern - partly covered with nearly all tables protected from the wind. We ate there even on quite cold days, for the view and alfresco experience. We also appreciated that food service is done by the staff – apart from the improved hygiene, we find that provides more opportunity to interact with them.
   
• The Waves poolside grill had excellent hot dogs, burgers and sandwiches, with quick service even at peak times.
   
• We found the two specialty restaurants quite different. Polo Grill was as good as many shoreside steak houses we’ve been to. The Italian offering, Toscana, was average at best - across its service, food quality and ambiance. Unfortunate, as we love Italian food.
   
• One oddity we encountered was that coffee was not routinely offered after meals in any of the restaurants. We learned to order it with our dessert.
   
• Oceania’s selection of wines by the glass and beer was by far the best we’ve encountered - lots of choices and good quality at reasonable prices. As well, Oceania permits a single pax to purchase or upgrade their beverage package, rather than requiring everyone in the cabin to do so. A very classy move that was greatly appreciated by us.
   
• Oceania provided two aluminum drink bottles (that you can keep), which could be refilled with the ship’s special bottled water. Very helpful touch.
   
• Rated A.

 

Service

 

• We have never found a ship’s crew to be other than very friendly and accommodating. This continued on Insignia – fine service across the board. Any minor errors were acknowledged and fixed immediately.
   
• We did experience some inconsistency at times, which had the appearance of staff shortages / new staff. This was our first cruise post-Covid, so our observation may apply across all lines.
   
• Rated A.

 

ShoreEx

 

• We generally prefer independent excursions, which was fortunate, as we found Oceania’s performance in this area completely unacceptable.
   
• First, the prices. We are quite used to the cruise lines’ normal markups but found O’s to be simply ridiculous - often 400% versus a DIY tour. An example - the Newport cliff walk and Breakers tour was $300 for a couple. We replicated the tour for $73. Even if one wanted multiple ship tours and leveraged the O discounts available when selecting the OLife excursion option, prices still would show more than a 3X markup.
   
• The second issue was the degree of change to excursions, and lack of communication regarding those changes. We chose only one ship excursion, taken in NYC. Once on the tour, we discovered that the harbour cruise portion promised had morphed into a bus ride. We later discovered that the shore-ex brochure left in the cabin (which looks identical to every other excursion sales brochure we’ve ever seen) identified alterations to many excursions. There was no announcement, no ‘flag’ to be sure to closely review the brochure and no prior emails. The predictable result was a large number of upset pax.
   
• Excursion changes are normal, but we have never seen a cruise line who expects pax to ferret out changes without any notification.
   
• This was a total failure - rated F.

 

Internet

 

• We include thoughts on the internet service as it’s a “hot topic” on nearly every line. We had the standard internet package. Overall, it was similar to but slightly less functional than other lines, which is to say, usually slow and wildly inconsistent regarding reliability of service. We were annoyed that only one device could be active at a time - much switching required unless one wanted to pony up the high costs for a second login.
   
• Interestingly, when the service was behaving, we were able to have a few Skype video calls, even without the “streaming” upgrade, so that was a bonus.
   
• Rated C. (We have yet to find a cruise line that rated anywhere near an A).
   

Entertainment

 

• We are not partial to shipboard entertainment, didn’t attend any shows, so have no opinion to offer. There appeared to be a decent set of the standard activities and shows.
   
• Our only poor experience was when the show band played in the forward lounge one evening. They were so loud that most pax left within minutes.
   

 Summary
 

The ultimate question for us was “would we cruise with Oceania again”? Our answer was “yes”. Critiques aside, we felt that we received appropriate value on the trip.
 

For us, choosing O again would be a function of the itinerary and time of year – we would enjoy experiencing the ship with more time in warmer climes, as it seemed particularly suited to better weather. If we were to undertake a longer voyage, we would have to give careful consideration to a cabin upgrade to escape the bathroom purgatory – that would increase the cost by about 1/3 and would strain O’s competitiveness.
 

Hopefully, these observations and the logic behind them will be of use to other potential pax. Happy sailing! 🍺🥌

 

 

[NownZen]

The R class ships (Insignia, Nautica, Sirena and one I forget) are around 20 years old and came from the bankrupt Renaissance cruise line. Three  of the ships were on Princess later. The Sirena was a Princess ship as well. The bathroom showers are always an adventure but the rest of the ship is a delight. The library is particularly nice as is the outside seating in the buffet.

We go on Oceania for the itinerary and other lines for relaxation.  Since we are looking to excursions, we are also sensitive to the costs that Oceania charges.  They have very good bean counters who work out various options that all cost you about the same even though they look attractive. People have made up spread sheets to try to optimize excursions but in the end all the options cost about the same. If you want any discount you need to buy a lot of excursions and, with their markup, they make lots of money anyway. The organization of the dispatch for the excursions was uniformly poor. Private excursions are a good idea.

[mauibabes]

@CurlerRob

Don’t sell O short. When you look at your next cruise, definitely consider one on Marina and Riviera and by May, Vista will begin her Inaugural season. They hold more guests, 1200+ and have larger staterooms and bathrooms . Four Specialty restaurants and they are Free which is much different than the other lines. 
Enjoy yourselves.

Mauibabes

[ToxM]

I love the R class ships, but I would never travel in anything less than a penthouse because of the size of the bathroom, because they would be unusable for me. My Rubenesque physique is unsuited. I did my due diligence on here to find that out.Marina and Riviera have much more comfortable bathrooms. 

 

I’d sacrifice number of cruises to only cruise on the R ships though as I love the size.

[pete_coach]

3 hours ago, ToxM said:

I love the R class ships, but I would never travel in anything less than a penthouse because of the size of the bathroom, because they would be unusable for me. My Rubenesque physique is unsuited. I did my due diligence on here to find that out.Marina and Riviera have much more comfortable bathrooms. 

 

I’d sacrifice number of cruises to only cruise on the R ships though as I love the size.

Great if you can afford the at least $1000 difference.

[ToxM]

1 hour ago, pete_coach said:

Great if you can afford the at least $1000 difference.

I save up, not travelling on an R class again til ‘24. Worth the wait.

[sunlover12]

Thank you for the detailed and informative review. 

 

I agree that the bathrooms in the veranda staterooms on the R ships are very tiny. We did that once and now we book PH where the size of the bathrooms and the size of the cabin is much roomier. If you can swing the extra cost, it's a good value.

 

I was a little surprised regarding your comments regarding the timeliness of information prior to the cruise. I've been on 2 O cruises in 2022.  E-mails were sent to me more than a month in advance and probably 3 times total with the necessary information and it was accurate. Perhaps it was your particular cruise where the ball was dropped but it's not a regular practice for O to not relay this information.

 

We cruise for the itinerary and we like the R ships. One of the benefits is that the smaller ships can go to some ports that the larger ships can't. 

[Robroy]

Thanks for the objective review. My wife and I are planning a trip on Regatta next May and your insights were very informative. Most recently we've cruised on Regent and Silversea and the size of the Concierge cabin was an initial concern and we were wondering about the bathroom situation and it's "bijou" size. I'm a big guy and I don't relish the thought of a tiny shower - been there, done that 30 years ago. The Penthouse looks much more inviting and along the lines of what we've been used to so we'll have to give this some thought. Your comments on food and service are encouraging. All in all, we too love the smaller ships without the glitz of the newbuilds and crowds. Thanks for your help!

 

Rob

[LHT28]

Thanks  for the comments

We do not have an issue with the W/C  but I know  a lot of people do

Try one of the larger ships   in the fleet   still no covered promenade deck

 

Enjoy

[Heidi13]

12 hours ago, NownZen said:

The R class ships (Insignia, Nautica, Sirena and one I forget) are around 20 years old and came from the bankrupt Renaissance cruise line. Three  of the ships were on Princess later. The Sirena was a Princess ship as well. The bathroom showers are always an adventure but the rest of the ship is a delight. The library is particularly nice as is the outside seating in the buffet.

We go on Oceania for the itinerary and other lines for relaxation.  Since we are looking to excursions, we are also sensitive to the costs that Oceania charges.  They have very good bean counters who work out various options that all cost you about the same even though they look attractive. People have made up spread sheets to try to optimize excursions but in the end all the options cost about the same. If you want any discount you need to buy a lot of excursions and, with their markup, they make lots of money anyway. The organization of the dispatch for the excursions was uniformly poor. Private excursions are a good idea.

 

The 4th of the R-Class ships is Regatta.

 

Sorry, but to my recollection, P&O/Princess have only ever operated 2 of the R-Class ships - Tahitian Princess (later named Ocean Princess) and is now Oceania's Sirena. The Pacific Princess was sold to Azamara, now sailing as Azamara Onward.

[thespiritmovesme]

14 hours ago, CurlerRob said:

We just completed our first trip with Oceania – Insignia, from Montreal to Miami. We decided to post our impressions as data points for other people considering a first O cruise. By way of background, we are experienced cruisers, sailing previously with HAL (their older ships) and Viking.

 

Booking / Embarkation

 

• We found the booking and pricing information more complex than necessary. OLife with airfare was contrasted with cruise-only pricing but does not clearly identify the actual OLife cost. While the math can be done, why make it so obtuse? And, quoting astronomical “brochure fares” is utterly pointless.
•  
• #Also our 1st Oceania cruise (Sirena). Agree with you on this. O doesn't make it clear that you can choose NOT to take the air & get an air credit nor how much the credit would be.

 

• The timeliness of information regarding requirements (vax, travel authorizations, country entry requirements) prior to the cruise was poor. Requirements were only finalized shortly before the cruise – although the various country requirements were available from country websites much earlier. As well, there were numerous discrepancies between the various documents on the O website – consistency is critical.
•  
• # We also found a lot of conflicting info & had to research re specific TAs, country restrictions & fees. Some on our cruise did not find out until 20 plus days into a 38 day cruise that they needed A TA for Bermuda. Supposedly you couldn't even board without it in hand.
• 
   
• Embarkation itself was well handled and quick - only 1/2-hour in total. Our cabin was ready by 1 pm. It was a nice touch to have our steward’s name up on the TV screen upon arrival.
   
• Overall rating B.

 

The Ship

 

• Insignia is a smaller ship, which very much suits our preference. We found her clean and well maintained. Getting oriented was very easy – this may have been due to the very similar layout to the older HAL ships.
•  
• # Agreed
   
• The decor is more the traditional style, as opposed to Viking’s contemporary approach.
   
• A strong plus was the great forward lounge (Horizons) that has copious seating all along the windows with quality views forward and abeam.

# Agreed

•  
• Regretfully, I was unable to find any exterior spot with an unobstructed view forward for pictures, unlike HAL or Viking.
   
• The lack of a full, covered promenade deck was a minus for us as walkers. In order to walk a complete lap, one had to go up to the fitness track on Deck 10, which is completely open to the elements and was closed on occasion due to winds.
•  
• # Agreed
   
• Overall rating A.

 

Cabin

 

• We chose a ‘Concierge’ cabin, with a balcony. It was advertised as 216 square feet, which was somewhat smaller than the ~270 square feet on our comparative lines.
   
• In general, we found the cabin itself quite adequate, with more than ample storage. An oddity was that our one large suitcase would not fit under the bed, as it usually does, but it did fit nicely into the closet.
•  
• # Our steward simply lifted the corner of the bed & under it they went!
   
• The bed was very comfortable. The pillows were feather, which is not our preference but we did not request a change. The toiletries provided were highly scented, but scent-free versions were available from the cabin steward.
•  
• # We found the bed to be uncomfortable. We both rolled to the outer edge 2nd to a slumping mattress. 
   
• The balcony was quite standard in our experience – a sliding door opened to two chairs and a small table – worked fine for two people.
•  
• # Agreed
   
• The bathroom was VERY small - to the point that the commode lacked the necessary legroom. Worse was the shower - it’s tiny and a strange trapezoidal shape, with maximum dimensions of about 22” by 34”. It was extremely difficult to use and would be dangerous in a seaway as there is simply not enough room to brace oneself. It was pretty clear where the sacrifice was made regarding the lower square footage. There’s obviously nothing to be done about the configuration, but new pax should be aware.
•  
• # We knew this going in but highly agree.
   
• Our rating would have been an A but the bathroom was so awkward to use that it dragged it down to a C.

 

Dining / Drinks

 

• Oceania says they have the “finest cuisine at sea”. Not having sailed on every line, I can’t confirm or deny that statement. I can say that their food was, in general, every bit as good, and frequently a notch above our previous experiences. There were usually five choices for each part of the meal, with good variety. Meats, fish and poultry were all cooked perfectly to order. The soups were uniformly excellent. There were a few failures (baked Parmesan-crusted chicken, I’m looking at you), but not a significant number.
•  
• # As a frequent NCL cruiser, I was expecting to be wowed by the cuisine. I was not. The food was interesting & quite varied &, often I had no basis for comparison, having never eaten some of the items but I can't say "the finest at sea". I enjoyed my meals but some have been better on NCL, eggs Benedict for one. 
   
• The Grand Dining Room was, in our view, the least distinguished from our other experiences – we’d be hard pressed to identify much that was different. Seating was reasonably prompt, other than on the first night crush. The tables are well-spaced so you can enjoy some privacy from your neighbours.
•  
• #Agreed.
   
• The Terrace Cafe was a delight, not only for the variety and quality of the food, but especially for the large seating area on the stern - partly covered with nearly all tables protected from the wind. We ate there even on quite cold days, for the view and alfresco experience. We also appreciated that food service is done by the staff – apart from the improved hygiene, we find that provides more opportunity to interact with them.
•  
• #Agreed
   
• The Waves poolside grill had excellent hot dogs, burgers and sandwiches, with quick service even at peak times.
•  
• #Agreed
   
• We found the two specialty restaurants quite different. Polo Grill was as good as many shoreside steak houses we’ve been to. The Italian offering, Toscana, was average at best - across its service, food quality and ambiance. Unfortunate, as we love Italian food.
   
• One oddity we encountered was that coffee was not routinely offered after meals in any of the restaurants. We learned to order it with our dessert.
•  
• # Agreed
   
• Oceania’s selection of wines by the glass and beer was by far the best we’ve encountered - lots of choices and good quality at reasonable prices. As well, Oceania permits a single pax to purchase or upgrade their beverage package, rather than requiring everyone in the cabin to do so. A very classy move that was greatly appreciated by us.
•  
• Agreed & a step up for NCL.
   
• Oceania provided two aluminum drink bottles (that you can keep), which could be refilled with the ship’s special bottled water. Very helpful touch.
•  
• #Agreed
   
• Rated A.

 

Service

 

• We have never found a ship’s crew to be other than very friendly and accommodating. This continued on Insignia – fine service across the board. Any minor errors were acknowledged and fixed immediately.
   
• We did experience some inconsistency at times, which had the appearance of staff shortages / new staff. This was our first cruise post-Covid, so our observation may apply across all lines.
•  
• #Agreed
   
• Rated A.

 

ShoreEx

 

• We generally prefer independent excursions, which was fortunate, as we found Oceania’s performance in this area completely unacceptable.
   
• First, the prices. We are quite used to the cruise lines’ normal markups but found O’s to be simply ridiculous - often 400% versus a DIY tour. An example - the Newport cliff walk and Breakers tour was $300 for a couple. We replicated the tour for $73. Even if one wanted multiple ship tours and leveraged the O discounts available when selecting the OLife excursion option, prices still would show more than a 3X markup.
   
• The second issue was the degree of change to excursions, and lack of communication regarding those changes. We chose only one ship excursion, taken in NYC. Once on the tour, we discovered that the harbour cruise portion promised had morphed into a bus ride. We later discovered that the shore-ex brochure left in the cabin (which looks identical to every other excursion sales brochure we’ve ever seen) identified alterations to many excursions. There was no announcement, no ‘flag’ to be sure to closely review the brochure and no prior emails. The predictable result was a large number of upset pax.
   
• Excursion changes are normal, but we have never seen a cruise line who expects pax to ferret out changes without any notification.
•  
• # On this we have to disagree as we did 4 O excursions & were notified re very minor changes. We did not price outside of O as it was one of our "Chooseall 3" options.
   
• This was a total failure - rated F.

 

Internet

 

• We include thoughts on the internet service as it’s a “hot topic” on nearly every line. We had the standard internet package. Overall, it was similar to but slightly less functional than other lines, which is to say, usually slow and wildly inconsistent regarding reliability of service. We were annoyed that only one device could be active at a time - much switching required unless one wanted to pony up the high costs for a second login.
   
• #Absolutely agree. NCl allows both of us to be on line @the same time at no extra cost.

 

• Interestingly, when the service was behaving, we were able to have a few Skype video calls, even without the “streaming” upgrade, so that was a bonus.
   
• Rated C. (We have yet to find a cruise line that rated anywhere near an A).
   

Entertainment

 

• We are not partial to shipboard entertainment, didn’t attend any shows, so have no opinion to offer. There appeared to be a decent set of the standard activities and shows.
   
• Our only poor experience was when the show band played in the forward lounge one evening. They were so loud that most pax left within minutes.
•  
• #The pianist in Martinis was so loud we could not carry on a conversation. It is supposed to be a meeting place for getting to know fellow cruisers.
   

 Summary
 

The ultimate question for us was “would we cruise with Oceania again”? Our answer was “yes”. Critiques aside, we felt that we received appropriate value on the trip.
 

For us, choosing O again would be a function of the itinerary and time of year – we would enjoy experiencing the ship with more time in warmer climes, as it seemed particularly suited to better weather. If we were to undertake a longer voyage, we would have to give careful consideration to a cabin upgrade to escape the bathroom purgatory – that would increase the cost by about 1/3 and would strain O’s competitiveness.
 

Hopefully, these observations and the logic behind them will be of use to other potential pax. Happy sailing! 🍺🥌

 

# Sounds like we had very similar experiences on our 

first O cruise.

 

[ORV]

15 hours ago, CurlerRob said:

Oceania’s selection of wines by the glass and beer was by far the best we’ve encountered - lots of choices and good quality at reasonable prices.

As a long time Oceania cruiser I find your observations pretty much spot on, except for the sentence I quoted. Truly very, very average beer selection with hardly any craft beers and the wines by the glass are just ok. I'm sure a real oenophile would have even more to say about the choices. 

 

Thanks for your review. 

Edited November 17, 2022 by ORV

[NownZen]

2 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

The 4th of the R-Class ships is Regatta.

 

Sorry, but to my recollection, P&O/Princess have only ever operated 2 of the R-Class ships - Tahitian Princess (later named Ocean Princess) and is now Oceania's Sirena. The Pacific Princess was sold to Azamara, now sailing as Azamara Onward.

The third ship Princess had was the Royal Princess. We sailed on all three and were unhappy that shortly after each cruise they got rid of the ships. I do not think it was because of us.

[NownZen]

4 minutes ago, NownZen said:

The third ship Princess had was the Royal Princess. We sailed on all three and were unhappy that shortly after each cruise they got rid of the ships. I do not think it was because of us.

The original Royal Princess was the R8 then the P&O Adonia and now the Azamara Pursuit.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Just now, NownZen said:

The original Royal Princess was the R8 then the P&O Adonia and now the Azamara Pursuit.

And just before Azamara, it was called Fathom in Carnival's brief "social impact travel" experiment.  The poor thing was bounced around from pillar to post – but even so she was apparently in better condition when Azamara got her than Pacific Princess, which is still having the kinks worked out months after the dry dock refurb.

[Mariastreby]

Thanks for this review, CurlerRob! We went on our first Viking cruise (2 weeks) in May, and are booked on one of their Panama Canal itineraries over the coming holidays. But we decided to book a Caribbean cruise on Oceania this March, so we’ll be able to do our own comparison. We considered only the 2 larger ships, so will be on the Riviera, holding 300 more passengers than any Viking ship. But with 4 specialty restaurants and extra public spaces, including the spa deck area (by going concierge level), I’m sure we won’t feel any more crowded.
 

One thing that was the final push for us to book was that this ship is currently in dry dock.  All the bathrooms are being retrofitted for large shower stalls as we love on Viking. They are removing bath tubs that not many pax utilized. Sounds as if 75% or more of the rest of the ship will be updated as well, especially all the cabins below suite level. So we will feel as if we’re on a totally new ship, which won’t have that “same old” look of every single Viking ship. 
 

Also, by coincidence, we are booked for Viking’s repo cruise from Montreal to Ft Lauderdale next fall as well; we’ll see how the prices on those excursions compare. They do stop in Newport, but not NYC. Viking also has various excursion related problems post Covid, but perhaps not to the extent of all the changes you referred to. We have just reserved excursions for 4 of the 6 islands we’ll be visiting, and I did look at Viator. Not a whole lot of differences there, for these much smaller islands and ports. Tiny St Vincent didn’t have a thing listed on Trip Advisor or Viator at all. 
 

 

[LHT28]

42 minutes ago, Mariastreby said:

  All the bathrooms are being retrofitted for large shower stalls as we love on Viking. They are removing bath tubs that not many pax utilized.

 

 

They are not removing all the tubs   be sure to check  this post  to see if your cabin will have one or not

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2874113-riveria-bathtub-updates/#comment-63775016

 

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, NownZen said:

The third ship Princess had was the Royal Princess. We sailed on all three and were unhappy that shortly after each cruise they got rid of the ships. I do not think it was because of us.

 

Thanks for jogging the memory, completely forgot they moved the original Royal to P&O and then replaced her with an R-Class.

[Mariastreby]

I checked prior to this thread, and I think all concierge veranda cabins will lose the tubs. I knew that some lower level cabins would retain them, as well as a few PHs. And of course the fancy bigger tubs in the pricey suites.
 

So I misspoke when I said “all.”  But sounds like the great majority of cabins will get the change. I look forward to that, as the thread about the upgrades described the current showers as being “capsules.” Yuck! Viking has spoiled us in that regard, including their heated floors and fog free mirrors. 😊

[DENIE]

Thanks for your very objective post.  I second that of others who recommend sailing on the Marina or Riviera.  We just completed our first O cruise (Riviera), and the bathroom was a generous size.  This was before the refurb where they are removing the tubs in many rooms.

[shank63]

23 hours ago, NownZen said:

The original Royal Princess was the R8 then the P&O Adonia and now the Azamara Pursuit.

We have a cruise booked on the Azamara Pursuit in 2023 based on an itinerary.  We have sailed on the O ships as well as Serena and hope Pursuit will be decent.

 

[NeedToChill]

23 hours ago, NownZen said:

The original Royal Princess was the R8

 

Dating myself, but...

 

The original Royal Princess was built for Princess and launched in 1984, and was the first cruise ship to have only outside cabins, most with balconies. Still sailing today as the MV Artania: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Artania#Royal_Princess

 

A real turning point in ship design. She's a very modern looking ship, compared to her contemporaries, like Song of America, two years older, built for RCCL, now RCI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Celestyal_Olympia or HAL's Nieuw Amsterdam: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Marella_Spirit

 

--Julian

Edited November 18, 2022 by NeedToChill

[ak1004]

We also prefer Riviera or Marina.

 

Some people prefer smaller ships, but Riviera and Marina actually have higher passenger/space ratio, so they feel more spacious. Also more dining choices.

[1985rz1]

37 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

We also prefer Riviera or Marina.

 

Some people prefer smaller ships, but Riviera and Marina actually have higher passenger/space ratio, so they feel more spacious. Also more dining choices.

Do you mean a higher space to passenger ratio?

[ak1004]

6 hours ago, 1985rz1 said:

Do you mean a higher space to passenger ratio?

 

Yes. More space per passenger.

 

https://www.cruisemapper.com/wiki/761-cruise-ship-passenger-capacity-ratings