Comparing Viking to Oceania

[DrKoob]

We just finished a 15-night cruise from Montreal to Miami on Oceania's new Vista. I have been live blogging the entire cruise (as I did our Viking Sky cruise last fall) on my blog at www.jimbellomo.com if you are interested. Today I summed it up by comparing the two cruise lines. The rest of this is self-explanatory. I look forward to your comments. 

 

Let me sum up...

 

This should be the last post on our Vista cruise from Montreal to Miami. I hope you have enjoyed following along and the photos I have posted. I promised a final review of what we liked and didn't. Also, since Oceania has decided to become more Viking Ocean-like with their new Simply More inclusions, I will finish by comparing the two. They both desire to occupy the same space and attract the same cruisers.

 

When doing this post, I consulted all seven members of our party, and they mostly agreed with me. And please—realize these are my perceptions. Not yours. If you had a different experience on your cruise, let me know, but don't challenge me on my opinion of what I experienced.

 

What we loved...

• Obviously, the food. Oceania promises the best food at sea, and in 90% of their venues, they succeed. Every single place to eat was as good or better than any place I have eaten on any other ship. If cruising is all about food for you—you want Oceania.
• The new-ship smell. Kathleen came up with the description. It was great to sail on a ship that was only six months old. Everything was bright and shiny. Of course, this won't be true in a couple of years, but if you get on board this year, you should have the same experience.
• Service was incredible. We haven't had service like this in quite a few cruises. Besides the crew members themselves their training, the way they are treated and how they are managed. What a massive contrast to our last cruise on HAL's Koningsdam, where no one was trained to do their job, and some of the things they did were just dangerous.
• Vista is beautiful. Great design. Some nice art. Just about every part of this ship is gorgeous to look at.
• The shower in my brother's stateroom. I'm not sure if he had a different shower than we did; I do get it. He is a big guy, and a big shower is important to him. Sadly, I disagreed because that oversized shower (a big square) meant there was less room in the rest of the stateroom and less storage space.

 

What we thought needed improvement...

• Their entire system for doing WiFi. Come on, Oceania. It makes me log in and out and kick my wife off. Even worse, it meant she couldn't text me if she wanted to ask me something or let me know where she was. I totally realize that the new Simply More program (which includes two device logins) will be an improvement. But if you have more than one device on the ship with you (a phone, tablet and computer), you will have to log off one to get on the other. That means I have to log off or kick myself off before I can receive something else on the new device. Give us WiFi like every other cruise line if you get "FREE" WiFi. Quick messing with it. Even the guy in the digital center hates it. He said it is his biggest complaint. And from what I have seen on Cruise Critic, it hasn't worked very well since the Simply More changeover.
• Speaking of technology—they need to get an app! Every major cruise line has an app that you can text in (without having an internet package), you can see the daily program, you can check your account, you can see the menus for that evening, and so much more. In 2023, not having your own app says you are just stupid and living in the last century.
• The elevators. I touched on this when I wrote about the ship's public areas, but the elevators are ridiculous, and for a new ship, they broke down far too often. Thankfully, I don't believe anyone got stuck in one, but there are just not enough of them. Sadly, they can do nothing about this, but they can improve it on future ships.
• Very few spaces where you can see the sea. For a cruise line named after the ocean, they didn't want you to see the ocean when they designed this ship. If you don't have a verandah, you can't see the ocean until you are on deck 12. Below that, the only place you can see off the ship is the Grand Dining Room. That's nuts. All the other windows on decks five and six are covered with drapes, and there is no access to outdoor decks, let alone an actual promenade deck that encircles the ship. Again, this is one thing they can't improve on Vista but should make note of for future ships.
• The AC can't keep up. If you are in the Aquamar Kitchen, the Waves Grille and most of the Terrace Cafe and doing a warm-weather cruise—you better love hot and humid temps. Both the Aquamar and the Grille are open to the outside and have no air conditioning that we could see. On cold days, they have heaters but not even fans for hot days. On our last sea day before we got to Miami, the temperature was in the high eighties/low nineties and the humidity was close to 90%. Finding a place to sit in the buffet where you didn't get a blast of hot, humid air whenever someone came into or went out of the room was challenging. If you are from Florida, this probably won't bother you, but those of us from the northern climates were dying.
• Someplace to sit. There is really no place to sit and have a pre-dinner cocktail that doesn't have music playing in it. Piano player in Martinis, dance band in Horizons and string quartet in the Grand Lounge. This is especially true if you want to get together with new or old friends and talk.   But this problem is one they can fix now. Just play excellent background music (like they play all day) in Martinis. No Bill Murray-style lounge singer with a grating voice who tries to drown out every single conversation. That should do it. If people want a quiet conversation pre-dinner, the only nice lounge is the Smoker's Lounge. So many convert that to a regular lounge and just make the entire ship non-smoking?

That's about it. See, we really had a great cruise. Yes, we missed two ports, but O gave us a future cruise credit for the one they were responsible for, and the other was due to weather, so it was not their fault. On the list of all our cruises, I would put it up with our HAL cruise on Nieuw Statendam or one of our early cruises with Celebrity until they decided they didn't like cruisers our age anymore.

 

Let's Compare

Over the last six months, Oceania has been bringing out its Simply More program that incorporates much of what Viking Ocean Cruises does. It adds free wine and beer at dinner, free internet (but only two devices at a time per stateroom) and more. So clearly, Oceania sees itself competing with Viking Ocean for the same clientele.

 

Since we left Celebrity, we have been looking for a new cruise line to lend our loyalty to. And so far it has come down to Oceania (O) or Viking Ocean (VO). So, since both O and I have decided to make a comparison, here is ours based on this 15-night cruise on O's newest ship and our 21-night cruise on the slightly older Viking Sky last year around this time. Here's how I see it. Again, please realize that this is MY PERCEPTION. If you had a different experience, please let me know but don't attack my reality.

 

• Stateroom Design (Viking wins). Staterooms on Viking for close to the same price are much bigger—there is a ton more storage space, which is important on longer cruises that we seem to take now.
• Bathroom Design (Viking Wins). Even though my brother likes his shower better on Oceania, I like the bathroom layout much better. No wasted floor space
• Internet (Viking Wins). I think I have been over this enough. From the minute we got on board Viking until the minute we got off, we had complete WiFi on every device we owned. I am not even sure if Viking offers an internet upgrade.
• Cruise Ship App (Viking Wins). Oceania has no app. Viking's isn't perfect, but I can at least see what is going on during the day without a paper copy, and I can check menus around the ship and text each other.
• Elevators (Viking Wins). Enough said. Kathleen never had to wait for an elevator on Viking. Ever.
• Lounges (Viking Wins). There were a number of places we could get a quiet drink and have a conversation.
• Closed-in Ship (Viking Wins). You can see the ocean from almost any public space on a Viking Ocean ship. Not true on Vista, where you can't see it until you get to deck 12.
• Promenade Deck (Viking Wins). If I am on deck five and want to know what the weather is like, I have to wait until I get back up to my stateroom to find out. There is no place below deck 12 (other than my verandah) where I can step outside. Plus, as a walker, I much prefer a walking track that is partially protected. With Vista's being on deck 15, they closed on a number of days to walkers and joggers because of strong winds.
• Interior furnishings (Viking Wins). This is really a matter of taste, but I just love Viking Ocean's Scandinavian design. Much of Vista's public space was beautiful, but some bordered on gaudy. I said bordered (the lighting in the Grand Lounge was really close to Vegas).
• Horizons/Explorer’s Lounge (Viking Wins). Horizons is a cocktail lounge/dance hall. Explorer's Lounge on Viking is on two levels. The top one is for quiet reading (I did most of my writing and photo processing up there), and the lower level has a bar and excellent seats for conversation.
• The entire spa (Viking Wins). I am the first to admit that even though we were in a Concierge stateroom, I never tried the Aquamar Spa, but in my mind, Viking wins this one because everyone has access for free. Not just those in Concierge or above staterooms.
• Outside activities (Oceania Wins). Deck 15 and 16 had so much you could do on sea days it wasn't even funny. From bocce to shuffleboard, from pickleball to mini golf (not to mention the golf simulator and cornhole), it was a veritable playground for those wanting an outdoor diversion. If I had one criticism, it would be that they need more barriers to the wind as they had to close these decks fairly often at sea...which defeats the purpose.
• Culinary Center (Oceania Wins). I don't even think Viking has a Culinary Center. It is undoubtedly a draw for me.
• Smoking Lounge (Oceania Wins). If you want to smoke on Viking, go outside in the weather. Vista's Smoking Lounge is gorgeous. How about both cruise lines ban smoking entirely, and then Vista can open up her Smoking Lounge to people who want to gather before dinner and not hear music?
• Casino (Viking Wins). Because they don't have one. The space they saved by getting rid of their casino went into the Wintergarden, a beautiful room where anyone can gather. With Viking, we were drawn to the things they don't have as much as to the things they do. No kids under 18, no casino, no ship photographers, no upsell in the spa, no indoor smoking, etc.
• Artist’s Loft (Oceania Wins). Another great extra on Vista. I didn't use it, but it was jammed every single day.
• Complimentary pressing (Viking Wins). Oceania said we got pressing of our clothes when we arrived. There were coupons in our stateroom. Five of them. That means that you can have five things pressed. On Viking (in the PV–the stateroom we had), you got free pressing all the way through the entire cruise.
• Free Laundry (Viking wins). We got about the same amount of free laundry on both ships, but the note on Vista said that it could take "up to three days." Well, if I have three pairs of pants and two are dirty and I send them to be laundered and then I spill something on the one I kept, I am out of luck for three days. I do realize that they were under-promising and over-delivering because many who sent their laundry out got it back one day later. But I can't take that chance.
• Launderettes (tie). Both have great self-serve laundries, although the ironing boards on Vista could be bigger.
• Beds (Oceania wins). This is a hands-down thing. My bed on Viking was almost unusable. It was way too hard for me. Our bed on Vista was excellent (Kathleen thought the pillows sucked, but they didn't bother me that much).
• Ships across the entire line (Viking Wins). We were on Vista, Oceania's newest ship. The entire line has seven ships, with one on the way in 2025. We have heard that Vista, Marina and Riviera are all about the same size and have the same features. But the other four are old R-class ships with some of the tiniest staterooms in all of cruising.—175 square feet in their verandah staterooms, and their Penthouse Suites are only 260 square feet—they call that a suite? Our Concierge verandah on Vista was 250 square feet. The staterooms on those ships are just too small. And those ships were all built in the 1990s. That's just too old. Viking has 11 ships, with one on the way in 2025. They are all identical—seriously. You go on one, you go on all of them. And all were built since 2014, with four of them going into service since 2022.
• Deposit and Final Payment Due Dates (Oceania wins). This is a total given. Viking is notorious for having the earliest final payment dates in all of cruising. For instance, if I buy a Viking cruise today (October 2023) that will sail in December 2024, my Viking Ocean final payment will probably be due on December 31, 2023. But by the same token, Oceania's final payment will be due 90 days before the cruise sales. Of course, you can still get all your money back from Viking before 120 days with only a $100 PP booking fee loss (and you can apply those to another cruise), but the biggest complaint I hear from Viking cruisers or those who want to cruise with Viking but haven't tried them yet is this early final payment date. When someone asks me why they have that early a date, I tell them, "Because they can." Their passengers are amazingly loyal. If people stopped booking Viking or their ships were sailing empty, this might change. But as of now, it isn't.

Food! I thought this deserved a special category all its own

•  Grand Dining Room/Main Dining Room (Oceania wins). I HATE Viking's dining room. There were low ceilings and a staff (at least on our cruise) who was totally disorganized, not to mention some food that wasn't really that good. O wins here big time.
• Specialty Restaurants (Oceania Wins). Was there ever a doubt? There are only two on Viking—Manfredis and Chef's Table. Manfredis is a sorry excuse for an Italian restaurant, and the Chef's Table has a fixed menu. It changes every few days. If you don't like what you get when you go on the day of your reservation, you are stuck. I was stuck. All four Vista specialty restaurants are better than either of these.
• Grille (Viking Wins). Surprise. But the Grille on Viking is so much better than the Waves Grille (for lunch) that it isn't even close.
• Buffet (Tie). I almost gave it to Oceania here, but cold desserts and serving entirely the same menu two nights in a row knocked it down to a tie.
• Mamsens/Baristas (Oceania). I have to get this to Baristas. I love Mamsens, but Baristas's pastries and coffees are so much better.
• Aquamar Kitchen (Oceania Wins). Because there is nothing like it on a Viking ship. And I want to eat lunch there every single day.
• Pricing (Tie): Here's a comparison of two different cruises in three types of staterooms.

Here's a price comparison on a 2024 New England cruise. This is much like the one we did, minus Miami and Charleston.

• Viking Penthouse Verandah (338 square feet) for 15 nights in New England is $8999 per person. Per Night cost on Viking is $599 pp
• Oceania Concierge Verandah (173 square feet) 18 nights New England on Nautica (one of the older ships) $10,599 per person. Per Night costs $588 pp
• Oceania Penthouse suite (260 Square feet) $13799 pp, $766 per night pp.

Or I did a Mediterranean cruise in the same time frame. Comparing a Rivera–10-night Med cruise in the fall of 2024 with a 15-night cruise in the Med on any Viking ship.

• On Viking: Penthouse Verandah for 15 nights Med (338 square feet) $ 11809 Per night $739 pp
• On Oceania: Concierge Veranda Stateroom (242 square feet😞 $6299 pp Per night  $629.
• Penthouse Suite (420 square feet) $ 7599 pp Per night $759

Yes, each line offers different things with their base price, and they aren't all the same. I met a guy on Vista, an accountant who does an Excel spreadsheet for all their cruises. I am not that interested. A few dollars either way doesn't make that big a difference to us. Ultimately, it all comes down to what is important to you. If it's food, sail with Oceania (stick to their bigger ships), but if it is pretty much everything other than their final payment stuff, try Viking. All that said we have future cruises booked with both of them, so I guess we are still deciding.

[CCWineLover]

Thank you for this well written and organized comparison!

[mac_tlc]

Thanks for your comparison. We have our first two O cruises booked on Vista and are looking at VO too. For the ones I look at, VO is a bit pricier. Having never sailed them, and only reacting to others comments, they don’t seem very wheelchair friendly. That’s a big deal for us. 
 

I like that instead of just picking a winner on each category, you explained why. In that way, each person can evaluate if your criteria apply to them as choose accordingly. 
 

It doesn’t seem like there is a wrong answer here .

 

Thanks again,

 

mac_tlc

Edited October 19, 2023 by mac_tlc

[Mike07]

You're the hero we need.... Thanks, I've been wanting to try out O.

[Mich3554]

The only reason why we started with Viking, even though I was hooked on the idea of cruising was (1) the Oceania cruise we were interested in was fully booked, the sales rep laughed at me and never got back to me with a quote on another cruise and (2) when I called Viking, the sales rep was willing to dig through inventory to let me know what cruises were available for the time we wanted (in about 3 months).  There was a room available on a trans Atlantic, so we booked it.  There was almost immediate payment required (I think I had 24 hours) but their sales staff were far more responsive.

 

It’s amazing how a single customer service rep being willing to go the extra mile for a newbie wound up getting about $250k of business sent their way over the last 5 years.  I have stuck with the same rep.

[Myrtle Ave. Mayhem]

@DrKoob Your thread over on the O board has been very interesting & illuminating. Your perspectives & explanations are appreciated.

 

Between the two, I'm going to stick with Viking. As a ship design nut, I'm head over heels with the Viking Ocean ships. Those ships are well thought out for the enjoyment & comfort of the passengers. Oceania Vista has missed the boat(bad pun intended) with limited lounge space & lack of connection to the sea. It's annoying to me that so many new ships don't have good views out to the ocean, wrap around promenade decks, quiet nook & cranny spaces.

The only two spaces aboard Vista that look like they would appeal to me are the Grand Dining Room & Horizons Lounge. 

 

Viking dining is good enough but can be hit or miss. Based on your experience, it seems  that not only does Oceania have better dining, but that the service in the dining venues is more on point. 

Edited October 20, 2023 by Myrtle Ave. Mayhem

[Jim Avery]

We are with you on Viking's ships.  The best we have been on since the classics left the scene.  Absolutely love the floor to ceiling unobstructed with rails, etc. glass that almost always is magically clean.  Hate being enclosed when at sea.  So much out there to see.

[Azulann]

23 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

We are with you on Viking's ships.  The best we have been on since the classics left the scene.  Absolutely love the floor to ceiling unobstructed with rails, etc. glass that almost always is magically clean.  Hate being enclosed when at sea.  So much out there to see.

My sentiment exactly !!!!!’🥰

[1985rz1]

4 hours ago, DrKoob said:

We just finished a 15-night cruise from Montreal to Miami on Oceania's new Vista. I have been live blogging the entire cruise (as I did our Viking Sky cruise last fall) on my blog at www.jimbellomo.com if you are interested. Today I summed it up by comparing the two cruise lines. The rest of this is self-explanatory. I look forward to your comments. 

 

Let me sum up...

 

This should be the last post on our Vista cruise from Montreal to Miami. I hope you have enjoyed following along and the photos I have posted. I promised a final review of what we liked and didn't. Also, since Oceania has decided to become more Viking Ocean-like with their new Simply More inclusions, I will finish by comparing the two. They both desire to occupy the same space and attract the same cruisers.

 

When doing this post, I consulted all seven members of our party, and they mostly agreed with me. And please—realize these are my perceptions. Not yours. If you had a different experience on your cruise, let me know, but don't challenge me on my opinion of what I experienced.

 

What we loved...

• Obviously, the food. Oceania promises the best food at sea, and in 90% of their venues, they succeed. Every single place to eat was as good or better than any place I have eaten on any other ship. If cruising is all about food for you—you want Oceania.
• The new-ship smell. Kathleen came up with the description. It was great to sail on a ship that was only six months old. Everything was bright and shiny. Of course, this won't be true in a couple of years, but if you get on board this year, you should have the same experience.
• Service was incredible. We haven't had service like this in quite a few cruises. Besides the crew members themselves their training, the way they are treated and how they are managed. What a massive contrast to our last cruise on HAL's Koningsdam, where no one was trained to do their job, and some of the things they did were just dangerous.
• Vista is beautiful. Great design. Some nice art. Just about every part of this ship is gorgeous to look at.
• The shower in my brother's stateroom. I'm not sure if he had a different shower than we did; I do get it. He is a big guy, and a big shower is important to him. Sadly, I disagreed because that oversized shower (a big square) meant there was less room in the rest of the stateroom and less storage space.

 

What we thought needed improvement...

• Their entire system for doing WiFi. Come on, Oceania. It makes me log in and out and kick my wife off. Even worse, it meant she couldn't text me if she wanted to ask me something or let me know where she was. I totally realize that the new Simply More program (which includes two device logins) will be an improvement. But if you have more than one device on the ship with you (a phone, tablet and computer), you will have to log off one to get on the other. That means I have to log off or kick myself off before I can receive something else on the new device. Give us WiFi like every other cruise line if you get "FREE" WiFi. Quick messing with it. Even the guy in the digital center hates it. He said it is his biggest complaint. And from what I have seen on Cruise Critic, it hasn't worked very well since the Simply More changeover.
• Speaking of technology—they need to get an app! Every major cruise line has an app that you can text in (without having an internet package), you can see the daily program, you can check your account, you can see the menus for that evening, and so much more. In 2023, not having your own app says you are just stupid and living in the last century.
• The elevators. I touched on this when I wrote about the ship's public areas, but the elevators are ridiculous, and for a new ship, they broke down far too often. Thankfully, I don't believe anyone got stuck in one, but there are just not enough of them. Sadly, they can do nothing about this, but they can improve it on future ships.
• Very few spaces where you can see the sea. For a cruise line named after the ocean, they didn't want you to see the ocean when they designed this ship. If you don't have a verandah, you can't see the ocean until you are on deck 12. Below that, the only place you can see off the ship is the Grand Dining Room. That's nuts. All the other windows on decks five and six are covered with drapes, and there is no access to outdoor decks, let alone an actual promenade deck that encircles the ship. Again, this is one thing they can't improve on Vista but should make note of for future ships.
• The AC can't keep up. If you are in the Aquamar Kitchen, the Waves Grille and most of the Terrace Cafe and doing a warm-weather cruise—you better love hot and humid temps. Both the Aquamar and the Grille are open to the outside and have no air conditioning that we could see. On cold days, they have heaters but not even fans for hot days. On our last sea day before we got to Miami, the temperature was in the high eighties/low nineties and the humidity was close to 90%. Finding a place to sit in the buffet where you didn't get a blast of hot, humid air whenever someone came into or went out of the room was challenging. If you are from Florida, this probably won't bother you, but those of us from the northern climates were dying.
• Someplace to sit. There is really no place to sit and have a pre-dinner cocktail that doesn't have music playing in it. Piano player in Martinis, dance band in Horizons and string quartet in the Grand Lounge. This is especially true if you want to get together with new or old friends and talk.   But this problem is one they can fix now. Just play excellent background music (like they play all day) in Martinis. No Bill Murray-style lounge singer with a grating voice who tries to drown out every single conversation. That should do it. If people want a quiet conversation pre-dinner, the only nice lounge is the Smoker's Lounge. So many convert that to a regular lounge and just make the entire ship non-smoking?

That's about it. See, we really had a great cruise. Yes, we missed two ports, but O gave us a future cruise credit for the one they were responsible for, and the other was due to weather, so it was not their fault. On the list of all our cruises, I would put it up with our HAL cruise on Nieuw Statendam or one of our early cruises with Celebrity until they decided they didn't like cruisers our age anymore.

 

Let's Compare

Over the last six months, Oceania has been bringing out its Simply More program that incorporates much of what Viking Ocean Cruises does. It adds free wine and beer at dinner, free internet (but only two devices at a time per stateroom) and more. So clearly, Oceania sees itself competing with Viking Ocean for the same clientele.

 

Since we left Celebrity, we have been looking for a new cruise line to lend our loyalty to. And so far it has come down to Oceania (O) or Viking Ocean (VO). So, since both O and I have decided to make a comparison, here is ours based on this 15-night cruise on O's newest ship and our 21-night cruise on the slightly older Viking Sky last year around this time. Here's how I see it. Again, please realize that this is MY PERCEPTION. If you had a different experience, please let me know but don't attack my reality.

 

• Stateroom Design (Viking wins). Staterooms on Viking for close to the same price are much bigger—there is a ton more storage space, which is important on longer cruises that we seem to take now.
• Bathroom Design (Viking Wins). Even though my brother likes his shower better on Oceania, I like the bathroom layout much better. No wasted floor space
• Internet (Viking Wins). I think I have been over this enough. From the minute we got on board Viking until the minute we got off, we had complete WiFi on every device we owned. I am not even sure if Viking offers an internet upgrade.
• Cruise Ship App (Viking Wins). Oceania has no app. Viking's isn't perfect, but I can at least see what is going on during the day without a paper copy, and I can check menus around the ship and text each other.
• Elevators (Viking Wins). Enough said. Kathleen never had to wait for an elevator on Viking. Ever.
• Lounges (Viking Wins). There were a number of places we could get a quiet drink and have a conversation.
• Closed-in Ship (Viking Wins). You can see the ocean from almost any public space on a Viking Ocean ship. Not true on Vista, where you can't see it until you get to deck 12.
• Promenade Deck (Viking Wins). If I am on deck five and want to know what the weather is like, I have to wait until I get back up to my stateroom to find out. There is no place below deck 12 (other than my verandah) where I can step outside. Plus, as a walker, I much prefer a walking track that is partially protected. With Vista's being on deck 15, they closed on a number of days to walkers and joggers because of strong winds.
• Interior furnishings (Viking Wins). This is really a matter of taste, but I just love Viking Ocean's Scandinavian design. Much of Vista's public space was beautiful, but some bordered on gaudy. I said bordered (the lighting in the Grand Lounge was really close to Vegas).
• Horizons/Explorer’s Lounge (Viking Wins). Horizons is a cocktail lounge/dance hall. Explorer's Lounge on Viking is on two levels. The top one is for quiet reading (I did most of my writing and photo processing up there), and the lower level has a bar and excellent seats for conversation.
• The entire spa (Viking Wins). I am the first to admit that even though we were in a Concierge stateroom, I never tried the Aquamar Spa, but in my mind, Viking wins this one because everyone has access for free. Not just those in Concierge or above staterooms.
• Outside activities (Oceania Wins). Deck 15 and 16 had so much you could do on sea days it wasn't even funny. From bocce to shuffleboard, from pickleball to mini golf (not to mention the golf simulator and cornhole), it was a veritable playground for those wanting an outdoor diversion. If I had one criticism, it would be that they need more barriers to the wind as they had to close these decks fairly often at sea...which defeats the purpose.
• Culinary Center (Oceania Wins). I don't even think Viking has a Culinary Center. It is undoubtedly a draw for me.
• Smoking Lounge (Oceania Wins). If you want to smoke on Viking, go outside in the weather. Vista's Smoking Lounge is gorgeous. How about both cruise lines ban smoking entirely, and then Vista can open up her Smoking Lounge to people who want to gather before dinner and not hear music?
• Casino (Viking Wins). Because they don't have one. The space they saved by getting rid of their casino went into the Wintergarden, a beautiful room where anyone can gather. With Viking, we were drawn to the things they don't have as much as to the things they do. No kids under 18, no casino, no ship photographers, no upsell in the spa, no indoor smoking, etc.
• Artist’s Loft (Oceania Wins). Another great extra on Vista. I didn't use it, but it was jammed every single day.
• Complimentary pressing (Viking Wins). Oceania said we got pressing of our clothes when we arrived. There were coupons in our stateroom. Five of them. That means that you can have five things pressed. On Viking (in the PV–the stateroom we had), you got free pressing all the way through the entire cruise.
• Free Laundry (Viking wins). We got about the same amount of free laundry on both ships, but the note on Vista said that it could take "up to three days." Well, if I have three pairs of pants and two are dirty and I send them to be laundered and then I spill something on the one I kept, I am out of luck for three days. I do realize that they were under-promising and over-delivering because many who sent their laundry out got it back one day later. But I can't take that chance.
• Launderettes (tie). Both have great self-serve laundries, although the ironing boards on Vista could be bigger.
• Beds (Oceania wins). This is a hands-down thing. My bed on Viking was almost unusable. It was way too hard for me. Our bed on Vista was excellent (Kathleen thought the pillows sucked, but they didn't bother me that much).
• Ships across the entire line (Viking Wins). We were on Vista, Oceania's newest ship. The entire line has seven ships, with one on the way in 2025. We have heard that Vista, Marina and Riviera are all about the same size and have the same features. But the other four are old R-class ships with some of the tiniest staterooms in all of cruising.—175 square feet in their verandah staterooms, and their Penthouse Suites are only 260 square feet—they call that a suite? Our Concierge verandah on Vista was 250 square feet. The staterooms on those ships are just too small. And those ships were all built in the 1990s. That's just too old. Viking has 11 ships, with one on the way in 2025. They are all identical—seriously. You go on one, you go on all of them. And all were built since 2014, with four of them going into service since 2022.
• Deposit and Final Payment Due Dates (Oceania wins). This is a total given. Viking is notorious for having the earliest final payment dates in all of cruising. For instance, if I buy a Viking cruise today (October 2023) that will sail in December 2024, my Viking Ocean final payment will probably be due on December 31, 2023. But by the same token, Oceania's final payment will be due 90 days before the cruise sales. Of course, you can still get all your money back from Viking before 120 days with only a $100 PP booking fee loss (and you can apply those to another cruise), but the biggest complaint I hear from Viking cruisers or those who want to cruise with Viking but haven't tried them yet is this early final payment date. When someone asks me why they have that early a date, I tell them, "Because they can." Their passengers are amazingly loyal. If people stopped booking Viking or their ships were sailing empty, this might change. But as of now, it isn't.

Food! I thought this deserved a special category all its own

•  Grand Dining Room/Main Dining Room (Oceania wins). I HATE Viking's dining room. There were low ceilings and a staff (at least on our cruise) who was totally disorganized, not to mention some food that wasn't really that good. O wins here big time.
• Specialty Restaurants (Oceania Wins). Was there ever a doubt? There are only two on Viking—Manfredis and Chef's Table. Manfredis is a sorry excuse for an Italian restaurant, and the Chef's Table has a fixed menu. It changes every few days. If you don't like what you get when you go on the day of your reservation, you are stuck. I was stuck. All four Vista specialty restaurants are better than either of these.
• Grille (Viking Wins). Surprise. But the Grille on Viking is so much better than the Waves Grille (for lunch) that it isn't even close.
• Buffet (Tie). I almost gave it to Oceania here, but cold desserts and serving entirely the same menu two nights in a row knocked it down to a tie.
• Mamsens/Baristas (Oceania). I have to get this to Baristas. I love Mamsens, but Baristas's pastries and coffees are so much better.
• Aquamar Kitchen (Oceania Wins). Because there is nothing like it on a Viking ship. And I want to eat lunch there every single day.
• Pricing (Tie): Here's a comparison of two different cruises in three types of staterooms.

Here's a price comparison on a 2024 New England cruise. This is much like the one we did, minus Miami and Charleston.

• Viking Penthouse Verandah (338 square feet) for 15 nights in New England is $8999 per person. Per Night cost on Viking is $599 pp
• Oceania Concierge Verandah (173 square feet) 18 nights New England on Nautica (one of the older ships) $10,599 per person. Per Night costs $588 pp
• Oceania Penthouse suite (260 Square feet) $13799 pp, $766 per night pp.

Or I did a Mediterranean cruise in the same time frame. Comparing a Rivera–10-night Med cruise in the fall of 2024 with a 15-night cruise in the Med on any Viking ship.

• On Viking: Penthouse Verandah for 15 nights Med (338 square feet) $ 11809 Per night $739 pp
• On Oceania: Concierge Veranda Stateroom (242 square feet😞 $6299 pp Per night  $629.
• Penthouse Suite (420 square feet) $ 7599 pp Per night $759

Yes, each line offers different things with their base price, and they aren't all the same. I met a guy on Vista, an accountant who does an Excel spreadsheet for all their cruises. I am not that interested. A few dollars either way doesn't make that big a difference to us. Ultimately, it all comes down to what is important to you. If it's food, sail with Oceania (stick to their bigger ships), but if it is pretty much everything other than their final payment stuff, try Viking. All that said we have future cruises booked with both of them, so I guess we are still deciding.

Great comparison, but in the pricing aren't you mixing Oceania's R ship and its O and A ships when you you list the stateroom sizes?  It would be helpful if you stated the ship sizes you are comparing.

[dreamercruise]

Very informative.

Please comment on the quality of lectures and shore excursions presentation.

[DrKoob]

8 minutes ago, 1985rz1 said:

Great comparison, but in the pricing aren't you mixing Oceania's R ship and its O and A ships when you you list the stateroom sizes?  It would be helpful if you stated the ship sizes you are comparing.

I compared Riviera with a Viking ship in the Med. 

[1985rz1]

24 minutes ago, DrKoob said:

I compared Riviera with a Viking ship in the Med. 

It was the New England one that stuck out, but I see you did specify the Nautica, which is smaller than either the Riveria or the Vista...and older, as you say.  Personally, I like the O, A, and VO ships better for stateromm  and ship sizw, but the R ship itineraries are frequently more interesting to me.  So, I suffer the PH on them 😔. 

[Jjg34219]

We have only done one VO with 2 more booked. Have priced O many times and it always prices similar to VO.

What we really liked about our VO experience was the “casual” feel of everything and the overall simplicity of the ship. We loved all the open spaces on VO where one could just hang out and look at the open sea, or just enjoy some quiet time and be in our own lil world. We just felt at peace with everything.

 

[rmalbers]

Yes, thanks, very interesting.  I thought O priced out a lot higher than VO but I guess not.   Not sure about others but the retractable roof over the pool on VO I think is a real benefit, it makes that space usable even on cruises in the far north. 

Edited October 20, 2023 by rmalbers

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

Thanks for your detailed information. 

[Kruzkrazy]

19 hours ago, DrKoob said:

We just finished a 15-night cruise from Montreal to Miami on Oceania's new Vista. I have been live blogging the entire cruise (as I did our Viking Sky cruise last fall) on my blog at www.jimbellomo.com if you are interested. Today I summed it up by comparing the two cruise lines. The rest of this is self-explanatory. I look forward to your comments. 

 

Let me sum up...

 

This should be the last post on our Vista cruise from Montreal to Miami. I hope you have enjoyed following along and the photos I have posted. I promised a final review of what we liked and didn't. Also, since Oceania has decided to become more Viking Ocean-like with their new Simply More inclusions, I will finish by comparing the two. They both desire to occupy the same space and attract the same cruisers.

 

When doing this post, I consulted all seven members of our party, and they mostly agreed with me. And please—realize these are my perceptions. Not yours. If you had a different experience on your cruise, let me know, but don't challenge me on my opinion of what I experienced.

 

What we loved...

• Obviously, the food. Oceania promises the best food at sea, and in 90% of their venues, they succeed. Every single place to eat was as good or better than any place I have eaten on any other ship. If cruising is all about food for you—you want Oceania.
• The new-ship smell. Kathleen came up with the description. It was great to sail on a ship that was only six months old. Everything was bright and shiny. Of course, this won't be true in a couple of years, but if you get on board this year, you should have the same experience.
• Service was incredible. We haven't had service like this in quite a few cruises. Besides the crew members themselves their training, the way they are treated and how they are managed. What a massive contrast to our last cruise on HAL's Koningsdam, where no one was trained to do their job, and some of the things they did were just dangerous.
• Vista is beautiful. Great design. Some nice art. Just about every part of this ship is gorgeous to look at.
• The shower in my brother's stateroom. I'm not sure if he had a different shower than we did; I do get it. He is a big guy, and a big shower is important to him. Sadly, I disagreed because that oversized shower (a big square) meant there was less room in the rest of the stateroom and less storage space.

 

What we thought needed improvement...

• Their entire system for doing WiFi. Come on, Oceania. It makes me log in and out and kick my wife off. Even worse, it meant she couldn't text me if she wanted to ask me something or let me know where she was. I totally realize that the new Simply More program (which includes two device logins) will be an improvement. But if you have more than one device on the ship with you (a phone, tablet and computer), you will have to log off one to get on the other. That means I have to log off or kick myself off before I can receive something else on the new device. Give us WiFi like every other cruise line if you get "FREE" WiFi. Quick messing with it. Even the guy in the digital center hates it. He said it is his biggest complaint. And from what I have seen on Cruise Critic, it hasn't worked very well since the Simply More changeover.
• Speaking of technology—they need to get an app! Every major cruise line has an app that you can text in (without having an internet package), you can see the daily program, you can check your account, you can see the menus for that evening, and so much more. In 2023, not having your own app says you are just stupid and living in the last century.
• The elevators. I touched on this when I wrote about the ship's public areas, but the elevators are ridiculous, and for a new ship, they broke down far too often. Thankfully, I don't believe anyone got stuck in one, but there are just not enough of them. Sadly, they can do nothing about this, but they can improve it on future ships.
• Very few spaces where you can see the sea. For a cruise line named after the ocean, they didn't want you to see the ocean when they designed this ship. If you don't have a verandah, you can't see the ocean until you are on deck 12. Below that, the only place you can see off the ship is the Grand Dining Room. That's nuts. All the other windows on decks five and six are covered with drapes, and there is no access to outdoor decks, let alone an actual promenade deck that encircles the ship. Again, this is one thing they can't improve on Vista but should make note of for future ships.
• The AC can't keep up. If you are in the Aquamar Kitchen, the Waves Grille and most of the Terrace Cafe and doing a warm-weather cruise—you better love hot and humid temps. Both the Aquamar and the Grille are open to the outside and have no air conditioning that we could see. On cold days, they have heaters but not even fans for hot days. On our last sea day before we got to Miami, the temperature was in the high eighties/low nineties and the humidity was close to 90%. Finding a place to sit in the buffet where you didn't get a blast of hot, humid air whenever someone came into or went out of the room was challenging. If you are from Florida, this probably won't bother you, but those of us from the northern climates were dying.
• Someplace to sit. There is really no place to sit and have a pre-dinner cocktail that doesn't have music playing in it. Piano player in Martinis, dance band in Horizons and string quartet in the Grand Lounge. This is especially true if you want to get together with new or old friends and talk.   But this problem is one they can fix now. Just play excellent background music (like they play all day) in Martinis. No Bill Murray-style lounge singer with a grating voice who tries to drown out every single conversation. That should do it. If people want a quiet conversation pre-dinner, the only nice lounge is the Smoker's Lounge. So many convert that to a regular lounge and just make the entire ship non-smoking?

That's about it. See, we really had a great cruise. Yes, we missed two ports, but O gave us a future cruise credit for the one they were responsible for, and the other was due to weather, so it was not their fault. On the list of all our cruises, I would put it up with our HAL cruise on Nieuw Statendam or one of our early cruises with Celebrity until they decided they didn't like cruisers our age anymore.

 

Let's Compare

Over the last six months, Oceania has been bringing out its Simply More program that incorporates much of what Viking Ocean Cruises does. It adds free wine and beer at dinner, free internet (but only two devices at a time per stateroom) and more. So clearly, Oceania sees itself competing with Viking Ocean for the same clientele.

 

Since we left Celebrity, we have been looking for a new cruise line to lend our loyalty to. And so far it has come down to Oceania (O) or Viking Ocean (VO). So, since both O and I have decided to make a comparison, here is ours based on this 15-night cruise on O's newest ship and our 21-night cruise on the slightly older Viking Sky last year around this time. Here's how I see it. Again, please realize that this is MY PERCEPTION. If you had a different experience, please let me know but don't attack my reality.

 

• Stateroom Design (Viking wins). Staterooms on Viking for close to the same price are much bigger—there is a ton more storage space, which is important on longer cruises that we seem to take now.
• Bathroom Design (Viking Wins). Even though my brother likes his shower better on Oceania, I like the bathroom layout much better. No wasted floor space
• Internet (Viking Wins). I think I have been over this enough. From the minute we got on board Viking until the minute we got off, we had complete WiFi on every device we owned. I am not even sure if Viking offers an internet upgrade.
• Cruise Ship App (Viking Wins). Oceania has no app. Viking's isn't perfect, but I can at least see what is going on during the day without a paper copy, and I can check menus around the ship and text each other.
• Elevators (Viking Wins). Enough said. Kathleen never had to wait for an elevator on Viking. Ever.
• Lounges (Viking Wins). There were a number of places we could get a quiet drink and have a conversation.
• Closed-in Ship (Viking Wins). You can see the ocean from almost any public space on a Viking Ocean ship. Not true on Vista, where you can't see it until you get to deck 12.
• Promenade Deck (Viking Wins). If I am on deck five and want to know what the weather is like, I have to wait until I get back up to my stateroom to find out. There is no place below deck 12 (other than my verandah) where I can step outside. Plus, as a walker, I much prefer a walking track that is partially protected. With Vista's being on deck 15, they closed on a number of days to walkers and joggers because of strong winds.
• Interior furnishings (Viking Wins). This is really a matter of taste, but I just love Viking Ocean's Scandinavian design. Much of Vista's public space was beautiful, but some bordered on gaudy. I said bordered (the lighting in the Grand Lounge was really close to Vegas).
• Horizons/Explorer’s Lounge (Viking Wins). Horizons is a cocktail lounge/dance hall. Explorer's Lounge on Viking is on two levels. The top one is for quiet reading (I did most of my writing and photo processing up there), and the lower level has a bar and excellent seats for conversation.
• The entire spa (Viking Wins). I am the first to admit that even though we were in a Concierge stateroom, I never tried the Aquamar Spa, but in my mind, Viking wins this one because everyone has access for free. Not just those in Concierge or above staterooms.
• Outside activities (Oceania Wins). Deck 15 and 16 had so much you could do on sea days it wasn't even funny. From bocce to shuffleboard, from pickleball to mini golf (not to mention the golf simulator and cornhole), it was a veritable playground for those wanting an outdoor diversion. If I had one criticism, it would be that they need more barriers to the wind as they had to close these decks fairly often at sea...which defeats the purpose.
• Culinary Center (Oceania Wins). I don't even think Viking has a Culinary Center. It is undoubtedly a draw for me.
• Smoking Lounge (Oceania Wins). If you want to smoke on Viking, go outside in the weather. Vista's Smoking Lounge is gorgeous. How about both cruise lines ban smoking entirely, and then Vista can open up her Smoking Lounge to people who want to gather before dinner and not hear music?
• Casino (Viking Wins). Because they don't have one. The space they saved by getting rid of their casino went into the Wintergarden, a beautiful room where anyone can gather. With Viking, we were drawn to the things they don't have as much as to the things they do. No kids under 18, no casino, no ship photographers, no upsell in the spa, no indoor smoking, etc.
• Artist’s Loft (Oceania Wins). Another great extra on Vista. I didn't use it, but it was jammed every single day.
• Complimentary pressing (Viking Wins). Oceania said we got pressing of our clothes when we arrived. There were coupons in our stateroom. Five of them. That means that you can have five things pressed. On Viking (in the PV–the stateroom we had), you got free pressing all the way through the entire cruise.
• Free Laundry (Viking wins). We got about the same amount of free laundry on both ships, but the note on Vista said that it could take "up to three days." Well, if I have three pairs of pants and two are dirty and I send them to be laundered and then I spill something on the one I kept, I am out of luck for three days. I do realize that they were under-promising and over-delivering because many who sent their laundry out got it back one day later. But I can't take that chance.
• Launderettes (tie). Both have great self-serve laundries, although the ironing boards on Vista could be bigger.
• Beds (Oceania wins). This is a hands-down thing. My bed on Viking was almost unusable. It was way too hard for me. Our bed on Vista was excellent (Kathleen thought the pillows sucked, but they didn't bother me that much).
• Ships across the entire line (Viking Wins). We were on Vista, Oceania's newest ship. The entire line has seven ships, with one on the way in 2025. We have heard that Vista, Marina and Riviera are all about the same size and have the same features. But the other four are old R-class ships with some of the tiniest staterooms in all of cruising.—175 square feet in their verandah staterooms, and their Penthouse Suites are only 260 square feet—they call that a suite? Our Concierge verandah on Vista was 250 square feet. The staterooms on those ships are just too small. And those ships were all built in the 1990s. That's just too old. Viking has 11 ships, with one on the way in 2025. They are all identical—seriously. You go on one, you go on all of them. And all were built since 2014, with four of them going into service since 2022.
• Deposit and Final Payment Due Dates (Oceania wins). This is a total given. Viking is notorious for having the earliest final payment dates in all of cruising. For instance, if I buy a Viking cruise today (October 2023) that will sail in December 2024, my Viking Ocean final payment will probably be due on December 31, 2023. But by the same token, Oceania's final payment will be due 90 days before the cruise sales. Of course, you can still get all your money back from Viking before 120 days with only a $100 PP booking fee loss (and you can apply those to another cruise), but the biggest complaint I hear from Viking cruisers or those who want to cruise with Viking but haven't tried them yet is this early final payment date. When someone asks me why they have that early a date, I tell them, "Because they can." Their passengers are amazingly loyal. If people stopped booking Viking or their ships were sailing empty, this might change. But as of now, it isn't.

Food! I thought this deserved a special category all its own

•  Grand Dining Room/Main Dining Room (Oceania wins). I HATE Viking's dining room. There were low ceilings and a staff (at least on our cruise) who was totally disorganized, not to mention some food that wasn't really that good. O wins here big time.
• Specialty Restaurants (Oceania Wins). Was there ever a doubt? There are only two on Viking—Manfredis and Chef's Table. Manfredis is a sorry excuse for an Italian restaurant, and the Chef's Table has a fixed menu. It changes every few days. If you don't like what you get when you go on the day of your reservation, you are stuck. I was stuck. All four Vista specialty restaurants are better than either of these.
• Grille (Viking Wins). Surprise. But the Grille on Viking is so much better than the Waves Grille (for lunch) that it isn't even close.
• Buffet (Tie). I almost gave it to Oceania here, but cold desserts and serving entirely the same menu two nights in a row knocked it down to a tie.
• Mamsens/Baristas (Oceania). I have to get this to Baristas. I love Mamsens, but Baristas's pastries and coffees are so much better.
• Aquamar Kitchen (Oceania Wins). Because there is nothing like it on a Viking ship. And I want to eat lunch there every single day.
• Pricing (Tie): Here's a comparison of two different cruises in three types of staterooms.

Here's a price comparison on a 2024 New England cruise. This is much like the one we did, minus Miami and Charleston.

• Viking Penthouse Verandah (338 square feet) for 15 nights in New England is $8999 per person. Per Night cost on Viking is $599 pp
• Oceania Concierge Verandah (173 square feet) 18 nights New England on Nautica (one of the older ships) $10,599 per person. Per Night costs $588 pp
• Oceania Penthouse suite (260 Square feet) $13799 pp, $766 per night pp.

Or I did a Mediterranean cruise in the same time frame. Comparing a Rivera–10-night Med cruise in the fall of 2024 with a 15-night cruise in the Med on any Viking ship.

• On Viking: Penthouse Verandah for 15 nights Med (338 square feet) $ 11809 Per night $739 pp
• On Oceania: Concierge Veranda Stateroom (242 square feet😞 $6299 pp Per night  $629.
• Penthouse Suite (420 square feet) $ 7599 pp Per night $759

Yes, each line offers different things with their base price, and they aren't all the same. I met a guy on Vista, an accountant who does an Excel spreadsheet for all their cruises. I am not that interested. A few dollars either way doesn't make that big a difference to us. Ultimately, it all comes down to what is important to you. If it's food, sail with Oceania (stick to their bigger ships), but if it is pretty much everything other than their final payment stuff, try Viking. All that said we have future cruises booked with both of them, so I guess we are still deciding.

A thoughtful, insightful comparison. Thank you. DW and I have sailed with V and O and we like them both for different reasons, most of which you mention. We were longtime customers of Princess (elite status with more than 500 nights), and have watched P fall off a cliff in terms of service and quality. They want young families with kids now, and old folks like us no longer feel welcome for too many reasons to go into here. V and O are just the opposite, and we will stick with them for now. By the way, Viking river cruises are wonderful, too.

 

[PasadenaDave]

Thanks Doc for your always interesting insight.

 

 I went on my first cruise in 1992 and I was unimpressed with the food that so many raved about.  I returned to cruising in 2016 and we seem to do one per year now with Viking.

 

My opinion on cruise dining has never changed, food is generally acceptable but not amazing.  We have and continue to have the opportunity to eat at some fabulous restaurants and find that unless the place is high end, we both can cook better meals than those served at average restaurants.

 

My theory is that the average person on a cruise does not experience fine dining at their location of residence for whatever reason.  This is what leads to the wow factor that cruisers have concerning dining on cruises.

 

 I find it interesting that the Kolb’s presently blogging from Orion in the far east typically eat at the World Cafe.  Note that they being out for a long voyage likely to be efficient with time spent eating which isn’t always the case in the MDR.

[gma1]

EXCELLANT REPORT. 

[taiwan_girl]

We had done some "mass market" cruises, and wanting a smaller ship experience, took our first Oceania cruise last year.  It was on the Regatta and we (three generation family) absolutely loved it (other than of course the showers LOL).  We were in a deluxe window room and while somewhat small, never was a big problem for us.  Anyways, there wasn't a whole lot we DIDN'T love.  In fact, we tried to book another Oceania cruise over the coming Xmas holiday, but none were available in the geographic areas we were interested in, so we booked a Viking cruise (same 3-generation family: 4 late teens early 20's, 2 adults and 2 seniors).  Hoping/assuming it will be at least equivalent to Oceania and from reading on the boards here, I don't think we will be disappointed.

[SoDakPirate]

I have read and enjoyed your daily post on the Oceania board. We have sailed Oceania sirena about 7-8 years ago and had a great time-especially the food. Since then We have been with Viking 4 times and will sail with them again in May 2024. I do think that Oceania offers a wider choice of itineraries and Viking needs to up their game to give us loyalists more options. 
In your recap you didn’t mention the difference in excursions. I know you mostly toured the visited ports on your own and that is why there was no comparison. We are not as savvy or knowledgeable to plan our own so we rely on Vikings included tours and augment them with some optionals and occasionally a semi private tour. In this arena Viking is a big winner. 
The most glaring big big win is with Vikings crew. They outshone Oceania at every level including room stewards, bartenders, restaurant staff, guest services, and accessibility and friendliness of officers. 
Truly appreciate all the work you put in to this for your fellow cruisers Doc.!

 

[DrKoob]

3 hours ago, PasadenaDave said:

Thanks Doc for your always interesting insight.

 

 I went on my first cruise in 1992 and I was unimpressed with the food that so many raved about.  I returned to cruising in 2016 and we seem to do one per year now with Viking.

 

My opinion on cruise dining has never changed, food is generally acceptable but not amazing.  We have and continue to have the opportunity to eat at some fabulous restaurants and find that unless the place is high end, we both can cook better meals than those served at average restaurants.

 

My theory is that the average person on a cruise does not experience fine dining at their location of residence for whatever reason.  This is what leads to the wow factor that cruisers have concerning dining on cruises.

 

 I find it interesting that the Kolb’s presently blogging from Orion in the far east typically eat at the World Cafe.  Note that they being out for a long voyage likely to be efficient with time spent eating which isn’t always the case in the MDR.

I know exactly why someone would eat in the World Cafe...the noise and the service. The ceilings are so low it just condenses the sound so badly, we could not hear the people across the table from us. That and the service was not bad, just very disorganized. Our first two times in the MDR on Sky we had waiters come to take our orders twice. Then they went away and didn't come back for 30 minutes. It was nuts. I blogged entire cruise (we had some real major problems) here: https://jktravelredmond.com/2022/09/30/expectations-not-met-but-thats-ok/

 

[DrKoob]

2 hours ago, SoDakPirate said:

I have read and enjoyed your daily post on the Oceania board. We have sailed Oceania sirena about 7-8 years ago and had a great time-especially the food. Since then We have been with Viking 4 times and will sail with them again in May 2024. I do think that Oceania offers a wider choice of itineraries and Viking needs to up their game to give us loyalists more options. 
In your recap you didn’t mention the difference in excursions. I know you mostly toured the visited ports on your own and that is why there was no comparison. We are not as savvy or knowledgeable to plan our own so we rely on Vikings included tours and augment them with some optionals and occasionally a semi private tour. In this arena Viking is a big winner. 
The most glaring big big win is with Vikings crew. They outshone Oceania at every level including room stewards, bartenders, restaurant staff, guest services, and accessibility and friendliness of officers. 
Truly appreciate all the work you put in to this for your fellow cruisers Doc.!

 

Thanks SoDakPirate! We do our own for two reasons. Even on Viking. On our 21 day Viking Sky cruise in the Med last year we did a lot of Viking excursions. All of them were horrid. We did one on our own which was the best day of the cruise. If you ever want to start doing your own, check out my buddy Mike's site at www.thepreismans.com. He is the god of shore excursions. If he finds a good one, it will be a good one. The Viking tour guides were awful. It was like they were being paid by the word. They would just not stop talking. And they ran ahead of the crowd with the first people off the bus. In Eze, France, the guide was halfway up the hill before the last person on her tour was even off the bus.

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, DrKoob said:

I know exactly why someone would eat in the World Cafe...the noise and the service. The ceilings are so low it just condenses the sound so badly, we could not hear the people across the table from us. That and the service was not bad, just very disorganized. Our first two times in the MDR on Sky we had waiters come to take our orders twice. Then they went away and didn't come back for 30 minutes. It was nuts. I blogged entire cruise (we had some real major problems) here: https://jktravelredmond.com/2022/09/30/expectations-not-met-but-thats-ok/

 

Totally agree!  We do WC a lot now as it is so much quieter, less chaotic, and easier to relax and converse.   The other restaurants have become like the noisy bistros we used to enjoy - before hearing issues arrived!

[Brad1185]

We also were just on the same Oceania Vista. Our first with Oceania. I agree with almost everything in the review comparing Oceania to Viking. 
 

Right now we are still thinking Viking overall has a better product with Oceania a close second. 

[taiwan_girl]

One area I would give a edge to Oceania vs. Viking is the way the two companies handle multi cabin bookings.  With Oceania, they basically treated our four cabins as a single booking, starting with making sure we were all on the same flights and also with dinner reservations.  With Viking, they initially had each cabin on a different itineraries and it took a while to sort that out.  (We decided to use Viking for air reservations as they were much cheaper than we could find on our own.)  

 

Dinner reservations open tomorrow, so will get to see easy it is to get everybody together at one table at the same time.  🙂  Didnt take any Oceania excursions, but for Viking, had multiple electronic devices open to ensure we were all together on the excursions we wanted.  All in all, these are relatively minor things, so not detracting from the cruise.