Head-to-Head: Comparing Oceania vs. Silversea

[ak1004]

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Crystal never had an evening buffet.  The closest was the Churascurria (sp?) that had some self-serve side dishes.

 

 

 

You are right, but it was still mostly buffet for all dishes and deserts, with the meat served by the waiters. Did it make Crystal any less luxury?

 

And again, I don't see why a luxury line can have a casual Pizza place, but not a buffet?

[ak1004]

2 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

It is fascinating our differences in preferences. We also travel for the ports and DIY in each of them. We enjoy being out all day, mostly not returning until close to sail time. Where we differ is that we enjoy a leisurely dinner. That is not to say that eating under the stars doesn’t sound attractive and wouldn’t catch our attention from time to time now that you mention it! But we enjoy MDR and specialty restaurants at a slow pace…..still allowing for decent bedtimes and early off the ship. 
I guess it all works out the way it’s supposed to, because if everyone just wanted to dine in one place, that could create quite a cluster! 

 

We also enjoy MDR and specialty restaurants more, but sometimes it's nice to have an option to eat in the buffet. Terrace Cafe has a lot of excellent options, the grill is actually better sometimes than MDR because it's really fresh and hot, and it never feels crowded. You can still order drinks from the waiter. It's always good to have more options. On a 10 nights cruise, we typically eat in Terrace Cafe 2-3 times. Also we come there sometimes after dinner for the deserts..

[FeliciaLee]

6 hours ago, Vallesan said:

We are sailing on the Quest in April!

Yes hopefully will be the best of both worlds!

 

6 hours ago, ak1004 said:

We will be on the Quest in September. I believe this is what would be considered one of the smaller ships? Only 32,000 ton, so pretty close to R ships, but only 450 guests, compared to 700 on the R ships. Should be the best of both worlds.

We were on the Sojourn. Definitely felt much more spacious than the R ships. Have a great time!

[Vallesan]

13 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

Butler is nice, but personally I wouldn't pay extra to have a butler. To me it's more a convenience of having one contact point for all of your needs - almost everything that butler does you can ask your room attendant or do yourself by going or calling the front desk or reservations desk. 

 
Yes a ‘room attendant’ can do almost everything too but doesn’t have quite the same ‘ring’ to it as ‘butler’!
And ‘no’ nor would I pay extra for a butler …. well maybe a ‘little’ more!

[ak1004]

4 hours ago, Vallesan said:

 
Yes a ‘room attendant’ can do almost everything too but doesn’t have quite the same ‘ring’ to it as ‘butler’!
And ‘no’ nor would I pay extra for a butler …. well maybe a ‘little’ more!

 

Haha.. and then you can come home and brag to your friends and family that you had your butler bringing you black caviar to your suite every evening!

 

I always felt that butlers are more of a marketing thing than a real benefit, but some people like them.

[Vallesan]

40 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

Haha.. and then you can come home and brag to your friends and family that you had your butler bringing you black caviar to your suite every evening!

 

I always felt that butlers are more of a marketing thing than a real benefit, but some people like them.

Absolutely!!!

[ak1004]

18 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

No contradiction - he mentioned that Elevated wines are a huge chunk of the extra cost. The dining experience itself is exceptional, but so it Jacques on Oceania, which us free. So again, the rational thing would be to make the dining in La Dame free, but charge for the "elevated" wines.

 

In any case, it doesn't really matter if I find it acceptable or not, it is what it is. But based on the fact that La Dame was half empty every night (compared to other venues), most guests are not willing to pay extra for dinner on an all inclusive line. And not only they are not likely to change it, but on the new ships they increased the fee from $60 per person to $160, and the older ships are likely to follow.

 

Which basically leaves you with 5 dining venues (I love Pizza, but I don't really consider Pizza a viable option for dinner on a ultra luxury line).

 

Another thing worth mentioning: if you have a reservation to Silver Note and go to another venue before, they automatically cancel the Silver Note reservation (I assume it's the same for other venues too).

 

Now you might ask why would we do it? Well, Silver Note opens at 8pm, and the only time we were able to get a reservation was 9pm. This is way too late for us, so we thought to go to SALT, to have something light, and then to go to Sliver Note, to have some drinks and deserts and listen to the music. 

 

Nope. Reservation was automatically cancelled. They did us a favor and let us in, but it was really strange. Just FYI.

 

So to me Silver Note is also not a real option for full dinner. More like a jazz club to have an after-dinner cocktail and/or desert (and deserts there are amazing), assuming you can still get in after having dinner in a different venue. And still there is no buffet, they will know that you had dinner in another venue.

[Lastdance]

So, if I may ask a general question regarding O, how are her TA’s compared to Caribbean cruises when talking about make-up of passengers?  I do not know if I will do another Caribbean cruise, as the crowd had so many health and mobility challenges on Celebrity Beyond; I have never experienced that in Europe on a cruise.  I also did not mind helping, but at times, I was unprepared for the crowds blocking areas, making things very slow indeed, especially embarkation!  I have an O TA booked for my first cruise due to the itinerary and a smaller ship too.

Edited January 2 by Lastdance

[babysteps]

18 minutes ago, Lastdance said:

So, if I may ask a general question regarding O, how are her TA’s compared to Caribbean cruises when talking about make-up of passengers?  I do not know if I will do another Caribbean cruise, as the crowd had so many health and mobility challenges on Celebrity Beyond; I have never experienced that in Europe on a cruise.  I also did not mind helping, but at times, I was unprepared for the crowds blocking areas, making things very slow indeed, especially embarkation!  I have an O TA booked for my first cruise due to the itinerary and a smaller ship too.

Typically a bit older on a TA, but nothing that affected our enjoyment of 2 TAs on O. More detail in separate thread