Magical Christmas Insignia Cruise

[FeliciaLee]

Cruise reviews are so subjective that it can be impossible to know which cruise line is the best one for you until you experience the one that fits best for your needs. So many of us on this board loved @Sthrngary 's review, not only because it was thorough, but because his family truly enjoyed their first cruise on Oceania and their joy shined through in every sentence.

 

My husband and I really enjoyed our second Oceania cruise. Our first was in January on Sirena. Usually the second cruise on the same line suffers by comparison. But not this one. Not at all. It was awesome.

 

Unfortunately, this is the point where I might start sounding like an Oceania cheerleader and I apologize in advance for that, but once again, cruising is so subjective!

 

Our Christmas cruise aboard Insignia from December 17-29th was even better than our cruise on Sirena in January. Oddly, we thought it was getting off to a bad start due to the late arrival of the previous cruise and waiting in the terminal for many hours. But in some ways, this was a great opportunity. We found a couple of cruisers from our Sirena cruise. We met new cruisers. We had some great conversations and were just happy that we weren't on that previous cruise that went through such horrible weather.

 

This was a relatively last minute cruise that we managed to get for only $1699. Of course at that price we were in an inside cabin, at the very front of the ship, on the seventh floor. The cabin wouldn't be our first choice, for sure, but it was fine. We had great room stewards. Nothing was overlooked.

 

If we thought that the passengers and crew were awesome on Sirena, this cruise proved to be even more of a great social connection. Virtually everyone we met were absolutely fabulous. We also lucked out with Dottie as the CD and her husband Tom was the comedian. We would gladly have that duo on every future cruise.

 

Pretty much all of the meals were great, too. One night the MDR wasn't so great, but it wasn't horrible, either. We only ate in the buffet for dinner twice. We are definitely MDR people.

 

One day we went on a little tour of the ship and ran into a familiar face. He was Norman, our previous room steward. And not only did he remember us, but even remembered our names! What a nice guy.

 

Several times we went to the front desk to lodge compliments. It was such an incredible cruise for us that we couldn't help but continually let our pleasure be known to the staff.

 

Games, activities and trivia were awesome, as before. 

 

Nothing is perfect, so yes, there were a few things that could be made better:

• Why wouldn't they allow us to upgrade to a more midship cabin, when there were clearly some available? Couldn't be done even for a fee. Weird, that. Sometimes our meals were so slow that we eventually gave up on dessert (not my jam anyway, but my husband loves dessert).
• In the buffet, the made to order lobster isn't great.
• We will be glad that all future cruise have two wifi connections.
• The little ships have that painfully small bathroom.

 

But besides these things that pretty much everyone here already knows about, everything was as close to perfect as a cruise can get.

 

Our next cruise will be on Vista, in March. Can't wait!

[LHT28]

Did you not have  2  wifi accounts on this cruise??

[FeliciaLee]

1 minute ago, LHT28 said:

Did you not have  2  wifi accounts on this cruise??

Nope. I think we booked before that was universal. No perks whatsoever. If we were allowed two accounts, no one told us and when we tried to connect under each name, it knocked the other one off like it did back in January. NBD, at times we did use tethering.

[ORV]

Thanks for a positive review. In light of all the negativity around here lately it's like a breath of fresh air. 

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, FeliciaLee said:

Nope. I think we booked before that was universal. No perks whatsoever. If we were allowed two accounts, no one told us and when we tried to connect under each name, it knocked the other one off like it did back in January. NBD, at times we did use tethering.

Thanks for that info

So other reports by some were incorrect  then 

the speculation that  everyone even if they did not switch to SM got 2 accounts  was incorrect

[FeliciaLee]

4 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Thanks for that info

So other reports by some were incorrect  then 

the speculation that  everyone even if they did not switch to SM got 2 accounts  was incorrect

Maybe we just missed it due to not asking for help. They weren't necessarily wrong, we were just not interested enough to find out for sure.

[Cruisedreamer1]

Did the ship put out Christmas cookies around the gingerbread cookie village? We were on the previous voyage and thought the holiday decorations were simply beautiful!

[Waltershipman]

1 hour ago, ORV said:

Thanks for a positive review. In light of all the negativity around here lately it's like a breath of fresh air. 

GRATITUDE always reigns supreme

[FeliciaLee]

27 minutes ago, Cruisedreamer1 said:

Did the ship put out Christmas cookies around the gingerbread cookie village? We were on the previous voyage and thought the holiday decorations were simply beautiful!

They sure did, and it was so nice. Hope you weren't too seasick on that cruise!

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, FeliciaLee said:

Maybe we just missed it due to not asking for help. They weren't necessarily wrong, we were just not interested enough to find out for sure.

Did you get the wine/beer with meals  or you just did not imbibe?

[FeliciaLee]

6 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Did you get the wine/beer with meals  or you just did not imbibe?

We didn't ask, but as far as I know, we booked before the SM became a thing and got nothing.

[WildWanderers]

Hi FeliciaLee and All:  

 

No need to apologize for a positive review...so glad you had a good time.  As did we, on our first Christmas cruise.

 

We each had a wifi account on this cruise.  Each of our accounts kicked off the computer when  we started our iPhone and vice-versa.  It is possible that you got one account because you booked pre-SimplyMore, not sure.

 

There were Christmas cookies and breads next to the gingerbread village.

 

At the end of Island Havens (December 5-17) the weather as we approached Miami precluded docking and then Insignia lost its docking priority.  Passengers were told they could stay in their rooms until 9:30 a.m., delaying significantly the room cleaning on an already busy day.  Passengers were lined up everywhere around the ship, in hopes of the go ahead to disembark.  The port authority would allow no one to disembark until all of the luggage was off-loaded and this was quite delayed due to the bad weather and loss of priority for approaching Miami.  On the ship everything was geared to getting people off smoothly, but then as noon went by with people still lined up to disembark, an attempt was made to provide sandwiches at Baristas and they were snapped up immediately.  There was no plan to provide food to people in line-ups, as the usual workload is focussed on preparing a sit-down lunch for embarking guests.  Most people we spoke to had the attitude...it is what it is...but many were struggling to rejig connections.

 

We were carrying on with Gems of the Leewards (December 17-29), so were provided with a lunch in the GDR, with one other continuing passenger.  But we did have to disembark, go through Customs and Immigration, and reboard.

 

The mood was tense as we walked through the crowd still waiting to board.  The woman next to me at one point starting shouting angrily at two women who had crossed the ropes to start a line-up, when she had a group#1-to-board pass or something.  As were were back-to-back, we were finally shuffled through to reboard quickly, once we found someone who understood what back-to-back meant.

 

We mentioned to the General Manager that the embarking crowd was not happy.  She knew, and had spent the morning trying to do something for these passengers, but had no authority to do so.  She was not allowed to even bring them water, or anything.  It was all up to the port authority, which is not equipped to feed people.  It was not a situation anyone was equipped to handle as it "never" happens.

 

In our experience, there were a lot of people who during Gems of the Leewards never got over their frustration with embarkation, and blamed Oceania.  I did take a moment one day to explain to a few folk, complaining of their treatment, the measures Oceania did attempt, but how their hands were tied, and these folk had no idea.  On the one hand, Oceania was not responsible for the bad weather and its impact, but on the other hand, they probably could have done a better job to explain what took place from their point of view.

 

The cleaning staff worked all afternoon on that changeover day, with only a small window for dinner before the turn-down service.  No sorely needed afternoon nap.  For everyone that day was tough.  (OK, not for us though, strangely.)

 

So glad you had a great trip in spite of it all, FeliciaLee.

 

Cheers,

Greg from the WildWanderers

 

 

[vlthom]

4 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Thanks for that info

So other reports by some were incorrect  then 

the speculation that  everyone even if they did not switch to SM got 2 accounts  was incorrect

We recently returned from a voyage on Regatta.  Our embarkation date was Oct 4.  We did not book under “Simply More”.  We had two simultaneous log-ins for the duration of our cruise of 77 days.  There was no additional fee for the second log-in.  And while I did not find the internet speed to be great, it certainly wasn’t any worse than when each cabin was only allotted one log-in.  I am amazed though that the OP only had one log-in.  That’s inconsistent with what Oceania is saying and with our personal experience.

[Sthrngary]

6 hours ago, FeliciaLee said:

So many of us on this board loved @Sthrngary 's review, not only because it was thorough, but because his family truly enjoyed their first cruise on Oceania and their joy shined through in every sentence.

@FeliciaLee Thank you for such kind words.  I loved your entire post and it gives me hope my second Oceania Cruise will exceed my first one.  So happy you enjoyed your cruise.  Happy New Year to you and yours. 

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[Snaefell3]

8 hours ago, FeliciaLee said:

Nope. I think we booked before that was universal. No perks whatsoever. If we were allowed two accounts, no one told us and when we tried to connect under each name, it knocked the other one off like it did back in January. NBD, at times we did use tethering.

Most likely depends upon what options got or did not get enabled when that particular ship's WiFi was last set up.

 

As you said...  NBD with tethering  (Though I suspect tethering is like that 7th bottle of wine. 😉)

 

 

[babysteps]

We were on Insignia Dec 5-17 and had booked under O life (not SM). We were able to create and use 2 separate WiFi logins. 

[MEFIowa]

18 hours ago, FeliciaLee said:

...  We also lucked out with Dottie as the CD and her husband Tom was the comedian. We would gladly have that duo on every future cruise. ... 

 

Several times we went to the front desk to lodge compliments. It was such an incredible cruise for us that we couldn't help but continually let our pleasure be known to the staff. ...

We were blessed to have Dottie and Tom on Sirena 11/2022! Great CD. Great comic. Great couple.

 

If you can, try to find out where the managerial and supervisory staff congregate. My wife smokes, so I've often found them in the inside smoking lounge by Horizons. Using the info from the Captain's party or the picture of the major crew down on deck 4 where we disembark in ports, I try to find out who is in charge of what. And then, for example, personally tell the head of housekeeping about our room steward and attendant.

 

We did Riviera 12/13-23/2021 so we got to enjoy seeing the Christmas decorations and since we were on Sirena 11/19-29/2022 we got to see them set up the Christmas decorations, the day after Thanksgiving. Great time to cruise!

[basor]

12 hours ago, babysteps said:

We were on Insignia Dec 5-17 and had booked under O life (not SM). We were able to create and use 2 separate WiFi logins. 

Yes - I think the issue is that some people think it means you have 2 logins under 1 account and so can have 2 devices on at the same time or 2 people can be online at the same time.   It isn't explained very well that you need to actually set up 2 separate accounts - one for each person in the cabin.  Then each signs in under their account.  The IT support crew was busy the first few days of our last cruise assisting  people to get both accounts set up and explainging how to utilize.

[FeliciaLee]

3 minutes ago, basor said:

Yes - I think the issue is that some people think it means you have 2 logins under 1 account and so can have 2 devices on at the same time or 2 people can be online at the same time.   It isn't explained very well that you need to actually set up 2 separate accounts - one for each person in the cabin.  Then each signs in under their account.  The IT support crew was busy the first few days of our last cruise assisting  people to get both accounts set up and explainging how to utilize.

Thanks, everyone, for the correction. We will definitely get it figured out better next time. It really didn't negatively impact our cruise at all 🙂

[basor]

18 hours ago, FeliciaLee said:

We didn't ask, but as far as I know, we booked before the SM became a thing and got nothing.

 

18 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Did you get the wine/beer with meals  or you just did not imbibe?

They wouldn't have since she indicated that they had booked before SM so unless they picked the beverage package as a perk, they would not have the notation on their world card

[slewis7]

I enjoyed meeting Felicia onboard this cruise.  It the first Oceania experience for my wife and myself (we had an earlier South America booking which was mysteriously canceled by either our travel agency or the cruise line - they blamed each other) and we had a somewhat different take on the cruise.  Overall, we enjoyed it, but we were not at all blown away.  Our recent cruising experiences are mostly on Celebrity and Viking Ocean and Oceania didn’t compare favorably in our opinion.  Perhaps we had higher expectations as we paid for a Penthouse Suite cabin which was not a bargain like Felicia’s booking.

 

What we liked:

- the convenience of a small ship

- the buffet food had excellent variety for such a small ship and we appreciated the nice selection of cooked to order dishes.  Also, it was never super crowded like most ship buffets.

- service and crew seemed about par for the course

- our cabin was comfortable enough and the balcony furniture was nice, but then again we paid for it.  Actually when we pay extra for nice cabins in other lines we get a much larger amount of space.

- main dining, the few times we tried it, went much more quickly then posts in this forum had me expecting

- the ship TV had a good selection of live broadcasts and an excellent variety of movies and television shows.  It also worked pretty consistently throughout the cruise.

 

What we did not like:

- the evening entertainment held no interest for us

- very much an older crowd, but probably the time of year and itinerary had a lot to do with it

- main dining food was pretty average with some hits and some misses and not a lot of choices

- specialty dining was sometimes very good and sometimes not very good (lukewarm dishes a number of times)

- if your tagline is “finest cuisine at sea”, we will hold you to higher expectations and Oceania fell well short

- WiFi was just adequate and there was a lot of things blocked that I can usually accomplish on other lines (eg, uploading photos to Google, downloading podcasts,YouTube, etc)

- the whole butler thing, a first for us, did not amount to much of anything

- the one Oceania shore excursion we took was very pricey and the promised “included food” turned out to be two varieties of cheese doodles (if you are going to serve alcohol, you should also serve food)

- we missed having a phone app like we have had on every other line.

 

As a result of this experience, we are still on the fence as to whether we will sail on Oceania again.  We prefer our Viking experiences.

Edited January 1 by slewis7

[MEFIowa]

9 minutes ago, slewis7 said:

... Perhaps we had higher expectations as we paid for a Penthouse Suite cabin which was not a bargain like Felicia’s booking....

I always book O cruises off their SALES. KNOW their sales and TRACK all their sales.

 

Thus, off Riviera in Oct-Nov 2023 we paid just $1899 for our 1st 10 nights in an A3 and then only $1749 PP for our 2nd 10 nights in a B3. (This was that amazing "Extraordinary Savings Sale" earlier in 2023.

 

Have never booked a PH or above. Too pricey for us and just not worth it, since we cruise for excursions and spend as little time in our cabin as possible. (I've got an F and one of the "big" C1s on Sirena for our 22-night Baltic B2B in 2024.)

[slewis7]

@MEFIowa I agree that the PH cabins are not a good value.  However, we read that the R-Class bathrooms and showers are tiny on non-PH cabins, so we went for the PH cabin on the Insignia.  Otherwise, that ship is a no go for us (yes, we are a bit spoiled).  We may find the regular veranda cabins on the Vista class ship to be acceptable and a better value and it would dispense with the unnecessary butler.

Edited January 1 by slewis7

[MEFIowa]

33 minutes ago, slewis7 said:

... We may find the regular veranda cabins on the Vista class ship to be acceptable and a better value and it would dispense with the unnecessary butler.

Spent 10 nights on Riviera 12/2021 and another 20 nights on her 10-11/2023. Why pay MORE for Vista when both Marina and Riviera (the O-class ships) are so similar to Vista? If you want to talk "value", AVOID holiday cruises and new ships.

 

We loved both the old and the new A cabin bathrooms on Riviera. For the 1st we had the bathtub, the 2nd we did not, the larger shower. (We're more favorable to the decor on the pre-refurbishment Riviera than after, which is so "Scandinavian Minimalist".)

[AMHuntFerry]

57 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

Why pay MORE for Vista when both Marina and Riviera (the O-class ships) are so similar to Vista? If you want to talk "value", AVOID holiday cruises and new ships.

You are correct on holidays being at a premium (I'd also add summer to the list). However, Vista prices no longer have the new-ship prices (that's Allura's domain now). The cruises I've compared in late-2024 and 2025 (same region, same length) have the French balcony and the C-cabins priced about the same (same for higher levels too).