Liquor Policy & Drinks Prices on Oceania

[DaveFr]

I agree about carrying things with you--perhaps a bottle of liquor at the duty-free, but anything else, no thanks. But the reason why I whinge about the cost is that we're used to an all-inclusive cruiseline (RSSC). Even before they were completely inclusive, wine with dinner was included, plus free cocktail parties, and all soft drinks, so it was tough to rack up a bar bill much over $100 on a 10 day cruise. Since we are drinkers, I have to factor in the cost of this, which is substantial.

Wendy,

 

Be careful that you don't focus on one item, such as your potential bar bill on Oceania, to the exclusion of the total cost of a cruise on Oceania versus the total cost of a similar cruise on Regent. Things like wine, water and soft drinks are not free on Regent; you just pay for them differently than on Oceania.

 

For example, my wife and I are taking a 14-day Oceania cruise in October 2009 between Istanbul and Venice. We are in a PH1 suite and received prepaid gratuities and $100 OBC. I priced a similar 14-day b2b cruise on Regent (Voyager) in a Category G suite. Using the past guest fare, the Regent cruise was about $370 a day more expensive for two people than the Oceania cruise. So the total cost of the Regent cruise was about $3480 more than the Oceania cruise after adding the bar bill to the Oceania fare. Everyone is different but, to me, paying about $250 extra per day for a similar experience on Regent and the privilege of not having to buy wine, drinks, water, etc. separately doesn't make much sense. Of course, this is just one example; other Regent-Oceania comparisons may work out in favor of Regent.

 

Dave

[meow!]

Nowadays, both Oceania and RSSC are divisions of the same Apollo-FDR cruise line, so what can you say? Perhaps in time they will tend to converge, especially with Oceania building larger ships with cabins similar in size to RSSC, while RSSC ship size (passenger numbers) are ever bigger and losing coziness (and that applies to Silversea and even Seabourn)!

[Acrusa]

CruseKrazy - thank you for finding that post. It looks like we will have to budget between $1300 and $1700 for beer and wine for twelve days. That's all we needed to know, now we won't have any "sticker shock" at the end of the cruise.

 

Acrusa - It's not that we are "big drinkers" it's just that being European, we always drink wine with dinner, rarely alone in the cabin. I'm sure most people are aware of Silversea's all inclusive rates - that's why we chose Oceania! Some folk can only consider x amount of dollars for a vacation and others can go for the xxx type cruises.

 

digby - but who goes to a "fine restaurant" each night for twelve days straight?

 

Does anyone know if they serve Ale and not just lager type beer?

 

We are from long Island and we have wine almost every night for dinner.When on a cruise we do eat at a " Fine Restaurant" every evening.

Thats part of the vacation expierence to us, as well as the nice people we meet and the ports we travel to. Weather we pay for it in advance or billed on board.

[Bollinge]

We always cruise with selected items from our own wine cellar, however, this is not without its drawbacks.

 

I have painful memories of buying a nice Chassagne-Montrachet for about 40 Euros ($62) in a wine shop in Antibes, on the French Riviera, whilst Celebrity Century was moored in Cannes.

 

As the ship set sail that night we settled down to dinner with said wine and the Sommelier remarked "That's a fine vintage Sir".

 

Regrettably, the wine was corked, and I recall looking back across the horizon towards Antibes, wondering wistfully how I would return the faulty bottle............

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Wendy,

 

Be careful that you don't focus on one item, such as your potential bar bill on Oceania, to the exclusion of the total cost of a cruise on Oceania versus the total cost of a similar cruise on Regent. Things like wine, water and soft drinks are not free on Regent; you just pay for them differently than on Oceania.

 

Dave

 

Dave, of course. It's just easy to forget when you're looking at the price differential and saying, "wow, that's so much cheaper!" It just makes the value proposition a little closer, that's all. And there are other things, like how well the inclusive air is handled, the quality and price of the excursions, and cost of transfers. Regent, for example, does fairly attractive Business Class upgrades (which once in a while we can afford), and includes airport transfer unless you deviate.

 

In our case, Regent turns out still to be the choice for the Caribbean, since 7-day getaways in winter suit us, and French Polynesia, because the Paul Gauguin is unique, as is the destination. For the rest, I'm chomping at the bit to try Oceania, but will probably have to wait until 2010, unless there are some cabins left over later this spring, since I can't commit to 2009 right now.

 

Just looked at a couple of SA routes, which I'm interested in for 2010, these are both 2009 itins, roughly in the same timeframe:

 

RSSC: $10,495, H cabin, 15 days, Mariner, BA - Valparaiso (free air)

Oceania: $5,999, 12 days, PH2, Insignia, BA - Rio (free air)

 

Add $125 per day for drinks, assume I can get included gratuities, but add transfers and air taxes (included with R), so would probably have to add something like $1.5K PP for the O side of things. Still a bargain compared to O, even though the RSSC cruise is 3-days longer, and they are different kinds of itins--lots of sea days on the R cruise, only 1 on the O cruise.

 

And on top of that, we'd perhaps go for an A2, which would save us another $2K.

[Ron n Jon]

I find the price of cocktails/wine on board to be less than at fine restaurants in any major US city.

 

You may have seen our posts on this subject before. We think $9.00 (before the mandatory 18% tip) for a simple Bloody Mary to be outrageous. But to add insult to injury they pour the smallest measure of alcohol in any and all drinks that I have ever seen. The group that obtained the concession to run the bars aboard have the most self-defeating business practices.

 

Fortunately they allow you to bring aboard your own alcohol beverages and, as our friends will tell you, our cabin was the best bar aboard

[Linn M]

We are going on the Regatta in July to the Baltic. We haven't sailed with Oceania before, but with Royal Carib. and as I recall, Celebrity, we purchased a "package coupon" for wines to choose from for the duration of trip. It was sold at a table near the entrance to the buffet dining area, and were in three different price categories. That way, we knew in advance what our tab would be for wines. For the most part, we didn't drink many other cocktails. The choice of wines was decent, and represented a nice assortment from all over the world. We had fun each evening trying some we hadn't tasted before. Does anyone know if Oceania does this?

[Rickey 88]

As far as I know, Oceania does not have any such "Package" arrangements for wine purchases. You will be presented with a wine list at your table, which has a very large selection of wines, both from the U.S. and other countries and a well-thought out choice at that.

 

Prices range from moderate - less than $30 to quite expensive, so your options are quite wide. Most wine servers will offer suggestions, if you want, otherwise - make your own selection.

 

What you do not finish at dinner will be put away for you with your room number on it - and can be brought to you at another time....

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[meow!]

RSSC: $10,495, H cabin, 15 days, Mariner, BA - Valparaiso (free air)

Oceania: $5,999, 12 days, PH2, Insignia, BA - Rio (free air)

 

Add $125 per day for drinks, assume I can get included gratuities, but add transfers and air taxes (included with R), so would probably have to add something like $1.5K PP for the O side of things. Still a bargain ...

Just for calculation's sake, and assuming that all your numbers are correct, the comparable price of O becomes $(5,999+1,500)x15/12 = $9,375 or only 11% less than R.

 

In that case, even though the PH and H cabins are of similar size, the "space ratio" (total area per passenger including public areas) for R is much higher than for O (less people per space in public areas, as R does not have lots of other passengers in the majority small cabins). Some people may find the 11% upcharge worthwhile! Besides, with similar cabin floor areas, R cabins (I have not been in one, but assuming they are more like Silversea) are likely more elegant, with walk-in closets, double sinks, separate tubs and showers and make-up modules, not to mention rounded, designer veneered furnishings and of course lots of marble.

 

O, with its Yran & Storbraaten designed newbuilds, assuming what the cruise line has announced, will be a quantum jump up to be similar to R, just on a larger scale (larger ship). O's price increases seem far and above the average in the last several years, and it appears likely that it will further increase rapidly unless they are unable to fill the newly increased capacity with the newbuilds and have to compromise.

 

It also appears that R prices have taken large jumps in the last couple of years, and may now be substantially above Silversea (years ago, it used to be 80% of Silversea). This is despite R ships getting bigger and less cozy. The market is a complicated place and pricing is often difficult to understand!

 

P.S. If you can get included gratuities for O (which is likely a TA perk), you can also get TA discounts (often 5+%) for R, not to mention $300 per cabin shipboard credit per cabin and a bottle of Dom Perignon (I am assuming you get the same with R with an American Express platinum card as with Silversea, which I don't know for R).

[mdmourges]

They did have some type of wine package thing. Can't remember the details but I beleive I picked up the listing outside Polo's right when we boarded.

 

Mark

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Just for calculation's sake, and assuming that all your numbers are correct, the comparable price of O becomes $(5,999+1,500)x15/12 = $9,375 or only 11% less than R.

 

P.S. If you can get included gratuities for O (which is likely a TA perk), you can also get TA discounts (often 5+%) for R, not to mention $300 per cabin shipboard credit per cabin and a bottle of Dom Perignon (I am assuming you get the same with R with an American Express platinum card as with Silversea, which I don't know for R).

 

Thanks for crunching the numbers. These were just straight off the websites. Of course, I would have to include a TA bonus (for both), and my SS discount on Regent, if there was one for that cruise. I got no bottle of Dom with my Amex Plat booking last December on Regent. But I would miss out on my $300 shipboard credit, since Amex only offers that on a lmited number of luxury lines.

[merryecho]

Still waiting for a line with Oceania's casual dress code and great itineraries and silversea's all inclusive pricing- meanwhile we prefer paying for drinks to dragging formalwear all over the world...