Oceania fan just back from first Regent cruise

[travelwell]

I just got back from my first 7 day Regent cruise with my husband and 23 and 25 year old children. Our first choice was Oceania but had to look elsewhere as kids did not have much time off. I preferred not to choose a mainstream line. Regent's cost per day pre-booking was significantly more expensive then Oceania. Whether you feel it is worth the money difference is subjective.

 

I would go on either line again in a heart beat. These are now my favorite two cruise-lines.

 

Oceania's strengths:

VERY limited smoking

Resort casual dress code

Strong, unusual itineraries

Speciality restaurants

No assigned dinner seating

Ability to interact with like-minded passengers

History of upper management reading and interacting with this board and to see problems solved due to this

Still a good value in cruising

Limited children, no bashing please, I love kids:)

2:1 packages with free air

Very good service

 

Oceania's weaknesses:

Small rooms with tiny bathrooms and closets

Shore excursions

Signing for all non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages(bottled water in room would be nice)

Main dining room service and food inconsistent

One small laundry that you purchase tokens to use

 

Regent's strengths:

Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages included

Even smallest rooms large with separate tub and shower

Walk in closets in all rooms (on Navigator)

3 free laundry rooms that include detergent

Stocked in room refrigerator that is refilled as needed

No smoking in room and balcony with limited smoking on board

Free bottled water whenever leaving ships

Over the top service

Unique shore excursions

Circle of interest programs

Travel concierge

Main dining room food with "never too much to ask" service

Order any food, anytime room service

Tips included in fare

More variety of ages on shorter cruises(this might be a strength or weakness depending on person)

No assigned seating for meals

Able to get to know like minded people

 

Weakness's:

Price

Not as limited smoking areas

Speciality restaurant

Most ships still have Formal, Informal and Resort casual dress code

 

I will not give a detailed review on this board but I did on Regents for those who are interested.

Thanks to all on this message board who have help me in planning my various cruises and hopefully future cruises.

[Aruba]

Thanks, those are interesting comparisons. I've been on both Oceania and Regent and agree with all you said...except I'm unsure about your reference to the specialty restaurant on Regent. I thought Signatures, their French restaurant, was in a class of its own -- utterly fantastic. We didn't try their Indochine restaurant.

 

On Regent's Alaska cruises the dress code is country club casual, just like Oceania.

[Aruba]

Sorry, I should have read your full review on the Regent board before I posted. You were talking about the "Navigator" that has Portofino's as its specialty restaurant. I had the Mariner and Voyager on the brain -- they're the ones with Signatures.

Anyway, excellent review. Thanks for sharing your observations with us.

[orchestrapal]

Just booked a 23 night cruise on Voyager and now tat we have heard from you are even more excited to try Regent. We love Oceania but are thrilled with Regent's very interesting itinerary.:)

[edels]

I found Travelwell's Oceania v Regent evaluation to be nicely done. Regent is of more interest to me since their banning of Cabin & Balcony smoking. In particular, because of their excursions, their lecturers, and their classical music. But they have not gone far enough for me in limiting smoking.

 

Oceania is as yet the only cruise line for me, because of their Very-limited-smoking policy. Otherwise I would likely have to stick with land-based travelling. I will be cruising with Oceania for 73 days in 2008, so there must be enough positives for me, even with my own criticisms.

 

I estimate that 50% of the passenger area on Regent ships would be off-limits to me, because of the many smoking areas, smoke drifting into corridors, and smoke carried on the smoker's person. A few years back I took a cruise on Holland America, and found that 75% of the ship's passenger areas was unacceptable to me, and hence avoided.

[Dreps]

Interesting comparison. One minor clarification. Only the bathrooms on the Voyager and Navigator have separate showers. The "standard" rooms on the Mariner and the Paul Gauguin do not. They either have a combination tub/shower or only a large shower.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

...

I estimate that 50% of the passenger area on Regent ships would be off-limits to me, because of the many smoking areas, smoke drifting into corridors, and smoke carried on the smoker's person

 

The smoking areas area really very limited, there is really very little of smoke drifting into corridors, for sure. But then I'm not really sensitive, and if you are, then I guess you have to be pretty careful. The main problem I noticed on both Voyager and Navigator are that the pool bar becomes the smoker's haven, and is pretty much off limits if you don't smoke. But that's the only place I noticed smoke at all.

[travelwell]

I certainly understand concerns with sensitivity to cigarette smoke. We would have never considered Regent under the old smoking policy. We were still concerned under the new policy. Oceania has the reputation of adhering to their smoking policy. Regent did not have such a reputation, actually we had not heard feedback one way or the other. I do think both these lines are getting a reputation of being non-smoking friendly and the cruise bookings correlate to that. Perhaps that is why we saw so few smokers, about the same small number we have seen on Oceania ships.

[ChatKat in Ca.]

I have been on both lines - Regent extensively and off the Regatta yesteday now having 28 days on Oceania and almost 100 on Regent.

 

The comparison you have done above it quite fair in assessment. We love both ships and while we favor Regent, Oceania is a wonderful alternative and we would have a hard time deciding on which to go on next but always depends on where and with whom we were travelling with.