julleea522 Posted January 15, 2009 #1 Share Posted January 15, 2009 We are in our 50s and very young at heart and plan to take our daughters ged 18 and 19 with us on the Aug 4 sailing from Istanbul to Rome. First cruise, all seasoned travelers. Is Oceania the wrong choice? We are most impressed with the ports of call. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nparmelee Posted January 15, 2009 #2 Share Posted January 15, 2009 Be aware that there will be few if any other younger people around your girls' ages. On our last O cruise there was one young girl, around 11, and another family with their three kids in the late teens early 20s. O does not have any kids programs so not too many families cruise them. If entertainment is important to your group, then this might not be the best choice for you, its very laid back entertainment on the O ships. I'm 45 and hubby is in his 50s and we love O for the food and the service and the smaller size ships. If you are looking at the itinerary and its a port intensive one and you'll likely just be relaxing in the evenings anyway, then it may not matter, it just depends on what's important to your family for the ship activities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruin Steve Posted January 15, 2009 #3 Share Posted January 15, 2009 We are in our 50s and very young at heart and plan to take our daughters ged 18 and 19 with us on the Aug 4 sailing from Istanbul to Rome. First cruise, all seasoned travelers. Is Oceania the wrong choice? We are most impressed with the ports of call. :) Never the wrong choice...just a different choice... We've cruised Europe on Princess, on Oceania and three times on Celebrity and are going back to the Med on Oceania in June... We've taken our daughters with us on many cruises...sometimes with lots of kids their age on board, sometimes with few...Actually the worst was taking them with us as teenagers to the Baltic on Princess--average passenger age had to be 85 and there were less than 20 kids on board out of 2,000+ passengers... Oceania won't have a lot of kids their age, though our last Med cruise with them actually had more than were on that Princess cruise... But, remember this, it's a small ship...less than 700 passengers...and, unlike the larger ships, nightlife and activities are fairly sparse and low-key...The primary attraction is the itinerary and ports, followed by fine dining... If you'd rather have the exciting big ship cruise experience, you may want to reconsider and maybe try Celebrity or Royal Caribbean...But, if your daughters (and you) are a little more laid-back and just want to tour and sight-see the ports on the itinerary, then head back to the ship for a quiet dinner and relaxation, it will be just fine...and very fulfilling... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julleea522 Posted January 15, 2009 Author #4 Share Posted January 15, 2009 Thanks so much, my 19 year old is a freshman and one of the happiest Bruins on earth. So advice coming from a Bruin has to be good. We plan to go all out on land and expect to be beat at day's end. Surprised to hear Princess had so many older passengers as that and Crystal are also considerations. The ports of call and the dining choices looked to be a great match for us. One other question, should we go for one Penthouse and one veranda cabin, rooms looked to be on the small side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruin Steve Posted January 15, 2009 #5 Share Posted January 15, 2009 I've never cruised with Crystal, though I have heard it is nice...I'd go with Oceania over Princess...Oceania is decent value for the money...and the itineraries are great... The cabins sound small--I wouldn't go with the really tiny obstructed view windows, but we were in a 160sf cabin last time and thought it was nicely laid out, though it's by no means roomy...but all we really do in the cabin is sleep and change clothes... If you can afford the cost for the Penthouse, go ahead... We just make the value judgment to spend the money on other areas--like extending our cruise with pre- and post-cruise stays...but it's really a personal choice thing...if money were no object, we'd do both... Best of luck to your daughter at UCLA...She's got to be a smart kid...You must be proud... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suec12 Posted January 16, 2009 #6 Share Posted January 16, 2009 I would think it just depends on if it is OK with your daughters. If they want to meet and hang out with other young people they will probably be unhappy. If they will enjoy the family time and the great sights, and can socialize with adults, then it should be a good fit. When my daughters were that age they reallly didn't want to run around the ship and see what they could get up to - we enjoyed the time together as a family. We usually cruised Celebrity - good food won out over other young people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julleea522 Posted January 16, 2009 Author #7 Share Posted January 16, 2009 In addition to ports of call, O looked to have good food. Have not checked Celebrity, am I missing a good option? Best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suec12 Posted January 16, 2009 #8 Share Posted January 16, 2009 We had a reservation on the Celebrity Solstice cruise that stared and ended in Rome, went to some Greek Islands, and overnighted in Istanbul. We have liked Celebrity in the past - the food is pretty decent but now I have switched our upcoming trip to Oceania. It is my first Oceania cruise but I expect the food to be better, the ship is smaller (a plus to me) and it ends in Istanbul, giving us more time there. But I do think a Celebrity cruise would be cheaper - we had a verandah cabin reserved on the Solstice for ALOT less than a porthole on Oceania! But maybe your Oceania cruise was one of the discounted ones so the price difference would not be as much. We did a Celebrity cruise several years agon, Barcelona to Venice. It was very nice but I do think Oceania is a more upscale product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgeL Posted September 13, 2010 #9 Share Posted September 13, 2010 We are in our 50s and very young at heart and plan to take our daughters ged 18 and 19 with us on the Aug 4 sailing from Istanbul to Rome. First cruise, all seasoned travelers. Is Oceania the wrong choice? We are most impressed with the ports of call. :) I truly think your daughters may be quite bored on Oceania due to the fact that it is geared mostly toward the older, mature passenger and the music and entertainment reflect the demographics. Of course, I do not know your daughters so perhaps they will be happy to be quite likey the only teenagers onboard and simply to relax and eat good food. Everyone is different. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgeL Posted September 13, 2010 #10 Share Posted September 13, 2010 In addition to ports of call, O looked to have good food. Have not checked Celebrity, am I missing a good option? Best. YES, you are! Celebrity has great food and would be a far better choice for you and your daughters. They will find many more teens there. Prices are also way cheaper than Oceania and think what you could do with the extra cash in your ports of call :) I would definitely recommend Celebrity over Oceania but that's just my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted September 13, 2010 #11 Share Posted September 13, 2010 I truly think your daughters may be quite bored on Oceania due to the fact that it is geared mostly toward the older, mature passenger and the music and entertainment reflect the demographics. Of course, I do not know your daughters so perhaps they will be happy to be quite likey the only teenagers onboard and simply to relax and eat good food. Everyone is different. They probably had a a good time on whatever cruise they chose The thread is over a year old. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimandStan Posted September 13, 2010 #12 Share Posted September 13, 2010 YES, you are!Celebrity has great food and would be a far better choice for you and your daughters. They will find many more teens there. Prices are also way cheaper than Oceania and think what you could do with the extra cash in your ports of call :) I would definitely recommend Celebrity over Oceania but that's just my opinion. We respectfully disagree, but then, we can't get past the feeling that Celebrity is simply a more deluxe version of Royal Cariibbean. There will be more teens on Celebrity, because there will be more of everything on Celebrity. If your daughters will be looking for a party crowd after returning from touring in a port, then it may be best to go with the bigger ship. Oddly, when we have traveled witrh teens in our group, they tired more easily than the forty somethings (or at least ADMITTED to being tired more easily). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Druke I Posted September 13, 2010 #13 Share Posted September 13, 2010 I often wonder why some old threads are brought to the top. The OP was planning an Aug 2009 cruise, which has long passed. Perhaps GeorgeL knows something we don't! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted September 13, 2010 #14 Share Posted September 13, 2010 I often wonder why some old threads are brought to the top. Sometimes people just do not look at the date of the original post ...I have been guilty of that in the past also ;) Lyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Druke I Posted September 13, 2010 #15 Share Posted September 13, 2010 True, but they had to go search for it. It certainly was not on the 1st page (oldest item there 8 days old!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted September 13, 2010 #16 Share Posted September 13, 2010 True, but they had to go search for it. It certainly was not on the 1st page. Slow day I guess :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted September 13, 2010 #17 Share Posted September 13, 2010 Well, I did respond the other day to a very old post and it was up at the top of the first page! (Which is largely why I didn't notice the date.) It happens! All it takes is one person not to notice the date, and those of us who are lemmings will follow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgeL Posted September 13, 2010 #18 Share Posted September 13, 2010 Sometimes people just do not look at the date of the original post ...I have been guilty of that in the past also ;) Lyn You are right. I never looked at the date of the post. My fault. I was searching the site for something else and this thread showed up so I replied. I guess I should be more careful but my opinion would have been the same a year ago. :) In any case, I certainly hope that, whichever cruise line the OP finally picked, they had a wonderful time with their daughters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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