Oceania vs. luxury lines

[chrislcruise]

We have sailed Regent and Silversease multiple times and love both cruise lines.

 

Oceania's "country club casual" dress code is appealing as are the itineraries.

 

Other than all inclusive of Regent and Silverseas, what are other differences.

[wripro]

Please do a search. This topic has been covered many times.

[LHT28]

The biggest complaints I have read from Regent & SS cruisers on Oceania

 

-you have to sign for drinks :eek:

-cabins are smaller

 

I would do a search (top right) in the forum for Regent VS Oceania

 

Lyn

[Leonid]

Have done SS & Seabourn, but not Regent. Even though we have to sign for drinks, we much prefer Oceania. Got really tired of formal nights, as well as being told that I had to wear a jacket on SS after a certain time. Silver Shadow is a beautiful ship, but the food is no better than O. We also found that the service on O was better than SS. As for Seabourn, food and service was no better than O.

 

County club casual and open seating in the GDR & Tapas - can't get any better. And the specialty venues are top notch.

[wripro]

As with any comparison there are as many opinions as there are posters and of course, no consensus.

[ddcruiser]

For whatever reason, we have met truly interesting and friendly people on Oceania much more frequently than on Regent or other "top lines". People on O seem very well-traveled, low key, and great fun. Ddcruiser

[hondorner]

I guess I'm going to find out -- just signed up for my first Regent cruise in December. Price minus air credit (we're less than 2 hours from Ft. Lauderdale) plus free excursions made it hard to resist. I always said that all-inclusive prices meant that I was paying for someone else to drink, but Betsy says she'll take care of that :rolleyes:.

[DGF]

General Comments

 

Only complaint with the Oceania is the "spacially challenged" bathrooms and small cabins. We recently did a back to back South American cruise for 30 plus days and thoroughly enjoyed the first leg of the itinerary, the ship, its food, the service, casual country club atmosphere, and itinerary with a few exceptions (one where we had a captain who did not take us close to the glaciers as was our experience in Alaska). Second leg of the cruise, where itinerary was not up to the first leg, we upgrade to PH cabins which will be more to which you are accustomed

 

Following are our detail notes on Oceania Insignia

 

Oceania Insignia, Cabin 7088

· Stewardess Anastasiya who with assistant kept the cabin in good condition

 

· Bed- Twin beds put together to make a queen. Separate mattress for each bed but fitted together and did not have a gap. Comfortable providing good sleeps but advertising exaggerated. Have adopted the comforter approach to bedding which worked well on initial part of cruise but too warm for latter part of cruise. No double sheeting

 

· Cabin- Size- as expected from experience on Tahitian Princess was "spacialy" a challenge (tight)- i.e. i) distance from end of bed to wall was only 20"; ii) hallway between closet and bathroom door was 34" and when bathroom door open hit the open closet door or person using the closet. Better layout than QM2 Princess Class where more room for night tables on each side of bed (QM2 had walk in closet which took up a lot of space)

 

Bathroom was even tighter with one sink, limited counter space, shelf underneath and small corner mirror cupboard and counters in corner of unit near toilett which just fit into the space. No electrical outlet. But made good use of limited space and everything worked well. Hairdryer on wall but Gayle used second air dryer provided at vanity work station

 

· Closets- not sufficient room for clothes. Had to double up on hangers and no room for winter coats, which we piled on the two seater sofa

 

· Furniture- vanity/work desk with uncomfortable stool (used one of balcony chairs); two seater sofa; circular glass table 24" in diameter; fridge in vanity work desk which we emptied and used for bottle water & pop and wine.

 

· Breakfast- waiter showed up with foldable table to store the trays with food on allowing us to comfortably use the glass table, after we had removed winter clothes, to eat (much better arrangement than QM2 Princess Grill where had to locate trays on bed)

 

· HVAC- initially noisy and grit. Took a couple of attempts but was fixed. Kept room temp below 70 F in south and 70F in north. Quite often left the door on to the balcony slightly open until we reached Buenos Aries

 

· Extras- i) Good Bath robes with sandals which used to go from cabin to small pool and two good hot tubs; ii) Oceania bag which used for excursions (can keep); iii) umbrella; iv) shoe horn; v) Limited free pressing; vi) Bottle of champagne (Note: diff from deck 7 where Concierge Class and Deck 6 was only fridge, champagne, preferred embarkation and alternative dining, and use of Concierge. Cabins identical.)

 

· Balcony- depth 58" x just under 10ft in length (good size)

- furniture- two mesh chairs and circular cocktail table 15" in diameter

 

Conclusion- Room is tight for a long cruise and bathroom is really tight; buy everything worked well, other than noted

 

Entertainment

Throughout the Cruise was varied- adequate to good; but not the the caliber on the big ship. However, cruise ship is still in excellent condition and dress code of country club. Ship size and décor gives one a feel of being in a country club with facilities

 

Were sufficiently impressed will certainly book again and looking forward to release of their new larger ship Marina in fall 2010

 

PH Cabins

· unfortunately come with a butler

· much larger with a full bathtub shower

· good table where can have meals served by the butler and

Conclusion- we certainly recommend PH cabin, closet and bathroom size for a long cruise

 

Food

 

We were very impressed with the quality of the food, in particular the specialty restaurants where the food and service was very good to excellent (the Polo Grill service and food were equal to Cunard Grill Class and Crystal main dining room). We also enjoyed having meals in Tapas on the Terrace (out on the aft deck). Note: Notwithstanding the brochure, we had no problem in dining in the Polo Grill five times. One just has to make reservations early in the morning when you have gone beyond your limit of two

 

Shows

 

This is a very subjective topic, but we found the entertainment ranged from average to very good but not up to standards of the larger ships we have cruised on

 

Overall

 

We would rank the Oceania a notch above the Princess, NCL, Royal Caribbean and a notch below Cunard Grill Class and Crystal. We have not experienced the Regent or Silver Seas. A good book for comparison of the ships is Berlitz, Complete Guide To Cruising & Crusie Ships 2009

 

 

 

 

[meow!]

General Comments

 

Only complaint with the Oceania is the "spacially challenged" bathrooms and small cabins.

 

The following is our measurements on the basic balconied cabin (from our previous report)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=16812

 

THE CABIN

 

Unlike the public areas, the standard cabins are sort of "plain functional". There was no minibar, and the desk chair was a stool. The shower was tight, and unless you were really slim, you would rub against the plastic "papered" wall or the curtain. A six inch widening of this stall would be welcomed, but since this was an existing ship which Oceania leased, nothing could be done on the basic physical structures. The entire washing closet measured 3'10" x 5'6", and that was outside dimensions. This washroom floor was raised 6 inches, and the shower stall height was 6'6". The entire interior of the cabin (including the washroom and closets) was 8'5" wide x 20'5" long, or 171 sq.ft. The balcony measured 9' wide (with no partition wall thickness) x 4'10" deep, or 44 sq.ft., so Oceania's claim of a total of 216 sq.ft. (including balcony) was justified. Due to the "drop ceiling", the interior ceiling height was 6'11", but the balcony ceiling height was 9'0". The cabin door width was 26.5", the bathroom door width was 21.5", while the ship corridor width (with horizontal handle) was 53". The closet was divided into sections, with a width of 23" and a depth also of 23". This area, just inside the cabin door was the most "congested", with the cabin door, three closet doors and the washroom door constantly colliding with one another when more than one were open at the same time. This problem was not unique to Oceania, but rather commom in most modern cruise ship design. In fact, in most aspects, this basic balconied cabin was nearly identical to one (category 2) on the Celebrity Mercury, for example.

 

The "tranquility bed" was nice, nicer than all other ship beds that we had tried (mass market ships), but compared to land based hotel beds, it might not be "the best bed anywhere". Among land based hotels, the Hotel Kamp Helsinki, the Westin Melbourne and the Ritz Carlton Hong Kong, for example, had even more comfortable beds, just to name a few. One reason might be the lack of box springs under the mattress -- in the case of a ship cabin, the 10" clearance under the mattress was necessary for storing luggage! The mattress in our cabin measured 76" long x 66" wide, ample for most couples. There were a total of four down filled pillows. They were nice, but we would prefer them to be somewhat thicker and larger.

 

There was a desk 49" long x 16" wide, with a mirror measuring 43" x 43" above. In front of the bed, there was a full length mirror, at 47" wide x 72" tall. The walkway clearance between the end of the bed and the wall mirror was 22" wide. The loveseat was 53" total length, and the small round table was 20" in diameter. There was only one telephone, two 110 volts and two 240 volts outlets and a 21" Sony television, with CNN and Sky News, among other channels (rerunning movies). One channel showed the navigation map, while the other showed ship speed (often between 10 and 12 knots while cruising, and occasionally between 16 and 19 knots when rushing between Dubrovnik and Venice). We would also like to see weather forecast, outside temperature and windspeed too, but these important data were missing. There was a four-digit, self-set safe in the cabin, which was appreciated. Two bathrobes and two pairs of slippers were provided, but no sewing kit or Q-tip. The floor (other than the washroom) was carpeted, but there was no marble, and no pretence to luxury. Shelves and drawers were plentiful, and with careful organization, quite enough for a two week cruise.

 

The balcony sliding door opening was 27.5" maximum, with glass covering the entire outside surface of the cabin, and the usual curtains with sheer. There were two plastic chairs with cushions, and one small square stool/table. Unlike its former days as R2, the Regatta had removable ribbed-teak-carpet styled flooring, covering the entire metal floor, making the balcony more inviting. There was also a switchable ceiling light on the balcony. During a fire drill on a Wednesday, we saw staff members removing screws from one end of the balcony partitions, creating a temporary balcony-corridor with "collapsed" hinged partitions. In other words, these partitions were necessarily "incomplete" and easily removable in order to meet safety requirements.

 

In all, Oceania had to accept what was given on an existing ship, while upgrading on the bedding and the balcony flooring. Other than the superior bed, the cabin was "standard fare" in the modern cruising industry. I have included detailed measurements here not for our own sake, but for the benefit of those who might be tall, chubby, carry large pieces of luggage, or need the use of walkers, etc. The actual measurements are not available in any borchure, can only be obtained by someone on board, and may help others plan on what to do. Those who can afford it (e.g. the boutique ship folks), or need more room can always go for an owners/vista suite, or at least a PH minisuite, with more amenities and butler service.

[DGF]

Noted some typos and duplications in our previous note to you. Sorry about that. Thats what happens when I do a report at midnight

 

 

Three other comments that you might find helpful

• Unlike the luxury ships you are comparing to, which are all inclusive (everything is included in your fare) on the Oceania only the specialty restaurants are included in the fare (normally an extra on the majority of other four star ships)= you pay extra for pop, water, wine, and other alcoholic drinks. However, Oceania allowed us to continue to bring the pop, water, and wine onboard the ship throughout both legs of our cruise. We found the local wines very enjoyable and good value, in particular Chilean (House of Morande) where I found a 2004 bottle for $20 some Cnd dollars which was the best wine I have ever tasted. We consumed in our cabin and took our glasses from the cabin throughout the ship (other than dining room)
  
• Excursions are not highly rated and we (2 couples) arranged our own guides in every port except one where took the Oceania excursion which was a big bus tour- "and on the right is and on the left is"- with minimum stops to take in Sao Paulo
  
• As you have noted, and I agree, Oceania puts great emphasis on their itineraries. This was the reason we did the South American cruise with them
  

Hope our thoughts are of help

 

Recommend that you try Oceania PH cabin category. You are going to enjoy the country club casual ship

 

DEAN

[DGF]

Meow

 

Wow. Great measurements/ info

 

DEAN