jazzsea
July 9th, 2004, 08:22 AM
My husband and I have been cruising for 30 years and I have been a cruise consultant for the last 25 years. We've sailed on over 80 cruises and have sailed on all Holland America ships except the new Westerdam.
Our first contact with Oceania was a luncheon last March aboard Regatta. It was love a first sight. The ship is beautiful! Small, 678 passengers.
There is really no easy way to compare the two cruise companies, however. Oceania has been in business two years and Holland America one hundred and thirty....
FOOD AND SERVICE: The food on Oceania was excellent and the service was outstanding. Oceania has "open seating" which we liked at first. It was great to plan activities and not worry about a set dining time. After a few days (this was a 12 day cruise) we missed the interface with our waiters. We seldom ate in the same dining room two nights in a row.
Oceania has four restaurants: The Grand Dining Room requires no reservations, is the largest and serves the most passengers. Tapas on the Terrace is similar to the HAL Lido Restaurant. I didn't like this as there were no trays to use to carry your food. Also not a very good selection of food. Nice desserts, however. The Polo Grill (steak house) and Tuscana (Italian Bistro) are the two "reservations only" restaurants.
The staterooms are much smaller than on Holland America Line ships. We were in a penthouse which was like a category "B" HAL cabin. (Mini bar, fridge and balcony.) Fewer closets and a lot less drawer space. Similar to the Vista class ships but not the "S" class ships on HAL. The bed was wonderful. The pillow top mattress and soft linens will be available on all Holland America ships soon. Our cabin did not have any wine glasses, so we brought two from the dining room and asked our cabin steward not to take them away. This way we could finish our wine from dinner at our leisure. We didn't buy wine in port as the ship had a great (if expensive) wine list. Also, Oceana recently instituted a $20 per bottle corkage fee in their dining rooms. We missed the availability of the wine packages that Holland America Line has.
Category "A" and "B" on Oceania have balconies. They do not have a fridge or a mini bar and are smaller than the same categories on Holland America Line.
Owner's Suites and Vista Suites are larger and compare in size to an "S" category on Statendam Class ships of Holland America. The nice part on Oceania is that the living room is separate from the bedroom. The bad part is that these suites are either all the way forward or all the way aft on the ship. Both locations are less stable and more noisy.
I'll post part II later.
Our first contact with Oceania was a luncheon last March aboard Regatta. It was love a first sight. The ship is beautiful! Small, 678 passengers.
There is really no easy way to compare the two cruise companies, however. Oceania has been in business two years and Holland America one hundred and thirty....
FOOD AND SERVICE: The food on Oceania was excellent and the service was outstanding. Oceania has "open seating" which we liked at first. It was great to plan activities and not worry about a set dining time. After a few days (this was a 12 day cruise) we missed the interface with our waiters. We seldom ate in the same dining room two nights in a row.
Oceania has four restaurants: The Grand Dining Room requires no reservations, is the largest and serves the most passengers. Tapas on the Terrace is similar to the HAL Lido Restaurant. I didn't like this as there were no trays to use to carry your food. Also not a very good selection of food. Nice desserts, however. The Polo Grill (steak house) and Tuscana (Italian Bistro) are the two "reservations only" restaurants.
The staterooms are much smaller than on Holland America Line ships. We were in a penthouse which was like a category "B" HAL cabin. (Mini bar, fridge and balcony.) Fewer closets and a lot less drawer space. Similar to the Vista class ships but not the "S" class ships on HAL. The bed was wonderful. The pillow top mattress and soft linens will be available on all Holland America ships soon. Our cabin did not have any wine glasses, so we brought two from the dining room and asked our cabin steward not to take them away. This way we could finish our wine from dinner at our leisure. We didn't buy wine in port as the ship had a great (if expensive) wine list. Also, Oceana recently instituted a $20 per bottle corkage fee in their dining rooms. We missed the availability of the wine packages that Holland America Line has.
Category "A" and "B" on Oceania have balconies. They do not have a fridge or a mini bar and are smaller than the same categories on Holland America Line.
Owner's Suites and Vista Suites are larger and compare in size to an "S" category on Statendam Class ships of Holland America. The nice part on Oceania is that the living room is separate from the bedroom. The bad part is that these suites are either all the way forward or all the way aft on the ship. Both locations are less stable and more noisy.
I'll post part II later.