ak1004

We keep comparing O, SB and SS all the time. The key is which category you book. Entry level veranda on newer O ships is 240 sqft and PH is 350 sqft (plus veranda). On SB and SS entry level veranda is around 300 sqft. If 240 sqft is enough for you, then O would be better value 90% of the time. But if you book PH on O but entry level veranda on SB and SS, then SB and SS are better value. Of course this is from pure financial point of view and not taking into consideration other aspects.

When a cruise is named "World Cup" and then Doha is removed 6 weeks before the cruise, is it notable enough to justify a refund? In our case it was the full amount, not just the $150 admin fee. I keep providing this example to prove my point that all cruise lines do it. Can they be more flexible? Yes, but it's probably not going to happen. Attacking one specific line and repeating "never again on O" is pointless because next time it will be SS, SB or another line. This is the world we live in. Business care about one thing - their bottom line. Unfortunate, but this is the reality. Hotels, airlines and travel companies are no different.

Different people have different preferences. Some like nature. Others prefer to see culture, architecture, museums, local markets, eat local food, meet local people. I know a couple who is looking for South America cruise that specifically does NOT include Antarctica. I also know a couple who visited Antarctica and was not really excited. We are all different. Don't judge people based on their travel priorities and preferences.

For some people Antarctica is more special than any other place. For other people it's Alaska.. Israel.. Italy.. Paris.. a lot of very special places. On our last O cruise Lisbon and Porto were the most important ports FOR US in the whole cruise, and both were cancelled. Was I disappointed? Yes, but it's part of cruising. I moved on and didn't make a drama out of it. Wake up and smell the roses.

The question is who decides that the change was dramatic enough to justify a refund? If a cruise was supposed to go to France, Spain and Portugal but Portugal was cancelled and replaced with more ports in Spain, is it dramatic enough? How about Greece, Turkey and Israel, but now Israel is out for obvious reasons? World Cup cruise where Qatar is cancelled? Some people book South America for Brazil and Argentina. Others consider Antarctica as the main part of the cruise. Rules are rules, once you start to bend them, you create precedents and open a pandora box. This applies to all cruise lines, not only O.

There are alternatives, but not necessarily better. We sailed on SS twice, found it a small step up compared to O. Paying for many things we are not necessarily using. Will be doing our first SB cruise in September, but also typically much more expensive. Azamara might be a good alternative, but small cabins and old ships is an issue. And drinks are included too as far as I know. Looking at Windstar currently, could be a good option. This is probably the only premium line that doesn't include drinks (yet). So if you want a small ship experience, not too many options.

How would you compare this to the situation I described earlier when a cruise advertised as "World Cup cruise" with 3 days at Doha did not dock in Doha anymore, and the notice was sent 6 weeks in advance when many guests already paid thousands for non refundable tickets to the World Cup?

If every time I was upset with a cruise line I said "never again", I would be running out of cruise lines very quickly. Most if not all cruise lines follow their cancellation policies. We all know the cancellation policies when we book. Don't like it? Don't book. We all have choices. As for cancelled ports - there are more reports about cancelled ports from all lines. Someone posted today on another social media about Seabourn cancelling 2 ports. Similar reports from SS. So I'm not sure why people say that this is exclusive to O.

Speaking of “ bait and switch “ We were booked on a Silversea World Cup cruise in Dec.2022 with 3 days in Qatar. 6 weeks before the cruise SS sent us an email that they have received notice from the Qatar government that they have cancelled all cruise calls at the port of Doha until early 2023. So they cancelled the 3 days in Doha. The only problem? The decision by the Qatar government was made 6 months before. No compensation was offered, and no option to cancel since it was deep into the penalty period. btw, Azamara did the same “ bait and switch “. I'm not justifying what O did, they could go the extra mile and offer at least an option to move the deposit to another cruise. I'm saying that O is not better or worse than other lines. And I'm yet to see a firm evidence that O skips ports more than other lines. Talked to some people on our last SS cruise, what SS did on few occasions is much worse.

This was not our impression after sailing twice on SS and 4 times on O. We found the service comparable, food excellent on both but personally I liked O food better. To me SS is a very small step up compared to O, and not necessarily worth the significant extra cost.

In terms of itinerary, Azamara is the least diverse, Greece only. I like Oceania itinerary. Also not sure how important is the cabin to you - Azamara has the smallest cabins. For the same cost, I would probably go with Seabourn, but Oceania is very nice too. The SB itinerary has 1 sea day, O zero if this is a factor.

Same for us, but this is more relevant to European sailings. Less important for Caribbean. Since the OP didn't mention the itinerary, hard to comment, but for the Caribbean I would put more weight to the ship.

But then it means Crystal is also mass market.. People can use whatever they want terms, but there are things that are agreed by most industry experts and insiders. All big ships = mass market. All small ships = NOT mass market. Pretty simple. And it makes sense if you consider that lines like MSC or Carnival carry millions of guests every year while lines like Viking or Oceania carry maybe 100,000-200,000 per year.

Cannot comment on the itinerary, but comparing O and A, Riviera is a newer ships, recently renovated, much nicer cabins, more dining options. Service probably comparable, food better on O, activities better on A (Azamazing, white nights etc). Prices comparable for entry level veranda, but you get 240 sqft on O and 170 sqft on A. Seabourn is considered more luxury, usually more expensive and more exclusive. If the prices are similar, I would probably go with SB.

I guess it's all relative. Celebrity might be premium compared to RCI or MSC, but they are definitely not premium. Oceania is not considered luxury by most people - maybe "light luxury" or "near luxury". But then again, the exact definition doesn't really matter. Overall, there are 4 categories, more or less: 1. Carnival, RCI, Norwegian, MSC 2. Princess, HAL, Celebrity 3. Oceania, Azamara, Viking, Windstar 4. Silversea, Seabourn, Regent, Crystal. Those are the main players, I'm sure I forgot a few. Is it worth to pay more and "upgrade" to higher category? It really depends who you ask and what's important to you. I recently posted comparison between Oceania and Silversea, and my conclusion was that with typical premium of 40-50%, it's not worth for me to pay the premium and sail on SS compared to O. You might reach the same conclusion when comparing O and Celebrity. Some people might say that even O newer ships are too big for them. In fact, many SS fans prefer their older ships with ~300 guests and consider the newer ships of 600 guests too big. For me, I will never go back to 3,000-4,000 guests no matter how much I will have to pay for the smaller ships, but that's just me.

The term mass market applies to large ships cruise lines like Celebrity, Princess, RCI, Norvegian etc. Small ships lines like Silversea, Crystal, Oceania, Viking, Azamara etc belong to luxury or premium segment. This separation is pretty much acceptable by the cruise industry. But the truth is it doesn't really matter. What matters to you is your experience and your opinion. If your experience was that the extra price is not worth it for you, this is the only thing that matters.

I couldn't say it better. But we are all different. Some people don't mind being on a ship with 3,000-5,000 other passengers. Some people don't mind constant lines, loud music and screaming children. Some people don't mind mediocre food and service. Some people don't mind paying extra for every expresso, cappuccino, soft drink or sparkling water. Some people don't need or don't mind paying extra for internet and specialty restaurants. And when those people don't find O premium enough, I'm happy. More O for us.

For some it was just a price increase, for some it did provide value (if you drink and/or take ship tours). It doesn't really matter. What's important is how the current prices and the overall package compare to current prices of other lines, not how they compare to 2020 O prices.

Well, the same cruise is now over $3,000 USD with SM. I have never seen the prices that you mentioned. Maybe it was for some specific itineraries, definitely not the typical O prices. Current typical price for 10 night Med cruise on OV (Riviera or Marina) is around $3,500-4,000 USD. There are always exceptions of course, but we are booking based on combination of itinerary and price, so might not always be the cheapest available.

Yes, we checked. We had only one O cruise booked for 2024, and the price was already so low that I cannot imagine that they would have any sales. I mean, $2,150 USD for 10 nights cruise in Europe in OV on the Marina.. it doesn't get any better. We have 2 cruises booked for 2025 on Vista, will see if they have any promotions. As for booking another cruise - well, they now have $150 cancellation fee, plus if the cruise is less than a year out, I already have flight tickets booked with points. So for me, it's not very practical. That said, we usually book cruises that we are happy with the price to begin with. I don't expect paying for O the same or less compared to Celebrity.

That's great! Somehow the cruises we book never go on sale.. 😞

Don't they match the price if the sale price is less than the price you booked? Also, I'm curious how the sale price compare to the original prices when the itineraries are just released? is it possible that the original price was say $5,000, then after few increases went up to $6,500 and now on sale at $5,500 which is still higher than the original price? We have never experienced the price going below the original price. For us, the best time to book was always just after the itineraries are released.

I assume you know that SS has unlimited caviar too? I eat it, my wife doesn't. We don't drink, so we "finance" the drinkers.. Some people don't eat lobster and Foie gras so they "finance" me. So I agree, every premium/luxury line will include something that you don't use (maybe except Windstar which is I think is the only premium line that doesn't include drinks, internet and excursions, so it's pretty much pay as you go). To me what's important is the whole package. We would consider any premium or luxury line that has good itinerary at reasonable price. I would also consider Crystal, but their current prices don't make sense to me, especially if you compare "price per sqft" as @FlyerTalker suggested.. I understand that so far their ships sail at less than half capacity, so maybe this will change.

In any case, it doesn't really matter if I find it acceptable or not, it is what it is. But based on the fact that La Dame was half empty every night (compared to other venues), most guests are not willing to pay extra for dinner on an all inclusive line. And not only they are not likely to change it, but on the new ships they increased the fee from $60 per person to $160, and the older ships are likely to follow. Which basically leaves you with 5 dining venues (I love Pizza, but I don't really consider Pizza a viable option for dinner on a ultra luxury line). Another thing worth mentioning: if you have a reservation to Silver Note and go to another venue before, they automatically cancel the Silver Note reservation (I assume it's the same for other venues too). Now you might ask why would we do it? Well, Silver Note opens at 8pm, and the only time we were able to get a reservation was 9pm. This is way too late for us, so we thought to go to SALT, to have something light, and then to go to Sliver Note, to have some drinks and deserts and listen to the music. Nope. Reservation was automatically cancelled. They did us a favor and let us in, but it was really strange. Just FYI. So to me Silver Note is also not a real option for full dinner. More like a jazz club to have an after-dinner cocktail and/or desert (and deserts there are amazing), assuming you can still get in after having dinner in a different venue. And still there is no buffet, they will know that you had dinner in another venue.

Haha.. and then you can come home and brag to your friends and family that you had your butler bringing you black caviar to your suite every evening! I always felt that butlers are more of a marketing thing than a real benefit, but some people like them.