lorimay

Just be aware that your table for two won't be very private. The tables in the dining rooms are extremely close together. You might as well be dining with the people next to you.

We have done two cruises on Oceania on the two newer ships, Marina and Riviera. One time in a penthouse stateroom and once in a concierge stateroom. The bathroom in the penthouse suite was huge and very luxurious and the stateroom had a walk-in closet. The bathroom in the concierge cabine (the normal size cabin) was more than adequate. Both types of cabin had a bathtub and a separate shower. We have never done a suite on Celebrity, but the cabins beat Celebrity's regular cabins hands down - including on the Edge and Beyond. The food is much better than Celebrity but the entertainment is not. One thing we liked is the lack of class status on Oceania. You get the same service and amenities no matter what type of stateroom you have. We just booked a cruise on Regent. We got a really good deal on their brand new ship out of Miami for not much more than a cruise on the Beyond or Apex. We went back to Celebrity after Oceania, but the prices on Celebrity have gone up, the quality of the food overall has gone down, the service on Celebrity in the dining rooms has not been great on our last few cruises, and we're tired of being nickled and dimed to death. One of the reasons we are not happy with Celebrity is that the itineraries that really interest us all seem to be on the older ships. We loved Beyond (event the infinite verandas) and then went on Summit - and while Summit has been upgraded, it just feels old. I will not ever go on Infinity again. We like the S class, but when I am paying that much money for a cruise I want new and fresh. That's a very personal thing but important to me.

I have not found that exactly true on Edge and Beyond. Each restaurant has a theme. There are classic items that show up on the menu at all four restaurants and there are dishes from the nightly menu that are on the menu in all four. But there are exclusive items that are available in each restaurant according to its theme. I suppose you could order one of the "italian" dishes from Tuscan restaurant in Cyprus, but why? We like the variety of alternating restaurants because of the different atmospheres and food. It relieves the monotony of the same dining room every night. If you are looking for the old, classic experience of the same table, same waiter each night - I'm not sure if they are still doing fixed dining on Edge class ships. But you can always ask to set it up for you that way. Also, try to get your reservations set up in advance. You can always walk up to whichever ship you want, but there can be significant waits if the ship is full.

However, if the window is closed and the folding doors are open, the a/c still works.

The switch to lower the window is pretty high up on the wall. And it's not instantaneous - it takes quite a while to get the window to lower all the way down. The fixed (bottom) panel is as high as a balcony railing, so in order to go over the kids would have to lower the window (which makes a really loud squealing sound as it goes down) by holding down the switch the whole time, then pull furniture over to the edge and climb out. You might be able to get them to lock the windows permanently closed for your two cabins, but then what's the point? You might as well have an ocean view cabin for less money. If you put a piece of duct tape over the switch that would probably prevent the youngest one from fooling with it, but there is nothing 100% foolproof in keeping them from operating the window unless an adult is supervising them all the time.

I was on the Equinox in February with premium internet and it wasn't working well in my cabin. I went to the wifi help desk and explained I needed to be able to do a zoom call. They sent a team to install one of the routers directly in my cabin. It was great - best internet service I have had on a cruise ship. Much better than on Edge the next month. I complimented the IT officer when I saw him at a meet and greet and he told me they are trying to get coverage all over the ship and were happy I let them know there was a "dead" spot.

Oceania had the two larger ships, Marina and Riviera, and now has the even larger Vista. The others are the smaller "R" ships. We did two cruises on Oceania, one in a Penthouse in the Marina in Europe and one in a regular veranda cabin in the Riviera in the Caribbean. To us, the PH was not worth it. The cabin was large, but a little tired. The bathroom was incredible, though. It was huge and the walk in closet was very nice. The butler service was worthless for us. Our butler was awful and we didn't even get daily ice. Others on our cruise had better service. The cabin layout is a little strange with the table and two chairs at the end of the bed, but there's also a couch and coffee table. The balcony is very large. One wall of the cabin has a makeup vanity with a pop up mirror that seems like wasted space. The regular veranda cabin still has a large bathroom (separate tub with shower and a shower stall). It was still a large cabin and we didn't miss the extra space from the PH. The real difference between Oceania and Celebrity is that everyone gets treated equally no matter what type of cabin you have. The service is great. It reminded me of the old days on Celebrity where someone took your tray and walked you to a table in the buffet. That type of service was everywhere. Oceania is all about the food. And the food in very, very good. The buffet is tiny compared to Celebrity, but they have a made to order grill where you can get lobster tail (unlimited), steak, fish, lamb chops, shrimp etc. Just walk up and ask for it. The salad bar was small. Hardly any desserts. But both Marina and Riviera have a great outdoor eating area just off the buffet that is incredible. The free specialty restaurants are great. Everyone gets one reservation in each one. Extra reservations can be hard to get. We didn't find the main dining room food that much above Celebrity and it's a little stuffy in atmosphere. Country club casual everywhere - no real dressing up. The afternoon tea was great - white tablecloths, very traditional, nice music. As I said, Oceania is all about the food. The entertainment, what there is of it, is just ok. One show a night at 9 or 9:30. Very talented singers and dancers, but very limited shows. The venue is small. Sometimes another show at 10:30 in the big lounge. A piano player in one bar and a string trio in another. Trivia is fun (and very serious) but not a lot else to do (ping pong, golf tournaments, etc.) The enrichment programs on our two cruises were just ok. The big issue for us is that the crowd was so much older and not very active. There was not much going on after 9 pm. We are not partiers (don't drink) but we like to be out and about after dinner. The ships are so small that there isn't a lot of variety in places to go. Compare that to our European cruise on Beyond - there was just so much energy on the ship. For us, Oceania was better for our Europe cruise where we were off the shop most days. While we had a great time on the Caribbean one, there wasn't a lot to do during sea days. To us it was like Holland America - we're not young, but a lot of the other passengers are OLD.

You will receive, in general, the same level of service no matter which of the Celebrity ships you are on. Some seem to be run a little smoother than others, but that varies with the staff and the officers. Also, you will get, once again in general, more personalized service if you are in Blue or Luminae. Celebrity has certain standards and all the ships are pretty interchangable when it comes to service. So your question about Infinity is not about the service because the ship is old, but the about the actual ship itself because it is old. Our personal choice is that we won't sail on Infinity again. We were on it before the pandemic and it was showing wear in many places. We have also sailed on the Summit (same class of ship) after it was refurbished and really liked the decor and the changes. It was a huge upgrade from Infinity. But we sailed it again in December and it too is showing its age. After sailing on Edge and Beyond, M-class ships are out for us. We like the new ships.

I would MUCH rather go to CocoCay than go to Nassau. Nassau, especially since covid and the last few major storms, is awful. There are some high-rent areas on CocoCay, so I'm not sure why the snobs are looking down on it as a destination.

In the Oceanview buffet, tap water, coffee, hot tea, iced tea, lemonade and a juice drink and milk are all complimentary. Bottled water, sodas and regular juices are not. In the dining rooms and restaurants, coffee, tea, iced tea and milk are complimentary. Juices, sodas and any alcoholic drinks, bottled water and sodas are not. You don't need a package. We don't drink alchohol so never get a package and do just fine. It's must cheaper, even if you drink a few sodas or a couple of glasses of wine, not to get a package.

We were on Edge in March and Equinox in February. We had Select Dining on both. I tried to book dining times in advance for both about 2 months in advance, but only very early or very late times were available. We like to eat 7 - 7:30. On Equinox, we had to wait in line at the MDR every night. Sometimes the waits were short (5 - 10 minutes) and other times pretty long. We waited over 45 minutes one night. On Edge, we were able to book dining times once we got on board through the app. Suddenly a bunch of dining times were available. There was never a wait at any of the dining rooms. However, a couple of nights we didn't use the reservations - just walked up to another one of the restaurants (reserved Tuscan but went to Cyprus instead) and got in right away. There's a short line to check in but then you are seated right away. So I don't think it matters whether you have reservations or not.

I did several zoom calls on Edge in March. Of course I had premium wifi and for the most part it worked well. Interestingly I didn’t find the star link connection as good as on the Equinox in February but it was still good enough for uninterrupted zoom calls with video. Some days were better than others but I think that depends on the location of the ship. I have also done zoom calls from Beyond. They all were good enough that nobody noticed I was on a ship and not in my home office.

My experience across four ships in the last six months is that wifi does tend to get better when you are out of port - I don't know why. If you are doing anything other than checking email, it's worth it to upgrade. Also, we had a delightful experience on Equinox when I complained about the wifi in our cabin and they came and installed an access point in the cabin. They told me they are still upgrading and not all areas are completely covered. If you go and complain politely they will probably try and fix it for you.

You can always ask for a kettle if there isn't one already in the cabin. I have been on the Beyond, Summit, Equinox and Edge in the last six months and was able to get a kettle on all of them.

We were on Beyond in October and Edge in February. Although they are similar, Beyond was definitely upgraded. The whole central area with the Martini Bar and al Bacio is much better layout. Also, the video screens in the theater are fully LED and the experience is much better. The rooms are similar (had an infinite veranda both times and loved it - but preferred with the bed by the veranda). There are little improvements all over Beyond but everything just seemed to be designed and engineered well and made sense. Also, on Edge they held trivia and other events in Eden and the sound system was so bad they had to hand out questions on paper. They said on Beyond it's state of the art. We liked Edge class over M class by a lot, over S class by a little, but if I had my choice of the same itinerary on Beyond or any other ship I would choose Beyond.

They were all there available to eat. Each day in the Oceanview they featured some kind of dessert. That day it was the cream puffs. Thinking back on it, I don't know if they all had the swan shape, but there were definitely swans along with the regular cream puffs. I know because I ate one.

They had a huge display of the swan puffs on the Edge in the Oceanview during our recent cruise in February. Regular, chocolate and I believe they had strawberry and pistachio.

We were on the Edge a few weeks ago. Most days the buffet was really crowded at breakfast and lunch. We always find a table and eat in shifts (one goes, then the other). We saw some people who would save tables with wrapped silverware at each place. Sometimes we leave an electronic device so that someone knows we are sitting there. For the most part people are pretty polite about clearing out for people waiting. But there were times we did have to circle the whole place just for a table.

That was not true on our recent Edge cruise (three weeks ago). We saw (and heard the argument) a man being denied entry into Cyprus for breakfast because he was wearing a tank top. He was very upset and waited outside the restaurant until a woman in a tank top was allowed entry - then he became very angry and shouted that it was discrimination. The difference between the two shirts was obvious - his was a very loose-fitting shirt, cut low at the underarms, with words on it. Hers was a solid, nice fitting shirt that only exposed her arms. You see a wide variety of clothing on recent cruises, but they do seem to be enforcing the dress code in some ways. I was on the Equinox in February and never saw a dress code violation in the dining room. I can't say the same on the Summit in December, where we saw the same young man shirtless in the Oceanview on multiple days. I don't know if they eventually made him leave, but he was all the way inside the restaurant so he had to have passed by the "greeters" with hand sanitizer and table attendents to get there.

We were on Equinox in February. Show times were the standard 7 and 9 pm that we have seen on just about every Celebrity cruise we have been on. However, we were on the Edge a couple of weeks ago and the cruise director had moved the show times to 7 and 9:30. There was no explanation why the second show was 9:30 instead of 9 for the entire cruise. We heard lots of complaints that it was too late.

I was on the Edge earlier this month with Select Dining. We had reservations and didn't show up one night. We were not charged anything. I was never asked to check a box when I made the reservations, which was while we were on the ship via the app. An interesting observation - we were on the Equinox in February and Edge in March, but on the Summit in December and Beyond last October. There was a huge difference in the number of dirty dishes we saw waiting for pickup outside cabins on the cruises in 2023. We also NEVER saw a room service attendant in the hallways on the 2023 cruises. I think the charge for room service in regular cabins has made a huge difference in the staffing.

I had a stretchy clothes line with hooks on the ends on the Beyond. I intended to use magnetic hooks and stretch it in between. However there are holes in the tops of the infinite veranda folding doors that allow you to put the end hooks in and stretch the line across from one side to the other. It worked out great. I checked the Edge last week and it had the same thing.

I had the premium wifi package. I was on the Edge last week, also with the premium package, and the internet was not nearly as good. I was able to do zoom and meet calls but there was buffering.

7 and 9 pm for the shows in the theater.

We were on the Equinox a couple of weeks ago. On other cruises and this one, usually they bring one starter after the other if you order more than one. On lobster night, I tried to order surf and turf and the waiter refused to combine the entrees. He told me they had to come on different plates at different times. So my lobster came first along with my husband's, then they cleared my plate and brought the steak (including sides) and I split it with my husband. It wasn't ideal but it was ok. We found the dining room on Equinox was so screwed up that I'm not surprised they refused to do something out of the ordinary.