Insignia Reviews

We have been on Insignia twice, last time this summer! Both cruises has been wonderful and the food and service is just superb as are the cabins!

/Per

I am always amazed at people who don't do their own due diligence so that they can make a good choice of a ship or cruise line to travel on. The amount of money that a cruise costs, I make sure I am happy with the line, their offering and the facilities. I can understand the OP being worried, from merely looking at the %'s of happy cruisers - but as the person who cited the review above - these people clearly hadn't done their homework and were also being rather unfair about ports and the weather. I think my interpretation of the OP's post was that they wanted some reassurance from past cruisers, r some recent experiences. We are ex celebrity (aqua and concierge class) cruisers who are making the change to Oceania because of a falling standard throughout the Celebrity offering. I don't have any personal knowledge of Oceania, but I am taking a median approach to the information I get and opinions I hear.

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I can't compare the various O ships as I've only been on the Insignia for this years world cruise but I find a positive rating of 58% very low.

Other than the person who was removed for excessive and repetitive complaining, I did not hear of any major complaints from those doing segments or the full cruise - just various things that bothered some people here and there but not things that had a lot of people upset.

Other than the person who was removed for excessive and repetitive complaining ......

I seem to have missed that following your blog (most of the time).

Was that a RTW traveler or a "segmenter"?

I am currently on Insignia and will be on for another week. Lima to Buenos Aires. The passengers seem happy, the staff is smiling and helpful (better than ever) and the only complaint was a fatty piece of Prime Rib that DH ordered in Polo the other night.

Will write more when cruise is over but overall, this has been a wonderful cruise.

The person kicked of the world cruise this spring had 26 registered reports by staff of verbal abuse. I talked to several guest that witnessed his behaviour. He was sailing solo on the full voyage and was asked to leave in Singapore. He locked himself in his cabin until Bali so while losing over half the voyage he also had to pay his own way from Bali back to Singapore and then to the US. Insurance would not cover this type of trip interruption.

My point is while this person is an extreme case, there are people that find faults with just about anything and some of them like to post reviews.

We do not like megaships. We like the R ships. Azamara is our favourite cruiseline. We have also cruised on Oceania, Windstar, HAL, NCL, Katarina and Louis. After all the good things we had heard about Oceania we had high expectations of a cruise on Nautica in 2014. It was disappointing. Nothing at all wrong with the cabin (an inside), but service and food lacking. This year we tried Oceania again, on Insignia this time. It was a lacklustre cruise. Again it did not come up to expectations in the food and service areas. The way they handled 4 cancelled points was also very disappointing. We were thankful we got a large price reduction after booking – it just was not worth the original price.

 

Nevertheless we enjoyed the cruise and I am not complaining, just observing that we have had far better experiences with other lines. Oceania would never be our first choice, but if they have an itinerary which suits us timewise (we are very restricted as to when we can travel, because of business commitments) we might consider them again.

 

Everyone is different! We will enjoy our trips whoever we travel with, and I am sure you will too!

This is a fair and balanced comment. I have spent 14 days on Nautica before the Oceania assimilation into the NCLH collective and 39 on Insignia after the merger. The ships and cabins were fine - but the overall experiences were disappointing - especially on Insignia.

While my assessment is subjective, it represents my opinion comparing Oceania to other lines I have traveled on including: Princess (298 days), Norwegian (158), Royal Caribbean (74), Celebrity (35), Holland American (14) and Carnival (29). It also is not based upon ship size - I have traveled on ships smaller and larger than the R class and found all experiences superior to Oceania.

I would book another Oceania cruise but my decision to do so would be based solely upon the itinerary - not the expected shipboard experience.

I am sorry to hear that your experience on Oceania was inferior to all of your other cruising experiences.

Good news is that we all have so many choices and now you know which cruise lines to choose from for your future cruises.

Happy sailings.

This is a fair and balanced comment. I have spent 14 days on Nautica before the Oceania assimilation into the NCLH collective and 39 on Insignia after the merger. The ships and cabins were fine - but the overall experiences were disappointing - especially on Insignia.

 

While my assessment is subjective, it represents my opinion comparing Oceania to other lines I have traveled on including: Princess (298 days), Norwegian (158), Royal Caribbean (74), Celebrity (35), Holland American (14) and Carnival (29). It also is not based upon ship size - I have traveled on ships smaller and larger than the R class and found all experiences superior to Oceania.

 

I would book another Oceania cruise but my decision to do so would be based solely upon the itinerary - not the expected shipboard experience.

If I found all those mass market lines superior to Oceania then there is no way I would spend the difference in money between them, regardless of the itinerary.

I've been on all those except HAL and NCL and for my money the only one that comes close is Celebrity. But as Paul said, we all have choices.

If I found all those mass market lines superior to Oceania then there is no way I would spend the difference in money between them, regardless of the itinerary.

 

I've been on all those except HAL and NCL and for my money the only one that comes close is Celebrity. But as Paul said, we all have choices.

Actually if you do an Apples to Apples comparison, Oceania is not really more expensive than some of those lines cited. For example, I am booked on a Princess LA to Sydney 25 day cruise in an outside Mini-Suite w/ balcony that is going to run $940 per day. My last Oceania - Miami to Southampton - for a Concierge outside w/balcony cost $743 per day. The Princess cabin was a little bigger but Oceania included Specialty Dining, soft drinks and daily service charge, so the price point is a pretty fair comparison.

You cannot really compare the price of Oceania to Carnival, NCL etc. because they do not do comparable itineraries. Clearly the simple round trip Caribbean cruises are cheaper per day largely do to more competition.

Actually if you do an Apples to Apples comparison, Oceania is not really more expensive than some of those lines cited. For example, I am booked on a Princess LA to Sydney 25 day cruise in an outside Mini-Suite w/ balcony that is going to run $940 per day. My last Oceania - Miami to Southampton - for a Concierge outside w/balcony cost $743 per day. The Princess cabin was a little bigger but Oceania included Specialty Dining, soft drinks and daily service charge, so the price point is a pretty fair comparison.

 

You cannot really compare the price of Oceania to Carnival, NCL etc. because they do not do comparable itineraries. Clearly the simple round trip Caribbean cruises are cheaper per day largely do to more competition.

A suite(even though it's a mini) to a standard room is not an Apples to Apples comparison. So I disagree with your basic premise.

Having cruised Princess one time I can't imagine paying $940 per day for any suite on it. But that was my experience, obvious yours has varied.

We have cruised on Princess enough to be Elite - always because of unique itineraries (such as circumnavigating Australia many years before it was offered by O or spending 27 days cruising in Japanese waters visiting many Japanese ports not visited by O or most other lines).

That said, we always pay significantly less for Princess (even for mini suites) than for Oceania. We also expect less and receive less (in service, food quality, overall ambience, etc). We know all this going into the booking and do it for unique itineraries but I would never put Princess in the same category as Oceania on any level - food, service or anything else (other than great itineraries).

Of course, this is my personal experience and opinion - YMMV

We know all this going into the booking and do it for unique itineraries but I would never put Princess in the same category as Oceania on any level - food, service or anything else (other than great itineraries).

Of course, this is my personal experience and opinion - YMMV

Ditto for HAL

We have done a couple of cruises with them in the past 2 yrs

They do some things different than O but I found the food to be inferior

I am sure people that love them will disagree

JMO

Everyone has their own input to what they like, dislike and except. That said we've only cruised "O" 9 times (do to health we had to cancel one), always had a great cruise - some had a problem most didn't. And any problem was fixed. However now that we're cruising ahead we wanted to try something else. We tried SilverSeas (good), Sb (good) and we always have done SeaDreams (3times) (great). now we feel it's time to move on and we've booked 3 Regents cruise coming up. Will we be back to "O", not sure - if we like Regent we'll most likely stay with them for a few cruises.

Rick