Impressions of First Time Oceania cruiser (on Nautica)

[ak1004]

Oceania on its worst day is still better Celebrity on its best day. It’s like comparing Lexus to Fiat.

[Vineyard View]

I would have to think that is a true statement AK1004!

[Vallesan]

16 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

I would have to think that is a true statement AK1004!

I would think it is too!

 

Never sailed Celebrity but do know the difference between Fiat and Lexus! Have driven Lexus for 25+ years! Have also driven Fiat!!

[Harters]

3 hours ago, ak1004 said:

It’s like comparing Lexus to Fiat.

I  wonder where my Skoda sits in this analogy. 

[KathyL2537]

On 3/3/2024 at 8:32 AM, bradpole said:

Thankfully there aren’t!  
 

Thank you for your review.  Besides not having a white night or something like that, we enjoy the fact that the grand dining room and the terrace cafe offer basically the same menu.  Those of us who enjoy a nice casual meal can still have a good meal without having to go to grand dining room.  
 

Oceania isn’t for everyone, that’s why there are so many different lines, but for now we enjoy the product the offer…especially the smaller R ships.  

Thanks Bradpole, you make a good point that I hadn’t thought of, sometimes you want something from the dining room menu but also want a quick and casual venue. Oceania’s approach allows this, I hadn’t looked at it that way. 

[KathyL2537]

Appreciate everyone’s input and suggestions. I really like the smaller ships, after a few expedition cruises even the Nautica seemed like too many people to me! so not all that interested in moving up to one of the larger Oceania ones. But again, depends on price and itinerary. Will also look at Windstar, as several of you have suggested; I hadn’t even thought about that so thank you! 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

25 minutes ago, KathyL2537 said:

Appreciate everyone’s input and suggestions. I really like the smaller ships, after a few expedition cruises even the Nautica seemed like too many people to me! so not all that interested in moving up to one of the larger Oceania ones. But again, depends on price and itinerary. Will also look at Windstar, as several of you have suggested; I hadn’t even thought about that so thank you! 

We are taking Wind Spirit. She has less than 150 pax

[cruisemom42]

On 3/3/2024 at 11:57 AM, HaveDogWillTravel said:

In my opinion Windstar is a competitor to Oceania. We sailed them last year as well for the first time. WS made a 99.9% excellent impression.

 

Could you expound a little on the Windstar experience? What sold you on them? How are they different from/similar to lines like Oceania? 

 

It's a line I've never seriously considered, but I am finding fewer and fewer lines with small ships that I can afford to cruise with.

[Vineyard View]

My hesitation with Windstar is lack of balconies. I realize that they have French balconies, but that’s not quite the same as having your own personal outdoor space. They do have some great itineraries, and people really do enjoy the line. So if a balcony is not important, I would say it could be a good fit. 

[ak1004]

On 3/4/2024 at 3:11 PM, ORV said:

What night is Toga night and the Baked Alaska server parade? 

 

You can laugh, but Toga night on our Costa cruise was one of the most memorable and special events in all our cruising history. It was almost 20 years ago, our first cruise ever, still remember it as very special. I'm pretty sure I would see things differently today, but maybe O should introduce some of those special events. Could be chocolate extravaganza, a special event like White night, etc. Crystal still does white nights I believe?  

[cruisemom42]

8 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

My hesitation with Windstar is lack of balconies. I realize that they have French balconies, but that’s not quite the same as having your own personal outdoor space. They do have some great itineraries, and people really do enjoy the line. So if a balcony is not important, I would say it could be a good fit. 

 

Not an issue for me. 

 

I guess I sort of wrote Windstar off when they just had those weird-looking "sail boaty/yachty" ships. I must've missed that they have Seabourn's old ships. Now I'm interested, AND they have a number of sailings with a solo supplement of only 119%... 

 

 

[ORV]

8 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

You can laugh, but Toga night on our Costa cruise was one of the most memorable and special events in all our cruising history. It was almost 20 years ago, our first cruise ever, still remember it as very special. I'm pretty sure I would see things differently today, but maybe O should introduce some of those special events. Could be chocolate extravaganza, a special event like White night, etc. Crystal still does white nights I believe?  

We did that on Costa also. I wore a royal purple satin robe trimmed with fur over my bedsheet and I carried a scepter. I stood out from the crowd. It was fun, but that was then. FWIW, I actually thought Costa was a much better product than the Princess cruise I took the same year. This was not quite 20 years ago. 

 

Yes, I do think it wouldn't hurt Oceania to invigorate and energize their activities a bit. While they're at it they need to work on their menus throughout the fleet. But the food is still good, or at least has been on my 3 cruises in the last 12 months or so. 

[ak1004]

17 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Could you expound a little on the Windstar experience? What sold you on them? How are they different from/similar to lines like Oceania? 

 

It's a line I've never seriously considered, but I am finding fewer and fewer lines with small ships that I can afford to cruise with.

 

We consider them too. Their larger ships (Star) have very nice cabins, around 280 sqft, and are fully renovated. But in many cases they are more expensive than O with less inclusions.

[Hlitner]

On 3/3/2024 at 1:09 PM, ak1004 said:

 

We look mostly at Europe too, and yes, we expected SB to be much more expensive too.

 

That said, I just looked at Vista prices and compared to Ovation and Encore. Vista entry level veranda is in $450-500 USD a day range. Some slightly less, some slightly more, but most fall into that range. SB does have few sailings under $500 USD, but most are still around $500-600. So on average, SB is still more expensive, but I agree that the gap is much smaller that I expected.

 

Of course it's not exactly apples to apples - SB is more inclusive (although the excursion credit on O offsetting the drinks cost more or less) and the cabins are larger. So finding SB sailing around $500 or less would be very attractive if the itinerary is good.

Keep in mind that on SB, everyone gets a suite (nearly all with balconies).  SB also has no tipping and includes all drinks.  Another thing we like about Seabourn is the ability to get caviar (any time) which is not something found on most lines.  And finally, folks need to compare overall space ratios (tons per passenger).  On our more then 100 days of SB cruising we have never had a problem getting a deck lounger, never waited in a queue, etc.  We have two upcoming SB cruises (one in Europe and the other in Japan) that are both costing us around $400 per person/day!  A comparable sized suite on O would be more expensive.

 

One other thing about SB.  They use an online air booking system (run by the same folks who handle Cunard, HAL, and Princess) that lets folks choose their own air (with no extra fees).  Their air booking engine will often get folks Business/First Class for less then half the cost of booking direct. One is not constrained by dates or even gateways.  So, for example, we cruised Seabourn from Miami to Monte Carlo.  We then spent a month in Europe and ended our trip in Prague where we were able to book return Business Class (to NYC) for about $1000....thanks to SB.  One thing that has kept us from booking O (in the past) has been the awful O air deals for Business Class (not to mention the O booking fee).   In fact, on our upcoming O Vista cruise we booked our return Business Class air directly with the airline.  Using O for air would have been more expensive.

 

Hank

[cruisemom42]

2 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

We consider them too. Their larger ships (Star) have very nice cabins, around 280 sqft, and are fully renovated. But in many cases they are more expensive than O with less inclusions.

 

For a solo, it's a different ballgame of course. 😕

 

The 119% solo supplement on a fair number of cruises makes the per night cost less than O, even in one of their solo cabins.

 

It looks to me like Windstar does not include gratuities (neither does O), shore excursions (which is fine with me) and internet. Non-alcoholic drinks are complimentary. Am I missing anything?

 

[ak1004]

20 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Keep in mind that on SB, everyone gets a suite (nearly all with balconies).  SB also has no tipping and includes all drinks.  Another thing we like about Seabourn is the ability to get caviar (any time) which is not something found on most lines.  And finally, folks need to compare overall space ratios (tons per passenger).  On our more then 100 days of SB cruising we have never had a problem getting a deck lounger, never waited in a queue, etc.  We have two upcoming SB cruises (one in Europe and the other in Japan) that are both costing us around $400 per person/day!  A comparable sized suite on O would be more expensive.

 

One other thing about SB.  They use an online air booking system (run by the same folks who handle Cunard, HAL, and Princess) that lets folks choose their own air (with no extra fees).  Their air booking engine will often get folks Business/First Class for less then half the cost of booking direct. One is not constrained by dates or even gateways.  So, for example, we cruised Seabourn from Miami to Monte Carlo.  We then spent a month in Europe and ended our trip in Prague where we were able to book return Business Class (to NYC) for about $1000....thanks to SB.  One thing that has kept us from booking O (in the past) has been the awful O air deals for Business Class (not to mention the O booking fee).   In fact, on our upcoming O Vista cruise we booked our return Business Class air directly with the airline.  Using O for air would have been more expensive.

 

Hank

 

Thank you Hank, all excellent points!

 

Comparisons are never easy. Inclusions are useful only if you use them (we don't drink, so included drinks are not important to us). Also, larger cabin size is definitely a plus, but standard cabin on Vista, Marina or Riviera is more than sufficient for us.

 

That said, $400 is a steal for SB. It would be difficult to find those rates now.

[ak1004]

1 minute ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

For a solo, it's a different ballgame of course. 😕

 

The 119% solo supplement on a fair number of cruises makes the per night cost less than O, even in one of their solo cabins.

 

It looks to me like Windstar does not include gratuities (neither does O), shore excursions (which is fine with me) and internet. Non-alcoholic drinks are complimentary. Am I missing anything?

 

 

I believe you are correct. They have an "all inclusive" package for $89/day which includes internet, gratuities and drinks, and sometimes they have a promotion that all inclusive price is the same as cruise only.

[AMHuntFerry]

13 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

For a solo, it's a different ballgame of course. 😕

 

The 119% solo supplement on a fair number of cruises makes the per night cost less than O, even in one of their solo cabins.

 

It looks to me like Windstar does not include gratuities (neither does O), shore excursions (which is fine with me) and internet. Non-alcoholic drinks are complimentary. Am I missing anything?

 

As ak1004 said, there is an inclusive-package, but they also have other packages (e.g., drinks or laundry), or they did last time I looked.

[HaveDogWillTravel]

On 3/6/2024 at 12:18 PM, cruisemom42 said:

 

Could you expound a little on the Windstar experience? What sold you on them? How are they different from/similar to lines like Oceania? 

 

It's a line I've never seriously considered, but I am finding fewer and fewer lines with small ships that I can afford to cruise with.

Yes I’d be happy to. 
 

Here’s a link to my Live From that I did. Lots of pictures. Towards the end there’s a discussion of the All In package. 
 

i am the one who has always booked the cabin with the largest balcony I can afford. I have the Sky Suite on Discovery Princess booked for the upcoming eclipse. It’s the biggest balcony at sea I believe. So I get the hesitation to sail with only a French balcony. Honestly we were absolutely fine with a French balcony. We made sure to get one of the “old” design cabins where the living room is next to the balcony though. 
 

The cabins are under 300 sq ft which for me is really small but the layout was such that it really felt much bigger. We had to adjust to the storage space but managed just fine. 
 

The senior officers, HGM, Executive Chef, Maitre D’hotel, right on down the line, on WS are constantly out and about talking with passengers and making sure every detail is up to snuff. I had coffee with the captain almost every morning. The open bridge was so nice, Adam really enjoyed it. 
 

I know everyone always says how great the crew is on every sailing and WS is no exception.  However, what stood out to me is just how truly HAPPY they were.  Many had come from larger ships and told me that they’d never go back. 
 

Food is subjective but it was my experience that the food on WS was superior to Oceania. Here’s why I say that. WS had smaller menus than O, but every single bite was perfection. On O I had hit or miss several times…..nothing horrible but meh too many times for the price points. I ordered French onion soup on O and got this brown tasteless broth with almost no onions, bread or cheese.  I will use the fresh fruit as another example….on WS every berry, every piece of melon all of it was not over ripe nor under ripe.  Melons were never cut too close to rind.  On O this was not the case. It came down to the details. I was only disappointed once on WS. I ordered a waffle (room service breakfast) and it was not a yeast waffle as I expected rather it was a more rustic style.
 

The upper deck BBQ with Santorini glittering in the background was truly amazing.  The white glove dinner in the ruins of Ephesus at night with the Aegean Quartet was magical. Things that were included and executed brilliantly.  
 

I do not find that WS costs more than O, but then on O I don’t book the cheapest cabin.  I book what I want on the ship I’m sailing and as long as it runs between $400-$600 day/person I’m happy. If I get what I want at a lower price I’m really happy. 
 

 

Edited March 8 by HaveDogWillTravel

[HaveDogWillTravel]

6 hours ago, AMHuntFerry said:

As ak1004 said, there is an inclusive-package, but they also have other packages (e.g., drinks or laundry), or they did last time I looked.

Yes the laundry is a flat rate per day. It’s under $10 a day. I loved it!  On longer sailings it is included free. Our 17 day has it for free. Also last year I booked for 2025 and 2026 and All in Package was free.  

[cruisemom42]

3 hours ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

Here’s a link to my Live From that I did. Lots of pictures. Towards the end there’s a discussion of the All In package. 

 

Thank you so much for the link to your "Live From" thread. Excellent info and photos. 

 

The first voyage that caught my eye when browsing their website is one that included the Corinth Canal sailing. That would be a huge draw for me. I was on a cruise (Voyages to Antiquity) that was supposed to do it years ago and -- you guessed it -- it was closed due to rock fall.

 

 

[Vineyard View]

8 hours ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:
 

 

i am the one who has always booked the cabin with the largest balcony I can afford. I have the Sky Suite on Discovery Princess booked for the upcoming eclipse. It’s the biggest balcony at sea I believe. So I get the hesitation to sail with only a French balcony. Honestly we were absolutely fine with a French balcony. We made sure to get one of the “old” design cabins where the living room is next to the balcony though. 
 

The cabins are under 300 sq ft which for me is really small but the layout was such that it really felt much bigger. We had to adjust to the storage space but managed just fine. 

 

I do not find that WS costs more than O, but then on O I don’t book the cheapest cabin.  I book what I want on the ship I’m sailing and as long as it runs between $400-$600 day/person I’m happy. If I get what I want at a lower price I’m really happy. 
 

 

Thank you for discussing this. I sincerely appreciate it. 

[HaveDogWillTravel]

8 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Thank you so much for the link to your "Live From" thread. Excellent info and photos. 

 

The first voyage that caught my eye when browsing their website is one that included the Corinth Canal sailing. That would be a huge draw for me. I was on a cruise (Voyages to Antiquity) that was supposed to do it years ago and -- you guessed it -- it was closed due to rock fall.

 

 

We had our itinerary changed 3 or so times. I lost count. But in the end they brought the canal back and it was everything we dreamed it would be and more!  

[gracebest]

On 3/6/2024 at 12:35 PM, KathyL2537 said:

Appreciate everyone’s input and suggestions. I really like the smaller ships, after a few expedition cruises even the Nautica seemed like too many people to me! so not all that interested in moving up to one of the larger Oceania ones. But again, depends on price and itinerary. Will also look at Windstar, as several of you have suggested; I hadn’t even thought about that so thank you! 

We first cruised with Windstar about 2 years ago, and have been on 2 more since then.  We have also cruised with O. We really enjoyed WS. Yachts only have about 300 passengers and sailing ships about 200. The motor yacht cabins are so much larger- OV cabins are 275sq ft. With nice bathrooms and walk-in closets. The downside is the balcony cabins are just French balconies. The highest category cabins have real balconies.

Specialty restaurants included- you reserve when you board. We’ve experienced friendly staff.  In fact on the last cruise, the captain had breakfast and sometimes lunch in the terrace and always joined passengers at their tables. They have a great bbq night on the deck, weather permitting.  One time it was held in the dining room because of bad weather.

 

[mermaidgal]

On 3/3/2024 at 1:34 AM, KathyL2537 said:

This forum and the roll calls were really helpful, so in the spirit of giving back, thought I would post our impressions after our first Oceania cruise.  We started cruising on Carnival and RC, have also been on Princess, Celebrity (last time was in the Retreat), Azamara, an expedition cruise on Stella Australis, a long ago cruise up the Nile, another around the Greek islands (not lines anyone would recognize) and most recently an expedition cruise to Antarctica on Seabourn. In total roughly 20 or so cruises. We have friends who loved Oceania and we liked the South Pacific itinerary so thought we’d give it a shot. 
 

Given the competition at this price point, we were underwhelmed by Oceania. The ship was the same as Azamara so we were expecting roughly a similar experience,  There were definitely some things we liked but overall the food and service was very erratic, some nights we had to continually turn wine and water refills away, others we sat and waited. Even getting coffee and water in the cafe at breakfast was very slow, I often went up to the counter or the machine myself which they didn’t like but after waiting 10 minutes with no one acknowledging me I thought it was justified.
 

 Some of the menu items were excellent, but others were substandard. I’ve never had to argue with a waiter to order something (“I wouldn’t recommend that ma’am, it’s not good, try one of these instead”.)  Neither appealed to me, but he kept saying no and I had to keep pushing to order what I wanted, which when I finally got it, was excellent. This was in the Polo Grill on the same night they brought me the wrong order. Toscana was much better, both food and service. 
 

We were also disappointed that the dinner menus between the cafe and the dining room were much the same. On other lines there’s been much more variety between these venues so you had more options. I know others have noted that you cannot serve yourself in the cafe, and I know there are pros and cons to that but it definitely slows down service and results in confusion (where’s the line?) . We definitely missed some of the specialty meals/experiences that we’ve had on Azamara: a fabulous breakfast buffet in the Main dining room on sea days, other occasional ethnic buffets plus of course their White Nights and Azamazing evenings, there was nothing even close to that on Oceania.  Additionally the limited hours were disappointing, we often like to stop at whatever the coffee shop is on board to get an herbal tea in the evening but Baristas closed at 6. 
 

For this cruise we tendered into most ports. We had booked a mix of ship excursions-which we never do but this time wanted to use up the SM chore excursion credit- and independent excursions. Their process at least initially was awful. We went down one day before 8, which is when they opened, to get our independent tender tickets for our tour which was starting at 830. Once they opened, they announced that the Jeeps for the ships tours were not yet ready, however they then disembarked those passengers right away. Then they moved the tendering location due to wind and water conditions so the next tender didn’t go out til almost 9. Really? Luckily enough people complained that after that they started disembarking tenders of independent tour passengers first, so we did appreciate that they listened to feedback. 
 

internet speed, if the internet was even accessible, was slow. At one point I went up to the Oceania@sea for help and he kept telling me it was my device, until I went back and showed him more error messages, where he finally admitted there was a problem. We had great internet on Seabourn in Antarctica which I would consider even more remote. 
 

And as others have said, cabin and bathroom were tiny but workable. Late in the cruise  I had started loading items in the suitcase (including the bottle of champagne) but they were loose when I pushed it back  under the bed, opened, to finish up later.  I was surprised when I came back to find it had been pulled out, zipped shut and was upright by the bed. I’ve never had that happen on another cruise line, luckily the champagne was not damaged. 

So that’s the negatives. There were a number of positive things as well. We really appreciated the advice from this forum to bring your own liquor, we brought several half sized bottles and just made our own happy hour cocktails after the long shore excursion days. Have not been able to do this on other lines but really enjoyed having our drink while we were cleaning up after the long hot sticky days.
 

We had three free bags of laundry which we used and it came back on schedule and just fine.

 

Excellent library and gym (I hear on Azamara they are turning the libraries into bars, which saddens me as I love that space). This is the only line I’ve been on where they’ve offered a meditation class, which was terrific. It’s also the only time I remember seeing the staff tactfully remind a guest to change out of shorts before he could go into the MDR for dinner. Loved Baristas for that all important morning latte.

 

 And above all, the staff was really all very nice and other than the some of the meal services, really efficient. We had room service breakfast several times before early excursions and they were prompt. The first day after they had opened our access to our rooms, none of the keys worked. I had to go down and get it reset twice, as did many others. The  poor customer service person at the desk was clearly frazzled dealing with this, but was super helpful, polite and apologetic. Our cabin staff was superb. At the end of a cruise I like to make a donation to the crew welfare fund to benefit everyone that you don’t see, but sadly apparently Oceania doesn’t offer this. 
 

Bottom line, it was a good cruise and depending on price point and itinerary we might go on Oceania again but it wouldn’t be our first choice. They definitely need to up their game if they want to compete with Seabourn and Azamara (there is another thread in the forum comparing Oceania specifically to Seabourn and now having done both I would agree with just about everything that author said). 
 

i am on the Nautica this week and I had very high expectations based on all the hype I’d heard about the food, even commercials on TV lately. The food is very poor. I am hearing that from every other passenger I’ve spoken to. I am just disappointed, unfortunately this is my first and last on this line. This is my 60th cruise and I’ve been on several different lines so I have a lot to compare to.