Regent and (ex-)Oceania cruiser sails Celebrity Ascent (long-ish)

[marne-c]

My wife and I now happily sail with Regent, after Oceania twice in a row sinned unpardonably.  (See my signature line below for our cruise history.)  But our dearest friends wanted to do an eastbound transatlantic with us, and a Celebrity Ascent itinerary best matched our desired timing and price point.  I was dubious, since I had read here on Cruise Critic plenty of not-so-great things about Celebrity (mostly on penny-pinching).  But I was willing (grudgingly) to give it a college try.

 

Whoa!  Start to finish, the cruise was excellent in every way.  A major mental reset for me.

 

Let’s start with the food, the key reason we originally left Celebrity and began a long set of Oceania cruises.  The food on the Ascent was outstanding, certainly the best we have had on any cruise ever.  Food preparation was spot-on throughout, even for difficult-en-masse entrees like lobster and duck.  Amazingly, this held true for MDRs as well as specialty restaurants.  We were AquaClass, and so could eat regularly at Blu.  Again, comments on CC about Blu being boring were thoroughly wrong.  We had plenty of variety, without annoying (or even noticeable) repetition.  Even the buffet had terrific food, in astounding variety, sensibly and spaciously presented.  So food, ten stars.

 

The Ascent is near brand-new, having debuted right at the end of 2023.  As expected, everything sparkles.  The design with very well thought-out, providing plenty of venues and charming nooks-and-crannies for pax to hang out.  We had nine sea days (seven of them consecutive), and the ship never felt crowded.  My wife and I have and will continue to sail venerable vessels like the RSSC Navigator, so shiny-new is not a requirement for us.  But it was marvelous.

 

And there was another surprise for me.  I’ve seen threads here on CC praising one or another captain or cruise director.  But in 20+ years of cruising, my wife and I never had had a captain or cruise director than made any kind of impact on our on-board experience.  Until the Ascent.  Captain Tasos is the consummate leader — intelligent beyond measure, with a heartfelt love of people, accessible to everyone and thoroughly focused on mentoring the entire staff to radiate these same qualities.  And the guy is funny as hell.  On the PA and in multiple SRO theater presentations, Captain Tasos and his (much shorter) sidekick and straight man Cruise Director Alejandro had pax rolling in the aisles and (deservedly) singing his praises.  It would never have occurred to me before to choose a future cruise based on the ship captain.  But now Captain Tasos would add serious weight to my cruise considerations.

 

And likely stemming from the leadership and mentorship of Captain Tasos and his hand-picked executive team, the Ascent crew has been superlative.  (With one exception noted below,) they entirely have been personable, competent, on-the-spot and endlessly willing to make our cruise special.  Highest marks. 

 

What else?  The entertainment was plentiful, focused and competent.  Granted, not much to my taste, but my taste is waaaay out there, and no cruise yet has really hit the entertainment mark for me.  WiFi:  This was the first time we’ve shipboard service by Starlink, and we had the best throughput and consistency we’ve ever had on a cruise.  Embarkation was the smoothest and fasted we’ve ever had, an astounding experience given the 3200+ pax on this sold-out itinerary.  Disembarkation was a snap too.

 

Was there anything negative?  Yes.  We had a less-than-satisfactory experience with Future Cruises.  (The manager later apologized abjectly.)  I didn’t like the cover on our bathroom trash can.  And the switch on the Infinite Veranda window and the TV remote both occasionally had Y-chromosome lockout enabled; they’d only work for my wife.  But this happens at home too with the FireStick remote in our bedroom…

 

So would we sail Celebrity Ascent again?  Absolutely!  We’ve already booked the westbound transatlantic this fall.  Would we sail with Celebrity again on a non-EdgePlus class ship?  We’d certainly consider it.  

 

So I was wrong to hesitate — we had a seriously wonderful time on Celebrity Ascent.  No regrets at all.  

 

--Marne

[QuestionEverything]

Thanks for your review. Most welcome.

Glad you had a good time.

Q - what O ships did you sail on?

I ask because the O ships are not comparable to the big Celebrity ships due to size, entertainment etc.

Thanks.

[wanderlust58]

Just out of curiosity, what did Oceania do that was so horrible?  We're thinking of trying them out next year.

[Sojourner02]

56 minutes ago, QuestionEverything said:

Thanks for your review. Most welcome.

Glad you had a good time.

Q - what O ships did you sail on?

I ask because the O ships are not comparable to the big Celebrity ships due to size, entertainment etc.

Thanks.

We have sailed on every Oceania ship.  In defense of O smaller ships, they are necessary because many of the ports such as The Falkland Islands, do not allow the large ships to dock. 

 

Rumor is The Rivera has been overhauled,  They changed a lot of things. 

    

Royal Caribbean has the best entertainment overall. 

 

Too many of Celebrity and Azamara ships are just too old.

 

 

[Ex-Airbalancer]

21 minutes ago, Sojourner02 said:

 

    

Royal Caribbean has the best entertainment overall. 

 

Too many of Celebrity and Azamara ships are just too old.

 

 

Really , many of Celebrity ships too old 🤔

why you you mention Azamara, RCG does not own them 

The worst entertainment for us has been on RCL ships 

[jelayne]

Thanks for the review.  We briefly considered Oceania but didn’t pull the trigger. 

[Georgia_Peaches]

Appreciate the review...and I totally concur with your assessment of assent...she's my new favorite ship.  We will try Regent next year but I'm somewhat longing for it to be an e Class ship instead...but we have just too much OBC (over 3K) to give up now.

Edited April 27 by Georgia_Peaches

[ChucktownSteve]

56 minutes ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

but we have just too much OBC (over 3K) to give up now.

I hope you like lots of Mary Francis bags. roflmao 😁 My DW gets many on each cruise.

Edited April 27 by ChucktownSteve

[Georgia_Peaches]

58 minutes ago, ChucktownSteve said:

I hope you like lots of Mary Francis bags. roflmao 😁 My DW gets many on each cruise.

LOL that's too funny!  I used to have a MF bag in the shape of a cruise ship.  It was precious but I sold it on Ebay.  I now use much more practical LV cross body.  I'm sure DH would much prefer the MF price point!  

[dock]

We agree Ascent is fabulous. 
We had Cpt. Demetrius and Luigi and for the first time also wonder if we should choose a cruise based on CD and Cpt.

Also curious re: your  O experience. 
Booked Vista for this summer ( cheaper PH 10 night than Ascent  Retreat 7 night) and Regent  for Panama Canal( definitely not cheaper lol, but itinerary works) and we want to try  Regent. 
 

 

 

 

 

[edgee]

Thanks for your review! Oceania, Regent and Celebrity are our "go to" cruise lines. We did an Oceania Vista cruise immediately followed by an Ascent Caribbean cruise in February. We liked them both. Then a few weeks later we enjoyed a transatlantic on Regent Splendor. This summer we are looking forward to an Oceania Marina Norway/Iceland/Greenland cruise then a Celebrity Apex transatlantic in October. We realize that each of these cruise lines have their strengths, as well as aspects which are less to our liking, but are thankful we are able to enjoy them all!

[edgee]

7 hours ago, Sojourner02 said:

We have sailed on every Oceania ship.  In defense of O smaller ships, they are necessary because many of the ports such as The Falkland Islands, do not allow the large ships to dock. 

 

Rumor is The Rivera has been overhauled,  They changed a lot of things. 

    

Royal Caribbean has the best entertainment overall. 

 

Too many of Celebrity and Azamara ships are just too old.

Zero ships, big or little can dock in the Falkand Islands. It is a tender port, period. Also, it is more than just rumor, all of the Oceania ships have been overhauled in a major way within the last 4 years or so. Last is Marina, which is undergoing its overhaul at the moment.

[crz4all]

We were also on the Ascent TA and could not agree more with Marne’s review. This was also the smoothest and best weather crossing of the 8 TAs with have taken. Capt Tasso and Alejandro were amazing. We’ve also had great cruises with Capt Matt and Guissepe. The entire Ascent crew was also fantastic providing excellent service with a great attitude. Looking forward to our next X cruise.

[marne-c]

16 hours ago, wanderlust58 said:

Just out of curiosity, what did Oceania do that was so horrible?  We're thinking of trying them out next year.

Multiple things.  One thing, experienced on two consecutive cruises half a world apart, was Oceania having a waaaay too hand's-off attitude at problematic embarkation ports.  Another was turning off WiFi for about nine days on a 25 day itinerary.   And another, again repeated, was falling very short on their signature commitment to 'the best cuisine at sea'.

 

Regent was a much better choice.  When we considered Oceania's cruise fare PLUS what we spent additionally for gratuities, shore excursions and wine, Regent was a better deal, financially.  And great service.

 

--Marne

[QuestionEverything]

1 hour ago, marne-c said:

Multiple things.  One thing, experienced on two consecutive cruises half a world apart, was Oceania having a waaaay too hand's-off attitude at problematic embarkation ports.  Another was turning off WiFi for about nine days on a 25 day itinerary.   And another, again repeated, was falling very short on their signature commitment to 'the best cuisine at sea'.

 

Regent was a much better choice.  When we considered Oceania's cruise fare PLUS what we spent additionally for gratuities, shore excursions and wine, Regent was a better deal, financially.  And great service.

 

--Marne

Thanks for your post. Helpful.

Could you elaborate on the O issues at the embarkation ports - I cruise for the ports, not the onboard, so port issues are very important to me.

Thank you Marne.

[marne-c]

1 hour ago, QuestionEverything said:

Thanks for your post. Helpful.

Could you elaborate on the O issues at the embarkation ports - I cruise for the ports, not the onboard, so port issues are very important to me.

Thank you Marne.

 

In the Istanbul port, the issue was Turkish visas.  Oceania had (correctly) advised pax that B2B passengers needed them, but all others did not.  However, the embarkation staff at the port wouldn't process anyone without a visa, which only were available online if (a) you had a smartphone that (b) you knew how to use, to (c) pay online with a credit card while (d) in a tent with hundreds of annoyed pax trying to use (e) primitive WiFi with dialup-speed throughput and the bandwidth of a string telephone for the entire tent.  Oceania personnel did come down from the adjacent ship to correct the issue,  even when alerted to it by boarding passengers.

 

The Callao port for Lima, Peru is a container port.  Its infrastructure is not designed to handle cruise ship embarkation (or, from what we heard from other pax, disembarkation, or on/off transit of passengers for port-stop ShoreEx.  Embarking passengers not on Oceania hotel packages were dropped off at a seemingly random side street a mile or so from the port entrance.  There was no Oceania signage nor Oceania personnel.  But there were a small group of very well-meaning teenagers hired by the port trying to assist the arriving, disoriented pax.  One nice young girl spoke some English.  A few police loitered nearby.  Scores of passengers, all with full complements of cruise luggage and many with walkers or wheelchairs, packed onto the sidewalk awaiting buses to the port.  These didn't come for well over an hour, as more and more pax arrived. (Fortunately, there was no rain that day, nor hot sun.)  When two buses did arrive, the more able pax pushed through the elderly and less aware pax to toss their luggage into the bus' lower compartment and jump onboard.  Over half the crowd didn't fit into these buses, so they remained on the sidewalk dazed, confused and angry.  Oceania could have, should have had signage and personnel at this transfer area,  But no.  (Amazingly, things went waaaay downhill on the bus after departing for the port blocks away.  That was not an Oceania issue, but having an Oceania rep on the bus would have helped to explain the situation and to communicate to the ship the extent of the snafu.)

 

My thoughts, @QuestionEverything:  If you are going to embark in Istanbul, get a visa online before heading to the port.  With decent WiFi in your hotel room or at the airport pre-cruise, it's a 5 minute task.  The cost is a fraction of your cruise fare.  Do this even if Turkiye's rules say you don't need one.  And just don't embark, disembark or leave the ship for a port stop in Callao, Peru.

 

--Marne

Edited April 28 by marne-c

[QuestionEverything]

2 hours ago, marne-c said:

 

In the Istanbul port, the issue was Turkish visas.  Oceania had (correctly) advised pax that B2B passengers needed them, but all others did not.  However, the embarkation staff at the port wouldn't process anyone without a visa, which only were available online if (a) you had a smartphone that (b) you knew how to use, to (c) pay online with a credit card while (d) in a tent with hundreds of annoyed pax trying to use (e) primitive WiFi with dialup-speed throughput and the bandwidth of a string telephone for the entire tent.  Oceania personnel did come down from the adjacent ship to correct the issue,  even when alerted to it by boarding passengers.

 

The Callao port for Lima, Peru is a container port.  Its infrastructure is not designed to handle cruise ship embarkation (or, from what we heard from other pax, disembarkation, or on/off transit of passengers for port-stop ShoreEx.  Embarking passengers not on Oceania hotel packages were dropped off at a seemingly random side street a mile or so from the port entrance.  There was no Oceania signage nor Oceania personnel.  But there were a small group of very well-meaning teenagers hired by the port trying to assist the arriving, disoriented pax.  One nice young girl spoke some English.  A few police loitered nearby.  Scores of passengers, all with full complements of cruise luggage and many with walkers or wheelchairs, packed onto the sidewalk awaiting buses to the port.  These didn't come for well over an hour, as more and more pax arrived. (Fortunately, there was no rain that day, nor hot sun.)  When two buses did arrive, the more able pax pushed through the elderly and less aware pax to toss their luggage into the bus' lower compartment and jump onboard.  Over half the crowd didn't fit into these buses, so they remained on the sidewalk dazed, confused and angry.  Oceania could have, should have had signage and personnel at this transfer area,  But no.  (Amazingly, things went waaaay downhill on the bus after departing for the port blocks away.  That was not an Oceania issue, but having an Oceania rep on the bus would have helped to explain the situation and to communicate to the ship the extent of the snafu.)

 

My thoughts, @QuestionEverything:  If you are going to embark in Istanbul, get a visa online before heading to the port.  With decent WiFi in your hotel room or at the airport pre-cruise, it's a 5 minute task.  The cost is a fraction of your cruise fare.  Do this even if Turkiye's rules say you don't need one.  And just don't embark, disembark or leave the ship for a port stop in Callao, Peru.

 

--Marne

Marne!

Thanks so much. I always check visa requirements well before I leave to ensure I have a hard copy and copy on the device.

The situation does not in any way speak well of Oceania. 

Especially when the ports of call are in foreign countries with limited English.

Obviously Oceania did not care enough to protect their passengers and/or the Oceania staff are incompetent.

Sigh, the more I hear of Oceania and ports, the more I lose confidence.

Sail well dear Marne!

 

[mnocket]

23 hours ago, marne-c said:

And likely stemming from the leadership and mentorship of Captain Tasos and his hand-picked executive team

I honestly had no idea that the captain got to hand-pick his executive team. Must be a scheduling nightmare. 

[chrismch]

The Callao port for Lima

After reading your experience with "O" in Callao, it reminded me of an experience we had with Celebrity which kept us off their ships for 10 YEARS. Just returned last year and had a stellar experience...But here's our horrendous port experience with Celebrity.

We had just completed a Princess cruise and picking up the Celebrity one in San Francisco. Luckily we had friends who were staying over in S.F. and we could leave our luggage with them at their hotel and spend extra time together for the day.

The Celebrity ship was coming south from Canada with the ship empty in Seattle down to S.F. Even with a day between ports, there was no way it could reach S.F. with a morning embarkation. Well, there were a few  knowledgeable Cruise Critic members at the time who were boarding that understood a morning embarkation would not be possible but most likely not until after 6 pm and suggested cruisers NOT go to the port until we got an update from Celebrity. 

That update came around10:30 am on embarkation day with many already arriving at the Embarcadero port - but no ship! It did not arrive until 7:30 that evening at an industrial section of the port on the far end of town.

I don't know what all those other people did for the day with their luggage, but there was a sea of scowling faces when we got out of the taxi at 8 pm and breezed into the boading line feeling refreshed from a day of relaxing with friends around town.

Thanks to Cruise Critic, we had a great day in S.F. Love the expertise I find here!

[Peteymil]

On 4/27/2024 at 12:16 PM, marne-c said:

 

My wife and I now happily sail with Regent, after Oceania twice in a row sinned unpardonably.  (See my signature line below for our cruise history.)  But our dearest friends wanted to do an eastbound transatlantic with us, and a Celebrity Ascent itinerary best matched our desired timing and price point.  I was dubious, since I had read here on Cruise Critic plenty of not-so-great things about Celebrity (mostly on penny-pinching).  But I was willing (grudgingly) to give it a college try.

 

Whoa!  Start to finish, the cruise was excellent in every way.  A major mental reset for me.

 

Let’s start with the food, the key reason we originally left Celebrity and began a long set of Oceania cruises.  The food on the Ascent was outstanding, certainly the best we have had on any cruise ever.  Food preparation was spot-on throughout, even for difficult-en-masse entrees like lobster and duck.  Amazingly, this held true for MDRs as well as specialty restaurants.  We were AquaClass, and so could eat regularly at Blu.  Again, comments on CC about Blu being boring were thoroughly wrong.  We had plenty of variety, without annoying (or even noticeable) repetition.  Even the buffet had terrific food, in astounding variety, sensibly and spaciously presented.  So food, ten stars.

 

The Ascent is near brand-new, having debuted right at the end of 2023.  As expected, everything sparkles.  The design with very well thought-out, providing plenty of venues and charming nooks-and-crannies for pax to hang out.  We had nine sea days (seven of them consecutive), and the ship never felt crowded.  My wife and I have and will continue to sail venerable vessels like the RSSC Navigator, so shiny-new is not a requirement for us.  But it was marvelous.

 

And there was another surprise for me.  I’ve seen threads here on CC praising one or another captain or cruise director.  But in 20+ years of cruising, my wife and I never had had a captain or cruise director than made any kind of impact on our on-board experience.  Until the Ascent.  Captain Tasos is the consummate leader — intelligent beyond measure, with a heartfelt love of people, accessible to everyone and thoroughly focused on mentoring the entire staff to radiate these same qualities.  And the guy is funny as hell.  On the PA and in multiple SRO theater presentations, Captain Tasos and his (much shorter) sidekick and straight man Cruise Director Alejandro had pax rolling in the aisles and (deservedly) singing his praises.  It would never have occurred to me before to choose a future cruise based on the ship captain.  But now Captain Tasos would add serious weight to my cruise considerations.

 

And likely stemming from the leadership and mentorship of Captain Tasos and his hand-picked executive team, the Ascent crew has been superlative.  (With one exception noted below,) they entirely have been personable, competent, on-the-spot and endlessly willing to make our cruise special.  Highest marks. 

 

What else?  The entertainment was plentiful, focused and competent.  Granted, not much to my taste, but my taste is waaaay out there, and no cruise yet has really hit the entertainment mark for me.  WiFi:  This was the first time we’ve shipboard service by Starlink, and we had the best throughput and consistency we’ve ever had on a cruise.  Embarkation was the smoothest and fasted we’ve ever had, an astounding experience given the 3200+ pax on this sold-out itinerary.  Disembarkation was a snap too.

 

Was there anything negative?  Yes.  We had a less-than-satisfactory experience with Future Cruises.  (The manager later apologized abjectly.)  I didn’t like the cover on our bathroom trash can.  And the switch on the Infinite Veranda window and the TV remote both occasionally had Y-chromosome lockout enabled; they’d only work for my wife.  But this happens at home too with the FireStick remote in our bedroom…

 

So would we sail Celebrity Ascent again?  Absolutely!  We’ve already booked the westbound transatlantic this fall.  Would we sail with Celebrity again on a non-EdgePlus class ship?  We’d certainly consider it.  

 

So I was wrong to hesitate — we had a seriously wonderful time on Celebrity Ascent.  No regrets at all.  

 

--Marne

Like you, after 34 Celebrity cruises, I never thought the Captain mattered. But Captain Tasos, especially paired with Alejandro was incredible.  At Liars Club, we laughed until our stomach hurt, and we even looked forward to daily announcements. They were both wonderful.

[Syd58]

We sailed on the Ascent in February.  While very nice, it was not perfect. The ship is beautiful but crowded in places, especially the pool deck and around the stores. The service was excellent.  The food was good.  We found the entertainment subpar for the most part. Overall, I would rate a 4 out of 5.

Edited April 29 by Syd58

[REDSTRIPETYPE]

Thanks for your detailed review and humor. We just got off our first Oceania and we are back to Celebrity for good.

[txtechmk]

Thanks so much for this Ascent review.  We sail on her next month, so I am glad to hear that the Ascent was great!

[cluso]

Yep, Capt Tasos is great, have cruised with him many times.  Cruising out of one of the many Norwegian fjords, he stopped the Constellation and did multiple 360"s.  He called it "Dancing with the Waterfalls" which were on both sides.  Pretty cool.   Unfortunately, E class is not our cup of tea, so don't know if we will see him again.

[-Lew-]

@marne-c...  Thank you for relating your experience sailing on Ascent.  Like you, we're Regent cruisers who will be catching a ride home on the Ascent TA this fall after 27 days on Splendor out of Southampton around the UK then down the coast to Barcelona.

 

See you onboard Ascent...