A Guarentee

[RnD]

I have booked our first cruise with Oceana on the Regatta for a anuary 2 sailing. We have taken 48 other cruises thus far, and are curious if the Oceana pproduct warrents an approximate $1200 premium over a similiar celebrity sailing (10 days leaving on the 4th of January)? Of a greater concern is the fact that all they could offer was an A2 guarentee. My mother who is 86 and in good health wil be in a seperate cabin but traveling with us, and she is a bit concerned that we coul dbe at opposite ends of the ship, and she is afraid she wil have trouble finding her way around.

 

I would be much happier if we had definite cabins in our catagory, but understand that we may not even know for sure that we have a cabin until immediatly prior to sailing. The Oceana person said chances are that cabins will open up but that there is always a small chance that we wil end up without anything available at all.

 

How much of a gamble is a guarentee on Oceana? Is it like a plane being overbooked and then being bumped? Is the product worth the extra money? Will the smaller vessel be much more prone to causing sea-sickness? Lastly is it a difficult ship to get around?

 

Sorry for the tedious post, but as I said have never booked a guarentee, nor booked on Oceana (a company I hope is financially solvent)

[Druke I]

Oceana is a ship of the Sun class sailing for P&O (UK).

 

Oceania is a cruise line, with three ships of the R-class; Nautica, Regatta, and Insignia. There are two newbuilds in the pipeline.

 

We've sailed with Oceania twice, and have two more booked. We've only sailed with Celebrity once, on their Mercury.

 

We think Oceania's product is much better than Celebrity, which we thought over-rated. Opinions of course are very subjective.

 

Oceania's ships are small enough that it is somewhat difficult to get lost. Even if your cabins are separated, they will not be far apart.

[Wineart]

I posted the following information previously for someone who was also asking about Celebrity vs. Oceania, so will post it again.

 

I've been on both Celebrity and Oceania, and have enjoyed both lines. However, the key thing is not to base your decision solely on cost, because the two lines are totally different. Following are my own comparisons:

 

1. Ship size. Oceania's ships are much smaller. On the plus size, this means they can usually dock much closer in than the large boats, and tenders are not needed. I've had to wait 1-2 hours to board on Celebrity because of the larger number of passengers, while you literally just walk onto the boat with Oceania. I also found the luggage delivery to be much faster on Oceania, again because of the smaller number of passengers. On the down side, you don't have as many shops or entertainment venues on Oceania as you do on Celebrity.

2. Itinerary. I found Oceania's itineraries to be more port intensive, which for me is a big plus.

3. Food. I've been on Celebrity twice, and thought the food was great one time and mediocre another. Oceania's food was consistently superb.

4. Entertainment. Entertainment is minimal on Oceania. This was not an issue for me since my husband & I were too tired after touring all day to even think of staying up late. But if nightlife is important to you, go with Celebrity.

5. Passenger mix. Oceania's passengers were older (I'm in my late forties, and I was one of the youngsters), and I only saw one family with kids when I was on Regatta last month. Celebrity has a larger age range, and many more kids.

6. Attire. For me, this is one of the big reasons I like Oceania. There are no formal nights, and attire at night is "country club casual". I've always hated packing formal wear for a cruise, especially now that the airlines have so many restrictions on baggage allowance.

7. Photographers. Every time I turned around on Celebrity, there were photographers, which I found to be very annoying. On Oceania, there are no photographers.

8. Shore Excursions. Celebrity has a larger range of shore excursions, again because it has more passengers.

9. Open seating. Oceania has open seating in the restaurants, which again is a plus for me since my husband and I travel by ourselves. On Celebrity, we were seated at a large table of either 8-10 in the main dining room. On one cruise, we found our tablemates to be very enjoyable, but on another cruise, we were not as happy with our tablemates.

 

In regards to the guarantee, I had booked my July '07 cruise on Regatta with a guarantee, which I've never done before. We ended up with a cabin in our category, not an upgrade to a higher category. I had booked at least 8 months in advance, and I seem to recall getting a cabin assignment within two months after booking. However, Oceania contacted me several days before the cruise was to leave because they had oversold our category and were looking for volunteers to bump. Once on board, several other people also mentioned they had received phone calls asking if they would volunteer to bump. Since the Oceania ships are so small and seem to fill up quickly, I don't think I would ever book on a guarantee basis again since I want the security of knowing what cabin I'm getting.

 

[RnD]

Right after I wrote this email I decide to call Oceana on the off chance that someone cancelled in the last 24 hours. There were two A1 concierge cabins accross from each other that opened up. They are cabins 8024, and 8027 almost exactly midship. I paid the extra $100 per person but can now relax that I have cabins I think we will like.

 

i still have to convince my wife that this ship is worth $1000.oo more than the Galaxy(celebrity), but your comments regarding meals, and attire should help a lot.

 

My wife is concerned that it will be a somewhat "stuffy," I have more money than you environment, which I also hope is not the case, We are far from rich by todays standards, and did find on one cruise that we were almost "pushed aside" because of that. In fact on this trip it seemed only old money was acceptable, and the new money folks were also considered less than ideal for the vessel, at least on his trip(seadream). We still had a great time regardless.

[meow!]

1. Ship size. Oceania's ships are much smaller. On the plus size, this means they can usually dock much closer in than the large boats

Thank you for such a detailed comparison. However, your "point 1" may no longer be true after their new ships now being built enter service!

[retiredslug]

Right after I wrote this email I decide to call Oceana on the off chance that someone cancelled in the last 24 hours. There were two A1 concierge cabins accross from each other that opened up. They are cabins 8024, and 8027 almost exactly midship. I paid the extra $100 per person but can now relax that I have cabins I think we will like.

 

i still have to convince my wife that this ship is worth $1000.oo more than the Galaxy(celebrity), but your comments regarding meals, and attire should help a lot.

 

My wife is concerned that it will be a somewhat "stuffy," I have more money than you environment, which I also hope is not the case, We are far from rich by todays standards, and did find on one cruise that we were almost "pushed aside" because of that. In fact on this trip it seemed only old money was acceptable, and the new money folks were also considered less than ideal for the vessel, at least on his trip(seadream). We still had a great time regardless.

RnD--2 comments

 

1. Oceania is absolutely not "stuffy"--if anything the "country club casual" atmosphere helps everyone relax and be themselves.

 

2. If I'm reading the deck plan correctly, cabin 8024 has a connecting door to cabin 8022 and cabin 8027 connects to cabin 8025. I don't know if this would cause an additional noise factor (I'm a light sleeper) or not but I certainly avoid these rooms in hotels. I hope you post your experience when you return.

[Animag1]

We have taken 25 cruises, including Oceania, and 6 on Celebrity. We have booked the 7/11/08 in Insignia, and if possible will always choose Oceania first. We have found them 0% stuffy, and in fact, for the most part extremely nice down to earth passengers.

 

The smaller size of the ship makes a HUGE difference to us, as well as the dining options. While we always found Celebrity's staff to be excellent, I must say that Oceania's has been superb!

[Wineart]

I didn't find the other passengers on Regatta to be stuffy at all. If anything, it seemed like a very high number of them were very down to earth and cost conscious! Passengers dressed nicely for dinner, but I don't remember many high fashion designer outfits. I had no sense of the passengers flaunting their wealth.

 

However, I think I know what you're talking about in terms of stuffiness on some other lines. While on an Oceania excursion in Helsinki, a gentleman from another ship approached my husband and me, and within a very few minutes made sure that we understood that he was on Seabourn, and how much superior it (and by extension, its passengers) are! We knew much more about him within 5 minutes than we cared to, and would probably have been subjected to a much longer one-sided conversation had we not chosen to politely excuse ourselves and walk away.....

[tgg]

Wineart,

 

Just curious about the possibility of a voluntary bump. Could you tell us what you were offered by Oceania to take a bump? Had you booked your own air?

 

Thanks. Oh, re your experience with the passenger from Seabourn - I think what he really told you was how insecure he was. Of course he didn't know that's what he was doing- lol. I had what my husband called a one sided conversation with someone once. I called it listening to a monologue.

[Wineart]

We had not booked our own air, and my recollection was that the offer was not a great deal. It was a full refund, and a small discount on a future cruise. We didn't ask for a lot of details because we weren't interested in bumping.