Oceania makes Silverseas look great

[bearhall]

Our friends are just back from a Oceania cruise, they thought food was average at best, cabin service lousy,and basically total cruise over priced.

[Zimmy]

Interesting. We sail on both Silversea and Oceania, and while we consider Silversea to be a superior product, we have found the food on Oceania to be outstanding. The service on O is not equal to the service on Silversea, not even close, but it is equal or better to the service on any other upscale mass market line - which is what Oceania is. As far as pricing goes, I think it depends upon the particular cruise. If costs were equal, we would always opt for Silversea, but we have had cruises on O which were a good value.

[marycang]

Bearhall,

Did your friends tell Oceania about The "lousy cabin service"? For me, a cruise description has to describe what the service was or was not so I can decide if it is "lousy". I have no loyality to Oceania, I just think a complaint would be more informative if it were more descriptive.

[bearhall]

Marycang, Yes, my friends said that there was not clean glass wear for two days, no ice replacement, and no regular sevice until late in the day. They repeated their issues to management and finally received a new cabin steward.they were totally displeased with entire situation.

[cruiseyguy]

I would rather read first-hand reviews rather than what "friends" said. Did things for your friends improve with the new cabin steward?

[bearhall]

Cruiseyguy, I respect my friends opinions and to answer the question they said they would never sail Oceania again!

[meow!]

Mishaps can happen on any cruise line once in a while, and Oceania is also known to be a good cruise line. However, we did get the impression that the room cleaning staff were a little more efficient on Silversea -- in that on our Shadow voyage (seven days with four seadays Mexican Riviera), somehow our cabin was cleaned without our seeing the staff just in the space of lunch; while on the Regatta (fourteen days port intensive Mediterranean), we had from time to time left our cabin for a couple of hours without its being cleaned and had to wait outside some more. This was perhaps just a matter of passenger to crew ratio! We noticed that Oceania crew were jovial and worked just as hard if not harder!

[Signor John]

I've cruised on Oceania only once, but I had no complaints about the food or service. (In fact, the breakfast croissants were better than the ones on Silversea.) In terms of "hardware," Oceania's ships aren't remotely comparable with the SILVER ships, the overall atmosphere isn't as genteel, and passengers pay extra for things like drinks and bottled water. But then, Oceania isn't a luxury line, either, so why compare apples and oranges?

[sw18]

I would agree with Signor John in his post above.

 

Whilst the food on Oceania is excellent, there is little consistency in its delivery. We too have sailed on Oceania the one time in a PH cabin and had "Butler" service (he was excellent in his approach, but was still just a dedicated cabin steward..not a Butler). Early evening canapes in the cabin made me giggle - cold 9in pizza, cheese plates, fruit skewers - not really canapes.

 

Oceania have some very good crew members, most are adequate and the odd one dowright rude. Silversea, on the other hand, have many excellent crew, most are very good with a few adequate ones. To be fair though, O does have a few that are very willing to help but just don't have the training to be able to carry it off.

 

I would also say that Oceania is almost 100% geared to the US market, wheras SS are rather more cosmopolitan in their passenger mix.