There appears to be considerable interest in Oceania Cruises coming from multiple directions: first, from the regular cruisers of the mass market lines who are seeking a more upscale experience on a smaller ship and second, from the cruisers of the luxury segment (RSSC in particular) seeking greater diversity in itineraries or perceived greater value for their cruising dollars. In terms of itineraries, it should be noted that despite the healthy growth which the industry overall is experiencing, the luxury segment has significantly shrunk in terms of ships and berths the last several years with the departure of Crystal’s Harmony and RSSC’s Diamond. Fewer ships translate into fewer and less diverse itineraries.

We just completed a 16 day Los Angeles to Miami Panama Canal Cruise on Oceania’s Regatta and thought we would share our thoughts on how Oceania fits in with the more established luxury and mass market lines based on our Regatta experience. Our reason for booking Oceania cruise was a lack of appealing itineraries on Crystal or RSSC at the time we wanted to cruise. (previous lines sailed include RSSC, Crystal, Celebrity, HAL, RCL and Princess.)

I guess the most basic question is “would we cruise on Oceania again?” and the answer is certainly yes. But if RSSC and Oceania were doing identical itineraries, even given the cruise fare differential between the two, we would choose RSSC over Oceania for the reasons explained below.

The Ship: The 684 passenger Regatta (the Nautica and Insignia are identical) is now our favorite ship afloat. (Move over Mariner.) Extremely classy in every way. Someone once wrote “it reminds you of a luxury country hotel in England” which is probably the best way I could describe the furnishings and ambience. EVERY public room is beautiful and the dining room is the quietest of any we’ve been in. The library is extensive as well as beautiful and is open 24/7 with no sign out procedures.
-Pool area: Spacious with cushioned (with terry covers) teak chairs
-Alternate dinner dining; Two beautiful restaurants, Polo (steak, chops, seafood) and Toscana (classic Italian). Also available is Tapas, a buffet style offering in the Terrace café.

Cabins: We were in a Penthouse suite (I think 323 square feet including balcony). Only the Vista and Owner’s suites are bigger but with only ten of these being available, they are hard to get since they go VERY quickly. While the cabin is well appointed, only the Concierge, Penthouse, Vista and Owner’s cabins have mini fridges which is unusual for and a minus for an upscale/luxury line. The Penthouse cabins are not particularly laid out well (perhaps the layout will be improved upon in the April dry dock). The location of the TV is a bit of a problem in that it can not be conveniently viewed from the couch nor is it easily viewable from bed unless you pull out the TV and swivel the TV appropriately. If you fail to push it back before retiring and the person sleeping closest to the wall gets up during the night he/she will undoubtedly be rewarded with a serious bump or gash on the head. (It happened twice to me.) There is no curtain dividing the sleeping area from the living area which to us is a minor negative. However, a very major positive is the quality of the bedding. The beds/sheets/etc. are the most comfortable we’ve ever enjoyed on any ship. One additional negative to the Penthouse cabins which may or may not apply to other cabin categories is the height of the shower ceiling. My guess is that the height here is only 6’2” which was the same problem Mariner had before refitting their tubs.

The balance of the other categories of cabins (inside, outside with window, and balconied cabins) are much smaller, roughly 160 to 220 square feet. Whether some people view the smallish dimensions of these cabins to be inconsistent with a more upscale or luxury cruise experience like RSSC is a personal call. However, they do offer great value for your cruising dollar considering the quality of cuisine and service on Oceania.

Crew Attitude: The best of any ship (including RSSC which is no slouch in this area either) we’ve ever been on. Very personable, happy and helpful.

Cuisine (Main Dining Room); Oceania boasts it has the best food at sea. Wellllll… it sometimes has better food than Crystal and RSSC but most of the time it falls a bit short of RSSC and Crystal, and on occasion, considerably short. The food is more inconsistent than on RSSC and Crystal, sometimes outrageously good w/o equal and sometimes not.
The Soups are the best we’ve ever had, salads so-so, entres either excellent or very good, bread and pastries are excellent. The fresh berries cannot be beat…

Cuisine in Polo’s: Excellent 28 day dry aged Prime beef, excellent chops. We can’t recommend the tuna because there is just no way you can cook a thin tuna steak perfectly. Best crab cakes appetizer we’ve had in ANY restaurant.

Cuisine in Toscana’s: Quite good classical Italian fare. Excellent, polished service in both alternative restaurants.

Overall Service: Excellent throughout the ship with some inexplicable lapses. This was the first time we had to speak to a maitre’ d about service related issues in the main dining room. They were quickly and professionally resolved.

Now for some negatives:

Future Oceania cruisers should realize that just about everything is a la carte. Bottled water, you pay.

Excursions are over priced. Example: Deep sea fishing was $795 (per boat) in Cabo for a 30 foot boat. My wife and I chartered one in Acapulco for $382 total (same number of hours) and it was a 50 foot Bertram. That’s quite a mark-up.

Wines: Look, I don’t mind paying a reasonable mark-up but I don’t understand the very high initial prices on ultra premium wines which are reduced significantly on the FOURTH day if you purchase a selection of two or three wines. Why not price them fairly from the get-go? BTW, these wines are “cellar selections” which range in price from $100 to $300 a bottle. These are no packages for less expensive wines. Their pricing/discounting just makes no sense to me. Why price a Chateau Beycheville at $258 a bottle intitially only to reduce it considerably IF you buy another 1 to 2 bottles from the cellar selection? Just seems a little tacky to me. So glad I racked up $100 more for the same wines I purchased the first two/three days of the cruise.

Enrichment Lectures: The practice of presenting enrichment lecturers who are affiliated with the boutiques is so mass market tacky that this practice should be stopped immediately. A completely unbiased expert speaking on emeralds would have been far better than having someone affiliated with Boutiques International hawking his 1.6 million dollar of overpriced (MHO) in the boutique. (This cruise stopped in Cartagena, Columbia.) Same was true for the lecturer on the history of timepieces and wristwatches, the latter of course being available in the boutique. Foolish me, I always thought that ALL enrichment lectures were designed to enrich me and not the cruise line. The other enrichment lecturers ranged from being okay to good.

Drink prices: Expensive. Grey Goose vodka was $8.00 a drink, meaning an honest shot but not much more. We usually drank Skyy vodka at $9.00 a drink. This is really surprising in that a 1.75 liter bottle of Skyy vodka costs us $20.95. If you have a double, you’ve pretty much paid for the entire bottle. Yes, they do have daily specials, e.g. bloodies mimosas etc at $4.50

Announcements: Announcements are given 4-5 times a day and are heard in all public areas only. The cruise director (Leslie Jon was the absolute best CD we’ve ever had in 28 cruises) gives a morning report highlighting the day’s activities, the captain does his noon thing, and there is a sprinkling of others touting art auctions, etc. throughout the day. I think that Oceania would be best served by limiting these announcements as they are not consistent with a luxury/near luxury cruise experience IMHO.

Other minor annoyances: When you order a beverage at dinner, when the check comes the server waits/hovers over you until you sign it which can stop a convivial conversation in its tracks. Unlike other lines they don’t leave it for you to sign later. I got the distinct impression that O is afraid that passengers, due to open seating, will “bolt” w/o signing. Also, in Currents they stated they would be collecting all robes the evening prior to departure which is exactly when you need them most. Is theft of robes by a select few worth inconveniencing all passengers? Is the assumption here is that we are dishonest or do they just place an inordinate amount of emphasis on reducing shrinkage?

In summary, Oceania is a very new line being only three years old. Its business model is based more on the mass market business model (charge less for fares but make the majority of your per diem income through ancillary services) than the luxury segment business model. However, the cuisine and service overall are quite good and well above the mass market lines just not quite the equal of the luxury lines. It is easy to understand why Oceania has attracted a large and loyal following from the mass market cruisers moving “up”. It remains to be seen whether they will be able to regularly attract cruisers from the luxury segment unless certain small but important changes are made and overall consistency is improved.

I apologize for the long post but hope that some of you find it useful—

Any additional questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Best regards—
Bill

PS: "FOR FUTURE REFERENCE...." Team trivia was the most competitive and well attended of any ship we've been on. Leslie Jon (CD) did an outstanding job here. There were typically 10-11 teams of ten people every day. It was so hysterically funny (due to Leslie) that there 50-75 people in the audience watching the game.