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.

Bill, thanks for writing and posting this review. I appreciate your balanced comments and it gives a great idea of exactly what to expect on Oceania.

Dena

Thank you Bill.
We follow Oceania itineries and always have interest, but the over pricing for drinks, wine, and excursions always seem to come up in everyone's reports.

Bill,
I read your report with interest!
We have not cruised on Oceania, but feel, we would consider doing so, given right itinerary, price, etc.
Thanks for your honest and detailed review!

This review is the best that I have read in many years. The opinions expressed are those of a well travelled person who is a constant observer with an open mind. Congratulations !
I first met Radissons when our Renaissance cruise was cancelled due to bankruptcy. Since then, we have taken 4 Voyagers and 4 Mariners, and 2 Silver seas. My primary search is the itinerary. Always looking for new, usually small,ports. Oceania fit the bill.
I started reading reviews from an Oceania board and both I and my wife decided against booking, even though the ports were favorable to us. The disadvantages outweighed the advantages, in our opinion, especially since we have been spoilt by Regent and Sevensea. We consider a balcony as a necessity, again, our opinion, and we enjoy our cocktails and wine !
Reading about excursions and lectures and boutiques, my head continued nodding in total agreement. You have hit the proverbial nail on the head. Perhaps Regent will do more research and come up with new itineraries instead of the old standbys.
Our next cruise on SS Wind docks in Sardinia, Corsica and Cassis (France), for example. The Croatian ports are excellent, and so on.
Thank you, again, for the review.

I agree with others. What a great review. Very balanced.

Our friends who joined us on Navigator in December chose to try Oceania next month. We will also try them next year. I think that Regent's pricing and lack of new itineraries will hurt them as folks switch to other lines to find new and interesting ports. Cassis would be wonderful, for example.

I have also heard that Seabourn is wonderful but have not known anyone who has tried them.

Thanks much for an excellent review, Bill!

Nancy and Bill,I have also done the same cruise and agree with most of what you said. The trivia pursuit was the largest, most fun of the SSS and Crystal trivias. However, I found Oceania food was tastier than SSS and Crystal,and they are both excellent. The nickle and diming was more in keeping with mass marketing cruises, and the bar prices were a wee bit on the high side.However when I requested they empty the mini bar fridge they did so.That way we were able to keep our Grey Goose chilled,however they wouldn't wash our martini gasses out!! We had to do it ourselves!!--Sooo difficult(just joking). Would we sail again? Yes in a nano second,it was a very relaxing cruise. however Crystal and SSS remain my first loves.

Bill..Thanks for confirming what I have said for ages..what a great review....being a "die-hard" O fan..my love of the R ships being the real reason..I have always said they are the most beautiful ships at sea.. and when Regatta gets out of dry dock for her refurbishing and redecorating she will be as beautiful as her sister ships.

Wow, what a great review, Bill! Every time I start thinking about Oceania, I read about their beverage policies, etc., and it turns me off. The thing about the robes sounds fairly insulting.

But, I'm going to continue doing my research for 2008, since I too am looking for value and interesting itineraries.

Since you were drinking expensive wines, perhaps you don't know, but were there decent mid-range wines as well? Beer?

Maybe we should start a thread on the 2008 RSSC itineraries, in case there's still active planning going on.

Bill so nice to hear from and as always you give a fabulous, clear and unbiased report. Always nice to have you post.

Neviboy I have not seen the schedules yet but understand through the grapevine that there will be quite a few new ports of calls added to many itineraries for 2008 that have not been visited by Regent before. So I wait with baited breath to see the changes. I hope the rumor mill is correct. Some new interesting itineraries for the Navigator may also be coming. They do keep these things quiet until released to everyone (and rightly so) but hopefully since it seems something is pretty close to being finished we may have it all within a month. Just a guess.

That was a very well written and helpful review! I have been very curious about the Oceania experience and it is nice to read more about it.

Bill, we too found your review most helpful. We love Regent but we've been looking with interest at the O itineraries. Here is a question. When we do our R & O price comparison, we compare R's lowest standard cabin price with O's lowest Penthouse Suite price. We then assume we will be spending about $100 per person per day more on O to cover the tips and beverages included in the R price. We party a lot when we cruise and wind up purchasing three or four cocktails a day each as well as moderately priced wine with meals. Does this math make sense to you? Also, what is the O norm with respect to tipping?

Patrick

Hey Patrick, nice to see you posting, and that you're doing the R&O comparison as well! I've been told over at CC that we shouldn't consider anything less than a PH because we've been spoiled by R, so that's what I've been thinking in terms of. But I kind of wonder what a Concierge-level balcony suite would be like--I know it would be smaller than the PG basic cabin, but wonder how bad it would really be. The real pain might be the lack of mini-fridge.

Island Cruiser, I did the same math but forgot the final analysis. What was your comparison amount ? The issue still remains, though. The nuisance factor of the disadvantages stated in the review, regardless of the costs.
Ngaire, years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Conroy and I discussed the feasibility of staying overnight in those ports which had a variety of important excursions. Sorrento for Capri, the Amalfi and Pompeii. And others. Are they thinking of this ?

As always, well thought out and well written, Bill. Thanks for your review!

Masaki

I agree, Masaki! I admire that Bill reaches out and explores other lines. I am too stuck on Regent, I know. Loved my one Shadow Silver Sea cruise, just waiting for those new ships for Seabourn. Now that's going to be an event!

Looking for same answer....

Well, I am looking forward to my O Cruise in June. I did do a price comparison of the WAVE Itin with the O and before we sailed, the cost without tips and beverages was higher than the RSSC. That being said, I perceive that the Regent prices are up. Comparing fare cost of the Greek Isles, Istanbul and Croatia was higher for the PH with butler on Nautica than the standard G or H on Voyager. And while we paid for the upgrade, I cannot complain about the price, but, I can tell you I really, really miss my travel agent.

Hi Patrick and Joanna--

Gratuities are $11.50 a day per person w/o butler and $15.00 a day with. They are automatically added to your account but can be adjusted at the end of the cruise. I don't think many people decrease these amounts but quite a few add to these amounts. There is an automatic tip of 18% added on all drink purchases (soda, wine and mixed drinks). Oceania is very accomodating in terms of bringing your own libations aboard for consumption in your cabin. Wine may be brought into the dining room where a $20 (I think) corkage fee applies.

As to how to make a price comparison between two similar itineraries just remember that the lowest cabin on Oceania is 160 sq feet or so while on Voyager its about 316 sq feet or so. If you wish to compare equal size cabins you would have to move up to a Penthouse on Oceania.

As far as how much to allocate per diem for extras, this of course is directly related to the number of excursions you take, the amount you drink during the day, your choice in wines at dinner and the frequency that you order, email access, laundry if you send it out, and any other incidentals. But if you assume:

Gratuities: 11.50 per day (no butler)x2= $23.00
Alc. beverages average 7 a dayx$7.50 ea= $52.50
($7.50 per drink is an average, most drinks are $7, $8 or $9 depending on brand and drink)
Gratutites on Beverages= $ 9.45

Email access is slow and expensive.
Laundry charges are comparable to other ships.
The markup on wine is fairly typical for low and moderately priced wine.

I think $100 per day would be a low estimate given Patrick's stated incidendals.

Best regards--
Bill

Great review Bill, glad you and Nancy enjoyed your "O" cruise. We too enjoyed ours last year, and had a PH suite as well, and I definitely would not do a lower level, as I toured a couple of them and they are small. Some of our impressions were much the same as yours, but overall I'd cruise them again without any hesitation, given the right itinerary.

Thanks Bill - I enjoyed reading your review -

Very interesting review, Bill, and the price comparisons also. We haven't cruised enough to have considered any line except RSSC seriously, but we hear good things about Oceania. Some friends of ours just returned from your very cruise -- you probably played trivia with them! -- and their early report is positive also.

We loved Oceania! We were on the Insignia from Barcelona to Istanbul. That ship IS BEAUTIFUL. The library is so warm, large and place you really enjoy being in. We liked the "no formal" nights. Since packing has to lighten up for the airlines, it saves quite a bit of weight. The staff was wonderful. The beds, bedding and pillows are the best we have ever had on any cruiseline or hotel. We are taking another Regent cruise in September but Oceania doesn't have the itinerary we want. Both are wonderful. Even the river Cruise we took last fall from Budapest to Amsterdam was very very nice. But, I guess we are easy to please. Try Oceania at least once! :D

Thanks for such a terrific review! I printed it out and filed it away for later reference. There are some amazing Oceania itineraries but for my husband and I, they don't work that well since they are generally 10+ days. At this point in our lives, 7-day cruises with a pre- and post- excursion is about all we can make time for.

Andrea