ak1004

We didn't do SB yet, but I agree that SS service can be inconsistent. And with the recent price increase, I don't find value in SS anymore. However, we enjoy Oceania very much, and can book it around $400. I find food on O excellent and service very good too. To me there was nothing on SS or Crystal that made them more luxurious than O when we look at things that are important to us. Crystal might feel like family if you did dozens of cruises on their ships, know the crew and they know you. On our cruise on C in 2019 we felt like outsiders. Doesn't mean the service wasn't good, on the contrary. But part of the family? Not really, at least this was not our feeling. To some people it's worth the extra cost. To others it's not. Especially if you sail for destinations and not see the ship as a destination.

Great to hear! Your experience puts our recent experience on SS to shame.

Yes, I'm well aware of it. But for those bigger cabins, the prices are even crazier. I just looked at few sailings for summer 2025. SB has many sailings around $500-550 USD per night. Crystal starts around $600-650 for standard OV room (210 sqft) while AQUAMARINE suites (323 sqft) are around $900. To me, those prices are crazy. I don't mind being in a 210 sqft room, but the price should reflect it. I would try Crystal even if the price was similar to entry level cabin on SB, but paying 20-25% more for a smaller cabin on a much older ship just doesn't make sense to me.

We were on the old Crystal. From what I read, the new Crystal is similar. We enjoyed the OC very much, but I find the current pricing of the NC not competitive at all. The ships are still over 25 years old, and the cabins are still small. Not a big factor for us if the price was competitive, but paying 20-25% more for a 210 sqft cabin on a 25 years old ship is just not my definition of value.

You don't need to ass passengers. In fact, you can even invite friends to ride with you (in theory) as long as the total number does not exceed the specified capacity. We got one link to because I specified the same email for me and my wife. But it has 2 rides per direction, so we used the second ride to book airport-port (and wise versa).

While the new showers on Riviera are really nice, the old ones were perfectly fine too (which I cannot say about R ships). And some people actually like tubs. So personally I don't see this as an issue at all.

I completely agree about Marseille. Doesn't feel like France anymore..

We were able to book Airport- ship and ship- airport with Blacklane.

I would sign on every word that you said. This was exactly our conclusion. The problem is that for 2025, SS priced itself out of the market. In 2023/2024 you could find a fair amount of SS sailings with prices comparable or only slightly higher than O, but this is not the case anymore.

Well, for those of us who live in North America and book cruises to Europe/Asia, flights will definitely be more expensive if booked 3-4 months in advance, especially for business class. And if you book with points (like we do), then the best deals are when the flights are just released (usually a year in advance). So 3-4 months won't work for us, and if they caught better deals on the cruise, most likely this was offset by air prices (unless you don't have to fly too far). Makes sense, and this is why they published till June 2026. But I hope they don't wait till September to release rest of the first half of 2026.

I understand why they would not release September 2026 now, but why not full schedule for the first half of 2026? We usually book 2 years in advance. We are currently looking at May-June 2026. If they don’t release them till September-October, and other lines like Seabourn, Windstar, Explora etc release a good itinerary at reasonable price in the next 2-3 months, we will book them instead of O.

I posted a comparison a while ago: If PH price is similar, I would go with O. You get more perks, larger cabin, better food, comparable service. Especially considering you don't drink much, so included alcohol on SS is not a factor.

All valid points. I don't disagree. The ratio is far from perfect, but I think it is still a pretty good estimate. As an example, QM2 has a ratio of 55, and indeed it felt the least crowded of all mass market ships. The difference between 44 and 52 is pretty significant to be ignored even considering all other factors you mentioned, and to me, Regatta did feel slightly more crowded than Riviera. And if you compare Regatta with 30,000 ton and 700 guests to ships like Silver Dawn or Silver Spirit that have 40,000 ton and 600 guests, the difference is very significant, despite SS cabins being almost double in size.

Money aside, on R ships, we would go to PH (regular cabins are just a bit smaller than our comfort level). On O ships (and Vista), regular cabins are very nice size, no need for PH only to get more space (at least for us), but other perks are nice if you use them. Always better to be young, handsome, rich and healthy than old, ugly, poor and sick, so if you can afford PH, why not?

I just checked price of June 2026 cruise on Vista similar to cruise we are booked for June 2025. 12 nights from London to London in June 2025 starts at $6,699 CAD. Similar cruise in June 2026 (Barcelona to London) starts at $6,949, 3.7% increase. I believe the increase is higher at most other lines.