rbtan

I think Reserve Class on the Sun will be more akin to Laminae on Celebrity. I hope

Bridge yes. Bingo? Not sure.

If you've not sailed a smaller more intimate ship that has no:Annoying photographers taking your picture at every opportunity(yes, it's a revenue enhancer)garbage & worthless(and they are) art sales(again revenue)Annoying announcements on the "Inch of Gold" for sale & other worthless trinkets.The inability to get into a lot of ports due to size. So exactly what ARE the Sphere class amenities? I'll be answering Voljeep's usual comments as well as to why do we sail Princess at times & not just Oceania. We did not like Oceania's "Save the Seas" load of crap. It is not that environmentally different. Instead we got into several ports at 10-12 in the morning meaning less time in the ports.

Hopefully the food will be better. If not for the rather poor quality food we'd cruise Princess much more. Mostly we cruise Oceania for the food & none of the useless stuff(photographers/constant stupid announcements, etc)that one sees on Princess & similar lines.

We booked for late Jan.2025. We chose a Cabana Reserve cabin. Interesting layout. You have a cabana room attached to the cabin & can go through a door to your balcony as well.I like the fact that the Reserve class has its own restaurant. This is something that we have wanted for years. Nice to see Princess offering this to those in better accommodations. We hope the food offered will be better than the MDR, considering the higher fee paid for the better cabin.

We never bid. We just book the cabin we want. On Oceania they do have a upgrades available(if the ship is not fully booked) We went from a Ocean view to a concierge for $600 total.They give you a price & you either accept it or not.

We did a Hawaii cruise from San Diego in 2020(just as the bhg was starting) This was late Jan. The Aleutian current is really quite cold. I hate the cold air but my spouse was in Sanctuary every sea day all bundled up & loving it.Food& service were great & he pretty much had the whole place to himself.

We always do our own laundry. You just have to hand back while the dryer is going to avoid "cooking" some clothes. On Oceania there are NO tokens. You get your detergent set the washer pour in detergent & are good to go. Dryers are low-high in temp.We find medium is plenty warm to fully dry.

This is a bit off topic, but fun. Next time you see one of those panhandlers at a street corner. Look at the shoes.I've seen some who had shoes that were designer. Saw this one guy who had a Klein for his bicycle. I mean seriously a Klein?

Basically(I'm sure not to be the only one opining) The schtick is "Country Club Casual" Pretty much this means Nice pants(avoid the jeans if possible. If not make sure they are neat) Nice pressed Docker type Khakis are fine with decent shoes. We do Sperry Topsider types.Nice shirts. these can be Hawaiian(I like Tommy Bahama as they don't look like the cheapo Walmart stuff) Polo style such as Ralph Lauren. If you like long sleeve is fine. Many pack a sport coat. It's not required but quite a few men wear them in the specialty rest.On our Jan. cruise on Riviera we were surprised how many men wore suits. It was our 4th O cruise & pax for the most part really went all out. No idea why.It runs warm on Riviera so suits would be too warm for us. A good idea is to check youtube videos on O ships. They will give you an idea of dress. Ignore "Cruise Line" based videos. You want to see home made videos.Shorts are NOT permitted at night in restaurants except Terrace. Do try Terrace at least once. The food can really surprise you in its quality.Simply dress as you would going out to a nice restaurant(but not like you're entertaining business clients)

Basically, look at what you're interested in. Do you like big ships with photographers/lousy art sales/mediocre food/countless intrusive announcements on the latest belly flop contests/crappy low quality jewelry & other nik knacks? if so then Oceania is not for you. If you like interesting speakers/ good to outstanding food/quiet relaxation then a line like Oceania might be a nice change.It's all up to you.

I would keep it. This happened with us on Cunard in 2012. The cabin was nearly 400 sq. ft. compared to 260 sq ft. If they need it you will be moved.

No annoying photographers? No useless cheap things to buy in the sidewalk sales(like cheap watches & stuff)? Then again our last Princess trip was at the beginning of the pandemic. Quite a few pax with the Flu(or so we were told, uh huh, yeah right)

I'll leave the dress code stuff to the usual naysayers. The food in Princess is pretty subjective. If you're gourmet like us(after all we're in the food industry) You'll cruise Princess for the excursions & itineraries & not the food.Having an Ultimate Balcony dinner we know how capable Princess can be. For those of us in the suites & Reserve mini suites(Club Class) this IS what we should be getting for the much higher price than standard cabins. All we get are larger rooms & priority boarding. What we do to compensate is order items from Crown Grill or Sabatini's. Those restaurants still don't hold a candle to the specialties on lines such as Celebrity. Either way we do get better quality without having to pay full admission to those spots. For quality food this is the reason we cruise Oceania most of all. The largest amount of new pax we've met on board are former Princess cruisers who have tired of the trashy art sales/intrusive photographers/crappy sidewalk sales of really trashy junk. Still however, we love the staff who really try their best to please & whose kindness & politeness are the best of ANY line we've cruised. We cruise once a year. Usually at least 14 days. Normally we do about 3 cruises on Oceania & one on Princess. I'm really waiting to see if the new Sunclass is willing to up their game.There really needs to be a restaurant dedicated to those in higher accommodations like on Celebrity/MSC/NCL/Cunard.

Two days? I thought this was Oceania not Princess LOL! Also I'm pretty sure you can have other sprits as well.

The ready time is close to the same as Concierge.I did say the cabins are bigger. Perhaps I should have said 420ft.v/s 290ft. but I felt "everyone" knew there are big differences in size.The bathrooms are bigger, but not all have been "updated"(at least at the time of our cruise). To my knowledge the suites/cabins are guaranteed at least one seating in the specialties & that the earlier time to reserve is true. We had no trouble booking multiple times in an restaurant on board. The times were not always our favorite.The bigger suites get better reservetime than the PH suites as well.

The Penthouse suites on the Marina/Riviera are about 440 sq. ft. The space on the Oceania suites is simply the thing that stands out.Bigger everything. The only thing that separates the Penthouses is the fact you get Butler service/Executive lounge access.. Other than that they offer about the same amenities as Concierge cabins.

It used to be held by Apollo holdings. They then decided to sell off the company. Like it or not NCL is still considered the parent. Just as RCCL is the parent of RCCL & Celebrity( I think Azamara is or will be sold off) Carnival is the big one Think of them like General Motors: Carnival(Chevrolet) HAL(Buick or Oldsmobile)Aida(Volkswagen) P&O(Holden) Princess(Pontiac) Costa cruises(Fiat). Cunard is different as they cover standard(Britannia) to full luxury(Princess & Queens Grill, which still are our favorites) NCL holdings has done a much better job than the other big companies in keeping their divisions much more independent. Carnival has made a lot of accommodations on Princess/HAL/Cunard much more similar than different over the last several years.

For those who feel O is too gourmet. That is a big reason we love this line. Yes, not every dish is a homerun(as I said earlier)but most certainly are. I hate saying it but if you are "Meat & Potatoes" kind of person, then O may not be the line for you. Each line has it's Schtick as they say. O's is the "finest cuisine at sea". Is it? NO I leave that to the 2 Europa ships. They that honor. Then again they are among the priciest ships at sea. We'll sea how that goes as Hapag-Lloyd is trying to sell it's cruise division & stick to shipping.Perhaps O should try & buy it should it actually go on the market. I see some have tried to compare O to it's parent NCL. This is NOT a good comparison unless you're comparing to the Haven. The food on NCL (except Haven & specialties) is generally pretty unmemorable. The ship sizes & entertainment are also not the same. NCL is standard big ship marketing. Even Regent is not a good comparison as it's true high luxury with a much higher price overall. Reading blogs from Regents site, I'd say the food on O is somewhat better. O does in fact spend more on food per pax than any other line.

Not every meal on O is a hit out of the park.During our Jan. Trip while In Polo, Keith had the worst Oysters Rockefeller he ever had. Normally you have the oyster covered in a nice Spinach, possibly some light cheese & flavored with Pernod His was dry with a dry cheese covering on top. We think they "grind" up the Oysters & put the topping on. Really awful, but likely done as the Oysters start out raw & are then cooked. There was really no trace of Oyster to be had. Luckily the entree' was fine. For me it was Wiener Schnitzel in Grand Diningroom. It was pounded way too thin & tough as nails. For those in Toscana, we generally advise to avoid the Suckling Pig. It's really just Pork Belly that can also be tough as nails if over cooked a tad.That being said the Dover Sole we find to be best in Toscana, though this time it was truly outstanding in the GDR.Compared to the other lines only the Queens Grill on the QM2 compares with the quality of Oceania, but as was mentioned we're done with Tuxes now.

Those of us in 2 tops do not expect quicker service & you're rather disingenuous to suggest that. We choose 2 tops for two reasons..One: Being a gay couple, we have experienced rather unfriendly tablemates. Sorry, but it DOES happen. Two: We're foodies. I would expect this on O, but have seen a number of "Meat & Potato" pax in dining rooms. We start with a cold App, next a hot App. perhaps a salad, then the entree'. It's nothing for us to spend over 2 hours at a table. I'd rather not hold up a table where the Pax may have 1 App. or perhaps just an entree'. The servers do try to serve everyone at the same table at as close to the same time as possible. We find Le Reserve to be the best place to share a table.

Your reasons are why we choose O more than other lines. We're 60 & 68(closing in on the older demographic) That laid back experience just doesn't get much better.

We prefer the larger O ships Riviera & Marina. They seem to be run a little better than the smaller ships.

Neither of us wear jeans on board. That being said as long as they are not torn or have holes you should be fine, A pair of nice black jeans & white shirt( with or not with a vest & or tie) would look fine & cover you well for formal nights