ak1004

Very nice summary, thank you! Curious why SB and O are not on your short list?

We booked so far Vista GTY, in the two previous cruises got Superior veranda. I think both times the assignment happened around 2-3 weeks prior to sailing. We are now waiting for the assignment for our May 6 cruise. If we stay at Vista, it's perfectly fine. If veranda was a must have, we would book veranda in the first place. All cabins on SS are fabulous, so we don't mind booking the cheapest category and getting whatever they decide to give us.

But Crystal also includes drinks. And their prices are higher than SB and similar to SS while SS includes excursions.

We usually book C (OV) on Riviera/Marina and B5 (FV) on Vista. I'm sure many good itineraries were on sale too, it's just somehow never those that we booked.. also, the upgrade sale doesn't mean much to us since we don't care about veranda, and not likely being upgraded to PH.

Someone wrote on one of the topics that "Dinner on luxury lines doesn't mean a buffet." I'm not sure why a line like SS can have a casual Pizza place as one of the dinner options, but not a buffet, but this seems to be the case, based on our experience on SS and Crystal (and I believe Regent and SB also don't have dinner buffets). So if this is a deal breaker, then none of the "luxury" lines would be a good fit. We like to have an option of dinner buffet too, but not a deal breaker for us.

Yep, found it, thanks! I think two reasons to explain it in this case: First, longer cruises are typically cheaper per day (so 14 nights would be cheaper than 11, all other factors equal). Second (probably less impact) is that O cruise is on Vista, the newest ship, while SB is on a 13 years old ship. But yes, good find, and it proves once again that it's worth to shop around even if it seems like in general one line is significantly more expensive. Regent and Crystal are the only two lines where I was never able to find anything even close to O prices. So they are out of the picture at this point. To me, no cruise is worth $1,500 USD per couple per night. But I'm sure many people will disagree..

Would you mind sharing the itineraries and the cabin categories you compared? SB has some promotions on selected sailings, but I have never seen them being cheaper than O when comparing basic veranda cabins. btw, on all our 3 cruises with SS the price was almost the same as O even with the included excursions, so I wouldn't dismiss them.

Crystal is slightly more formal than O, but far from SS. They do have formal nights, but you have some venues where men still don't need jackets. Rest of the nights it's similar to O.

Yes. Also it depends on your preferences. The comparison is not exactly apples to apples because Regent includes drinks, gratuities and excursions. But even if you add all the inclusions, there is still a very significant price difference. Plus unlike SS and SB where the standard veranda is larger than O newer ships, this is not the case with Regent - standard veranda on the Grandeur and Splendor is actually smaller than O. So I'm not sure who is paying those prices when SS, SB and Regent are supposed to be in the same category. But I'm asking the same question about Crystal where prices start at $600 USD for 210 sqft OV cabin. And their ships are still 25+ years old even after the refurbishment.

I checked Regent several times. Their pricing doesn't make sense to me. 10 nights in Europe on the newer ships (Splendor and Grandeur) start around $800 USD per night (after air credit) and most sailings are close to $1,000 USD per night or more. O starts around $300-350 per night. I know it's not apples to apples comparison in terms of inclusions, but even SS has many sailings around $500-600 per night, and SB you can get even under $500. I don't think Regent is that much better than SB or SS to justify that kind of price.

But this has nothing to do with the OP. "For those who have ended up with usable "credits " either due to SE cancellations, or filled cruises are you ready to switch to another line?" This is what the OP was about, not the sales.

We book based on itinerary we like. We won't book a cruise just because it's on sale. Overall we find O prices very reasonable based on what you get. If an itinerary we want goes on sale, it's a bonus, but it never happened so far. I guess they put the least desirable itineraries on sale,

The whole whining about SM is really getting old. SM is a new reality now. Don't like it? There are plenty of other lines. When you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk.

I think we can all agree that the current situation is not very common. And even with all cruises cancelled now, it is still a very small percentage of the total number of cruises. But sure, if you want to overpay tens of thousands just for the piece of mind that one of the cruises might be cancelled and you will have a hassle of filing an insurance claim, go ahead. The reason cruise lines charge those prices is exactly because people are willing to pay them..

Well, this might be true in some cases. However, how often cruises get cancelled? Are you really willing to overpay tens of thousands of dollars over the years for a slim chance that one of your cruises gets cancelled and you will have to go through "an arduous, frustrating and protracted process", but at the end you will most likely get your money back.

We are doing our first SB cruise in September, so cannot comment on SB. As for O vs SS - I posted a comparison post To me the main differences are: SS is more inclusive, have better cabins and butler in each cabin. If those things are important, SS has an edge. For people like us who don't drink and prefer booking private tours, O is a better value, but we will gladly sail on both given the right itinerary and price. O newer ships are ~1,200 guests, but never feel crowded. Service is excellent on both in my opinion, food slightly better on O (again, my opinion only).

Well, hotels can be booked with refundable fares which are typically 5-10% higher but still significantly lower than SS fares. Tours are typically fully refundable. Flights can be more complicated, but most flights typically have only few hundred dollars fine if cancelled, and you can recover them from the insurance. Still doesn't justify paying thousands more for the "convenience".

I guess it's the same with flights and ship excursions..

For our upcoming cruise from Venice, we asked SS to quote is a hotel. They gave us a quote of $2,500 USD for 2 nights at Monaco & Grand Canal, right? Booking independently was $1,500 USD for 2 nights. In some cases people reported that SS quoted them price per person which was the same as booking independently PER ROOM, so the price was basically double. So please help me to understand: why would anyone book a hotel via SS (unless of course it's included in the price)??

This looks like a repetitive motive. On our last cruise on the Dawn, they ran out of Perrier, Pellegrino and all diet drinks. Also ran out of butter for 3 days on the previous cruise on the Spirit and few other basic items.

Regarding SS air - it could be hit or miss. We got a great deal for business class upgrade via SS, also got direct flights - till we asked to fly 2 days early, and they requested almost $1,000 USD per person. Same flights, just 2 days earlier, one direction only. We took air credit and booked our own flights. Just something to consider.

Hank, when comparing SS with O newer ships, we didn't feel much difference in terms of space. While "on paper" SS is better (1:68 compared to 1:62), remember that average cabin on SS is around 25% larger, so some of the space difference is offset by more space in the cabins, and public areas don't feel more crowded on O (again, this applies only to O class ships). But I agree about $500 or less on SB or SS, this would be great value! Unfortunately those deals become much more difficult to find (except for the Caribbean). Agree 100%. For us SS archaic dress code is a big drawdown, but not a deal breaker since we sail mostly for the ports and can handle the dress code. But we still like the O food better.

Happens on all lines. SS notified us on cancellation of Qatar 7 weeks before the cruise when they knew about the ban 7 months in advance. People have lost thousands on non refundable tickets to the World Cup.

I think you nailed it. When people are treated as adults, communicated with well reasoned explanations and not some BS, and/or given some compensation, they are much less likely to complain. Now, to me the real question is: is O really missing ports more than other lines? Or it's mainly a communication/compensation issue? It it's the former, then it's a real concern, and despite great ship experience, would be a deal breaker for us (like you, we travel to see the world, not to be on the ship). If it's the latter, then to me it's just an annoyance. No lie is perfect, but I would still prefer to sail on a line that provides great ship experience and great itineraries, but doesn't communicate well.

Just did (and my email is in my signature too).