ak1004

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.

Good to know. But even first half seems not complete. For example, Marina sailings show till Apr.28 only. Allura till May 7.

Hank, thank you again for your reports, highly appreciated! Our first O cruise was in 2018, and then 3 more post Covid. Personally, I didn't notice any difference in food quality, but obviously this is a small sample. We haven't been on EJ yet, but I consider O food better than SS, Azamara and Old Crystal (and I don't even mention mass market lines non suite dining venues). As for entertainment - this is really typical for O, and to be honest, for port intensive itineraries, we don't really care, we are too tired and go to bed after the shows anyway. How is it on Seabourn?

This was our impression too. O class has space to passenger ratio of 52, O class 44. Numbers don't lie. And the new ships will have ratio of 61, the highest in its class and almost as high as most luxury ships. In terms of number of passengers, I doubt anyone will even notice the difference between 1,250 and 1,400, but I'm sure it will feel more spacious.

I could never understand how dress code is related to luxury experience. According to this statement, Cunard is much more luxury than Regent or Seabourn..

We found the service at breakfast in La Terrazza very inconsistent. It was consistently inconsistent on both our SS cruises, the Dawn and the Spirit. The idea of ordering some items like omelet from a waiter instead of standing in line is good, but the implementation is terrible. Sometimes we waited 15-20 minutes for some of those items. Also many times I had to wait a long time for Perrier (it was almost like they have to bring it from another ship), so at some point I gave up and just settled for their "in house" soda, which is pretty bad compared to Perrier. Around mid cruise they ran out of Perrier and Pellegrino anyway.. I was very surprised to experience such basic service issues on an ultra luxury line.

No 3 nights.

We booked a hotel in Barcelona for May 2020 at $1,210 CAD. Today the same hotel for the same period is $1,950. That's a 60% increase. Business class flight with Air Canada to Europe was around $3,500 CAD before Covid. Today you will be lucky to find a light to any European destination for less than $5,500-6,000. Do they take their customers for granted? This is just the new reality. When you compare cruise prices with comparable land tours, cruises still win, big time, if you compare apples to apples. So price wise, I don't think there is a better value than a cruise.

I suspect we will see similar increases on all lines not just O. Check out current Celebrity prices on the new ships.

We did 2 land tours with Gate1. While it does have its advantages, but packing/unpacking every 2-3 days plus spending 3-5 hours driving every other day more or less is just not our cup of tea. There are always cruises with extended stays, overnights etc. that allow you to deep diving. And if we really like a place - we just come back and see it from a different angle. While we don't drink and prefer private tours, SM doesn't really change the big picture for us. We still like O, but we also try other lines. We also check river cruises.

The itineraries are out, looks like a very partial release. Only up to June 2026, and very few itineraries in Europe.

I understand what edible is. To me, most meals on O are between very good and excellent, with some rare exceptions. Definitely much better than just "edible". Edible to me is Mcdonald's or fast food in a mall.

In our case, each one of the 4 rides could be booked with business car (3 people, 3 suitcases) or business van (5 people, 5 suitcases) at no extra cost.

Actually what we found out is kind of interesting. When I created a Blacklane account, I found 4 (four) transfers. I contacted Blacklane and they explained that each guest is eligible to their own transfer, so the transfer are not per cabin but per guest. So we have 2 pre cruise transfers and 2 post cruise transfers, and they can be use for any ride that is less than 80 km (50 miles), not limited to home to home airport. So even after we took air credit and not using SS flights, we can still use one of the transfers for port to airport ride. In fact, we can use those transfers to any ride (up to 80km) up to 30 days pre cruise and 30 days post cruise, even if the ride is completely unrelated to the cruise..

The current trend is to build larger ships, even on luxury lines. SS moved from 400 guests to 600 and now to 728. 1,400 is a bit high for us, but the difference between 1,250 and 1,400 is not that significant. Considering that the bump is 12% but the ships will be larger by 30%, it means they should actually feel less crowded, with more public areas (maybe small gym issue on Vista will be addressed, and theater will be made larger and more functional compared to Vista). Overall, when comparing Riviera with SS ships of 600 guests, personally I didn't feel huge difference. It's a matter of design.

Mine never appeared, and our sailing is on May 6th.

https://www2.cruisewatch.com/top-10/ships-space-ratio/ Marina and Riviera are 53 (66,000 /1250) and the new ships will be 62 (86,000 / 1400). Luxury ships like Silversea and Seabourn are around 65-68.

Look at the positive side. Much better space to passenger ratios, pretty close to the luxury ships.

There are many things you can say about O. Some wonderful, some good, some just ok. But when I read someone describes food as "edible", to me the whole review loses its credibility.

Our last Cunard cruise in 2022 was pretty poor. Entertainment and activities were amazing, but food and service were poor. Of course it's different if you are in a suite, but in a regular dining room, the food on O is in a different league.

Agree. But I don’t think lines like Seabourn or Explora are less luxury or exclusive, while being significantly cheaper. And the inclusion of excursions doesn’t really help.

Agree about SB unfortunately. For us the price difference is even bigger because we book OV. Don’t really need veranda. And FV on Vista is a great value.

To me, it's pretty clear. Inflation is not 25-30%. Their new "Essential fares" are basically the same as previous P2P fares, but they exclude excursions and non refundable. Those fares are now at least 15-20% more expensive than SB, while P2P are 20-30% extra. Those fares are simply not competitive, and the product simply does not justify those prices.

But you can always find faults if you dig deep enough.. Nothing is perfect, but we find much more positive than negative on O. WiFi needs a lot of improvement (which I understand is already better on Vista), but the app? This is not a 6,000 ship. That said, I never found a good value in R ships. The cabins and the bathrooms are small, upgrading to PH usually brings the price to SB level, and passenger/space ratios are not in line with the newer ships. And if I see a unique itinerary, I usually can find it with other lines for better value.