DENIE

I get that! On HAL, if you don't mind specialty dining every night, you are fine. 🙂 Main Dining on Oceania is far above. We loved it on the Riviera.

The food in the specialty dining was quite good, almost as good as Oceania. But the MDR (food and experience) left a lot to be desired. Example - a shrimp cocktail appetizer was served with warm shrimp, and the sauce was more of a creamy kind, not cocktail. Entrees were just "ok", but not nearly the variety we had on the Riviera. They also charge extra for some entrees. Service-wise, they were understaffed. Our party of 10 one night were seated at a table that had not yet been set from the previous party and waited 30 minutes to have anyone stop by (this even after someone flagged down the maitre de). The the waitstaff fault as they were hustling, but...

We too "jumped ship" from Celebrity. Although we had no gripes with Celebrity, we tried Oceania after speaking with several friends. It just feels right, and we may not look back. As a "test", we travelled with a few friends on a HAL Mexican Rivierea cruise this past December, and really were reminded of everything we loved about Oceania in June 2022 (Riviera).

We bring sea bands with us. I understand there are more expensive options that are battery operated no, but haven't heard any reviews.

The Springhill Suites is a great choice. We did not even need a vehicle to schlep our luggage across the street (just have a bit of patience). The hotel is new, and very nice (we stayed on the Residence Inn side). Gaslamp is fun (go the night before if you can), but you would need a cab or Uber/Lyft to get to the port.

Met people of all ages on our 6/2022 Mediterranean cruise on Riviera. Really enjoyed our fellow passengers. There were actually a couple of small kids, but only saw them in passing. We also mostly sailed with Celebrity previously, but I think we are Oceania converts!

Mnocket - we too were "refugees" from Celebrity, although our reasons were more based on wanting to try something more upscale after having 2 Celebrity cruises cancelled due to Covid. Absolutely loved our Riviera Mediterranean cruise in June 2022, and booked Vista for 1/2024. To compare, we sailed on HAL Koningsdam (San Diego to MX Riviera) in December 2022. After our experience on Oceania, we sure felt the difference. Upcharges for dining, dodging photographers, larger and more crowded ship, etc. Yes, we did enjoy the cruise (largely because we were with friends), but we did miss the Oceania experience.

Thank you Gary! We were also O newbies until June 2022. We loved our experience for many of the reasons you mentioned, and we plan many more Oceania cruises! 😃

That's great. For some reason I was thinking there was a $15 limit on the prestige package, but I may have been mistaken.

Thanks for posting! Seeing enough wines on the list that will fall within the prestige price. 🙂

I believe we had lunch at Waves grill in June on Riviera. It wasn't too long to wait. You would not go wrong with the other choice, Terrace Grill, either.

Loving this thread! Although we completed our first O cruise in June 2022, I am still following for additional/new ideas!! I do second the idea of checking for another specialty dining on embarkation day - we snagged an extra Red Ginger. On the Vista in a PH in a year (1/2024). Living vicariously through these threads! 😃

We have that stateroom booked for our 1/9/2024 cruise from Miami. It appears to be just above the check-in area for the main dining room. Also sailing with a 3rd person, and those options seemed to be limited for Penthouse accomodations.

Might have to check out that itinerary sometime, would love to see the slightly longer cruise with a couple of additional ports.

Oh no!!!! Safe travels! Say hi to David and Omar in the Ocean Bar! Was good to meet you back in early December. Is this another B2B?

Ohhhhhhh!!!!! I have to remember that. It's a great solution! 🙂

Absolutely loved the glazed seabass in Red Ginger. Had it our first night, and almost got it the second time we were there, but decided I should try something different!

Robjame...so sorry to hear this. Hope it clears soon. Love the photos!

Following! Booked on Vista for January 2024 and later upgraded to a PH suite. Looking forward to suggestions!

Good luck on your decision! We first sailed Oceania this past June (Mediterranean), and I think it has become our line of choice (aside from a cruise a couple weeks ago with friends on HAL - no comparison!). 🙂

Safe travels! And looking forward to your posts! 🙂

Safe travels! Have a great trip. We enjoyed the Riviera in June in the Mediterranean, but understand she has gone through he refurbishment. 🙂

We enjoy a well-paced 1.5 to 2- hour meal in the MDR when we are dining with friends. Agree that this sort of thing is a hightlight for us. That said, we had some issues on our recent Koningsdam MX Riviera cruise Dec 3-10. We were part of a group and there were a couple occasions where 8-10 of us were seated but forgotten about for 30 minutes. No water, no beverage order, no bread on the table. It was not the staff's fault as we could see they were working hard. But at one point one of our group found the maître-de and explained that we had been seated 30 minutes ago. We also found that the beverage servers were also the wait-staff. Just terribly short-staffed (yet the cruise was sold out). Once the appetizers and entrees arrived, there was no pacing in between; they all arrived at the same time. Granted, we are on vacation on a cruise ship, and it still doesn't get better than that. I must say that we also dined at Pinnacle Grill, Nami Sushi and Tamarind, and had the same 2-hour experience, but was perfectly paced and service and quality were excellent!

Agree with everyone about filling out on board. Don't want to take the time, and it wasn't convenient. We just got of a HAL cruise 2 weeks ago, and they advertised the post-cruise survey would be sent to each passenger via email in a few days. True to their word, it was in our email box about 3 days after we got back. Plenty of time to complete it and give honest feedback. I prefer that way.

Looking forward to seeing some pics or videos as well. 🙂