terrydtx

I was browsing the Princess website and see that Princess uses the same Flight Ease that HAL uses, but they will let you look at air costs and flights before you book the cruise. I have never been able to do this with HAL and have to question if Princess does it why not HAL, same web platform and ownership? I am looking at a similar cruise on two different lines and the great deals we got in the past on HAL flight ease and how user friendly it is, could be the difference in choosing what to book. I do not want to book just to find out what I can get airfare for. Princess is not one of the lines we are considering so their flight ease does me no good.

2024 would still be before we cruise on her in 2025.

Did any other O ships get refurbished in 2022 or are scheduled in 2023?

I finally found a thread about this on page 6 of the O boards, a lot of discussion but no confirmation from anyone that this was confirmed with O corporate. Some said it could happen in 2024 which is still well before we sail in March 2025.

We have 4 cruises in the next 2 years booked in the Retreat with Celebrity, but when we looked at what they want for a South America cruise Sky Suite on the Equinox in 2025, it was ridiculously high. Our 2024 New Zealand cruise Sky Suite is now priced almost $2000pp more than when we booked back in February last year. I have to agree with this thread Celebrity's new pricing for suites is driving loyalist like us to look elsewhere like Oceania and Viking.

Today we booked our first Oceania cruise for March 2025 on the Marina. A lot of our decision was based upon information we received last week in an O brochure and on the O website that the Marina is getting the new refurbishment in 2023. What is the actual story, is she is she not getting this this year, 2023?

To be honest I didn't ask my TA about the refurbishment as I confirmed it on the website and from the brochure, we got from O last week. This already has me second guessing our decision to have booked this cruise if this is all true. I may be giving Viking a strong look when they come out with their 2025 schedule. Do you have a link to this on the O boards? I just looked at a couple of pages and didn't see anything. Thanks

Thank you for your response. The most recent brochure and the O website as of today shows the Marina refurbishment being done in 2023. I am concerned if this is not true as it was part of our decision to book this cruise. BTW the website for O today shows the drink package as being only $20, when is it going to increase to $30?

I had a discussion with my TA today about the O excursions. She said the number one complaint she hears from her customers who have sailed with Oceania is with the shore excursions and how OVER PRICED they are compared to other cruise lines and doing them private. She suggested that we take the beverage package as our included O-Life option with the current promo, which is what we did when she booked us. On our 18 day cruise the beverage package is a $1438 total value. If purchased separately the bev package is $39.95pp per day.

Trying to figure out how the O-Life options work makes booking online very confusing, but after reading some of the posts here it all makes so much more sense. One thing I did find out if you choose the O basic drinks package for unlimited wine and beer by the glass with lunch and dinner you can upgrade to the Elite package for all spirits for only $20pp per day more. VO has the unlimited wine and beer free for meals, but they now charge $25pp per day to upgrade to their Silver Spirits package. I think you have said in other posts that you do not drink but we enjoy a martini or two before our dinners while cruising so it makes sense for us to upgrade.

I really appreciate your honest assessment between both cruise lines. The VO cruise is on the Jupiter which I think is fairly new. Oceania is doing a complete refurbishment of the Marina this year 2023, which includes all class of cabins and the bathrooms of each cabin, this is according to the brochure we got in the mail last week. One other question do you see a lot of difference on O between the A category concierge level cabins and the PH category ones other than more space?

When I looked at the website and did a mock booking, it was per person so $800 is total OBC. I then had my TA confirm and book it today. That is one reason why I use this TA, she works on holidays and weekends whenever I need her. We also opted for the O-Life included beverage package which at $39.95pp per day or $1438 total for both of us was much better than the $800 OBC.

Until Jan 9th Oceania has a promo, you get the Cruise only fare price and can add one of the O-Life choices, $400OBC, 4 shore excursions or beverage package included in the price. Thats what I just did with our TA today see why below. Today we booked our first cruise with Oceania, the 18-day Santiago to Buenos Aires cruise in March 2025. This decision was made after reading this excellent thread. We have loved Celebrity Suites but in 2025 their prices for a 14-night itinerary on the Equinox of South America has gotten way too high for us. We like the suites on Celebrity mainly because of their private restaurant Luminae as it offers a much-improved menu in a smaller venue. We are booked in a A2 Veranda cabin on the Marina for $370 cost per night pp. A Sky suite on the Equinox cruise comes out to $570 pp per night. Compare that to our booked New Zealand cruise on the Celebrity Edge in 2024 in a Sky Suite for $400pp per night. The way we see it the only thing we miss on the Oceania cruise over the Equinox is a Butler and the drinks package plus $800 OBC for booking a suite. However $1887 ($2687-$800OBC) less in real cost plus having 4 more days of cruising more than makes up the difference on Oceania.

I am glad to see the good reports about the Marina. Today we booked our first cruise with Oceania, the 18-day Santiago to Buenos Aires cruise in March 2025. This decision followed a very long Celebrity thread about Celebrity Suites customers switching to Oceania because of new pricing. We have loved Celebrity Suites but in 2025 their prices for a 14-night itinerary on the Equinox of South America has gotten way too high for us. We like the suites on Celebrity mainly because of their private restaurant Luminae as it offers a much-improved menu in a smaller venue. We are booked in a A2 Veranda cabin on the Marina for $370 cost per night pp. A Sky suite on the Equinox comes out to $570 pp per night. Compare that to our booked New Zealand cruise on the Celebrity Edge in 2024 in a Sky Suite for $400pp per night. The way we see it the only thing we miss on the Oceania cruise over the Equinox is a Butler and the drinks package plus $800 OBC for booking a suite. However $1887 ($2687-$800OBC) less in cost plus having 4 more days of cruising more than makes up the difference.

In 2024 VO has almost the exact same 18-day itinerary as Oceania has in 2025. Pricing for similar cabins (A2 Oceania and DV2, VO) are within a few hundred dollars of each other 2024 for VO vs 2025 for Oceania. I know you have experience with both lines, if the itineraries are the same and pricing similar which one would you prefer over the other? Any information will be appreciated.

We are very interested in doing a South America cruise from Santiago Chile to Buenos Aires in Jan-March 2025. Oceania has released their schedule and we want to compare it to Viking Ocean which has not released their 2025 schedules. Oceania has a very good 18-day cruise in 2025 on the Marina and after looking at VO's 18-day cruises in 2024 we hope they have the same itinerary in 2025. Does anyone here have any incite to when VO will release their 2025 schedules?

I did see that promo, but VO has not yet released any of their 2025 South American itineraries. We will look at them once they are released. My sister and BIL, very loyal Celebrity cruisers, did a VO cruise to Iceland in August 2021 and said overall it was better than any other past cruise with Celebrity.

After reading and participating in this thread I am beginning to see your point and we are rethinking our loyalty to Celebrity. No one has mentioned in this thread comparing X Suites and/or Oceania to Viking Ocean. One article I read recently stated the new Oceania Vista was designed and built to directly compete with Viking Ocean. We have wanted to try Viking Ocean, however having to pay in full 12 months or more out has been a deal killer for us.

We love Celebrity but only in a suite with Luminae and the Retreat lounge, but the new pricing we see down the road for even Sky Suites has us looking at Oceania and Viking Ocean. The B2B Edge cruise in a Sky Suite we booked for January 2024 is now almost $2000pp more than when we booked in January 2022. I would not be booking that cruise today at those prices. I like your suggestion of booking cruise only with O and bringing our own wine and liquor with us.

That was the same experience we had in our Sky Suites on the Equinox 2021 and Reflection this year. The KJ Reserve Pinot was very nice as was the KJ Chardonay they also brought for no charge without asking..

Ken, how did this compare to any other cruise companies? Holland has not released their 2025 cruises, but I looked at what they have for 2024 and they have a 31-day cruise that starts in Buenos Aires goes up the west coast of SA and through Panama Canal then ends in Florida. A Signature Suite is around $350pp a day with internet, drinks, 3 shore excursions pp, $400 OBC, 2 specialty restaurants and taxes. No airfare is included.

Ken, Thanks for your very appreciated input. We really have no interest in seeing Antarctica, which would be only on the Dec 24 to January 25 itinerary. That sailing would take us over the holidays and my wife said we can't do this. We probably will book with the OLife Excursion option but not with their air. We had a very bad experience with Oceania air in 2018 and would prefer to book on our own for BC air. BTW the current promo with Oceania, I believe, is the $800 OBC is in addition to any OLife OBC option. If we get the OBC it could be used for the Wi-Fi and drinks on the ship. Even after we book this cruise, we will continue to look at other cruise options like Viking Ocean, which has not released their 2025 schedule yet.

After reading this thread and going back to compare Oceania with Celebrity we have decided to book the Oceania Marina for cruising South America in March 2025. O has an 18 day cruise from Chile to Buenos Aires and we can book a A2 Vernada for $300pp less than the 14 day Celebrity cruise on the Equinox in a Sky Suite with a similar itinerary. Plus we get an $800 bonus OBC with Oceania with their current bonus booking offer. We are going to have our TA book this for us this next week. The 4 extra days for the same price is a no brainer for us.

Why not, that is part of the service they will extend to you. Our butler on the Reflection in August brought drinks to our Sky Suite whenever we asked with no complaints and the suites were sold out on our cruise.

We are like the OP, we love the Retreat and Luminae on Celebrity and have 4 cruises booked in 2023 and 2024 in Sky Suites. However, we want to do a cruise around South America in Dec 2024 or Jan-Feb 2025 and Oceania has a very similar itinerary to Celebrity on the Marina for 2 more days than X with more ports. We can book an upper-level Veranda cabin on the Marina with 2 more days for about the price of a SS on the Equinox, so we are seriously thinking of trying O. We are also looking at O for a Boston to Montreal cruise in Sept 2024 with more days and ports than X. My only problem with this cruise it is on one of Oceania's older ships Insignia, which I believe was built in the 1990's. We have good friends who were very loyal X cruisers but after they tried O for the first time, they will only book O now.