lorimay

Oceania had the two larger ships, Marina and Riviera, and now has the even larger Vista. The others are the smaller "R" ships. We did two cruises on Oceania, one in a Penthouse in the Marina in Europe and one in a regular veranda cabin in the Riviera in the Caribbean. To us, the PH was not worth it. The cabin was large, but a little tired. The bathroom was incredible, though. It was huge and the walk in closet was very nice. The butler service was worthless for us. Our butler was awful and we didn't even get daily ice. Others on our cruise had better service. The cabin layout is a little strange with the table and two chairs at the end of the bed, but there's also a couch and coffee table. The balcony is very large. One wall of the cabin has a makeup vanity with a pop up mirror that seems like wasted space. The regular veranda cabin still has a large bathroom (separate tub with shower and a shower stall). It was still a large cabin and we didn't miss the extra space from the PH. The real difference between Oceania and Celebrity is that everyone gets treated equally no matter what type of cabin you have. The service is great. It reminded me of the old days on Celebrity where someone took your tray and walked you to a table in the buffet. That type of service was everywhere. Oceania is all about the food. And the food in very, very good. The buffet is tiny compared to Celebrity, but they have a made to order grill where you can get lobster tail (unlimited), steak, fish, lamb chops, shrimp etc. Just walk up and ask for it. The salad bar was small. Hardly any desserts. But both Marina and Riviera have a great outdoor eating area just off the buffet that is incredible. The free specialty restaurants are great. Everyone gets one reservation in each one. Extra reservations can be hard to get. We didn't find the main dining room food that much above Celebrity and it's a little stuffy in atmosphere. Country club casual everywhere - no real dressing up. The afternoon tea was great - white tablecloths, very traditional, nice music. As I said, Oceania is all about the food. The entertainment, what there is of it, is just ok. One show a night at 9 or 9:30. Very talented singers and dancers, but very limited shows. The venue is small. Sometimes another show at 10:30 in the big lounge. A piano player in one bar and a string trio in another. Trivia is fun (and very serious) but not a lot else to do (ping pong, golf tournaments, etc.) The enrichment programs on our two cruises were just ok. The big issue for us is that the crowd was so much older and not very active. There was not much going on after 9 pm. We are not partiers (don't drink) but we like to be out and about after dinner. The ships are so small that there isn't a lot of variety in places to go. Compare that to our European cruise on Beyond - there was just so much energy on the ship. For us, Oceania was better for our Europe cruise where we were off the shop most days. While we had a great time on the Caribbean one, there wasn't a lot to do during sea days. To us it was like Holland America - we're not young, but a lot of the other passengers are OLD.

You will receive, in general, the same level of service no matter which of the Celebrity ships you are on. Some seem to be run a little smoother than others, but that varies with the staff and the officers. Also, you will get, once again in general, more personalized service if you are in Blue or Luminae. Celebrity has certain standards and all the ships are pretty interchangable when it comes to service. So your question about Infinity is not about the service because the ship is old, but the about the actual ship itself because it is old. Our personal choice is that we won't sail on Infinity again. We were on it before the pandemic and it was showing wear in many places. We have also sailed on the Summit (same class of ship) after it was refurbished and really liked the decor and the changes. It was a huge upgrade from Infinity. But we sailed it again in December and it too is showing its age. After sailing on Edge and Beyond, M-class ships are out for us. We like the new ships.

I would MUCH rather go to CocoCay than go to Nassau. Nassau, especially since covid and the last few major storms, is awful. There are some high-rent areas on CocoCay, so I'm not sure why the snobs are looking down on it as a destination.

In the Oceanview buffet, tap water, coffee, hot tea, iced tea, lemonade and a juice drink and milk are all complimentary. Bottled water, sodas and regular juices are not. In the dining rooms and restaurants, coffee, tea, iced tea and milk are complimentary. Juices, sodas and any alcoholic drinks, bottled water and sodas are not. You don't need a package. We don't drink alchohol so never get a package and do just fine. It's must cheaper, even if you drink a few sodas or a couple of glasses of wine, not to get a package.

We were on Edge in March and Equinox in February. We had Select Dining on both. I tried to book dining times in advance for both about 2 months in advance, but only very early or very late times were available. We like to eat 7 - 7:30. On Equinox, we had to wait in line at the MDR every night. Sometimes the waits were short (5 - 10 minutes) and other times pretty long. We waited over 45 minutes one night. On Edge, we were able to book dining times once we got on board through the app. Suddenly a bunch of dining times were available. There was never a wait at any of the dining rooms. However, a couple of nights we didn't use the reservations - just walked up to another one of the restaurants (reserved Tuscan but went to Cyprus instead) and got in right away. There's a short line to check in but then you are seated right away. So I don't think it matters whether you have reservations or not.

I did several zoom calls on Edge in March. Of course I had premium wifi and for the most part it worked well. Interestingly I didn’t find the star link connection as good as on the Equinox in February but it was still good enough for uninterrupted zoom calls with video. Some days were better than others but I think that depends on the location of the ship. I have also done zoom calls from Beyond. They all were good enough that nobody noticed I was on a ship and not in my home office.

My experience across four ships in the last six months is that wifi does tend to get better when you are out of port - I don't know why. If you are doing anything other than checking email, it's worth it to upgrade. Also, we had a delightful experience on Equinox when I complained about the wifi in our cabin and they came and installed an access point in the cabin. They told me they are still upgrading and not all areas are completely covered. If you go and complain politely they will probably try and fix it for you.

You can always ask for a kettle if there isn't one already in the cabin. I have been on the Beyond, Summit, Equinox and Edge in the last six months and was able to get a kettle on all of them.

We were on Beyond in October and Edge in February. Although they are similar, Beyond was definitely upgraded. The whole central area with the Martini Bar and al Bacio is much better layout. Also, the video screens in the theater are fully LED and the experience is much better. The rooms are similar (had an infinite veranda both times and loved it - but preferred with the bed by the veranda). There are little improvements all over Beyond but everything just seemed to be designed and engineered well and made sense. Also, on Edge they held trivia and other events in Eden and the sound system was so bad they had to hand out questions on paper. They said on Beyond it's state of the art. We liked Edge class over M class by a lot, over S class by a little, but if I had my choice of the same itinerary on Beyond or any other ship I would choose Beyond.

They were all there available to eat. Each day in the Oceanview they featured some kind of dessert. That day it was the cream puffs. Thinking back on it, I don't know if they all had the swan shape, but there were definitely swans along with the regular cream puffs. I know because I ate one.

They had a huge display of the swan puffs on the Edge in the Oceanview during our recent cruise in February. Regular, chocolate and I believe they had strawberry and pistachio.

We were on the Edge a few weeks ago. Most days the buffet was really crowded at breakfast and lunch. We always find a table and eat in shifts (one goes, then the other). We saw some people who would save tables with wrapped silverware at each place. Sometimes we leave an electronic device so that someone knows we are sitting there. For the most part people are pretty polite about clearing out for people waiting. But there were times we did have to circle the whole place just for a table.

That was not true on our recent Edge cruise (three weeks ago). We saw (and heard the argument) a man being denied entry into Cyprus for breakfast because he was wearing a tank top. He was very upset and waited outside the restaurant until a woman in a tank top was allowed entry - then he became very angry and shouted that it was discrimination. The difference between the two shirts was obvious - his was a very loose-fitting shirt, cut low at the underarms, with words on it. Hers was a solid, nice fitting shirt that only exposed her arms. You see a wide variety of clothing on recent cruises, but they do seem to be enforcing the dress code in some ways. I was on the Equinox in February and never saw a dress code violation in the dining room. I can't say the same on the Summit in December, where we saw the same young man shirtless in the Oceanview on multiple days. I don't know if they eventually made him leave, but he was all the way inside the restaurant so he had to have passed by the "greeters" with hand sanitizer and table attendents to get there.

We were on Equinox in February. Show times were the standard 7 and 9 pm that we have seen on just about every Celebrity cruise we have been on. However, we were on the Edge a couple of weeks ago and the cruise director had moved the show times to 7 and 9:30. There was no explanation why the second show was 9:30 instead of 9 for the entire cruise. We heard lots of complaints that it was too late.

I was on the Edge earlier this month with Select Dining. We had reservations and didn't show up one night. We were not charged anything. I was never asked to check a box when I made the reservations, which was while we were on the ship via the app. An interesting observation - we were on the Equinox in February and Edge in March, but on the Summit in December and Beyond last October. There was a huge difference in the number of dirty dishes we saw waiting for pickup outside cabins on the cruises in 2023. We also NEVER saw a room service attendant in the hallways on the 2023 cruises. I think the charge for room service in regular cabins has made a huge difference in the staffing.

I had a stretchy clothes line with hooks on the ends on the Beyond. I intended to use magnetic hooks and stretch it in between. However there are holes in the tops of the infinite veranda folding doors that allow you to put the end hooks in and stretch the line across from one side to the other. It worked out great. I checked the Edge last week and it had the same thing.

I had the premium wifi package. I was on the Edge last week, also with the premium package, and the internet was not nearly as good. I was able to do zoom and meet calls but there was buffering.

7 and 9 pm for the shows in the theater.

We were on the Equinox a couple of weeks ago. On other cruises and this one, usually they bring one starter after the other if you order more than one. On lobster night, I tried to order surf and turf and the waiter refused to combine the entrees. He told me they had to come on different plates at different times. So my lobster came first along with my husband's, then they cleared my plate and brought the steak (including sides) and I split it with my husband. It wasn't ideal but it was ok. We found the dining room on Equinox was so screwed up that I'm not surprised they refused to do something out of the ordinary.

We were on the Equinox a couple of weeks ago in Concierge. Our "canapes" weren't even just strange - they were disgusting. Each day we got potato salad, chopped tomatoes, or one day a watermelon salad. It repeated quite often. Some days there would be two pieces of salami with tiny breadstick crackers. Sometimes two mini chocolate or coconut cupcakes. It was like whatever they had leftover went on the plate. If I had known we could ask for something else we would have.

Got off the Equinox two weeks ago. Had a portside aft cabin on deck 11 and even though we were across from the crew access door where they brough in the luggage, the cabin was the very quiet. No issues at all.

There are usually two lines clearly marked with signs at the Select Dining entry to the dining room - one side for guests with reservations and one for guests without. That was on S and M class ships. I do not remember two lines on the Beyond in the October. But either way you wait in the line - those without reservations almost always get a beeper. Even with reservations you might get a beeper.

Someone in the buffet brings food to your table? I haven't seen that in years on Celebrity. That would be worth a tip!

Many times all of your preferred dining times will already be full when you try to reserve on the app so that you are only given choices very early or very late for a "reservation" in select dining. You can just show up at the time you want to eat and they will accomodate you, but be aware that wait times have been very long recently on many sailings. Even with a reservation you may have to wait. Two weeks ago on the Equinox, which we booked only 60 days out, we were unable to get select dining reservations for our preferred dining times. We had 30 - 45 minute wait times each night if we arrived between 6:15 and 7 pm. Wait times were less if we arrived at 8 pm.

I did a two hour zoom call last week from my cabin on the Equinox with Starlink internet service and did not have any issues with the quality of the video or the audio. Did a transatlantic on the Beyond last fall, again with Starlink, and had very good service, including zoom calls, except when we were in the very middle of the Atlantic. I know there is never a guarantee, but internet service has been very good for me on these cruises. You might want to consider that your issue with MS Teams is just because it's MS Teams 😀