HAL vs Oceania

[sammiedawg]

Great post Nana! You are right HAL (except for the Prinsendam) is a great value. enjoy your cruises.

[Lady Chew]

We are 4-star on HAL, Diamond on Royal/Elite on Celebrity ... and we have had one cruise on Oceania, about a year ago on the Nautica. 35 days.

 

We would not sail again on Oceania unless the itinerary & price were perfect.

 

We did use their air, from Dulles to Bangkok and from Rome to Dulles. Price was better than what we could get, and they accommodated our seat requests & dates perfectly.

 

Embarkation was ridiculous, and scary in some ways. We were not checked in or checked out before we boarded. As in, we just walked onto the ship. We were directed into one of the lounges for check in, but there was nothing to stop anyone from sneaking off anywhere else in the ship. The majority of the reps who were handling the check in process did not know what they were doing, and it took a long time.

 

The ship itself was very beautiful, just a little small. The library was good, but not nearly as good as any HAL ship. Waves Grill was great, but not a lot of tables.

 

Having waters & sodas at no extra cost was wonderful, and readily available.

 

We had a penthouse suite, it was very nice, but really was just a large stateroom. The "regular" balcony staterooms were teeny, and I mean teeny. In some of them, Mr Chew could touch the opposite walls with his fingertips. (He is 6'4")

 

But - he could not stand up to his full height in our shower ... and when I shampooed my hair, I had to bend over to keep my arms from bumping on the ceiling.

 

The laundry room was small, and very crowded. There were several instances of shoving and confrontations between passengers.

 

We found the service in the Terrace Grill to be very obtrusive most of the time. I'd have my plate in hand, and the server would put what I requested on it, I'd turn around to go to the next station, and a waiter would literally snatch it out of my hand to "help" me. Without asking. And, at the end of the meal, when we were taking the last bite, they would remove the plate before the fork had reached our mouths. Again, without asking.

 

Of course food is very subjective. We prefer the food on HAL. We did eat in the specialty restaurants a few time, they were pretty good.

 

There was a major miscommunication about visas for one of our stops, that involved a lot of passengers. The head concierge was very rude to all of us, as was some of the Guest Relations staff.

 

Although we did meet some very wonderful people, my biggest disappointment was with the passengers. This ship seemed to be full of people who wanted you to know the size of their bank accounts, or how important their jobs had been, or how many houses they had, or how expensive their jewelry was ... and if you didn't want to disclose your own net worth, or admire theirs, they were not interested in talking to you. I've never run into so many snobs on a cruise before. It really ruined the atmosphere for us on several occasions.

 

But the Cruise Director was one of the best we've ever had. And he did a fabulous job with Trivia. I wish all CDs on all lines would follow his model!

[Hlitner]

That's an excellent point. The fact that HAL fills our spiritual needs is a major selling point for me, too. I missed the opportunity to attend Mass on Oceania.

 

We manage to fulfill our spiritual needs at cruise ship bars where they happily dispense all kinds of spirits :).

 

Hank