Oceania compared to Crystal

[azkitty]

:rolleyes: We just completed an Alaskan Crystal cruise and have a booking on the Nautica, Rome to Istanbul in June. We have been on 3 RC cruises and one Celebrity. Crystal has really spoiled us with the red carpet treatment and amenities, no nickel and diming and loved the smaller ship. Will we disappointed on the Nautica? I know it is also smaller which is nice. What about ammenities like free non alcholic drinks, specialty coffees and what about embarking and disembarking? Is that a mess? What are cabins like? Staterooms and bathrms. on the Crystal Harmony were quite small, not the best, but everything else made up for that especially the food which way exceded RC and Celebrity. Still not sure if we should cancel and book Crystal for the Med. cruise. I know the Nautica is new, coming out in Nov., but how did everyone like the other Oceania ships??? What is the difference between 6-star and 5-star outside of price?

[digby]

What category cabin will you be in on the Nautica? As with most things, the more you pay, the more you get. I had a PH on the Insignia, and found it to be very comfortable. The ship's food and service was the best I've experienced, but I never have been on Crystal. I especially like the resort casual dress code every day.

[ClaudiaF]

If you loved Crystal then you MUST love to dine every night with the same

people that the ship has decided will be your new best friends for a week or however long your cruise will be. NOT!:D

we on the other hand like to dine when we please, with whom we please. that is # 1

As far as small ships .. Crystal carries about 1000 or more people.. with 650 to 700 people on Oceania Oceania wins..

The O ships are stunning..

There is no comparison.. Crystal looses ;-)

[shoshona2]

Hi azkitty,

 

I have been on Crystal, RCCL and Celebrity as well as two cruises on Oceania and another one planned for March 2006 on Nautica. I agree with Digby and Claudia's comments. It all depends on what you are looking for when booking a cruise. Oceania has wonderful service (like Crystal), but you can dine with whomever you wish at whatever time you want. It all depends upon which type cabin you selected for answers to your cabin and bathroom questions. No, you will not get free water, soft drinks or special coffees like Crystal provides, but the food is as good as on the Crystal. Oceania does tea at 4:00 p.m. everyday, but not specialty teas like Crystal. Celebrity's food used to be good, but they changed their meat providers two years ago. Boarding and debarkation on the Oceania is really very easy since there are only about 700 passengers. If you are in an A level (Concierge Class) and above, you will have early boarding. We boarded in Athens at 11:30 a.m. without any lines and departed Athens two weeks later as early as we wished. We didn't have to wait in any special areas for debarkation as we had to do on RCCL. There are NO formal nights on Oceania. So, only you can decide whether you think Oceania or Crystal would be the best choice for your Med cruise.

 

Sheila

[mike35]

When folks ask me what our favorite cruise line, I always hedge by saying that we have two favorites -- Oceania and Crystal. We prefer the anytime dining and country club casual dress requirements on Oceania. I would rate food equally superior on both lines. Ditto the cabins (veranda, not PH). The service on both is superb, although we found it a bit more "informal" on Oceania (senior staff sitting with you in the lounge, etc). But Crystal wins hands down on entertainment and enrichment programs, which we find somewhat lacking on Oceania. Crystal's entertainment includes world-class classical musicians plus incredible and lavish production numbers. Enrichment programs include free Berlitz language courses, bridge instruction, several world renowned lecturers, etc. So when booking a cruise, we look at the dates and itinerary, and then choose either Oceania or Crystal if available.

 

Hope this helps, and of course it reflects only two cruisers' opinions.

 

Mike (and DW Carol)

[cruiserbunny]

:) Mike, I would agree with you totally.

 

We returned on Wednesday from our first Oceania cruise on Regatta, having previously cruised Crystal twice (and loved it).

 

We found Regatta to be a beautiful ship throughout and our PH cabin extremely confortable and bigger than the grade we usually book on Crystal for the same price.

 

We would even go so far as to say that the food on Oceania is better than on Crystal (afternoon tea was wonderful every day and dinner in the Grand Dining Room superb. Likewise we thought Toscana better than Prego).

 

On the other hand, entertainment and enrichment options were definitely lacking on Regatta.

 

Everyone we spoke to on board ship was very impressed with the value provided by Oceania and will definitely be booking with them again. So if you want to go with them in 2006 (and they are allegedly already 80% booked) book now!

 

We shall certainly be travelling with both Oceania and Crystal in the future using the same criteria as Mike together with price.

 

Sue

[ClaudiaF]

Sheila wrote that O does not provide "specialty teas".. while I am not positive

what you mean by specialty ..they do have all the "different" types of tea.

O also offers cappacino <sp?> as does Crystal .

[meow!]

Just curious, for those of you who have been on the Crystal Serenity, it looks like their regular cabins also do not have a walk-in closet (and they are in-between in size compared to Oceania's regular cabin and PH minisuite); and their balconies (at least from pictures) look "long and narrow" (perhaps "narrower" than Oceania's which is 4'11"), and that being the case, can you still put your balcony chair right facing the sea and sit there or do you have to put the chair "sideways" in order to fit in? Thank you.

[aaannnthony]

Just now read this thread, and, my BW and I can say that Oceania merits being in a class with the luxury four. In fact, I opened a thread back in April, after our 31 day b-2-b on Insignia, Barbados to Barcelona and then to Istanbul. We were wonderfully surprised as to the overall excellence. So, we agree with Mike and Sue. Particularly meaningful is that we have three cruises booked with "O" for 2006, 47 days in total.

 

However, as "C" has stated regarding Crystal that "There is no comparison..Crystal looses, (er, loses)", ;-), whatever that may mean, is most inappropriate, particularly if Crystal has never been cruised by "C".

 

Crystal, amongst the "lux four", easily has the best cuisine, entertainment, and lecturures of all four of the "lux four", however, since their dining rooms can only accommodate 600, they usually require two seatings, a negative for many. In spite of that, we'd rank Crystal slighly higher, because of the "others" I recited above. Seabourn remains in a class by itself due to its excellent cuisine and ship size, under 200 pax!

 

We've traveled three of the "four", several times each, not so on Silverseas.

Oceania ranks closely with Seabourn and Crystal, above Radisson, but that's only our opinion! Our ratings may well change since we have three cruises booked on "O", and, only one each on Seabourn, Crystal and Radisson in the next 15 months!

 

So, that we include Oceania as "being in the same league" with Seabourn and Crystal is commendable.....congratulations Oceania!

[shoshona2]

Hi Claudia,

 

When I was on the Crystal, they had special Tea events; i.e. String Quartet dressed with white wigs and clothes from the 18th Century. You are correct, you can get Cappachino(sp?) on the Oceania without a charge. I had a senior moment and I was getting it mixed up with the Celebrity where you have to pay.

 

sheila

[ClaudiaF]

.

 

However, as "C" has stated regarding Crystal that "There is no comparison..Crystal looses, (er, loses)", ;-), whatever that may mean, is most inappropriate, particularly if Crystal has never been cruised by "C".

 

Oh my spelling is just great isn't it? NOT. Thanks for the corrections.

Yes, I have cruised Crystal many times or I wouldn't even think of stating my thoughts.:rolleyes:

[mike35]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanthony --

 

Perhaps "C" was talking about the slot machines when she said Crystal "looses";)

 

Mike

[ClaudiaF]

Ha ha Mike,

Actually, gotta say..first time I won $120 on slot machine on ship was on the Harmony.. ;)

[mike35]

Within 5 minutes of playing on the Symphony last month, I hit 4 deuces - $100 - and quit! UInfortunately, I didn't find the slots on the Insignia to be as "loose"....no "loose", I "lose".

 

Mike

[azkitty]

In response to a few of my responders:

 

 

We have only been on the Crystal Harmony which is an older ship and about to be retired at least from U.S. cruising perspective as it is going to Japan to be renovated for Japanese cruisers.

 

The Harmony carries a max. of slightly over 900 passengers, not a 1000 more that Oceania. There were slightly over 700 on our cruise. The Symphony carries 940 passengers and the Serenity carries 1,080.

 

I have heard some bad stories on fixed dinning seatings, but we have had good luck and would not have gotten to know nor befriended the really nice people we sat with especially on our last Crystal cruise. I agree that the dinning hours leave a lot to be desired, 6:15 is too early and 8:15 too late.

 

We thorougly enjoyed the food and amenities aboard the Harmony especially as compared to RC and Celebrity our other cruising experiences. We also liked the type of passengers aboard Crystal, who were more to our age range, less partying crowd and more interesting on the whole. Being middle age, we appreciated not being surrounded by young kids and entertainment geared for a much younger crowd.

 

What I didn't care for was the size of the staterooms and bathrooms without a regular shower. We were not in the penthouse-suite catagory, but as compared to RC and Celebrity for the same, staterooms were smaller and lacked enough electrical outlets. I think stateroom size, etc. is greatly improved on the Symphony and even better on the Serenity.

 

As for the casino: Crystal's Casinos are owned and run by Caesar's Palace, LV and MUCH looser than any ship's casinos we have been on. I am the proof of that having won $100 3-days in a row and then a $2,500 jackpot on a quarter machine the following day (came home with that too). However, I am not much of a gambler (every 2 years maybe) and don't take cruises for the gambling.

 

We are booked on the Nautica, Rome to Istanbul in June 2006 and I am glad to hear it is dressy casual. My husband isn't crazy about formal and it will be nice not to have to lug the extra formal-wear with us especially since we have extra days at the beginning and end. That brings me to another important question: Does Oceania have free, self-service laundries??? That was quite a nice perk on Crystal. Ship board laundry service can be quite $$$.

 

I was disappointed to hear that we will be nickled & dimed on non alcoholic drinks..... even bottled water??? What is the policy on bringing your own bottles of alcohol on board for stateroom consumption?

 

I can't say enough about the service on Crystal and especially embarkation and disembarkation and it is not by stateroom catagory. There's no class discrimination, no priority given to the higher catagories. Everyone recieves the same treatment and disembarkation is more according to flight times.

 

We are looking forward to the Nautica cruise and hope it is as nice as what you all have described.

 

Thanks for questions answered and hope someone can answer my remaining questions.

[aaannnthony]

Oceania has no restrictions regarding bringing aboard liquor, wine, sodas, or bottled water......zero "hassle". We often brought water and sodas aboard when it was convenient to do so at various port stops.

[ClaudiaF]

No free laundry on Oceania. They have a "laundry room" but it is small with 3 or is it 4 washers and same amount of dryers ? There are ironing boards and irons there too. You have to go to reception and get tokens to do the wash ( something like $3.00 a load ( wash and dry).

The detergent is automatically loaded when you start the washer ( I wasn't thrilled with that routine, never looked like it really was going in to me.

While I am not a fan of doing laundry on cruises ( may be why I am always so heavy on the luggage ;-) I will say all the washers and dryers and free soaps on Crystal is a nice thing.

 

As far as bringing your own booze on board O, you can bring on all you like of whatever you want for in your cabin cocktailing.

If you would like to bring a bottle of your wine to a dining room they will charge you a $20 corkage.:eek: While we don't mind paying a corkage fee that to us is really high and has been the topic of many posts since it was raised last year from an agreeable $10 or 12.

 

You will pay $3.50 ( is that the price these days?) for a large bottle Evian on ship. Sorry, prices seem to keep changing.

[cruiserbunny]

Just curious, for those of you who have been on the Crystal Serenity, it looks like their regular cabins also do not have a walk-in closet (and they are in-between in size compared to Oceania's regular cabin and PH minisuite); and their balconies (at least from pictures) look "long and narrow" (perhaps "narrower" than Oceania's which is 4'11"), and that being the case, can you still put your balcony chair right facing the sea and sit there or do you have to put the chair "sideways" in order to fit in? Thank you.

 

Meow,

 

- There is no walk-in closet on Crystal Serenity but the closet is perfectly adequate in size.

 

- Yes, you can put your balcony chair facing the sea and sit on the balcony on Crystal Serenity. (We were not able to do this on Regatta in PH. Think the chair takes up more room. However, the footstall (separate from chair) was a lovely welcome addition).

 

Sue

[Liat]

We have sailed on Insignia, and are booked on Crystal Serenity in November. We have 16 cruises to date on Celebrity(6), HAL(2), Princess(3), and NCL, RCCL and Carnival, and written 14 lengthy reviews for http://www.cruisereviews.com under my name, Philip M. Haggerty

I have come to believe that comparisons tell as much about the person(s) doing the comparing as they do about the ships!

Looking at my own reviews, I can see a change in outlook as well as expectations.

And nothing is fixed. For example, we were (and are) great fans of Celebrity's fixed traditional dining, and were distinctly unhappy with the free style dining on NCL and Diamond Princess. But, perhaps because Insignia had only 675 passengers on our Manaus-Barbados 14 day cruise, and because the maitre d' always accomodated our request to sit with other passengers, we enjoyed the open seating on that cruise. We think meeting new people on board is a large part of the fun of cruising, and we always give our table companions the benefit of the doubt, if necessary.

We have no interest on whether or not slots are "loose", since we always "lose" and simply don't gamble. We don't visit the bars, so don't care about their prices for either soft drinks or booze. But I wish more lines had a free Java Cafe ala HAL. (We think Crystal does.) Although we try to book our own excursions on line, we can't always do that, so we do care about the depth, variety and pricing of excursions. Crystal seems well ahead of Oceania in that aspect, based on one Oceania cruise and the information on our Caribbean cruise provided by Crystal.

But some of that belief may well have been traced to the fact there is much less available on the Amazon, and in Devil's Island, Venezuela and Tobago than there is in the tourist oriented Caribbean.

Oceania's home office is weak, and there is a tendency to "nickel and dime"; but then again their overall cost is substantially less than Crystal, so it may be simply a choice of what you want to pay for. Entertainment on any ship is good if you like the music and entertainers. No matter whether it is glitzy Law Vegas, or cozy cafe; the rule is "de gustibus non est disputandum".* We found Insignia to be a superbly designed, elegant small ship, with a very friendly and well trained staff, and excellent food and food service. Crystal may match this, but it will be hard to surpass it. But there will be differences that defy making valid comparisons. Serenity is more than twice the size (68,000 v. 30,200 gross tons [this is a size - not weight - measurement]), with 57% more passengers, so there will be a different "feel" to Serenity than to Insignia. Serenity may be very nice indeed, but it probably won't have the "cosy" atmosphere of Insignia. We will see, and will write a review which will appear on this site also.

The real guideline to achieve happy cruising is - "Look for and enjoy the best - ignore the rest."

* "There is no arguing over tastes."

Phil Haggerty

[meow!]

Cruiserbunny

Thank you kindly for your reply.

[cruiserbunny]

Meow!

 

You're very welcome. Glad to help!

 

Sue

[Jancruz]

Can you please expand on your comment Oceanias home office is weak..

Thanks,

Jan

*****

[Boopsie]

I, too, agree with the other comments. It's all in the eye of the beholder. We love the fact that the Oceania is casual--no having to bring dressy outfits, shoes, etc., that we will only add extra weight to our luggage. We love casual. Also, we love the fact we can sit by ourselves when we're in the mood, or with others when we choose, rather than having to sit with the same people for two weeks (or whatever) which may or may not be enjoyable. That's just our opinion and is why we love Oceania. As far as the entertainment goes, it may not be one of their strong points, but it wasn't important to us anyway. We were never bored. Enjoy whichever cruise you decide on. I''m sure you can't go wrong with either.

[azkitty]

In checking cabin size, I am finding Nautica's cabins drastically smaller than Crystal. The ocean view on the Harmony (pic. window) was 198 sq. ft., smaller than the Symphony and Serenity but much bigger than the same on the Nautica, 150 sq. ft. and no seating area. In order to get a similar size cabin we will have to upgrade to at least veranda and pay at least $800 pp more than we paid on the Harmony for the same length of time, BUT we will get much less for our $$; no free water, non alcoloholic drinks, specialty coffees & teas and no fridg in our staterm. Even RCL and Celebrity had a fridg (maybe mini bar type). It has me thinking.....

[Liat]

My comment about weakness was derived from comments of many fellow passngers on Insignia as well as my own experience. There was outright incorrect information provided on Brazilian yellow fever shot requirements. They failed to get a Brazilian visa for a passenger on time. The information on shore excursions is minimal. They have not replied to a few e-mails of mine. Their website is poorly done. My TA had a very difficult time setting up an air deviation to Istanbul.

Some of this may be due to inexperience, and I hope they improve. But poor office management did not refelect on fine ship management.