Oceania Cruises vs. Holland America?

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, edgee said:

Generally agree with your analysis. Couple of points I would add: Re: Pricing of shore excursions. Having to buy more than I want in order to get 25% off on Oceania does not work for us and regular pricing is really very high. Also on HAL, their larger ships have very good entertainment options with Billboard on Board piano duos, Lincoln Center classical music, BBC earth film showings and House of Blues music venue. Food, condition of ship less crowding and generally luxurious ambience are big winners for Oceania.

Wow, I wrote that post 28 months ago! Interesting how things have changed or in some cases not changed since then on both lines.

 

As far as O excursions and getting the 25% off, for us it has always been an easy decision as we like going on cruise line excursions. First, we book with the OLife option which enables us to book excursions valued at up to $199 for $100 each. Since these OLife excursions also count towards the minimum number to trigger the 25% off deal, we usually only have to book around 2 more to activate it. So when we do the math, the average net price of the O excursions is usually around $60-80 per excursion. However, I will agree if you don't use this strategy, the retail price of an O excursion can appear to be quite expensive.

 

As far as my comment 28 months ago about HAL's "pretty good" evening shows, IMHO that statement is no longer valid as HAL has definitely fallen in quality with regards to their production shows in the main theater over that time whereas O has pretty much stayed the same quality wise.

 

BTW you might notice in my signature line that we have no O cruises and only 1 HAL cruise (because of the Maasdam's In-Depth EXC program) booked through Apr 2021. Being only in our mid 60s we have also discovered over these past 28 months that we really enjoy having fun on sea days and both O and HAL have just gotten too "relaxing" for us; hence our switch to Celebrity and Princess.

Edited August 11, 2019 by Ken the cruiser

[JeffElizabeth]

One issue I have with Oceania is their smaller fleet, therefore not as many cruises to choose from. I prefer going on Oceania but get frustrated by their limited offerings. I hope their overlords buy them a few more ships. And comparing HAL to O can be difficult.  Sometimes everything is awesome on your trip and even if a few things are subpar, you can just roll with them. But why I prefer O to H? No dressing up, great food, and smaller ships. 

[JeffElizabeth]

On 4/3/2017 at 5:09 AM, mancunian said:

I am fascinated by some of the cost statements made on this thread. Just checked and a three week cruise in a balcony cabin on one of the smaller Oceania ships to Norway is £8000. A two week cruise to Norway in a balcony cabin on Koningsdam is £3049. The price differences for the cruise in the US as opposed to UK must be very different if HAL comes out the same or dearer. Even with the extras there is no comparison.

Agree, last time we compared equivalent cruises, the O one was twice as much. So it was like spending an extra $200 per person per day. 

[LHT28]

25 minutes ago, JeffElizabeth said:

One issue I have with Oceania is their smaller fleet, therefore not as many cruises to choose from. I prefer going on Oceania but get frustrated by their limited offerings. I hope their overlords buy them a few more ships.

most ships go to the same places

but  you may get your wish for more ships

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/media/2019/OCEANIA+CRUISES+ANNOUNCES+ORDER+FOR+TWO+NEXT+GENERATION+ALLURA-CLASS+SHIPS/

[LHT28]

59 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Wow, I wrote that post 28 months ago! Interesting how things have changed or in some cases not changed since then on both lines.

 

I guess  when people use the search feature  old posts come back to life  😁

 

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, JeffElizabeth said:

Agree, last time we compared equivalent cruises, the O one was twice as much. So it was like spending an extra $200 per person per day. 

I guess HAL's US prices have come down, probably commensurate with all the cost-cutting measures they've implemented over the past 2 years. I just did an Australia circumnavigation comparison of a 31 day cruise on the Regatta starting Dec 6, 2019 against the HAL one we're going on starting Oct 13, 2019. The cheapest B2 balcony on O's 31 day cruise was $10,799 (which includes 8 specialty dinners, free soda and water, and unlimited internet for 1 person) or $348 pp/day.  On HAL the cheapest vista suite with absolutely no perks was $9,229. (NOTE: When we booked our HAL VS over a year ago, the non-refundable price was $12,939 + port fees and taxes).

 

If you add $140 pp for one internet account for the cabin and $240 pp for the 8 free specialty restaurant dinners and $2 pp/day for bottled water/soda, an equivalent HAL price for their cheapest non-refundable cabin price would be $9,669 pp or $322 pp/day. 

 

To me, that's pretty close to the same price, especially when you consider what you're getting. But that's just us. 

Edited August 11, 2019 by Ken the cruiser

[Hawaiidan]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I HAL one we're going on starting Oct 13, 2019. The cheapest B2 balcony on O's 31 day cruise was $10,799 (which includes 8 specialty dinners, free soda and water, and unlimited internet for 1 person) or $348 pp/day.  On HAL the cheapest vista suite with absolutely no perks was $9,229. (NOTE: When we booked our HAL VS over a year ago, the non-refundable price was $12,939 + port fees and taxes).

 

If you add $140 pp for one internet account for the cabin and $240 pp for the 8 free specialty restaurant dinners and $2 pp/day for bottled water/soda, an equivalent HAL price for their cheapest non-refundable cabin price would be $9,669 pp or $322 pp/day. 

 

To me, that's pretty close to the same price, especially when you consider what you're getting. But that's just us. 

 

You made some errors. on the speciality dining.... it is NOT limited to 8 as you suggest. 

 

  Your limited to 8 precruise reservations, BUT  after boarding, you can  have unlimited reservations you make daily subject to availability(  I took a 30+ day cruise and almost every day there was a open reservation)  and you have  on Regatta,  Polo Italian/and Steak  and  Red Ginger Asian. i  So on a 31 day cruise you will find it very easy to easily get 15  more...  for a total of  23 dinners that would have cost $879 on HAL  and have been of a way lesser quality. 

Then the main Dining room... all open seating, casual dress.......... 

 

Not to mention the Terrace for  grilled fish, lobster, steak, chops.   + Waves  the pool grill  that serves filet and lobster sandwiches Kobe  beef burgers, Tuna steaks  rather than taco's and hot dogs.

 

(  While on HAL  you have to pay$20 for a lobster or wait for the rare gala when the serve it...On Regatta the serve it every day in every restaurant..  no charge.   Want a 32 Oz steak... no charge  On HAL $75.00)

 

Finally the ship size.... and resulting experience.....O is 650 folks    HAL  it several thousand !!!  so not only is O cheaper then but even more important it offers a far greater value/experience over all

[Ken the cruiser]

59 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

 

You made some errors. on the speciality dining.... it is NOT limited to 8 as you suggest. 

 

  Your limited to 8 precruise reservations, BUT  after boarding, you can  have unlimited reservations you make daily subject to availability(  I took a 30+ day cruise and almost every day there was a open reservation)  and you have  on Regatta,  Polo Italian/and Steak  and  Red Ginger Asian. i  So on a 31 day cruise you will find it very easy to easily get 15  more...  for a total of  23 dinners that would have cost $879 on HAL  and have been of a way lesser quality. 

Then the main Dining room... all open seating, casual dress.......... 

 

Not to mention the Terrace for  grilled fish, lobster, steak, chops.   + Waves  the pool grill  that serves filet and lobster sandwiches Kobe  beef burgers, Tuna steaks  rather than taco's and hot dogs.

 

(  While on HAL  you have to pay$20 for a lobster or wait for the rare gala when the serve it...On Regatta the serve it every day in every restaurant..  no charge.   Want a 32 Oz steak... no charge  On HAL $75.00)

 

Finally the ship size.... and resulting experience.....O is 650 folks    HAL  it several thousand !!!  so not only is O cheaper then but even more important it offers a far greater value/experience over all

With regards to the cruise comparison I referenced, the Maasdam only has 1,258 lower berths, not several thousand. No argument with your food comparison. But I will say this, we rarely get heartburn when eating food on a HAL ship, but encounter it quite often when we're on an O cruise. But as they say, food is subjective.

 

On the Maasdam there is a fully covered promenade deck to walk off the calories whereas on the Regatta, you have to go up top and walk in full sunlight. By all accounts the new In-Depth EXC program HAL implemented on the Maasdam definitely has more enrichmentment potential than what one would expect on a Regatta cruise around Australia. 

 

In other words both ships have there positives and negatives.  In our case, though, the Maasdam got the nod.

Edited August 11, 2019 by Ken the cruiser

[cruisemom42]

On 4/2/2017 at 12:05 AM, Host Jazzbeau said:

There is a way you to combine the desirable itinerary from HAL with the luxury of Oceania: Azamara offers at least one Norwegian Fjords-intensive cruise every year. This year they have the

14 NIGHT BEYOND THE ARCTIC CIRCLE VOYAGE

https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/voyage/1498190400/14-night-beyond-the-arctic-circle-voyage

 

This is very similar to the Azamara cruise we took last year [details in the link in my signature]. IMHO it would be much better in every way than the cruise on Koningsdam [much smaller number of passengers, food, service, ability to get into smaller ports and narrow fjords].

 

However, if food is very important to the OP, as it seems, I found Azamara's food to be very hit or miss. The menu descriptions were quite ambitious and very often the actual dish placed before me bore little resemblance.  For me it was about 50/50 whether the food was better than on a mass market line like HAL or Princess. I would hope for better on Oceania, given all the hype about their quality of food.

[Host Jazzbeau]

I have found that different chefs can make a huge difference when they cycle to vacation, so maybe you hit Azamara at a bad time – or maybe our tastes differ.  DW and I found the MDR food on both of our Azamara cruises to be top notch – definitely better than any mass market MDR (Celebrity, Princess – let's not even talk about NCL!) – and equivalent to Celebrity's Luminae suites-only restaurant but with more choices.  It was also better than on our Oceania cruise, which is why that remains in the singular.

[JeffElizabeth]

Comparing food can be very tough, some people just want simple fare. We dined with a guy who ate with us in the MDR the whole cruise, but the rest of his party preferred to dine at the burger place or buffet. Or I prefer a lot of seafood and my wife refuses to order it. 

[Hawaiidan]

5 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

With regards to the cruise comparison I referenced, the Maasdam only has 1,258 lower berths, not several thousand. No argument with your food comparison. But I will say this, we rarely get heartburn when eating food on a HAL ship, but encounter it quite often when we're on an O cruise. But as they say, food is subjective.

 

On the Maasdam there is a fully covered promenade deck to walk off the calories whereas on the Regatta, you have to go up top and walk in full sunlight. By all accounts the new In-Depth EXC program HAL implemented on the Maasdam definitely has more enrichmentment potential than what one would expect on a Regatta cruise around Australia. 

 

In other words both ships have there positives and negatives.  In our case, though, the Maasdam got the nod.

Ok....Not thousands....  just double the passengers for the same size ship/       Why would you want to not walk in the sunshine?        I am going on Massadam and it worries me  that their food  will be  very bland  as the Regatta  must have much richer food that your  system doesn't tolerate well  .. Sorry.    We are all different

[Ken the cruiser]

7 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

Ok....Not thousands....  just double the passengers for the same size ship/       Why would you want to not walk in the sunshine?        I am going on Massadam and it worries me  that their food  will be  very bland  as the Regatta  must have much richer food that your  system doesn't tolerate well  .. Sorry.    We are all different

As far as not walking laps in the sunshine, skin cancer comes to mind. As far as food on any HAL ship, the only issue I can think of that was a big negative for us was when they started using powdered eggs up at the Lido buffet. Other than that, we've always enjoyed their food and never found it bland. But like you said, we are all different.

[bbqoug]

We really enjoyed the food on our two Azamara cruises.

The MDR meals were consistently better (IMO) than on our previous cruises on Princess & Celebrity. We also enjoyed the themed lunches & dinners in their buffet.

We are interested to see how the food compares on Sirena next April.

 

[Hawaiidan]

13 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

As far as not walking laps in the sunshine, skin cancer comes to mind. As far as food on any HAL ship, the only issue I can think of that was a big negative for us was when they started using powdered eggs up at the Lido buffet. Other than that, we've always enjoyed their food and never found it bland. But like you said, we are all different.

Powered eggs!!!!     Thanks for the tip.... I will avoid them   Any other  things  like soy-meat  . that .HAL is doing like that?  Do they have cream of wheat cereals or grits?

Edited August 12, 2019 by Hawaiidan

[Hawaiidan]

11 hours ago, bbqoug said:

We really enjoyed the food on our two Azamara cruises.

The MDR meals were consistently better (IMO) than on our previous cruises on Princess & Celebrity. We also enjoyed the themed lunches & dinners in their buffet.

We are interested to see how the food compares on Sirena next April.

 

Having  experiences all but Azamar, * the up-scale Celebrity.........It will be  "striking" different both in  variety and quality....

[Hawaiidan]

16 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I have found that different chefs can make a huge difference when they cycle to vacation, so maybe you hit Azamara at a bad time – or maybe our tastes differ.  DW and I found the MDR food on both of our Azamara cruises to be top notch – definitely better than any mass market MDR (Celebrity, Princess – let's not even talk about NCL!) – and equivalent to Celebrity's Luminae suites-only restaurant but with more choices.  It was also better than on our Oceania cruise, which is why that remains in the singular.

That would figure  because Azamara is the up-scale version of Celebrity....   and would have a  reason to provide better .

[Ken the cruiser]

12 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

Powered eggs!!!!     Thanks for the tip.... I will avoid them   Any other  things HAL is doing like that?

I can't think of anything else. I have to admit that really upset my DW as she likes her scrambled eggs. I didn't notice it at first, as I would usually order eggs benedict or an omelet. But once I tasted her "no texture" scrambled eggs, which pretty much just melt in your mouth just like when I was a kid when my mom would use them back in the early 60s, I started noticing my omelet had the same texture (or lack there of). We can deal with boxed eggs, we get that, but using powdered eggs was a little too much on the cheap for us. BTW this was on the Zaandam in Jan 2018, so they may have changed back to boxed eggs. We'll know soon enough when we board the Maasdam in early October.

Edited August 12, 2019 by Ken the cruiser

[Hawaiidan]

6 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I can't think of anything else. I have to admit that really upset my DW as she likes her scrambled eggs. I didn't notice it at first, as I would usually order eggs benedict or an omelet. But once I tasted her "no texture" scrambled eggs, which pretty much just melt in your mouth just like when I was a kid when my mom would use them back in the early 60s, I started noticing my omelet had the same texture (or lack there of). We can deal with boxed eggs, we get that, but using powdered eggs was a little too much on the cheap for us. BTW this was on the Zaandam in Jan 2018, so they may have changed back to boxed eggs. We'll know soon enough when we board the Maasdam in early October.

Thanks.....it makes me wonder just what else is out there. to suprise me....  Thanks again I will plan accordingly.

[ORV]

I always order my eggs from fresh cracked. I hate the mixture stuff. You do realize on Oceania if you order scrambled eggs in the GDR at breakfast that you are going to get the same runny mush that they have in the Terrace? Trying to get them freshly made has resulted in me just getting over medium eggs when I eat in there. Usually they would get it wrong, my wife never wanted me to send them back, I can't eat that stuff. Not a way to start the day so I quit ordering scrambled there. 

 

When we have breakfast in the Terrace I can explain to the omelette maker that I want "fresh" scrambled eggs. I can watch them break the eggs in front of me. 

[Kate-AHF]

It never occurred to me to ask the omlette guy for actual eggs.  Not out of a carton, but real, crack the actual shell eggs.  You can bet I will in the future.

 

Someone is bound to come on here now and explain how eggs out of a carton are safer.  Yeah.... I don't care.

[KirkNC]

Actually I believe HAL’s eggs come in a carton, not powdered.  I hate them anyway, some ships will still make omelets or scrabbled eggs with real eggs, some will not.  We have lived the destruction of HAL under Orlando’s “leadership “ which is why we have booked Oceania in 2021.

[KirkNC]

16 hours ago, Kate-AHF said:

It never occurred to me to ask the omlette guy for actual eggs.  Not out of a carton, but real, crack the actual shell eggs.  You can bet I will in the future.

 

Someone is bound to come on here now and explain how eggs out of a carton are safer.  Yeah.... I don't care.

 

Not defending them, I hate them as well but those in the carton are pasteurized or homogenized or something like that.  I was told they have a longer shelf life.  To me they are disgusting.