Trans-Atlantic Oceania compared to Princess

[stevenr597]

My wife and I are looking at two great Trans-Atlantic Cruises for 2020, which leave from Barcelona and Arrive at Ft. Lauderdale.  One is on the brand new Enchanted Princess, and will be its inaugural cruise across the Atlantic.  The other is on the Marina. 

Both have excellent itineraries.

We have cruised many times on Princess and do like their Regal Class.  We have never cruised on Oceania, but we have cruised with   Azamara in the past.

We would like some opinions in regards to preferences about which cruise to take.

[TrulyBlonde]

Personally, I have done a TA with Princess and would vote in favor of them due to being a larger ship. I love O, but would only take a larger ship across the Pond. 

[LHT28]

Marina  is  a larger ship than Azamara  R ships

We survived  the TA in April with snow & rough seas  ..doubt you will get the snow  on the southern crossing 😉

If you have done Princess give Oceania a try

 

personal choice

 

 

[Paulchili]

We are Elite with Princess and have 25+ cruises with Oceania - so we know both lines very well.

The adage "You get what you pay for" perfectly applies to the comparison of these two lines. They are both good value for the money but in a different class. The things that attract us to Oceania most are the relaxed but sophisticated ambiance, no formal nights, photographers or sales pitches, great service, best food at sea, smaller ships and well traveled, pleasant fellow cruisers.

We cruise Princess for itinerary.

Why not try Oceania and then decide for yourself.

[StanandJim]

52 minutes ago, TrulyBlonde said:

Personally, I have done a TA with Princess and would vote in favor of them due to being a larger ship. I love O, but would only take a larger ship across the Pond. 

deleted post

 

Edited July 15, 2019 by StanandJim

[RJB]

2 hours ago, TrulyBlonde said:

Personally, I have done a TA with Princess and would vote in favor of them due to being a larger ship. I love O, but would only take a larger ship across the Pond. 

We have done both Riviera and Marina on a TA and had a great time.  I think the R ships would be too small for us. More limited dining and on board activities.  Been a long time since Princess so can't comment on them.  Have a great time whichever way you go.  

[DavidTheWonderer]

Tastes are different for different people.  But for a TA, the ship is the destination, not the itinerary.  Comparing Enchanted Princess to Oceania Riviera "by the numbers" gives:

Space per passenger:  Enchanted Princess 39 Gross Tons per passenger; Oceania Riviera 53 Gross Tons per passenger, which is 35% larger.

Passengers per crew: Enchanted Princess 2.7; Oceania Riviera 1.6.

In the above numbers, I used the lower of the two figures for the number of passengers on Enchanted Princess.

[StanandJim]

The first decision is whether one prefers to spend the week or ten daysasmall resort, or in a small city

Beyond that , for me at least, it is easy to see which of the ships I would prefer to cross the Ocean in.

[Petoonya]

38 minutes ago, StanandJim said:

The first decision is whether one prefers to spend the week or ten daysasmall resort, or in a small city

Beyond that , for me at least, it is easy to see which of the ships I would prefer to cross the Ocean in.

 

 

As I Stan and Jim said and I posted a few days ago the small resort Marina would appeal to my senses. You don't see much of the sea in 15 story super-sized Nordstrom with a Thanksgiving Day parade going on inside like Princess. Why cruise if you can't also see the sea? The ambiance of the Marina far outweighs the chaos of a floating congested city like Enchanted Princess.

[RJB]

1 minute ago, Petoonya said:

 

 

As I Stan and Jim said and I posted a few days ago the small resort Marina would appeal to my senses. You don't see much of the sea in 15 story super-sized Nordstrom with a Thanksgiving Day parade going on inside like Princess. Why cruise if you can't also see the sea? The ambiance of the Marina far outweighs the chaos of a floating congested city like Enchanted Princess.

Makes a lot of sense to us. 

[Ken the cruiser]

Simply put, if you want to have a lot of fun with a variety of things to choose from on sea days, and access to quality internet service, then I would go with the new Enchanted Princess and continue to build those loyalty points. 

 

However, if you want a more relaxed atmosphere with great food and free specialty restaurants, then I would suggest trying an O cruise on one of their O class ships. 

[JPR]

Food alone makes the answer easy: Riviera or Marina, hands down...

[Go-Bucks!]

On 7/15/2019 at 2:08 PM, stevenr597 said:

We would like some opinions in regards to preferences about which cruise to take.

 

I suggest you also post this on the Princess board to get views from both sides. Each CC cruiseline board has their own "cheerleaders" who think their favorite line is "the best" and will disparage most other lines. 

[stevenr597]

Thanks for the comments.  

We have decided to go this time with Oceania.  

We will be taking a Concierge A1 Cabin on the Marina.  

What was the deciding factor was the intinerary.  The Marina had several stops in Spain, one in Portugal, then Bermuda and then Nassau.

The Enchanted Princess had one stop in Spain, one in Morocco, and stops at the Canary Islands and the Azores.  

We thought that the stops on the Marina were far superior. 

Thanks everybody for your help and opinions. 

Edited July 17, 2019 by stevenr597
spelling and grammer

[KS&JW]

I hope you have a great trip. 

[Paulchili]

41 minutes ago, KS&JW said:

I hope you have a great trip. 

Ditto .

Warning - you may never cruise Princess again 😁

[Queen of DaNile]

Good choice. We've done several TAs but will be doing our first on Marina this November. Barcelona to Rio for the Canaries and Cape Verde. Have not been on Princess but the thought of sharing a ship with 3300+ passengers would give me serious pause.

Looking forward to enjoying many relaxing sea days, great service and fine dining on our crossing on Marina.