Trying Oceania?

[sakigemcam]

Hi there - would love opinions please. 
 

We’re regular Celebrity cruisers, meaning once per year while juggling work PTO 😑

 

We are thinking of upgrading to a line like Oceania for the added luxury and intimacy of the experience. Like going from Marriott to Four Seasons maybe?!
 

I worry, though, that since we still work we may not fit into the demographic, and that the fewer choices of dining and entertainment and activity may bore us? We’re active on excursions with hiking and snorkeling. We are used to being slightly overstimulated but also appreciate our down time. Celebrity entertainment isn’t all that but there’s enough activity through the days and evenings. 
 

Has anyone made the transition and what was your reaction?

 

Lastly, I swear by my Scop patch and wonder if the smaller ship size increases movement that much. I’ve done fine on some right sea days in Edge and Silhouette.
 

Thank you in advance! 
 

 

[Flatbush Flyer]

8 minutes ago, sakigemcam said:

Hi there - would love opinions please. 
 

We’re regular Celebrity cruisers, meaning once per year while juggling work PTO 😑

 

We are thinking of upgrading to a line like Oceania for the added luxury and intimacy of the experience. Like going from Marriott to Four Seasons maybe?!
 

I worry, though, that since we still work we may not fit into the demographic, and that the fewer choices of dining and entertainment and activity may bore us? We’re active on excursions with hiking and snorkeling. We are used to being slightly overstimulated but also appreciate our down time. Celebrity entertainment isn’t all that but there’s enough activity through the days and evenings. 
 

Has anyone made the transition and what was your reaction?

 

Lastly, I swear by my Scop patch and wonder if the smaller ship size increases movement that much. I’ve done fine on some right sea days in Edge and Silhouette.
 

Thank you in advance! 
 

 

When you finally decide to try O, you’ll meet MANY former Celebrity cruisers who’ll never go back to X. The food alone on O wins most of them over.

As for motion, you’ll be on an ocean that could care less about the size of your ship.

Regarding the passenger demographic, you’ll find it depends a lot on itinerary length. Long cruises (3 weeks - 1 month +) = mostly retirees. Seven to 18 days have a fair share of still-working folks (and a ton of College Alumni clubs since O is a favorite of these organizations). Families with kids? You’ll see them on short Med and Alaska summer cruises.

Entertainment: ship size limits what can be done. FWIW, O uses the same talent agency as NCL. Want a Broadway production show? Take an O cruise that starts/ends in NYC abd stay a few days.

[JerryAM]

We are in our early 60s and still working. On our Riviera cruise (Caribbean) earlier this month, although most passengers were “retirement age”, there were a good number in their 40s and 50s. We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise (this being your first Oceana cruise), especially the food. However, although it was certainly a step above our prior Celebrity cruises, I would not consider it “luxury“ like a Four Seasons hotel. For a true luxury experience, you would need to step up to Regent, which we have also done previously and also enjoyed. We take these cruises to relax as much as possible, so activities (other than excursions) are not a factor for us.  There was a very good band playing most nights in the Horizon lounge for entertainment other than the evening shows. 

[sakigemcam]

18 minutes ago, JerryAM said:

We are in our early 60s and still working. On our Riviera cruise (Caribbean) earlier this month, although most passengers were “retirement age”, there were a good number in their 40s and 50s. We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise (this being your first Oceana cruise), especially the food. However, although it was certainly a step above our prior Celebrity cruises, I would not consider it “luxury“ like a Four Seasons hotel. For a true luxury experience, you would need to step up to Regent, which we have also done previously and also enjoyed. We take these cruises to relax as much as possible, so activities (other than excursions) are not a factor for us.  There was a very good band playing most nights in the Horizon lounge for entertainment other than the evening shows. 

Thank you. So aside from the food which does look so much better (we moved to X from RCCL bc we couldn't with RCCL food again), what other enhancements made it a step above for you? Right now we're pricing an O vs X itinerary for 2023 and  they're not too different price-wise!

[sakigemcam]

5 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

When you finally decide to try O, you’ll meet MANY former Celebrity cruisers who’ll never go back to X. The food alone on O wins most of them over.

As for motion, you’ll be on an ocean that could care less about the size of your ship.

Regarding the passenger demographic, you’ll find it depends a lot on itinerary length. Long cruises (3 weeks - 1 month +) = mostly retirees. Seven to 18 days have a fair share of still-working folks (and a ton of College Alumni clubs since O is a favorite of these organizations). Families with kids? You’ll see them on short Med and Alaska summer cruises.

Entertainment: ship size limits what can be done. FWIW, O uses the same talent agency as NCL. Want a Broadway production show? Take an O cruise that starts/ends in NYC abd stay a few days.

Thank you, this is great info. 

We're NYC-ers so can do Bway locally but we appreciated the entertainment factor of those shows when we used to cruise RCCL.

Most appreciated!

[JerryAM]

18 minutes ago, sakigemcam said:

Thank you. So aside from the food which does look so much better (we moved to X from RCCL bc we couldn't with RCCL food again), what other enhancements made it a step above for you? Right now we're pricing an O vs X itinerary for 2023 and  they're not too different price-wise!

Smaller ship. No kids. Nicer lounge chairs by pool. Staterooms are nicer/bigger. No crowds on elevators or elsewhere.  Excellent specialty restaurants at no extra charge. Barristas coffee bar at no extra charge. Excellent service from crew.   We would not go back to Celebrity after our Regent and Oceania cruises. 

[sakigemcam]

38 minutes ago, JerryAM said:

Smaller ship. No kids. Nicer lounge chairs by pool. Staterooms are nicer/bigger. No crowds on elevators or elsewhere.  Excellent specialty restaurants at no extra charge. Barristas coffee bar at no extra charge. Excellent service from crew.   We would not go back to Celebrity after our Regent and Oceania cruises. 

Thank you! 

[alcpa1]

Another X long timer. 

At the current time there are two classes of ships with a third Vista setting sail in the coming future. 

The two larger ships do have larger balcony cabins. The R ships carry less than 700 passengers and the standard balcony cabins are smaller with tiny bathrooms. 

Oceania is a definite step up. 

Give it a try especially if you're itinerary driven.

 

[mauibabes]

Consider one more point, Countryclub Casual dress.  No suits or sport oats or tuxedo’s required.  Save the space in your luggage and bring along some of your favorite bottles of wine, pay the $25 Corkage and truly enjoy the “Finest Cuisine at Sea”. 
There are LOTS of First timers on the O cruises in addition to normally 60%+ returning O cruisers. 
We just finished 46 days on Riviera’s first four cruises in her return to cruising after 19 months.  We  grew from 400 guests to 550 to 650 to 1100 guests for the Transatlantic and we had a fantastic time as did the crew who are so happy to be back to their Oceania family. 
One way to make sure you are not “bored”, bring along another couple or two and you will have a fantastic time meeting al lot of wonderful guests. I don’t try to compare prices because We will never get on a multi-thousand passenger ship. You will love the 684 and 1250 passenger ships.  If you want a real treat, find a vacancy on O’s new ship, Vista when she sails her inaugural season, April to November 2023. Watch her videos and get a hard copy brochure and you will never think about X again.

Ciao, Mauibabes

[terrydtx]

We made the move this year to Celebrity from HAL after experiencing the Retreat on Celebrity, and also made Oceania our alternative Ocean cruise line. We choose to cruise with Celebrity only in a Sky Suite and with Oceania in a Concierge level cabin in the two larger Marina and Riviera ships, soon to be a third Vista. We look at the itinerary and then compare the two cruise lines to see which one has the best deal we want, The Marina was our choice for the Baltics next year, and Celebrity APEX and EDGE for our 2023 and 2024 cruises. We also plan to do a Canadian/New England cruise from Montreal to NY or Boston on Oceania, if the 2024 cruise itineraries are similar to the 2023 ones. The smaller O ships make stops the larger ships do not do. In 2025 an Oceania South America cruise is on our bucket list with a longer itinerary. 

 

We do have one last HAL cruise in 2022 that we booked in 2020 to use up a FCC. We also have a Viking River cruise in 2023. Viking River is our favorite river cruise company, but not for Ocean voyages.

Edited December 21, 2021 by terrydtx

[tipsygirl]

17 hours ago, sakigemcam said:

Hi there - would love opinions please. 
 

We’re regular Celebrity cruisers, meaning once per year while juggling work PTO 😑

 

We are thinking of upgrading to a line like Oceania for the added luxury and intimacy of the experience. Like going from Marriott to Four Seasons maybe?!
 

I worry, though, that since we still work we may not fit into the demographic, and that the fewer choices of dining and entertainment and activity may bore us? We’re active on excursions with hiking and snorkeling. We are used to being slightly overstimulated but also appreciate our down time. Celebrity entertainment isn’t all that but there’s enough activity through the days and evenings. 
 

Has anyone made the transition and what was your reaction?

 

Lastly, I swear by my Scop patch and wonder if the smaller ship size increases movement that much. I’ve done fine on some right sea days in Edge and Silhouette.
 

Thank you in advance! 
 

 

We were regular Elite Plus travelers with Celebrity. We became increasingly unhappy with our experiences on Celebrity ships and decided to try other companies. We booked a cruise on Crystal and we’re delighted with our experience. We experienced the “customer first” atmosphere that was once found on  Celebrity. We tried one more short Celebrity cruise and were again disappointed.

We have since sailed on more Crystal cruises. We have sailed on Oceania once (Marina) , and will be sailing on Riviera in February. Pluses on both Crystal and Oceania are lovely specialty restaurants at no charge, smaller ships, and more attention to guests. Oceania is more casual than Crystal, but I would happily sail on either line. We also plan to try Silversea, Regent, and Seabourne. But no more Celebrity.

[sakigemcam]

1 hour ago, tipsygirl said:

We were regular Elite Plus travelers with Celebrity. We became increasingly unhappy with our experiences on Celebrity ships and decided to try other companies. We booked a cruise on Crystal and we’re delighted with our experience. We experienced the “customer first” atmosphere that was once found on  Celebrity. We tried one more short Celebrity cruise and were again disappointed.

We have since sailed on more Crystal cruises. We have sailed on Oceania once (Marina) , and will be sailing on Riviera in February. Pluses on both Crystal and Oceania are lovely specialty restaurants at no charge, smaller ships, and more attention to guests. Oceania is more casual than Crystal, but I would happily sail on either line. We also plan to try Silversea, Regent, and Seabourne. But no more Celebrity.

Thanks to everyone for this excellent feedback. And the more casual dress nature of these ships is up our alley  too!

Silhouette coming up and we're excited, but then I think we may make the move to Riviera for '23 if pricing works out right. The Edge cruise we are looking at for $23 is almost double what we paid during her inaugural year. 

[ak1004]

We did 4 cruises on Celebrity and now completing our second cruise on Oceania.

 

Oceania is in a different league. 
 

It starts with service and food which are simply few steps above Celebrity. No crowds. No lines. Very few if any children. The demographic is older, but we are in our mid 50s and we have no issues at all. Ship movement was never an issue for us. All specialty restaurants included. No formal nights which is perfect for us.

 

The only thing that is better on Celebrity is entertainment and daily activities. I disagree that entertainment options are limited on a small ship. Crystal has entertainment which is the same level if not better than Celebrity. We were a bit disappointed not to see a single guest lecture on our current 10 day Caribbean cruise.

 

The bottom line: we now sail on Celebrity only when going with friends. Otherwise Oceania and Crystal. A completely different experience.

[ORV]

I'll be a dissenting opinion here and say that I cruise Oceania and Celebrity, and have pretty much enjoyed all of my cruises on both. I don't expect them to be the same product, I know what I'm getting from each and set my expectations accordingly. , 

 

After 25 cruises on Oceania I'm completely ok with going on Celebrity. I guess this "never again" phenomenon has never hit me. 

 

To the OP, the comfort of the beds on Oceania is one huge difference. 

[mauibabes]

An old tag line, friends don’t let friends drive drunk so AK1004, just maybe Friends don’t let friends cruise Celebrity. OK, bad humor.  Actually we sailed with friends on the good old days of Princess around 2006 and after our 2007 Mediterranean cruise on O, we told them they needed to step up their game and join us for a better, smaller ship experience. They all felt their “Princess or Celebrity levels”  should be the determining factor, eg. Free Laundry. We got them to “try” Oceania and the light bulb went off. The Oceania Loyalty Club is so superior to the mass market lines that it is laughable. I read posts saying we are “Elite” or some other term but when you look at what amenities they are getting, they are standard fare just for sailing in a Concierge Class Veranda stateroom. We just passed our 20th cruise and took our FREE CRUISE!  Yes, now that is a real loyalty reward. Look at the loyalty club awards on Oceania and you will be shocked when you compare them to your clubs. 

X cruisers, come aboard and enjoy Oceania because you do not need to sail with 3-6,000 guests to have a wonderful cruise experience. 
Ciao, Mauibabes 

[ak1004]

11 minutes ago, mauibabes said:

An old tag line, friends don’t let friends drive drunk so AK1004, just maybe Friends don’t let friends cruise Celebrity. OK, bad humor.  Actually we sailed with friends on the good old days of Princess around 2006 and after our 2007 Mediterranean cruise on O, we told them they needed to step up their game and join us for a better, smaller ship experience. They all felt their “Princess or Celebrity levels”  should be the determining factor, eg. Free Laundry. We got them to “try” Oceania and the light bulb went off. The Oceania Loyalty Club is so superior to the mass market lines that it is laughable. I read posts saying we are “Elite” or some other term but when you look at what amenities they are getting, they are standard fare just for sailing in a Concierge Class Veranda stateroom. We just passed our 20th cruise and took our FREE CRUISE!  Yes, now that is a real loyalty reward. Look at the loyalty club awards on Oceania and you will be shocked when you compare them to your clubs. 

X cruisers, come aboard and enjoy Oceania because you do not need to sail with 3-6,000 guests to have a wonderful cruise experience. 
Ciao, Mauibabes 

 

I'm 100% with you. 

 

Our friends do feel that they get some perks with their Elite status, they are very used to Celebrity and just don't feel that paying extra for Oceania is justified.

 

As @ORVmentioned, it's all matter of expectations. Don't expect Honda to be a Mercedes (apologies to all Honda owners), and you will be fine. Celebrity is a fine line overall, it provides a balanced and decent package, but again, it's not Oceania.

[JerryAM]

I need to clarify an earlier post. For a cruise with just my wife and I, we would not go back to Celebrity. However, we would certainly consider Celebrity, along with Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, for a cruise with grandkids (hypothetical at this time).  Also, we are considering another Oceania cruise in a couple years with our adult children, who we know would love the excellent food.

[lorimay]

We did our first Oceania cruise in November after mostly sailing Celebrity in recent years. In some ways it was an upgrade but it definitely was not all i expected it to be. The crowd was much older than I expected- more in line with Holland America. The food was very good in the specialty restaurants but we found the grand dining room food and service not of the same quality. The terrace buffet had some excellent items but limited choices. For example, the salad bar consisted of lettuce, tomatoes, chopped cucumbers and shredded carrots every day. Smaller ship, less choice. The service was generally fantastic everywhere but we had a really disappointing experience with our butler and for us never again a penthouse suite.  Since the service is great everywhere and everyone is treated the same and we didn’t find any benefit from the executive lounge, we didn’t see much reason to upgrade. On Celebrity higher class cabins/suites get privileges. On Oceania you only get earlier/more specialty restaurant reservations.
 

But we really missed the activities and entertainment that you get on Celebrity. Daily trivia once a day in late afternoon so if you were on an excursion you missed it. Port enrichment talk once a day, good lecturer, but 30 to 45 minutes and always in a hurry. Other than ping pong and  putting tournaments that was about it during the day. You just didn’t see many people out and about at night. We don’t drink and aren’t big partiers but were a little bored. 
 

So for us the food was much better than Celebrity, service was great in most areas (but we’ve never had bad service on Celebrity) and the activities were definitely lacking. I would say it’s an upgrade but I would not really categorize our experience as being on a luxury cruise line. 

[DENIE]

We are Celebrity regulars (3 cruises in 3 years) who are making the switch to Oceania.  Our "average" age is roughly 58, and yes we are still working  and having to juggle PTO. We loved Celebrity and had a great experience, but happened across a brochure for Oceania one day in our mail. Since 2 more Celebrity cruises were cancelled due to Covid, we decided to see what Oceania is about.  Many fine folks here helped solidify our decision and answered questions (thank you Mauibabes!).  We are so looking forward to this in June 2022 on the Riviera.

[ORV]

1 hour ago, lorimay said:

We did our first Oceania cruise in November after mostly sailing Celebrity in recent years. In some ways it was an upgrade but it definitely was not all i expected it to be. The crowd was much older than I expected- more in line with Holland America. The food was very good in the specialty restaurants but we found the grand dining room food and service not of the same quality. The terrace buffet had some excellent items but limited choices. For example, the salad bar consisted of lettuce, tomatoes, chopped cucumbers and shredded carrots every day. Smaller ship, less choice. The service was generally fantastic everywhere but we had a really disappointing experience with our butler and for us never again a penthouse suite.  Since the service is great everywhere and everyone is treated the same and we didn’t find any benefit from the executive lounge, we didn’t see much reason to upgrade. On Celebrity higher class cabins/suites get privileges. On Oceania you only get earlier/more specialty restaurant reservations.
 

But we really missed the activities and entertainment that you get on Celebrity. Daily trivia once a day in late afternoon so if you were on an excursion you missed it. Port enrichment talk once a day, good lecturer, but 30 to 45 minutes and always in a hurry. Other than ping pong and  putting tournaments that was about it during the day. You just didn’t see many people out and about at night. We don’t drink and aren’t big partiers but were a little bored. 
 

So for us the food was much better than Celebrity, service was great in most areas (but we’ve never had bad service on Celebrity) and the activities were definitely lacking. I would say it’s an upgrade but I would not really categorize our experience as being on a luxury cruise line. 

While I really like Oceania it's nice to see someone that can see the Emperor's new clothes. 

[Croooser]

We consider ourselves "Celebrity refugees". We are Elite on Celebrity but 4 of our next 6 bookings are on O. We are scheduled on a quick 7 days on Apex in January just to see what that class ship is like. And we have a Princess trip to use up FCC for a bargain TA that did not work out due to pandemic issues. Otherwise we are committed to O, at least for now. 

 

We concur with all of the pros cited here.

 

However, if entertainment and activities are part of the appeal, be careful. O is very laid back. Maybe try a short cruise to get a feel for the different demographic and ambience?

 

Our biggest complaint about O is that their air program is poor, compared to either Celebrity or Princess, both of which we have used and been happy with. In our experience, O air is more expensive and less flexible. But O is otherwise right up our alley, so we deal with making our air arrangements on our own.

 

Final comment. It is not readily apparent but there are a number of ways to book O with corresponding pricing. Not all of these options appear on the website, but they are all available:

• With O Life and O air
• With O Life but no O air
• With O air but no O Life
• No O Life and no O air
• One way air can be booked in any of these scenarios and a credit will be applied vs RT air

HTH

Edited December 22, 2021 by Croooser

[ak1004]

12 hours ago, lorimay said:

We did our first Oceania cruise in November after mostly sailing Celebrity in recent years. In some ways it was an upgrade but it definitely was not all i expected it to be. The crowd was much older than I expected- more in line with Holland America. The food was very good in the specialty restaurants but we found the grand dining room food and service not of the same quality. The terrace buffet had some excellent items but limited choices. For example, the salad bar consisted of lettuce, tomatoes, chopped cucumbers and shredded carrots every day. Smaller ship, less choice. The service was generally fantastic everywhere but we had a really disappointing experience with our butler and for us never again a penthouse suite.  Since the service is great everywhere and everyone is treated the same and we didn’t find any benefit from the executive lounge, we didn’t see much reason to upgrade. On Celebrity higher class cabins/suites get privileges. On Oceania you only get earlier/more specialty restaurant reservations.
 

But we really missed the activities and entertainment that you get on Celebrity. Daily trivia once a day in late afternoon so if you were on an excursion you missed it. Port enrichment talk once a day, good lecturer, but 30 to 45 minutes and always in a hurry. Other than ping pong and  putting tournaments that was about it during the day. You just didn’t see many people out and about at night. We don’t drink and aren’t big partiers but were a little bored. 
 

So for us the food was much better than Celebrity, service was great in most areas (but we’ve never had bad service on Celebrity) and the activities were definitely lacking. I would say it’s an upgrade but I would not really categorize our experience as being on a luxury cruise line. 

 

I fully agree with your observations. The activities and the entertainment are the only area where Celebrity beats Oceania. For us, a much better service and superior food outpace the lack activities and mediocre entertainment, but it's really a personal choice. It's not that service on Celebrity is bad, but with crew/passengers ratio of 2.5/1 compared to 1.5/1, there is really no comparison. If you add no crowds, no lines etc, the choice is pretty obvious.

 

Regarding penthouse suite - personally for us, it's justified to book them only on the smaller ships where standard cabins (and especially bathrooms) are really small. For us, the standard veranda rooms on Riviera/Marina are more than adequate, and we are perfectly capable to pack/unpack our luggage..

[terrydtx]

22 minutes ago, Croooser said:

Our biggest complaint about O is that their air program is poor, compared to either Celebrity or Princess, both of which we have used and been happy with. In our experience, O air is more expensive and less flexible. But O is otherwise right up our alley, so we deal with making our air arrangements on our own.

I agree and if you want to fly business class, they are insanely ridiculously high. Can't beat Celebrity Air for booking online, making changes online, picking seats online, canceling without penalty online and not paying until final payments.  We look for overseas cruises that we can do back-to-back, one with Oceania and the other with Celebrity in a Sky Suite so we can use CA to cover both cruises. We are doing that with our O cruise on the Marina next summer followed by a HAL Greek cruise, using HAL air for our flights. Celebrity did not have a Greek cruise that matched up with the Marina cruise. On HAL we booked Business Class RT from San Antonio to Copenhagen and home from Venice for $3071pp on United. We booked the Marina with O Life less the air and saved $1100pp. O quoted us a Business Class air at $4200 over the O LIfe with air cost plus some silly deviation fees which would have our business class seats costing over $5400pp

 

In 2023 we have a Viking River cruise booked as a pre-cruise to our Celebrity Apex cruise and we will use CA to book the air. In 2024 we have B2B Edge cruises booked in New Zealand/Australia.  When O releases their 2024 Australia cruise schedules we will look and compare or maybe do a combination of both lines.

 

Viking Ocean and River has just as poor air option as O, which is why we do not do their Ocean cruises, but they have the best river ones   

[jagoffee]

Terrydtx, a lot of great points about Cruise line air options.  Of the three that you mentioned, Princess is by far the best IMO.  So that people do not get the wrong idea, you cannot make changes to Celebrity Air arrangements on line.  You can book Celebrity air on line, but you have to call to cancel or change the air.  You can call, cancel the air, and then rebook new flights on line if you wish.  Princess allows you to make changes to your flights on line.  
 

No doubt that Oceania air flight booking process especially in Business Class.  IMO  the only way it could be worse is to not have cruise air as an option.  Obviously not a priority for most people.  I have two Oceania cruises booked and a third one waitlisted.  
 

Which other European river cruise lines have you tried?  We have only completed one European river cruise, a 14 day one, and we used Tauck.  It was all inclusive with a fabulous ship, crew, and land excursions.  Our next river cruise is on the Douro river which is also booked with Tauck. (Combination land and cruise)

Edited December 22, 2021 by jagoffee

[Host Jazzbeau]

4 hours ago, jagoffee said:

Which other European river cruise lines have you tried?  We have only completed one European river cruise, a 14 day one, and we used Tauck.  It was all inclusive with a fabulous ship, crew, and land excursions.  Our next river cruise is on the Douro river which is also booked with Tauck. (Combination land and cruise)

Come over to the River Cruising forum.  There are several 'stickies' at the top with a lot of information about all aspects of river cruising.  This one is especially relevant to your question:  River CRUISE LINE articles on Cruise Critic

 

Viking River is a good middle of the road cruise line.  If your experience starts with Tauck, you will probably be happier with the other top end river cruise lines:  Crystal, Scenic, Uniworld, maybe AMA (for food)