Should I try Oceania? (compare to Viking)

[caviargal]

On 11/13/2022 at 6:13 PM, LHT28 said:

well I suppose  sometimes  there are excursions that may stop at  a wine store or  you may have time to shop before getting back on the ship 🙄

Seems other people manage  to do it

When you are all about the food and wine, it's one of the greatest pleasures of travel. 

[Orator]

The Viking cruise was wonderful. Best passengers I’ve ever met on a ship. Crew was friendly and attentive. Officers were invisible. Cruise Director was excellent. Lectures were one of the highlights. In two weeks I experience Riviera and I’ll compare for myself.

[Jtm1979]

We’ve enjoyed 5 Viking Ocean cruises but elected to cruise Oceania this Feb/Mar based on the itineraries.  We are also excited to see the differences between the two lines.  Cruisers with Viking are comfortable to be with and always interesting. 
Are there differences in evening dress wear noticed in the restaurants?

 

 

[LHT28]

4 minutes ago, Jtm1979 said:

Are there differences in evening dress wear noticed in the restaurants?
 

I found most people on Oceania (pre covid)   change into  nice clothes for dinner

ladies in slacks/skirts or dress & men in ln slacks & collared shirts for dinner

some in the warmer  climates may wear shorts to the Terrace (buffet) 

some men will wear a jacket  some do not

[CurlerRob]

4 minutes ago, Jtm1979 said:

We’ve enjoyed 5 Viking Ocean cruises but elected to cruise Oceania this Feb/Mar based on the itineraries.  We are also excited to see the differences between the two lines.  Cruisers with Viking are comfortable to be with and always interesting. 
Are there differences in evening dress wear noticed in the restaurants?

 

 

 

We experienced no real differences in evening wear on the two lines. Slacks and collared shirts for men on both, the occasional sports jacket in a specialty restaurant. Women mainly in slacks and a blouse. Occasional outliers in both directions - dressy or more casual. In general, pax conservatively dressed. What you have seen on Viking will be perfectly consistent on O.

 

(We did receive a bizarre memo from O that suggested jacket/tie and cocktail dresses - totally confused as to where that came from, as it was way offside with O's posted dress code. We just ignored it based on the various postings on CC and were quite right to do so). 🍺🥌

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 minutes ago, CurlerRob said:

 

We experienced no real differences in evening wear on the two lines. Slacks and collared shirts for men on both, the occasional sports jacket in a specialty restaurant. Women mainly in slacks and a blouse. Occasional outliers in both directions - dressy or more casual. In general, pax conservatively dressed. What you have seen on Viking will be perfectly consistent on O.🥌

I agree:  Viking and Oceania are both similar Country Club Casual.  Which is why we like both!

[Redtravel]

On 12/30/2022 at 10:34 PM, CurlerRob said:

 

We experienced no real differences in evening wear on the two lines. Slacks and collared shirts for men on both, the occasional sports jacket in a specialty restaurant. Women mainly in slacks and a blouse. Occasional outliers in both directions - dressy or more casual. In general, pax conservatively dressed. What you have seen on Viking will be perfectly consistent on O.

 

(We did receive a bizarre memo from O that suggested jacket/tie and cocktail dresses - totally confused as to where that came from, as it was way offside with O's posted dress code. We just ignored it based on the various postings on CC and were quite right to do so). 🍺🥌

I got that email 5 days before embarkation.  My reaction was… WHAT?  Sport jackets, ties, and cocktail dresses?  Having previously sailed on O, I ignored it.  Met some people that brought sequined dresses. They looked out of place.  
if it was my first time on Oceania, I might’ve rethought what I packed.

[LHT28]

 

On 12/30/2022 at 10:34 PM, CurlerRob said:

(We did receive a bizarre memo from O that suggested jacket/tie and cocktail dresses - totally confused as to where that came from, as it was way offside with O's posted dress code. We just ignored it based on the various postings on CC and were quite right to do so). 🍺🥌

maybe they are  trying to get back to a better dress code   than people thinking jeans & T 's  are acceptable  for dining venues on O 😃

[Mura]

We prefer Oceania but I have to say as well that we were only on the older riverboats with Viking, never have done an ocean cruise with them.  The reports on the ocean ships that I've seen have been very positive so I guess we'll just have to try Viking some time.

 

We also haven't been on any Viking trip in 10 years.  Our last time was with a group of (I forget exactly) maybe 16 people arranged by Jan Cruz.  All of us (as I recall) were somewhat disappointed.  It happened that we were on the same river boat we'd sailed on for our first river boat cruise back in October 2003.  Dinner was somewhat of a trial because 5 servers trying to deal with 150 passengers was pretty much impossible.  Dinners were very long although the food was fine.  I happened to visit the galley (I forget why) and could NOT imagine how they could prepare all that food in such a tiny space.  My kitchen at home -- a good size for a NYC apartment but not huge --- was larger.

 

Back in 2017 we were dining at an outdoor restaurant for lunch on the Douro River in Portugal when a Viking longboat pulled into port right in front of us.  Even though we hadn't sailed on the newer boats, we felt like we were greeting an old friend.

 

I might add that one reason Howard and I were disappointed on that last trip was because river boating had become so incredibly popular over the years.  On our first river boat experience we were on the last trip of the season, so understandably ports were not crowded.  We took another couple of Viking trips before our last one, and those weren't crowded either.  But the 2012 trip in France was extremely crowded.  We were usually triple docked at ports, and we always seemed to be the boat furthest from the dock.  This meant that we had to climb through the other two boats to get to shore.

 

Not ideal!  But not horrible either.  We just haven't been back.

 

Mura

Mura