Rare Jim_Iain Posted August 11 #1 Share Posted August 11 We will be taking our first Oceania cruise in about 1 month. As such most of the information I'm gathering is from details I've accumulated and some of which I've read on CruiseCritics and FB groups. First of all I wanted to say I understand that Oceania and Celebrity are totally different but that is the main reason we have booked this cruise. We also understand that Regatta is the smallest and oldest ships in the Oceania fleet. We actually booked Vista in an Owner's Suite for next year but wanted to try out Oceania - For those that don't know us, we are Jim and Iain (Scottish version of Ian). We are a male couple from the heart of Silicon Valley, CA. We have been together for 38 years and are addicted to cruising. For the past 24 years we have sailed exclusively in Upper Suites on Celebrity. Times have changed and we have decided to explore other cruise lines. This year we have booked 2 Oceania, 1 SilverSea, 1 Regent Silver Seas and 2 Cunard cruises. The purpose of this tread is share my per-cruise knowledge of Oceania. Of course, my perception could be totally off base and opened to correction and advice. 14 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare asnaleah Posted August 12 #2 Share Posted August 12 watching closely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted August 12 Author #3 Share Posted August 12 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted August 12 Author #4 Share Posted August 12 7 minutes ago, asnaleah said: watching closely! Thanks -- please feel free to ask questions. If I don't know I'm sure someone here will be able to jump in and help out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhdesno2 Posted August 12 #5 Share Posted August 12 Thank you for doing this comparison review. I really love your objective writing style and gorgeous pictures. I will follow along. We have been on many Celebrity cruises, including Millennium, but only on 2 Oceania so far (Riviera and Vista). We do have a couple Oceania cruises booked for 2025 on the bigger Marina and Vista. I will be very interested in your opinion of a smaller ship as we have hesitated to book them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare elmsliebev Posted August 12 #6 Share Posted August 12 Really interested in this. We are cruising on Regatta end of October. Not been on Celebrity but have had several cruises on Cunard, most recently on Queen Anne in June. The smallest ship I've been on is the Marella (Thomson) Calypso at around 700pax. Loved her and went through the Corinth Canal on her. Following your trip closely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cluso Posted August 12 #7 Share Posted August 12 Counting the days until this cruise with you and Iain. Flying to Vancouver 11 September. Thank you for starting this thread. We have been on the R ships when they were Renaissance, Azamara, and the Tahitian Princess. ☺️ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted August 12 Author #8 Share Posted August 12 12 hours ago, mhdesno2 said: Thank you for doing this comparison review. I really love your objective writing style and gorgeous pictures. I will follow along. We have been on many Celebrity cruises, including Millennium, but only on 2 Oceania so far (Riviera and Vista). We do have a couple Oceania cruises booked for 2025 on the bigger Marina and Vista. I will be very interested in your opinion of a smaller ship as we have hesitated to book them. Thanks --- the good news is this isn't our first Small Ship cruise. Last year as a teaser we booked a cruise on Ponant. The ship had 132 cabins so was about 1/2 the size of Regatta. We had a wonderful time. It definitely was different but in a good way. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted August 12 Author #9 Share Posted August 12 4 hours ago, elmsliebev said: Really interested in this. We are cruising on Regatta end of October. Not been on Celebrity but have had several cruises on Cunard, most recently on Queen Anne in June. The smallest ship I've been on is the Marella (Thomson) Calypso at around 700pax. Loved her and went through the Corinth Canal on her. Following your trip closely! Thanks.... Our first Cunard will be a QM2 crossing in October ---Decided to try it out instead of flying to meet a TransPacific on Celebrity. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted August 12 Author #10 Share Posted August 12 3 hours ago, cluso said: Counting the days until this cruise with you and Iain. Flying to Vancouver 11 September. Thank you for starting this thread. We have been on the R ships when they were Renaissance, Azamara, and the Tahitian Princess. ☺️ Rather unusual for us but will not be flying in until day of the cruise. It is only a shot 2 hour flight from San Francisco for us. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted August 12 Author #11 Share Posted August 12 (edited) For this cruise we chose the Vista Suite. We contemplated the Owner's suite which is a little larger but preferred the Forward Facing Cabin as oppose to the Aft Facing. I have read some of the disadvantages are that the winds can be heavy facing forward and they have to tie down the furniture nightly. I've also read you are required to keep your curtains pulled at night because the room is right under the bridge. Neither of these warning really affect us. We usually don't use our veranda for long time. I did think it would be incredible for the inland passage way and Glacier. I guess we will all find out these warnings affect our use of the cabin. One thing I noticed and will probably be a negative is their is no door between the Bedroom and Living Room. That is one of the main reason I have always enjoyed Celebrity's upper suites. Edited August 12 by Jim_Iain 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SATaxman Posted August 12 #12 Share Posted August 12 The "full size" are actually Litres, not 750s. After 2 weeks, we "gifted our leftovers to 4 friends who were staying on another 3 weeks. There is a list of options to select before you board, or your butler can find what you want. We loved it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare elmsliebev Posted August 12 #13 Share Posted August 12 34 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said: Thanks.... Our first Cunard will be a QM2 crossing in October ---Decided to try it out instead of flying to meet a TransPacific on Celebrity. much better thn flying. I loved Queen Anne but QM2 is my most favourite ship of all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted August 12 Author #14 Share Posted August 12 1 hour ago, elmsliebev said: much better thn flying. I loved Queen Anne but QM2 is my most favourite ship of all. What is incredible was the price wasn't much higher than Flying Business Class.... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted August 12 Author #15 Share Posted August 12 1 hour ago, SATaxman said: The "full size" are actually Litres, not 750s. After 2 weeks, we "gifted our leftovers to 4 friends who were staying on another 3 weeks. There is a list of options to select before you board, or your butler can find what you want. We loved it. Yikes... I don't drink so 6 Liters is a lot of booze. I'm guessing Iain will select some Chardonnay. Are you able to send bottles to the Dining Rooms? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted August 12 Author #16 Share Posted August 12 1 hour ago, elmsliebev said: much better thn flying. I loved Queen Anne but QM2 is my most favourite ship of all. I'm almost as excited about QM2 as Regatta... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhdesno2 Posted August 12 #17 Share Posted August 12 Personally, I'm excited about every cruise I take, no matter the ship, the destination, the stateroom or the length. It's always fun! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SATaxman Posted August 12 #18 Share Posted August 12 15 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said: Yikes... I don't drink so 6 Liters is a lot of booze. I'm guessing Iain will select some Chardonnay. Are you able to send bottles to the Dining Rooms? You can absolutely select all 6 wines and NO corkage fee if you take it to dining rooms. We were OK with the by the glass selections so we chose all booze! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Justpackingmybags Posted August 12 #19 Share Posted August 12 Always happy when I find a @Jim_Iain thread starting! Following along. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDPCruisers Posted August 12 #20 Share Posted August 12 19 hours ago, Jim_Iain said: We will be taking our first Oceania cruise in about 1 month. As such most of the information I'm gathering is from details I've accumulated and some of which I've read on CruiseCritics and FB groups. First of all I wanted to say I understand that Oceania and Celebrity are totally different but that is the main reason we have booked this cruise. We also understand that Regatta is the smallest and oldest ships in the Oceania fleet. We actually booked Vista in an Owner's Suite for next year but wanted to try out Oceania - For those that don't know us, we are Jim and Iain (Scottish version of Ian). We are a male couple from the heart of Silicon Valley, CA. We have been together for 38 years and are addicted to cruising. For the past 24 years we have sailed exclusively in Upper Suites on Celebrity. Times have changed and we have decided to explore other cruise lines. This year we have booked 2 Oceania, 1 SilverSea, 1 Regent Silver Seas and 2 Cunard cruises. The purpose of this tread is share my per-cruise knowledge of Oceania. Of course, my perception could be totally off base and opened to correction and advice. Very much looking forward to another helpful review and photos! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njhorseman Posted August 12 #21 Share Posted August 12 18 hours ago, Jim_Iain said: You may want to correct a couple of errors on the last slide in this post. Assuming the stated number of staterooms and the passenger capacities of both ships are accurate, with 1,109 staterooms Millennium has 3.18 times the number of staterooms and with 2,662 passengers Millennium carries 3.97 times the number of passengers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted August 13 Author #22 Share Posted August 13 5 hours ago, njhorseman said: You may want to correct a couple of errors on the last slide in this post. Assuming the stated number of staterooms and the passenger capacities of both ships are accurate, with 1,109 staterooms Millennium has 3.18 times the number of staterooms and with 2,662 passengers Millennium carries 3.97 times the number of passengers. Thanks for alerting me. I will check. The numbers come direct from CruiseDeckPlans. Built in 2000, the Celebrity Cruise Line Celebrity Millennium cruise ship weighs 91K tons and has 1109 staterooms for up to 2662 passengers served by 997 crew. Built in 1998, the Oceania Cruises Regatta cruise ship weighs 30K tons and has 349 staterooms for up to 803 passengers served by 372 crew. I'll have to gone back and check Passenger count from the Celebrity Fleet Guide - Celebrity Millennium Capacity at 2,218 for Double Occupancy, 3-4 Occupancy add on 375 with a Maximum Legal Capacity 2,593 Thus I can see CruiseDeckPlans site is incorrect. Oceania Regatta Capacity of 670 for Double Occupancy, 3-4 Occupancy ?? Maximum Legal Capacity Does anyone have the Maximum Legal Capacity of Oceania Regatta. I'm seeing different numbers on numerous sites? Maybe I should base the comparison on the Minimum of 2x per cabin?? Correction: Millennium is 3.31X passenger if I calculated it correctly. Both numbers on passengers 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted August 13 Author #23 Share Posted August 13 7 hours ago, mhdesno2 said: Personally, I'm excited about every cruise I take, no matter the ship, the destination, the stateroom or the length. It's always fun! Agree.. each cruise is an adventure. I've never had a bad cruise so far. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted August 13 Author #24 Share Posted August 13 7 hours ago, SATaxman said: You can absolutely select all 6 wines and NO corkage fee if you take it to dining rooms. We were OK with the by the glass selections so we chose all booze! Iain enjoys Grey Goose and usually can drink a Liter ---- can't imaging him drinking 6. Maybe we should pack light and bring the extra home. His choice is usually a nice Chardonnay with dinner. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Jim_Iain Posted August 13 Author #25 Share Posted August 13 6 hours ago, JDPCruisers said: Very much looking forward to another helpful review and photos! The photos may have to wait until I board.... LOL. But I may "borrow some" for the comparison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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