December 21 - At Sea on Way to Miami

I wasn't able to load this picture yesterday, but this lovely gingerbread town was on display starting yesterday morning.  Can't believe how many hours went into it - it's amazing.

The ocean today.  I never was able to see dolphins or flying fish.

And a last photo of the very pretty chargers in the Grand Dining Room.

 Since this is our last day of the cruise, I thought I'd sum up our thoughts.  We have sailed with Regent most recently and as Oceania is owned by the same company (Norwegian Cruise Lines) and is also considered a luxury line, a comparison seems appropriate.

Cabins - Hands down a win for Regent.  We have always stayed in their basic veranda suite.  We are in the same class of cabin here on Sirena and it is not the same at all.  Regent is a little over 300 sq ft and this one is 216.  The bathroom here is really tiny.  I can literally be on the toilet and wash my hands at the same time.  The closet is much smaller and the entry door is right near the closet and bathroom doors so you have to be careful whenever opening any of them.  If we were to sail with Oceania on one of the R class ships, I would only consider a penthouse cabin which Jan and Tom have and it seems comfortable.

Food - Regent wins this category also.  The buffet here was a disappointment with not as much selection and the food was sometimes cold.  The specialty restaurants are good, but some of our meals were really mediocre there too.  The Grand Dining Room could be problematic.  The layout means that many areas are very close to the serving stations.  Jan kept ducking at one table as the waiters were carrying full trays seemingly right over her head.  The food was occasionally really good, but mostly just average.  And the presentation was lacking most of the time.  An omelet delivered all by itself on the plate isn't very appealing.  The waitstaff worked very hard, but it seemed that every meal included a mistake for at least one of us - something not delivered, or not delivered as requested.  At breakfast the other morning we watched the gal with the pastry tray walk by us at least 3 times before we finally signaled that we'd like to see it.  And for some reason, desserts took up to 15 minutes (we started timing it.)  The outside grill by the pool has a very limited selection at lunch and is really pathetic for breakfast.  The selection of snacks at the coffee bar is also not nearly as robust as on Regent.

Ship - This ship is nicely appointed, especially on Deck 5 with nice artwork, dark wood, and a good layout.  The theatre is a bit odd but workable.  No problems with the pool deck or lounges.    Oceania gets a slight advantage here for the public area decor.

Service - Here Regent gets the nod again.  Within a few days the restaurant staff knew our names and even those we hadn't had any interactions with often greeted us by name,  On this cruise Janet, who checks in diners at the Grand Dining Room, always had to ask our cabin number before she greeted us.  Some of the waiters knew our names and that always was a surprise to us.  Our housekeepers here often didn't get to our cabin until nearly noon, sometimes even when we'd put out the Please Clean our Cabin sign.  They seemed to be doing their best and were always very friendly, so I'm wondering if they don't have enough staff.  The bar service was sort of hit and miss, but generally good.  Sometimes around the pool, we'd have to flag down someone for a glass of water.  

Entertainment - This is a bit hard to compare because we didn't get to a single show.  We usually don't on Regent either.  The Cruise Director, Peter, was fun, but not as visible as we've seen on Regent.  The games seem to be the same on both lines.  Oceania does have the artwork scavenger hunt which at first seemed a bit silly but turned out to be fun.  It gets you talking to other passengers while you share hints and compare answers.  The speakers are equally good and the movie and TV selections are the same.  Sometimes the music in the lounges here was a bit too loud to carry on a conversation comfortably.  So no real advantage to either line for this category. 

Wifi - Here Oceania performs better.  We had very few problems with the wifi and those we had were short-lived.  The one nuisance was that we only got one sign-in per person, so I had to constantly log out from the laptop and log in on my phone.  Regent gives you 2 logins, but their wifi is often a bit more difficult.  Here I could almost always upload my photos over the wifi, but it was all but impossible to do that on Regent.  I believe they are upgrading their ships one at a time, but we haven't experienced it yet.

Laundry - Here is another clear win for Regent since laundry done by the ship is included for every passenger.   If you leave it out by 9:00 am, you have it back that evening by 7:00 pm. There are laundry rooms on every deck if you want to do your own.  I've mentioned it before, but here there is only 1 room with 6 sets of machines for the whole ship.  Laundry service is available, but it's quite expensive; for example, a women's blouse and slacks would cost $17, for men it would be $15, and it takes 2 days. Once a week or so there is a laundry special of 20 items for $25.

Cost - Oceania is less expensive for the basic cruise.  And from there you can control how much you want to spend as everything is a la carte.  Drinks start at $12 plus a 20% service charge.  There is a drink package that gives you beer, and wine or champagne by the glass at lunch and dinner in the restaurants for $40 per person per day.  For $80 per person per day, you can have unlimited wine, beer, mixed drinks, and champagne (excluding "premium brands") throughout the day at any of the bars and restaurants.  Regent includes all the beverages you'd like, excluding ultra-premium brands which cost extra.  Excursions range from $70 to $150 (sometimes more) per person, but those same excursions are included on Regent (with a few optional tours you can pay extra for).  I've mentioned laundry costs.  Gratuities (included on Regent) are $18 per person per day on Oceania.  Both lines include airfare on most cruises but on Regent it is Business Class if flying internationally. 

So my thinking is that if you don't drink alcohol, don't go on excursions often, and are happy doing your own laundry, you'd probably be better off with Oceania since it would cost less and be perfectly acceptable.  However, for the way we cruise now, we are happy to pay a bit more for Regent and not have to think about how much every gin and tonic, excursion, or laundry bag is adding to the account.  The price would be pretty close if you compare apples to apples, and Regent has advantages in other areas like cabins, food, and service.  If Oceania were the only line doing a particular itinerary we were interested in, we might consider it, but only in a penthouse.

Our two bags will go out before 10:00 pm and tomorrow our flight out of Miami is at 1:15 pm, so we'll have a bit of a wait at the airport.  We're sorry to end a fun cruise with Tom and Jan but are also looking forward to getting home and seeing the DC grandkids for Christmas.