Oceania Cruises
 

I'm looking into this line. Anyone with experience? Thanks.

Although I'm certainly not an expert, as we've only sailed on four cruiselines, Oceania became my favorite the first time we sailed with them.

I love the size of the ships, the wonderful staff, the open seating dining, the no charge specialty restaurants, the lack of formal nights, the excellent food, the port intensive itineraries, the lack of children, the tourist office reps who get on at every port.

Ocenaia isn't known for their entertainment, but that's OK with us, as we aren't enamoured of the production shows on bigger ships.

At www.cruisecritic.com, there's a whole message board dedicated to Oceania. Did you have any specific questions?

we have booked Alaska for next June. We picked Oceania because of price and size. Was thinking of Regent which we did in Tahiti but they are quite expensive. NO free wine with dinner on Oceania. Figure with the $4700 savings we can buy lots of wine....Would like some info on how to find your own shore excursions as I heard Oceania can be expensive. Anyone help here?

Agree that Oceania shore excursions are on the expensive side. When we did Alaska on HAL we just went online to the ports of call and searched out indenpendent guides, etc with excellent results.
We do like Oceania and have cruised with them several times. Never once have we used their shore excursions.

One thing to remember about Alaska - ports and populations are small, the few good tour companies and other vendors generally get booked by the cruise companies. Not saying you can't find decent ones, just a reminder that Alaska is not the Caribbean, Europe, or Asia with large cities, year round tourists and many tour vendors looking for business. Personally, I do not find Oceania's excursion any more expensive than any other cruise companies, but that is just my opinion.