My First Time on a Luxury Cruise - Oceania Vista Review

my mom has always wanted to go to Europe and when we gifted her a trip there for Christmas I told her she could pick out anything she would like to do for travel ultimately we decided on an upper premium Cruise Line aboard a midsize ship and Oceania was ultimately the line chosen despite not knowing very much about this company we chose their newest ship the Vista so are the raving reviews on their food and ships correct or is it the opposite more like an expensive retirement home at se well let's find out and let's see if it's worth the money this is my review of the Oceania [Music] Vista so this trip took a while to plan as there are many options for sailing the Mediterranean Oceania was honestly one of the last on my short list due to their dated looking Legacy ships and not so attractive perception of onboard clientele at least for someone my age but when my mom showed me their brand new ship just within our bu budget plus all the ports that she wanted to do as well as the company's largest selling point which is their finest dining at Sea well we decided to go for it and book it even though I had no idea what I was getting myself into but if you've never heard or at least don't know much about Oceania I wouldn't blame you the company has been completely off my radar and I only knew they were a small line with a handful of older small ships and that is in fact the case the company was formed in 2002 as a premium brand which was chartering ships from the then recently bankrupt Renaissance cruises ultimately the company would continue chartering these ships under the name Oceania Cruises eventually purchasing those vessels and taking delivery of their first purpose-built newb build ships in 2011 and 2012 by 2014 Norwegian Cruise Line would purchase their parent company and bring the oceanian name under their umbrella the line would continue to put their focus on Cuisine and itineraries they would bring on a celebrity chef while also focusing on having Port heavy itineraries where their ships would stay in longer than other lines but those older ships I'm sorry are just very ugly and very outdated most of them weren't even built for the line they were inherited from a bankrupt one so with that perception I've always wondered who on Earth chooses to sail on these but In fairness this outdated style of ships was about to end with the announcement of their first newb build ship since 2012 the Oceania Vista two were ordered at this time the Vista which completed Construction in early 2022 and set sail in April of 20023 while the Allura will set sail in 2025 both these ships are just slightly larger than the other newb build ships in The Fleets at around 67,000 tons and they have just 12200 guests on board Vista is also set to travel the world offering a wide range of itineraries as short and regular as a 7-Day Caribbean saline all the way up to a 197 day cruise literally around the world we chose the Mediterranean Navigator a 10-day Voyage which starts in Rome or Chia Italy sailing to lorno then lesia Crossing Borders to Doc and V France France then to Marseilles which we would then sail west to Barcelona Spain then Valencia elante and abiza Spain which was a rescheduled Port we would then sail a sea day and finally dock in Valenta Alta 10 different ports four different countries and a total of 1,837 nautical miles to travel is an exciting itinerary with a lot to see and do so let's climb aboard and we'll start in our cabin we got a standard Veranda State room and upon First Impressions this is a very comfortable room at 291 ft this is the second cheapest room you can get and for what is essentially an entrylevel room type on board I thought it was very comfortable the design is n exactly my taste but it felt premium with solid materials all around the entryway has some Closet Storage on the left along with a stocked mini fridge with complimentary soft drinks as well as water glasses a touch you know I love there's also two provided water canisters which you can take home with you after your cruise in this area there's a digital thermostat that can make the room extremely cold or warm if you want to you can also apparently pair it to your phone and control it anywhere though I could never get it to work the bed was very comfortable probably the most comfortable bed I've had on a cruise ship with crisp Linens and a soft mattress though I did struggle a little bit with the pillow on both sides there are tables that have lamps and charge ports that also feature USBC there's an okay enough couch and table area along with a decently sized vanity the TV is very large and has a decent selection of free on demand movies as well as smart features like the ability to see daily restaurant menus basically everything you'd expect the app to do except Oceania doesn't have an app the bathroom is really the star of the show in this room it has a weirdly massive amount of storage nice tiling throat and the largest shower I have seen on a cruise ship it's absolutely massive but the room isn't perfect especially our particular one room 7106 as soon as you go onto the balcony you'll notice the severe lack of privacy the cabin after of us is a larger penous veranda and it obviously intrudes quite a bit into the privacy of our balcony and room in general that paired with a significant light pollution from the deck below was pretty annoying I always like to have the curtains wide open on All Ships that were on and we just couldn't do that on this one our placement in the corridors was also annoying as well just beyond our cabin door is the crew staircase on most ships they keep these doors closed for as long as possible to avoid noise intrusion however this one on our deck was left open basically the entire cruise there was quite a few times where we could just hear stuff banging around even early in the morning causing me to wake up besides these problems though I thought the room was very nice but the Vista has a bunch of other cabin types my mom for example got a category below ours a unique French balcony room it's essentially the exact same room just without a balcony for my money I much preferred this room though the Suites above this ship actually offer some really intriguing and lavish accommodations top of which is the owner Suite which of course is spectacularly pretty though as you can imagine is prohibitively expensive there are also a few Suites below that like larger Penthouse Suites and concierge rooms now one of the biggest factors in choosing this Cruise Line over others especially for my mom was the food Norwegian and Oceania position this brand as having the quote finest cuisine at Sea a literal trademark phrase that they plaster everywhere so obviously we went in with pretty high expectations and I figured given all the hype and the price we paid for this mostly everything we would get would be a significant Step Above other Cruise food that I've had so was it no not really now food is subjective and claiming to have the best cuisine at Sea is just asking for differing strong opinions like mine now there are nine different places to eat on board for casual Fair there is waves Grill and aquamar kitchen both are outside and offer sitdown bites that are made to order aquamar offers breakfast and lunch dishes some were good like the avocado toast with shrimp and some were not like these tiny pancakes waves Grill however had a lot of hits like these Burgers which were by far the best I've ever had at Sea likewise it's the evening Pizza which takes over the entire restaurant for dinner the only genuinely bad thing I had here was the lunch shrimp roll further AF on Deck 12 is the Terrace Cafe the ship's main Buffet I thought this was pretty good most of the time really on most days we ate here both for lunch and dinner with many options proving to be very good to be honest I did think the actual selection was pretty minimal though this entire area was all the buffet had for selection and even with it being that small they still had repeating options mirrored on either side I would have expected a lot more options given the ship's preum price tag and I was surprised to see no upscale options like I've seen on other lines like crab legs or multiple soups like I have on Disney again I would say that around 85% of everything I tried there was really good what was very premium were the stations where you can make food to order like the pasta and the grill at the ladder you can choose from a small list of items like steak fish and even Lobster I ordered a fish of the day there the mahi mahi and it was good though it wasn't really prepared in any way it was sort of just grilled fish and I would have liked there to have been a more clear option if you could have had it prepared in any way like seasoned at all aside from those there's also Baristas which serve specialty coffees but also has a bakery section as well as a small or derves area I thought some of the items from the baker were very good While others felt a little dry Oceania Hypes up their croissants saying they import french butter to make them they were good but nothing really special the ordures area was nice for a very small snack but that's all it is what's annoying about all of these casual options are their times for breakfast everything closes at 10:00 a.m. if you want food at the buffet you can't eat there until 12:00 p.m. and even then you only have 2 hours as it closes at 2: p.m. the other casual restaurants between 3: and 4: but between 4:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. when they start reopening for dinner there's no food anywhere on the ship other than room service and the small or derves area at Baristas then after 900 p.m. everything closes so you can't get any late night food except for room service there were multiple days where I was hungry and wanted some food between these weird hours and there just wasn't anything I especially would have loved pizza after 10: p.m. but again it was all closed I guess you could get pizza from room service but it certainly isn't prepared the same way it is at waves Grill but Vista also features a bunch of sitdown options as well including four specialty restaurants Polo Grill Red Ginger Ember and Toscana all of which you do need reservations for Oceania ensures that all guests can try all restaurants once during their Voyage now unfortunately we did Miss Red Ginger the ship's Asian restaurant due to me not feeling great that day but we did try everything else at Toscana the ship's Italian restaurant we enjoyed a delicious bread service and fantastic appetizers served on Versace dining wear the mains however were a bit of a Miss for us my lasagna was good but not great as was my steak which I didn't really care for the flavor of my mom's fish also had several bones in it and emy's pasta was about a 3.5 out of five overall it was a restaurant we would never come back to if we tried it on land unfortunately it pales in comparison to other specialty Italian restaurants I've had like Paulo on Disney Cruise Line there really is no comparison between the two in food quality then came Amber a restaurant based around American comfort food it was a similar experience with really great appetizers but merely okay Mains with my mom's steak being cooked well but not very well seasoned while I didn't even eat half of my shrimp tacos though emy's lobster mac and cheese was fantastic finally there was Polo Grill the steakhouse and the one we've heard the best reviews on once once again the appetizers were very good but our steaks while being cooked perfectly were a bit chewy and a little Bland overall I wasn't really impressed with the specialty restaurants on board and even if I did love one enough to go back to it over and over again as we learned getting last minute reservations or walk-ins was extremely hard we tried a few times but just never got in but that's okay because there's also a main dining room where anyone can come and eat dinner anytime a quirk of this main dining room is that the menu down here here is almost exactly the same to what is being served upstairs in the buffet I thought that was a little weird but I figured the food would be at least a bit better prepared perhaps even cooked to order and In fairness they do have a constant list of Oceania favorites that are always on the menu like the Fantastic lobster bisque however everything else ranged from okay like my steak to very good like my mom and emy's Dover soul I honestly feel weird for saying this but honestly the main dining room food was at par or worse than celebrities food I don't know I guess I just boarded the ship with high expectations they say it's the best cuisine at Sea everyone Raves about it the voyage is the most expensive trip I've ever taken so yeah my expectations were very high I was anticipating every meal to be premium land restaurant quality but I found myself more disappointed with the food than I would have liked to have been again Disney's Paulo Italian specialty restaurant is much much better than anything I had on this ship so to is the peti Chef which we tried on the Celebrity Solstice both are upcharge eateries on those ships but I figured that type of food would be the norm here to clarify though Oceania is probably the best food quality that I've had in some cases but it's not by a massive margin certainly not worth the extra price margin Associated the ship itself is really great though clearly it is a departure from the rest of the fleet in terms of interior design and as I'm sure you've noticed all of the restaurants and public spaces feel modern and taste ful luxurious a particular highlight for me was the library which is surprising but it was beautifully designed and had a lot of interesting options the lobby while not serving much of a purpose for activities was also very nice and many lounging areas provided very comfortable seating amongst real materials and beautiful art in fact all of the art on board was gorgeous as was the ship's observation lounge called Horizons it's very large and has unobstructed views over the bow with all sorts of seating my favorite were these lounge chairs up front which were extremely comfortable and very cozy this Lounge also has a bar a stage and celebrity take note doesn't play Blurred Lines during the day instead soft classical and spa music fills what I consider to be the perfect observation Lounge it's by far my favorite place on board they also have a decent afternoon tea service here with a live string quartet playing in the background there are also some amenities I have never seen before areas that are more premium and also cater to an older clientele those include the artist loft where passengers can join a resident artist for painting lessons or the digital Center where talks are being held on things like photography and social media posting there's also a beautiful smoking Lounge which I obviously never used likewise a culinary Center where you can make your own food in a kitchen with a chef it's a very cool experience the one that costs $50 a person out on Deck there isn't a whole lot there's a single pool with two hot tubs all be nice ones with integrated day beds that we took advantage of a few times there's also an outdoor screen that's constantly showing the ship's position and course which I do love though at night it is extremely bright the whole outdoor deck is actually very comfortable with plenty of soft deck chairs and several Nooks that really break up the space on the upper decks there's also some sports like a jogging track a pickle ball court and a putting course it's pretty good overall but deck 15 aft feels bit Spartan and they probably could have added another Whirlpool or two really the ship is pretty small and I did find myself getting a little bored sometimes when the chilly Mediterranean air didn't allow us to use the single outdoor pool because the ship doesn't feature an indoor pool or any enclosed roof area we were a bit out of luck for swimming I also found that within the public spaces below deck 12 there weren't many outfacing views there is no prominade deck and all the bars and lounges Below had no clear ocean views it just seems that at this price point and being a brand new ship it lacks a lot of features that competitors seem to have but I'll talk more about that later as for entertainment well it was a bit of a hit or miss smaller acts like the band found in Horizons were fantastic and when they weren't playing you can request a song through an iPad up on stage I love that there's also a nightly pianist playing on a beautiful Steinway at Martini's Lounge they also have a guest speaker on board a professor to talk about the history of some of the locations we'd be visiting we sat in on one lecture he did on the nights of Malta and it was really interesting as he was a great speaker I only wish they had more than two of these talks for our 10-day Cruise the Vista Lounge is the ship's Main theater and each night a performance would be held within it we watched a comedian who was good and another pretty run-of-the-mill variety act show which was pretty uninspired if it were a food it would be unseasoned chicken but that wasn't the case for what we saw the next night we just happened to be within the theater when they began the performance of Whitney Houston Everlasting this show was so weird Okay so the ship's activity guide describes the show as quote cuttingedge LED technology delivers a night unlike anything you've ever seen it only became more intriguing when the cruise director prefered The Show by saying it was the third time it had ever been shown on Oceania adding that it wasn't meant to replace real performers that the Whitney Houston estate was okay with this and that it was very experimental obviously this was very weird but the actual show was bizarre basically it was a screen showing a deep fake version of the deceased artist singing and dancing on either side of the stage was a whole band which you couldn't hear at all along with two backup singers which you also could barely hear so basically everyone was watching a large screen with an uncanny sort of disturbing AI face of Whitney Houston on a real dancing body and the whole audience was supposed to treat it like real concert it was very bad and during the show I was trying to track down what this actually was it turns out that it was originally designed as a hologram show by a company called base hologram for haris in Las Vegas the show was called an evening with Whitney Houston and a writer for the guardian called the Las Vegas show a ghoulish cash in it only lasted in Vegas for 8 months and now it seems like they're licensing the show out to Oceania for testing the whole thing was pretty bad but also a little disturbing in and a tad bit disrespectful for someone who is no longer alive to consent to this while I was sitting there I sort of just had an outof Body Experience very self-aware of what was happening I was in this theater with a bunch of old people watching a deep fake singer who was dead it was a little dystopian honestly anyways other than this activities were pretty sparse only a handful of meaningful activities would be held per day and they're all the usual Cru suspects like trivia and music nothing really out of the ordinary or revolutionary but this is still an upscale experience on an upscale cruise line so there are some advantages apart from a lux ship and good food perhaps my favorite perk on the Vista is the size this would be considered a medium-size cruise ship and since there are only 1,200 people on board it's never that busy along with that premium category included with your cruise fair is unlimited beer and wine during lunch and dinner Wi-Fi soft beverages including smoothies and fresh juices plus a credit for short excursions now many of those perks were just introduced in 2023 as a bundled package they used to charge for all of them and despite moving towards being an all-inclusive line there are definitely still aspects of this cruise that are just sort of annoying given how much all of this costs stuff like that Wi-Fi package it's powered by starlink and the speeds are really good for the basic free package but I had two videos coming out while I was at Sea and I needed to release them to do that I needed to go to the YouTube studio app which they had blocked in fact all streaming sites along with other important apps like Apple Mail are blocked and even though the studio app doesn't stream video I needed to upgrade my internet package to access it it was $100 for 10 days and Not only was I limited to two devices per room but the speeds were exactly the same as the basic package there's also other things that I just don't understand why are on the ship like why is a casino on board everyone is paying a fortune to be here but they're still offering ways to take your money it's just a waste of space and it felt very off the entire cruise there was also a lot more advertising for onboard paid events that I would have expected for a cruise at this price caliber each night we received promotions and other advertisements in our room I was also surprised to see that there are other different private lounges for certain higher room categories not only is there a conier lounge but there's also an executive Lounge like what's the point of that they're tiny and barely have anything in them perhaps the most annoying thing for us though was the spa and its outdoor Terrace it looks really nice but we didn't have access to it only guest staying in coner cabins and above can get in and use it that's ridiculous to me as every other upper premium Cruise Line I know of Grants all guests access to their spots it was just the constant partitioning of spaces on board that always felt like you needed to pay more to get and do stuff and again for how much pay to be on here and when you look at competitors I don't get it this feels like a very old way of doing things despite this being a brand new ship so let's talk about that price for our 10day Mediterranean Voyage in the second lowest category room I paid 1,998 Canadian for two people that works out to be around $8,700 USD or around $4,300 USD per person that's actually quite a bit more than what I remember paint that's a lot of money and that's just for the lowest category room for the lowest coner cabin which is about the same size as our standard Veranda it would be around $4,700 per person while the lowest tier sweets come in at around $6,300 per person the big owner Suite as you've guessed is the most eye-watering at $14,000 per person though honestly for comparables like celebrity or even Disney this top Suite is quite a bit cheaper in fact it's half the the price on this 8 night Celebrity Cruise in their highest category and I don't even know what to say about this Disney sweet pricing on this 12 night Mediterranean Cruise it's presented without comment but if you do want to try out the Vista in the cheapest way possible there are roundtrip sailings out of Miami that are as low as $2,700 per person especially if you compare it to a comparable honed America ship which is almost definitely not as great of an experience and only around 500 $ less I would much rather sail the Vista than this however the value proposition falls apart for me when I look at oceania's direct competitors and what they offer take explor a Journeys MC's new entry into the luxury Market in fact some might even argue that Explorer Journeys is an entire Market category above oceanian their ships in my eyes are better in every single way compared to Oceania and it starts with their larger base cabins at 3 77 Square ft rather than ours at 291 you also get all drinks included plus a welcome bottle of champagne as well as pretty much everything else included importantly though that's except shore excursions the ship itself though has 300 less passengers than the Vista it has four different pools including one that's indoor and one that has a Stern Infinity Edge there's also five different hot tubs four of which are also Infinity edged plus a bunch of fine eateries too all of this looks pretty appealing but it becomes a genuinely great option when you find out that there's also a 10-day Mediterranean voyage that is $800 less expensive than what I paid on the Vista Viking 2 is a great option that has excellent ocean ships that offer more amenities that I care about like more pools an open Spa no casino and many other inclusions there're a little more pricey in some equivalent Mediterranean voyages around $5,100 us SD per person though I have seen it cheaper before by keeping an eye on their ever revolving special offers the point is Oceania has a lot of competition and for someone like me who cares a lot about the ship experience I see a value proposition battle going on in the space but let's take a final breakdown and give the Oceania Vista a jake isn't any good score it's out of five categories each out of 10 for a possible perfect score of 50 out of 50 we'll start with the state rooms from a design perspective I thought the room was very solid especially the bathroom and shower however there are a few quirks that I didn't like from the lack of storage to the fact that the AC blows directly onto the seating area making it uncomfortable to eat there otherwise it's among the best I've ever stayed in and removing the negative bias from our particular room placement it's an 8 out of 10 food was also strong was it the finest cuisine at Sea not for us but it was consistently solid and it gets an 8 out of 10 the ship itself is a little tough in a vacuum it's pretty great it's welld designed from an interior perspective and saved for a few guest flow quirks like the AFT elevators not going all the way down to deck five it's pretty solid however I think it lacks in some key amenities and I did find myself getting bored with their offerings especially compared to competitors so I'll give it a seven out of 10 the overall experience was good we reached a number of fantastic ports and Oceania always arranged a shuttle that takes you right to the heart of wherever we dogs the crew were friendly attentive and accommodating though entertainment was a bit of a hit or miss I'll give it a seven out of 10 finally there's value I debated on this category for a while and I ultimately came to a 6 out of 10 for nearly $122,000 of my money I was expecting a bit more and that's especially true when I compare it to Key aspects of our experience with competitors which seem to do it better or just as well as Oceania that gives the Vista an overall score of 36 out of 50 that puts it just behind the Disney Fantasy and just ahead of the Celebrity Solstice both are premium ships that are priced much less than Oceania in the end I really enjoyed my trip aboard the Vista we got to experience a number of incredible locations in an objectively very comfortable way I also got to travel to Europe with my mom which has been a dream of hers her whole life so this trip will always be special for me will I ever travel on Oceania again probably not the majority of passengers board were 50 years older than us and I counted just five other people that looked like they were under 30 two of which I know were family members of a ship officer so the experience is obviously not catering to me regardless I think Norwegians still need to bring in more inclusions and make their current and future ships a lot more competitive and interesting for a rapidly competitive premium Cruise Market because let's be honest their elderly clients will not always be around to stay loyal for what they have now and I do wonder how a younger generation will react to Oceania in general thanks for joining me in this review and if you want to keep up with my travels and follow along with stuff that I might not mention here follow me on Instagram at bright unravels I posted a lot about this trip on my stories so you should follow me and stay tuned for whatever I have coming next my name is Jake and thank you very much for watching [Music]

Channel: Bright Sun Travels

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Keywords: bright sun films, oceania cruises, cruise ship review, brutally honest, oceania vista, oceania allura, oceania cruise ship, luxury cruise, luxury cruise ship, Mediterranean cruise, oceania, finest cuisine at sea, explora journeys, viking cruise, 2024, jake williams, history, suites, oceania cruises review, pros and cons, thurough, azamara cruise, silversea, whitney houston, ultra luxury, rating

Id: L3VHYTU1IAA

Length: 28min 10sec (1690 seconds)

Published: Tue May 14 2024