schmerl

We recently went on our first Oceania cruise. In the past we have cruised on Royal Caribbena, NCL, and Celebrity.
Now that we are older, Oceania fit the bill. It was totally relaxing. Only one child was on board. NO loud areas, fantastic food, and the service was beyond wonderful.
There is no big Broadway type of entertainment. They have evening shows, but not on the same scale as the big ships. We enjoyed the lecture series, trivia, tea, etc.
We kept saying how "civilized" it was.

KerrySH

Hi thursdaysd, I know this is post is almost a year old, but I'm interested in your experience on the Chilean ship. It sounds like something my husband (and maybe I) would enjoy. Can you tell me if you remember the name of the ship or the Hurtigruten competitor (I looked and didn't say any new lines).
Thanks,

An Almost-Empty Nester

thursdaysd

Hi Kerry - my report on the Chilean ship: https://mytimetotravel.wordpress.com...ored-on-boats/

I think that Navimag now has a newer ship. See: https://www.navimag.com/?language=en

I don't remember the name of the Hurtigruten competitor but I read it in a trip report here. Try searching just Norway posts on the Europe forum.Update: A quick search suggests it was Havila.

Madam397

I think a lot of cruising and the crowds and noise and all of that are somewhat dependent on the cruise destination. For example about 10 years ago we did a Princess cruise out of Vancouver to Alaska. At that time only Princess and Holland America had the right to enter Glacier Bay as access was restricted, and that may or may not be the case now. We chose Princess and were very pleased. Once you are out on the deck watching wildlife and seeing glaciers, as the air can be bracing, people were pretty tired and after dinner most people headed off to perhaps an after-dinner drink and bed. We went in mid-June and there were children given that school was out in many parts of the U.S, but no issues with children running all over the place. We once did a Norwegian cruise to Bermuda from NYC, the Norwegian Breakaway and while the ship was immaculate as was our deluxe balcony room, the ship was too big for me and the ship design placed the casino with a smoking area right above the atrium and the smoke wafted down when you walked through that area. We did walk through to go the ship library every day and pick up daily crossword and suduko puzzles, plus the library itself was a quiet place to relax. The itinerary to Bermuda was good and it was really nice to cruise by the Statue of Liberty. There were many children on this cruise as the end of June as well as some rowdy college aged students. As the ship was large, you did need to make reservations even for dinner in one of the main dining rooms. Another nice thing about this ship was that one of the dining rooms featured a nightclub style big band with dining and dancing and we really enjoyed that. We also went on a Panama Canal trip with Holland America years ago during the recession and you were constantly bombarded with offers of things to buy/to book/waiters hovering over you to see if you wanted to order a pina colada or similar kind of drink while you were trying to enjoy breakfast. That ship however did have the most outstanding library with fashion magazines from around the world, a huge selection of books and the only ship that I have been on that featured as one of the late night options, a string quartet playing in one of the lounges. The Norwegian Breakaway did have a blues club and we mostly headed up there every night.