Summary

It has been a week since we flew home from Athens and time to reflect.

This was a very pleasant trip overall. Probably the longest we have been away, or close to it. Our England trip back in 1998 (25th Anniversary) was about 30 days long as well. What have we learned that could be helpful on future trips? Well, lets start with the cruises. We went first class on the Seabourn crossing in comparison with the Oceania Med cruise. Taking into account the different suite classes, we can make some comparisons with the apparent cruise line cultures. The Seabourn Odyssey carried 438 guests (450 capacity). The Oceania Riviera is twice the tonnage of the Odyssey with a capacity if 1,250 (never heard the actual number on board).

Pre-cruise - Advantage Seabourn. Much less hassle
Check In - Advantage Oceania. Seabourn's check-in process seemed confused and disorganized
Life boat drill - Advantage Seabourn. Seabourn's was painless. Oceania seemed to make it as painful as possible.
Suite - No advantage. Considering the class of suite, both were fine.
Internet - Strong advantage Seabourn. Oceania's service should be an embarrassment to them, free or not. I completely gave up trying to upload photos into our blog on the first day. Oceania provided "FREE UNLIMITED" internet service (when it worked, which was rarely) whereas they regularly charged $28/day. It did not help for the Oceania Cruise Director to publicly joke how bad the internet service was aboard the ship. The Oceania service was one connection per suite, so we had to take turns trying to get on-line. The Seabourn service (also free) was slow at times but it worked and I could upload photos. Seabourn also allowed one connection per guest so we did not have to take turns.
Room Service - No advantage. Service on both cruises were good.
Dining cuisine - Advantage Seabourn. Seabourn served consistently excellent food without need of specialty restaurants. The Oceania specialty restaurants cuisine was good, but I would not agree with their claim that it is as good as any 5-Star restaurant you would find ashore. The general dining room cuisine on Oceania was adequate at best.
Laundry - Advantage Oceania. Although Oceania charged for the self service laundry, Seabourn's laundry was so small and hot and poorly ventilated, paying for the Oceania laundry was a bargain.
Disembarkation - Advantage Seabourn. Seamless, we just walked off the Seabourn at our leasure. Oceania kicked us out of our rooms no later than 0800 and we sat in their show lounge for a couple of hours waiting our turn to leave.
Housekeeping - Advantage Seabourn. T noticed an ever present dusty odor in our Oceania suite.
Butler - No advantage. Seabourn did not have "butler" service, but our stewardess did a great job. We did not find any additional value from the butler on the Oceania and at times, it was annoying.
Shops - No advantage. Seabourn's shops were smaller than Oceania, but same merchandise,
Common Areas/Elegance/Ambiance - Advantage Oceania. Oceania had nicer common areas, more wood, more comfortable chairs, fancier.
Professionalism - Strong Advantage Seabourn. We definitely got a better "feeling" from Seabourn compared to Oceania. Oceania's Destination Services were rude. TV information regarding cruise position, weather, etc. not updated. We interpreted as being "too much trouble" for them to keep it updated.
On Board Activities - Advantage Seabourn. Limited but worth attending. Oceania seemed to steer toward the Las Vegas type show with little else other than afternoon trivia contests.
On Board Games - No advantage. About the same on both ships
Gratuities - Strong Advantage Seabourn. All tips were included in the Seabourn cruise fare unless you felt the need to add more. Oceania added 18% to everything you purchased on board whether it was deserved or not. And let us not forget the $23/day/guest Oceania added onto the final invoice.
Casino - No advantage. Oceania had more slots and table games. Not being gamblers, who cares?
Library - Advantage Oceania. Oceania had a nice library, quiet and secluded. Seabourn had book shelves in the same room which contained a coffee bar and their customer service desks.
Hiding Places - Advantage Oceania. Larger ship afforded additional room for quiet places
Deck Areas - Slight Advantage Oceania. Larger ship afforded additional room for deck seating. On neither ship did we have trouble finding a deck chair to use but occasionally we could not find a deck table on the Seabourn
Bars - No advantage. Both carried diet tonic!!! Need to specifically request this on our next cruise.
Entertainment - No advantage. Oceania had "shows" which we did not attend but Seabourn had some interesting seminars.
Staff - No advantage.
Beverage Service - Strong Advantage Seabourn. Not having to produce a card and sign a receipt for drinks was very nice. Bartenders seemed more experienced on Seabourn. Oceania prices for cocktails and wine were outrageous. $15.00 for a gin and tonic and $60.00 for a bottle of wine your could buy for $12 at Costco (at least that is what the Oceania wine steward told us).
On-board Credits - Strong Advantage Seabourn. We started with $1,000 of on-board credits on Seabourn and $1,000 on Oceania. The outrageous costs for liquor and other "incidentals" on the Oceania cruise meant we ended up with a significant ($1,200) invoice due at the end of the cruise. On Seabourn however, we had enough credits at the end of the cruise to purchase a beautiful Polo leather Gladstone style bag for me ($500) and an unique hand bag for T ($300). What makes this even more remarkable is that, since we had so many shore excursions (which we paid for separately) on the Oceania cruise, we were not on-board nearly as much time as we were on the Seabourn transatlantic crossing. We drank a lot more on the Seabourn than on Oceania.
In Room Amenities - No advantage. Oceania had a DVD player but no coffee maker in the room. Seabourn had a coffee maker but no DVD player.
TV Communications - Advantage Seabourn. Oceania did not even keep ship position and weather current. Obviously not important to them
Written Communications - Advantage Seabourn. Oceania pumped out too much paper which did not add any value
Stress Level - Advantage Seabourn. Very little stress. Oceania caused too much.
Buffet Service - Advantage Seabourn. Oceania's approach to having a crew member dish out the food at the buffet as opposed to self service was stupid.
Dining room service - Advantage Seabourn. Oceania seemed to lack ability to check people into the dining room and escort them to tables. Left waiting at check in repeatedly
Shore Excursions - No Advantage. Cannot really compare since there was only one shore excursion on the Seabourn. However, Oceania shore guides were of inconsistent quality. A good one at Rome, but others were marginal.
Ship to Shore Transportation - No Advantage. No tender ships experienced on Seabourn. Plenty on the Oceania and they did well.
Feedback requests - Advantage Oceania. They asked for feedback at mid-cruise and at the end-of-cruise. Seabourn just had an end-of-cruise feedback form.
Followup - No Advantage.
Electrical outlets - No Advantage.
Bathroom toiletries - No Advantage.
Exclusive Lounge - No Advantage. Seabourn did not have a lounge and the Oceania lounge was inconsequential and uninviting. Did not even serve cocktails.
Bedding - Advantage Seabourn. Much nicer sheets
Formality - No advantage. Seabourn had three "formal' nights during our 14 day cruise while Oceania did not have any. Neither ship required ties to be worn at any time. On "formal" nights, Seabourn requested gentlemen to wear a jacket and Oceania requested the same when attending one of their specialty restaurants.

Overall, Seabourn was a first class act and Oceania was second class. Oceania's offering is just a miniature of what you would expect on a Royal Caribbean mega ship. While the Seabourn cruises are more expensive than those offered by Oceania, the Seabourn was much more enjoyable and, when trying to take all the intangibles into account, the overall cost was essentially the same.

From the start, it was obvious that Oceania was locked into their rules and, if something was not convenient for them, they would not do it. The continual "nickel and dime" additional costs became very aggravating. The extremely high cost of liquor was also aggravating. Their trip was supposed to include round-trip airfare. Since we were already in Barcelona, they did not have the cost of flying us over there. This bought us no additional consideration. The trip also included transfers from the airport to the hotel before the trip. Since we were taking a Seabourn post-cruise tour of Barcelona, we offered to meet the Oceania transfer at the airport. This was not convenient so Oceania just told us we would have to pay for our own cab to the hotel. This seemed to the be culture of Oceania.

The flight back from Athens to Philadelphia was on a Airbus 330-300. We flew coach and paid extra to get two seats together on the starboard side of the plane. The 330-300 has two seats on each side of the plane and four seats across the middle. As it turned out, it was not necessary to pay more for the two side seats as the flight was less than half full and people spread out once airborne. We were happy with the room and leg space. We were fearing something like you find on a Southwest flight, which over the 11 hours of this flight, would have been very painful.

Luggage. Even though we thought we packed light for a one month trip, there were still items we never used. I took too many pairs of shoes, too many pairs of pants, etc. The power converter strip we purchased came in very handy. We have ordered a second one for our next trip.

Customs and the reentry process to the US were non-events. Our Global Entry (and accompanying TSA Precheck) credentials made it quick and painless compared to the long lines we observed going through the normal processes. Hopefully it will not become common knowledge that it is well worth the $100 fee and the face-to-face interview required to get these credentials. If everyone starts doing it, it will get just as crowded as the normal process.

Before leaving the Seabourn Odyssey, we took their on-board offer (5% discount) and booked the same room for the crossing in April, 2017. That reflects just how much we enjoyed the Seabourn experience. The crossing next year starts in Barbados and ends in Monte Carlo, stopping in Funchal, Barcelona and Marseille. What we are going to do before or after the cruise is not yet determined.

We had no thoughts of taking a similar Oceania offer of booking another cruise with them, despite the discount.