I am not an experienced cruiser, not by a long shot. There were passengers on our ship, who had more than 40 cruises (with Oceania) and a solo cruiser who had more than 1,600 days on an Oceania ship (that is about 5 years!!). However, I have been on two long-haul cruises, the 2019 Viking World Cruise (128 days, Miami > London) and the 82-day Asian Odyssey (Abu Dhabi > Tokyo). It is these two cruises I will now compare.
Both cruise lines play in the same category, the luxury segment almost exclusively geared towards well-to-do retirees. The ships are of similar sizes, Viking’s are a bit smaller with about a 950 passenger capacity vs. Oceania’s with a capacity of 1,250. Here are images of the two ships on which I spent a combined 200+ days:
The ships
Viking Sun – 930 passengers
Oceania Riviera – 1,250 passengers
Overall I would give a slight notch to Viking because it is even smaller that the Riviera and newer (2017 vs. 2010 with a “rejuvenation” in 2019). To me the Viking sun was the perfect combination of elegance and functionality. The Riviera may have been slightly more elegant, but it did show its age in certain areas (one example: the men’s sauna had been renovated but only the seating benches were of a lighter, newer wood, while the 2010 wood paneling on the walls had been left unchanged, giving the sauna a slightly dated feeling).
The Cabins
The cabins were similar in size and comfort. Two differences, which were important: The Riviera had the better design of the bathroom, where I never felt “crammed”…it was a simply perfect design. Bad, really bad was the Rivera’s design of the desk. It was simply to narrow (not deep enough) to allow the use of an external keyboard in front of the laptop. This forced me to type on my laptop’s keyboard, which I hate, and do so in bed. A “productivity killer’ with the internet problems the two reasons, why – with a rather heavy heart – I decided not to put out a daily blog post update.
In my opinion a tie between the two ships.
Ships’ Common Areas
I will give a slight nod to Viking for mainly two reasons: The Viking was a 100% smoke free, while the Riviera had about 2 or 3 smoking zones. The Viking ship also had no casino, while the Rivier had a small one. Since I do not gamble, I do not need this feature. However, I do recall that on the Viking Sun there were occasional Art Auctions, which Oceania thankfully forsook. The library section was about the same on both ships. The gym and the spa were similar, with the sauna on the Riviera missing a cold plunge pool.
Entertainment
Slight nod to Viking again for mainly one reason: The minimum segment length on the Viking was 30 days, whereas on the Oceania it was about 12 days. What this means in terms of the entertainment program is that there were many more repeats of shows on my last cruise, simply because almost each of the shows were performed on each segment resulting in a lot of duplication for the travelers staying on over multiple segments. On both ships there were:
- own productions (by the respective onboard entertainment team)
- Magicians / “illusionists”
- Comedians
- Solo entertainers (such as pianists or violinists / singers)
“O – points”
I am not 100% sure, but I do not think that Viking had an “O – points” program, whereby passengers can participate in certain activities and earn “O – points” for either winning (3 O – points or simply for participating, 1 or 2 points). These O – points can be redeemed for branded Oceania merchandise on the day before the respective segment ends. Here is an example of a Oceania tote bag:
I accumulated most of my points by winning the daily ping pong tournament every time I participated (about 60 of the 82 days, as the tournament was at 10:30am when some of the land excursions had already taken me from the ship). I estimate I won about 180 points that way about enough for two Oceania Windbreaker jackets. Some of the points I gave away to those who were lacking points and 91 I brought home as they can be rolled over to the next cruise, if there ever is one.
Pricing (what is included and what is not)
The clear winner is Viking because (a) in every port they had one “free” basic excursion (“free” means included in the overall cruise price); (b) a house white and red wine was included free of charge in every meal (lunch/dinner). Neither was the case with Oceania.
The biggest difference: Segment length
Minimum segment length:
- Oceania – 10 or 12 days
- Viking – 28 days
As a result the 100% passengers on Viking were retirees (i.e. 65+ years old) as hardly anybody still working can afford to be away from his/her job for 30+ days. There were no children or teenagers on Viking. On Oceania there were not many but a few kids and teenagers.
The biggest problem with shorter segments is that on my 82-day cruise from Abu Dhabi to Tokyo every 10-14 days you had about 700 of the 1,200 passengers leaving. You had hardly had time to get to know them and oftentimes were unable to even say “farewell”. As a result you tended not to “invest” in getting to know someone or in really making friends. For instance, in the solo traveler solo mixers the very first questions (after what’s your name and where is your home) would be “how far are you going on the cruise/where are you getting off”.
The two ladies with whom I frequently had dinner,
joined in Mumbai and went 70 days with me all the way to Tokyo. At the ping pong table it took a time to find a player of similar ability and once you had finally found one, chances were they were leaving a few days later…..
Winner: Viking
and the Gate to India (shown in this photos):
both built by the British. Nothing, I mean none of the built environment in Mumbai (and other cities on the Western shores) was worth looking at. However, I do admit that there was unbelievable “energy” in the streets of this 23-million metropolis.
which they had been unable to redeem and thus “donated” to me…very sweet, i was touched!
