Introduction: Our Panama Canal Cruise on Oceania Sirena
How to Save Money on an Oceania Cruises Sailing
Oceania Cruises Fleet Explained
Delta First Class Review Atlanta (ATL) to Panama City (PTY)
Westin Playa Bonita Panama Pre-Cruise Hotel Review
Panama Canal Marriott Bonvoy Hotel Options Ranked
Panama Canal New Cruise Terminal Still a Work in Progress
Boarding a Cruise Ship During a Norovirus Outbreak
Oceania Cruises Sirena Vista Suite 6003 Review
What Does Oceania Cruises’ Country Club Casual Dress Code Really Mean?
Oceania Cruises Wine and Spirits Tasting Experiences
What to Expect on a Panama Canal Full Transit
Oceania Cruises Sirena Dining Review
Great Stirrup Cay, Oceania Cruises Private Island???
What Happens When Oceania Cruises Skips a Port Due to Weather?
The Pros and Cons of Sailing on Oceania’s Smallest R-Class Ships
Size Matters, Why We Prefer Oceania Cruises Larger Ships
Introduction
Oceania Cruises Sirena Vista Suite 6003 Review will cover the pros and cons of this suite situated above the bow of the ship. This suite, beyond the hefty cost, isn’t going to be to everyone’s liking. As you’ll see, we had our own differences of opinions after spending ten nights on board.
First Impressions
As we made our way down the dock toward the beautiful Oceania Sirena, we could immediately spot our suite. This isn’t because we have amazing vision or can count windows immensely quickly, but because the suite is unique in that there are only four of these suites on board. Located only on decks 6 and 7 they are the forward most cabins on the port and starboard side “corners.” They come with large front facing balconies with steel railings/wind breaks as well as distinctive round windows. I would hesitate to call these portholes given their large size and the fact that they’re fixed in place without any covers.
As we got closer the round windows in the Vista Suites as well as the same distinct round windows in the Deluxe Ocean View Cabins (there are only four of these cabins with the round windows) became more visible.
Here’s a deck plan from oceaniacruises.com showing the location of our Vista Suite – 6003 on the starboard side of the ship.
After boarding the ship the next thing we noticed was how intimate the ship feels. As a smallish mid-size ship there are only 11 decks and at 594 feet long you rarely have to walk that far. In our case we’d embarked mid-ship on Deck 5 so it was only up one deck and approximately half the length of the ship to get to our suite. Because it’s located at the end of the corridor you can see the door as soon as you step into the corridor.
Vista Suite Living Areas
Entry into the suite is into a compact vestibule with a marble-clad guest bathroom to your right or left depending on your port or starboard location with views over the bow of the ship straight ahead.
As with all cabins at the Concierge Level and above there is a welcome bottle of sparkling wine or Champagne as well as some petit fours. (Warning GF guests, even though you have communicated ahead that you are GF these petit fours are largely NOT GF)
There’s a large console under the television that contains all of your paperwork, your bar menu, the Vero water bottles as well as complimentary re-fillable aluminum bottles, and more.
In our case we also received the Oceania Club private label bottle of wine that’s provided to returning guests at the Bronze (5-9 cruises) level or higher.
The minibar comes pre-stocked with complimentary sodas and beers. We ask our butler to add more mixers like club soda and tonic water as we don’t generally drink soda, though we do hold on to a ginger ale or two in case of sea sickness.
The couch and chairs were quite comfortable with plenty of table space to place drinks, books, iPads, etc.
With the view out over the bow we headed straight outside to see what it was like. We knew we would be right over an open and working bow and were pleasantly surprised by how well it was maintained.
Access to the balcony is via a hinged door and not a slider. This makes it impossible to leave the door open which makes sense for a forward facing balcony, but an issue for some passengers.
The balcony contained two dining chairs and a cocktail table as well as two cushioned loungers.
The cushions were put out by our cabin attendant based on the weather conditions. When not on the furniture these were stored in the room next to the living room console table, tucked behind the curtains.
Vista Suite Bedroom and Bathroom
The bedroom was divided by a curtained opening (not a door) with a dressing table and wardrobe to the right, wardrobes the television and the round window to the left, and the bed straight ahead.
A few things to note about this bed that is different than all of the other cruise beds that we’ve ever had. The bed sits on a solid upholstered base, meaning that you cannot put your luggage under the bed. This also means that there is no option to split the bed into two. Neither was a major issue for us, but it was a surprise when I went to put our suitcases under the bed. One trick that helped us was that I was able to fit three suitcases inside of one another like nesting dolls and then put them all in the bottom of one of the wardrobes.
We like the standard pillows on board, but there is also a pillow menu for additional choices.
The bathroom is a knock-out with gorgeous marble everywhere, a giant shower with rainfall showerhead and adjustable wall mounted head. There was just a single sink (which we prefer as we’d rather have the additional counter space instead of a second sink) and a huge medicine cabinet behind the mirror. This was a bit of a design flaw as opening the mirror required long arms and good reflexes as it was at least three feet long when it swung through the bathroom.
Toiletries were all by Bulgari and included large sized bottles at the vanity and personal bottles in the shower. The blue glow is coming from blue LED nightlights located under the mirror. They don’t look this odd in person.
Vista Suite Goodies
Other inclusions in the suite are a in-room bar set-up of 6 bottles of wine and spirits to be selected from this list. We typically select one or two spirits for the room but really focus on wine to either consume in the room or to take to dinner (subject to corkage, but still a better deal).
In suites above Penthouses – Oceania Suites, Vista Suites, and Owners Suites you also receive a Bulgari gift box meant to be taken home as well as an Oceania beach bag, towels, sun cream, and more.
And of course the welcome bottle of Champagne…which on this cruise was Pommery Brut Royal.
The Pros and Cons of a Vista Suite
Pro #1 – The space! At 786 square feet the suite is very large. It’s more than double the size of the 322 square foot Penthouse Suites and more than three times as large as a Veranda Stateroom. The R-Class ships are not known for having large cabins or bathrooms, but the Vista Suite certainly does.
Pro #2 – The bathrooms, yes, bathrooms plural! Having a large primary bathroom and a guest bath is really convenient. We find that our cruise schedule is a bit like Downton Abbey with lots of wardrobe changes after a morning work out or walk on deck, after an excursion, before tea, before cocktails…Having an extra bathroom plus the dressing table definitely speeds up the costume changes.
Pro #3 – The extra unadvertised perks. Beyond what we’ve outlined as official perks, there are other unofficial benefits like always getting a prime table in the dining rooms, having your butler take wine down to your restaurant ahead of time, coordinating our dietary restrictions, etc. While there isn’t as big a difference in “VIP factor” between suite and non-suite passengers on Oceania Cruises as we found on Celebrity Flora or on our recent sailing on Norwegian Jewel, there certainly are some perks. It’s a little thing, but we found that the restaurant managers throughout the ship know our names within a day on Oceania Cruises when we’ve sailed in the Vista Suite or in an Oceania Suite while it takes a few days in a Penthouse Suite.
Pro #4 – We traditionally aren’t big room service people. We like our food hot and quick and room service just generally isn’t excellent at this. However, in a top tier suite we’ve found that our butlers really hustle to bring our food. The fact that we also have a dedicated dining table make it more appealing. We still only do room service for breakfast, but did enjoy it on this cruise more than any others previously.
Con #1 – The location. This one is admittedly controversial, so let me explain a bit. There are a few main issues that I don’t think are subjective so let me start with those:
These suites are directly over the theater stage. You’d think this would only be loud during performances, but we actually found that mid-morning rehearsals were more disruptive as we were more likely to be in our cabin than during show times in the evenings. We joked a bit, but we effectively had shower concerts after our morning exercise.
These suites are directly over the bow of the ship and close to the bow thrusters. This means that entering/exiting ports is very loud with winches winching, deck crews yelling, and of course the deep rumbling and vibrating from the bow thrusters. Typically we wouldn’t care too much about this; however, we had one port where we didn’t leave until 3am due to delayed flights on embarkation day and our disembarkation day when we pulled into port of Miami around 5am. You will wake up no matter how sound a sleeper you are.
The location at the front of a ship is always going to experience more movement than in the middle and this is particularly true on a smallish and older ship that doesn’t have the most advanced stabilization systems. I wasn’t bothered by it but my better half definitely felt the effects during days at sea and a few nights.
The balconies aren’t really useful for anything but taking pictures while at sea. It’s fairly windy and even with all of the steel around you we were generally in full sun. In port the view is extremely hit or miss over the bow as ships often position themselves facing out we often times were looking back out to sea rather than into the port.
Con #2 – This one is also a bit related to location. You never see your butler in the hall. He’s always quick to arrive when called and in the evenings when he’s delivering canapes, but because Deck 6 only contains four suites with butler service they are rarely in the halls like they are on Deck 8 where the Penthouse suites are located. Interestingly we find we form a closer connection to our butlers in a Penthouse suite despite it being a lower category just because we see them so much more often and have short interactions in the corridors.
Con #3 – The bigger our suites have been the less we find ourselves out and about on the ships. This results in meeting fewer of our fellow passengers and lower chances of making lasting cruise friendships. We really enjoy meeting our fellow passengers so being out and about is more advantageous. A part of this is that in these larger suites we get a bar set-up so we find ourselves having pre-dinner drinks and nightcaps more often alone in our room rather than in bars on the ship. [I understand that this isn’t strictly speaking a con and for some could be a huge plus. I mention it as it’s something passengers should consider depending on how they like to cruise.]
After this LONG Oceania Cruises Sirena Vista Suite 6003 Review post I think we’ve really covered it all, but if we’ve missed something please let us know by leaving a question. – Michael
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