Oceania Cruises Vista Cabin and Suite Overview Including Penthouse Review

• Introduction: Oceania Cruises’ Vista Inaugural Sailings
• Tips For Maximizing Your Oceania Cruises Booking
• Flying to Ljubljana, the New Gateway for “Venice” Cruises!?!
• Flight/Lounge Review – United Polaris Experience
• Flight Connection at Brussels International Airport (BRU)
• Intercontinental Ljubljana Review – Booked Using CC Free Night Certificate
• Getting From Ljubljana to Trieste, Our Experience Using Daytrip
• Our Experience on a (Nearly) Inaugural Sailing
• Ship Review – Oceania Cruises New Vista
• Oceania Cruises New Vista Dining Review
• Oceania Cruises Bars, Lounges, and the New Mixology Program
• Oceania Cruises Vista Cabin and Suite Overview Including Penthouse (PH-2 with extended balcony) Review
• Athens to Atlanta via Doha, Our First Experience in QSuites
• Katara Hills Doha, LXR Hotels & Resorts Review – Booked Using CC Free Night Certificate

Oceania Cruises’ Vista Cabin and Suite Overview

Cabins – Four Options to Choose From

Oceania Cruises’ Vista Cabin and Suite offerings span eight types with further sub-grades depending on ship location.  The three cabin types are – French Veranda, Veranda and Concierge Level staterooms – all are a spacious 291 square feet (27 square meters) with identical layouts with the exception being the veranda size and configuration.

The Concierge Level comes with additional perks including extended room service options, complimentary laundry (3 bags per cabin), access to the Concierge Lounge, a welcome bottle of Champagne, earlier access to restaurant reservations, and access to the Aquamar Spa Terrace.  All of these inclusions also apply to the suites on board.  Unique to Vista among the Oceania Cruises fleet there are also a limited number of Solo Concierge Level cabins that do not incur a solo-supplement.

Suites – Four Options to Choose From

Suites begin with the 440 square foot (41 square meter) Penthouse Suites.  Keep reading to hear more about these later in the post.

Above the Penthouses are the Oceania Suites (the name is really confusing given the name of the line) and are located on decks 11 and 12 and measure between 1,000 and 1,200 square feet (89-109 square meters) with living and dining spaces, large balconies (some are aft facing), television rooms, two bathrooms, and all of the Penthouse and below inclusions plus an additional bar amenity of a six-bottle set-up and a Bulgari gift set all prepared to take home with you.  These cabins have a different layout than those on Riviera and Marina (to be referred to as “O-Class” throughout this post) and are a bit larger.  This category of suite is not available on the R-Class ships.

Even more luxurious and exclusive are the Vista Suites (another confusing name with the new Vista ship, given that this category of suite exists on all of the ships in the fleet) that face forward at front of the ship.  These suites located on decks 8, 9, and 10 measure 1,450 to 1,850 square feet (161-171 square meters).  There are only six of these suites on board and despite the high cost they are typically among the first to sell out, especially on extended voyages.

Finally, there are the three Owner’s Suites that take up the entire width of the aft of the ship on decks 8, 9, and 10.  Measuring in at 2,200 to 2,400 square feet (204 – 223 square meters).  The largest of these suites is on deck 8 and they get a bit “smaller” as you go up given the way the aft tapers as it rises.  These suites were amazing on the O-Class ships and are even better on board Vista with a central dining space and guest bathroom.  To the right you find a full sized bar with room for your Butler to serve cocktails, a large living area with seating for 6 and an enclosed study.  To the left you will find the bedroom with true King Sized bed, a large dressing room, and a spacious marble bath with large shower, soaking tub, double-vanity, and window out to sea.  There are two huge terraces opening off of each “wing” of the suite.

Penthouse Suite (Specifically PH2 – 7122)

The Penthouse Suites aboard Vista are 20 square feet larger than those aboard the O-Class ships and 118 square feet larger than those on the smaller R-Class ships like Sirena.  This is our most sailed category of cabin on Oceania Cruises and we really enjoy and make use of the additional space and some of the perks that come with these “entry-level” suites like the addition of a butler, afternoon canapes, early access to dining reservations, early embarkation, Bulgari amenities, and more.  We are both working full time so having the extra space allows for us to sneak in some laptop time while the other is getting ready or resting.

A few new things about this Penthouse compared to those on the O-Class ships which are very similar while those on the smaller R-Class ships are much smaller and really a different experience altogether.

The In-Suite Dining Area used to be at the foot of the bed in chairs with an ‘L’ shaped back that allowed you to sit facing one another at the table or away from the bed toward the television.  I always thought that this was a clever use of space and was really only inconvenient while packing and unpacking when it could get in the way.  On Vista there’s now a more conventional dining area by the balcony that has replaced what used to be a desk.  Overall I think this was an excellent change, though the new chairs lack some of the comfort of the old ones.

The Closet is a walk-in on the O-Class ships but has been changed to now be two full-length double-wardrobes facing one another with a full-length mirror completing the ‘u’ shape in the area that used to be a walk-in closet.  The pros of this change are that it makes the suite feel larger, and the dressing area is much brighter.  The cons are that you no longer can hide any suitcases that don’t fit under the bed in an enclosed closet, that you have lost a good amount of storage by effectively eliminating 1/3 of the hanging space, and that when two people are using both closets it’s a lot of open doors to run into.  On the whole I think that we prefer the O-Class walk-in closet to the new Vista dressing area.

See more of our thoughts on the balconies overall below.  What’s noteworthy about this PH-2 cabin on Deck 7 is the Extended Balcony.  This is a great feature as the balcony is easily 3-times as deep as those with most Penthouse Suites.  This allows for a dining table, two chairs as well as two full-size lounge chairs (the same ones found around the main pool).  The only other Penthouse Suites with these extended balconies are on Deck 11 and are classified as PH-1 resulting in a higher rate.

Bathrooms

Probably the biggest change on Vista when compared to the rest of the fleet comes in the marble clad bathrooms. The previously small showers in all but the top suites on the O-Class ships are now much larger with excellent glass enclosures, tons of storage, and better ceiling heights.  I’m 6’3” so the extra height is much appreciated.  The trade-off in these bathrooms is that outside of the top suites, there are no longer bathtubs in most cabins.

Balconies

Vista is the only Oceania ship to feature glass balconies.  I’m a bit torn on these.  In theory they provide better views and a bit of protection from the wind while sailing; however, on our sailing, less than two weeks after the ship entered service, they were already covered in salt residue that only got worse over the course of our cruise.  The other change with Vista is that they have gone with “faux teak” handrails throughout the ship.  These are aluminum, printed to look like teak, and they may fool the eye at first but they definitely do not fool the hand the first time you touch one.  I appreciate that these are lighter, require much less maintenance, but they definitely feel like a downgrade and unlike teak, when they start to show wear, there’s no option to sand and varnish that will make them like new again.

Cabin Details

Other changes on Vista are the new electronic thermostats with integrated do not disturb hall lights. The wardrobes now have brighter and more extensive LED lighting; however, we found them very glitchy sometimes going on and off multiple times while we had them open.

Oceania Cruises had also begun to roll out a partnership with Vero water providing high-quality filtered water in glass bottles in suite and in the dining rooms along with filling stations throughout the ship. Oceania provides reusable stainless steel water bottles to take with you.  After our first cruise using these bottles we decided to bring our own double-walled insulated bottles going forward as the Oceania Cruises’ bottles sweat when filled with cold water.

The new TV and infotainment system is leaps and bounds better than what Oceania had previously.  These are being rolled out to all of the other ships in the fleet over time.  Nothing here that most lines didn’t already have.

As previously mentioned, non-alcoholic beverages (except those zero alcohol “spirits” mentioned in our Oceania Cruises Bars, Lounges, and the New Mixology Program review) are free throughout the ship.  This includes those in the stocked mini fridges in your cabins. We generally don’t drink sodas; but do drink quite a bit of club soda so we asked our butler to replace the sodas with these and he gladly obliged. The fridges also provide enough space to chill your glass Vero water bottle and/or chill your own wine.  We might have also stashed away some cheeses that we bought throughout our cruise to bring home.

Internet / WiFi

Oceania Cruises now has Starlink High-Speed Internet aboard Vista and will be adding to other ships over time.  This is MUCH faster than the old internet and allowed for speedy access for the entry-level internet even on a full ship.  There is an option of Wavenet Prime Upgrade in order to guarantee streaming of $9.99 per day.  We did not find this necessary for our needs, including multiple VOIP calls.

Cabin Power Outlets

Vista’s cabins and suites offer electrical outlets and USB ports on both sides of the bed and by the desk. You’ll also find a European 220V outlet only on the long counter opposite the bed.  To make the best use of all of the outlets remember to bring at least one international adapter.

We enjoyed our stay in this Penthouse Suite so much that we tried to book the same cabin on another Vista cruise in 2025, but unfortunately all of these extended balcony suites on Deck 7 were already booked, so we had to pay-up a bit more to get into a PH-1 on Deck 11 with another extended balcony.  The big benefit of this will be access to the Executive Lounge on the same floor. – Michael