Maybe it's a matter of expectations and what you consider expensive. With an average verandah room and the cost of $16,000 for a 15 day cruise, we had high expectations. This was by far the most expensive cruise we have ever taken. It was a stretch for our finances. The room was smaller than those we have had in the past on other cruise lines and the bathroom space rivaled that on an airplane. For the cost, we could have had a suite on HAL, Celebrity, or Princess. But we chose Oceania because of the itinerary and loved that most stops in Vietnam were overnight. Plus, being on a small ship it could dock up the rivers and be centrally located in Saigon and Bangkok, where the larger ships would be 2 hours away on the coast. The dining room had a few missteps as far as proper cooking of steaks and eggs. They were very slow, no matter which meal, to get the courses out. I found a two hour dinner just too long. The specialty restaurants were no better than the main dining room. I would not recommend the O Life. We could not get a custom air route that we wanted, so Oceania made the flight arrangements, which were beyond awful. We took only 1 "free" excursion, which my husband then told me "never again". The group tour was 5 or 6 buses going to Hue together and the bathroom situation was so bad, I couldn't drink water until we got back aboard the ship. I booked last minute private tours for the other ports. We did not care for the entertainment and the fact that there was no theater but a lounge instead. I kept thinking, "Is this worth three times the amount of Celebrity?" and the answer is, no. Overall, it was a disappointment.