Although we've cruised a dozen times or more, mostly on Celebrity, we booked a December 17 Oceania sailing over Christmas, mostly for the long (12 night) itinerary. Although the Marina holds 1250 passengers, we kept hearing that our sailing carried only 810 passengers, so we certainly received the benefit of excellent passenger:staff ratio!! The food was terrific, and since the ship was not full, we were invited to enjoy each of the four specialty restaurants TWO times. We were particularly impressed that the dinners in the main dining room were equally as tasty, creative and varied as those in the specialty restaurants. Dinner at Red Ginger was my personal favourite, but my husband swooned over both red meat meals at Polo SteakHouse. I liked that I could dress up, or down, and always felt in line with other passengers. An over-riding theme of this trip was rough seas! This was our first experience on a smaller ship, and the 'discomfort' of high rolling seas dampened my enjoyment for about half the cruise. Many nights, the dining rooms were almost entirely empty, and a couple of nights we didn't feel comfortable leaving the cabin. Some of the crew confirmed for me that these were unusually rough seas, but I would pause before booking on a small ship again, as I could definitely feel the rolling waves under my feet. We were also on the 11th floor, which contributed to the motion. My husband and I are not in full agreement about this, but I felt that with a 12 night cruise, the entertainment became repetitive, and I missed the multiple options/venues available on a larger ship. We did not attend any of the big show productions, as there was only one show per night (9:30pm) and that always seemed to conflict with something else going on. The casino tables were very well used, but the slots were usually quiet. The small size of the casino meant lots of repetition there, also. The pool area was great and we spent at least a couple of hours a day relaxing on the comfortable chaises. We liked the gym -- unexpectedly good size for the size of the ship and seldom too busy. We didn't do any shore excursions. The Oceania excursions were too expensive for our budget, and since we'd been to most of the ports, we often stayed onboard and enjoyed the quiet pool deck. Finally, I was surprised and slightly disappointed at the lack of emphasis on the holiday (Christmas) season. Other than a decorated tree, and a 10 minute appearance of Santa on Christmas morning, there was very minimal attention to this being a 'holiday' cruise. So if you were booking a Christmas cruise thinking it would be a good substitution for lavish holiday customs, I think you'd be disappointed.