Psoque

We used to take cruises on Crystal ships before bankruptcy, but as of now, we are in a wait-and-see approach to see how the new management is doing with the Crystal brand/product, and to make sure the new Crystal is going to survive. After doing an enjoyable but somewhat disappointing cruise on Oceania recently, we are more eager to give the new Crystal a try. However, it appears the pricing is a bit higher than what we used to see in the past. Is this because of inflation? I have heard from people here and elsewhere that both Symphony and Serenity are sailing with a lot of empty cabins. I’m not sure if is in fact true or not, since I don’t have a first hand knowledge of this. I wonder if Crystal is intentionally sailing with limited number of passengers as they re-boot the brand with both old and new crew. Either way, I’m hoping that Crystal will start sailing with full ships, and that would translate to lower prices in the future. I don’t have any time off that I can use for another cruise until 2025, so I have more time to wait.

I agree, they are both great ships. Most aspects are very similar/comparable between the two ships. I also agree that the Avenue salon in Symphony has a better configuration. Some of the cabins in Symphony (especially the lower category ones) might be smaller than their equivalent ones in Serenity by a bit. Other than that, we haven’t really noticed any big difference between the two.

I see your point, and we, in the original post, admitted that we had slightly higher expectations for this cruise. However, we are profoundly puzzled by the logic among the people who say "Oceania is entirely in a different (higher) class of cruise line compared to Celebrity/HAL/Princess," or say that "Oceania is a Mercedes-Benz/Four Seasons equivalent," while the same time saying the abysmally inconsistent dining service and highly chaotic buffet service, which we consider to be hallmarks of cruise lines such as RCL and NCL (in our opinion, of course) to be acceptable/expected on Oceania. Would you accept/expect that sort of irregular/inconsistent service from Mercedes-Benz or Four Seasons? We certainly do not. If Oceania wants us to take them seriously to an "entirely different class" of cruise line compared to other mid-range lines like Celebrity/HAL/Princess, it should at least get the dining room service consistency right. In our opinion, we still consider Oceania to be something just a hair better (in some aspects) than its mid-range competitors. I guess for some of us, that added edge makes Oceania profoundly special to them. To us, Oceania is just one of the variations of a solid mid-range offerings. And that's not a terrible thing. As we said before, as long as the price is right and the scheduling/itinerary is something we can manage/enjoy, we will consider Oceania again in the future, perhaps with more realistic expectations, and be pleasantly surprised if it exceeds that level of expectations.

Just wanted to let it be clear to you, since we don’t want to mislead you and your readers of your comments by not responding to them. We gave Oceania a try because we were NEVER QUITE HAPPY with our recent experiences with Celebrity/HAL/Princess cruises, and was hoping for something SUBSTANTIALLY and CONSISTENTLY better across ALL aspects of the onboard experience. We have some idea about how a higher end cruises should be, after doing a few on Crystal (Symphony, Serenity, Esprit, Mozart, and Debussy). We could have booked a cruise on Crystal, but we are still waiting to see how the cruise line is going to do after their reorganization and restart of their operations about 6 months ago. We were hoping that Oceania would be a slightly more cost effective near-alternative to Crystal in the meantime. Our point was that, whatever premium extras that we saw onboard Riviera were not sufficient to convince us to think that Oceania is SUBSTANTIALLY more upscale in a CONSISTENT manner than Celebrity/HAL/Princess, looking at all aspects of our experience before boarding and onboard. Whatever limited “premium” features we saw, they were not anywhere close to what we have experienced on cruises in the past that we were extremely impressed with. Also, since our comments about the pricing on this particular itinerary is causing a bit of a confusion for some of the readers, please let us make that clear also. We are definitely not, in this case, saying that the quality of the Oceania product is in some way reflective on what we paid for this itinerary. Our point is somewhat of an oppositve: Since we did not really pay any more to try Oceania compared to a typical cost of a comparable (off season Mediterranean cruise in late fall…something we have done a few times in the past on various lines) Celebrity/HAL/Princess cruise, we got what we paid for and enjoyed the cruise for what it is… a slightly fancy cruise. We got what we paid for. However, if we were to consider Oceania again, the pricing has to be as good as what we paid for this particular itinerary, since, in our opinion, the overall product does not justify a substantially higher cost than what we have paid for Celebrity/HAL/Princess cruises in the past. Finally, wewant to apologize if some of you found our comments somehow in offense to those who patronize Oceania, either frequently or exclusively. That was not the point at all. Also, we would like to remind everyone that, though choices in how we cruise (or for that matter how we vacation any other way) aredeeply personal and not completely scientific/rational, the choices of which cruise lines, on their own, should never define who we are. The opposite should we true. The cruise lines we patronize should reflect the whims and fancies of their customers. We should, by voting with our wallets and our comments, help them do that. And I’m assuming that Cruise Critic is one of many ways this can happen.

So, I guess I need to make it clear what we typically expect in a “luxury” cruise line, even though I think any cruise line is mass market, unless you are chartering your own private yacht with a hand-picked staff. -Was the buffet/lido dining area a constant zoo with a lot of noise and chaos? If so, it is not a luxury cruise line. -Are the dining facilities failing to provide a consistently excellent service? If so, it’s not a luxury cruise line. -Are the members of the staff more comfortable to say “no” to every request, even before making that request? If so, it’s not a luxury cruise line. Is Oceania a luxury cruise line based on our criteria? We certainly do not think so. Is Oceania better than Celebrity/HAL/Princess in every aspect of its operations? We didn’t find that to be the case. There are some limited aspects of Oceania that we find it more premium than Celebrity/HAL/Princess. In our opinion, the cabins are nicer, and the cabin attendants appear to be less overworked. But everything else is just the same as Celebrity/HAL/Princess. And the dining service was abysmally inconsistent onboard Riviera. Based on that, we are not willing to pay the additional premium of a “typical” Oceania cruise. That does not mean we don’t appreciate a luxury cruising experience. We just don’t want to pay for the experience and not getting much of that experience onboard.

Based on our experience, we saw very little difference between Oceania and Celebrity/HAL/Princess, other than maybe the nicer cabins on Oceania Riviera. We consider all cruise lines that can easily booked by a normal person, like ourselves, to be mass market line.

We were hoping that Oceania was going to perform substantially better than what we would expect from Celebrity/HAL/Princess. In this particular cruise, it did not, especially in the areas of service in the dining rooms as well as in concierge/destination services/reception. But as I mentioned earlier, we paid for this cruise what we would have paid for a similar itinerary on Celebrity/HAL/Princess, so we didn’t feel short-changed in any way. I don’t think Oceania is a “Four Seasons” type of a cruise line. It’s a solidly mid-range line with some premium features, like a standard Hilton. I consider Celebrity/HAL/Princess to be almost in the same league with Oceania, at least based on this experience.

I forgot to mention that the laundry service was excellent on this cruise. We had three free bags (up to 20 items? Not sure if that was actually enforced…) on laundry included as a benefit of the concierge cabin, and we sent one “paid” bag out near the end of the cruise. The first “free” bag of the laundry came back in less in 2.5 days, and the other two “free” and paid bag came back in about 30 hours. We usually do onboard laundry ourselves if that is an option on the ship, but this time, we thought we can spend more time vacationing. We would have considered doing our own laundry if this itinerary was not this port-intensive, though.

We just disembarked Riviera a couple of hours ago, and I wanted to post a few impressions here. We have done about a cruise a year for the past 20 years on various lines, all the way from NCL to Crystal, as well as a couple of Crystal river cruises and one cruise on Crystal Esprit. This was our first Oceania cruise and also our first cruise since late 2021. The cruise before that one was in late 2019. Since Oceania touts itself as a “luxury” cruise line, we will be making some comparison to our previous experiences on luxury lines (Crystal, mianly) as well as mid-range lines (Celebrity, HAL, and Princess). Furthermore, this is purely our opinion based on our first cruise with Oceania. We have no idea, how their competition is performing post-COVID, since this was our first post-COVID ocean cruise. In general, we had an enjoyable 10 days onboard Riviera. However, it is very clear to me that Oceania, is not substantially/entirely more “luxurious” than other mid-range lines like Celebrity/HAL/Princess. Our flight arrived in Barcelona the day before embarkation. We made our own flight/pre and post cruise hotel arrangements. After spending a night at Hotel Neri in the “Gothic” Quarters neighborhood, we took a privately arranged tour of Montserrat and the monastery there. That was a great tour. HIghly recommended. We did not see much else of Barcelona since we visited Barcelona before (and saw most of the notable Gaudi buildings then). Boarding in Barcelona was very smooth and punctual. We actually arrived at the Barcelona cruise terminal around 3 PM and was in our cabin in about 30 min or less. We don’t have the official numbers, but we were told by another passenger that there was “about 1,000 passengers” aboard. We were also told that there will be only 500 or so passengers on the next segment, since many have cancelled that cruise for the reasons we all know. The ship did not feel very full most of the time. There was a fairly large group of passengers from Indonesia on board, as well as a much smaller groups from Japan and elsewhere. It appears many of the non-English-speaking passengers opted to go to the buffet for all of their meals, which made the buffet a total zoo at typical mealtimes. We only went to the buffet once, for a later lunch after an excursion. From what we observed, the Indonesian group was full of multi-generational families, while the rest of the passengers were couples/singles in their 60’s and older. We notice more mobility-challenged passengers on this cruise than any other cruise we have taken. We are not sure why this was the case. Our cabin was cabin number 9051, a concierge-level cabin on the starboard side, slightly forward from midship. We were just a few steps from both the laundry room (which we never used), as well as the concierge lounge (which we used extensively). Our cabin, we thought, was very specious for the price we paid for (we roughly paid about what we would pay for a lowest cost balcony cabin for a typical 7 day Mediterranean cruise on a mid-range line…like Celebrity/HAL/Princess). We were particularly impressed with storage space in the cabin, and especially in the bathroom. We maybe used about 1/2 of the storage space in the bathroom, for example. The cabin attendants were both attentive and unobtrusive. The cabin experience was very similar to what we have had on Crystal ocean ships. In terms of the itinerary, we managed to visit all of the scheduled ports of call (Palma De Mallorca, Marseille, Villefranche, Civitavecchia, Sorrento, Kavala, and Istanbul) except for Syracusa, which was skipped because of inclement weather…we ended up having 2 consecutive sea days instead of just one. We pretty much enjoyed all of the ports of call. We did the ship’s excursions on all of the stops except for Civitavecchia, where we hired a local driver. Some tours were better than others, obviously. The dining experience on the ship was a bit of a disappointment. This was partly our fault to have a slightly elevated level of expectations, partly influenced by all of the marketing tagline “The Finest Cuisine at Sea!!!” We were a bit skeptical of this claim also, but since our TA, who has booked a lot of Crystal cruises, had good things to say about the Oceania dining experience, we had an unreasonably high expectations. In our opinion, the whole dining experience onboard was only slightly worse than what we have experienced on our previous cruises with Celebrity, HAL, and Princess. The quality of the food was just slightly better than that on Celebrity/HAL/Princess, but the dining service was, in our opinion, abysmally inconsistent. We routinely waited 20-30 min between courses, and we frequently saw the waitstaff just standing around looking lost. The food in Polo Grill, Jacques, and Toscana was better (comparable to the main dining room on Crystal ocean ships), but the service in specialty restaurants was equally inconsistent. We did not go to Red Ginger, Privee, or La Reserve. (We only went to the Terrace (buffet) restaurant once and regretted it. It was a total zoo.) The problem with our food not arriving in a reasonable timeframe was further exacerbated by poorly trained/empowered waitstaff who looked plain toxic, struggling to meet our expectations. Since the breakfast service in the main dining room was abysmal, we frequently took advantage of room service breakfast, which was fine. Entertainment onboard Riviera was typical of any mid-range cruise ship. Nothing extraordinary. The lounge piano player/singer was not the best. We are afraid to say he probably takes the cake for the worst performer onboard as well as the worst lounger pianist/singer we have had the pleasure of listening to. I had fun doing the acrylic painting on glass plates in the Artists Loft. I also attended the cooking class at the Culinary Center. They were both done well. The bar service at Horizons and Martini’s were excellent. The fitness center onboard was reasonably equipped but was not well-maintained as we expected. The rowing machine was in a poor shape. Some of the locker doors were missing a hinge or two. There were few other parts of the fitness/spa complex that definitely needed some attention including the door to the bathroom in the men’s changing room. Onboard concierge and destination services staff were not sufficiently knowledgeable of the ports of call. They were pleasant, friendly, and hard-working, but they really lacked the experience we often rely on for local tourism advice. Front desk/reception staff were, as in the case with other mid-range lines, neither well trained or felt empowered to do their best job. We never made any unreasonable requests, but every request was met with strange facial expressions. Disembarkation in Istanbul was smooth and orderly. It helped that the new Galataport is seriously well-designed to serve its purpose. However, some of the mobility-challenged fellow passenger may have found the Galataport to require too much walking. In summary, we did enjoy the cruise (since we consider cruises to be all about the ports of call). The cabin and the cabin attendants were consistent with a luxury cruise line. The entertainment onboard, the quality of food, as well as the upkeep of the ship was was more in line with a mid-range line. The dining service was a bit of a disappointment, even for a mid-range line. In our opinion, we would place Oceania squarely in the mid-range category, based on this cruise experience. Would we book another Oceania cruise? We think the answer is dependent on a few things. If we can find a port-intensive (that’s our preference) itinerary that meets our interest, we would consider booking another one, if the price is right. We would not consider paying a “luxury cruise line” price for any Oceania cruise at this time. What we liked: -our cabin/cabin attendants (A+) -food in Toscana/Jacques (but not their inconsistent service) (A) -art/cooking classes (A) -ports of call (A+) We we did not like: -inconsistent dining room service (F) -inexperienced concierge/destination service staff (C) -lack of proper upkeep of some parts of the ship (C) -Terrace Cafe experience (D) We were neutral about: -entertainment (B) -

Is it correct that basically none of the cruises in 2025 are part of this promotion so far? Or am I not looking at the website correctly?

Why is Oceania shooting itself in the head by acting this way?

I called Oceania to do exactly what you are trying to do. I’m not sure if this is a typical experience, but for me, I called Oceania guest services and was able to cancel one excursion and book something else for that same day, and the change was made correctly.

We visited Kotor when we took a Dalmatian Coast cruise on Crystal Espirit. We really enjoyed the visit. The small but picturesque downtown area was within walking distance from our boat. We also took an excursion up the mountain to the Mauseleum of Petar II Ptrovic-Njegos. I personally think Kotor is an outstanding port of call.

I used the word “marketers” because Oceania is neither the only entity or the one that started the whole mess with marketing of something that is entirely different from Wagyu or Kobe Beef as genuine items. I don’t really care what Oceania calls their subpar ground beef that comes from cows supposedly related to those from Japan. I am more dismayed that, the term Wagyu or Kobe Beef has very little meaning outside of Japan.

It’s totally ludicrous to even call something “American Wagyu,” regardless of the genetic make-up of the cow. It’s either Wagyu or not Wagyu. It’s a shame that the marketers latched onto this false Wagyu and Kobe Beef craze before the people in Japan had established a way (legal protection, like Champagne has) to prevent the abuse of these terms.

I have been using Tripit for ages.

That's just insulting to the actual people who raise real Kobe Beef in Japan.

They are giving a totally wrong impression of what Kobe Beef is all about!!!

I wonder what kind of “Kobe Beef” they are getting if they can only serve it as ground beef.

I am not on this cruise. But what I am saying is this: If Oceania is just allowing for FCCs for those who insist, and not making this opportunity known to everyone on this particular itinerary, they are being very shortsighted. That’s my take on this issue.

I’m afraid Oceania is missing a great opportunity to proactively prevent interactions with more disgruntled customers if they actually contact all of the customers and lay out the options clearly. But I guess they are not doing that because they are just too greedy, incompetent, or both.

Is Oceania telling all passenger of this itinerary an option to cancel for FCC? Or are they still only doing this when asked?

I hate say this, but based on what has been going on (not just now, but historically), I think it is somewhat unreasonable to assume that that cruises visiting Israel and Egypt will always commence without any drastic changes to the itinerary. I guess the issue OP obliquely raised in the original post is whether the passengers (should) have the right to cancel without penalty if a cruise itinerary gets changed drastically for any reason. I guess it would be nice if that’s possible. However, whether we like it or not, the cruise lines are selling their cruises with an assumption that we have absolutely no way to back out of a cruise without a penalty (after the final payment, etc.) if the itinerary is changed. Perhaps OP did not know this? Or she was hoping that Oceania will try to placate her and other passengers on the same boat? I have no idea. I guess if we prefer cruise lines to not sell cruises that they can change the itineraries for any reason without our ability to back out of the cruise, complaining about it here probably does nothing. I would start with cruise lines first (which I guess the OP did?) then if that does not work, contact the government agency that handles consumer protection for cruises sold in US.

I haven’t tried the new Crystal yet. I’m waiting for it to finish a few more cruises before we decide to try it for ourselves. We have cruised with them starting in 2006 and we have enjoyed our experience on board, though they really did not manage the pandemic related customer service issues well at all. If we assume that the new Crystal will be as good as the old, I would consider sailing with them again.

That I can understand. I just cannot understand why she is asking for it. I have no idea how she is being “wronged” to deserve any compensation. Perhaps she should send an invoice to Hamas.