Winters Gate

20 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

They are partially cooked and then finished when order is placed.

If they started with raw lobsters the line and waiting time would be doubled if not tripled.

If you think they are overdone just ask them to serve it sooner that the cook wants to (at your own risk).

Or better yet, if you think they are already cooked just ask them to give them to you as is. Will you accept responsibility if you get sick from undercooked seafood?

 Thats not the way it is, if I told them I wanted a lobstertail just like it is it would just be the same, colder for sure but not raw.

They are already cooked thru, they just put them on the grill to give them some heat. IF they where just partially cooked it would still be raw in the middle and it will take the heat almost about the same time to get to the middle as if it was totally raw so it would not save that much time. This "cook to order" thing is just for show, as you just said it will just take to long to do it the real way!

On 10/8/2019 at 11:53 PM, farmerj said:

Yes.  Just got off Insignia (9/28-10/5) and they are still serving lobster tails and steaks in the buffet; cooked to order.  (shrimp too)   But be aware, at least on Insignia, everything is overcooked.

 

Cooked to order, no way! I would call it reheated to order at best!

On 9/2/2019 at 5:00 AM, LHT28 said:

If the Head Chef does not know there is  a problem with his staff  then he cannot fix the problem

JMO

The Head Chef should know when there is a problem with his staff and correct it, thats what head Chefs are for, if someone have to tell the Head Chef that there is a problem the "Head Chef" is a big part of the problem and should be changed to a Head Chef.....

Hello all Seadream veterans.

We are a couple in our late 40ish and just booked a Medcruise with the Corintcanal as a highlight, as Seadream newbies what can we expect? What is there to know about Seadream that can´s be read on the website?

We have done some cruises on Oceania and Regent but just wanted to try something new.

/P and I

4 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

I respect your opinion and you should follow your heart (or your maybe head?) 😊

The problem is that our hearts is with Oceania but our heads tells us it would be wise to move on 😫😀

4 hours ago, Paulchili said:

I will certainly agree that you are entitled to your opinion but at the same time it is just that - your personal opinion.

By the same token others are entitled to their opinion - like bitob in post #51 above:;

 

We were on Marina in November with 2 other couples.  Together we have more than 40 cruises on Oceania.  We all agreed that the food on that cruise was perhaps the best we have ever had on Oceania (it is not always the best food at sea, I agree).  The chef was from Paris.  Every food venue was perfection.  We have rarely, if ever, experienced perfection in every venue.

Every cruise is different and the Executive Chef makes a HUGE difference.

 

It so happens that one of the couples bitob mentions in the post are very close personal friends of ours and have told us independently after their cruise that “this was the best food they’ve had on Oceania” in their 20+ cruises.

Granted - they were on a different cruise from yours but who is right about Oceania’s current food - you (and others like you) or them?

These are both personal and therefore subjective opinions.

Time will tell how the majority of seasoned O cruisers will report about their opinions on the food as compared to the past - included our personal opinion on our 3 upcoming cruises next year.

As it should be in all democracies, the majority rules and wise consumers will eventually speak with their wallets one way or another. 😊

Well it might be my opinion if I like a dish or not, BUT it´s not my opinion that the menus in the GDR is very limited compare to what it was before, it´s not my opinion that at teatime the trolly with sweets now is combined with the sandwiches and as a result of that have much fewer choises, it´s not my opinion that the GDR and Terrace menues don´t have the high quality ingredients as before, it´s not my opinion that there are fewer bar waiters in Martinis, it´s not my opinion that the GDR is closed 8 out of 10 days for lunch instead  of open 8 and closed 2 days and so on..... These are all facts and corporate decision to cut corners and save money, not personal opinions.

But as you say the consumers will speak with their wallet and we will to, But I feel sad because the Oceania we learned to know was just a perfect match to us.

22 hours ago, Paulchili said:

It is my understanding that both FDR and Mr. Binder are “foodies” and the last thing they would want to change on Oceania is the food quality.

Best food at sea is their motto and that is mostly what gave Oceania its niche - why would they want to change that?

They don´want to change it they have already changed it! To have the motto "the best food at sea" just don´t work if you do changes like they have done.

Sadly I can just agree with the OP, we had exactly the same experience on Sirena in July. Oceania is just not what it used to be when it comes to food and level of service!

We will look for alternative when it comes to our next cruises.

On 8/23/2019 at 2:43 AM, Mura said:

As I have frequently said, if it's all bad or all good ... I ignore it.

 

I prefer a balanced critique.  We are long time fans of Oceania but we know it is NOT perfect.  Nothing is.

 

Mura

I don´t think my review was all bad I think it was balanced critic. 

The problem with the Oceania board here on cruise critic is that some people will defend oceania no matter what, if you say that there are limited food choices someone will quickly respond that there were far to many choices before nobody need all this......If you say that the GDR is almost every day closed for lunch there will be some cheerleaders who will state that they don´t eat lunch onboard so nobody else need to do it either, and the defending just go on forever no matter what changes Oceania makes.

One could say that there is no room for bad critic here, the policeposters will directly tell you whats right and how you should feel about Oceania, your own point of view is not of interest, they tell you what to think!

We did a cruise on the Voyager last year and just loved the ship. When I look at the 2021 cruises there is a cruise on the Mariner that looks really interesting for us, now how does the two ships compare? What are the pros and cons?

/P

1 hour ago, Mura said:

Howard always orders the mixed berries in the GDR as his first course for breakfast.  It's a very generous portion ... plus there is also a fruit plate if I'm remembering correctly ... and you can always order yogurt on the side if you wish!

 

But there is no denying that it IS slower in the GDR than in Terrace or Waves to get in and out.

 

Mura

I agree. The fresh berries in GDR are lovely, with some greek yoghurt and nuts or why not like this with swedish pancakes and wipped cream!

2 hours ago, pinotlover said:

Sitting in a nice cafe eating local fresh cuisine and people watching versus returning to the ship for either the buffet or GDR? That answer doesn’t take deliberation for us!

 

It’s not economical to keep the GDR open for lunch. Oceania can’t logically be doing guessing games in ports of call on how many are going to be gone versus staying aboard ship.

 

Nine days until we Board the Nautica again for 20 days. It will be interesting to see what changes in food and evening attire we find! 

 

We will not be aboard ship ship during lunch hours on any port days, so will have no comments on that issue.

That´s great that you like to eat your lunch in a local café, we however like the quiet ambiance of a lunch on board, isen´t it nice that we all has different tastes?

Someone stated earlier in the thread that they don´t like buffé eating(like us), so now when GDR seems to be closed almost all port days their solution was to eat lunch a shore(not to blame), wow what a strike for Oceania........Let´s close the GDR and force the people up to the buffet that would save us a lot of money, WOW again not everybody who eat lunch in the GDR likes buffets so they eat a shore instead.

All of a sudden Oceania just diden´t save the big money closing GDR they also managed to throw some people of the ship for lunch totally(but still charge them), one can just do mathematics for him self but if it´s five-ten people a day doing the same thing all year around on six ships it´s a substantial amount of money saved, just like a bonus.

This is the way big corporate works they save a little money from a lot of people to make a nice  profit and if they are able to do this in more then one way the profit just doubles, as closed lunch in GDR, limited menus, lower quality of ingrediens and so on.

But as Paulchili said before in this thread, they might feel that they have to make this adjustments or they will price themselves out of the market? I don´t know the answer I just see the decline and feel sad about it!

Hello again!

It was almost a year ago since I made this comparison and I just want to make a quick update after our recent Oceania cruise.

I can only say that Oceania´s food is far from what it used to be, the decline in their MDR is just a huge step down. They have limited the menus, dishes repeats far more often then before and the quality of ingredients are just not what it used to be. 

The MDR is also closed for lunch almost every day, on our 10 day cruise it was only open twice. I really hope Regent isen´t on the same path!

We really look forward to our next Regent cruise in June and hope that it holds the same quality as our Regent cruise last year, we are also excited to see the 2021 Regent schedule as we think Regent might be our choice of line in the future!

2 hours ago, bbqoug said:

The contents of this review are disappointing to us since we air sailing on Sirena next April for our first Oceania cruise. We have sailed with Azamara in the past and thought we would give O a try for this itinerary.

 

Having never eaten lunch in the MDR on a port day that information does not bother me.

However, it is very disappointing to read that the variety and quality of the dinners in the MDR have declined.

 

Don`t you worry to much, we did have a nice cruise and the food still taste good, we did just notice some decline from past cruises

Maybe the things that bother us is fine in your point of view, as LHT28 says different folks different strokes

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

I agree  there are  changes  from a few years ago

I have also been on the ship at lunch where they had  less than a dozen passengers  in the GDR  there were  staff standing around  ..so maybe this is part of the reason for  closing ...I do not know  but seems like it could be it

 

 

 

I agree that on some port days there might not be more then 15-20 guests but the majority of the time there are enough guests to have the GDR open for lunch in my opinion.

The problem that occur when you start to close to often is that people who might not know it´s closed show up, after a few times of that they just don´t bother to show up again, they just head direct to the Terrace witch they know it´s open. Oceania then say, hey nobody is in the GDR for lunch anymore let´s close it and save a lot of money! So without that the guests realize it Oceania has guided them in a direction that saves Oceania a lot of money.

As a matter of fact the the same thing can happen with the GDR breakfast, I have seen some days in port where a lot of people go ashore early that the GDR is very empty at breakfast, well let´s close GDR these days, so few show up anyway! And then the people who doesen´t read the Current´s like the bible start to head direct to the Terrace witch they know it´s open and after a while there are so few guests at the GDR breakfast that it will head the same way as the way as the GDR lunch has.

Well anyway it´s Oceania´s ships and they do what they want, but it makes me sad to see them go this way because just a few years ago Oceania was perfect match to us.

As a customer your strongest way to make a statment is to put your money somewhere else, we will probably look at other lines in the future to see what they have to offer!

9 hours ago, clo said:

We're 'into' food ourselves and it's clear that you know what you're talking about.  Our first O cruise is in December, Rio to Buenos Aires, so we'll keep our fingers crossed.  Did you give them detailed feedback?  Or maybe you could send them what you just posted?

 

Yes we did give them feedback on the form at the end of the cruise, and one never know some Oceania rep might read this board😀

6 hours ago, LHT28 said:

That has been our experience also

 

I guess it depends on what the itinerary was

I would not think a cruise to the Caribbean the GDR would be closed for lunch  but  yes  when dock for the pax to go to Paris  it would be

 

In this case i does not depend on the itinerary, yes it was a port intensive Med cruise but we have done two cruises with pretty much the same itinerary on Oceania before and then the GDR was open for lunch nine or eight days, now it was closed eight days out of ten! And this is not my opinion this is just hard fact!. 

One my argue that people are of the ship but I´m sure that the same amount of people left the ship 3 years ago as of today, so to say it´s an itinerary based issue just dosen´t work, it´s a change.

I think that when they have started this it will not be long until there is no more GDR lunches on port days at all.

The strategy that Oceania seems to have is to cut small corners here an there and hope thats it´s a so small cutback that people does accept it, for example close GDR most port days, reduce menus, reduce the quality of the ingredients, take away a few waiters and a chef here and there and so on .

One of these cutbacks might not be a big issue for the guest but if you combine all the cutbacks over some years Oceania just ends up to be a totally different product then it was only a few years ago.

I think that next in line are the Specialty restaurants, the large extensive menus will soon be reduced with some items, and it will be some cutback in the quality of the ingredients as well, I hope I´m wrong but I will not be surprised to see it come in close future.

By the way the meals we had in Red Ginger an Tuscan Steak was just as fabulous as it always has in the Specialty Restaurants on Oceania.

Hello all, we just got of the Sirena and I thought I´ll do a quick review. As English is not my first language I apologize for any grammatical and spelling errors.

We are a couple in our late 40ish who have made four Oceania cruises before this one two on Insignia and two on the Riviera , the last one was however 2 1/2 years ago!

First of all, the update of the R class ship is lovely, it´s done so well, they have changed what was not so up to date and retained what is the charm and the beauty of the R class ship, we love the R class ship as well as the O class ship.

The refurbishment of the cabins are also a hit, very modern but still Oceania classy with a nice color scheme.

So was this cruise up to pair with the ones we have made before? Unfortunately not, I think Oceania is going a dangerous way when it comes to food, I mean if you say time after time that you have "the best food at sea" it´s not a great strategy to start cutting cost in that department. Don´t get me wrong the most of the food tasted nice to really nice with some misses but it was so clear that they had limited there menus and started to use lower quality of ingredients. First of all the GDR menus was miles from was i was before, there was five different appetizers, Shrimps and Serrano ham was on every night and there it is a fruit cup witch is really not much to a appetizer so after all it was only two new starters every day, before there was at least five different starters every evening, the same story goes for the maincourse section, now it was like five maincourses+ some plantbased thing, before it was seven maincourses and on the R ships and you also had an option of a dish from Jacques and one from Red Ginger as well, and as I wrote before, the quality of the ingredients was also on a much higher level before. As a matter of fact, before I had problem to choose because it was so many nice things on the menu, now I sometimes had problems to find something that really appealed to me, one night so much that it forced me up to the Terrace cafe and I really do not like buffe eating. Witch leads to another matter.....

As I said buffe is not our type of way of eating, so we tend to eat breakfast and lunch in the GDR. The lunches in the GDR has been our hidden gem at the ship, nice food, nice service with a nice ambience. On our previous cruises with Oceania the GDR had been closed for lunch one or two days in a 10 day cruise and I could live with eating at Waves or Terrace cafe those days. But now Oceania turned everything around, now it was closed eight days out of 10.......here you can talk about cost cutting and cutting i luxury as well........

This cutting i in in menu limitation was like a red thread thrue all the venues but not as clear as i the GDR, some more limited Teatime choices, some cutting in the Waves menu and so on.

One other thing in the GDR was that it seams to be fewer waiters, they where a lot more stressed, they did a good job but it was a little less more time for them to have a chat or to make some extra for you.

However the wineservice was great this cruise and that included the Terrace Cafe where it sometimes has been a challenge to get a drink before, and the barservice at the pool was just one of the best we ever had, the drinks was over all very good and we had a great time with nice weather an lovely people at the ship. And Leslie Jon the CD witch we have cruised with before was as nice and entertaining as ever!

But as we are foodies I´m not sure we will cruise Oceania again because one thing is for sure, they don´t have the" best cuisine at sea" any more!

Thank you so much, we really looking forward to board her in Rome tomorrow

On 6/24/2019 at 4:54 PM, pinotlover said:

Complaining to managers get you nowhere. Miami has already decided the issue. Solution: just eat elsewhere and enjoy great food and service. The cheese plate can be had at home or ashore another day. 

This might be a good solution in the short run to get what you want. But in the long run it´s just really bad, a behavior like that will only have the effect that Miami or the managers think that they can get away with any changes they want with out any complaining from the guests.

No the right way to go is to complain to managers, complain in the midcruise card and to do it strongly, I mean a cruiseline should not get away with selling packages like "Unlimited wine at meals" and then not provied any wine in the most popular lunch venue, thats just a fraud!

2 hours ago, clo said:

That sound divine!  Did you bring it on or order it?  I'm guessing bring it on.  Yum.

No we did not bring it on, Oceania had a "Russian sail away" in Horizons, It was not an included but well worth the money any way!

St Petersburg, what can beat a Russian sail away with caviar and vodka!😀

If you want to stay central but on a quiet Island there is the wonderful boutique hotel https://hotelskeppsholmen.se/en/ , in my opinion a much nicer choice then some international Hotelchain.

The set rate from Arlanda airport to Frihamnen(thats where Oceania usually docks)  will be about 550-600 kronor(60-65 dollars)

21 hours ago, treasurer said:

Thanks everyone for all your help.  Think we will just take a taxi from one of the suggested companiies.  We will ask if there is a set rate--airport to cruise port and cruise port to airport.  I forgot to ask if tips are expected.  We will be paying by credit card.  In NYC we get a screen where you can add a tip.  Are tips expected and is it handled by the credit card screen total?  Thanks again.  We leave next week.

They will get you a set rate if you ask for it. In Sweden tips is not expected like in US but in restaurants and taxis a little tip is not unusual, so if you are happy with the service 5-10% tip would do just fine. You will be able to ad your tip when you pay with your credit card.