bradpole

Final installment...

There were a few other minor things that came up, nothing that ruined our cruise, or nothing that would prevent us from booking Oceania in the future.  The first and the most annoying was our cabin, we never got the temperature cool enough. The first thing we noticed when entering our cabin was it was a bit warm, I immediately turned the A/C all the way down hoping it was cool down as the day progressed.  Sadly it never did, the next morning we dropped by the reception desk in the morning to ask for someone to check the A/C because we felt the cabin was too warm. Later in the day we received a voicemail that they repaired the A/C and let us know if it wasn’t resolved.  This cycle continued until the last morning, it was never fixed. When exiting the cabin you could feel that the hallway was noticeably cooler than our cabin. We were glad to have an interior cabin instead of an oceanview or balcony where the hot sun shining on the glass would have made things worse!    

Also impacting our cabin was our stateroom steward.  He was not the best we have had, certainly not the worst, but definitely below average.  Upon entering the cabin we noticed the beds were apart, we left a note asking for them to be put together.  The beds being wrong is a normal occurrence for us, and nothing that isn’t normally resolved by leaving a note for the steward when he or she comes back that evening (we don’t always meet them on the first day).  That evening he questioned us if we really wanted them together, his reasoning was he had just separated them that morning and it was a lot of work to put them back together. DH’s answer was a simple, “yes”. He wasn’t happy.  The mini fridge had a couple of half empty water bottles, a yogurt container, and something wrapped in a napkin. We knew then attention to detail was not going to be his strong point. We didn’t notice this last bit until the evening when we packed.  Upon entering the cabin we normally shove any loose papers we have into the top drawer and refer to them later if we need them. The last night when we were checking to see which ones we could toss we noticed there were papers in the drawer dated from the prior cruise and the cruise before.  Obviously, he did not get an “excellent” rating on the end of cruise survey!  

Disembarkation.  All good things must come to an end.  We had the first luggage tag called, and just about on schedule at 8am our tag was called.  Upon entering the terminal to retrieve our luggage you are reminded at just how small Insignia is compared to some of the other behemoths sailing.  All the luggage was neatly arranged in one room. We quickly retrieved our luggage and asked a porter for assistance. This is where the fun begins for us, just an FYI over the years we’ve won the lottery when it comes to getting the worst porters possible, and the porter we got this time wins for the all time worst!  The gentleman who considers himself a porter couldn’t lift our suitcases! I kid you not, he couldn’t lift them!  We drove to Florida, so the airlines’ weight restrictions weren’t an issue when we packed, but our cases weren’t insanely heavy. I could still easily move them so I’m guessing they were most likely 60ish pounds.  Heavier than most, but not ridiculously so. He gets another porter to come over and load them onto his cart. He then struggles to push them to the customs counter across the flat floor. Before we reached the counter I say, “If you’d like to hand these off to another porter we’d be fine with that, we’re across the street in the garage”.  He snaps back, “I’m fine! I can do my job!” We exit customs and he immediately wants to unload the bags, while we’re still in the terminal! DH is now starting to get ticked off at him, after some words back and forth he pushes them to the curb insisting no porter can go further than the taxi line (liar!), further words and I eventually get ahold of the cart and push the bags the rest of the way to the car myself.  He finally catches up to us to retrieve his cart and has the nerve to say, “where’s my tip?” We already knew we weren’t tipping, that decision was made back in the terminal when he tried to dump our bags just after passing customs!  So I take out my wallet, show him what I was going to tip, put it away, and pull out a $1 bill. He starts yelling, “this is robbery!!! You have to tip me at least $20 for all this work!”  I then put the $1 back in my pocket and we finish packing the car while he stands there. He eventually leaves, while yelling all sorts of nice obscenities directed at us. I know tipping is controversial, and personal, but a porter who can’t push a cart with suitcases is not a porter we’re tipping!  

Yes, we know we should have gotten his name and reported him, but at this point we just wanted to get in the car and begin our long and very boring drive home to Delaware.  On the plus side, it was less than 20 minutes from our tag being called to us being in our car driving home, even with the porter drama. Truly one of the fastest disembarkations ever!  Terminal J might be a bit tricky to find compared to the terminals serving the behemoth ships, but you can’t beat it for convenience!    

In closing, we loved the cruise!  Would we have preferred Cuba? Yes!!!  However after a physically exhausting, and less than stellar experience overall earlier this year on Viking Oceans we knew we needed an Oceania cruise, and a true “vacation” from the world.  Although there were many cosmetic differences on Insignia from our last cruise the moment we stepped onboard we knew we were home. We’re already eagerly anticipating our next cruise on an R class ship in September 2020!

If you have any specific questions, or would like to see if I took a picture of something, just let me know!

There were a few other minor things that came up, nothing that ruined our cruise, or nothing that would prevent us from booking Oceania in the future.  The first and the most annoying was our cabin, we never got the temperature cool enough. The first thing we noticed when entering our cabin was it was a bit warm, I immediately turned the A/C all the way down hoping it was cool down as the day progressed.  Sadly it never did, the next morning we dropped by the reception desk in the morning to ask for someone to check the A/C because we felt the cabin was too warm. Later in the day we received a voicemail that they repaired the A/C and let us know if it wasn’t resolved.  This cycle continued until the last morning, it was never fixed. When exiting the cabin you could feel that the hallway was noticeably cooler than our cabin. We were glad to have an interior cabin instead of an oceanview or balcony where the hot sun shining on the glass would have made things worse!    

Also impacting our cabin was our stateroom steward.  He was not the best we have had, certainly not the worst, but definitely below average.  Upon entering the cabin we noticed the beds were apart, we left a note asking for them to be put together.  The beds being wrong is a normal occurrence for us, and nothing that isn’t normally resolved by leaving a note for the steward when he or she comes back that evening (we don’t always meet them on the first day).  That evening he questioned us if we really wanted them together, his reasoning was he had just separated them that morning and it was a lot of work to put them back together. DH’s answer was a simple, “yes”. He wasn’t happy.  The mini fridge had a couple of half empty water bottles, a yogurt container, and something wrapped in a napkin. We knew then attention to detail was not going to be his strong point. We didn’t notice this last bit until the evening when we packed.  Upon entering the cabin we normally shove any loose papers we have into the top drawer and refer to them later if we need them. The last night when we were checking to see which ones we could toss we noticed there were papers in the drawer dated from the prior cruise and the cruise before.  Obviously, he did not get an “excellent” rating on the end of cruise survey!  

Sadly, as in the real world, all was not perfection.  Laundry Room. So everyone get your popcorn, these next couple of paragraphs may start a discussion. 

I questioned if I should mention it, but since I can look back now and laugh at this I figured why not.  I’ll start off by saying, you meet all kinds of people on a cruise, some friendly, some rude, some selfish, and some rather self entitled.  Self Serve laundry is now complimentary on Oceania, a very nice touch! Although we massively over packed we still did a few loads of laundry.  Unfortunately not all of Insignia’s guests have common sense or have consideration for others. I had no issues doing the wash, I moved the wet clothes to the dryer, I then set my watch timer for 5 minutes less than the dryer timer and left.  I came back a few minutes before the dryer was set to finish and the items were still damp. I restarted the dryer and set my watch to half of the dryers cycle, hoping it wouldn’t take a full cycle to finish drying. I came back to the laundry room a few minutes before my watch timer was set to go off to check the clothes to find a pile of clothes on the floor.  My clothes! Stunned, I think I said loudly, “what the ****….” and before I finished the sentence the self appointed laundry room monitor snaps at me, “I did that! You have no right to leave the laundry room while your clothes are here! I needed a dryer, you weren’t here, they were sitting in that dryer for well over an hour [they weren’t] and these are perfectly dry!”  I picked up my clothes, noting they were most definitely not dry, called her a few choice words to her face and walked out before I said or did anything that I’d regret.  

First of all… I’d never even think of touching someone else’s laundry.  Second… the floor? Really? Thankfully future loads of laundry went without issue or confrontation, and no, I didn’t stay and monitor my laundry.  I can now look back at this and laugh, at the time I was rather ticked off.  

a little more to come...

On 10/30/2019 at 10:41 PM, NoWhiners said:

Love that photo of the ships all lined up!

 

Did you try and use the laundry room? I am trying to get an idea of how busy it is since we will definitely need to use it on our cruise. Any thoughts/experiences you can share?

 

Thanks

Funny you asked about the laundry room!  That was going to be my next chapter.  We did a few loads during the week, generally we never had an issue finding an available machine.  We spent very little time off the ship and tended to do laundry while most people were ashore.  Sadly the laundry room is where we did experience a little "drama" and I'll get into that next.  

Before I continue I thought I'd share this photo I took in Nassau from the bridge leading to Paradise Island (Atlantis).  This was the only reason I got off the ship in Nassau, I wanted to see Insignia lined up against the other ships in port.  In the picture is Insignia, Majesty of the Seas, Disney Dream, and Navigator of the Seas.  

OceaniaNext refurbishment.  Overall we loved the changes to Insignia.  We were actually onboard Insignia last year when the changes were announced.  I remember looking at the renderings and comparing them to the current spaces and eagerly anticipating seeing the results on our Cuba cruise.  Sadly no Cuba, but we did get to see the wonderful results!  They really bring a modern touch to an older ship.  We certainly didn’t have any issues with the prior decor, it was well maintained and clean, just a bit dark.  Almost everything on deck 5 feels brand new, light and airy! Even the public restrooms throughout the ship are brand new!  Gone are the older Corian countertops and in their place bright new marble! Removing the back wall of the bandstand in Horizons really opens the room up as well.  Now every seat has unobstructed views forward. Also replacing the step down in Horizons with a ramp makes it easier for those with mobility problems, and the staff with the tea carts!  The new chandelier in the Grand Dining Room really brightens the room, although we never dined there the room is beautiful! I also really liked the small change to the front of Waves Bar (aka the pool bar).  

One thing that should have been replaced, but wasn’t, during the refurb were the cabin door locks.  Personally I wish they would have replaced them with RFID readers eliminating the issues people have with demagnetized cards.  My own fault… but the magnet in my Apple Watch band was repeatedly killing my key card. Out of habit I would put my card in my left pocket, and the watch band would demagnetize it.   

more to come...

21 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

 

That is  sad

True, but thankfully almost everything we tried still tasted great!  

Daytime activities.  First things first, don’t book an Oceania cruise if you need to be entertained or kept busy.  We enjoyed spending most of the day reading our Kindles, something we have very little time for at home.  We enjoyed spending most of our time in the Library on the big comfy leather chairs. Another draw to the library for us was this was one of the few rooms where the A/C was blasted.  Most of the other public rooms (especially Horizons) tended to be a bit too warm for us. If we weren’t reading we most likely stepped away to earn some “Big O Points” at golf putting, shuffleboard, or bean bag toss.  I know, these are all “Exciting” and “physically exhausting” activities. 🙂 Besides earning points (to be redeemed on the last evening of the cruise for logo merchandise) we enjoyed chatting with the gang during each event.  Pretty much without exception there would be the same small core group at each of these activities, but it did grow as the cruise progressed. Thankfully most everyone who participated was there for the fun, the chit chat...then the points.  Most days in the morning (unless the weather was bad) golf putting and shuffleboard up on deck 11 then just before tea golf putting and bean bag toss in Horizons. If the weather was bad or deck 11 was closed the golf putting would be moved to Horizons...just an fyi, there were never announcements saying so but it would be moved indoors.  Last year I gave up early in the cruise, I couldn’t take the competitiveness/seriousness of two couples who felt it their duty to monitor and commentate on everyone’s performance. This wear we did pretty well, earning over 170 points between the two of us! Enough for a nice hat, nylon jacket, an Umbrella, and a luggage tag!

a little more to come....

8 hours ago, gdlamberth said:

Could you get Gluten Free pasta in Toscana?  If so,  how was it?

That I can't answer.  

11 hours ago, sailco said:

Thanks for writing such a thoughtful review. We're taking our first cruise on Oceania in a few months and really have no idea what to expect but your pictures and words promise a great experience. Thank you.

Glad to do it.  Was everything "Perfection" no!  However the positives greatly outweighed any negatives.  Is Oceania for everyone, no.  I'm hoping you'll have a wonderful time and want to come back!

12 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Marian

Did they have more goodies on the sideboard or a table set up ?

 

If only the trolley  then yes that is a meager representation of  Tea from the past

No, nothing setup in the back of the room buffet style, or at the bar.  Here's a picture of the trolley from one afternoon.  There was another version of the trolley that had a different centerpiece cake at the top.  Other than that both versions of the trolley were identical.  

14 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Was this the first time you noticed the band in Horizons  after the show??

It is not something new 😉

 

On our two prior cruises on Insignia the band was only ever in Horizons a couple of times after the main show.  (I even double checked our old 'Currents' to ensure we weren't mistaken)

Entertainment.  Overall it was very good.  Although some complained about the lack of entertainment compared to the mass market lines this year on Insignia there were more evening options offered than on previous cruises.  Most evenings had a show at 9:30, the standard guest entertainers as well as some production shows. A huge improvement on this cruise was most evenings in Horizons the show band also offered live music at 10:30.  The quartet in the upper hall, and Constantine on the piano in Martinis were also very enjoyable. Was there nonstop entertainment? Not a chance! However what was offered was enough to break up the evening. Our cruise director was Carson, a former cast member, who put his own show on one evening.  I sat in the back that night expecting to leave but was impressed by his talent. He did nearly an hour of broadway songs (many lesser known tunes) and touched on his journey in life. In the end it was one of the more enjoyable shows I’ve seen. This was also the night of the crew tribute.  

Food.  Food, as expected on an Oceania ship was as fabulous as we remembered.  We took all our meals in the Terrace Cafe with the exceptions of our two allocated specialty reservations for Polo and Toscana.  I’m not sure if it was because of the large number of first time Oceania cruisers but the Terrace each evening was blissfully empty many nights.  Each morning I also enjoyed a couple cups of wonderful coffee in Baristas and some munchies before The Terrace Cafe opened for breakfast. It became a habit after doing my laps in the early AM I’d be the first person in Barista’s waiting for them to open at 6:30.  To hold us over between lunch and dinner we never missed afternoon tea in Horizons. We were both surprised at just how empty tea was most days. We both figured it was the large number of first timers to Oceania onboard that didn’t know how enjoyable afternoon tea is each day.  

Overall we found the food on offer in the Terrace Cafe to be of a high standard.  We particularly enjoyed the grill at lunch and dinner. Several days at lunch I enjoyed a freshly grilled steak.  In the evenings I enjoyed a small rib eye each evenings, also freshly grilled! DH enjoyed the lobster tails and shrimp that were available.  There were two Caribbean themed evenings for dinner during the cruise. One thing I will note, I often tried some of the new plant based entrees on offer, even as a carnivore I found many of them very enjoyable and creative.  Desserts were my favorite during lunch and dinner! I’d normally stop and look at the beautifully presented desserts even before deciding me entree. With only a few exceptions, the vast majority of the desserts tasted as good as they looked!  

more to come...

The bathrooms are still compact but have plenty of room for everything we wanted to store in there!  A Big improvement! We also LOVED having the always on nightlight. We didn’t need to use our little battery operated tea light.  There are now shelves behind the mirror, the side wall and under the sink. A big improvement over the old bathroom configuration.  The bathroom cups/glasses are now plastic, personally I like the change. Over the years I’ve dropped a glass or two by accident in the bathroom and appreciate should that happen again there won’t be shards of glass all over.  The new shower doors do make the bathroom feel much more modern, although I know I’m a minority here when I say this, we never had an issue with the curtain.

more to come...

Hello Everyone!

DH and I have just returned from a wonderful cruise onboard the beautiful Insignia.  This was truly one of our most enjoyable cruises.  From the smiling crew, the wonderful food, meeting and chatting with other guests, we enjoyed nearly every minute onboard!  Just a little background, this was our 4th Oceania cruise and 3rd onboard Insignia.  We first booked this cruise the day reservations opened and eagerly began planning our first cruise to Cuba.  Fast forward many months, sprinkle in some unneeded politics and Cuba was cancelled.  When we made the booking we always knew there was a chance the Cuba ban could be reinstated, we had hoped we’d sneak this cruise in but the travel gods had other plans and a new itinerary was announced.  Given how much we “needed” an Oceania cruise after a less than stellar experience on Viking Oceans earlier this year, and the newly reduced pricing we gladly kept our reservation.  From that point on we simply called this our “not Cuba cruise”  and didn’t care about the itinerary.  One port, Martinique, was new for us so we were excited to visit a new Caribbean port!  There were several times onboard in conversations with other guests the natural question of, “Any plans tomorrow in xx port?” would come up and I would sometimes say, “Nope, nothing planned, I honestly didn’t know we were going there tomorrow!”  It was a wonderful feeling of truly not caring about the itinerary!  The following ramblings are my thoughts/comments/ramblings in no particular order…

Boarding.  As expected boarding was painless at the compact terminal J in Miami. We dropped our luggage, paid for parking, and walked into the terminal. Check in began promptly at 11 and we were seated at our favorite table in The Terrace Cafe by 11:15.  Truly one of the fastest embarkations we have experienced. 

Cabin.  When we first made our reservation we were able to snag one of the last interiors, 7068, next to the laundry room.  I’ll address the laundry room first, we never heard anything from the laundry room.  I was curious if we would hear anything but whatever time of the day we were in the cabin there was never any added noise.  

This was our first time onboard one of the R ships after their “OceaniaNext” refurbishments.  We loved the old ship, we love the new ship even more!  The new cabins are bright and airy.  Here are some pictures of cabin 7068.  I post them here for future reference, after the dry dock I could only find photos of balcony cabins and some of an accessible interior, none of just a regularly configured interior.  The changes are great, they really brought new life to the dark decor that they had before.  I will point out one thing, on this cruise we easily brought twice the amount of luggage we brought on our cruise earlier this year on Viking Star and had no issues putting stuff away.  Our biggest complaint with the cabin on Viking Star was a lack of storage especially drawers.  Insignia has plenty of space!  One minor critique.  The big cabinet under the TV.  Remove the door and add another shelf.  As it is configured today it is a wasted opportunity for more easily accessible storage.  Next to the beds on both sides are 1 USB ports and a Euro style 220volt plug for charging phones and devices.  
 

more to come...

testing again 

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IMG_1961.HEIC Nassau.HEIC

6 hours ago, ricka47 said:

We just completed an 11-night cruise on the Insignia in a B-1 cabin (6062).  To me, our experience can be summed up as civilized yet comfortable for my wife and I who are in our late 60s. There were few lines anywhere, no stress, and it's not "stuffy" in any way.  The food is mostly very good (better than the specialty restaurants on the mainstream lines) and the crew is great. 

 

Fellow passengers seemed somewhat friendlier than we've seen on other lines.  The smaller size of the ship may have played a role here.  Also, unlike other lines, there seemed to be no competition to see how well the drink package could be used each day.

Celebrity's Aqua Class had been our favorite way to cruise until this sailing.  However, the food in the GDR on Insignia was consistently better than what is found in Blu and certainly much better than in the MDR on Celebrity or HAL.

 

The entertainment was better than we expected as we've become a bit bored with the "singers and dancers" production shows on the mainstream lines.  But, on this cruise, the show band was very good (which is usually always the case) and the singers and dancers were talented and engaging as were the other guest performers.

The Insignia was the smallest ship that we had ever sailed (the Empress of the Seas at about 48,000 tons was the smallest previously) but that was a non-issue as everything that we needed was there.  I joked to my brother that it's like a real cruise ship only smaller.   She was in great shape and it was extremely easy to get from one place to another.  Forgetting something in your cabin did not require a major trip despite the teeny tiny elevators (whose idea was that?) on the Insignia.

 

Our cabin was small but nicely designed and, while the bathroom was indeed the smallest that we have ever seen on a ship, it caused us no problems at all.  I'm 6'1" and 185 pounds and the shower was tight but OK.

Two other things (besides the tiny elevators) had us scratching our heads although they are very far from deal breakers as we're already booking our next O cruise:

1.) RCI can have us aboard the Oasis class ships as early as 1030 and cabins available by 1300.  On O it is much later for both.  (5400 vs 650 passengers - go figure!)

2.) When coming back from the ship on a hot island there was no tent, chairs, drinks, or iced towels.

Thank you for your review, I was on the same sailing and hope to have my own posted in the next couple of days.  Overall we enjoyed ourselves and did not want to leave the ship yesterday!  

Testing photo uplod

16 hours ago, Classiccruiser777 said:

Fewer announcements 

If you think Oceania makes too many announcements don’t ever go on the mass market lines (Carnival, Royal, Princess, etc...). There are cruise directors on some of those ships who read the entire daily schedule line by as the day progresses!  

Oceania is nearly silent (to me anyway!)

On 8/24/2019 at 6:10 PM, Paulchili said:

You must not be a croissant person because they ARE excellent - almost “Paris” grade 😀

You read my mind, that’s exactly what I was just thinking! 

On 8/14/2019 at 12:11 PM, ORV said:

Everything I was looking at starts at about $1000 a day per couple for an inside with Olife and air. My Nov cruise is 1/2 that and my Sept cruise is $750 a day per couple. 

I was shocked to see the current price of a cruise we did last summer is now $100 less than double what we paid!  

4 hours ago, Corby114 said:

Some cab drivers won’t be happy about the short ride between terminals but a nice tip helps the process go smoothly.

Just a tip... make sure both you and your luggage are in the cab before you tell them you only want to go to another terminal.  It is my understanding once you are in the cab they can’t refuse to give you a ride.  

Enjoy your cruises!  Back to back on different cruise lines can be a lot of fun, it is nice to experience two different products one after the other!  

Thank you for taking us along on this amazing journey!  I looked forward to reading everyone's updates each morning.  Hopefully one day I'll be able to take such an adventure!

Most importantly, CONGRATS to the happy couple!!!!

19 hours ago, pingpong1 said:

will also have "no problem" whatsoever paying the reasonable corkage fee for these personal bottles to enjoy with meals.

Although we rarely drink anymore I had no issue with paying the $25.  I thought it was a very reasonable fee to enjoy a bottle of wine that I knew I'd like!  I've always appreciated the way Oceania treats us like adults with their liquor policy!  

On 7/3/2019 at 2:11 PM, lellenm said:

Has anyone done a b2b where they changed cruise lines?  I am looking at booking Oceania Sirena out of FL in Feb 2020 and then MSC the day we get off the Oceania.

 

Is this even possible?

 

Thanks  Linda

It absolutely is possible, we've done b2b on different ships multiple times.  The easiest have been in Port Everglades when both ships have been docked across from one another and all it took was a little larger tip than normal to have the porter push our luggage across the street.  In Miami you'll most likely need a cab to switch from Sirena too MSC.  Oceania generally uses the smaller terminal J on the southern side of Dodge Island whereas MSC uses their new terminal on the north side.  

Just a tip, if you are using a cab make sure you luggage and you are in the cab before you tell them you only want to go to another terminal.  They can't refuse you once you are in their cab!

Enjoy your cruises!