ak1004

I think we can all agree that transparency and communication are NOT the areas O is strong in..

Can you please explain how they reduce costs by cancelling ports? They surely lose huge revenues from the port excursions (at least $50k per port according to my conservative estimates), where do they gain? As for "never again" - on our Regatta cruise last September, we met a group of ladies who booked two cruises on the first day, but cancelled them a few days later after Mexico was cancelled due to Hurricane. Not sure if they expected the captain to take the ship into the hurricane.. but the fact remains.

No it's not speculative at all. Most people travel for destinations, and we met a lot of guests on our last few cruises who said "never again" after cancelled ports. Cruise lines are well aware that cancelling ports will cause a lot of lost business.

I'm not a TA or Oceania employee. If you look at my signature, you can see that we sailed on 11 different lines, so I'm also not a loyalist or a cheerleader. We had ports cancelled with SS, Azamara and Crystal, as well as with other lines. Some lines are more transparent, some are less. Some give you compensation, some don't. Some reasons look reasonable, some don't. On our last SS cruise we had 3 days on Doha cancelled, then one day in Bahrein. Some guests described it as "bait and switch". The reason given was completely far fetched. Maybe it was valid, maybe they had a different reason but didn't want to share it. It doesn't really matter. Port cancellations are always disappointing, but I will repeat one more time: it's not the cruise lines interest to cancel ports. My assumption is that they have more facts than we do and wouldn't cancel if they absolutely didn't have to. Your assumption is that they lie, cover up and have some hidden agenda and do it on purpose. We will continue sailing with O, SS and Azamara (Crystal is just doesn't make sense at this point financially) because we love all those lines and love the on board experience.

You keep repeating the same speculations over and over and presenting them as facts - but the only fact is that they are just speculations. You have no proof when they made a decision. You have no proof who made the decision. You have no proof that they lied. But yes, they know more than we do. Cruise lines don't just cancel ports for no reason because they don’t want unhappy guests and they don't want to lose revenues from shore excursions (at least $150k in this case). So all your so called facts are not facts - they are just your interpretation of the events.

Yes, this was the reason they provided. I agree. This was a singe example, not necessarily representative. Before sailing on SS, I asked on CC what's the difference between O and SS. One of the members responded that on lines like SS, they will prepare for you anything as long as they have the ingredients on board. And if they don't, they will try to get it in the next port. It's possible that there were no pomegranates in this region at this season. I'm pretty sure that if they had pomegranates on board, they would prepare the fresh juice. On Oceania we asked to have cherry jubilee. The MDR manager had no idea what I'm talking about, but she wrote the request and said they will get back to me. A few hours later, a message in my cabin saying that my request has been approved. We asked for it in the morning, got it for dinner. It was never part of the menu. My point is that while O is considered by many a “nay-sayers line” and SS a “never-say-no line.”, in many cases they might be closer than people think.

Fresh pomegranate juice.

Some people suggest that O belongs to “nay-sayers lines” and SS belongs to “never-say-no lines.” Our experience was the opposite. On our last O cruise every single request was filled, including 2 special requests for food at dinner and breakfast. SS was pretty close, but still one request was denied.

To me, Regent is not in the play at this point. Every time I looked, they were at least 20-30% more expensive than SS or SB (yes, even when accounting for all inclusions). Just cannot justify the cost.

Regent is 3.7 and Celebrity is 4.1. Does it make Celebrity better than Regent? Viking is 4.6. Does it make it the best cruise line?

On our SS cruise, one of the restaurants was fully booked. On our first day we asked the butler to get us a reservation. His answer was "Yes, of course". For the next 5 days, nothing happened. On the sixth day we visited the restaurant personally and were able to get a reservation for the same day. I'm not sure what's better - to say "yes of course" and let you wait, or to say "see the Maitre 'D for that".

@Hanoj I couldn't agree more. I can tell you from our experience that small ships lines like Oceania, Azamara, Silversea etc. have more in common than people think. They all provide an upscale experience which in my opinion is in a different league from mainstream lines like Celebrity/HAL. We never had a bad experience on any of the small ships (Oceania, Silversea, Crystal and Azamara). We base our decisions on itinerary and price and would gladly sail on any of the small ships, given the right itinerary and price. We focus mostly on the ship experience (service, food etc) and less on management and communication issues. We accept cancelled ports as the main risk of cruising and try not to take it too personally, and yes, while having some doubts, we try to give the cruise line the benefit of the doubt. This applies not only to Oceania.

This sounds very familiar.. we had butler twice: once on our Regatta cruise when we booked a PH, and once on SS where every cabin has a butler. Both times we hardly used them. We were told that "you have to ask for things. If you don't ask, they don't know". But what if I don't know what to ask? Aren't they supposed to offer things and anticipate our needs? Well, not in our case. The only thing we asked the butler to do is bring us snacks every evening. That's it. 90% of the other tasks can be performed by the cabin attendant or the concierge. One of our requests was having ice too, and I'm happy to report that we never had an issue, our cabin attendant always re filled our ice bucket. We concluded that butler is nice when included, but we definitely wouldn't pay extra to have one. The only reason we booked a PH on the Regatta was because the standard cabins are small and the showers and really tiny. Otherwise I'm perfectly fine with OV on the Riviera. So don't feel bad about not utilizing a butler.. you are not alone.

Not to mention that you can combine both! We always fly a few days earlier and stay in the embarkation port for a few nights. Land plus sea vacation is the best of both worlds!

This is all just speculation. The reason given on board was that there is a potential for strikes at those dates since there were strikes on other dates. I admit, this didn't really make sense to me. It still doesn't. But my assumption is, once again, that they had more information that we do. The decision was made based on facts and information they had in real time. Hindsight is always 20/20. Ports are not just being cancelled. Just think about all the angry guests, not to mention lost revenues. Maybe they cancelled a week ahead, but I don't believe so. Why? We had a private excursion in Lisbon booked via Viator. We were charged on May 23th, 2 days before the scheduled visit. If O cancelled a week before, I'm sure the tour operator would know about it and wouldn't charge us. In any case, it doesn't really matter. You cannot say that the ports were cancelled with no reason. There was a reason, you just don't agree with it. Did they tell us the whole story? Probably not. It's annoying, but it is what it is. We had a similar situation on our last cruise on SS when I'm pretty sure they didn't tell us the whole story. So O is not unique, but overall I agree that they need to improve their communication.

As I mentioned, I don't believe any cruise line would cancel ports for no reason. They gave the reason, you just didn't agree with it. And yes, I asked the same questions, and yes, I still have my doubts. But I have to assume that they see the big picture and have a better information than me. And you still didn't answer the most basic question: why would they cancel two ports if there was not reason to do it?

It was 8 ports originally, so still 5 ports left, with added an extra day in Cadiz. Hardly "cruise to nowhere". People keep saying "missed for no reason", but this was not the case. Instead of being upset and keep complaining, we adapted and made the best of it. Still had a fantastic cruise.

Personally I could never understand the obsession with "officers visibility".. I come to a cruise to see the world, not to socialize with the officers.. maybe they just don't want to hear constant complaints from people who are never happy.

Same deposit as booking a specific cruise. We just did it last month.

It is also worth to mention that if you don't know which cruise to book, or waiting for new itineraries to be released, you can get a future cruise certificate with the exact same conditions (the OBC might be a bit smaller, the rest is the same). It's valid for 1 years (have to book within 1 year, not to sail). We got this certificate while on board and will be suing it when 2025 itineraries come out. Our friends did the same.

Maybe. But those are pretty popular ports that are probably fully booked well in advance. And it would be a significant deviation, especially Casablanca.

I think there are not too many options in this area once you eliminate Portugal. The only option I can see is Gibraltar. they did stay one extra day in Cadiz.

Oceania doesn't do it. Again, it's important to set expectations. Some lines do certain things that other lines don't. We had a backstage tour of the theater on Princess, it was phenomenal. But I believe most premium/luxury lines don't do those things.

I disagree. She just described a potential alternative. btw, I'm 100% sure about the exact wording. It could be "how would you respond", or "the risk was", or something similar. I don't think the exact wording really matters, what matters is the reason she provided behind the decision, which was a concern of being stuck in Lisbon and lose the rest of the cruise.

I actually had a pretty long conversation with the concierge about this. I presented her with the days of our ports visits which were in between the announced strikes. Her response was that they had information that the strikes might be announced on "a moment's whim" and not in accordance with the announced dates . Then she asked "how would you respond if we were stuck in Lisbon for the rest of the cruise"? Was she lying? I have no idea and I don't want to speculate.