quiltingdiva

Dear quiltingdiva, I know that you are booked on our cruise in February, please do not cancel! I assure you that my husband and I are very outgoing and extremely friendly people. We are looking forward to meeting you and your husband on our upcoming cruise. My girlfriend and my sister just came off of an Oceania Cruise and founf the passengers to be very enjoyable.

I agree with you that I have thought the same thing regarding a lot of the postings on this particular cruise critic board. Rather than just answering questions, it seems to me that the followers of Oceania can be both rude, and short with their answers. If someone ask a question that has been posted before, rather than just answering it they very quickly point out that it can be searched. Most of us know about the search engine, however it does not seem to come up with very good information. I have to say I have tried to research things on here with very little results. Having always been in businesses dealing with people, I do find that you get a lot farther with honey than with vinegar.

I would say the same goes for anything posted on these boards. My attitude is try to be helpful, and give good suggestions. Obviously a great suggestion would be to tell the maître d' of problems in the dining room at the time it happens, not complain on a board later on. If it was really truly that bad I doubt you would be a repeat passenger, especially at the upscale prices.

We go on cruises to relax and have a great time. If it takes an extra hour to get through the meal, we weren't trying to get anywhere quickly to begin with, so no real problem! Remember we are on vacation, what else could be better, than that?

Please don't cancel!!!

 

 

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I feel bad about writing again-hijacking the thread more than one time makes me worry I'm really out of line. But thank you for posting and we are definitely going! After my husband pointed out how few of us are actually on this board compared to total number of cruisers, I saw reason! And y'all sound great-we are definitely looking forward to meeting you!

thanks again,

I have never said that I have not had bad service in the past as I have !! I realized that if you have had a complaint in the past as I did on my last cruise that all complaints are logged and when I returned this time.

 

The Maitre 'D knew as soon as I entered the restaurant that I had complained on my last cruise that the food was cold, he came to the table to tell be that my food would be piping hot !!

 

So if you have to wait along time make a strong complaint and you will not have problem in future.

 

My last words on this subject is that the 7 points complained about by the instigator of this thread are completely pathetic.

 

God forbid she had a paper towel in her soup that I was served on my cruise last December !!!

Newbie to Oceania here, but certainly not to cruising or fine dining. I have to say...that while issues important to OP may not be as important to you as...say...a paper towel in your soup (yikes!), they are nevertheless important! They are just facts relating to her dining experience. As a newbie, I appreciate all the info. I like knowing that I should check my oysters Rockefeller before I take a bite to see if there's a real oyster in there somewhere! I'm JK, mostly.:D

To be perfectly honest, I don't know if it's just the last few days of posts or something strange, like y'all don't have a moderator anymore?, but can ANYBODY play nice on this board? I just keep reading over and over snippy comments from so many frequent posters.

Yesterday I actually thought about cancelling our O cruise and going back to Celebrity over what I read on virtually every thread until DH reminded me that very few passengers are on CC. :eek:

I was really looking forward to meeting fellow passengers, but I will proceed with caution thru any Meet and Greet.

I've never used the ignore button-didn't even know it existed! I'm actually considering it now. And no, I don't need sanitized, Oooooh isn't Oceania just the BEST, posts. Just the quick deterioration into snippy sarcasm is what's finally getting to me.

Thank you for reading this,

There are others who may be new to Oceania who might be interested in hearing people's thoughts and opinions.

 

If your not interested, then why post at all - why not just skip this post instead of posting something negative.

 

 

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Newbie to Oceania here. Looking forward to reading reviews and seeing pics. I suppose, however, that asking if people want a review instead of just posting one anyway is asking for...a little dissension maybe?

Hello all,

Brand new to the Oceania board. DH and I have sailed on Celebrity several times and are trying a 7 day this coming February on Oceania. Any and all reviews are MUCH appreciated! I know it's your opinion, but still, I love reading reviews, and if they include food photos...yum!

Thank you,

Hello all,

I have checked everywhere I can think of (jazz cruises, "lifestyle cruises", etc.) and I can't find anything that says the Summit February 18, 2017 cruise out of Fort Lauderdale is chartered. I finally called Celebrity (which we all know is such a definitive source of info...) and they don't think that this particular sailing is chartered, either.

There is much confusion here. Roll call is pretty empty and conflict on charter status there, too.

My question: anybody know if this cruise is chartered? If not, does anyone know a place I can check?

TIA,

Well, I vehemently disagree with the first sentiment. Why exactly do people NEED to be in touch instantaneously these days? Nothing in the world has changed except for our ability to be reachable.

 

The philosophy that you end your post with is where I wish everyone would start from: you really have no control over what's going on and only a really dire emergency is going to get you off the boat. In my experience, being in touch 24/7 causes more stress than it relieves.

 

For the OP, I'd heavily reconsider the suggestion that you use email to stay in touch with routine check-ins because you'll ultimately get much more peace of mind with that since you won't have to worry whether or not you're getting charged international roaming rates for this stuff.

I basically agree with you, but today's families are different than when DH and I had young children. Young families have cameras in nurseries, day-care cameras, constant texting with schools, websites with grades posted every day, etc. They are used to constant contact. I think they need it for peace of mind.

I think young families have a much harder time than DH and I did raising kids. We knew where the kids were by walking outside and seeing which house had a bunch of bicycles on the lawn! Now the kids text mom. It's just a different world!

While on Summit in May we were told she is to go for refurb in January. I only hope they get rid of Qsine. Hate that one. LOVE Silk Harvest and Tuscan but, that being said, the one on Silhouette was terrible. First bad experience we've had in many, many years.

 

Maybe we'll also get a "hint" about the new-builds????? Hope so.

 

We sail Summit in June and Eclipse in April so here's hoping.

 

Pat C

We sail on Summit Feb. 13, 2016. Was hoping she went into refurb before, but I don't think so- looks like she has sailings all thru Jan.

Check out Arno's new ship itinerary thread. He has all the sailings for all the ships in easy to read tables. Fantastic!

Thanks,

Just off Reflection Med. cruise with 5 days in Rome pre-cruise. I purchased the $60 ATT plan before we left for my iPhone 6. For $60, I had one month of international free texting, and 300 mB of downloads. For $120, you get free texting and 800 mB of downloads. We talked to the ATT people at the store for a LONG time about the plan, and there was no mention of a cruise-ship plan. Thank you Cle-guy for the info!

We had free wi-if in the apartment we rented in Rome. We also found free wi-fi at cafes and restaurants and I checked my email, voicemail, etc. DH unplugged for the trip because he lives on the phone. Best thing he ever did!

On the ship, we had to have the wi-fi via the ship wireless system in order for anything to work. Sigh. So I signed up for the 240 minute plan for $109. You MUST remember to put your device in airplane mode each time you are finished or the minutes will get chewed up very quickly. Ask me how I know!

Guest services was very kind and reimbursed me for the minutes I accidentally used because I fell asleep reading my iPad, instead of putting it in airplane mode. Talked to the guy in the ilab or whatever it's called. He reimbursed me for the whole plan and I bought the unlimited for $159 since it was halfway thru the cruise and they were running a special. A very kind thing for them to do, considering how I oinked thru my minutes so fast!

My advice:

1) definitely call Verizon, ask about the plan cle-guy uses.

2) get unlimited. It's peace of mind, and worth it. In this day and age, our family needs to contact us. We need to contact them. And hey, you can send pics of all the fun you are having just to annoy the whole fam!

On the other hand, we were with folks who had no ship wi-fi but they found free wi-fi whenever we left the ship. Usually in a cafe-just buy a coffee and check the email, send pics to the kids and friends, etc. BUT that's not the same if you need to contact the fam fast.

Another philosophy:

We have very dear older friends who have cruised for many years. They also used to occasionally watch the grandkids so Mom and Dad could get away. Their philosophy was:we will not tell you if little one breaks an arm or whatever, because there is nothing you can do about it. Just go, enjoy and we will see you soon.

Lots of food for thought!

HTH,

Hello all,

Just off a Reflection Med. cruise. Before we left, we printed our Gold status from the M life website. We have not been to Vegas in years, nor do we gamble very much on cruises ($20 here and there on the slots). We have Gold status because my husband has a United airlines presidents club credit card-not sure of the exact name. Anyway, one of the perks is Gold status with M life.

Of course I forgot to bring the print-out, but we had our M-life numbers. I asked to speak to the casino host and she very nicely went to the back, checked something, (I have no idea), and came out with an envelope. The envelope contained a letter with perks as follows:

One specialty dinner

Waived 5% fee on withdrawals

5 drink coupons at casino bar

Increased point accumulation when playing (can't remember bonus %)

Just letting you know the perks and that they can be available even if you don't gamble at MGM very often.

HTH,

DH and I will embark our first Celebrity cruise on the Reflection in late November. We booked a Sky Suite for this cruise, and have been left wondering: Literature says our butler will escort us on board. However, we note that Sky Suites do not enjoy some of the privileges that the higher levels of suites enjoy. Hence, are we entitled to priority embarkation, and will our butler actually escort us onboard, or will we get ourselves on board? Thanks in advance for the answers.

Hi,

Just off the Reflection Med. cruise. We were in a sky suite, but no, there was no butler escort. I think the butlers only escort guests for the higher level suites-CS and above.

HTH,

Love seeing a "picture" of where all the ships are located. Helps with future planning. Please continue!

Hi Momofmeg,

I have struggled with my weight all my life. I am also pre-diabetic. I can really understand wanting to eat in Blu, but Blu is definitely not the answer. All kinds of hidden calories and sugar in that food, too!

Eat in the MDR. Ask for what you need. Sauces on the side. Grilled steak, chicken, etc. not eat the bread basket-if you don't start, you won't miss it. Trust me. I broke that rule last cruise and gained 10 pounds! Eat in the AquaSpa cafe for lunch. Try the MDR for breakfast but it's hard to turn down that darn pastry. Ocean view is much better. Egg cooked to order, half a grapefruit, and one slice toast. No problem.

Clearly this is your opinion. Posting it repeatedly doesn't make it true. I really wish you would stop posting your opinion as fact.

 

My kids love Celebrity and rank it as their favourite. That doesn't make the best line for all kids.

Well said Queen. I wish there were a like button!

I agree that terrorism is striking cities all over the world, but that doesn't make the risks of future attacks equal. The UK foreign office recently changed the advice to UK nationals. It now advises against all but essential travel to Tunisia. This is not because of the two attacks on tourists or the fact that, in the attack in the Souse resort, 30 British nationals were killed and others injured. The advice was changed after British Officials, including senior security personal, met with their counterparts in Tunisia and assessed their procedures and protocols. Finding them seriously lacking, including poor intelligence and a lack of clear procedures for dealing with any evidence of risk. The risks of successful future attacks were, consequently, considered too high. Other cities (New York, Boston, London, Paris etc) have been badly struck by terrorism, but their security, including what they have learned and changed as a result of their experiences, is much better. Our Governments, and presumably Cruise companies, balance the benefits of travel against the risks. The evaluation of risk includes a constalation of factors.

 

For me, irrespective of Government advise, I am not happy to travel to a country with a porous border to either Libya or Syria. So Turkey and Tunisia are out for me. Lets face it, if these countries were good at security, those borders would not be porous! Its a terrible shame, especially for the good people of those countries who rely on tourism for their livelyhood, but there are other places to visit. We get get blown-up in some other places too, but the chances are less.

Thank you. Finally, a reasonable, well-thought out, wise approach to the whole matter. Would that we could all be so well-behaved!

Istanbul is safer than London and most U.S. cities. The only reason Celebrity is skipping it is the paranoia in the U.S. created by the media. This is providing an excellent opportunity to save massively on fuel cost by skipping the long track to Istanbul. Abysmal.

I can honestly say that DH and I are not paranoid and we don't listen to the mainstream US media unless it's about the weather. We are on the 9/21 Reflection sailing and we have not been notified on a change. Celebrity has certainly not made mention of "skipping" because of our "paranoia." And by the way, we are U.S. citizens. There are lots of folks just like us over here.

If you are from the U.S., perhaps you are listening to a lot of the mainstream media? If you are not, may I respectfully suggest that you might ask some of us what we think before making such an assumption?

I am on the Oct 12 Reflection cruise and have been watching for changes.

 

I do not see any itinerary changes in the X website for either the Sept 21 or the Oct 12 cruise yet.

 

Has anyone on the Sept 21 cruise been officially notified of a change yet?

I'm on the 9/21 cruise. I haven't heard anything yet, and no one on our roll call has indicated that they've been notified.

Hi Hal,

We are on the 9/21 Eastern Med. cruise. I don't see you on our Roll Call but I would definitely like to know which cruise you are on so we can find out if this announcement applies to us.

I am so sorry that you are missing Istanbul. Were you also going to

Kusadasi? And if so, are you still going or has that also been replaced?

Thank you,

I think you would know if you were using private browsing. I turn mine on every time I open Safari. If private browsing is turned on your computer does not save information about websites visited and personal information entered on websites. Also, maybe check and make sure that your computer accepts cookies. I think that maybe Celebrity's website likes to leave cookies on your computer (something that private browsing prevents). Maybe try resetting safari (I do this several times a day to delete any history, cookies, empty cache, etc. that may be on my computer) and then try registering again.

Computer accepts cookies. Check.

Private browsing off. I think it's off because I have lots of saved info,

Resetting Safari. ?? I don't want to delete the app...not sure what resetting means on an iPad.

Clear cache, history. Check.

Still get that pesky "page not found" at the end of reg.

Thank you for your help. I'm hoping Celebrity sees this and fixes it!

I don't even know what private browsing is! A little help, if you don't mind?

Thank you,

I realize this is waaaaay down the list of things to be concerned about today, but I need some help from the experts.

No matter what I do, I can't register for the Connections Party for our Sept. 21st cruise. I have tried everything I can think of:

Tried 3 different browsers, IE, Chrome, and Safari

Called Celebrity, they wouldn't talk to me because we are with a TA.

Called TA. They called Celebrity. Nothing to do with them. Hmm....

Read the FAQ's in the main page here. Nothing helpful there.

Wrote to the help desk. Received an auto reply.

Any ideas? By the way, I can't seem to register for our Feb, 2016 party, either.

The error occurs at the end of registration with a "page not found" message.

Normally I wouldn't care, but I offered to organize the slot pull. I gotta be there! And yes, I know that somebody from our Roll Call who has been successful in registering can call my cabin with the info. I just wanna register...

Thanks for any help you can give me,

Not TRUE CAJUN food. Seasoning to enhance the flavor but not to over power it.

 

All these knock off "Cajun" restaurants just ruin the reputation of true Cajun cooking.

 

They should keep the Bistro as is.

Thank you for saying this about food from Louisiana. My daddy's side is all from NOLA and we don't make food spicy just to say it's spicy. It is about the flavor, not the heat. If there's a little heat, well...some things were mean to be a little bit hot! Most of the time, tho, those who want to go spicy (like my DH) have the Tabasco bottle handy.

And I agree. Haven't found a decent restaurant outside of LA that does it right. It's all about the bread, cher!

First time posting although I have sailed 3 cruises all on Carnival. Very excited to be doing a Celebrity cruise for 7 nights in Caribbean on the Reflection.

 

I have to decide this week whether to go with a fabulous resident rate of $549 for an interior or an equally fabulous rate for a veranda on the Reflection of $749 (same as oceanview) both with NO PERKS as it can't be combined OR $899 for the veranda WITH a perk (would choose beverage package).

 

I had hoped that the balcony could be had for $749 with one perk but alas no...I've never had a balcony before. BUT spending $700 more just to get the veranda with a perk makes no sense.

 

Price does matter and there's no way we would be spending $700 on alcohol to make up the difference. Advice?

This is how I figure out the best price, with all the crazy options cruise lines offer:

First, I use a per person (pp) per day, charge. I find that's the best way to compare.

I also calculate what I call the REAL cost, which means I take into account the benefits, like free gratuities, free drinks, etc. before I calculate the pp per day cost.

Here we go:

Interior cabin:$549.

549/7= $78.43 pp pd

Reflection veranda: $749.

749/7= $107 pp pd

Veranda with beverage pkg: $899 -(49 x 7) = 556.

556/7 = 79.42 pp pd

The way I look at it, you get a veranda with free drinks for an extra $0.99 pp pd. that's a no brainier for me!

HTH,

Don't worry too much about hurricane season. I've spent most of my adult life on the gulf coast and hurricanes are a reality and something to be considered, always. That's the bad news. Here's the good news:

1) hurricane season starts on June 1 and ends December 1. That doesn't mean we can't have hurricanes at other times, it's just very unlikely. Your cruise is at a lower time of year for storms to develop.

2) cruise ships are very good at avoiding hurricanes. They would stay out at sea or go to an alternate island and dock before coming into P.R. in the middle of a storm.

3) planes do not take off into storms, so you wouldn't even get to P.R. if there were a storm hitting the island.

Is it 100% sure there won't be a hurricane? Nope, but you're probably ok. We sailed out of port canaveral in October of 2013 and had absolutely gorgeous weather for a week. So go! Enjoy!

HTH,

Just have a glance at any tipping thread and read what's said about us UK and aussie cruises.

Yikes!

Sue

Sue,

You make a very good point-I've read those threads. They're awful and I apologize for my fellow countrymen. I guess we're all stupid, all over the world! More travel should make us more tolerant. Let's go book a cruise!

Ok, I promise not to hijack this thread. Silence.

Thank you,

"I requested A and got B" in my experience always means there are two sides to the story. A facial and a peel are very different. Why didn't the (first post!) Op say something immediately after the treatment started? Amazing to read the "attorney" replies; I guess that's the American way...

I keep reading posts filled with everything from slight rudeness (like this) to outright hatred toward Americans, and I'm getting tired of it. Yes, I don't have to read anything on these boards, but that is not the answer. You don't need to offer that solution to me. If I even DARED to consider writing something like, "I guess that's the way they do things in The Netherlands, Australia, UK, Canada, etc." I would be, at the very least, verbally chastised.

Sorry to hijack the thread. But you already did, with the American comment, didn't you? So let's just wait and see what happened to the OP, shall we?

Thank you,