Thank you for such a detailed, honest review. I agree with almost everything you posted. I was on the first 2 sailings of Vista and have also cruised on other Oceania ships. I had high expectations. Some were met, but others weren’t. I also agree 100% with the person who noted that satisfaction is generally dependent on your past experiences. It’s always hard with a new ship because there is an expectation that everything will be perfect, which is almost impossible to achieve.
I second all of your comments re: the culinary experience. I would also add that the dramatic Toscana and Red Ginger productions re: olive oil and chopsticks seem dated. Once you’ve heard that speech, you don’t need to hear it every time you dine there.
I have recently learned that Oceania lost a lot of its culinary leadership, including the most senior person, to the new Explora cruise line. This might explain why things have slipped.
The food quality is still way above most cruise food, but when you advertise “the finest cuisine at sea”, people expect everything to be excellent.
Regarding technology, it amazes me that Oceania is always talking about their environmental efforts yet they kill multiple trees every day with all of the paper flyers, daily programs, reservation cards, “newspapers”, etc, that they leave on your bed. They should have an app that contains all of this info and there should be an option at embarkation to opt out of all of the paper. I have mentioned this in numerous post-cruise reviews and they continue to say that their target guest does not want an app. But this doesn’t make sense to me. Their target guest probably also didn’t want Vero water or many other changes they have made yet that did not stop them from introducing those items.