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Disappointing response from Oceania re: website failure


ptiprof
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We are looking forward to our first Oceania cruise this October after many years of cruising on everything from mass market to luxury. Like others who posted on another thread, we have been unable to access our booking online at all despite clearing cookies/data and entering the data manually as a new booking. Our TA spent some time on the phone with Oceania, and received the disappointing reply that the website is being "updated," and because our cruise is a back to back, the website will not be available to us, perhaps for several months. Our only option is to call Oceania directly for anything we need.

 

Entering profile information has to be slowly and laboriously done by phone. I figured out that I can do a shore excursion search but only through a workaround, starting a pretend booking for each leg and then calling Oceania to book. The big issue is specialty restaurant reservations. I understand that many people go online to book the minute that reservations become available, and with a Concierge cabin, we would have some priority. Since I doubt that Oceania reps are available 24/7, we would have to wait and possibly lose the early hour dining time we like.

 

This is the problem; here is my question. If Oceania knew they were going to update the website in this way, why were those on affected back to back cruises not given any advance warning? We could have easily entered our profile info and had the option of making excursion decisions and spa reservations early. We could also have communicated our specialty restaurant wishes and ask that they be requested at our earliest possible window.

 

I am interested if anyone else received any information from Oceania that is different from what I was told. There is probably nothing I can do except deal with the inconvenience (there are worse things and we are cruising), and if I can't get my dining reservations, I can protest to the powers that be, but for a first Oceania experience, this leaves an unfortunate impression.

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just curious

 

When you log into MY ACCOUNT can you see your profile or the Guest Registration form or is that part of the problem ?

 

 

If you want to book Spa appts in advance you can call Canyon ranch AFAIK there is no way to book them online

 

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/experience/wellness/canyon-ranch-spa/

 

 

You could ask your TA for a PDF file of the excursions it will save some of the hassle of going through pretend booking scenario

 

 

Usually there will be opening for specialties even in the morning

Give your TA the dates & times & ask them to call early on the day your time opens up

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We too are booked on a back to back in November and the pdf of available excursions printed out at 49 pages long. Once we decide our options, we then have to call Oceania to book them for us. Doesn’t seem to be a productive use of an agents time. This will be our 29th cruise and I am irritated by Oceania response when I called to enquirer as to why and went it was expected to be fixed. She did say I could send email to webmaster@oceaniacruises but have yet to get a response from that direction. As I understand it, this “issue” only applies to a back to back cruise. We can’t even load the cruise under my booked cruises. If they don’t want us taking a back to back, they shouldn’t have sold it. We leave this Friday for a back to back and I will try to get the executive concierge to book our excursions through Miami since he/she has direct telephone line to head office.

 

 

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Sounds like O employs the same web people as Celebrity! We booked our February cruise way early and were unable to access the reservation until about two months out. Website was always being "improved and updated". Others on roll call had the same problem but some could access their reservations.

This is very frustrating and I am not sure why cruise lines tolerate such incompetent web designers. They actually lose $$$ when passengers have months to find private tours rather than booking theirs.

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Odd, do you have separate booking numbers? I've done B2B's GV and single voyages and never had these issues. Perhaps it's an enhancement from the way it's worked in the past.

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This has been an ongoing issue since they introduced a single booking number for a B2B cruise (non GVs). Has been an issue for over a year.

It’s too bad, though, they removed the capability of managing your B2B cruise from your account all together, even though the code was disfunctional regarding the second leg.

 

They could have left the existing code in place until the new code was ready. At least with the previous code in place, you could manage the first leg as well as any applicable check-in procedures. But, what’s done is done.

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The Oceania website has always been a coding mess. Instead of scrapping it and designing a newly coded one from scratch they have put patch upon patch to the original and, as will always happen when this is done even if the "old" bugs are patched inevitably new ones emerge.

The "new" restaurant bookings pages seemed better than the old ones, but have introduced several different issues. I found I could only book one less than the allowed number in Toscana yet kept being told (a) that I had one to go and (b) that I was already at the limit!

Mike Moore used to monitor this site and was receptive to comments (mmoore@prestigecruiseholdings.com) but he hasn't been around recently.

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The "new" restaurant bookings pages seemed better than the old ones, but have introduced several different issues. I found I could only book one less than the allowed number in Toscana yet kept being told (a) that I had one to go and (b) that I was already at the limit!

Mike Moore used to monitor this site and was receptive to comments (mmoore@prestigecruiseholdings.com) but he hasn't been around recently.

 

I don’t know if this applies to your situation but I found that on longer cruises one has to “spread” their reservations over the entire cruise. For example, you can book 1/2 of allowed reservations (one in each restaurant) in the first 7-10 days and the rest later on. This was the case on our 19 day cruise.

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I don’t know if this applies to your situation but I found that on longer cruises one has to “spread” their reservations over the entire cruise. For example, you can book 1/2 of allowed reservations (one in each restaurant) in the first 7-10 days and the rest later on. This was the case on our 19 day cruise.

 

We are only doing the one sector (Long story - we had booked the SOU - SOU - Stockholm originally, cancelled it all due medical issues then later rebooked the SOU - SOU while on Insignia!) The booking site seems to get confused when everyone's on it trying to get 1830 bookings and comes up with conflicting error messages at the same time.

 

Now we have one short of the "correct" number (won't allow the remaining one) and.... confirmations of all the correct ones PLUS one more by email!!

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Now we have one short of the "correct" number (won't allow the remaining one) and.... confirmations of all the correct ones PLUS one more by email!!

baby_reading_menu.jpg

This sounds very much like you're trying to reserve too many nights in Toscana. How many have you reserved in Polo?

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Thank you all for your replies. My TA has spent a great deal of time trying to work this out with Oceania. Bottom line—Oceania sold back to back cruises with one booking number, and made those cruises inaccessible online without warning. I will be inconvenienced and I will have to plead my case if I am unable to get the specialty restaurant times I want due to lack of access. Not the best introduction to a cruise line that is new to us, but I’m thinking positively about the voyage.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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Thank you all for your replies. My TA has spent a great deal of time trying to work this out with Oceania. Bottom line—Oceania sold back to back cruises with one booking number, and made those cruises inaccessible online without warning. I will be inconvenienced and I will have to plead my case if I am unable to get the specialty restaurant times I want due to lack of access. Not the best introduction to a cruise line that is new to us, but I’m thinking positively about the voyage.

You'll be fine. We cruise in a Concierge cabin as well and the only time we have an issue getting a 6:30 table for 2 on the first eligible booking day is for sea days. Since PH and above get to book 15 days before we do, they usually fill them up unless we get lucky. That's just the way it is, whether you're able to book online at 12:01 am (EDT) or have to call the O representative in the morning. But don't let this bump in the road get you down. Oceania is a great cruise line and you're going to love your time onboard!!

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Thank you all for your replies. My TA has spent a great deal of time trying to work this out with Oceania. Bottom line—Oceania sold back to back cruises with one booking number, and made those cruises inaccessible online without warning. I will be inconvenienced and I will have to plead my case if I am unable to get the specialty restaurant times I want due to lack of access. Not the best introduction to a cruise line that is new to us, but I’m thinking positively about the voyage.

 

 

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even with online access you may not always get the dates & times you want

best to just call on Oceania on the day your reservations open up & see what you can get

 

Once onboard you can always ask for more preferably times if yours are not suitable

 

JMO

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