Alternate restaurant reservation policy on Marina

[LuAnn]

Lets put things in perspective:

 

Would you rather be living in Somalia/Haiti or limited to one reservation in each restaurant!!

 

Lets see the glass as half full, not half empty, be happy we can be on a cruise ship and have a good bed and good food.

 

for helping put this in perspective for us!! LuAnn

[raffeer]

Lets put things in perspective:

 

Would you rather be living in Somalia/Haiti or limited to one reservation in each restaurant!!

 

Lets see the glass as half full, not half empty, be happy we can be on a cruise ship and have a good bed and good food.

 

This could have applied as well to free shuttles. Would you rather be living in Somalia or Burkina Fasso where your child would walk two or three miles to school each day or be limited to making your own way into a town on a cruise stop!!

[Jancruz]

JanCruz

 

"Thank you for your confirmation regarding PH cabins, and the number of reservations allowed for PH cabins.

 

My next question would be - Will the Marina allow PH cabins to have in room dining from the specialty restaraunts? I dont think we can assume the answer is yes.

 

Jancruz, is it possible for you to find out the policy on in room dining on the Marina for the PH Cabins? (Or tell me who to contact for written information regarding this matter? )"

 

Answer I was waiting for:

Guests in Marina’s Owner’s, Vista, Oceania and Penthouse suites may order room service from any of the ship’s restaurants: Polo Grill, Toscana, Jacques, Red Ginger or the Grand Dining Room. All courses must be from the same restaurant, they will be served course-by-course and guests may enjoy this en suite dining as often during the cruise as they’d like.

 

Jancruz1

[Cookie1]

Jancruz

 

Thank you for the information! I appreciate it :>)

 

(of course, I have since found a brochure specifically on the Marina as someone prior mentioned one on this thread, and it states that under services for the PH cabin exactly as you outlined it, and it does not specify the number of dining reservations for any of the cabin types, just says ' priority restaurant reservations' -so forgive my conjectures:o)

[wripro]

Jancruz,

 

Thanks again for the info re: insuite room service from the alternate restaurants. This will be very welcome in case I ever get sick while onboard. However, in a healthy state I still prefer to eat in the restaurants themselves.

 

To those who continue to insist that we are getting the same four reservations on Marina as we do on the R ships I can only say I completely disagree. There are now four main alternate restaurants (excluding Prive and Reserve) We are now only guaranteed to experience each once whereas on the R ships we are guaranteed to experience each twice. And I do not consider this to be part of getting a new ship up and running. This should have been thought about and pre planned in the initial stages of design. They knew exactly how many PHs there would be, exactly how many seats available in each alternate restaurant so they should have calculated how to continue the same policy as on the R ships. It's part of the consistency of quality in a cruise line. And if they knew from the start it would be different it should have been PROMINENTLY stated on the website. I do not agree either that I should have been the one to assume things would be different on Marina. By that logic am I also to assume that service may not be as good on a larger ship as the smaller ones?

 

Everyone has his own reasons for booking a specific cruise or cruise line. Mine include specialty dining which I love on Oceania. I will be on for 19 days and was hoping to get eight nights in alternate restaurants included with my PH. It's one of the main reasons I booked the PH. Sorry if people find that wrong but it's how I feel.

[gillianrose]

Thanks Jan, I got similar information yesterday, but no one mentioned that all courses have to be from the same specialty restaurant. That definitely makes sense, though. (I don't even have a suite, anyway, but I think people should get what they have paid for, and I agree with wripro.)

[lovetocruise16]

We totally agree with you. The specialty restaurants are just that..."special," and we also looked forward to having two reservations in each on this cruise. Eating in the stateroom may be nice once or twice, but we enjoy the ambience of the specialty restaurants. We understood that the PH suites and higher got two in EACH specialty restaurant. Are the Oceania, Vista, and Owners Suites now going to join us in one reservation apiece? Please do not tell us that they get two apiece and we do not.

[A Knitter]

We totally agree with you. The specialty restaurants are just that..."special," and we also looked forward to having two reservations in each on this cruise. Eating in the stateroom may be nice once or twice, but we enjoy the ambience of the specialty restaurants. We understood that the PH suites and higher got two in EACH specialty restaurant. Are the Oceania, Vista, and Owners Suites now going to join us in one reservation apiece? Please do not tell us that they get two apiece and we do not.

 

 

It was my understanding in one of the earlier posts that they do get 2 reservations in each, but then again, they are paying a much higher premium for their cabin.

[ShopperfiendTO]

We totally agree with you. The specialty restaurants are just that..."special," and we also looked forward to having two reservations in each on this cruise. Eating in the stateroom may be nice once or twice, but we enjoy the ambience of the specialty restaurants. We understood that the PH suites and higher got two in EACH specialty restaurant. Are the Oceania, Vista, and Owners Suites now going to join us in one reservation apiece? Please do not tell us that they get two apiece and we do not.

 

The more than one hundred concierge balcony cabins would be saying the same thing.

 

It seems the difference between the penthouse and concierge class cabins is NOT the reservations but the larger space and the availability of a butler.

[CintiPam]

Well, at the level of cabin category I book for the port-intensive cruises we take, I absolutely have no dog in this fight.

 

I only post now because for perhaps the first time on this forum, I find that I am in agreement with BruinSteve on something of importance to others, rather than grinding my teeth at the length of his posts to get to his nuggets of truth, so I simply had to memorialize that for posterity!:)

 

I hasten to add that, yes, Steve, I enjoy your posts as well, but I do often complain just a teeny bit when I read them.

[Paulchili]

I only post now because for perhaps the first time on this forum, I find that I am in agreement with BruinSteve on something of importance to others, rather than grinding my teeth at the length of his posts to get to his nuggets of truth, so I simply had to memorialize that for posterity!:)

 

.

 

I, on the other hand, find myself disagreeing with three of my favorite posters (Steve, Don and CintiPam). Not because of vested interest but more out of principle.

Without a clearly stated policy by Oceania for the Marina dining reservations, how was one to assume what the policy would be. Why should one have to assume and guess? What might seem reasonable to one person is not reasonable to another.

The only thing that existed in writing was the dining room system in place for the R ships. Until Oceania management said that this no longer holds true (a few days ago), it was reasonable to assume that it was still in place. No lesser authority than Jan believed that to be the case as well (IIRC, that was even after her inquiry on this subject with her Oceania contacts).

Never mind the logistics of how many cabins they can actually accommodate, how often, blah, blah, blah, blah. That job falls to the management and not to the customer. Someone even gets paid for it ;).

They had plenty of time (months and months) and never thought of stipulating a policy regarding this matter. Fortunately for them, they did not forget to set the cabin pricing structure, however.

I love Oceania, I very much enjoy the posts by Steve, Don and CintiPam, but I had to get this off my chest. This time I am with wripro.

Now, I am done with this issue and I can't wait for my 3 Marina cruises. No, I am not cancelling :)

BTW, should I bring any food from home, just in case we won't get fed enough? :D

[CintiPam]

Well, at the level of cabin category I book for the port-intensive cruises we take, I absolutely have no dog in this fight.

 

I only post now because for perhaps the first time on this forum, I find that I am in agreement with BruinSteve on something of importance to others, rather than grinding my teeth at the length of his posts to get to his nuggets of truth, so I simply had to memorialize that for posterity!:)

 

I hasten to add that, yes, Steve, I enjoy your posts as well, but I do often complain just a teeny bit when I read them.

 

Upon further consideration, I apologize in advance for any insult one might read into my late-night attempt at some humorous mocking of a fellow attorney. Remember, all attorneys are known for verbosity because we often are paid by the hour!:D

[CintiPam]

Now, I am done with this issue and I can't wait for my 3 Marina cruises. No, I am not cancelling :)

BTW, should I bring any food from home, just in case we won't get fed enough? :D

 

Three! Wow! Need a personal maid/valet to assist you on any of those trips?:p

 

Well, I will continue to bring my granola bars with me because I still travel with the museum fiend who often will not stop for lunch. (Have I posted here ever about eating one on the steps in front of the Temple of Hephaestus in the Agora in Athens on our first cruise because that man simply would not exit the area at lunchtime?) With trying to squeeze three days of itinerary into a two-day stop in St. Petersburg next June, I know I certainly will need to have some with me.:)

[Paulchili]

Need a personal maid/valet to assist you on any of those trips?:p

 

Sure, but can I afford your hourly rates? :D

[hondorner]

I'm going to try this one last time. I'll try to keep it simple. I don't promise it will be short. This discussion is regarding Concierge and Penthouse guests.

 

Scenario 1: Build Marina with the same two restaurants as the R ships. Keep the restaurants the same size as the R ships. Double the number of passengers. The only way you can accommodate all the passengers is to cut the number of reservations in half, one in each restaurant (a total of two). This is necessary because you can't squeeze twice as many people into the same space.

 

Scenario 2: Build Marina with the same two restaurants as the R ships, but also double the size of the restaurants. Now, it's possible to offer the same number of reservations as the R ships, 2 in each restaurant (a total of four). If this were the case, the policy would be exactly the same as the R ships.

 

If you wanted to double the number of reservations as well as double the number of passengers, you would have to make each of the two restaurants 4 times larger.

 

Scenario 3: Build Marina with four restaurants, in the same space as would be used in Scenario 2. This gives double the number of seats as the R ships, which is exactly enough to offer the same number of reservations in Scenario 2, which is four total, However, since there are now four restaurants, those four reservations have to be spread out over all four, which means one visit each.

 

The only way to accommodate both a doubling of the number of passengers AND and doubling of the number of reservations is to not only double the number of restaurants, but double the size of all the restaurants. Marina is larger, but not that much larger.

 

In summary, if the number of restaurants is doubled and each is approximately the same size as those on the R ships, you have doubled the number of available seats. If you then double the number of passengers, you have filled all those seats with the same four reservations as the R ships.

 

If you then double the reservations as well, you have gone beyond the total capacity of the four restaurants. It just can't work.

 

Nothing is lost. On the R ships, you have a total for four reservations split between 2 restaurants. On Marina, you still have a total of four reservations, but now they are spread among four restaurants.

 

The number of passengers has approximately doubled, the size of the ship is approximately double, and the number of restaurants has doubled. All is in balance as long as the total number of specialty reservations does not change.

 

In actual fact, the number of passengers have actually increased by about 84%, not 100%. And the size of the ship is slightly more than double, at 65,000 tons instead of 30,000 tons. Based on that, and a little research with the deck plans, I think the actual total number of specialty restaurant seats has slightly more than doubled. Instead of 360 total seats (double the 180 on the R ships), I think the total seats in the four restaurants is closer to 430, or about 70 extra seats.

 

There are approximately 550 passengers in categories B and below. They have been granted a total of four reservations on Marina, an increase of two, or approximately 1100 extra visits. That has used up the extra room I speculate is available. There are approximately 650 passengers in Concierge and Penthouse cabins. Granting them the increase desired by a few on this thread would result in a demand for 2600 more visits (4 x 650). In fairness, if you are going to grant 2 visits to each restaurant (a total of 8), you have to grant it to everyone who has that privilege on the R ships, which includes concierge (categories A1 through A4). There just aren't enough seats to handle that number.

 

Finally, for those people who say they upgraded all the way to a penthouse to get what they erroneously assumed were double the number of reservations (8 instead of 4), I can't help wondering why they went so far. Based on the R ship policies, Concierge cabins get the same number of reservations as Penthouse cabins; if that number of reservations was the sole reason for upgrading, it would have been fine to stop at the concierge level. In other words, there had to be other reasons beyond the restaurant reservations to go all the way to penthouse instead of A4.

[Paulchili]

Don,

I'll make it even simpler (and shorter).

You know all this and I know all this - why didn't Oceania know all this?

And if they did, why didn't they bother telling everyone else in that very large and expensive brochure about Marina (or on the website)?

And yes, I would be upset if I had paid for a PH and got that same number of specialty restaurants reservations as an inside cabin.

Now I am really putting all this behind me.

[hondorner]

...why didn't they bother telling us in that very large and expensive brochure about Marina (or on the website)?

Where in that shiny brochure, or on the website regarding Marina, did they ever say anything about the dining reservations, one way or the other?

 

Oceania is a small company. Marina is Frank Del Rio's dream. Almost all the planning, engineering, decor, purchasing, etc., was carried out by 4 or 5 people. There is a team of professional naval architects, of course, but they create blueprints; they don't set policy.

 

My educated guess is that the reservation policy was not officially announced earlier because it had just not been set. Also, it was obvious to me that a policy that applies to two restaurants (the one quoted from the web site) would not apply to four restaurants. Perhaps the Oceania folks also understood that, and never considered that anyone would assume otherwise.

 

I am pretty sure that the question was not raised previously on Cruise Critic by any of the folks who made those assumptions, or I would have answered, then. My answer would have been, "Do not make any assumptions about Marina based on the current policies. They apply to the current ships. When the decisions have been made and policies have been set, they will be announced at that time." That is exactly what happened -- the policies were announced a few days ago, in time for most of the passengers to make their advance reservations, if any.

 

It probably never occurred to management that some people would make their expensive decision on a cabin for the sole purpose of getting some extra reservations in the alternative restaurants. That's like saying that the extra space, the extra furniture, the extra comfort, the extra balcony space, the fact that the cabin can be divided between sleeping and living room if one likes to stay up later than the other, the butler and all the other amenities, are essentially worthless.

[dino2067]

Cut and paste from the Oceania website FAQ (including the grammatical errors) which by the way, does not differentiate between Marina, Insignia, Regatta or Nautica as to the question:

 

Q: Is there a fee associated with the specialty restaurants?A: We do not charge an additional fee should you wish to dine in one of our specialty restaurants. Concierge and above staterooms and suites and guaranteed a minimum of two dining experiences in each restaurant. Guests in other staterooms are guaranteed one dining experience in each restaurant.

 

So yes, there is a reasonable expectation here based upon Oceania's own FAQ, website, documentation, etc., etc.

[hondorner]

Cut and paste from the Oceania website FAQ (including the grammatical errors) which by the way, does not differentiate between Marina, Insignia, Regatta or Nautica as to the question...

Marina is a different ship, and at the time that policy was written in the FAQ's, did not exist outside the shipyard. The FAQ's, therefore, never applied to Marina. The very fact that Marina was not mentioned in the FAQ's, when there were already so many announced differences, indicates that they did not apply to Marina. Anyone who made the assumption that the policies that applied to ships with 684 passengers and two alternative restaurants would apply exactly to a ship with 1258 passengers and four alternative restaurants did so at their own peril, and should not be upset with anyone else but themselves.

[dino2067]

Marina is a different ship, and at the time that policy was written in the FAQ's, did not exist outside the shipyard. The FAQ's, therefore, never applied to Marina. The very fact that Marina was not mentioned in the FAQ's, when there were already so many announced differences, indicates that they did not apply to Marina. Anyone who made the assumption that the policies that applied to ships with 684 passengers and two alternative restaurants would apply exactly to a ship with 1258 passengers and four alternative restaurants did so at their own peril, and should not be upset with anyone else but themselves.

 

You can't have it both ways...

 

There is no differentiation made...period. There is no separate FAQ for Marina...period. Will there be? Possibly, but until such time, this is what is on their website.

[Druke I]

I have no dog in this fight - but enough already!

[LHT28]

Remember, all attorneys are known for verbosity because we often are paid by the hour!:D

 

AHHH that is the real reason for the dissertation length posts :D:D

 

Lyn

[TKS]

I have no dog in this fight - but enough already!

 

I guess I do have a dog in this fight, since I'm booked into a PH and have made final payment. But I agree with Druke I.

 

Maybe it's time this thread was closed, because it seems to be getting more contentious by the day.

[KirkNC]

Wow, with 172 posts this thread is approaching a formal dress or smoking thread status. Obviously some feel very passionate about their reservations.

 

Kirk

[wripro]

There is another scenario, Don. Charge LESS for the PHs because they are giving you less. And please don't tell me I am getting the same four reservations I had on the R ships. If there were four alternate restaurants on the R ships I'd be getting eight reservations.

 

I have no intention of canceling my cruise either but I certainly will not make another reservation until I see how this plays out. Frankly, I am a bit concerned now that I see they are playing fast and loose with their previous policies about how other aspects of the O product will be maintained on the larger ship. I hope they have given more forethought to service in general than they have given to this dining situation. Otherwise we will be sailing on a beautiful ship that does not live up to the Oceania reputation.