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Live from the Marina ... Sorrento, Italy

flydc

By flydc,
in Oceania Cruises

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flydc

flydc

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So this is my first Oceania cruise after 2 Azamaras... Not impressed.

 

Today there was almost an all out riot onboard when it took over 2 hours to disembark in Sorrento. They had four tenders and did their best to explain that they just aren't set up for everyone to get off in a timely manner.

 

We anchored at noon today and it seemed everyone wanted to get off quickly. No surprise. Although it was a surprise to the crew. Several people who booked private tours, etc were just out of luck as they were 2 hours late.

 

They shouldn't advertise arriving at noon if you can't get there until 2pm .... just sayin'. They should have you sign up for a time, first come first served, or however - but have it more organized. Would have preferred to spend our sunny day by the pool instead of in the Marina lounge waiting endlessly for our color to be called for our tender ticket. They should advertise 12 noon for those booking Oceania excursions and 2pm for everyone else.

 

Our next 2 ports (Amalfi and Corfu) are tendered ports - so we'll see how it goes. Not too hopeful ...

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TERRIER1

TERRIER1

Posted
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So this is my first Oceania cruise after 2 Azamaras... Not impressed.

 

Today there was almost an all out riot onboard when it took over 2 hours to disembark in Sorrento. They had four tenders and did their best to explain that they just aren't set up for everyone to get off in a timely manner.

 

We anchored at noon today and it seemed everyone wanted to get off quickly. No surprise. Although it was a surprise to the crew. Several people who booked private tours, etc were just out of luck as they were 2 hours late.

 

They shouldn't advertise arriving at noon if you can't get there until 2pm .... just sayin'. They should have you sign up for a time, first come first served, or however - but have it more organized. Would have preferred to spend our sunny day by the pool instead of in the Marina lounge waiting endlessly for our color to be called for our tender ticket. They should advertise 12 noon for those booking Oceania excursions and 2pm for everyone else.

 

Our next 2 ports (Amalfi and Corfu) are tendered ports - so we'll see how it goes. Not too hopeful ...

 

Did O give a reason for the delay? What time did you have to be back on the ship? Sorry to hear about the disoranization.

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LHT28 Holiday Sharing Rare

LHT28

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Each tender can hold approximately 150. If my math is correct, all the passengers on the ship should have been delivered on shore in about one hour ... unless the anchored location was fairly far out.

 

In an emergency they use the full capacity otherwise I believe to count is 100

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flydc

flydc

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We anchored right on time. Four tenders in the water right on time.

 

It was just complete mismanagement and poor planning by the O staff to get people off in a timely manner. They sent the O booked tours first (understandable) but heard that they didn't fill up those tenders with others.

 

"Independent" guests were told to get a colored ticket in the lounge and then wait for their color to be called. There was no posting of order of colors, etc so nobody knew when they would go. They also made you turn in your ticket if you left the lounge (even knowing that some colors wouldn't be called for almost 2 hours).

 

The only explanation was that they were "doing their best" and understood everyone was mad and that they wished they could do more. I feel bad for the 'destinations' staff who hand out the tickets, etc. This is clearly the responsibility of the Hotel Director, Cruise Director, etc - who of course were nowhere to be found.

 

Anchor up at 11:59pm - so as long as you didn't mind missing dinner aboard, there was plenty of time in town. We did both Capri and Sorrento - with a nice dinner on our own in Sorrento. No wait or hassle to get back on the tender at 8:45pm.

 

This wasn't our first time here - so we weren't as disappointed as others who were seeing this area for the first time. Also heard from many who booked private tour guides of their disappointment as the tour ended at the original time even though they started 2 hours late. (Not the guide's fault - clearly O's fault!)

 

This morning in Amalfi seems a bit better - but we haven't even tried for a tender ticket yet. We anchored at 8am. Tours all off by 9am. It's now 9:30am - so I'm hopeful by 10am we can just walk on a tender.

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pacheco18

pacheco18

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FYI

 

Sending out the O tours first is NOT "understandable." The cruise line should not penalize folks who choose to tour independently. This occurred on one cruise I was on -- where the Destinations director tried to do this -- I complained loudly -- never happened again. It is NOT O's poiicy.

 

If you are meeting a private guide and have to be off the ship to meet him or her at a certain time you DO NOT have to wait for all the O tours to get tendered off. Speak to someone about it. I have done this many times. They try to let all their tour folks off first BUT IT IS NOT THE OFFICIAL O POLICY.

 

Curious - who is the CD on your cruise. IMO the CD is responsible for the chaos and poor communication.

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JVNYC

JVNYC

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David Shermet is currently the CD on Marina. We are not fans. We had him for our last 2 cruises: Marina in Sept and Riviera in May. We find David quite phony. His TV segments are almost robotic. I don't see a genuineness in this CD. I'm not surpirsed that he was not around for this situation. I saw David in the gym more than I saw him around the ship. I'm really hoping we can have a taste of a new CD on our Riviera cruise in July, 2014. P

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Floridiana

Floridiana

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I have had 'disaster events' like this on the Riviera, the MS Veendam and on the Grand Princess. In all three cases, I had booked ship's excursions.

 

It seems that the 'destination' and 'getting off' staff is not up to the task of proper organization and timely communication whenever an unusual clitch of some sort occurs, be it local authorities late (Belize), sudden fog (St. Vincent), no shuttle busses in a commerical part of the port (Barbados), not enough tenders for whatever reason (Panama).

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hypercafe

hypercafe

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People with Oceania Tours do not have to get off first but because they got them from Oceania, Oceania has to make sure they get off in time to make the tour or refund the money. IMHO the tour starts in the lounge waiting for the tender, if you book your owne the tour starts on the pier. You really pay a lot extra for the Oceania tour so you should get something for it. You can always take the ship tour if you are worried.

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cbb

cbb

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We have sailed with O many times (although not in the last year, but that's not through any fault of theirs!) and we have NEVER had to wait to board a tender until all tours are taken care of.

 

We are often the first ones in the lounge, declare ourselves independent, and are the first to be tendered sharing it with the first tour group.

 

I arrive at least 1/2 hour before tickets are handed out for first tour, Mr Wonderful is about 15 minutes later and stands in the back of the lounge. I receive our tickets assuring them that my party is here and we are usually first on the tender!

 

Has this all changed in one year?

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Paulchili

Paulchili

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We have sailed with O many times (although not in the last year, but that's not through any fault of theirs!) and we have NEVER had to wait to board a tender until all tours are taken care of.

 

We are often the first ones in the lounge, declare ourselves independent, and are the first to be tendered sharing it with the first tour group.

 

I arrive at least 1/2 hour before tickets are handed out for first tour, Mr Wonderful is about 15 minutes later and stands in the back of the lounge. I receive our tickets assuring them that my party is here and we are usually first on the tender!

 

Has this all changed in one year?

 

In fact, it's not all that unusual to send a tender with independents first sometimes - depending on the tour schedules.

Early bird gets the worm :)

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Travelcat2

Travelcat2

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Just wondering what is wrong with "first come - first served". Passengers know when their tours are scheduled for...... why wait in the theater for bus tickets? On some other cruise lines, you take the tender and meet up with the tour guide(s) on shore. They check you off of their list and you get on the bus (or boat or whatever). When the bus/boat is full, they leave. This allows independent travelers as well as those with Oceania tours to board the tender in the order they arrived in the line. The current system complicates things (IMHO).

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hypercafe

hypercafe

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Just wondering what is wrong with "first come - first served". Passengers know when their tours are scheduled for...... why wait in the theater for bus tickets? On some other cruise lines, you take the tender and meet up with the tour guide(s) on shore. They check you off of their list and you get on the bus (or boat or whatever). When the bus/boat is full, they leave. This allows independent travelers as well as those with Oceania tours to board the tender in the order they arrived in the line. The current system complicates things (IMHO).

 

 

The way it works is if you have a Oceania Tour in a tender port you get a tour ticket with a time to meet in the lounge. In the lounge you change the ticket for a numbered tender ticket. When the number is called you all leave for the tour. If you are independent you get a colored tender ticket upon arriving in the lounge.

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TERRIER1

TERRIER1

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We had a real fiasco two cruises ago. Total mismanagement and it was a mob scene trying to disembark. We were able to get off the ship and meet up with our independent tour but others missed the tour since they were sent back to their cabins and told to wait to be called for disembarkation. O never called the independents only their tours. To add salt to the wound, O allowed their tours to come back later then the scheduled sail time to make up the time lost but the independents had to race back to the ship to be on time. O must have gotten major complaints (correctly so) since the next day all the independents were allowed off first. Don't get me wrong, there are times when the situation is out of control of Oceania but there are also times when the situation is caused by O.

 

On our cruise to French Polynesia this past April (which was basically all tendering) O kept open about 10% of each tender for independent. They actually announced this. You have to go up and get a ticket but tell them you had to get off to meet your guide. I believe this strategy was a result of some incidents from the prior cruise where they had issues with tours vs independents. We actually made sure everyone in our party was in the lounge and then one person went up and picked up all the tender tickets.

 

We find the tenders on the Marina and Riviera less efficient than on the R ships. Perhaps it is due to their design complicated by the number of people on the O ships vs the R ships.

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pacheco18

pacheco18

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The official policy is definitely NOT to preclude independents from getting off until all O shore excursion participants get off the ship.

 

BUT a rogue Destinations manager once tried to do that -- you just have to speak up when you feel you are being treated unfairly. Apparently several cruises have seen problems -- this is a great issue for comment cards.

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LHT28 Holiday Sharing Rare

LHT28

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We had a real fiasco two cruises ago. Total mismanagement and it was a mob scene trying to disembark. We were able to get off the ship and meet up with our independent tour but others missed the tour since they were sent back to their cabins and told to wait to be called for disembarkation. O never called the independents only their tours.

 

Odd that they would send people to the cabins to wait

I never hear the announcements in the cabin unless they are emergency ones

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