Is Oceania Cutting Back on the Shipboard Experience?

[CintiPam]

Just returned from our 10-day Istanbul to Barcelona cruise. While we very much enjoyed the entire cruise, the shipboard experience on the whole and the lovely weather at all the fabulous ports, there were several instances of changes that appeared to be cutbacks from our January experience on the same ship. Some examples:

 

There was no evening lounge show on three of the 10 days of our cruise, with a movie night offered instead on two of those nights and only one Horizons performance show the entire trip.

 

No berries at all on offer at breakfast about 1/3 of the time. When I asked, I was told that the ship had not been reprovisioned in Istanbul and would not be reprovisioned until day 8 in Livorno.

 

No afternoon trivia for four days on the cruise.

 

No band playing ever on the pool deck, even during our one sea day.

 

Obnoxious pianist Constantine who was superior to all of us.

 

An enrichment lecturer who prepared her presentations as if we did not know even the first thing about the country we were visiting, including its location in the world. The subject of each lecture was an overview of each country suitable for a grade school audience: Turkey, Greece, Italy, France. Number of inhabitants, miles of coastline, etc. Little mention of the particular part of the country we were visiting. She must have canned these lectures years ago. I gave up after the second snoozefest.

Edited June 6, 2014 by CintiPam

[Paulchili]

Pam,

I am sorry to read about your disappointing experiences on the Riviera.

It gives me pause for some thought and concern as this is the second such (or similar) report from people whose opinion I value and whom I consider as reasonable posters here. The other thread was some months ago from Lyn (LHT28).

Paul

[LHT28]

An enrichment lecturer who prepared her presentations as if we did not know even the first thing about the country we were visiting, including its location in the world. The subject of each lecture was an overview of each country suitable for a grade school audience: Turkey, Greece, Italy, France. Number of inhabitants, miles of coastline, etc. Little mention of the particular part of the country we were visiting. She must have canned these lectures years ago. I gave up after the second snoozefest.

 

Was she the same person on the January cruise?

I did not see her lectures but she sat near us in the sofa area on disembarkation morning chatting with some others ...she sounded just as you described

 

I do not recall having shows in Horizons, karaoke or games maybe

[LHT28]

Pam,

I am sorry to read about your disappointing experiences on the Riviera.

It gives me pause for some thought and concern as this is the second such (or similar) report from people whose opinion I value and whom I consider as reasonable posters here. The other thread was some months ago from Lyn (LHT28).

Paul

 

HMMMM

Maybe the writing was on the wall back then

[jgiblin]

We were on the May 6, Lima to New York City Marina cruise. There were no flowers decorating the public rooms on the ship. The empty vase at the bottom of the grand staircase looked particularly ridiculous. It struck me as odd that the Oceania bean counters were successful in making such an obvious, low budget, economy.

 

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[CintiPam]

Was she the same person on the January cruise?

I did not see her lectures but she sat near us in the sofa area on disembarkation morning chatting with some others ...she sounded just as you described

 

I do not recall having shows in Horizons, karaoke or games maybe

 

The January lecturer was fantastic compared to this retired professor. The January lady was a storyteller while this lady was a reciter of facts that you would find in your encyclopaedia.

 

In January several of the young performers had late evening shows in Horizons and there also were some early solo shows in the lounges; not this time!

[CintiPam]

Pam,

I am sorry to read about your disappointing experiences on the Riviera.

Paul

 

These were relatively minor issues on an otherwise fantastic cruise but I found them curious when compared to our experience on the same ship only a few months earlier.

[LHT28]

The January lecturer was fantastic compared to this retired professor. The January lady was a storyteller while this lady was a reciter of facts that you would find in your encyclopaedia.

 

In January several of the young performers had late evening shows in Horizons and there also were some early solo shows in the lounges; not this time!

 

Ok I found her conversation with the others very scripted ..she was reciting facts that you could look up ..she was talking about Grand Cayman & I remember the fact were the same as I had done for my project for my travel course ...back in my other life ;)

 

AHH Yes they did have some early shows in Horizons ..usually missed them due to the timing

[pinotlover]

I have often wondered with the current cost of fuel, personnel costs, overhead, etc., how long will the R ships, as presented by O, be doable. Perhaps we're seeing the start of the decline. Which brings us around to O adding another larger vessel to the fleet.

 

I believe in the next 5 years a huge shakeout of the cruise industry will occur. In fact, it's already under way. What we see today in ships and cruises will probably not exist in 5 years. A friend just started a NCL cruise and his only email back says the ship is maybe 3/8ths sold out. Almost as many crew as passengers. Not sustainable. Even O is throwing everything except the kitchen sink at potential customers to get them to sign up for cruises this summer.

 

Things, they are a changing!

[pacheco18]

I have often wondered with the current cost of fuel, personnel costs, overhead, etc., how long will the R ships, as presented by O, be doable. Perhaps we're seeing the start of the decline. Which brings us around to O adding another larger vessel to the fleet.

 

 

 

I believe in the next 5 years a huge shakeout of the cruise industry will occur. In fact, it's already under way. What we see today in ships and cruises will probably not exist in 5 years. A friend just started a NCL cruise and his only email back says the ship is maybe 3/8ths sold out. Almost as many crew as passengers. Not sustainable. Even O is throwing everything except the kitchen sink at potential customers to get them to sign up for cruises this summer.

 

 

 

Things, they are a changing!

 

 

Not sure I understand your source for this information -- assuming u have one. One empty cruise ship is not a trend. Have you counted the number of new builds coming out? Regent, Viking oceans, Rccl , ncl. Do u think Oceania would have spent 50 million to refurbish "unsustainable " ships ?

 

The kitchen sink is being thrown at passengers as a result of political issues in Russia.

 

 

If u have some real authority for your statement please share

 

 

 

 

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[waterbug123]

I believe in the next 5 years a huge shakeout of the cruise industry will occur. In fact, it's already under way. What we see today in ships and cruises will probably not exist in 5 years. A friend just started a NCL cruise and his only email back says the ship is maybe 3/8ths sold out. Almost as many crew as passengers. Not sustainable.

 

What itinerary is your friend on? A Baltic cruise by chance? Seems odd, since nearly every cruise we go on with Royal and Celebrity it is announced (for the benefit of those looking for upgrades) at check in that the ship is sold out. And with all the new builds? I think what you are seeing is an anomaly, not an indicator of the industry as a whole.

[PaulMCO]

Have always found many of the lecturers poorly prepared and many times I would know more than the lecturer.

 

The last Riviera cruise we had an expert on Alaska natives giving a talk on Greek history!! I think he got on the wrong ship :D

[Solar Yellow]

Pam, I thought the exact thing! The cruise was fantastic and I didn't really care about the entertainment as that's not my thing but I did go to one of her lectures and I left after a few minutes thinking I could do a quick scan of Wikipedia and get the same information. I thought it was just me because I later overheard people talking about how great she was.:eek:

 

The only gripes I had with the cruise were with the security team. I understand they have a serious job, but why can't they smile or say something friendly? I'd much rather have a sincere "welcome back" than that silly clapping and singing upon our return from our day in port on one day.

 

The main complaint I had occured upon our return to the tender in Amalfi 10 minutes before the last one of the day and being forced to wait a half hour for people that were late returning from their excursion. The tender could have gone to the ship and back to shore at least three or four times but we were forced to wait while the captain's party started. The service is so good otherwise, I was very shocked at the security team's disregard. We complained and were told sorry but the security team doesn't focus on customer service.

[LHT28]

The only gripes I had with the cruise were with the security team. I understand they have a serious job, but why can't they smile or say something friendly?

 

Gosh we always have had a friendly smile & a welcome back from the security people One guy we had would always say Hello MISS LYNDA on my return & I would address him by name also

 

Maybe by the end of the day after 1200 people passing by they ran out of smiles :D

[Solar Yellow]

Gosh we always have had a friendly smile & a welcome back from the security people One guy we had would always say Hello MISS LYNDA on my return & I would address him by name also

 

Maybe by the end of the day after 1200 people passing by they ran out of smiles :D

 

I don't think that was it. Didn't seem to matter if we were coming or going. I specifically remember four or five members of the security team gathered at the bottom of the gangplank talking amongst themselves and not acknowledging a single member of our tour group returning to the ship.

[alexspepa]

regarding berries at breakfast - we were on the cruise before yours and we had delicious blackberries and raspberries every day - in fact the fruit choices were fantastic.

 

i think maybe i ate all your berries.

[LEESRE]

Must say I agree with most of the comments, but we did have two shows in Horizons, one the lead female singer, American I think and the other the male singer. Both were scheduled for 1030pm but did not start on time.

 

Yes we asked about the "berries" and were told they had not been delivered in Istanbul, strange when we were there for two days.??

 

Did notice no fresh flowers and the orchids, at the bottom of the stair well, only there for two days at the start of the cruise.

 

We were also very disappointed in the temperature of the food, we constantly asked for HOT food but only got warm to even cold food.

One night my wife had a plate that was so hot that the waiter burnt his fingers but when my food arrived the plate was so cold that it could have come out of the fridge. Not even asked if everything was OK till half way through the meal, then asked if they could fetch something else, No was the reply it was too late by then.

 

Also noted that there was fewer wine waiters, even in the Speciality restaurants, we frequently had had the starter before we were asked if we wanted wine.

 

We felt that standards had started to slip a little from our previous cruises, which is such a shame as we love Oceania.

[Travelcat2]

Isn't it possible that they did not have fresh berries in Istanbul? I remember one cruise (Regent) when the cucumbers at two port stops were not up to their standards so we have no cucumbers for a few days. They flew some in for us -- it must have cost a pretty penny.

 

Constantine used to play on Regent and was very nice. Maybe he was not in a good mood (not a good excuse but possible I guess). We are still looking forward to sailing on the Riviera again -- with or without berries and flowers.

[Mura]

We're on Marina right now (docking in Dover in the morning) and I can't say I've noticed everything you have. Totally missed whether we have flowers or not, but we are in a suite and this is the first time we didn't have flowers in our room. OTOH, the butler changes out the fruit daily rather than weekly.

 

We don't do Trivia or the shows in general, but Trivia seems to have been twice daily as usual. It is true that a couple of shows were eliminated in favor of movies. We've had excellent lecturers on this cruise, including Verne Lundquist who was very entertaining talking about his experiences in sports EVEN for non sports fans. I only heard wonderful comments about the music lecturer who talked on opera and more popular music. He even added a third opera program when we missed Falmouth this morning, and it was extremely well attended. A third lecturer spoke about marine life and was equally interesting, at least to us.

 

We also had plenty of fruit. My husband gets the fruit plate every day and I had the mixed berries several times.

 

The things you missed may well be particular to this cruise or another and not in general? Maybe? Perhaps?

 

Oh, yes, I nearly forgot -- we've had plenty of art sales ... Oh well. You can't have everything! And since people attended the sales and made purchases, we may be in the minority on the subject of their value.

 

 

Mura

 

I forgot to add that while we didn't go to any of the shows ourselves the comments we heard about them from other passengers were all very positive. I didn't hear any complaints about their quality. While we didn't see the resident cast perform, they all had excellent resumes and I (who am very critical about other singers) think they very likely were quite good. Maybe not spectacular, but good.

Edited June 6, 2014 by Mura

[wripro]

Personally I'd rather see a good movie than a mediocre show! Or spend my time lingering over a good dinner.

[Solar Yellow]

I'm not a frequent contributor but I can see how these threads can take off. We were on the same cruise as Pam and I agree with what she noticed but I want to stress we had a fantastic cruise. Overall, I'd give our cruise five stars and we enjoyed it immensely other than a couple of minor things that I think could be easily improved (they just seem inconsistent with the rest of the Oceania experience). We would sail Oceania again in a heartbeat and would highly recommend it to anyone.

[Lady Meer]

 

He even added a third opera program when we missed Falmouth this morning, and it was extremely well attended. A third lecturer spoke about marine life and was equally interesting, at least to us.

 

Hi Mura

 

I can't believe you missed Falmouth - was the sea particularly rough? It's a real pity as Cornwall is a such a spectacular county.

 

Brenda

[hondorner]

We're just completing the same cruise ad Mura. Her comments apply, I'd just add I heard nothing like Pam's comments on this cruise. There are almost 1,000 repeat guests on board, out of a full ship of 1,216, including over 150 cruise critic folks. The responses have been overwhelmingly positive. The lecturers, headlined by Vern Lunquist, have been excellent. Betsy has had berries every morning, although there were no raspberries this morning (the last full day of this cruise. The service had only been surpassed by the food. I would venture to say this has been the best of our 10 "official" cruises. There are no signs of a downturn. The entertainment has been excellent, wit only one night showing a movie -- but there have been several nights with a different show at 5:45 in addition to the 9:30 shows. There are three lecturers! There have been too many activities.

 

I can't believe we are discussing the same ship just a few weeks later...

[Mura]

Hi Mura

 

I can't believe you missed Falmouth - was the sea particularly rough? It's a real pity as Cornwall is a such a spectacular county.

 

Brenda

 

 

It really was, Brenda. I had no doubts about the accuracy of the captain's statements.

 

We had breakfast in the GDR around 9am and could see all the boats bouncing around. A bunker came by to fill our tanks and IT was bouncing around. A woman had to be taken off the ship for medical reasons (heart attack, or so I heard) and apparently they had a hard time getting her on a small boat.

 

The waves were really moving. It wasn't rough on board here but I could see that tenders would have had a difficult time.

 

Maybe next time!

 

Mura

[spindrift]

Verne Lundquist has been on 3 of our trips. I think that he is getting a bit old--not age wise but reappearances. We are avid golfers, but.....too much is too much. Loved him the first time, enjoyed him the 2nd, but then.... no comment. He is probably enjoying the frequent trips more than the passengers enjoying him.

 

We have friends getting onboard tomorrow. Will be anxious to hear their comments.

 

I sure hope O is not declining. Probably not. There must be explanations for the above experiences.