and so it begins....Dec/Jan Circumnavigation of Australia on Regatta

[tazza_0712]

I was following along with this review. I’m on the Azamara Journey cruise down to Sydney presently and was told by a tour operator today that the day that was cancelled in Esperance was completely flat and calm. So make of that what you will.

 

 

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[tvmovielover]

On our wonderful cruise on Nautica last fall, the food was pretty good but every time we asked, servers admitted the fish was frozen. We were cruising around the Iberian peninsula where there is a lot of fresh fish. The one night fresh fish was announced, it was in the Terrace and kind of well done. A few years ago when we did 2 Marina cruises, there was fresh fish a few times each cruise. Has NCL ruined a good thing?

 

I also get now that the one thing you must hope to avoid (cruise lines cannot control the weather or seas that is always a matter of luck), is a port where a large number of crew members are leaving and being replaced by a new crew. One of the great things about our cruise last fall was that a lot of the crew had been together for several months so everything was pretty smooth and they were not leaving for another cruise or two.

 

I enjoyed reading this thread until these last few pages when many who had written good things let us know it was less than perfect in more than missed ports. I wonder if this cruise would be better in fall-we toured (land) Australia and New Zealand in April and the weather was cooler (and not too hot in Cairns) but maybe the seas are not smooth?

[susans14]

We too found the food not to be to the standard that we enjoyed on the Marina in April of 2016 when we spent the same amount of time on her as we did on the Regatta this cruise. The food on that cruise was outstanding and we were expecting a similar experience. Instead we found the food in the Main Dining Room to be very ordinary, not even as good as when we were on Princess last April, 2017.

We did enjoy the food in Polo though and we ended up eating there at least 6 times and in Toscano 3 times.

We being Australians, we couldn't understand why they weren't loading on to the ship our wonderful produce of fresh fish, scallops, prawns, meat and fruit and vegetables. We live in a country where bananas are plentiful and yet we ran out of them within a few days of leaving Sydney. We also ran out of yoghurt and other odds and ends. Also the fish served up was that awful frozen dover sole or sea bass, both unappetising and as for the frozen lobsters, why serve up those tiny ones from the East coast of the U.S. when they could have bought wonderful crayfish when we were in our southern waters.

I agree, I do think that NCL have had a big impact on Oceania and what was once a wonderful cruise line is now becoming just like all of those average lines where quantity outweighs quality.

 

Jennie

You may want to write to customer service I did and my travel agent said they will offer me money on a future cruise or a reund of some sort. I had an issue with my cabin too. The cruise was an overall disaster for us because we were in the back of the ship and the pollution from the smokestack made it impossible to use the terrace. Oceania was bought by Norwegian (NCL )a budget line. They are obviously cutting costs and quality to pay for the enormous amount of debt they took on to make that purchase . I believe there is also a mold issue on the ship. I was also unhappy that 2 ports planned Cairns and Darwin were both closed for Christmas and New Years ( poor planning) - Personally we will never go on an oceania cruise again a future credit would not matter to me but a refund would—

Edited February 13, 2018 by CC Help Jenn
removed employee info

[PaulMCO]

On our wonderful cruise on Nautica last fall, the food was pretty good but every time we asked, servers admitted the fish was frozen. We were cruising around the Iberian peninsula where there is a lot of fresh fish. The one night fresh fish was announced, it was in the Terrace and kind of well done. A few years ago when we did 2 Marina cruises, there was fresh fish a few times each cruise. Has NCL ruined a good thing?

 

I also get now that the one thing you must hope to avoid (cruise lines cannot control the weather or seas that is always a matter of luck), is a port where a large number of crew members are leaving and being replaced by a new crew. One of the great things about our cruise last fall was that a lot of the crew had been together for several months so everything was pretty smooth and they were not leaving for another cruise or two.

 

I enjoyed reading this thread until these last few pages when many who had written good things let us know it was less than perfect in more than missed ports. I wonder if this cruise would be better in fall-we toured (land) Australia and New Zealand in April and the weather was cooler (and not too hot in Cairns) but maybe the seas are not smooth?

 

Yes it would have been better in April -- but Regatta had to be in Alaska in May.

 

 

One key change has been a more regimented kitchen. The Chefs are not chefs anymore. They are forced to follow the recipes dictated by corporate. Unlike other small ship cruise lines that give their Chefs the ability and license to go out to market and source local fish. Our last holiday cruise on Silversea last year, the Chef sourced local Oysters and served/shucked them personally and fresh fish was almost always available.

 

We were in PH 8042 not far from 8048. We also had the smell of mold. Most prevalent towards the end of the cruise. Issues with AC, Bathroom, and a veranda door that took two people to open. Lots of little mechanical issues most rectified but why did they need to be at all -- obviously there is a common thread -- considering the major system issues the ship also had.

[travelberlin]

Cbb, what a pity that your cruise was dissapointing. I had followed some of your posts since I was at the same time on an Oceania ship and wanted to compare our experiences.

I had the feeling with your reports that you were having a good time. I am sorry that this was not the case.

Ivi

[cbb]

there were several times when the weather online and that same forecast posted in Currents bore little resemblance to what actually occurred

 

If the Captain was dependent upon weather forecasts as he surely was, then we weren't surprised when we missed those western ports. There were even reports of cyclones forming.

 

Please understand that what I reported on the various ports was indeed what we experienced. Australian ports are wonderful places to sail in and out of and you shouldn't be deterred from visiting there.

 

We've also done a land tour of Australia which was great, although there were many airplane trips from one place to another....it is a big country!

 

I just felt that I needed to report that I thought there were problems on Regatta that should not be overlooked. I am a positive person and love to cruise Oceania but things were just off on board....

[sitraveler]

I hope Regatta is ready when I board in May.

[palakika]

Thanks to recent cruisers on Regatta for your info on Aust trip. Sounds like Regatta is due for a major drydock visit! Too bad about food quality issues. Hope this isn't the case on our 38 day cruise on Insignia in May as we look forward to the meals!

 

Francie

[cbb]

I had a great time on the Au navigation cruise.....in port.

 

Looking back on it, I think the observation that everything is more driven now by corporate might be true.

 

One of the most popular entrees in Terrace for lunch was "Mexican Day" when burritos were hand made according to the items chosen by the passenger which of course made for long lines.

 

I asked one of the Terrace staff guys why they couldn't open another one on the mirror image side on the other side and he said 'we'd like to, but the office tells us what to do' and of course, the office wasn't there to see the people lined up.

 

I have shared my original post #215 with my TA who was fairly appalle, but thought it was fairly written and asked if he/she could share it with the Sales Office of the Travel Agency and it will probably get passed on to an O office.

 

I also shared 2 other posts so that he/she could see that it wasn't just David and I and TA knows that this is our 1st complaint about an O cruise....ever.....and we're platinum level.

[Petoonya]

Not under final payment for Regatta yet but it won't happen unless there is a an unscheduled drydock. Sorry yours is so soon Sitraveler.

[tvmovielover]

+ 1 on emergency dry dock. With so many cruisers reporting the mold problem and many other things needing immediate or temporary repairs, they need to get Regatta into dry dock asap. I do not think any of us who read these last few pages would book Regatta any time soon and that is in addition to the passengers that were on this cruise (a shame with such a great itinerary). We need to know NCL is attending to such terrible reports from more than 1 or 2 disgruntled passengers.

[troubleclef]

Cynthia thanks to you and Dr. Dave for your insightful posts and pictures. We really appreciated hearing about the places in port that we did not get to. I too will be passing along my feedback to our travel agent. Do you mind if I use your feedback too? Wishing you a speedy recovery.

PS it is "unofficial" but Ms Regatta is due for a major dry dock in April 2019. (I found this out from the on board ambassador when I cancelled a future Regatta cruise). I sincerely hoped that it could have been sooner.

[cbb]

feel free to use our feedback. We do not have any agenda, we love cruising with O, but feel that there are some problems with Regatta.

 

We heard in Terrace that there was a big turnover in staff/crew in Sydney; contracts ended. The Captain said he was going on Riviera after Capt Flokos retired in early March. We are on Capt Flokos 'retirement cruise' so i can check out Riviera then.

 

We'll be so sad to see Captain Flokos leave--he is wonderful and was our Captain for much of ATW16.

[Aussie Gal]

I was following along with this review. I’m on the Azamara Journey cruise down to Sydney presently and was told by a tour operator today that the day that was cancelled in Esperance was completely flat and calm. So make of that what you will.

 

 

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I was following our cruise on our Bureau of Meteorology website so that I could see what the temperatures were going to be in each port. As it was, those on the bridge got the temperature wrong in every port. I think they must have been using some other weather reporting station but I do know that our Bureau is always spot on and does the reporting for Antarctica as far away as Ushuaia.

 

Anyhow, when we were in Fremantle on our first and supposedly only day, the Captain decided early in the afternoon that the seas would be too rough in Esperance to tender and we would stay another day. Later on that afternoon, I went into the BOM website and found that the seas had calmed and it was going to be a lovely day on the Monday. :)

 

By this time, the Captain had made his decision and we were moved to another berth and had to stay the extra day - Saturday - in Fremantle. When we left that night, we took a different route, further south than Esperance, so we missed that part of the coast altogether and the seas were calm once we rounded the Cape. Of course on the Monday around 5pm, we suddenly had to return back two hours to Albany for a medical emergency, but that is another story.

 

We were all so disappointed at not going into Esperance but not nearly as disappointed as missing Kangaroo Island. I am following a blog of the Captain who is taking HAL'S Round the World voyage on the Amsterdam and already he has managed to get into two tender ports that are normally too hard to tackle just by being patient and working out how to move the ship around and finding what he calls "the sweet spot" for tendering.

 

Jennie

[roothy123]

I hope Regatta is ready when I board in May.

So are we, although we're going later than you. Hopefully we'll find some way to get some feedback from you before we go.

[Aussie Gal]

You may want to write to customer service I did and my travel agent said they will offer me money on a future cruise or a reund of some sort. I had an issue with my cabin too. The cruise was an overall disaster for us because we were in the back of the ship and the pollution from the smokestack made it impossible to use the terrace. Oceania was bought by Norwegian (NCL )a budget line. They are obviously cutting costs and quality to pay for the enormous amount of debt they took on to make that purchase . I believe there is also a mold issue on the ship. I was also unhappy that 2 ports planned Cairns and Darwin were both closed for Christmas and New Years ( poor planning) - Personally we will never go on an oceania cruise again a future credit would not matter to me but a refund would—

 

Thanks for your advice and also the email addresses of whom to send my letter of complaint. My main complaint will be the food though there are a couple of other things. We were fortunate in that our PH suite was fine. No smell in the cabin or outside but then we were right next door to where the Captain and Officers enter to go their quarters and to the bridge. As we walked down the passage to get to the second set of elevators, we did smell some odd smells along the way.

 

We too were disappointed in that both Cairns and Darwin were scheduled for Public Holidays. I am sure the powers that be could have avoided that by switching us over to New Guinea first before we arrived into Cairns. As it was we missed Townsville which was on the original itinerary, probably due to arriving there on Christmas Day.

 

It is all very well for those in Miami to map out an itinerary but they do need to know the ports and the Country before doing so. I am sure half of those over there have no idea of the distances that are involved when circumnavigating Australia. It is a huge country, nearly as big as the U.S. and a lot of logistics are involved. March/April would be the ideal time to do the cruise but that is the time when Oceania's ship are sent elsewhere, unfortunately. Still on the positive side, we did have wonderful weather, the sun shone on most days and we didn't experience any rain.

 

I am glad that we have been right around our country and it has left us with some great memories. We still rate our 35 day cruise on the Nautica back in 2008, when we cruised from Hong Kong to Athens as our best cruise and our second best was our 34 days on Marina from Tahiti to New York in April 2016, even though we missed Easter Island for the 2nd time. Due to missing so many ports on this cruise - 25% of the voyage - and the disappointing food in the Dining Room, this is well down on our list of cruises we have enjoyed.

 

Jennie

Edited February 13, 2018 by CC Help Jenn

[Cruise Junky]

 

We too were disappointed in that both Cairns and Darwin were scheduled for Public Holidays. I am sure the powers that be could have avoided that by switching us over to New Guinea first before we arrived into Cairns. As it was we missed Townsville which was on the original itinerary, probably due to arriving there on Christmas Day.

 

Jennie

 

I was all gung ho to book Marina for next year until I realized they had us in Bordeaux on Easter Monday, a public holiday in France. I swear they don't check things like that. They could have easily fixed that itinerary

[cbb]

I agree, Jennie. You and Peter were excellent hosts, but we sure would have liked to visit the ports we missed--the primary reason for taking the cruise were those western and southern ports.

 

I had seen so many beautiful pictures of Ningaloo, the beaches at Esperance, and the Remarkable Rocks and Flinders Chase National Park on Kangaroo Island so we were very disappointed that we missed those.

 

Safe travels! Big hugs.....

[Aussie Gal]

Cynthia,

 

We too were so excited about showing you Kangaroo Island plus we wanted to revisit that wonderful island. I just couldn't believe it when we discovered we weren't going to get ashore! There was even some doubt about Eden but at least we did get there and what a surprise that little town was to us.

 

On another note, Oceania is very eager to take our money for our shore excursions, it comes out of our credit cards immediately, but they are very slow to credit the money back to us for the shore excursions we didn't use. It is now eight days since we left the ship and as yet no money has been put back into our Amex account. I wonder when that is going to appear!

 

Jennie

[Paulchili]

Jennie - just to be fair. This is most likely due to Amex policy rather than Oceania’s (speaking from prior similar situations with credit card refunds).

It may take a few days before it’s credited.

I am sorry to hear about your less than perfect cruise :(

I don’t like hearing these types of things about Oceania as I am not anxious to start with a new cruise line this late - but I will if necessary.

[palakika]

Cynthia..agree with you about Capt Flokos. He was our Capt on Marina's inagural voyage and Rome to Singapore a number of years ago. A very friendly guy and a good sea capt. What is his final cruise?

 

Francie

[cbb]

Capt Flokos 'retirement cruise' is "Sunny Charms," Feb 26-Mar 8, on Riviera-- Miami to Miami.

 

I think several members of his family will be on board. He is the best.

[Aussie Gal]

Jennie - just to be fair. This is most likely due to Amex policy rather than Oceania’s (speaking from prior similar situations with credit card refunds).

It may take a few days before it’s credited.

I am sorry to hear about your less than perfect cruise :(

I don’t like hearing these types of things about Oceania as I am not anxious to start with a new cruise line this late - but I will if necessary.

 

Paul,

 

We too are so disappointed as I have been telling everyone that Oceania is our favourite cruise line. I am hoping that it was just a glitch. We have booked to go on the Marina next year in September and in the meantime we are going on Viking in April next year as well so that will be a good comparison.

 

Jennie

[Paulchili]

Paul,

 

We too are so disappointed as I have been telling everyone that Oceania is our favourite cruise line. I am hoping that it was just a glitch. We have booked to go on the Marina next year in September and in the meantime we are going on Viking in April next year as well so that will be a good comparison.

 

Jennie

 

Jennie,

Yes - I believe that you’ll be on the Orion just before our Tokyo to Vancouver cruise.

We’ll be on the Marina later this Fall and I expect the “usual” Oceania experience - here is hoping anyway :)

I will be very disappointed otherwise.

Safe travels.

Paul

Edited January 31, 2018 by Paulchili

[roothy123]

Capt Flokos 'retirement cruise' is "Sunny Charms," Feb 26-Mar 8, on Riviera-- Miami to Miami.

 

I think several members of his family will be on board. He is the best.

We've cruised with him twice, maybe more. We'll miss him.