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

[PaulMCO]

Can someone recently onboard Regatta please comment on this ship. April 26 will be our first cruise on Oceania (we are loyal Celebrity cruisers). I have read some disheartening comments regarding Regatta. Thanks in advance.

 

 

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Read from post 215 onwards of this thread.

[PaulMCO]

Personally we will never go on an oceania cruise again a future credit would not matter to me but a refund would—If you have any interest—The email of the person to write is LCocozzelli@oceaniaregent.com, lthurman@oceanacruises.com

 

Susan -- Did you ever get any feedback from Oceania on your email??

[phyllisrf]

Paul MCO

We will hope for the best, although the comments are not promising.

 

 

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[pinotlover]

Cbb;

 

I liked Ray Carr’s approach to the cell phone issue at trivia. A couple of years ago he caught a group cheating in Trivia by looking up answers on the cell phones. He threw them out of Trivia, in front of all the other participants, berating them viscously and banned them from all Trivia events the rest of the cruise! He banned cell phones use during Trivia after that. Since no one wanted the public humiliation of being ordered out of the event in front of all, the problem was resolved. The other CDs should be following his example.

[Aussie Gal]

What a great idea. So many times players brought out their phones at the smallest dispute. One wonders where they kept their phones, tucked away in their pockets or in their hands! Too often this happened. Also quite a few teams tried to have 9 or 10 members in their team and even though Julie warned them, it took quite some time for the extra members to be dropped. When being in charge of Trivia you need to be very firm.

Jennie

[cbb]

what Jennie said! Those phones were awfully close by for some groups to challenge Julie's answers.

 

I was on a long cruise with Ray and when people would get too competitive he'd simply remind them that they were competing for Big O points by saying "We're talking about a visor here, people."

 

And yes, he told us Day 1 about throwing out cheaters and he was very strict about phones and too many people in 1 group. He made one woman leave the stage area her group was at and go back up to the bar area in the Lounge.

[roothy123]

I was on a long cruise with Ray and when people would get too competitive he'd simply remind them that they were competing for Big O points by saying "We're talking about a visor here, people."

 

 

I can just hear Ray saying that!

[PaulMCO]

I just want to post the response to my feedback letter to Oceania sent right after we returned. It was an objective letter (not a rant) with good and bad aspects of the voyage. The response was pretty much what I expected. Time will tell if we will every use this FCC (and most likely we will have it applied to our next Sirena cruise if we actually proceed with it). We will likely let our two next cruises on Crystal and Sirena decide whee our future cruise dollars will go.

 

 

Dear PaulMCO and Moggyhill:

Thank you for your correspondence concerning your above-captioned voyage with us. Oceania Cruises is committed to providing each of our guests with a cruise experience that exceeds his or her expectations.

This said, whereas we were happy to know that you were able to enjoy certain aspects of your recent cruise, we sincerely regret that we disappointed you in others. Our goal, of course, is to always send our guests home with only wonderful memories of their cruise vacation, and we are truly sorry if our endeavors during your Southern Cross Explorer voyage fell short in any way.

It is only by receiving our guests’ feedback that we are able to continually improving our product As such, although we have not addressed each and every concern expressed by you, please rest assured that all of your constructive critiques have been well received and shared with the relevant heads of departments for their attention and any action in their future planning. We take this opportunity to offer our sincerest apologies for any unintentional inconvenience and/or lapse of service you may have encountered.

Mr. PaulMCO and Ms. Moggyhill, we are aware that the subject cruise was affected by adverse weather conditions that forced the cancellation of several ports. Needless to say, it is never easy when making last minute changes to any itinerary, as this not only creates disappointments for our guests, but also, several challenges for the cruise line. Nonetheless, due to the nature of the industry, and as we cannot guarantee that our vessels will call at every advertised port, we, like all other cruise lines, must reserve the right to deviate from, alter, and/or cancel any itinerary or portion thereof, as conditions warrant. We wish to explain that we do not delight in the disrupting of the travel plans of our valued guests, however, the safety of our passengers, crew members, and vessels will always be our first priority.

As concerns the refund for the tour in Papua New Guinea, GUR-001 Village Experience, based on the information available to us, this tour was part of your complimentary O-life shore excursions. As a gesture of goodwill, you were extended $40.00 shipboard credit per person during the cruise. Whereas the operation and delivery of this excursion was indeed challenging due to internal issues with the tour operator, the majority of the guests expressed that they enjoyed some aspects of the tour and appreciated the gesture of goodwill. We are very sorry if you found this adjustment unsatisfactory.

Notwithstanding all of the above, we recognize that nothing can be done at this point to undo any unpleasant memories. As a token of appreciation for your past and future patronage, we are pleased to extend to you Future Cruise Credits, totaling $500.00 ($250.00 per person), that can be applied toward the cruise fare on any future Oceania Cruises sailing/itinerary, in any category of accommodation, subject to availability. The credits have been recorded in our Reservations system, and at the time of booking or prior to the final payment due date, the Reservation Agent should be advised that credits have been reserved for you under your names. Please note that the reservation must be booked within one (1) year of, and sailing must commence no later than two (2) years from, the date of this letter. Cruise Credits do not include airfare, have no cash value and are not transferable. Should you prefer, these credits can be added to your future reservation before the final payment is collected. Please contact our Reservations Department for assistance with the application of these credits as our department does not apply future cruise credits.

Mr. PaulMCO and Ms. Moggyhill, once again, thank you for sharing your post-cruise feedback with us. We are constantly learning from our passengers how we can improve our services and the comments expressed by our guests play a key role in this process. We genuinely appreciate your loyalty to the Oceania brand and look forward to the pleasure of welcoming you back aboard beautiful Sirena in late 2018 and for many more years to come.

Sincerely,

Guest Relations

[Aussie Gal]

Paul, I too sent a letter to Oceania detailing the good and bad aspects of our cruise. I praised the wonderful staff but also let them know we weren't happy with the food in the Main Dining Room and that we were disappointed that our time in Cairns and Darwin were on Public Holidays. I did mention that we weren't happy with the four missed points but I knew that we wouldn't gain anything from that as I know from previous cruises where we have missed ports that it is the Captain's right to do that.

 

We also received a similar letter to yours with just a few changes and we too received the $500 F.C.C. which we were happy with as we did book another cruise for 2019 whilst we were on board. I felt it was good P.R. and it showed that they do care about our feedback.

 

On another note, we did the same excursion as you in Port Moresby - the Village Experience - and we had no trouble at all with our guide or bus. Did something go wrong with your bus or guide?

 

Jennie

[PaulMCO]

 

On another note, we did the same excursion as you in Port Moresby - the Village Experience - and we had no trouble at all with our guide or bus. Did something go wrong with your bus or guide?

 

Jennie

 

We were pretty much just dumped at the village and left to wander about. The tour had more aspects promised.

I know Oceania had its contractor cancel the previous day and the guide told us he was contracted at 11pm the previous day.

 

 

My letter essentially stated that everyone was impacted in one way or another with various aspects of abnormalities on this cruise -- whether bad food, missed ports, excursions that missed , mechanical issues with ship or weather. Oceania should provide compensation to everyone on board whether requested or not as good will.

[rallydave]

Easiest way to get some real compensation is to put part of your final payment in disputes with your credit card since they refuse to reimburse you for things you paid for in the cruise fare such as port fees and taxes.

 

They will probably respond and deny the dispute and then you can dispute the response. At that point they have to respond again and if the don’t re respond which is likely the refund becomes permanent. You can dispute charges from quite awhile ago.

 

Nothing ventured nothing gained.

 

 

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[Aussie Gal]

We were pretty much just dumped at the village and left to wander about. The tour had more aspects promised.

I know Oceania had its contractor cancel the previous day and the guide told us he was contracted at 11pm the previous day.

 

 

My letter essentially stated that everyone was impacted in one way or another with various aspects of abnormalities on this cruise -- whether bad food, missed ports, excursions that missed , mechanical issues with ship or weather. Oceania should provide compensation to everyone on board whether requested or not as good will.

 

 

Yes we were left to wander around both villages for 30 minutes or so but that didn't worry us so much. I have had worse ship excursions than that, so we were quite happy. In fact our worst ever was on another Oceania cruise, when we took a bus trip through New York and we returned back to the ship like drowned rats and freezing to death. I immediately went to the Shore Excursion desk to complain. I had to write out a report but we never received any compensation for that particular excursion, in fact we never heard back from Oceania!

 

I too wrote about the mechanical issues and the missed ports, especially missing Fraser Island as that was one of the reasons that we took the cruise other than catching up with our overseas friends, of course

 

At the moment, I am still waiting for our credit to come through for our two missed excursions. It was promised within 15 days of leaving the ship and since then I have had my TA get on to it and the latest is that they were going to send it across to our credit card supplier at the end of last week and then it could take another 14 days!!

We should have taken up their offer of cash instead of waiting so long for a credit, especially as one of the missed excursions was on our 3rd day of the cruise.

 

Jennie

[Baandb]

I did mention that we weren't happy with the four missed points but I knew that we wouldn't gain anything from that.....

 

We frequently have this feeling after trivia:)

[Aussie Gal]

We frequently have this feeling after trivia:)[/quote

 

Our team also had this same feeling in trivia but in the case of the email I did write ports :D. I was typing too quickly this morning!!

 

Jennie

[Cruise Junky]

Does anyone have any information on the age restriction on Snorkelling excursions on this trip? wondered if Oceania put an age limit on the Great Barrier Reef excursions.

 

Thanks

[cbb]

"Great Barrier Reef Adventure (CNS-008)The Marine World platform has a spacious lower deck, with ample undercover seating, large easy access snorkel decks, an Underwater Reef Viewing Observatory and a children's safety swimming enclosure.

 

Reef life is located just meters away from the platform, making Marine World suitable for all age groups and swimming abilities from the novice snorkeler to the most discerning diver......

 

The minimum age for diving is 12 years."

 

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/Australia-cruises/port-cairns-CNS/excursions/#all

 

the above all taken from the website re: shorex for Australia....having the lifeguards there was great--kept us safe & yelled@ people not being good stewards of the Reef (tried to stand on it for heaven's sakes, despite repeated pleas and warnings....)

 

from what i remember O's restrictions were fairly universal across companies at Cairns.

[Cruise Junky]

"Great Barrier Reef Adventure (CNS-008)The Marine World platform has a spacious lower deck, with ample undercover seating, large easy access snorkel decks, an Underwater Reef Viewing Observatory and a children's safety swimming enclosure.

 

Reef life is located just meters away from the platform, making Marine World suitable for all age groups and swimming abilities from the novice snorkeler to the most discerning diver......

 

The minimum age for diving is 12 years."

 

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/Australia-cruises/port-cairns-CNS/excursions/#all

 

the above all taken from the website re: shorex for Australia....having the lifeguards there was great--kept us safe & yelled@ people not being good stewards of the Reef (tried to stand on it for heaven's sakes, despite repeated pleas and warnings....)

 

from what i remember O's restrictions were fairly universal across companies at Cairns.

 

 

Thank you so much for the quick response

[cbb]

cruise junky...i assumed you were talking about the lower end of the age spectrum!

 

If you are talking about older folks, the O shorex did not seem to exclude anyone from trying to snorkel and in fact there were young people there who took 3 women of 'a certain age' out to snorkel for their very 1st time....lots of giggling but it was very sweet.

 

Diving may have some older age restrictions in AU....(from O website again)

 

"Certified divers must bring C-Card & Log Book. All diving is subject to successful completion of a medical questionnaire. Certain medical conditions (asthma, epilepsy, high blood pressure or certain medications) may exclude individuals from diving"

[Cruise Junky]

cruise junky...i assumed you were talking about the lower end of the age spectrum!

 

If you are talking about older folks, the O shorex did not seem to exclude anyone from trying to snorkel and in fact there were young people there who took 3 women of 'a certain age' out to snorkel for their very 1st time....lots of giggling but it was very sweet.

 

Diving may have some older age restrictions in AU....(from O website again)

 

"Certified divers must bring C-Card & Log Book. All diving is subject to successful completion of a medical questionnaire. Certain medical conditions (asthma, epilepsy, high blood pressure or certain medications) may exclude individuals from diving"

 

I was talking about the top end of the spectrum. There's a discussion on the Celebrity board about arbitrary age limits on excursions. Some are 65 and others 70. I wondered what the Oceania's and HALs of the world had in place as their age groups would represent higher.

[pinotlover]

I have never seen O enforce any exclusions for physical abilities. Even on tours that plainly state wheelchairs and walkers are not permitted, they still allow cruisers with wheelchairs and walkers on the bus to go along. Can’t imagine them changing those policies for snorkeling.

[cbb]

if you are agile you won't have any problem getting off the smaller boat onto the platform--i can't see how someone in a wheelchair could possible get into the smaller boat and get out of it onto the platform, getting off the platform to snorkel and back onto the platform would be extremely difficult. (it is a covered platform with plenty of tables and chairs)

 

that said, O doesn't seem to stop people from taking a shorex and some cruisers stay on the bus or under a nearby shelter/tree. They want to accompany their loved one but realize they can't do the tour/walk so they just wait.

 

Too many go on excursions they have no business going on; O tries to give the cruisers as much info as they can about the degree of difficulties on various excursions--doesn't seem to stop the passengers. Must not think it applies to them.

[thehawks]

How do we access the photos?

[cbb]

thehawks--

 

what photos?

[thehawks]

thehawks--

 

what photos?

The photos that are mentioned throughout the wonderful blog

[cbb]

our blog: http://drdavebradley.blogspot.com/2017/12/dec-11-dec-14-sydney-australia-were.html

 

this will get you to Day 1, then work up the column on the right and note that to finish this cruise you have to go to Jan 2018.

 

thanks for the kind words!!! Up next Mumbai to Rome April - May 2018

 

writing is all his; pictures by both