Tried Oceania Marina . . . and was disappointed.

[Ken the cruiser]

Jawlaw and Beagle5, one question. How was the unlimited internet service in your respective cabins and on your balcony (if you had one)? We were on the Riviera, the other O-class ship, last fall for 45 days and it was terrible in the cabin and pretty much nonexistent on our balcony. Just curious if the internet service in your cabin on the Marina was acceptable? For example, in your cabin did the connection periodically drop from the router every 2-3 minutes while you were accessing a web site or was it just fine with no complaints?

Edited September 1, 2019 by Ken the cruiser

[sunlover12]

9 hours ago, Andee said:

 

Only once did we book a PH suite; couldnt really appreciate having a butler.

The only reason we booked a PH is because it is almost 100 sq ft larger than a veranda. We like the larger area.  We didn't use the butler too much.  We ordered room service for breakfast twice and that was about it. 

[Shawnino]

One thing I'll back OP on: the marketing materials do scream a higher level of luxury than what's on board.

 

Regulars here know what O is and what it is not. It certainly suits my wife and me. Can't wait to sail again next year. 

 

But the brochures do build a bit of an illusion--I don't know, maybe they should, maybe they have to. Maybe it's like that perfect Big Mac on television that I've never gotten anything close to when I actually visit a McDonalds. I do think the marketing makes O seem more like a Luxe line, when we know it's a Premium line. 

[Kate-AHF]

58 minutes ago, Shawnino said:

One thing I'll back OP on: the marketing materials do scream a higher level of luxury than what's on board.

 

Regulars here know what O is and what it is not. It certainly suits my wife and me. Can't wait to sail again next year. 

 

But the brochures do build a bit of an illusion--I don't know, maybe they should, maybe they have to. Maybe it's like that perfect Big Mac on television that I've never gotten anything close to when I actually visit a McDonalds. I do think the marketing makes O seem more like a Luxe line, when we know it's a Premium line. 

 

Agree with every word.

[wripro]

I wish Oceania would take some of that money they use to pay for the endless stream of unnecessary (and frankly annoying) brochures and use it to hire more staff. Our maybe go back to the level of food quality they had years ago.

[DeeniEncinitas]

50 minutes ago, wripro said:

I wish Oceania would take some of that money they use to pay for the endless stream of unnecessary (and frankly annoying) brochures and use it to hire more staff. Our maybe go back to the level of food quality they had years ago.

Haven’t been on O yet, but will be for 2 cruises next year!

I want to say I agree with you! I sure hope we get the service and the quality. Will be on Riviera in a PH.

Denise😊

 

[jawlaw]

13 hours ago, Andee said:

Whenever we board an Ocesnia ship, I am immediately happy.

 

Nice.  That’s the feeling we are all looking for.  

[jawlaw]

4 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

How was the unlimited internet service in your respective cabins and on your balcony (if you had one)? 

 

I hate to be such a downer.  There were some things on the ship and this cruise that I really liked.  However, the “free” internet is not great.  The signal is very weak and unreliable regardless of where you are.  You can only use one device at a time, and have to switch back and forth.  It expired the afternoon before the cruise ended.  You can upgrade for a “better” plan for hundreds of dollars, but I don’t know how much better it would be. The Oceania internet program seems outdated and not competitive; even mid-tier hotels provide free, unlimited access.  I think they should provide decent service and just build the cost of free, unlimited access into the price of the cruise.  

 

Edited September 1, 2019 by jawlaw
Update response

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, jawlaw said:

 

I hate to be such a downer.  There were some things on the ship and this cruise that I really liked.  However, the “free” internet is not great.  The signal is very weak and unreliable regardless of where you are.  You can only use one device at a time, and have to switch back and forth.  It expired the afternoon before the cruise ended.  You can upgrade for a “better” plan for hundreds of dollars, but I don’t know how much better it would be. The Oceania internet program seems outdated and not competitive; even mid-tier hotels provide free, unlimited access.  I think they should just build the cost of free, unlimited access into the price of the cruise.  

 

Thanks.

[LHT28]

I do not think you can compare  the internet at sea  to a land based hotel

JMO

[Ken the cruiser]

Just now, LHT28 said:

I do not think you can compare  the internet at sea  to a land based hotel

JMO

But when I compare it with the service we encountered on our recent Crystal Symphony (May 2019 in SE Asia), Celebrity Reflection (Feb 2019 in the Caribbean) and Crown Princess (Jul 2019 in the UK) cruises, O's sporadic internet service on our Oct 2018 Med/TA cruise didn't even come close. On all 3 of those ships we had no issues with surfing the web on our balcony let alone sending messages with large attachments. But it's cool. I guess to many O cruisers quality internet service isn't that big of a deal; otherwise O would step up to the plate and fix their service's inadequacy.

[LHT28]

8 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

But when I compare it with the service we encountered on our recent Crystal Symphony (May 2019 in SE Asia), Celebrity Reflection (Feb 2019 in the Caribbean) and Crown Princess (Jul 2019 in the UK) cruises, O's sporadic internet service on our Oct 2018 Med/TA cruise didn't even come close. On all 3 of those ships we had no issues with surfing the web on our balcony let alone sending messages with large attachments. But it's cool. I guess to many O cruisers quality internet service isn't that big of a deal; otherwise O would step up to the plate and fix their service's inadequacy.

I was commenting on JAWLAW  statement  about hotels & ships

 

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

I was commenting on JAWLAW  statement  about hotels & ships

 

I know, but O still  needs to address their very poor internet service on their O class ships when compared to their competitors.

[LHT28]

2 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I know, but O still  needs to address their very poor internet service on their O class ships when compared to their competitors.

I have no dog in that fight

It works fine for my needs  

I am not on a cruise to be on the internet

I would rather they spent money on the food quality

YMMV

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

I have no dog in that fight

It works fine for my needs  

I am not on a cruise to be on the internet

I would rather they spent money on the food quality

YMMV

Like I said, to many O cruisers like yourself, quality internet service on the O class ships is not a big deal.

[Beagle5]

5 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Jawlaw and Beagle5, one question. How was the unlimited internet service in your respective cabins and on your balcony (if you had one)? We were on the Riviera, the other O-class ship, last fall for 45 days and it was terrible in the cabin and pretty much nonexistent on our balcony. Just curious if the internet service in your cabin on the Marina was acceptable? For example, in your cabin did the connection periodically drop from the router every 2-3 minutes while you were accessing a web site or was it just fine with no complaints?

 

I agree with Jawlaw. In fact I would be more scathing. It was abominable. That was the one highly critical comment we made on our cruise review form. 

It was difficult to connect and would continually drop out. I found the best signal strength was in Martini’s and would take my laptop there. I would never want to rely on it for work purposes.

[Ken the cruiser]

14 minutes ago, Beagle5 said:

 

I agree with Jawlaw. In fact I would be more scathing. It was abominable. That was the one highly critical comment we made on our cruise review form. 

It was difficult to connect and would continually drop out. I found the best signal strength was in Martini’s and would take my laptop there. I would never want to rely on it for work purposes.

Thanks. I figured it was an O class issue rather than just on the Rivera.

[Andee]

We don't  find it particularly onerous to switch between devices.

I agree that the Internet speed needs to be improved. DH, a computer science major who spent his 40+ year career in data processing, says that increasing bandwidth would be cheap.

We noticed that location on the ship and time of day (so # of active users) made a difference. 

[Ken the cruiser]

17 minutes ago, Andee said:

We don't  find it particularly onerous to switch between devices.

I agree that the Internet speed needs to be improved. DH, a computer science major who spent his 40+ year career in data processing, says that increasing bandwidth would be cheap.

We noticed that location on the ship and time of day (so # of active users) made a difference. 

The bigger issue is the lack of sufficient router capacity, especially in the cabin areas on the O class ships, when all those "powered up" idle devices continually try to connect every 3-5 minutes to a nearby router to perform internal automated functions (e.g., check email, perform app status checks such as Facebook, etc.)

 

This issue really became magnified when O made the decision in May 2018 to give every stateroom an unlimited internet account. Now everyone leaves their devices powered on waiting for their turn to log onto their stateroom account.

 

You will most likely see this issue when you try to perform a bandwidth-intensive task (e.g., sending an email with a large attachment, uploading large files, etc) and the Internet bandwidth speed is very slow. Note: when it comes to router ports, the oldest connection gets disconnected first. Now picture 15-20 devices in your cabin area all trying to establish a connection to the area router. When all ports are full, the oldest connection gets disconnected on the next new bind request.

 

Now picture your connection as the one that is the oldest. Unfortunately, your bandwidth-intensive task didn't have time to finish because of the slow internet speed, so it got chopped and you now have to do it over again. Now imagine this is happening every 2-3 minutes. It can become quite annoying.

[Andee]

We have been on 2 Oceania cruises since May, 2018.

Maybe it hasn't bothered us so much because we have the luxury of not needing to upload large files or send emails with large attachments on vacation.

[Ken the cruiser]

2 minutes ago, Andee said:

We have been on 2 Oceania cruises since May, 2018.

Maybe it hasn't bothered us so much because we have the luxury of not needing to upload large files or send emails with large attachments on vacation.

That's great to hear. So both your cruises were on either the Marina or Riviera and you had good internet service in your cabin?

[LHT28]

17 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

You will most likely see this issue when you try to perform a bandwidth-intensive task (e.g., sending an email with a large attachment, uploading large files, etc) and the Internet bandwidth speed is very slow. Note: when it comes to router ports, the oldest connection gets disconnected first. Now picture 15-20 devices in your cabin area all trying to establish a connection to the area router. When all ports are full, the oldest connection gets disconnected on the next new bind request.

 

I am sure Oceania did not offer free WiFi for people  to make the ship their office  & do work related emails with large files

 

Maybe O should go back to charging for the internet  ..it seemed much better when people had to pay

JMO

 

[LHT28]

3 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

That's great to hear. So both your cruises were on either the Marina or Riviera and you had good internet service in your cabin?

I have not had  drop outs  when using the  wifi  in my cabin 

a couple of time in Norway in the Fjords  the internet was down but it  was noted in the Currents  this would happen

Rarely have I had it drop out ever 2-3 minutes

of course I am not uploading large  attachments

[Andee]

Yes, both on the Marina.

Internet varied, but it was often fine in the cabin. The only place we consistently had trouble was in the very back of the ship.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, LHT28 said:

I have not had  drop outs  when using the  wifi  in my cabin 

a couple of time in Norway in the Fjords  the internet was down but it  was noted in the Currents  this would happen

Rarely have I had it drop out ever 2-3 minutes

of course I am not uploading large  attachments

Were you on either the Riviera or Marina or were you on one of their R class ships? We didn't have any issues when we were on the Sirena going around Cuba and the Nautica in northern Europe for a total of 50 days during the May/July time frame.