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Tried Oceania Marina . . . and was disappointed.


jawlaw
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On ‎8‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 12:44 PM, jawlaw said:

 

Disney, Carnival and RCCL for many years when our kids were young. Celebrity more recently in the Mediterranean.  Ponant not too long ago in the Adriatic. 

 

Oceania certainly holds itself out as luxury, and creates very high expectations (“Finest Cuisine at Sea”) so, of course, our expectations were very high.  

Your post was your honest review.  Other did not have your experience so I take your statements as facts.  I just came back from a Celebrity Cruise and stayed in the Celebrity Suite.  We had a Suite only restaurant and a butler.  On that cruise, my service was a cut above when in my suite, the special lounge and the special restaurant. The rest of the ship was awful in every way.  Because of this experience, I am booked on the NCL Pearl June 2020 in the "Haven" suites.  This is a Yacht within a large ship.  This will be a family cruise so I knew up front, if I wanted special treatment from NCL, the "Haven" would be the only way. On to the topic.  I am also booked on the Oceania Marina in Oct 2020 with friends going to Europe.   We both have Penthouse Suites and yes that means a butler.  Here is my take, all the 18 cruise I have been on average to good based on the people we meet which was hit or miss.  The upcoming Oceania cruise has our best friends in the suite next to ours.  It starts off right.  The food has to be better then Celebrity, NCL, Holland America, and Royal C. No body can be that bad, really.  As a closing comment, Oceania is rated as a Premium Cruise not luxury.  Regents is the Luxury Arm for this cruise line.  The key here is you deserved better at the price you paid.  Respected.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Regarding internet, emails have showed up days later. Oceania had a Memorial Day Sale while we were onboard and email dated 5 days earlier loaded when sale was over. Two of our upcoming cruises were included in sale and we def would have upgraded to PH.

Spoke with O and asked for sale offer due to their poor internet and told sorry, sale is over.  Did expect it, but worth a call!

 

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On 9/1/2019 at 2:47 PM, DeeniEncinitas said:

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😊

 

Denise,

Welcome to O from another ex HAL cruiser.  You will love Oceania.  We made the switch and are not sorry in the least.  What cruises are you on?  Would love to meet you.

Terri

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3 minutes ago, Cruzin Terri said:

Denise,

Welcome to O from another ex HAL cruiser.  You will love Oceania.  We made the switch and are not sorry in the least.  What cruises are you on?  Would love to meet you.

Terri

I know who you are Terri!!!

Many CC posts on HAL from you over the years! 3/31/20 Riviera Miami to Rome

           4/19/20 Riviera Monte Carlo to 

                          Barcelona 

Taking Rotterdam 3/11/20 from our home 

              San Diego to FLL stay in FLL drive to Miami day before Riviera!

Denise😊

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1 minute ago, DeeniEncinitas said:

I know who you are Terri!!!

Many CC posts on HAL from you over the years! 3/31/20 Riviera Miami to Rome

           4/19/20 Riviera Monte Carlo to 

                          Barcelona 

Taking Rotterdam 3/11/20 from our home 

              San Diego to FLL stay in FLL drive to Miami day before Riviera!

Denise😊

We are doing a Caribbean on Feb 14 and then in Oct 2020 from Lisbon to Miami.  We have done the Med with Oceania and have been very pleased.  This will be our fourth voyage on the Riviera.  We did one on the Insignia and liked that very much.  Actually I liked the small ship but the itineraries that we have enjoyed have been on the Riviera.  Enjoy your cruises and I hope we meet one of these days.

Terri

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1 hour ago, Cruzin Terri said:

We are doing a Caribbean on Feb 14 and then in Oct 2020 from Lisbon to Miami.  We have done the Med with Oceania and have been very pleased.  This will be our fourth voyage on the Riviera.  We did one on the Insignia and liked that very much.  Actually I liked the small ship but the itineraries that we have enjoyed have been on the Riviera.  Enjoy your cruises and I hope we meet one of these days.

Terri

Hi Terri,  Glad to see you're well and still cruising!! Enjoyed the 2 previous cruises with you (Europe/Caribbean).  As your husband suggested, we both now own our own snorkel gear!  We have 4 cruises planned......despite a few cutbacks, O still provides a very good product.

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38 minutes ago, Jayne E said:

Hi Terri,  Glad to see you're well and still cruising!! Enjoyed the 2 previous cruises with you (Europe/Caribbean).  As your husband suggested, we both now own our own snorkel gear!  We have 4 cruises planned......despite a few cutbacks, O still provides a very good product.

Hi Jayne,

I just posted on the roll call that I booked the Silver Moon, despite the increase in price.  That is because of the new taxes imposed by the government of Barbados.  I don’t know if you are interested in joining us.  It is still less expensive than the ship catamaran cruise.  Also planning on using the same group in St. Lucia again.

Will post more on the Roll Call so as not to hijack this thread.

Terri

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Just came back from a cruise on Marina in the Baltic. Internet was bad to non existent in our stateroom. Best in marina lounge. Sometimes logout/login helped. No internet on balcony. Would also prefer keeping the lobster in Waves :-).

 

Food was great, but we missed the choices in the MDR - definitively sth, OC should think about. Speciality restaurants were great - only red ginger not so good as on Sirena - and the ambiente very dark. TC was outstanding.

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20 minutes ago, ochealaaf said:

Just came back from a cruise on Marina in the Baltic. Internet was bad to non existent in our stateroom. Best in marina lounge. Sometimes logout/login helped. No internet on balcony. Would also prefer keeping the lobster in Waves :-).

 

Food was great, but we missed the choices in the MDR - definitively sth, OC should think about. Speciality restaurants were great - only red ginger not so good as on Sirena - and the ambiente very dark. TC was outstanding.

 

Glad you had a great cruise.  What do you mean you missed the choices in the MDR?  Are there really less choices?  How many dinner choices are there now?  I haven't been on Oceania since 2016 and we have a cruise booked in 2020 and I'm worried that our dining experience will be very different than what we are used to.  Any details are greatly appreciated!  Thanks.

 

Edited by JVNYC
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Choices for soups, salads And entrees in MDR all noticeably less.  Oceania tried to sell this concept as being better but those who have cruised O know it’s def not. 

MDR now closed most port days and when it is open, it’s the same food being served in the buffet....just plated and served. Very disappointing.....lunch on sea days had been a very hi-end experience with wonderful choices. 

 

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7 hours ago, ORV said:

Food really good, internet really bad. 

I can live with that a lot better than the reverse - really good internet and really bad food - although both being really good would be even better 😀

Edited by Paulchili
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I don't understand why they can't sort out the internet.

 

I'm in my 40s and, Fate willing, I'll sail O for at least another 20 years.

The only reason I can afford to sail O now is because my job pays well.

The only reason my job pays well is because I'm willing to be semi-on-call via e-mail even whilst on vacation.

My job is by no means important, but it's important to my Boss that I don't utterly disappear for a week at a stretch.

 

On my last cruise I met a woman likely younger than me whose job was supervising student research at an online university. She wasn't even on vacation, nominally: She can be literally anywhere in the world--but she needs some access to video chat. She liked O. I'm sure she'd sail it again and again...if they ever sort their Internet. She was 'stranded' with no video chat on the ship.

 

If O really wants to attract middle-aged professionals with decades of cruising in front of them, the Internet needs to get better, the end. 

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21 minutes ago, Shawnino said:

I don't understand why they can't sort out the internet.

 

I'm in my 40s and, Fate willing, I'll sail O for at least another 20 years.

The only reason I can afford to sail O now is because my job pays well.

The only reason my job pays well is because I'm willing to be semi-on-call via e-mail even whilst on vacation.

My job is by no means important, but it's important to my Boss that I don't utterly disappear for a week at a stretch.

 

On my last cruise I met a woman likely younger than me whose job was supervising student research at an online university. She wasn't even on vacation, nominally: She can be literally anywhere in the world--but she needs some access to video chat. She liked O. I'm sure she'd sail it again and again...if they ever sort their Internet. She was 'stranded' with no video chat on the ship.

 

If O really wants to attract middle-aged professionals with decades of cruising in front of them, the Internet needs to get better, the end. 

 

I teach online as well and have to work from ships.  I don't need streaming but do need to keep in contact with students via the various platforms.  I've been purposely avoiding O because I've heard the Internet can be "iffy."  But, I have a backup plan in place for our upcoming cruise and will see how it works out.

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21 minutes ago, Shawnino said:

I don't understand why they can't sort out the internet.

 

I'm in my 40s and, Fate willing, I'll sail O for at least another 20 years.

The only reason I can afford to sail O now is because my job pays well.

The only reason my job pays well is because I'm willing to be semi-on-call via e-mail even whilst on vacation.

My job is by no means important, but it's important to my Boss that I don't utterly disappear for a week at a stretch.

 

On my last cruise I met a woman likely younger than me whose job was supervising student research at an online university. She wasn't even on vacation, nominally: She can be literally anywhere in the world--but she needs some access to video chat. She liked O. I'm sure she'd sail it again and again...if they ever sort their Internet. She was 'stranded' with no video chat on the ship.

 

If O really wants to attract middle-aged professionals with decades of cruising in front of them, the Internet needs to get better, the end. 

Well said! We're in our mid 60s and we cruised on 3 O ships (i.e., the Riviera, Nautica and Sirena) last year for a total 95 days. The ONLY reason we have not booked any future cruises with O through 2021 is because of their poor internet services. I, of course, have said this before in other threads, but just wanted to let you know you are not alone. It also makes no sense that O remains silent on this subject as well since they implemented their free unlimited internet service perk to all staterooms in May 2018.

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1 hour ago, Jayne E said:

When you have a “must internet” situation, go to the computer room to log in.  Almost always able to connect. We use this for anything of importance and no difficulties.  

 

I can only speak for myself, but I need the files on my own machine.

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On 9/29/2019 at 9:51 AM, Cruzin Terri said:

We are doing a Caribbean on Feb 14 and then in Oct 2020 from Lisbon to Miami.  We have done the Med with Oceania and have been very pleased.  This will be our fourth voyage on the Riviera.  We did one on the Insignia and liked that very much.  Actually I liked the small ship but the itineraries that we have enjoyed have been on the Riviera.  Enjoy your cruises and I hope we meet one of these days.

Terri

I wonder if we are doing the same cruise on Riveria Feb. 14 Brilliant Beaches.   Our first Oceania.   Have done Disney, Celebrity, and Princess.   Very excited to try Oceania.   Many of the islands are new to us also. 

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2 hours ago, pna said:

I wonder if we are doing the same cruise on Riveria Feb. 14 Brilliant Beaches.   Our first Oceania.   Have done Disney, Celebrity, and Princess.   Very excited to try Oceania.   Many of the islands are new to us also. 

We are on the same cruise. Have you joined the roll call. Please do.

Terri

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9 hours ago, Shawnino said:

 

I can only speak for myself, but I need the files on my own machine.

Understood, but you can still take your machine to the internet cafe.  I'm not sure about the new internet room which seems to be smaller.  But I would think that you could use your own computer very close to there.

 

Personally I haven't had a problem using my own laptop in our stateroom.  Then again, I don't stay online for a long time.  I download email, prepare my answers, go back online to send.  Maybe if more people did the same (now that there is "universal" free online access) there wouldn't be the connection problem that people are complaining about.  At least it wouldn't be so severe.

 

I remember an older gentleman in the internet cafe back about the time the "universal access" came into effect who was delighted that he could just leave his internet "on" all the time.

 

I guess I should add that this "older gentleman" was probably my age ... or maybe even a little younger.

 

Mura

 

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18 minutes ago, Mura said:

Understood, but you can still take your machine to the internet cafe.  I'm not sure about the new internet room which seems to be smaller.  But I would think that you could use your own computer very close to there.

 

Personally I haven't had a problem using my own laptop in our stateroom.  Then again, I don't stay online for a long time.  I download email, prepare my answers, go back online to send.  Maybe if more people did the same (now that there is "universal" free online access) there wouldn't be the connection problem that people are complaining about.  At least it wouldn't be so severe.

 

I remember an older gentleman in the internet cafe back about the time the "universal access" came into effect who was delighted that he could just leave his internet "on" all the time.

 

I guess I should add that this "older gentleman" was probably my age ... or maybe even a little younger.

 

Mura

 

... or maybe O can just upgrade their ship networks like practically every other cruise line has, especially considering how much they charge.

Edited by Ken the cruiser
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I'd be happy with that as well!  I've seen announcements over the years that they had done so, but it doesn't appear that these "improvements" were really wonderful.

 

We've been on a few other cruise lines (mostly NCL and QE2, and those only a couple of times each) which did have better internet ... and cheaper.

 

Mura

 

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9 hours ago, Mura said:

Understood, but you can still take your machine to the internet cafe.  I'm not sure about the new internet room which seems to be smaller.  But I would think that you could use your own computer very close to there.

 

 

This assumes that the internet is better there for Wi-Fi and that the other poster wasn't talking about the hardwired machines.

I actually found that the wi-fi in the Internet Cafe was pretty poor when last on Riviera.

IIRC the lady teaching classes found the wi-fi 'best' in, of all places, the MDR.

 

Again speaking only for myself, I need to work ideally in the cabin or in a very low-traffic public area. I have paper files I need to spread out and look at, and I'd feel bad about taking up other cruisers' table space with my binder and papers. 

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