Oceana observations...

[Britboys]

10 hours ago, July morning said:

Home recently from a Princess cruise and there were no trays but it wasn't a problem as the cutlery was wrapped in napkins on the table and waiters served you with tea, coffee, water or juice and came back again to check if you required more.  There were plenty waiters both serving and clearing.

But invariably, the cutlery in the napkins is one knife, one fork, one spoon.  Consequently, I often found myself having to open up a second set of cutlery when I needed an extra knife or fork.  Its quite wasteful and not very environment-friendly to be washing cutlery and napkins that have not been used.

[Lottie A]

Just off Aurora today. Had a great time, met some lovely people and Aurora is still my favourite P&O ship. 

However:-

 

There were trays in Horizon buffet but no mushrooms or hash browns at breakfast, even if you asked for them. I witnessed some very annoyed passengers complaining about this. They were told there was little demand for either item...but there clearly was! I don’t eat a cooked breakfast so it didn’t bother me. 
 

Service was dreadfully slow at some tables in the MDR as a lot of new crew boarded at Southampton. Some passengers were waiting 30 mins between courses. Fortunately our table had excellent and very experienced waiters. They were great. 

I felt very sorry for a new barman in The Glasshouse who was clearly not coping with the large amount of passengers there on the sea day. The head waiter stood watching him and tutting but never offered to help at all. Poor management skills IMHO. 

 

The MDR food was very good except for the very salty soups....they must add a bucket of salt to them! 
Butter was loose pats in a glass dish...at breakfast one man took five out of the six pats for himself...another lady commented there was none left and he said “so get some more”. Nice. 

And they still won’t let you have a Fruit tart before 11:30 am in Raffles Costa coffee shop! 😬 

 

But we all had such a great time anyway. 

[AndyMichelle]

3 hours ago, Lottie A said:

Just off Aurora today. Had a great time, met some lovely people and Aurora is still my favourite P&O ship. 

However:-

 

There were trays in Horizon buffet but no mushrooms or hash browns at breakfast, even if you asked for them. I witnessed some very annoyed passengers complaining about this. They were told there was little demand for either item...but there clearly was! I don’t eat a cooked breakfast so it didn’t bother me. 
 

Service was dreadfully slow at some tables in the MDR as a lot of new crew boarded at Southampton. Some passengers were waiting 30 mins between courses. Fortunately our table had excellent and very experienced waiters. They were great. 

I felt very sorry for a new barman in The Glasshouse who was clearly not coping with the large amount of passengers there on the sea day. The head waiter stood watching him and tutting but never offered to help at all. Poor management skills IMHO. 

 

The MDR food was very good except for the very salty soups....they must add a bucket of salt to them! 
Butter was loose pats in a glass dish...at breakfast one man took five out of the six pats for himself...another lady commented there was none left and he said “so get some more”. Nice. 

And they still won’t let you have a Fruit tart before 11:30 am in Raffles Costa coffee shop! 😬 

 

But we all had such a great time anyway. 

Glad you had a great time Lottie. 

Sounds like the usual P&O niggles, frustrating but not enough of a problem to spoil your holiday

Andy 

[Britboys]

5 hours ago, Lottie A said:

Just off Aurora today. Had a great time, met some lovely people and Aurora is still my favourite P&O ship. 

However:-

 

There were trays in Horizon buffet but no mushrooms or hash browns at breakfast, even if you asked for them. I witnessed some very annoyed passengers complaining about this. They were told there was little demand for either item...but there clearly was! I don’t eat a cooked breakfast so it didn’t bother me. 
 

Service was dreadfully slow at some tables in the MDR as a lot of new crew boarded at Southampton. Some passengers were waiting 30 mins between courses. Fortunately our table had excellent and very experienced waiters. They were great. 

I felt very sorry for a new barman in The Glasshouse who was clearly not coping with the large amount of passengers there on the sea day. The head waiter stood watching him and tutting but never offered to help at all. Poor management skills IMHO. 

 

The MDR food was very good except for the very salty soups....they must add a bucket of salt to them! 
Butter was loose pats in a glass dish...at breakfast one man took five out of the six pats for himself...another lady commented there was none left and he said “so get some more”. Nice. 

And they still won’t let you have a Fruit tart before 11:30 am in Raffles Costa coffee shop! 😬 

 

But we all had such a great time anyway. 

Glad you had a good cruise.  Were mushrooms and/or hash browns available in the mdr at breakfast?

[brian1]

11 hours ago, Britboys said:

Glad you had a good cruise.  Were mushrooms and/or hash browns available in the mdr at breakfast?

Don't worry,I've run out of mushroom jokes.The whole scenario is a joke,lol.

[Rupert2251]

11 hours ago, Britboys said:

Butter was loose pats in a glass dish...at breakfast one man took five out of the six pats for himself...another lady commented there was none left and he said “so get some more”. Nice. 

What a charming man! Why do people think its OK to behave like this? The mind boggles. Sorry this is a reply to Lottie A.

Edited November 27, 2019 by Rupert2251

[Lottie A]

11 hours ago, Britboys said:

Glad you had a good cruise.  Were mushrooms and/or hash browns available in the mdr at breakfast?

Yes they were. My friend had them a few times in the MDR. He reminded me that he thought the triangles of fried bread in Horizon were hash browns at first and he was disappointed! 

[brian1]

28 minutes ago, Rupert2251 said:

What a charming man! Why do people think its OK to behave like this? The mind boggles. Sorry this is a reply to Lottie A.

Might have been a nice bloke if you buttered him up a bit.

[Rupert2251]

4 minutes ago, brian1 said:

Might have been a nice bloke if you buttered him up a bit.

Can always rely on you Brian to put a smile on our faces 😁

[Britboys]

4 hours ago, brian1 said:

Don't worry,I've run out of mushroom jokes...

Thank goodness for that 😁

[Britboys]

3 hours ago, Lottie A said:

Yes they were. My friend had them a few times in the MDR. He reminded me that he thought the triangles of fried bread in Horizon were hash browns at first and he was disappointed! 

Well, that's  something at least.  I tend to eat breakfast as much in the mdr as the buffet - if not more often.  I must say I find it hard to believe there is not enough demand for mushrooms & hash browns in the buffet - especially with the increase in the number of people choosing to eat vegetarian.

[Britboys]

3 hours ago, brian1 said:

Might have been a nice bloke if you buttered him up a bit.

Do you write the scripts for P&O on-board comedians by any chance Brian 😉😀

[AndyMichelle]

8 hours ago, Lottie A said:

Yes they were. My friend had them a few times in the MDR. He reminded me that he thought the triangles of fried bread in Horizon were hash browns at first and he was disappointed! 

Oh hold on... They still have the golden triangles??? 

Sorely missed on Oceana recently, just some hard, round bits of grease soaked bread... 

That's why Aurora is many peoples favourite ship... 

Andy 

[AndyMichelle]

5 hours ago, Britboys said:

Do you write the scripts for P&O on-board comedians by any chance Brian 😉😀

Brian was part of the entertainment team for P&O. 

He played triangle in a reggae band but gave it up because it was a bit repetitive.. 

Just one ting after another 😊

Andy 

[Lottie A]

6 minutes ago, AndyMichelle said:

Oh hold on... They still have the golden triangles??? 

Sorely missed on Oceana recently, just some hard, round bits of grease soaked bread... 

That's why Aurora is many peoples favourite ship... 

Andy 

Well as I said, I don’t eat a cooked breakfast but he seemed to be very pleased they had them...he went back for more but they had all gone! 🤣

[brian1]

11 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Brian was part of the entertainment team for P&O. 

He played triangle in a reggae band but gave it up because it was a bit repetitive.. 

Just one ting after another 😊

Andy 

I'm a cheerleader now at West Ham,but it's not working.

[Britboys]

14 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Brian was part of the entertainment team for P&O. 

He played triangle in a reggae band but gave it up because it was a bit repetitive.. 

Just one ting after another 😊

Andy 

Noooooooo Andy - don't encourage him 😂

[Tablelamp]

14 hours ago, Lottie A said:

Well as I said, I don’t eat a cooked breakfast but he seemed to be very pleased they had them...he went back for more but they had all gone! 🤣

 

[Tablelamp]

I have always found that instead of moaning AFTER the event, find a chef (with a tall hat) and make the point re items on the buffet at the time.   Works wonders.

[Lottie A]

2 hours ago, Tablelamp said:

I have always found that instead of moaning AFTER the event, find a chef (with a tall hat) and make the point re items on the buffet at the time.   Works wonders.

I don’t think the running out of golden triangles was really that important to my friend and we weren’t “moaning” ....but thanks for your advice about the chef in a tall hat! 🙄

[AndyMichelle]

On 11/28/2019 at 11:59 AM, Lottie A said:

I don’t think the running out of golden triangles was really that important to my friend and we weren’t “moaning” ....but thanks for your advice about the chef in a tall hat! 🙄

It's important to me and I would have a proper moan😊

Perhaps the chef is hiding them under his tall hat.... 

Andy 

[Presto2]

Have just been thinking about Oceana as she is our next cruise and read through this thread.

 

We sailed on Celebrity's new ship Edge last year for a special anniversary and I have to say that the ship, cabin and buffet / dining options were incredible. (They even had the triangle things ;-)). We thought she was the best ship we had ever been on and the whole experience faultless. (It cost us a fortune though!)

 

Having said that, we are still really looking forward to returning to our beautiful Oceana and P&O in August. We wanted to make sure that we make the most of it while they still have her in the fleet.  As long as they don't run out of Pinot Grigio I'll be fine ;-)

[AndyMichelle]

1 hour ago, Presto2 said:

Have just been thinking about Oceana as she is our next cruise and read through this thread.

 

We sailed on Celebrity's new ship Edge last year for a special anniversary and I have to say that the ship, cabin and buffet / dining options were incredible. (They even had the triangle things ;-)). We thought she was the best ship we had ever been on and the whole experience faultless. (It cost us a fortune though!)

 

Having said that, we are still really looking forward to returning to our beautiful Oceana and P&O in August. We wanted to make sure that we make the most of it while they still have her in the fleet.  As long as they don't run out of Pinot Grigio I'll be fine 😉

Oceana is still a lovely ship, just a bit loud for us. Partly due to the layout and partly due to them trying to squeeze too much entertainment/things to do in to limited space. 

Obviously this could change from cruise to cruise. 

Usual P&O niggles, but we still had a great value for money holiday and I'm sure you will too. 

Andy 

 

[Presto2]

4 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

Usual P&O niggles, but we still had a great value for money holiday and I'm sure you will too. 

Andy 

 

 

The last 2 week fly / med cruise we did in August was one of the best cruises we have ever had. Know that she will not disappoint !

[brian1]

6 hours ago, AndyMichelle said:

It's important to me and I would have a proper moan😊

Perhaps the chef is hiding them under his tall hat.... 

Andy 

He's probably growing the mushrooms on them,lol.Just drove from Como to Metz,6hrs.Just got the result GOYI.