Impressions of First Time O Cruiser Just Back from Riviera

[giustot]

We just returned from our first cruise on Oceania and I thought I'd share some impressions. If you'd like to see some of the pictures of some of the meals we had and places we visited please take a look on my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/tom.giusto.16 If you have trouble with the link just google "Facebook Tom Giusto ABC News."

 

I've cruised for almost 30 years on everything from Carnival to Regent. We wanted to try Oceania. The bottom line is I feel Oceania is a very good cruise line (especially for people who like food) that has the potential to be an excellent cruise line if management does a better job of improving service and making it consistent. We had some great food in lovely restaurants, the PH1 room was nice, the entertainment could have been better, and while many crew were friendly and personable, the overall level of consistent service needs to move up a notch.

 

After reading some posts, I came aboard fearing cruise director Dottie was the monster of the microphone. But I actually liked her (and her husband comedian Tom Drake) and I thought she was very passionate about her job which she loved. It is the cruise director's job to tell people what's happening on the ship. I didn't think Dottie went too far.

 

FOOD: We were fortunate to eat twice in each of the four specialty restaurants on our 10-day cruise. I agree with posters who say Red Ginger is their favorite restaurant. It was excellent in every way. Two dishes, the spiced crispy duck and watermelon salad, and the Miso Chilean sea bass, were two of the best dishes you will get on at any Asian restaurant at sea or on land. Jacques was second on our list. Its French food was very good and the Napoleon dessert was one of my favorites. The Italian restaurant was also very good with many choices including homemade pasta. Although, I think the choose your olive oil option (as well as the choose your chopsticks option in Red Ginger) is a bit much. The steak house was good but it's my feeling steak houses at sea always have a hard time competing with the real thing on land. We ate once in the GDR and the lobster Pad Thai was excellent. Also, once in the Terrace Grill where there were always grilled steaks and lobster tails available with a selection of other quality food items. Definitely the best overall food we've had on a premium line.

 

DRINKS: The premium beverage package would have cost $70 a day or $1400 for two people for the cruise. I don't drink very much. We decided not to take the package and order whatever we wanted whenever we wanted it. Our combined drink bill was about $400. We took advantage of the 2 for 1 happy hours.

 

ROOM: We were in a PH1 which we booked for the extra space. In my opinion, extra space is the only reason to book a suite. The other amenities, butler, early boarding, three free bags of laundry, and access to the executive lounge, were not that important to me. I rarely used the butler, who was reactive rather than pro-active. I did enjoy the canapes but you can always bring your own food back to the room. The free laundry takes three days. The executive lounge was convenient for coffee but not really used for much else. And from what I saw, you can pretty much board whenever you get there as long as the ship is boarding. We were on before our noon assigned time.

 

ENTERTAINMENT: Could have been better. The production cast did a good job and the singing was done to live music. Tom Drake did two comedy shows and a ventriloquist did another two. The string quartet was excellent. The overall entertainment could have been a little higher quality. We had one lecturer who talked about the Caribbean, but he was scheduled at 9:30 am. I poked my head in the last day and counted only 30 people in the audience.

 

CONCLUSIONS: Oceania does a great job on the food. I agree with posters who have said management needs to do a better job. There should be more consistent personal interaction between passengers, crew and senior officers. I think the passenger service experience needs to be improved to the point where all passengers truly feel they are valued as customers. In my opinion that is the big difference between Oceania and a full luxury line like Regent. The crew should have done a better job of always greeting passengers, making sure they had what they needed and offering to brink beverages without being asked. If I was drinking a soft drink at dinner, only once was it refilled without being asked. The senior officers definitely need to interact more with the passengers. These may be little things but it's what differentiates a very good cruise line from an excellent cruise line.

[orchestrapal]

Very well put.
Service, service, service is what has us loving Crystal while still also

shopping Oceania . The butler service deteriorated when the European

butlers were no longer serving on O in our opinion. 

Edited November 29, 2019 by orchestrapal

[pna]

Thank you for sharing your review.   Loved looking at the pictures on Facebook.   Looking forward to our first Oceania voyage in February.   Have done Celebrity, Disney and Princess.  Of those Celebrity was our favorite.  We are doing a 12 Day Caribbean.   Did you do any private or ship excursions? 

[LHT28]

Did they raise the price of the Prestige package?   It still says $59.95 pd  pp

The package is not for everyone

 

Thanks for sharing

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review!

[Nachosdelux]

Thanks for the nice review. I feel exactly the same about the noticeable difference in service between Oceania and Seabourn. We do love the food on Oceania.

[RJB]

3 hours ago, giustot said:

We just returned from our first cruise on Oceania and I thought I'd share some impressions. If you'd like to see some of the pictures of some of the meals we had and places we visited please take a look on my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/tom.giusto.16 If you have trouble with the link just google "Facebook Tom Giusto ABC News."

 

I've cruised for almost 30 years on everything from Carnival to Regent. We wanted to try Oceania. The bottom line is I feel Oceania is a very good cruise line (especially for people who like food) that has the potential to be an excellent cruise line if management does a better job of improving service and making it consistent. We had some great food in lovely restaurants, the PH1 room was nice, the entertainment could have been better, and while many crew were friendly and personable, the overall level of consistent service needs to move up a notch.

 

After reading some posts, I came aboard fearing cruise director Dottie was the monster of the microphone. But I actually liked her (and her husband comedian Tom Drake) and I thought she was very passionate about her job which she loved. It is the cruise director's job to tell people what's happening on the ship. I didn't think Dottie went too far.

 

FOOD: We were fortunate to eat twice in each of the four specialty restaurants on our 10-day cruise. I agree with posters who say Red Ginger is their favorite restaurant. It was excellent in every way. Two dishes, the spiced crispy duck and watermelon salad, and the Miso Chilean sea bass, were two of the best dishes you will get on at any Asian restaurant at sea or on land. Jacques was second on our list. Its French food was very good and the Napoleon dessert was one of my favorites. The Italian restaurant was also very good with many choices including homemade pasta. Although, I think the choose your olive oil option (as well as the choose your chopsticks option in Red Ginger) is a bit much. The steak house was good but it's my feeling steak houses at sea always have a hard time competing with the real thing on land. We ate once in the GDR and the lobster Pad Thai was excellent. Also, once in the Terrace Grill where there were always grilled steaks and lobster tails available with a selection of other quality food items. Definitely the best overall food we've had on a premium line.

 

DRINKS: The premium beverage package would have cost $70 a day or $1400 for two people for the cruise. I don't drink very much. We decided not to take the package and order whatever we wanted whenever we wanted it. Our combined drink bill was about $400. We took advantage of the 2 for 1 happy hours.

 

ROOM: We were in a PH1 which we booked for the extra space. In my opinion, extra space is the only reason to book a suite. The other amenities, butler, early boarding, three free bags of laundry, and access to the executive lounge, were not that important to me. I rarely used the butler, who was reactive rather than pro-active. I did enjoy the canapes but you can always bring your own food back to the room. The free laundry takes three days. The executive lounge was convenient for coffee but not really used for much else. And from what I saw, you can pretty much board whenever you get there as long as the ship is boarding. We were on before our noon assigned time.

 

ENTERTAINMENT: Could have been better. The production cast did a good job and the singing was done to live music. Tom Drake did two comedy shows and a ventriloquist did another two. The string quartet was excellent. The overall entertainment could have been a little higher quality. We had one lecturer who talked about the Caribbean, but he was scheduled at 9:30 am. I poked my head in the last day and counted only 30 people in the audience.

 

CONCLUSIONS: Oceania does a great job on the food. I agree with posters who have said management needs to do a better job. There should be more consistent personal interaction between passengers, crew and senior officers. I think the passenger service experience needs to be improved to the point where all passengers truly feel they are valued as customers. In my opinion that is the big difference between Oceania and a full luxury line like Regent. The crew should have done a better job of always greeting passengers, making sure they had what they needed and offering to brink beverages without being asked. If I was drinking a soft drink at dinner, only once was it refilled without being asked. The senior officers definitely need to interact more with the passengers. These may be little things but it's what differentiates a very good cruise line from an excellent cruise line.

Sounds like we were on the same cruise.   I agree with just about all of it.  Thought the production shows were very good, much better than in the past.  Did not go to the other shows so can not comment.  You did a really good job with your review and I enjoyed reading it.  Now ready for another cruise.  Could be packed in 3 or 4 days.  Thanks for posting. 

[giustot]

The drink package may very well have been $60 a day. For some reason I thought it was $70. At $60 a day it becomes a little more worth while to get the pachage. For example, two cocktails at 2 for 1 is about $15. Two glasses of wine is about $30. So two cocktails and two glasses of wine costs about $45 a day. For the extra $15 you can drink as much as you want and you're not restricted by 2 for 1 happy hours.

[RJB]

14 minutes ago, giustot said:

The drink package may very well have been $60 a day. For some reason I thought it was $70. At $60 a day it becomes a little more worth while to get the pachage. For example, two cocktails at 2 for 1 is about $15. Two glasses of wine is about $30. So two cocktails and two glasses of wine costs about $45 a day. For the extra $15 you can drink as much as you want and you're not restricted by 2 for 1 happy hours.

Don't need to drink that much and we will bring a few bottles of vodka for happy hour in our cabin and will get a few bottles of wine from the ship and elsewhere.  It is easy to overindulge if it is free.    But everyone knows what they need. 

[StanandJim]

4 hours ago, giustot said:

The drink package may very well have been $60 a day. For some reason I thought it was $70. At $60 a day it becomes a little more worth while to get the pachage. For example, two cocktails at 2 for 1 is about $15. Two glasses of wine is about $30. So two cocktails and two glasses of wine costs about $45 a day. For the extra $15 you can drink as much as you want and you're not restricted by 2 for 1 happy hours.

+1

It should also be noted that if one takes the basic Beverage Package as ones O-Life Benefit, then the "everything goes" Package only costs $20 more per per person  day.  For us, that addition is a no brainer.