New HAL President

[kazu]

1 minute ago, Copper10-8 said:

 

"FDR" = Franklin Delano Roosevelt? 😎

 

Frank Del Ro.  

He was in charge of O until NCL took over and he became their top guy there so O was no longer his baby.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

1 hour ago, kazu said:

 

Frank Del Ro.  

He was in charge of O until NCL took over and he became their top guy there so O was no longer his baby.

 

Also known as Frank Del FEEo on the NCL boards since under his tenure NCL has become the Nickel and dime Cruise Line. He's famously being quoted as viewing passengers as ATM's and wanting to "withdraw" an additional $100/day in revenue from each guest.......

 

Seriously though, I think that the decline in service/food on Oceania after the acquisition by NCL was driven by the debt load and Frank's desire to make NCL more mainstream premium than budget and as a result resources were diverted away from Oceania. Now that most of the NCL fleet has been through revitalizations there was a pre-shutdown focus on the older Oceania vessels and revitalizing them.

 

Oceania's product has become rather "meh". With mainstream lines often offering a more inclusive product than Oceania at lower per diems, other than ship size there's not much else to make them standout in the market. In some ways they are suffering the same squeeze as HAL. 

 

 

[rkacruiser]

20 hours ago, kazu said:

I took a sip of my coffee and then I saw the crack.  A huge crack in the coffee cup.  

 

1980, a Hamburg-Southampton-New York crossing on QE2 in Tourist Class at tea in the Queen's Lounge:

 

The tea service had cracks in the cups and pot; no tea spoons.  (I have a photo of stirring his tea with his pocket knife.)  

 

While most service aboard was acceptable to one truly exceptional experience by a Deck Steward, it was a sailing that ranks as #61 in my "Hit Parade".  Labor trouble was the problem.  If the crew is unhappy; the guests will be unhappy.

 

We had friends sailing in First Class during that sailing and they were as displeased with their First Class experiences as my friend and I was in Tourist Class.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

23 hours ago, kazu said:

 

Sorry for the long post but with the fleet shrinking, I know people may have to look for options.  DH is probably the most easy going guy I know.  He personally wrote a letter to the HD and he will never set foot on O again.
 

 

 

No, I appreciate hearing about your experience.  This actually convinces me to stay clear.  We put so much time, effort, and additional travel expense just to get to a cruise ship, that I get really annoyed over avoidable subpar experiences.  With O's pricing, I would be livid.

 

We did a 14 night partial Panama Canal transit transit on the Carnival Pride, and nearly flew home on day 11 from St. Maarten.  Maintenance issues were over the top (stabilizers down, a gangway down, veranda door handle fell off and stripped...), lunch options were on par with a school cafeteria, and passenger behavior steadily declined (ending with intentional sneezing on each other, pushing and shoving in the buffet, F bombs around the pool crowd, open spousal abuse).  

 

Our last experience on Celebrity had some of these same issues, but it wasn't quite bad enough to look up airfare.  Thanks for the warning, we don't need a third version with O!.

 

 

[kazu]

10 minutes ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

No, I appreciate hearing about your experience.  This actually convinces me to stay clear.  We put so much time, effort, and additional travel expense just to get to a cruise ship, that I get really annoyed over avoidable subpar experiences.  With O's pricing, I would be livid.

 

We did a 14 night partial Panama Canal transit transit on the Carnival Pride, and nearly flew home on day 11 from St. Maarten.  Maintenance issues were over the top (stabilizers down, a gangway down, veranda door handle fell off and stripped...), lunch options were on par with a school cafeteria, and passenger behavior steadily declined (ending with intentional sneezing on each other, pushing and shoving in the buffet, F bombs around the pool crowd, open spousal abuse).  

 

Our last experience on Celebrity had some of these same issues, but it wasn't quite bad enough to look up airfare.  Thanks for the warning, we don't need a third version with O!.

 

 

 

O had some good points, no question.  If I could put our stateroom on a blue hulled beauty it would have been wonderful.

 

In case it is of help to you or anyone else - here is the LIVE thread I did at the time - 

And here is the comparison of O and HAL I did on the HAL board:

 

 

 

We sailed nearly two years ago so take that into consideration.

[ABoatNerd]

On 7/17/2020 at 10:32 PM, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

 

Also known as Frank Del FEEo on the NCL boards since under his tenure NCL has become the Nickel and dime Cruise Line. He's famously being quoted as viewing passengers as ATM's and wanting to "withdraw" an additional $100/day in revenue from each guest.......

 

Seriously though, I think that the decline in service/food on Oceania after the acquisition by NCL was driven by the debt load and Frank's desire to make NCL more mainstream premium than budget and as a result resources were diverted away from Oceania. Now that most of the NCL fleet has been through revitalizations there was a pre-shutdown focus on the older Oceania vessels and revitalizing them.

 

Oceania's product has become rather "meh". With mainstream lines often offering a more inclusive product than Oceania at lower per diems, other than ship size there's not much else to make them standout in the market. In some ways they are suffering the same squeeze as HAL. 

 

 

 

AtlantaCruiser72.

 

I agree with your assessment of Oceania. What an over promoted product versus the reality of the pre virus offering.  Did many Oceania voyages but stopped in late 2018 after their new menu was released.  Us and all our friends now refuse to sail on Oceania.

 

Another thing, Oceania has a tendency to eliminate ports, the sheer numbers of posters who complained about this on their board and the repeated references in Reviews - makes me very uneasy about booking Oceania. Also the onboard guest relations and officer group are cold and unfriendly. I heard the words No considerably more on Oceania than RCL, Viking, HAL etc.

 

I do not know how much of Frank was embedded in Oceania but that line totally turned me and our friends off. 

[iancal]

Fortunately O is not the only game in town.  There are others to choose from in the future if this is not your preference.  Hardly an either or choice.

Edited July 19, 2020 by iancal

[ABoatNerd]

iancal, hope so, but who knows what the future offerings will be.

 

Will wait and see what lines are retained, what their product is etc.

[rkacruiser]

These most recent posts have encouraged me to throw the O brochures I receive into the trash without breaking their seals.  I have friends who sailed on their former R Class ships and did not like them when they were Renaissance ships.  Deck plans of the O reincarnations have never shown much change.

[RuthC]

35 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

These most recent posts have encouraged me to throw the O brochures I receive into the trash without breaking their seals.

You can contact Oceania and ask that they not send you those brochures. I did, and found them quite responsive. The brochures stopped coming shortly after I made the request. 
After my cruise on them I decided that line was a 'one and done' experience. 

[CJcruzer]

2 hours ago, RuthC said:

You can contact Oceania and ask that they not send you those brochures. I did, and found them quite responsive. The brochures stopped coming shortly after I made the request. 
After my cruise on them I decided that line was a 'one and done' experience. 

 

pretty much the same for me... we sailed with them 2007, they were competing with the newly formed Azamara - so there were some decent prices w/bonuses.  What drew me to them was going through the Kiel Canal AND 3 days in St Petersburg, Russia, and an overnight in Stockholm (great to visit the ice bar).  It was a toss-up between Prinsendam and Oceania.

 

Food was excellent, at that time - but I agree with previous poster 

13 hours ago, ABoatNerd said:

the onboard guest relations and officer group are cold and unfriendly. 

 

A year later, Azamara was having their one year anniversary sale, and we booked 14 day Med cruise.  At that time it was not all-inclusive, and not named Azamara “Club” cruises.

 

We found the staff much warmer and relatable on Azamara. Food was pretty much on par with Oceania, at that time.

 

It appears that the food quality on Oceania may have declined somewhat when they came under the NCL umbrella. Azamara prices skyrocketed when they became more inclusive, Azamazing evenings, etc.

 

Carol