A Comparison Of Oceania And Celebrity Today

[njhorseman]

13 minutes ago, Aloha 1 said:

DW wishes they’d add a fish other than swordfish such as Dover Sole as the only thing she would eat is the lobster.

Does Toscana still have Dover Sole on their menu? If so, since Polo and Toscana share a galley if you were to ask Polo's maitre d' perhaps they would be willing to serve it Polo.

[Aloha 1]

23 hours ago, njhorseman said:

Does Toscana still have Dover Sole on their menu? If so, since Polo and Toscana share a galley if you were to ask Polo's maitre d' perhaps they would be willing to serve it Polo.

Brilliant idea and something I had not thought of. Will give it a try.

[Aloha 1]

Dinner at The Terrace last nite was fine. Fish was cooked al fresco just as DW wanted. I opted for some sushi and the beef and basil stir fry. The special ice cream of the evening - which I did not partake of - was “Elvis-The Fat Years”. Banana ice cream with peanut brittle and bacon.

 

Today was The Rock. Not Dwayne, but Gibraltar. Took the general tour which included St. Michael’s cave and the Barbary apes. A lot of military history here.

 

We had lunch in the Terrace before our tour. It was an English lunch with Steak and Onion Pie and Fish and Chips. Huge service breakdown. No malt vinegar and no tartar sauce. How do you serve fish and chips without either?? The fish was very soggy and mostly breading. Fish I had on Celebrity Edge was hot, crispy, and a true filet. DW went for the soup and they couldn’t find any soup bowls?? We went just as The Terrace opened and it was obvious they were not ready. There was a bit of a crew change in Barcelona

(new Captain and several new restaurant staffers) so that may have been part of it but still no excuse for the wait captain to not have made sure everything was set before opening.

 

Dinner tonite back at The Terrace. Haven’t found a menu this segment that appeals in the GDR - it’s a repeat of the first 7 days of our last segment.

[Aloha 1]

Today was supposed to be Casablanca. Everyone was excited to visit and shop the Souks. At 7:15 PM last nite, the Captain made an announcement that Moroccan authorities had still not advised whether we could dock the next morning. In  consult with Miami the decision was made to go to Cadiz instead. Many of the crew were happy with this as they said Cadiz was a better port. While true ( we’ve been here before) we did want to see Casablanca. Oh well. I believe this has happened to another O and an R cruise this year. Walked to the Mercado Central and around the shopping area for a couple hours and headed back to ship for lunch. Dinner tonite in Toscana.

[MarkWiltonM]

22 hours ago, Aloha 1 said:

Huge service breakdown. No malt vinegar and no tartar sauce. How do you serve fish and chips without either?? The fish was very soggy and mostly breading.

 

"The finest cuisine at sea"? Our next three cruises are on Oceania, after sailing mostly on Celebrity and Holland-America. Food is the most important thing to us on a cruise, but we've only had really good, really consistent food on Crystal. But we love the buffet on the new HAL ships (much more than Celebrity's buffet), and we like the MDR food on Celebrity more than HAL (except for HAL's Culinary Council dinners). We assumed Oceania would be a step up from both lines. Sorry to hear your experience with Oceania's food is so hit or miss. If the food isn't good on our first Oceania cruise on Sirena, we'll cancel the next two on Riviera and Vista.

[LHT28]

23 hours ago, Aloha 1 said:

Huge service breakdown. No malt vinegar and no tartar sauce.

In the past it used to be on the counter  in a gravy boat  with a spoon    not very  easy to get it on the plate

 

I have mentioned this in the cruise comment cards over the year that a bottle would be more convenient

[LHT28]

12 minutes ago, MarkWiltonM said:

If the food isn't good on our first Oceania cruise on Sirena, we'll cancel the next two on Riviera and Vista.

Maybe the New Crystal will be sailing  by then

 

I found the food on Crystal to be smothered in sauces   & had to keep asking for it on the side

 My favourite dish  was a shrimp appy  ..one shrimp cut in 3  pieces  with popcorn sprinkled around the plate  ...pure Luxury 🙄

[Aloha 1]

23 hours ago, MarkWiltonM said:

 

"The finest cuisine at sea"? Our next three cruises are on Oceania, after sailing mostly on Celebrity and Holland-America. Food is the most important thing to us on a cruise, but we've only had really good, really consistent food on Crystal. But we love the buffet on the new HAL ships (much more than Celebrity's buffet), and we like the MDR food on Celebrity more than HAL (except for HAL's Culinary Council dinners). We assumed Oceania would be a step up from both lines. Sorry to hear your experience with Oceania's food is so hit or miss. If the food isn't good on our first Oceania cruise on Sirena, we'll cancel the next two on Riviera and Vista.

We have cruised Oceania 7 times now with 4 more cruises booked through 2023. This is our first time on one of the R ships - the old Renaissance Cruises ships. The food on the Riviera and Marina, to our tastes , is superior to what we are getting on Nautica other than in Polo or Toscana. On the bigger ships, you have 3 additional stellar dining venues, Jacques, Red Ginger, and La Reserve. Frankly Celebrities Ocean View Cafe does not hold a candle to The Terrace. I can't speak for Sirena but the kitchen crew for The Terrace on Nautica isn't cutting it.

Edited July 31, 2022 by Aloha 1

[Aloha 1]

Welcome to Sevilla, Espana. A very interesting morning river cruise up the Guadalquivir  river, including passing through a lock barely wide enough to fit the ship ( let’s say about 24 inches on either side). Arriving in Seville, we were greeted with a weather forecast of 107 degrees. We are here for 2 days, sailing late on 8/1.

We had planned to do the walking tour and tapas excursion but with an expected temp of 105 at that time we have opted out. Of course, no refund.

A big complaint from  many passengers is O laid on only one shuttle bus to/from Central Seville. That bus only holds 39 and no standing is allowed . Well, each time the bus pulls in at the ship there are quite a few more than 39 people waiting for it. It takes about 45-50 minutes for the bus to make it’s circuit and a lot of upset passengers opted to just stay on board or try to call a taxi.

Dinner in the Terrace tonite is A Taste Of Spain. Dinner in Toscana last nite was excellent as always. I forgot to mention that the full olive oil and balsamico cart has been available for each of our 3 dinners there.

[LHT28]

3 hours ago, Aloha 1 said:

A big complaint from  many passengers is O laid on only one shuttle bus to/from Central Seville.

Usually the shuttles are run by the Port  authority

[Cruzin Terri]

5 hours ago, Aloha 1 said:

Welcome to Sevilla, Espana. A very interesting morning river cruise up the Guadalquivir  river, including passing through a lock barely wide enough to fit the ship ( let’s say about 24 inches on either side). Arriving in Seville, we were greeted with a weather forecast of 107 degrees. We are here for 2 days, sailing late on 8/1.

We had planned to do the walking tour and tapas excursion but with an expected temp of 105 at that time we have opted out. Of course, no refund.

A big complaint from  many passengers is O laid on only one shuttle bus to/from Central Seville. That bus only holds 39 and no standing is allowed . Well, each time the bus pulls in at the ship there are quite a few more than 39 people waiting for it. It takes about 45-50 minutes for the bus to make it’s circuit and a lot of upset passengers opted to just stay on board or try to call a taxi.

Dinner in the Terrace tonite is A Taste Of Spain. Dinner in Toscana last nite was excellent as always. I forgot to mention that the full olive oil and balsamico cart has been available for each of our 3 dinners there.

I was on the Nautica back in April/May for 22 days.  i thought the food in the Terrace Cafe was pretty good.  However Toscana and Polo were the best on the ship.

As for the shuttle bus in Seville, consider yourself lucky that there is one.  We did not have any.  If you didn’t walk, you were out of luck.  there were no taxis around either.  Our only saving grace was that the temps were quite a bit lower.

Terri

[Aloha 1]

8 minutes ago, Cruzin Terri said:

I was on the Nautica back in April/May for 22 days.  i thought the food in the Terrace Cafe was pretty good.  However Toscana and Polo were the best on the ship.

As for the shuttle bus in Seville, consider yourself lucky that there is one.  We did not have any.  If you didn’t walk, you were out of luck.  there were no taxis around either.  Our only saving grace was that the temps were quite a bit lower.

Terri

Ouch!

[Aloha 1]

Another very disappointing dinner at The Terrace. This has been our go to place on Riviera and Marina but Nautica just can’t seem get it right. Again, we arrived at opening for The Taste Of Spain buffet. The empanadas were cold and chewy, the ham and cheese croquettes were mostly bread with no hint of cheese and one tiny speck of ham in the whole thing. The paella wasn’t bad  and was hot but that’s because it was still in it’s cooking pan. I just cannot understand why the cook staff here cannot get it right. Consistently cold, soggy items when they should be hot and fresh as we’ve had so many times before on the other O ships. Maybe since Nautica was the last ship to restart , they got whatever kitchen crew were left over?

Wait staff has been very good but they aren’t doing the cooking.

[Aloha 1]

2 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Usually the shuttles are run by the Port  authority

The shuttle staff said O only requested one and they had suggested two. Really no port authority in Seville as it''s a river port not a sea port.

Edited July 31, 2022 by Aloha 1

[njhorseman]

59 minutes ago, Aloha 1 said:

Another very disappointing dinner at The Terrace. This has been our go to place on Riviera and Marina but Nautica just can’t seem get it right. Again, we arrived at opening for The Taste Of Spain buffet. The empanadas were cold and chewy, the ham and cheese croquettes were mostly bread with no hint of cheese and one tiny speck of ham in the whole thing. The paella wasn’t bad  and was hot but that’s because it was still in it’s cooking pan. I just cannot understand why the cook staff here cannot get it right. Consistently cold, soggy items when they should be hot and fresh as we’ve had so many times before on the other O ships. Maybe since Nautica was the last ship to restart , they got whatever kitchen crew were left over?

Wait staff has been very good but they aren’t doing the cooking.

In my relatively limited pre pandemic Oceania experience I found the Terrace Cafe on Marina to be far superior to the one on Insignia. 

My theory on why this is the case is that the R  ships were built in the days before ship buffets were heavily used dinner venues. The buffet was basically a place to grab a quick breakfast before going ashore or lunch after you returned. If you had the time at breakfast and lunch you ate in the dining room and you never ate dinner in the buffet. As a result the galley facilities in the Terrace Cafe are inadequate for dinner preparation. 

 

By the time  Marina and Riviera were built the buffet had become a regular heavily used dining venue so they were built with galley facilities to meet that need. I recall someone from the industry commenting that Marina and Riviera had unusually large galleys for ships of that size, being designed to accommodate Oceania's industry positioning as having "the finest cuisine at sea".

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, Aloha 1 said:

Another very disappointing dinner at The Terrace. This has been our go to place on Riviera and Marina but Nautica just can’t seem get it right. Again, we arrived at opening for The Taste Of Spain buffet. The empanadas were cold and chewy, the ham and cheese croquettes were mostly bread with no hint of cheese and one tiny speck of ham in the whole thing. The paella wasn’t bad  and was hot but that’s because it was still in it’s cooking pan. I just cannot understand why the cook staff here cannot get it right. Consistently cold, soggy items when they should be hot and fresh as we’ve had so many times before on the other O ships. Maybe since Nautica was the last ship to restart , they got whatever kitchen crew were left over?

Wait staff has been very good but they aren’t doing the cooking.

Ask to speak to the head Chef

 

[bbqoug]

25 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

In my relatively limited pre pandemic Oceania experience I found the Terrace Cafe on Marina to be far superior to the one on Insignia. 

 

That's an interesting observation regarding the O class vs. R class ships.

 

September will be our first Oceania cruise, and we plan on eating dinner at least once in the Terrace Cafe on Insignia.

Our comparison as far as food quality will be with the Azamara R class ships. We have had some very good dinner buffets on Azamara, especially their Indian themed night.

[LHT28]

37 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

In my relatively limited pre pandemic Oceania experience I found the Terrace Cafe on Marina to be far superior to the one on Insignia. 

My theory on why this is the case is that the R  ships were built in the days before ship buffets were heavily used dinner venues. The buffet was basically a place to grab a quick breakfast before going ashore or lunch after you returned.

 

Interesting

We have sailed on the R ships many times  mainly Insignia & Regatta

I found it depends on who is doing the cooking  and  when the new pans of food are brought out

 

Many times we noticed the hot pans in the buffet had no heat  (hot water) under them to keep the food warm  same as the O class ships

Depends when they bring the new tray of food from the kitchen  if it will be hot or luke warm

 

 I have asked a few times if they could get  freshly cooked items from the kitchen  if the pan is getting close to empty

 If you do not tell the Chef  they will just continue to serve mediocre  food

JMO

[pinotlover]

Having sailed Nautica 4 times, all pre Covid, I never found the dinner buffet to be overly enticing. Items that were cold, overcooked, soggy, etc. We always found the GDR on the Nautica to be far superior to the buffet. 
 

Might I recommend you give the buffet line a break and relook at the menu in the GDR? You may be delighted with the change.

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

Interesting

We have sailed on the R ships many times  mainly Insignia & Regatta

I found it depends on who is doing the cooking  and  when the new pans of food are brought out

 

Many times we noticed the hot pans in the buffet had no heat  (hot water) under them to keep the food warm  same as the O class ships

Depends when they bring the new tray of food from the kitchen  if it will be hot or luke warm

 

 I have asked a few times if they could get  freshly cooked items from the kitchen  if the pan is getting close to empty

 If you do not tell the Chef  they will just continue to serve mediocre  food

JMO

I'm not suggesting that the executive chef and staff aren't very important, but if you think about it there are any number of facilities on the R ships that are inadequate or lacking compared to the O ships such as:

Number of restaurants

Size of bathrooms in non suite cabins

Lack of concierge and executive lounges on the R ships

One laundry room on R ships versus five on the O ships

 

And as I said the O ships were built with so much galley space that you would think the ships were larger than they are. It's a lot easier to cook in a large well equipped kitchen than a small, cramped one that wasn't designed for the purpose it's now serving.

 

 

[LHT28]

34 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

I'm not suggesting that the executive chef and staff aren't very important, but if you think about it there are any number of facilities on the R ships that are inadequate or lacking compared to the O ships such as:

 

Ok  but I was discussing the food in the terrace

People that have sailed on the R ships  either love em or hate em but they are what they are

If you sail on them you accept them warts & all 😉

 

[njhorseman]

29 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Ok  but I was discussing the food in the terrace

People that have sailed on the R ships  either love em or hate em but they are what they are

If you sail on them you accept them warts & all 😉

 

I understand that you were discussing the food in the Terrace Cafe, but remember my hypothesis is that it's inferior to the food in the Terrace Cafe on O ships due to inadequate galley facilities, just as there are numerous other inadequate facilities on the R ships...and I was enumerating some of the other inadequacies.

Sometimes I wonder why I'm booked on the 2024 ATW on Insignia...will I be able to survive 180 days on an R ship??? 😲

Edited July 31, 2022 by njhorseman

[LHT28]

2 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

I understand that you were discussing the food in the Terrace Cafe, but remember my hypothesis is that it's inferior to the food in the Terrace Cafe on O ships due to inadequate galley facilities,

 

Or maybe just poorly trained  kitchen staff

 We have had  meh  food on the O class ships in the Terrace  as well

 Same in the  Specialties

DH  was served raw chicken skewers in Red Ginger  & Bad  Dover sole in Jacques    took me months to get him back on Oceania ☹️

 

I am sure  you will have a memorable  ATW cruise 😉

 

[Aloha 1]

18 hours ago, njhorseman said:

In my relatively limited pre pandemic Oceania experience I found the Terrace Cafe on Marina to be far superior to the one on Insignia. 

My theory on why this is the case is that the R  ships were built in the days before ship buffets were heavily used dinner venues. The buffet was basically a place to grab a quick breakfast before going ashore or lunch after you returned. If you had the time at breakfast and lunch you ate in the dining room and you never ate dinner in the buffet. As a result the galley facilities in the Terrace Cafe are inadequate for dinner preparation. 

 

By the time  Marina and Riviera were built the buffet had become a regular heavily used dining venue so they were built with galley facilities to meet that need. I recall someone from the industry commenting that Marina and Riviera had unusually large galleys for ships of that size, being designed to accommodate Oceania's industry positioning as having "the finest cuisine at sea".

A very good point and I concur.

Edited August 1, 2022 by Aloha 1

[Aloha 1]

Did a tour of the Old Quarter and the Alcazar today. Very informative. Saw a statue of El Cid, (remember the movie with Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren from 1961?) He is still considered a great hero of Spain even though he sometimes sided with the Moorish rulers and other times with the Christian Spaniards. Toured the Old Quarter and the Alcazar, the former palace of the Moors and now a Royal palace for the King of Spain. Really brought to life the mixed cultures that made up what we call Spain today. A little cooler today, only 106.

The Christian Spaniards did not tear down the Moorish buildings but rather adapted them by adding Christian reliefs and other symbols. The Juderia, Jewish quarter, was actually one of the nicest neighborhoods in Seville and protected by the King. When the Inquisition forced them out, many went to North Africa as they had lived peacefully with the Moors before.

Seville is a very lovely city and very clean. We only wish it weren’t like Dante’s Inferno. Dinner in Polo tonite. I’ll try njhorseman’s suggestion for DW to order the dover sole from Toscana.