Regatta Disappointment

[MEFIowa]

14 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

As you say, those issues are *subjective*, so why are you looking for an objective issue?

OP is reporting *their* experiences/perceptions. ... I'm a bit perplexed by the response to OP.

The OP was rather quite the downer as regards the O experience and food. Trying to flesh out any substance to the complaints is relevant to any analysis of same. The OP mainly about food issues. Was hard to even discern much about the cruise experience outside of the food issues. Just reading it, without the follow ups, what could you say about the rest of the experience? I couldn't say much, since there wasn't much to discuss except food. But we all know cruising is more than food. It includes cabins, excursions, activities, events, and more.

 

IF all they are remain subjective issues tied entirely to one person's expectations and experience, impossible to generalize to others.

[MEFIowa]

16 hours ago, nadalina said:

... No, I did not attend any of the solo gatherings. #1, I wasn’t invited to any, and #2, I would not have gone even if I had been because I wasn’t there to meet other single people. I signed up to share my tables everywhere so I could meet others, no matter the age, ethnicity or marital status.

Solo events and gatherings are clearly publicized in the daily Currents. As are all such things, solo or not. While the Repeater Party needs an invite, the Captain's Party does not. Nor do the many activities and gatherings publicized daily (whether AA/NA, religious services, veterans' gatherings, etc.).

 

I haven't cruised solo either time on O. BUT the solo cruisers I did meet and interact with left quite the impression on me. The retired USAF officer doctor on Riviera (12/2021), recently widowed. Or the elegant German woman on Sirena (11/2022). I'm in my late 50s. Both of them were considerable older than my wife and I. But we enjoyed our many interactions with both, whether in the Terrace Cafe or around the ship.

[marieps]

On 5/19/2023 at 7:09 PM, nadalina said:

Hahaha…..you’re right, of course, we did sail out of San Pedro. I flew into and stayed in Long Beach but I do know the difference. Thanks for calling me out on it though. 

How even tempered the OP is with this reply.  Bravo.

[shepherd really]

8 minutes ago, marieps said:

How even tempered the OP is with this reply.  Bravo.

Yes, I certainly didn't get an "impossible to please" vibe from her posts, and I'm kind of an expert in that department 😁

Edited May 21, 2023 by shepherd really

[PhD-iva]

1 hour ago, MEFIowa said:

Solo events and gatherings are clearly publicized in the daily Currents. As are all such things, solo or not. While the Repeater Party needs an invite, the Captain's Party does not. Nor do the many activities and gatherings publicized daily (whether AA/NA, religious services, veterans' gatherings, etc.).

 

I haven't cruised solo either time on O. 

When I cruise solo on Oceania, and on Regent, I receive a personalized invitation to each solo event, left for me in my state room. It has occurred that some solos were overlooked, which was rectified as soon as the associate cruise director in charge of solo events was made aware. Yes, the events are generally listed in Currents but are easily overlooked if one scans the list quickly.

[MEFIowa]

22 minutes ago, PhD-iva said:

... Yes, the events are generally listed in Currents but are easily overlooked if one scans the list quickly.

From the very first "issue" I ever saw (on Riviera 12/2021), I quickly learned that Currents was something to be studied carefully each night for the next day's events. Wife and I go over it each evening on board. I even save mine. Thus, off Sirena 11/20/22 Day 3 shows "6:30 pm Solo Travelers Social Get-Together with Social Hostess Kate [Claussen] Horizons (10)". Which she did again on Day 7. I assume that solo travelers would get any special invitations to other solo events that don't make it in the Currents.

[PhD-iva]

50 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

From the very first "issue" I ever saw (on Riviera 12/2021), I quickly learned that Currents was something to be studied carefully each night for the next day's events. Wife and I go over it each evening on board. I even save mine. Thus, off Sirena 11/20/22 Day 3 shows "6:30 pm Solo Travelers Social Get-Together with Social Hostess Kate [Claussen] Horizons (10)". Which she did again on Day 7. I assume that solo travelers would get any special invitations to other solo events that don't make it in the Currents.

Agree, however sometimes I am soooo busy having fun that I don’t “study” carefully enuf. I missed my “beginner’s” Party w the Captain on my first Regent cruise. Oh well! Had a blast anyway.

[jondfk]

Reading the OP's comments brought back a few memories from our first O cruise in April of '22.  

 

Our first meal or two in the GDR were acceptable, not great, but acceptable.  Things when bad on night 3 or 4 when we, seated at a table for 2, were chained to an adjacent table for 10, nothing could happen until the large table made their selections.  No course could arrive before the matching course at that table.  No big deal you say, well it becomes one if they want 6 courses and we 3.  Dinner took hours (and hours).  Not wanting to repeat the experience we had a discrete word with one of the mangers on the way out.  The problem was absolutely and completely solved for all of the subsequent nights.

 

What can you learn about me from this experience.  Well, first, I'm probably too patient, rather than have my own meal drag on for hours driven someone else's preferences I should have spoke up sooner.  On the other hand, speaking out that night, firmly but politely, did solve the problems for the balance of our sailing.  We still laugh (and yes, seethe a little) thinking back on that early O meal, but we do accept that problems that aren't raised can't be solved.  Should there be problems, ideally not, but unfortunately they do happen and have to be dealt with.

 

 

[Snaefell3]

56 minutes ago, jondfk said:

Reading the OP's comments brought back a few memories from our first O cruise in April of '22.  

⋮

 

Your comment about "memories" reminds me of a lesson learned on Celebrity in it's Chandris days (where the Χ comes from) and fixed dining.

 

On only our second cruise, we were assigned a 6-top, and one couple disappeared before the soup 🙄 on the first night.  By night 3, we had finally had had enough too -- the lady had gotten up at the beginning of soup complaining about her back, wandered around for 15-20 minutes, came back, complained her soup was cold, and demanded a new bowl.

 

Before we left the MDR that night, we sought out the maître d', whose comment was "we were waiting for you to say something".  The couple were regulars and notorious.  Got a nice 2-top for the rest of the voyage.

[bphman]

We just got off the May 11th Regatta sailing and I have to say that the food was not up to Oceania's standard. This was our third Oceania cruise and the food and service was off considerably.  I have written a complete review that has not posted yet.  We came back to Oceania based on prior experience and I echo the concerns of many that the food was just OK.  We did not use room service so I have no comments.  The Terrace Grill where we only had lunch had limited selections and some dishes were not good.  The freshly grilled swordfish was not edible.  The other grilled items were fair.  The roast pig was exceptional but the baron of beef was tough as leather.  The MDR food was OK at best.  Prime rib was tasteless and cold.  Lobster had been cooked out of the shell and my wife said it was fishy and the temperature was inconsistent.  The last night, I had escargot and was rushed as we were on a few occasions.  Never got our entrees and our table was cleared including the wine glasses and we were handed dessert menus.  We had to wait even longer for our main course.  For breakfast I ordered scrambled eggs and broiled kippers.  The eggs (tasted powdered) came with CAPERS.  I said I ordered KIPPERS.  By the way, capers go well with eggs.  I can accept language issues.  But the kippers came long after we finished as we were getting up to leave.  These are just a few.  So, I have to agree with the OP that something is wrong and needs to be corrected.  The wine selections were excellent as was the sommelier service but the food and service was not.  Yes, I did mention all of this to the Maitre 'd and I completed survey but all I got were apologies but no improvement in service or food quality.   So, for all those bashing the OP, leave her alone.  The food was subpar on this sailing.  

[FlyerTalker]

On 5/19/2023 at 2:57 PM, MarkWiltonM said:

I do think Oceania's marketing of "the finest cuisine at sea" is a classic case of "overpromise and underdeliver." 

 

Remember that "The finest cuisine at sea" is a trademark.  Says it all.

 

 

[jonthomas]

Very troubling to hear this. We are on the Regatta for 27 days in Sept.

 

Food is the number one issue for us. Yes we are very picky. But after Viking Star in March/April, I could no longer be picky about O. Yes Viking food was that terrible. 

We dont do room service, we dont eat sea food. Im sure we will be fine. 

[Snaefell3]

12 hours ago, bphman said:

We just got off the May 11th Regatta sailing and I have to say that the food was not up to Oceania's standard.

⋮

For breakfast I ordered scrambled eggs and broiled kippers.  The eggs (tasted powdered)....

We were on Regatta with you    ::waves "Hi!"::

 

It was our first Oceania cruise, so I can't comment on the (to us) wonderful food vs Oceania's standard.

 

I've chowed on powdered eggs too often, and the scrambled eggs I ate aboard definitely weren't powdered.  Our one downcheck was that the GDR never did figure out how to get an "over medium" egg delivered "over medium".   Terrace?  Yep.  GDR?  Nope.

[LHT28]

19 minutes ago, Snaefell3 said:

  Our one downcheck was that the GDR never did figure out how to get an "over medium" egg delivered "over medium".   Terrace?  Yep.  GDR?  Nope.

Maybe  the longer distance  from stove to table  in the GDR  the egg continues to cook while waiting  to arrive at the table   vs  standing at the window the egg is on your plate  & in your mouth within minutes

 

Our  complaint if it is one  is the food  does not arrive HOT  in the GDR  sometimes  warm but rarely HOT

 

[Snaefell3]

2 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Maybe  the longer distance  from stove to table  in the GDR  the egg continues to cook while waiting  to arrive at the table   vs  standing at the window the egg is on your plate  & in your mouth within minutes

 

 

Plausible 'cept the GDR always managed to get the avocado toast's poached egg just right. 

 

::resumes scratching his head::

[m1k2s3]

We are on the Regatta right now. First, a couple of reference points- we have done 6 Oceania cruises and 2 of them have been on the Regatta. However, our last cruise was 3 years ago ( thanks to the pandemic) so for us, this was us getting back to cruising with a cruise line we loved.

 

The some of the things we loved about Oceania are still true - exceptional service, great itineraries, clean comfortable cabins.  Food was of course important but I’ve always found opinions are somewhat objective, what I expect or like you may not. Having said that we found the food in the main dining room and the specialty restaurants was still very good, exactly as we remembered however, the food in the terrace cafe was, in some cases, just ok. Nothing really wrong ( well except my husband had issues with his over easy eggs on 2 occasions) just not what we expected.

 

One thing I did notice is that there seemed to be a lot of staff being trained, particularly in the Terrace Cafe. 
 

Would we go on another Oceania cruise after this? Absolutely!! In fact, we’re looking at a couple of cruises we’re hoping to book on board.

 

 

[AMHuntFerry]

10 minutes ago, m1k2s3 said:

We are on the Regatta right now. First, a couple of reference points- we have done 6 Oceania cruises and 2 of them have been on the Regatta. However, our last cruise was 3 years ago ( thanks to the pandemic) so for us, this was us getting back to cruising with a cruise line we loved.

 

The some of the things we loved about Oceania are still true - exceptional service, great itineraries, clean comfortable cabins.  Food was of course important but I’ve always found opinions are somewhat objective, what I expect or like you may not. Having said that we found the food in the main dining room and the specialty restaurants was still very good, exactly as we remembered however, the food in the terrace cafe was, in some cases, just ok. Nothing really wrong ( well except my husband had issues with his over easy eggs on 2 occasions) just not what we expected.

 

One thing I did notice is that there seemed to be a lot of staff being trained, particularly in the Terrace Cafe. 
 

Would we go on another Oceania cruise after this? Absolutely!! In fact, we’re looking at a couple of cruises we’re hoping to book on board.

 

 

Great to hear! I was wondering if the transition from South Seas to Alaska had a large staff turnover. We were on Regatta last fall and were pleased with almost everything (customs line-up process in SFO was a cluster), and are booked on Regatta again in June and September.

[basor]

These vastly different experiences on the same ship sailing within weeks or on same sailing show that everyone's expectations can be varied.    

[Robroy]

We were also on the May 11th Pacific Coastal as our first O voyage and overall we had a very nice time. A previous poster had described O as "Regent Lite" which was one of the reasons we wanted to try this line as we have loved Regent in the past but have found their pricing has increased too much in the past year. As we aren't big drinkers and like to explore on our own, this seemed like a good fit.

We both love food and recognize that this is a very subjective issue - suffice to say that all venues we tried were very good. Food was hot with one exception (last night in GDR Beef Wellington was lukewarm) but service was uniformly excellent. Desserts are normally my wife's favourite but she felt they were just average. Like the OP, I loved the daily souffles though and always found something to enjoy. We did find the menu in the GDR did favour seafood lovers (me!) over people who didn't care for seafood (my wife) but she did always find something. Food in the Terrace Cafe was good IMHO - variety and quality excellent but you really need to go off-peak as the traffic chaos is crazy at times with a version of human bumper cars going on. I overheard several people saying they had enough and left the buffet - easy solution though to come at a less busy time.

One thing I definately wanted to mention is we found the entertainment to be first-rate. The singers and dancers were a very talented group of young people who gave their all. I've seen in various reviews that entertainment was very weak and catered to only the extremely elderly (we're early 70's) - we thought it was very good. We haven't been on Princess or any mainstream lines since 2006 so thinking back it didn't compare to large production reviews but then again you aren't on a ship with 3000 of your newest friends either.

The ship is in beautiful condition and we loved the wood and features that an older ship provides - very similar to the Regent Navigator. In summary, with food as the OP's main issue, I think the advertising about "best food at sea" needs to be taken with a grain of salt - as others have posted. We fortunately enjoyed the service and food enough to consider returning and would encourage others to give it a try and decide for themselves. I appreciate the information on this board which helped us make a well-informed decision to give O a try!

[Rally]

On 5/21/2023 at 8:48 AM, pinotlover said:

An important point on returning food abroad ship. We most typically enjoy sharing at dinner. Part of the enjoyment of cruising and traveling for us the the wide assortment of interesting people we meet. Some of our table mates hate the leisurely pace of dinner we enjoy on Oceania. This opinion is consistently repeated here on CC, with some even complaining about people ordering four (4) courses! 😳

 

The last time I sent a steak back, it was ordered medium rare and came out near carbonized. The process, in a busy Polo Grill, took about 15-20 minutes to get our ( actually it happened to another of us at the table) replaced steaks. The third couple at the table were beside themselves! They had finished their course before our food had arrived and were mad at us because we were making them wait so long for dessert and to finish.”

Before my wife died recently we sailed frequently, first on Regent (100 or so nights) then Silver Sea (about 80 nights) and finally Crystal (27 Crystal cruises). When we started we always joined a table and somehow i usually ended up the last to order.  I always quietly asked the waiter how many courses others at the table had ordered and made sure to not order the most at the table. That worked well for us (although i always managed to work in that sherbet “palette refresher.”)  As time and our age moved on we began dining at a table for two, and as my wife’s health declined I naturally tailored my courses to hers, finally settling on an app and entree.  Being with her came to be more important than the food.  The waiters and dining manager knew us and the service evolved with us.  We were lucky and never had a dish we had to send back; better lucky than smart, but true, and that applies to each cruise line we sailed.

 

my wife has been gone just over a year and I talked to our TA about a solo world cruise.  To her credit she talked me out of it until I sailed a short “test” cruise.  Not a test of the line or ship but of myself.  So I am booked in a solo cabin with a window on Regatta June 9, r/t Seattle.  It will be my third Alaskan cruise (both on Regent) including one with two of our grandchildren when they were very young.  I just returned from visiting our son and his family in Texas.  It was my first “solo” trip anywhere since my Mary passed and I think I did ok.  I look forward to this cruise on Oceania.  I have always heard good things but honestly its Oceania because they had the right cruise at the right time in the right place.  I look forward to it.

 

please don’t beat up on the OP. I think she knew the loyalists would come out with guns blazing but yet decided to share her experience and opinion.  I value hers and others but I try to remember that the 9nly opinion that matters, now, is my own.  The vast majority of our fellow travelors on this planet never can even conceive of leisure cruising.  Lets be kind to them and us. Bon voyage friends. 

On 5/21/2023 at 8:48 AM, pinotlover said:

 

[Zebra Cruiser]

On 5/21/2023 at 6:41 AM, cruisemom42 said:

 

 

My goodness!  Why is it okay to hector a solo traveler to this extent about solo get-togethers???

 

As a solo traveler of many years, I have less than zero interest in attending any solo get-together. Just because another traveler is a solo, why should I have more in common with them than with anyone else?  I'd much prefer to go to a get together for Italophiles, or oenophiles or even those who enjoy choral singing or history....  I do not choose my friends or acquaintances based on whether or not they are accompanied by another....

 

Or are you one of those who still think solo travelers are a strange anomaly that should be grouped together and not allowed to roam freely? I assure you we do not have three heads. 😂

 

Re the food:  as a first time Oceania passenger later this summer, I'd venture to say that a lot of first-timers are very interested in the food because that is what we hear about -- we hear it from Oceania in their advertising, and we hear it on these boards in other forums from those comparing it with other cruise lines. It is little wonder that it should be one of the things about which folks are curious and expect much.

 

 

Thanks, Cruise mom - I also find labeling of solo cruisers somewhat judgmental.  Oceania did a wonderful job of offering solo get togethers, however as the op stated as a solo cruiser I’m interested in socializing with everyone and don’t choose my friends by ethnicity, gender or marital status!  I have maintained friendships begun on cruises for many years from all around the world whether married or single…..

[maggie.1008]

I was also on the May 11th Regatta sailing and Agee with OP.

we have sailed on three Riviera cruises and the food was delicious. 
on Regatta nothing stood out as best food at sea. 
we had a good time but we were disappointed. 

[Jmoondance]

14 hours ago, Rally said:

The vast majority of our fellow travelors on this planet never can even conceive of leisure cruising.  Lets be kind to them and us. Bon voyage friends. 

Thanks for posting your heart felt journey! and reminding us importance of kindness.

Take great care.

[ak1004]

We were on the Regatta last September. We had an amazing time. The food and the service were excellent. I have a hard time believing that things have changed that much in 9 months, Maybe a matter of expectations?

 

Cannot really please everybody..

[jonthomas]

Maybe because they needed the best staff for Vista, many were transferred.  New staff take a while to meet standards. 

On our Marina TA November 2022, 23 day, mid way, the dessert chef changed in the Terrace buffet and the desserts went from "not to be missed" to " don't bother, they are awful".

We will be on the Regatta the whole of September. Will watch for reviews closer to that time. That may give me a clue as to what to expect. But I am very picky about food, what is good to others is just ok for me.

We don't do room service so that's not an issue.