Horrible experience onboard Marina

[firsttimers68]

Each night we sit in Martinis after the show and enjoy listening to the pianist whilst enjoying a nightcap. Last night was a horrible exception. There were a group of 4 people who were incredibly loud. We managed to move seats to get further away but it was still noisy. I asked them to quieten down a bit as we were trying to enjoy the music. The response was to shout at me and threaten to “ take my face off”. I was pretty shocked. Bar staff had to intervene. I did report it to reception last night and again this morning. So far no response. It saddens me that it happened onboard and has soured my enjoyment, sadly. 

[MEFIowa]

A truly odd situation out of the ordinary. Never saw or heard anything like that on Riviera (12/2021) or Sirena (11/2022). Any passengers who behave so badly should suffer some consequence.

[grifdoglover]

In this day and age I would recommend asking the staff to request the people quiet down rather than a direct request.  (Especially where alcohol consumption is involved) Sorry you had that experience!

[LHT28]

Very unfortunate situation

 

Just because people have money to cruise  does not mean they have good manners

I would have asked the  staff  to speak to them

 

Maybe they should have stayed in their cabin  if they cannot drink / behave responsibly 🙄

[jonthomas]

Perhaps O has attracted some that are used to being on carnival or celebrity. We used to see people behaving badly on celeb, never on O.

[jonthomas]

Obviously O has attracted people that are not the norm on O. 

 

Sales and promos may do that. Lets see what else O has attracted, may be worse than rude and  obnoxious people at the bar, how about belly floppers, etc. some will say they are just enjoying themselves...

 

We dont drink, so not worried about rudeness at the bar, but sure dont want to see it elsewhere. 

[Harters]

This is the sort of issue that needs some form of resolution.

 

We had a similar experience in a Michelin starred restaurant some months back. The two couples on the next table were incredibly loud. Not rowdy but all four of them had those voices that are just loud and piercing (by co-incidence, they were talking about cruising). Literally, we could not hear each other speak.

 

We were about to ask a member of staff if we could move when  the manager came over and asked if we "were OK". To which we were able to reply that we were not. We were invited to another table on the other side of the room, which fortunately they had available. You could still hear the party from there but it was now tolerable - the folk on the table now adjacent to us mentioned that they'd been wondering how long we were going to put up with it.. So, positive intervention by the member of staff saved our evening without needing to directly confront the other diners who, almost certainly, did not know how  disruptive they were being.

[pinotlover]

Threatening bodily harm is never permissible.

 

I do see the original incident as being a chicken and egg issue. Two possible scenarios.

 

1. If the group was already in the bar enjoying themselves and someone walks in and wants them to quiet down.

 

2. People are quietly sitting in the bar listening to music and a loud group comes in and disrupts everyone.

 

Completely different situations and rude parties.

 

There remains a significant portion of Oceania cruisers that mistakenly believe the ship is an assisted living facility. This issue reverberates on many occasions.

[firsttimers68]

25 minutes ago, Vertygo said:

Enjoying drinks & conversation in a bar does not mean being incredibly loud & shouting at a fellow passenger that you’re going to take their face off. That’s just being rude.

There is enjoying drinks and there is loud and boorish behaviour. There was a talented musician playing in that particular bar, which people go to listen to. 

[firsttimers68]

18 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Threatening bodily harm is never permissible.

 

I do see the original incident as being a chicken and egg issue. Two possible scenarios.

 

1. If the group was already in the bar enjoying themselves and someone walks in and wants them to quiet down.

 

2. People are quietly sitting in the bar listening to music and a loud group comes in and disrupts everyone.

 

Completely different situations and rude parties.

 

There remains a significant portion of Oceania cruisers that mistakenly believe the ship is an assisted living facility. This issue reverberates on many occasions.

We were already in the bar enjoying the piano music. 

[PaulMCO]

Ask to speak to the General Manager. It deserves his attention since that type of behavior might move to other venues.

[hmorrow]

We were recently on the Regatta, and always had drinks in Martini's before dinner.  Many nights there were loud and obnoxious people, making a LOT of noise, ruining it for others. They were part of the staff/enternmaint!  They all had name tags on.  We wrote about it on our ship review, before disembarking. Very disturbing that this was ok.

Edited May 28, 2023 by hmorrow

[Woofa]

1 minute ago, hmorrow said:

We were recently on the Regatta, and always had drinks in Martini's before dinner.  Many nights there were loud and obnoxious people, making a LOT of noise, ruining it for others. They were part of the staff/enternmaint!  They all had name tags on.  We wrote about it on our ship review, before disembarking. Very surprising.

So sorry to hear this and I apologize to have to ask but are you sure they were O employees?  Reason I ask I of course it does not sound like O to allow this but more importantly, we often saw O employees throughout the venues (it was clear they were much younger and we even recognized some,) and they did not wear name tags as they were obviously off duty.  Could this have been a group which met on board and just had name tags to let them know

Wore name tags to let them know each other?

Either way letting management know is a great idea.

[Guest ldtr]

For many reasons it is best in a situation like this to ask a member of ships staff to intervene. They are a neutral party if they do intervene then the behavior was not allowed, if they choose not to intervene then the behavior is allowed. The rules are set by the cruise line not individual passengers.

 

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by ldtr

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, Harters said:

This is the sort of issue that needs some form of resolution.

 

We had a similar experience in a Michelin starred restaurant some months back. The two couples on the next table were incredibly loud. Not rowdy but all four of them had those voices that are just loud and piercing (by co-incidence, they were talking about cruising). Literally, we could not hear each other speak.

 

We were about to ask a member of staff if we could move when  the manager came over and asked if we "were OK". To which we were able to reply that we were not. We were invited to another table on the other side of the room, which fortunately they had available. You could still hear the party from there but it was now tolerable - the folk on the table now adjacent to us mentioned that they'd been wondering how long we were going to put up with it.. So, positive intervention by the member of staff saved our evening without needing to directly confront the other diners who, almost certainly, did not know how  disruptive they were being.

Note that they chose to move your party, not quiet the other party. So apparently the other parties behavior was acceptable to the restaurant. They solved the conflict by moving you.

[Harters]

3 minutes ago, ldtr said:

apparently the other parties behavior was acceptable to the restaurant.

Certainly resolved without there being any possible unpleasantness.

 

[SueMo]

We enjoyed happy hour drinks in the Casino Bar on the Marina in March for several days until a man came in and sat at the bar and loudly started making political statements that were entirely offensive to my husband and me.  The couple sitting next to him at the bar politely finished their drinks and walked away.  We did the same.  We checked Casino Bar out a few days later and found the same man in the now deserted bar pretty much making life miserable for the bartender and two servers working that venue.

This also happened upstairs at lunch in Waves Grill with a different man.  

My mother told me, growing up, to never talk religion or politics. As much as some want to think that O passengers are more refined than those on other cruise lines, it was not entirely our experience.

[LHT28]

2 hours ago, hmorrow said:

We were recently on the Regatta, and always had drinks in Martini's before dinner.  Many nights there were loud and obnoxious people, making a LOT of noise, ruining it for others. They were part of the staff/enternmaint!  They all had name tags on.  We wrote about it on our ship review, before disembarking. Very disturbing that this was ok.

Unusual  for the staff  to be acting like that in the public areas

 

Are you sure they were  not an alumni group   ..we have had some  onboard that were  pretty bad some nights

[jonthomas]

4 hours ago, Harters said:

This is the sort of issue that needs some form of resolution.

 

We had a similar experience in a Michelin starred restaurant some months back. The two couples on the next table were incredibly loud. Not rowdy but all four of them had those voices that are just loud and piercing (by co-incidence, they were talking about cruising). Literally, we could not hear each other speak.

 

We were about to ask a member of staff if we could move when  the manager came over and asked if we "were OK". To which we were able to reply that we were not. We were invited to another table on the other side of the room, which fortunately they had available. You could still hear the party from there but it was now tolerable - the folk on the table now adjacent to us mentioned that they'd been wondering how long we were going to put up with it.. So, positive intervention by the member of staff saved our evening without needing to directly confront the other diners who, almost certainly, did not know how  disruptive they were being.

It's not that they didn't know how disruptive they were being, it's that they didn't care.

[Psoque]

There will be all kinds of people, some rude, some not rude, some similar to us, some not similar to us, some with “indoor voices,” and some without.  The list goes on and on.  I just can’t imagine how any particular cruise line can somehow hand-pick those who somehow are acceptable to their whatever target audience the cruise line wants the customer to think they belong to.

 

Almost every cruise line I have done business with you tries convince customers that the cruise line somehow defines who you are.  And I have a hunch that many of us are totally on board with that illusion, based on what I read here, especially on this thread.

 

As long as a person owns a credit card with high enough credit limit, he/she can book a cruise with any cruise line, including (gasp!) Oceania.  Being on any particular cruise ship does not give one a guarantee that the experience on board will not be marred by (unacceptable) behavior of other passengers on board.

 

We have been on a few cruises at various price points, and I never felt any particular cruise line to be free of poor passenger behavior.

 

On the other hand, I have noticed that people in general area misbehaving.  And I don’t think this is just my opinion.  I don’t think being ensconced in a cruise ship, at any price point, would protect any of us from this trend.

 

 

[jonthomas]

I am basing my comments on over 50 cruises with celebrity, 3 on Viking   and 5 on Oceania, 6 of them within the past 15 months.  That many cruises, allows for credibility when making an observation and having an opinion.

[sunlover12]

@LHT28 Not sure why you have to single out alumni groups. 2 of my 6 Oceania cruises have been with alumni groups and they were gracious, intelligent and well-mannered. If that wasn’t your experience with them, it’s definitely not the norm. Bad behavior can come from any and all walks of life.  I am fortunate to not have experienced it on any cruise I’ve been on.

[LHT28]

49 minutes ago, sunlover12 said:

@LHT28 Not sure why you have to single out alumni groups. 2 of my 6 Oceania cruises have been with alumni groups and they were gracious, intelligent and well-mannered. If that wasn’t your experience with them, it’s definitely not the norm. Bad behavior can come from any and all walks of life.  I am fortunate to not have experienced it on any cruise I’ve been on.

Sorry

Ok  I will rephrase 

 

There  may have been a group onboard  that would be wearing name tags  so maybe not staff  being noisy

 

@sunlover12   We did have  one  group  of "adults"  that  were in the grand hall  near Martinis

they were having a VERY good time  so much so  one man could not walk  they had to get a wheelchair to  take him to his cabin he bypassed the GDR

 

 

 

 

 

[grifdoglover]

Pinotlover “assisted living facility” 😂

[Guest ldtr]

While am basically a fairly quiet person in public areas and also tend to enjoy listening to music there are a couple of things that I find interesting in this stream.

 

1. is there a reasonable expectation of quiet in a bar/lounge? While certainly one can have those expectations in a theater or a concert. This location was neither. It was a lounge, a location at which socializing is not uncommon.

 

2. Who is the judge of when socializing goes from good fun to rude behavior. Certainly if one is insulting other passengers it is rude. But is it really if people are talking, joking around and laughing? Is there a magical decibel level where the line is crossed? 

 

There are times when I am annoyed by the behavior of others. However, In  lounge, a social environment why is my opinion on behavior any more credible then theirs.

 

You could take 50 passengers and get 50 different opinions on proper behavior.