Currently onboard Riviera 1st-11th June

[Eloise4Ever]

2 hours ago, LHT28 said:

No need to go into battle 

A simple  comment  in person or in writing  mentioning the state of the cookies  devoid of flavour   will either  help  them re access their recipe or not

 

If people say nothing ...nothing will change

JMO

 

I think some confusion might have crept in along the way. I have no skin in the cookie game and was just answering a question another poster asked. My "battle" is against the early to bed culture on Oceania and I don't think it's a battle that just two passengers can win. This is the path O have chosen and it works for many. 

[Eloise4Ever]

We had good fun onboard last night. The Broadway Musicals show in the Theatre was great. The singers all performed very well and the Les Miserables medley was especially good. Some of the songs earlier in the show were quote obscure though.

The show was followed by karaoke which was very popular and had no shortage of volunteers (including yours truly ☺). There was a great atmosphere and energy in Horizons and we enjoyed chatting with some lovely young folks who are travelling with family groups. After karaoke finished we programmed some songs on the jukebox and danced a bit. Happy to report the bar was open later than usual 👏.

[Eloise4Ever]

We had a wonderful late dinner in Toscana last night. We enjoyed chatting with the Maitre D', Luigi. He's a real character and an old school professional. The chefs tortellini pasta special was the stuff of dreams. 

 

We enjoyed a couple of drinks in the Martini bar after dinner. One of the onboard singers joined Abner at the end for a couple of songs which was great. He is a lovely young man and seems to be getting into his stride. We realised a couple of days ago that his voice is not miked up, which is odd. He told us he's going to sort that out. 

 

The weather continues to be amazing, hot and sunny. We've spent today onboard relaxing. We had hoped to have lunch on the outside dining area of the Terrace café. However, 50% of the tables were unusable for us (and for most other passengers also by the look of things) because they were in the full glare of the sun. All the umbrellas out there were closed and when we asked for one to be opened the staff said it was too windy. There was a light breeze,  nothing more. We spoke to a passing restaurant manager who confirmed that the current umbrellas are too light and blow over and into the sea at the slightest puff of wind. We were frustrated at having to eat indoors when so many tables were lying empty outside.

[mauibabes]

@Eloise4Ever

Ah, simple fix,  on your next cruise, try Vista as it is fully covered, no more umbrellas. I would hope when Marina goes in next year for her retrofit, that they will install a similar shade over the TC outdoor dining area. 
My DW LOVES the Toscana Lasagne, not the vegetarian, so when you get back into Toscana, try even an appetizer portion and let us know what you thought. It is her standard for ALL lasagne 🤪👍. 
ENJOY

Mauibabes

[Eloise4Ever]

6 minutes ago, mauibabes said:

@Eloise4Ever

Ah, simple fix,  on your next cruise, try Vista as it is fully covered, no more umbrellas. I would hope when Marina goes in next year for her retrofit, that they will install a similar shade over the TC outdoor dining area. 
My DW LOVES the Toscana Lasagne, not the vegetarian, so when you get back into Toscana, try even an appetizer portion and let us know what you thought. It is her standard for ALL lasagne 🤪👍. 
ENJOY

Mauibabes

 

Good to know about the full cover on Vista. I'd be surprised if they extended the cover on Marina when they didn't do it on Riviera, but of course you never know. I believe the umbrellas they used to have were so heavy they needed 2 staff to lift them. Such a shame they switched to cheap and ineffective ones after the refurb.

 

I agree about the Toscana lasagne and planned on ordering that as an appetiser last night. But that chef's special sounded so good it was impossible to resist and indeed it was amazing. Hopefully I will get to try the lasagne again in a couple of nights time. 

[mauibabes]

Maybe if people keep the comments going about the umbrellas and suggest the Vista cover option, they will get the message and include it in the refurb. 
Glad to hear you are having a wonderful time. 
We had drinks last night with a couple preparing for a B2B on Vista in July/August and the more we talked the more excited they became. Vista is amazing so visit your O Club Ambassador and get booked so you can experience the TC shade 🤪👍

Mauibabes

[Harters]

46 minutes ago, mauibabes said:

try even an appetizer portion

Are all the pasta dishes available as appetizer portions?

 

I do like to go the traditional Italian four courses route when I'm in a upmarket restaurant setting.

[mauibabes]

My guess is yes for the pasta plates.  Easy way to taste and not over indulge too. Besides that roaming fork going plate to plate at the table among friends is no longer necessary. 😇

Mauibabes

[YourWorldWithBill]

1 hour ago, mauibabes said:

My DW LOVES the Toscana Lasagne, not the vegetarian, so when you get back into Toscana, try even an appetizer portion and let us know what you thought. It is her standard for ALL lasagne 🤪👍. 
ENJOY

Mauibabes

Do they have a vegetarian lasagna? Or a vegan lasagna? Even though you hint it's not so great, I'm hopeful.

[mauibabes]

@YourWorldWithBill

Bill, not intimating it isn’t good, the Vegetarian Lasagne is very good but we prefer the Lasagne with meat/veal and Bechemel sauce. O’s is an old Italian Gramma’s recipe that we have fallen in love with that is served in Toscana nightly. You can often get the Vegetarian Lasagne in the Terrace Cafe at lunch or at dinner as one of the pasta options. All of the pasta is made fresh so it is good in any restaurant but IMHO, it is always the BEST when served in Toscana. 
Just ENJOY,

Mauibabes

[Harters]

1 hour ago, mauibabes said:

My guess is yes for the pasta plates.

Well, I can only ask when I'm there. My favourite local Italian offers some of its pasta dishes, including lasagne, in starter or main course size, but some others are are main course only.

[Tranquility Base]

2 hours ago, Eloise4Ever said:

 

 I believe the umbrellas they used to have were so heavy they needed 2 staff to lift them. Such a shame they switched to cheap and ineffective ones after the refurb.

Thanks for all the ‘live from’ comments. It’s appreciated.
 

Do you know from onboard conversations whether they plan to replace those and return to using ones that can be used in higher winds ?

[GrammieK]

We often get a smaller pasta portion as a starter. We’ve even had the waiter suggest it. 

[Eloise4Ever]

30 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

Do you know from onboard conversations whether they plan to replace those and return to using ones that can be used in higher winds ?

 

I believe staff have given feedback to Management about the unsuitability of the current umbrellas but it has fallen on deaf ears. Apparently the umbrellas came as a job lot with the new chair covers and that's what they're sticking with. 

[Tranquility Base]

Thanks for the answer Eloise.

Disappointing, but at least we now know the limitations before we next board.

[babysteps]

When we were on Nautica this spring, staff explained the same issue with  wind possibly blowing the umbrellas around at Terrace.

[Eloise4Ever]

We finally received a response last night to the shuttle issue we reported to Reception 6 days previously at which time we were told it would be escalated to Management onboard. As we hadn't heard anything back after 5 days I mentioned it on the mid cruise survey. After 6 days I'm afraid the response was pretty pathetic. A voicemail was left on our cabin phone by Destination Services. The lady stated they had been made aware of the shuttle comments we made in the mid cruise survey. (So clearly the initial escalation was filed in the bin). She said they were sorry to hear what had happened but that we should rest assured all complaints are filed with Head Office. Given how little concern was shown onboard about the issue, I don't expect Head Office to bat an eyelid. And the worst thing about this response was the cowardly way it was done. I happened to be sitting at the dressing table desk when the message light on the phone started flashing. The phone did not ring so clearly a choice was made to dial straight into our voicemail and leave a message instead of risk engaging in conversation. All we wanted was to talk to somebody about this. 

[ak1004]

4 hours ago, Eloise4Ever said:

We finally received a response last night to the shuttle issue we reported to Reception 6 days previously at which time we were told it would be escalated to Management onboard. As we hadn't heard anything back after 5 days I mentioned it on the mid cruise survey. After 6 days I'm afraid the response was pretty pathetic. A voicemail was left on our cabin phone by Destination Services. The lady stated they had been made aware of the shuttle comments we made in the mid cruise survey. (So clearly the initial escalation was filed in the bin). She said they were sorry to hear what had happened but that we should rest assured all complaints are filed with Head Office. Given how little concern was shown onboard about the issue, I don't expect Head Office to bat an eyelid. And the worst thing about this response was the cowardly way it was done. I happened to be sitting at the dressing table desk when the message light on the phone started flashing. The phone did not ring so clearly a choice was made to dial straight into our voicemail and leave a message instead of risk engaging in conversation. All we wanted was to talk to somebody about this. 

 

This is unfortunate.

 

We didn't have many issues while on board Oceania, and most of them were pretty minor, but I got an impression that they are not very good in resolving issues or responding to complaints. It's almost like they are telling you "it is what it is, take it or leave it". And honestly, there are not too many alternatives, once we made the decision to sail on small ship. We are not going back to Celebrity/HAL etc. SS/SB/Regent are much more expensive most of the time, and based on the recent reviews, they are not necessarily better (this was our experience too on our recent SS cruise). The only viable alternative is Azamara, but their biggest drawdown is older ships and tiny cabins/showers (same as Oceania R ships).

 

It looks like we are stuck with O, for better or worse, and for us, we still consider them a very good option, despite many shortcomings.

[rbtan]

On 6/4/2023 at 11:25 AM, Eloise4Ever said:

My DH and I are currently onboard Riviera, a 10 night round trip from Southampton to France and Northern Spain. This is our 3rd sailing on Oceania, all on Riviera since March 2022.

Just wanted to share some thoughts and musings on our experience so far as I always enjoy reading onboard posts. Warning, this may be a long and rambling post.

We were very excited to sail on Riviera again and hoped to meet some of the crew that we sailed with before. Indeed, we have had the good fortune to become reacquainted with some of those wonderful people which has been a delight. Sadly, many of them are leaving the ship before the end of this cruise as their contracts have ended. I don't think we've experienced such a big staff turnover mid cruise before. It will be interesting to see how the new crew bed in and hopefully service will not be affected.

Speaking of service, it has generally been very good so far. Staff are very friendly and eager to please and we really enjoy connecting with them.
We certainly have noticed an improvement in wine service in the restaurants which we often found very slow on previous cruises.

The food has been excellent. We ate in the Grand Dining Room on two nights and Polo Grill one night. I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven on night 1 when we had the pleasure of being served by one of our favourite waiters and I got to eat the soufflé I've been dreaming off for months for dessert. It was a definite "aaaah" moment.

Our B2 balcony cabin is in great shape, naturally after the recent refurb. The only issue is that we are at the very back of the ship and the noise and shuddering in the cabin when docking in the morning is quote extraordinary. The ship was anchoring yesterday so I thought we wouldn't be  disturbed but no, even that was very noisy. We generally book aft cabins and haven't experienced that much noise and movement on other  lines.

We cruise more for the ship  than the itinerary so have only gone ashore once so far, in Le Havre. There was a shuttle bus running between the ship and the town centre so we took that. Unfortunately we were abandoned at the end of the day when the last shuttle didn't turn up. It was scheduled for 5:30 and we arrived at the bus stop just after 5. It was an unpleasantly windy spot and there were no taxis passing by. Luckily for us there was another couple there who had the number of a taxi driver they'd used earlier in the and they were able to call him to complaint with Reception on the ship and were told our comments would be escalated to Management. Disappointingly, nobody from Management has reached out to us. Overall it feels like a very "hands off" cruise in terms of Management as we have not seen any officers around the ship. I know officers are generally less visible on Oceania than other lines but here they are completely invisible! Yes, there would have been officers at the Captains Cocktail party but we feel its  important for officers to walk around the ship regularly to make sure everything is in order.

We heard from several sources that the tendering operation in St Malo yesterday was a disorganised mess. The ship didn't prioritise the tendering of guests on Oceania tours so tour departures were delayed (30-45 minutes) with guests sitting on tour buses waiting for other guests to arrive.

Entertainment has been mixed so far. The production show "Lights Camera Action" last night was exceptional in every way. The song choice, performances, choreography and set design were of such a high standard I had a  big silly grin on my face the whole way through and didn't want it to end. The band and pianist are ok. I think there may be issues with the sound in Horizons as the band sound very sharp. The pianist is a great player and plays a good selection but his singing could be improved.

Our biggest issue with the entertainment is the time it ends, i.e. too early! This has been an issue on our two previous O cruises but has reached a new low this time round. The pianist finishes in Martinis at 11pm sharp as opposed to 11:30 in the past. (Even that was still earlier than the published times in Currents.) The bar staff then start cleaning down the bar and guests start to feel unwelcome. The band in Horizons is also scheduled to finish at 11. We knew before we sailed with O the first time that it was not a late night cruise line but 11pm closing is just silly for an adult oriented cruise line. We are in our 50s and enjoy late night music and drinks and with this latest experience we feel we may need to wait until we're older before returning to O. It's a shame as the line has many excellent qualities but we just don't enjoy feeling we're being packed off to bed at 11pm. 

Apologies for the long and rambling post. Happy to answer any questions anybody might have about Riviera.

We were at the front back in Jan. The ship hauled to get down to the ports & the "smashing" of the waves against the front of the ship was pretty bad. The first few nights resulted in poor sleep. Normally we'd be more midship, but this was a "guarantee" cabin.Thisw was our 5'th on Riviera & have Concierge coming this Jan. on the new Vista. The entertainment is always reasonable. The food IS the real entertainment. The line spends more per pax than any other line & it shows.

[Eloise4Ever]

On a positive note, I had a call from Cruise Director John yesterday morning in response to my mid cruise survey comments about the entertainment in Martinis ending at 11. He apologised and said this should not have been happening. He said common sense should dictate to the entertainer that if there are a number of customers in the bar, he needs to keep playing. John said he had published later hours in the Currents for  Martinis last night to make this crystal clear. We were very glad to hear this and grateful for John's follow up.

As an result, we had a very enjoyable night of entertainment. After a late dinner we attended karaoke in Horizons and chatted with some lovely folks. We ended the night in Martinis where Abner knocked it out of the park with his performance and choice of songs. We were delighted with it all and had a great night.