Cruise to Mostly Nowhere--Part 1

[hankandteri]

This will be the first of three posts covering our May 22 cruise aboard the Riviera sailing from Barcelona to London. Frankly, the other two parts are going to be brutal, so I thought I’d kick off my miniseries on a more positive note with the usual rundown of things that went well and things that didn’t on our cruise.

 

We’re experienced cruisers, and this was our second cruise with Oceania. The other was a Rome to Lisbon itinerary aboard Nautica several years back. This time we booked a Penthouse 2 category suite (cabin 11002), and we hit the easy button and left the air and hotel arrangements to Oceania.

 

Our flight itinerary to Barcelona was less than ideal at three hops and 22 hours of travel time door-to-door. Our return schedule was much nicer—Virgin from Heathrow to Atlanta and then home. This was our first flight on Virgin, by the way, and I wish all airlines operated as efficiently and cheerfully as this one.

 

I was extremely happy with both hotels Oceania placed us in. The Almanac was modern, clean, comfortable and in a fantastic location in the touristic heart of Barcelona. The Millennium Baileys in London was older and the room was a little cramped, but it was perfectly adequate and the location just a few steps away from the tube could not have been more ideal.

 

Airport pick-up and drop-offs arranged by the cruise line were smooth, efficient, and timely.

 

Check-in at the port was an absolute breeze. We were aboard within minutes of being dropped off at the port.

 

The Riviera sailed from Barcelona at complete capacity. All of the dining venues seemed perpetually full at peak hours, and there were times when service slowed to a crawl, but they were few and far between. That was to be expected on a ship sailing at capacity. Otherwise, the ship never felt overcrowded.

 

The service staff we interacted with on board ranged from fantastic to, um, less than fantastic. They were either giving it their all or going through the motions. There wasn’t much in between. To be fair, the vast majority of the crew were working extremely hard with smiles on their faces. Senior staff aboard were another story altogether. More about that lot in Part 2.

 

Our cabin attendant Olga was the best we’ve ever had in more than a dozen prior cruises with various lines (including Oceania). What an absolute treasure she was.

 

The ship itself was in beautiful shape after its recent drydock. The remodeled bathrooms are as spacious and functional as everyone else has reported. The storage throughout our cabin was abundant and thoughtfully designed.

 

The dining experience aboard was mostly good to great. Our dinner at Polo was the only mediocre meal we had on the cruise. The Terrace Café, Waves Grill and Grand Dining Room were all consistently very good. Jacques was excellent and Toscana and Red Ginger were both spectacular on the nights we visited. Bar service was excellent, as was the coffee service at Baristas. The sommeliers we interacted with were consistently knowledgeable and made fine suggestions.

 

My wife had a very poor experience at the spa. Combine a stopped-up toilet with a non-functional shower, a lack of expected amenities (like slippers), a staff member that cut a 75-minute massage treatment short by 15 minutes only to hard sell her for the balance of the time. That made the $300 or so she paid for her spa treatment hard to stomach given the overall experience.

 

The members of the entertainment team aboard were great. All three production shows were lively, and the performers gave it their all. And the singers and dancers were seemingly everywhere throughout the day helping to facilitate activities.

 

The cruise director was totally checked-out. He was on his last cruise until the fall and couldn’t wait to get off the ship in Southhampton, something he made clear in various ways throughout the cruise. The assistant cruise director, Billy, and social hostess, Kelly, were both wonderful, however, and would have more than made up for the CD’s apathy if the itinerary hadn’t fallen apart. Unfortunately, the ship’s itinerary did fall apart in spectacular and mostly self-inflicted fashion. More about that next time.

 

If you have any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them.

[deck chair]

Hi   What a great writer you are.  Thank you for your review.  Not pleased we have to wait for the second installment!!!! 

Deck Chair.

[hankandteri]

Awww, thank you.

 

I hit submit and then realized I hadn't mentioned Teri's very favorite part of the cruise. She signed up for the painting course in the artist's loft with the charming and talented artist in residence, Graham Dennison. This program (free, but limited to a couple of dozen guests who sign up on the first day of the cruise) allowed my wife to express her creativity in a brand new way. While I was at trivia in the late afternoons, she would spend two hours in class and working on the lovely painting she got to take home with her.

[susiesan]

Who was the cruise director with the bad attitude?

[YourWorldWithBill]

59 minutes ago, hankandteri said:

This will be the first of three posts covering our May 22 cruise aboard the Riviera sailing from Barcelona to London. Frankly, the other two parts are going to be brutal, so I thought I’d kick off my miniseries on a more positive note with the usual rundown of things that went well and things that didn’t on our cruise.

Boarding the Riviera in Barcelona in November to Istanbul, first time on O, so appreciate your report and looking forward to the rest. Especially happy to hear about the food! 

Maybe I should stop now before hearing about the itinerary...

Edited June 7, 2023 by YourWorldWithBill
changed "know" to "now"!

[hankandteri]

1 minute ago, susiesan said:

Who was the cruise director with the bad attitude?

 

Steve. He didn't have a bad attitude in the sense that he was unpleasant. He was nice enough, but it was very clear that he was ready to have a break and was going through the motions.

[hankandteri]

4 minutes ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

Boarding the Riviera in Barcelona in November to Istanbul, first time on O, so appreciate your report and looking forward to the rest. Especially happy to hear about the food! 

Maybe I should stop know before hearing about the itinerary...

Parts 2 and 3 will be about events surrounding this particular cruise and our particular experience, and I don't want it to dampen your expectations based on what I will share. Our first Oceania cruise was delightful from start to finish, and I have every reason to believe that yours will be too.

 

Barcelona to Istanbul (two of my favorite cities with a lot of my other favorite cities in between) sounds like a great itinerary.

[cruiserchuck]

I read on other threads that there were many strikes in Portugal last month.  I assume those impacted the cruise.  

[hankandteri]

1 hour ago, cruiserchuck said:

I read on other threads that there were many strikes in Portugal last month.  I assume those impacted the cruise.  

Yes, however (spoiler alert) there were no strikes on the days we were supposed to be in Portugal because none were scheduled for those days. Our scheduled visits were merely strike-adjacent.

[YourWorldWithBill]

28 minutes ago, hankandteri said:

Yes, however (spoiler alert) there were no strikes on the days we were supposed to be in Portugal because none were scheduled for those days. Our scheduled visits were merely strike-adjacent.

I'm also interested because we had a similar cruise Barcelona-London on Viking for next January that we will be canceling. 

[ak1004]

We were on the same cruise. I agree about CD Steve, he was invisible. And I agree about the crew, mostly fantastic. We stopped using the spa on cruise ships, mostly very overpriced and inconsistent experience. 

 

We were also disappointed with the excursions.

 

All other aspects of our cruise were excellent. 

 

I was also wondering about the strikes. We were supposed to be in Portugal on May 25-26, and the strikes were on may 21-22 and May 29-30.

 

The explanation provided was that those strikes can come on very short notice, and they were afraid to be stuck in Lisbon and lose the rest of the ports. 

 

I don't have a reason to believe that they didn't tell the truth about why those ports have been cancelled. I don't believe that any cruise line would cancel a port unless they really don't have a choice. Would they save some money by cancelling the ports? Yes, but they also lost a lot of revenues from shore excursions, and more importantly, had a lot of very angry customers. We heard a couple in the elevators saying that it was a disastrous cruise. I don't share that sentiment.

 

I would be interested to hear OP thoughts.

[hankandteri]

1 hour ago, ak1004 said:

We were on the same cruise. I agree about CD Steve, he was invisible. And I agree about the crew, mostly fantastic. We stopped using the spa on cruise ships, mostly very overpriced and inconsistent experience. 

 

We were also disappointed with the excursions.

 

All other aspects of our cruise were excellent. 

 

I was also wondering about the strikes. We were supposed to be in Portugal on May 25-26, and the strikes were on may 21-22 and May 29-30.

 

The explanation provided was that those strikes can come on very short notice, and they were afraid to be stuck in Lisbon and lose the rest of the ports. 

 

I don't have a reason to believe that they didn't tell the truth about why those ports have been cancelled. I don't believe that any cruise line would cancel a port unless they really don't have a choice. Would they save some money by cancelling the ports? Yes, but they also lost a lot of revenues from shore excursions, and more importantly, had a lot of very angry customers. We heard a couple in the elevators saying that it was a disastrous cruise. I don't share that sentiment.

 

I would be interested to hear OP thoughts.

I don't think the cruise was disastrous, but I do believe the decision to skip those two ports was ill considered and the subsequent handling of that poor decision was a mess. I'll go into this in some detail tomorrow.

[susiesan]

17 hours ago, hankandteri said:

I don't think the cruise was disastrous, but I do believe the decision to skip those two ports was ill considered and the subsequent handling of that poor decision was a mess. I'll go into this in some detail tomorrow.

What 2 ports were cancelled? I have a cruise on Sirena Sept. 2 that ends in Lisbon. From what I am reading, there will likely be more strikes in Portugal and other European cities all summer. Would Oceania be changing embarking/disembarking ports due to strikes? This would have a massive impact on passenger air arrangements.

[basor]

6 minutes ago, susiesan said:

What 2 ports were cancelled? I have a cruise on Sirena Sept. 2 that ends in Lisbon. From what I am reading, there will likely be more strikes in Portugal and other European cities all summer. Would Oceania be changing embarking/disembarking ports due to strikes? This would have a massive impact on passenger air arrangements.

I would assume if there is a strike at a port and it is closed than O would have to change to another port - not a lot of options

[hankandteri]

16 minutes ago, susiesan said:

What 2 ports were cancelled? I have a cruise on Sirena Sept. 2 that ends in Lisbon. From what I am reading, there will likely be more strikes in Portugal and other European cities all summer. Would Oceania be changing embarking/disembarking ports due to strikes? This would have a massive impact on passenger air arrangements.

Lisbon and Porto were cancelled along with Guernsey. So three missed ports altogether.

[hankandteri]

10 minutes ago, basor said:

I would assume if there is a strike at a port and it is closed than O would have to change to another port - not a lot of options

That would be true if there was a strike. But there wasn't a strike. I just posted Part 2 going into an overly detailed account of what happened.

[basor]

1 minute ago, hankandteri said:

That would be true if there was a strike. But there wasn't a strike. I just posted Part 2 going into an overly detailed account of what happened.

I understand but she was asking about next Fall and so I stated if a strike was scheduled - a different situation than yours

[susiesan]

21 minutes ago, basor said:

I understand but she was asking about next Fall and so I stated if a strike was scheduled - a different situation than yours

It's going to be so bad in Europe that you have to check a web site to see who is striking each month. This is going to be repeat of last summer's travel disruptions. 

 

https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/06/06/where-are-airport-and-transport-strikes-happening-between-now-and-easter

 

If you are transiting through Heathrow be prepared for the worst on announced strike days. I connect there at the end of the cruise but in September so hopefully I'll be okay. 

 

Unite union says there will be 31 days of strikes this summer with walkouts expected almost every weekend from 24 June to the end of August. The exact dates of the strikes will be:

• June 24, 25, 28, 29 and 30

• July 14 to 16, 21 to 24, and 28 to 31

• August 4 to 7, 11 to 14, 18 to 20 and 24 to 27

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by susiesan

[basor]

6 minutes ago, susiesan said:

It's going to be so bad in Europe that you have to check a web site to see who is striking each month. This is going to be repeat of last summer's travel disruptions. 

 

https://www.euronews.com/travel/2023/06/06/where-are-airport-and-transport-strikes-happening-between-now-and-easter

 

If you are transiting through Heathrow be prepared for the worst on announced strike days. I connect there at the end of the cruise but in September so hopefully I'll be okay. 

 

Unite union says there will be 31 days of strikes this summer with walkouts expected almost every weekend from 24 June to the end of August. The exact dates of the strikes will be:

• June 24, 25, 28, 29 and 30

• July 14 to 16, 21 to 24, and 28 to 31

• August 4 to 7, 11 to 14, 18 to 20 and 24 to 27

 

Thanks for link to the info - yes, it appears travel in Europe will be more challenging this Summer and Fall...

[slewis7]

6 hours ago, susiesan said:

Unite union says there will be 31 days of strikes this summer with walkouts expected almost every weekend from 24 June to the end of August.

Holy hell, our Viking cruise embarks in London Greenwich on June 24th!  We fly into Heathrow, but fortunately we come in several days early.

[Jan.and.John]

Got a chuckle over the mention that CD had already checked out - we disembarked Riviera in Barcelona (cruise prior to yours) and believe me he was pretty much MIA for our entire cruise from Athens. Worst we’ve had in 10 O cruises.

 

Still, we booked another cruise 🤦🏻‍♀️
 

Jan & John