Onboard Marina Now

[EJL2023]

16 minutes ago, Cooljourney said:

 

We are definitely worried about this. Our cruise on the Marina starts on July 1st. It is our first in over 10 years. We decided to go "upscale" with Oceania and we were hoping that the hiccups would be minimal. While I will do it if necessary, having to talk to managers every day or so to get reasonable service is IMHO very unreasonable. I will keep an open mind and try to be flexible, but I am concerned nonetheless. Thanks to all for your updates, it really does help.

 

36 minutes ago, Sujormik said:

Yesterday the staff at Red Ginger was all over taking care of us. We had a decent server this morning.  But tonight at Toscana was pretty bad.  We were simply poured olive oil, no discussion or choice, a bummer because my hub adores olive oil of all stripe.  The artichoke bottom app is premade so they couldn’t leave off the shrooms (a very huge deal to me), so I asked for the red pepper flan with a Parmesan sauce…really intrigued me!  Never received it. 😳

 

tThey seem to be tremendously understaffed.  Again the wait for water refills, ice, plates being cleared, etc was interminable. Dirty plates sat on our table for a very long time without being cleared.  
 

The “carbonara” was sort of an Alfredo with some prosciutto maybe….it was not served Al dente (actually pretty mushy) nor hot and it was not good. Requested lemon for the veal Milanese never came.  When we left I mentioned to the waiter that I never received my flan and he said I canceled it.  Which I didn’t.  And I should let them know if something isn’t served, but I kept thinking maybe it would come after salad, after pasta course, etc.  He apologized.  Manager never addressed us, making me doubt the sincerity of the Red Ginger messages one day ago.

 

Yes, I will speak to F&B tomorrow, just wanted to share another update.  People all over the ship are talking about service lapses, we’ve encountered many comments, complaints about excursions…

 

Tonight was the first food item I thought wasn’t up to par but again the service has been a huge strike. 
 

Hoping for better luck tomorrow!

You seem  to have bad luck! Hopefully it will get better. I’ve never experienced any of these issues. 

[jonthomas]

13 minutes ago, EJL2023 said:

 

You seem  to have bad luck! Hopefully it will get better. I’ve never experienced any of these issues. 

 

Perhaps it IS because many experienced staff went to the Vista and it will take time to train others. Just as they will be trained, the Allura will appear and again best staff will go there. HMM........

[YourWorldWithBill]

I'm just hoping that things on the Riviera aren't quite as bad, or have been corrected by November. Especially since it's the same ship class, if it's because of O sending experienced staff to the newer ships.

[EJL2023]

1 minute ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

I'm just hoping that things on the Riviera aren't quite as bad, or have been corrected by November. Especially since it's the same ship class, if it's because of O sending experienced staff to the newer ships.

I was just on the Vista sailing after their founders cruise. I would say the staff did not seem overly experienced.  After day 2 it seemed to get much better. But I guess this is the way with lots of places post COVID and finding top staff. Not much different than i experience in top restaurants any more either. Can be hit or miss.  

[YourWorldWithBill]

2 hours ago, EJL2023 said:

I was just on the Vista sailing after their founders cruise. I would say the staff did not seem overly experienced.  After day 2 it seemed to get much better. But I guess this is the way with lots of places post COVID and finding top staff. Not much different than i experience in top restaurants any more either. Can be hit or miss.  

Good point. We've noticed it in many restaurants.

[LHT28]

3 hours ago, YourWorldWithBill said:

I'm just hoping that things on the Riviera aren't quite as bad, or have been corrected by November. Especially since it's the same ship class, if it's because of O sending experienced staff to the newer ships.

They do not  send all  the experienced staff to the new ships 

I am sure many lines are still trying to find crew  of any sort after the pandemic 

Plus several new ships on  several lines  have been launched

 

I would not stress about it 

[mauibabes]

Absolutely DITTO.

Just go with the intent to have a wonderful time, Attitude is everything and only you are in control of your attitude.  If you experience a Lemon, make Lemonade and enjoy your cruise. O wants you to have a wonderful time. 
Mauibabes

[julia]

@mauibabes.... ⬆️⬆️⬆️⬆️😅

 

 

 

[Sujormik]

7 hours ago, EJL2023 said:

 

You seem  to have bad luck! Hopefully it will get better. I’ve never experienced any of these issues. 

Right?!?🤣🤣. It’s like we are wearing a scarlet O or something! 
 

Also want to add (though we still have 4 days) that we haven’t found any of this “fatal” if you will.  I’m very conscious of certain things, can be critical (but constructively), and still enjoy. I’m reporting in part for my own recall, in part to temper expectations for newbies, and on part for validation that what I am seeing is or isn’t a best practice.  And it’s just my experience, not casting a net over anyone else’s trip…I happen to love this PH suite, have found the food to be great overall, this is a large ship for us and finding lines to be minimal/manageable, etc. YMMV, I just appreciated “warts and all” reporting and trying to pay that forward.

[Jayne E]

4 hours ago, LHT28 said:

They do not  send all  the experienced staff to the new ships 

I am sure many lines are still trying to find crew  of any sort after the pandemic 

Plus several new ships on  several lines  have been launched

 

I would not stress about it 

Perfectly said! We had dinner with F&B Manager on Riviera last month. He told us 1/3 of all O employees did not return post Covid. This has been a major problem for all cruise lines.
We found service and food for the 21 days to be excellent. Far better than waitstaff back home, which is mainly young local college students who are inexperienced but do try to please. Looking forward to next O cruise

[Redtravel]

Please teach your crew English. The buffet crew smiles nicely, but many don’t understand what you want.  There have been too many times that I asked for something and was handed something else.  

[grifdoglover]

Although I appreciate the need for everyone to lower expectations and recognize turnover maybe the cruise lines need to pay more and give benefits etc.  Some of these lines are well known for being terrible to work for. (TERRIBLE) Some report not getting paid if they are sick so then they don’t want to report being sick norovirus anyone? Yes they all suffered after Covid but basic services and business practices should still be in place if they expect to recover.  

[sunlover12]

4 hours ago, Redtravel said:

Please teach your crew English. The buffet crew smiles nicely, but many don’t understand what you want.  There have been too many times that I asked for something and was handed something else.  

Not everyone speaks English and that is okay. Simply point to what you want and they will gladly serve it to you. I’ve never had a problem with it. 

[pinotlover]

5 minutes ago, sunlover12 said:

Not everyone speaks English and that is okay. Simply point to what you want and they will gladly serve it to you. I’ve never had a problem with it. 

Stand next to people in the Terrace quite frequently and haven’t a clue as to what they want. They’re either mumbling, talking at just above a whisper, or doing the pointing and grunting routine. No one can interpret Ugh, Ullgh, or other similar guttural sounds.

 

I’ve had no problems when I speak clearly and say in normal voice “ May I have bacon, please”; or “ just a small helping of the mashed potatoes, please”. Even the case with me being accused of having a distinctive Southern accent!

Maybe it’s just those damn Yankees from up north they struggle with! 😂

[grifdoglover]

@pinotloverBless your heart why do southerns think it’s ok to insult Yankees?

[pinotlover]

3 minutes ago, grifdoglover said:

@pinotloverBless your heart why do southerns think it’s ok to insult Yankees?

No insult intended. Just a little humor dear!🥂
 

Besides, they do talk funny up there! 😇

Edited June 27, 2023 by pinotlover

[ORV]

Yeah, I love it when someone from Boston or NY tells me I have an accent. I'm like, are you kidding me? 

[jackdeb]

I have seen and heard far too many people not using common courtesy of please and thank you at the Terrace Cafe, lots of “ gimme some of that “.

When we are ‘oot & aboot on the the ship we hear a myriad of ‘merican accents 😂.

[scamper]

On 6/22/2023 at 5:49 PM, julia said:

Sorry, but if I had a butler tell ME to "call housekeeping", I would plaster on my biggest smile and say softly, "Thank you, I believe YOU can call housekeeping and have those blankets delivered shortly".

Absofrickin'lutely!  I've used this site for years and have occasionally read posts where a passenger's butler said he or she would "be too busy" to attend to requests.  While I have never had that experience myself, if I were to hear that from a butler my immediate response would be, "Then perhaps you have chosen the wrong career path.  I suggest you consider something in the food service industry."

[D. B.]

On 6/26/2023 at 2:24 AM, Cruzin Terri said:

I made a comment on the mid cruise survey regarding the service in the GDR.  I put it in the box yesterday morning.  In the afternoon I received a call from the F&B manager to discuss my comments.  So they are interested in improving the service.

 

My wife and I will be boarding Marina on July 11th. for our First O cruise.

 As you can imagine we are following this report!

[vlthom]

We attended the O club party last evening in Horizons.  It was well attended but less of a crowd than on some prior cruises we’ve been on.  We noted too, that there were a few party crashers who may have stumbled upon the free booze accidentally.  We headed down to the GDR after about an hour at the party.  As has been consistent with this cruise, there was a big line-up to get in.  This group is comprised of early diners.  Our dinner stretched longer than we would have liked.  All went ok until we completed our entrees.  Then the wait was nearly 30 minutes for the dessert menu to arrive.  Our waiter never returned, but from that point onwards, we had a much more efficient, seemingly more experienced waiter.  On the 2 prior evenings, DH’s decaf coffee was never served and we gave up on it.  We were pleased to receive it promptly last night.  So, it does seem that there are some service issues.  We observed that the wait-staff seem to be serving a larger area than in the past.  Even in the Terrace, it looks like there are fewer staff members behind the counters.  When we are not in a hurry, it doesn’t matter that much and I am not sure that we’d notice the issue had we not cruised with O many times before with very experienced staff.  But this should sort itself out over time as long as O isn’t trying to operate with fewer staff members.  We are curious as to whether the ratio of passengers and staff has changed from pre-pandemicclevels.

[pinotlover]

Vithom;

 

Also not sure about actual staffing levels as opposed to advertised ones.

 

One of the things I noticed on our recent Vista cruise was how slow the F&B management was in reallocating staff. We ate in the Terrace a few nights, albeit a bit later (7:30) and the place was near empty . All the services staff was just standing around. Meanwhile, the GDR was still being slammed, with a line to get in. There didn’t appear to be any one saying “ Send me three or four waiters down from the TC”! 
 

The same situation appeared to be the case in the new restaurant Aquamar. For breakfast it was typically near empty, but always maintained its full complement of staff. Meanwhile, across the hall, the TC was being slammed by those wanting a fast breakfast and they were shorthanded. 
 

I can say that on different cruises I have noticed substantial differences in which venue people choose to dine. The F&B Mgr should be responding to that IMO. However, I don’t report to Miami and have no idea what their directives are on this issue.

[ORV]

11 hours ago, vlthom said:

We noted too, that there were a few party crashers who may have stumbled upon the free booze accidentally.

I'm curious how you might ascertain this information? 

[vlthom]

7 minutes ago, ORV said:

I'm curious how you might ascertain this information? 

We sat at the bar in Horizons during the party and spoke with someone who was seated next to us and on their first O cruise.  Since this was the repeaters party, I assumed that they were not really invited to the party.  I got the impression that they were there but not invited.  

[Hanoj]

18 minutes ago, ORV said:

I'm curious how you might ascertain this information? 

Clairvoyance?