GeorgiaPeach Sails the Oceania Marina

[Pcardad]

Are there any sort of activities/music that would appeal to someone in their 40's?

[GeorgiaPeach51]

1 hour ago, Pcardad said:

Are there any sort of activities/music that would appeal to someone in their 40's?

I think so!  The guest speaker is Rupert Wallace, an expert on Middle East affairs.  He has given some fascinating talks on that conundrum.  
 

slot tournament and blackjack tournament

wine tasting

ballroom dance lessons

movies in the Marina Lounge

Bridge

gsmes with the staff for points so you can get hats, visors, tshirts

trivia and Mensa 

every night @0:15-11 is the 4 Corners band…tonight is 90s till today.

11:45 till late Jukebox….you pick the hits.

line dancing

shufflebosrd

Bingo

music by the pool with 4 Corners Bsnd

culinary classes for a fee 

table tennis

putt putt golf

 

Does that help?

 

 

[Pcardad]

3 minutes ago, GeorgiaPeach51 said:

I think so!  The guest speaker is Rupert Wallace, an expert on Middle East affairs.  He has given some fascinating talks on that conundrum.  
 

slot tournament and blackjack tournament

wine tasting

ballroom dance lessons

movies in the Marina Lounge

Bridge

gsmes with the staff for points so you can get hats, visors, tshirts

trivia and Mensa 

every night @0:15-11 is the 4 Corners band…tonight is 90s till today.

11:45 till late Jukebox….you pick the hits.

line dancing

shufflebosrd

Bingo

music by the pool with 4 Corners Bsnd

culinary classes for a fee 

table tennis

putt putt golf

 

Does that help?

 

 

I was thinking louder pool music, songs from the 1980's onward, some sort of club dancing, etc. Not Carnival level partying but something more active than Regent.

Edited November 9, 2023 by Pcardad

[Tsunami74]

8 hours ago, GeorgiaPeach51 said:

Last night we had our first truly delicious meal, and it was in Jacques.  That is the restaurant O, in its’ infinite wisdom, has done away with on Vista.  Based on our wonderful meal last night I would say that is ill-advised.  

I could not agree with you more about dropping  Jacques on the Vista was ill advised!!!

One of the reasons we book Oceania is Jacques and Red Ginger.

Many ships are beautiful, many have great service and itineraries, but only Oceania has some restaurants which are memorable.

I guess I like food, and my palate has developed over time.

Might I suggest at Jacques the sea bass in puff pastry for 2? Memorable. About the only food pic I have ever taken.

Also, consider the pea vichyssoise. First spoonful OK. Next spoon OHHH. The first time I realized what depth of flavor is. It is a small portion. So try it!

[kjbacon]

@GeorgiaPeach51 please let us know if you liked the salad and what else you order.

[PhD-iva]

10 hours ago, Pcardad said:

 Not Carnival level partying but something more active than Regent.

“Something more active than Regent” ???

YOU MUST NOT HAVE MET BOOGIE &KASHIA! 
I had read about B&K on CC, and when I was on Mariner I LOVED HER! (and he’s pretty good too!)

I don’t care about ports or itineraries. I just

 

 

want to cruise w Boogie & Kashia!

[Pcardad]

17 minutes ago, PhD-iva said:

“Something more active than Regent” ???

YOU MUST NOT HAVE MET BOOGIE &KASHIA! 
I had read about B&K on CC, and when I was on Mariner I LOVED HER! (and he’s pretty good too!)

I don’t care about ports or itineraries. I just

IMG_7577.mov 74.02 MB · 0 downloads  

 

want to cruise w Boogie & Kashia!

I know them very well....

[GeorgiaPeach51]

16 hours ago, kjbacon said:

@GeorgiaPeach51 please let us know if you liked the salad and what else you order.

@kjbacon I DID have the salad and it was 100% as you described.  Simple and sublime.  Thank you for the recommendation!  
 

@Tsunami74 I did not see your suggestions until we returned the our cabin, so it was too late.  We did happen to see someone else who ordered the sea bass in puff pastry and it looked fabulous.  Being a creature of habit, and ascribing to the “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” theory, I had the salad, French onion soup and pork once again.  Dessert was a perfect little pot de crème, chocolate.  My husband had the gnocchi I had the night before, pumpkin soup and both the pork and lobster Thermidor.  Loved the pork but not the lobster.  But it was another lovely meal.  
 

I have to say that we enjoyed Jacques more than we have enjoyed Chartreuse the last two times we tried it.

Edited November 10, 2023 by GeorgiaPeach51

[GeorgiaPeach51]

FINALLY! A chance to get off the ship and see a port we’ve never visited before.  Malta!   Very interesting.  Loved the colorful balconies.  Fascinating history.  Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginian’s, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs took turns invading and ruling.  UNESCO World Heritage site.  Here are a few photos if you are interested.

[GeorgiaPeach51]

[GeorgiaPeach51]

Sailing out of Malta.

 

[kjbacon]

@GeorgiaPeach51 so glad you enjoyed the salad!

 

Malta pics are terrific! We are going for the first time next year.  Can you walk into town from the port?

[GeorgiaPeach51]

3 hours ago, kjbacon said:

@GeorgiaPeach51 so glad you enjoyed the salad!

 

Malta pics are terrific! We are going for the first time next year.  Can you walk into town from the port?

@kjbacon  Yes, you can.  Into Valletta.  Great little town to explore.  You have to have transportation for the medieval towns like Mdina.  We really enjoyed it.  The only photos I took of Valletta are the sailing away photos.  The rest are in Mdina.  

Edited November 10, 2023 by GeorgiaPeach51

[dabear]

I thought sailing in or out of Malta harbor was interesting; almost all walled for protection from invaders.

[kjbacon]

Thank you @GeorgiaPeach51 for the terrific reviewing and helpful info!

[GeorgiaPeach51]

Tunisia.  Fascinating place.  Two new ports in two days.  Unfortunately, that’s it for the cruise.  One more sea day and we are gone, with mixed feelings about Oceania, which I will get into tomorrow.  
 

We went on an O tour that had 37 people…way more than we ever experienced on R, I have to say, and those are included.  Tour guide, Ali, was fantastic and the bus driver looked like Omar Shariff!  I look for pluses where I can find them, so there you go.

 

[GeorgiaPeach51]

[GeorgiaPeach51]

Final thoughts.  
 

Every single person I spoke to on this ship mentioned their dissatisfaction and disappointment with paying for an expensive Israel/Egypt cruise, and getting none of the above, ending up with 6 of 8 ports changed.  Only the last two, Malta and Tunisia remained the same.  And no, I did not ask questions that led to them revealing that…it just seemed uppermost in everyone’s thoughts.

 

Equally common was the sentiment that O could have gone a long way to even slightly smooth ruffled feathers by offering even a small OBC.  But nothing.  Nor was there any kind of apology or explanation or any addressing at all of the big elephant in the room.  It was as though O just decided to ignore the whole thing, pretend it’s all good, refuse to discuss or explain or amplify in even the slightest manner….and the passengers, United in being well and truly STUCK just have to go along.

 

I have seen comments on the O boards that O is counting on passengers to just forget.  Perhaps.  But in our personal case, what happened and O’s handling of it will ALWAYS factor into our consideration and it will never be to the benefit of O.  We personally have very long memories in regard to the behavior of companies and have stayed consistent for YEARS regarding companies we boycott.  So each has to decide what they value and what makes it onto their “I’ll just live with it” ranking.

 

First, would I go on O again?  Yes, but only if it was cheap!  I found nothing on this ship that would cause me to rank O above R as a whole.  I think O saying they have the finest food at sea is a big stretch and would put my money on R in a head to head competition. 
 

The ship is in good shape but really needs an update.  
 

An example.  This ugly brown, utilitarian bathroom that looks like it escaped from an old junior high school.  Ick.  In contrast, there are several bathrooms that are high gloss black tile, walls and floors, so shiny that it has a hall of mirrors aspect.  I was there one evening and a lady came out of one of the big shiny stalls that had its’ own sink and proceeded to open the adjacent stall door trying to exit the bathroom.  Then she opened another stall door, same thing.  Then a third attempt.  By this time she is swearing and I am so tickled that I am bent over my purse pretending to search for something and just dying to laugh, but she was so mad by this time I was afraid to…I was so happy she finally found the exit door so I could hang  on the sink laughing.  Thing is, I couldn’t have helped her cause I didn’t know which was the exit door either.  🙄

 

more in a minute.  Some Wi-Fi challenges.

[GeorgiaPeach51]

We have had some service issues with our room.  Coming back to no water bottles in the room, or empty ones, after being gone all day.  Running out of tissues in the bathroom and not being replaced.  Dirty cups and saucers from morning coffee still in the room when we returned in the afternoon.  Same with wine glasses from the night before.  Not huge issues but notable because we don’t have it happen ever.  Each time we have left a note or spoken to the cabin attendant but the overall level of service didn’t remain consistent.

 

bar service is good but the bars have their own menus.  Last night I ordered a drink called the Bogart.  We were in the bar adjacent to the Martini Bar where we normally go.  The bartender in this bar could not make the drink and the bar server had to go to the Martini Bar to get the drink.  I assume this is a stocking issue rather than a skills issue, but I found it strange.

 

I know I said it before but O really should be ashamed to offer essentially the exact same bar snack every night.  And they call this the best food at sea?  SMH.

 

but drinks are very consistently made, so big kudos for that.

 

today is a sea day so everyone was in Terraces or Waves Grill (outside area near the pool).  And it was super crowded.  I cannot imagine how they handle it with 500 additional people on board!  There are no other lunch options, so if it is too cool or too blazing hot to be outside, it reminds me of being on Celebrity and struggling to find a table, and just walking round and round in circles.  They do put tablecloths after breakfast, BTW.

 

I mentioned previously that they did not have bar service in the theater, but after multiple cases of there being none, they suddenly had two waiters for the whole theater one evening.  Not sure why one show had none and the next show had some.

 

I mentioned that the ice cream was really good, with unusual flavors.  I still say that, but several times it was icy, as in ice crystals in it, which made me think they are dealing unsuccessfully with melting and refreezing issues.  
 

on both of our O tours I felt the groups were too big.  One group was 35 and the other was 37.  Much bigger groups than we have experienced on R for the included, no extra fee tours, which had a max of 12-28 people.

 

I thought the staff on board was very good.  Smiling, interacting, engaging.  Same as on R, but I did notice on R a much greater focus on staff remembering our names, which I think is unbelievable feat, considering the number of passengers.

 

We ate two evenings in the Terraces and enjoyed setting our own pace.  The food was hit and miss,  it had the same items you would order in the MDR, so if you tried the special that night and didn’t like it you could easily just go get something else.  Both nights there were lots of people, so lots of folks opt out of the set times of the MDR and perhaps longer pace of the specialties.

 

Overall, and here is where I warn O cheerleaders to sit down and find their smelling salts…..O reminds me more of Celebrity than it does Regent.  On this ship and on this cruise…..

 

As I said, I would cruise O again, if the price is right, and on the refurbished Riviera or on the new 

Vista.  I would not be eager to do the Marina again in her current status.  But, itinerary is key, and many of us sail based on the itinerary, which ultimately means that this cruise, with its’ disastrous itinerary changes was doomed from the beginning to not be a favorite. For that reason, I am willing to try O one more time, different ship, different scenario, but always, in the back of my mind will be the nagging memory of feeling we were taken for granted, that the lack of even simple acknowledgement that we got something we didn’t buy or order, and that the sacrifices and adjustments and stress of the passengers mattered not one iota to O corporate.  You know that old saying, the one about getting only one chance to make a first impression?  There you go.

 

Joanie

 

I will be glad to answer questions if I can

[briar14]

Joanie, Thank you for this excellent report. We are Regent fans, Platinum, but have several friends who only travel on Oceania. Nothing you have written makes me want to jump ship. Although Regent has not exactly dealt well with their Mideast itinerary changes either. Hope one day to meet you!

[GeorgiaPeach51]

59 minutes ago, briar14 said:

Joanie, Thank you for this excellent report. We are Regent fans, Platinum, but have several friends who only travel on Oceania. Nothing you have written makes me want to jump ship. Although Regent has not exactly dealt well with their Mideast itinerary changes either. Hope one day to meet you!

@briar14  "thank you for reading it!  You are always have supportive comments and I appreciate you.  I hope we do get to meet someday.  It would be my pleasure! 
 

Joanie

[asnaleah]

Thanks for your excellent review Joanie! We love Regent, but sometimes the price is more than we want to spend. So, we are looking forward to trying Oceania on the Vista for a January 2025 Panama Canal cruise. If that goes well, we will again sail on a Vista TA. One more Celebrity cruise next month, and Regent to Iceland in July. Oh, and we’re moving. This week.

[asnaleah]

And safe travels home!

[GeorgiaPeach51]

1 hour ago, asnaleah said:

Thanks for your excellent review Joanie! We love Regent, but sometimes the price is more than we want to spend. So, we are looking forward to trying Oceania on the Vista for a January 2025 Panama Canal cruise. If that goes well, we will again sail on a Vista TA. One more Celebrity cruise next month, and Regent to Iceland in July. Oh, and we’re moving. This week.

I was happily reading about your upcoming travels until I got to the moving part.  Ugh.  After 18 military moves here is one tip I can give you.  Put your knives in one ziplock, spoons in another, etc.  Then, on the other end they are sorted and clean so you can use them immediately and not have to wash them as you set up the kitchen.  If you have kids, put their socks in a ziplock, underwear in another, then on the other end you can just put the whole ziplock in a drawer and get the clutter cleaned up quickly, then can go back and sort the drawers when you get a chance.  No idea if that will help you, but that’s all I’ve got!  Good luck.  Hope it goes well.  Just the thought of moving sends me in search of wine.

[edgee]

1 hour ago, asnaleah said:

Thanks for your excellent review Joanie! We love Regent, but sometimes the price is more than we want to spend. So, we are looking forward to trying Oceania on the Vista for a January 2025 Panama Canal cruise. If that goes well, we will again sail on a Vista TA. One more Celebrity cruise next month, and Regent to Iceland in July. Oh, and we’re moving. This week.

We are on the Vista Panama Canal cruise at the moment. This is our 8th Oceania cruise and we have only two Regent cruises to compare. I will say that on Vista the staff remembering names and follow up to requests almost reaches Regent level of service. Also we do enjoy the option of having casual venues to eat in the evening as an option..both a pizza option and all of the options offered in main dining room as well as lobster, steak, lamb and fish off of the grill. Then again, in other ways there is something special about Regent!