So you think you have Specialty dinner reservations?

[MEFIowa]

7 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

 

One thing I learnt in retirement (from a job where ' the small stuff ' was often safety critical) is now... .... don't sweat the small stuff. This extremely minor hiccup was easily resolved in a convivial manner. That's all I want. Someone else can worry about ''their system"

I'm on holiday.

Though tell that to the upset woman in the chair telling the Reservation Desk the same thing, "All our reservations have been wiped from your system." And don't forget they will NOT honor anything unless and until YOU can PROVE you MADE the reservations. I probably wasted at least 30 minutes that evening as I had to go to the Desk to find out they were wiped, go back to my cabin to get my wife & her phone, wait for the other woman to have her situation resolved, and then have our situation resolved.

 

And it appears this is NOT some isolated situation, but something that may happen more than we may think on B2Bs where you change cabins.

[shepherd really]

1 hour ago, MEFIowa said:

Though tell that to the upset woman in the chair telling the Reservation Desk the same thing, "All our reservations have been wiped from your system." And don't forget they will NOT honor anything unless and until YOU can PROVE you MADE the reservations. I probably wasted at least 30 minutes that evening as I had to go to the Desk to find out they were wiped, go back to my cabin to get my wife & her phone, wait for the other woman to have her situation resolved, and then have our situation resolved.

 

And it appears this is NOT some isolated situation, but something that may happen more than we may think on B2Bs where you change cabins.

Since you get documentation of your reservations in several forms and should have it, it is not a big deal when going to resolve the error to bring that documentation with you...unless you make it into a big deal.

 

 

[MEFIowa]

3 minutes ago, shepherd really said:

Since you get documentation of your reservations in several forms and should have it, it is not a big deal when going to resolve the error to bring that documentation with you...unless you make it into a big deal.

 

 

That's just making assumptions. Thus, you assume people brought any written confirmation with them or that they saved it on their cellphone or have immediate access to their cellphone. I'm not sure why you're trying to minimize or make excuses for O. I can assure you, we were quite upset, as was the woman in the chair as we waited, trying to figure out, "Why have all of our reservations disappeared and we don't have one tonight, the night we thought we had one?" There seems to be some indication that this happens on O ships, the B2B changing cabins. On our cruise and from comments by others on other O cruises.

[shepherd really]

22 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

That's just making assumptions. Thus, you assume people brought any written confirmation with them or that they saved it on their cellphone or have immediate access to their cellphone. I'm not sure why you're trying to minimize or make excuses for O. I can assure you, we were quite upset, as was the woman in the chair as we waited, trying to figure out, "Why have all of our reservations disappeared and we don't have one tonight, the night we thought we had one?" There seems to be some indication that this happens on O ships, the B2B changing cabins. On our cruise and from comments by others on other O cruises.

If you don't bring documentation with you, you haven't exercised due diligence.

O makes errors, not being prepared compounds that error.

 

As to being upset, that is your choice, but it doesn't ever help your situation.  

 

When you hike in the rain, you can be wet and miserable, or you can choose to just be wet.  

[Vallesan]

I must admit after 10 Oceania cruises I’ve never had an issue with speciality restaurant bookings.

I just have all my documentation on my iPad so hopefully if there is a mistake in the future I’ll have the paperwork.

[MEFIowa]

14 minutes ago, shepherd really said:

If you don't bring documentation with you, you haven't exercised due diligence.

O makes errors, not being prepared compounds that error.

 

As to being upset, that is your choice, but it doesn't ever help your situation.  

 

When you hike in the rain, you can be wet and miserable, or you can choose to just be wet.  

You're deliberately confusing many things, including what is the issue and how one responds to it. Of course, you then seem to exonerate O for creating the problem in the first place.

 

But the issue properly framed is: "Why is O deleting specialty reservations for passengers on a B2B when they change cabins?" The fascinating, when they change cabins. Is it deliberate in some way? 

 

And the IRONY is that you demand "bring documentation" when O is DELETING their own data!

[shepherd really]

13 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

You're deliberately confusing many things, including what is the issue and how one responds to it. Of course, you then seem to exonerate O for creating the problem in the first place.

 

But the issue properly framed is: "Why is O deleting specialty reservations for passengers on a B2B when they change cabins?" The fascinating, when they change cabins. Is it deliberate in some way? 

 

And the IRONY is that you demand "bring documentation" when O is DELETING their own data!

Sure, they are doing it just to piss of customers...

 

OR

 

Their IT sucks and we should be prepared to address these situations are they arise.  

 

You were in the military; you should know that preparation prevents p1ss poor performance.  

[ORV]

43 minutes ago, shepherd really said:

Sure, they are doing it just to piss of customers...

 

OR

 

Their IT sucks and we should be prepared to address these situations are they arise.  

 

You were in the military; you should know that preparation prevents p1ss poor performance.  

You know there's no point in trying to explain things to some people. Yes, it shouldn't happen, yes no one should be wasting their vacation time straightening out things that shouldn't be messed up. BUT, I always take printed and electronic versions of excursions, dinner reservations, OBC, insurance particulars, Terms & Conditions contract flight & hotel reservations etc. I don't depend on company's systems to always get it right. It's actually getting more and more prevalent that mistakes are made. 

[Queen of DaNile]

The Final Cruise Vacation Summary that you receive via email just before the start of your cruise contains so much information that why wouldn't you print out at least that one page and bring it with you? Embarkation port information, Amenities, Prepurchased Tours, Itinerary AND Specialy Restaurant Reservations.

Call me old fashioned but I like to have hard copies of everything pertaining to our trip and travel with all docs in a soft cover notebook. 

[Hlitner]

2 hours ago, shepherd really said:

Since you get documentation of your reservations in several forms and should have it, it is not a big deal when going to resolve the error to bring that documentation with you...unless you make it into a big deal.

 

 

I would think that one perk of being on a "Premium Line" is not having to waste one's time dealing with reservations desks and guest relations to correct the cruise line cruise screwups.  One expects better from a "Premium Line."

[Snaefell3]

17 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

I would think that one perk of being on a "Premium Line" is not having to waste one's time dealing with reservations desks and guest relations to correct the cruise line cruise screwups.  One expects better from a "Premium Line."

That will be the case only when they (1) stop hiring humans, and (2) stop using computers.  😉

[shepherd really]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

I would think that one perk of being on a "Premium Line" is not having to waste one's time dealing with reservations desks and guest relations to correct the cruise line cruise screwups.  One expects better from a "Premium Line."

I wouldn't think that. 

In the real world, stuff happens no matter how much money you spend.  The best we can expect is fewer adverse events, but certainly not zero.

 

For example, note the luxury brands below.  

 

[ORV]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

I would think that one perk of being on a "Premium Line" is not having to waste one's time dealing with reservations desks and guest relations to correct the cruise line cruise screwups.  One expects better from a "Premium Line."

You seem to take every chance you get to take a dig at Oceania. Why don't you save yourself some time and grief and cancel your cruise with them. If you go with the attitude of trying to find everything wrong that you can then you will. Just go on a cruise line that you know you'll be happy with. 

[Hlitner]

28 minutes ago, ORV said:

You seem to take every chance you get to take a dig at Oceania. Why don't you save yourself some time and grief and cancel your cruise with them. If you go with the attitude of trying to find everything wrong that you can then you will. Just go on a cruise line that you know you'll be happy with. 

LOL, so defensive.  I am not posting anything negative about O but simply reading other posts and some recent reviews.  As to what happens onboard, we shall see.  

[rbtan]

On 1/10/2024 at 7:25 AM, Croooser said:

Our experience on Vista in November was that Guest Relations staff were indifferent to the two different requests that we made which they chose not to resolve and with a not so pleasant response. This was in stark contrast to what we viewed as consistently good to excellent service levels and response from the rest of the crew that we interacted with. Example - One of those issues was with an overcharge at Toscana. So, after striking out at Guest Relations we went to the Maître D at Toscana who immediately stopped what he was doing and had the charge corrected.

 

For some reason Guest Relations seems to have a license to say NO. In the future we will be prepared to immediately escalate when this happens.

 

YMMV

It should be standard knowledge that if you have an issue in ANY of the restaurants, always seek out the Maitre D.This is their area. Let them handle it. Overcharge? Sounds like an issue with drinks, as the rest. is included in the cost of your trip.

[rbtan]

5 hours ago, MEFIowa said:

That's just making assumptions. Thus, you assume people brought any written confirmation with them or that they saved it on their cellphone or have immediate access to their cellphone. I'm not sure why you're trying to minimize or make excuses for O. I can assure you, we were quite upset, as was the woman in the chair as we waited, trying to figure out, "Why have all of our reservations disappeared and we don't have one tonight, the night we thought we had one?" There seems to be some indication that this happens on O ships, the B2B changing cabins. On our cruise and from comments by others on other O cruises.

Whenever we do a B2B, we always make sure there is NO room change. We make the reservations well in advance. Obviously if one does it some months in advance, one may not get the desired results.

[rbtan]

2 hours ago, shepherd really said:

I wouldn't think that. 

In the real world, stuff happens no matter how much money you spend.  The best we can expect is fewer adverse events, but certainly not zero.

 

For example, note the luxury brands below.  

 

Remember that luxury brands sell far less than mainstream brands.Jaguar sells a few hundred thousand vehicles compared to Ford & GM seling millions. You should have included Range Rover which has the most dismal reliability record in the industry.

[rbtan]

5 hours ago, MEFIowa said:

You're deliberately confusing many things, including what is the issue and how one responds to it. Of course, you then seem to exonerate O for creating the problem in the first place.

 

But the issue properly framed is: "Why is O deleting specialty reservations for passengers on a B2B when they change cabins?" The fascinating, when they change cabins. Is it deliberate in some way? 

 

And the IRONY is that you demand "bring documentation" when O is DELETING their own data!

Whether O is making the errors or not, If you don't bring your documentation, it just compounds it.

[rbtan]

3 hours ago, Queen of DaNile said:

The Final Cruise Vacation Summary that you receive via email just before the start of your cruise contains so much information that why wouldn't you print out at least that one page and bring it with you? Embarkation port information, Amenities, Prepurchased Tours, Itinerary AND Specialy Restaurant Reservations.

Call me old fashioned but I like to have hard copies of everything pertaining to our trip and travel with all docs in a soft cover notebook. 

Proof is in the puddin'

[clo]

6 hours ago, shepherd really said:

When you hike in the rain, you can be wet and miserable, or you can choose to just be wet.  

 

[Redtravel]

We thought that we had resolved the dining reservation problem.  Nope.

Tonight we appeared at Embers at the time written on my reservation card. The maitr’d could not find our reservation. He told us that we were reserved in Polo tonight, not Embers.  I showed him the ship reservation ticket. He said that the concierge had made a mistake.  We were seated and had a nice meal.  

[Mariastreby]

20 hours ago, Redtravel said:

We thought that we had resolved the dining reservation problem.  Nope.

Tonight we appeared at Embers at the time written on my reservation card. The maitr’d could not find our reservation. He told us that we were reserved in Polo tonight, not Embers.  I showed him the ship reservation ticket. He said that the concierge had made a mistake.  We were seated and had a nice meal.  

Oh wow. These problems are happening in the reservation system shipwide, obviously. So then the maitr’d of course believes what he/she sees on their computer screen. Though we have two cruises booked on the Vista, I can’t help but think with fondness of how problems get resolved so much more easily, quickly, and with smiles on our Viking cruises. We like and dislike different things about both cruise lines, but all aspects of customer service and crew friendliness on Viking beat those of Oceania. It shouldn’t be that way, as the two seem to be about the most equal in their appeal and type of passengers.
 

I think Oceania’s problems really stem from a really bad company wide computer system, which we can even notice with errors in our online booking details. Then all Oceania employees naturally rely on what they see on their computer screens, which seems to be wrong far too often. This causes major frustration for both Guest Services and the passengers. One proof of O’s abysmal online performance is that they still don’t even have an onboard app for their passengers. Every other cruise line has one. 

[Snaefell3]

1 hour ago, Mariastreby said:

I think Oceania’s problems really stem from a really bad company wide computer system, which we can even notice with errors in our online booking details. .... One proof of O’s abysmal online performance is that they still don’t even have an onboard app for their passengers. Every other cruise line has one. 

• O's IT systems are a ...weakness.  Yeah and verily.

• But you want them to build an app you have to rely on?!?  🤦‍♂️

[Mariastreby]

15 hours ago, Snaefell3 said:

• O's IT systems are a ...weakness.  Yeah and verily.

• But you want them to build an app you have to rely on?!?  🤦‍♂️

Sure! They could hire a couple of high school students taking computer courses who could teach O’s IT department a thing or two. 😁

 

Thankfully, Oceania ships still maintain good printers to produce the daily activity program. 🙄🙄 I forget what it’s called, but it’s all that we have to rely on till someone can produce an app.  But sooner than that, emphasis obviously needs be their dining and excursions reservations systems. We don’t even know if most of their internal onboard systems work properly, like the ones that keep track of laundry, dinners ordered, food supplies, or everything financial.

[shepherd really]

44 minutes ago, Mariastreby said:

Sure! They could hire a couple of high school students taking computer courses who could teach O’s IT department a thing or two. 😁

 

Thankfully, Oceania ships still maintain good printers to produce the daily activity program. 🙄🙄 I forget what it’s called, but it’s all that we have to rely on till someone can produce an app.  But sooner than that, emphasis obviously needs be their dining and excursions reservations systems. We don’t even know if most of their internal onboard systems work properly, like the ones that keep track of laundry, dinners ordered, food supplies, or everything financial.

You hear about mistakes, but you ignore that tens of thousands of people have seamless cruise experiences each year.