Oceania Decline

[Harters]

Yep, also been to Kourion, although it was many years back. I was more interested to be driving through what is still British sovereign territory. It's a weird anomaly from the times of empire. 

 

My partner lived in Famagusta in the north. She remembers one day the school bus was threatened by Greek Cypriot terrorists and had to drive off the road and through farmland to avoid what was presumed to be going to be an attack.  

[daydreamer62]

I'm in a prime position to compare as we are booked on Vista for 11 days followed by a plane, train, hotel apartment type of vacation directly afterwards. The cruise cost $580NZ per day each for a balcony. The hotels/apartments cost  on average $550 NZ per night for 2 so $NZ 225 pp room only for not fancy but hopefully 4 star level accommodation. Transport ( 2 trains 1 plane)cost another $1000pp divided over 10 nights and I know from our costs in France last year that we will spend at least € 120 pp at the very very  minimum on restaurants per day so that's NZ 267 bringing the land portion to at minimum NZ$539 per night  and that is before daily travel costs such as metro uber taxi etc.  

Taking into account the convenience of going to sleep and waking up in a new port, no packing and unpacking etc the cruise portion is surprisingly good value. It's a totally different experience of course and I don't believe one replaces the other but doing the maths makes me wonder if we just shouldn't have stayed on board for the next 7 days B2B after our original cruise!!  ( This cruise was a replacement for a longer  one cancelled due to the red sea transit issues that averaged $564 per night) we changed our outgoing flight and kept our original return flights from London so have 11 days to fill in getting from Athens to London hence the land portion in France and the UK. 

[fdnycruiser]

17 hours ago, clo said:

I assume that's just how you currently feel. Have you hit or do you plan to hit at least some of the places that aren't accessible by cruise ship.

Actually, with the exception of the Grand Canyon, probably not. We had our land adventures for 40 years. The last 10 we’ve been taking long exotic cruises, it TA’s. One ship stopped at Myanmar for 3 days. Amazing country, but might not be inclined to stay there in a hotel. Antarctica is amazing, but no options to stay on land for awhile. Bottom line, as long as we stay healthy we’re cruising.

[clo]

1 hour ago, fdnycruiser said:

Have you hit or do you plan to hit

Why I wrote that. Oh, good. And I've not been to the Grand Canyon and I've lived in the West for decades.

[Nitrodog]

We have recently returned from an 18 day (BtoB) cruise on Vista. The ship is beautiful but we found it not quite as excellent as our many other Oceania cruises so I started researching reviews on Regent Seven Seas, Seabourn and SilverSea. Many of the recent reviews of all these lines complain that "it's not what it used to be". So it's not just Oceania that is receiving the poor reviews. All of the so called luxury lines are seeing their star ratings going down. It could very well be that the lines are having a more difficult time attracting staff.

 

We will continue to sail with O. We look for the small ships without the glitz, water parks and party atmosphere.

[clo]

5 minutes ago, Nitrodog said:

We have recently returned from an 18 day (BtoB) cruise on Vista. The ship is beautiful but we found it not quite as excellent as our many other Oceania cruises so I started researching reviews on Regent Seven Seas, Seabourn and SilverSea. Many of the recent reviews of all these lines complain that "it's not what it used to be". So it's not just Oceania that is receiving the poor reviews. All of the so called luxury lines are seeing their star ratings going down. It could very well be that the lines are having a more difficult time attracting staff.

 

We will continue to sail with O. We look for the small ships without the glitz, water parks and party atmosphere.

Thanks for sharing that about the premium lines.

[ak1004]

24 minutes ago, Nitrodog said:

We have recently returned from an 18 day (BtoB) cruise on Vista. The ship is beautiful but we found it not quite as excellent as our many other Oceania cruises so I started researching reviews on Regent Seven Seas, Seabourn and SilverSea. Many of the recent reviews of all these lines complain that "it's not what it used to be". So it's not just Oceania that is receiving the poor reviews. All of the so called luxury lines are seeing their star ratings going down. It could very well be that the lines are having a more difficult time attracting staff.

 

We will continue to sail with O. We look for the small ships without the glitz, water parks and party atmosphere.

 

I learned to take the reviews with grain of salt. Just look at the latest review of the Vista - https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=712929

 

Can it be any more ridiculous and absurd??

[TRLD]

8 hours ago, Harters said:

That would be one way of phrasing it.

 

Another way would be to say I've compared the costs of two specific holidays that we'd be interested in booking and reached conclusions. 

For 1 specific holiday. I am talking about comparisons for the breadth of the travel industry where analyst who study and understand both the cruise, hotel, and other portions of the travel industry indicate that in general cruising is less expensive for comparable vacations.

 

I guess I should not be surprised that  on  Cruise Critic some think that their choices representative everyone.

[EJL2023]

2 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

I learned to take the reviews with grain of salt. Just look at the latest review of the Vista - https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=712929

 

Can it be any more ridiculous and absurd??

My take from it was Ember was fabulous and they apparently had no noise issues or I’m sure they would have reported on it!!! This may give our resident Riviera ‘cheerleader’ something to ponder. 😉

[susiesan]

4 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

I learned to take the reviews with grain of salt. Just look at the latest review of the Vista - https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=712929

 

Can it be any more ridiculous and absurd??

I find this person's comments about the ages of the passengers to be spot on. Oceania does now have the reputation of being the old fogey cruise line of choice. ; )😜

[EJL2023]

Just now, susiesan said:

I find this person's comments about the ages of the passengers to be spot on. Oceania does now have the reputation of being the old fogey cruise line of choice. ; )😜

Did you note the posters age?? 😜

[Hlitner]

8 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

I learned to take the reviews with grain of salt. Just look at the latest review of the Vista - https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=712929

 

Can it be any more ridiculous and absurd??

what is "ridiculous and absurd?"  It is one person's opinion and seems to fit in with many comments (here on CC) about O entertainment and atmosphere.

[Vallesan]

6 minutes ago, susiesan said:

I find this person's comments about the ages of the passengers to be spot on. Oceania does now have the reputation of being the old fogey cruise line of choice. ; )😜

In your opinion at what age should people stop cruising because you consider them to be ‘old fogeys’???

Edited March 13 by Vallesan

[ak1004]

6 minutes ago, susiesan said:

I find this person's comments about the ages of the passengers to be spot on. Oceania does now have the reputation of being the old fogey cruise line of choice. ; )😜

 

I don't disagree, but is it a reason to give a one star rating? Looks like they liked the ship, the food, the service, so the age must be the main reason for 1 star rating. Also, O average age is a well known fact, doing some research or asking the TA could go a long way if this is a deal breaker.

[susiesan]

6 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

I don't disagree, but is it a reason to give a one star rating? Looks like they liked the ship, the food, the service, so the age must be the main reason for 1 star rating. Also, O average age is a well known fact, doing some research or asking the TA could go a long way if this is a deal breaker.

No TA who is trying to sell an Oceania cruise is going to tell a client about the average age of O passengers. I find most people do not do any research into this kind of cruise line minutia except the people on cruise critic.

[Harters]

20 minutes ago, TRLD said:

in general

I'm really not the slightest bit interested in the general - only my own specific holiday. You know, the one I'm actually going to spend my pension on. I've tried to indicate that more than once. You seem unwilling to accept what I am saying so I guess we're done trying to have a conversation. Have a great day.  

[ak1004]

5 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

what is "ridiculous and absurd?"  It is one person's opinion and seems to fit in with many comments (here on CC) about O entertainment and atmosphere.

 

O entertainment and atmosphere are well known. This is not why people cruise on O, and it's not a reason to give 1 star. 

[shepherd really]

3 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

O entertainment and atmosphere are well known. This is not why people cruise on O, and it's not a reason to give 1 star. 

The "nobody told me in advance" you only get one specialty reservation per restaurant, shows this person didn't bother finding the most basic information in advance.  The rest of the review is ignorable for that reason alone.  

[cruisemom42]

1 minute ago, ak1004 said:

 

O entertainment and atmosphere are well known. This is not why people cruise on O, and it's not a reason to give 1 star. 

 

Why not, if it was not what the passenger expected??

 

People board cruises sometimes with very little knowledge or prior research. Take it as one person's opinion. 

 

Given the individual component ratings they gave, one star does seem a little low, but if that was their "overall" takeaway opinion, so be it.

 

And as answer to @Vallesan's question about age: the person you quoted didn't say older passengers should stop cruising. Just that this tends to be O's core group of cruisers.

 

 

[AMHuntFerry]

6 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

O entertainment and atmosphere are well known. This is not why people cruise on O, and it's not a reason to give 1 star. 

This reviewer didn't even know the specialty dining info, which is available on O's website. I'm not surprised they weren't aware of anything else. A little research can be a huge money/time saver.

[osandomir]

49 minutes ago, ak1004 said:

 

I learned to take the reviews with grain of salt. Just look at the latest review of the Vista - https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=712929

 

Can it be any more ridiculous and absurd??

I found nothing bad about Oceania itself in this review. It only shows that the 70+ age reviewer was never taught about being kind to other people in general. I wouldn’t want to meet this person on the ship or anywhere else.

Edited March 13 by osandomir

[ak1004]

2 minutes ago, osandomir said:

I found nothing bad about Oceania itself in this review. It only shows that the 70+ age reviewer was never taught about being kind to other people in general.

 

Exactly! So why 1 star rating?

[Vallesan]

OK!

So I just looked at the ‘review’ posted and below is part of it….
 

“We wanted to experience a small ship cruise line and chose Oceania. We are an experienced Cruiser primarily on Celebrity. We wanted to see if the 25% differential between Celeb Acqua Class and Oceania was worth it. It's NOT. Average age on this cruise was Near Death. It should be sponsored by a Funeral Home or Long-Term Care provider.”

 

Really sorry but should any ‘normal’ person who may have parents aunts or uncles really ‘disrespect’ anybody older than ?? . Who knows how old this person is but whatever they were never brought up to respect their parents never mind anybody else who may be a few years older. 

 

Edited March 13 by Vallesan

[EJL2023]

1 minute ago, Vallesan said:

OK!

So I just looked at the ‘review’ posted and below is part of it….
 

“We wanted to experience a small ship cruise line and chose Oceania. We are an experienced Cruiser primarily on Celebrity. We wanted to see if the 25% differential between Celeb Acqua Class and Oceania was worth it. It's NOT. Average age on this cruise was Near Death. It should be sponsored by a Funeral Home or Long-Term Care provider.”

 

Really sorry but should any ‘normal’ person who may have parents aunts or uncles really ‘disrespect’ anybody older than ?? . Who knows how old this person is but whatever they were never brought up to respect their parents never mind anybody else who may be a few tears older. 

 

Per the review, the poster is in their 70s, which makes it even funnier.  

[Vallesan]

1 minute ago, EJL2023 said:

Per the review, the poster is in their 70s, which makes it even funnier.  

 

WOW! Yes does indeed make it funnier. Obviously ‘Walter Mitty’!