Oceania Decline

[MEFIowa]

17 minutes ago, Woodrowst said:

I listen to a comedy radio station when I want to unwind and heard a joke that could be applied to the cruise critic boards:....

Though not too long ago CC posters on O threads were personally attacking Tom Drake, a long-time comic who performs on O ships. And he's married to Dottie, a long-time O CD, who gets rather viciously attacked here, too. Of course, BOTH have their defenders, too. Even from the same voyages, you get two different subjective opinions. But then I forget how many PAGES of comments there were not too long ago most attacking O's cookies (the kind you eat).

 

I mostly let the subjective comments fly right by, since what one person likes to eat or how they want something served is entirely different from another person's perception. You can read Southern Gary above.  He and I were on the same cruise. His first on O, our 3rd-4th (a B2B). We don't share the same opinions in regard to various subjective factors, including both food and specialty restaurants. Not surprising, things are subjective.

 

Take just the GDR. My wife and I have 40 nights on O ships since 12/2021and have yet to eat in the GDR and doubt we will on our upcoming 22 nights on Sirena. No desire at all. Zero, zip, nada. We just prefer the TC, eating under the stars and since we cruise for exciting & energetic excursions, sitting down to 1 1/2-2 hour evening meals isn't our thing most nights, though we do do the minimum number of specialty restaurants (1 per cruise). Nor does day drinking on the ship appeal to us. So could care less about drinks packages, esp. when I can bring on board whatever alcohol I do want to drink in my cabin.

 

I wish there was a thread dedicated to OBJECTIVE issues. Like missed or shortened ports, lounge hogs, broken HVAC or plumbing issues (which we've all seen here), etc. Things most reasonable people can agree on as to "it" being an actual "issue" or not. 

Edited March 3 by MEFIowa
Typo

[Snaefell3]

4 hours ago, pinotlover said:

Personally believe they’d quickly sell out even an O or A ship if they only would offer it.

Likely.   And I suspect they would if they had a HAL-sized fleet.

 

Remember, they'd have already sold the 4 'R'-class ships if it wouldn't have left them a 2 ship line, so it's a matter of more options than ships and which areas will sell out at the highest profit.

[sunlover12]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

 

If the Internet is good enough, we will try to post a Live thread during our 5 weeks on the Vista.  We will be honest, candid, and back-up what we say with facts.  Folks can certainly dispute subjective issues (such as the quality of beef) but "inedible" or "cold" is something that most understand.   Speaking of posting "facts,"  when we did this during a recent 6 week HAL cruise there were the usual cheerleaders that would make excuses or pooh pooh facts.  We see that sae attitude with some here on the O board.  As a simple example, O is one of the only cruise lines that does not currently have a decent "App."  The line is truly behind the times in terms of current technology.  O also does not have an online system for "air" options such as what one finds with most CCL and RCI products.  Even O fans, such as Flatbush Flyer, suggest that O cruisers call O rather than make dining reservations and book excursions online.  In this regard we did ignore Flatbush Flyer and did all or our pre-cruise reservations (12) online and also booked our excursions online.  So far, so good.  No problems, the system seemed to work, and we did get confirming e-mails.  So, we are off to a good start :).

 

No cruise line is "perfect" although we have had some cruises that have come close.  Ironically, some of our best overall cruises have been on HAL, but those voyages are far in the past.  Seabourn has also given us mostly very positive experiences along with some amazing experiences (caviar in the surf can be quite fun).

 

Hank

I haven't been on any of the cruise lines you've mentioned so I can't comment on them. The only other cruise line I've been on other than Oceania is Royal Caribbean.  On their very large Oasis class ships, an app is extremely useful and I was glad to have it.  With 17 decks, many restaurants and many activities, it's good to have that app.  Oceania's ships are a much different experience from Royal Caribbean. They are smaller so I personally have never felt the need for an app while I've been onboard.  All of the information that I have needed to know is on the TV in the cabin and in the daily Currents. 

 

Enjoy your upcoming cruise.  Looking forward to hearing about it.

[Tr1v1alCru1ser]

I’m sorry to hear of your experience, it’s always interesting to hear what other people think.

 

I can honestly say that the only meal I really haven’t enjoyed on O was in Ember over Christmas.  That’s not to say that every other meal we’ve had has been perfect, it wasn’t.  I like my food piping hot, and I would say that on that cruise, food in the GDR was delivered quickly and hot.

 

I did notice that our first cruise back after Covid, there seemed to be less wait staff in the GDR, food took longer to arrive, and was often tepid.  

[DrKoob]

I think that all the cruise lines are still playing catch up from the pandemic. In two ways. First, they are having trouble finding qualified crew. We have experienced this on Viking, Vista, HAL and Celebrity. Secondly, they are still recovering financially and NCL is the cruise line that got hit the hardest in that way.

[ak1004]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

 

Overall, as far as food and services go, I don’t believe Oceania has declined much since Covid. Destination Services has always been a train wreck, so we try to book our own private tours. I believe the greatest difference between now and pre Covid on O is the number of ports now missed and or the number of port hours cut. It went from a rare occurrence, to happening most every cruise. Outside of the debt issues and saving money, this no longer has anything to do with Covid.

 

Is this unique to O? I see a lot of reports about cancelled ports on other lines as well.

 

And I still don't see how they save money by cancelling ports. I believe the opposite is true - tens of thousands of dollars of lost revenue from cancelled excursions would far outpace any savings they might have from ports fees or fuel savings.

[bradpole]

18 hours ago, EJL2023 said:

Not experienced this decline.  Perfect, nah…but a wonderful experience. 

That has been our experience, nothing is perfect, but have thoroughly enjoyed our experiences onboard, yes even post covid.  

[EJL2023]

7 minutes ago, bradpole said:

That has been our experience, nothing is perfect, but have thoroughly enjoyed our experiences onboard, yes even post covid.  

Have had two post covid cruises and all fine. 

[don731]

Just off Vista after 17 nights.  Not as great as our last cruise on Riviera in fall 2022.  Wonderful ship, uneven service in most dining venues.  No where close to Cunard Grill class for about the same price a few months ago, and makes a $200 per night premium for Seabourn look like a bargain.  As always, everyone’s experience is different.  Not a great value for us at a net of $750 per night in V1 verandah.  

[FetaCheese]

@Hlitner

I encourage you to do your Live From on your upcoming cruise.  I think it will be well received, especially because you will be honest, candid, and will back up your post with facts.

Edited March 3 by FetaCheese
Addl info

[ak1004]

5 hours ago, Sthrngary said:

 

Conclusion:  Oceania to me is a middle ground.  Better experience especially in Europe than NCL Haven, MSC Yacht Club or Celebrity Retreat. Not as good of an experience from the New Regent Seven Seas Ship, Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection, Seabourn, Silver Seas and the list of Ultra Luxury Brands go on.  Yet when you compare Oceania to most (I did say most so I know you can catch a deal on some of these brands) of the Ultra Luxury Brand.  I have an really hard time justifying the cost difference for the level of improvement gain by Ultra Luxury. 

 

 

We came to the exactly the same conclusion. I would consider O much closer to the true luxury lines than mass market lines.

 

To us, it's all about itinerary and price. We would probably consider lines like SB where the prices are often fairly close to O. Crystal now has the most absurd pricing of all lines. Paying more than O 60-70% for a smaller cabin on a 20+ years ship doesn't make sense to me. Yes, it was marginally better than O in terms of service when we sailed with them 5 years ago, and probably still is, but I won't pay those prices. In most cases the improvement is really just marginal in many areas. 

[cswhistler]

We enjoyed our Vista Caribbean 19 days cruise, meals were great.  Got off Feb 18. We find choosing the right dish is a big factor. At Embers (not a fan, lacks ambience ) but the scallops were good. 

Also enjoyed Aquamar for lunch a nice change.

We did not find a big change in food, as a sample - rack of lamb, whole Maine steamed lobster, sea bass, filet mignon with lobster tail, Dover sole, Steak Diane, veal various prep, it was all very enjoyable.

The voyage was 11 + 7 days and quite a change for the 7 day trip, a much younger and noisier crowd.

Much better to be on board compared to the pouring rain at home!

Until next time.

[AMHuntFerry]

@mamaclark A quick comment on food quality and service on Regatta. We were on Regatta (Alaska) in Sep 2022, June 2023, and Sep 2023 (May 2024 is booked). We had no bad meals (but those cookies need butter!), but did notice some waitstaff (not cabin) service issues in 2023. My guess is they were either understaffed or had too many people in-training. The waitstaff were working hard, but sometimes things were slower than we'd experienced before. It didn't matter too us because we were never in a hurry and are patient, but it should be better than it was (I hate having to wave down a waiter to get something, especially when they are obviously rushing around with more than they can handle).

[QuestionEverything]

5 hours ago, mamaclark said:

 I agree! Thank you for mentioning the skipped ports.

Thanks to pinotlover and mamaclark, re: the skipped ports and reduced time in ports.

I cruise for the ports, the ship stuff is much less important.

Having been following the O board and O reviews for many, many, many years, this is indeed an issue with O, I believe more so than any other line. Add in the lack of corporate and onboard communications - you all know what I mean - this is a major, major issue for me.

I have been on 4 O cruises, minor amount versus many of you. Every voyage had 1 missed port. I check with AIS marine traffic to see what other ships are approaching and or just docked, O is usually the ship that misses versus others who are approaching the dock or just docked (I am a ship person been on many on the Great Lakes Freighters).

And always "operational" reason for the most part. I also check in with my US Navy friends and they advise me on the weather etc. 

I really support the O menu, very good food but cheapened lately like most lines, the O staff are Beyond Great and the little white cloth that goes under your shoes is THE BEST thing on any cruise ship.

But my intent to book with O is very much gone given the skipped port, likely to skip ports and the 1 hr reduction in port time due to "environmental" bull.

I will continue to observe the comings and goings and topics on this board and I greatly thank everyone for their knowledge, analysis and opinions.

 

 

 

[mamaclark]

17 minutes ago, QuestionEverything said:

But my intent to book with O is very much gone given the skipped port, likely to skip ports and the 1 hr reduction in port time due to "environmental" bull.

Thank you! Skipped ports and reduced ports were an issue for us in Alaska. We book for the itinerary. We have a lot to consider for this cruise since we will only have 48 hours to make a decision. May need to look at 2025. Thanks.

[mamaclark]

50 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

We had no bad meals (but those cookies need butter!),

Now that made me laugh!

[MEFIowa]

25 minutes ago, QuestionEverything said:

... re: the skipped ports and reduced time in ports. I cruise for the ports, the ship stuff is much less important. Having been following the O board and O reviews for many, many, many years, this is indeed an issue with O, I believe more so than any other line. ... I have been on 4 O cruises, minor amount versus many of you. Every voyage had 1 missed port....

I wish there was some published objective data on this. Comparative data post-COVID for the various lines and ports.

 

We, too, have done 4 O cruises, 40 nights. 4 10 night cruises. Missed one port completely, one private island completely, and changed a port.

 

On Riviera 12/2021 in the W. Caribbean we only missed the private island in the Bahamas, the last stop. Due to waves. They sure looked high and powerful to me, preventing tendering. While passing Key West we had to make an emergency medical stop to transfer an obviously ill older passenger to a small CG patrol craft, but this just cost us some time, not a port. On Sirena 11/2022 in the E. Caribbean we missed St. Kitts because on the way down we had to make an emergency medical stop at Puerto Plata, DR to tender a passenger to the hospital. Took the crew a lot longer to accomplish this than they thought. Hours. On Riviera 10/30-11/9/2023 Trieste to Athens we did NOT miss a port. And while on the next leg of our B2B on Riviera 11/9-19/2023 Athens to Barcelona bad weather diverted us from Livorno to La Spezia. So a changed port, not a completely missed day.

[Queen of DaNile]

We have been sailing Oceania for more than 19 years and have never experienced anything like what happened on our last Riviera cruise. As we stated on another thread, we lost a total of 15 hours of port time out of 11 ports. Only one port remained unchanged. Some ship excursions were either canceled or drastically altered and those with private excursions were left scrambling to contact their operators. The most dramatic change was reducing the time in Manila by 4 hours which was where many of the crew hoped to spend some time with their families.

A letter stating " technical issue" was offered as the explanation.

I would be very wary about booking an itinerary that contained ports you couldn't bear to miss.

[clo]

8 hours ago, pinotlover said:

With our multiple cruises on Oceania, we have reasonable expectations on what to expect. We know which foods they generally do well, and what to avoid. Therefore, even though we still get some excellent meals, some mediocre, and some poor ones; we generally trend to very good because we don’t reorder those that have proven substandard. We only rarely see less than great service, but it does occasionally happen. They are wine stewards, not sommeliers. Expect no more.

 

Overall, as far as food and services go, I don’t believe Oceania has declined much since Covid. Destination Services has always been a train wreck, so we try to book our own private tours. I believe the greatest difference between now and pre Covid on O is the number of ports now missed and or the number of port hours cut. It went from a rare occurrence, to happening most every cruise. Outside of the debt issues and saving money, this no longer has anything to do with Covid.

I'm curious. Nowadays, do you ever cruise on any line other than Oceania? TIA

[Vineyard View]

1 hour ago, MEFIowa said:

I wish there was some published objective data on this. Comparative data post-COVID for the various lines and ports.

I too wish that there was this data available. It would put all this to rest.  That said, I cannot imagine that the audience on these various cruise lines on CC are that drastically different in their review styles. I have to think that those who post on HAL, Viking, SB, Oceania, Azamara, etc are not so very different in their review styles. So when I follow these boards, and one that repeatedly discusses skipped ports or reduced port times, that does say something to me. I honestly read of these two issues way more on Oceania than I do on the other cruise line threads that I follow. 

[Vineyard View]

30 minutes ago, Queen of DaNile said:

We have been sailing Oceania for more than 19 years and have never experienced anything like what happened on our last Riviera cruise. As we stated on another thread, we lost a total of 15 hours of port time out of 11 ports. Only one port remained unchanged. Some ship excursions were either canceled or drastically altered and those with private excursions were left scrambling to contact their operators. The most dramatic change was reducing the time in Manila by 4 hours which was where many of the crew hoped to spend some time with their families.

A letter stating " technical issue" was offered as the explanation.

I would be very wary about booking an itinerary that contained ports you couldn't bear to miss.

I sure hope that you were compensated in some manner. That is a HUGELY different itinerary than you paid for. 

[Queen of DaNile]

18 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

I sure hope that you were compensated in some manner. That is a HUGELY different itinerary than you paid for. 

Absolutely not! And no response to my mid and post cruise comments.

[Vineyard View]

Just now, Queen of DaNile said:

Absolutely not! And no response to my mid and post cruise comments.

Wow. No words. 

[clo]

21 minutes ago, Queen of DaNile said:

Absolutely not! And no response to my mid and post cruise comments.

This is the kind of thing that's going to have me closely watch O and similar lines. Maybe cruising is over for us.

[cruisemom42]

54 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

I too wish that there was this data available. It would put all this to rest.  That said, I cannot imagine that the audience on these various cruise lines on CC are that drastically different in their review styles. I have to think that those who post on HAL, Viking, SB, Oceania, Azamara, etc are not so very different in their review styles. So when I follow these boards, and one that repeatedly discusses skipped ports or reduced port times, that does say something to me. I honestly read of these two issues way more on Oceania than I do on the other cruise line threads that I follow. 

 

I do exactly the same, and I agree with your assessment.