On Board Vista, July 23 - August 2, Turkish Ovation

[debihmk]

On 8/2/2024 at 10:32 PM, Vertygo said:

Boarding yesterday was smooth & relatively quick, just long distances to walk through Galataport. While standing in line I struck up conversation with a gentleman from England, who turned out to be Yorkshirewanderers-Nick & his lovely wife Liz!

Was able to get another reservation for Red Ginger for 1st night. Food, of course, was absolutely fantastic, with shared sushi plate, watermelon duck salad, tempura soft shell crab & yuzu sorbet for dessert. We scheduled a wine tasting for $60 & wine lunch for $160 with our sommelier.

There were no envelopes with excursion or culinary center tickets in cabin. When I spoke with Reception they blamed Housekeeping but printed out all the tickets. Our room steward, Luka, said Reception makes many mistakes & puts the blame on them. Either way, I’ve got my ticket for the Bosphorus cruise today 😆.

I’m in 8120, a cabin with extended balcony & 2-sided glass fencing facing forward. So far very quiet. Luka was able to put a lounger on the veranda, keeping our 2 chairs & table & still have plenty of space.

so far, so great………

 

Yay! This is our room number for our trip in June 2025. That’s forever away but I’m so excited to see a photo of the balcony. Also to know they would bring a lounger. Hubby will love that. I’d be interested in knowing how much shimmy it has there in the back if you don’t mind. Red Ginger is my favorite! Love love love the watermelon duck salad! Have a great cruise.

[Vertygo]

37 minutes ago, debihmk said:

I’d be interested in knowing how much shimmy it has there in the back if you don’t mind.

I haven’t felt much of anything, though it’s not completely aft where you’d be more likely to notice. OTOH, I’m happy being as far aft as I can get.
June will be here before you know it!

[Yorkshirewanderers]

16 hours ago, Yorkshirewanderers said:

Sorry to have been so silent over the past couple of days.  We have been having a good time on the cruise but it has been marred by a couple of incidents.  Firstly, two of our four cases which were in perfect condition when checked in at Galataport were delivered to the suite and they had been broken into.  The attempt had failed as we had secondary locks on the cases but they will need to be replaced.  Oceania’s response has so far been disappointing.  They want us to claim on our insurance but the reality is that their port agents caused damage and that could have been followed up on before departure (but wasn’t) and we shouldn’t have to lose money due to our insurance excesses.  We will hold Oceania responsible for this irrespective of what tha contract of carriage states.

 

Additionally, rather surprisingly, I had an expensive pair of new shoes ‘accidentally taken’ from the pool area on Saturday and replaced with similar but much older and damaged shoes.  I would like to be charitable and say that this was accidental but the reality is that it couldn’t have been because the difference between them was obvious.  Security are apparently been reviewing CCTV footage around the pool area but it is extremely disappointing that someone that can afford to go on a cruise of this nature thinks it reasonable to misappropriate someone else’s property.

 

I might have expected this on other cruise lines but certainly not Oceania.  I will provide updates later on during the cruise but I did not expect to be out of pocket due to events of this nature.  Damage obviously happens to luggage when you are travelling but you don’t expect locks to be levered off cases between the check in desk and the suite on a cruise line.  We travel a lot and have had the odd incident with airlines but their response has always been far better, usually with damaged luggage being immediately replaced at the airport.

I think it depends a lot on how you talk to people.  I expressed my ‘disappointment’ to the Executive Lounge Concierge and we had a very pleasant chat.  We have now been offered on board credit to cover the loss, which, whilst not exactly what we wanted, seems to be a reasonable compromise.

 

The ‘missing’ shoes are a different matter … it is very strange that things should disappear round the pool because surely people realise that there is a lot CCTV on board.  It is a really dumb thing to do because, if identified, then they would surely get offloaded at the next port and this is a risky thing to take a chance on.

 

We have one of the deck seven, aft penthouses with the extended deck (more extended than on the higher floors) but not right at the back.  It has two loungers with a table in addition to the normal chairs and a table.  There is enough balcony depth to get two loungers lengthways on, much more than we have had before.  This is a great choice of suite and we are very happy with it.  We avoid dec 11 penthouses because of the significant deck overhang from above that can at times overshadow the balconies.  The deck 7 option which is PH2 is, in our view, much better that the higher deck penthouses. We have previously used those on deck 10.  The only downside is that the butler is stretch across both deck 7 and deck 10 penthouses which seems to be a strange resource allocation.

 

There is no noise from adjoining suites, nor from the Grand Dining Room below.  There is also no observable noise or vibration when docking so some of our previous worries were unfounded.  It seems that the volume on the TVs has now been restricted to avoid disruption to other guests which is a great idea.

 

There are significantly fewer children on this cruise segment and we had a long chat with the Hotel Manager at the Captain’s reception last night.  The staff and management were dismayed at the problems they encountered over the last two cruise sectors and say that they had never encountered as many problems with unsupervised and unruly children before.  Apparently, some groups of parents had to be spoken to on multiple occasions.  Children had represented in excess of 10% of the guests on board and the ship is just not geared up for that.  There had, apparently been many complaints.

 

The Cruise Director on board is Julie and she spoke to us last night. She is extremely pleasant.  She does a very good job but we have been very spoilt in the past having been sailing with John Ekin a couple of times on Marina and Riviera.  He is now at Regent.  John is ex-Disney and in our experience is the most consummate professional who should be seen as a role model Cruise Directors across the industry for high end cruise lines.

[Vertygo]

@Yorkshirewanderers- I’m so sorry you’ve had these issues, but glad they’re not ruining your enjoyment of this wonderful cruise. I hope they identify the thief & use the plank to offload them.

[bbqoug]

2 hours ago, Vertygo said:

 I hope they identify the thief & use the plank to offload them.

Just make sure they take the shoes off first.

[Yorkshirewanderers]

We had a great meal tonight in the main dining room.  Last night we had an outstanding meal in Toscana on a shared table with another lovely couple. Tonight’s entertainment was a comedian that we thought was superb.  He is on again in a couple of nights and we are looking forward to that.

 

The ship still seems to have a problem with noisy groups who are disrespectful of others.  Tonight in Vista lounge was karaoke and the front row crowd of about a dozen people got their own spots done and then talked loudly through everyone else’s turn.  Their demographic is much younger than the traditional Oceania guest and this is something that the company needs to think through carefully.  It may be commercially advantageous for Oceania to take these groups onboard in the short term but this quickly could lead to an erosion of their loyal customer base if this is not managed carefully.  The staff are aware of the issues but admit that they are struggling to get things under control.

[osandomir]

58 minutes ago, Yorkshirewanderers said:  Their demographic is much younger than the traditional Oceania guest and this is something that the company needs to think through carefully.  It may be commercially advantageous for Oceania to take these groups onboard in the short term but this quickly could lead to an erosion of their loyal customer base if this is not managed carefully.  The staff are aware of the issues but admit that they are struggling to get things under control.

This is the demographic Oceania is after looking forward and I’m afraid that there’s no way back. It’s unfortunate that the behaviour of some groups of the passengers is diminishing the experience for others but that is the reality we and staff need to learn how to deal with.

[ronrick1943]

2 hours ago, Yorkshirewanderers said:

We had a great meal tonight in the main dining room.  Last night we had an outstanding meal in Toscana on a shared table with another lovely couple. Tonight’s entertainment was a comedian that we thought was superb.  He is on again in a couple of nights and we are looking forward to that.

 

The ship still seems to have a problem with noisy groups who are disrespectful of others.  Tonight in Vista lounge was karaoke and the front row crowd of about a dozen people got their own spots done and then talked loudly through everyone else’s turn.  Their demographic is much younger than the traditional Oceania guest and this is something that the company needs to think through carefully.  It may be commercially advantageous for Oceania to take these groups onboard in the short term but this quickly could lead to an erosion of their loyal customer base if this is not managed carefully.  The staff are aware of the issues but admit that they are struggling to get things under control.

Oceania shouldn't be struggling to control these groups.  They should just go up to the group and let them know they are being discourteous to other and if they don't keep it down they must leave the area---period!

[lorimay]

We are finally back home after a nightmarish travel experience. Our original plan was IST-LHR, LHR-JFK. Then an overnight at the TWA hotel at JFK and a return trip to Florida that we had booked with miles on a different airline. Unfortunately, we circled JFK for almost an hour because of weather and they diverted us to Boston Logan. Because they diverted over 30 flights, most of them international, there were no jetways available and they had no place for us to disembark. We sat on the plane for over three hours and finally they had to get stairs to get us out of the plane and onto buses after midnight. They claimed the plane would be going back to JFK at 9am the next day (it actually ended up going at 9pm) but we missed our hotel, no hotels available in Boston because of all the diversions, and ended up booking a JetBlue flight from Boston to Florida at 6am, because we were trying to beat tropical storm Debby. Customs and baggage claims were nightmares, one of our suitcases was delivered missing a wheel, and then trying to re-check our bags for the JetBlue flight at 3am while waiting for security to open at 3:30 with fights breaking out around us. I've never been so happy to be home. I think travel insurance will take care of the added expenses.

 

Meanwhile, I had a lot of time to think about our trip. Overall, we had an excellent trip. While Athens was a disappointment and we figured out the Med in summer with the heat is not for us, it was an otherwise very good time.

 

We really liked the Vista. It's not perfect, but it's a beautful, well thought-out design. I'm hoping they fix a few things on the Allura. 

- Overall, the decor is beautiful. We did notice some wear and tear already. Many of the chairs in Martinis were stained and there were noticeable stains in the carpets.

- The food was excellent. Is it as good as it used to be? I don't have much comparison. Our first Oceania cruise was after the covid restart. I thought the food on Vista in the grand dining room was better than we had on Marina and Riviera. For the most part we had great food everywhere. The only restaurant we did not try was Aquamar. Toscana, Polo and Red Ginger were as good as we remembered. Not every dish is perfect, but overall the quality of ingredients and the presentation were excellent. For the most part comparable to our recent Regent Grandeur cruise and of course MUCH better than any food we have ever eaten on Celebrity (we don't do suites so no Luminae comparison). Much larger menu everywhere than Celebrity, but not as big a menu as Regent in the main dining room

- We really liked Embers as a restaurant. I loved the atmosphere - it felt very modern and very American. However, I think the menu lets it down a little. There's not really that much choice and the food is all over the place in terms of upscale/casual. I'd like to see more originality.

- Red Ginger was the only restaurant where we didn't like the decor. It was too generic and has lost all of its Asian touches. It looks like they could turn it into any other kind of restaurant quickly and cheaply.

- The Aquamar terrace on Vista is fantastic and a great space, except there is very limited shade. I think that's a big miss.

- I loved the pool deck with the semi-private "cabana" areas with shade on the side. A great use of space.

- The Vista Lounge is a huge miss. The low stage and the not steep enough seating means you are constantly looking around the people in front of you to see what is happening. 

- While I usually like big spaces divided up into more intimate seating areas, Martinis is too choppy. We had trivia there daily and it didn't feel like everyone was in the same room. The Grand Lounge next door is also a strange space. It's really just a corridor with furniture. Horizons is a huge improvement over the other ships. Those chaise lounges that look out the aft are my favorite.

- I don't know who designed the storage in the veranda cabins, but a lot of small drawers is not ideal storage for a cruise. And they could have put some upper cabinets somewhere. I don't know if I could do a really long cruise in that cabin.

- The covered area outside the Terrace is a huge improvement over Marina and Riviera. I love the shade there.

- The library is beautiful, but there's not enough seating. Too many half empty shelves and not enough chairs.

- Destination Services needs an upgrade. Their hours were poor and they were really unhelpful. I think if we do another cruise with the Simply More excursion credit, I'm going to spend it all on one or two of the private excursions at places that are important to me and then do any other excursions on my own. As it stands now, it's not fair when they cancel so many excursions at the last minute.

- This was the first time in a very long time we were unhappy with the location of our cabin. The aft elevator not going down to deck five is a huge inconvenience. It's either walk to the front of th e ship to take that elevator, or go down to 6 and walk to the grand staircase. Deck 5 is one of the most important on the ship and you can't easily get there from the aft cabins. Also, we had that loud thumping noise and very bad vibrations when the thrusters were on. We were about 4 cabins from the aft. I would want to be forward of the aft elevators if we did this again.

 

I don't know if Oceania is our one and only cruise line, but I would recommend it to others, especially on the Vista, and I would be happy to book another cruise on Oceania at any time.

 

One last thing - if you are ever in Instanbul, I can highly recommend the Hagia Sophia Mansions Hotel (Hilton Curio Collection). This hotel is a group of restored houses that were once guest residences for the sultan at the Topkapi Palace. They are directly across from Hagia Sophia and many of the buildings (ours included) are attached to the actual walls of the palace. It's a magical place with beautiful, luxurious Turkish decor. It was a little bit of splurge for us, but worth every penny for the experience of being so close to everything. And the Turkish breakfast we had under the trees in the courtyard was incredible. 

 

Thanks for coming along on this journey on Oceania and I hope it was helpful for others who are looking to book or already booked on the Vista. 

 

 

[FetaCheese]

@lorimay

Thank you for your honest critique.  Well balanced.  

Edited August 6 by FetaCheese

[Yorkshirewanderers]

I agree, this is a very well balance review.  The aft elevator, not going to deck five is more than inconvenient for any with restricted mobility.  It forces you to go to the front of the ship to then have to come back aft on deck 5.  This is an inexcusable design issue.  I know they wanted to extend the MDR kitchen areas but this is a compromise too far.

[WildWanderers]

A couple more observations from Turkish Ovation...

 

- we found it difficult to find a place to play cards.  We did not want to take the rounded banquettes in Baristas, as people wanting to eat needed them.  Other tables in many areas were too low.  There were always children at the only higher table, the chess table, in the library. Other ships have games rooms / areas, and if this one did too, we never found it.  We ended up playing in the usually empty technology centre.  Great view at the windows.

 

- although Martinis broken up into more secluded spaces does not work well for trivia, it helped to mute the sound of the large boisterous groups.

 

- although Horizons is broken up into small seating areas, it did not mute the sound of large groups, small groups shouting or the crying babies.  On the evening of the Oceania club cocktail party in Horizons, the gang around the bar was so loud that you had to be very close to the stage to hear the presentations.

 

- to use the locks on the lockers in the men's change room the lock had to be pointing up for you to be able to use it.  It was rare to find one pointing up, as they are left pointed to the side after most people use them.  Sometimes you can point the lock up after use, but not always.  This means having to get a male member of the Aquamar Spa staff to come to reset a locker for you.  The one time I saw this happen, one locker was reset for the person who tracked down a male staff member, still leaving all of the other lockers unusable.  Helpful hint:  remember to get the male staff member before stripping off.

 

- it did take some getting used to that the aft elevators went down only as far as the 6th floor.  On the Marina, these aft elevators go down to the fifth, just behind Jacques and Red Ginger, and you still have the long walk past them to get to the useful area with Reception and Destination Services.  On the Vista, this area was reconfigured to be space for an expanded Red Ginger and the big open kitchen you see at the back of Ember.  It just meant having to walk to the elevators at the front while still on our (7th) floor, then either walk down or take the elevator from there.  The same distance as walking past Jacques on the Marina.

 

- we really enjoyed eating outdoors at the Terrace Café.  There were lots of great tables in the shade.

 

- the special Indian dinner in the Terrace Café was very good.

 

- (was his name?) Arijit at the grill can add his personal Indian spice mix to your omelette in the morning.  Try it, it's amazingly delicious.  At times I would bring him a sausage or potatoes from the breakfast bar, which he would happily chop up and add to my omelette.  Why am I drooling?

 

I have appreciated hearing from others in this thread that the Vista crew were struggling with how to deal with the (parents of the) children, loud groups and loud telephoning / videoconferencing in dining and bar areas...as this implies it is not an acceptable norm.

 

Wandering wildly, still in Istanbul.  Doing a cruise on the Bosphorus today just using our transit card - the best way to see the Bosphorus according to our hotel desk guy.

[Yorkshirewanderers]

More on the rear elevator issue … if it only goes down to the 6th floor, why did they fit both up and down call buttons on the elevators at the 6th floor level.  This means that anyone calling the lift gets one that arrives but then turns out not to be able to go down after all.  That strikes me as really inept design!

[jonthomas]

13 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

Oceania shouldn't be struggling to control these groups.  They should just go up to the group and let them know they are being discourteous to other and if they don't keep it down they must leave the area---period!

Spot on.

Insist with GM that they do that. Demographics may be changing, but  common courtesy should not. Do not just accept that a changing demographic will also bring the crude, the lewd and the rude. Let's teach them that if you want to sail on O, you can't behave like you are on Celebrity, carnival etc.

Let's protect what we love about O.

 

[ronrick1943]

Over all nice reviews, honest and to the point.  Thanks to all for taking the time-I enjoyed reading these post.

[WildWanderers]

4 hours ago, Yorkshirewanderers said:

More on the rear elevator issue … if it only goes down to the 6th floor, why did they fit both up and down call buttons on the elevators at the 6th floor level.  This means that anyone calling the lift gets one that arrives but then turns out not to be able to go down after all.  That strikes me as really inept design!

 

Hi @Yorkshirewanderers,

 

You are quite perceptive indeed.  I did not notice that.

 

I did notice however that the signage in the elevators and elevator lobbies referred to the Oceania Club Ambassador which for some time has been renamed to be the Future Cruise Consultant.  People unfamiliar with Oceania might not have known that the two titles are the same person(s).

 

I did notice, however, a lot of people confused about why they could not get to the 5th floor on those elevators, and unsure what to do about it.

 

There is a similar confusion on the Marina, until you master the layout.  I had to go to the Medical Centre at one point, and went down to the 4th floor via the elevators that do not go to the medical centre.  You have to go up at least a floor and walk across to the other stairwell/elevators.  That I had hurt my foot and could hardly walk did not help.  The ship had lurched during a rough transatlantic crossing when I had just left the steam room in the men's locker area.  Attempting to regain my balance, I kicked a bench in such a way that the leg of the bench went between my big and next toe on my right foot.  By dinner time I couldn't stand the pain.  The security guy, called by the medical staff as it was considered to be the fault of the ship, took me back to the scene of the "accident" after the x-ray to take photos of my foot next to the bench, and do everything else short of drawing a chalk outline of my foot on the floor.  For the photo, I was disappointed that my foot did not look as bad as it felt.  Many of the crew learned the meaning of the word "lurched" that evening.

 

On that evening wandering more slowly, 

The other Wanderers, still enjoying Istanbul.

[Vertygo]

We’ve enjoyed both of our O excursions-Cruise on the Bosphorus for our Istanbul overnight & Olympia & Zorba event today in Katakolon. It was fun seeing the original Olympic stadium & the place where the torch is lighted.

Weather is hot of course, but not oppressively so, low 90’s F & shade can be quite pleasant with a breeze.

We planned a small private boat from Skala in Santorini through Santorini View & had a wonderful 5 hours with swimming & a lunch on one of the islands. People returning from cable car said line took up to 1 hour. One of our trivia team members felt she had mild heat stroke.

We’ve enjoyed the food. Have had 2 dinners in Red Ginger, 1in Toscana & Polo tonight. Ate in Grand Dining Room last night & didn’t feel service was slow, but bothered that multiple servers kept asking us if we liked our meal at nearly 2 minute intervals! (We lost count).

We signed up for Champagne sampling tonight & wine-pairing lunch in 2 days.

Corfu Catamaran O tour tomorrow!

[aussietwo]

On 8/6/2024 at 4:20 PM, WildWanderers said:

A couple more observations from Turkish Ovation...

 

- we found it difficult to find a place to play cards.  We did not want to take the rounded banquettes in Baristas, as people wanting to eat needed them.  Other tables in many areas were too low.  There were always children at the only higher table, the chess table, in the library. Other ships have games rooms / areas, and if this one did too, we never found it.  We ended up playing in the usually empty technology centre.  Great view at the windows.

 

It took us quite a while to find the games room on Vista but eventually we came across it.  
 

If you go into the technology area there is a door through to another room which has a lot of tables.  There is a large cupboard area with a “treasure trove” of games.  Best equipped games cupboard on any ship we have been on and we have been on all “O” ships plus some others.  

[WildWanderers]

46 minutes ago, aussietwo said:

It took us quite a while to find the games room on Vista but eventually we came across it.  
 

If you go into the technology area there is a door through to another room which has a lot of tables.  There is a large cupboard area with a “treasure trove” of games.  Best equipped games cupboard on any ship we have been on and we have been on all “O” ships plus some others.  

Hi @aussietwo,

 

Thank you for this.  We did not venture into that room, but did see it being used for a class on photography one day.  Now we know to check it out!

 

Cheers!

[aquidneck1]

On 7/31/2024 at 11:42 AM, ORV said:

I've never had the Swedish pancakes, they're not very good. 🤪

 

Lorimay, thanks for your review and insights. I would have to say, with all due respect, that I would have a hard time highly recommending a tour company that took me to a high pressure rug seller. We also had a private tour there and they didn't take us to any stores, just to Ephesus, with the Terrace Houses and back to the ship. 

Orv, what was the name of the tour group that you used?

[ORV]

34 minutes ago, aquidneck1 said:

Orv, what was the name of the tour group that you used?

This was back in 2013, so it's been a while. I don't have my emails on that cruise for some reason. I think I started archiving them on the very next cruise, so I don't have a lot of information on it. I do have the company's card in case I ever go back. 

 

The name of the company is Anka Turizm.  But, I have a memory of booking this through a third party company, but I don't think it was Viator. At any rate we had the option of booking a private tour, bus tour or group guaranteed to be 12 or less. We chose the 12 or less. It was our lucky day as when we met them to pick us up we were the only people on the tour. So, we had a driver and a guide and our own car. So this was like getting a private tour of Ephesus at group pricing. The guide's name was Gulcan Aydemir. She did a great job. 

 

Perhaps one of the reasons we didn't go to a rug shop was that there were only two of us. 

[aquidneck1]

24 minutes ago, ORV said:

The name of the company is Anka Turizm. 

Thanks so much. I’ll be forewarned prior to booking a tour but it’s nice to have a name. 

The worst place we travelled with regard to this was India. One guide was in tears because we refused to go to the “shop of the day”.  

[Vertygo]

We’ve all seen posts about checking your excursion tickets as soon as you board. (Which I did after going down to Reception to get my tickets that hadn’t been put in my cabin.)

Make sure you double check the time as well as the name. We had chosen the afternoon for an excursion that had 2 times offered. When we received Currents the evening prior I noticed the afternoon time wasn’t listed. Looked at my reprinted tickets again & saw the morning time! Thinking I may have lost my mind, I checked the O listing of my excursions I’d printed out the day before we left & it did have the afternoon time!

So, I didn’t lose my mind, but O dropped the ball by not notifying me of the time change. No e-mail, no note, nada.

I wonder how many people may have missed the boat, so to speak 🛳️

[osandomir]

49 minutes ago, Vertygo said:

We’ve all seen posts about checking your excursion tickets as soon as you board. (Which I did after going down to Reception to get my tickets that hadn’t been put in my cabin.)

Make sure you double check the time as well as the name. We had chosen the afternoon for an excursion that had 2 times offered. When we received Currents the evening prior I noticed the afternoon time wasn’t listed. Looked at my reprinted tickets again & saw the morning time! Thinking I may have lost my mind, I checked the O listing of my excursions I’d printed out the day before we left & it did have the afternoon time!

So, I didn’t lose my mind, but O dropped the ball by not notifying me of the time change. No e-mail, no note, nada.

I wonder how many people may have missed the boat, so to speak 🛳️

Definitely it’s not the way how it supposed to be communicated to you. For all of our 15+ cruises on Oceania the excursion tickets were there when we arrived in our cabin. And if any changes there was a notification letter along with the tickets. We normally check everything at this point. But in case someone doesn’t get anything there’s also an excursion booklet and a pre order form in the cabin. We always review it because changes to the prior arrangements that are different from the descriptions that were available earlier are listed there. It’s just another way to insure that everything is accurate with the tours that we had pre booked before boarding the ship.

[Vertygo]

22 minutes ago, osandomir said:

But in case someone doesn’t get anything there’s also an excursion booklet and a pre order form in the cabin.

I did review those, but time of excursion is not listed, just date & cost.