Oceania - The good, the bad, and the ugly

[joan24]

A couple of years ago we were on the Regatta at Portofino. One of the tenders coming in lost steering going forward but could steer in reverse. It wasn't a pretty sight when he hit one of the beautiful yachts in port. Lots of yelling, not by the tender crew though.

Joan

[surus]

LHT28, what I said was that the PA announcer told those on board that crew was left ashore "to assist passengers", but in fact what crew was ashore gave no help to passengers. One stranded passenger told me later that when they approached a crew member about getting to Naples they were told that the crew was only helping other crew members rejoin the ship. This is second hand information so I am just repeating what I was told. Also, I am not savvy enough to know if the person running the tender was competent or not, but my husband is. After watching him at the controls he said "This guy does not know what he is doing." I was not happy.

[voiceover]

well - all of this has been most enlightening! My husband and I are heading to Rome and joining the Insignia on 7/11 for a cruise. First-timers - never before on any cruise. If anyone has anything else they'd like to add, let me know. We plan on taking some of the tours and doing our own thing on some of the days.

 

Has anyone ever used the cabs at port successfully for touring around? (assuming we'll find english speaking drivers)

[LHT28]

Has anyone ever used the cabs at port successfully for touring around? (assuming we'll find english speaking drivers)

 

Make sure you have a small conversation with the driver before you get in so you will know if he speaks English more than just a few words. Tell them where you want to go & make sure you leave plenty of time to get back to the ship before sailing.

 

Agree to the price BEFORE you get into the cab.

[voiceover]

thanks so much - great tips. (no pun intended)

[Luvsailing]

We, and especially I, indeed read these threads and I am apalled at what happened to you in Sorrento. Absolutely unacceptable and unexcuseable!!

 

Don't know what happened (I am currently on vacation, but will find out quickly) but I assure you, this has never happened before and will NEVER happen again.

 

As to the comments about Food and Service and I am doubly disappointed because as many of you know, we've built Oceania's brand on the back of our excellent cuisine.

 

Your experiences are atypical of Oceania and for that I extend my sincere apologies. We'll get to work on the deficiencies noted and we will not only correct the areas where we fell short, but will double our efforts to improve our delivery beyond our own high standards.

 

I was pleased to learn, that despite what you went through, you'd still cruise with us again. I think that is a strong testament to the overall experience that Oceania offers. I just wish you could of been onboard when we are clicking on all cylinders. I promise that we will be next time you cruise with us.

 

Again, my sincere apologies for a less than perfect cruise and thanks for your constructive comments.

 

All the best

 

FDR

Chairman and CEO

 

Dear Mr. Delrio:

 

I have always wanted to go an Oceania cruise and we are booked on the Insignia April 2009.

 

The fact that you cared enough to reply to a passenger and the tone of your letter in response is extremely impressive. After reading the original post I was a little hesitant about going on that cruise but you have pushed all my hesitation aside. I feel assured that the problems mentioned will be corrected and that our cruise will be wonderful and up to Oceania's standards.

 

I very much appreciate the fact that you are interested in what the Cruise Critic members have to say and are willing to listen and to respond. Thank you again.

[Bollinge]

We, and especially I, indeed read these threads

 

FDR

Chairman and CEO

 

Well, Mr Del Rio, I am, (as we say in England), gobsmacked to discover that you, personally, not only read these boards, but also have the guts to post on them too! Fair play to you.

 

We are looking forward to sailing on Insignia out of Venice in three weeks for our first cruise with Oceania, and will certainly post our impressions of the voyage here on Cruise Critic.

[Aussie Gal]

Gail, if you see the sommlier in Terrace Cafe when you board they have a list of wines you can pre order for your consumption. A mix and match list with a minimum of three bottles gets you a discounted price on some reserve (and not so reserve) wines.

 

We were on the 35 day Nautica cruise from Hong Kong to Athens and at no stage were there any discount wines offered. We asked everywhere and were told a definite no.

 

Instead we would order 2 bottles - one red and one white - each time our wine ran out and they would be put away for us. This was all very well, but when the wine waiter (sommelier) is flat out and there are not enough of these on board, you do have to wait for your wines to be delivered to the table which can be frustrating as I always like to have our wine before our food is delivered.

 

Jennie

[Aussie Gal]

We were on the 6/13 cruise on Nautica. problems. The concierge is definitely in the wrong line of work as he doesn't seem to like people. Mel, the bartender in Martinis was great and makes a nice cold martini. We can't wait to sail with Oceania again and are anxiously awaiting the 2010 itineraries.

 

I think the Concierge must have changed since we were on board in April/May as he was a definite people person and was very approachable. I cannot believe that he wouldn't have tried to help you any problems that needed sorting out.

 

Jennie

[hondorner]

We were on the 35 day Nautica cruise from Hong Kong to Athens and at no stage were there any discount wines offered.

The only discounted wines I have seen were offered on both of our previous cruises, in the form of a printed list of very high end wines, available for purchase much like the art offerings. These were not the usual wines offered at table. Typical were wines ranging from a couple of hundred dollars per bottle to ones over one thousand dollars per bottle. With these, if you purchased 2, you got 1 free. Since I have never tasted wine that cost more than $12 per bottle, I wasn't interested enough in their "sale" to pay more attention.

[thedog]

First of all the Naples thing is not excusable. Saying that I do not agree with the food at the least. First of all I thought the food on Regent RSsc was pedestrian to say the least. The gourmet dining place, Signatures had the same limited menu all of the time. Compare that with Toscana. What passed on regent for a veal chop was a grey and insipid thing compared to the real veal chop in Toscana. Polo was a treat and the wine lists in both were fine. I just did not love Regent at all and have been on the Voyageur and the Mariner. I think for the product Oceania was great, but the transfers in ports and that area needs big time improvement. We were on Regent prior to the open bar thing but still that did not reflect my comments.

[ChatKat in Ca.]

TheDog,

 

Food is very subjective. Signatures is a specialty restaurant with food prepared by Cordon Bleu Chefs. The food there is not as broad an appeal to many people's palates. The cut of veal on Oceania is a different cut of veal. I chose the veal on both lines multiple times and I have taken the Cordon Bleu course on Regent 3 times were we have extensively been in the kitchens at Signatures working along side the chefs.

 

The food in Polo and Toscana is on par, in my opinion with upscale restaurants and I have no complaints at all but the food in Signatures is exquisite. The food cannot be compared because they are different styles of cooking. The menu does change in Signatures regularly but not multiple times per cruise since you are only allowed one reservation per 7 days on RSSC - which is actually the policy at Polo and Toscana as well. If I were to chose a cruiseline soley based on food, Regent would win over Oceania for me primarily because they will customize an order to your taste since all the food is cooked to order or even allow orders off menu if they can do it with ingredients onboard and advance notice. You cannot custom order on Oceania.

[thedog]

Yes food is subjective and I sure do not need cooking courses to tell me what is good or so. Having dined in about 70 Michelin stared restaurants in my lifetime I think I know good food also and do not need a course to show me what is great. I live in a city that has truly great (tasting) food. So as you say it is subjective. Last year we were on SilverSea and frankly I prefered Oceania to that also. So as you say it is subjective.

[Texed]

I prefered Oceania to that also.

 

Hey Fred, that table-side dinner was fabulous, don't you think? :)

[thedog]

Yes it was.

 

Hey Fred, that table-side dinner was fabulous, don't you think? :)

[RJB]

We too were on Silverses last year and prefer O. Thought the food was better and for the most part the service as good, except for the pool, where the service on Silversea was much better. :)

[thedog]

I do agree the SilverSea pool service and the provision of shuttles in ports, makes a big difference. One more thing was the great pizza on the pool deck. But overall I preferred Oceania.

 

We too were on Silverses last year and prefer O. Thought the food was better and for the most part the service as good, except for the pool, where the service on Silversea was much better. :)

[St. Louis]

We should appreciate FDR's diligence and comparatively frequent participation on this board. Even at Silversea, there has recently been one manager who occasionally reply on this cruise critic board, but not as often as FDR. We hope responsiveness on this board will become common for all cruise lines!

 

I think any company would check a board like these. Would'nt they all want to know what their passengers think and would check these boards, whether they post entries or not. I am sure Mr. Delrio appreciates our comments.

[sacway]

I forgot to put this on my end of cruise or mid cruise comment card, but it would be FANTASTIC if along with the world card and the map of the ship there was a card with the name and contact info for all the port agents for all the cruise. then your average new cruiser will be better prepared for whatever may happen.

 

In the "Daily Currents" there is the name, address, phone number of the port agent.

However not many people take the paper with them ashore.

I write it down or take the paper with us.

[LHT28]

I forgot to put this on my end of cruise or mid cruise comment card, but it would be FANTASTIC if along with the world card and the map of the ship there was a card with the name and contact info for all the port agents for all the cruise. then your average new cruiser will be better prepared for whatever may happen.

 

good idea or maybe they could just put it on the map/description of the port hand out the night before with the "Currents"

[momoforthodoc]

we will be on the regatta nov. 09 for the first time sailing with o and we're very excited about it. i will say that on princess they have handouts before going into any port which has that info on it. it has a map, places that they recommend for shopping, the port agent's info address and phone number. when you leave any princess ship they have crew handing out this info just in case you left it in your state room. it's a great help in getting around the ports.

jeralyn ;)

[phillipahain]

Seems to me that this experience on Oceania mirrors that of ours on the Nautica in Feb/Mar

 

The response from both onboard /concierge and Head Office was absymal and highly dismissive

 

I have given up waiting for Frank Del Rio to have the courtesy to respond to copies sent to him

 

After our Nautica cruise Sept 07 we raved about Food and Service on Oceania

 

Feb /Mar 08 was a very different story and sailing with them again is unlikely given the responses received so far

[lcand1923]

momoforthodoc,

 

The handout you describe is similar to one we got on HAL, Orient and Viking. Oceania did not provide that sort of handout on either of our cruises. Folks from the local Visitor's Information center do come onboard and provide some information. Sometimes you get a good map, sometimes you don't. On our last cruise, I tried to get maps of each of the ports over the Internet prior to leaving home. I would then write the Port Agent's info on the map. If I could figure it out, I would put an X to mark where the O vessel had docked.

 

Don't expect that very useful handout on your November 09 cruise with O.

[LHT28]

we will be on the regatta nov. 09 for the first time sailing with o and we're very excited about it. i will say that on princess they have handouts before going into any port which has that info on it. it has a map, places that they recommend for shopping, the port agent's info address and phone number.

 

jeralyn ;)

 

We had information sheets delivered the night before the port of call with the Oceania Currents (newsletter)

Sometimes they had maps with shopping info etc.., sometimes not but I do not recall if they had the port agent info on the handout but it was in the newsletter for sure.

[Aussie Gal]

We found the information we got on the various ports on our recent 35 day cruise on Nautica was not up to what we have been used to on both HAL and Princess who give you detailed maps etc.

 

We thought that the Destination Services was one of the areas where improvement is needed on Oceania. The staff did not have the knowledge required for such a position.

 

Jennie