Blue Book

We just received our booklet for our upcoming cruise. A couple of observations.

It is disappointing that it seems to have less customized content than I remember from our previous cruises a few years ago. It is a classy effort but a bit less than it used to be.

My second comment is that O clearly makes no effort to ground truth the port content. We happen to live near Victoria and O promotes the Royal London Wax Museum and the Marine Museum of British Columbia in the introduction.

The former closed in 2010 I believe.

The latter is actually the Maritime Museum and while still open it has struggled. It was forced out of its classic location by the provincial government and currently has a storefront operation with most of the artifacts in storage. I am not discouraging people from visiting as they need all the help it can get but at the moment I don't see it as the major attraction it used to be.

We just received our booklet for our upcoming cruise. A couple of observations.

 

It is disappointing that it seems to have less customized content than I remember from our previous cruises a few years ago. It is a classy effort but a bit less than it used to be.

 

My second comment is that O clearly makes no effort to ground truth the port content. We happen to live near Victoria and O promotes the Royal London Wax Museum and the Marine Museum of British Columbia in the introduction.

 

The former closed in 2010 I believe.

 

The latter is actually the Maritime Museum and while still open it has struggled. It was forced out of its classic location by the provincial government and currently has a storefront operation with most of the artifacts in storage. I am not discouraging people from visiting as they need all the help it can get but at the moment I don't see it as the major attraction it used to be.

Except for your profile identity, embarkation port info, note on required documents and luggage tags, the "blue book" is pretty much useless.

I have enjoyed reading our blue book as it is personalised for us.

I read there are movies under the stars.Is that correct???

I have enjoyed reading our blue book as it is personalised for us.

I read there are movies under the stars.Is that correct???

Not in the same sense as the main stream lines do them

There is a small screen on the pool deck on the O class ships more like a large TV

They sometimes will show movies there but not much space to get a good seat ;)

 

My second comment is that O clearly makes no effort to ground truth the port content. We happen to live near Victoria and O promotes the Royal London Wax Museum and the Marine Museum of British Columbia in the introduction.

 

The former closed in 2010 I believe.

 

The latter is actually the Maritime Museum and while still open it has struggled. It was forced out of its classic location by the provincial government and currently has a storefront operation with most of the artifacts in storage. I am not discouraging people from visiting as they need all the help it can get but at the moment I don't see it as the major attraction it used to be.

Wait a sec - you found a couple of mistakes in port info - which may be significant, I am not sure - but this leads to the sweeping generalization that "O clearly makes no effort to ground truth the port content"? (Not exactly sure what the last sentence means, exactly, but I think I get the drift)

Isn't that rather a huge leap - from finding two mistakes on this one itinerary to the conclusion that O "makes NO effort?" Do you have insider knowledge on this?

You can hurt yourself jumping to conclusions like that! [emoji6]

Donna

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This is not the first time that i have found information from HQ to be unreliable. I think if they had rigor in their process thay wouldn't be 5 years out of date. U can defend them which is fine.

Our Blue Book last year said we were departing out of a dock area in Sidney that had been shut down for five years and the area now completely reconstructed with no docking of any large ships. O had made numerous trips out of Sidney, in the past 5 years, and just never took the time to ever change the info. Sloppy on their part. Take the baggage for check in and be happy.

I love the blue booklet, although I don't take the whole thing with me, or save it when the cruise is over. It seems as personalized as it can get, although it no longer lists the officers on the cruise. However, I can understand that things like that can change, so perhaps it's a good thing they don't include the information. Embarkation berth assignments can change too, even a week before the cruise, so I've learned to expect an occasional surprise there. I just verify where the ship is before I get into a cab to go. Excursion info frequently changes a little, too - to be expected. I've experienced that kind of thing with other cruise lines, and it's no big deal to me.

Does Oceania now send out an email a few weeks pre-cruise with pertinent information? I think I read that, but can't remember for sure. If so, maybe the purpose of that is to update what was in the blue booklet, if necessary due to port assignment changes and whatnot.

I was impressed that this time we received the blue booklet over 2 1/2 months pre-cruise. I think that's a lot earlier than we've ever received it.

My understanding from other posts is that an email is still sent. I do think the Blue Book is a great idea as anything that builds spme connection prior to the cruise adds value.

I think the concern is not that things change, they will but due to inattention they were wrong to start with. I remember wheni worked finding out the hard way about copying a document. Very easy not to update something that needs to be changed. I think that is the problem. They roll the prior version forward which is understandable but it has to be challenged.

My understanding from other posts is that an email is still sent. I do think the Blue Book is a great idea as anything that builds spme connection prior to the cruise adds value.

I think the concern is not that things change, they will but due to inattention they were wrong to start with. I remember wheni worked finding out the hard way about copying a document. Very easy not to update something that needs to be changed. I think that is the problem. They roll the prior version forward which is understandable but it has to be challenged.

I agree with you completely but the logistician in my subconscious reminds me that there are thousands of metropolitan areas which could be represented in those Blue Books, and that Press Releases are seldom sent when an attraction is closing.

What I would like to see is closer liaison between the regional Sales Representatives and the production team for the blue books.

85% of what the sales force does is schmoozing with local travel professionals anyway, so why not exploit their "ear to the ground" expertise?

Oceania could run a contest to determine the best represented city.

Great idea

Received our blue book last week for upcoming cruise in August. Flipped thru it a couple of times looking for list of officers, CD, executive chef, etc. If I'm remembering correctly, this list included photos of each person and maybe very short bio as to work history with Ocania. Could not find this list in my current blue book. Am I dreaming that the list was part of my previous blue books for past cruises???

Received our blue book last week for upcoming cruise in August. Flipped thru it a couple of times looking for list of officers, CD, executive chef, etc. If I'm remembering correctly, this list included photos of each person and maybe very short bio as to work history with Ocania. Could not find this list in my current blue book. Am I dreaming that the list was part of my previous blue books for past cruises???

They have not put the list of officers in for months now

I did miss the page with the details and pictures of the officers, cruise director etc this year as it made the blue book a bit more personal to the cruise in question. I didn't mind that they sometimes changed before I embarked. Not that it's a big deal.

I was glad I'd read on here about the email confirmation, which I'd not noticed before as our previous TA used to email a lot of information. When the blue book for our upcoming cruise arrived, the terminal in Southampton was different to the one I'd found on the port timetable. Sure enough the email corrected that error. Knowing where you are to embark is a big deal :).

Great idea from JimandStan.

Our Blue Book last year said we were departing out of a dock area in Sidney that had been shut down for five years and the area now completely reconstructed with no docking of any large ships.

Are you kidding!?! That's no little mistake.