lj77346

2 hours ago, pinotlover said:

 We are often amazed at the starving souls lined up by 6:15 at the Specialties. The purpose of being so early is what? A two top or sharing is predetermined. The doors open at 6:30. One can arrive at 6:40 and still stand in line. It’s like mini Boardamania . While we do always attempt to arrive at the specified time, it typically means standing in line, especially for the 6:30 dining time. While we have never been hungry, at any time, on an Oceania cruise, all those lining up so early must have different experiences.

For individuals with mobility problems who need to use an elevator, getting to the speciality restaurants before 6:30 is being polite to other cruisers.  With only 2 elevators aft, getting space on an elevator with a walker or scooter at prime meal time is an issue.  Perhaps people are waiting in line not because they are hungry, but because they are being thoughtful and don't want to inconvenience others.

On a recent cruise we had a large onboard credit in addition to the Simply More shore excursion credit.  There was nothing of interest to buy in the boutiques, but my wife found that you could use the onboard credits to buy products in the Aquamar Spa and they could ship them to your home address for a reasonable shipping fee ($8.95 in the U.S.).  The Aquamar Spa has a facility in the U.S. that takes care of orders that are shipped to your home.

We have had no problem using onboard credits at the spa even in combination with our Oceania Club $150 spa credits - just can't use the Oceania Club credits on spa special sales.

Currently on the Vista and I agree with the OP that something needs to be done with the shore excursion portion of Simply More. On this cruise (3/16-3/27), we missed the first day in Bermuda and the day in Norfolk and I was also on the previous cruise (3/9-3/16) and we missed Costa Maya which was the last port of the cruise. At Costa Maya I had a $349 excursion booked which would have used my $300 Simply More excursion credit plus some of my regular onboard credit. The regular onboard credit went back to my onboard account, but the Simply More excursion credit became Simply Nothing for me. The same is happening on the current cruise as missed shore excursions in Bermuda and Norfolk result in Simply More shore excursion credits that are Simply Worthless. I feel that Oceania needs a plan B so that there would be some value (at least some onboard credit) to passengers for Simply More shore excursions cancelled because of missed ports.

Prior to Simply More I had 25 Oceania cruises under OLife and missed shore excursions always resulted in an onboard credit for the value of the missed excursions.  The port cancellations on my current Vista cruises were clearly good decisions because of weather conditions, but in any case value to me was lost because the Simply More shore excursion credits became worthless as they could be used for nothing else,

Since December 2023 I’ve taken 5 Vista cruises and have been in 8130 (concierge veranda), 7077 (French veranda), and 9123 (concierge veranda) and have not noticed the noise being any different than on the other Oceania ships. Occasionally I might hear the TV from an adjacent room or voices, but nothing more than usual. I think a lot depends on your neighbors and how loud they are.

9 minutes ago, mamaclark said:

Thank you, I  realize for every bad review there are many good ones unwritten. I am agonizing over whether to pull the trigger on this rather expensive cruise when the list clears, which undoubtedly it will. All I can do is compare prior experiences. I never had a bad bite of food on Oceania, never. Were you on the Regatta?

I was on the Regatta's repositioning cruise from Vancouver to San Pedro last September and I also found many meals on that cruise to be subpar.  I requested a meeting with the GM and Food & Beverage manager on that cruise to find out what the problem was as I was also on the Regatta in July and the food was good.  They listened to my concerns but were at a loss to explain how the quality of food declined so much in two months time.  Perhaps it was a one off occurrence.

Since then I've sailed on the Vista 3 times and the food was at the standards I expect from Oceania - very good in all venues.  So hopefully all will be well on the Regatta this year as I will be sailing on her for 23 days in April and May.  You can't get a hit everytime you go to bat, so I hope the Regatta isn't in a prolonged slump.

I also was on the Vista in December and I don't think the end of cruise survey was even mentioned in Currents.

Chair hogging can be viewed as sort of a "tragedy of the commons" issue.  In the context of deck chairs, if a number of people enjoy unconstrained access to a finite resource, such as deck chairs, they will tend to over use it and destroy its value altogether.  To exercise voluntary constraint for individuals desiring to use deck chairs is not a rational choice because if they did, other individuals would use the deck chairs and take spaces that they desire.  Thus the predictable result is a problem or at least an inconvenience for everyone.

Empirically, the tragedy of the commons relative to deck chairs can be observed on a cruise.  On the first day of a cruise some individuals "reserve" deck chairs by placing items on them.  Other individuals see this behavior and decide that the only way to get deck chairs in a favorable location is to "reserve" deck chairs for themselves - the problem snowballs.  As the cruise progresses, this behavior becomes widespread until demand exceeds capacity.  This occurs because the benefits of chair hogging accrue to individuals who are motivated to use deck chairs to the point that they become reliant on it (even if they plan to use the chairs for a limited time).  However, the cost of this behavior is borne by everyone who wants to use a deck chair.

Absent some response by Oceania to curb this behavior, the problem will persist because there is no cost associated with "reserving" a deck chair.  So, while you might expect people who pay thousands of dollars for a cruise to have some class and play nicely with others, it won't happen voluntarily as there is no consequence for selfish behavior.

(Wow, I really am boring.  I guess that happens to economists who try to rationalize behavior.)

3 hours ago, harryw said:

Good point about clustering at disembarkation. What’s the rush? 

An issue with Oceania is that it requests you vacate your room by 8 a.m.  In general people do, but there is limited space to sit and wait, so lines start.  Add to that the almost complete lack of anyone in authority being visible during disembarkation so that's like giving tacit permission to line up anytime you want as no one is checking to see if your tag color was called yet. I find a good solution is to eat breakfast in the GDR and plan to finish eating at 8:30 or later and that eliminates some of the cluster problems.

On the Vista now and a gingerbread village is now in the deck 5 reception area.

The roll call is still there, but for some reason does not show up in the search.  It's about halfway down the second page of Vista roll calls.

41 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

Could it be an error in pricing?  Perhaps I should screenshot everything. 

I also booked the Vista for the March 9, 2024 cruise at an online site in the past few days and can confirm that the price was low as reported and it includes "Simply More."

The new itinerary on Oceania's website shows that Safaga, Aqaba, and Muscat are no longer listed as ports.  After the Nautica leaves Crete there are 9 sea days until it arrives in Dubai.

Are you feeling lucky?  Since December 2021 I've taken 15 Oceania cruises and missed 2 ports because of weather - Ensenada because of a storm and Great Stirrup Cay because it was too wavy and windy to tender.  I took 1 Princess cruise and missed 2 out of 3 ports because of weather - Costa Maya and Roatan.  So, from my experience, Mother Nature and not some devious plot from a cruise line appears to be the factor that determines if a port will be cancelled.

I’m on the Regatta now as well and the interesting thing is that both the cruise itinerary and yesterday’s Current indicated that we would be “cruising the inside passage” but we did not.

The weather today in Victoria is beautiful - sunny and mid-60’s.  The weather the entire trip was great. At Hubbard Glacier a few days ago, I took the small boat excursion that gets close to the glacier and it was very good - sunny day, got to within 1/2 mile of the glacier and there was lots of calving. There were only about 70 people on the small boat that can hold about 250 so it was easy to get a good place on deck to view the glacier without having to squeeze between others.  On the way back to the Regatta we cruised close to the shore and got a great look at stellar sea lions basking in the sun.

From experience, signing in to complete the survey is a problem.  When you try to set your birthday, even when you select the correct month, day and year, it seems the program will put in a random year which is frustrating to correct.  Then, you need a password - why?  You should just need to enter your room number.  Usually around this time I give up. You can tell this is an Oceania IT product - basically unusable.  Paper surveys may be old fashioned, but at least they worked.  Maybe Oceania's new slogan should be "complex solutions for simple problems." 

I'm not much of a cook and I've taken a few of the culinary classes over the last 2 years and I've enjoyed them, especially the classes about Italian cooking and brunch.  I enjoyed learning how to make pasta so much that I bought a pasta machine when I got home after the cruise and make my own fresh pasta.  The one thing I wish I had at home was a sous chef to get all the ingredients ready for me like the class - go to you station and everything is measured out and ready to go.  For someone with limited cooking experience, I thought the classes were fun and even the food I prepared was good.

8 minutes ago, MEFIowa said:

"Solo Oceanview Stateroom

Stateroom Size (SQ FT / SQ M):143-165 / 13-15

Deck(s):6

These charming 143-square-foot staterooms are the perfect retreat for the solo traveler. Amply spacious and centrally located on Deck 6, each is equipped with a sublimely plush Tranquility Bed, refrigerated mini-bar, writing desk and abundant storage space."

 

A downside to the solo Oceanview staterooms on the R class ships is that other than a small stool near the desk there is no where else to sit in the room unless you want to sit on the bed.  Until you don't have a couch in a room, you don't really appreciate how nice it is to have a place to sit.  Also note that your view in these rooms is greatly obstructed - in some you look directly at the side of a lifeboat. Caveat emptor.

6 minutes ago, Russz said:

we have never missed a port on Princess in over a dozen cruises that we have taken with them

You have been fortunate as on our last Princess cruise we missed 2 of the 3 scheduled ports due to 'wind'. However, the captain did explain why we were unable to stop at the port and Princess did provide a nice refundable onboard credit to each passenger.

24 minutes ago, Snaefell3 said:

Also, does Miami → foreign ports → US ports → foreign port → Miami mean two times thru US customs?

Good question - I'm on this cruise also and certainly not thrilled by the second visit to Nassau - would have preferred a day at sea.

For what it's worth, here's my opinion relative to food on Oceania pre- and post-pandemic. For purpose of comparison, I had 12 Oceania cruises pre-pandemic (2016 to early 2020) and 11 Oceania cruises post-pandemic (late 2021 - July 2023).  I'm not a foodie, so I surely will miss the finer points of dining.

In general, I've found the quality of food in the main dining room to be relatively unchanged with the exception being smaller portions of the entrees.  In the Terrace Cafe, there is a noticeable difference in the size and quality of the steaks offered at the grill.  On a recent Alaska cruise on the Regatta, I felt that the Alaska seafood night in the Terrace Cafe was not as good as it was on my 2022 Regatta Alaska cruise.

I've always felt that the specialty restaurants, with the exception of Jacques, were not that special.  Jacques continues to have very good food as does Red Ginger where I especially enjoy the appetizers.  Toscana and Polo Grill are hit and miss, both now and previously - I can't understand how Polo can consistently be unable to cook a steak medium rare.  I've had good meals in Toscana, but nothing that really "wowed" me.  As I won't be cruising on the Vista until December, I won't be able to evaluate what I've read about Ember until then.

I've also been cruising on Celebrity and Princess and food on Oceania is better than what the other lines offer.  I've always felt (in the past and now) that I could get something good to eat on Oceania and I've never lost weight on an Oceania cruise.  Having said that, I think Oceania's hype about its food is a bit excessive.  If I believed everything its advertising said, I would feel that it over promises and under delivers.

On another topic, I'm a bit surprised at the snarky comments about the age of the Oceania clientele.  I remember when I started cruising 40 years ago, I used to think - some of these passengers are really old - now I'm one of them.  So for those who are critical of the older passengers on Oceania, in the future, if you are lucky, you may be one of them.  I know that although sometimes I feel like my "get up and go" got up and left, I'm still happy to be cruising and spending my kids' inheritance.  Cheers!

I stayed in deck 3 cabins a number of times.  It's quiet on deck 3 because the only people walking down the hallway are those with cabins there (and a few passengers who think they can get to the tenders through that hallway).  With the midship location and being low on the ship, I've found the ride in deck 3 cabins to be quite smooth.

One of the things about Simply More that amuses me is the advertising about "free champagne..." and "free shore excursions."  Using the same logic, now I realize that my country club membership provides me with free golf.  Wow, who knew that the purpose of my club dues was to make my golf free.  Sorry for the digression.

We had our "free" cruise on the Riviera in February 2023.  We paid taxes and fees, but we did receive the Oceania Club benefits for the platinum level on that cruise - $500 OBC, gratuities and $150 pp spa credit. Instead of the bottle of wine, we received a bottle of champagne.

The interesting thing is that you do not officially become "platinum" (i.e. get the pin, bag, etc) until the cruise after your "free" cruise, which is your 20th paid cruise.

29 minutes ago, Classiccruiser777 said:

“Simply more” is a major marketing change after building the brand on “your world, your way” for twenty years. 

Apparently "simply more" means simply more revenue for Oceania and simply less opportunity to customize the cruise to meet your own needs.

Next Oceania's slogan will change from "Your world, your way" to "Your world, our way."