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2 minutes ago, 1985rz1 said:

I think the poster meant that O has stopped organizing M&G in coordination with CC prior to the sail8ngs, as they did in the past. Rather folks on the Roll Call have taken the initiative to organize them with the help of an O rep.  Was yours organized by O or by another pax?

I believe by another passenger with O's cooperation. The Vista GM and other key staff attended and interacted quite a bit with passengers.

On 5/28/2024 at 12:09 AM, Redtravel said:

Sadly, they stopped m&g.  

 

Not sure where you got that information/experienced the "stopping." We had a terrific M and G on Vista just a couple of months ago.

13 hours ago, Sthrngary said:

I hope Oceania will embrace cost cutting in the way Toyota did.  That is my hope. Just my two sense.

I am not a "glass is half empty" kind of guy, but I really do not see Oceania coming out of the starting gate well in their effort to meet NCLH expense cutting mandates. I see cuts which many be "necessary" and they are what they are, but some seem to be implemented in an almost mean spirited and sometimes inept way. Examples are cuts in availability of food items at Waves (new menu, so far only on Vista and now Marina that I know of), availability of some grilled meats/lobster in Terrace, changes not in the customer's favor in the terms of future cruise bookings, financial penalties for North Americans cancelling cruise reservations even if years out from booking date, promising complete renovation of Marina and then not following through, policy which requires loss of SM excursion credits if tours are cancelled and there is no chance to rebook....With apologies to the great Jerry Stiller,,,sounds like I am airing my Festivus grievances,,,😀...

With all that being said, we still like Oceania and are looking forward to our 25 nights on Marina beginning in July...during which we will cross the ten cruise threshold and enjoy the silver benefits. Then we will decide whether we will continue to cruise with O and to what extent. Also, I think we are maybe down too much on Oceania due to spending 30 days on Vista in the last six months. We had real problems with the noise transference between cabins issue on Vista, did not like the new Ember specialty restaurant and thought the architect who designed the theatre and the limitations on the aft elevators should be run out of the industry for malpractice.

We tried a comparatively low per diem Transatlantic cruise on Regent Splendor in April and have found it very much to our liking...did not see examples of the cost cutting... so have two  more cruises booked with them. 

Keep reminding myself how these are first world "problems" and many of us are damn fortunate to have these kinds of choices and agree whole heartedly with Sthrngary about cruising well and enjoying every moment.

California's new honest pricing law effective in a few weeks will require all cruise lines to include port charges and taxes in advertised pricing. I understand that major cruise lines will begin conforming with that law nationwide. Not sure if that will affect refunds for missed ports by other cruise lines, as they still can be broken out on the invoice. Time will tell.

5 hours ago, Redtravel said:

If you are onboard and have a problem, it is in Oceania’s best interest to try to fix it. Once you disembark, they cannot fix a problem.  

I have found them very proactive in responding to mid cruise survey. Issue is that their process for allowing post cruise survey input is not at all user friendly given limited time window and less than convenient process for customers to fill it out. Gives impression that they are not that interested in feedback. Also adds to image of, at least corporate wise, being poor communicators with their customers.

4 hours ago, Cruisegal5 said:

Thanks for all your kind replies. My invoice does show pre-paid gratuities, but I like to see it on the cruise line website. I don't want to get on the ship and be pointing to a piece of paper. The $660 is for the up graded beverage package. 

I have seen postings for free to town shuttles but most of them are for the Med.

Piece of paper tops every other documentation with Oceania. Their consumer focused technology is years behind other cruise lines..indeed most customer oriented businesses.

2 hours ago, Redtravel said:

After that experience, I will book my own air…or just stay home.

Thank you for telling your story. Hope it is widely read. The lack of even basic decency and customer service attitude on the part of O toward especially its customers who utilize O air is remarkably horrible. Some wonderful folks on the ships but their shoreline operation has so much room for improvement.

47 minutes ago, mlmdaisy said:

The

47 minutes ago, mlmdaisy said:

The official Oceania policy is that if you don't want the flights you book, and let them know within a short time, you get a refund.  I would confirm that with my travel agent before proceeding.  It's not a big deal, it's just a single flight and there's really only one option.  I can easily book it on my own.

 

Problem is in many situations by the time you get the O flight info, if you want to turn it down and book on your own, you may be looking at no reasonably priced seats being available.

Met a couple on cruise which embarked Miami in January. Said they were starting their first O cruise on a bad note... rather angry due to their treatment by Oceania air dept. They live in Washington DC area so they figured it was fine for Oceania to pick their flights on morning of embarkation since there are numerous NS flights to Miami from both DC airports. On the day they received their itinerary they found that Oceania had routed then on United connecting through Newark, one of the most delay prone airports on the morning of the cruise. Oceania refused to correct the situation. They bought their own nonstop tickets and lost the money they had paid in their cruise fare for air..Oceania would not refund. I believe lesson here is that it is best to book your own flights, but if you do find it advantageous to use Oceania air, pay the fee to deviate and pick your own flights.

On 5/25/2024 at 8:46 AM, Harters said:

In my one experience with O, they do not. Even though there were direct flights from our local airport to/from the two ports, O insisted on wanting to route us through an intermediate airport, adding hours to the journeys and, IIRC, adding cost as well. I could not get a satisfactory answer from O, as to why they do this but assume it must be something to do with the commercial arrangement they had with the carrier. The next cruise for which we needed a flight, we asked our travel agent who, within 15 minutes, was back with entirely satisfactory proposals (and cheaper than  we could have organised for ourselves). 

Just now, GMIAC said:

 

How would you propose they answer the request, when there aren't enough to guarantee your access to one? Should they say "based on supplies," and then disappoint you when there isn't one available for you?  

I always believe in an honest answer. Just say they are generally available up to capacity limits. 

1 hour ago, papaflamingo said:

First, this is a pretty minimal problem, one can always get hot water and tea bags from room service.

Second, if they say "cannot" and then "do," what a great benefit and unexpected surprise.  Better that than expecting a kettle and not getting it (I can already imagine the posts here if that happens).

Thirdly, it IS possible the TA got it wrong in verbiage. Who really knows what an agent says to a TA?  

 

Agree it is a pretty minimal problem. However when I am told something cannot be done by someone in the service business and then the company surprises me by doing it, I am happy my request was honored, but less respectful of the company for its incompetent inaccurate messaging.

3 minutes ago, flossie009 said:

 

Kettles are not offered as a suite amenity and the ship will only have a very limited number available for loan.

Therefore best that the office agents state that they cannot supply.

In this case “under promise & over deliver” seems the logical policy.

 

Coffee is our requirement in the morning and a friendly room service attendant always fulfills our request soon after we ring.

Regent should say they "cannot supply" when they often can and do? Cannot supply is a complete falsehood. Can supply up to some capacity limits is an accurate, positive customer focused answer.

5 hours ago, MarcyLondon said:

Regent have told my TA they won't supply a kettle

Perfect example of the inexcusable poor communication on the part of this company. We had zero problems getting one on Splendor. One would think shoreside employees have never been on a ship.

Many of us find Oceania's (same as Regent's) method of collecting guest input through the end of cruise survey quite frustrating. Surveys can only be done on line while still on the ship..no way to do it after disembarkation. On recent cruises, the end of cruise survey was not even mentioned in writing or in announcements. I actually had to ask how to pull it up on line. Today I received an email from Oceania in advance of my upcoming cruise asking me to click on a link to complete a brief survey regarding the reservation process. When I clicked on the link I immediately got a 404 error indicating an invalid link. Can't make this up. Has this happened to anyone else?

1 hour ago, zalusky said:

Are the chefs more flexible on Regent?  On Oceania they can only purchase food through corporate and they have to follow corporate recipes.

Regent has a very very large list of always available items in their main dining room, called Compass Rose. I believe it is much higher quality and better service than Grand Dining  Room on Oceania. Lack of an informal dining option in the evenings is a downside to Regent, although in their yet to come newbuilds they are rectifying that.

1 hour ago, FetaCheese said:

Disappointed with so many deletions. Grilled fish, chicken to name 2.

On NCLH investor day at NYSE, CEO said they were eliminating about 30% of food items (slow movers), so this is the result in just 1 venue.

 

Current Waves menu on Sirena (from O website)

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/Documents/Menus/1719/Waves-Menu.pdf

Yes, but the cheapening/lessening of the menu will soon spread around the fleet. 

1 minute ago, ORV said:

No more Chili dog, oh well, it wasn't that good anyway. 

Some on Vista were upset that waygu burger meat replaced real beef filet.

9 minutes ago, true45 said:

Looks good to me - our favorites are safe. 

Same items as on this "experimental" menu rolled out on Vista. 

There are negatives and there are dealbreakers that may only apply to the reviewer/complainer. Examples of dealbreakers for us across many cruise lines include smoking casinos and lack of a dedicated walking track eliminates Seabourn for us. Dining room opening not until 7 or later eliminates Silversea. Tiny bathroom in cabins below PH eliminates Oceania's R ships. "Thin wall" noise issue will eliminate Vista for us. Then there are negatives which are more preference related but would not keep us from sailing on a particular ship/cruise line but could affect our choice if another ship or cruise line has similar timing and itinerary. Examples: no informal evening dining option on Regent, Oceania's very frequent announcements, high cost of Oceania ship tours. That being said, there is a lot to love about Oceania..food, lack of crowds, beauty of ships, the magic of string quartet playing as you walk to GDR in the evening, Baristas, nice libraries...there are so many.

I think you can enjoy cruising on both cruise lines. For us each have their pros and cons and the variety/adds to the enjoyment.Last winter on Super Bowl Sunday we disembarked Vista in Miami and went directly to Port Everglades for a 7 nighter in a Sky Suite on Celebrity Ascent. Enjoyed both cruises. In July we are looking forward to 25 night cruise on Oceania Marina and in October we are doing 12 night Transatlantic on Celebrity Apex. Wishing you great cruising on Oceania or wherever you choose to spend your cruising vacations!

On 5/21/2024 at 6:31 PM, WESTEAST said:

With Allura having "A luxurious new library, featuring walls of floor-to-ceiling glass..." hope there are walls for the books 🤣.  More choices with a Crêperie being added and expect it will be located as part of the Terrace buffet to enable made to order? Article focuses on food: "...culinary developments underway for Allura, including more than 300 new recipes in active development for The Grand Dining Room, across all three meal services. I am excited to reveal more in the coming months." We will have to stay tuned for details of new recipes and hopefully they will be shared across all GDRs. 

Creperie will be not be near the Terrace. It will be around the corner from Baristas on Deck 14 where gorgeous large library is on Vista. Moving library to forward area near computer classroom and Horizons means it will be much smaller than Vista's. So for folks who love the library all the press release puffery about its location on Allura is probably putting lipstick on a comparative pig 🐖  💄 .

2 hours ago, Vallesan said:

Hope I didn’t come across as negative about the number of 1st time Oceania cruisers. I certainly don’t feel that way. I was just surprised at just how many there are. It’s unusual that’s all.

 

Personally I’ve not found any huge difference with SimplyMore. Certainly nothing negative. I guess it depends on your perspective and exactly how much it matters to you that you extract every last single ‘drop of blood’ for your £, €, $!!!

Personally we look at the itinerary and the cost and if it fits our budget that’s it. If we don’t use some of the ‘included’ items so be it! 

 

I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful cruise. Enjoy!

I really like Oceania and am looking forward to a long cruise on Marina this summer. In concept, I do not disagree with your philosophy/acceptance with good grace of SM. Concept is generally okay with me. Problem is that O has almost a reverse Midas Touch with the way they roll things out. IMHO the way they have implemented it has an unnecessarily complex and punitive touch. Not having any way to reimburse guests when SM funded excursions are cancelled at the last port irritates many. Initial roll out was poorly done in that staff did not understand the complexities and the rules. Folks feel that a finite amount of funds is taken away from them under the circumstances when shore excursions late in the cruise are cancelled. Similar things can be said about new penalties for cancelling cruises, even far out from cruise date. Future cruise booking rules and deadlines have become more complex and less flexible. I wish they could get their act together so that the bean counters who are doing their job at NCLH holdings are better in sync with folks that interface with the guests.

Problem with Sky Suite cabins on S class ships is that they are all ether under the noisy Oceanview Cafe or for slightly higher charge you can book Sunset Sky Suites at the rear of the ship. There you are subject to soot on the balcony and some vibration issues. Just open up and look at the S class cabin spreadsheet at the top of this forum and you will see many happy satisfied guests and some not so satisfied. Because the noise and soot/vibration issues are a deal breaker for us, our choice of suites on S class ships like Equinox starts at the Celebrity Suite level which for a 9 day Med cruise we are considering has about a $2100 per person higher charge than lower suites which we consider problematic.

1 hour ago, Harters said:

My partner plays on an O Facebook group where there's very recently been a brief mention. Someone had commented about the problem on the "mid cruise" survey and had received a reply that "something" was going to be done in  the not too distant future. No further details and, of course, this may be something to take with a pinch of salt. But it does seem to be a sort of official acknowledgement of the problem. 

 

We didnt experience any issues on our recent cruise. We were in 9063. My partner has noted, from the Facebook discussion, that a number of other occupants of nearby cabins were also reporting no issues. May be co-incidence or may be a suggestion that it's not a problem throughout the ship. Fingers crossed - as we've booked a cruise with the same cabin for next year. 

You were very lucky. On two recent Vista cruises, two different cabins on two different decks ( 9 and 10) we could only sleep when neighbors' TV was off. On one of the cruises neighbor showed me that his TV volume was as low as 7% and still I kept hearing his UK sports channel...could even distinguish the words. I slept when he turned off his TV..about 11:15 p.m. and ..woke up when he decided to continue to fufill his TV addiction...usually about 7:15 a.m. Spoke to reception desk and GM about it. Was told there was no point in changing cabins because the problem is pervasive throughout the ship. I even said I would pay an upgrade cost to a PH...perhaps that would be quieter due to possible differences in construction/design/location of TV. Was told that that complaints tend to come from all levels of cabins. Seems that only escape is luck of having pretty quiet neighbors who do not watch much TV.