CruisinAddict

We were booked on this sailing since 2020. A few weeks ago, I read about the Visa requirements. I was able to find out that Visas are required in Gambia, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Angola. I talked to someone at Azamara to get more info and was told to use Azamara Visa Central to get the Visas, The prices are quite high, Another, cheaper, site to get info is visahq.com. 
 

The biggest issue, besides the price, was that both Gambia and Ghana require you to mail your passport to them in order to get the required visa. Since we have 2 other cruises before December, and we will need our passports for them AND I did not want to mail my passport, I decided to cancel this cruise. What a disappointment!

I did ask Azamara if we could not get the required visas and just stay on the ship. They said yes. But, that left only 4 African ports to visit on a 21-day cruise.

Now that the CDC has changed the Covid cruising requirements, is Celebrity going to continue mask-wearing? We are booked 1/19, and I am hoping they are still going to take precautions.

I see that there is a Pickleball Game scheduled on the daily program. My husband wants to know if the paddles are provided by HAL or if he has to bring his own.

Does anyone know why the Ryndam is no longer listed on the Holland America roll call list?

Marilyn

We booked the 17-day inaugural sailing a couple of days ago without all of the perks, so the price was pretty good.  We have sailed on Nieuw Statendam twice and loved it.  Looking forward to another Pinnacle class ship!

8 hours ago, 1ANGELCAT said:

Joining for the first 7 days in an OO cabin.

Good perks, Obc , prepaid gratituites and beverage pkg

Who did you get the perks from?

We were on the December 2nd Riviera, which was also affected by Norovirus, and we also got the offer in the mail today. I wish it was for a different Oceania ship! I might be willing to give Oceania a chance again, but not on the Riviera. This was our second Riviera sailing that was ruined by Oceania's poor handling of Norovirus. The other was in November 2012, when it was largely ignored by Oceania but my husband got sick enough to pass out in our room. BTW, his medical bill was over $600! It took us three years to try Oceania again (our 4th Oceania sailing).

After the disastrous December sailing, and before the multiple subsequent sick sailings, Oceania insisted that it wasn't their fault. Now, five months later, they are saying "we want to apologize for the inconveniences encountered due to sanitation measures... With our crew focused on our sanitation protocol, we struggled to provide a cruise experience that delivered the signature Oceania Cruises experience." That is an understatement!

I am guessing that Oceania is experiencing a severe drop in bookings and is trying to get back those who have decided to never sail them again. I have access to interline sailings, and I have never seen so many listed for Oceania! In the past, there might have been 2-3 over many months. Now there are 75-80.

Too little, too late!

Hello all, we need a little help with our indecision concerning Oceania. My DW and I have been loyal Celebrity cruisers over the years, Elite Capitan Club, but recently have turned sour over Celebrity, because of the continued lack of service and other things associated with big ship and fighting for deck chairs.

 

Last May we tried NCL and cruised the Getaway in The Haven class. Loved the Haven, hated the ship outside of the Haven.

 

So we are trying to book a cruise on a more upscale line that can offer a Little exclusivity, and a little more refinement. So, we have been talking to Oceania about a 14 day cruise in March on the Riviera.

 

We are in our early 60's, feel 39 :D, love to enjoy good food, an night life of dancing on the ship and meeting new people.

 

However, we have been reading some reviews about the ship in December and we are now wondering if Oceania really does offer an upscale experience? We have also been talking to Silversea.

 

Any helpful comments will be greatly appreciated.

 

Trying to find the elusive great cruise.

We were on the Dec 2nd Riviera cruise, which was severely impacted by Norovirus. The biggest problem was due to the poor handling of the situation by management. As a result of the sanitation required by the CDC, the staff was spread thin causing both service and dining to be affected. The reviews on Cruise Critic can give you the specifics of the problems.

This was our 4th Oceania sailing - two on Marina and two on Riviera. The last one was a TA on the Riviera three years ago. There was also a Norovirus outbreak on that sailing and it has taken us this long to decide to give Oceania one more try. The first two sailings on the Marina were so outstanding, that we hoped we could experience it again. It didn't happen. Dining service was so slow that dinners took 2 1/2 - 3 hours and we missed the beginning of most shows. We tried to fix that by eating dinner in the buffet, but that is not how we like to dine on a cruise. We understood why the dining service was so bad, but the food was also inferior to what we experienced on our other Oceania sailings.

We are also Celebrity cruisers (elite plus), and were on the Eclipse TA in November. For 1/3 of the cost of Oceania, we had consistently better service on Celebrity. And the food was not so much better on Oceania that it was worth the extra cost. As I said, the food on previous Oceania cruises was much better than what we experienced in December.

Oceania did nothing to make up for the inferior experience we had, except for one 2-hour happy hour one evening. They have stated the situation was not their fault and the passengers are not due any compensation.

Unfortunately, we believe that Oceania is no longer the luxury cruise that it used to be, and we will not be sailing on it again.

Marilyn

I think that it is unfair to judge Oceania as a cruise line simply based on Riviera's last 2 segments, totally chosing to ignore its track record. Oceania has been sailing since 2004 and it should be judged on its performance during all that time rather than just Nov/Dec on one of their ships

YMMV

We are not just talking about Riviera's last two segments or Nov/Dec on one of Oceania's ships! You must have missed my post about the Norovirus episode on Riviera in Nov 2012. For me, half of my sailings on Oceania have been substandard to most of the other 50 cruises I have been on, and most of them were about half the price of Oceania. Good luck on your future Oceania cruises - I certainly won't be on them!

There is no question that the last 2 segments on the Riviera were difficult (and atypical) cruises for everyone involved. It would also appear that Oceania didn't do everything right or at least not enough.

I can certainly understand that if this was someone's first experience on Oceania, they would be very disappointed and not inclined to return. I would feel the same way if this had been my first Oceania experience.

Having many O cruises behind me, I have all the confidence in them that this was a "one off" and that they will have learned much from this experience.

At the present, I have no hesitation in keeping my current future reservations as I have many years of O experience to lean on. At the same time, I do understand those new O customers that do not wish to return.

If this type of experience should become more common, I might change my mind as well.

This was not a "one off" for Oceania. It was our 4th sailing with them, and the first two were great. The third was on the Riviera in Nov 2012, when there was also an awful Noro outbreak. The CDC reported 37 cases, but that was just the number that went to medical - there were at least ten times that! Oceania would not acknowledge what was happening until they got to that 3% number required by the CDC towards the end of the cruise. My husband was stricken early in the cruise and even passed out in the room in the middle of the night. When I called for help, they made sure I knew there was an extra charge for after hours.

That trip to medical cost us $677! They called it gastroenteritis, but no test was done to prove otherwise. We knew so many people who were sick but wouldn't go to medical, with charges like that. I knew someone else who was charged over $1200. Yes, some people didn't want to be quarantined, but that only lasted 24 hours. I don't remember any extra cleaning or sanitizing being done on that cruise, even after Norovirus was acknowledged. It was only the last two days that they didn't charge for a medical evaluation.

This cruise was so inferior and disappointing that I really believe Oceania owes us some form of reimbursement - it doesn't sound like that is going to happen.

It took three years for us to decide to give Oceania another try. Would you go back on Oceania, especially Riviera, if you were me?

Just off the Riviera today. I'll be doing a full review later. Very disappointing cruise. Surely felt as if they couldn't wait to get us off the ship.

 

Disembarkation was horrendous! There was no assistance onboard for handicapped passengers. Passengers needing wheelchair assistance had to get off the ship in order to get a wheelchair. Getting my handicapped companions off was not easy.

 

Since we came into a different terminal than the one we left from, we had to take a shuttle to the parking garage. No one really knew where the shuttle was supposed to be. I had another car coming to help me get all the passengers and luggage back home. I called the driver, who was at a hotel three miles away, when we exited the terminal. He arrived at the terminal before the shuttle did! He drove me to the other parking area while the others in my party waited in the heat!

 

The entire disembarkation experience was frustrating, nerve wracking and exhausting. First time in a long time that I'm really happy to be home from a cruise. Once I rest up I'll do an objective review of the entire trip.

I agree that they couldn't wait to get us off the ship yesterday. Did anyone else notice that they were not sanitizing the tables in Terrace Cafe yesterday morning? I guess it didn't matter to them if those of us getting off were exposed, since it wouldn't show up as an Oceania problem if we get sick after returning home.

yes, for total numbers you are right.

 

However, over 5% of total passengers as CDC has reported is a significant number, at least to me.

I agree. And, according to the CDC, only 10% of those infected actually report to medical!

ORV, a kind poster just shared this link on my thread.

 

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/outbreak/2015/dec2_oceania_riviera.htm

 

Looks like over 6% of the ship was sticken from the initial investigation (still on going)

 

Health officers will be on board on the 2nd (three) and the sick will have staged disembarkation to avoid infecting others according to the website.

There may be a staged disembarkation to avoid infecting others, but what about those doing a b2b who aren't showing symptoms yet or haven't reported to medical?

We finally booked Oasis for April a while back. I'm having serious second thoughts between reading the reviews on this thread and the new Dynamic Dining that will start shortly before our cruise. Then there is Cats. Didn't like it on Broadway or as a movie. It was a real disappointment to learn it would be the show for our cruise. As much as I would love to see Oasis, I'm wondering if one of the other RCCL ships would be a better choice.

 

For the people who were on the TA, would you pick a different ship if you could have a do over?

Yes - any ship on Azamara, Celebrity, or Oceania!!

I assume you mean OBC (on board credit) and yes if you can change to MTD on board your SeaPass account will be charged the full gratuity amount and any OBC will be allocated to that payment.

Thanks!

We are booked on the WBTA Oasis in a few weeks, and we have the 9 pm late seating. We didn't book MTD because we want to use some of our SBC for the gratuities.

Since the late dining time doesn't work with so much of the evening entertainment, we are thinking of switching to MTD. if we are able to switch after we board, will they use the SBC in our account for the gratuities or will they charge us separately?

Marilyn

Anyone know if you can get OBC for having Carnival Shares?

when crusing Royal Caribbean...

and how to go about getting it ?

Thanks

If you own 100 shares of Carnival stock, you get OBC on the ships under the Carnival umbrella. That includes Carnival, Princess, Cunard, Costa, Holland America, Seaborn, and several other cruise lines. Owning 100 shares of Royal Caribbean International stock gets OBC on Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Azamara. I bought mine at $10/share in 2008, and it is over $63 today! I wish I had bought 1000 shares - the profit would pay for quite a few cruises!!

In order to get the OBC, you have to fill out a form from the respective stock website and send it to the cruise line with current proof that you own at least 100 shares (by email, fax, or mail). The websites have the info and addresses on the form.

The amount of OBC that you get depends on the length of the cruise - for RCL cruise lines, you get up to $250 for a cruise that is at least 14 days.

Marilyn

We just got off the Riviera this morning, and 3 of the 4 of us got sick with the norovirus/gastrointestinal virus at different times during this cruise. It seriously put a damper on our vacation. We met many other people who were also Ill at different times during this cruise. It is an unfortunate aspect of modern day cruising and seems to be happening more often these days.

The Riviera is a beautiful ship. Her crew was wonderful and couldn't do enough for you. We will be sailing on the Marina next year and are hopeful that we will not have the same problem again.

We also disembarked this morning, and we were also affected by the "gastroenteritis" on the ship. At least that was the diagnosis made....

My husband became violently ill on Sunday night, and after multiple trips to the bathroom, in a two-hour period, he was so dehydrated that he passed out and collapsed on the stateroom floor. He was transported to the medical facility by wheelchair. They treated him with an IV (with a $100 charge for insertion!), medication for the nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, and Cipro antibiotic. He was quarantined for 24 hours, but he would not have been able to leave the stateroom anyway because of the severity of the illness. During the last two days of the sailing, he was able to leave the stateroom, but he couldn't eat anything unless he was close to a bathroom. And he certainly didn't enjoy the food.

There were many more people affected by this than has been discussed or implied here, especially during the last week. It seemed that everyone had either a spouse or a friend who was or had been sick. One of the speakers had to cancel a lecture, and even the computer manager was sick with the virus. On Monday, only 4 out of 9 on our Scattegories team showed up - the others were all sick. I received a call from another guest using the same travel agent as us, suggesting we get together with them and a third couple. We never did meet them because, for three days in a row, one person from each couple was sick and quarantined.

Besides those that went to the medical facility, and are included in any statistics someone might be keeping, there were many more who did not go to the doctor. They did not want to be quarantined, or incur the large cost of treatment. Our bill was only $677, which was on the low end of the charges I heard about - others ranged from the mid-$500 range to over $1100!

We have sailed many times, and my husband has never been sick on a cruise. He washes his hands frequently, and always uses the hand sanitizer when it is present, both entering and exiting a room. Who knows why one person gets sick, and another doesn't - whether it is called gastroenteritis, Norovirus, or food poisoning.

Need opinions on Sunrise deck-inside cabins-7152 and 7160 on Celebrity Solstice. Thank You.

I was just in an inside cabin - #7166 - on the Silhouette. What would you like to know?

Marilyn