Open Letter to President of Oceania Cruises and all potential new customers

Sorry you had a disappointing trip. I hope your letter gets you some explanation however I would only expect a form letter responce. As a side note I looked at your business Web page, very nice. Did you bring your own wine?

 

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Did you notice The website apparently hasn't been updated since 2005?

No, wonder what that's about?

Sent from my SM-T320 using Forums mobile app

No, wonder what that's about?

 

Sent from my SM-T320 using Forums mobile app

The website is aging with the wine?

I think the OP will probably be what we call on other message boards, a one hit wonder. I really get turned off when someone who has never posted comes on and only complains and then never return again.

I think the OP will probably be what we call on other message boards, a one hit wonder. I really get turned off when someone who has never posted comes on and only complains and then never return again.

+1 - agree

I think the OP will probably be what we call on other message boards, a one hit wonder. I really get turned off when someone who has never posted comes on and only complains and then never return again.

He actually did return, twice (see Posts # 8 and #9), but withdrew quickly when he realized that everyone else was not jumping onto the Bandwagon.

Corporate Australia is also following this trend.

Larger organisations must work on the principle that a single complaint can be ignored and risk losing the customer as they can replace them with another customer.

This is fine in the short term, however as a long term model it is corporate suicide.

Unfortunately these larger organisations buy out the "up and comers" in the industry and retain their approach.

Personally I will pay a premium for superior service and to date Oceania fits the bill.

However this is not a good response (or lack of) from my favourite cruise line.

JMO

My partner and I started cruising in 1984 and I was instantly hooked on the ease of travel as well as the experience aboard the ship. Even though the experience has changed over the years, there is still nothing like being on the open seas. We booked our first Oceana trip on the Riviera with a back-to-back Atlantic crossing and a Caribbean 10 day cruise after. The positive experience lead us to book two more Oceana cruises, the April 13th Panama canal cruise on the Regatta and a November 2015 cruise on the Riviera again in Europe (now cancelled).

 

The Regatta was so disappointing that I wrote a letter to Oceana to try and instruct them how to improve the experience. Unbelievingly, this letter was sent 5 times to a variety of Oceana E-mails addresses and NO ONE has yet had the courtesy to even acknowledge my letter. In my business, I am the compliance officer and my rule is to answer all inquiries the same day when possible; not to answer is not even a consideration. Am I being too picky or is this what quality looks like in the cruise industry? I would like to hear your comments as well as someone from Oceana if they really do exist.

 

 

 

Colleen,

 

I felt compelled to send you this note concerning the very disappointing cruise experience that I and my travel partner Jeff Wilson had on our recent cruise aboard the Regatta through the Panama Canal. First the good news about the trip; the ship was in perfect condition and maintained with obvious pride of ownership. The crew, for the most part were very attentive and added greatly to the experience. This unfortunately is were the good news ends. For a price point that is significantly above many of your competitors, we were hoping to find a more gracious, sophisticated experience than some of the other lines. What we found instead was a confused and crowded ship that seemed to be not able to handle the passenger complement of 684 people. We are not novice cruisers and have sailed on many other lines such as Royal Viking, Royal Cruise Line, Crystal, Holland America and Princess (before the take-over by Carnival) and Celebrity. This Regatta cruise was our 48th so we understand how to roll with the punches in some instances. The biggest issue in my mind was the organization of the entertainment on the ship and the dining offerings. The smallest lounge on the ship, The Martini lounge which has perhaps seating for 35 people (5% of the passenger load) was the sight of one of our favorite piano players that we enjoyed two years before of The Riviera trans-Atlantic and Caribbean cruise. Most nights when we tried to see the piano player the lounge was completely full so that this was not possible. The larger lounge on the ship, The Horizon seating perhaps 100-200 passengers had a band but they only played for a very small amount of time, so that if you wanted to have a late dinner and listen to music there was really no where to go. Dining was really a confused issue. The concept of dining anytime without a set schedule did not work on this ship. If you didn’t get in line for dinner before the 6:30pm opening you really had to wait until 8:00 or 8:30 for the first group to finish. More annoying was the set-up of the Terrace café.The U shape of the serving area combined with the fact that the crew served the food made for an experience that bordered more on a dormitory cafeteria rather than a gracious dining area. Seating was also very inadequate for the passenger load. Finally in this venue you had perhaps the worst and most inadequate salad bar of any ship we have ever sailed; lettuce, tomatoes, black olives and cocktail onions are not enough for a true salad bar. The final blow to turn us away from Oceana in general came on the third day of the cruise when we returned to our room to find a gentleman siting inside our bathtub re-caulking the entire room. We had no advance notice of this event and the room smelled of caustic acid for three days after this unplanned event. We decided at that point to cancel a future booked trip with Oceana that would have taken place in November aboard the Riviera sailing the Mediterranean and trans Atlantic.

 

b

 

I’m sending this note as a learning moment so that you may prevent future passengers from experiencing the negative cruise experience that we endured. I can honestly say, however, that I would be very hesitant to book another cruise with Oceana due to these issues.

 

 

 

Sincerely yours,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kenneth J. Givich

 

Givich Vineyards, Inc.

 

http://www.givichvineyards.com

 

June 7, 2015

Wow - what a different set of experiences we have had with O.

When not too long ago, O considered allowing E-cigarettes, there were quite a few concerned CC posts against the idea. I e-mailed the line's president (got his address via Chris Elliott's website [national geographic ombudsman]) on a Sunday morning and got a response from him within 30 minutes explaining that, based on the input of passengers, they would drop the new liberal e-cig policy.O website was changed to reflect greater restriction the next morning.

On board Riviera right now, I wrote a negative comment on mid cruise evaluation form and was contacts by the hotel manager who followed up with a personal meeting.

In both instances, very positive responsiveness.

Could it be that the letter went nowhere because neither the name of the cruise line nor the date of the cruise are correct?

I do agree with you about the Terrace at dinner. It is what I refer to as Naugahyde dining.

If you were not traveling on my cruise your comments are based on emotion and factual information. Not a scientific approach.

In your factual approach ,you should have noted that your control group ie Marina and Rivera, were not any where the same type, size or layout. and the other ships you included with the exception of Royal Viking which was smaller . Other than they were floating in an ocean there is no commonality.. Errors of assumption are easy to make and past experiences, as they say in finance are no assurance of future performance.

Good careful planning and factoring the points they are alike and subtracting the points wherein they differ might have been better...

If you say bought 48 cars over the years, and though different brands bought from the same dealer and you last 2 were Mercedes.... so when it came time to buy you got a chevy volt AND WONDER why it dosent not perform like your last 2 cars

THE r SHIPS REALLY CAN ONLY BE COMPARED TO OTHER r SHIPS.. BECAUSE THEY ARE SOME 30% SMALLER, AND OFFER WAY LESS OF EVERYTHING.... THAT THE SHIPS YOU LIKED DID....not to mention no Oceania ship is noted for entertainment And yes your emotions can color your thinking when you start assuming....It can happen to any one......

If it were me Id look in the mirror and figure out how and why I made the mistake....

Does anybody see what I see?

 

That's a song from the musical "1776", but it applies here. The OP had a complaint, wrote to management about it, and has been ignored. That's a more serious complaint than the specific complaints regarding the cruise. The OP feels rightly aggrieved that he had a disappointing experience, and management of Oceania doesn't care enough about the OP to respond to his letters.

 

We recently had a disappointing cruise on the Marina, and both of us wrote long comments about it. The cruise ended 6 weeks ago, but the cruise line hasn't contacted us. (In contrast, a very specific comment while we were on the ship was answered by top management within a few hours.) We're surprised that management hasn't contacted us yet.

 

Maybe we and the OP are different from other posters, in that good or bad experiences near the beginning of a cruise tend to snowball, If things start off great, minor glitches later in the cruise bother us very little, if at all. If, on the other hand, the cruise starts with a bunch of large and small annoyances, we start to notice every little thing that goes wrong, and it can ruin our enjoyment of the cruise. We're aware of our tendency to let bad things snowball: that's why we haven't written the 2 star review that we feel our cruise deserved.

 

People should respect the fact that the OP felt sufficiently aggrieved that he didn't enjoy the cruise, and cancelled a future cruise. If management wants to regain the OP as a customer, it should contact him ASAP and deal with his grievances.

I wish you would do a review of your cruise as I would like to read it. This is the first time I've read a post from you that sounds critical of a cruise. If you had issues on your Marina cruise, they must have been really annoying. Would love to learn more.

Some friends of ours had a negative experience on Marina. They are not on CC. We invited them to join us and they said they've written off Oceania. They said they were very detailed about some issues on their end of cruise survey and never heard a word. These are people who cruise at least 3-4 times a year as long as 35 days at a time. They booked a Regent Cruise later this year but they might cancel that. Just based on management's lack of response.

As I had mentioned elsewhere, O has a few weak points.

Among them are (and this is based on my many years following the comments of others here on the O Forum, not necessarily my personal opinion):

1 Expensive shore excursions

2 Poor entertainment

3 Poor (or lack) of customer service from home office

Because of #3, it is best to address problems with the management while on the ship. Mentioning it on the cruise end form should, but is not likely to get a direct response from O. If addressed right then and there on the ship with the appropriate authority, it is much more likely to be resolved or corrected.

JMO.

1 Expensive shore excursions

2 Poor entertainment

3 Poor (or lack) of customer service from home office

 

Because of #3, it is best to address problems with the management while on the ship. Mentioning it on the cruise end form should, but is not likely to get a direct response from O. If addressed right then and there on the ship with the appropriate authority, it is much more likely to be resolved or corrected.

JMO.

I agree with you, but their really isn't any excuse for poor service from the home office. One day it will catch up with them.

Rick

I wish you would do a review of your cruise as I would like to read it. This is the first time I've read a post from you that sounds critical of a cruise. If you had issues on your Marina cruise, they must have been really annoying. Would love to learn more.

From personal experience, I agree with OP that Oceania does not respond from a Corporate perspective. However, we were on the same cruise as Joe and Joan and did not feel the same way. We had a couple of minor concerns that were handled promptly while on board. Otherwise, we had a delightful time. Yes, we were disappointed that the last 2 ports were cancelled as we had not been there, but knowing what the weather was, we had no business going there.

However, we were on the same cruise as Joe and Joan and did not feel the same way. We had a couple of minor concerns that were handled promptly while on board. Otherwise, we had a delightful time. Yes, we were disappointed that the last 2 ports were cancelled as we had not been there, but knowing what the weather was, we had no business going there.

We too were on this cruise, and with the exception of the two cancelled ports,which was disappointing, but agree with you that we had no place being there. Everything else was just as it always is on Oceania to our satisfaction and beyond. There is no predicting weather and there was a mild outbreak of illness, but that was handled very well.

I, too, was on that cruise. In fact, we don't know if the virus was handled well or not. I couldn't find out any real information. How many were sick? What was done for them? What was being done to keep the problem under control, other than the occasional wiping of chair arms by a disinterested crewman? As for the two canceled ports, I'm not sure what the weather was at them, and I don't know of anyone who did. All we had was the word from Oceania. We shouldn't accept what they say as gospel. One suspicion is that Oceania included those ports to make the cruise more attractive, knowing that weather at that time of year makes access to those ports questionable. I had my travel agent complain to Oceania when we returned home. To date, there has been no response.

I, too, was on that cruise. In fact, we don't know if the virus was handled well or not. I couldn't find out any real information. How many were sick? What was done for them? What was being done to keep the problem under control, other than the occasional wiping of chair arms by a disinterested crewman? As for the two canceled ports, I'm not sure what the weather was at them, and I don't know of anyone who did. All we had was the word from Oceania. We shouldn't accept what they say as gospel. One suspicion is that Oceania included those ports to make the cruise more attractive, knowing that weather at that time of year makes access to those ports questionable. I had my travel agent complain to Oceania when we returned home. To date, there has been no response.

I was also on the cruise and agree that communication could have been better regarding the virus. As to the weather, we certainly had more than just Oceania's word about the ports. The poor weather conditions were most notable in that seas were very rough, indeed the port of Dublin delayed our departure due to rough seas. Also, wind and sea conditions at Guernsey and in Holyhead were available to anyone willing to check conditions on line which indeed I did and saw notices of Holyhead port being closed for a period and weather conditions certainly were poor in the English Channel affecting Guernsey. I believe that your theory that Oceania marketed the cruise with ports they knew we were unlikely to make a bit over the top, but you certainly are entitled to your opinion. June is certainly a popular time for British Isle cruises with stops in those two ports on the itineraries of many cruise lines.

All we had was the word from Oceania. We shouldn't accept what they say as gospel.

Do the passengers decide how dangerous the weather is or does the captain?

My daughter and her husband live on the Isle of Man...about 55 miles from Holyhead. I spoke with my son-in-law the day the itinerary changed. He said the wind was strong but the Liverpool to Isle of Man ferry was still running. I spoke to him the next day (the day the ship should have been visiting Holyhead) and he said the wind was 'horrendous'. It was as wild as he had ever seen it......ferries to the Isle of Man were not running and flights were suspended.

Three weeks ago we docked in Stavanger, Norway and it was announced that the wind was 30 knots with gusts to 40. We appeared to have no trouble docking but I noticed that we were able to sail directly into our designated berth with the wind directly on our stern. A MSC liner a short time behind us was unable to dock. Their intended berth was 90* to ours....a totally different problem. A cruise ship 'side on' to the wind is like a enormous sail and is impossible to maneuver safely.....so said an officer when asked why the MSC liner did not dock.

My daughter and her husband live on the Isle of Man...about 55 miles from Holyhead. I spoke with my son-in-law the day the itinerary changed. He said the wind was strong but the Liverpool to Isle of Man ferry was still running. I spoke to him the next day (the day the ship should have been visiting Holyhead) and he said the wind was 'horrendous'. It was as wild as he had ever seen it......ferries to the Isle of Man were not running and flights were suspended.

.

Thanks for that info. I guess now we have all the clarification that's needed to put an end to why we didn't go forward to Holyhead and Guernsey!! Most of us took the word of the Captain. Arlene

What I'm getting from this thread is that the main office, corporate Oceania, is unresponsive to their customers concerns.

So I have to ask, aren't there any corporate types from Oceania registered or at least observing this forum? If not, why not? It seems like the perfect place to hear what your customers like, or don't like about your company and make the necessary improvements.

Me and my family had a bad time on a Princess cruise once and wrote them after we got back, and we didn't receive a response either. They were pretty unresponsive to our concerns during the cruise to. We never booked another cruise with them.

Is this a cruise industry problem?

What I'm getting from this thread is that the main office, corporate Oceania, is unresponsive to their customers concerns.

 

So I have to ask, aren't there any corporate types from Oceania registered or at least observing this forum? If not, why not? It seems like the perfect place to hear what your customers like, or don't like about your company and make the necessary improvements.

 

Me and my family had a bad time on a Princess cruise once and wrote them after we got back, and we didn't receive a response either. They were pretty unresponsive to our concerns during the cruise to. We never booked another cruise with them.

 

Is this a cruise industry problem?

I see you are fairly new to this forum..Oceania does and always has had people in their office checking postings on cruise critic..when FDR had time he used to post..unfortunately for us he is very busy at NCL offices and has no time any more..but you can bet someone is reading and reporting..I do have to say if a company answered every email or letter they received from passengers they would need three full time people to do this chore..so dont expect to hear back..there are other ways to reach out to Oceania..

Jancruz1

What I'm getting from this thread is that the main office, corporate Oceania, is unresponsive to their customers concerns.

 

So I have to ask, aren't there any corporate types from Oceania registered or at least observing this forum? If not, why not? It seems like the perfect place to hear what your customers like, or don't like about your company and make the necessary improvements.

In the past the CEO of Oceania read all the posts & responded when necessary

Now he has many hats to wear & I am sure he does not have time to read the forums

He may want to have a life outside working hours as well

JMO