No longer an Oceania Cheerleader

Just returned yesterday from a 10 day cruise on the Riveira

I started to make a review on the ship but after a couple of days I gave up...looking at my comments it seemed to be a list of negatives

This was our experience & I am sure there will be others that did not have any problems.

We did hear from some other passengers that certain crew were rude surly & arguementative toward passengers.

Our tale of woe started on the first night in the GDR & went downhill from there.

Now I must say after the mid cruise comment forms the service in the GDR, Terrace & Waves did improve

The specialities seemed to be where we had the most problems, yet I see many other people loved the food & service without any issues

Suffice to say the service was not up to previous standards we had experienced

We were so disappointed with the service by certain staff we have cancelled our 2 upcoming cruises and a 3rd is hanging in the balance.

In a few days when I can push some of the negatives to the back of my mind I will attempt a review again

I usually am a great supporter of Oceania

Lyn

Lyn - How disappointing for you. I look forward to your review as I enjoy reading your comments as you are always very fair.

Brenda

All I can say is I am speechless. Please do try to write a review.

We have only cruised Oceania, but have never thought they were perfect. However, any issues we had were not enough to deter us from future cruises. We are currently taking a break from cruising.

On our Asian cruise last year we met a lovely couple from our city and are good friends in spite of a significant age difference. She confided to me recently that they did not like their Oceania experience and would not be repeating. In fact they recently completed a month long cruise on Princess and loved it.

I must confess I am starting to look around.....

Mo

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I am so sorry that you had such a disappointing experience. You are very fair in all your comments. If your experiences were negative than they shouldn't be pushed to the back of your mind since this is how you experienced the situation. I for one am most interested in your cruise.

Wow

Anxious to hear specifics

We were on riviera mid December and thought the specialties were the best we had experienced on any o cruise to date

Every cruise is different

People on same cruise post disparate reviews

Chefs change and staff changes

U just never know

But if u cancelled two it must have been awful.

I'm sorry to hear that. I too would like to hear some specifics as well. We are going back in March for a 3rd time in a year. Not sure if you had same manager for Waves that we had on Dec 2nd cruise but I did prefer the manager from our cruise last March. Still enjoyed our cruise.

I know lots of people love the specialty restaurants but they are my least enjoyable places to eat with the exception maybe of Toscana.

La Reserve - even though it is an extra cost - is my favourite - followed by the Terrace Buffet (which was a great surprise to me).

CJ

I'm saddened to read of your less than expected cruise, and am looking forward to reading about it.

I completed my first Oceania cruise just over a month ago, and did not feel it lived up to the hype. The food was good, but nothing great. The service could be excellent, but was not consistent. The specialty restaurants, with the exception of Jacques, were nothing special. Privée was exceptional, though.

I am very interested in knowing if you felt your experience was similar to mine, and especially if you felt that was out of the ordinary. I am unsure whether or not I want to return to Oceania, and your findings may help me decide if I should give it another chance.

I think when you are a "Cheerleader" you expect too much at times. I bet your trip was great but did not live up to the hype. There are lots of lines and I think it is good to try all. We are going back on O in March but giving Crystal a try in June. For HAL fans I feel Crystal is a better fit.

I will be taking my first Oceania cruise in January of next year and am looking forward to it with much anticipation.

A post such as yours has me worried. I have been a faithful HAL cruiser and am finding that their product is deteriorating and am looking for something a bit more upscale.

Everyone says O is what HAL used to be so we are giving it a try.

I would really like to read your review. I have been lurking here without posting, trying to learn as much as I can about Oceania.

I would like to know what to expect.

Terri

Sorry to hear about your negative experience. We also just returned from the same cruise (and had also been on the 10 day cruise prior to that) and our experience sounds like it was almost the exact opposite. I would also be interested in seeing the details. I hope our experience was not just because we have been on 17 Oceania cruises previously ; although I admit we were very familiar with a large number of the crew from those previous cruises. That still does not excuse what appears to have been your experience.

Wiks

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So sorry to hear of your poor experiences on

your latest cruise, Lyn. On the other hand, so happy that you, wiks, did have a very favorable experience on the same cruise.

Looking forward to hearing what the problems were for Lyn.

Going on a b/b/b in April-May and have two more cruises after those already booked. We hope we won't be disappointed since we have always loveed being on the Oceania ships.

Like I said we did have a good cruise with some exceptions

First night may have been just an off night for the staff, it was taken care of once brought to their attention

We were seated 3 of us & given the menus & water glasses were filled

The table next to us which was seated within minutes of us seem to have their order taken & thie 1st course arrive

We still sat with menus in hand, no bread basket to go with the water

So DH went in search of the maitre'd

All fixed but this should not have happened

Toscana ...we had 6:30 seating we were at a table for 7, five of us were on time

The card states they will hold the reservation for 15mins ..fine

By 7:15 we are still waiting for the 2 no shows, finally one of the ladies asked to be served now rather than wait for people that are too rude to cancel their time slot

Food was fine ...veal Limone was not much lemon flavour

Red Ginger -seated at a table for the 3 of us, orders were taken

They came & asked for our tea order, we said we would like it with our dessert

no problem

DH wanted to try the chicken Satay it came while the restaurant manager was chatting with us

He tasted one piece & asked if it was a warm or cold dish

she said it should be warm..it was not

They offered to take it & heat it up but he did not want to chance it coming back worse than before

I noticed the next piece when DH slide it off the skewer was still raw inside

NOT GOOD

Next the summer roll, he tasted it said it was very strong taste, I tasted it YUCK

It was like fermenting vegetables or something tasted like cleaning fluid

took most of the night to get rid of the taste

after a long wait the entree arrived

We decide to share the Green curry dish with some rice, this was nothing like the same dish I had on Marina

The rice was good

We ordered dessert ..we ate the dessert, waited for tea we order at the begining of the meal

Gave up & left

Jacques- I ordered the salmon ..it was so overcooked it was like shoe leather trying to eat it

DH ordered the dover sole, it was over powered with lemon & smelled fishy

he said it also tasted fishy

Dessert was good

There were other issues but those are the worst ones

So glad other people had good service & food

This was not our first rodeo with Oceania but it may well be our last

We felt that some of the staff were just not up to the task or were rude to the passengers

We did hear from other some new to Oceania that they also had issues with certain staff members

Lyn

The specialties have always been a crap shoot IMO

I have had excellent and awful experiences in Toscana polo and Jacques.

The inconsistency is a negative

When it's good, it's fabulous

When it's bad, it completely negates o's reputation for having the best food at sea

You had quite a string of bad luck

You had quite a string of bad luck

I agree ;)

We have had a few no so good meals in the specialties but nothing compares to this cruise

Lyn

I agree ;)

 

We have had a few no so good meals in the specialties but nothing compares to this cruise

 

Lyn

You certainly had a string of bad luck - both food and staff.

Who was being rude? Usually the cabin stewards are delightful. The desk folks are the ones who have been rather off putting.

You certainly had a string of bad luck - both food and staff.

 

Who was being rude? Usually the cabin stewards are delightful. The desk folks are the ones who have been rather off putting.

Certain restaurant staff were not up to Oceania standards we have experienced in the past

Housekeeping was a bit slow but it looked like there were less staff in that department

The pool boys were rushed off their feet most days but always a smile & a "Good Morning"

I'm not trying to make excuses (really!) but I'm wondering if the restaurant glitches could have been due in part to new hires.

I say that because our one B2B on O was also our first cruise with them. The first leg had impeccable dining room service. At that ending port a majority of the crew left the ship and their replacements left a LOT to be desired for 4-5 days. Eventually they caught on.

We also had a similar experience to your waiting and waiting while the next door table was served promptly on one of our Renaissance cruises. That night we were a party of 6 seated right by the waiter's station. He kept serving everyone but us. When we complained, we finally got service. A similar situation occurred on our recent Marina cruise where we were again seated by the waiter's station, although it wasn't nearly as bad as that first experience. You'd think that if they have to trip over you whenever they go to the station that they'd notice you've been overlooked.

I won't go so far as Pacheco in saying the specialty restaurants can be a crap shoot although I *will* say that we've been more disappointed than many others in Toscana and Red Ginger. They just don't do it for us. Polo and especially Jacques do, but any restaurant can have an absolute disaster, I'll agree with that.

These aren't meant to be excuses but perhaps reasons.

Then again, there's no justification for rudeness or curtness. Ever.

I know, Lyn, that you don't complain lightly and you've cruised on O for a long time. If you're unhappy, I don't doubt that there's a good reason for that. I'm just sorry that we won't see you on the NY-Dover cruise in May. I was looking forward to cruising with you again.

Ruth, I'm sorry to hear your expectations weren't met. (No, I'm not a stockholder!)

For what O is charging these days, everything SHOULD be perfect!

Mura

So sorry to hear about your experience, such a shame for you, and really, who can blame you for canceling the next two. I too believe in voting with your feet when service is bad. Canceling planned vacations is the strongest statement you can make, and I guess we all know that so your comments carry a lot of weight.

I spent months last year researching who to cruise with. I always hated the thought of cruising and my DH had long wanted to do it. We ended up on the same cruise Catherine was on (cruising expert) and I can tell you I was heartily congratulating myself for my selection of Oceania. Can you imagine if you've never cruised before...discovering how very wrong you were about the experience! Everything we experienced was just as the brochures and CC had promised. I could hardly believe it.

My criteria for going was based on finding a cruise line where I would feel safe and healthy, pampered and yet active, with like minded fun people and a service staff who thought about the customer the way I had done in my prior life as a Service Director. Oceania was all that and more last March. I was so impressed we immediately began planing our winter break for this year and I was delighted to agree with DH that another cruise would be perfect!

We leave February 2nd. I guess I'm kind of holding my breath.....

So sorry again that this happened to you, are you wishing you had complained more loudly at the time? Sometimes it's more than just comment cards ....for example I wish you had complained about the tea in person.....

Terry

Mura ..some of it may have been due to staff change over but some just specific staff

Terry you can only complain so much before it gets to you & spoils whatever good time you are having

believe me I am sure all the managers knew of the problems

I try not to dwell on the negative things

I am sure for the most part the majority of the passengers did not have such a bad experience & probably things will be improving

I was told by senior staff they did have some meetings & things should improve

Some how certain crew were not listening ;)

Lyn

1. We had a back to back. About 5 days before the end of the first half we were told we had to get out of our OWNERS suite and go down to the 8th floor. OMG, I had my papers and I went to the front desk where the snow queen resides and she took them and copied them and told me she would get back to us in three to four days...really.

2. The heat and airconditioning didn't work in our suite. We had to call maintenance more than several times and it was either freezing or 100 degrees. Finally about three days before the cruise was over, I called as I just couldn't sleep any more in 100 degree heat. Then they "fixed" it and it was freezing again. I wore that bathrobe more than anyone can expect.

3. They took away one of our room stewards about halfway in the middle of the second leg. Not a big deal, but the stewards are in that room a whole lot.

4. On muster day on the second cruise they cancelled our room cards. We made it through muster, but when we walked all the way to the stern from the bow and I REALLY had to go to the bathroom, then waiting for someone to come and let us in was a BIG deal.

None of these were subjective. I don't want to go into the subjective "things".

Now that they have an IPO, I can only imagine what is going to happen.

Go away and flame!

Naturally we had a long time to talk to a lot of staff. They are completely demoralized about having to change and move around constantly. For us as frequent cruisers, we like to come back and see familiar faces. This does not exist on Oceania. I don't know their take on this, and they are, of course, the bosses, but it didn't work for us!

Lyn, your cancelling two cruises, and maybe three, may well have an effect.

But you shouldn't need to go to those lengths to get action when things clearly are not working.

Carol, why should we flame you? That sounds very difficult indeed and when you're in an OS you do expect SOME accommodation. I was surprised to hear you had problems since from what I have read of your previous posts you've been very happy. But I would not be happy with what you described either.

Mura

But I am accustomed to hearing people defending the cruise line like they own it. In fact some may soon!

The food is sooo subjective, but I will say we ate twice in the MDR, one lunch and one dinner in 22 days. Both of them were substandard in my opinion.

As far as the other venues are concerned, they were perfect in my opinion. I do not like Jacques, but that is a personal thing. My husband said his lamb was great.

About the other poster..well, we cancelled two cruises and one is up for grabs. Probably gone. I don't think I want to pay these prices for just a good meal.

Just one little other thing...in Barbados, I thought it was quite a slap in the face when Norwegian provided shuttles and Oceania passengers had to hump their way up to the cruise center.....hmmmm, something else subjective.

About the ship...well, sparse Christmas decorations, and if you like a drunken brawl on New Years, I guess that was good. I head many got thrown in the pool completely dressed.

Maybe the decorations on Crystal spoiled me. However, all is not well in Crystaldom either in my opinion.

We were on the January 3rd Mayan mystique cruise. This was our second cruise with oceania. I must admit that it fell short of what we experienced on our first oceania cruise which was in January of 2012.

I really didn't think that the service or food was anywhere near the level we experienced on our prior cruise. In all honesty, I think that there are other cruise lines that can match or exceed what oceania offered and those other lines cost way less the what oceania charges.

I have no intention on returning to oceania for another cruise. I feel there are other options that actually offer more then what we received.

Just my opinion but I am with the others....oceania lost me as a customer.

Just wondering if these are mainly O ship problems because the R ship comments on CC are much more positive. :confused: