Idle Thoughts

[brian_uk]

We are currently on board Nautica and I have a few random thoughts.

 

Overall everything is superb but the following points come tomind while we while away our only sea day.

 

Last night at around 9.45 we were sitting in Martinis and there was nowhere to get a coffee served. The girl at the bar said she was on her own and could not leave.....she suggested we go to the self serve machine on the 9th. Az actually has a coffee area on Deck 5.

 

Chairs were reserved in advance on the Pool Deck and despite there being announcements to the contrary NOTHING was done despite my complaints. There were examples of ONE person saving 3-4 chairs which were rarely used.

 

We are in an OS and despite all the claims that all the products being special brand they were ALL Oceania's own except the gift pack.

 

The stafff are fantastic, the food excellent, the Entertainment pretty awful and why on earth the pianist Wish is on board I have no idea …....his English is poor, singing voice non existent and the guests are generally laughing at him rather than with him.

 

As I say, just whiling away the time after lunch on this quiet sea day.

 

Brian

[Toranut97]

Since we will be on the next cruise on Nautica, it is interesting to hear your comments! That pool chair thing especially bugs me. For that reason we pretty much avoided the pool altogether on our last Oceania cruise. You could never get a chair anywhere near the pool that time.

 

Thanks for the other observations. Hope you enjoy the rest of the cruise!

 

 

BTW Is there a string quartet? That was one of my husband's favorite things!

[brian_uk]

Yes there is a string quartet.....not seen them myself

 

Brian

[PaulMCO]

Since we will be on the next cruise on Nautica, it is interesting to hear your comments! That pool chair thing especially bugs me. For that reason we pretty much avoided the pool altogether on our last Oceania cruise. You could never get a chair anywhere near the pool that time.

 

 

My pet peeve to. Sometimes they enforce the rules and sometimes they do not. My wife has been known to move someones book to the other side of the ship (she is sometimes cruel - but then she is an ex-ER Nurse :) ).

[LHT28]

Last night at around 9.45 we were sitting in Martinis and there was nowhere to get a coffee served. The girl at the bar said she was on her own and could not leave.....she suggested we go to the self serve machine on the 9th. Az actually has a coffee area on Deck 5.

 

Brian

 

Could not one of the wait staff go to the GDR bar & get you a coffee?

Or maybe it was closed but a waiter should be able to go someplace & get one

 

I agree about the chair saving ... but most time the staff will deal with it so we never have to

 

Enjoy the cruise

 

Lyn

[mamaclark]

My pet peeve to. Sometimes they enforce the rules and sometimes they do not. My wife has been known to move someones book to the other side of the ship (she is sometimes cruel - but then she is an ex-ER Nurse :) ).

 

Just have to say this really gave me a good belly laugh!

[brian_uk]

As I said,LHT,there were no wait staff anywhere to ge seen....only the one girl at the bar. Eventually after some 20 minutes another person arrived and she went to get the coffee.

 

Brian

[Bruin Steve]

Well, Brian, despite these issues, I hope you are, otherwise, having a very good time...

 

Last night at around 9.45 we were sitting in Martinis and there was nowhere to get a coffee served. The girl at the bar said she was on her own and could not leave.....she suggested we go to the self serve machine on the 9th. Az actually has a coffee area on Deck 5.

 

What do they do at the bar if someone wants to order, say, an "Irish Coffee"? One thing I've noticed, typically, on Oceania is that things really die down after dinner...Martinis and the Casino are pretty much the only venues with people hanging about as most of the ship seems to go to sleep early...so, I guess staff and services are toned down as well...but, I think you are right...a self service coffee bar somewhere nearby would be nice...maybe they could put it where the art auction guy used to be (They have gotten rid of those, haven't they?)

 

Chairs were reserved in advance on the Pool Deck and despite there being announcements to the contrary NOTHING was done despite my complaints. There were examples of ONE person saving 3-4 chairs which were rarely used.

 

I think this has been a problem on EVERY cruise ship, every cruise line, that I have ever been on...We here in Cruise Critic all seem to have ideas on how to enforce it--like have a crew member remove anything from a chair left unattended for 30 minutes or longer...I am all for making the offending passenger "walk the plank" or be put in the brig for two days...

 

The stafff are fantastic, the food excellent, the Entertainment pretty awful ...

 

This pretty much sums up Oceania in one sentence...the food and service is great...and the entertainment is often regretable...Of course, most Oceania cruisers don't seem to cruise for the entertainment...For those of us who want good entertainment, we can only hope they get better in this regard...it's not an unfixable issue...but, maybe they should get rid of that piano player...What happened to the guy who was on Nautica last year, Jerry Blaine? He was pretty good...

[brian_uk]

Hi Steve

 

As I said at the top, we are having a great time with a wonderful crew and staff etc and will return next year all being well to join you in August.

 

The Art Auctions are gone as is the entire photographoic set up......fantastic.

 

You are so right about a coffee unit or else in the lounge by the spiral staircase as per azamara.

 

I have no idea where Jerry Blaine is but this guy is hapless and hopeless.

 

Hope you are well

 

Brian

[mountain grandma]

Hi Brian,

We are also booked on the Nautica immediately after your sailing and I would appreciate it very much if you could investigate something for me and let me know the answer to a question.

 

With the new updated Nautica having wall lamps above the bed, have they done away with the plugs that used to be on the wall behind the bed? My DH uses a CPAP machine for sleep apnea. We have tried contacting Oceania. They were very nice and tried hard to find the answer but have not gotten a response back from the ship's staff.

 

If you would check the wall behind your bed, I would be most appreciative. I would hate the thought of having to string a loooooong extension cord around the room but if that's all we can do, then so be it.

 

Thanks so much in advance for the effort and the information.

Billie

[markshale]

I think it is hard to get consistently fantastic entertainment with the number of ships out there these days. No matter how much money the cruise lines spend. Many of us are just spoiled being regular theater and concert goers. Ships can't compete with world famous performers. Of course, there is a minimum quality level they should strive to meet or exceed I guess.

 

We are pretty hard to wow, so the fact that the entertainment isn't all that good is actually a plus. We won't have to worry about anything we are missing when we retire early!!

 

Mark

[yorkiemomjn]

We won't have to worry about anything we are missing when we retire early!!

 

Mark

 

That's us most nights! :D

[plimsol]

...What happened to the guy who was on Nautica last year, Jerry Blaine? He was pretty good...

 

We were on last Nov/Dec IST-SIN cruise and Jerry Blaine was on. We had already booked this year's IST-CPT & CPT-SIN and Jerry said to us, "I'll see you next year". We have had him on board a few times and look forward to his playing on our upcoming cruise.

[RetiredFL]

After 8 cruises, we would prefer no piano player in Martinis. After a day of touring/cruising we want to be able to talk with our friends/fellow guests. Every piano player they have had in Martinis has been loud and intrusive. Everyone looks forward to his breaks and the low volume canned music.

It seems nowadays silence is not golden and all vacuums must be filled with noise. (Can you tell we are "senior citizens"!!!)

[mountain grandma]

Hi Brian,

We are also booked on the Nautica immediately after your sailing and I would appreciate it very much if you could investigate something for me and let me know the answer to a question.

 

With the new updated Nautica having wall lamps above the bed, have they done away with the plugs that used to be on the wall behind the bed? My DH uses a CPAP machine for sleep apnea. We have tried contacting Oceania. They were very nice and tried hard to find the answer but have not gotten a response back from the ship's staff.

 

If you would check the wall behind your bed, I would be most appreciative. I would hate the thought of having to string a loooooong extension cord around the room but if that's all we can do, then so be it.

 

Thanks so much in advance for the effort and the information.

Billie

 

By the way, we are in a Penthouse Suite so perhaps you can find out from a Butler or a cabin attendant.

 

Thanks again, Billie

[LHT28]

After 8 cruises, we would prefer no piano player in Martinis. After a day of touring/cruising we want to be able to talk with our friends/fellow guests.

 

A good place to sit and chat is the GDR bar area or deck 5 near the shops after the quartet is finished playing

 

What was annoying on our latest cruise was that they had Trivia & other such games in Martinis while the quartet was playing the foyer on deck 5. :eek:

Pretty hard to enjoy the music with noise from the Assistant CD on the microphone coming down the hall.

They finally came to some arrangement the games would start after the quartet had finished in the evening in that area.

[Jancruz]

If no one is using a lounge for over 30 minutes, I move their stuff..after about 2 hours one time a man came back and got mad and I called for the GM and he explained to the "nice gentleman" that the chairs are for people that use them..

Say hi to Javier for me Brian..

Jancruz1

[brian_uk]

Hi Jan

 

I assume that you only moved things from a lounger chair rather than a lounger who was resting on the chair........

 

I decided that it was better to request that an Officer deal with the problem but NONE arrived after at least 20 minutes so we sat elsewhere.

 

Javier and a good friend left us a bottle of Wine and I thanked hiom for that and I will thank the other person in due course.

 

As far as plugs behind the bed are concerned I will try and find out if I can.

 

As for the Piano player, we sat in Martinis last night and he had a number of " The Crowd " in hysterics....sadly he did not mean to......Says he has been with the Company for 10 years but I have no idea as what.

 

Brian

[loum140]

Enforcement seems to be hit or miss. During a recent O cruise, I placed my bag on the table between DH's chair and mine, wrapped my new cover-up in the towel (to prevent fading from the very strong sun) and went to take a dip in the pool and hot tub. Returning to my chair, it was freshly made up with clean rolled towel, DH was fast asleep and my cover-up was nowhere to be found. The attendant and I rummaged through the used towel bin and eventually found my cover-up. Won't do the towel wrap again!

 

On the other side of the coin, I have sat on my chair, sun bathing, reading, needlepointing, etc. for hours while the chair next to me contained only a book. Its occupant was sleeping late, in the gym, having lunch, taking a spa treatment....who knows?

 

It's a minor annoyance, but not nearly as bad as on other ships I could name!

 

What does annoy me is the situation re: the string quartet. We really enjoy them after dinner -- however, everyone crowds into the small area in front of the shops to listen, moving chairs, etc., and therefore conversation and even shopping is considered an intrusion. Why don't they remove the grand piano (which is never used) in the corner near the GDR and relocate the string quartet over there? There would be plenty of room for seating throughout the upstairs lobby area and people could still shop, talk and yes, even play games in Martinis without disturbing the serious music listeners.

[Druke I]

I do agree about the string quartet. The noise from the shops/shoppers can infringe, but it was never as bad as Tiny Tim, the Art Auctioneer.

 

I was very happy to read that Oceania no longer has the art auctions - I did not care for them, and I certainly won't miss Tiny Tim, who always bellowed.

[LHT28]

 

There would be plenty of room for seating throughout the upstairs lobby area and people could still shop, talk and yes, even play games in Martinis without disturbing the serious music listeners.

 

Marsha

The noise from Martinis just travelled down the hall between the shops even sitting closer to the Club Ambassadors desk(old art auction desk) you could not hear the music

 

Lyn

[eddmel]

...What happened to the guy who was on Nautica last year, Jerry Blaine? He was pretty good...

 

We were on last Nov/Dec IST-SIN cruise and Jerry Blaine was on. We had already booked this year's IST-CPT & CPT-SIN and Jerry said to us, "I'll see you next year". We have had him on board a few times and look forward to his playing on our upcoming cruise.

 

We have enjoyed Jerry on our last few trips and would welcome it if he was on our next.

[brian_uk]

In answer to an earlier question I am told by our Butler Rejya thsat there are NO plugs behind the beds in a PH for safety reasons

 

Brian

[mountain grandma]

Thanks, Brian for checking on the plugs for us. I guess we will have to live with the loooong extension cord :(.

 

I appreciate your help. Have a safe journey home when you are finished with your cruise.

 

Billie

[mamaclark]

Do we need a special plug adapter? Read about the 110 and 220, but wasn't sure about the plug. Thanks.