Riviera - Maiden Voyage Rescheduled

[Oceans&Rivers]

We are gutted. Flying all the way from new Zealand on our trip of a lifetime (6 may voyage) of which this cruise was going 2 b highlight. Cant change flights without penalty, have non refundable hotels booked after scheduled cruise finish now have a 10 day gap we have no idea how 2 fill. Does any1 know of a cruise leaving Istanbul round 6 may for approx 10 days ending up anywhere near Venice? Tks:confused:

 

You don't give enough details for us to help you as much as some of us would like (I trust that you will one day in the future learn that Oceania most definitely does not suck. I think you are just very disappointed), but if you have your heart set on a cruise that ends in Venice (as opposed to a land trip either with a tour group or on your own), and you are willing to fly to Venice for a round-trip 10-day cruise from there, the Seabourn Spirit does the Dalmatian coast departing Venice May 5th and returns to Venice May 15th.

The ports sound great: Kotor, Montenegro; Corfu, Greece; Otranto (Lecce), Italy; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Split, Croatia; Triluke Bay, Croatia (Cruising); Rovinj, Croatia; and arrives May 14th with an overnight in Venice, disembarking May 15th.

 

Just for the record, I have never taken a Seabourn cruise as I am concerned that there would be more smoking onboard, but in your case, it is at least an option.

 

Whatever you decide, I hope you give Oceania another try in the future. It really is a very nice cruise line and is run be extremely responsive management at the upper level. You'll even read posts by the Chairman, Frank Del Rio, here. He cares a great deal about Oceania and the passengers, and if anyone has a giant headache with all that is going on surrounding the shipyard woes, it's him.

 

He's unlikely to post "THIS WHOLE SITUATION JUST SUCKS," but I'm sure he's feeling it....

[yorkiemomjn]

Hi everyone,

We did not use Oceania's air because they did not have any flights that worked for us. We are not going to be able to cruise this year, but plan to book a European cruise for 2013 when the new schedules are released.

We found out that our non-refundable flights have to be used by Sept. 2012. Has Oceania refunded anyone's airfare. We are some of the ones that were on the original maiden voyage on April 14th.

Thanks,

Judy & John

[LHT28]

Hi everyone,

 

We did not use Oceania's air because they did not have any flights that worked for us. We are not going to be able to cruise this year, but plan to book a European cruise for 2013 when the new schedules are released.

 

We found out that our non-refundable flights have to be used by Sept. 2012.

Thanks,

Judy & John

 

Would your travel insurance cover it since the cruise you booked is cancelled???

[yorkiemomjn]

Would your travel insurance cover it since the cruise you booked is cancelled???

 

We don't buy trip insurance any more until final payment is made. One time we bought it before final payment and lost it becausevwe were unable to transfer it to another trip within the allotted time.

 

I actually left off my question on my original post. :o I was wondering if anyone knows if Oceania will reimburse us for our flights. I know it would only be for the amount they had credited us when we chose to not take their air.

 

We had a discount on the maiden voyage because we had booked it while we were on the Marina last June. Oceania did finally give us that credit to be applied to our future cruise.

 

Thanks again!

[LHT28]

We don't buy trip insurance any more until final payment is made. One time we bought it before final payment and lost it becausevwe were unable to transfer it to another trip within the allotted time.

 

I would have thought if you purchased non refundable air ..insurance would be a good thing at that time

 

As soon as I book some component of a holiday that is non refundable I buy insurance

 

YMMV

Hope Oceania will reimburse you

[yorkiemomjn]

I would have thought if you purchased non refundable air ..insurance would be a good thing at that time

 

As soon as I book some component of a holiday that is non refundable I buy insurance

 

YMMV

Hope Oceania will reimburse you

 

We should have at least bought insurance for the flights. I feel like Oceania will reimburse us the amount they discounted when we did the deviation. If so, we will only have lost $1,600 and the free one night hotel credit. However, they are giving us $350 pp credit to be used on a future cruise and the 5% discount we had because we booked the maiden voyage while inboard the Marina last June.

[1985rz1]

We should have at least bought insurance for the flights. I feel like Oceania will reimburse us the amount they discounted when we did the deviation. If so, we will only have lost $1,600 and the free one night hotel credit. However, they are giving us $350 pp credit to be used on a future cruise and the 5% discount we had because we booked the maiden voyage while inboard the Marina last June.

 

When purchasing Travel Insurance in the US, you only have to purchase the amount of any nonrefundable expenses, only when you pay it, and increase the amount (and add or subtract dates) when needed. For example, you can buy the insurance to cover airfare, if that's the first non-refundable expense, then non-refundable hotel payments, if that is next, and the cruise amount only when final payment is due. I can't guarantee that all Travel Insurance Companies allow that, but at least one we use (in the US) does.

 

I'm glad that Oceania is providing folks future cruise credit. The 5% on-board discount can typically be transferred once if you have to rebook on a different cruise.

 

Sorry for all of you who got caught in this unfortunate circumstance.

[yorkiemomjn]

When purchasing Travel Insurance in the US, you only have to purchase the amount of any nonrefundable expenses, only when you pay it, and increase the amount (and add or subtract dates) when needed. For example, you can buy the insurance to cover airfare, if that's the first non-refundable expense, then non-refundable hotel payments, if that is next, and the cruise amount only when final payment is due. I can't guarantee that all Travel Insurance Companies allow that, but at least one we use (in the US) does.

 

I'm glad that Oceania is providing folks future cruise credit. The 5% on-board discount can typically be transferred once if you have to rebook on a different cruise.

 

Sorry for all of you who got caught in this unfortunate circumstance.

 

What is the name of the travel insurance company you use that does this? We were on the original maiden voyage, so this cancellation mess has happened to us twice. We lucked out the first time because we had not booked air at that point.

[1985rz1]

What is the name of the travel insurance company you use that does this? We were on the original maiden voyage, so this cancellation mess has happened to us twice. We lucked out the first time because we had not booked air at that point.

 

We used Travel Insured International. When I spoke with them on the phone, the rep encouraged me to only insure only what we had paid and adjust as we go along with additional payments. There was no price difference between the total premiums paid at the end from what we would have paid had we fronted the whole trip.

 

We also maintained pre-exisiting condition waiver because we initiated the policy with the window from first trip payment and for each subsequent payment. I'd bet most allow this approach.

 

If you have an insurance carrier you like, I'd phone the company and ask them directly, if you can do that. It's a good business model, in that they at least get a piece of the premium if the trip is cancelled before the final payment.

[LHT28]

Another thing to consider is the airline may charge a cancellation fee but the rest of the fare could be refunded

 

We had cancelled a trip a few years ago the air was booked with KLM but they charged a small fee for cancelling but I did get some of the fare back

 

Worth checking the terms of cancelllation on your tickets

[Pearl64]

We are in the same predicament as Yorkiemomjn except we have insurance which we took out around the time I did the original air. There are several glitches in this whole scenario. The first is we cannot just use the change fee option as we need to begin our flights by a certain date in early September. The reason for this is after the first maiden voyage was cancelled we changed our air to the 24th of April cruise. That was done last September. The airlines will only change the air with a fee if it falls within one calendar year of booking--thus September. There were not a lot of options out there. We found four cruises that we could possibly take--three of which fell out of those September dates. We really did not like the other choice that fell within the required fly dates. We had also booked a week in Provence before the cruise and had paid for that in full which is nonrefundable. I figured that the insurance would still cover that portion.

 

We are now out with the air! So, if we were to go on the October cruise which we are on, we will have to pay the air again. That means we will have spent $5000 on air for cattle space seats.

 

We could use the insurance to cover the air and the France rental. But, if we want to go on the October cruise we lose the insurance and have to purchase it all over again. We are in a real dilemma as to what to do so as to reduce our costs. I know this is not Oceania's problem, but they did take our final payment within hours of cancelling the cruise.

 

This whole thing is very upsetting. I am almost to the point that I just want to stay at home. I realize that we must expect some bumps in the road but these are almost too much to bear. We are usually pretty flexible but with having arranged two trips and have them turned upside down, and now the third one flying by without us on the trip, may just be too much. We loved our first cruise with Oceania but I am wondering if our second cruise is ever going to happen.

 

I am trying to be optimistic and the sun is shining, but there may be more dark clouds.

 

Pearl

[JimandStan]

Pearl-

 

You need to talk to somebody at the Airline who has some authority and get Oceania to correspond with them about this extremely rarified double cancellation of our cruise.

 

The airline regulations were not set up to penalize passengers who are in a tight spot like this, and it would be a VERY RARE CASE where the Airline didn't waive their rights to those penalties as a courtesy to Oceania.

 

I'm going to send you an email with some further suggestions over the weekend. :D

[tak2]

Pearl-

 

.......

I'm going to send you an email with some further suggestions over the weekend. :D

 

That's nice of you.:)

[Pearl64]

Thank you. You can reach me at cbmppm at comcast dot net. I have called Delta and so has my TA. When she called the call went to a supervisor. She was sending an email to Oceania per their directions. I will await further info from you. Thanks.

 

Pearl (Patty)

[yorkiemomjn]

Thank you. You can reach me at cbmppm at comcast dot net. I have called Delta and so has my TA. When she called the call went to a supervisor. She was sending an email to Oceania per their directions. I will await further info from you. Thanks.

 

Pearl (Patty)

 

Please let me know what we can do to get this refund also..............

 

Thanks

[yorkiemomjn]

Pearl-

 

You need to talk to somebody at the Airline who has some authority and get Oceania to correspond with them about this extremely rarified double cancellation of our cruise.

 

The airline regulations were not set up to penalize passengers who are in a tight spot like this, and it would be a VERY RARE CASE where the Airline didn't waive their rights to those penalties as a courtesy to Oceania.

 

I'm going to send you an email with some further suggestions over the weekend. :D

 

Jim,

I would appreciate receiving the suggestiona, also.

 

Thank you,

Judy

jkn528 at att dot net

[Older Party]

Anyone know for sure who Oceania hired for the entertainment? I heard a rumor the shows will be the recently removed shows from Silversea Cruises. Trying to get a handle on this rumor and whether its true or not.

[ksps cruise fan]

Anyone know for sure who Oceania hired for the entertainment? I heard a rumor the shows will be the recently removed shows from Silversea Cruises. Trying to get a handle on this rumor and whether its true or not.

 

The franchise for the production shows on Marina was recently awarded to a Nashville company called Gary Musick Productions. This name now appears in the programs for the production shows.

 

I just went to the Gary Musick corporate web site. The cruise production web page says they produce the shows for Oceania. The past dates for shows for Celebrity, and NCL are also included. No mention of Silverseas.

 

If you want to describe the Silverseas shows, I'll tell you whether or not they were the ones we saw on Marina on the holiday cruise.

[claycruisers]

Does anyone know if the strike has been settled that has delayed the Riviera maiden voyage (so far to May 16)? We're scheduled on the May 26 sailing and I can't find an update on the story to know anything.

[hondorner]

Anyone know for sure who Oceania hired for the entertainment? I heard a rumor the shows will be the recently removed shows from Silversea Cruises. Trying to get a handle on this rumor and whether its true or not.

I don't know a thing about Silversea, but Oceania released the following press release:

 

Jan 30, 2012

 

OCEANIA CRUISES' NEW 'Riviera' TO FEATURE MUSIC OF ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER

 

 

 

 

MIAMI, January 30, 2012 — Oceania Cruises has teamed with Royal Theatrical Productions to feature "Now and Forever — The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber" on board its new 1,250-guest Riviera, which debuts in May 2012.

A 10-member cast of singers and dancers will perform music from many of Webber's best-known shows, including CATS, The Phantom of the Opera and its sequel Love Never Dies, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Jesus Christ Superstar.

Riviera will feature three additional production shows: "Up in Flames," showcasing the music of Elton John and Billy Joel; "The Dawning of Aquarius," a 60s review; and "Rock On," a love story with a rock-and-roll vibe. Royal Theater Productions, founded by Jean Ann Ryan, is an award-winning entertainment group that has produced high-quality musical revues for many of the world's finest cruise ships and resorts.

"We are thrilled that Riviera guests will enjoy the songbook of Andrew Lloyd Webber," said Michael Day, Oceania Cruises' vice president of entertainment. "Working with Jean Ann Ryan and her team we are assured of the most talented performers and highest quality choreography, sound and lighting."

 

This indicates their continued association with the Jean Ann Ryan Singers and dancers, one that started last year on Marina. The same company provides entertainment for Oceania's sister cruise line, Regent Seven Seas. They have received generally favorable reviews.

[hondorner]

Does anyone know if the strike has been settled that has delayed the Riviera maiden voyage (so far to May 16)? We're scheduled on the May 26 sailing and I can't find an update on the story to know anything.

The closest thing to certainty that I can find is this portion of an Oceania press release dated Jan 25, 2012:

 

“We know that sophisticated international travelers are anxious to welcome Riviera and we regret that labor strikes have caused this delay,” said Giuseppe Bono, Fincantieri's chief executive officer. “All of us at Fincantieri are committed to producing a superior quality ship and we will deliver a truly magnificent vessel to Oceania Cruises without further delays.”

[Emphasis Added]

[Hunding]

I don't know a thing about Silversea, but Oceania released the following press release:

 

 

 

This indicates their continued association with the Jean Ann Ryan Singers and dancers, one that started last year on Marina. The same company provides entertainment for Oceania's sister cruise line, Regent Seven Seas. They have received generally favorable reviews.

 

Know nothing of Gary Musick -- but Jean Ann Ryan's shows are superb. She has had a multi-year contract with NCL, and the shows we saw on the Jewel 2 1/2 years ago in the Baltic were the best we've ever seen -- and we usually stay away. There was a [relatively] spectacular evening, a la "Cirque de Soleil," that was jaw-dropping, considering we were in a low-balconied theatre in the middle of the ocean.

 

This is excellent news [for those pax on Marina and Riviera :)] For the rest of us........

[winegirl]

Good to know -- just received brochure and was thinking about a late October cruise on Riviera cause we liked the itinerary.

[Mura]

I'm glad we cancelled our Riviera cruise long ago if I would have been inflicted with Andrew Lloyd Webber ...

 

I'm sure I'm in the minority but I can't stand his music.

 

Mura

[orchestrapal]

I'm glad we cancelled our Riviera cruise long ago if I would have been inflicted with Andrew Lloyd Webber ...

 

I'm sure I'm in the minority but I can't stand his music.

 

Mura

 

Unfortunately he's only ever written 3 melodies that recur in every way shape and form in every musical..;)