Another Great O Cruise

[kitty9]

Just back from on board Riviera and I'm pleased to report it was another great cruise. The ship looks fantastic, the crew was professional and friendly and of course the food was outstanding.

 

We loved Nolan, who's now on vacation, and John, his assistant, and we hope we can be on future cruises with these two men. Nolan is just a fantastic CD.

 

Our cabin stewardess, Gordana, was by far, the BEST stewardess we've ever had on any cruise line. She was absolutely amazing and I wrote on the end of cruise form that she should be hired to train every other cabin stewardess. She was so particular on how the suite was cleaned every morning and every room was spotless. The only cabin glitch was our butler, who wasn't very good. We rarely saw him and the only time he came into our suite was to replace the one can of diet coke I had the night before. Never came in to see if we needed anything, and when we requested to change our dinner reservations on one evening, he never came to tell us if he did, indeed, change the time. We had to hunt him down, which we couldn't do because he was on break and the butler on call had to hunt him down to find out if we had the new reservation time. I know there are only two suites on deck 8, but that should not impact the service.

 

Now, I want to ask all of you what you would have done in this situation. We were in VS 8002 and our neighbors, also in a forward facing cabin, kept their balcony door wide open all the time. Now, it might not have been a problem if our weather had been good, but the seas were extremely rough and the winds were at gale force. When you add that wind speed to the fact that the ship was moving and that increases the amount of wind, you can imagine how much wind was gusting through their cabin. And, we had a few nights when it rained very hard and our cabin stewardess told us that their carpet by the door was wet from the rain. I have no idea why they wanted the door open all the time when everything inside had to be blowing around, but that's what they wanted. The big problem was that there was a high pitched, constant squeal caused by the wind blowing through the cabin door, that drove us crazy. It was so loud that we had to turn up the TV music channel because we couldn't hear---and you could hear it at least 8 cabins down. Not only that, but the pitch was very irritating to my sister who has very sensitive hearing. I also wondered if the air conditioning in our cabin was affected by this because it was terribly hot, but when they were finally told to not have their door open when the ship was moving, the temperature dropped to a nice level. I did ask our stewardess to see if something could be done about their door being open when the ship was in motion, and she said the people in the other cabin next to theirs complained also, so she spoke to her supervisor. We heard their conversation with the supervisor, because the passengers were not happy to be told to keep their door closed when the ship was moving, and they were quite loud, and it was interesting to hear them complain about the "privileged Americans who push others around" and that their having their door open was their business. They did comply, for a few days, but then the door was open again. We just had to put up with it.

 

But all in all, we loved this cruise and booked four more to take advantage of the on board savings.

[orchestrapal]

So sorry you had the neighbor problem. We would have had our butler handle it.

Since the open door does affect the air conditioning management should have made sure that those folks were made aware that their behavior was not acceptable.

As for the butler we would also have asked management to have him changed.

We have always had the head butler on the R ships. We once were in a VS when we also had a non-responsive butler who they immediately replaced when requested.

 

It may be hard to speak up but we have found on O it Is responded to.

Very happy that you loved the rest of your cruise.

Edited January 24, 2017 by orchestrapal

[smj]

We were on the same cruise and I think I know who you are talking about. Was one of the a very heavy smoker? If so I wonder I she was smoking is the cabin.

[Winters Gate]

Just back from on board Riviera and I'm pleased to report it was another great cruise. The ship looks fantastic, the crew was professional and friendly and of course the food was outstanding.

 

We loved Nolan, who's now on vacation, and John, his assistant, and we hope we can be on future cruises with these two men. Nolan is just a fantastic CD.

 

Our cabin stewardess, Gordana, was by far, the BEST stewardess we've ever had on any cruise line. She was absolutely amazing and I wrote on the end of cruise form that she should be hired to train every other cabin stewardess. She was so particular on how the suite was cleaned every morning and every room was spotless. The only cabin glitch was our butler, who wasn't very good. We rarely saw him and the only time he came into our suite was to replace the one can of diet coke I had the night before. Never came in to see if we needed anything, and when we requested to change our dinner reservations on one evening, he never came to tell us if he did, indeed, change the time. We had to hunt him down, which we couldn't do because he was on break and the butler on call had to hunt him down to find out if we had the new reservation time. I know there are only two suites on deck 8, but that should not impact the service.

 

Now, I want to ask all of you what you would have done in this situation. We were in VS 8002 and our neighbors, also in a forward facing cabin, kept their balcony door wide open all the time. Now, it might not have been a problem if our weather had been good, but the seas were extremely rough and the winds were at gale force. When you add that wind speed to the fact that the ship was moving and that increases the amount of wind, you can imagine how much wind was gusting through their cabin. And, we had a few nights when it rained very hard and our cabin stewardess told us that their carpet by the door was wet from the rain. I have no idea why they wanted the door open all the time when everything inside had to be blowing around, but that's what they wanted. The big problem was that there was a high pitched, constant squeal caused by the wind blowing through the cabin door, that drove us crazy. It was so loud that we had to turn up the TV music channel because we couldn't hear---and you could hear it at least 8 cabins down. Not only that, but the pitch was very irritating to my sister who has very sensitive hearing. I also wondered if the air conditioning in our cabin was affected by this because it was terribly hot, but when they were finally told to not have their door open when the ship was moving, the temperature dropped to a nice level. I did ask our stewardess to see if something could be done about their door being open when the ship was in motion, and she said the people in the other cabin next to theirs complained also, so she spoke to her supervisor. We heard their conversation with the supervisor, because the passengers were not happy to be told to keep their door closed when the ship was moving, and they were quite loud, and it was interesting to hear them complain about the "privileged Americans who push others around" and that their having their door open was their business. They did comply, for a few days, but then the door was open again. We just had to put up with it.

 

But all in all, we loved this cruise and booked four more to take advantage of the on board savings.

 

I can only agree with you, we where on that cruise as well and it was as lovely as ever.

To bad with the neighbors that showed bad manners.

I don't think that being on deck 8 should have any impact on the butler service , we where at deck nine with only 3 suites aft and the butler service we had was very good!

[cruisun]

We're just off Riviera too, first time on since her maiden year.

 

A very enjoyable cruise, great fellow passengers and I noticed very well dressed, lots of jackets in the evening.

 

Crew just seemed a bit "off" to us, disconnected from passengers and each other... management scarce.

 

Loved the PH cabin but found the butler to be a nuisance. He proclaimed on day three that it didn't seem we "needed" him and would we please have him bring canapés the next day. We ordered and waited, nothing arrived. When we called he blamed his helper for forgetting and proclaimed " I don't work 24 hours a day". We didn't care and preferred to see him infrequently.

 

Discovered and thoroughly enjoyed the spa terrace.

[Paulchili]

kitty9,

Thank you for your review.

Glad that you had a good cruise (overall) and I am sorry about your bad experience with your neighbors.

I too would have been more vocal and persistent about the problem if it had bothered me as much as it did bother you.

[tampadee]

Enjoyed your review. Sorry about the selfish neighbors!

 

We were also on this cruise, our second on Oceania, same ship. We loved it. We thought the crew was great, so polite, so friendly.

 

I have booked another Oceania for late 2018.