Live Regatta Panama - 2 Ports Cancelled

[Tyco321]

Just amazing. We cruised on the Regatta in May and missed ports plus had one port time shortened significantly. The same situation occurred (propulsion issues) and Oceania handled it in the same way. They lied.

 

These technical issues have been going on for some time with that ship. I guess management has finally met their match with the fed-up passengers during this latest debacle.

 

We'll never cruise on Oceania again -- their lack of transparency shows a total disregard for treatting passengers with the respect that they deserve. There are many other cruise lines to choose from -- Oceania will not be on our list the next time we cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RJB]

25 minutes ago, Tyco321 said:

Just amazing. We cruised on the Regatta in May and missed ports plus had one port time shortened significantly. The same situation occurred (propulsion issues) and Oceania handled it in the same way. They lied.

 

These technical issues have been going on for some time with that ship. I guess management has finally met their match with the fed-up passengers during this latest debacle.

 

We'll never cruise on Oceania again -- their lack of transparency shows a total disregard for treatting passengers with the respect that they deserve. There are many other cruise lines to choose from -- Oceania will not be on our list the next time we cruise.

 

 

These are sorry, old ships that should go to the scrapyard very soon.  No way I would sail on any of them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dooleygeo]

Last March we sailed from Honolulu to San Diego, final destination Miami. After departing Hawaii, we had an ill passenger who needed a helicopter ride back to Hawaii for hospitalization. We lost 22 hours of sailing time, turning around (we were too far out for the range of the 'copter) and then turn back around for San Diego. We arrived a day later in San Diego and lost two ports of call on our way to the Panama Canal. Because we had a reserved time to be at the canal, it couldn't be helped. While we were disappointed to have missed two ports, we were glad to hear that the ill passenger would be all right. Then, going through the canal, we were delayed once more by an ambulance picking up two more passengers from our ship. The ship's nurse was heard saying that she had never had so many sick people on board. Yes, we started out in Honolulu with the norovirus. I got it - twice. So, it is what it is. This stuff happens and we all have to learn to take life as it happens.

[vaitape]

Nora TWICE??? Sounds like HELL on earth.....sorry for the sick folks and the pax that kept waiting for "the next shoe to drop". Not sure if this situation is a one off but regardless, it wasn't a pleasant cruise for those onboard. Not sure if I'd keep sailing on O if that happened to us.

[Shawnino]

On 11/2/2018 at 10:04 AM, ABoatNerd said:

It is November and gloomy, good time for folks to cruise!

 

Updating this file.

 

Numerous actions are being taken against the 3 officers who forced meetings and forced signatures. I am one of them. I know of others who are doing the same because we are in contact, but there were others who had the same experience who may or may not be involved, I do not know of their status.

 

There are various TA's who have escalated their clients concerns to their regional and now Oceania HQ representatives. It will go beyond Oceania shortly.

 

The letters were not issued to the passengers, just those who were attacked by Regatta management. Those I know who signed were compliant, but their spouses and members of their group were most verbal!

 

Regarding the ports, it my and others expectation and understanding that Oceania is in the business first of making money and providing excellence in customer service.  If customer service is a priority for Oceania, then logically Oceania would strive to find a way to acquire substitute ports based on a combination of variables; time, speed of ship, availability of docking, due date at the canal etc. There are many cruise friendly cruise ports on the Pacific side to choose from. 

 

What I and others found most intriguing is that the Regatta was sailing slowly along the Pacific side but much faster on the Atlantic side after the overnight stop in Colon. This generated 2 fundamental questions; why the difference in speed and why could the greater speed not been deployed on the Pacific side to reinstate ports?

 

There were many, many retired US Navy folks on the ship and these questions were being discussed in every venue (especially happy hour). Some had their on shore acquaintances monitoring AIS, NOAA, doing calculations and reporting back. Not favorable to Oceania.

 

Oceania behaved in an aggressive manner towards guests.  This means they had something to hide.

 

Have a great day.

 

 

 

 

Any further update?

[purpleally]

On 10/16/2018 at 4:14 PM, LHT28 said:

Oceania  do not reimburse port fees 

 

Seabourn does

[Paulchili]

1 hour ago, purpleally said:

Seabourn does

Is it more than $10/port?

[Kingofcool1947]

On 10/16/2018 at 7:48 AM, ABoatNerd said:

Hello Oceania folks.

Currently on the Regatta panama canal cruise left San Fran Oct 6.

Oceania cancelled 2 port stops, shortened a 3rd and swapped out Cabo for San Diego. Apparently due to tropical storm sergeo a week a go that passed over the Baja.

We sailed past the Baja with no evidence of the storm,

The  ship has not been sailing at maximum speed at any time.  Not satisfied that time could have not been made up to have recovered 1 port.

Suffice it to say that the free "goodwill" 1 hr freeze booze offered by Oceania does not offset the significant reduction in the itinerary.

Also, on the voyage before this one, Juneau was missed.  

Many guests are displeased and asking questions.

When Ray the CD spoke about it in the Regatta lounge 2x there were many Boos from the guests.

Have heard guests on their phones cancelling future Oceania trips and seen numerous people in the computer room booking Viking cruises on line.

We are not pleased at all at the itinerary changes.

Otherwise - service is excellent but the Terrace cafe is not of past quality and many guests are grumbling about the new menus in the GDR.  The specialties seem constant.

Safe sailing.

So what are you planning to do about it?  Did the Captan come down to the lounge to explain why the scheduled ports of call were cancelled?

Good luck.  Hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise, even if the cuisine is not of past quality, and PAXs complaining about the new menus in the GDR.

 

King

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, Kingofcool1947 said:

So what are you planning to do about it?  Did the Captan come down to the lounge to explain why the scheduled ports of call were cancelled?

Good luck.  Hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise, even if the cuisine is not of past quality, and PAXs complaining about the new menus in the GDR.

 

King

 

The cruise was months ago

 

[purpleally]

4 hours ago, Paulchili said:

Is it more than $10/port?

It was. Cannot remember exact amount, took the cash

[ABoatNerd]

Happy New Year

 

It seems Regatta's mechanical issues remain, noted on the current Regatta thread circumnavigation of Australia:

 

Happy New Year to all.

We had a wonderful evening over a special New Year’s Eve dinner.

There was some excitement at around 7.30pm when Regatta blew out two big black puffs of smoke, the lights flickered, the engines stopped humming and the ship stopped moving. The captain came on the PA system quite promptly to advise us the ship’s propulsion system was down and the engineers were working to restore power. The ship’s generator had kicked in to keep some lights and essential power on. Everyone seemed to take it in their stride and carried on eating, drinking, socialising....leaving the hard work to the experts. 

Within half an hour the lights were back and a few minutes later the engines started humming again and we started moving. Captain returned on PA to advise that we were back to normal and engineers would keep working and testing to ensure things continued working as expected. 

I think we’re in pretty safe hands and I expect they will be working hard to keep things running as smoothly as possible...and writing up an incident report, amongst other things. I hope they can have a glass of champagne soon to celebrate the new year! 🍾🥂💥

 

 

On the October 2018 voyage, the subject of this thread, each guest received a $400 FCD.

 

Numerous guests have engaged their state and Cdn provincial consumer protection groups. The information from CC, particularly the many numerous scathing reviews, which included the threats and intimidation by on board Regatta officers, is most helpful. My complaint is being launched this week using their successful base.

 

The latest Regatta mechanical breakdown noted above, will be sent to them as well as my TA and the friends in our group who were aboard the fiasco cruise, also sent this latest breakdown to their many TA's.

 

And the beat goes on.

 

 

 

 

[rallydave]

19 hours ago, Paulchili said:

Is it more than $10/port?

Yes Paul, significantly more than $10/port.  The amount varies from port to port and we missed a single Caribbean Port last year on Seabourn and the money was returned via refundable OBC and believe it was a little over $300 for DW and I.

 

Am sure you know that O includes the Port Charges and taxes in the cruise fare and by not refunding that money simply adds the total amount as pure profit.  Say $100/port on a full O ship would be an extra profit of $125,000 not chump change.

 

Most cruise lines including Oceania and Regent were signatories to a Florida agreement several years ago whereby they agreed that no money specified as Port Charges and taxes could could be used for anything other than paid to a Government entity and if not, refunded to the passengers.  By not showing Port charges and taxes separately O and R are complying with the agreement but ..................

 

Seabourn and most other cruise lines show Port charges and taxes separately thus are required by the agreement to refund if not paid to a Government entity.

[StanandJim]

1 hour ago, rallydave said:

Most cruise lines including Oceania and Regent were signatories to a Florida agreement several years ago whereby they agreed that no money specified as Port Charges and taxes could could be used for anything other than paid to a Government entity and if not, refunded to the passengers.  By not showing Port charges and taxes separately O and R are complying with the agreement but ..................

Why is this practice any different from a business with an Air Conditioned facility serving you on a 68 degree day ? 

[StanandJim]

8 minutes ago, ORV said:

Does anyone know how port charges are determined? Is it number of berths, number of passengers, cost of cruise? 

Port charges are the cost of the ship docking in a port (decided by the port, itself) divided by the number of passengers on the ship.  

[rallydave]

8 minutes ago, StanandJim said:

Why is this practice any different from a business with an Air Conditioned facility serving you on a 68 degree day ? 

The above makes absolutely no sense.  And just how did you come up with that simplistic explanation of how port fees are divided up among the passengers.  Do you really have insight into every port and charges??  Really doubt it is that simple as how could cruises that do show the charges develop them not knowing how full the ship will be.

 

And Orv, was on Seabourn, not Silverseas and nothing more than return of port charges for the cancelled port.  They actually added a different port in lieu of the cancelled one and didn't add any charges for that additional port.  Actually the port charges and taxes on that cruise were over $3000.

[Paulchili]

3 hours ago, rallydave said:

Yes Paul, significantly more than $10/port.  The amount varies from port to port and we missed a single Caribbean Port last year on Seabourn and the money was returned via refundable OBC and believe it was a little over $300 for DW and I.

 

Dave, 

The reason I asked this is because I seem to recall someone here recently posted that they received something like $9 and change for a missed port on another cruise line (RCL?).

As O does not list these charges separately, I have no idea what a port charge/pp is for different ports. Perhaps you can post these charges from your last Seabourn cruise since they were posted on your bill?

[rallydave]

6 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

Dave, 

The reason I asked this is because I seem to recall someone here recently posted that they received something like $9 and change for a missed port on another cruise line (RCL?).

As O does not list these charges separately, I have no idea what a port charge/pp is for different ports. Perhaps you can post these charges from your last Seabourn cruise since they were posted on your bill?

Wish I could do that Paul but, don't keep those receipts so can't.   It is possible that someone got the like $9 as am sure costs vary from port to port.  Used to have a link to that agreement with all cruise lines based in Florida and who signed the agreement.  Knew we'd miss the one port and was disclosed by Seabourn before departure with the replacement port as well.  Was surprised when nothing was provided after passing the missed port nor what anything added after the added port.

 

A day before we reached the last port of this segment, I noticed the credit on our on board account on the TV.    Wish I had the receipt but, don't.  Sure others on cruises where missed ports have the Port fees and taxes refunded will have much different amounts to report.

[Paulchili]

OK - so I looked at our last Seabourn cruise statement and this is what I found.

It was a 26 day cruise with 15 ports. The bill had this line:

 

Est'd Taxes, Fees & Port Expens : $976.49 (per person).

 

Notice that this states Estimated and also that it includes taxes, fees and port expenses.

Does this mean taxes on the cruise fare (which was a substantial amount 🙂) or just taxes on port charges? What type of fees?

How much of this would actually be refunded as port charges for any missed ports is a mystery to me.

Edited January 7, 2019 by Paulchili

[LHT28]

port  fees are a convoluted calculation  based on many variables

that is why they are ESTIMATED

it based on the number of bodies onboard  (which can change from cruise to cruise)  GRT + services required in the port ..eg: water, hydro ,sewage pumpouts, etc..

some lines like Oceania  bundle  then other will list them in a lump sum depending on the cruise

If you notice  the same port with different sized ships  will have different fees

If you google  Port fees  you will get lots of  explanations

[StanandJim]

23 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

Notice that this states Estimated and also that it includes taxes, fees and port expenses.

Does this mean taxes on the cruise fare (which was a substantial amount 🙂) or just taxes on port charges? What type of fees?

How much of this would actually be refunded as port charges for any missed ports is a mystery to me.

Port Authorities are governmental Agencies and therefore when they assess charges, they may be expressed as taxes or fees.  These  represent what the Port charges for a ship to berth or anchor with their jurisdiction.

Services, such as fresh water, fueling, hard wired electricity and/or loading supplies may be added to the bill, as required. 

This fee structure alters dependant on whether the Port is anEmbarkationn port versus being a mid cruise port, which is why leaving the ship mid cruise is sometimes a concern.  A few exiting passengers may be seen as an exception, a larger number may alter the ships status in that Port.

[Paulchili]

6 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

port  fees are a convoluted calculation  based on many variables

that is why they are ESTIMATED

it based on the number of bodies onboard  (which can change from cruise to cruise) services required in the port ..eg: water, hydro ,sewage pumpouts, etc..

some lines like Oceania  bundle  then other will list them in a lump sum depending on the cruise

If you notice  the same port with different sized ships  will have different fees

If you google  Port fees  you will get lots of  explanations

So Lyn & S&J - can you estimate how much would I ACTAULLY receive for a missed port on my Seabourn cruise? I know I cannot.

Edited January 7, 2019 by Paulchili

[LHT28]

4 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

So Lyn & S&J - can you estimate how much would I ACTAULLY receive for a missed port on my Seabourn cruise? I know I cannot.

nope 

but cannot imagine it would be in the hundreds 😉

[Paulchili]

5 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

nope 

but cannot imagine it would be in the hundreds 😉

I guess I’ll have to book a Seabourn cruise and pray to miss a port to get the actual answer 

[rallydave]

9 hours ago, StanandJim said:

Wouldn't that apply to EVERY terms and conditions contract ever written?

Do you question Macy's and Walmart and Fidelity Mutual as well?

It's good to read ever1y contract as well as Terms and Conditions and questioning is a good thing to do as like I said earlier, while unlikely it is possible to modify a Contract if both parties agree to possibly remove some of the advantages of the writer no matter who the writer of the contract is.

 

Don't just take what the company says verbatim and protect yourself. 

[sammiedawg]

We have received port fee refunds from a couple cruise  lines and the pp amount was very small each time.  One time it was nine dollars,  which might buy a glass of house wine.  For some reason I remember that dollar amount. 

I’m struggling to believe a single Caribbean port fee was $300 per couple.