Insignia live - - Miami Cuba Miami

[bob brown]

On 12/25/2018 at 10:17 AM, LHT28 said:

I  am guessing they meant  the O Life  "free" tours

otherwise  I have no idea

I think you're correct on that.   Although, NCL does offer "behind the scene's" tours of their ships, both paid, and complimentary for suite guests, and higher loyalty passenger's.    They no longer include a visit to the bridge "for heightened security reasons", so I decline taking the comp tours.....

I would love to take one on 'O', but only if the bridge is included, otherwise, no thanks....

[SellaVee]

One of the things I’ve noticed on O, which I don’t like, is that "higher ups" can be harsh on  those working under them and I wonder if the reception staff were being put under pressure from all sides.  The laundry fail was an opportunity to make a simple gesture that cost little and would have gone a long way, but maybe they were too scared to make that decision.  We’ve seen staff being berated in front of passengers.

 

i suspect that the new crew's first concern is keeping their jobs and they are frightened of putting a foot wrong.  Knowing that passengers are unhappy will add to the stress.

 

We were on Nautica with a noticeably relaxed crew once and it made a big difference to the atmosphere.  Hopefully this new crew will improve with experience.

 

 

 

[Go-Bucks!]

3 hours ago, SellaVee said:

I suspect that the new crew's first concern is keeping their jobs and they are frightened of putting a foot wrong.  Knowing that passengers are unhappy will add to the stress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I suspect you may be correct....just look at the many negative and complaining posts here on CC about service, food, missed ports, etc. And there are way more possible complainers who aren't on CC. It would be difficult for the staff to be relaxed if they feel like they're walking on egg shells. 

[riffatsea]

As I first timer with Oceania(Cuba in November) it is quite interesting to read this thread which talks about UNresponisve and UNhelpful  front desk staff. The mass market lines with which I am most familiar(Carnival and Princess) have the most wonderful staff at the front desk and in the rest of their ships. They have not only been smiling and helpful but have gone the extra mile to check back with us to make sure things have been fixed when we've had problems.

I would have expected a higher end line like Oceania to have at least as helpful staff!

Hopefully what was described here was just an anomaly and not normal operating procedure!

[LHT28]

6 minutes ago, riffatsea said:

As I first timer with Oceania(Cuba in November) it is quite interesting to read this thread which talks about UNresponisve and UNhelpful  front desk staff. The mass market lines with which I am most familiar(Carnival and Princess) have the most wonderful staff at the front desk and in the rest of their ships. They have not only been smiling and helpful but have gone the extra mile to check back with us to make sure things have been fixed when we've had problems.

I would have expected a higher end line like Oceania to have at least as helpful staff!

Hopefully what was described here was just an anomaly and not normal operating procedure!

 

Usually the  reception is  helpful but as I said before  they are usually Eastern European staff & not warm & fuzzy anyway

 

but  maybe because this was the 1st sailing after the drydock  & many things not completed or not working  properly, new crew  they to get used to each other  problem can arise

it can happen when there is  a large turn over of crew  & they just need to get used to working with a different team 

I would not worry

JMO

[njhorseman]

37 minutes ago, riffatsea said:

As I first timer with Oceania(Cuba in November) it is quite interesting to read this thread which talks about UNresponisve and UNhelpful  front desk staff. The mass market lines with which I am most familiar(Carnival and Princess) have the most wonderful staff at the front desk and in the rest of their ships. They have not only been smiling and helpful but have gone the extra mile to check back with us to make sure things have been fixed when we've had problems.

I would have expected a higher end line like Oceania to have at least as helpful staff!

Hopefully what was described here was just an anomaly and not normal operating procedure!

 

My experience with the Oceania front desk on my past cruises was similar to what was described in this thread.

 

I also didn't find most senior officers on Oceania to be willing to interact with the passengers in a genuine and helpful way. In general they were haughty and acted as if they were doing you a big favor by acknowledging you. 

 

I can only attribute this to a corporate culture that does not demand this type of interaction with the customers, and I found it to be Oceania's biggest deficit.

 

Note: My observations are based on a total  of 58 days aboard two different Oceania ships, Marina and Insignia. Perhaps others with longer sailing histories on Oceania will disagree.

 

 

[riffatsea]

It does sound more like corporate culture than just the more reserved personalities of some eastern European staff. We have found that people from those countries on the cruise lines I have mentioned have also been smiling and friendly! Our headwaiter in Club Class on Princess for this last cruise was from Poland and was the most congenial/warm /bubbly person I have met in a long time!!!

Perhaps some lines either hire staff with that sort of personality or do some serious customer relations training!!

We are still planning to go to Cuba on Oceania but my expectations will be low for happy helpful staff.

Perhaps I will be surprised??

[no fuss travel]

We found on othercruise lines that personnel from Eastern Europe were more reserved and less helpful. It is not just an Oceania behaviour. A smile goes a long way with the reception staff as well as please and thank you.  Imagine if you had a job where all you heard for most of the day was complaints. You would be grumpy too 

[Go-Bucks!]

I'm not one who particularly wants nor cares about interaction with the staff/officers, but I have noticed that it's not common to see many officers on Princess. Celebrity, on the other hand, has officers walking around the public areas and they greeted people or engaged them in conversation.  I've only had one Oceania cruise, but rarely saw officers.

[riffatsea]

I agree that a smile, thank you and even using/learning names of staff really helps.

DH is wonderful at remembering everyone's name.

I arranged a Meet n Greet on our Princess Panama Canal cruise and invited officers to come so we met the hotel manager, maitre d, customer relations manager etc. In our experience knowing these people are more important than meeting the captain of the ship. They can be quite helpful if any issue arises. We did see them around the ship at various times.

[BigNance]

15 hours ago, riffatsea said:

It does sound more like corporate culture than just the more reserved personalities of some eastern European staff. We have found that people from those countries on the cruise lines I have mentioned have also been smiling and friendly! Our headwaiter in Club Class on Princess for this last cruise was from Poland and was the most congenial/warm /bubbly person I have met in a long time!!!

Perhaps some lines either hire staff with that sort of personality or do some serious customer relations training!!

We are still planning to go to Cuba on Oceania but my expectations will be low for happy helpful staff.

Perhaps I will be surprised??

Our first (and only, so far) Oceania cruise was on the Riviera at the end of October.  We didn't notice too much senior staff or officers around the ship.  If we saw them, they were walking from one area to another and not visiting/schmoozing.  The staff at the desks and the serving staff were very friendly and helpful. (except for the one guy at the main desk...........) 

Just my observations.

N

 

[Go-Bucks!]

4 hours ago, riffatsea said:

I arranged a Meet n Greet on our Princess Panama Canal cruise and invited officers to come so we met the hotel manager, maitre d, customer relations manager etc. 

 

I've organized many Meet & Greets on Princess and invited many staff/officers, but none ever came.  ☹️

[riffatsea]

@GoBucks,

Maybe it was beginner's luck?? It was our first Princess cruise and things jut fell into place easily!

Hopefully we will have the same great luck/karma on our first Oceania cruise in November!

[bob brown]

3 hours ago, Go-Bucks! said:

 

I've organized many Meet & Greets on Princess and invited many staff/officers, but none ever came.  ☹️

That's what I love about sister line, NCL....they almost always will have a good contingent of officer's at every Cruise Critic's meet and greet party.  The hotel director, cruise director, exec chef, food and beverage manager, housekeeping manager, front office manager....sometimes even the Captain will appear.    And the hotel director tells everyone his ship phone number, and pleads with everyone to call him personally, if any problems cannot be resolved with his staff, rather than go home angry and complain on CC.   That's the way it should be...fix things while they can still be fixed, not seek compensation after the fact....

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, bob brown said:

That's what I love about sister line, NCL....they almost always will have a good contingent of officer's at every Cruise Critic's meet and greet party.  The hotel director, cruise director, exec chef, food and beverage manager, housekeeping manager, front office manager....sometimes even the Captain will appear.    And the hotel director tells everyone his ship phone number, and pleads with everyone to call him personally, if any problems cannot be resolved with his staff, rather than go home angry and complain on CC.   That's the way it should be...fix things while they can still be fixed, not seek compensation after the fact....

I agree 100%. Getting the card with the names and phone numbers of the officers at the Meet and Greet really can improve the quality of your experience.

 

On my last NCL cruise I had a cabin steward who wasn't the greatest, which I was able to live with until one day after being off the ship from early morning until early evening we found a note on the door that our cabin was  not cleaned because we had it locked from the inside. Uh...no. How did I get in when we returned if it was locked from the inside? 

I called the executive housekeeper, who personally answered the phone, immediately dispatched a supervisor to my cabin who then immediately summoned two stewards to my room to service it. He also assured me that he would talk to my cabin steward.

 

Treat your passengers as valued customers and it pays dividends in the form of repeat business and recommendations of the cruise line to others

[Go-Bucks!]

1 hour ago, njhorseman said:

we found a note on the door that our cabin was  not cleaned because we had it locked from the inside.

 

How funny!  Guess the only way to do that would be to lock it from the inside then climb down the side of the ship from your balcony!  😂

[Paulchili]

1 hour ago, njhorseman said:

On my last NCL cruise I had a cabin steward who wasn't the greatest, which I was able to live with until one day after being off the ship from early morning until early evening we found a note on the door that our cabin was  not cleaned because we had it locked from the inside. Uh...no. How did I get in when we returned if it was locked from the inside? 

 

Just a thought - maybe the steward’s key didn’t work (happens to my key from time to time) and he wrongly assumed that the door was locked from inside?

[njhorseman]

Just now, Paulchili said:

Just a thought - maybe the steward’s key didn’t work (happens to my key from time to time) and he wrongly assumed that the door was locked from inside?

 

I doubt that was the case because the steward had already shown that he wasn't the hardest worker in the world. Even if it was true, shouldn't he have contacted a supervisor for assistance? The "Please Make Room" light(this ship uses different color lights to display the status) was on, so our intent was that he come in.