Insignia afternoon tea

[eddmel]

We just got back from a  cruise on the Insignia, have been on many Oceania cruises large and small ships. The Insignia was refurbished, very nice but we were disappointed in the afternoon tea. No more large table so you must wait for the cart...only 2 carts, way less food. No more warm scones. The cart took forever to get to us. I don't understand why they had to change anything in Horizons so the table with all the food couldn't be there any more.

[pinotlover]

Eddmel;

 

Just off the Nautica. The table with all the warm items and different varieties was in the rear starboard side of Horizons. One had to get up and look for it, the servers didn’t tell you it was there unless you asked.

 

I think many just preferred to sit and be served off the carts and not do another buffet line thingy.

[LHT28]

I know in the past on the R ships they had the trays of goodies over by the  entrance  near the coffee machine  

but not sure if they changed the area  with the refurb

 

Seems odd they would  only have the trollies

[Paulchili]

18 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Seems odd they would  only have the trollies

I would not like that. Sometimes it takes quite a while before a trolley reaches you, depending on where you sit.

At times we can relax and wait our turn, other times we want to get out a little faster when other activities overlap. In such cases it is nice to be able to help oneself from the shelves by the entrance in addition to trolleys..

[Noxequifans]

Delete .. 

Edited August 31, 2019 by Noxequifans
Delete

[arl_nocaps]

On the insignia now.  Agree with edmell about the tea.  Not as elaborate as I have remembered.  

arl_nocaps

[Paulchili]

58 minutes ago, arl_nocaps said:

On the insignia now.  Agree with edmell about the tea.  Not as elaborate as I have remembered.  

arl_nocaps

Is there a table for self service anywhere in the lounge or is it cart service only?

TIA

[Jay23]

Just off Nautica yesterday Wednesday 4th.  Trolley's only.  What is the rush.  Trolley comes by.   Plenty of choices seemed to be offered.    I can never remember any hot items being available over the past several years .   No self service table was available.  Why would you want to serve yourself when someone will serve you?    J

[arl_nocaps]

Same on Insignia.  Just trolleys 

[Paulchili]

1 hour ago, arl_nocaps said:

Same on Insignia.  Just trolleys 

That’s a shame and I consider it a downgrade. 😪

[LHT28]

16 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

That’s a shame and I consider it a downgrade. 😪

Me too

That  is a  shame if they are cutting back on the goodies

first they changed the scone recipe  & now this  😲

[clo]

33 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

That’s a shame and I consider it a downgrade. 😪

Why?  Having not done it (yet) I'd think "trolleys" would be more 'civilized' than a buffet. ??

[Paulchili]

13 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Me too

That  is a  shame if they are cutting back on the goodies

first they changed the scone recipe  & now this  😲

Especially if they are cutting back on things they made their reputation on - best food at sea. 

If they must cut back why not on something else- like entertainment which many don’t like anyway 

[Classiccruiser777]

15 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Me too

That  is a  shame if they are cutting back on the goodies

first they changed the scone recipe  & now this  😲

 

And the “enhanced” Oceania Club benefits...

[Paulchili]

Just now, clo said:

Why?  Having not done it (yet) I'd think "trolleys" would be more 'civilized' than a buffet. ??

Sometimes it takes a long time for the trolley to reach you and by then they may not have the item you are waiting for 

Other times you don’t want to be there for an hour because you may have other activities- like trivia. Then you can help yourself from the table to move things along (or get seconds instead of waiting for  the next trolley 

[clo]

20 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

Especially if they are cutting back on things they made their reputation on - best food at sea. 

If they must cut back why not on something else- like entertainment which many don’t like anyway 

Really good point.  We don't cruise for the entertainment.  In addition to the ports what drew me to O was the food.

[arl_nocaps]

On the insignia now, the food is very good but ..., not always thrilled with selections. 

We had great entertainment.. John Joseph a comedian was terrific. Place was packed and laughed so much.

the cd Carson was good and did is own show which was a big hit.  Group stuff so so.  It is a good sailing 

[Mura]

I'm going back a while but we were on board Riviera about the time the changes in the GDR menu arrived and we weren't entranced.

 

What we'd always liked about the GDR menus (as opposed to the specialties) was the many choices available each night.  And they changed each night.  Yes, in our experience they did recyle after 14 days.  (Some others have said here that perhaps the recycling occurred after 10 days or so, but that wasn't our experience.  It may depend on the cruise duration after all.)

 

But the new menus had far more repeats.  For example -- I'm not being specific, just general -- where we used to have 5 appetizers in the past, now there were 3 because 2 were repeats, maybe from the night before, maybe from the night before that.  Likewise with the other courses.  So choices have been reduced.

 

And it appears from comments that most experienced cruisers aren't happy with these changes either.

 

They didn't stop us from dining in the GDR, which used to be our first choice.  But we do make sure to check the menus before deciding whether to go to the GDR, Terrace or our own cabin -- assuming that we don't have a specialty res that night.

 

We also weren't happy with more frequent closures of the GDR for lunch on port days.  We're not sure if we never noticed this before because we were on shore during lunchtime or because there was a real change in policy.  The first time we NOTICED the lunch closure was on our November 2017 cruise on Marina.  We understood closing the GDR when we were over-nighting in Haifa when almost everyone was off the ship.  But there were other ports where returning tours and those still on board just overwhelmed Terrace and Waves for lunch.

 

Mura