Is the Oceania website more messed up than usual this evening?

[lj77346]

I was trying to check on some of my upcoming cruises on the Oceania website this evening (Sat. 1/18/20) and all of my booked cruises as well as past cruises are missing.  Is it just me or is their system more messed up than usual?

Edited January 18, 2020 by lj77346
Spelling correction

[bbqoug]

I just tried & couldn't see my upcoming cruise either.

It was fine earlier today.

[schmerl]

It's telling me I don't have any cruises booked and I have one booked for July. I hope the fix it. 

[lj77346]

Thanks for the quick replies - I have 2 cruises coming up in the next few weeks and went to check a few details.  I'm happy to see that it's not just me. They are probably doing system maintenance, but didn't announce it.

[GICNJC]

As of 1852 hrs it seems all private info is missing including booked cruises and Oceania club info.  Edit of personal info is working.  I agreed they are updating or modifying something. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

Calm down everyone. Saturday evenings have been IT cleanup time for years. All bookings are locked out during the process which can take up to several hours. 

Recheck tomorrow and all should be back to normal.

[DeeniEncinitas]

1 hour ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Calm down everyone. Saturday evenings have been IT cleanup time for years. All bookings are locked out during the process which can take up to several hours. 

Recheck tomorrow and all should be back to normal.

Your always right Flatbush Flyer!! You have mentioned that before awhile ago when people were freaking out about the same thing! Next day was fine👍
Thank you!

Denise😊

[mexicobob]

I have never cruised with Oceania but really want to. Planned on it being our next cruise. Not impressed with their web site at all to say the least. Maybe they want us to use a travel agent. I would prefer to book my own travel arrangements. Guess it will be with another cruise line.

[Flatbush Flyer]

34 minutes ago, mexicobob said:

I have never cruised with Oceania but really want to. Planned on it being our next cruise. Not impressed with their web site at all to say the least. Maybe they want us to use a travel agent. I would prefer to book my own travel arrangements. Guess it will be with another cruise line.

All cruise lines prefer that their customers use a TA since it saves them labor costs. 

 

As for Oceania, it pays TAs on a sliding scale tied to annual O bookings. This can translate to significant commission sharing for you. I don't know a singular regular O cruiser who hasn't figured out the benefits of using the right TA.

 

Regarding the website, I've never found it to be confusing. In fact, its "cart" for optional purchases is among the most intuitive in the cruise industry, particularly when it comes to choosing the right O Life perks tied to your preferences.

 

In any case, I guess some folks make their travel decisions based on a provider's "web friendliness." As for me, I'd give more weight to the actual cruise experience -particularly regarding food, service, crew & space ratios and passenger demographics.  

 

 

[dog]

I haven't been able to log in since Sat morning, still can't this morning.

Atleast I now know others are finding the same.

[rallydave]

9 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

All cruise lines prefer that their customers use a TA since it saves them labor costs. 

Sincerely doubt that flatbush.  The savings on the commission are significant and add to the net profit.  Staff is pretty constant so every booing direct results in an at least 10% savings plus by people booking direct O has total control especially with newbies and doesn't have to answer knowledgeable TA's supporting their customers.

[Flatbush Flyer]

52 minutes ago, rallydave said:

Sincerely doubt that flatbush.  The savings on the commission are significant and add to the net profit.  Staff is pretty constant so every booing direct results in an at least 10% savings plus by people booking direct O has total control especially with newbies and doesn't have to answer knowledgeable TA's supporting their customers.

Respectfully disagree. There are 35,000 CLIA agency TAs selling the vast majority of cruises today and, despite the commission paid to them, they save cruise lines millions in labor, benefits, facilities, advertising et al. costs.

 

I don't have the time or energy right now to search for the specific studies I've seen regarding cruise line TA preferences. But, they do exist.

 

For now though, here are some interesting cruise data: https://cruising.org/-/media/research-updates/research/consumer-research/2018-clia-travel-report.pdf

[PaulMCO]

The site is up with no issues logging in.

[bbqoug]

20 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Calm down everyone. Saturday evenings have been IT cleanup time for years. All bookings are locked out during the process which can take up to several hours. 

Recheck tomorrow and all should be back to normal.

Everyone was calm. Not sure why you would think otherwise.

OP asked if others were experiencing the same problem with the website that they were having and people reported back that they also couldn't see their booked cruises.

Just an exchange of information to help each other. Kind of what CC is here for.

 

[Flatbush Flyer]

17 minutes ago, bbqoug said:

Everyone was calm. Not sure why you would think otherwise.

OP asked if others were experiencing the same problem with the website that they were having and people reported back that they also couldn't see their booked cruises.

Just an exchange of information to help each other. Kind of what CC is here for.

 

Actually, you have no idea who was or wasn't calm. And it's reasonable to think that some folks (new to Oceania), who may have spent 30K+\-, would not be calm.

In any case, I trust that those same folks were thankful for the reassurance provided regarding the regular Saturday maintenance. 

[dog]

I'm back in to my account. All is fine now, my booking is there.

[alaskaca]

3 hours ago, bbqoug said:

Everyone was calm. Not sure why you would think otherwise.

OP asked if others were experiencing the same problem with the website that they were having and people reported back that they also couldn't see their booked cruises.

Just an exchange of information to help each other. Kind of what CC is here for.

 

 

3 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Actually, you have no idea who was or wasn't calm. And it's reasonable to think that some folks (new to Oceania), who may have spent 30K+\-, would not be calm.

In any case, I trust that those same folks were thankful for the reassurance provided regarding the regular Saturday maintenance. 

Agreed, FF. 
The first time I found my booked cruises missing, was a bit of a stomach dropping moment. I think a reassuring ‘calm down’ from a seasoned Oceania cruiser would have been very helpful, considering the thoughts going through my mind🤯

[Flatbush Flyer]

12 minutes ago, alaskaca said:

 

Agreed, FF. 
The first time I found my booked cruises missing, was a bit of a stomach dropping moment. I think a reassuring ‘calm down’ from a seasoned Oceania cruiser would have been very helpful, considering the thoughts going through my mind🤯

Welcome aboard.

[mexicobob]

23 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

SAll cruise lines prefer that their customers use a TA since it saves them labor costs. 

 

As for Oceania, it pays TAs on a sliding scale tied to annual O bookings. This can translate to significant commission sharing for you. I don't know a singular regular O cruiser who hasn't figured out the benefits of using the right TA.

 

Regarding the website, I've never found it to be confusing. In fact, its "cart" for optional purchases is among the most intuitive in the cruise industry, particularly when it comes to choosing the right O Life perks tied to your preferences.

 

In any case, I guess some folks make their travel decisions based on a provider's "web friendliness." As for me, I'd give more weight to the actual cruise experience -particularly regarding food, service, crew & space ratios and passenger demographics.  

 

 

 

[mexicobob]

Wow. Responses are so warm and helpful. Really makes me want to book with Oceania and travel with such wonderful people.

[Flatbush Flyer]

5 minutes ago, mexicobob said:

Wow. Responses are so warm and helpful. Really makes me want to book with Oceania and travel with such wonderful people.

See post #17.

[lj77346]

The reason I made my original post was because for my 10 previous cruises on Oceania, I never had visited the website and found that my bookings disappeared.  With a cruise on the Sirena beginning on January 25, I wanted to check some details about the cruise, so I was surprised when that booking and my other bookings for this year were not there. As this is a big travel year for my wife and I as we are celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary, we certainly didn't want to see anything mess our travel plans.  We felt that there was probably a logical reason for our bookings disappearing, but I wanted to check to see if others noticed the same thing with their accounts.

 

I appreciated the quick responses that let me know that we were not alone as well as being informed that it is not unusual for site maintenance to occur on the weekend.  I was happy to see on Sunday when I checked that everything had returned to normal.  So now it's time to start getting our stuff together for 17 days on the Sirena.  Thanks for all the responses.  Cheers!

[clo]

On 1/19/2020 at 1:04 PM, Flatbush Flyer said:

Actually, you have no idea who was or wasn't calm. And it's reasonable to think that some folks (new to Oceania), who may have spent 30K+\-, would not be calm.

In any case, I trust that those same folks were thankful for the reassurance provided regarding the regular Saturday maintenance. 

I've been on other sites where one gets a message along the line of "the site is down for routine maintenance....etc." That would be nice. But the one time I saw it I figured that was the case.

[YoHoHo]

13 hours ago, clo said:

I've been on other sites where one gets a message along the line of "the site is down for routine maintenance....etc." That would be nice. But the one time I saw it I figured that was the case.

Exactly. There would then be calm and no need for us to be told how to behave or feel. A system maintenance  banner would be courteous and efficient. Maybe they are really old school that somehow maintenance is a sign of weakness and  announcing to all is unneeded as whatever is being done only affects some. And too bad for them. An employer of mine did the same thing. One access point would get a "down for maintenance" message and the rest got nothing. OTOH, few complained (at least to us.)

 

I only use O's site to access my booking when I must. When "shopping" for a cruise , even just for an O cruise, I use other sites. Of course that also shows me cruises from other lines and, like that shiny thing, I do get pulled away on occasion. O's "improved site"  drove me to that. I do acknowledge the site has improved over the years with added content, excursion purchase improved etc but the main page to compare / find cruises has a user design issue preventiving me from  easy comparisons.

 

That said, I was recently searching another CL site for information and it was far harder to get facts. So, maybe Os is not so bad overall compared to others.

 

I do like their product once on board so continue to purchase but not a fan of their website.

[pinotlover]

YoHoHo;

 

Never fear! It is often highly obvious that a lot of cruisers never read Oceania’s website. Obvious because they come here and ask questions that are plainly fully answered on O’s website. Some , in fact, under headers like Frequently Asked Questions ( FAQ), or other easily browse portions of their website! 
 

I think Oceania’s website is easy to navigate, but I suppose like food that’s “ subjective “!