Oceania Riviera Review, July 2023

[PinonNoir]

I recently wrote a review about our stateroom experience on our Riviera cruise, and I wanted to write a review about our cruise experience overall.  This was our third Oceania cruise, so we had some experience and expectations going in.  I will try to remain balanced in my review.  We just disembarked 9 days ago, so I'm writing this while my memory is fresh.

 

First the positives:

 

1. The multitude of restaurant options is great.  There is something for everybody, and for a 12 day cruise it was nice to be able to eat in a variety of spaces.

2. The ship has a lot of common spaces to enjoy, and none of them felt overly crowded.

3. The Barista's spot makes excellent coffee....the best on the ship in our opinion.  We were regulars there.  Really fantastic...even staffed by an Italian!

4. The Oceania staff is excellent.  They always seem to go above and beyond with limited exceptions (sticking to positives here).

5. The ship was clean everywhere we went, including common area bathrooms.

6. Embarkation went smoothly, and we were in our stateroom quickly.  Our luggage showed up fairly quickly.

7. It seemed that the Bridge crew went out of their way to sail in such a manner as to keep the ship's movements minimized as much as possible.

8. We had dinner in Privee 3 times, and two of those times were outstanding (remember, this is the positives)!

9. Our Butler and support staff were top notch, cordial, professional and just outstanding in every way!

10. Fellow passengers all seemed to be well seasoned travelers, with mostly positive attitudes.  This is important to us.  We hate being around people who are "fun vampires".

 

Ok, now the negatives...which I'm going to be as honest as possible about.  I am not piling on here, just telling it like it is:

 

1. The food has slipped.  We noticed this in pretty much every restaurant, with the possible exception of Toscana.  However, on our last night , we ate in Toscana, and I ordered a Maine Lobster dish.  It was bad...very fishy...as if the lobster was way past it's prime.  I returned it immediately and ordered another pasta I had ordered previously, and it was of course excellent.  Why did they serve lobster that was unworthy of an Oceania customer?  It was really bad!  This is my last night on the ship, and it remains a solid memory.  Bad form.

 

2.  The wifi.  Holy mother of God what in the world is Oceania doing with this wifi?  I could hear my old 4400 baud modem clanging away as I tried to log in, but the wifi on the ship was no match for my 4400 bauds!  I write a travel blog for fun....and I couldn't even upload a photo without waiting an hour!  Fortunately we were near land on occasion and I could use my international plan to do some work, but I'm still a week behind thanks to their "Pony Express" wifi!  We had two "at sea" days due to canceled ports of call (coming up on #3), and I can't tell you how many hours I wasted trying to write one blog post!  Also, when you are logged in, you get logged out repeatedly.....over and over....never for more than a few hours at a time.  It was a constant struggle, almost like they would log you out on purpose!

 

3. Ok, here is a rant with a conspiracy theory.  Our ship pulled into the Faroe Islands, turned around in the harbor about a dozen times, very slowly, and then abruptly left.  The Captain said it was due to weather, but it was sunny and calm.  We were supposed to be there for two full days, and I had a private excursion planned (for 10 people) that I ended up losing over $2000 on.  A week prior to this the Faroe Island populace had a pilot whale hunt where they killed a bunch of them in front of another cruse ship.  It's my firm belief that Oceania Corporate told the Captain to pull into harbor, make a big show of the fact we were there, and then depart, sending a political message.  The company I was working with on the excursion advised me they had no idea why the Captain didn't dock, as the weather was calmer than usual.  If Oceania wants to take a political stance with the Faroe Islands, fine, but don't impact my cruise experience!  I was really looking forward to this port!

 

4. We had a habit of getting iced tea every day at the Waves Bar by the pool.  Our last day on the ship, we stopped by the bar and there was nobody there, during their opening hours.  We went up to Horizons to see if they could help us.  They told us they didn't have iced tea, go back to Waves Bar.  When we told them nobody was there, they said "oh well".  This was a group of 3 guys at the bar.  W T F?  This is not the service we have come to expect from Oceania!  One of these guys should have said "what is your stateroom number, I'll get some and bring it to you!"  I think the fact it was the last day on board lended itself to staff taking a lazy attitude towards the customers...."oh well, they are about gone, I'm done hustling for these guys".  I hope that's not the case, but it sure seemed like it.

 

5.  The Grand Dining Room.  We ate here for breakfast one time.  Once!  The food was cold, the coffee was cold, the service was terrible...and it wasn't even crowded!  Again, W T F?  Why is the service in the main dining establishment on the ship so crappy?  How can it be that hard to bring warm eggs from the kitchen to the table?  We ended up eating 10 of 12 breakfasts in our suite.

 

6. The "internet guy".  This guy had the worst attitude on the ship.  We couldn't get logged into the wifi (not that it was worth logging into) on our first day so we went to see him on our second day.  He really doesn't want to be there.  After taking care of us he walked away, and there was somebody waiting behind us.  We realized his "working hours" had ended at the same time he took care of us, so screw that guy behind you, he can wait until tomorrow.  Again, W T F?

 

7. The Best of Oceania!  One of the 3 nights we ate in Privee we picked the "Best of Oceania" dining menu.  It was terrible.  Every dish was lackluster.  It's been too long to remember details at this point, but the entire group of 10 was disappointed.  If you do Privee, stick with the Polo and Toscana menus.

 

8. The "Sommeliers".  The wine people on the ship, while they are nice, don't know how to pour wine in equal servings.  Now I know pouring one bottle for 10 people is difficult, but this is likely a common occurrence and it should be practiced. We always ended up with one person who had almost twice as much wine as another, and with high end wines and high end enthusiasts, this is not a fun vibe!

 

9. Dress code.  I know the dress code says no jeans to dinner, or around the ship after dinner, but this code is broken so often without consequence that I wonder why it's the dress code?  I would prefer to wear jeans every day....just my thing, but I didn't.  Kinda weird to see what was accepted in the restaurants in the end.  Maybe just allow jeans?  I know, you purists out there want us all in tuxedos.

 

10. Stemware.  Ok, this is just going to be me most likely, but stemware matters.  Double the amount of decent Pinot Noir glasses you currently carry.  Schott Zwiesel makes some excellent Pinot glasses that are actually made with Titanium, and they are super hard to break.  I know, these are my daily drinkers at home, and I've barely broken any over the last 15 years!  Buy a bunch of these so your high end red wine drinkers are happy.

 

Ok, I think I've mentioned everything here.  I'll have my wife review tomorrow....she has the good memory in the family...and will add anything she brings up.  Again, thanks for reading!

 

Edited July 29, 2023 by PinonNoir
Spelling

[jonthomas]

Thank you for your review. We travel O mainly for the food and hope it has not slipped too far.

This January on the Riviera it was amazing, but I don't eat any shellfish.

All up to who is the chef on board how staff interpret menus.

Last year 20.days on marina, the desserts were incredible in Terrace , half way staff changed, it became awful and saved me a lot of calories.

 

I have also noticed that O skips, shortens, misses more ports than any other line we have been on, without compensation. 

That is worrisome. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

13 minutes ago, PinonNoir said:

I recently wrote a review about our stateroom experience on our Riviera cruise, and I wanted to write a review about our cruise experience overall.  This was our third Oceania cruise, so we had some experience and expectations going in.  I will try to remain balanced in my review.  We just disembarked 9 days ago, so I'm writing this while my memory is fresh.

 

First the positives:

 

1. The multitude of restaurant options is great.  There is something for everybody, and for a 12 day cruise it was nice to be able to eat in a variety of spaces.

2. The ship has a lot of common spaces to enjoy, and none of them felt overly crowded.

3. The Barista's spot makes excellent coffee....the best on the ship in our opinion.  We were regulars there.  Really fantastic...even staffed by an Italian!

4. The Oceania staff is excellent.  They always seem to go above and beyond with limited exceptions (sticking to positives here).

5. The ship was clean everywhere we went, including common area bathrooms.

6. Embarkation went smoothly, and we were in our stateroom quickly.  Our luggage showed up fairly quickly.

7. It seemed that the Bridge crew went out of their way to sail in such a manner as to keep the ship's movements minimized as much as possible.

8. We had dinner in Privee 3 times, and two of those times were outstanding (remember, this is the positives)!

9. Our Butler and support staff were top notch, cordial, professional and just outstanding in every way!

10. Fellow passengers all seemed to be well seasoned travelers, with mostly positive attitudes.  This is important to us.  We hate being around people who are "fun vampires".

 

Ok, now the negatives...which I'm going to be as honest as possible about.  I am not piling on here, just telling it like it is:

 

1. The food has slipped.  We noticed this in pretty much every restaurant, with the possible exception of Toscana.  However, on our last night , we ate in Toscana, and I ordered a Maine Lobster dish.  It was bad...very fishy...as if the lobster was way past it's prime.  I returned it immediately and ordered another pasta I had ordered previously, and it was of course excellent.  Why did they serve lobster that was unworthy of an Oceania customer?  It was really bad!  This is my last night on the ship, and it remains a solid memory.  Bad form.

 

2.  The wifi.  Holy mother of God what in the world is Oceania doing with this wifi?  I could hear my old 4400 baud modem clanging away as I tried to log in, but the wifi on the ship was no match for my 4400 bauds!  I write a travel blog for fun....and I couldn't even upload a photo without waiting an hour!  Fortunately we were near land on occasion and I could use my international plan to do some work, but I'm still a week behind thanks to their "Pony Express" wifi!  We had two "at sea" days due to canceled ports of call (coming up on #3), and I can't tell you how many hours I wasted trying to write one blog post!  Also, when you are logged in, you get logged out repeatedly.....over and over....never for more than a few hours at a time.  It was a constant struggle, almost like they would log you out on purpose!

 

3. Ok, here is a rant with a conspiracy theory.  Our ship pulled into the Faroe Islands, turned around in the harbor about a dozen times, very slowly, and then abruptly left.  The Captain said it was due to weather, but it was sunny and calm.  We were supposed to be there for two full days, and I had a private excursion planned (for 10 people) that I ended up losing over $2000 on.  A week prior to this the Faroe Island populace had a pilot whale hunt where they killed a bunch of them in front of another cruse ship.  It's my firm belief that Oceania Corporate told the Captain to pull into harbor, make a big show of the fact we were there, and then depart, sending a political message.  The company I was working with on the excursion advised me they had no idea why the Captain didn't dock, as the weather was calmer than usual.  If Oceania wants to take a political stance with the Faroe Islands, fine, but don't impact my cruise experience!  I was really looking forward to this port!

 

4. We had a habit of getting iced tea every day at the Waves Bar by the pool.  Our last day on the ship, we stopped by the bar and there was nobody there, during their opening hours.  We went up to Horizons to see if they could help us.  They told us they didn't have iced tea, go back to Waves Bar.  When we told them nobody was there, they said "oh well".  This was a group of 3 guys at the bar.  W T F?  This is not the service we have come to expect from Oceania!  One of these guys should have said "what is your stateroom number, I'll get some and bring it to you!"  I think the fact it was the last day on board lended itself to staff taking a lazy attitude towards the customers...."oh well, they are about gone, I'm done hustling for these guys".  I hope that's not the case, but it sure seemed like it.

 

5.  The Grand Dining Room.  We ate here for breakfast one time.  Once!  The food was cold, the coffee was cold, the service was terrible...and it wasn't even crowded!  Again, W T F?  Why is the service in the main dining establishment on the ship so crappy?  How can it be that hard to bring warm eggs from the kitchen to the table?  We ended up eating 10 of 12 breakfasts in our suite.

 

6. The "internet guy".  This guy had the worst attitude on the ship.  We couldn't get logged into the wifi (not that it was worth logging into) on our first day so we went to see him on our second day.  He really doesn't want to be there.  After taking care of us he walked away, and there was somebody waiting behind us.  We realized his "working hours" had ended at the same time he took care of us, so screw that guy behind you, he can wait until tomorrow.  Again, W T F?

 

7. The Best of Oceania!  One of the 3 nights we ate in Privee we picked the "Best of Oceania" dining menu.  It was terrible.  Every dish was lackluster.  It's been too long to remember details at this point, but the entire group of 10 was disappointed.  If you do Privee, stick with the Polo and Toscana menus.

 

8. The "Sommeliers".  The wine people on the ship, while they are nice, don't know how to pour wine in equal servings.  Now I know pouring one bottle for 10 people is difficult, but this is likely a common occurrence and it should be practiced. We always ended up with one person who had almost twice as much wine as another, and with high end wines and high end enthusiasts, this is not a fun vibe!

 

9. Dress code.  I know the dress code says no jeans to dinner, or around the ship after dinner, but this code is broken so often without consequence that I wonder why it's the dress code?  I would prefer to wear jeans every day....just my thing, but I didn't.  Kinda weird to see what was accepted in the restaurants in the end.  Maybe just allow jeans?  I know, you purists out there want us all in tuxedos.

 

10. Stemware.  Ok, this is just going to be me most likely, but stemware matters.  Double the amount of decent Pinot Noir glasses you currently carry.  Schott Zwiesel makes some excellent Pinot glasses that are actually made with Titanium, and they are super hard to break.  I know, these are my daily drinkers at home, and I've barely broken any over the last 15 years!  Buy a bunch of these so your high end red wine drinkers are happy.

 

Ok, I think I've mentioned everything here.  I'll have my wife review tomorrow....she has the good memory in the family...and will add anything she brings up.  Again, thanks for reading!

 

Straightforward review with some excellent points.

 

FWIW: We’re currently on the last segment of the ATW (SF-NY) and I agree that the food service can have an occasional hiccup which I find is more an issue with newer staff.

 

As for the wifi dropping someone’s connection  “on purpose,” that’s usually intentional and due to a set inactivity limit (or possibly when you move from one “repeater” to another). IMO, it’s a good traffic monitor. 

The dinner time “dress code” has gotten a touch lax (perhaps due to some ATW folks no longer seeing “specialty restaurants as “special”). And I wish they’d be a bit more consistent in enforcing some reasonable decorum. For men, a collared shirt and, at least, dockers and deck shoes wouldn’t kill anyone in terms of requiring them at dinner.

 

I agree with the Schott Zwiesel comment. That’s what we use at home.

[PinonNoir]

20 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

Thank you for your review. We travel O mainly for the food and hope it has not slipped too far.

This January on the Riviera it was amazing, but I don't eat any shellfish.

All up to who is the chef on board how staff interpret menus.

Last year 20.days on marina, the desserts were incredible in Terrace , half way staff changed, it became awful and saved me a lot of calories.

 

I have also noticed that O skips, shortens, misses more ports than any other line we have been on, without compensation. 

That is worrisome. 

I will say the best food on the ship was a Toscana special pasta that should be on the regular menu, and the key lime pie from Polo. Our butler was able to get us key lime pie on several occasions to match with a sauternes we had brought with us.  Really exceptional pie!

[shank63]

1 hour ago, PinonNoir said:

 

5.  The Grand Dining Room.  We ate here for breakfast one time.  Once!  The food was cold, the coffee was cold, the service was terrible...and it wasn't even crowded!  Again, W T F?  Why is the service in the main dining establishment on the ship so crappy?  How can it be that hard to bring warm eggs from the kitchen to the table?  We ended up eating 10 of 12 breakfasts in our suite.

 

 

 

Thanks for your detailed review.  I am disappointed that your GDR breakfast was so crappy.  We will be on Riviera in September and the GDR has always been our favorite breakfast spot and a fine way to begin the day.  We hope that your experience was an anomaly.  Concerning the overall quality of the food, as others have said and we concur it does seem to have slipped.  Dress code is also loosely implemented and has been for years.  We do report our concerns to the General Manager, and have experienced prompt response and corrective actions when appropriate.

[pinotlover]

Thank You for a great review.

 

I have long lamented the lack of knowledge of the wine stewards. They are not Sommeliers and shouldn’t be referred to as such. 
 

I’m a Riedel man myself, but would gladly take your selection over what is currently used.

 

Our food experience over the last three cruises in the past nine months has been  a combination of excellent meals, mediocre meals, and the occasional poor meal. Truly a box of chocolates. We have essentially given up on lobster aboard ship. Our last attempt was on Vista in the Terrace. It was so overcooked it was inedible. Not even able to cut it with a steak knife. We heard reports the same as yours from the lobster in PG. We went to Maine last fall to eat lobster . Lots of food aboard ship, best to skip the lobster.

 

Oceania stopped enforcing the dress code pre Pandemic. Some like to push the limits. A child’s game.

 

Barrista on the Vista is tremendous. I wish they could/would upgrade the other ships to its standard.

 

The skipping of ports is a major issue with us. We cancelled a 35 day cruise on O because of the games they played with cancelling ports on two straight cruises. This is a new development we are watching closely. This issue takes on additional significance because of the new SM program. Will cruisers eat the credits for SM tours planned for missed ports that can’t be rebooked? 

[mexicobob]

Thanks for the detailed review. 
We were on The Riviera in April and enjoyed the cruise. Never sat foot in the MDR but maybe just as well according to you. Definitely enjoyed room service breakfast brought by our butler every morning. We had excellent food every meal but did not have lobster. 

Did not notice anyone wearing, horrors of all horrors, jeans but not important to us. 

[cjwags]

Thanks for the review.  We will be on Riviera in March in Japan.  Just off the Vista in June.  We would agree that the food ranged from great to good.  We had a couple of not so good meals.  I had lobster in PG which was terrible.  Inedible.  Took three bites and knew it was bad.  My stomach reminded me just how bad a few hours later.  No more lobster ships for me!

 

Barristas was fantastic! Room service breakfast on our veranda was a great way to start the day.   

 

All in all, a fantastic cruise on a beautiful ship.  Looking forward to the next one...

[julia]

Stemware matters!! 🥂🍷🍸🍺

[Hambagahle]

I am very concerned to read that Toscana was the best of the restaurants.  We really dislike Toscana - portions are too large and food too "Italian American" for us.   Hopefully the overall standards will improve as time goes on.   If not - well as long as they have English muffins and corned beef hash for breakfast I will survive.  (Those two things are my favourite American foods and we can't get them in Europe!). 

[osandomir]

7 minutes ago, Hambagahle said:

I am very concerned to read that Toscana was the best of the restaurants.  We really dislike Toscana - portions are too large and food too "Italian American" for us.   Hopefully the overall standards will improve as time goes on.   If not - well as long as they have English muffins and corned beef hash for breakfast I will survive.  (Those two things are my favourite American foods and we can't get them in Europe!). 

Not all “American” food is that bad. We also like to eat Italian food while in Italy and French in France. Sorry, Swiss food wasn’t our favorite. But we have some fine American food here too and not just corned beef and muffins. Unfortunately, no food on any ocean liner can compete with local cuisine, especially the “fine dining” anywhere on land, but the food is not the main reason for us to go on the cruise.
 

That being said, we always were satisfied with Oceania offerings. It wasn’t perfect all the time in all restaurants in the past, always depended on the ship and the chef who was in charge of the particular restaurant. We also noticed some inconsistency on our last cruise in April, but we are optimistic that it’ll improve going forward to match the overall Oceania standards.

[Hambagahle]

I hope you are right.   I lived in the US for a long time (20+ years) - unfortunately not in your part of the country which I like a lot!  And I do know that there are some excellent restaurants etc there.  It is just that here we can't get English muffins and corned beef hash and I love them both!

 

"Swiss" food - ours is a country of four linguistic and cultural regions with four very different cuisines and lots - hundreds - of regional dishes.  Like all countries some things are better than others!  the Italian speaking region (and the north of Italy) has far better food than what we experienced in Toscana.  And one evening there we were with the GM so presumably they did their best.  Portions were far too big (though we asked for small) and the tastes just weren't there either.  So we crossed it off the list.   We make the reservations and then tell the butler they are his.  (Which usually makes him happy!).  We love Red Ginger and Polo and have had some excellent meals in the MDR.   So I am crossing fingers that in another 9 months Vista's chefs will have "found their way" !!

[PinonNoir]

5 hours ago, mexicobob said:

Did not notice anyone wearing, horrors of all horrors, jeans but not important to us. 

Actually my comment was more of curiosity regarding dress code enforcement. I would prefer to wear jeans myself, but opted to remain respectful to the code. I'd be happy if they changed the rule to allow clean un-torn jeans. We are spending three extra weeks in Iceland and I'd have preferred to not have to pack dress pants that I won't use the rest of the trip.

[PinonNoir]

1 hour ago, Hambagahle said:

If not - well as long as they have English muffins and corned beef hash for breakfast I will survive.  (Those two things are my favourite American foods and we can't get them in Europe!). 

Wait, English Muffins are an American invention?  I'm happy to say I had them most mornings for breakfast, so they remain available.  I can't comment on corned beef hash...not my thing. Hell, just the name is off-putting!

[PinonNoir]

Update: I forgot to mention disembarkation issues.

 

The last day on the ship they have you head to the gangway in a color coded system, supposedly to make it more orderly. We were one of the last groups called, and I expected since we were called that the gangway wouldn't have much of a line. Wrong!  Holy crap, what a cluster-truck!  The line stretched back to the lounge!

 

We were in no hurry as we figured we couldn't check into our hotel right away, so we took a seat and waited the line out. Twenty minutes later the line was down to two dozen people, so we joined in.

 

When our number was called we were relaxing in Terrace Cafe, and could have spent at least 15 more minutes there without issue. Who is making the call on when they call the next batch for disembarkation?  They do this at the end of EVERY CRUISE, so you think they'd have it figured out by now. We are fairly fit so standing for 20 minutes wouldn't have been a huge issue, but there were people with walkers and canes in that line the entire time. 

 

Last note, twice while disembarking they stopped the line to get somebody in a wheelchair off...and this is a VERY slow process.  I think it took 10 minutes both times, with people clustered up behind them waiting to get off.  Simple rule, people in wheelchairs get off last. That may sound harsh, perhaps even ageist, but you are inconveniencing dozens of people for one person.  If there is a line at disembarkation, wheelchairs should wait it out.  Ok, putting on my flame retardant suit!

[Plainfred]

Thanks for review, boarding Riviera 8/5. Who was the band ? Not the ship band but the other one.  We like Sync Session band.

thanks.

[QuestionEverything]

Thank you OP for your excellent review.

We sail on our first O cruise in early August on Insignia from Iceland.

We cruise for the ports.

I am well aware of O's legacy of being the cruise line with the most missed ports - O is on probation with us and how they deal with with port certainty will determine if, if we book O again.

 

The utterly disgusting O maneuver regarding your lost port has been entered into my O file. I have passed it to my TA who is very well connected. I trust you can use a credit card dispute to get your $2,000 returned to you. That O decision would be enough for me to Cancel O permanently. 

[Flatbush Flyer]

12 hours ago, jonthomas said:

…..I have also noticed that O skips, shortens, misses more ports than any other line we have been on, without compensation. 

That is worrisome. 

Perhaps you are unaware that missed/changed ports cost O $ expenses not passed on to passengers.

In addition to man-hours for renavigation and possible added fuel costs, there are the expenses associated with logistical changes (some $ commitments for a missed port must still be honored) and then there are the added cost of the new port (tugs, longshoremen, etc). Remember too the unanticipated costs of extra  F&B service when the ship misses a port. 
None of those costs are passed on to you.

No ship’s Master or Chief Engineer wants any itinerary change.

[pinotlover]

Just a note on disembarkment. This is the same as embarkation. It matters little how much planning Oceania puts into planning those two events. Oceania’s customers ignore the instructions. They get into line when and where they feel like regardless of any announcements the CD may be making. They will line up, with luggage, in front of the elevators completely blocking them. They don’t care! If a mob is unruly, outside of extraordinary measures, there is little an organization can do. Unruly is a polite word for the situation. We typically board late and disembark late in the processes. Avoid the mob.

 

Depending upon the port facility, Oceania  normally allows those with mobility issues to disembark in Deck 4 away from the main crowds. The CD typically makes announcements directly them to Deck 4, but whoever listens to the CD on Oceania? Small group! 

[Sthrngary]

14 hours ago, PinonNoir said:

I recently wrote a review about our stateroom experience on our Riviera cruise, and I wanted to write a review about our cruise experience overall.  This was our third Oceania cruise, so we had some experience and expectations going in.  I will try to remain balanced in my review.  We just disembarked 9 days ago, so I'm writing this while my memory is fresh.

 

First the positives:

 

1. The multitude of restaurant options is great.  There is something for everybody, and for a 12 day cruise it was nice to be able to eat in a variety of spaces.

2. The ship has a lot of common spaces to enjoy, and none of them felt overly crowded.

3. The Barista's spot makes excellent coffee....the best on the ship in our opinion.  We were regulars there.  Really fantastic...even staffed by an Italian!

4. The Oceania staff is excellent.  They always seem to go above and beyond with limited exceptions (sticking to positives here).

5. The ship was clean everywhere we went, including common area bathrooms.

6. Embarkation went smoothly, and we were in our stateroom quickly.  Our luggage showed up fairly quickly.

7. It seemed that the Bridge crew went out of their way to sail in such a manner as to keep the ship's movements minimized as much as possible.

8. We had dinner in Privee 3 times, and two of those times were outstanding (remember, this is the positives)!

9. Our Butler and support staff were top notch, cordial, professional and just outstanding in every way!

10. Fellow passengers all seemed to be well seasoned travelers, with mostly positive attitudes.  This is important to us.  We hate being around people who are "fun vampires".

 

Ok, now the negatives...which I'm going to be as honest as possible about.  I am not piling on here, just telling it like it is:

 

1. The food has slipped.  We noticed this in pretty much every restaurant, with the possible exception of Toscana.  However, on our last night , we ate in Toscana, and I ordered a Maine Lobster dish.  It was bad...very fishy...as if the lobster was way past it's prime.  I returned it immediately and ordered another pasta I had ordered previously, and it was of course excellent.  Why did they serve lobster that was unworthy of an Oceania customer?  It was really bad!  This is my last night on the ship, and it remains a solid memory.  Bad form.

 

2.  The wifi.  Holy mother of God what in the world is Oceania doing with this wifi?  I could hear my old 4400 baud modem clanging away as I tried to log in, but the wifi on the ship was no match for my 4400 bauds!  I write a travel blog for fun....and I couldn't even upload a photo without waiting an hour!  Fortunately we were near land on occasion and I could use my international plan to do some work, but I'm still a week behind thanks to their "Pony Express" wifi!  We had two "at sea" days due to canceled ports of call (coming up on #3), and I can't tell you how many hours I wasted trying to write one blog post!  Also, when you are logged in, you get logged out repeatedly.....over and over....never for more than a few hours at a time.  It was a constant struggle, almost like they would log you out on purpose!

 

3. Ok, here is a rant with a conspiracy theory.  Our ship pulled into the Faroe Islands, turned around in the harbor about a dozen times, very slowly, and then abruptly left.  The Captain said it was due to weather, but it was sunny and calm.  We were supposed to be there for two full days, and I had a private excursion planned (for 10 people) that I ended up losing over $2000 on.  A week prior to this the Faroe Island populace had a pilot whale hunt where they killed a bunch of them in front of another cruse ship.  It's my firm belief that Oceania Corporate told the Captain to pull into harbor, make a big show of the fact we were there, and then depart, sending a political message.  The company I was working with on the excursion advised me they had no idea why the Captain didn't dock, as the weather was calmer than usual.  If Oceania wants to take a political stance with the Faroe Islands, fine, but don't impact my cruise experience!  I was really looking forward to this port!

 

4. We had a habit of getting iced tea every day at the Waves Bar by the pool.  Our last day on the ship, we stopped by the bar and there was nobody there, during their opening hours.  We went up to Horizons to see if they could help us.  They told us they didn't have iced tea, go back to Waves Bar.  When we told them nobody was there, they said "oh well".  This was a group of 3 guys at the bar.  W T F?  This is not the service we have come to expect from Oceania!  One of these guys should have said "what is your stateroom number, I'll get some and bring it to you!"  I think the fact it was the last day on board lended itself to staff taking a lazy attitude towards the customers...."oh well, they are about gone, I'm done hustling for these guys".  I hope that's not the case, but it sure seemed like it.

 

5.  The Grand Dining Room.  We ate here for breakfast one time.  Once!  The food was cold, the coffee was cold, the service was terrible...and it wasn't even crowded!  Again, W T F?  Why is the service in the main dining establishment on the ship so crappy?  How can it be that hard to bring warm eggs from the kitchen to the table?  We ended up eating 10 of 12 breakfasts in our suite.

 

6. The "internet guy".  This guy had the worst attitude on the ship.  We couldn't get logged into the wifi (not that it was worth logging into) on our first day so we went to see him on our second day.  He really doesn't want to be there.  After taking care of us he walked away, and there was somebody waiting behind us.  We realized his "working hours" had ended at the same time he took care of us, so screw that guy behind you, he can wait until tomorrow.  Again, W T F?

 

7. The Best of Oceania!  One of the 3 nights we ate in Privee we picked the "Best of Oceania" dining menu.  It was terrible.  Every dish was lackluster.  It's been too long to remember details at this point, but the entire group of 10 was disappointed.  If you do Privee, stick with the Polo and Toscana menus.

 

8. The "Sommeliers".  The wine people on the ship, while they are nice, don't know how to pour wine in equal servings.  Now I know pouring one bottle for 10 people is difficult, but this is likely a common occurrence and it should be practiced. We always ended up with one person who had almost twice as much wine as another, and with high end wines and high end enthusiasts, this is not a fun vibe!

 

9. Dress code.  I know the dress code says no jeans to dinner, or around the ship after dinner, but this code is broken so often without consequence that I wonder why it's the dress code?  I would prefer to wear jeans every day....just my thing, but I didn't.  Kinda weird to see what was accepted in the restaurants in the end.  Maybe just allow jeans?  I know, you purists out there want us all in tuxedos.

 

10. Stemware.  Ok, this is just going to be me most likely, but stemware matters.  Double the amount of decent Pinot Noir glasses you currently carry.  Schott Zwiesel makes some excellent Pinot glasses that are actually made with Titanium, and they are super hard to break.  I know, these are my daily drinkers at home, and I've barely broken any over the last 15 years!  Buy a bunch of these so your high end red wine drinkers are happy.

 

Ok, I think I've mentioned everything here.  I'll have my wife review tomorrow....she has the good memory in the family...and will add anything she brings up.  Again, thanks for reading!

 

@PinonNoir The word for the day is a balanced honest review.  These come in different forms.  The first is someone who has cruised the brand before and has a foundation of what to expect. The second is someone who has never cruise before and this voyage is a step up in cruising class.  No foundation above Mainstream Cruising.  The Third is someone who has cruise Ultra-Luxury and compares every aspect of any other brand based on the Ultra Luxury Experience. 

 

Your review falls into category #1.  You had a foundation of knowledge and you compared the reviewed experience to past experience. Very helpful both the Pro/Cons.  New cruisers to Oceania like myself have no foundation of knowledge from real experiences. What we do with reviews like yours is learn from them.  

 

Will we have lobster, yes but we will not on the last night.  If it comes out tough, will we be upset.  No, we knew that was a possibility when we ordered it.  Learned Behavior. 

 

Missed Ports are a thing.  Seems like to new folks a high likely hood of happening.  If it does happen, will we be disappointed, sure.  But knowing what we know now, we logically know it could happen.  If it does not, it exceeds our expectation. 

 

My point is, by knowing the down side, even if the experiences are debated by others on the same sailing, gives new people to Oceania, a frame of reference.  Don't do this, watch out for this,  let people all get off the ship on the last day and simply enjoy a longer lunch on deck if you can spare the time.  

 

"A cruise with NO issues does not exist.  If you know what some of the controllable issues are, you can avoid them.  That makes for a cruise with LESS issues."

 

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

[jonthomas]

1 hour ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

Perhaps you are unaware that missed/changed ports cost O $ expenses not passed on to passengers.

In addition to man-hours for renavigation and possible added fuel costs, there are the expenses associated with logistical changes (some $ commitments for a missed port must still be honored) and then there are the added cost of the new port (tugs, longshoremen, etc). Remember too the unanticipated costs of extra  F&B service when the ship misses a port. 
None of those costs are passed on to you.

No ship’s Master or Chief Engineer wants any itinerary change.

Yes I am definitely unaware of any of this. With over 50 cruises all over the world with celebrity, have never missed a port. Did private tours,  never had to cancel. Only one with RCL, missed Nasau, got a goodies basked delivered to stateroom.

[PinonNoir]

2 hours ago, Plainfred said:

Thanks for review, boarding Riviera 8/5. Who was the band ? Not the ship band but the other one.  We like Sync Session band.

thanks.

I can't answer about the band. We went to a comedy show one night and that was it. When you dine with a group of 10 dinners tend to go quite late.

Edited July 30, 2023 by PinonNoir

[PinonNoir]

2 hours ago, QuestionEverything said:

The utterly disgusting O maneuver regarding your lost port has been entered into my O file. I have passed it to my TA who is very well connected. I trust you can use a credit card dispute to get your $2,000 returned to you. That O decision would be enough for me to Cancel O permanently. 

I filed a claim with my credit card, and their initial response was "no".  I plan on filing an appeal, just haven't had time to do so yet. Thanks though!

[PinonNoir]

34 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

Yes I am definitely unaware of any of this. With over 50 cruises all over the world with celebrity, have never missed a port. Did private tours,  never had to cancel. Only one with RCL, missed Nasau, got a goodies basked delivered to stateroom.

Missing a port was a first for me.  I've been on 5 cruises before this one and hit every port. Hell,  I was in the Navy and we never missed a port!  We missed two on this cruise. Two days in Faroe Island, and one day in Eskifjordur, Iceland. 

 

The second one the Captain said it was too rough to use the tenders  I call bull pucky on that one as well, the seas were calm outside the fjord, I can't see how it's worse inside. This Captain is so risk averse I'll bet he wears two condoms. I should find out his name so I can ensure he is not on any future cruises I might select.

 

BTW, our Butler told us they missed 3 ports on the prior cruise. I guess I should be thankful it was only 2?

Edited July 30, 2023 by PinonNoir

[Hambagahle]

6 hours ago, PinonNoir said:

Wait, English Muffins are an American invention?  I'm happy to say I had them most mornings for breakfast, so they remain available.  I can't comment on corned beef hash...not my thing. Hell, just the name is off-putting!

"English muffins" are definitely an American invention.  The English have "muffins" but they are very different.  Corn beef hash is absolutely delicious and normally served with a poached egg on top.  And ketchup.  In fact it is the only thing I use ketchup with!   It is a breakfast dish...like the English muffins.  We cannot get either here and importing meat is illegal.  I can (and do) import Thomas' English muffins but it costs me a lot !!