Thoughts on Insignia

[jazzsea]

The ship is very pretty and the feel and style are "old world". I fell in love with the ship on first sight.

 

We were in a Penthouse and although the cabin was comfortable, it was small by our standards. We have cruised Radisson and Holland America and thought that Oceania did not deliver on the cabin amenities that they advertised. The bedding was wonderful and the down duvet came in very handy since our weather in Scotland was so cold. The balcony is small but very nice for one or two people to use on a sunny day.

 

I agree with one of the comments that I read earlier. The front desk staff was very curt; actually unfriendly. We had questions about the VAT (tax) that was added to our purchases in the gift shop. We wanted to know when the VAT REFUND paperwork would be available for us to fill out.

 

We finallly received the VAT REFUND paperwork on day nine of our twelve day cruise. Strange... It doesn't look anything like the paperwork that we received in Scotland. Time will tell if we get our money back.

 

Passengers that continued on the cruise from Dover to Copenhagen were told that they would get ALL of their VAT (from the June 14 - 26 cruise) credited to their onboard account and that no VAT would be charged on their cruise from Dover to Copenhagen. When I asked about this and wondered why we had to pay the tax I was told that ....."since we didn't leave the United Kingdom we had to pay the tax." I asked what they thought about us stopping in Ireland (Dublin and Waterford) and was told that Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. We all know that the Republic of Ireland is not part of the UK, but there was no point in trying to explain that to the front

desk.

 

I didn't buy much aboard ship so I did not have a big VAT bill, but the experience left me with a bad feeling about Oceania and the ship.

 

Our biggest problem aboard was with the shore excursions office. (Destination Services is a poor name for the total experience.)

 

My suggestion to all of you is that you book your tours through the internet and/or seek the help of travel professionals or experienced Oceania passengers on this board. A little research can save you some serious headaches. The tours offered aboard ship are poorly discribed and seriously over priced. It's really too bad that the employees in the shore excursions department are so badly trained and that most of the tours planned on our cruise were so awful.

 

Our butler was a real gem. His name was Carlos. Our room steward, Demitri, was excellent, too. Service aboard ship from the cabin and dining room staff was seldom less than wonderful.

 

This is not my kind of cruise experience but for many of you it will be a wonderful cruise. My husband and I like to dance and we like to get to know our table mates and dining room staff. I suspect that the "open seating" concept is too modern for us. We liked that most of the ship was non smoking.

 

Not all of us are looking for the same thing when we cruise. That's what makes this board so terrific.

 

We're still enjoying London and will fly back to Florida on Thursday.