Critical review of Nautica, May sailing

[2DesertRats!]

Just saw an extremly unfavorable review of Nautica by tomc, of an eastern med/Greek Isles cruise in May of this year. No specific sailing date was given, although the embarkation port was Athens (Piraeus).

 

Was anyone else out there on this sailing? Has anyone else been on Nautica this season? We would dearly love an independent evaluation.

[ChatKat in Ca.]

If you read Jack's long tome about the Nautica - in May - he gave a great summary of the ship. We were on in June and we thought it was a WONDERFUL cruise. We enjoyed it enough to book the Baltic's in June of 2008 on Regatta. Ship was well maintained and spotless, service spectacular. We are selective about food and thought that was terrific - not A++++ but, quite acceptable when comparing it with HAL, RCL, Princess and Celebrity it was leagues ahead. Only real complaint is that you could not buy any kind of soft drink package, it was sign as you go.

[lahore]

I wouldn't be too concerned; some of what he said is quite factual - I have also waited quite a long time to get into the GDR, which is one of the reasons we use the buffet more frequently. But how anyone can travel to other countries and complain that the people who live there have foreign accents is entirely beyond my comprehension. So it's take some and leave some for me !

[pacmom]

Just read the review!!!! Wow!!! I think it was his first ever cruise--ocean going at least. We took a similar cruise on Insignia--loved it. Thought the entire crew was friendly--the Captain ate at Tapas and always said hello whenever we met--even asked if we were enjoying "his" ship. Yes there can be a wait at the GD--didn't eat there much. We preferred Tapas, so pleasant to be able to eat outside weather permitting. We cruised in Oct. We also used the ship's tours four times---found the guides very knowledgeable and articulate. We have booked 2 more cruises for next year on Regatta. Can't wait. Pat

[2DesertRats!]

Thank you all for confirming our views, and especially the comment about the language!

But how anyone can travel to other countries and complain that the people who live there have foreign accents is entirely beyond my comprehension.

Our sentiments, exactly!

[LHT28]

I think the review was a little over critical.

Wine and beer overpriced ...compared to what.

We found they are in line with other cruise ships

 

The only night we found to wait for the GDR was Captain's party night. everyone was dressed up a bit & wanted to go to the GDR ;)

We waited longer than 20 minutes to get into a local restaurant

 

I would take the review with a grain of salt

 

Out of the 16 reviews only 4 gave it less than a 4 star rating, so it cannot be all that bad

 

Lyn

[Apex Cruiser]

We sailed Nautica the sailing after and have to wonder if we were on the same ship? Yes we waited one night, Captains Dinner, otherwise no matter when we went to the dining room we were seated very quickly. So far as drink prices they were fine. Wine prices were high compared to what I can buy them for on shore but were in line compared to what we paid on other cruises. Add to that the ability to bring onboard wines and drinks for your own consumption and there is no validity to this comment.

 

Don't worry about this review. Guess we have to take the time to write our extremely positive review and get it posted. I do wonder why all those people we meet spoke a foreign language and had accents though! Especially the British!:rolleyes:

[S10Catman]

Maybe we all will get lucky and TOMC will NEVER cruise again as he stated in his review so we don't have to read another diatribe of how them foreigners (natives to the country) have accents when they speak and nobody waited on me hand and foot while I was cruising. There is a saying that is fitting for the reviewer: You can please some of the people some of the time but you can't please all the people all of the time. As most of you have said, take it with a grain a salt and hope you never get stuck on a cruise with TOMC.:p

 

Happy cruising!

 

Alan and DW:cool:

[freddie]

Perhaps before everyone piles onto tomc with regard to his comment about foreign accents, it would be useful to read his review and read what he actually said (as opposed to how his statement is grossly mischaracterized in a couple of previous posts):

 

"The tours were acceptable but in one or two cases the very strong foreign accents of the guides made it difficult to understand. I would think the cruise line would check into things like this before sending their passengers on unintelligible outings."

 

My partner and I are experienced travelers and speak a couple of useful languages; but when we engage an allegedly English-speaking guide, we expect that we will be able to understand him or her. Of course we expect "accents". However, the overall experience should be one of being able to comprehend what the guide is saying. Irrespective of the rest of his review (which, I agree, seems a bit uber-critical), I suggest that it is neither accurate nor just to attack him regarding his comment about accents. Cheers, Fred

[Kyana]

I met tomc on the Rotterdam from NYC to Montreal over 4 years ago. He received his medellion for over a hundred days on HAL. He is no newbie to Cruising. I talked to him a couple of times and I found him knowledgable and fair in his comments. So just wanted to squash the thought that he was a newbie to cruising.

[2DesertRats!]

You may want to look at the review which has his email to see if it is the person you know. This is the last line from his review:

 

I doubt very much if I would ever take another cruise. Certainly not on an Oceania ship!

This seems inconsistent with a long-time cruiser.

[Kyana]

The moniker tomc I would not think could be used by anyone else. Also his email address is from New York where the gentleman I met was from. Do a search on tomc and you will see that he has been very active over the last years.

[lahore]

Freddie

 

I expected someone would come back with the argument about English speaking guides. I respect your right to have that opinion but I don't share it. I still maintain my stance: if I am in another country I don't expect everyone to speak English in the same way that I do, no matter what. English is becoming a global language; for those of us with our various Englishes as a first language that is quite convenient. I respect those who have several languages and if their accent is heavy it just means I have to make more of an effort to understand: I see that as a minor imposition and my responsibility, not theirs.

[2DesertRats!]

Okay, folks, we've done some sleuthing..... and we may have discovered that there apparently are TWO folks posting under the moniker of "tomc".

 

According to the review posted on CruiseCritic member reviews for anyone to read, the poster was "tomc", with an email address that begins tclarkin@nyc...... (go to review if you want to see rest; it is at http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=30424 )

 

According to the public profile of the "tomc" who does a lot of postings on the HAL board, his IM name is shown as "tomcarten". Also, on some of his postings, he refers to his email, "tomcarten at hotmail dot com".

 

Since the May, 2007 Nautica cruise is during the time the HAL Blue Ribbon Cruiser "tomc" does many postings on the HAL board, including references to future cruises, and with the dissimilar email names, it appears the name "tomc" might refer to two different cruisers.

 

Also, we just went to "write a member review" section, and discovered that it appears the writer of the review can put any name in the first block, and the writer's email in the second. Thus, more than one "Tom C" (Tom Clark/Tom Carten/TomCruise....you get the point) appears possible.

[phlewt]

The moniker tomc I would not think could be used by anyone else. Also his email address is from New York where the gentleman I met was from. Do a search on tomc and you will see that he has been very active over the last years.

 

When you submit a review to cruise critic, you must fill in a "member name". Does anyone cross check to see whether or not it is valid? I'm not sure.

 

It appears that:

 

a. Member "tomc" posts frequently to the HAL board

b. Many posts were made on the HAL board by this "tomc" during the month of May (the month of the Nautica cruise in the review)

c. The only review ever made by "tomc" is the one for Nautica

d. No posts have been made to the Oceania board by "tomc"

 

I wonder if the review was made by someone different than the tomc who is an avid HAL cruiser.

[Kyana]

Thanks for the sleuthing.

[LHT28]

In any case..... if the food was that bad on the cruise you would have heard about it here in the forums.

Many Oceania regulars would be more that critical if the service was as bad as TOMC reported.

I would not worry about the review there are more positive reviews than negative

O must be doing something right if the cruises are sold out and many are repeat cruisers on O

[lahore]

I do worry that sometimes it seems as though a particular cruise line - in this case Oceania - is treated on this board like something so sacrosanct that it can't be challenged or critiqued. I think Oceania, like any service company, could be improved: it's a very good cruise line but nothing is perfect. I agreed with one of the 'person aka tomc's' points and vehemently disagreed with the other. I don't really care who he is to be honest, whether he has six thousand cruises under his belt or one, his opinion is still worth throwing into the mix... but it doesn't protect him from being agreed with or disagreed with :cool: . Correct or not?

[owl61]

I do worry that sometimes it seems as though a particular cruise line - in this case Oceania - is treated on this board like something so sacrosanct that it can't be challenged or critiqued. I think Oceania, like any service company, could be improved: it's a very good cruise line but nothing is perfect. I agreed with one of the 'person aka tomc's' points and vehemently disagreed with the other. I don't really care who he is to be honest, whether he has six thousand cruises under his belt or one, his opinion is still worth throwing into the mix... but it doesn't protect him from being agreed with or disagreed with :cool: . Correct or not?

Incorrect, sort of. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but not all opinions are entitled to the same weight. Some are more credible than others. Obviously, one should not put much stock into a cruise virgin's review of a cruise as he has nothing with which to compare his experience.

All other things being equal, the more cruise experience one has, the more reliable his opinion will be, however, it is also true that some folks simply possess bizarre tastes. They prefer a hot dog to prime rib. They may be sincere, but no matter how vociferously or eloquently they argue their point, they are not going to convince many listeners who have tasted both to opt for the hot dog if there is a choice. It may even rankle some, ergo the attempts to denigrate this tomc fellow by the O aficionados.

If one is really interested in learning about a ship or cruise line's value, it would be better to spend time listening to the opinions of experienced cruisers who do not prefer hot dogs to prime rib. To spend time disecting the opinion of others is pretty much a waste of time.

[brian_uk]

Reading all this nonsense makes me wonder whether anyone is allowed to say anything critical against Oceania.

 

I have been on O twice and regrettably had to cancel my latest trip, due to leave last Saturday because of the ill health of my Mother........

 

I love the Line but if someone else had a bad trip and reviewed it elsewhere.....so be it !!!! Who actually cares.

 

Those of us who enjoy O will continue but to actually spend time "Investigating" the individual that wrote something bad.....IU am just simply amazed.

 

Hey I like vanilla ice cream BUT hate raspberry.......I wonder if this comment will be picked up by the ICE CREAM equivalent of Cruise Critic and if I will be investigated.

 

Thats it....I have said my piece

 

Brian

[happy cruzer]

I appreciate the sleuthing that went into finding out that there could be two tomc s. I have certainly enjoyed the HAL long time poster for a long time. He is a pretty witty fellow. and I would give extra weight to this review because I have a frame of reference from his previous cruises and posts. I think I cruised within 2 weeks of him once on the Volendam and got to see exactly how our views compare.

 

Now I can realize that the Nautica review was written by different person and try to understand their pespective.

 

Again thanks for doing the research on the dual identities.

 

PS I posted to the HAL board to see if the "real" tomc wanted to get a chuckle.

[2DesertRats!]

Brian_UK wrote:

Those of us who enjoy O will continue but to actually spend time "Investigating" the individual that wrote something bad.....IU am just simply amazed.

 

Please understand that we will be first-time Oceania cruisers, and simply wanted to know from more experienced O cruisers, whether the unfavorable review was valid or not. We don't like unpleasant surprises.

 

Unfortunately, this thread developed quite a life of its own, including an apparent case of mistaken identity. We are glad we did this level of research. as we were able to learn that one tomc is in fact a Blue Ribbon cruiser on HAL, and wasn't the reviewer in question.

 

We're now looking forward to our October cruise on the Nautica!

 

 

Thanks, happy Cruzer, for your comments. We read your amusing post to the HAL Blue Ribbon "tomc". :)

[tomc]

I am the tomc of the HAL board and NOT the "tomc" who wrote whatever it is that was so negative.

 

NOTNOTNOT.

 

I also write terrible limericks. Don't push me, or I'll do one. :)

[tomc]

For Hosts Andy and Tyler...

 

Can you find out how someone else (tclarkin@nyc.rr.com) can also have the member name "tomc" as me? I've been here since Oct 2000 and was just alerted that another "tomc" posted a negative review that has people wondering about me and why all of a sudden I'm not the nice guy I've been for the last seven years.

 

Check this thread.

 

Thanks,

 

The Real tomc.

 

[2DesertRats!]

Thanks for your posting! You wrote:

I also write terrible limericks. Don't push me, or I'll do one. :)

 

Even though this is an Oceania Board, PUSH. (we presume this is suitable for publication?!)

 

;)