Stay Away from Oceania

[SeaCCruiser]

I, for one, appreciate that you took your time to post your honest evaluations. I have been reading CC for years, and am sorry when someone is personally attacked for their comments, because I know the goal is to hinder any other dissenting opinions from being expressed.

Everyone is aware that cruise experiences differ from person to person, based on expectations and past cruise experiences, and surely take that into consideration when reading these posts, but people rarely doubt someone's veracity when they highly praise a cruise line. It's a shame everyone can't be treated with the same respect.

Oscark, thanks to your observations, my family & friends who are bothered by motion sickness, will now be more prepared for the expected rough waters on our upcoming sail to South America.

[smj]

Different people like different cruises but as for me I really like Oceania. The only line I have ever liked more was Rennaisance which no longer exists. I like the food, service and just the ship itself. It is true that there is no much to do at night.

Steve

[WesW]

Drummer Dave B and New Cruiser

 

We were in Costa Rica with RSSC last week and took Rios Tropicales

White Water Rafting..Good Safety Briefing and Thrilling ride...This may

or may not have been the same excurision outfit that Oceania used

last month..you can check their website out at

 

http://www.riostropicales.com/pages/home.html

 

New Cruiser.

 

Pulling my wife (the weak swimmer) off this excursion was precisely the

correct action..the conditions of the river (fast/Class III) were too much

for her..(in fact before we entered the river, a guide flipped his boat right

in front of us)...If the excursion company and the tour director on Regatta

were paying careful attention to the feedback they got, maybe "Joe" would

still be alive...IMO there was negligence here.

 

However, I would recommend this excursion for experienced swimmers and

fit persons.

 

r/wes

[pjpilot]

My wife and I, with 9 criuses, 2 with REN, were really looking forward to this cruise. It was the worst we ever suffered through. Obviously the weather and the sea state is up to God. I felt the ship was quite acceptable.

The crew and the food were ridiculous. It was like a training exercise. The whole crew seemed to be working on an On the Job training program. I left the Main Dining Room one evening in disgust, having waited, in vain, for the entre for forty five minutes. Even the waiters were apologizing.

My poor wife took some pills around 6 AM one morning, in our balcony stateroom bathroom. Having already drank the water, without feeling the need to look at it first, she then shrieked...the water was BLACK!!!! When I complained bitterly to everybody, up to and including the Captain, the response was, Oh well, sometimes we shut down the water pumps. NOBODY...NOBODY said, Oh My, how unfortunate. Nobody showed the slightest sympathy or empathy for my poor wife who drank that dreadful

SLUDGE.

Our toilet stopped operating...TWICE.

We like to cruise. However, if OCEANIA offered us a FREE CRUISE to any where, any time, in response to our travails, we would not have anything to do with them ever again. There is NO OFFER that would induce us to have any truck with them in this lifetime. B E W A R E! ! ! !

[aaannnthony]

Thirteen days later, another first poster!

[srpilo]

Actually he's not a 1st time poster ...

 

He's been registered since 2001 , but apparently hasn't posted since last June when evryone lost there "previous posts" history's, and had to start over at zero posts.

 

 

 

Lets not rush to judgement about every single poster.. Winter is the time when many occasional posters here on C C return to the boards to check on or enquire about next years up coming cruise's.

 

Srpilo

[ARTGRL]

We Were Just On Insignia (barcelona-lisbon) This Past November---we Were Pleasantly Surprised.......everything Was First Rate, With The Exception Of A Snooty Tour Director- Everything Else Was Quite Good. Will Go Again.

[Guest Jancruz]

Just wondered who the tour director was...

 

Jan:)

*****

[pamwham]

We Were Just On Insignia (barcelona-lisbon) This Past November---we Were Pleasantly Surprised.......everything Was First Rate, With The Exception Of A Snooty Tour Director- Everything Else Was Quite Good. Will Go Again.

 

I have been reading all these pros and cons on this line and it will be our first time on Oceania..We are going the same trip Barcelona -lisbon aug 13-25 Insigna, and I hoped that you could give us some insights, patterns to get the best out of the ship.. To take a trip of this financial commitment and not to have a wonderful time is so scary to me..should we cancel and go on Celebrity? Please advise for this new traveler.. thanks Pam:confused:

[shoshona2]

Hi Pam,

 

We have been on the Celebrity twice (both times in S.A.) and on the Oceania Regatta once to the Baltics in 2003. First of all, what do you want in a cruise? The Celebrity is glitzy with dazzling shows, big ships and good food and service. The Celebrity also has at least two formal nights. The Oceania is smaller with about 650 passengers, singers and music at night and great service and great food and no formal nights. We are presently booked on the Insignia for the Black Sea cruise in July 2005 and the Nautica for the Beijing to Hong Kong cruise for March 2006.

 

We had a wonderful time on the Celebrity even though the food wasn't as good the second time around. We heard they changed their sources of meat and it surely showed. I loved the Cirque du Soleil shows and the Broadway shows.

 

If you like a quieter type of ship and dining at night at a choice of four restaurants with whomever you wish to dine with, then Oceania is a good pick. We loved being aboard the ship and wouldn't hesitate to go back.

 

Sheila

[HandPJ]

Hi Shoshona,

We are about to embark on our sixth cruise in just five days, all aboard Celebrity. With the exception of the first cruise in category 1A, previous to CC, all have been CC. We have enjoyed Celebrity and the lovely touches of CC very much. As Celebrity is not offering 10+ day Carribbean cruises in 2006, we are very much looking forward to being aboard Regatta in an aft CC cabin on deck 8. Could you please tell me if the CC cabins amidships have the same glass wall that the Celebrity balconies have below the teak railing? We so enjoy the completely unobstructed view from the Celebrity balconies. I am told that our aft cabin offers a larger deck than the same cabin amidships, but that the balcony's outer wall is steel, therefore impeding the openness.

 

Our cruise next week and again aboard Regatta will be with wonderful friends that we met aboard the Galaxy. This will be our third and fourth cruises together. As we are to be a party of six, will we need reservations for dinner on Regatta? Thank you for any other information that you might share, we are looking forward to next year and taking a cruise that we consider to be "a tick up" from Celebrity, which we have so enjoyed.

[smj]

We just returned from South America. I thought the food and dinning service was wonderful! The food is some of the best I have ever had. I think it is much better than Celebrity. The tours were terrible and way overpriced. Destination services seemed clueless and gave the impression that they really did not care. Entertainment was very minimal. We had very smooth sailing.

Steve

[Andee]

Reservatrions are required in the specialty restaurants (for which there is no extra charge), but not in the main dining room. Just show up as a group, and tell the maitre d' if you want to be at a table for 6 or a larger table.

[spindrift]

You will truly enjoy the specialty restaurants, but I highly suggest that upon boarding the ship you make reservations for the nights and times you want as well as table size. That, of course, not only solidifies your plans but helps the staff also.

 

You will have a wonderful time. There is so much to enjoy aboard Oceania ships--the officers, staff, crew are all ready to please.

[macbest]

What is the largest table that they can accomodate in the specialty restaurants? We have a large group of us on the 8/3 Insignia sailing and I have heard that they don't accomodate large groups well in these restaurants.

[ClaudiaF]

you just need to talk to maitre 'de

they have many tables that hold 8 and I think a couple that do 10 in the "main"dining room

[shifty]

We just returned from the Insignia & saw tables set up for 12 (large square) in both Toscana & Polo.

 

Mike S

[micromanager]

Oceania seems to have lost touch with its excursions. As Rennaissance the tours were well thought out and well planned. The Argentina to Brazil cruise Feb 2005 had a very few worthwhile trips but most were just a long day trapped on a bus with destinations of marginal interest. At least they were safe. One highlight was Rio Grande de Sul and the Estancia which was delightful. The tours gave no idea of bus time nor of how much walking would be required so many of the older passengers had a hard time not to mention that they couldn't understand heavily accented English over a moderately disfunctional bus pa system filtered through their hearing aids. They kept clamoring that they couldn't understand when the real problem was they couldn't hear.

 

We noticed that since Oceania has gone to longer itineraries the passengers were older and grumpier. The fighting over trying to reserve deck chairs while one really was playing canasta or bridge or attending an art auction got totally out of hand.

 

The food, crew, service and the ship itself were lovely- too bad the tours were a waste and the passengers such pills.(4th cruise- 3 Ren, 1 Oceania)

[merryecho]

One of the other cruise lines had a funny thread about ways to stop lounge chair hogs. My favorite (of course after waiting half an hour or so for the person to return to their chair) was to move their things aside, and when the 'hog' comes back and complains, say, 'gosh, how long have you been gone? the person who was in this chair when I got here said she was finished with it." Or, even simpler, point to the sign saying reserving chairs is not allowed (I hope Oceania has one) and say "The pool staff must have moved your things, because there were no chairs for the people waiting for them."

Would I ever have the courage to confront anyone like that? fraid not.

[drwong]

I guess you've all read the news about Holland America Lines being driven to settle with the families of 14 passengers who died during one of HAL's Mexican shore excursions. Documents uncovered by the plaintiffs' attorneys revealed that although the cruise line knew of problems with the contractor (e.g., doors falling off the aircraft, lack of adequate insurance, use of a Czech-manufactured aircraft that was not certified to fly in the United States, not to mention numerous customer complaints, including one from a cruiser who himself was a professional pilot), HAL believed that the waivers signed by the passengers insulated itself from any liability. The court of public opinion demonstrated they had misjudged. I trust Oceania's Destination Services will take customer concerns about the safety of certain shore excursions even more seriously now.