Back From Insignia Barcelona-Lisbon 8/5-15

Just back from our Aug 5-15 Barcelona-Lisbon cruise on Insignia. Our 4th trip with Oceania. Once again a great way to visit new places for us. As usual loved the food, the service and the size of Insignia. We were able to list a number of folks to give kudos to due to their attention during our cruise. We can confirm that the bars and restaurants on board are indeed having to charge the 10% tax on alcohol purchases when cruising from ports in Spain. So calculate that into your costs, and perhaps opt to bring on board a local bottle of wine for dinner and pay the corkage. It was also great to be docked at each port we visited so that tendering (and all that goes along with that) did not factor into our time ashore.

Now for the not so good parts of our experience that Oceania has been pretty much unresponsive to. The cabin air-conditioning was not working properly on embarkation day and that night along with night #3 (a night so bad that what I wore to bed was soaked through as were the bed sheets and pillows) and others. After bringing this to the attention of the staff as of day one and hearing that other cabins were having the same problems, the ship issued notification cards that regular maintenance would be having an impact to the a/c functionality.

We also expressed our displeasure with a trend that occurred on a number of shore excursions in Spanish ports. In Ibiza we were on Wine Tasting at Sa Cova – my recommendation is to avoid this one. The winery was nice enough but the tasting was poorly paced, taking way too long to work through 4-5 wines. The wines were lacking in any character that would inspire a purchase – and we purchased at every other winery we visited during the cruise. Actually out of our entire bus, no one purchased a bottle here. Hoping to salvage the excursion we looked forward to the next stop on the tour, a visit to the village of Santa Gertrudis, looking forward to capturing some photos and a taste of village atmosphere. But for some reason this stop was eliminated as the guide kept referencing a dinner back on the ship.

In the port of Valencia we took Explore Sagunto and Valencia – again a part of the excursion description was not delivered on. After visiting the Roman Theater we were supposed to head further up to the castle complex. Our guided opted out of the castle complex citing the distance and amount of time required to reach it and nothing really being there. Again not delivering all of what Oceania used to help us decide which excursions to book.

In the port of Malaga, we booked Mijas: The Charm of Village Life. What a cute place that we enjoyed walking around and photographing. Even stopped for a glass of wine at a lovely venue. However the excursion was listed as being a 5-hour tour, yet the guide showed us her paperwork from Oceania to be back at the ship in 4 hours. This amounts to a 20% deduction of time, yet no corresponding 20% deduction in cost of the excursion.

We still love Oceania and will be back for a 5th cruise on one of their ships, we’ve now been on all but Riveria. Just wish that the company had not been impacted by these fumbles and a lack of responsiveness to our insights and complaints. We expected more from Oceania in terms of some kind of resolution when paying a good deal of money for something not delivered as described.

For those who fly out from Lisbon, if you have not done so before, allow extra 30 minutes or so to make it through passport security which comes up the last thing prior to getting to your gate. Also know that you will print your boarding passes prior to approaching baggage check-in.

Just back from our Aug 5-15 Barcelona-Lisbon cruise on Insignia. Our 4th trip with Oceania. Once again a great way to visit new places for us. As usual loved the food, the service and the size of Insignia. We were able to list a number of folks to give kudos to due to their attention during our cruise. We can confirm that the bars and restaurants on board are indeed having to charge the 10% tax on alcohol purchases when cruising from ports in Spain. So calculate that into your costs, and perhaps opt to bring on board a local bottle of wine for dinner and pay the corkage. It was also great to be docked at each port we visited so that tendering (and all that goes along with that) did not factor into our time ashore.

Now for the not so good parts of our experience that Oceania has been pretty much unresponsive to. The cabin air-conditioning was not working properly on embarkation day and that night along with night #3 (a night so bad that what I wore to bed was soaked through as were the bed sheets and pillows) and others. After bringing this to the attention of the staff as of day one and hearing that other cabins were having the same problems, the ship issued notification cards that regular maintenance would be having an impact to the a/c functionality.

We also expressed our displeasure with a trend that occurred on a number of shore excursions in Spanish ports. In Ibiza we were on Wine Tasting at Sa Cova – my recommendation is to avoid this one. The winery was nice enough but the tasting was poorly paced, taking way too long to work through 4-5 wines. The wines were lacking in any character that would inspire a purchase – and we purchased at every other winery we visited during the cruise. Actually out of our entire bus, no one purchased a bottle here. Hoping to salvage the excursion we looked forward to the next stop on the tour, a visit to the village of Santa Gertrudis, looking forward to capturing some photos and a taste of village atmosphere. But for some reason this stop was eliminated as the guide kept referencing a dinner back on the ship.

In the port of Valencia we took Explore Sagunto and Valencia – again a part of the excursion description was not delivered on. After visiting the Roman Theater we were supposed to head further up to the castle complex. Our guided opted out of the castle complex citing the distance and amount of time required to reach it and nothing really being there. Again not delivering all of what Oceania used to help us decide which excursions to book.

In the port of Malaga, we booked Mijas: The Charm of Village Life. What a cute place that we enjoyed walking around and photographing. Even stopped for a glass of wine at a lovely venue. However the excursion was listed as being a 5-hour tour, yet the guide showed us her paperwork from Oceania to be back at the ship in 4 hours. This amounts to a 20% deduction of time, yet no corresponding 20% deduction in cost of the excursion.

We still love Oceania and will be back for a 5th cruise on one of their ships, we’ve now been on all but Riveria. Just wish that the company had not been impacted by these fumbles and a lack of responsiveness to our insights and complaints. We expected more from Oceania in terms of some kind of resolution when paying a good deal of money for something not delivered as described.

For those who fly out from Lisbon, if you have not done so before, allow extra 30 minutes or so to make it through passport security which comes up the last thing prior to getting to your gate. Also know that you will print your boarding passes prior to approaching baggage check-in.

We were also on this cruise. We decided in advance not to do any Oceania excursions due to the extraordinary prices being charged. We booked everything privately, finding others on Cruise Critic to make small groups. It took research and a lot of coordinating, but it was well worth the effort. Everything was done exactly as promised. We were extremely pleased. After such wonderful experiences, we will always attempt to book privately in the future. Significantly lower prices and avoiding large groups was a real bonus. It would be nice if Oceania would re-think how they charge for shore-excursions.

Agree with the valua of setting up tours privately. We did that on Tahiti-Tahiti cruise on Marina a couple of years ago. This time opted to not do all that prior leg-work. next time out, maybe we'll opt to go private for some excursions again.

Thanks for the report!

Just back from our Aug 5-15 Barcelona-Lisbon cruise on Insignia. Our 4th trip with Oceania. Once again a great way to visit new places for us. As usual loved the food, the service and the size of Insignia. We were able to list a number of folks to give kudos to due to their attention during our cruise. We can confirm that the bars and restaurants on board are indeed having to charge the 10% tax on alcohol purchases when cruising from ports in Spain. So calculate that into your costs, and perhaps opt to bring on board a local bottle of wine for dinner and pay the corkage. It was also great to be docked at each port we visited so that tendering (and all that goes along with that) did not factor into our time ashore.

Now for the not so good parts of our experience that Oceania has been pretty much unresponsive to. The cabin air-conditioning was not working properly on embarkation day and that night along with night #3 (a night so bad that what I wore to bed was soaked through as were the bed sheets and pillows) and others. After bringing this to the attention of the staff as of day one and hearing that other cabins were having the same problems, the ship issued notification cards that regular maintenance would be having an impact to the a/c functionality.

We also expressed our displeasure with a trend that occurred on a number of shore excursions in Spanish ports. In Ibiza we were on Wine Tasting at Sa Cova – my recommendation is to avoid this one. The winery was nice enough but the tasting was poorly paced, taking way too long to work through 4-5 wines. The wines were lacking in any character that would inspire a purchase – and we purchased at every other winery we visited during the cruise. Actually out of our entire bus, no one purchased a bottle here. Hoping to salvage the excursion we looked forward to the next stop on the tour, a visit to the village of Santa Gertrudis, looking forward to capturing some photos and a taste of village atmosphere. But for some reason this stop was eliminated as the guide kept referencing a dinner back on the ship.

In the port of Valencia we took Explore Sagunto and Valencia – again a part of the excursion description was not delivered on. After visiting the Roman Theater we were supposed to head further up to the castle complex. Our guided opted out of the castle complex citing the distance and amount of time required to reach it and nothing really being there. Again not delivering all of what Oceania used to help us decide which excursions to book.

In the port of Malaga, we booked Mijas: The Charm of Village Life. What a cute place that we enjoyed walking around and photographing. Even stopped for a glass of wine at a lovely venue. However the excursion was listed as being a 5-hour tour, yet the guide showed us her paperwork from Oceania to be back at the ship in 4 hours. This amounts to a 20% deduction of time, yet no corresponding 20% deduction in cost of the excursion.

We still love Oceania and will be back for a 5th cruise on one of their ships, we’ve now been on all but Riveria. Just wish that the company had not been impacted by these fumbles and a lack of responsiveness to our insights and complaints. We expected more from Oceania in terms of some kind of resolution when paying a good deal of money for something not delivered as described.

For those who fly out from Lisbon, if you have not done so before, allow extra 30 minutes or so to make it through passport security which comes up the last thing prior to getting to your gate. Also know that you will print your boarding passes prior to approaching baggage check-in.

Thank you! We will be sailing on Insignia in January, can you share with us if the A/C problem was solved and how fast or slow was the Internet service? Thank you

Thanks for your report.

NCP...we had no problems with the internet service!! Also, at different stops, certain restaurants had WIFI, so we had bonus time there.

Enjoyed your review.

Portofrome...you are taking up an awful lot of page space listing all your cruises...?

Portofrome...you are taking up an awful lot of page space listing all your cruises...?

Just turn "signatures off" in your settings & you will never see them :D

Just turn "signatures off" in your settings & you will never see them :D

LOL Did I sound crabby? Not the first time I see these long list of cruises. I am not the best on computer, but thanks for tip and I will look for the OFF switch...lol

LOL Did I sound crabby? Not the first time I see these long list of cruises. I am not the best on computer, but thanks for tip and I will look for the OFF switch...lol

go to USER CP (top left) >edit options> then under Thread display options ..uncheck "show signatures"

then hit SAVE

Guess I am crabby also ...some are just too much :D

Lyn

Eventually the A/C problem was mostly solved, but not 100%. At this point it is most likely fine. We had no trouble with internet and speeds were good. We usually popped in once a day, after dinner, to touch base with family and supply updates on our adventures. We did hear that one day during the daytime hours that the connections were not working.

Eventually the A/C problem was mostly solved, but not 100%. At this point it is most likely fine. We had no trouble with internet and speeds were good. We usually popped in once a day, after dinner, to touch base with family and supply updates on our adventures. We did hear that one day during the daytime hours that the connections were not working.

I was on the cruise after yours and I didn't hear of any AC problems. We had a problem one night, but it was operator error. People need to understand which way to turn that dial. It was a little confusing to us. However, it only took our cabin attendant a quick look to figure out what the problem was....duh!

I found the internet speed to be good, but then I don't have exceptionally fast internet at home, so perhaps I'm the wrong person to comment on that. However, I did feel that speed and reception were better when I went to Insignia's Oceania at Sea computer room and used their computers instead of using my Kindle Fire in my stateroom or on the pool deck.

Getting logged in was a bit weird on my Kindle. I had to (first) go to yahoo.com to get the screen to use to sign in. Just take your device to Oceania at Sea if you have trouble and the guy there will help you. To log out, just type "logout.com" or something like that, and wait for the screen that shows you how much time you've used. Oh, and if you received free, unlimited internet as part of a booking promotion, it may not be documented on a card your cabin attendant gives you. However, a quick call to Reception will confirm that you have it.

As for internet connections not working, I only experienced that once, briefly, when we were way out in the middle of the Atlantic, approaching one of the island off the coast of Africa. The TV was going in and out a bit, too, so I guess there was just poor satellite reception for a little while. It happens when you're at sea!

kwtaper, thanks for your comments. Our cruise was similar (Lisbon to Barcelona, minus a couple of your ports but plus Canary Islands and Madeira), and I absolutely loved the itinerary. The cruise experience was great, too, with a few minor exceptions. I'm laughing, because excursions and internet seem to be two things that Oceania always gets dinged for! At least the quality of the independent info the Destinations staff provides has gotten better over the years. I really like all the info provided on availability of public buses, taxis, etc., and after doing a lot of my own research, I've found they're pretty much right on the money on the information they provide. When we first started cruising with Oceania, there was very little of that information, and no shuttles, and no tourist reps coming on board for people who wanted to do their own thing. I guess they wanted everyone to take the excursions instead of going off on their own...