Dining reservations' website pages not working

Is this the same with everyone? I have spent an hour on the "new improved" site trying to make dining reservations for Singapore - Rome on Sirena and found it impossible. I won't go into the problems but suffice it to say that it just did not work - so many issues that I gave up.

I have just fired off a long and probably libellous email to Mike Moore in frustration - he has in the past been instrumental in working around the site bugs but things seem even worse than they were a couple of years ago when people's DOB were changed at random!

Hello Wol - I will reply to your email separately, but in short the website does have an issue with handling back-to-back cruises, which seems to be the problem here. This is next on our list of things to resolve, so will hopefully be fixed before too long.

Thanks Mike. I have just spent another hour trying to reserve dining and even more bugs appear!

My own trip seems to be split into two - on a day at sea of all things, not at the sector split.

I did manage two bookings but only if I book them twice - and then it appears I am over the limit. And my comments in the email are still valid: it is impossible to go from one "sector" to the other - the dates stay the same.

All in all it's a very bad look for a high end company.

I cannot get my dinner reservations on Marina either. It is in cart but will not go further.

Are you on a back-to-back as well?

Or is yours one that is also sold as two segments perhaps?

i.e. you book a 14 day cruise that is also sold as two 7 day cruises?

I cannot get my dinner reservations on Marina either. It is in cart but will not go further.

Can you clarify "in the cart"?

When is your cruise?

Are you on a back-to-back as well?

 

Or is yours one that is also sold as two segments perhaps?

i.e. you book a 14 day cruise that is also sold as two 7 day cruises?

Mine is SIN - ROM, sold as such although they also sold SIN - AUH if I remember as one part of it.

The dining reservation page shows my trip though as two "sectors" - with the change from the first to the second as a day at sea!

Mike has - as usual - replied to an email very promptly and said there are known issues. The problem I have is that there seem to be multiple issues and as one is debugged others take its place!

I had the same problem that you had with regard to making restaurant reservations on a back-to-back cruise. In fact, my problem extended to both legs of my cruise. Instead of waiting for them to fix the website, I called Oceania and had the representative make my reservations, which he did.

Instead of waiting for them to fix the website, I called Oceania and had the representative make my reservations, which he did.

Seems like a sensible & less frustrating route to take ;)

They are on to it. However I did stumble across a work-around last night.One of the issues was that, having got eventually to the selection of dining time page and selecting the time, on clicking "Confirm" absolutely nothing happened.

However, by clicking on "Exit without confirming" and then reselecting the time and "Confirm" for the second time - it immediately confirmed the booking! Each time!

I guess we won't starve.....

I cannot get my dinner reservations on Marina either. It is in cart but will not go further.

Yep I managed 3 reservations but not one for Rec Ginger. Pleased it wasn't just me!

Are you on a back-to-back as well?

 

Or is yours one that is also sold as two segments perhaps?

i.e. you book a 14 day cruise that is also sold as two 7 day cruises?

The cruises that had a problem with reservations over multiple segments are NOT technically B2B (I.e., two different booking numbers). On Oceania, some adjacent cruise segments on a particular ship are labeled (and marketed) as "extended voyages." They have a single booking number, O Life perks equal to the total of the two (or in some cases, three) segments and a discounted overall price. Though cruise credits are treated as a single cruise (I.e., X total days get X points), you can buy booze packages per segment and you get all your specialty reservations per segment.

The problem with the dining section of the website was that the "extended cruises" had selection buttons for each included segment but it was only allowing you to make the number of reservations for a single segment. Thus a B cabin on an O ship should get four slots per segment (total eight for two segment cruise). But the glitch was that it was only allowing four slots (I.e., treating it as a single segment).

As usual Mike Moore and crew were on top of it in a flash.

BTW, on the website's "find a cruise," you need to include "Grand Voyages" in your "region" choices in order to see "extended voyages." Checking only North America (for example), will show you the single cruise segments but not the "extended" multi-segment options. Finally, though listed in "Grand Voyages" on the web, only select much longer multi-segment cruises are what O considers as "Grand", I.e., having additional perks like free laundry et al.

The somewhat confusing nomenclature needs some cleaning up. But, that's a whole other discussion thread.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

The cruises that had a problem with reservations over multiple segments are NOT technically B2B (I.e., two different booking numbers). Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Yes, that is why I asked the poster to clarify which type of booking they had. Maybe I missed it somewhere

They are on to it. However I did stumble across a work-around last night.One of the issues was that, having got eventually to the selection of dining time page and selecting the time, on clicking "Confirm" absolutely nothing happened.

However, by clicking on "Exit without confirming" and then reselecting the time and "Confirm" for the second time - it immediately confirmed the booking! Each time!

I guess we won't starve.....

I can relate to your issues. It is certainly not intuitive as it is. Click Confirm button and it greys out and message about 'booked but not confirmed' or such. But when I go back and choose the next venue the calendar is updated with the previous and so the booking was made (and confirmed). So it is confusing what to do when the last one is selected and "confirm" is clicked. So to me the issue is the "confirm" button does not refresh the page

Also in the olden days I would get an email with the bookings listed. I did not this time. So either that is not working, that functionality has been removed or I am NOT booked as I thought:eek:. Hadn't considered that until I saw your post. Good thing you did. I will log in and recheck.

As a separate issue I don't care for the availability display method either as it takes longer to plan out all the reservations, i.e. Jacques is available for 2 at 7:00 on Tuesday but no other day except very early or 9:00 and Polo on Tuesday at 7:30 and 7:00 on Wednesday. Knowing that can easily decide which one to choose for Tuesday and which one for Wednesday.

>>The cruises that had a problem with reservations over multiple segments are NOT technically B2B (I.e., two different booking numbers).<<

One of the issues was that the "break" was not where the non-back to back change point was! It was on a sea day. (And in any case it was not technically a b to b anyway, it was booked as one voyage.)

Mike was as someone said on to it immediately, but there's been so much patching of the program over the past year or two (a lot of it actually improving the usability, to be sure) that new bugs get into the system, IMO.

>>The cruises that had a problem with reservations over multiple segments are NOT technically B2B (I.e., two different booking numbers).<<

 

One of the issues was that the "break" was not where the non-back to back change point was! It was on a sea day. (And in any case it was not technically a b to b anyway, it was booked as one voyage.)

 

Mike was as someone said on to it immediately, but there's been so much patching of the program over the past year or two (a lot of it actually improving the usability, to be sure) that new bugs get into the system, IMO.

Maybe it is time to write a whole new program. Could help. :):)

Maybe it is time to write a whole new program. Could help. :):)

Exactly what I said to Mike!

I reckon at least 66% of websites are not really fit for purpose from the point of view of the user: the problem is that many are just about usable given trial and error and discovery of work-arounds and usually the owners are never aware of the frustration of their cllentele.

And it is cheaper in the short term to keep patching.

(Just look at Microsoft!)

Exactly what I said to Mike!

 

I reckon at least 66% of websites are not really fit for purpose from the point of view of the user: the problem is that many are just about usable given trial and error and discovery of work-arounds and usually the owners are never aware of the frustration of their cllentele.

And it is cheaper in the short term to keep patching.

(Just look at Microsoft!)

You are so right.. Just look at Cruise Critic....I think their new forums STINK. And from what I read most posters agree. Problem is that they are in charge and do not want to hear any negative comments.

You are so right.. Just look at Cruise Critic....I think their new forums STINK. And from what I read most posters agree. Problem is that they are in charge and do not want to hear any negative comments.

Plus one!

You can check your dining reservations on the My Account pages; that's where ours turned up. I then printed the list and put it in my cruise folder along with other reservations.