pmatawan

There were bridge instructors on board for several segments on Riviera during Jan- Mar sailings, but not every segment.

I feel bad for you, hope it works out for you. No lecture from me.

Do call Oceania or have your travel agent book for you. If you use the cart online, you will end up calling anyway to get the pricing fixed.

Yes to your 2nd question.

6 hours ago, Sdancer said:

Before I started this thread, I have contacted fdacs.gov, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, to confirm that the port taxes for skipped ports expected to be refunded. 

 

The agency advised me to submit a complaint and sent me a link to file a complaint.

Cozumel was not substituted for another port - Oceania made it another sea day.

 

I will leave this thread for now :).

Your complaint might force Oceania to revise this business practice. Too much false advertising by cruise lines and I, for one, applaud you for trying. Tired of seeing ads for 50% off when no one ever paid full price. Tired of false Simply More advertising saying "free shore excursions" and "free drinks". They can say "included, but saying free us just unconscionable. This industry needs to clean up some of its business practices and I would think some lawyers would jump at the chance to challenge this industry.

5 hours ago, durberville said:

Yes I  was thinking it might be because there are other bookings with different promotions and that is why the 2 beverage packages are shown. But why does it give me a price for picking the package I am already supposed to have included at no extra charge? Not just an option to upgrade?  In fact, I can’t find anything in my online booking which indicates I have a package at all. 🤷‍♀️ Glad I have a hard copy showing amenities. But thank you, I’ll have to call. 

The answer is the Oceania website has some flaws and you have discovered on of them.

Lunch and dinner menus are usually posted on tv by 9:30-10am daily.

10 hours ago, Carnevale said:

We would like to book a culinary class using OBC from our TA. When I went to do the booking I didn't see this OBC credit anywhere so I'm hoping someone here can help me understand the ins and outs:

 

- Am I correct in assuming that this OBC will only be available once we are onboard?

 

- If I book and pay for the class now can I cancel it when we are onboard and rebook it using our OBC?

 

- If I can cancel and rebook will doing this put us to the end of a waitlist meaning that we don't get to do the class? (I see that they are popular as one is already sold out and the cruise isn't until mid-April).

 

Many thanks in advance for any help on this!

Any  credit card payments made prior to your ship board credit hitting your account will be converted to REFUNDABLE shipboard credit.

On Riviera now. Don't worry about seating in main dining room. Often it is only 50-75% filled. At opening time, there may be a line, but the waiters line up and escort you to your table very efficiently.  As others have said, the wait time is minimal.

While onboard you can only book the current segment. Make no sense,  but tried on Riviera and told I couldn't book upcoming segment.

Same situation on Riviera, currently.

11 minutes ago, vaitape said:

I'm sorry but not able to follow the concern...what exactly is being canceled?

 

Riviera was supposed to travel through Red sea in  May. Cruises were canceled from mid May through mid June so ship can travel around Africa instead.

16 minutes ago, Snaefell3 said:

Without getting too political, it could also be that O clung to hope that someone, anyone, would clean up the mess in the Bab al-Mandab.

I would like to think that also. I'm on Riviera now, wondering how the current crew will be affected. No one here seems to know yet, maybe senior officers. Many just joined the cruise in Singapore, hoping their contracts will be honored and just not terminated. 

Probably the last cruiseline to cancel. They certainly withhold what was inevitable to the very last minute. I'm sure the decision was made months ago, just not shared with guests till now.

I'm a season cruiser, but 1st time on Oceania. Let me start by saying after experiencing the food and service onboard Riviera, I would find it difficult to go back to other mainstream lines. Yes, O is pricier, but for me, at this stage of my live, worth it.

I've been onboard Riviera for well over a month now as part of a 72 day grand voyage sailing in Asia.

On occasion, I've had some inquiries that either staff was either unable to answer or provided incorrect information.

My first inquiry was related to when tender tickets would be available  for independent  travelers at a particular port. Destination services gave me a time and I arrived 30 minutes early, but they had already given out tickets for the first 3 tenders for independent cruisers(not ship excursions).

Another example was a port listed as a tender port(Ha Long Bay), which I had heard was now available as a docking location. Again, destination services could not confirm that we would in fact be docking and not tendering. Why am I able to get proper answers from members on this site and not from onboard staff?

Another example is inaccurate shuttle times published in Currents. In Ho Chi Minh City, Currents indicated shuttle service would not be available between 11am-2pm and 5pm-7pm due to meal breaks. Totally incorrect, shuttle service was continuously available. In another port there was no mention in Currents of the port shuttle  to the gate, some guests walked toward the gate and were picked up by the but enroute. The shuttles were not easily identifiable and O staff could not direct us to them.

When I inquired at reception regarding visa services and pricing, I was again given incorrect information. One last item, due to "technical issues" O found it necessary to shorten port times during one cruise segment. They were unwilling to explain what those issues were leading to rumors of an engine issue, which turned out to be the truth. But they fixed the issue after a week, but never readjusted our port times, we just arrived hours early to the last ports on that segment. For those of us with private excursions, it required numerous updates with our tour guides. Mid cruise surveys addressing some of these issues did not receive a response.

In fairness to Oceania, this is the first time this ship has been in this part of the world, but I feel they have some communication issues that should be addressed.

On 2/13/2024 at 12:28 AM, Tranquility Base said:

Thanks for coming back with that @pmatawan

That's good info.

 

One other query if I may.

 

Did you hear any comments regarding the shuttles into Saigon from the Hiep Phuoc port ?

How long the shuttles to & from town were taking, and what time the last shuttle left from town on the first day in Saigon.

The shuttle takes less than 30 minutes but is dependent on traffic. Last shuttle is 9:30pm.

The information in Currents said shuttles don't run from 11am to 2pm and again from 5pm to 7pm to allow for meal breaks, but is inaccurate. The shuttles schedule from the bus company  shows it leaves ship on the hour and returns from the city on the half hour. That may be inaccurate also as we got on a "crew shuttle" leaving the city at 2pm.

The grill at the terrace offers the best lobster tails and grilled jumbo shrimp. Is usually always available along with steaks lambchops salmon and chicken every night except theme nights. When ship is full sometimes a 5 or 10 minute wait as they are cooked fresh.

5 hours ago, Tranquility Base said:

Thanks for coming back with that @pmatawan

That's good info.

 

One other query if I may.

 

Did you hear any comments regarding the shuttles into Saigon from the Hiep Phuoc port ?

How long the shuttles to & from town were taking, and what time the last shuttle left from town on the first day in Saigon.

The shuttle was to a market area. We did not take it as we were on private tours, but the ship is returning to Siagon on Feb I8th and we will be taking it at that time and I will let you know.

On 1/26/2024 at 6:13 AM, pmatawan said:

Will do.

On 1/26/2024 at 6:13 AM, pmatawan said:

Will do.

We are docking, not tendering. 

The first few tenders are usually for ship excursions. Then a tender for independent travelers. Do get your tender ticket by showing up in the lounge when they open if getting an early tender is important. Don't rely on what the destination services folks tell you, they don't always give reliable information. After an hour or 2, you don't need tender tickets, only need them if you need to get off shortly after arrival.

Well last week Oceania changed our arrival time into Nha Trang port today from 10 am to 12 noon due to a technical issue. Today we arrived 2 hour early into port,  so I'm assuming they fixed the "technical issue".

Well some officers admit there is an engine issue affecting cruise speed. Most guests onboard that I have spoken to seem to feel that a proper explanation would have been received better then " technical issue".

Had dinner with 3 other couples last night. 2 of us are experiencing poor internet service and 2 of us having no issues with intermittent poor service, I wonder why???

I know others have posted that they had great experience with internet since StarLink was installed, but my experience has been different. At times it's pretty good, but much of the time it's no better then my previous experience on other cruiselines prior to StarLink. This is my first Oceania cruise, but have been on board over 3 weeks. Those of us old enough remember dial up and AOl, brings back those memories as it can take forever for a page to load and many times an app will simply time out. Some have said that this part of the world(Far east), may not have good service, but can someone explain why StarLink internet is poor here. The internet manager said while we were in India that they throttle the speed of cruiseships. He said StarLink doubled their bandwidth,  but now Oceania allows 2 logins per cabin, so maybe that has more to do with it. If it were a week long cruise, good internet would not be a big problem, but I'm on an Grand Voyage and some issues can't wait till I get home to deal with.

With that said, I enjoy the Oceania experience, especially the food. 

2 hours ago, Queen of DaNile said:

We finally have it in writing as to the current situation on Riviera

"It is with sincere apologies we must notify you that due to technical issue there has been changes in the itinerary".

But they have not been able to explain what the technical issue is, have they? With the issue be fixed or can we expect more port reduction times on the other segments?

23 hours ago, clo said:

I may be misunderstanding here but we have what I think would be called "multi segment" and because of Simply More I've booked excursions on both segments.

Prior to boarding I was able to book ship excursions on each of the 5 segments. Due to the changes in port arrivals and departures, I canceled several private excursions on future segments in anticipation of additional future schedule changes. I have been unable to book replacement ship tours for future segments of this cruise.