GeorgiaPeach51

I absolutely do remember you! So nice of you to post! We seemed to have most of our conversations in the little casino. 😜. We have yet to sail on Mariner, but it is on our list. I don’t blame you for wanting to escape sleet. We actually do know what that is! And I am not a fan. If it’s gonna be cold and wet, then go on and snow, please! We do get snow about once a year in the mountains where we live, and everything comes to a screeching halt, we all revel in how beautiful it is and it is normally gone the next day. I hope you have a wonderful trip! Joanie

@fizzy The ship is very sedate. Pretty quiet. It may be that when the cruise itinerary went sideways it affected the overall mood. Not sure, since it is our first on O and this one is missing 500 people. To be honest, I find the people on the R ships we have been on easier to meet and more open to sharing tables in specialties in order to meet people. We started doing that on R and really enjoyed all the people we met. I am not saying O people are not friendly, but they are not as outgoing, so far. The staff members are universally lovely. Smiling. They greet you when you pass them in the halls. I can’t imagine anyone having trouble with staff doing their best to make you happy.

The lovely foyer. Look at that mass of cymbidium orchids! An area I think is lovely, though the off center photo of Mary Hartman pains me visually and makes my eye twitch. The Martini Bar, with its’ uninspired and lackluster color scheme, is certainly not inviting, but the drinks are good, and I will resist the opportunity to once again speak of the unspeakable and inedible, omnipresent trio masquerading as snacks or appetizers. 🙄

Library. Nice. Divided into four separate spaces. Very inviting.

Baristas

Bathroom drinks list Polo

Some photos, as promised. Our cabin, 10022, PH.

Aaauuuugggghhhh! You know me well, @cruisevirgin24! At the first breakfast I cruised the stations hopefully but ended with a tear in my eye. Nary a cronut in sight, then, or now. That statement almost makes me weep.

Steve, I remember you well and enjoyed our conversations! We have eaten twice in the MDR, twice in Red Ginger, once in Tuscan, once in Polo and once in the Terrace for dinner. Tonight we will attempt to get into Jacques. Last night they said to show up at 6:30 and perhaps we will get lucky. You all probably know that you get one reservation in each specialty. But because 500 people went AWOL it is relatively easy to get additional reservations in the specialties if you are a little flexible. So this is a great benefit that has allowed us to dodge the GDR for the most part. One huge difference between O and R is the enormous available every day menu on R. It is just such an embarrassment of choices that some evenings it is just way too hard to decide. You will not have that problem on O. Their always available is very small. I will take a photo for you and post it. On our first R cruise I did a trip report and went on and on about how much we loved the specialties and I remember someone posting that we were doing ourselves a disservice by not giving the MDR a try. They were so right! That first cruise for us on R was one of the first after COVID restrictions were lifted, and the Explorer was like this one, far from full. So we had the same ability to enjoy the specialties and avoid the MDR. Turns out, you don’t want to do that! I have to say, based on our two GDR attempts so far, trying for the specialties is a better plan on this O ship. On Explorer, we missed out on a lot of great meals in the MDR. We met a couple on the tour we did in Athens who are on for 33 days. She said they were in one of the specialties and waited 45 minutes for their entrees. At that point they stood up and left. She said “no one cared that we left” and staff just stood and watched them go with no comment, interest or apology. I find that pretty shocking. We are relatively new to R but I honestly can’t imagine that happening on an R ship, based on our experience, which is that they would be full of consternation and fully stressed to have their guests walk out. And if it did occur, I am positive that you would receive a call of apology. This couple did not. so, the specialties. Twice in Red Ginger. Both great experiences. Very much the same as Pacific Rim. The same miso sea bass. I am tied to that spectacular dish and cannot order anything other than that. But my husband ordered that and lobster pad Thai, and he enjoyed both. I liked the udon noodles. Did not like the stir fried rice…very dry and tasteless. The sampler platter for 2, 4 or 6 was yummy. Service was excellent. Any R person will be a happy camper in Red Ginger, if you like Pacific Rim. Tuscan—mixed bag. I am a fan of risotto, and if any of you get it on R, you know it is just a small bowl of perfection every time, not matter what kind. It was a special in Tuscan so I gave it a try, which I regretted the moment I saw it. It was on a flat plate, kind of pressed down to the shape of the plate and drizzled with balsamic. Dry and no whisper of creaminess, which is mandatory if you’re calling it risotto. So that was a big NO. They have a balsamic vinegar cart and do a little spiel on the different kinds. The breads are good, and they have roasted garlic which was dried out and impossible to squeeze out or spread. I had the Dover Sole…another bad choice. It was meh, and served only warm, which didn’t help things. Rolf got the filet steak with Gorgonzola and that was a big hit. Very much like the beautiful steaks you get in Sette Mari. I had order envy. so I would give Tuscan a C- overall. Service was good. I just ordered poorly and didn’t love anything I ordered. By that point I didn’t want to bother ordering something else, so that is on me. Polo— can I just say how much I miss the gorgeous chargers on R? I already wrote about the onion soup and clam chowder debacle. We both had excellent steaks and the service was excellent. Barely warm baked potato. So this is where we, as the consumer have to weigh how much we want to push to get what we want. I could have sent the potato back and asked for a hot one (radical idea) but it wasn’t worth it to me since I was only going to eat about 1/4 of it. But if my steak had come out under or overcooked I would have to pursue that to try to get what I wanted. Trying to get a hot meal on this ship is much more of a challenge than it should be. But one thing that comes out hot, and not just hot but forevermore hot, is soup. Yow! Terrace Cafe at night. I miss the tablecloths all day. There are none at breakfast or lunch, but they do appear in the evening, on the nights when you are tired or don’t feel like the long meal in the GDR, it is a good option. They have grilled meats and fish and all the usual suspects. It is a nice way to unwind and pace the meal as you wish. The only thing is that you will have eaten every meal in there the whole day, since there is only the GDR for breakfast if you want to risk that. We have not done so yet. But, the Terrace is a good low key meal, and you can eat outside if the weather works. Will post photos today, but later. Joanie

Here is another big difference…the specialties are only open in the evening. 6:30-9:00. No lunch service at all. Big win for R, being able to eat lunch on sea days in the specialties. We are spoiled. You can have breakfast in the Grand Dining Room 7-8:30, or in the Terrace Cafe 7-10. There is also the Waves Grill which is outside the Terrace Cafe, 6:30-11. But I think they serve the same stuff, just outside. We have not tried the GDR yet but will let you know if we get there. For lunch you only have the Terrace Cafe, so the nod goes to R for the greater variety of venues available, though not every day. I would also give my vote to the Coffee Connection rather than O’s Barista. First, it is located way up on deck 14 kind of by itself, and is not a central stopping off and hanging out place like on R. Second, their snacks and breakfast items seem miserly in comparison with R. Just not as convenient, and therefore, not nearly as used by passengers, at least on this cruise. I will get a photo for you tomorrow if I can. Another vote for R is not having to show your room card for drinks. It is just like on Celebrity. Away they go with your card. It is not egregious and they try to be low key about it but it’s a hassle if you are spoiled, as we are. It turned into a greater hassle when my husband tried to get a glass of wine for both of us to take to the room before dinner but didn’t have my card…and ran into opposition from a server, who was just doing her job. But he was as determined to get the two glasses as she was to not give him two glasses, so he finally asked her if she couldn’t just look in the computer to see what my drink package was, and she did that and that solved the problem. But it was a bit of a bridge too far for him cause it was more hassle than it needed to be. So far that is the only real aggravation with the drink card other than waiting for it to return to your pocket. The drinks experience on R is just seamless and smooth and effortless, so it is infinitely better, IMO. The drinks card would not stop me from doing an O cruise. It’s just a necessary little annoyance. More tomorrow…we are in Dubrovnik. Joanie

@IrishKathy thanks for the sweet post. I hope you have a wonderful time. Someday, if I am lucky, we will get to meet! Joanie

Here are the appetizers you can dream about till you board someday. 🙄. It’s like a food version of Groundhog Day. Every day I try to be a better passenger but every day these reappear. By the end of the cruise I may be reduced to shrieking and running away when they show up.

A few quick observations that are differences: There is no bar service in the theater. That is startling to me. One reason might be that they have some foldable little triangular shelves that can be lifted to use for drinks. However, each one we have tried is so slanted as to guarantee that your drink will end up in your lap sooner or later. The bar drinks are remarkably the same wherever you order. I had some liquid adventures last cruise on the Navigator where drinks were made with apparently a TLAR (That Looks About Right) mindset. Some were Meh! Some were WHEW! 😜. These are just right. So the nod goes to O on bar drinks. But not the bar snacks. Definitely not. I was so very charmed by the butlers and waiters on R with their white gloves and the wide variety of pre dinner snacks. So far, every night for 6 nights it has been essentially the same thing. Squares of cheese with toothpicks. Olives. A puff pastry, dry crackers thing. Every. Single. Night. They try to be clever and sometimes present the puff pastry with a twist, sometimes it is round, last night it had, guess what in the middle? Olives. But they can’t fool me. It is still dry and crusty and tasteless puff pastry! Come on, O, you can do better than this! Regent wins with her eyes closed. will upload photos later.

@Scout16 the ship is very informal. They request that there be no swim attire in the Terrace Cafe and we have seen none. That is the breakfast, lunch, dinner casual venue. For the evenings the majority of people are dressed as you would to go to a nice restaurant anywhere. Men wear slacks, a dress shirt, a polo type shirt or a Hawaiian-style shirt. Probably 1/4 of the men wear a jacket or blazer in the evening, my husband often does this just because he likes to wear his blazer, and it is sometimes cold in a few venues. Women wear mostly pants of some kind, and dresses or skirts. Once in a while you see a little glitter but not very often. Once in a while you see a man in a full suit. Honestly, no one cares what you wear as long as it is not ragged or something less than what you might wear to go out with friends to a nice establishment. I have seen a few jeans in the evening, but in the halls and bars, not in the dining venues. You can be more casual if you want to go to The Terrace. on the other hand, though I have not seen it on this cruise yet, if I had a special personal event I wanted to celebrate i would not hesitate to get dressed up. My husband and I have done this to the point of tux and sparkly evening and heels for me, and we had a great time, enjoyed celebrating ourselves and got nothing but positive comments from others. I personally LOVE seeing a dressed up couple. I remember with fondness a wonderful couple on Regent who dressed up EVERY night and he matched his tie to her gown. They were fabulous and I looked forward to seeing them every night. I hope this answers your question. I am not sure what you mean by procedures? If you can elaborate I will answer specifically. Joanie

I found the speciality Polo Grill to be the same. For me, visually, that dining room had colors that just clanged together. Goldish drapes and taupe carpet. Pale grey tablecloth and cerulean blue charger. Blue accents in the rug that fought with the blue in the chairs. It’s a good thing the steak was good! I’ll go take some photos and post them later, along with some photos where Marina is lovely to my eye. Decor, like food, is as subjective as it gets. Oceania throws out their motto of having the best food at sea, and I think R could easily challenge them to an arm wrestle on that one. R is at least AS good. To me. The food in the Terrace Grill is much like that on R. It has variety, is not displayed in huge quantities, varies in type of cuisine. It is like most buffets….keep trying and you will find something you like. The outdoor grill is the same, though for my husband, (for those of you who might remember that he loves lobster), they have a surf and turf sandwich with steak and lobster that makes him look forward to lunch every day now that he has coerced them into not overcooking the lobster. I think my main quibble with the buffet is that the hot foods are not hot. Even the moment you take your plate with fish or eggs or vegetables, almost everything is lukewarm. I don’t remember this issue on R, but perhaps it is there. The other issue I’ve had more often then is customary is the amount of salt in some of the food. That is normally not an issue to me, so it is startling. In Polo the other night I got French onion soup and it had the ocean in it. Those of us who love this soup know that there is a fine line between the real caramelized onion flavor and the salt flavor from too much bouillon. That soup was so salty I had to send it back and it was replaced with clam chowder which would have had cooks from the Northeast clutching their hair AND their pearls. It was clam chowder’s first cousin twice removed…not sure anyone knows what that means, including me, but you get the gist. To round out the Polo meal, the steak was wonderful, the baked potato was lukewarm, the dessert was fabulous. We are not having any trouble finding good things to eat, but you might have to throw back the first catch and cast your line again to find what you want. Last night in the main dining room, which, BTW, I think is prettier than the MDR on Regent, we both ordered a tuna dish for our entree. No. So I got a soba noodle vegetarian dish that I enjoyed. You just gotta stick to the mission at hand and not accept food that is substandard. They will gladly replace it and hope to make you happy. I will say, that they are circumspect and seem PERHAPS more accustomed to food being returned than I perceive on R. On R there is genuine consternation if you don’t like something. You don’t see that same level of concern here but there is genuine effort to make you happy. I definitely give the ice cream win to O, with their Harry Slocumb ice cream. Really outstanding and some fun flavors like Toast and Jelly, black sesame, Elvis After School Special (vanilla with chocolate covered potato chips)….crazy good! The extent to which my husband loves lobster is equaled by my love of ice cream…. more to come…

Hello from an Oceania ship this time. I promised that I would do a comparison between this O cruise on Marina and our Regent experience. This is not my usual blog, but will be a few entries and updates as we travel and experience the ship. I have no issues with the need to change ports, but it took a lot of time and big stress, working through our TA to wrangle ANY information from O. It was weeks of stress, one answer, then a different one, then a third answer, then another port change, etc., then another maybe. Were we going? Not going? You know how that kind of thing goes. At one point it was “a hard no” on any FCC. Then it was FCC but all airfare lost ($11,000) in our case. My husband declared he was not willing to lose that kind of money. My sister and her husband said they were willing to lose it if they had to do so. The final answer came at 5:00 p.m. the day before we were to fly out. My sister and her husband got all but $1,100 back. It was too late for us, and we were stuck. UGH! We didn’t want to do O to start with but they could not be talked into Regent, so we went along so we could be with them. Life is full of irony…. So, we are on this cruise to revisit the places we have been before, and making the best of it. Being with my husband is always my favorite place, so it is not torture, just disappointing. I feel for the people we have met, some on a 33 day, who were even more stuck, and given no chance to do anything but sail on. They were already here and captive. I would have thought O might give a small OBC, like $100, but there is no offer of any kind. Certainly, lots of cruise lines dealing with this. And passengers. My problem with O is their total lack of communication and stonewalling until literally the last possible moment. The passenger count is down 500 people, so there are about 250 empty cabins. No way to know if people bailed and lost it all, or were able to wrangle an FCC. There are pluses to having fewer people, for sure. It is certainly easier to get specialty reservations. Dining venues are uncrowded. Elevators are quick. My purpose is not to bash O so I will move on to what I see and feel about the differences between O and R. If you don’t know me, we have been on the Explorer, Splendor, and Navigator. Prior Celebrity “Elites”, for what that is worth. This trip was originally going from Istanbul to Haifa and Ashdod, Alexandria, Cairo, Limassol, and now has ended up as a Greece cruise with stops in Mykonos, Santorini, Athens, Gythion, and Dubrovnik, Croatia. I’ll start with boarding. Our time was 11:30. We showed up a few minutes after and basically walked right on the ship with just a few pauses to hand over paperwork. Very efficient…this was in Istanbul. One thing to be noted is that the final walk up and onto the ship was outside and uncovered. It was starting to drizzle, so we only got a little damp but full-on rain would find you drenched if you had no umbrella. We are in a PH, which is very similar to the veranda on R, Explorer and Splendor. Walk in closet. I would say it is deeper, so you have a little more maneuverable space. And I would say it has a few more drawers than on R. The bed does not face the veranda. The bed is Queen, and we find it comfortable. There is a dearth of outlets. Aggravating. And there are none in the bathroom. There is an additional chair near the little couch, which is like sitting on stadium bleacher seats. Rock hard and I don’t mean maybe. An orchid. Separate desk and vanity. One thing we love on R is that the drapes that divide the room are full drapes that divide the room if someone is sleeping and the other one is working or up early. On O the drapes are faux and for decor only. For that reason, I would give the cabin nod to R. Depends on what you value. I would say that because the O cabin has more seating it feels just a bit larger. The bathroom has one big sink rather than two. Plenty of space, and both tub and shower. However, the shower is smaller and has no shave bar for ladies. Because it has one sink, no outlets, a smaller shower and no shave bar I would give the nod to R for the bathroom. Luggage fits under the bed. Plenty of hooks for purses, cameras, jackets. The cabin is fine, and comes with a nice butler. I don’t think anyone familiar with R cabins would have any issues with O. The ship, at first glance, is attractive and certainly well-tended. The upkeep is excellent. It is in some of the decor where I feel Marina shows her age. She was due, I think, for the upgrade received by her sister ship, Riviera, but it was postponed. I will attempt to post a photo of the window coverings in the Terrace, their casual lunch, breakfast and dinner venue. The curtains are a gauzy orange floral and I find that fabric choice to be odd and old-fashioned, perhaps last seen in your grandmother’s living room or even bathroom! Will try to post a photo….but keep in mind that perhaps this decor will be gone with the dry dock…. Will be back soon.

Good point, they would come back to our credit card…..sorry, we are so boggled to get one thing in writing from O one day and initiate the cancellation with our TA, only to get a different thing in writing from O the next day. It’s like smoke and mirrors. Joanie

I should add that yesterday we received a letter stating that the only air not reimbursed would be the air differential of $1800 and the custom air fee of $175. Now, today brings this different FCC offer from a different person. Call us confused. There is a huge financial difference.

Here is a general question. Oceania has responded with the FCC amount, and they are saying, in writing, that they will not include in the FCC any of the two restricted business charges of $1899 and $1799, air differential of $1800 and custom sir fee of $175 pp for a total of $5,673 or $11,346 per family. is this normal? If so, it certainly makes me regret booking air with O rather than directly with the airlines. in addition, we paid $1,115 pp for shore excursions, and that is also not included in the FCC. does anyone have any suggestions regarding these exclusions? Thanks, Joanie

No idea, since I have no Oceania experience, but I can say that if you are not on CC, where you can get news, help and ideas, and if you do not have a TA who is proactive in your behalf, you are up the creek and on your own, apparently. Those folks don’t know what they don’t know, and I really feel sorry for them. It pains me that only by writing to Mr. Ortega did we get the offer of the FCC. I can only relate our saga. Maybe they have done better than we think behind the scenes? Joanie

I BELIEVE they are only doing this when asked. We have received no mass emails that they are making any offers of any kind, and we surely would have been part of the batch send….they have no way to know who has or has not asked for an FCC and I’m sure they don’t have time to sort everyone before sending. The only emails we have received (other than the response to our FCC request) have been in regard to the two itinerary changes. Joanie

New itinerary just sent by Oceania; Egypt is now deleted. I feel for the poor staff dealing with this, and heaven help the poor shore excursions folks. DATE NEW ITINERARY November 1, 2023 Istanbul, Turkey November 2, 2023 At sea November 3, 2023 Mykonos, Greece November 4, 2023 Piraeus, Greece November 5, 2023 Santorini, Greece November 6, 2023 Gythion, Greece November 7, 2023 Corfu, Greece November 8, 2023 Dubrovnik, Croatia November 9, 2023 At sea November 10, 2023 Valletta, Malta November 11, 2023 La Goulette, Tunisia November 12, 2023 At sea November 13, 2023 Barcelona, Spain

@cruisemom42 Wow! I think your insurance idea for tenuous ports like Israel can be is a good one. It would certainly give those who are hesitant to visit places like Israel the reassurance they might need. Perhaps it is time to think out of the box. I agree that it would be a great loss to have those ports no longer offered. I still want to try to go to Israel, but will have to work hard to convince my husband. It remains highest on my own bucket list. I am glad to hear that your experience with the Greek islands in November is a good one. As I said, all I had was info from the internet, not personal experience. Glad, too, to know that it is normal business in ports in Turkey. That gives me hope that perhaps our collective hopes for things to not escalate further will happen. I always appreciate your measured and well communicated posts! Joanie

I didn’t do a thing! Oceania saved the day, not me. I’m very grateful to them. They gave the solution that saved the impossible situation.

@Kayla23 I don’t think they will cancel the cruise, but will go forward with the cruise for those who want to go. But for those of us, like both of us, who do not want to go, they are offering exactly what you want….a Future Cruise Credit, FCC. Basically, you will have a credit with O that you can apply to a cruise at any time before the end of 2025. You don’t have to take this cruise. You need to contact your TA so you can get the FCC credited. At this point, according to the roll call, the FCC is out there to claim, I THINK, not just for those who wrote to Mr. Ortega. I would contact my TA or Oceania directly tomorrow to request it, and only waste time writing to Mr. Ortega if you don’t get a positive reaction from them. others with more experience may be able to give you better or more accurate info about how to get the FCC, but it is out there, for sure. Joanie