Jump to content

Regatta 4/26 - 5/6 --- not the Oceania we'd come to love


deedo68
 Share

Recommended Posts

To the poster who asked if we were compensated in any way........I wrote two letters the to the CEO’s of Oceania. In each case the letters were passed on to an Administrative Assistant. In each case we received a form letter, basically saying sorry, most passengers like our food.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
To the poster who asked if we were compensated in any way........I wrote two letters the to the CEO’s of Oceania. In each case the letters were passed on to an Administrative Assistant. In each case we received a form letter, basically saying sorry, most passengers like our food.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

My husband and I were also on this disappointing cruise and, like many aboard, have requested some sort of compensation . One passenger we met on board suggested that 10% the total price would be reasonable to compensate for the poor service and multiple itinerary changes (no Tortola or St. Kitts and only a few hours in Nassau.) Although we realize they have the legal right to change the itinerary for any reason this was handled so poorly that some sort of compensation seems like the right ting to do. We were also charged in error by Oceania an additional $460 in gratuities, on top of the normal gratuity charge. The reimbursement for the error just arrived after many weeks, following many phone calls and emails-- so check your bill carefully.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We didn’t notice any billing problems. This cruise was such a disappointment to us as well. I think their lack of caring about new passengers is quite evident in their lack of response, other than the form letter I received. I can’t imagine cruising on this line again, unless changes are made. So sad, not one pleasant memory.Please let me know if you have any success with them.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
This was our first Oceania cruise.It will also be our last. Nothing to do with itinerary changes and medical emergency. This can’t be helped. Our problem was more with lack of attention to detail. We found the food lacking. Buffet options didn’t appear fresh (except for salad). Burgers were grisly. My husband was told shrimp cocktail was unavailable in Grand Dining Room. Ketchup served in a bottle instead of in a ramekin ( again at dinner). Veal Parma served without tomato sauce. Egg Benedict served without Hollandaise. I could go on and on.

We have been on over 30 cruises. This is the first time I have come home with unpleasant memories.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

I'm late to this thread, but I read the replies to your issue and was surprised by the hostility. Personally, I think your complaints have merit. Oceania is an upscale cruise line for which a premium price is paid in exchange for an expected elevated level of food and service. I get the pushback regarding the captain's decisions, but it is evident to me that the problem was more about communication than action taken or not taken as a couple of posts suggested. I sail on Oceania for the first time in a couple weeks (Insignia) and have great anticipation. All of my cruising to date has been aboard the behemoths floated by Royal, Celebrity, NCL, so this is my initial foray into a smaller ship. I happen to be big on communication, consistency, and attention to detail. The more I pay, the more I expect. Little things are not deal-breakers on their own, but can accumulate. Your list of "little things" definitely added up for you as they would have for me as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was on this cruise too. It was our first Oceania. I know the med disembarkation was quite necessary and agree it was a high priority but do not understand why we sat in the water afterward for 4 or 5 hours either. We did not go anywhere for those hours. I think they did it on purpose because they decided not to try to make up any time to get us to St Kitts. They might have been sitting there because they knew all along that they would skip St Kitts and did not want to arrive early at our next port.

 

Regarding the Nassau late arrival, I have cruised over 30 times in all kinds of sea conditions and did not see why we were late getting there. I know Nassau is not a wonderful port but think we were not informed of the real problem which might have been propulsion issues.

 

The service and food was good but I think we were left in the dark about the real reasons for the problems.

This sure does not make Oceania look good by any means. Maybe the Captain needs some retraining in customer service.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Who is Frank Del Rio?

 

The president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings, which is the parent company of NCL, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas. He was one of the founders of Oceania, also the CEO of Prestige Cruise Holdings (the former parent company of Oceania and Regent) and before that a senior executive of Renaissance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my opinion, and my opinion only ( well my wife agrees), Oceania is not the same cruise line it was 5 or 5+ years ago. Food quality and service have both diminished in even the past three years. I can eat frozen fish, mediocrely prepared in cheap chain restaurants. I expect fresh produce when on cruises that hit ports every, or every other, day in high end restaurants. Frozen fish, not properly thawed, yields the tough flavorless dishes we often see. When the waiter tells you the fish is frozen and not good that should be a wake up call!

 

I would have paid more, in fares, to maintain what we experienced in the past. I realize that probably isn’t a universal feeling!

 

We have two (2) 2019 Oceania cruises booked, following our 2018 cruises. Waiting to see what course Oceania decides to follow before booking any more into the future. National Geographic/ Ludlund May well win out for awhile!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my opinion, and my opinion only ( well my wife agrees), Oceania is not the same cruise line it was 5 or 5+ years ago. Food quality and service have both diminished in even the past three years. I can eat frozen fish, mediocrely prepared in cheap chain restaurants. I expect fresh produce when on cruises that hit ports every, or every other, day in high end restaurants. Frozen fish, not properly thawed, yields the tough flavorless dishes we often see. When the waiter tells you the fish is frozen and not good that should be a wake up call!

 

I would have paid more, in fares, to maintain what we experienced in the past. I realize that probably isn’t a universal feeling!

 

We have two (2) 2019 Oceania cruises booked, following our 2018 cruises. Waiting to see what course Oceania decides to follow before booking any more into the future. National Geographic/ Ludlund May well win out for awhile!

 

 

If what you say is true, why do you continue to be an Oceania loyalists? Why book Oceania Cruises in 2018,and two more cruises on Oceania for 2019? Makes no sense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my opinion, and my opinion only ( well my wife agrees), Oceania is not the same cruise line it was 5 or 5+ years ago. Food quality and service have both diminished in even the past three years. I can eat frozen fish, mediocrely prepared in cheap chain restaurants. I expect fresh produce when on cruises that hit ports every, or every other, day in high end restaurants. Frozen fish, not properly thawed, yields the tough flavorless dishes we often see. When the waiter tells you the fish is frozen and not good that should be a wake up call!

 

I don’t think that you would argue with the concept that one cannot compare even a high end cruise line with a high end land based restaurant. The latter can buy fresh fish, meat and produce on a daily basis. This is not an option for a ship. Not all ports visited can provide reliably fresh fish (or produce) for an entire ship; and when they do, it lasts only so long. Thus frozen meat, fish, shellfish are a necessary evil on ships.

Do you mean to imply that ALL fish served on Oceania 5+ years ago was fresh and never frozen? Or are you saying that the quality of supplied fish has deteriorated; or the quality of chefs and cooks has decreased?

In your opinion what explains the difference in food you see over the last 5+ years?

I too see some changes over the years in Oceania but they don’t have to do with food IMO. Granted, some items previously available are no longer offered (sautéed foie gras comes to mind) but I haven’t noticed a significant change in food quality. An individual meal maybe - like improperly cooked steak - but not food quality overall.

JMO.

Edited by Paulchili
Link to comment
Share on other sites

King;

 

We’re itinerary hounds not ship hounds. We’re doing Papeete, et.al, on the Marina in February. If our only O choice would have been an R ship, Paul Gaugin here we come. We consider Viking a big step down having done a river cruise with them. Our 20 day Vikings and Royals cruise on Nautica next summer is an itinerary most lines don’t do.

 

So we’re booked through 2019 , no regrets. This year it was O in SE Asia in February and looking forward to our rapidly approaching Uniworld River cruise Bucharest to Budapest. We’re doing 5 days pre cruise in Transylvania and 7 days post cruise in Budapest and Prague on our own. Uniworld picks up fresh produce, fish, and meats daily and prepares local dishes to the areas visited. No Americanized Indian buffet when the ship is in Norway! What a concept!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Uniworld picks up fresh produce, fish, and meats daily and prepares local dishes to the areas visited.

 

That’s easy to do when you are in Europe and mostly in large or big cities or towns and you are cooking for 200 people and not 1200.

Having done several river cruises I can say that river cruises have many advantages (visiting inland places, docking in the middle of the city, etc) but food is not one of those advantages - at least not for me.There is only one restaurant and the dinner will have often 3 entrees - a meat, a fish and a vegetarian. I am not a vegetarian and rarely eat fish; that makes my choices rather limited. Compare that to Oceania with 4 specialties, MDR and Terrace.

That said, we do take river cruises for itineraries but definitely not for the food.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paul;

 

You only eat meat, no fish! Wonderful! Neither do probably a large portion of O diners on any night. So how about they are only able to get exceptional quality fish for 200 on any given night? I regularly go to wonderful restaurants where the waiters may tell me “ I’m sorry, we’re out of the fresh... tonight! The last 25 people wanting that dish will have to order something else! Far better than telling the first 200 they can only have frozen because the last few may or may not get any!!! Doing the entire length of Norway last summer without a single fresh fish entree was an insult to the passengers. Fortunately, we ate the most phenomenal meal in the Bergen fish market at lunch and didn’t need much dinner!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paul;

 

You only eat meat, no fish! Wonderful! Neither do probably a large portion of O diners on any night. So how about they are only able to get exceptional quality fish for 200 on any given night? I regularly go to wonderful restaurants where the waiters may tell me “ I’m sorry, we’re out of the fresh... tonight! The last 25 people wanting that dish will have to order something else! Far better than telling the first 200 they can only have frozen because the last few may or may not get any!!! Doing the entire length of Norway last summer without a single fresh fish entree was an insult to the passengers. Fortunately, we ate the most phenomenal meal in the Bergen fish market at lunch and didn’t need much dinner!

 

Since you have obviously been to Norway (and eaten there) you might have an idea why they didn’t buy fresh fish there for 600 people (since they didn’t know exactly how many people would want fish). If they got fish for only 200 people you just might be #201 and I don’t think you’d be very happy.

That fish would probably cost the same as their provisions for that entire cruise :D

PS I don’t eat only meat but am not a big fan of most fish (though I love shellfish). Yes - I am a picky eater and that is why I like the food on O better than any river cruise. That aside, I will take river cruises but not for food.

Edited by Paulchili
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since you have obviously been to Norway (and eaten there) you might have an idea why they didn’t buy fresh fish there for 600 people (since they didn’t know exactly how many people would want fish).

 

To keep this simple, lets discuss a ship carrying 600 passengers. No ship is going to stock 600 of every entree on the menu. The amount of waste would be staggering. So the purchasing department, working in conjunction with the catering department, figures out how many of each entree a ship should be prepared to serve. They study the choices passengers have made on previous cruises. While past performance guides the purchasing decisions, it cannot guarantee identical results. As for running out of a dish, land restaurants run out of some dishes, especially daily specials. If a land restaurant has the opportunity to buy some unusual ingredient they do so, fully accepting the possibility that their numbers won't guarantee every guest can order that meal. Sure, we all get disappointed when the kitchen runs out of a meal we really wanted, but we cope. Why do you think cruise passengers won't be able to cope?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The passengers will be able to cope alright - they will have to. Will Oceania be able to cope with buying provisions in Norway absorbing the cost without passing on the expense to passengers.

They will get their provisions from their usual sources. Buying fresh fish for the ship in the market in Vietnam or India is not the same as buying them in Norway. Buying a dinner for 4 in Norway is staggering.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The passengers will be able to cope alright - they will have to. Will Oceania be able to cope with buying provisions in Norway absorbing the cost without passing on the expense to passengers.

They will get their provisions from their usual sources. Buying fresh fish for the ship in the market in Vietnam or India is not the same as buying them in Norway. Buying a dinner for 4 in Norway is staggering.

 

I've toured the fish market in Bergen and there is a huge disconnect between the price of fish in the market and the cost of dinner in a Norwegian restaurant. A big purchaser like a cruise line will be able to get economies of scale that are not available to the average shopper. I really don't accept your premise that Norwegian fish is orders of magnitude more expensive than fish purchased in Oceania's home port, Miami.

 

Actually, buying fish in Vietnam -- if we're talking about Swai (AKA Basa) fish -- is pretty much the same as shopping in Norway. Vietnam is a huge exporter of farm-raised fish. At one point, there were wild accusations against the cleanliness and health of Vietnamese Swai farming technique coming from US catfish farmers, but scientists at American universities have studied the accusations and found them baseless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've toured the fish market in Bergen and there is a huge disconnect between the price of fish in the market and the cost of dinner in a Norwegian restaurant. A big purchaser like a cruise line will be able to get economies of scale that are not available to the average shopper. I really don't accept your premise that Norwegian fish is orders of magnitude more expensive than fish purchased in Oceania's home port, Miami.

 

Actually, buying fish in Vietnam -- if we're talking about Swai (AKA Basa) fish -- is pretty much the same as shopping in Norway. Vietnam is a huge exporter of farm-raised fish. At one point, there were wild accusations against the cleanliness and health of Vietnamese Swai farming technique coming from US catfish farmers, but scientists at American universities have studied the accusations and found them baseless.

 

OK - you are right

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yesterday in Stavanger the ship brought on fresh fish for Scandinavian buffet last night

 

The night before they had fresh Norwegian fish in the Terrace also

 

I did not ask how much they bought or the cost

 

but obviously they do buy local when they want to

 

I am sure there are some Countries where this may not be the best option unless they know their suppliers & the safety of the products

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I only read about 20 replies and felt I had to say something. I am not a "professional" poster no have I been on the Oceania forum for quite some time. Generally I post on Roll Calls now and that's that. Social media in general has become pretty ugly.

 

That said, I clicked on this review because I was worried. We started cruising on Oceania in early 2013 and our 8th is coming up. After cruising since 1982, we landed here and stayed because it is everything we want. Perfect? No. But pretty darned close. If I see a poor review I worry because since Norwegian took over I've been concerned Oceania might go downhill. Our last cruise was this past December and it was still a stellar experience.

 

I read the review and as I read turning over in my mind were the words "Are you kidding me??? These are your issues??". I'd understand if this were a first cruise. Many people don't understand cruising. But you cannot just suddenly "dock" somewhere when you're not scheduled. Lots of ships on the sea. We had a medical emergency once and took the patient to Turks & Caicos. Moored out at sea for awhile I sure wished I could be lying in the sun on that beach, but I also knew you can't just dock wherever you like. It's not a motor cruiser out for a spin.

 

I could go on about my shock reading this, but I don't want to tear it apart. But if this is enough to turn someone off Oceania, then cruise another line and see how that goes. Before Oceania, Celebrity was our line of choice and before that HAL and on and on. Anyone who thinks Celebrity is better because they always have escargot or shrimp or whatever should probably return to Celebrity. Because hands down the Oceania cuisine so far surpasses Celebrity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have two (2) 2019 Oceania cruises booked, following our 2018 cruises. Waiting to see what course Oceania decides to follow before booking any more into the future. National Geographic/ Ludlund May well win out for awhile!

 

We went to both Antarctica and the Galapagos on Linblad (co-branded as Nat Geo).

The soft-adventure components of the cruises were amazing. Both the itineraries and the staff. Amazing.

The rest of it was middling to bad, and for $1000 per person, per day, it did not feel like value.

 

The food in Antarctica, given that they had to provision weeks/months in advance, was OK. We had reindeer meat in Antarctica. Guessing that wasn't local.

The food in the Galapagos was utter garbage--and there was no excuse as there was fresh fish and fruit available to provision every couple of days. One can only stand so many buffets where everything is nearly-lukewarm and the poultry is bloody.

I know, I know...we're supposed to be going for the soft adventure and the food shouldn't matter, but the food in the Galapagos made so many people sick I doubt it was fit for a dog.

 

The rooms were small, the beds were old, and so forth.

 

Cannot see us cruising Lindblad again.

The notion of traveling Lindblad on routes where other lines go is laughable at Lindblad pricing.

As to going more adventurous places, we either travel budget lines as (well, so-called) budget prices, or something like Ponant/Tauck where you actually get what you pay for.

 

One way or the other, So. Georgia is the best and Antarctica is great--do go.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...