Oceania - You're Fired!

[Hunding]

It seems that every missed port, however mundane, automatically assumes the lure of the hanging gardens of Babylon. :rolleyes:

 

...with their perfumed promises of, oh, perhaps an SBC or a FCC....

[Papaick]

I humbly refer disappointed folks to the following website in order to ease the pain of not being able to set foot on Devils Island. One of the photos is a shot from the water, most likely taken from a cruise ship!.

 

http://gosouthamerica.about.com/od/frenchguiana/ig/Tour-Devil-s-Island-/

 

Dick Oettel

[LHT28]

It could have been worse

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4584

 

At least they did not leave you ashore;)

[ebobh]

In defense of little Ile Royale (which most generally dont know is where the Devil's Island prison was) we were able to stop there on our way back from the Amazon a few years back. We just tendered in and wandered around, but it was a great locale to visit without the need for too much guidance or backstory. The differing types of flora and fauna were remarkable, and the penal colony is pretty well preserved. Walking the perimeter of the island provided views of sea turtles, a coupke varities of monkeys, iguanas, etc.

 

The ride back to the ship was dicey, so I understand the limitations of trying to dock in heavy weather. The dock is exposed to the Atlantic; the French Govt use the islands to launch the Ariane missles, so perhaps they might upgrade the access at some point. Given that it is a military installation, though, Im sure they arent as concerned about the motion sickness of their passengers as O and others would be...

 

We ended our time with a drink and snacks at their "gift shop" and were very glad in retrospect that we made the stop. Not sure anyone can do much to make it more accessible, though, so those who have it on a must-see list have to be prepared for either a great tme or an equally great disappointment.

 

Thanks, Bob H

[LittleRedJohn]

I'm LittleRedJohn whose review was cited in an earlier post. When we returned from our Amazon cruise, I sent my complaints/concerns to Oceania personally and through my travel agent. They could have replied in a week and said, "Look, we had some problems on this cruise, things didn't all go right and we didn't communicate very well. We're sorry. Still, it was a good cruise and we're sure you had a lot of fun. But here's $250 off your next Oceania cruise." I would have agreed and booked another cruise. Instead, they didn't do that. They have never responded to me personally. Recently, several months after our return, my travel agent sent me a lengthy email received from Oceania which went to great length to say that my comments were all wet. They did offer me some kind of discount on a future cruise. Meanwhile, I've read on the boards about numerous port and other problems on other Oceania cruises. Clearly, the company is having some kind of problems. Everyone should be wary about booking them. What a shame. They were a great line for several years. Perhaps they have over expanded, or their new owners are demanding higher profits. Anyway, we've booked a Seabourn cruise for next year. Perhaps someday we'll try Oceania if they heal themselves, but I doubt it. John

[JimandStan]

Does anyone else buy into the logic that if Oceania does not blindly give in to this gentlemans demands then they must be in trouble financially?

 

Is out of the realm of possibility that they actually judged his complaints to be unfounded?

[bbwex]

I agree that communication seems to be the main issue here. Although they knew at 7 A.M., they often don't make early announcements as people are sleeping. As another point, if the ship is two miles off shore, your picture would be of, shall we say, minimal interest. If they are going to skip the stop, they don't get in close enough for a picture worth taking.

 

I agree with giving the captain the benefit of the doubt. He has to make the call. He knows people will be upset, so it has to be a difficult decision. While the seas may not have looked too bad, a) your perspective is different up on level 10 than down in a tender, and b) you don't know how the particular sea state was affecting the harbor. If the seas are heaping up in the harbor that day, the seas get very "confused" and you really would have had complaints about getting bounced around.

 

As for Port of Spain rather than Tobago, there is a lot more to do and see in Trinidad than Tobago, unless you like looking at a lot of jungle. Most of Tobago is totally undeveloped. It is different, and you might well have been looking forward to it and have had excursions. But Trinidad has much more on the island.

 

One last concurrence on the communication issue. As a final note, we almost never use ship's excursions, and when we have had a problem, we have always gotten a refund (we mostly work through shoretrips.com).

[PaulMCO]

Does anyone else buy into the logic that if Oceania does not blindly give in to this gentlemans demands then they must be in trouble financially?

 

Is out of the realm of possibility that they actually judged his complaints to be unfounded?

 

I do. First off he did not say they had financial problems. Said the new owners are demanding higher profits.

 

We have cruised only 15 times. Three of which have been Oceania. As far as missed ports which was the original intent of this thread, in my 3 O cruises ALL three have had either missed or cancelled ports. The other 12 with other cruise lines have had ZERO missed ports or changes.

 

O does have a very poor record here!!

[trina2]

I'm LittleRedJohn whose review was cited in an earlier post. [...]

I tried to find your review...unsuccessfully. Could you post a link?

[cbb]

People far more knowledgeable than I could answer this: could the size of the smaller O ships have anything to do with more ports being canceled? And, are we speaking anecdotally or factually about the number of missed ports? Is there a way to know that other cruise lines have more or less cancellations than O? (JimandStan.....loved it...brought a grin to the face of she who is waiting for Irene here in NC)

[sitraveler]

It's not the size of the ship, it's the size of the port.

 

Smaller ports are more likely not to be as available as the larger ports.

 

Oceania strives for smaller, more authentic ports. That would lead to more events where the ship cannot make the port.

[cbb]

thanks....makes perfect sense to me.

[juli2020]

I do. First off he did not say they had financial problems. Said the new owners are demanding higher profits.

 

We have cruised only 15 times. Three of which have been Oceania. As far as missed ports which was the original intent of this thread, in my 3 O cruises ALL three have had either missed or cancelled ports. The other 12 with other cruise lines have had ZERO missed ports or changes.

 

O does have a very poor record here!!

We have been on 23 cruises....The only cruise line that we have ever missed a port was on Oceania.

[rallydave]

Is out of the realm of possibility that they actually judged his complaints to be unfounded?

 

While that is certainly possible, from comments on this board as well as Regent, have not yet heard of a case where either cruise line found any complaints to be well founded.

 

Of course, some people put in unfounded claims but, the record, at least on CC appears to show that PCH (Regent and Oceania) provides a standard response, almost word for word the same wording for any complaint. This is the issue; a consistand response to any and all complaints that they are correct and the customer is wrong.

 

A recipe for ruin!!!

[rallydave]

It could have been worse

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4584

 

At least they did not leave you ashore;)

 

At least both of the cruiseline did something for their customers, contrary to PCH (Oceania and Regent) pretty much never doing anything for their customers, even when they are at fault. In the case of this issue, the 2 cruise lines were simply following the orders of the port yet still provided hotels and transportation to many, but not all of those left behind thru no fault of their own.

[LHT28]

At least both of the cruiseline did something for their customers, contrary to PCH (Oceania and Regent) pretty much never doing anything for their customers, even when they are at fault. In the case of this issue, the 2 cruise lines were simply following the orders of the port yet still provided hotels and transportation to many, but not all of those left behind thru no fault of their own.

I think you need to re read the article they did supply help to those that booked cruise air others were on their own

 

As I seem to recall Oceania did help passengers during the volcano disruption & the earthquake in Chile

 

But we are going off topic so I will leave it at that

 

If you believe Oceania is the only one with complaints people should look around the forums at other lines

 

Nuff said

 

Lyn

[A Knitter]

I humbly refer disappointed folks to the following website in order to ease the pain of not being able to set foot on Devils Island. One of the photos is a shot from the water, most likely taken from a cruise ship!.

 

http://gosouthamerica.about.com/od/frenchguiana/ig/Tour-Devil-s-Island-/

 

Dick Oettel

Ooohhh.:eek: That is like you buying a lotto ticket after I purchased one at the same store and you won only to show me the money I missed.:)

Great pictures though!

[raffeer]

While that is certainly possible, from comments on this board as well as Regent, have not yet heard of a case where either cruise line found any complaints to be well founded.

 

The one complaint I made on an O cruise was with a ship excursion on the Marina maiden voyage that I felt was described incorrectly. I spoke to the Concierge's assistant and later that day received a short note and notification of full credit. That is what I would expect from O following an earlier experience where we received credit for an excursion that did not live up to O's expectations as opposed to passenger expectations.

Perhaps the reason O will skip ports is a desire to put passenger comfort/safety above all else. OK with me.

[no fuss travel]

We missed a port due to a strike and O substituted another port for it. We took it in our stride, enjoyed the new port and as a result returned to the ship earlier and enjoyed the facilities aboard. We have been on several cruises and have had ports cancelled due to weather problems with RCCL and Princess, so one cannot point fingers at O only.

[cbb]

Our favorite O corporate response: We were scheduled to visit Egypt and Syria with O; obviously that was canceled and other ports were added. Despite people on this board warning me we could get a better deal purchasing visas elsewhere, we bought our visas through O. Although they certainly didn't have to, our money was refunded to us and we had not even asked! We just chalked it up to life and cruising. The refund beat us home! We have signed up for a b2b in 2012 making it our 8th & 9th O cruise.

[LittleRedJohn]

Check under Cruise Critic member/passenger reviews for Regatta. It's dated March 11. LittleRedJohn

[brlight]

Boburly,

There is no excuse for poor customer service. I am leaving in several weeks on an Oceania cruise after several years of staying away from then. I hope it goes better than your experience. Let me give you an example of excellent customer service by another cruise line. On a similar trip to to the Amazon on Crystal (and we stopped at Devil's Island), we had a "not great" experience on an excursion - part was good, part was not good. We didn't complain, but evidently some others did. When we got back to our room as we re-boarded, there was a personalized letter of apology from the Excusion Desk and a full refund for us both. Now THAT is great customer service! All within 1/2 hour of returning.

[xplrcrzn]

Do cruise lines refund port fees for missed ports?

[Mura]

Do cruise lines refund port fees for missed ports?

 

An excellent question. We have only missed a very few ports on our cruises but I don't recall having those fees refunded. They might have been and we didn't notice, but I rather doubt it.

 

Mura

[orchestrapal]

An excellent question. We have only missed a very few ports on our cruises but I don't recall having those fees refunded. They might have been and we didn't notice, but I rather doubt it.

 

Mura

 

We have only missed two ports in 10 Oceania cruises and have never thought we deserved a refund...:rolleyes: