Just back from a TA on the Marina, Bcn to Mia.

[LHT28]

8 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

Also, everything that was BBQd, had the same smoky, bgq sauce, which I dont like. How about honey garlic,  or something else. Why every rib and chicken etc, the same smoky sauce? Yeah I know I am being picky. But that is why we pay for and  sail O, so I can be picky. 

Why not ask them  to make yours without the sauce   but ask in advance  not when you sit down to eat

[jonthomas]

ah...now why didnt I think of that...guess I am still not used to asking for something that is not standard fare....

[basenji56]

Apparently, the Wi-Fi problems were not fixed in Miami.

 

 

[pinotlover]

I believe there is a huge degree of practicality that goes into it also. Asking for dishes with substantial changes in sauces, herbs, spices, or other ingredients isn’t normally practical for the chef or maybe those you’re sharing a table with. I’ve found dishes I really enjoy and others not so much. I order what I enjoy and don’t ask the kitchen to make huge changes to their recipes for items I don’t like. As far as the bizarre such as the veal picatta Marsala which is neither piccata nor Marsala, I just skip it and move on. Asking for either real picatta or real Marsala would be a waste of time. It’s not what the kitchen does.

[Benita]

46 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

I believe there is a huge degree of practicality that goes into it also. Asking for dishes with substantial changes in sauces, herbs, spices, or other ingredients isn’t normally practical for the chef or maybe those you’re sharing a table with. I’ve found dishes I really enjoy and others not so much. I order what I enjoy and don’t ask the kitchen to make huge changes to their recipes for items I don’t like. As far as the bizarre such as the veal picatta Marsala which is neither piccata nor Marsala, I just skip it and move on. Asking for either real picatta or real Marsala would be a waste of time. It’s not what the kitchen does.

The veal piccata/marsala was one of my favorite dishes on the ship. Had it for lunch everytime I ate in the dining room.

[Robjame]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

As far as the bizarre such as the veal picatta Marsala which is neither piccata nor Marsala, I

Pinot - I think I have had both of these aboard. What is the thing about them that you have referred to?

[jonthomas]

well there you go...one mans/womans veal picata marsala is another mans/womans piece of heaven....

 

we have 6 more O cruises planned...O is our line of choice now....there are many things we love about it....

 

we are not dependent on the internet and can suffer through its unavailability....

 

sure, I hope the marina goes into a refit by the time we sail again on Nov 13, 2023...

 

by that time, it will be our 7th cruise ...

 

I have said this many times, our best cruise experience  with O was on the little Insignia....the food amazing....oh the weight gain....but that was pre covid....and pre so much else...

[LHT28]

18 minutes ago, jonthomas said:

sure, I hope the marina goes into a refit by the time we sail again on Nov 13, 2023...

 

 

Did you not get the memo?

 It may be done in 2024

[Ocean Hills]

Hi All:

Some points:

Had the veal picatta Marsala, even though I couldn't find any capers, the sauce was unique and tasty poured over mash potatoes.

A staff person in the extreme internet knowledge camp told me that Oceania needs to buy more bandwidth but very expensive when in the vast ocean.

Our cabin on deck 8 had strong shower pressure.

Noticed an increase of passenger coughing second half of the journey to be expected if passengers take excursions plus mingle in various towns, its all brought back to ship.  Personally we've both been sick since leaving the ship. 🥴

Yes, Immigration was a bummer, short staff due to additional personnel at the Southern Boarder.

Was told the emergency passenger did make it off ship alive and to the hospital.

 

The worst part was the 2+ hour wait at MIA to get a pre-paid rental car through Hertz. Extreme poor service after all the coddling on-board.

 

 

 

[Flatbush Flyer]

As we wade through the food comments, one thing is clear: When it comes to food, particularly ethnic items, a lot of purveyors of the various dishes in any cuisine claim to make the “real” thing. 
 

Two of my Oceania chuckle-inducers of late include one dish in Toscana and one in Waves. 

Relatively new on the Toscana menu is an item that, at first, caught my attention because its name is immediately recognizable by most (if not all) Sicilian (or Sicilian-American) families: Carciofi Ripieni.

 

NOTE: Whenever I see names of “Italian” dishes that are traditional for me (served at other than my favorite land eateries), I usually ask the server to describe their “real” thing. But, I had an insatiable craving for a taste of home. So I ordered it.

 

I won’t say anymore about what I got since you’ll all need to try it for yourself. What I will do is show you below a picture of the REAL “real” thing. 👀😎 

 

As for the Waves item, I’m hoping it’s a temporary hiccup. Imagine a Reuben made without Corned Beef (or even Pastrami)!!, At least, it WAS a sandwich with beef “brisket.” But  someone in the O master kitchen needs to visit Katz’s in Manhattan before throwing the term Reuben around.

[sailfar]

On Marina Athens to Miami:

No problem with water pressure, center floor 10

Staff was dedicated and energetic after the covid furlough. New staff recruits were actively being trained as part of the teams.  Loyalty level cruisers went back to eating with staff.

Most importantly, the public areas including restrooms were kept very clean. No norovirus outbreak procedure required for this crossing!  Fantastic!

The food variety has something for everyone, I believe.  You just have to find what works for you.  For me it is the Asian sushi, sashimi, Indian food special buffet, Red Ginger miso sea bass, The Polo Filet mignon, etc.  I like spicy food so I asked for hot pepper flakes located next to the pizza table and availed myself to the sauces near the Terrace grill.

USA San Juan immigration needs improvement and the NCLH Miami management needs to step in:

     San Juan port authority needs to waste less money on air conditioning in terminal waiting room.    Many people moved chairs to sunny side windows to stay warm. 

     A speaker system in the waiting room needs to be available.  The destination service people spent considerable time walking row by row to find missing excursion participants.  Also, keep people informed about how things are proceeding. 12 noon,  the expected time to be all cleared to go back on the ship, finally became more like 1 PM.   Old San Juan with its lovely narrow streets and stores is just across the street from the terminal and would have been a better option for the able bodied passengers than sitting in the waiting room. San Juan lost a lot of potential revenue and, noted on  this board,  Oceania lost considerable approval.

 

The onboard internet needs urgent attention.  The online,  onboard evaluation access is too complex.  There were special sessions for helping people do it and long lines of people at Oceania at Sea trying to figure it out.  Ridiculous waste of time.  The internet shut done while filling it out and people lost everything they had entered and had to start over.  One person said, "after that, I just put down a lot of negative comments and rating scores."     Also,  it should be easier to sign off the internet.  Many people stay online continuously instead, think that shutting down their computers takes them offline.  

 

All in all it was a wonderful cruise with a great staff.  We are looking forward to several more booked Oceania cruises!

.  

 

[susiesan]

15 minutes ago, sailfar said:

 

 

The onboard internet needs urgent attention.  The online,  onboard evaluation access is too complex.  There were special sessions for helping people do it and long lines of people at Oceania at Sea trying to figure it out.  Ridiculous waste of time.  The internet shut done while filling it out and people lost everything they had entered and had to start over.  One person said, "after that, I just put down a lot of negative comments and rating scores."     Also,  it should be easier to sign off the internet.  Many people stay online continuously instead, think that shutting down their computers takes them offline.  

 

.  

 

Why can't O figure out how to log people off after a certain amount of inactivity like so many web sites do. This is the main source of slow internet, not enough free bandwith.

[1pinehurst]

On 12/9/2022 at 7:54 PM, Flatbush Flyer said:

As we wade through the food comments, one thing is clear: When it comes to food, particularly ethnic items, a lot of purveyors of the various dishes in any cuisine claim to make the “real” thing. 
 

Two of my Oceania chuckle-inducers of late include one dish in Toscana and one in Waves. 

Relatively new on the Toscana menu is an item that, at first, caught my attention because its name is immediately recognizable by most (if not all) Sicilian (or Sicilian-American) families: Carciofi Ripieni.

 

NOTE: Whenever I see names of “Italian” dishes that are traditional for me (served at other than my favorite land eateries), I usually ask the server to describe their “real” thing. But, I had an insatiable craving for a taste of home. So I ordered it.

 

I won’t say anymore about what I got since you’ll all need to try it for yourself. What I will do is show you below a picture of the REAL “real” thing. 👀😎 

 

As for the Waves item, I’m hoping it’s a temporary hiccup. Imagine a Reuben made without Corned Beef (or even Pastrami)!!, At least, it WAS a sandwich with beef “brisket.” But  someone in the O master kitchen needs to visit Katz’s in Manhattan before throwing the term Reuben around.

 

[1pinehurst]

Just now, 1pinehurst said:

 

That was the worst Reuben ever. Took one bite and and went to get a hamburger.😀

[pinotlover]

I got one last cruise. Not only was the meat wrong, but it had some ground cabbage on it with the texture and taste of coleslaw. Nothing even similar to sauerkraut. Another chef’s expression of a traditional entree that was lacking. Plenty to eat, just don’t waste your time with that dish.

[jonthomas]

Many dishes were like that, some concoctions of the chefs creativity. Not a good idea to become creative with a reputation that O has to uphold.  Too bad we are at the mercy of whoever the chef is. There needs to be consistency. This is not about a one time Reuben sandwich. I could not recognize many of the salads in the Terrace or many of the other hot dishes. 

 

Yes I noted it on the questionnaire but next time will ask to meet with the chef. O is our line of choice mainly because of the food. We want to keep it that way. This is not an issue of supply. Perhaps training of staff. 

[PaulMCO]

I try to stay away from ethnic dishes.  First there is likely no native person cooking it and also highly unlikely they have all of the original ingredients of the dish.  Sometimes you will have some good Indian chefs that make great Indian cuisine with proper bread.  But give a Filipino chef and Indian meal to cook??  Then again who knows what the recipe is and the weird imagination of the chefs.

 

I think maybe we can blame a lot of this on the people and supply chain, these Faux pas were noted on three cruise lines over the past year.  Some is supply, other is execution and then some is ??

 

Some our recent cruise mystery winners:

 

• Indian food without any curry powder.  Nan that looked like think Arabic bread
• Kosher hot dogs with sauerkraut -- then they added some chopped tomatoes and scallions
• Infamous Reuben with brisket, plus it was soggy and cold.
• "Spanish" BBQ  (we were in Spain) that was 100% Mexican (tacos and enchiladas -- welcome to Carnival not Regent)
• Italian BBQ with no real Italian dishes (except American style Chicken Cacciatore) - excepting the salads.  Just because you have a caprese  salad and parmigiana cheese does not make it Italian.
• Singapore noodles without any chilies -- yes we sent it back for a redo -- but when the menu has a little pepper sign you would expect to see a few..

 

Next up is Marina -- let see what kind of gastronomical surprises await..

[SophieM]

Maybe they did us a favor on our Sirena TA.  The “Reuben” wasn’t even available. 

[Ladys Mom]

We will be joining Paul and others on the Marina this Sunday.  It has been a few years since we have sailed on Oceania.  We upgraded to Penthouse to minimize some of our complaints in advance, e.g. tiny closet and no dressing table/second desk.  We are going on with an open mind and see how it goes.

Norma and Mitch

[Redtravel]

On Marina now.  Nice, but not as good in grand dining room as I remembered. Also, if you want to eat early..6:30, there is a long line.  On 2nd night, we didn’t want to wait in line, we went at 7:30.  No line, but had to wait half hour for a table. Service is ok, but it used to be better.  Specialty dining rooms are very good.

[njhorseman]

3 hours ago, PaulMCO said:

First there is likely no native person cooking

So using your standards Julia Child couldn't possibly have made acceptable French food ???

 

[pinotlover]

From discussing the entrees with the chefs, for most preparations there are very few alternatives made by the chef. Miami gives them the cookbooks and they have to follow them. If Miami wants certain entrees bland, they are made bland. If Miami wants it otherwise, then that’s how it’s made. Biggest difference is, as we all are aware, some chefs are better than others even when using the same cookbook.

 

To compare Julia Childs, that studied French cooking for years with a young chef just handed a cookbook of recipes, of which he isn’t familiar, is silly.

[njhorseman]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

From discussing the entrees with the chefs, for most preparations there are very few alternatives made by the chef. Miami gives them the cookbooks and they have to follow them. If Miami wants certain entrees bland, they are made bland. If Miami wants it otherwise, then that’s how it’s made. Biggest difference is, as we all are aware, some chefs are better than others even when using the same cookbook.

 

To compare Julia Childs, that studied French cooking for years with a young chef just handed a cookbook of recipes, of which he isn’t familiar, is silly.

Right...they are following the recipes created by the corporate office...BUT...I've seen a change in the ship's executive chef mid cruise make a substantial difference, in either a positive or negative direction in the quality of the food's preparation, so you can't just point a finger at the recipes.

 

I was not comparing Julia Child with a young chef trying to follow a cookbook. That isn't even remotely close to what I was saying. I was commenting on what I think was a ridiculous assertion that one needed to be a "native" to properly cook "ethnic" food. Only Italians can cook Italian food? Only the French can cook French food ? Utter tripe. 

Edited December 12, 2022 by njhorseman

[shepherd really]

30 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

Utter tripe. 

I think we can all agree that only a Greek chef can properly cook utter Tripe. 😁

[njhorseman]

1 minute ago, shepherd really said:

I think we can all agree that only a Greek chef can properly cook utter Tripe. 😁

Needless to say my use of the word "tripe" was intentional. 😁