Is the quality still with O or has it also been hit with the penny pinching of other cruise lines?

[oskidunker]

If you are booking on a ship they usually give you 6 months

[Ray4Fun]

3 hours ago, basor said:

As I understand, as long as you already have a future Viking cruise booked and then book another, the FP is 6 months .  Otherwise it is the 1 year in advance. Friends booked a JAN 2025 Vietnam cruise and FP is due JAN 2024.  They have sailed on many Viking cruises so not newbies.  There is quite a discussion about this on the Viking board....

When you ask, they do 6 months

[rbtan]

Quality has stayed rather stable. There have been a few misses. Avoid the Oysters Rockefeller(awful!!) Avoid the suckling Pig. (really just hard as a rock Pork Belly) The Dover sole was some of the best I've ever had anywhere.(GDR)Jacques Salmon is always excellent. I got it a few times when the GDR menu didn't interest us. We're booked on the Vista for 12 nights in Jan.19(permitting my Kidney transplant does not occur near that time. I'm stable at the moment) The Jan.2023 cruise was nice, but disliked the skipping of ports & shortened stays at others. This "Save the Seas" is a load of crap. We hauled A$$ to get to the Caribbean & then putsed  around at slow speed to save fuel. The excuse that there werte strong winds & rough seas was garbage.They did this to save money. If this happens again this time we'll drop O & go elsewhere. We're booked in 2025 on a trip on the new Sun Princess. We booked a "Cabana Reserve Mini Suite" We always disliked the food on Princess, but like the itineraries.The Suites & Reserve mini suites now will have their own private restaurants, so hopefully the food quality will be much better.

[1985rz1]

1 hour ago, Ray4Fun said:

When you ask, they do 6 months

Not always (my experience).  Usually you can get 6 months if you already have another cruise on the books,

[Vineyard View]

4 hours ago, 1985rz1 said:

Not always (my experience).  Usually you can get 6 months if you already have another cruise on the books,

Correct. Same experience(S). 

[ReligBookFreak]

On 8/28/2023 at 5:09 PM, pinotlover said:

Depends upon how you spend your money. One Adriatic cruise:

Athens - Venice. Along the way: Argostoli, Corfu, Kotor, Koper, Ravenna, Split, Dubrovnik, Zadar. Maybe not in order, but all on one cruise with a couple sea days thrown in. One cruise, one cost. On Oceania it would take at least 2 separate cruises, if not three, to see all those ports. That single Viking cruise cost us a lot less than multiples on Oceania.

Oceania Marina April 19, 2024: Barcelona to Venice -- Barcelona, Marseille, Monte Carlo, Civitavecchia, Amalfi, Taormina, Argostoli (Cephalonia), Igoumenitsa, Kotor, Split, Venice.

Alan

[ak1004]

On 8/28/2023 at 6:09 PM, pinotlover said:

Depends upon how you spend your money. One Adriatic cruise:

Athens - Venice. Along the way: Argostoli, Corfu, Kotor, Koper, Ravenna, Split, Dubrovnik, Zadar. Maybe not in order, but all on one cruise with a couple sea days thrown in. One cruise, one cost. On Oceania it would take at least 2 separate cruises, if not three, to see all those ports. That single Viking cruise cost us a lot less than multiples on Oceania.

Except for Viking, what would you consider as a viable alternative to O, with good itineraries and comparable (or slightly higher) pricing if itinerary is the main driver?  

[oskidunker]

We got 6. Months booking while on a cruise. 

[Vineyard View]

7 hours ago, ak1004 said:

Except for Viking, what would you consider as a viable alternative to O, with good itineraries and comparable (or slightly higher) pricing if itinerary is the main driver?  

Seabourn is a really good option. Definitely a step up from Viking. Haven’t yet experienced Oceania but we are booked. 

[Sirat]

We have cruised on many lines: Oceania, Azamara, Norwegian, Princess, Carnival, MSC, Celebrity, Windstar, Holland America, Regent - - and we are still happy with Oceania's service and itineraries. We consider ourselves to be experienced travelers, as well as food connoisseurs - -  - both in cooking and in dining at restaurants. In our experience, some very fine, top rated restaurants in New York, Palm Beach, Boston, Washington, D.C., and overseas serve fine EVOO with flavorful, freshly baked breads, not to mask the taste, but to complement it. Any cruise ship will appeal to some and disappoint others. We liked the service and food at Oceania's Toscana and Red Ginger. We are physically fit, very active, not old, and we find the Oceania restaurant portions to be appropriate. Perhaps some people have slow metabolism, are overweight, or need help managing their food intake? 

We have been pleased with Oceania's port itineraries and appreciate the decent amount of time at each location, as compared with some other cruise ships.

No cruise line is perfect.

[jakes47]

We were on the Riviera for 28 days until the 2nd of September.  Our previous Cruise with Oceania was in 2018.  

This was an eventful cruise but will put that aside when I tell you that this cruise indicated that Oceania has changed significantly in so many little ways that all added up to cost cutting.

Previously we gave Oceania's food 4 stars.  This cruise 2 stars and if we had been served some of the food we experienced at a restaurant at home, we would never eat there again.  It was so inconsistent we would actually feel a tad anxious before entering a dinning venue.  We enjoyed beautiful slice of Beef wellington in the terrace one night then the next night the steak from the grill was so tuff it was inedible. The only time we found consistency was at the breakfast buffet.

The inconsistency was was more that just food - it was in all areas.

May be we were unlucky but ours were B2B cruises and it was the same on both.

The warning sign was there for us when after our final payment was made they significantly reduce the fare on the first cruise and there was nothing we could do about it.

They just don't seem to care any more.  Sad!

[LHT28]

20 minutes ago, jakes47 said:

The warning sign was there for us when after our final payment was made they significantly reduce the fare on the first cruise and there was nothing we could do about it.

They just don't seem to care any more.  Sad!

Do they not give you the reduced  fare  or at least  an OBC or FCC in Australia ?

 

[jakes47]

42 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

Do they not give you the reduced  fare  or at least  an OBC or FCC in Australia ?

 

No - Once the final payment is made, it is in stone.  To do this after all the final payments came in was so obvious and an insult.  In the past we would catch a reduction before the final payment and were able enjoyed the benefit.

I really hope that our experience is not the same for others.  I hope we were just unlucky.

Oceania had such a great product.

[QuestionEverything]

jakes47, thank you for your post.

I completed a 17 day aboard Insignia ending August 30.

It was my first O cruise.

Based on my discussions with long time O cruisers, this is what they noted about the food - I have posted this information before:

* Meat offerings less

* Meat tougher and thinner size

* This is a big one - the pain au chocolate is Costco like (bread like), not the ultra flakey pastry of before

* Stir fries, not a stir fry - some grizzle meat with little vegetables and never a snow pea to be found

* Desserts, much more custard based than before - gone are the elaborate multi layer cakes, more "squares" and of course the awful cookies

_________________

My observations that the food was good to excellent and could be variable in quality as pinotlover notes.

* God awful beef mole cubes with a dark brown thick paste

* I agreed with others about the stir fry, pathetic

* I agreed about the pain au chocolate, they were bread like

* Some of the steaks were indeed tough indeed

On the positive, loved the power bowls, they were great, innovative ingredients and toppings - had one or two a day! The meat carving station excellent. The bread baskets on O are to die for, loved the Texas burger at Waves.

I felt rather spoiled.

______________________

I have no doubt that O has cheapened and reduced the food offerings like every other cruise line. There was much grumbling by the regulars and you could hear comments in Terrace and on the way out of the dining rooms.

I was sufficiently impressed that I have booked another cruise on O.

I am a Celebrity refugee like many.

Happy cruising.

[LHT28]

I am not sure if it just  cruise lines that have a problem with food quality

 

We have a hard time here getting good quality beef  as well as other  food supplies

plus the prices  have  gone up  quite a lot in the past year

 

Remember negative comments are also "influencers" 🤔

 

JMO

[ak1004]

3 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

I am not sure if it just  cruise lines that have a problem with food quality

 

We have a hard time here getting good quality beef  as well as other  food supplies

plus the prices  have  gone up  quite a lot in the past year

 

Remember negative comments are also "influencers" 🤔

 

JMO

 

I agree with you about the beef. We felt that this was the only food that was not as good as before.

[Gracie115]

On 8/28/2023 at 12:59 AM, Vineyard View said:

Exactly my point. That is what is why I just wonder why all the comparisons are between Celebrity and  Oceania. 

 

 

Probably has something to do with people like me who have been long time Celebrity cruisers and have become disillusioned by the cuts in service and perks and increases in price.  I have my first Oceania cruise in 2 months and will probably be comparing for others who are trying Oceania for the first time because they are also pretty much done with Celebrity.

[Vineyard View]

25 minutes ago, Gracie115 said:

Probably has something to do with people like me who have been long time Celebrity cruisers and have become disillusioned by the cuts in service and perks and increases in price.  I have my first Oceania cruise in 2 months and will probably be comparing for others who are trying Oceania for the first time because they are also pretty much done with Celebrity.

Thank you. I think this seems to run pretty true with a lot of Oceania passengers….being from Celebrity in the past. We never sailed Celebrity so I cannot comment to that comparison. I think it is great that so many have found Oceania to be a better fit for them.
My curiosity was having to do with how Oceania compares to Viking, Azamara, Seabourn…as the larger lines/ships are not on our radar.

[sunlover12]

Interesting comments about the beef.   I don't eat a lot of red meat and I rarely buy it at home. When I'm on a cruise, I splurge at one dinner and order a steak. On my most recent cruise I ordered a 7 oz filet mignon at Polo Grill and thought it was very good. It was tender and flavorful. 4 out of 5 at our table ordered it and we all liked it. Polo Grill has been my least favorite specialty restaurant in the past but on this cruise, I thought they really stepped it up.  We did however notice that their 7 layer Belgian Chocolate Cake was only 5 layers. Still good though.  My husband ordered the beef bourguignon one night at dinner in the GDR and liked it. 

 

I'm not a cheerleader. I just call it like I see it. I agree with LHT28 when she says that negative comments are also "influencers". 

[pinotlover]

Back early Covid, beef prices crashed. They went down and stayed down while feed prices ( corn and soybeans) rose dramatically due to repeated poor harvests in South America. Farmers sold off their herds because they were losing money. After the sell off, with inventory reduced, prices went back up but still not enough to compensate for high grain and hay prices. There has been no desire or effort to rebuild the herd sizes. I don’t see those economics changing anytime soon.  At this point, it would take at least two to three years to rebuild herd sizes, so nothing will change rapidly in the marketplace.
 

What the market now has is higher beef prices but still a shortage of particularly good quality beef. The upper end steak houses are willing to pay to get the quality their customers demand ( and are willing to pay for). The cruise lines can’t afford to venture there. Of course none of this affects delivery of a steak medium well that was ordered medium rare! Except for the longer you cook it, the tougher it can become.

Edited September 20, 2023 by pinotlover

[ak1004]

8 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

 

What the market now has is higher beef prices but still a shortage of particularly good quality beef. The upper end steak houses are willing to pay to get the quality their customers demand ( and are willing to pay for). The cruise lines can’t afford to venture there. Of course none of this affects delivery of a steak medium well that was ordered medium rare! Except for the longer you cook it, the tougher it can become.

 

This is why I always order medium rare and usually get it medium lol..

[Tranquility Base]

Does Oceania regularly  serve lamb dishes in the GDR for lunch or dinner ?

IE: Rack, leg, chops, curry ?

[pinotlover]

13 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

Does Oceania regularly  serve lamb dishes in the GDR for lunch or dinner ?

IE: Rack, leg, chops, curry ?

Only rarely in the GDR. Racks are available in PG and RG. 

[Woofa]

When on Riviera earlier this year we found the steak average at best with the exception of Polo Grill which we found good to very good.  The lamb was of course good enough to make up for it anytime we had it.

[basor]

36 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Only rarely in the GDR. Racks are available in PG and RG. 

And hot off the grill in Terrace every evening...