Poer arrival and departure changes

[pinotlover]

3 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

We only ‘know’ that Oceania is ‘guilty’ of missing ports etc more than other lines because of what is reported here. We actually don’t know as a ‘fact’! 
Anybody have any ‘real’ data?

Here’s a real fact that easily discerned that Oceania well knows. Passengers like me are a small minority of the guests. Take a look at the majority, sometimes only, port tours Oceania offers. Predominantly 2-4 hour tours. Far more passengers are upset if they get back after 2:00 from a tour than if they cut port times. They can still get into port at 10:00, instead of 8:00, do their three hour tour, and be back in the Terrace by 1:15, then a nap. Whether the ship departs at 3:00 or 5:30 matters not to them.
 

Do you never talk to passengers that rarely get off the ship, if ever? They don’t care about skipping ports or cutting port times. We were on the Vista in June in the Med. Thirteen days, 1 sea day. People constantly complaining about lounger hogs. That was on port days, forget about the single sea day. Many either rarely got off the ship, or just briefly if they did. Oceania isn’t completely dumb. They know many; probably a large majority, of their guests could care less about this issue. 
 

For we minority that do care, we’ll have to decide our own actions going forward. I expect little variation in operations from Oceania.

[Snaefell3]

1 hour ago, Vineyard View said:

It occurs to me that how a company responds when stuff happens is important.

::nods::

 

Interesting that CCL(10%) and RCL(13%) have begun paying down their extra debt from 2020-2022, and NCLH has not.  Methinks NCLH may not have the resources to respond as well as we might like.

[Vallesan]

30 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

Here’s a real fact that easily discerned that Oceania well knows. Passengers like me are a small minority of the guests. Take a look at the majority, sometimes only, port tours Oceania offers. Predominantly 2-4 hour tours. Far more passengers are upset if they get back after 2:00 from a tour than if they cut port times. They can still get into port at 10:00, instead of 8:00, do their three hour tour, and be back in the Terrace by 1:15, then a nap. Whether the ship departs at 3:00 or 5:30 matters not to them.
 

Do you never talk to passengers that rarely get off the ship, if ever? They don’t care about skipping ports or cutting port times. We were on the Vista in June in the Med. Thirteen days, 1 sea day. People constantly complaining about lounger hogs. That was on port days, forget about the single sea day. Many either rarely got off the ship, or just briefly if they did. Oceania isn’t completely dumb. They know many; probably a large majority, of their guests could care less about this issue. 
 

For we minority that do care, we’ll have to decide our own actions going forward. I expect little variation in operations from Oceania.

Not quite sure which ‘minority’ of passengers you belong to or what your needs are.

 

Actually, I’m one of those passengers who ‘rarely if ever gets  off the ship’ but I do ‘care’ about missing ports’ because we book cruises without sea days! Not everybody on a cruise is looking for the same thing!

 

I’m guessing you will always find a number of people on any cruise who are cruising just for the service and the whole ambience rather than the ports per se.

 

May I suggest an ‘expedition’ cruise because you’re unlikely to get any ‘rarely get offs ‘ on that!

 

 

 

[clo]

1 hour ago, Vineyard View said:

I do not read very much about O responding in a positive way when stuff happens

THIS!

[clo]

9 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

I’m guessing you will always find a number of people on any cruise who are cruising just for the service and the whole ambience rather than the ports per se.

 

It would be interesting if there was data about this. We're really, really port people so these things are really beyond off-putting.

Let me tack this on here. Through Simply More we have a number of shore excursions booked. If, say, the ship is two hours late arriving would a half day shore excursion just leave two hours later?

[ORV]

4 hours ago, QuestionEverything said:

We are the same - it is all about the ports. Reliability on arrival and departure is a very significant metric for us.

I believe ORV posted on another thread (a long post with 4 or 5 paragraphs) that O is known by many as having one of the poorer reliability for arrivals.

I have noted many posters stating the same over the years, and I have experienced some dubious O excuses.

Having been on numerous bulk carriers on the Great Lakes, I understand ship context versus weather etc (been in mighty storms on the Great Lakes), so I am aware of complexity.

The O bull about shortened port time being "environmental" fools no one.

The O history of port arrivals, poor corporate communication to guests and now lack of shore excursions, has resulted in us having O bookings at this time.

 

 

To quote the late great Chuck Berry:

 

It wasn't me, Captain
Uhm-uhm, Captain, it wasn't me
It must have been some other body
Uhm-uhm, Captain, it wasn't me

[no fuss travel]

We had port times shortened on HAL when we were doing a cruise for New Years.  Previous cruises on other lines we have had port times changed.  You just have to go with the flow.  Enjoy your cruise and forget about the little blips.

[EJL2023]

On our recent cruise they did leave early on a few of the ports, BUT they never changed the All on Board times from what was scheduled.  So I guess if they saw all were onboard they simply decided to leave earlier. 

[roberts2005]

Our upcoming Regatta cruise has the following changes

 

aren't tides known a year in advance

[roberts2005]

The interesting thing about changes due to tides is that all changes shorten time in port, none involve a longer stay.  At least we were told in advance.

[Hanoj]

1 hour ago, roberts2005 said:

Our upcoming Regatta cruise has the following changes

 

aren't tides known a year in advance

I expect they will roll out new euphemisms for cost cutting measures. Tides are reasonably well predicted but fuel costs not so much. It seems O believes enough of its guests don’t care  about such changes and others of us aren’t clever enough to discern real reasons behind their subterfuge. Apparently they believe these approaches are better than assessing fuel costs surcharges. 
 

[clo]

1 hour ago, roberts2005 said:

The interesting thing about changes due to tides is that all changes shorten time in port, none involve a longer stay.  At least we were told in advance.

INTERESTING 🙂 Well, not really 🙂 

[Tranquility Base]

Also on the 15th Norwegian Spirit is due in. (07:45)

Two days prior on Wed 13th Nautica is due in. (06:45)

Edited February 7 by Tranquility Base

[Vineyard View]

11 hours ago, Vallesan said:

We only ‘know’ that Oceania is ‘guilty’ of missing ports etc more than other lines because of what is reported here. We actually don’t know as a ‘fact’! 
Anybody have any ‘real’ data?

That is true. However, if you follow a few different boards that are in similar categories of lines, and you see a pattern on one more than another, I have to wonder if those on cruise critic and book face are all that different from one line to another? I see many of the same people of these different threads, yet on O there is truly much more discontent with the topic of this dialogue. So ‘real data’….probably not.  Discerning people who are interested in a few different lines being extremely dissimilar in their analysis……IDK?

[Vineyard View]

10 hours ago, Vallesan said:

Not quite sure which ‘minority’ of passengers you belong to or what your needs are.

 

Actually, I’m one of those passengers who ‘rarely if ever gets  off the ship’ but I do ‘care’ about missing ports’ because we book cruises without sea days! Not everybody on a cruise is looking for the same thing!

 

I’m guessing you will always find a number of people on any cruise who are cruising just for the service and the whole ambience rather than the ports per se.

 

May I suggest an ‘expedition’ cruise because you’re unlikely to get any ‘rarely get offs ‘ on that!

 

 

 

We are the same travel style as Pinotlover. We want to enjoy the ship, but we choose carefully. We choose for the ports. We don’t choose for being on the ship during a port day for lunch or the pool. We choose to explore where we are visiting. For the maximum amount of time that we can. So….if the majority of travelers do not care if a port is shortened or missed, then we also fall into that ‘minority’ who do not want to worry about this pattern being discussed on multiple O threads. Maybe the real question is, have O ships become the destination, or are they the  places she sails to?  As you said, not everyone cruises for the same thing. You  ‘rarely get off the ship’. So the patterns of discussion here don’t affect you as much as those who travel just as much for the ports visited. 

[daydreamer62]

1 hour ago, Vineyard View said:

That is true. However, if you follow a few different boards that are in similar categories of lines, and you see a pattern on one more than another, I have to wonder if those on cruise critic and book face are all that different from one line to another? I see many of the same people of these different threads, yet on O there is truly much more discontent with the topic of this dialogue. So ‘real data’….probably not.  Discerning people who are interested in a few different lines being extremely dissimilar in their analysis……IDK?

Yes I was just reading similar complaints in the viking boards. With similar theories behind why they ports are being missed or port times shortened 

[ORV]

We just arrived 2 hours early in Punta Arenas. How many of you ever report these situations?  Hard to complain about that eh?

[QuestionEverything]

59 minutes ago, ORV said:

We just arrived 2 hours early in Punta Arenas. How many of you ever report these situations?  Hard to complain about that eh?

Morning ORV, how often have you seen a post about an early arrival?

I do not recall ever seeing a post on this, not saying it does not happen, but just not seen a post on early arrival on the O board or any others.

Anyone else, can you remember a post on an early arrival?

[pinotlover]

7 minutes ago, QuestionEverything said:

Morning ORV, how often have you seen a post about an early arrival?

I do not recall ever seeing a post on this, not saying it does not happen, but just not seen a post on early arrival on the O board or any others.

Anyone else, can you remember a post on an early arrival?

The only early arrivals I can recall over my last three Oceania Cruises were into the disembarkment port(s). The ship was so glad to be getting rid of most of us fuel conservation wasn’t considered. Full steam ahead! 😂🙄

[QuestionEverything]

8 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

The only early arrivals I can recall over my last three Oceania Cruises were into the disembarkment port(s). The ship was so glad to be getting rid of most of us fuel conservation wasn’t considered. Full steam ahead! 😂🙄

pinotlover, Super post, just love it indeed.

You made me smile and laugh, well done!

Thanks so much.

[shepherd really]

1 hour ago, ORV said:

We just arrived 2 hours early in Punta Arenas. How many of you ever report these situations?  Hard to complain about that eh?

If not for complaints, this board would be mostly silent.

[ORV]

The reason you don’t see reports of getting there early is because on social media people are much more likely to complain than praise. Just the way things work. Then people start talking about “all” the negative reviews and it just snowballs from there. The sky is not falling but things are definitely changing, and people don’t like change, especially if it’s something they don’t agree with. 
 

Not only are people more likely to report negative things, the negative reports will carry more weight than the positive ones. My current Oceania experience is that they are still a quality product, but changes have been made, with more to come. We all have to decide if it’s still for us, but I see no need for a crusade against them just because you don’t like the changes. Just move on. 

[njhorseman]

2 hours ago, ORV said:

We just arrived 2 hours early in Punta Arenas. How many of you ever report these situations?  Hard to complain about that eh?

Well now you've reminded them to complain about that too. 😁

[clo]

22 hours ago, Vallesan said:

Actually, I’Im one of those passengers who ‘rarely if ever gets  off the ship’ but I do ‘care’ about missing ports’ because we book cruises without sea days! Not everybody on a cruise is looking for the same thing!

 

I'm sincerely confused. If you "rarely if ever" get off the ship then why do you care if you're in a port or not. Not being snotty, I promise.

[clo]

1 hour ago, ORV said:

much more likely to complain than praise

"Quick to criticize, slow to praise."