Until this cruise -- our 6th on Oceania -- we have enthusiastically recommended Oceania as having "the best cuisine at sea". We have always been very impressed with the food selection, quality, preparation, and service in all the food venues on the various Oceania ships. We are sophisticated food lovers and pretty good chefs ourselves. Therefore, we were very disappointed with the food on this cruise and it was obvious to us that Oceania (now owned by Norwegian) is seriously cutting corners -- and it shows. Part of the problem is the service -- we were told by a server who has been on Oceania for 9 years that NCL has cut the number of servers by half. That is a reason why the food has suffered. Often the food was cold by the time it was served. And many times the server mixed up the orders. Sometimes food that was supposed to be cold was served on hot plates and food that was supposed to be hot was served on cold plates. It took far too long to be served -- we sat for hours at dinner. The servers seemed a bit overwhelmed -- not enough help for the number of guests.

And then the food itself was a lesser quality. The meat is not the same fine quality that it was -- lamb chops were tough, grisly, and more like mutton -- not tender baby lamb. Other meats were not prime quality. The fish was often seriously overcooked and mushy. There was a lot of inconsistency in the cooking -- sometimes things were seriously over-salted and sometimes things were just bland and boring. Sometimes things were absolutely excellent. Jacques Pepin would not want his name attached to the food that is served.

We heard many people complaining about the food and service -- especially people who were loyal Oceania guests. I heard people say they would not be booking on Oceania any more. Read more