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I just completed Oceania’s Asian Wonders cruise on Nautica January 15-30, 2011. I am an Oceania groupie and love the ambiance, excellent service, exceptional food, and the type of clientele attracted to Oceania. I have cruised on all three small ships over a period of 6 years.
I chose Asian Wonders because I specifically wanted this itinerary, and was not disappointed. Be aware that going to Hanoi is a long 3 ½ hour drive from the port each way making a long day and a long drive. Destination Services offered an overnight in Hanoi -- a better time management option. Otherwise proximity from port to city was not excessive.
When shipboard changes occurred in the past it was usually a positive change and often not noticed by guests. However, I was disappointed to experience the change in management of Oceania@Sea. I immediately expressed my feelings to the concierge about this.
It seems Oceania has contracted out the services, thus no service is offered, except use of the PC's. For returning guests, this is a big change. No longer is it possible to download photos and cut CD's, or provide computer classes. For most of the older generation, it was very confusing to use the PC's, as there were 2 logins; one for Oceania cruise mail and the other for internet. Emails were $3.95 per each incoming and outgoing, but internet time was exorbitant per minute. You had to login to internet just to use Microsoft Word to create your messages, so you ended up creating online. Thus no way to economize the costs. To reply to emails, you had to login to internet. Even the folks with personal PC's had problems in their rooms, and had to consult with the lone (that’s right – only one) person for the whole ship. This happened often when they were composing emails and they lost all their content and had to start over. To sum it up, it wasn't pretty and the contractor wasn't especially nice. (I reported this also, and thereafter, I tried harder and he was nicer.)
A suggested change for Oceania: Get rid of smoking in Horizons! It is a blight on the beauty of this gorgeous room and impossible to rid the smoke smell.
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