We left England on 20th Feb after an overnight hotel stay at Heathrow, flew to Miami for a stay in the Hilton Hotel which was a restful overnight stop before our cruise the next day. We have travelled on Riviera 2 years ago and had a super, faultless cruise which is why we decided to book again this February. On the day of embarkation we were looking forward to joining the ship again, and were picked up from our hotel to travel to the port at 12.10 p.m. (a little earlier than 12.30, but where we expected to start embarking at 1.00 p.m.). However, on arrival we were informed that embarkation would not happen until 2.00 p.m.

We had received no indication about this delay prior to the cruise, and the reasons behind it, so after eventually joining the ship it was extremely surprising to hear another announcement that we could not join our cabin until 4.00 p.m. So we sat on board with our carry-on bags. Again, at 4.00 p.m. there was a further announcement that access to cabins would still not be ready and we must wait. Just before 5.00 p.m. we were finally given the go ahead to join the cabins. We were relieved after this delay, and expected to start the cruise as normal but on arriving in the corridor accessing our our cabin everybody's luggage was lined up as far as we could see, and guests were trying to find their bags. On entering the cabin, it was not ready and very far from the usual very pleasant state we had previously experienced with Riviera. The bed was made but the cabin was lacking in many things and was quite a shock. As we had expected, we had to go for the usual safety lecture, still unaware of the whereabouts of our luggage, and the ship sailed at 6.00 p.m. After the lecture, we returned to the cabin and eventually found our 2 bags. We felt extremely sorry for the cabin and crew staff who were running around trying to produce the very large amount of luggage, which obviously neglected most of their usual duties. We are not blaming the cabin staff as they were doing two because of this problem.

This totally unexpected and chaotic beginning to a fairly expensive holiday came out of the blue for us, and the fact that we were not informed prior to the trip was an extra problem. After querying this the next day with a senior member of staff, I was told that an e-mail was sent to travel agents late on 18th February (this we have not seen), and we do consider that Oceania should have also e-mailed guests directly in addition to contacting travel agents. Read more