Oceania Cruises
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I’d happily give Oceania no stars… Never Again
I’d happily give Oceania no stars simply because the “finest cuisine at sea” does not exist, at least not on Sirena. I’m a good cook & I have an above average palate. I say this not to boast, but to indicate the deep level of disappointment we experienced on our 24 days on Sirena. After filling out the mid-cruise survey we had a meeting with Simon Hockley, Serena’s executive chef. He’s a lovely man, polite and professional, but all we got were excuses about the supply chain. After twenty years they still haven’t figured it out? I would think that if you don’t have all the ingredients to prepare a dish properly that you would take it off the menu. Who has ever heard of serving a Waldorf Salad without grapes or walnuts? Soups were continuously over-salted & recipes were not followed. Thom Kha Goong is supposed to have a coconut milk base with tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and shrimp; not a clear broth with ONE shrimp cut into pieces and NO vegetables. Caviar was served once and it was WARM. Sushi apparently does not exist in their repertoire. They don’t use real truffles either. One soup I ordered arrived with something having the color and texture of a Scotch-Brite sponge. Silly me, I had asked for extra truffles because I thought it was the real thing. One thing was consistent; the steaks were invariably chewy, tough and lacking in flavor. I was expecting organic choices but was told by Chef Hockley “we’re not there yet.” He also commented that their focus was more on French than Italian cuisine. Apparently he is unfamiliar with Catherine de Medici and the history of French cookery. Oceania makes over $418 million per year. Where is all the money going? Certainly not on the food budget. What really surprised me was the number of clients who thought the food was fine. Then I spoke with one man who only eats food he can cook in a microwave oven at home. That explains why so many return customers are content with the swill Oceania offers. I wonder if those at concierge level or in suites get a different menu. In three weeks the room service menu never varied and the “Grand” dining room menu rotated on a weekly basis. (There’s nothing grand about it) I ordered Diver Scallops for an entree one night and received three one inch scallops on my plate. The wait to order a meal ranged from fifteen to thirty minutes. Sommeliers were few and far between and the choices for a basic drinks package was cheap and pathetic. They up-sell everything. Want a nice Montepulciano with your beef? Only by the bottle. You can’t use your package to get a drink at any of the bars, only the dining venues. Not knowing this on the first day I was charged $16.80 for a glass of cheap Prosecco which was more than the cost of an entire bottle at home. Salad Nicoise’ showed up for lunch no less than four times. It was one of the better options, albeit “deconstructed” and decidedly lacking in green beans and potatoes. I ordered a fettuccine dish with sea bass one evening. The entire dish contained two flakes of fish that were smaller than the chocolates placed on our pillows at night. The chefs don’t know what “Al dente” means either. Sad to say, I have had consistently better food on every other cruise line I have sailed with, including Carnival. The only good thing about this line is there service staff. Lovely people, anxious to please and serious about providing comfort. Jacques Pepin should be ashamed to have his name associated with Oceania. Fool me once…..