Oceania Cruises review: Disembarkment and Oceania paid transport to airport complaint

To whom this may concern regarding Oceania Cruises,

My wife and I recently returned from a cruise on the Nautica, Israel to Venice 10/5/23-10/27/23. We flew into Tel Aviv international airport on Delta on 10/5/23, arrangements made by Oceania Cruises, and from that point and until we where allowed to embark on the ship, faced many preventable challenges and safety concerns. We requested, met with, and provided a detailed description regarding our safety concerns and frustration to the concierge, Fabio, on the Nautica cruise ship, on 10/14/23. Please review these written concerns/complaints. We felt compelled not only by our frustration, but also the potential safety concerns with our experience regarding the described scenario, to inform the Nautica cruise representative(s) in hopes of correcting these concerns .

The cruise, other than the the events we experienced while on an excursion on 10/6/23 while in Israel, met our expectations. The crew, especially the Waite staff, complemented our cruise experience.

However the experience we, along with many other passengers, who disembarked on 10/27/23 with us on the Oceania paid transport to the airport in Venice, faced many challenges and extreme frustration. Other than receiving instructions based on number and color luggage tag while on the cruise ship, no further instruction or direction was provided by any Oceania representatives. The Oceania passengers where herded onto several buses, transported twice to two terminal like building without explanation, got off the bus, entered the building and "waited" for a reported "tardy" local employee to show up. In the mean time, we where in a 3 hour window to make our flight connection. When the employee arrived at the two listed buildings no passengers were screened and we were instructed to get back on the busses. The same events occurred at the second building. This is after we passed the airport just to turn around and go back to the airport. Instead of dropping the passengers off at the departure area of the airport the bus parked in a distant parking lot. All passengers then needed to locate their luggage and carry or roll their luggage approximately one quarter of a mile in a light rain to the entrance of the airport terminal. Once inside there were no Oceania representatives to guide or direct the Oceania passengers to the location of their scheduled airlines. In our case we flew on Delta. We asked three airport staff where Delta could be located. There response was "I don't speak English". We hustled about this very large airport and crossed paths with an Oceania representative who was working with arriving passengers. She directed us where to locate Delta. It turned out that the Delta window was at the furthest end of the terminal. Our apprehension level was very high, we where hurried, perspiring and exhausted walking this distance while pulling our luggage since no carts were available. This was totally preventable. Why couldn't the bus drop us, and the other passengers, off at the departure area? Why were we abandoned by Oceania representatives who failed to provided basic information and direction? We paid for this service and were let down. We have been on several Oceania cruises and at this point it is very unlikely we will travel with Oceania cruises, or recommend Oceania cruises to our friends, in the future. We hope someone will not only read this but take our complaints seriously and reply.

With Regrets and disappointment,

Robert and Roberta Humphrey

Nautica #3263656