BrakeawayTakeaway

Recently completed my first cruise ever, Marina 12 days Tarragona to Trieste. Wanted to thank the Cruise Critic community for helping me prepare for what to expect from a cruise vacation. My expectations were adjusted due to many threads I read, Main Dining room was hit and miss and service was slow there and at bars. But specialty restaurants stood out and provided the best food. I learned about how my food allergy would be handled and I am glad to report I was well taken care of. The Main Dinning matire d learned me and my cabin number quickly and always had my special menu ready to be handed off. My own preconceived notion of a mostly older crowd whom I couldn’t relate to was dismissed. Picking the more adventurous excursions meant several familiar faces I would see over and over. I was in the minority for sure but there is a niche for the younger crowd. You just have to be prepared for a LAID BACK vacation. The entertainment was pretty bad, even my mom said most of the references were older than her. Don’t use Oceania Air. You guys told me hundreds of times and I wished I had listened. It was a mess and WAY more stressful than a vacation should be. Wifi is not suitable for work, or much. But I was able to WiFi call my family which was all I needed. So I was pleasantly surprised I could do that since I figured it would be like dial up reading on here. I will never be a die hard cruiser, but I may go again to sample a slice of the world. And I would probably choose Oceania if it were an adult trip. If my husband and kids went we would choose a different line. I saw kids on board and the one 7 year old I talked to at the pool told me she was SOOO bored, and I get it. But thank you all for all the information, it was very valuable and I felt more informed than my mom who has cruised Oceania several times before. Happy Cruising to you all!

They are EU plugs by the bed. I was just on Marina and used this plug with 4 USB ports. Unidapt Universal Travel Adapter,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077XRXRZR?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Tendering was a sore subject on Marina earlier this month. It was a s show to put it lightly. If you’re not on an O excursion I would suggest getting there early to get your ticket. o excursions get priority and it took several hours for some people to get ashore, some with privately booked excursions were NOT happy. They had 4 tenders running.

We did turn ours in the same day of the laundry special prices so that definitely had an effect on the time. 😊

It really does take three days. Onboard Marina now and we just got our laundry back after 3 days. They have sales on the ship as well to give them a bag of laundry for a discounted price if you run out of your complementary bags.

Sailing later this week. We did online check in at 17 days instead of 21 and 4pm was the only boarding time left. Doesn’t matter to us because we don’t fly in until 1pm anyway, Oceania air.

Yeah that chicken does not look that great to me. Looks like something I put in the slow cooker on busy school nights. Lol. All your other food pics have me very excited though!

You can still take your own luggage off right? Is it really that much of a hassle to get your own luggage off the ship? (Cruise newbie sailing in 3 weeks)

Love the pictures! You’re making me want to upgrade our drink package for later this month. Hope you have a wonderful cruise!

My thoughts about her treatment exactly. Antibiotics will do nothing for COVID except maybe for if bacterial PNA has set in on top of it which would take time. Blood work for organ failure, sepsis? Seems premature. I am very hesitant to visit a ships medical center. For my late September cruise I am taking new COVID tests, KN95 masks, hand sanitizer, ibuprofen, zinc lozenges, and emergen-c. And watching very closely for the new COVID booster to come out in the next few weeks, I will probably be too late but might snag it through work just in time, but will definitely get my flu shot early September.

I am on your cruise as well! Glad your reservations went well, hope you got good days too. Can’t believe it’s only 45 days out!

I would seeing as how I have seen Viking commercials and knew about the brand long before I ever heard of Oceania. I just saw a Viking commercial the other day at the dentist. I would consider that mass market.

I am brand new to Oceania but I got a Simply More and Summer Sale brochure yesterday. And today I got a fedex package with the cruise documents inside. No shore excursions were listed in the booklet that we picked nor were they separate. But it is a very nice folder to hold our documents and luggage tags.

Just did our reservations tonight and it was super easy. It was about 12:03 ET before I was actually let in to make the reservations, their servers were probably loading. But we got all the dates and times we wanted and table preference! 60 days until launch!

Hope you and your husband are feeling better soon and thanks for the reminder. I will remember to bring masks and use them at the very least on transportation.

Not worth much since most on this board are seasoned travelers but I just got my first passport this spring. We booked the cruise in February, took a month to get into the local passport office, March 14th. The passport office received my application March 20th. And I got my passport June 7th. They said 8-11 weeks to process and took the full 11 weeks. Just an FYI from a recent experience with the passport department. Our cruise isn’t until late September so I didn’t do expedited.

This is great news! I am booking for us at the end of this month and wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Knocking on wood but this seems much better than what I have done for other vacations.

Do you get to keep the water bottles or are they for on ship use only? I am packing my own for on shore use just wondering.

I probably wouldn’t use that cruise line again if I was upset about service like that. Are you planning on cruising again with Oceania?

Sounds like you got the answers you needed and I was just going to add that Oceania changed out Barcelona departure to Tarragona. So not sure of the ship you are on but that close of time would make me very nervous. Hope you have an amazing trip!

I have been stalking this board for my first ever cruise this fall because I have no idea what to expect. But my question to all my friends and family when they go on a trip is always “what was your favorite memory from the trip?” I would love to hear some favorite memories from Oceania Cruises.

Hope you have an amazing cruise! How thoughtful of your cabin attendant to provide hypoallergenic toiletries in addition to the bedding, even if unneeded. Sounds like you are in good hands.

Trying to pick our excursions tonight and every time I choose to go to our cart it just spins and spins. Anyone else having this problem? Maybe Oceania website is doing updates? Already know their tech game is a bit behind.

So does WiFi calling from sea mean roaming charges on your cell phone bill? (I have never cruised) I would think if you put your phone in airplane mode and used WiFi calling it wouldn’t involve your cell carrier at all. Or sending texts on WiFi, same thing? The only thing you would have to enable before cruising is the cellular at sea (expensive) with your cellular carrier, but if your phone is in airplane mode you’re not using that.