Baltc Crusie on Marina

My wife and I have booked a 10 day Baltic cruise on the Marina in August, from Stockholm. We have never took a Oceania cruise before, and was wondering if anyone has been on this ship and their experience with Oceania. Thanks.

Welcome to cruise critic!

There is another thread with your question.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2584258

Hello and welcome to Oceania. We were on a 12-day Baltic cruise on the Marina last September - wonderful ship and route. The highlight was our two-day stop in St Petersburg, where we used Alla Tours rather than the ship’s excursions. In a group of only 10, our fantastic guide, Julia, provided us with an amazingly comprehensive overview of the city. We also used Alla for excursions in Tallinn and to Berlin (from Warnemunde). Other ports - Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Skagen - were all easy to get around in without tours. The ship is beautiful and, with only 1200 people, seems a lot more intimate than the 3000 PAX behemoths that also ply the route. Cabins are spacious. The food - in all venues - was excellent.

We were on this ship for the same trip in July. We loved it.

The itinerary is quite port intensive. Which meant that we were very tired at the end of the day but in a good way.

We also used Alla at multiple ports including St. Petersburg and were extremely happy. I would highly recommend them.

Here are some tips I was given from this board which I found to be helpful:

There is self-service laundry on each floor of the cabins. You need to buy coins at reception.

$2 per load per machine (washer and dryer).

On the r-ship the soap is in a container on the wall you press the corresponding but to the washer & it is dispensed automatically

For the O class ships the soap dispenser is on the wall with a cup you have to put the soap in the washer yourself.

When you arrive in St. Petersburg you need to get in line for getting off the ship. The private tour people joined a line from the gangway exit on 5 forward near the front desk back through the hall and through Jacques. Line up early to avoid a long wait at passport control.

The Oceania tour crowd met in the Marina theatre lounge and used the Crew gangway on 4. (1 flight down)

Go at least once to 4:00 tea in Horizons. Very relaxing and delicious.

Don’t waste suitcase space on dressy clothing or wardrobe changes unless you are with friends who will notice what you are wearing. I found the crowd nicely dressed but the very casual folks did not appear out of place or attract sideways looks!

The best tip is that as you come off of the elevators look for the phone on the wall. That will be the side of the even numbered cabins.

DH and I sailed on the Marina in June 2016 Copenhagen to Stockholm. Fabulous ship, fabulous food, great itinerary and met interesting people. Only downside? Now I am spoiled! Only Oceania is good enough for me! (Will be slumming next year with BIL & SIL who are building reward points on Celebrity. Hope she doesn’t see this post!)

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Ok, one other piece of advice - many Oceania included excursions are not v good value. I didn’t say they aren’t good excursions; they aren’t a good value. Use a third party group for SPB, there are many good tour companies. We liked SPB Tours. If you get some free Olife excursions, use them and then book the rest of your excursions with third parties. You’ll have a terrific cruise!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We were on the Marina in the Baltic summer of 2016. We went from Copenhagen to Stockholm and had 3 days in St. Petersburg. I had chosen the cruise because they had more time there. Friends recommended SPB-Tours

https://www.spb-tours.com. And they were great. We had 3 days with the same dozen or so people from our ship and the same guide and driver. There were more groups from the Marina that did the SPB tour also. We got in early to the busy sights and really saw a lot. Lunch was included. And it was much cheaper than taking an Oceania tour each of the 3 days.

We had 4 Oceania tours. We opted to not take one in Tallin because we were told it was very walkable. There was a bus from the docks to the tourist center of town.

We had upgraded to a PH and really enjoyed it. Nothing to complain about either the ship or the cruise.

We are going on Sirena from Rio to Miami in April and realize everything is smaller there.

Have a great time!

Just did this trip September 2017 - absolutely Fabulous. Like others mentioned, we used Alla for Russia - did the 3 day which included a day in Moscow. Absolutely exhausting but worth it. LOVE Oceana - just got back from a SE Asia cruise last week, on Holland America - nice but nickel and diming drives you nuts when you have been on Oceana where they don't do it. Love the soft drinks are free, no photogs everywhere and the free shuttles in all the ports. Also the food on O is amazing - makes sure to get the Lobster thermadore in Jacques and the sea bass in Red Ginger if you like seafood. My next cruise will be on O - they seem more expensive initially but I found when I added in all the stuff I had to pay extra for on HA, it came out almost the same - and O is superior in a lot of ways. Just don't use their shore excursions, - MUCH more expensive than ones you can book yourself with a 3rd party.

Have a great cruise!

We were on the same cruise as Lori in 2017 (which appears to be the same one you are doing this year) and also found it to be fabulous. Not many cruise lines do 3 days in St. P and the extra day there is a must in order to really see everything. We used TJ Tours and they were fantastic, from the planning through the 3 days of touring. Our guide, Nadia, was outstanding. Definitely join & use your roll call for doing excursions and follow Lori's advice about not using the ship's excursions - you will save a ton of money and have a better tour doing them with others from the roll call.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thanks very much for your information. Can you tell us what the weather was like during August in St. Petersburg? And also Stockholm and Copenhagen?

We did this cruise in Sept. 2014, Temperatures were pleasant, August can be very warm. The buildings in St. Pete are not air conditioned. As with any northern cruise, dress in layers. Light jacket for the AM, short sleeves in the afternoon.

We arrived in Stockholm on August 31st. We did not experience warm temperatures, we wore jeans & jackets every day, same for St. P. But we were very lucky and avoided the rain that was trailing us until Copenhagen, our 2 days there were cool & rainy. In fact all 3 days in St. P were sunny and there are only about 60 sunny days per year!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

There was no Olife when we took this cruise in 2014. Most of us used private companies in St Petersburg (SPB, Alla, TJs and a couple others were all loved by cruisers-not cheap but a lot less than O), but there are some very good walking tours in some of the other ports. Helsinki and Riga were great and Klaipeda was OK (may have been the rain that made it less good). In other words, other than St Petersburg and maybe the one day Berlin trip if chosen, the ports are enjoyable on your own with a little research. The Marina is a great ship in every way.