Just off the Marina Transatlantic -- my take

[LHT28]

Have always done TA's on HAL or Queen Mary 2 and have been satisfied. We were considering booking Marina's Spring TA but the very negative comments about the food and entertainment have given me second thoughts. After all, why pay twice the cost of a HAL cruise for a mediocre product. Am I wrong?

Food & entertainment are soooo subjective

While we do not care for the productions shows they are usually standing room only

 

I think it is a very personal choice

There are other things to do on the ship if you perhaps do not like the entertainment that evening

 

JMO

 

Lyn

[Baby Hughy]

Original poster indicated they didn't dine in MDR and said the following about the specialty restaurants:

 

"I have not changed my mind about he Specialty Restaurants on O. For the most part, they are not that all that special IMO. Jacques was a disappointment. The duck was dry and not crispy. Most people with whom I spoke on the ship shared my view about Jacques. Reviews, however, were mixed and some passengers had both a good experience and a bad one on two different nights. Consistency is important. Although the food in Toscana was good (not great), the service, as reported earlier, was lacking. The cappuccino was ice cold. Toscana also got mixed reviews from fellow passengers.

We had our first properly prepared steaks ever in Polo. Food and service were excellent. However, with all the great steaks and chops and lobster tails in the buffet, Polo is somewhat of a redundancy."

 

Glad to hear others share a different opinion.

WE were also on the Marina fall TA. As far as the Quality of the food I found it was excellent. The service in the GDR was hit and miss( to slow between courses). There were some dishes offered and tried but not to my liking. Tried Red Ginger once and did not return, but that was my preference even though thr Prawns and the Watermelon & Duck salad were wonderful, I still prefer other than Asian cusine. As for the Terrace I only ate there for breakfast and lunch as i don't like to hunt for my supper as I prefer at the cost of the cruise to be waited on at supper time. These are just my opinions as others have had different opinions but the I may not be as demanding as some others.

 

Bill

[pacheco18]

Original poster indicated they didn't dine in MDR and said the following about the specialty restaurants:

 

"I have not changed my mind about he Specialty Restaurants on O. For the most part, they are not that all that special IMO. Jacques was a disappointment. The duck was dry and not crispy. Most people with whom I spoke on the ship shared my view about Jacques. Reviews, however, were mixed and some passengers had both a good experience and a bad one on two different nights. Consistency is important. Although the food in Toscana was good (not great), the service, as reported earlier, was lacking. The cappuccino was ice cold. Toscana also got mixed reviews from fellow passengers.

We had our first properly prepared steaks ever in Polo. Food and service were excellent. However, with all the great steaks and chops and lobster tails in the buffet, Polo is somewhat of a redundancy."

 

Glad to hear others share a different opinion.

 

I also said this:

 

As many have reported, the buffet is AMAZING. Likely the best at sea. We ate dinner there every night except for the nights in the Specialties. We never dined in the GDR. I prefer to sample small amounts of different things and not commit. The buffet was consistently over the top wonderful. I wish they could replicate on the R ships.

 

Waves too was terrific - oh those Kobe burgers. The milk shakes were a little thin but a fellow passenger told met to ask for another scoop of ice cream to be added and that did the trick.

 

Tea was excellent in every respect. With all those sea days, I got to really enjoy it. The Special Tea event was so superb as to defy description.

 

The one extraordinary [specialty] restaurant was Red Ginger. The food was wonderful and innovative, the service was flawless and the decor was both beautiful and inviting. Everyone was raving about it.

 

Too many selective readers on this board!

[sldispatcher]

I have been thoroughly enjoying the civil discourse this time around.

 

I can chalk up one Oceania cruise....and loved it.

 

It is both a burden and a blessing that we have so many different lines to choose from. We'll be back on Oceania again. In fact, we were booked on the original Riviera maiden, but when it got moved and the itinerary changed, we backed out as the trip did not appeal so much to the rest of the family.

 

At any rate, it is obvious that the overwhelming majority of the time, Oceania is trying to achieve what it advertises. My family still holds our maiden voyage on Marina in very high regard.

 

Again, I am thankful for the civil discourse.....

 

David

[roothy123]

I have also been enjoying the civil discourse, while skimming posts in order to get a feel for Marina. We're pretty die-hard Oceania fans, but it's mostly my husband who wanted to give the larger Marina a try, and so now I'm trying to get a preview of what might be different. I never thought I'd like cruising because I didn't want to spend a lot of time with hundreds of people, but Regatta and Insignia won me over. We'll see how I like Marina!

 

Nolan was assistant cruise director on our last cruise; he did a good job as assistant, I thought. In time, he will probably gain experience and make a great CD. Quite honestly, I think I'm in the minority about not really caring that much who the CD is. David Shermet was quite good; so was Leslie Jon (spelling?); can't even remember the others! I really cruise more for the ports than for the cruise aspects, so perhaps I'm not as picky as others.

 

It's strange to hear so many good comments about Tapas. My husband absolutely loves it, but I never realized so many people did, too!

 

It's nice to know you can sneak into the little sun deck behind the spa. On the R ships, I always wanted to go up there to take pictures, as there aren't that many great places at the front of the ship to do that. Is it possible to do that there, or is there a big barricade or screen at the front of the ship?

[Mura]

I'm with you Roothy as far as the CD's are concerned ... we rarely have much contact with them and so we don't get hot and bothered about who is the CD on a cruise.

 

So you are NOT entirely alone!

 

As to Marina, I wasn't sure how we'd feel about her but I wanted to give her a try and being upgraded from a PH on Regatta to a VS on Marina gave us the impetus to do so. We loved Marina, didn't agree with many of the comments about the restaurants -- we were disappointed with Red Ginger (having expected to love it) and adored Jacques (also expected to love it). The few dinners we had in the GDR were fine and the larger Terrace Cafe is really excellent. (And yes, we enjoyed Tapas as well especially if we were exhausted from a day on shore and just didn't feel like changing into something a little nicer.)

 

But over all we give the "R" ships the edge for the intimacy. We'll choose our future cruises by the itineraries and whichever ship we are on will be just fine.

 

Mura

[Paulchili]

We'll see how I like Marina!

 

It's strange to hear so many good comments about Tapas. My husband absolutely loves it, but I never realized so many people did, too!

 

I think you'll like the Marina (overall) and especially the food in the specialty restaurants.

Tell your husband not to get too excited about Tapas as they don't really have Tapas as such.

The Terrace Cafe, however, is fantastic with endless choices (including daily lobster tails, jumbo shrimps, etc, etc. etc). We loved it so much that we ate there every night we were not in one of the spcialty restaurants - essentially avoiding the MDR for dinner.

YMMV.

[sitraveler]

On Insignia TA noted no more "Tapas on the Terrace", now is the terrace .

[LHT28]

On Insignia TA noted no more "Tapas on the Terrace", now is the terrace .

Is there a difference in menu items?

Or has the name just changed?

[tropicalkerry2002]

they still put the blue covers on the outside chairs for dinner.

buffet selections seemed the same as what I remember from our previous 2 cruises.

there was live music playing at dinner. If anything had changed, I dunno what it was!

Loved our cruise!

 

Happy New Year, see you in Feb!

 

Marian

[LHT28]

they still put the blue covers on the outside chairs for dinner.

buffet selections seemed the same as what I remember from our previous 2 cruises.

there was live music playing at dinner. If anything had changed, I dunno what it was!

Loved our cruise!

 

Happy New Year, see you in Feb!

 

Marian

Happy New Year to you also

 

Maybe see you sooner :D

Check your Yahoo

 

Lyn