new Marina review from 1st time cruiser (long)

[dundeene]

Port intensive, great service, wonderful food

 

We chose Oceania Marina for our first cruise to celebrate our 25th anniversary(we are in our 40s)

Using Oceania air arrangements we flew to Atlanta then to Barcelona on Delta.

We arrived in Barcelona on time and easily found a cab to the Hotel Art's where we stayed the 1st night. The Art's is located on the beach near many restaurants. We were on the 27th floor with a gorgeous view of both the city and beach. The hop-on-hop off bus gives you a quick method to see many "touristy" sites. Cabs are very easy to find.

 

At noon we left for the port by taxi and arrived at 12:30. It took about 25 minutes to check our luggage, pass through security, and walk onto the ship. Service personnel were fast and friendly.

 

The ship is new and beautiful with modern colors and free of the glitzy Las Vegas look of many cruise ships. (Wonderful art throughout) We ate lunch in the Grill near the pool. The lobster and filet mignon burger was delicious and perfectly cooked. The parmesan fries were addictive. Service was very attentive.

 

Our PH2 was ready by 1pm. We meet with our butler Churchill at about 4pm. He discussed his service role and how he would work to make our cruise wonderful.

How we utilized the butler; pressing clothes, breakfast in-suite every morning, in-suite specialty restaurant service (Toscana and Polo), evening canapies, wine service, port and tour advice, extra specialty restaurant reservations.

 

The best kept secret on-board is the beautiful serenity deck, covered loungers, quiet and secluded. It is open to concierge and higher cabins, has 2 rarely used whirlpools and gorgeous views.

 

We reserved 4 specialty restaurant reservations online and added two extra on-board. It was not hard to add reservations if you were flexible.

All of the specialty restaurants were delicious, favorites include;duck and watermelon salad, seabass and scallops in Red Ginger, filet mignon, lobster bisque in Polo, everything in Jacques, minestrone, veal shank and spinach pasta in Toscana the bread was amazing in every venue(chocolate croissants!), steaks were tender and properly cooked as was lobster.

We found the nightly menu specials to be of an especially high quality. (seeming to revolve around the fresh foods available in the port we were visiting)

 

The main dining room offered open seating. We found there to be too few sommeliers in this venue. We waited 20 minutes to have empty wine glasses filled. Food was not hot when delivered, the waiter did keep up with our pacing and promptly removed each course and added the next. Wine lists were large with wines of varying price points and quality. Carry on alcohol policy is VERY liberal.

 

The cooking class was fun and fast paced but very basic in technique. Oceania should advertise it in a way to let experienced cooks know it is intended for beginners. I cancelled my 2nd class.

 

We never saw a walker or mobility scooter while on-board (a few wheelchairs). We expected a much older crowd but would say the average age was 60, with less than a dozen children on-board, a dozen honeymoon couples and many couples like ourselves celebrating important milestones.

 

Cruisers were well traveled and very congenial. The CC "meet and greet" was well attended and I felt I knew 50 of my fellow cruisers by the 1st night. All of our tours were private shared-tours arranged on our roll call.

 

Service standouts were our butler Churchill A+, Danny D. in the piano bar and Horizons, concierge Maria on deck 5, and Jose our cabin steward.The concierge in the executive lounge was helpful and knowledgeable.

The ship was very clean and I saw service personnel constantly cleaning public areas, hand-rails etc. Our cabin was serviced 2 to 3 times daily and always well stocked and clean.

 

The only friends against our 1st cruise being on Oceania stated that after setting the bar so high, other cruise lines would not measure up. Oceania met our very high expectations. We will definitely cruise Oceania again!:)

Thank you, to all of you on the Oceania boards, who took the time to answer questions and give advice. It was very helpful and improved our cruise experience greatly!

[JimandStan]

Port intensive, great service, wonderful food

 

We chose Oceania Marina for our first cruise to celebrate our 25th anniversary(we are in our 40s)

Using Oceania air arrangements we flew to Atlanta then to Barcelona on Delta.

We arrived in Barcelona on time and easily found a cab to the Hotel Art's where we stayed the 1st night. The Art's is located on the beach near many restaurants. We were on the 27th floor with a gorgeous view of both the city and beach. The hop-on-hop off bus gives you a quick method to see many "touristy" sites. Cabs are very easy to find.

 

At noon we left for the port by taxi and arrived at 12:30. It took about 25 minutes to check our luggage, pass through security, and walk onto the ship. Service personnel were fast and friendly.

 

The ship is new and beautiful with modern colors and free of the glitzy Las Vegas look of many cruise ships. (Wonderful art throughout) We ate lunch in the Grill near the pool. The lobster and filet mignon burger was delicious and perfectly cooked. The parmesan fries were addictive. Service was very attentive.

 

Our PH2 was ready by 1pm. We meet with our butler Churchill at about 4pm. He discussed his service role and how he would work to make our cruise wonderful.

How we utilized the butler; pressing clothes, breakfast in-suite every morning, in-suite specialty restaurant service (Toscana and Polo), evening canapies, wine service, port and tour advice, extra specialty restaurant reservations.

 

The best kept secret on-board is the beautiful serenity deck, covered loungers, quiet and secluded. It is open to concierge and higher cabins, has 2 rarely used whirlpools and gorgeous views.

 

We reserved 4 specialty restaurant reservations online and added two extra on-board. It was not hard to add reservations if you were flexible.

All of the specialty restaurants were delicious, favorites include;duck and watermelon salad, seabass and scallops in Red Ginger, filet mignon, lobster bisque in Polo, everything in Jacques, minestrone, veal shank and spinach pasta in Toscana the bread was amazing in every venue(chocolate croissants!), steaks were tender and properly cooked as was lobster.

We found the nightly menu specials to be of an especially high quality. (seeming to revolve around the fresh foods available in the port we were visiting)

 

The main dining room offered open seating. We found there to be too few sommeliers in this venue. We waited 20 minutes to have empty wine glasses filled. Food was not hot when delivered, the waiter did keep up with our pacing and promptly removed each course and added the next. Wine lists were large with wines of varying price points and quality. Carry on alcohol policy is VERY liberal.

 

The cooking class was fun and fast paced but very basic in technique. Oceania should advertise it in a way to let experienced cooks know it is intended for beginners. I cancelled my 2nd class.

 

We never saw a walker or mobility scooter while on-board (a few wheelchairs). We expected a much older crowd but would say the average age was 60, with less than a dozen children on-board, a dozen honeymoon couples and many couples like ourselves celebrating important milestones.

 

Cruisers were well traveled and very congenial. The CC "meet and greet" was well attended and I felt I knew 50 of my fellow cruisers by the 1st night. All of our tours were private shared-tours arranged on our roll call.

 

Service standouts were our butler Churchill A+, Danny D. in the piano bar and Horizons, concierge Maria on deck 5, and Jose our cabin steward.The concierge in the executive lounge was helpful and knowledgeable.

The ship was very clean and I saw service personnel constantly cleaning public areas, hand-rails etc. Our cabin was serviced 2 to 3 times daily and always well stocked and clean.

 

The only friends against our 1st cruise being on Oceania stated that after setting the bar so high, other cruise lines would not measure up. Oceania met our very high expectations. We will definitely cruise Oceania again!:)

Thank you, to all of you on the Oceania boards, who took the time to answer questions and give advice. It was very helpful and improved our cruise experience greatly!

 

What a lovely post. :D Your experience was very much as we see Oceania.

Thank you for taking the time-

[nedward]

Port intensive, great service, wonderful food

 

We found there to be too few sommeliers in this venue. We waited 20 minutes to have empty wine glasses filled.

 

Did it take 20 minutes to have your bottle of wine delivered? Or are you referring to refills? Because, with all due respect, we are not afraid to pour our own wine from the bottle on the table vs standing on ceremony.

 

Rgds, Ned

[dundeene]

the whites and sparkling wines are held in ice buckets away from your table

I would have been happy to pour our own if it was on the table!

Many of the tables for 8 had multiple bottles associated with them, and I saw stands with ice buckets throughout the dining room along the wall, but did not know which one held our bottle.

I also forgot to mention in my review that La Reserve had wine packages available the 1st day. There was a large list of wines to purchase by the bottle. The prices were very reasonable if you bought 3 or more bottles. The sommelier would hold the bottles and you could have them poured in whichever restaurant you chose. I believe the savings were about 25-30%.

[Don P]

Didn't know that option existed. Thanks for post.

 

the whites and sparkling wines are held in ice buckets away from your table

I would have been happy to pour our own if it was on the table!

Many of the tables for 8 had multiple bottles associated with them, and I saw stands with ice buckets throughout the dining room along the wall, but did not know which one held our bottle.

I also forgot to mention in my review that La Reserve had wine packages available the 1st day. There was a large list of wines to purchase by the bottle. The prices were very reasonable if you bought 3 or more bottles. The sommelier would hold the bottles and you could have them poured in whichever restaurant you chose. I believe the savings were about 25-30%.

[LHT28]

Nice review

Do not forget to post one in the review section on Cruise Critic

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking the time to post a review of your cruise. Glad you had a good time.

[doubledobles]

Thanks for the great post. Your views reflect ours......and, Churchill is a great butler. We remember him when he was a waiter in the Terrace cafe, along with so many others who have been promoted. It's so nice to see these affable young men move up the ladder.

[CintiPam]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review of your Marina experience. I am glad to read that your enjoyed your experience on Marina.

 

We have enjoyed all of our Oceania cruises, which also have spoiled us for future cruises, but we are taking the plunge this fall for a fabulous unique itinerary (at least for ruins fans!:))

[Paulchili]

I am glad you enjoyed your Marina cruise. Now you are "hooked" on Oceania with the rest of us.

Thank you for taking the time to write the review.

[magroo]

Thank you for your review. We are considering a cruise on Marina's new sister ship Riviera for Summer 2013 to celebrate a milestone birthday. This makes me want to book it even more.