Just Back from Explore the Isles on Marina

[digtexas]

My wife and I and another couple just disembarked the Marina this past Saturday. Most of our cruises have been on Crystal and this was our second on O, the first being a Caribbean cruise on the Riviera. For whatever reason, we found the service to be much better on this Marina cruise than we found on Riviera. The service in the Terrace was consistently excellent with friendly, efficient waiters. We also received excellent service in the 4 specialty restaurants, however, the food could have been served hotter IMO in Red Ginger and Polo. We only dined once in the MDR as we really enjoyed the casual, grilled dinners in the Terrace Grill in the evening. The food throughout the ship was excellent, although we find the selection of snacks in Baristas disappointing and the physical set up of the place to not be all that user friendly.

Embarkation was easy, although, inexplicably, after our cabin was announced ready on deck 8, we found luggage, including ours, strewn up and down the corridor rather than placed in the cabins on the bed. This was a rather disconcerting start as I had to locate our luggage and drag it to our cabin and place it on the bed. Our stewardess was adequate and responded to requests, but not intuitive. For example, if we were running out of shampoo or cue tips, we had to ask for more or they were not replaced.

We came to really like cruise director Ray Michaels, who was outgoing, accessible, friendly, and just about everywhere, from conducting trivia in Martinis, to passing out water bottles on the deck as passengers headed to shore.

The passenger mix skewed a little younger than on most prior cruises: more baby boomers than 80+ year olds. It was also a very nice, well traveled, friendly and well groomed group of passengers. Although we did not bring sport jackets, I did see many gents wearing them at night, particularly in the specialty restaurants. No complaints as to people wearing beach wear at night, as I encountered on my prior O cruise in the Caribbean.

The itinerary, including Scotland, N. Ireland, Ireland, and Dorset, England was interesting, and in many parts very beautiful, although we could have lived without Cork, Ireland and Orkney in Scotland. We are glad that we got to see Belfast, but have no great desire to return there any time soon either.

The entertainment was more than adequate, and a magician named Gregg Gleason was excellent. Jaques Pepin was on board and he spoke in the Marina lounge and his videos showed constantly on the televisions. He too was friendly and the passengers interested in cooking really got a special treat having him on board.

Happily, there were no art sales in Horizons. We enjoyed afternoon tea there as often as we could get back to the ship on time. However trivia was in Martinis at 4:15 and I was usually forced to choose between a luscious scone with clotted cream or trivia. This cruise had only one sea day, and we are sea day lovers who would have preferred more, but of course, we knew that going in. Except for one short excursion in Orkney, we either arranged private tours or in a couple of cases, such as Edinburgh, Cork and Dublin, toured around on our own. The cost of the Oceania shore excursions are exorbitant, in our opinion, and we were able to see a lot more at better prices by organizing tours for either the 4 of us, or with a couple of other passengers beforehand in smaller vehicles.

We encountered warm weather for this part of the world, and the smoothest seas of any cruise that I have ever been on.

So, all in all, it was an excellent cruise and we really enjoyed ourselves. The Marina is looking good, other than stains or dark spots on the carpet on most of the stair landings. The ship was kept spotlessly clean, and as I mentioned before, the crew was friendly and professional and the bottom line is that we really enjoyed ourselves. Our expectations were met or exceeded and I would recommend a cruise on the Marina to others.

[hypercafe]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review. Glad you all had a good trip. We also really enjoy dinner in the terrace grill.

[CintiPam]

Thanks for your review; it is full of very helpful information.

 

I totally understand the scone versus trivia conflict; we encountered the same on Riviera this year.

Edited August 5, 2014 by CintiPam

[sitraveler]

Afternoon trivia in Martinis?

 

That's a change from many previous cruises.

[LHT28]

Thanks for sharing

We enjoyed the Orkney island a few years ago too bad it was not very good for you

 

Lyn

[Mura]

We haven't been on Riviera yet although our last three cruises were on Marina (just by chance, it wasn't intentional). We have found the service excellent. I've seen complaints about food not being hot enough on various threads but we personally haven't encountered that ... or maybe we just didn't notice.

 

I'm surprised your cabin steward(ess) had to be requested to replace items that were no longer available because we've never had that happen on any of the Oceania ships. (Or on any other line either.)

 

I WAS surprised to see that luggage was delivered willy-nilly. On every Oceania cruise we have taken (11 so far) our luggage has been placed in front of our door. I don't think it was ever taken inside, unless perhaps crew saw that it was there and we were out of the room.

 

Correction: there was one cruise a few years ago where one of our suitcases was misplaced and we did have to hunt it up. But that was a rarity. And as I recall it wasn't in the hallway, it was out by the elevators.

That shouldn't have happened because we did have the Oceania label on it ... perhaps lots of luggage was delivered at the same time and they didn't have time to bring it to our room. We'll never know!

 

By the way, our last cruise (May 22nd out of NYC to Dover) was the first time we had a male cabin steward. In the past, we always had female stewardesses with male assistants. Now I'm waiting for female butlers ... that probably will be a very long wait!

 

Mura

[digtexas]

Thanks for sharing

We enjoyed the Orkney island a few years ago too bad it was not very good for you

 

Lyn

 

Lyn,

We did not really mind Orkney Island. It was a rather dreary Sunday morning and nothing in the little town was open. However we had a great tour guide on the Oceania shore excursion, the submarine barriers were interesting as was the Italian church, built by Italian prisoners of war. I was happy to have a short touring day which provided us with a full afternoon of relaxing on the ship. Not a bad day at all.

[arima22]

Thanks for your report! We'll be on the July 2015 British Isles Medley cruise on the Marina- the 2015 cruise has been increased from 10 to 12 days with a little change in ports- for example, Waterford instead of Cork.

We will be on the Marina 2 weeks from Thurs. for our first Oceania cruise- Viking Trails, Stockholm to Amsterdam, 12 days.

[LHT28]

Lyn,

We did not really mind Orkney Island. It was a rather dreary Sunday morning and nothing in the little town was open. However we had a great tour guide on the Oceania shore excursion, the submarine barriers were interesting as was the Italian church, built by Italian prisoners of war. I was happy to have a short touring day which provided us with a full afternoon of relaxing on the ship. Not a bad day at all.

 

We did the same tour 10 yrs ago ;)

The POW Church was very interesting

They did have a service in the Church in town but we were late getting there so just listened to the music outside ..it was also a Sunday

The shops did open later in the day for a bit of exploring

 

Lyn

[Travelcat2]

I had to check out this thread as I had no idea what the title meant (wonder why Oceania guests use the nickname of the cruise rather than the names of the ports - I had no idea what "Explore the Isles" meant). In any event, I'm happy that I checked it out as I learned quite a bit from your experience.

 

We have only sailed on Oceania once (on the Riviera) and assumed that luggage was always put inside of your stateroom/suite. Apparently this is not the case. I will keep that in mind when we sail on the Riviera again in November.

 

Our experience with Oceania's sister company, Regent, taught us that service differs from one cruise to the other since the staff frequently moves from ship to ship. We found the service on the Riviera to be exemplary (equal to Regent).

 

In terms of Red Ginger (my second favorite Oceania dining venue), I would have sent the food back if it were not the right temperature.

 

In terms of how men dressed onboard, I have posted on the Oceania board previously that we did see quite a few men in the specialty restaurants dressed in jackets and was told that this is not the case. It is interesting to hear another point of view. I was not pleased to hear that people were dressed in beach wear (presumably in the evening?) on your Caribbean cruise. We will be sailing the Caribbean and would not be pleased to see beach wear in the MDR or specialty restaurants. After all, the Marina and Riviera are luxury cruise ships - even if they are run as premium (or premium plus). I would find it disrespectful to see beach wear in the lovely dining venues (except the Terrace Café which we try to avoid anyway).

 

Really enjoyed your review

[pacheco18]

I was just in Orkney and loved it. We had the most fabulous private tour with a guide who is really an authority on the area and has written several books. Incredibly interesting place. We also loved Belfast. We were lucky to have Paddy Campbell himself as our black taxi driver for a full day tour mostly outside the city. But the city itself is fascinating -- the political history is everywhere. We even got to sign the wall. I want to go back as I did not have time to see the Titanic Museum and I want to do an in depth city tour focusing on the politics.

 

You can keep Dublin, however. LOL I'm never going back.

 

To each his own.

[nancygp]

Danny,

 

Thanks so much for your detailed and balanced review!!!

 

Nancy

[Mura]

Like Laraine, we very much enjoyed our time in Belfast (back in June '06) and would love to go back.

 

We had a private tour to the Giants Causeway with a wonderful drive/guide. After the Causeway we came back to Belfast where he gave us an interesting tour of the various parts of the city. We only saw a small portion of it in the City but the driver was very informative.

 

But Laraine, Dublin is also good ...not that I have seen it all and maybe you have been there much more than we have. On that '06 cruise we just did the HOHO bus in Dublin, but this time (June 2014) we had a wonderful guide who took us out to the Boyne Valley. What a wonderful day we had!

 

Mura

[silkman]

I was just in Orkney and loved it. We had the most fabulous private tour with a guide who is really an authority on the area and has written several books. Incredibly interesting place. We also loved Belfast. We were lucky to have Paddy Campbell himself as our black taxi driver for a full day tour mostly outside the city. But the city itself is fascinating -- the political history is everywhere. We even got to sign the wall. I want to go back as I did not have time to see the Titanic Museum and I want to do an in depth city tour focusing on the politics.

 

You can keep Dublin, however. LOL I'm never going back

)

To each his own.

 

We took a similar itinerary two years ago .we thoroughly enjoyed orkney(Kirkwall).one of the main reasons was that we had a fantastic private guide. She told us that after I had engaged her she had over 30 others inquiries for the same date. (There are actually very few private guides with cars in Orkney)

 

We saw the great HenGe Monument, the Stones of Stennes and the Ring of Brodgar...5000 year old stone circles...part of the Heart of Neolithic Orkney world heritage site.

We also visited Skara Brae a world famous Neolithic village also 5000 years old.

Also the Italian chapel the Churchill Barriers,and Skaill house.

Actually the highlight of the port was that when we got off the tender, the townspeople were all lined up along the street. It turns out that there was a small

parade and the Olympic torch was passing through the town.

All in all it was a very memorable and interesting port

(Actually we also found Dublin very interesting).

Unfortunately, our weather was not as good as the OP nor were the seas as calm.we actually stayed in Dublin an extra day because the sea was too rough to head to waterford(which we missed).

[StanandJim]

We were booked on that Transatlantic trip with Mura, but had to cancel at the last minute.

It was a terrible disappointment (so MANY friends were booked with us), but we did manage to fly over for the second Anniversary of Titanic Belfast, and it was really wondrous.

To stand on the slipway where Titanic was built is something that I never thought that I'd ever experience.

[digtexas]

I was just in Orkney and loved it. We had the most fabulous private tour with a guide who is really an authority on the area and has written several books. Incredibly interesting place. We also loved Belfast. We were lucky to have Paddy Campbell himself as our black taxi driver for a full day tour mostly outside the city. But the city itself is fascinating -- the political history is everywhere. We even got to sign the wall. I want to go back as I did not have time to see the Titanic Museum and I want to do an in depth city tour focusing on the politics.

 

You can keep Dublin, however. LOL I'm never going back.

 

To each his own.

 

Funny, we also booked the black taxi tour with Paddy, but we did not have Paddy as a driver. We had a gruff old fellow who was apparently contracted by Paddy. His taxi (white with an ad on the doors for electronic cigarettes) was a little worn and was uncomfortable for the 4 of us, and he was more of a driver than a guide. His thick Belfast accent was also difficult to understand and he had no PA system or way to talk to us while driving (as other guides did). He did take us to the Rope Bridge and to The Giant's Causeway and we also stopped at the wall and found it fascinating, although he did not explain its purpose very well. We had just come from a full day of touring The Isle of Skye the day before and were, frankly, a little tired of long drives to see coastal vistas on that day even though they were stunning.

On the other hand, this was my third trip to Dublin and we really enjoyed it.

Again, to each his or her own.

 

Travelcat, to be clear, when on Riviera in the Caribbean in 2013, I never saw anyone in beachwear in the GDR or specialty restaurants. I saw them in the evening around the ship including the casino and bars. As mentioned before, this cruise had a very nice clientele. The only rude passengers encountered were found by my very polite wife....where else? In the laundry room guarding machines!

Also I believe that the luggage left in the hallway was an aberration. I have never encountered that before on any cruise. This cruise definitely felt like a luxury cruise.

[Oceans&Rivers]

I had to check out this thread as I had no idea what the title meant (wonder why Oceania guests use the nickname of the cruise rather than the names of the ports - I had no idea what "Explore the Isles" meant).

 

This very day Regent's Voyager departed Stockholm on a 22-night voyage and it has a nickname, too: "Nordic Charms". It's a combo cruise, which includes a 12-night voyage which is referred to as "Highlights of the Emerald Isle."

 

Maybe Regent gives the voyages names in case there are some O cruisers who want to book them. ;):):D

Edited August 6, 2014 by Oceans&Rivers

[LHT28]

After 9 cruise on Oceania I maybe once or twice found the luggage in the cabin

that was back in the early days of O

since then they are left in the doorway or if the door is shut they will knock to let you know they are there

Edited August 6, 2014 by LHT28

[fairbourne]

We did the same tour 10 yrs ago ;)

The POW Church was very interesting

They did have a service in the Church in town but we were late getting there so just listened to the music outside ..it was also a Sunday

The shops did open later in the day for a bit of exploring

 

Lyn

 

You're lucky the shops opened at all! ;):) (Sunday still "observed" in some parts).

 

But I'm glad most of you enjoyed Orkney as it's such a beautiful place, albeit with just the one tree! And the history is fascinating - not just the WWII, but much further back. It can be a dreich place if the weather doesn't cooperate though!

[terry&mike]

We spent a week on Orkney 2 years ago, as part of a home exchange with a local family, and really enjoyed it. We visited all the ancient sites mentioned earlier in the thread, and found them very interesting.

Some of our favorite memories are of a private walking tour with a historian, John, of the town of Stromness, and then a visit to the Brough of Birsay in northern Orkney. This is a small island off the northern tip, where you watch the tides swiftly sweep out and expose a walkway across to the Brough of Birsay. On the B of B there is a lovely park up on the cliff with magnificent scenery, nesting birds, and makes for a great walk around. Then you walk back to the mainland before the tides return and disconnect it again.

[digtexas]

My wife re-read all of the Trip Advisor ratings for the Black Taxi tour in Belfast and they were uniformly excellent. We were apparently severely short changed by being given the contract taxi driver. I also wanted to mention that we used WOW Tours Scotland in both Invergordon and Isle of Skye (Portree ) and were very pleased with our excellent guides and nice vans that accommodated 6-8 passengers in both venues.

We are not 9 to 5 tour people, and in both places we had to convince the guides that we wanted to make the tours a little shorter and to go back to the ship a little earlier than contracted for. We assured them that we were satisfied and that it was okay.

[fairbourne]

My wife re-read all of the Trip Advisor ratings for the Black Taxi tour in Belfast and they were uniformly excellent. We were apparently severely short changed by being given the contract taxi driver. I also wanted to mention that we used WOW Tours Scotland in both Invergordon and Isle of Skye (Portree ) and were very pleased with our excellent guides and nice vans that accommodated 6-8 passengers in both venues.

We are not 9 to 5 tour people, and in both places we had to convince the guides that we wanted to make the tours a little shorter and to go back to the ship a little earlier than contracted for. We assured them that we were satisfied and that it was okay.

 

I know exactly what you mean about not doing 9-5 tours - we are the same and often shorten tours to get back to the "sanctuary"! I get fed up trailing around!

 

Where did they take you from Invergordon? (My DH is often up there with some rig or other being in dock there for maintenance.). One of the nicest things that happened when he there one time, a SB ship was in docked practically next to them and when the SB ship left (I knew one of the guests on board so was able to ask for a favour:)), the Captain gave the rig a horn salute as the ship passed the rig on leaving. To say the guys on the rig were thrilled to bits would be an understatement. :). I hasten to add he did not deviate from his course, or do anything stupid!!!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[LHT28]

We are not 9 to 5 tour people, and in both places we had to convince the guides that we wanted to make the tours a little shorter and to go back to the ship a little earlier than contracted for. We assured them that we were satisfied and that it was okay.

 

I agree also

I am not into to "seeing it all" anymore I am good for 4-5 hr tours

then I am DONE :D

 

I was thinking of the Black taxi tour in May but maybe will rethink that idea ;)

 

As tour guides get popular via CC & other sites they sometimes lose the quality of the tour that their reputation has been built on

Some do not want to lose the business so they add drivers/guides other will say sorry I am booked

 

I digress though :o

[Travelcat2]

This very day Regent's Voyager departed Stockholm on a 22-night voyage and it has a nickname, too: "Nordic Charms". It's a combo cruise, which includes a 12-night voyage which is referred to as "Highlights of the Emerald Isle."

 

Maybe Regent gives the voyages names in case there are some O cruisers who want to book them. ;):):D

 

 

Great point and thank you for telling me the name of the cruise I was on;)