Marina 12/19 - 01/22

[Rob the Cruiser]

Short attention span version - Fabulous! 

 

The itinerary was Buenos Aires - Miami 34-day "Grand Voyage", AKA B2B.

 

Captain - Luci Manzi

 

General Manager - Dominique Nicolle

 

Cruise Director - Peter Roberts

 

First impression: Marina is in outstanding condition. DW and I didn't observe any unsatisfactory issues as some have described.

 

Excellent dining in GDR, Wave Grill and specify restaurants. We didn't dine in Terrace.

 

Speaking of specialty restaurants, we had no problem obtaining additional reservations than allowed for our B3 cabin. Due to rough seas and last minute cancellations, we obtained reservations for 2 alone on 23 of 34 days. 

 

Average age of passengers Buenos Aires - Santiago de Chile was 60s - 70s. In addition, there were 27 young children.

 

Average age of passengers Santiago - Miami was late 60s - early 80s. In addition, there were 2 young children and 2 teenagers. Zero behavioral issues due to parental control. 

 

Dress code was only enforced on a random basis. "Dressy" (sarcasm) Levis or Wranglers were allowed in GDR and specialty restaurants unless they were faded. 

 

Minimum age guideline for specialty restaurants were also ignored. For example, there were 5 - 6 children, approximate age of 5, dining in Toscana that had no interest in the food but enjoyed a lively game of hide-and-go-seek around the tables. Jumping on their chairs was also acceptable. Parents were oblivious to it all.

 

Vero water - excellent. Sparkling and still were available. Passengers don't have access to a refilling station. Cabin attendants don't refill partially used bottles. They are replaced twice - daily in the morning and at turndown by new bottles. Additional bottles were available on request.

 

New 4X water filtration system takes the "odd" taste out of desalinated water. In addition, most of the time the tap water was cool instead of warm. 

 

Announcements - Peter kept his 10:00 am announcements to around ten minutes most of the time, except on shore days. If you wanted more detailed info, it would be broadcast on cannel 10. The captains 12:00noon announcement was also informative but short. No problem.

 

Noro issue first half of cruise - During Peter's announcements, he would mention that Marina was a "healthy ship" and we would do our best to keep it that way. The usual direction, wash hands often and use the sanitizers.

 

Noro precautions second half of cruise - Pater warned that the area was notorious for noro, Extra steps were taken to prevent a potential outbreak. There were spray sanitizers provided in the cabins. Passengers using board games were instructed to return them to the front desk. Books were to be left on the tables rather than returned to the bookshelves. There we no outbreaks that we heard of.

 

I would be delighted to answer any questions.

 

 

 

 

 

[Kate-AHF]

Welcome home Rob the Cruiser.

Edited January 26, 2020 by Kate-AHF

[Rob the Cruiser]

A few other things:

 

@Kate-AHF likes crab legs. 

 

Plastic coffee cup lids were discontinued on all Oceania ships starting January 1.

 

Work on transforming Canyon Ranch to Aquamar started 1:00pm 01/21.

 

We missed two ports due to rough seas: Ponte del Este and Puerto Limon. 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 26, 2020 by Rob the Cruiser

[LHT28]

19 hours ago, Rob the Cruiser said:

Minimum age guideline for specialty restaurants were also ignored.

 Is this new?

I never knew there was  a minimum age  for the  the Specialties

 

We have  had small babies at dinner so if they have new guidelines  for ages allowed   that would be a good thing

JMO

[Rob the Cruiser]

@LHT28- I thought the minimum age was 12. Perhaps I'm wrong. It wouldn't be the first time. 

[Paulchili]

On 1/25/2020 at 10:47 AM, Rob the Cruiser said:

For example, there were 5 - 6 children, approximate age of 5, dining in Toscana that had no interest in the food but enjoyed a lively game of hide-and-go-seek around the tables. Jumping on their chairs was also acceptable. Parents were oblivious to it all.

Did the first segment have a larger number of local passengers from S. America considering the itinerary? 

They do enjoy traveling as a family, generally speaking - that may explain the presence of more younger children.

[clo]

4 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

Did the first segment have a larger number of local passengers from S. America considering the itinerary? 

They do enjoy traveling as a family, generally speaking - that may explain the presence of more younger children.

We were  there Rio to BA and I  wasn't  aware of any  S Americans.  And I  only saw one  kid maybe 10 with his American dad.

[Rob the Cruiser]

9 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

Did the first segment have a larger number of local passengers from S. America considering the itinerary? 

They do enjoy traveling as a family, generally speaking - that may explain the presence of more younger children.

 

They were from Mexico. The parents were great to talk to when the children weren't around. I wouldn't have dared mentioning to them that they needed to pay attention to their children. Other passengers did. 

[Paulchili]

47 minutes ago, Rob the Cruiser said:

 

They were from Mexico. The parents were great to talk to when the children weren't around. I wouldn't have dared mentioning to them that they needed to pay attention to their children. Other passengers did. 

Just my personal observation on this subject - regardless of nationality or ethnicity.

When children are not taught these basic social norms, limitations and behavior in public at an early age, they are not likely to ever learn it. Children don’t know these things instinctually  - they have to be guided.

At some point later in life it will be others that will be subjected to this and not the parents.

Off my soap box now 😀

[Hanoverian]

It was a wonderful voyage, Rob the Cruiser.  New things to see, lots to have learned about our neighbors to the south, and terrific people to share our adventures with at the end of the day in Matini's.

[catsngoats]

My DH and DS and I also thoroughly enjoyed the cruise.  Even though Marina is headed into dry dock in a few months, she looks terrific.  We boarded in San Antonio.  Lima was wonderful, we found a great local foodie tour.  Panama Old Town was fascinating as well as the Miraflores Locks Museum.  We picked this itinerary because of the full day stop in Panama City before the full day transit, which was quite amazing.  The food in all dining venues was as usual superb.  We only noticed some service challenges at breakfast in Terrace Cafe.

[clo]

22 minutes ago, catsngoats said:

We only noticed some service challenges at breakfast in Terrace Cafe.

Example please. I didn't notice anything and we ate there every morning.

[catsngoats]

23 hours ago, clo said:

Example please. I didn't notice anything and we ate there every morning.

The last three mornings we waited close to ten minutes for a table setting for three, I saw only two supervisors working the port side tables.   Then we waited another ten minutes for juice and coffee.  The juice order was delivered incorrectly all three mornings.  Agreed, this is quite unusual, perhaps there were other staffing issues between Terrace and GDR.  Thus was our second cruise with O and definitely not our last, probably just an abberation.

[clo]

1 minute ago, catsngoats said:

port side tables

We noticed that the port side section on the room seemed more crowded. We wound up sitting on the starboard side. It was busy but we never had to wait. That could certainly be annoying.