Hello from Marina!

[cayman09]

Another conspiracy, Grape-gate. Sigh......

[1985rz1]

4 hours ago, cayman09 said:

Another conspiracy, Grape-gate. Sigh......

Nah..just sour grapes.😇

[pinotlover]

On 5/31/2024 at 8:20 AM, Vallesan said:

So the cases are out. Time to pack up. Weather here in Sorrento is dull and overcast so good weather for packing!

 

So before I forget, my overall thoughts about this cruise:

 

Has the food been perfect? No.

Has the food been mainly good? Yes. A few meals I wouldn’t order again.

Did I go hungry? NO!

 

Speciality restaurants. We have had 5 additional evenings in the speciality restaurants. A few tips: ask early in the morning of the day you want a booking. Be flexible with restaurant, time and sharing. One evening we had a shared 8pm table but arrived at 7.40 only to find we could eat there and then on our own. Never give up, there are always possibilities!

 

Staff universally have smiled, been helpful and generally did as much as possible to make our trip enjoyable.

 

Tours … not our thing.

 

Other passengers. Have spent several evenings eating at shared tables and they have all been interesting and have added to our enjoyment. In general our fellow passengers are the ‘usual’ mix so all has been fine.

 

Survey: the new survey is accessed via a scan. Very easy to fill in and quite comprehensive with spaces to add comments at the end of each section.

 

SimplyMore: doesn’t seem any different to the OLife program to me. It certainly doesn’t put me off cruising with Oceania again. As I’ve said several times we don’t take the tours but we do drink wine, which by the way has never been an issue with glasses in all venues filled promptly. So for us, we look at the bottom line, not what was in the past compared to what is now or in the future. If we consider the ‘bottom line’ fits our budget and the itinerary suits then we go for it!

 

Overall we’ve had a really good 14 days aboard the Marina and we would sail on her again for the itinerary but prefer the fully upgraded Riviera ( just my opinion).

 

 

An important part of this to remember. They had five (5)

additional Specialties meals, plus the four (4) guaranteed, making nine in total on a 12 or 13 day cruise. They got all those additional reservations without the aid of a butler. If one will be flexible with timing and sharing, they will often find the opportunity for extra Specialty meals to be plentiful, except on maybe the seven day cruises. It is primarily only those that choose to be inflexible that typically have difficulty. 

[Vallesan]

21 minutes ago, pinotlover said:

An important part of this to remember. They had five (5)

additional Specialties meals, plus the four (4) guaranteed, making nine in total on a 12 or 13 day cruise. They got all those additional reservations without the aid of a butler. If one will be flexible with timing and sharing, they will often find the opportunity for extra Specialty meals to be plentiful, except on maybe the seven day cruises. It is primarily only those that choose to be inflexible that typically have difficulty. 

I think maybe we were just a bit lucky.  It is probably a little unusual to get so many extra nights? (BTW it was a 14 night cruise)
 

We were invited to dinner one night with the Purser and Oceania Club Ambassador, I’ve no idea why,  but anyway,  it was interesting to learn that a lot of the new to Oceania cruisers thought that they could reserve one evening in each speciality restaurant, but that there would be a charge for any further reservations! 
 

Certainly worked in our favour!

Edited June 2 by Vallesan

[ORV]

1 hour ago, Vallesan said:

it was interesting to learn that a lot of the new to Oceania cruisers thought that they could reserve one evening in each speciality restaurant, but that there would be a charge for any further reservations! 

I would think this is due to the misinformation you see on other social media. I've seen this concept before. 

[englishteacher702]

On 5/29/2024 at 5:27 AM, Vallesan said:

Coming towards the end of this cruise now.

 

Overall it has been really enjoyable. The food, in all the restaurants we have tried has been 96% ok. Picked one or two items that were not to my taste but that doesn’t make them ‘bad’. For instance last night I thought I would try the miso glazed seabass in Red Ginger, only because the waitress poo pooed the red snapper. Anyway, the fish came. It was perfectly cooked but just a little too sweet for me, which I knew from my last encounter with ‘miso glazed seabass’! I think on our next cruise I will ask for an unglazed piece of fish the day before we eat in Red Ginger!
 

We have a sea day today and whilst it’s ‘busy’ it’s not really ‘overcrowded’ anywhere. 
 

There seem to be a lot of ‘lanyards’ around peoples necks and I’m guessing, maybe wrongly, that they  might be some of the ‘new to Oceania’ cruisers as cards aren’t used on Oceania in the same way as they are on ‘mainstream’ lines.
 

Really wanted to book a cruise for autumn but everything seems to be ‘waitlisted’ so that has to be a good sign, even though it’s not for us!

 

We’ve enjoyed our trip despite the promised upgrade not happening. Definitely won’t stop us sailing on the Marina again but given the choice we would take the Riviera first then maybe the Vista, with the Marina being our third choice.

 

The one really strong constant are the staff. In every venue the staff have been marvellous. Really couldn’t ask for anymore. They deserve high praise in every department.

I am an Oceania newbie,  so can I ask why there is not a need for lanyards? 

[thebsinmiss]

Feel free to use one if you want but there isn't really a need.

 

With all the dining options being included results in most passengers not needing their cards to order a drink or pay for food. If you do not have the premium drink package that covers alcoholic drinks ordered outside of lunch and dinner you will need the card but the ship is small enough that the bar staff seems to quickly learn who is required to pay for drinks.  Non alcoholic beverages are included at no charge at all times.

 

 

[ronrick1943]

2 hours ago, thebsinmiss said:

Feel free to use one if you want but there isn't really a need.

 

With all the dining options being included results in most passengers not needing their cards to order a drink or pay for food. If you do not have the premium drink package that covers alcoholic drinks ordered outside of lunch and dinner you will need the card but the ship is small enough that the bar staff seems to quickly learn who is required to pay for drinks.  Non alcoholic beverages are included at no charge at all times.

 

 

What about non-alcoholic drinks like virgin bloody Mary's or virgin Pina colada?

[thebsinmiss]

those i don't know about. Never tried but I think I have seen other posts on this type of drink (know i've seen about non alcohol wines and champagne)

[basor]

13 minutes ago, ronrick1943 said:

What about non-alcoholic drinks like virgin bloody Mary's or virgin Pina colada?

Those are included for free.....there are some non-alcoholic wines and beers that are not included for free

[ronrick1943]

4 hours ago, basor said:

Those are included for free.....there are some non-alcoholic wines and beers that are not included for free

Thank you, I understand the non-alcoholic beer and wine charge.

[Vallesan]

8 hours ago, thebsinmiss said:

Feel free to use one if you want but there isn't really a need.

 

With all the dining options being included results in most passengers not needing their cards to order a drink or pay for food. If you do not have the premium drink package that covers alcoholic drinks ordered outside of lunch and dinner you will need the card but the ship is small enough that the bar staff seems to quickly learn who is required to pay for drinks.  Non alcoholic beverages are included at no charge at all times.

 

 

Just one amendment: the card is needed for wine, beer etc. ordered at lunch and dinner irrespective of  which package you have, if any. Obviously you aren’t ’charged’ if you have a package.
 

At the moment there are several drinks options in place, so if you order alcohol, ‘cruise only’ no drinks included at any time (unless a perk given by TA), ‘OLife’ with or without ‘basic drinks’ package, ‘SimpleMore’ with basic drinks package and ‘prestige drinks package’. 
 

To distinguish which ‘package’ you have, if any, then the staff need your card. My guess is that even when OLif’e’ cruises run through the system, which could take a couple of years, they will still need to distinguish between those who have the ‘basic’ package and those with the ‘premium’ package.

 

@englishteacher702

It really is no issue to show your card at a meal or in the bar. Of purse you also need your card to enter cabin and when you get on/off the ship so if a lanyard works best for you why not? The only reason I mentioned ‘lanyards’ was because there seem to be lots of them!

[osandomir]

6 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

What about non-alcoholic drinks like virgin bloody Mary's or virgin Pina colada?

Those are available without any charge.

[osandomir]

9 hours ago, englishteacher702 said:

I am an Oceania newbie,  so can I ask why there is not a need for lanyards? 

Only means that normally Oceania repeated cruisers don’t use lanyards which are more common on the big cruise ships.

[pinotlover]

It has been my experience that most of those wearing the lanyards are in a defined group such as a GoNext group or a F&WT group. The lanyard is there to identify you, allow entrance into group only events, and eliminate the need to make name tags for every event. 
 

It’s a rarity for an independent traveler to wear a lanyard.

[ronrick1943]

2 hours ago, pinotlover said:

It has been my experience that most of those wearing the lanyards are in a defined group such as a GoNext group or a F&WT group. The lanyard is there to identify you, allow entrance into group only events, and eliminate the need to make name tags for every event. 
 

It’s a rarity for an independent traveler to wear a lanyard.

And I believe most cruisers hope the ship isn't chartered to a large group of passengers-who would be wearing those lanyard.😁at lease me!

[Harters]

8 hours ago, osandomir said:

Those are available without any charge.

Some non-alcoholic cocktails were chargeable on Vista. For example, the "No-groni", which uses Lyre's non-alcoholic substitutes. Similarly, a Lyre's "gin" and tonic is chargeable. And, IIRC, perhaps even more surprisingly, "San Pellegrino Cocktail", served in Baristas Aperitivo 

[ORV]

1 hour ago, Harters said:

Some non-alcoholic cocktails were chargeable on Vista. For example, the "No-groni", which uses Lyre's non-alcoholic substitutes. Similarly, a Lyre's "gin" and tonic is chargeable. And, IIRC, perhaps even more surprisingly, "San Pellegrino Cocktail", served in Baristas Aperitivo 

And this is something I think we might see more of in the future. I expect these brands and options to spread to all of the ships. 

[Harters]

7 minutes ago, ORV said:

I think we might see more of in the future

I'm sure you're right. Lyre's and Seedlip products are increasingly commonplace in the UK. As someone who hasnt drunk alcohol for over 20 years, I certainly welcome it (as I do the improving quality of zero alcohol beer and wine). It used to be the case that water was pretty much the only non-alcoholic alternative to sugary drinks like Coke. 

[osandomir]

1 hour ago, Harters said:

Some non-alcoholic cocktails were chargeable on Vista. For example, the "No-groni", which uses Lyre's non-alcoholic substitutes. Similarly, a Lyre's "gin" and tonic is chargeable. And, IIRC, perhaps even more surprisingly, "San Pellegrino Cocktail", served in Baristas Aperitivo 

The question was about virgin Pina Colada and Bloody Mary.

[Harters]

28 minutes ago, osandomir said:

The question was about virgin Pina Colada and Bloody Mary.

No it wasn't. The question was actually "about non-alcoholic drinks like......."

 

 

Edited June 3 by Harters

[LuAnn]

2 hours ago, Harters said:

No it wasn't. The question was actually "about non-alcoholic drinks like......."

 

 

The drinks with the Lyre are listed as individual drinks with their own names on the bar menus. If you ask for a non alcoholic Pina Colada, Virgin Mary or a non alcoholic Margarita there is no charge. It's the Lyre that you have to pay extra for and it truly is 0 % alcohol..unlike some "non-alcoholic wines and beer" which do have a very small percentage of alcohol in them. 

[clo]

7 hours ago, ORV said:

And this is something I think we might see more of in the future. I expect these brands and options to spread to all of the ships. 

When I see the cost of some of the mixers I won't be surprised if there's a charge.

[ORV]

I like old fashions which use a cherry. So you can buy the nasty maraschino things for 2-3 bucks or you can get the special ones that are anywhere from 12- 25 bucks a jar. These are 5 to 7 oz. Just nuts. 

[babysteps]

Just now, ORV said:

I like old fashions which use a cherry. So you can buy the nasty maraschino things for 2-3 bucks or you can get the special ones that are anywhere from 12- 25 bucks a jar. These are 5 to 7 oz. Just nuts. 

Our BIL got a smoker a few years ago. One application - he smokes cherries then soaks them in bourbon. Given the time he dotes on them retail equivalent might be $75 a jar lol.