Live reports from our Baltic cruise on Oceania Marina

To anyone who might be interested,

We will be on the Oceania Marina Baltic Marvel cruise from August 14 - 21. I have been posting live reports on my cruises for some time now. This will be our first time sailing on Oceania and our first time in the Baltics. We are looking forward to this experience with much anticipation. However we try not to have either too high or too low expectations as this can often temper one's experience.

We love cruising and have sailed on many ships, both large and small, luxury and mass market. (ex. Carnival, Celebrity, Crystal, Holland America, Paul Gaugin, RCCL plus many cruise lines that no longer exist and on several river cruises.)

I try to provide a personal view of what we like and don't like about our cruise experience. Remember this is only one person's opinion (actually two since Ellie and I do share our experiences each day), but I do all the writing and take full responsibility for what you will read. I also try to post photos on my Flickr account with links from the posting. How many photos I will be able to post during the cruise is highly dependent on the quality of the internet service.

What you will NOT get is a rah rah everything is wonderful blog. I don't believe that is helpful for people who are trying to decide if Oceania is the right cruise line and the Marina the right cruise ship for them. I therefore try to explain the whys behind my opinions. What we consider important, you may not and vice versa.

On every vacation we have taken, there have been wonderful experiences, even if the challenges were daunting and even the most magnificent vacations have had their moments of disappointment. You will read about them all.

If you have any questions or want me to comment on something specific about the ship, the destinations, etc. please let me know. If it is at all possible, I will try to respond.

So here is our itinerary:

We leave home on Tuesday, August 11 and our house sitter moves in that same day. We have a 150 gallon salt water fish tank that gets better care than most children and cannot be left alone. :D

We arrive two days before the ship sails and will be exploring Copenhagen. I have not been back to Copenhagen since the summer of 1970. From there:

Aug. 14: Ship sails from Copenhagen

Aug. 15: Wannemunde and Berlin

Aug. 16: At sea

Aug. 17: Tallinn, Estonia

Aug. 18-19: St. Petersburg

Aug. 20: Helsinki

Aug. 21: Stockholm

Then we stay an extra two days in Stockholm and fly to Amsterdam for a Rhine river cruise on the Viking Sun

Sounds like you will have a great trip! My first visit to Copenhagen was also in the summer of 1970 (in July for us) although we have been back a number of times since then. CPH remains one of my favorite cities. It doesn't hurt that I met a good Danish friend online and we have visited with her several times ... She grew up in Copenhagen but now lives near Aarhus. (More than you want to know!)

I am glad to hear that yours will not be a rah-rah report because then I assume it won't be an "everything was horrible" report either. I never trust reports that are exclusively in one direction or the other. Since you have lots of cruising experience on different lines, I trust you will be fair to my favorite line.

(It's my favorite but I know it isn't perfect.)

I look forward to seeing your reports.

Mura

Looking forward to your report as well.

We also love Oceania (as well as knowing it is not perfect) and will be on Marina for the first time in Feb 16.

Previous cruises have been on R ships.

Steve

You will be following us as we debark in Copenhagen.

I anticipate your report with great interest as it sounds like it will be just what it should be - a balanced review (especially as seen through the eyes of an Oceania "newbie").

I promise to keep the ship in good order and will leave it well stocked for you :)

Bon voyage.

Very much looking forward to this... we are doing a Baltic cruise next year and this itinerary forms part of it so I am avidly looking for reviews in this region and of Marina (only sailed Riviera on previous cruises).

You will be following us as we debark in Copenhagen.

I anticipate your report with great interest as it sounds like it will be just what it should be - a balanced review (especially as seen through the eyes of an Oceania "newbie").

I promise to keep the ship in good order and will leave it well stocked for you :)

Bon voyage.

I've been tracking the Viking Star which seems to be hobbling her way to Copenhagen trailed by a tug and noticed at one point she was going to pass Marina, which was headed in opposite direction. Apparently Viking Oceans could not correct her mechanical issues in Tallin. Did you perhaps see her?

Officially our trip begins in less than an hour as we leave for the airport and our very long ride to Copenhagen (via London). I expect that I will be watching 3 or 4 movies. I did bring some reading material for in between the movies. In addition to this thread and my photos on Flickr, I will also be making 1 (or more) movies using iMovie. I am not sure where I will be able to post them because of the size of the files. If not during the cruise we will see what we can do afterwards.

Bon Voyage

Art

Hi Art - Maybe see u round the ship or at the CC meet. Either way it will be interesting to read if our first experience of Oceania follows a similar view to yours!:)

As long as a I have a good Internet connection at the hotel, I wanted to post a couple of quick notes (and photos) about our trip over from the USA to Copenhagen. The British Airways flight was very smooth from LAX to London. If there was any doubt about what airport we were in, take a look.http://www.flickr.com/photos/30213465@N05/20331491759

Note: See below for link to the entire album.

Heathrow now looks like an upscale shopping mall - and

We did face one of the typical challenges you so often have to deal with on vacation as the gate scanning mechanism would not work and they had to transport all of us by bus and we had to climb the ramp just like in the old days:

I don't usually post photos of food, but this cake they served with the snack was truly outstanding. If you get a chance to try this brand, I highly recommend it.

The hotel we are staying at has a free shuttle and looks just as avant garde in person as it does in their advertisements.

I am having some difficulty in getting the individual photos to post on CC, so here is the link to the album:

We took a regent cruise in same area of Baltic earlier this summer....our first "real cruise". Our Florida sunshine gods must have come with us as every day was sunny....

My husband Fitz and I are new to cruising but I have loved browsing the cruise critic website. Am learning a great deal.

Tampaskier

We took a regent cruise in same area of Baltic earlier this summer....our first "real cruise". Our Florida sunshine gods must have come with us as every day was sunny....

Tampaskier

Same happened to us. Sailed Marina 2 summers ago from Stockholm to Copenhagen & absolutely gorgeous weather the entire trip (and we even made a 4 day stop over in Amsterdam before the trip!). I live in Orlando. Coincidence....? :)

We, too, will be sailing the Baltic on Marina. She is our favorite ship, and we are anxious to hear your take on her, as well as the ports. Did you use O's air?

Looking forward to you posts. Your itinerary was also our first test drive on Oceania. Hope to relive last year's cruise through your eyes.

I've been tracking the Viking Star which seems to be hobbling her way to Copenhagen trailed by a tug and noticed at one point she was going to pass Marina, which was headed in opposite direction. Apparently Viking Oceans could not correct her mechanical issues in Tallin. Did you perhaps see her?

Sorry for the late reply.

No, we did not see Viking at all.

Had wonderful sunny weather for the entire cruise except a few showers in Amsterdam early on.

Copenhagen is celebrating Gay Pride week - should be fun and quite busy.

Sorry for the late reply.

No, we did not see Viking at all.

Had wonderful sunny weather for the entire cruise except a few showers in Amsterdam early on.

Copenhagen is celebrating Gay Pride week - should be fun and quite busy.

We had a wonderful day today in Copenhagen. Our hotel has a Metro stop right down the street and it is just 5 quick stops to downtown and the Nytorv station. We then walked down the main shopping street to the City Hall where we met up with the No. 1 rated thing to do on Trip Advisor - the Copenhagen Free Walking Tour.

Copenhagen is celebrating Gay Pride week - should be fun and quite busy.

Coincidentally, the Gay Pride area was right where we met up with the Walking Tour. It was plenty busy.

After taking the 3-hour tour of the city, we would agree that this is a wonderful way to learn about the country and the city as well as gain an understanding of where key things are located. The walking tour ends at the Queen's Palace and just down the street from the Little Mermaid. We then walked back down the shopping street to Tivoli Gardens where we met up with our youngest child's first au pair who lives and works in Copenhagen.

We spent the next few hours in the gardens, which has special meaning to me as it has been 45 years since I was last there - when I was studying in Europe. We also had dinner in Tivoli. BBQ ribs is one of my favorite foods and I have eaten BBQ in places all over the USA from the Carolinas to Missouri to Texas and Florida. I have to say that the BBQ restaurant in Tivoli can hold its own with any of them.

All in all it was a wonderful day.

I am also updating my Flickr album for the photos we took today.

We were in Tivoli tonight as well! We ate at a Smorgsbord restaurant. Arrived yesterday, had a wonderful two days in this beautiful city, too bad there is so much construction going on. Weather has been glorious! Looking forward to meeting a fellow CC.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Artbcpa, I will be embarking on Marina in Stockholm right after you on August 21. This is our first cruise on Oceania, so I am looking forward to your reports.

Have a great time!

It is Saturday morning and we just arrived in Germany. Yesterday was a very busy day and unfortunately I did not get the opportunity to post my comments. We are leaving on a private tour in 30 minutes so I will try to catch up tonight after we return from our tour.

I will say that embarkation was easy and that I won $40 on a penny slot machine. So right now it's all good.

Well it has been two full days and I have lots to report and will be adding to my photos on Flickr:

The outstanding (and very good): *****

The cities and our tours - so far we have visited two cites and had three tours. Each one has been excellent. If I would were to try to pick the best of the guides, it would only be a matter of degree, as each of them had their strong points. Starting with the "Free Walking tour in Copenhagen" and our private "Tours By Local" on Friday morning, we learned so much about Copenhagen, voted the most livable city in the world and where the happiest people in the world live according to our guides. Today we took a private tour into Berlin with Heidi Leyton Tours. Our guide, Jad, was unbelievably knowledgeable and friendly. We were concerned about the long drive, but it was definitely worth the 2 1/4 hour ride.

The production show - For us this is an important part of our travels and we were a little concerned by some of the comments we had heard in prior threads and from former passengers. However the cast, the costuming and the choreography all were outstanding and we are looking forward to the other two night's productions.

The other entertainment - This may be premature as we have not yet seen that much, but the music in Horizons and Martinis has been top notch.

The service - Thus far we have been very pleased with the timeliness and the friendliness of all of Oceania's staff.

The menus and choice of foods - So far we have eaten at Waves Grill as we boarded and two specialty restaurants (Polo Grill and Toscana) and had breakfast in the room. All had a wonderful selection of foods.

The less than great (but still good):****

The quality of the food - Although the service, presentation and selections have all been outstanding, the quality of the food itself has been a step below our expectations and the quality we have received on our last few cruises. No that it was bad, far from it, but it didn't have that wow factor. The one exception was the olive oil and balsamic vinegar selection at Toscana. That was a definite wow.

The accommodations: In short the accommodations along with the ship as a whole needs an update. We like the size of the room and the extra shower in the bathroom on top of the bath tub and shower combo. We didn't like that nearly all of our pieces of luggage would not fit under the bed, even my carry-on was a struggle. The cabin steward did take the luggage and store them, but we have never run into this on any other ship. We have seen stains on the carpets both in our room and in the hall ways. We recognize that ships get a lot of traffic which is why they must go into dry dock as often as they do. By the way we did get a chance to view one of the owner's suites and I must say it was quite impressive.

Internet - I wavered between putting this in the 5 or 4 star category. Compared to most other ship, the speed of the Internet on board the Oceania Marina is far superior. My only difficulty is the log in. Each time I have to re log in with my name cabin umber and password. There should be a more streamline way to do this (say user name and password.) However overall I am very pleased.

Less than the above: ***

Unfortunately we lost an hour today with the time change and it is getting very late, so I will postpone the rest of this post and the photos until tomorrow. Since it is a sea day,I should have plenty of time.

Thank you for the report.

So far a nice report, looking forward to more.................

Rick

Good morning. We had a nice sleep after a very full day yesterday plus we lost an hour last night because of a time change. I much prefer when you gain an extra hour as we did so often on our world cruise since we were headed west.

Today is Sunday and it is a sea day. We love sea days. It is then that you find out so much about the ship and the activities. For many cruisers, sea days are the ultimate part of cruising; for others they prefer the cruises with the heavy itineraries. We like both, but usually reserve the heavy itineraries for river cruises. I mention this because it can give you a clearer picture of what influences me in how I view things on our cruise. While I try to be objective, everyone has their prejudices and looks at things through filters. So if your preferences are different, you can judge what is important to you in reading through my "live reports".

Right now I need to head out to breakfast, but will return shortly to continue today's post.

This is the part of the thread that I dislike the most - discussing our disappointments. Please remember that these are our personal experiences and may not be yours.

The Spa - We had made an advance reservation for Ellie's favorite kind of massage (Hot Rock) and she actually planned her day around it. When she arrived they had not prepared the rocks and tried to talk her into another kind of massage, which she did not want. She actually had to speak to the Spa Manager to get any kind of satisfaction. I might have passed this off to an isolated incident, except our friends had also made an advanced reservation and they messed up the dates. Bottom Line: I would rate the spa as unorganized and inefficient.

Our room safe - We had trouble with our room safe from the very beginning, but it got worse over the next two days. It wouldn't take the code and certain numbers could't be punched. When we called for security (maintenance), the person they sent could not fix it and offered to bring a replacement. So we emptied the safe's contents; so they could replace the safe. When we returned to the room, the old safe was still there. Our cabin steward told us they had come but wouldn't replace the safe if we were not in the room. (So what was the point of us emptying the safe). We again called maintenance/security. They sent up a new person who had had no communication with what had taken place. He asked what was wrong and we had to go through he entire story with him only to find that he spoke very little English. Finally we made him understand and got the safe replaced.

Casino - I love the fact that the slot machines pay off well. On many ships, they do not. However their selection of machines is very limited and more than just a couple were broken. When we asked for service on one, we were told that that machine has been broken for weeks.

All of these are examples of things that go wrong, but what you do about it is truly the key. In this area, Oceania has fallen down.

The last item for this post relates to the food. I had previously given it a 4 star very good, but not wow. After breakfast and lunch today, I would have to downgrade that to 3 1/2 stars. It is much too inconsistent for a ship of this high rating. Some items are good, but others just plan mediocre.

Hopefully this will be the last post I have to do that contains negative comments. Of course we will never let this interfere with our ability to have a good time.

Thank you for your postings. I do understand that this is your perspective, buts your balanced reports help me decide which issues would/would not bother me. I do agree that problems and mistakes happen, but it is how one handles the situation which illustrates the true level of customer service a company delivers.