Vallesan

Yes Aquamar kitchen is live and well!

GM … Evan Willemse RM … Celestino Balane

Yes.

PH definitely remodelled. Walked past a PH2 with door wedged open, presumably to get rid of the ‘new carpet smell’! Looks lovely just like the brochure.

As far as I know the PH cabins have been upgraded as per brochure.

Master … Marijo Obad Cruise Director … Peter Roberts

“Soft furnishings” only. Looks like the curtains (drapes) have been changed and the dressing table chair reupholstered. Together with the new cushion covers, in the same as the old fabric, it’s all a bit of a mismatch. Let’s just say if you didn’t know the ship had just been in dry dock you might not really notice any change! After sailing on Seabourn Encore and Silver Dawn last year, in veranda grade, I’m finding this cabin a bit ‘gloomy’! But that won’t ‘tarnish’ the trip!

Well finally aboard a ship after having to cancel the Riviera, Asia January/February and Seabourn Quest April we have finally, third time lucky, embarked and are happily aboard the Marina. Unlike Hank I can’t promise a ‘live’ report but just a few of my initial thoughts. Boarding was an absolute delight. 1250? passengers boarding today. Chaos? Absolutely not. All the cabins were ready as we boarded so no great surge to the Terrace cafe, Waves etc. certainly no ‘boardamania’! All very civilised maybe life would be better if they had later boarding for every cruise. Champagne is Moutaudon. They have Albarino in board so I’m a happy bunny! We have managed to get a 7pm booking for tonight in Red Ginger, sharing. Now to the main question …. refit. We’ve not sailed on the Marina before but have sailed several times on the Riviera. The last time we sailed on the Riviera it was the penultimate cruise before the refit. I have to be honest I can’t see any difference in this Concierge cabin to that on the Riviera prior to refit. If they have changed the ‘soft furnishings’ then it’s for more of the same! Sorry if that is a disappointment for some. I must admit part of the reason we booked this trip was because the ship was to have been refurbished. But, the staff are still as welcoming, the food, such that I’ve tried so far, is fine. It rained this morning but now the sun is shining. What more can a girl ask for!

Whooopeee!!

Gary I enjoy your posts as they appear to be so well reasoned. I think one of the biggest problems with CC reviews/critiques in general is that this forum only hears from a tiny handful of passengers. Oceania have a capacity of around 6400 passengers per day over all the ships, with more capacity due in the near future. This forum might host 50, 60 ? of those passengers. The other pertinent point is that those with a problem are far more likely to ‘vent’ than those who had a great cruise are to ‘praise’! In essence, apart from posts by people like Gary, I would tend to take most posts here with ‘a pinch of salt’.

Yes we did exactly that several years ago. We weren’t happy with the TA we had so had 30 days, at that time, to assign it to another TA.

I find “dress’ a really weird topic. Different countries, cultures, mores…. we all have different ‘normals’. For me as long as nobody dresses in an offensive manner for the venue then no problem.

We are on Marina next Saturday so we shall see!

We’ve sailed both Regent and Oceania. They are similar yet different. We actually prefer the atmosphere on the Oceania ships, large and small. I think a lot depends on how you ‘use’ a ship. We don’t take a lot of trips. The trips are included with Regent so people tend to take the trips irrespective of the fact that they may have already visited that port numerous times. Result is that on our one and only cruise with Regent we felt like we were on the Marie Celeste! Wonder if Oceania will become the same now they have SimplyMore?? On the other hand we met some people on that cruise who were loyal Regent fans who had sailed with Oceania and really didn’t like it. I think that may have partly been due to the cabin size. Choose carefully if you decide to sail on Oceania’s small ships.

We took a ‘day room’. If I remember correctly it was the Hilton at the airport with a nice pool area and good eating options.

Must admit I’ve never been able to work out which people are in the top tier suites or indeed those in inside cabins but then I’ve never thought to look! Every one is treated the same. I really feel that there is no ‘class’ system. I would never sail Cunard because it has an obvious class system and also I like the small ship experience! However you can get ‘snobs’ in any restaurant/hotel/resort/cruise ship. I have to say I’ve never seen any ‘snobbish’ behaviour on 100+ nights on Oceania. Nor indeed have I on Seabourn or Silversea. Sometimes ‘snobbish’ behaviour is in the eye of the beholder! One important thing to remember is that there are literally only a handful of Oceania passengers who contribute to cruise critic so not really representative of the mix of people as a whole. A lot of the ‘impressions’, ‘thoughts’, ‘feelings’ expressed here are very personal and not a true representation of the ‘reality’ onboard. BTW you can still be waitlisted for a higher grade cabin if you want to be. There is no charge but you can pay a refundable fee to be put higher up the list. Not really worth it in my opinion unless you are desperate to upgrade. Being waitlisted would not affect the booking you have already made and there is no obligation to accept any waitlist cabin that is offered. So if you would prefer another grade go on the ‘free’ waitlist and see what happens.

Unfortunately we don’t get ‘cruise’ offers with Amex in the UK!

You don’t actually make a ‘booking’ for a waitlisted category. There are two types of waitlist, paid and free. When a category is full you can ask to be put on the waitlist and if and when a cabin, in the category you are waitlisted for, becomes free and you are top of that waitlist the cabin will be offered to you at the price on the day it becomes free. You have the choice to accept or not. The only difference with a ‘paid’ waitlist is that you are closer to the top of the list. In the UK the price is £300. If a cabin becomes available you can then choose to book it or have a refund of the £300. In my experience I was on a waitlist but chose not to pay the £300 and was still offered a cabin a week or so later.

? Chalk and cheese? Personally I don’t think you can compare a ‘British’ ‘Ocean Liner’ with an ‘American’ based ‘cruise’ line. Even if they were comparable you can’t compare a ‘small ship’ experience to an ‘Ocean Liner’. The experiences are so different but both have their great points. Both can be enjoyable…. depending on what you want!

@pinotlover @MEFIowa Food for thought! We are travelling on the first Marina cruise after her refurbishment so obviously the entire cruise contingent will be embarking on the same day. The cruise is ‘waitlisted’ so that will be 1200+! Given that the ship isn’t debarking any passengers I wonder if the cabins will be available earlier than normal? You’ve certainly given me food for thought about boarding times.

I only filled in my ‘check-in’ form last week which is how I can remember the procedure!

They sent out an email around 4 weeks before the cruise advising that you will get a ‘check-in’ email shortly. When you get the email to ‘check-in’ for the cruise which is roughly 21days prior you will get to pick your boarding time from a list during the check-in process.

Oh yes! They got gifts too but knowing they had provided lunch for a few homeless people just didn’t hit home. Probably, thank goodness, they’ve never been homeless or hungry and we’re probably too young to understand.

We have done that especially giving to a homeless charity that provides Christmas lunch and health checks etc for the homeless. Unfortunately our grandchildren were too young to understand so it turned out to be a ‘donation’ to make us feel ‘rightgeous’ but they were still too young see it!

Mine do constantly! But I love to give them gifts … difficult when they, fortunately, have all they need … and probably want.