Review Dec 3rd 2017 Spain and Transatlantic on Oceania

Hello,

I just submitted my review of our recent Oceania cruise. If anyone wants a preview, see below :)

Spain and Transatlantic on Oceania Marina

We are a couple in our mid 50s and mid 60s, who were looking forward to trying something new after many years of cruising with Celebrity. We were looking for higher quality food and service than Celebrity now offers, but also good entertainment, and some “new to us” ports, and this cruise with its Spain and Canary Island itinerary, plus a relaxing few days crossing the Atlantic sounded perfect to us.

We spent four days pre-cruise in Barcelona at the Hotel 1898 which was excellent. Barcelona was uncrowded as we were out of season, so it was perfect for sightseeing. The Gaudi houses are a must-see and so is Sagrada Familia, which is a little closer to being finished than last time we saw it. We also took a private Montserrat and Cava tour with Barcelona Day Tours. There wasn’t a lot to see at Montserrat as the funicular was closed for renovation, and as it was bitterly cold we didn’t fancy any of the hikes. We did get to enjoy listening to the boys choir in the church there, and we did buy some excellent local cheese! Cava tasting at Art Cava was fun.

On then to the cruise portion of our trip. We were in Concierge Class Verandah 10067, and had the O Life features of unlimited wifi, wine with lunch and dinner, and gratuities included.

We are new to Oceania and had a wonderful first impression of the cruise line and the ship Marina. Check in was very quick and easy and we notice that no one was trying to sell us packages for drinks or specialty restaurants or even stopping us to take our photo. We were directed up to the buffet, which from past experience on other cruise lines has been a nightmare. Marina was much more civilised with staff serving the food for you and waiters carrying your food to the table for you. We actually enjoyed embarkation lunch this time!

Marina is a smaller ship that we have been sailing on recently, but she is beautifully decorated and furnished, and spotlessly clean. We had a concierge level cabin and were very impressed with the layout, especially the marble bathroom, which had a proper bathtub with shower, as well as a separate shower cubicle. We liked the selection of Bulgari toiletries and the bath salts, and loved the abundance of soft towels that were provided. I had requested hypoallergenic bedding through my travel agent as I am allergic to feathers. Unfortunately there were feather pillows and bedding in the room, so the request had not reached Oceania. Our cabin attendant was very apologetic and said that she would make sure everything was changed during evening turndown service, and she did.

We had very positive experiences with the food on Marina. I am not a person who likes to eat with strangers, so it was nice to have no problem getting a table for two. We typically ate breakfast at the buffet on sea days, and ordered room service on port days. Every time our room service order was exactly right, nothing was ever missing, which makes a pleasant change from other cruiselines we have sailed on! We ate lunch and dinner in the main dining room most days and the food was consistently good and the service was excellent. We had wines with meals included in our fare and found there was a good selection to choose from, although by about day five they were out of the french rose. Specialty restaurants on Oceania are included, and I easily made my reservations online before we sailed. In the end we ate twice at Red Ginger, once at Jacques and once at Polo Grill. The food was outstanding in all three. We had to cancel our Toscana reservation and never got round to rebooking as we enjoyed the main dining room so much. Afternoon tea was a wonderful experience, and the scones were delicious!

We bought a package of assorted spa treatments, and had two couples massages, and two solo massages. They were pricy but enjoyable.

The pool area was uncrowded and we had no trouble getting a sunbed, or ten! It really was deserted.

Entertainment is where I felt things went a little awry. The singers and dancers were very talented, as were the live musicians, but, and it’s a big BUT, the music was not geared to my age group at all, it was aimed at much older demographic who like music from the 40’s, 50s and 60s and want to ballroom dance. Whether it was the production show “Songs of Peggy Lee” or “Music From The Brill Building” it was music from the same era. Only the “Dancing Fool” show gave a brief nod to the 1970’s. The Orchestra, The Party Band and Claude at the Piano all seemed to have the same repertoire. How many times can you hear Moon River, Route 66, Hit The Road Jack and Fever before you want to curl up and die? The string quartet were excellent and they, fortunately were allowed to play classical music, which made a welcome change. After a few nights we gave up trying to stay up for the late night happy hour at 10:30pm so maybe we missed out on more up to date music then, I don’t know.

Daytime entertainment was very low key, with trivia, needlepoint and coffee, spa lectures and a guest speaker. We have done Transatlantic crossings before so were prepared and amused ourselves with books and puzzles we had brought with us. I also spent many an hour soaking in the bathtub, reading!

I have to say I was a bit dubious about how good the wi-fi would be, especially if a large number of passengers had unlimited wifi included with O Life, and also because we were crossing the Atlantic. It was in fact really good. I was even able to download ebooks from my local library in the USA when we were half way across the Atlantic!

Our itinerary had three ports in mainland Spain and two in the Canary Islands. We looked at ship tours but they didn’t really have anything that looked interesting to us and very few tours under $300 per person, so we booked small group semi-private tours through Spain Day Tours instead, for around $100 per person. From Alicante we visited Guadalest, from Malaga the Alhambra in Granada, and from Cadiz the Alcazar in Seville. We travelled on comfortable new coaches and had really good english speaking guides. In Tenerife we took a tour up to the top of the volcano and it was really interesting seeing the difference between the beach level, the forest area and the lava fields. Again this was organised through Spain Day Tours, and again the guide was good but this bus wasn’t as nice as the others. Our final tour was a ship tour on the island of La Palma. It was a bit disappointing. We did a short hike around the caldera, then visited an old house with wine and tapas to taste and then a church. It was low key and a bit boring compared to our other tours.

At the end of the cruise it was refreshing to not experience waiters and cabin attendants grovelling and guilting you into ranking them a 10 whether or not you felt their service deserved it. Perhaps the Marina staff knew they would be getting 10s anyway because they really had provided exceptional service. Disembarkation was really easy. We were among the last groups called and were off the ship very quickly.

In conclusion, the cruise was very nice, but we were really looking forward to getting off in Miami. Marina is a lovely ship, the food is outstanding, and the crew really go out of their way to please you, but I don’t think I have found my new cruise home yet. It’s a trade off and at this point I don’t think I am ready to give up livelier entertainment and more modern music in favour of a quiet more sedate experience with better food. Perhaps in 20 years time when people my age might be their target market, I’ll try Oceania again.

Absolutely spot on Review.

I can honestly say that we concur with every point made!

Well done. :D

Thank you for taking the time to post the review.

It is understandable that despite liking many aspects of Oceania it is not "your cup of tea" for stated reasons.

That is why it is nice to have such a great variety of cruise lines to choose from. Maybe in the future it will be more to your liking - as you said.

Happy cruising.

An outstanding review !

We have cruised on Oceania four times.

Great to see such fair and thorough descriptions of likes and dislikes. Your review will be helpful to anyone considering Oceania for the first time.

Excellent review...you summed up Oceania’s strengths and weaknesses perfectly.

You might give O another try with a more port intensive itinerary. The entertainment might be less of an issue for you.

Thanks for the balanced review of your recent Marina cruise. We were on her inaugural cruise Miami to San Fran and have loved her ever since!

Thanks for your review. We were on the same cruise and concur.

We never go to the shows on Oceania and only occasionally on Celebrity. For us not a big deal, but I can definitely see how it would be for someone that it's important to.

We cruise Oceania for other things, primarily the low key ambience and the food. Out of 14 nights we ate in the Specialties 9 times, usually at 6:30 and at a table for two. We were wishing we were staying on when we got to Miami.

Thank you for the review.

Thanks for the detailed review! Not sure if it is a trend, but on Insignia in December 2017 for public-area muzak-type programs there were noticeably more 80s selections than I had noticed before.

We were on the same cruise as well and agree with your comments. We're in our mid-60's and in our cruise comment card we mentioned that we felt that the shows featuring the music of Peggy Lee and hits from the Brill Building were aimed at an audience older than what we saw on the ship. It's time for cruise ship entertainment to move past the 1940's and 50's. However, entertainment is subjective and not one of the main reasons why we sail Oceania.

We were a bit concerned about taking a trans-Atlantic cruise in December and were very thankful that we had great weather and generally smooth seas, except for about 1/2 day when there was a bit of a swell providing some motion to the ocean.

We enjoy Oceania for the good food, excellent and friendly staff, no photographers, limited announcements, and the many fellow passengers that we get to meet. With the smaller size of the ships, getting on and off the ship as well as moving around on the ship tends to be problem free. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2018!

Thanks for taking the time to write your well thought out cruise review. Great highlights and sound points made. Seems like it was enjoyable even if O is not quite the right fit (yet) for you. Hope you find your "cruise home". At least the a trial and error investigation should be fun.

And yet the OP enjoyed the classical music played by the string quartet

it was probably written many decades before they were born ...go figure

I enjoy many different music styles & do not really put them in a "decade box"

YMMV

Congratulations on a really thoughtful well-written review. We sailed on Marina last May Barcelona to Southampton, our first time back on her since June 2011, soon after her debut, and I too was extremely surprised to see the themes of the production shows, both Brill Building and Peggy Lee. I have enjoyed many post-British invasion music themed shows these past few years on Riviera but was very surprised to see shows going back even a decade earlier, so even before my time!:D

That being said, in my nine Oceania Cruises, I never experienced a better combination of excellent food and service in all venues.

And yet the OP enjoyed the classical music played by the string quartet

it was probably written many decades before they were born ...go figure

 

I enjoy many different music styles & do not really put them in a "decade box"

 

YMMV

The string quartet had a repertoire spanning many centuries from Mozart to Andrew Lloyd Webber however it seemed to me the other musicians like the pianist, orchestra and band were restricted to 2 or 3 decades.

Had all the music been 80s I would have tired of that too.

I think the point I was trying to put across was that I would have preferred to have access to a wider variety of genres of music than what was played on this cruise. After all variety is the spice of life :)

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Excellent review of your cruise. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with us.

Nothing is perfect, but as good a cruise as we have been on. Ports no big deal but just being on such a wonderful ship for 6 days is a row made it for us. Ready to go again. :):):)

Thanks for the review. I'm curious you did not mention anything about the seadays before San Juan. How was the crossing - good or bad weather? and how was the Marina? We plan to do a southerly crossing on the Marina next year and we were wondering how it compared to our Tahiti>Lima trip on the Marina? We experienced good weather then.

Thanks for the review. I'm curious you did not mention anything about the seadays before San Juan. How was the crossing - good or bad weather? and how was the Marina? We plan to do a southerly crossing on the Marina next year and we were wondering how it compared to our Tahiti>Lima trip on the Marina? We experienced good weather then.

Weather on the crossing was real good. Maybe one half day of some rolling seas but no problem. Also pretty warm, in the 70's. Did not do San Juan because of the hurricane damage so added Cadiz before the crossing. Ship great. Would do it again. :):):)

What a surprise....after such a good review with glowing reports about so many different areas and experiences on their Oceania cruise, the last paragraph seemed odd....

"In conclusion, the cruise was very nice, but we were really looking forward to getting off in Miami. Marina is a lovely ship, the food is outstanding, and the crew really go out of their way to please you, but I don’t think I have found my new cruise home yet. It’s a trade off and at this point I don’t think I am ready to give up livelier entertainment and more modern music in favour of a quiet more sedate experience with better food. Perhaps in 20 years time when people my age might be their target market, I’ll try Oceania again."

I realize we each have our own priorities, but after loving everything except some music, it seems strange to me that the OP would say that they won't go on O again and that they actually looked forward to the cruise ending! I'm always SAD that any cruise I'm on is ending. ;)

Always look forward to my next cruise, while always happy to go home when it ends. Have found that 20-22 days is our limit for a cruise. Throw in a couple days or so on each side and ready to see our dogs and torment the sheep!

Love to travel and cruise to see the ports. A sea day is nice once a week as a rest day. It is, however imo, not a $1200-$1500 per couple/ day experience on O, so like to keep them at a minimum.

We all like different things. I definitely enjoyed our late Oct-Nov cruise far more than our summer cruise. The very old demographics of that earlier cruise, along with the music set to match them was to much after awhile. The younger demographics on our fall cruise, with the large NextOne, and wine group added diversity and energy to the ship.

We’ll be on the Nautica again in just under a month. Looking forward to the cruise. After 23 total days of travel, i’ll We ready to come home again! Happy Sailing!

I'm generally sad when a cruise ends. Packing your stuff up is sort of a drag! We usually have another one coming up..so look forward to It. This year in May ..Sydney to LA on Insignia and Dec.. Rio to Papeete on our fav Marina.

What a surprise....after such a good review with glowing reports about so many different areas and experiences on their Oceania cruise, the last paragraph seemed odd....

 

"In conclusion, the cruise was very nice, but we were really looking forward to getting off in Miami. Marina is a lovely ship, the food is outstanding, and the crew really go out of their way to please you, but I don’t think I have found my new cruise home yet. It’s a trade off and at this point I don’t think I am ready to give up livelier entertainment and more modern music in favour of a quiet more sedate experience with better food. Perhaps in 20 years time when people my age might be their target market, I’ll try Oceania again."

I realize we each have our own priorities, but after loving everything except some music, it seems strange to me that the OP would say that they won't go on O again and that they actually looked forward to the cruise ending! I'm always SAD that any cruise I'm on is ending. ;)

I like to think that my review was fair and cited what I did and didn't enjoy about the cruise. I love listening to music, and dancing, and eating. This cruise offered me the opportunity to indulge my "eating" self, but my "music" self felt neglected. Just as other cruise lines might give me the entertainment I enjoy, but the food is lacking.

It was a nice experience but I am in no hurry to do it again until maybe the music caters for my age group in say 15-20 years!

agathasmum

I understand your point on the music.I have never heard of Peggy Lee and Brill building,but sounds like they aren’t very modern.

On our first and only cruise (at the time) with Oceania,we were very disappointed with the entertainment,shows and live music....Even the in-cabin TV had no option for even 70s music.The evenings we went to see the shows,a lot of the audience was asleep!!

We had a great cruise and are away this weekend on Marina as we loved Oceania,but yes,the entertainment FOR US is poor.We are taking our own music this time.

I really enjoyed reading your review, and agree with your description of Oceania’s strengths. We are “early to bed, early to rise”-types, and my husband does not enjoy mega-cruise ship style production shows, so a weakness in that area does not diminish our pleasure. I am currently strategizing how to get DH to book our next pleasure cruise on Oceania!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

agathasmum

I understand your point on the music.I have never heard of Peggy Lee and Brill building,but sounds like they aren’t very modern.

On our first and only cruise (at the time) with Oceania,we were very disappointed with the entertainment,shows and live music....Even the in-cabin TV had no option for even 70s music.The evenings we went to see the shows,a lot of the audience was asleep!!

We had a great cruise and are away this weekend on Marina as we loved Oceania,but yes,the entertainment FOR US is poor.We are taking our own music this time.

Never heard of the Brill Building? I'm sure if you Google the term you realize you've heard much of the music that came out of it. Many early 60's pop hits were written there. Carole King anyone?