Oceania Marina Review - Miami - Barcelona March 2012

[traveler916]

We took our first O Cruise – a 14 day Transatlantic -- from Miami to Barcelona on Marina in March. I have been meaning to write a review but work got in the way…I know, likely story. And of course, by now I have forgotten a lot of what I wanted to write. But since we are going on Marina again in November, I am sure I will remember then.

As I said, this was our first O cruise. We had done 3 cruises in an Owner’s Suite on the Norwegian Sun, but were really bummed at the cutbacks in food. One of Jody’s friends had cruise on O and said she enjoyed it, so we took the plunge.

The March cruise was nice, and my birthday was the 25th…so we called it my birthday cruise.

We flew down to Miami on United the day before and stayed at the Marriott in South Beach…right along the Ocean. It was great. Lots of sun. Lots of surf. Lots of sights.

We left for the cruise about 11 AM, as we had been told that embarkation started at 1PM, but if you are in a suite (we were) you could board at 11. It was true. We went to a “Suite Registration” line and it was very quick…showed them our credit card for onboard charges…and within 15 minutes we were on the ship. By the way – as I posted on a different thread – non suite customers got to register and board before 1 PM as well. It all went very smoothly.

My first sensation coming aboard the ship: Wow, nice artwork and decoration…but.…where’s the food!!

We went to the Waves Grill. I had checked out their menu online before the cruise and decided I needed to try the Lobster Sandwich. As the kids would say, OMG!!! Real lobster!!! A couple of pieces that covered the whole bun!!! Not a half of a miniature lobster tail like they serve on the other cruise lines. And you can have more than 1. Anyway, we gave them our order, picked out our salads (they have the best cole slaw), found a table, and within 5 minutes a waiter brought us our lunch. It was delicious!!! After lunch, I went and checked out the Terrace Grill….another OMG!! The food looked great. They have a “best of both worlds” set up for a buffet. Unlike NCL where you get in a long, slow moving line and serve yourself, on O there are “stations” and they serve you. There is hot food, cold food, salads and a desert area.

Throughout the cruise, 95% of what we tried was superb…the other 5% was me trying stuff that I don’t particularly care for but I wanted to be adventurous….and I discovered that I don’t like spinach, for example, no matter how it was prepared.

One more thing about food…they serve pizza at lunch and dinner. It’s one of many things they have. It was wonderful. It had cheese. It had tomatoes. It was cooked and not overcooked. And I mentioned to a few of the other guests that I could never understand why NCL served such bad pizza. I mean really bad. Tasteless, overcooked pizza. I guess that was part of the reason we left NCL…

There is free Pelegrino sparkling water served at the tables in the Terrace Grill, and those that wanted to order wine or cocktails or champagne could do so…there were bar servers there, but they absolutely weren’t pushy like on NCL or HAL.

The first couple of nights, we had dinner in our suite. Our room had the specialty restaurant menus in it, and we placed our order. I had chicken from Polo Grill; Jody had ?? (she doesn’t remember). It was great. The food was wonderful.

Next day, we had early morning breakfast…bagels and smoked salmon….good coffee… It was interesting. Every morning I had a bagel and it was good. I thought that by the end of the cruise the bagels would be stale or hard…I don’t know how they do it. Maybe there is a private island in the Atlantic that sells fresh bagels, and O sent a lifeboat to get some…

Eventually, we left our cabin for dinner and visited all of the specialty restaurants. We didn’t make any dining reservations in advance of our cruise, which we will do next time…but we managed to get a table every night at a restaurant. We did not eat at all in the main dining room. We did room service for breakfast, Waves or Terrace for lunch, and Specialty or Terrace for dinner.

Speaking of food (can you tell I like to eat and food is important to me?). At dinner in the Terrace Grill, they have a station where they will make lobster, shrimp, salmon, swordfish, steaks, etc…and they were really good. By the end of the cruise I was (jokingly) saying, “I’m tired of lobster.” Another poster joked that maybe the entire 4th floor of the ship is a giant lobster tank…it could very well be.

We had a really good Cruise Critic group…there was a Meet & Greet followed by a Cabin Crawl. One of the members of the group, Oak (you are a funny guy, Oak J), reserved La Reserve on my birthday, and invited another 3 couples. We had a blast. It was work the $50 we paid. The room is wonderful – you sit at this huge table overlooking the stern with these Captain’s Chairs, for lack of a better term. Yes, you order the same food from the Polo Grill or Toscana. But being able to be in a private room with a bunch of people was great. When we go in November, we will be celebrating Jody’s birthday, and will reserve the room for that evening.

Ports: one of the things we enjoy about Transatlantic cruises is the lack of ports. I know that cruises can sometimes be port intensive. We mostly stayed onboard – we got off a couple of times and walked around, but we are not the experts on port activities.

Nightlife – we don’t do that either. And we don’t gamble.

We do like to read from our iPads, and I read 6 books. That was fun for me.

On the last night, Jody had a cocktail party in our suite, and we had 18 people come. It was great. A number of people on that cruise are also doing the Rome to Rio TA in November. And as JimandStan pointed out in a recent thread…you have this cocktail party, go to dinner, and when you come back, your cabin is all cleaned and put back together. Needless to say, the automatic gratuity that is added is not enough to compensate for the great service and we gave out envelopes at the end of the cruise.

The future cruise room was busy the 3-4 times I was there. We went ahead and booked 2 more cruises while on board. And we are waiting to see the schedule for 2014…

The internet definitely was slow. One time, we tried to log out and I thought we did log out, but the next time I signed on, 7 hours later, I found that the system thought we had been online the whole time, dinging us for 450 minutes out of the 1000 minutes we bought. I went up to the Computer room and he credited us, no questions asked. It happened 2x more on the cruise, and the minutes were credited back each time with no problem.

Speaking of downloading and slow internet. Before we left, Jody had her personal hot spot on her iPhone turned on, and by the middle of the first week of the cruise, AT&T was calling to say that we had run out of bandwidth…we increased it but still ran out again. Between our cell phone bill and what we paid AT&T, we spend close to $2200 on phone and internet. I was amazed at how many MB a Fortune magazine or Wall Street Journal download is.

 

This isn’t a comprehensive review, and I have forgotten a few things as I mentioned earlier…if you have any specific questions, please ask.

[zship]

What suite were you in and how did you like the room ?

[loum140]

Great report!

 

As two of the lucky 18 guests at your wonderful April Fool's Day cocktail party, we wanted to thank you and Jody again for being such gracious hosts.

 

We're looking forward to seeing you on the Nov. 2012 and the Nov. 2013 crossings...oh, and Lou wanted me to tell you that you'll enjoy the westbound crossings so much more. Instead of losing an hour every other day, we gain an hour - which gives one much more time to digest all that lobster!:cool:

 

Best regards, Marsha and Lou

[wripro]

Thanks for the great report. The smartest thing you did was to avoid the GDR.

[Keith1010]

I enjoyed reading your trip report.

 

Keith

[LuAnn]

We took our first O Cruise – a 14 day Transatlantic -- from Miami to Barcelona on Marina in March. I have been meaning to write a review but work got in the way…I know, likely story. And of course, by now I have forgotten a lot of what I wanted to write. But since we are going on Marina again in November, I am sure I will remember then.

 

As I said, this was our first O cruise. We had done 3 cruises in an Owner’s Suite on the Norwegian Sun, but were really bummed at the cutbacks in food. One of Jody’s friends had cruise on O and said she enjoyed it, so we took the plunge.

 

The March cruise was nice, and my birthday was the 25th…so we called it my birthday cruise.

 

We flew down to Miami on United the day before and stayed at the Marriott in South Beach…right along the Ocean. It was great. Lots of sun. Lots of surf. Lots of sights.

 

We left for the cruise about 11 AM, as we had been told that embarkation started at 1PM, but if you are in a suite (we were) you could board at 11. It was true. We went to a “Suite Registration” line and it was very quick…showed them our credit card for onboard charges…and within 15 minutes we were on the ship. By the way – as I posted on a different thread – non suite customers got to register and board before 1 PM as well. It all went very smoothly.

 

My first sensation coming aboard the ship: Wow, nice artwork and decoration…but.…where’s the food!!

 

We went to the Waves Grill. I had checked out their menu online before the cruise and decided I needed to try the Lobster Sandwich. As the kids would say, OMG!!! Real lobster!!! A couple of pieces that covered the whole bun!!! Not a half of a miniature lobster tail like they serve on the other cruise lines. And you can have more than 1. Anyway, we gave them our order, picked out our salads (they have the best cole slaw), found a table, and within 5 minutes a waiter brought us our lunch. It was delicious!!! After lunch, I went and checked out the Terrace Grill….another OMG!! The food looked great. They have a “best of both worlds” set up for a buffet. Unlike NCL where you get in a long, slow moving line and serve yourself, on O there are “stations” and they serve you. There is hot food, cold food, salads and a desert area.

 

Throughout the cruise, 95% of what we tried was superb…the other 5% was me trying stuff that I don’t particularly care for but I wanted to be adventurous….and I discovered that I don’t like spinach, for example, no matter how it was prepared.

 

One more thing about food…they serve pizza at lunch and dinner. It’s one of many things they have. It was wonderful. It had cheese. It had tomatoes. It was cooked and not overcooked. And I mentioned to a few of the other guests that I could never understand why NCL served such bad pizza. I mean really bad. Tasteless, overcooked pizza. I guess that was part of the reason we left NCL…

 

There is free Pelegrino sparkling water served at the tables in the Terrace Grill, and those that wanted to order wine or cocktails or champagne could do so…there were bar servers there, but they absolutely weren’t pushy like on NCL or HAL.

 

The first couple of nights, we had dinner in our suite. Our room had the specialty restaurant menus in it, and we placed our order. I had chicken from Polo Grill; Jody had ?? (she doesn’t remember). It was great. The food was wonderful.

 

Next day, we had early morning breakfast…bagels and smoked salmon….good coffee… It was interesting. Every morning I had a bagel and it was good. I thought that by the end of the cruise the bagels would be stale or hard…I don’t know how they do it. Maybe there is a private island in the Atlantic that sells fresh bagels, and O sent a lifeboat to get some…

 

Eventually, we left our cabin for dinner and visited all of the specialty restaurants. We didn’t make any dining reservations in advance of our cruise, which we will do next time…but we managed to get a table every night at a restaurant. We did not eat at all in the main dining room. We did room service for breakfast, Waves or Terrace for lunch, and Specialty or Terrace for dinner.

 

Speaking of food (can you tell I like to eat and food is important to me?). At dinner in the Terrace Grill, they have a station where they will make lobster, shrimp, salmon, swordfish, steaks, etc…and they were really good. By the end of the cruise I was (jokingly) saying, “I’m tired of lobster.” Another poster joked that maybe the entire 4th floor of the ship is a giant lobster tank…it could very well be.

 

We had a really good Cruise Critic group…there was a Meet & Greet followed by a Cabin Crawl. One of the members of the group, Oak (you are a funny guy, Oak J), reserved La Reserve on my birthday, and invited another 3 couples. We had a blast. It was work the $50 we paid. The room is wonderful – you sit at this huge table overlooking the stern with these Captain’s Chairs, for lack of a better term. Yes, you order the same food from the Polo Grill or Toscana. But being able to be in a private room with a bunch of people was great. When we go in November, we will be celebrating Jody’s birthday, and will reserve the room for that evening.

 

Ports: one of the things we enjoy about Transatlantic cruises is the lack of ports. I know that cruises can sometimes be port intensive. We mostly stayed onboard – we got off a couple of times and walked around, but we are not the experts on port activities.

 

Nightlife – we don’t do that either. And we don’t gamble.

 

We do like to read from our iPads, and I read 6 books. That was fun for me.

 

On the last night, Jody had a cocktail party in our suite, and we had 18 people come. It was great. A number of people on that cruise are also doing the Rome to Rio TA in November. And as JimandStan pointed out in a recent thread…you have this cocktail party, go to dinner, and when you come back, your cabin is all cleaned and put back together. Needless to say, the automatic gratuity that is added is not enough to compensate for the great service and we gave out envelopes at the end of the cruise.

 

The future cruise room was busy the 3-4 times I was there. We went ahead and booked 2 more cruises while on board. And we are waiting to see the schedule for 2014…

 

The internet definitely was slow. One time, we tried to log out and I thought we did log out, but the next time I signed on, 7 hours later, I found that the system thought we had been online the whole time, dinging us for 450 minutes out of the 1000 minutes we bought. I went up to the Computer room and he credited us, no questions asked. It happened 2x more on the cruise, and the minutes were credited back each time with no problem.

 

Speaking of downloading and slow internet. Before we left, Jody had her personal hot spot on her iPhone turned on, and by the middle of the first week of the cruise, AT&T was calling to say that we had run out of bandwidth…we increased it but still ran out again. Between our cell phone bill and what we paid AT&T, we spend close to $2200 on phone and internet. I was amazed at how many MB a Fortune magazine or Wall Street Journal download is.

 

 

This isn’t a comprehensive review, and I have forgotten a few things as I mentioned earlier…if you have any specific questions, please ask.

 

forward to enjoying the two of you on the upcoming T/A...we will have a blast!! LuAnn

[traveler916]

What suite were you in and how did you like the room ?

 

Good morning. We were in 10001.

 

Now, one or the benefits in being in a suite is we got invited to a "wine and food tasting" dinner.

 

We met some nice people there, and afterwards, we got to do a cabin crawl of the suites.

 

The owners suite is massive...that's the only word I can think of.

 

The Vista suites on each floor are all laid out a little differently...some have more of a front hallway...some are more die than long. They all have the same basic couches, chairs, tables...the art is different.

 

We decided (ok, she decided :)) that she liked 8001 better than 10001.

 

But they are all very, very nice

[traveler916]

Thanks for the great report. The smartest thing you did was to avoid the GDR.

 

Haha.

 

honestly - I didn't even know where the GDR was until one day, we were walking around the ship and went through the bar and casino (it was closed - we were in port) and there it was!!!

 

The view looks really nice.

 

But I tend to be someone who "likes" something, and I "liked" Polo, Toscana, Red Ginger (although I did realize that the portions there are small and next time I need to order 2 of some things to make a "Gary sized meal") and Terrace and Waves.

 

There wasn't a day we sat in the Terrace Grill where we didn't have a nice chat with someone...the pacing is always better if you are putting your own feast together and you can eat as quickly or as slowly as you like.

 

So I don't think we missed the GDR at all.

[traveler916]

I enjoyed reading your trip report.

 

Keith

 

Thanks, Keith.

 

I have to tell you.......YOUR trip reports are absolutely amazing.

 

Maybe next time I should take some time each day to put my thoughts down, like you do...not trying to compete with your style...it's just that as time goes on, I tend to forget the details.

 

I also need to start using my iPhone camera for more than taking pictures of my favorite, photogenic cat...but after all this time, I still haven't been able to figure out how to post a picture of Jody and me...and while I have more tech minded people working for me, I hate to go to them and say, "for your next project, can you please help me post a picture of Jody and me on this cruising message board..."

[traveler916]

forward to enjoying the two of you on the upcoming T/A...we will have a blast!! LuAnn

 

awwww....Thanks, Luann...it will be good to see you again.

 

Did you get an iPad yet?

[traveler916]

Great report!

 

As two of the lucky 18 guests at your wonderful April Fool's Day cocktail party, we wanted to thank you and Jody again for being such gracious hosts.

 

We're looking forward to seeing you on the Nov. 2012 and the Nov. 2013 crossings...oh, and Lou wanted me to tell you that you'll enjoy the westbound crossings so much more. Instead of losing an hour every other day, we gain an hour - which gives one much more time to digest all that lobster!:cool:

 

Best regards, Marsha and Lou

 

Jody is almost ready to start planning her next cocktail party....and OF COURSE, you two are charter members of the cocktail party club :)

 

It was wonderful therapy for her as well. and we had such a wonderful time.

 

Final payment is due August 12th.,..I am saving my pennies (and more than that)

 

Thanks!!

[vivavegas]

Great review! Thanks for sharing!:)

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review of your cruise.

[LuAnn]

awwww....Thanks, Luann...it will be good to see you again.

 

Did you get an iPad yet?

 

But I will soon! Just got good news re my macular hole surgery...all is healed and I can have my first cataract done in late August! Whoopee!!! I'm sure that will help me able to read a lot!!! But still need the I pad for the large print factor!! So glad to read you are loving yours!! LuAnn

[Mura]

We decided (ok, she decided :)) that she liked 8001 better than 10001.

 

But they are all very, very nice

 

Okay, just because I was in 10001 also, I won't take that preference for 8001 personally ... and will file it away for future information.

 

Not that I'll ever be in a Vista if I really have to pay for it!

 

Mura

[Mura]

Traveler916,

 

Looking forward to meeting you in November 2013. We're on the BCN-Rio cruise as well.

 

Mura

[traveler916]

But I will soon! Just got good news re my macular hole surgery...all is healed and I can have my first cataract done in late August! Whoopee!!! I'm sure that will help me able to read a lot!!! But still need the I pad for the large print factor!! So glad to read you are loving yours!! LuAnn

 

...and have been downloading apps like crazy. I have also discovered that while I am very good at certain things, I am the world's worst Air Hockey on iPad player (my first game). It's a good thing they don't keep track of the worst scores...

[traveler916]

Traveler916,

 

Looking forward to meeting you in November 2013. We're on the BCN-Rio cruise as well.

 

Mura

 

Mura - I went to look and maybe we're in 8003 for that cruise? Whatever...we will have you up to the stuite and invite you to Jody's Birthday Party dinner at Le Privee :)

 

We will then go to 8001 and knock on their door and ask them if they are enjoying "our cabin" :)

[LuAnn]

...and have been downloading apps like crazy. I have also discovered that while I am very good at certain things, I am the world's worst Air Hockey on iPad player (my first game). It's a good thing they don't keep track of the worst scores...

 

 

I found out yesterday the grandson of a friend of mine works for Apple...on he phone helping customers with their I Pad/I Phone questions! He gets a 15% friends and family discount!! So he said he would go with me to the Apple store and help me buy the I Pad..tell me what all I needed and I could get the 15% discount!!!! And help me figure out how to use it!! Isn't that just great!!??:D And the eye doc had a cancellation so I get the cataract surgery 8/8...I think the doc's office thought I was weird because I was so excited to have the surgery scheduled!! Can't wait!! LuAnn

[Mura]

Mura - I went to look and maybe we're in 8003 for that cruise? Whatever...we will have you up to the stuite and invite you to Jody's Birthday Party dinner at Le Privee :)

 

We will then go to 8001 and knock on their door and ask them if they are enjoying "our cabin" :)

 

Would love to join you in La Privee! We'll be in 11080 on the Nov 2013 TA. We can each visit each other!

 

And after we go to 8001, we can go to 10001 and do the same!

 

They'll think we're crazy, and maybe won't be wrong!

 

Mura

[Love.II.Cruise]

Thanks for the review! We are doing a TA with O for the first time this fall. After our last cruise, we are just exhausted with all the tours and daylight (Alaska)... we are looking forward to reading books at sea. ;)

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Sorry to intrude on what seems to be a private thread among a group of friends, but I have a question for the OP and wripro:

 

What the heck is wrong with the GDR that means you should avoid it?

 

Really. I'm taking my first O cruise next November, and my enquiring mind wants to know.

[Mura]

Wendy,

 

Not everyone is as hostile to the GDR as some are here. DH and I happen to prefer it -- partly because of the variety of dishes and a menu that changes daily. The vast majority of time we've had excellent dishes there.

 

Most of my friends who have eaten at my table call me a gourmet cook (which is not a label I would give to myself) so I think we can be said to have adequate tastes regarding what constitutes good food.

 

Give it a try and see how you feel.

 

Mura

[LHT28]

Wendy

We like Mura do not use all our allotted specialty dining reservations & I like to be served ...I am on Vacation after all so we use the GDR a lot for all meals

We do use the buffet when we are tired or just want a quick meal

We do not order room service maybe twice in all our cruises

 

It is a personal choice

 

Lyn

[geekybiker]

We decided (ok, she decided :)) that she liked 8001 better than 10001.

 

But they are all very, very nice

 

Really, 8001? The b1 class cabin? We just booked that exact cabin for our December cruise.