Marina: October ‘24

[Vallesan]

So we’ve just boarded Marina in Barcelona and my first observation is the ‘wine by the glass’ list has been shortened. Our favourite Albariño is now only by the bottle, but there is 15% of if you have a package! There are some wines that look OK but certainly not the choice that there was.

 

The aft lift, as expected, is still out of order. Otherwise, so far, everything seems the same.

 

There seem to be quite a few ‘new to Oceania’ cruisers onboard and from what I’ve seen so far, those that we’ve identified, seem really pleased with the product.

 

Weather here is looking grim and all the small boats etc are making for a safe haven in the port. The last time I saw that was in Hong Kong when there was a typhoon warning. Could be in for a rough night!

Edited October 2 by Vallesan

[Harters]

2 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

Our favourite Albariño is now only by the bottle

Mrs Harters will be unhappy. 

[ak1004]

We will board Marina in Barcelona next month.

 

How does the ship look after renovation? How is the food and the service?

[Tranquility Base]

2 hours ago, Vallesan said:

Weather here is looking grim and all the small boats etc are making for a safe haven in the port.

Britannia rules the rough seas.

At least in regards to yesterday's America's Cup racing in Barcelona is concerned.

Edited October 2 by Tranquility Base

[ronrick1943]

Looking forward to reading more of your post regarding your cruise--thanks for taking the time........have a wonderful cruise experience.

[Vallesan]

16 hours ago, Harters said:

Mrs Harters will be unhappy. 

I’m not overjoyed either!

[Vallesan]

16 hours ago, ak1004 said:

We will board Marina in Barcelona next month.

 

How does the ship look after renovation? How is the food and the service?

As you may know only the PH suites were upgraded together with the public areas. I think the soft furnishings in the other cabins have been renewed. Our cabin is fine for a ship 13 years of age. 
 

Food: bit early to comment as we have only had one lunch, dinner and breakfast. Red Ginger last night was very nice. Breakfast in the GDR was good but then you can’t go wrong with yogurt berries and walnuts! Although they seem to have shortened the dining time to 9am and there were no pastries! Not sure if that was a one off or if they have discontinued the pastries.

 

Service: as usual very good in general, excellent in Red Ginger slowish as usual at breakfast in GDR but elsewhere seems normal to me.

 

Is this your first Oceania cruise?

[ak1004]

4 hours ago, Vallesan said:

As you may know only the PH suites were upgraded together with the public areas. I think the soft furnishings in the other cabins have been renewed. Our cabin is fine for a ship 13 years of age. 
 

Food: bit early to comment as we have only had one lunch, dinner and breakfast. Red Ginger last night was very nice. Breakfast in the GDR was good but then you can’t go wrong with yogurt berries and walnuts! Although they seem to have shortened the dining time to 9am and there were no pastries! Not sure if that was a one off or if they have discontinued the pastries.

 

Service: as usual very good in general, excellent in Red Ginger slowish as usual at breakfast in GDR but elsewhere seems normal to me.

 

Is this your first Oceania cruise?

 

Good to know, thank you!

 

It will be our 5th O cruise, with two more booked in 2025. You can see all our sailing history in my signature. Our last O cruise was last May, with two SS and one SB in between, so it will be interesting to see how they compare.

[Vallesan]

On 10/3/2024 at 2:44 PM, ak1004 said:

 

Good to know, thank you!

 

It will be our 5th O cruise, with two more booked in 2025. You can see all our sailing history in my signature. Our last O cruise was last May, with two SS and one SB in between, so it will be interesting to see how they compare.

Yes we’ve sailed Seabourn and  Silversea too and enjoyed them as well as Oceania. Personally I find all three similar yet different! Seabourn takes the edge for service as I always feel they know what you want even before you knew you wanted it! Oceania for food especially the variety on the larger ships. And Silversea… well different again. I loved our cruise in the Norwegian Fjords but our enjoyment may just have had more to do with the itinerary than our fellow passengers!

 

So today we have had an unscheduled ‘sea day’ due to a port workers strike in Corsica. Ce La Vie! The seas have been a little heavy but not too bad. The revised activity program included a film, a few iPhone classes and a couple of Enrichment speakers plus wine tasting etc etc. so a good program all in all.

 

Pleasant meal in Toscana last night. Not my favourite food but good company on our sharing table so overall a good night.

 

Tonight we have a booking in Polo sharing table again. So looking forward to that.

 

Just a couple of points: the beds are still wonderfully comfortable. The towels are still thick and fluffy!

[Vallesan]

P.S. keep meeting first time Oceania passengers and lots of Celebrity refugees!
 

Oh and the pastries are at breakfast in the GDR!

[ak1004]

1 hour ago, Vallesan said:

Yes we’ve sailed Seabourn and  Silversea too and enjoyed them as well as Oceania. Personally I find all three similar yet different! Seabourn takes the edge for service as I always feel they know what you want even before you knew you wanted it! Oceania for food especially the variety on the larger ships. And Silversea… well different again. I loved our cruise in the Norwegian Fjords but our enjoyment may just have had more to do with the itinerary than our fellow passengers!

 

 

I share your opinion 100%! Service on SB was the best we had, but O is usually also excellent. Food is the best on O as far as I remember, but SB and SS are also very good. SS is a bit too formal, but not a deal breaker for the right itinerary and price.

 

[Vallesan]

3 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

I share your opinion 100%! Service on SB was the best we had, but O is usually also excellent. Food is the best on O as far as I remember, but SB and SS are also very good. SS is a bit too formal, but not a deal breaker for the right itinerary and price.

 

At the end of the day for us it comes down to price and itinerary.

[ak1004]

53 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

At the end of the day for us it comes down to price and itinerary.

 

You are my brother (or sister) from another mother. 😁

[Vallesan]

Just wanted to say that the food on this trip seems have really improved from our last one in May.

 

We have eaten dinner in Polo, Red Ginger, Toscana and the GDR and all seem to have improved since the first trip after refurbishment. Lunch in the TC today,  zarzuela and grilled salmon followed by blue cheese was really very good.

 

Reminds me of the Oceania of the ‘old days’!

Edited October 7 by Vallesan

[ronrick1943]

3 hours ago, Vallesan said:

Just wanted to say that the food on this trip seems have really improved from our last one in May.

 

We have eaten dinner in Polo, Red Ginger, Toscana and the GDR and all seem to have improved since the first trip after refurbishment. Lunch in the TC today,  zarzuela and grilled salmon followed by blue cheese was really very good.

 

Reminds me of the Oceania of the ‘old days’!

That is great to hear as meals are an important part of a cruise.

[Huib]

On 10/4/2024 at 12:44 PM, Vallesan said:

At the end of the day for us it comes down to price and itinerary.

Well, if there is a good itinerary on Costa cruises I still would not consider it. 

[osandomir]

13 minutes ago, Huib said:

Well, if there is a good itinerary on Costa cruises I still would not consider it. 

I believe that the discussion was about luxury and premium cruise lines.

[terrydtx]

I am following as we will be on the Marina in March. We are also refugees from Celebrity, Elite+, but we want something different and a step above, so we are giving Oceania a try. Our Concierge Class A3 cabin on the Marina for 18 days was less cost than a similar Celebrity 14-day cruise in a Sky Suite. We booked this cruise in January 2023 with SM, now after a $1000pp price increase and no more SM this cruise would have been much higher than the Celebrity cruise.

[Vallesan]

This cruise is still living up to my expectations and possibly even exceeding them!
 

In Argostoli today which is a really pretty port. Portofino was also very picturesque as was Sorrento. This is important to me as we use the ship as a ‘floating hotel’. 
 

Ate in Jaques a few nights ago and it was really underwhelming. We have been invited back this evening at 7.30, table for two so I’m sure they must keep some tables back ‘just in case’. Anyway, let’s hope tonight proves to be better.

 

Just one other really minor point but one which has always been a bugbear for me: mustard. They now seem to have English mustard and actually offer it to you rather than, on past cruises, where there was a scramble to find a bit of Dijon or something. I really appreciate that.

 

Rather sad that we can’t find a Meditteranean cruise for next summer on Oceania but the choices are limited so we may have to look elsewhere.

[Harters]

52 minutes ago, Vallesan said:

They now seem to have English mustard

Good to hear you're enjoying yourself, V.

 

And good news about the mustard. Always seemed to have been more trouble than it was worth to get some to have with a steak. 

[mauibabes]

@Vallesan

I would whole heartedly recommend the Sea Bass baked in Filo dough for 2, outstanding but takes about 30 minutes to cook. Otherwise it is a delicious Dover Sole. 
Mauibabes

 

[Vallesan]

On 10/10/2024 at 4:32 PM, mauibabes said:

@Vallesan

I would whole heartedly recommend the Sea Bass baked in Filo dough for 2, outstanding but takes about 30 minutes to cook. Otherwise it is a delicious Dover Sole. 
Mauibabes

 

Unfortunately could persuade my OH to try it. Another time …. maybe!

[mauibabes]

My DW won’t eat fish either unless I have flown her to Maui and she gets the fresh caught mahi mahi so it does make for a pricy dinner 🤪 I shared the sea bass with a guest at our shared table and we all raved about it as we handed out taster bites to the others. Where there is a will there is a way 😇👍

Mauibabes

[Vallesan]

So …. we have now disembarked the Marina after 14 days. We had a wonderful trip and are now spending a few days in Malta before returning to the very wet UK! (Sorry, I know it’s not a patch on the nightmares in Florida and my sympathy goes out to everyone involved)

 

Overall the cruise was good. The food was good in all of the restaurants for maybe 92% of the time and excellent sometimes. Overall I still stand by my assessment that it was better than in May ‘24. The staff, as usual, were all magnificent. The cleanliness was good but I would suggest taking extra personal care as there seemed to be some illness on the ship. In fact both my husband and I had short lived ‘episodes’.

 

This was our 11th Oceania cruise and we have enjoyed them all however after spending 14 nights on the Marina I now feel that the cabins really do need updating. Our cabin started to feel a little oppressive with the dark wood and chipped furniture a few days after the initial joy of cruising again had worn off! We had already booked a cruise on her next April but after that wouldn’t book another cruise until all the cabins are refurbished. In fact if we can upgrade to a PH we might just do that.

 

In the meantime, Oceania is off our radar.  These days we only do short haul flights within Europe so at the moment I’m looking at Seabourn as Oceania only have the Marina and Nautica in the Med next year. Sad … but this is ‘My World’  and life moves on.

[Vallesan]

15 minutes ago, mauibabes said:

My DW won’t eat fish either unless I have flown her to Maui and she gets the fresh caught mahi mahi so it does make for a pricy dinner 🤪 I shared the sea bass with a guest at our shared table and we all raved about it as we handed out taster bites to the others. Where there is a will there is a way 😇👍

Mauibabes

 
Absolutely!😄