Marina Review

Marina Continental Connoisseur Western Europe

Review for the British Isles & Western Europe Cruise on Marina
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rubysue
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Sep 2012
Cabin: Penthouse Suite

We embarked on our 20th cruise overall, and third on Oceania Cruise lines, on September 12, 2012. We sailed on Marina from Dover to Barcelona, hitting many interesting ports on the Atlantic coast of Europe and disembarking in Barcelona on September 27. We are middle-aged (mid-fifties) and enjoy many types of trips, especially cruising. Our original itinerary included the ports of Zeebrugge (Bruges), Le Havre, Saint Malo, Concarneau, La Rochelle, Le Verdon, Bilbao, La Coruna, Oporto, Lisbon, and Casablanca, before ending in Barcelona. Our call at Oporto was cancelled due to dock strikes in that town and the unrest across northern Africa led to the substitution of Gibraltar for Casablanca. We appreciate Oceania making the right decisions for the security of their passengers.

Pre-cruise arrangements: We received a "free" London hotel night through Oceania when we booked this itinerary. We started our arrangements directly with the cruise line, and then transferred the booking to a new travel agent; she was able to get us $600 of shipboard credits. We paid for transfers from London Heathrow to the hotel; transfers to Dover were included with the hotel booking. We made our own flight arrangements on United and Lufthansa airlines. The hotel was the Hyatt Regency "The Churchill", near Portman Square. It was a very nice hotel and they had a room available when we arrived so we could nap and shower.

Embarkation: We arrived at the port of Dover before 1:00 pm after leaving our hotel at 10:30 am and embarkation was pretty fast. Our PH2 suite was available immediately upon boarding. We stowed our bags and valuables, had lunch, and signed up for the Prestige drink package ($50 per person per day) and the unlimited Internet package ($25 per person per day). Our bags were rather late getting to our room, with the second bag arriving only a few minutes before the lifeboat drill. Our butler Xavier was great for getting stuff resolved, however and he found that bag a few minutes after we asked about it. We met our Roll Call group (over 100 folks) in Horizons lounge after the lifeboat drill.

Cabin Review

Penthouse Suite

Cabin PH2

PH2 11007: Great location forward on deck 11. Some noise from the bow when breaking waves in rough seas. Huge room with lots of amenities, including a butler, a walk-in closet, a giant bathroom, etc.

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