The Ship: Marina is a lovely ship with beautiful decor generally and lots of space. Decor was fairly modern and elegant in neutral tones that made some of the "paintings" in their bright and garish colors, seem out of place and some of these pieces were downright "ugly.". The pieces of sculpture and glass artwork, lamps, chandeliers, and upholstery were all very appealing in contrast. There is a self-service laundry on each accommodation deck with good equipment including three washers and driers, plus two ironing board set-ups, but no sink, and you had to buy tokens to use the machines at a rate of US$2 for each machine. There is a dedicated walking track, shuffleboard, and croquet on one of the high partial decks. The pool was small and usually so busy that you could not really swim laps easily; there were two jacuzzis on the pool deck. One warning--be very careful about entering a crowded elevator as we were stuck about 20 minutes in one rated for 18 passengers that was actually so stuffed with 15 people that it got stuck between floors; we learned that another elevator had gotten stuck earlier. This was really unacceptable on such a new ship and there was no real apology from staff for our ordeal in the stifling hot space without any fresh air.

Dining: So many choices! And, the food was very good to excellent in all venues. There is the large and attractive Grand dining room with open seating; the Terrace Cafe buffet with indoor and outdoor seating; the informal, on-deck Waves Grill with hamburgers, paninis and other inventive sandwiches along with salads smoothies and an ice cream bar; afternoon tea in the Horizons lounge; and the four speciality, reservation required restaurants: Polo Grill (steaks mostly), Toscana (Italian), Chez Jacques (French), and Red Ginger (Asian). Supposedly for the cabin grade we booked, we could reserve only once in each of these venues but there was no problem getting second and third reservations even for the very popular Red Ginger, our favorite. The sea bass and duck salad were particularly good--my husband and I ordered these dishes more than once. You would not even know you were on a cruise ship in this window-less restaurant but think you were dining in an elegant restaurant where you are given a separate menu just for tea and offered a variety of chopsticks. In Toscana there is a separate menu for olive oils and balsamic vinegars. Oceania knows how to feed its passengers especially on a cruise with so many at-sea days (10 in all).

Cabins: Our cabin was large and comfortable with both a shower and a separate tub. We had a B4 veranda cabin (7110) and chose this one because the balcony was so much larger than any of the others in the basic veranda category and one of the largest we have had. This was true only for the very forward and aft cabins on Deck 7. We notice that Oceania is now charging a little more for these cabins where we paid the lowest price for a veranda. There was lots of storage space including a very useful small drawer under the bathroom sink in addition to mirrored-shelf towers on either side of the mirror, a hand-held hair dryer, a clothes line over the tub, robes (but no slippers), a large flat screen TV with built-in DVD player, a great bed, and the best lighting (especially for reading in bed with an adjustable, small LED light) that we've had on any ship. The refrigerator was stocked and replenished with free soft drinks and complimentary water was always provided. If I had any complaints or suggestions about the cabin it would be that the design of the closet with sliding doors held in place by magnets was not great since the doors sometimes slid open with the ship's motion and that turned on the closet light in the middle of the night. Also, the tub was hard to move in even for a petite person. Also, a makeup mirror would be a nice touch. Read more