Review of Marina for CruiseCritic

Our eastern Mediterranean cruise on Oceanias Marina was our second O. cruise. The first was an Asian cruise on the Nautica. We used an online travel agency to reserve, four months before the departure date. The original itinerary included Egypt, which was later canceled unfortunately. We decided to take the cruise anyway, and upon our request, the TA was able to persuade O. to rebate back to us a substantial price reduction. Note that this was due to our taking the initiative, thanks to another CCers prompting.

We arrived in Istanbul 6 days prior to embarkation and made independent travel arrangements. We used Delta Airlines direct flight to Istanbul from JFK and returned on a direct flight from Athens. This allowed enough time to see the major sights in Istanbul, as well as take a 2 day, 1 night jaunt to Cappadoccia, via Turkish Airlines. In Cappadoccia, we took day tours, the highlight of which was a hot air balloon ride during the early morning, of the second day. Our Istanbul hotel was the Ademar, a good choice in terms of its Sultanahmet (Old Town) location, small but comfortable rooms, airport pick up included if 3 days were reserved, rooftop terrace with great views, and helpful locked luggage room, used to store our large bags when we went to Cappadoccia. Read more