We had been to the Galápagos and Peru and wanted to go home by ship. We had been on the Nautica the previous year for a back to back that took us away from home for 2 months. My opinion is that even though the Marina is larger, the Nautica took care of passengers wants and needs better. For example, the games in the game room are kept in better condition than those on the Marina. Also, I felt that the personnel on the Nautica made more of an effort to remember the passengers. They were more distant on the Marina.

It maybe that the ownership of Oceania had changed between the two trips. We noticed a much younger and not as experienced staff. Our butler, who was adequate, was in his twenties. We felt that there was a lot to be said for those older members of the staff that had the experience of what "service" is. The food was good but not memorable. It didn't appear that there had not been a lot of local shopping for food and most things that were served had obviously been frozen. We are not going on Oceania for our next cruise, not only because of the above disappointments but also Oceania didn't offer the itinerary that we wanted. We are paying a lot less for this upcoming cruise, but feel that for the attention to detail that was lacked on our last Oceania cruise, we don't want to continue paying Oceania prices.