We have all experienced the pandemic and wondered what cruising would look like in the New Reality. We took a chance on an early return to cruising on Oceania Marina and are so glad we did.
Pre-cruise, there was a lot of uncertainty, with various European ports opening/closing/changing requirements. Oceania could have handled communications better with passengers. However, O offered ...
While we still like Oceania there were a number of areas that fell short of our expectations on this past cruise.
Food – Over all we found the food on this trip was not as good as our prior two trips on Marina and Riviera. The Bouillabaisse in Jacques was not good at all.. No mussels, no clams, no fennel (I don’t think) and no broth. It was pasty, more like a sauce that I would expect in a ...
We have been on Oceania twice prior and because 3 nights in St Petersburg, 14 days and the Baltic was on our bucket list. Every place we had not been to and that was really appealing. We had travelled with Oceania twice prior and relatively positive experiences.
The staff, whether, food, drinks, entertainment or cabin staff are excellent and very accommodating.
The negatives,
- Showers ...
REVIEW. Eleven day Baltic Cruise. Aug 24 - Sept 4
We have just returned from a Baltic cruise on Nautica. I was beginning to wonder if Oceania was the company for us as there were a few naysayers on this Forum. No smoke without fire I thought. Nautica does need a refit. She is a bit tired and old fashioned. However everything worked except the fridge which was replaced within hours of ...
: enjoyed this cruise, However, there is room for improvement;
(1) Most of the excursions were low quality. Except the tour guides in St. Petersburg and in the Hermitage, modst of the other tour guides were below standard. The tourduide in Bruge was too old and could hardly talk. It seems that physically this was too much for him. The tour guide in Stockholm was a catastrophy. He just walked us ...
Loved itinerary especially grateful for several sea days, which is a bit unusual for port-intensive Oceania. Wanted to escape the heat of the Mid-Atlantic and try a longer cruise.
The service was stellar and loved having four specialty restaurants available -- all were excellent and Red Ginger was our favorite. And those views from Polo and Toscana were amazing, especially when traveling ...
For those interested in a comparison, let's look at the differences between Oceania and Princess. We were on the 18-day Dublin-Copenhagen segment. This was our first cruise with Oceania. We are elite with Princess. We chose this cruise because of the itinerary: Norway and northern Russian ports.
Oceania has considerably less merchandising pressure. There is no crew of photographers. The ...
We wanted to see the Baltic and were not disappointed. We prefer the relaxed pace of river cruising, also because of the relative ease of getting into port, and the lack of sea days. This trip was as close to that as we could find on an ocean cruise. There was only one sea day, all other days being in port. The ports were great. We took only the Russian tours, which were essentially forced on us ...
Chose this cruise for the itinerary and also because of their selling the finest cuisine at sea. Embarkation was shocking, did not feel like upper premium, not even close. No welcome drink or cocktails, not even orange juice. The public spaces were nice to look at but poor marks for the low ceiling, everyone looked so tall and most especially me. My head was literally touching the ceiling in all ...
Destination, ports and season always win out over cruiseline loyalty. 12 days Stockholm to Southampton. 3 days in St. Petersburg was the highlight. Booked 3 day small group tour with Russian agent. Elisabeth of TJ Tours was outstanding! Recommend Nautica overnights in Stockholm Amsterdam and Copenhagen and to include a port in Norway to see the fjords..
Oceania does offer best cuisine at sea. ...