I really liked your comment about getting to know the show performers. We have experienced that as well, one was coordinating the needlepoint sessions, the Mensa quizzes, others the shuffleboard, table tennis, mini golf. We really did get to know them which made watching their performances more special
Thanks for taking the time to post this video. We're excited to be sailing on Marina next month. We sailed on Oceania Riviera twice in 2023 and loved it. I hope they upgraded the Wi-Fi as part of the refurbishment last month. I'll report back. Rumor has it that they added the Aquamar Kitchen restaurant to Marina as of June 2024.
Have a great cruise. We’ve heard the internet has been upgraded as well. The internet in the Vista was good when we did a transatlantic cruise on her a couple months ago (still getting through content to get those videos out, ugh). The Vista had the Aquamar which Tracey enjoyed. However, with the Waves Grill on the other side, Jan couldn’t resist eating there for the burger and malts! Thanks for watching.
@janandtraceytravels We sailed in a Concierge Veranda cabin on Marina (post refit) and discovered that Oceania only updated the Penthouse and above staterooms. The room was fine, but the bathroom still had a tiny shower. We showered in the tub instead. The complimentary wifi was adequate for checking email and browsing but inadequate for streaming. When docked, we used our global hotspot, on and off the ship for about $6/day. (@Dave FFB)
I've been on many cruise lines but not Oceania and am looking at an Oceania cruise so your video is very helpful, and I appreciate that you include excursions, we tend to do half and half with excursions and doing it on our own. I now have some idea of what to expect on Oceania. Thank you!
Thanks for the kind words. We loved the Marina and the Vista which we just sailed on. Between these two we also sailed in the Regatta which we had a different experience, but we believe it was as a one-off. Those reviews are coming up. We just haven’t figured out a way yet to keep our editing up with all of our travels.
Great video! Were considering a Regent cruise (though on older Voyager) but reconsidering that as I saw your comparison of Splendor and then this one with Marina. We sailed the sister - Riviera - a couple years ago, and just recently on the brand-new Vista, with a transatlantic booked on Vista in 2025. We found the same things you did on Marina, especially the food. Only a couple minor "misses", but everything else outstanding. For now I think we are sticking with Oceania. Again - thanks for posting this! :)
Thanks so very much. We did a transatlantic on the Vista a couple of months ago and loved it (restored our faith in Oceania after a rather shaky cruise on the Regatta). The videos for the Vista are upcoming--we have the very happy situation that we are traveling faster than we can edit and get videos out. We have always loved Regent and it is a great line. But for the money, it has pretty much priced us out of the market and didn't provide enough over Oceania to justify--to us at least--the additional expense. Thanks again and we hope to run into you on an Oceania cruise in the future. We have two booked in the next 12 months!
We are taking our first Oceania Cruise in May and are sailing on the Marina. Thanks for your videos and reviews. We have sailed on RCCL & NCL and are looking forward to the difference in ships and lines.
We are in the Vista right now. Drink package makes sense if you have the Simply more promotion and upgrade. Only $30 a day which is less than two cocktails. We do not have the Simply More on this voyage and are drinking ala carte--spending less than the drink package including when we buy a bottle of wine at dinner. Have a great trip land thanks for watching
What a great question. It depends upon the definition, doesn’t it? For reference, right before this we sailed in the Regent Splendor. Regent is more inclusive-drinks and excursions are included. Yet, while we thoroughly enjoyed our time on Regent (we had 4 previous cruises in the line). We felt that dollar for dollar we liked Oceania better. We think based upon this n=1 experience it was certainly luxurious enough.
Thank you for the information. We have a cruise on Marina next month. e were able to make one reservation at each restaurant before the cruise. May we make additional reservations on board? Thank you.
The base answer will be no. If your cruise has segments to it (ours was actually two segments of Rome to Barcelona and Barcelona to Miami) then you'll be able to make reservations for the next segment the night before that segment begins for each of the specialty restaurants. However, we found that sometimes the restaurants do not always fill up on each night. So we did inquire the day of a particular evening to see if there were openings and a few times we were able to get in. But don't plan on it. We actually understand why you can only book once to each restaurant. It ensures that everyone will be able to experience all of the culinary options. Regent did the same thing on our 5 cruises with them. The good news is that the main dining room is also very good and we also found ourselves eating in the buffet for dinner as it too had very good food. Enjoy your cruise and thanks for watching.
You just have to keep asking, depends who you get. On our 22 days cruise last year, we ate 3 times in Asian fusion, 3 times in French restaurant, 2 times at Italian. You can do it, just keep trying and ask nicely.
Thank you for your review! I would tend to agree with the unnecessary concierge cabin. The lounge would not be a perk for me either. The pool area would be a plus for me as well! ❤
Thanks for watching. We debated quite a bit on what we thought about the concierge cabin and while there are some perks, they just didn't seem important enough to us. We do have friends, however, who always book a concierge cabin every time they sail Oceania. It all comes down to what you want in your cruise experience. Thanks again.
We were on the Vista recently and it nearly single-handedly redeemed O's reputation with us as the worst internet at sea. Progress is a wonderful thing! Thanks for watching.
Wow! Thanks for the timely information. We have a sailing on Marina in August 2024. We're going to try to get by without paying for an international phone plan or SIM cards. We're taking an international hotspot for use while the ship is at port. And we were hoping the (included) ship WiFi would be good enough for email, text, and some web surfing.
We booked a concierge cabin on Celebrity and experienced the same "waste of a space" concierge person. Same, "I wish I was someplace else" attitude. Perhaps It's a job requirement. We'll be on Marina in November, be intersting to see if the same "concierge" is there.
Next September we will be trying our first Celebrity. Looking forward to it. Enjoy that Marina. We just got off the Vista and had a great time...videos to come (eventually).
Great question. At of today, we have sailed Regent, Oceania, Viking Ocean, Viking River, Atlas, Explora Journeys, NCL, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and MSC. In the near future, we will be adding Virgin, Celebrity, and Princess to the list.
@@janandtraceytravelsjust starting to crew in our mid 50s and would love for you to produce a video summarizing all cruise lines and a comparison. We just completed a 10 day cruise with Oceania on the Insignia from Barbados to Miami and a great time. Food, entertainment and service were excellent. Only wished we weren’t close to the youngest couple on the boat. Really would like to find a 50s empty nesters cruise lines vs 60s, 70s and 80s.
Great question. There are several things that contribute to our enjoyment of cruising: 1. Seeing new places. 2. Meeting new people. 3. Not feeling guilty about relaxing. 1. First, we love traveling. Cruising is just one of the multiple forms through which we get to do this. We consider cruising a "sampler plate of the world". You see a little of this and a little of that, all without having to pack and repack in a relatively short period (after our WC, anything less than 30 days is now considered short). We are mindful that in cruising you can "see" lots of places, but you don't really get to "experience" lots of places. This is why we like using cruising to scout out places that we would like to go back and spend a week or so and "experience". 2. Perhaps RVing is the only travel method that we've experienced which is as social as cruising. We love meeting people and cruising easily allows those of us who are interested in getting to know other people to do so easily. We have met so many really good friends who we still visit either in person or through our regular virtual cocktail hours. This is very difficult to do when traveling by hotels. It seems so natural to do on a cruise ship. 3. At home (which isn't very often now that we are retired), we tend to get very busy with this and that. It seems almost wrong to sit down for an hour and read a book, take a nap, or simply watch the day go by. Perhaps therapy would be a cheaper alternative, but cruising gives us license to power down and relax. The ocean going by seems so calm (usually, the Drake is a notable exception) that it offers a kind invitation to take time to simply enjoy just being. That's it--just being. Hopefully we satisfactorily answered your question. We would be interested in hearing why others enjoy cruising.
We didn't have these issues on our recent Oceania Vista cruise, either. I believe that Oceania upgraded the Marina with Starlink after we sailed on her which might be the difference in experiences. Thanks for watching.
I think your room looked good. Food is No. 1 Booze is No. 2 If coffee is included in a drink package, it might be worth it-otherwise one might be tempted to drink too much trying to get their money's worth.
@@janandtraceytravels Priced out, me I'm autistic condemned to a life of poverty. Never been on a cruise. When I lived in Victoria, I wished I could board ship in port just for a few hours, but it's the exclusive province of the rich. Doctors make $500K/yr and an equal amount at least in property appreciation.
Hey there.. I completely disagree.. 100% the food was not consistent and repetitive .. I was on the Regatta for 19 days.. the menu was the same very seven days.. and the consistency was different each time. Sometimes absolutely delicious and spectacular next time couldn’t even eat it. The Ship was beautiful the staff was amazing.. CUSTOMER SERVICE was None existent.. and we were in a PH1 Cabin no less.. if you don’t care about the food and you never need to use Customer Service you’ll think this is the best cruise ever.. but if you like to eat CONSISTENT food and you want to know Customer Service has your back.. then DON’T Book Oceania.. Book Celebrity in a Retreat suite it’s cheaper and So SO much better Food and Customer Service. Oceania is a total waste of money in my opinion.. they offered me a 500.00 Future Cruise credit.. I’ll never use it.. it’s a waste of my hard earned money. Glad you enjoyed your trip and your cruises. I take it they paid for your review.. i.e. paid cruise..
We are so sorry for your poor experience on the Regatta. Unfortunately your experience is similar in terms of the food that we also found on the Regatta. We were hoping that ours was a on-off experience. If you watch our Regatta review you’ll see that we found the ship to have many issues. We’ll note that the review above was for one of Oceania’s larger ships-the Oceania Marina upon which we felt the food was amazing. We will soon be releasing our review of our transatlantic on the Oceania Vista where we enjoyed the same level of food and service we had on the Marina. Last, we were honored by your assertion that this was a paid review or that Oceania paid for our cruise. We would hope in the future to have to make the decision to deny such offers from a cruise line. But trust us, no one sponsors creators who have channels with less than 2000 subscribers. With that said, we have already decided that while we would accept sponsors from travel-adjacent companies (luggage, guide books, etc) we will not do so from travel providers such as cruise lines. We are so pleased that you cared enough to comment and thank you for watching.
I just returned from a 10 day cruise on the Insignia and thought the food was terrible! We had steaks and lamb that we couldn’t even cut. There was no variety and the presentation was non-existent. Never again - my vote is for Azamara!
Oh no. So sorry to hear about the food! We have talked about Azumara but we haven’t found the opportunity to sail on them yet. Thanks. For watching though.
Nice review. We love Oceania and are about to go on the Marina for the first time.
Have fun! We still have the Regatta to edit and post in the next few weeks. In April, we sail on the Vista!
Delighted to find your channel!
We are so glad you did!
I really liked your comment about getting to know the show performers. We have experienced that as well, one was coordinating the needlepoint sessions, the Mensa quizzes, others the shuffleboard, table tennis, mini golf. We really did get to know them which made watching their performances more special
Ahhh...gotta get those "Big O" points, right? Thanks for watching.
Thanks for taking the time to post this video. We're excited to be sailing on Marina next month. We sailed on Oceania Riviera twice in 2023 and loved it. I hope they upgraded the Wi-Fi as part of the refurbishment last month. I'll report back. Rumor has it that they added the Aquamar Kitchen restaurant to Marina as of June 2024.
Have a great cruise. We’ve heard the internet has been upgraded as well. The internet in the Vista was good when we did a transatlantic cruise on her a couple months ago (still getting through content to get those videos out, ugh). The Vista had the Aquamar which Tracey enjoyed. However, with the Waves Grill on the other side, Jan couldn’t resist eating there for the burger and malts! Thanks for watching.
@janandtraceytravels We sailed in a Concierge Veranda cabin on Marina (post refit) and discovered that Oceania only updated the Penthouse and above staterooms. The room was fine, but the bathroom still had a tiny shower. We showered in the tub instead. The complimentary wifi was adequate for checking email and browsing but inadequate for streaming. When docked, we used our global hotspot, on and off the ship for about $6/day. (@Dave FFB)
I've been on many cruise lines but not Oceania and am looking at an Oceania cruise so your video is very helpful, and I appreciate that you include excursions, we tend to do half and half with excursions and doing it on our own. I now have some idea of what to expect on Oceania. Thank you!
Thanks for the kind words. We loved the Marina and the Vista which we just sailed on. Between these two we also sailed in the Regatta which we had a different experience, but we believe it was as a one-off. Those reviews are coming up. We just haven’t figured out a way yet to keep our editing up with all of our travels.
@@janandtraceytravels I understand how hard it is to keep up....I'm so far behind! I'll look for those reviews too!
Great video! Were considering a Regent cruise (though on older Voyager) but reconsidering that as I saw your comparison of Splendor and then this one with Marina. We sailed the sister - Riviera - a couple years ago, and just recently on the brand-new Vista, with a transatlantic booked on Vista in 2025. We found the same things you did on Marina, especially the food. Only a couple minor "misses", but everything else outstanding. For now I think we are sticking with Oceania. Again - thanks for posting this! :)
Thanks so very much. We did a transatlantic on the Vista a couple of months ago and loved it (restored our faith in Oceania after a rather shaky cruise on the Regatta). The videos for the Vista are upcoming--we have the very happy situation that we are traveling faster than we can edit and get videos out.
We have always loved Regent and it is a great line. But for the money, it has pretty much priced us out of the market and didn't provide enough over Oceania to justify--to us at least--the additional expense.
Thanks again and we hope to run into you on an Oceania cruise in the future. We have two booked in the next 12 months!
We are taking our first Oceania Cruise in May and are sailing on the Marina. Thanks for your videos and reviews. We have sailed on RCCL & NCL and are looking forward to the difference in ships and lines.
Have fun! Thanks for watching!
Good video…..we are cruising with Oceania in July and are taking the drink package….
We are in the Vista right now. Drink package makes sense if you have the Simply more promotion and upgrade. Only $30 a day which is less than two cocktails. We do not have the Simply More on this voyage and are drinking ala carte--spending less than the drink package including when we buy a bottle of wine at dinner. Have a great trip land thanks for watching
Great review. Do you consider Oceana a luxury line? Great service and great food and a less crowded pool, does that mean luxury to you?
What a great question. It depends upon the definition, doesn’t it? For reference, right before this we sailed in the Regent Splendor. Regent is more inclusive-drinks and excursions are included. Yet, while we thoroughly enjoyed our time on Regent (we had 4 previous cruises in the line). We felt that dollar for dollar we liked Oceania better. We think based upon this n=1 experience it was certainly luxurious enough.
Good to know because many call Oceana a luxury line. I suppose the service is the main reason why@@janandtraceytravels
We are leaving on an Oceania cruise out of Lisbon in June and we are very excited!!
Thank you for the information. We have a cruise on Marina next month. e were able to make one reservation at each restaurant before the cruise. May we make additional reservations on board? Thank you.
The base answer will be no. If your cruise has segments to it (ours was actually two segments of Rome to Barcelona and Barcelona to Miami) then you'll be able to make reservations for the next segment the night before that segment begins for each of the specialty restaurants.
However, we found that sometimes the restaurants do not always fill up on each night. So we did inquire the day of a particular evening to see if there were openings and a few times we were able to get in. But don't plan on it.
We actually understand why you can only book once to each restaurant. It ensures that everyone will be able to experience all of the culinary options. Regent did the same thing on our 5 cruises with them. The good news is that the main dining room is also very good and we also found ourselves eating in the buffet for dinner as it too had very good food.
Enjoy your cruise and thanks for watching.
@@janandtraceytravels
Thank you for that advice.
You just have to keep asking, depends who you get. On our 22 days cruise last year, we ate 3 times in Asian fusion, 3 times in French restaurant, 2 times at Italian. You can do it, just keep trying and ask nicely.
Thank you for your review! I would tend to agree with the unnecessary concierge cabin. The lounge would not be a perk for me either. The pool area would be a plus for me as well! ❤
Thanks for watching. We debated quite a bit on what we thought about the concierge cabin and while there are some perks, they just didn't seem important enough to us. We do have friends, however, who always book a concierge cabin every time they sail Oceania. It all comes down to what you want in your cruise experience. Thanks again.
Marina upgraded to Starlink in April '24 and the internet is now enormously improved.
We were on the Vista recently and it nearly single-handedly redeemed O's reputation with us as the worst internet at sea. Progress is a wonderful thing! Thanks for watching.
Wow! Thanks for the timely information. We have a sailing on Marina in August 2024. We're going to try to get by without paying for an international phone plan or SIM cards. We're taking an international hotspot for use while the ship is at port. And we were hoping the (included) ship WiFi would be good enough for email, text, and some web surfing.
We booked a concierge cabin on Celebrity and experienced the same "waste of a space" concierge person. Same, "I wish I was someplace else" attitude. Perhaps It's a job requirement. We'll be on Marina in November, be intersting to see if the same "concierge" is there.
Next September we will be trying our first Celebrity. Looking forward to it. Enjoy that Marina. We just got off the Vista and had a great time...videos to come (eventually).
I'd like to know what other cruise lines have you used and can compare to?
Great question. At of today, we have sailed Regent, Oceania, Viking Ocean, Viking River, Atlas, Explora Journeys, NCL, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, and MSC. In the near future, we will be adding Virgin, Celebrity, and Princess to the list.
@@janandtraceytravelsjust starting to crew in our mid 50s and would love for you to produce a video summarizing all cruise lines and a comparison. We just completed a 10 day cruise with Oceania on the Insignia from Barbados to Miami and a great time. Food, entertainment and service were excellent. Only wished we weren’t close to the youngest couple on the boat. Really would like to find a 50s empty nesters cruise lines vs 60s, 70s and 80s.
Why do you like cruising?
Great question. There are several things that contribute to our enjoyment of cruising: 1. Seeing new places. 2. Meeting new people. 3. Not feeling guilty about relaxing.
1. First, we love traveling. Cruising is just one of the multiple forms through which we get to do this. We consider cruising a "sampler plate of the world". You see a little of this and a little of that, all without having to pack and repack in a relatively short period (after our WC, anything less than 30 days is now considered short). We are mindful that in cruising you can "see" lots of places, but you don't really get to "experience" lots of places. This is why we like using cruising to scout out places that we would like to go back and spend a week or so and "experience".
2. Perhaps RVing is the only travel method that we've experienced which is as social as cruising. We love meeting people and cruising easily allows those of us who are interested in getting to know other people to do so easily. We have met so many really good friends who we still visit either in person or through our regular virtual cocktail hours. This is very difficult to do when traveling by hotels. It seems so natural to do on a cruise ship.
3. At home (which isn't very often now that we are retired), we tend to get very busy with this and that. It seems almost wrong to sit down for an hour and read a book, take a nap, or simply watch the day go by. Perhaps therapy would be a cheaper alternative, but cruising gives us license to power down and relax. The ocean going by seems so calm (usually, the Drake is a notable exception) that it offers a kind invitation to take time to simply enjoy just being. That's it--just being.
Hopefully we satisfactorily answered your question. We would be interested in hearing why others enjoy cruising.
@ thank you for your reply. I am a new cruiser and I love cruises with water park. 💦
Did not experience the issues with the internet on our cruises on the Marina and Riviera.
We didn't have these issues on our recent Oceania Vista cruise, either. I believe that Oceania upgraded the Marina with Starlink after we sailed on her which might be the difference in experiences. Thanks for watching.
I think your room looked good. Food is No. 1 Booze is No. 2 If coffee is included in a drink package, it might be worth it-otherwise one might be tempted to drink too much trying to get their money's worth.
The room was fantastic. Fortunately all the non-alcoholic coffees are included regardless of whether you had a drink package or not.
@@janandtraceytravels Priced out, me I'm autistic condemned to a life of poverty. Never been on a cruise. When I lived in Victoria, I wished I could board ship in port just for a few hours, but it's the exclusive province of the rich. Doctors make $500K/yr and an equal amount at least in property appreciation.
Hey there.. I completely disagree.. 100% the food was not consistent and repetitive .. I was on the Regatta for 19 days.. the menu was the same very seven days.. and the consistency was different each time. Sometimes absolutely delicious and spectacular next time couldn’t even eat it. The Ship was beautiful the staff was amazing.. CUSTOMER SERVICE was None existent.. and we were in a PH1 Cabin no less.. if you don’t care about the food and you never need to use Customer Service you’ll think this is the best cruise ever.. but if you like to eat CONSISTENT food and you want to know Customer Service has your back.. then DON’T Book Oceania.. Book Celebrity in a Retreat suite it’s cheaper and So SO much better Food and Customer Service. Oceania is a total waste of money in my opinion.. they offered me a 500.00 Future Cruise credit.. I’ll never use it.. it’s a waste of my hard earned money. Glad you enjoyed your trip and your cruises. I take it they paid for your review.. i.e. paid cruise..
We are so sorry for your poor experience on the Regatta. Unfortunately your experience is similar in terms of the food that we also found on the Regatta. We were hoping that ours was a on-off experience. If you watch our Regatta review you’ll see that we found the ship to have many issues.
We’ll note that the review above was for one of Oceania’s larger ships-the Oceania Marina upon which we felt the food was amazing. We will soon be releasing our review of our transatlantic on the Oceania Vista where we enjoyed the same level of food and service we had on the Marina.
Last, we were honored by your assertion that this was a paid review or that Oceania paid for our cruise. We would hope in the future to have to make the decision to deny such offers from a cruise line. But trust us, no one sponsors creators who have channels with less than 2000 subscribers. With that said, we have already decided that while we would accept sponsors from travel-adjacent companies (luggage, guide books, etc) we will not do so from travel providers such as cruise lines.
We are so pleased that you cared enough to comment and thank you for watching.
I just returned from a 10 day cruise on the Insignia and thought the food was terrible! We had steaks and lamb that we couldn’t even cut. There was no variety and the presentation was non-existent. Never again - my vote is for Azamara!
Oh no. So sorry to hear about the food! We have talked about Azumara but we haven’t found the opportunity to sail on them yet. Thanks. For watching though.