Oceania Cruises - Marina Reviews

air line to and fro was a nightmare; cruise itself was fine;

The cruise from Hamburg to Southampton was great! Our state room attendant was superior her name was Olga on deck nine. Food was prepared well and delicious! The excursions we went on were organized with knowledgeable guides! We are very glad we took this cruise!

There are rooms for improvements in the Grand Dining Room and the terrace cafe.

Let me begin by saying that Oceania's crew is the best at sea. They are efficient, friendly, and always go that extra mile for the passengers. The cuisine is ok, but not as good as it used to be. The tours are hit and miss. At times, the guides were exceptional, but at other times, the tours were rushed and totally unenjoyable. We missed out on 2 ports. One was a waste of time because on Sunday, most places are closed in France. The second was avoided due to Captain's decision based on rough seas. I agree with him, but think a cruise credit should be applied as compensation. Our penthouse had a blocked view, which was not stated ahead of time. In short, having sailed with Oceania for many years, this trip had a few disappointments that we are hoping will be remedied before we sail again.

The food was excellent and the stateroom was very nice. We found the drink packages too expensive and very often the servers in the bars avoided us rather than being attentive. The excursions were expensive for what they included. If not on an Oceania excursion, there typically was either no or insufficient information (maps, getting around, etc). We loved the ship. It was elegant and provided many areas to gather, read, enjoy a cocktail, and we always were able to find space at the pool. Probably will stick to Viking and HAL.

The ship part of the cruise was very good (service and food) except for the fact that two people in the same cabin couldn't be on the internet at the same time. Ridiculous! I liked the opera singer and magician shows. The production team was okay. The excursions left much to be desired. Many of the "jewels" were a fairly long bus ride from the port: Santiago, Bordeaux, Walled City, St Malo, Paris and London with a shorter time in port that first stated when we reserved the cruise. Exceptions were Oporto, Bilbao and Bruges, where my tour guides were very good. I was never able to get a space on the Bordeaux excursion, which was disappointing. With regard to billing this as a cruise to the "jewels", I think that advertising is misleading. Thanks for asking, Debi Lenny

Several of the cruise ship berths were in ports that were dreadful. Also, shuttle service was inadequate and sketchy at best. Butler and room steward were excellent, however, restaurant and bar service was slow or at times unavailable.

First off it was a 10 night cruise not 9 nights. The cruise was nice for the most part. Cons: Oceania does not have a good shore excursion program. They are ridiculously expensive and are nothing special. The onshore staff know nothing about any excursions offered and tell you to wait and ask the shore deck personnel. Unfortunately they have little or no info and have no communication with the onshore operators they hire. It is very hard to plan excursions on your own as Oceania keeps secret the drop off location of local shuttles until the day you arrive in port. For this reason I hesitate to book another Oceania cruise. They only have one show each night and it is always at 9:15. People who dine at 8:00 or after can never see a show. It is as hard to find a table at their Terrace Cafe as any mega ship’s buffet dining area. This should not be! It was stressful to find a clean area to sit. Breakfast in the GDR is very slow and just average. They had trouble preparing a decent poached or fried egg even though they were not crowded. PROs: Most of the food was very good especially in the Specialty restaurants. Food is still definitely Oceania ‘s strong point even though there were a few bad dishes and a few noticeable quality issues. The dining room service was good and crew was pleasant Bar service was very good Cabin service was fine

Nice rooms, great service, food was outstanding and shore excursions were well done, except for one. Ports visited were top notch.

We are not big fans of ocean cruises but use them to access locations that are difficult to visit through other modes. This was our first experience with a "smaller" ship and we greatly enjoyed not feeling like we were traveling with 5,000 of our closest friends. This ship's accommodations were fine, but the stateroom shower was way too small--and unnecessarily so. The food was very good, albeit a bit oversold. Service in the Grand Dining Room took forever, and we ultimately just gave up on it. Our Avoya travel consultant, Roberta Stike, was fantastic. We plan on using her for our future travel plans.

The ocean cruise portion of the vacation was very nice. The airfare arrangements were atrocious. I will never allow a cruise line to book airfare ever again. They were the worst seats available on each flight. The connections were short and the seats were the worst that could be booked. Very disappointed in the way the booking of the airline tickets were handled. In addition they double charged for the changing of the schedule, even though the initial request was for the flights to arrive several days before the ship departed. They did not honor that request, and then charged us double to change it. My sister who had booked the trip was charged an extra $350.00 to get the dates and flights changed and then I was also charged an extra $350.00 on my registered credit card to have the tickets changed. Again very disappointed in the air portion of our itinerary..

cruise was good 4* but used to be 5*. I think it will improve with time. Flight arrangements via Avoya & Oceania were a disaster. Will never use again .

The cruise to Antarctica was a once in a lifetime experience. The itinerary was incredible, food was great, cooking classes fantastic, and the Concierge level Suite and room level service was excellent. The Antarctic team was incredible and shared many interesting facts. It was very disrespectful that the cruise director did not pronounce the names of the ports correctly. The Assistant Director was much more culturally responsive. We were very disappointed in the organization of the excursions (we were scheduled for 7). The process for boarding the tenders to go ashore was extremely disorganized. Each time it was a different process and by the final tender day in Punta del Este additional tenders from the port were hired to bring people ashore (much better). Ushuaia was a nightmare and by the time we waited 1 ½ hours on the tender to dock, all Oceania excursions had been cancelled. We stood in the pouring rain with no direction on where to go. There was no explanation or apology by Oceania about the inconvenience, only that the Argentinian Navy and port was at fault. Where was the general manager in all of this? It would have been helpful to have information about the ports such as maps, restaurants open, taxi procedures, local arts/crafts shops nearby when not on an Oceania excursion. It also would have been helpful to have information about the culture of the port. Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay have rich histories (not just European). The final disembarkation process was also disorganized. It was chaos in the 5th floor atrium where we were told to wait until we could disembark. Then everyone tried to exit the door at once. Fortunately, no one stumbled or tripped. Finally, we were surprised at the demographics of the group on the ship. We chose an adults only cruise- being adventurous 65-70 year olds. It seemed that the average age was a bit older. That would be something to know prior to booking another cruise.

Expected much more than what was actually delivered. Oceania should spend more on the cruise and less on advertising it. Lack of adequate pre-cruise information from Avoya and Oceania. Disorganized processes from embarkation, excursions and port calls, to disembarkation - they were all a complete mess! Poor communication, no apologies for cancelled excursions. Poorly managed cruise experience. Lack of cultural information about ports of call - lead staff needs to know how to pronounce names of cities! However, our suite staff was terrific as were many of the cruise staff/servers and the cooking classes were great. Food was mediocre with lots of options. Antarctica is quite spectacular, fortunately, we had the "Drake Lake!" Likely would not go on Oceania again.

Everything was perfect. The entire trip went without a single incident…..The views were amazing and the cruise staff went above and beyond…

This cruise was 4 years in the planning and, of course, was interrupted by covid 3 separate times. what started out as a repositioning cruise from Buenas Aires to Portugal became a cruise from Santiago to Buenas Aires including a trip to the Antarctic Peninsula (the South Shetland Islands). The cruise delivered in amazing way. It was wonderful to see the Chilean Fjords as well as the Southern tip of South America. It was simply amazing to cruise the South Shetland Islands and I believe we traveled as far south as 64 degrees South Latitude. The Falkland Islands were a treat. The people were uniformly great, and the islands support rock formations, grasses, birds and wildlife that are singularly unique. Plus we got to visit a real English Pub (The Victory Inn).We were particularly engaged by Uruguay so our stops in Ponte Del Este and Montevideo were really nice. The sole downside was simply weather related excursion cancellations. Although they were handled efficiently by the staff onboard Oceania they created substantial disappointment in that we had significantly looked forward to those excursions. Although directly related to weather, in one case (Usuhaiah) it was less related to the weather than it was to the fact that so many cruise vessels were in port that their meager docking facilities were simply overwhelmed. It would seem incumbent on local governing authorities and cruise companies to compare facilities, capacities, etc., in order to accommodate visitors. Too many ships in port is NOT a good thing IF THE RESULT IS CHAOS which seemed to be the case. In another example and coming from our conversations with our guide on the Falkland Islands, that community has 3,300 occupants. On days when up to 8 cruise ships are in port, it is all hands on deck in order to provide guiding services and I mean All Hands On Deck. When we were there 2 Oceania vessels were anchored. That's up to 2,000 visitors to handle and that is something that Oceania itself could more properly schedule. It simply overwhelms systems especially in smaller sports like Punta Arenas, Usushaia, Port Stanley, etc. Lastly, NO ONE should have to fly through JFK ... NO ONE! That is the worst managed facility on earth and it was a miracle we were able to transit within the 2-hours we had between flights. We walked into a the CBP check and there had to be 1,000 people there4. Fully have of the nearly 40 kiosks were UNMANNED. Thankfully a CBP officer began asking if people ha close connecting flights. That is the ONLY way we made it through effectively. Then we had to change terminals (arrived at 8 connecting flight at 5). Although there was a shuttle bus operating there was ONLY 1 ... that is, not 2 to effectively shuttle. Thankfully, and I do mean thankfully because after nearly a 12 hour flight anyone is ready to get home, thankfully our connecting flight was 20 minute delayed. That is the ONLY way we land our 4 1/2 hour flight home. I understand there are economic considerations as well as contracts between cruise lines and airlines. However, unless someone lives in the NE of America travelers should never be scheduled through JFK ... NEVER. That's my 2 cents. Dave Ells

Unfortunately, Oceania did not give us the room that they advertised and we reserved. The room was over 30% smaller than what is described and had other, significant variations. This misrepresentation tainted the entire experience. Not sure that we will ever use Oceania again and I caution others to be wary about specific room configurations.

All the stops were new to me. Enjoyed both Oceania tours and the private tours. It was the trip of a lifetime.

The cruise was enjoyable with some of the ports of call being fabulous, while others were just okay. The most enjoyable part of the cruise was the staff onboard the ship. Each person was more helpful and polite than the next. A special shout out and salute to Carlos in Concierge and Olga in Reception. The two of them went above and beyond to be of service to us. The food onboard, for the most part, was exceptional. We would highly recommend traveling with Oceana.

Some of the excursions were very disappointing but the time on the ship was great.

We had a nice cruise, good foods, good time and really good service from the gentle employees