Caribbean Pearls- Oceania Marina-Feb 2012

[MemberErik]

I just thought I would set down some impressions of Oceania so far, as most of you know we have mostly cruised with Crystal for years but are trying to branch out a bit and see what else is offered.

Oceania's website is not as all encompassing as Crystal's so as a newbie with Oceania, we have also read though Oceania's publications, Cruise atlas and general info publications to get an impression of what to expect, there is little information specific to our cruise that is published on-line, even very little in regard to shore excursions and the like. We were able to CONFIRM reservations in the specialty restaurants when we were fully paid up (Crystal just acknowleges the request but dosen't confirm their reservations, although we have only not received our request once).

At approximately 45 days out, we received our Cruise docs,a very personalized catalog-type document that has all the specific information about this cruise and our accomodation that the website seemed to lack. It details the Officers that will be on board, updated arrival/departure information, all complimentary amenities (grats,OBC,etc.), detailed listing of shore excursions (we don't intend to take any but rather walk around or taxi to a beach, etc. in each port), another confirmation of specialty restaurant reservations, a detailed floorplan and location of our specific suite, and pre-printed baggage tags. I quess I am impressed that the docs are so specific to us(although with computers this shouldn't be so hard) and that it isn't just a couple of pages of computer print out but, rather a customized, full color brochure.

I will try to give you my further impressions of Oceania and Marina,especially in comparison to Crystal, as that is all we know, perhaps as they occur, but certainly as a follow up to our Cruise which sails in early February.

[Marybeth]

I'll be very interested in your experience. I am booked on Oceania Regatta for June 2012. I have been rabidly perusing the Oceania board over at CC. I haven't gotten much information there at all. I love getting actual cruise docs so that will be fun. I agree that the Oceania website doesn't help much at all. I love to look at shore excursion options and plan for each day but none are listed for our cruise. I thought it was because we were so far out. I have to say that the Oceania staff have been very responsive to any requests I've made. I was able to get the specific flights I wanted with no additional charge. They were also very responsive when I questioned the 3% foreign currency fee charged to my account. They use a bank in Dublin and the bank charges the fee. Oceania gladly and quickly refunded the fees each time I inquired.
Please keep us informed.

[HostDave]

Sounds very promising so far. I'm really looking forward to hearing all about your experience.

[YFlower]

Thanks very much for the information. I'm also quite interested in Oceania's Marina--especially how excursion reservations are handled. Since it sounds like you don't make them over the web, do you call in advance or must they all be made onboard?

[MemberErik]

According to our docs, Oceania recommends registering for and purchasing Shore excursions online at www.Oceaniacruises.com/Alreadybooked . Infact, they state in bold "All Shore Excursions purchased online receive priority processing and guaranteed acceptance". As I mentioned before, we hadn't planned to book anything but perhaps when we get onboard, if it feels right and the weather cooperates, we may book a sail/snorkel or something similar but we are mostly on this trip to relax in the sun and get an idea if we would enjoy Marina and Oceania for travels in the future.

[MemberErik]

What Marybeth mentioned about Oceania's Air department reminded me of something, when we first booked this cruise, we inquired about deviations and upgrading to First Class Air. Their response was that they don't book upgraded air. I thought this was a little odd since they have so many international cruises and alot of folks like to fly at least Business class internationally. It didn't bother us, we just booked our own air, but it seemed like a reasonable request. Maybe this is standard for other cruiselines, we almost always book our own air with mileage awards so we are unfamiliar with Cruise air, although I am pretty sure you can pay for an upgrade on Crystal.

[HostDave]

That seems very odd to me. Their website says, "Special requests, including class of service upgrades, specific carriers and routing are at the discretion of Oceania Cruises. Upgrades apply to International flights and may not apply to U.S. domestic or intra-continental flights within North America, Europe, South America, Asia or Africa." That implies you can buy an upgrade at least under certain circumstances. Maybe they don't sell upgrades on specific routes? I know Crystal will do anything you ask for within reason (for a ridiculous price), as will Holland America and most, if not all, of the other premium lines.

[Marybeth]

They do book upgraded airfare. When we booked we asked about upgrading to business class. They said it would be expensive but since we are flying home from Barcelona we really wanted to be out of coach. I was put on hold and the agent I was working with called and got a quote. In my mind it was super reasonable.I asked why and I was told they only do upgrades for international flights. So we are flying coach to Miami to catch the ship and business class home. I'm doubly glad we did this because there are NO direct flights from Barcelona to Chicago.

[MemberErik]

I didn't realize that Oceania will upgrade internationally but will not upgrade for domestic flights, this wasn't ever explained to us, but then again, because we were flying Roundtrip Miami, the international aspect didn't appy to us any way. On the other hand, I really don't think it would be very hard for their deviation air people to book the 1st class flights, deduct the flight allowance and have us pay the difference. I guess they have their reasons, maybe they end up having to quote too many premium domestic fares for people who ultimately don't book or something? It didn't really matter to us, we took the air allowance and booked our own air, which is what we normally do anyway.

[MemberErik]

We returned from our Marina Caribbean Cruise on Thursday (2/16), this is the first in a series of my impressions:

Impressions of Oceania Marina (vs. Crystal)
Crystal and Oceania are really “apples and oranges”, that is Crystal is a Luxury Line and Oceania is proudly a “Premium” line. It may be somewhat unfair to compare them directly but Crystal is the only comparable I have. With 20 recent cruises on Crystal, the only other line I have sailed is the long defunct Royal Viking Line and a number of chartered Sea Goddess (now, Sea Dream Yacht Club) cruises when they were part of the Cunard fleet 20 some years ago. Our reason for sailing Oceania was to determine if Oceania could be a reasonable alternative to Crystal.
Our reason for looking for an alternative is the fairly dramatic increase in Crystal fares over the last few years, especially with regard to the “all-inclusive” (my partner rarely drinks more than a single Campari, before dinner, daily, and feels he wouldn’t get his money’s worth with the all- inclusive). We are also looking to cruise in a less formal environment, in order to not have to lug clothes for 3 separate dress codes, hither and yon.

Embarkation
We left our hotel about 11:15am, after a very short taxi ride from our hotel, we arrived at terminal J, this is the less used side of the pier at the Port of Miami, the same terminal Crystal and other cruise lines that call infrequently on Miami use. Because of our class of stateroom, we were allowed to board as early as 11am, The Embarkation process, which consisted depositing our luggage, a pre-check of our documents and inspection by the pier security, filling out a health questionnaire, giving a credit card and posing for a picture (which doesn’t appear on the key card) and walking on board, took about 20 minutes total, it couldn’t have been any faster. (As always, your actual mileage may vary.)
We knew that the room wouldn’t be available till 1:00pm or so but we had a whole ship to explore and the Terrace (Buffet) restaurant and Waves (poolside grill) were available for lunch. Exploring the ship was somewhat hindered by the fact that there were a large number of Virtuoso travel agents touring the ship and they were not always aware of the fact that some paying guests would like to get past them. We have experienced a variation of this with Crystal on embarkation days as well.