Review of Marina Copenhagen-Stockholm 29th August-5th September

I don't normally post reviews of individual cruises, but I thought this might be useful to other cruisers who have been on the smaller Oceania ships but not the larger ones. We had done several cruises on Sirena and Regatta, but this was our first cruise on one of the larger ships. All opinions given here are my personal ones, I have no axe to grind with anyone, save your flames 'cos I'll ignore them, etc etc:

• Overall, our experience on Marina was....meh. Which considering the price of the cruise, especially with a hefty single supplement on top, means that we may consider other cruise lines in the future (as well as Oceania of course).
  
• The ports of call were in the main very good, especially St Petersburg which was outstanding.
  
• We liked the bright look and feel of Marina compared to the dark wood of the smaller ships, which is particularly evident in the MDR.
  
• We liked the larger bathrooms in the cabins (and actually having a bath, oh the bliss) - the size of the bathrooms has always been our biggest grumble about the smaller ships.
  
• The spa was very good and I had an excellent massage (gotta use up that OBC somehow ;)).
  
• The food was good pretty much the whole cruise (exception listed below), although I have to say we thought Jacques didn't live up to expectations.
  

However. We didn't like:

• The cleanliness of the cabins. We had B3 cabins on opposite sides of the ship, with different stewards. Both cabins were dusty (and stayed that way the whole week) - I could have written my name on the mirrors & shelves. I complained on the first day as my bath was dirty - an actual ring around the bath (haven't seen one of those since my university days) and somebody else's hairs both in and around the bath. Yuck. To their credit this was rectified that day and the assistant housekeeper followed up with a phone call, but if someone has complained about cleanliness in their cabin, wouldn't you think they would check the WHOLE cabin to see it was OK?
  
• Both of us had a sewage smell in our bathrooms, both of us flagged it with our stewards. Mine seemed to go away. My mother seemed to have hers for most of the cruise.
  
• The Terrace: one of our favourite places on Sirena and Regatta, yet here on Marina the actual food area seemed a lot smaller. The quality of the breads was very poor (very limited supply, rock hard) - we complained about them several times to senior waiters both in the Terrace and in Horizons at afternoon tea (our teeth were at risk trying to eat a scone). On the last night of the cruise we ate in Jacques - the bread served at table there was excellent, so someone in the galley knows how to bake.
  

So, good things and bad. Nothing ruined the cruise, we really enjoyed ourselves, but we were both taken aback by the cleanliness issue (and were explicit about it in the feedback questionnaires).

Thanks for sharing your experience

Dirty cabin is not acceptable though

Amused about the scones! I don’t think Oceania chefs understand how to make them. Those on Riviera in August were all much too well done, dark brown and hard on the outside and collapsing in crumbs when cut!

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I don't understand your comment that the food area in Terrace seems smaller on Marina than on the "R" ships. It sure doesn't look that way to me!!

Agree that complaints about the lack of cleanliness and even a sewage "aroma" are very justified. We've never encountered that ourselves on any of the ships, but it should never happen.

Mura

I don't understand your comment that the food area in Terrace seems smaller on Marina than on the "R" ships. It sure doesn't look that way to me!!

 

 

Agree that complaints about the lack of cleanliness and even a sewage "aroma" are very justified. We've never encountered that ourselves on any of the ships, but it should never happen.

 

 

Mura

I've noticed the sewage smell on many ships, including Oceania. Sometimes this occurs at port when they bring trucks to pump out the tanks. If your room was above an access area it might be unpleasant for a bit.

Years ago we had a major problem with a bathroom in a PH on Regatta.

Thanks for the thoughtful, even-handed review.

We need more like these when the situation calls for it.