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 cancellation without penalty right up to embarkation day, and also provided OBC and FCC as a reward for our patience.
We had received multiple emailings to register pre-cruise and were assured that embarkation would be painless as long as we uploaded photos, filled out forms etc....we were really expecting to arrive at the pier, get a Covid test (provided at no charge by Oceania) and pick up our ship cards. We were naive. The boarding process took two full hours and everything we had done online was completely useless.
We had a balcony triple (our adult son sailed with us) on deck 7. The cabin was very clean but didn't look any different from when we sailed on Marina the last time. (I think the refurbishments were mostly done to the suites.) Our stewards were really professional and efficient; can't say enough good things about them.