If you appreciate great wines, the wines offered by most cruise lines can be a bit disappointing. Not so on the Oceania Marina. They have a great wine list with selections from the major wine regions of the world. Although not inexpensive, I found the wine markup to be reasonable, about what you would expect in restaurant in any major city.

Our first night on board, we dined at Jacques and ordered a Grand Cru Chablis for around $70, a fair price for a wine of that caliber. 

Beverage Packages- Yes or No?

If you just want to drink wine by the glass, the beverage package may be a good way to go. But I found that most of the wines included in the package were not the ones I wanted to drink. Since my husband and I drink wine mainly at dinner, the bottle package was a better option for us. But if you like to spend time in the ships lounges and entertainment venues and enjoy a cocktail or scotch, the beverage package may make more sense for you.

Oceania Cruises has just launched a great new promotion for guests interested in booking cruises for the Summer of 2016. The offer applies to select sailings, and offers guest the following amenities.

If you're not familiar with Oceania Cruises, they offer creative itineraries designed to give you the time to explore each destination.

I recently worked with a client who was comparing itineraries and inclusions on two cruise lines - Seabourn and Oceania. We compared two similar sailings in the Mediterranean during September of 2015 to try to determine which is the better value: The Seabourn Soujourn September 19th sailing from Monte Carlo to Rome and the Oceania Marina September 14th sailing from Barcelona to Rome.