"The staff are the best" were the first words I heard from a passenger as our little tour group walked past him on the pool deck of the Oceania Marina, a luxurious mid-sized cruise ship docked in Table Bay this past weekend.

Cruises International invited us to take a tour of the mid-sized-yet-enormous vessel on Friday evening. I'd never actually been aboard a luxury liner before, and if you have, I'm sure you can imagine the awe and near-disbelief that we felt while wandering its decks.

For those of you who haven't yet had the pleasure to see a luxury liner in person: imagine the most elegant hotel you know of, combine that with the a few of the most up-market restaurants you've seen, place those on a bed of floating iron and add a splash of the most considerate staff you can imagine - and voila, you have the Oceania Marina.

I'll show you a few more photos and tell you a little more about cruising aboard Oceania's ships, but let me leave you with that opening quote: "The staff are the best". That has to say something about the experience one should expect aboard the Marina. :)