On the outside, the 774-ft long Marina looks sleek, attractive, but not especially exceptional;   it is her exquisite interior that garners all the praises, the prizes, the golden nods.    She is, in my opinion, one of the most beautifully decorated cruise ships to hit the high seas in years.    As the 6,400-passenger Oasis of the Seas & Allure of the Seas are both first prize-winners these days for shipboard originality, the Marina is a top-drawer winner for quality of décor & decoration.    She might just be a coupling of Architectural Digest, Manhattan penthouse and Hollywood extravagance   --- and maybe with a little bit of that Fred & Ginger style thrown in as the icing, no the big cherries, on the cake.

We were invited for a look over this six-star, $650 million maritime gem and, happily, this included lunch, but more about that later.    We mustered (there's a shipboard word) for cocktails & gourmet bites in the ship's observation lounge, dubbed Horizons, which is spacious, welcoming and the first hint of the fine fabrics & carpeting & accessories that will become chief ingredients of this ship.    A large, detailed model of a late 19^th century French Line passenger ship was indeed an eye-catching centerpiece.   Then it was down for a look at the soothingly decorated Canyon Ranch Spa and then across the outer decks to the internet center, leather-chaired library (it did seem rather crammed & even cluttered, however) and, at the aft end, to Toscana, the ship's charmingly decorated Italian grill, and then to the Polo Grill, the shipboard steakhouse.     

Above, there's a great sports deck, where guests can play 18 holes of golf on a custom-designed putting course, with holes named for the some of the world's greatest golf courses.   One deck below, there's a special shuffleboard area with two tournament courts,  mounted on Astroturf, and a custom Croquet and Bocce ball court.   There's also a video wall on the pool deck and where themed movies and concerts are shown under the stars.  Next stop:  the Culinary Center.   It's a teaching venue that might just spark a smile from Martha Stewart.   There's also an Artist Loft for just a little more time (and space) for making those paper flowers & those miniature watercolors.  

Being an open house visit & despite being all but fully-booked with "real" passengers, a good selection of mostly fine quarters were open for viewing.   And quarters, they are!  With wide eyes & big smiles, we looked over some pretty lavish accommodations --- the suites and penthouses and, wait, the owner's suite.   The more general suites are done by Manhattan designer Dakota Jackson & are too divine --- right down to personal gyms, bathrooms the size of South Dakota and those thoughtful touches such as a big screen TV on your big terrace!    But the Owner's Suite (there's actually three of them) is sheer perfection --- and, yes, from the Ralph Lauren HomeCollection.   In 2,000 sq feet of oozing comfort & indulgent care, there's a living room, dining room, foyer, music room, two bathrooms, private gym and a grand bedroom befitting the grandest sultan.  Am I really talking of the sensational, Art Deco Normandie from the 1930s?  But aboard the Marina, that over-the-top luxury, pure shipboard glamour & style, live on --- and, yes, a ladder might be needed to climb into the towering, super-comfy, very pillowed bed.  The Lauren décor is pure Jean Harlow with those well known touches of British-India colonial:   mirrored walls & tabletops, cherry wood panels, fine art in top-heavy gold frames & scatterings of museum quality objects and, of course, those zebra skin rugs.   A team of tall, smiling butlers still at the ready, in impeccably attired attention.   In the best quarters, they will pack & unpack for you, collect your bags at the very last minute (no "packing the last night before midnight" struggling here) and of course shine your shoes & do your laundry & fetch your dry cleaning.  And, oh yes, the finer rooms include Laptops.  

All but drained & weakened by such grandeurs, we stopped off for a Kobe beef burger at Waves, the ship's open-air, informal restaurant.   But not that informal, if you will.  There's waiter service, linen napkins, fine silver & some really delicious, really big French Fries.   But then there was more to see.

The ship, which is actually registered in the remote Marshall Islands (that's usually for taxes as well as less stringent regulations), has a two-deck high Art Nouveau lobby -- with floral, wrought iron railings enhanced by Lalique glass touches on twin sweeping staircases.   It hints of a grand Parisian hotel from, say, the Twenties.   The Marina Lounge, the big showroom, was adequate, but single-deck in height and might, I thought, have viewing problems with seating on a single level.   Then  there is the all-glass & icy blue Casino Bar, which is more than eye-catching; the cozy Martinis Lounge, several high-end boutiques, the warmly inviting Red Ginger  (offering contemporary Asian cuisine)  and Jacques (another grill but named for master chef Jacques Pepin, who was aboard, and done in fine French country style).  In Jacques, Oceania reminded us, "It is French classic food taken to new heights!" Well, the Marina itself is new heights!

Our lunch --- 5 or maybe 6 courses, with each representing one of the ship's restaurants --- was held in the spectacular Grand Dining Room, done in white, chandeliered & dotted with great potted palms.    It was pure Edwardian, the grand London hotel, the ocean liner of, say, 1900.   Seating over 550 at one time and brightened by wraparound windows facing the ship's stern, the service was flawless and the table settings a study in style:   superbly gleaming china, silver & specially designed china.   There wasn't a bite of food that wasn't, well, mouth watering and all presented with, well, those Gourmet Magazine touches.

There was something very huge, very chocolate & very rich for dessert.

And more good news!  The Marina will have a sister, the Riviera, due in a year's time, in spring 2012.   The Company runs three other fine cruise ships --- the Regatta, Nautica and Insignia --- but these are smaller, carrying some 600 guests each.   Next year, however, the 30,200-tonInsignia is going off on an extended charter, to sail for Germany's Hapag-Lloyd.

Finally, by mid afternoon a last look, some words of praise to the small army of Oceania Cruises' staff onboard & then back ashore.   But what a treat, what a ship, what décor!  Sound the trumpets --- no, the golden trumpets --- for the brand new Marina!