Orient Cruise Lines Profile

Orient Lines is widely known as the cruise industry's "destination specialist", offering passengers an in-depth experience through extended land and sea journeys to sought-after destinations around the globe. The line's single mid-sized ship, Marco Polo, is able to cruise to intimate ports too small for larger vessels, while offering guests four-star amenities at the same time.

What is the Orient Line difference?

Destination Intensive. All Orient Lines vacations - without exception - include land packages before and/or after the cruise. By offering more one-way itineraries than any other cruise line, passengers see a greater variety of ports without repeating visits.

Mid-sized Ship. Orient Lines passenger sails aboard the Marco Polo, they never feel just part of the crowd, visiting the intimate harbors big ships cannot. This also gives Orient Lines the opportunity to offer overnight port stays in many of the world's great cities, allowing time for more leisurely exploration.

Enrichment and Education. Orient Lines provides guest experts who conduct enrichment lectures to giving passengers insights and perspectives far beyond their expectations.

Consistent Quality, Value and Service. Year after year, travel magazines, organizations and world travelers have give Orient Lines their highest ratings. Additionally, Orient Lines' Filipino staff, service is both an art and a calling. They carry the highest reputation for professionalism and courtesy.

Activities and Entertainment

Day and night, you'll discover different sides to Marco Polo. There's a refreshing informality and a casual elegance that makes for a congenial ambiance. Visit the card room for a game of bridge. Catch up with your friends back home or check on your stock in the Internet center. Pick up a book from the library. Or attend a lecture on a range of subjects, from finance to anthropology, from technology to ports of call.

Evenings are enchanted on the Marco Polo. After a day of explorations, you'll look forward to the fun and fanfare that awaits. Start with a cocktail in the Polo Lounge. Catch a lavish production show in the Ambassador Lounge. Try you luck in the intimate casino. Dance into the wee small hours in the Charleston Club.

Orient Lines' social staff also includes gracious gentlemen who serve as social hosts. These Gentlemen Hosts ensure that ladies traveling on their own enjoy socializing in pleasant company.

Best of all, your evenings can be as active or relaxing as you'd like. So whether it's a movie just for two back in your stateroom, or a night out with newfound friends, Marco Polo gives you the choice and the best of both worlds.

Cultural Performances

Because so much of a nation's spirit is reflected in its music and dance, you'll enjoy local folklore performances aboard where possible.

Menus and wine lists will vary to reflect the regions you visit. Performers, musicians, and dance troupes will be invited on board, bringing their nation's spirit with them. From a rousing Irish jig to the rhythms of a Brazilian samba, or the haunting sound of the Peruvian panpipes, these musical moments add to your very personal journey.

Noted Lecturers

On many cruises, you'll be accompanied by eminent guest speakers, and can attend lectures that pave the way to a better understanding of the places you'll visit. Drawn from the ranks of historians, journalists, political commentators, diplomats, naturalists, explorers, and scientists - Marco Polo guest lecturers offer unique experiences and perspectives.

Most will sail with you for the duration of the cruise, giving you the chance to swap anecdotes and share experiences. Many will accompany you ashore should you care to join them. In Antarctica, for example, you'll be escorted ashore by a team of Antarctic experts.

Mandara Spa

Uncrowded. Unhurried. Life aboard Marco Polo is relaxing. There are hot tubs, a sauna, and an outdoor pool to dip into. You can schedule a workout in the health club, then step into the exclusive Mandara Spa, run by the world's leading luxury resort operators. Indulge in a Javanese honey steam wrap. Try a volcanic stone massage, or choose from an extensive range of beauty treatments that use the finest ingredients and traditional Balinese techniques.

Dining

Open an Orient Lines menu and you open the door to some of the world's most irresistible cuisine. At your table in Marco Polo's main restaurant, the Seven Seas, you'll sample a wide range of delights. There are traditional favorites and exotic creations that draw their inspiration from the four corners of the world.

Nightly five-course menus are an opportunity to take a gastronomic journey. Yet, with a choice of dining venues and menus, rest assured you'll always find suggestions to suit your mood, as well as your diet, from the lightest of salads to the most tempting tortes.

Raffles, Marco Polo's alternative restaurant, is also open for breakfast and lunch, served buffet style. You can dine in air-conditioned comfort or enjoy one of the great joys of cruising, dining alfresco. Raffles also provides an alternative, more informal venue for dinner.

Marco Polo's master chefs prepare menus that change daily and feature regional wines and local specialties from your ports of call. Selections include vegetarian and low calorie options with every meal. So, whatever your taste, you'll be able to marvel at the creativity and skill of their European chefs. Your dinner, whether at the Seven Seas or at Raffles, remains a highlight of any day at sea. You can also dine in your stateroom, should you choose, or drop by the Charleston Club, Polo Lounge or the casino for a late-night snack after the show.

Staterooms and Service

When all is said and done, what guests love the most about Marco Polo is the personal touch, the warmth and ambiance on board. Many of their returning passengers are surprised to find that the staff aboard Marco Polo welcomes them by name.

Even if it is your first time on board, Marco Polo greets you as a member of the family. Your well-appointed stateroom provides a private retreat that's always good to return to after a day filled with adventure and excitement.

Your cabin steward is there to anticipate your every need. Throughout the ship, the bar staff, busboys, reception staff, headwaiters - all share the same commitment to your comfort. Staterooms are spacious, thoughtfully designed, and tastefully decorated. They offer a full range of amenities including television with in-house movies, CNN, plus a preview channel that lets you see what's in store in the ports ahead, or watch a rerun of selected lectures.

There's a music console, direct-dial phone, hair dryer, and personal safe. Some staterooms feature large picture windows, a bathtub and queen-sized beds. Suites add further features such as a sitting area, small refrigerator and marble bath.

Throughout your cruise, you'll be delighted by unexpected touches, all of which add to the orient Lines experience. Like fresh towels and toiletries in your stateroom before you have a chance to ask. Nightly turndown service comes complete with a chocolate treat on your pillow. Cool towels and your choice of complimentary ice tea or lemonade on return from your shore excursions. The attention to detail is what separates Orient Lines from all other cruise lines.

Polo Club for Orient Lines Past Passengers

Enjoy the added benefits of Orient Lines' Polo Club featuring special privileges and great savings. Once you sail with Orient Lines, you join an elite club, with no dues and an array of benefits:

Bottle of wine per stateroom
Invitation to a private VIP party on board
Shipboard credit up to $175 per person, depending on the length of the cruise
Polo Club News magazine
Extra 10% discount on most cruises if paid in full within 7 days of booking and at least 120 days before sailing
Special "members only" offers
Recognition gifts during your third, sixth, tenth and fifteenth cruises
Pre-cruise gifts sent to you and shipboard credits for your friends who sail with us
Members of Orient Lines' Polo Club are also entitled to Latitudes past guest benefits when onboard sister cruise line Norwegian Cruise Line.

Traveling with Disabilities

Orient Lines welcomes guests with special needs. Of course, they require advance notice to accommodate them, so please advise us at the time of your booking. Marco Polo is equipped with limited medical facilities and staffed by a physician and registered nurse. Passengers confined to wheelchairs must provide your own collapsible chair, and may find certain areas of the ship inaccessible. Certain staterooms are wheelchair accessible with wider bathroom doors, so please ask you cruise specialist for more information about these special staterooms.

Destinations and Itineraries

Like the great explorer for whom she is named, Marco Polo cruises to intriguing destinations worldwide. Navigate the jungle reaches of the Amazon River or the soaring fjords of Scandinavia. The Marco Polo offers Cruise Tours of seven to 40 days to over 140 different ports on seven continents, and extensively cruises to the Greek Isles, Mediterranean and Northern Europe during the summer. She also visits exotic ports in Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and South America.

Offering more than just an ocean voyage, Orient Lines' Cruise Tour itineraries include first-class hotel stays and sightseeing, detailed briefings on upcoming ports, imaginative shore excursions, and, wherever possible, presentations of native culture, dance and music by local performers.

Cruise schedules are carefully designed to allow for longer daytime stays and frequent overnight visits in ports of call. Several exotic journeys are available as "Grand Voyages," combining extended cruises with pre- and post-cruise stays of at least two days in cities across the globe. If you have the luxury of time, and the heart and soul of a true explorer, they have Cruisetour vacations that will make your travel dreams come true. In every corner of the world, you'll find that Orient Lines combines some of the best-of-the-best itineraries to create unparalleled vacations that last longer…and take you to more exotic places than you may have ever imagined possible. And when you consider the incredible value you get with Orient Lines, there's no reason not to turn your dreams into reality.

Orient Lines does not currently offer live online booking. If you would like to plan an Orient Line cruise, please call one of our Cruise Specialists directly. We are happy to help you.