Large photo review Pacific Mysteries Marina April 18-May 6 plus post Machu Picchu

[cutiepie43]

I have decided to write a detailed review and post many pictures from our cruise aboard Oceania Marina from April 18-May 6 2013. This is a first for me so I hope that everyone will enjoy it.

I want to state right up front that this may not be as detailed in certain areas as some people may like. Over the course of 18 days we went to zero shows and activities. Yes you read that right, none. It's not that we are against them, it's just not our thing. We would rather play cards with each other or watch a movie in our room after dinner. I had planned on documenting the food that we ate at every meal but that proved to be more of an undertaking than I was willing to comit to. I did document every course that we ate at the specialty restaurants, so there will be an abundance of food pictures.

I will spend a fair amount of time talking about the islands that we visited in the hopes that it may help people doing the same (or similar) cruise in the future plan for their vacation. I will also dedicate some time at the end to our post trip to Machu Picchu. I know that this isn't directly part of the cruise and we did not book it through the ship but I figured it may be of some interest to some people.

I also encourage people that were on the same cruise as myself to add any comments or information that they may have. How was Patrick's tour in Bora Bora? How did the tours with Green Island tours in Easter Island turn out? How were the ships tours? Feel free and post some pictures to share with everyone.

I also wanted to say that I am generally very open about things and I will talk about what I paid for the cruise and tours etc. Hopefully no one gets offended. If you have any questions feel free to ask. There is not much that I am shy about answering.

Lastly I just want to say that I am not a writer by trade and you will have to forgive any spelling or grammatical errors.

Ok then, let us begin.....

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I will start by telling you a little about us. We are Bryan and Jennifer, we are in our early 30's and have no kids. This allows us to travel a fair amount and we choose to cruise almost exclusively. This is our 16th cruise having cruised with Celebrity, RCL, Carnival, Princess and Norwegian. We like to take 10-14 day cruises and our longest up until now had been a 14 night L.A. - Hawaii - L.A. cruise with Princess in November of 2012. We enjoyed Celebrity the most out of all the cruise lines so far with Princes coming in second. We are not hard to please and have not had a "bad" time on a cruise yet. It takes a lot to phase us and we aren't complainers. If you hear my saying something negative about Oceania it is just an observation. There were no instances onboard that were anymore than a minor annoyance, and they were few and far between.

Now then, how did we come about booking this cruise? It all started last year when we decided to book the 11 day round trip Papeete to Papeete cruise for January 16 (I think that was the date). For us the biggest draw was the free airfare. Flying from Toronto to PPT can be very expensive, when I was pricing out air I couldn't get roundtrip air for less than $2200 per person. So we were happy when we booked the cruise for an Oceanview Gty for around $4000 each. Shortly afterwards we began to receive "move over offers". Mostly they were offering us to go to the Med. in November. At first it was and upgade to a balcony, then a balcony plus onboard credit, then PH suite. All of these were nice however we wanted Tahiti and not the Med in November. Finally we received an offer in late summer offering us this cruise. We figured that we still got Tahiti, Bora Bora and now we got Easter Island and could see Machu Picchu from Peru. We jumped on it. I tried to get a room upgrade as well but they wouldn't bite. So we kept the Oceanview Gty and the same price that we had paid for the first cruise.

Leading up to the cruise we received several upgrade offers. The first was an offer for a balcony for $200pp. Oddly enough an email was sent 20 minutes later with the same offer but the price was now $400pp. I phoned and said I'll take the $200 offer, thank you very much.

I will also note that I am a travel agent in my spare time. That is why I am communicating directly with Oceania and the offers are always sent to me as the agent and not to my personal email.

Shortly before we sailed we got one final upgrade offer to a Concierge room for $100 per person. We had really enjoyed the hot breakfast on Celebrity so we figured between that and the spa terrace it would be worth it. Final cabin assignment C2 on deck 10 aft.

I'll also take a quick moment to talk about our air deviation. (I promise the cruise pictures are coming soon) We knew that we wanted to stay the extra few days to go to Machu Picchu so we had to do the deviation. For those who don't know, the price is $150pp and it's the same price if you deviate pre cruise post cruise or both. We ended up paying $100pp on top of the deviation to have a dirct flight on Air Canada from Toronto to LAX. (They were going to route us through Chicago or somewhere else and we didn't want a stopover in case of problems) On the way back we requested a non stop flight from Lima to Toronto (Air Canada) that we knew was available only a few times a week. Again the extra cost was $100 per person ( a bargain in my opinion ). Total air deviation cost $700 total for both of us.

One final note before I start the cruise review. I read the review from someone who had been on the cruise that we were supposed to be on in January. The person said that the ship was great, the food was great but it was terrible weather. It was rainy and overcast every day. I felt slightly relieved that our trip of a lifetime could have been dampened by the poor weather. I know that you can't control the weather but I'm sure the South Pacific doesn't look the same under gloomy skies.

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We were scheduled to fly out Thursday 18th from YYZ to LAX. I was surprised by how many people that we met going on to the same cruise. One of the couples were going to be on the Air Tahiti Nui flight and all of the rest of us on Atlas air. One couple got their bags checked all of the way to PPT and the rest of us had to collect them in LAX. We waited until LA to put on our luggage tags because Oceania had said that we would not have to collect them in PPT, they would be sent straight to our room. Some people were not aware of that and it caused some headaches for some people that had not attached their luggage tags beforehand.

The Air Canada flight was uneventful, they have a nice entertainment system and the flight went by relatively quickly. Once we landed in LA we went to the baggage carousel and there were several Oceania reps on hand to check off your name and they had a few porters to help load our bags for the walk over to the next terminal. We then walked over to the Tom Bradley Itn'l terminal and went to the Atlas counter. They weren't busy and it only took a few moments for them to tag our bags and give us our boarding passes. They were pre printed out ahead of time with our name and seat assignment. We then grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed through customs (again) and went all the way to the last gate where both the ATN and Atlas flights were gathered side by side. On first glance the ATN section seemed to have way more people than the Atlas area. I think that was the case, because I heard stories afterwards about the ATN flight not being that great.

Originally we had wanted to be on the ATN flight after hearing all of the Atlas horror stories. In the end I was glad that we were on our flight because it turned out fantastic. We started boarding around 12:30 for our 2pm departure. This involved you going on to a bus for a short 2 min ride up to the plane. They did have a jetway some you walked up a series of ramps to board the plane. The plane was a MD-11 with a 3-4-3 seat configuration we were in 2 seats in the 4 section beside another couple. After it became clear that the flight wasn't very full we moved over to the 3 seats beside us. No one ever came for those seats and the steward encouraged people to spread out into empty seats if we wanted. I am 6'3 and it's the most legroom I have had on a plane, equivalent to an exit row on most flights I've been on. I could cross my legs easily and at one point near the end of the flight I laid down on the floor between our seat and the seats in front of us and did some stretching. We were served often, the order was..Drink service...Dinner (chicken of pasta with meat in it)...Free beer or wine....hot towels...Fruit...Snacks....Sandwiches (ham or turkey wrap) with chips and one last hot towel before we landed. They showed a movie (Life of Pi) on the small tube TV's overhead and the armrests still had ashtrays in them but I couldn't have been happier.

When we arrived in Papeete we went down the stairs to the tarmac and walked up to the customs terminal. It was hot and the line was long. The ATN flight had landed 20 min before ours and the line seemed to hardly be moving. After almost an hour we made it through the line and discovered our name on a white board of about 5 names of people randomly selected for a luggage search. Yay! It turned out not to be too bad. We had to walk over to where our luggage was located (It was all off the plane since we were so long in the customs line), pick out our suitcases and have them quickly xrayed. The whole process took about 5 minutes.

We had arranged to share a cab with a fellow cruisecritic member, so we met in the terminal and walked to find the cabs. They were close by and when we asked how much he said 2500xpf (about $25) I had expected more considering it was after dark but I wasn't going to argue. Cab ride was quick, maybe 10 minutes and we were able to beat the big buses with all of the people who bought the transfers. I gave him 3000xpf and we headed into the ship. I thought $7.50 a person was pretty good for a transfer, I don't know what Oceania was charging.

It's the first time that we have ever walked onto a ship without having our ship cards in hand. They checked your passport quickly and then directed you to the marina lounge where they took your passports, swiped your credit card, took your photo and gave you your room key. As you left the lounge they swiped your card and you were officially "onboard".

We headed straight to the room where we would be spending the next 18 days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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First impressions of the room were good. The linens and colours in the room were nice and the bathroom was very spacious. We had our welcome bottle of champagne waiting for us in a pool of lukewarm water (ahh the perks of arriving late). We don't drink so it was no big deal, it sat on the shelf unopened 18 days later as we left. We did notice that there was not an abundance of storage space onboard. The closet was fine (once we stowed the life vests under the bed), but there was not a lot of usable drawers for the two of us for 18 days. They were also spread out all over the place. We had to store a lot of clothes in the drawers by the desk, I wish they had put the fridge over there so we could have kept most of the things by the closet. Also, not a lot of plug ins available. There were two by the desk but they were so close together that if one thing was charging you couldn't use the other. We did some charging in the bathroom. There were two "european?" outlets beside the bed but that didn't help us much. Also I liked the furniture on the balcony aboard Celebrity better. They have a high table which is nice to eat at or play scrabble etc when on the balcony. Oceania just has a small rattan side table. The chairs had cushions on them that the steward would take in at night. The bed was just as comfortable as everyone says.

One of the first thing I tested was the HDMI jack. No issues hooking up the laptop and the remote was a breeze, just press HDMI and if you wanted to go back to the regular programs, just hit the TV button. The TV had a built in Blu Ray player and they had a menu of DVDs that were available at the front desk . (about 400 to choose from as well as 300 foreign language films)

Luggage arrived around 10pm, we finished unpacking and had some difficulty getting the empty suitcases under the bed but we made it fit. Lights out shortly after and we were fast asleep before our heads touched the pillow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Huahine sunny hot all day

Up early (darn time difference) but we felt fine. I watched us sail into Huahine. You come into a cove so there are nice views on either side of the ship. The buffet was nice and the pastries are some of the best we've had aboard a cruise ship. Life boat drill was at 8:15 which caused some pains for people who had tours set up for shortly after 8. Oceania has you bring your life vests and does a demonstration on how to try them on. After it was over we cheated a bit as Jenni went straight to the lounge to get tender tickets and I went upstairs to drop off the life jackets. I really didn't need to worry as when I got there they were still handing out tickets for the first tender. There were no more than 10 people there. It did start to fill up and we got aboard the first tender ashore. It was a short tender ride and we were on shore by 845. There wasn't much at the pier, a few vendors selling items but I didn't notice if anyone was selling tours.

We were booked for Marc's Motu Picnic and snorkelling. They also had it with a 4x4 tour. Everyone met up at the same Motu where we had lunch together. Marc was with the 4x4 group and we had a different guide (can't remember his name). The price was $100 US per person and we paid near the end of the tour (on the motu). We had a brief introduction with our guide, he didn't say too much throughout the trip. We stopped at a shallow reef area for some snorkelling, the water was nice and warm and the snorkelling was decent. You could use fins if you wanted to. I opted not to and had mixed feelings, on one hand I wished I had them because the current sometimes pushed you around. On the other had it was very shallow in places and I had to stand up on the sand and walk for a bit and the fins would have made that difficult.

As an aside here, I will say that most of my research leading up to this trip suggested that most places in the South Pacific wouldn't have you wear fins. This was not the case as we wore some at every snorkel stop on the trip (Huahine, Bora Bora x 2, Fakarava) The boats all had enough to outfit the people that wanted them. Almost everyone on all of the trips had their own masks.

Next stop was the pearl farm which was not overly interesting to most people. They did a quick demo on how the pearls were formed and there was a place to buy pearls there. I don't think anyone did.

Next snorkel stop was deeper water (10-12 ft) for a drift snorkel. Only about half the people got out to try this and most used fins. The snorkelling was OK but nothing too special. I don't think the guides got into the water at either snorkel spot so if you were a beginner you were kind of on your own.

Last stop was the motu where Marc demonstrated the uses for the coconut, sarong tying (with female volunteers from the audience) and some island info. He was very charasmatic and I wish we had him on our boat for the snorkelling. Lunch was coleslaw, fish, chicken, saffron rice, bread, and poisson cru (which he showed how to make). Coke, water, rum punch and fruit punch were all available to drink. I was a little disappointed that the tables set up in the water were just a few picnic tables in about 8-10 inches of water. Overall it was a nice experience and we were happy with the day.

We were back to the pier by 3:30 and on the ship shortly after.

We laid down for a short nap and woke up at 6:30, so much for the cruisecritic get together.

 

I also want to say that as I am writing this I may occaisonally remember something that happened earlier or that I just forgot to talk about. Over the course of 18 days things can get a little muddled. I kept a rough journal but a lot of this is from memory.

 

We had dinner at the buffet tonight as we did most nights. We are normally dining room people but the buffet was so good and very convenient in it's location that we were more than happy to eat there on our "non-specialty" nights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2013 by cutiepie43

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Mostly overcast this morning and for most of the day. Ordered room service (hot) breakfast today, part of the reason we upgraded to the concierge room. It was not great, pancakes were very doughy and the bacon very crisp. Jennifer's milk for her cereal was luke warm. It ended up being the first and last time we ordered room service for breakfast.

Went to the lounge around 7:40 for tickets, only about 10 people waiting. Started handing out tickets at 745. First tender left at 810, short ride to the pier.

We were with Fabien from Reef Discovery today, 3.5 hour snorkel tour for 10000xpf or $120 pp. Most of the people on the first tender were on that tour so we left at 8:20 instead of 8:40. We had 4 couple on our boat and it was very nice. The boat was more like a speedboat that you might go out with friends on, rather than a typical "tour" boat. Fabien was very personable and had a great attitude. He stopped and talked to us about some of the things we would see before our first stop. The first snorkel stop was where there was a lot of fish. He gave you some bread if you wanted to feed them and we had a great time. He showed us a very large eel and used my camera to take a few photos.

Next stop was the coral gardens out by the reef where the waves break. Current was slightly stronger and there wasn't as much fish but there was a lot of coral.

Next was the stop to see if we could see the manta rays. Unfortunately because it had rained hard the night before, the water was a little bit cloudy and we didn't have the visibility, we didn't see any rays.

Last stop was a small area where we saw a famliy of clown fish (Nemo) and a lot of sea cucumbers. We also held a small crab.

Overall it was a fantastic trip and well worth the money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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That evening we had our first specialty meal in the Polo Grill. The only food pictures that I really have are from all of the specialty restaurants but the courses are well documented.

Apps were escargot, crab cakes, clam chowder and shrimp cocktail. Mains were ribeye and filet with blue cheese. Desserts molten chocolate cake and trio of homemade marshmallows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bora Bora Day 2

Hot and sunny all day today.

Went to the lounge around 810 today waited about 10-15 minutes for the next tender. We were on shore by 845.

Today our tour was with Laurent from Diveeasy Bora Bora. Another snorkel tour 11000xpf per person. This time only the two of us booked him so we had our own private tour. Laurent showed up around 9am and led us to his boat. After about a 10 min boat ride we arrived at our snorkel spot. He spent about 40 minutes teaching us about the reef and informing us about what we would see. We were hot and just wanted to get into the water. He has these snorkels that you can hear music through as you are in the water. He offered it to us but he has to "drag" along the mp3 equipment so we declined. He gave Jenni a wet suit in lieu of a life vest which she enjoyed very much. We snorkelled for a little over an hour and came back to the boat. On the way back the boat was having some engine issues so he brought us to his place and drove us back to the pier from there. Overall the tour was nice and Laurent was very kind and patient with Jennifer (she is not a very strong swimmer) but I didn't feel it was as good value as the day prior. We had 4 stops on the previous day and it was cheaper.

 

 

 

Notice the eagle ray?

 

 

 

 

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Once we were at the pier I decided that I wanted to do a jet ski tour. There are vendors at the pier selling tours and they seemed to be reasonably priced. I knew how much the jet ski tour should cost as I had done some research before we left. It would be $280 US for one jet ski (two people), the tour would be about two hours. It was a little steep but we may only be there once so we (I) decided to splurge. We arranged it for 2pm so we could go back to the ship, have a bite to eat, change and come back. We paid a $50 dollar deposit (non refundable) and off we went.

 

We had some time to kill on the pier after lunch so we walked to a few of the shops. There were quite a few within a 2 min walk around the pier. Our driver took us on a 10 min bus ride to the beach where the jet skis were. We were right beside Matira beach it looked very nice. After a short safety briefing we headed off with our guide and one other couple. The weather was clear and sunny and we had a fun ride around the island. We stopped at a motu and our guide made us some coconut and some bananas and grapefruit. We hung out on the motu for a bit and then headed back to the beach having done a complete loop around the island. The trip was fun and I'm glad that we experienced it.

 

Back to the ship for a nice sunset and a late sailaway.

 

Did some laundry tonight, $2 per wash or dry 25 min for a wash and 45 min to dry. You could get tokens at the front desk or they had change machines in the laundromat. Keep in mind they don't give change so if you put in a five dollar bill you will only get two tokens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2013 by cutiepie43

[cutiepie43]

I guess I'll take this opportunity to introduce the third member of our travelling party. Droozy is Jennifers stuffed dog whom accompanies us on most trips. Our wonderful room stewards started to "play" with Droozy once or twice a day when they made up the rooms. He would be in different positions or doing different things while we were gone. I'll post the photos as we go along.

 

 

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Sea Day

Our first day that we weren't in port when we woke up. Went to the gym and it wasn't overly busy. We went to the Spa Terrace for the first (and only) time. It was nice albeit slighty windy on sea days. We were pretty much the only ones there. There is two hot tubs and a lot of two person partially covered loungers. You need your room key to access the area but there are some nice heated stone loungers which were free for anyone to use located just outside the entrance to the terrace. There are also sauna and steam rooms in both the male and female locker rooms.

Extremely hot today and we were concerned that we might run out of sunscreen so we paid a visit to the shops but they didn't have anything above 8 spf. I can't blame them, there isn't a lot of places for them to stock up on supplies.

We went to the main dining room for dinner tonight it was one of only two visits there for the entire cruise. As I said before we normally eat in the dining room a lot but the buffet had pretty much the same food and it is quicker and still had a nice atmosphere. We had read a lot of stories before we left about dinner taking a long time in the dining room so we were worried a little bit. We didn't find that was the case as both of our dining room meals took around an hour from start to finish. We did eat by ourselves and are fast eaters so that may also have had something to do with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Fakarava

We had a tour booked today with Martine from http://www.fakaravaexcursionsandfishing.com/ we were supposed to take a 45min boat trip to the south pass for some snorkelling and then a picnic on a motu. Arrived at the lounge around 740am hardly anyone there but it started to fill up as we got closer to 8am. They started handing out the tender tickets around 755. We were on the first tender which left at 805. Another short tender ride and we were on shore a few minutes later. There were a few vendors with tables set up selling wares but I didn't notice anyone selling tours. We met with Martine and George and walked to their boat. Martine had told me that the trip was full with 16 guests however there were 20 guests onboard. It was a bit of a squeeze but we managed. The 45 minute boat ride turned into almost two hours each way. The seas were a little choppy and were getting sprayed quite a bit. George apologized a lot but there was nothing he could do. Once we arrived at Tetamanu we got off the boat and there was a small resort there. A short walk away was the small beach that we would be snorkelling from.

The water was crystal clear and you could see the small reef sharks swimming around. We were pretty much on our own for snorkelling, George did come in the water and show some people some things but I wandered off on my own for most of the time. Jenni stayed on the beach and read. She refused to get in the water with the sharks. The water was warm and the snorkelling was some of the best I've ever had. Martine had drinks for people if they wanted, some people just sat around and chatted in the beautiful water. After about 90 minutes they gathered us up and took us by boat to the motu where we would be having lunch. It was a short 5 minute boat ride to the pink sand beach. The look of this place was exactly what I had envisioned when I thought of Tahiti/South Pacific. It was fantastic the water was shallow and warm and the scenery was breathtaking. We had our motu lunch which was macaroni salad, rice, bread, two types of grilled fish and some poisson cru. I took my plate and ate in the water (and fed the fishies some leftovers). Some cake for desert and then I explored while Jenni relaxed and read. Around 2:30 we headed back. Around 90 minutes on the way back as we were with the wind this time. They also gave us each a nice shell necklace as a memento. Cost was $130 US each. Probably the best day we had in the "tropical" islands. Shopped at the tables that were set up by the locals. Jenni bought some pearl earrings and a hair clip, prices seemed reasonable and the people were friendly.

On the subject of people, I will say that at no time in any of the islands (Huahine, Bora Bora or Fakarava) were we ever hassled to buy anything or take a tour. If you walked through the market we found the locals to be quiet and not pushy at all. In Bora Bora some people at the tour would ask if you wanted a tour or a taxi to the beach but nothing forceful.

Once we were back onboard we heard the announcement that they had taken the cruise director Dottie and her husband off of the ship. Dottie was having some medical issues and they figured it was better to fly her to Papeete instead of waiting until Easter Island in case she got worse. Later in the cruise we got word that she was doing fine but wasn't rejoining the cruise. The assistant cruise director seemed to do a fine job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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