MARINA/French Polynesia Mar 4-19,2018 REVIEW w/lots of photos

[Hoopster95]

What a great set-up they have here.... a private area of this motu fully set up with bbq area/hut, seating both undercover and outdoors, a lagoon out back, boardwalk/pier... just gorgeous. And you can step out into the water anytime to have a dip in the clearest most inviting water I have ever had the pleasure of stepping into

 

 

 

Have I mentioned the views looking back to the mainland?

 

 

And now it was time for lunch... but first a presentation. We all knew what was coming, yet there's still an anticipation as the coverings are peeled away.......

 

 

Hmmmm.... what's under there?

 

[Hoopster95]

Vegan's and Vegetarians turn your heads now!!!

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dKoPUt7oU7o

 

 

 

Besides the pig, mahi mahi and tuna was grilled to perfection, poisson cru, coconut, breadfruit, coconut bread... all the goodies were served. What a great spread!

 

 

And this served on palm leave hand woven "plates". We took our plates and headed over to the picnic benches overlooking the lagoon over to the mainland. What a great lunch

 

 

[Hoopster95]

So the only, and what I felt was a pretty big, disappointment of this entire day was the anticipation of Patrick himself. He seems to be a legend in Bora Bora, and someone that is a "must meet" for this tour. Supposedly during this beach break he performs a famous fire dance. There's various google images and videos around... I learned that supposedly Patrick himself is "contracted" (ie. "reserved","accounted for", insert whatever appropriate synonym here...) with the Paul Gauguin cruises when they are in town, so he was supposedly with another group instead of us. Of course we were still charged full pop... so no fire dance or any other extras from Patrick himself that so many others have raved about. It may be worth your while to check for future Marina cruises whether Marina is there on her own.

 

Having said that, the ukulele came out and Vaitiare performed a beautiful authentic dance for us

 

 

 

Lunchtime over, it was time to head off for our afternoon of water exploration

 

 

We still can't get over the great views and color of the water

 

 

The boys were having some fun too

 

 

There's Patrick with his group on the other outrigger!

 

[Hoopster95]

If you refer back to that map a few posts ago, and follow the red line from the mainland over to the beach motu, you'll see a label already mapped within the lagoon called the "Lagoonarium". This is pretty much a spot where most excursion boats come to take people snorkeling. Unlike the Caribbean (ie. Cayman Stingray city) there were 3-4 max at any one time.... not 10-20 boats thank goodness.

 

 

There are fish EVERYWHERE! With food in you hand you can barely see in front of you

 

 

There a great variety here, including a very cool rock formation at the bottom carefully placed by one of Patrick's minions

 

 

 

We hopped back into the outrigger to head to a second snorkel spot. We crossed the entire lagoon with full views of Marina off in the distance

 

 

[Hoopster95]

And the main attraction of this second snorkel site?

 

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Ha! They were all over the place..... we moved over to deeper water and the star attraction changed to these guys....

 

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Our guide did a ton of deep dive snorkeling while we were there, many times spending easily over a minute under water, walking underneath the outrigger upsidedown, feeding the rays, etc

 

 

 

He did a couple of crazy things.... he pulled us away as a group to swim over to a very deep area of the water, about 40 feet down. Why to point out lemon sharks if he can find any. Well, you don't want a lemon shark to grab your attention as they're dangerous. Regardless, our guide would dive down to the very bottom to look around.... at one point he did dive down with my water camera to grab a photo of a lemon shark from about 20 feet. Larry has a photo of Patrick himself that he shared with me of Patrick holding on to a lemon's shark fin and catching a ride.... nuts! Estimated this one to be about 8 feet

 

 

Then he flips over to take a picture of me!

 

 

 

Obviously I've got a ton more ray and shark photos, way too many to share. Just want to say this afternoon was such a thrill.... not that typical 15-20 minute herd of people at Stingray City in Cayman.... get in, have a $50 photo taken, ok you're done so GET OUT. Between the two sites we probably had at least around 90 minutes in the water interacting with the animals and having the guides there with us the entire way. Can't say enough about how enjoyable this day has been.

 

We were gathered back onto the outrigger and motored back to property where bus was waiting. From there we continues clockwise around the south end of the island passing by Matira beach, the only public beach on Bora Bora. I wanted to take note of the facilities and how to get there as this was one of our plans for tomorrow... a DIY easy beach day. Soon enough we arrived back to the Bora Bora port. Here we shopped a bit (buying the sarong as mentioned earlier) and also stopped at the bank machine (right across the street from the pier parking area).

[Loracpin2]

Have enjoyed your entire fabulous pictorial. Thank you so much for ALL the photos of the ship. We sail her for the first time this coming July in a Concierge class cabin. Hoping an upsell call will be in our future as well.

[delee78]

For me, Bora Bora and this tour were bucket list items fulfilled and two of the greatest highlights of the entire trip. I loved it.

The folks on the boat at one of the snorkeling stops had to laugh at my husband - who they all heard giggling loudly and consistently through the snorkel as he looked around at the amazing fish, coral, sharks and rays.

I have never been to FP, so maybe I don't know what I missed without Patrick as our tour leader - it was just amazing. Our guides were great! I would tell anyone who is visiting Bora Bora to take Patrick's combo tour without hesitation.

[Hoopster95]

Back on board at a little bit later hour than usual (5pm'ish), we arrived back to our cabin with this once-in-a-lifetime view....

 

 

 

So how can we possibly get ready to leave our balcony with this facing us? So obviously exhausted after a long day ashore and instead of getting ready/dressed to go out for cocktails as is our norm, we pulled out the bubbly out of the fridge we had not opened upon embarkation and decided to have cocktail hour right here on our balcony. Perfect decision!! One of my favorite photos and memories of this cruise.... just chillin in Bora Bora with feet up on the railing.... aaaaah.

 

 

Here we watched the tenders doing their thing, as well as very interesting parasailers up on the cliffs.... they would take off from a lower altitude and actually ride the winds upward. It was mesmerizing watching them.

 

 

 

As the sun set, we began to get ready for dinner. Tonight we would meet our pals up at the Terrace for dinner, our first try for dinner.... turned out we loved the Terrace, never going back to the Grand Dining Room for any reason. The quality & presentation of foods was outstanding, with superb choices. Not only that, we loved the ambiance and comfortable/spacious seating at the back deck.

 

 

At the grill station, most everything on this displayed signage was available every evening made to order on the grill... you choose. Want more than one lobster? No problem, order 4! You'd like 1 tune, 1 lobster, 1 swordfish (this was my order), no problem again. Anything goes.

[delee78]

Hoopster's photos are simply amazing! I can only add one - from the arrival to the island.

 

[Sea42]

Hoopster's photos are simply amazing! I can only add one - from the arrival to the island.

 

[ATTACH]418569[/ATTACH]

Beautiful!

[Hoopster95]

For those of you who have never been on Oceania like myself, I had heard about the terrace but didn't think much of it. Obviously my RCL/Celebrity/NCL experiences of buffet were a whole lot different (and much more negative) than the terrace by far. There's currently a thread on the RCL forum about fellow cruisers at the buffet putting their hands on things and then putting them back, etc... just gross. I've seen the odd questionable conduct myself. Here on O you do not touch the food ever. I personally loved that the servers would place the items you wish on your plate for you, the service was always quick and excellent.

 

 

Do you like sushi & sashimi? How about ceviche, oysters, seafood salads, etc?? Well, the terrace nightly is the place! I am a seafood lover... I have never experienced the choices that I had here in this buffet

 

 

This was one end of the larger central station, easy to navigate all the way around. Plenty of salad and starter choices on this side.

 

 

It was also announced by the CD that fresh tuna was brought on board today to be served throughout the ship, and per the announcement, it was filleted and on full display

 

 

 

 

 

I don't have desert photos on this night (I hope I have some later)??), I have to tell you they are delicious. I agree with many reviews on the RCL board of how deserts don't even taste or look like what they're supposed to be... gelatinous "cheese cake" for example or chocolate that doesn't taste like chocolate, cakes that are cardboard.... not here on O, you could sell and serve these deserts from any specialty bakery at home. Unless we were heading up (or down) to a specialty restaurant, the Terrace was the place for us to be bar none.

 

We spent our time here with our pals and did not do anything for the rest of the night, just enjoying company before early bedtime.... It's here I forgot to mention another tip from when we arrived back at the dock from Patrick's tour:

 

I've said several times that booking excursions on your own whim could be a very bad idea here in French Polynesia. We had heard from a couple we befriended at the Hilton in Moorea that they jet ski'd around Bora Bora and it was their favorite thing they did the 5 days they stayed here, so my thought was we could either come off early tender tomorrow morning to try to get one, or hopefully book one now before getting back on board.

 

At the entrance back to tender, there were only two people with tours signage offering jet ski. I approached the first guy, asked him the price, and he said he needed a deposit right now as he may not have any more availability. I made the executive decision to book right there, and he called his office to confirm.... I got the last jet ski for tomorrow on his tour and I'll have a few pics posted tomorrow.

 

Cost for 2 people on one jet ski? $250US. The gentleman told me that this was a great deal and that it was way more expensive booking on board. I asked him "What do you mean on board"? Turns out we booked with an Oceania sponsored company who had a couple of openings left over besides the ones they booked through Oceania. The cost through Oceania via the excursion desk?.... $229 per person on 1 jet ski!

Edited April 3, 2018 by Hoopster95

[Hoopster95]

I can only add one - from the arrival to the island.

 

I feel that delee had the very best views of any cabin possible on the entire ship with their Vista Suite up front on deck 12 above the bridge. By all means post some of your photos whenever you want :D

[Hoopster95]

Today turned out to be a bit of a surprise about 7 months ago... originally we were booked for this 2nd day in Bora Bora until only 1pm (meaning of course a 12pm "final" tender). We were given an email notice that this was being extended to 3pm. I think part of this was to enable the Oceania 3 hour excursions to occur 9am-12pm with ample time for cruisers to get back on board. For me I didn't care... I thought this was great!! Now we had a couple extra hours to explore the island or a couple of extra hours of beaching time. In the end we booked the jet ski.

 

We woke to a beautiful morning, and we noted just before we went to breakfast (7am) that the tenders below us were being prepared. Unlike RCL 24 hour tender service on overnights, Oceania stops it's tendering process at 11pm and resumes at 7am.

 

 

We were due to meet on the pier no later than 9am for the jet skis. After our routine coffee and breakfast up at the Terrace, we went down relatively early to the theatre to collect our tender ticket

 

 

 

I hadn't seen pink as of yet... the previous days it was red and green as the "normal" #1 and #2 tenders for independent travelers so I hoped that we were not being delayed too much. There were not a huge number of people in the theatre so I thought we were safe..... and we were. I suspect like delee said in a previous post, some early independents took the first few tenders without any line-up or tickets at all, so that likely cleared up the theatre from a few people. We got on relatively quickly and were ashore around 8:45am.

 

On shore, I checked in with the excursion guy.... he was on line hoping to find another jet ski for another couple. He had to turn them away, that could've been us hadn't we booked yesterday afternoon.

 

 

There were other excursion options available even for this half day, and these were the same signs that were advertised the day before as well.

 

 

The excursion guy told us to wait over on the side.... he called over the driver of a small mini-van type bus parked back to introduce us so she knew who we were. Within about 5 minutes she called us over to the bus as there was already a large group of people already climbing into the bus.... that was the regular excursion group from O. We blended in at the back and we were off!

 

[Hoopster95]

The drive took us all the way around the entire coastline of the western. northern and eastern part of the island, the exact same route as we did yesterday with Patrick's 4x4s, stopping short of Patrick's property at a beach opening with the jet ski's parked out in the water. We had to wade into about 2 1/2 feet of water, through and around corals, out to the jets skis.

 

 

There was a little bit of instruction but really not a whole lot. It's interesting how North America takes the liability seriously... in RCL's private island CocoCay and Labadee, you sit and watch a 15min safety video, and then get another 10-15 min briefing before you;re even allowed close to the jet skis.... here? a 1 minute talk in broken English with a French accent: "throttle here, hand signals like this, about 50 feet apart, ok ready?? lol. In short order, he gave us directions to follow in orderly convoy fashion with spacing in between. .... and we were off! Selfie's at speed and trying to steer?? Sure!

 

 

What a blast! This first part took us all the way... and I do mean all the way.... around the lagoon along the opposite side that we traveled yesterday with Patrick's outrigger. we ended up passing across the open ocean/channel with full view of Marina, negotiating some choppiness in the water. Fun!

 

 

After a good 40 minutes on the jet ski, and very sore butts and numbing hands/fingers on the throttle lever, we ended up very close to where we were yesterday just past the overwater bungalows and very close to Patrick's motu. It's here we had a break in the shallow water of a sand bar and able to relax for 15-20 minutes. It's really too bad my water camera developed a bit of a fogginess in the lens, obviously from the ocean spray and trip to get over here. The photos would've been spectacular.

 

 

Ah... this is the life!

 

 

GF and I switched places as she wanted to give it a try and she did really great! We were off to our next stop

 

[Sea42]

I'm sorry if I missed it but what type of underwater camera did you use?

Thanks!

[Hoopster95]

I'm sorry if I missed it but what type of underwater camera did you use?

Thanks!

 

No worries... Olympus TG-4. The TG-5 is the model that is now available (waterproof, shockproof, wifi)

http://www.getolympus.com/us/en/tg-5.html

 

For this jet ski day I dare not bring my iphone nor my non-waterproof Sony, so all under water and regular photos + video all with the TG-4

[Hoopster95]

The next stop was an easy 15 minutes or so away from our sand-bar stop, and my estimation just a bit farther from Patirck's motu from yesterday... and just as beautiful!

 

 

Here we "parked" the jet ski's and waded up onto the beach.

 

 

This was more of a "Gilligan's Island" set-up, a lot more raw than yesterday with just a small hut and staging area where we spent about 1/2 hour learning about...... coconuts! we learned how to open them, shred them, eat them and drink milk from them. Good fun all in all.... everyone got a shot at various duties to see how they do.

 

 

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And how do the locals have a sip of the coconut milk (not the water)? You take a handful of freshly shredded coconut, stick your thumb up as if you're going to suck it like a baby, tip your head with your thumb at your mouth.....and SQUUEZE

 

 

 

Yes, it drips all over you in a mess, but that's part of the fun. You're back in the ocean in a couple of minutes anyways so it all cleans off. We didn't know that this short stop was part of the tour, and I'm so glad it was. It was a lot of fun for everybody.

[Hoopster95]

Wading back on to our jet skis, we were off. That was the last stop. We had circumnavigated all of Bora Bora and were now almost directly across the channel from our starting point on the mainland.

 

 

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In a short 5-6 minutes we would get to the other side and our starting point. The mini-van bus was there waiting for us to take us back to port. From start (9am sharp) to finish (about 12:30pm back at the port) this was a great morning. They advertise this as a 2 hour jet-ski excursions and it was just a little more than that.... without including the drive time to and from the port

 

 

I noted up on the cliffs, as I did yesterday from our balcony on the ship, the parasailers were out again weaving in and out of the cliffs. If you look really hard between the two mountain tops you can see the small white sail of one of them.

 

[Hoopster95]

If I were to ever go back to Bora Bora, I would want to spend some time on land to visit a couple of the small towns. I can tell you our hosts yesterday through Patrick's tour and today were very gracious. People here are beautiful. There were several little towns that would be great to drive into and walk around a couple of blocks, have a drink or lunch, and maybe talk to a few people.

 

 

Throughout this review, have I mentioned the views yet? :rolleyes:

 

 

In yesterday's installment, I made a mistake.... I mentioned ending Patrick's tour and stopping at the bank and shopping for our hand-painted sarongs. Yesterday we were simply gassed and wanted back on the tender, let alone making the haste decision to approach the jet ski tour provider... it was today that we had a bit of time before final tender. Here we went across the street for some cash.... no problems, as you can choose English. I believe the fee to use the machine was 900xpf (a little mnre than $10).

 

 

Many areas of french Polynesia, and especially Marquesas, are well known for their arts.. and especially one of a kind truly hand crafted carvings, and stone work. This shop had plenty of incredible one-of-a-kind work for sale. The photo below is a small example

 

 

I'd love to show you more, but the photo above was my last for the day as my battery was finally dead. Darn it... so no pics of the next incredible store of where we bought the sarongs. Ah well, at about 1:30we were at the tender pier with very few people remaining to get on

[Hoopster95]

We had not had lunch yet and we were hungry!! So once back on board and freshened up a bit, where do you all think we went for a bite to eat? Yes, you guessed it.... our favorite place on the ship, the Terrace back deck. This was our first experience of lunch and it was very busy up there at this time as most other cruisers had returned before us and were already at some stage of their meals. Today's theme was Mediterranean with totally delicious dolmades and spanakopeda, eggplant salad, olive tapenade, a great variety of salads, ceviche, tuna (of course), and many other goodies. Totally superb lunch with a nice cool glass of crisp Chardonnay.

 

 

We watched as Marina begin to turn and pull away from the tender area, beginning her sailaway right at 3pm as promised. Goodbye Bora Bora.... until the next time

 

 

We were a little tired and just wanted to walk around aimlessly a bit, not wanting full sun at the pool deck, not wanting to swim.... just laze around and chill out. We ended up checking out top deck. The pool deck was surprisingly quiet... perhaps everyone else was tired too and napping at this time.

 

 

I thought I we had not come up to top deck again for the entire cruise after the very first day, but now looking at photos I do remember coming back up here today. There's a golf net here to practice your swing... very lame for a 2011 built ship. RCL Voyager Class for example (built 1999) had computerized golf simulators on their sports deck for a comparison. I also wanted to take a closer look & try the paddle court. We weren't that into it, playing around for only a couple of minutes before moving on.

 

 

 

Here's a good shot looking back overtop of the pool deck and aft. Here you can see more clearly the running track which wraps around the funnel overtop of Baristas.

 

 

In the spirit of how low key the vibe on the ship was this afternoon, we too retired to our cabin for a well deserved midday nap and to chill out on our balcony before dinner

[Cruise Junky]

 

 

 

 

Many areas of french Polynesia, and especially Marquesas, are well known for their arts.. and especially one of a kind truly hand crafted carvings, and stone work. This shop had plenty of incredible one-of-a-kind work for sale. The photo below is a small example

 

 

I'd love to show you more, but the photo above was my last for the day as my battery was finally dead. Darn it... so no pics of the next incredible store of where we bought the sarongs. Ah well, at about 1:30we were at the tender pier with very few people remaining to get on

 

These are stunning. Any recollection to how much they were?

[Hoopster95]

On to the evening, and our routine cocktail and the Grand Bar, but not before enjoying yet another gorgeous sunset from our balcony before moving on

 

 

A view of deck 6 and the Grand staircase from within the elevator

 

 

Here on deck 6, quietly hanging all around the main staircase in seemingly low traffic spots that I would think many would simply ignore when walking by, is some questionable (but to me intriguing) art by this artist, There are several of his pieces here as well as in the Grand Bar. What do you think?

 

 

We sat in one of our favorite seats right beside the 4 string quartet, enjoying our cocktails and the music. One of our fave cocktails on this trip was the red one in this photo, the "Oceania 15 year anniversary martini"

 

 

And a very large and warm applause for the string quartet nightly. This group were a ton of fun, playing absolute classic one minute, then a rendition of Michael Jackson the next! Very interesting and normally had applause after every song.

 

[Hoopster95]

These are stunning. Any recollection to how much they were?

 

Hey neighbor :)

 

Not cheap.... I believe these larger pieces were 4000-5000xpf (about $500-600US). Hand carved ukulele's were 25000 - 35000xpf ... I regret not buying one, they are one of a kind and we were serenaded several times on upcoming excursions... one of the guys played a hand carved piece. I should have offered to buy it from him just for the memory. The larger 18-24 inch head carvings are 2500-3000xpf. There is a ton of quality art available, museum quality.

 

I did end up buying a 24inch hand carved knife (more photos when I get to the Marquesas installment) made of local rosewood in Marquesas, made by a local who's wife was one of the Marquesan dancers. Her daughter was at the table selling, and it was the only large piece for sale as we were in a remote area of the island having lunch at a set restaurant location. I asked her in English "Is this machine made?" The girl looked at me incredulously as did the mom as they looked at each other then looked back at me.... pan faced she answers "we don't have machines". Good enough for me... 5000xpf later and now I have a legitimate hand carved warrior knife on my mantle :D:D

 

This is a picture me holding the carving in front of a local rosewood as pointed out to me by tour guide Richard Deane. Also zoomed in for some of the detail.

 

 

 

A quick quote from googling the wood

"Material used to make artifacts includes Oceania rosewood (Miro or Mi’o), oceania walnut (tou), iron wood (aito), the coconut tree (tumu ha’ari or tumu’ehi) as well as Pacific rosewood (Thespesia populnea) and temana (Calophyllum inophyllum); iron wood (Casuarina equisetifolia) is used to carve war clubs and other artifacts.[8][9] Sandalwood was cleared out of the Marquesas between 1814 and 1817.[10] It is important to the Marquesan people to use wood from the islands, because of its quality and it follows the tradition of their ancestors. Typically, the wood is dried for up for 10 years, and then treated against pests."

[Cruise Junky]

It’s a beautiful piece. With the wood and the pearls I’d need a 2nd mortgage.

[Hoopster95]

Backtrack to this morning at 8am... as we walked down the stairs to deck 5 in order to go to the theatre for tender tickets, we detoured over to the Grand reception area and the reservation desk to see if there were any openings for specialty restaurants in the evening. We had targeted Red Ginger pre cruise as we loved the meny and were really looking forward to it... unfortunately most of our specialty dining was due at the end of the cruise as those were the only times available to me. Luckily Red Ginger was available!!! 8pm dinner set.

 

With the quartet going on break, we still had an hour to go before dinner, so we decided to bar hop and check things out around the ship. The piano bar was packed.... usually when the quartet was off on break, the piano man was on, so this venue was busy. we decided instead to head up the elevator to top deck Horizons. There on display was their advertising for their Connoisseur Cognac tasting. They offer various tastings throughout the cruise... for a fee of course. At least you get to see what samples you will get

 

 

As suspected, the place was a ghost town as this was prime dinner time. Any show/music was down on deck 6.

 

 

There's great art up here as well.... note there's fabulous art all over this ship, do take note of it when on board

 

 

 

We headed back down to deck 6 to see if the quartet had returned yet.... nope. It was here we remembered that we haven't sat at the Casino Bar yet. This bar is set in a really weird place within the ship, dead center deck 6 kind of in the middle of nowhere, and very funky and bright. we enjoyed our munchies and martinis there until dinner time