Texaggie

4 hours ago, azdrydock said:

On Regatta now. Been some complaints about the AC in cabins but ours have been OK. AC  in public areas erratic. Always cold in GDR, hot in Horrizons and Cafe. Been on 11 a few times no issues with turf will check again tmrw.The two units are walk ins for storage and apper tohave nothing to do with HVAC. Door on one end and only connectios appear to be power.

WIFI is beyond bad even for Oceania. The reason is simple, O won't pay for a better package. Been on similar  itineraries on two other lines post covid and always had usable internet with out Starlink. 

Biggest disappointment has been the service.Wait staff is running around and smiles are gone by end of meal. Managers constantlly chasiing down late meals.

 

Semi official estimate on current segment is they are down about 20% staff from pre covid. Today 4 servers and 3 mangers in Waves at 1PM.

 

5 of our excursion were canceled or grossly changed. We were notifed at start of segments, to late to make alternate plans.

 

In three ports there were dive and or welding team's working from arrival to departure. Looked a bit more serious than hull cleaning for Australia.

 

Even the loyalists are complaining. 

 

CD insists on making non important announcement after 6:30pm when everyone is eating.  Volume in GDR is almost painful  and waiters have to stop taking orders until he finishes telling us what we already know.

 

Thank you for your review.  My husband and I are on this cruise for next year.  I have read similar reviews to yours and am getting concerned about this cruise ship and line.  I appreciate you taking the time to write a review.  Please update as your trip goes along if you have time!

Judy

On 12/31/2022 at 1:43 PM, Tahitianbigkahuna said:

Glad Bora Bora finally enacted what they've thought about doing for many years. My understanding  the goal is to eliminate ship size to under 1000 passengers and eventually only allow a total of 1000 cruise guest combined between all ships. 

 

Windstar, PG, Aranui, Ponant and other smaller ships such as the older R3 and R4  will be the new norm in some of the islands of FP..

 

Larger than 1250 is held to Tahiti, Raiatea and Moorea .... and Moorea my follow something similar to Bora Bora very soon. 

 

I was on Bora Bora last October and a HAL ship with 2500 was there at the same time  .... IMO it was a mess and impacted others not on the ship as far as available excursions, rental availability and the town of Vaitape was overloaded ....

 

To answer your question ... Bora Bora is all about the lagoon though there are many other lagoons in FP that rival but don't have the backdrop of Mount Otemanu .... Bora Bora has become much more commercialized - touristy

 

IMO the most beautiful island as far as the land is Moorea, Huahine and Tahaa. The Marquesas' are beautiful in their own way but you have no lagoons. 

 

Hope that helps

Thank you! That is good to know. In doing a little research, I had read that land wise Moorea rivaled Bora Bora. We have decided not to do the overnight to Bora Bora. Definitely, think it could be done, but there is always the possible problem with air travel and we felt like we could better use the island that we were on. I think if we love the islands, which I have a feeling we will, then we will just have to go back on a smaller cruise line or do a land trip.

I appreciate a community that tries to preserve their natural surroundings and way of life. When I was in college I studied in Florence, Italy. It was amazing. Twenty years later, it was a port stop on a cruise. My husband and I made the bus trip to the city. I was so disappointed and it almost ruined my memories of this beautiful city. It was very Americanized and touristy as well as just plain too crowded.  Of course, Florence is a large city, so we got away from the popular sights, and it became the charming Italian city place that I remembered. It would be difficult for a small island to recover like that.

Hello:

Originally our ship was suppose to stop at Bora Bora, but due to changes in the law we are not now. Ship is too large. Anyway, I do not know that I will be in the area in the future and being advanced age, ie older, I was considering taking a flight to Bora Bora and staying the night. It is high on my bucket list. Has anyone done this? Are the flights reliable? Is Bora Bora more beautiful than the other islands? I would appreciate any insights on this.

No. I wish we were on it. That’s quite a lengthy trip. What region are you going to? We are bracing for super cold temps in Georgetown so you are definitely not missing anything there!

On 12/7/2022 at 8:58 AM, Seasick Sailor said:

We will be on Konigsdam Feb 18th for a 35 day Hawaii/Tahiti cruise. 

 

I love to read and enjoy sitting on our balcony with a cocktail and munchies. I have 8 books downloaded for our 45 day sail on Saturday. 

 

I enjoy trivia and HAL offers several settings. I can always find something to do, and if I get bored, I walk or people watch at the Lido pool.

 

Don't forget your Kindle charger! Have a wonderful cruise!

I can’t believe the coincidences! We are on this same cruise and are from Georgetown, Texas too! Hopefully, we will get the chance to meet in person

Ty! I’ll check that sight out.

I’m sure this has been discussed before, but I’m hoping to get answers to insurance. We have multiple trips reserved for next insurance. Are there companies that will write a policy to cover them all? Is, are there advantages? We have taken multiple cruises in the past and not really worried about insurance for various reasons. Circumstances change though, like where the cruises travel to, length of cruises, our ages, etc. I have learned so much from this sight. I look forward to your insights.

I have been trying to use the Verifly app, but it keeps getting stuck on the selfie picture and states that there is no authentication. Has anyone else had that problem?

Can you call the upsell on your own or do you need your travel agent? I’m in a window room and was hoping to upsell to a balcony. I see that there appears to be many available. At what point do the mail at offers usually?

This was a great trip review. I do have questions on the airport situation. We will be on a cruise in August. We were just going to have our carry on bag and get off when the ship docks. Then grab a taxi to the airport. Our plane departs at 10:30. It’s tight I know but the next one wasn’t until 5. We have done this on the last three cruises and had plenty of time. So was the self de embarked slow as well? Was the TSA lines at the airport also jam packed?

A little nervous about this one.

DaveOKC, did you call before you got the email to upgrade or after? Can you call this number and request upgrade if you used a travel agent? I used one of the mass cruise sellers, so won’t be much help to call them. If you do call, do you just float a price for the upgrade or do they tell you what it is? I never seem to get an offer for an upgrade, but would like to sometime.

sorry, lots of questions, but thank you for the help.

So this thread has been so helpful. A couple of questions on how this works. You make your reservation for the lower end balconies through websight, travel agent etc. once you have your reservation number, can you call and sign up for CO or do you have to wait until closer to time? We are considering a cruise to Hawaii in Feb of 23, so that seems like a long time for them to give a premium cabin for the obstructed view one. I can see lots of category V available. Can you request a particular room?

Thank you everyone for your insights!