shrkdive1

We walked off the ship last October without reservations and got right Into a taxi.  I think it was around $20 to the IC.

Regarding your question about tours in the Marquesas Islands it is true there are limited ship sponsored excursions offered.  These islands are very remote and do not get a lot of cruise ship visitors so tourism is not well developed like the other FP islands.  We did this itinerary last Sept. My wife and I are scuba divers and the islands were great for diving.  Each day after diving we did venture into the ports and walk around a bit.  We did hear from others who took the truck tours that they were enjoyable (mostly sight seeing).  I don't recall seeing many sandy beaches though as the terrain in the Marquesas islands was pretty rugged.

You may want to wait until you are on board anyway as I don't think they post the daily menu they will be making each day until then.  We signed up in the Chef's Kitchen.

150 euros pp. booked onboard

22 hours ago, Whipsnade said:

Crystal is owned by a couple of multi billionaires who answer only to themselves and can make business like benefit/risk  decisions. I applaud them. 

You can bet that Manfredi and Geoffrey Kent are not going to risk their lives and be on that segment with their crew.

Does not look like a good idea to prioritize financial considerations over the safety of the crew; even if they volunteer and with a navy escort. All other cruise lines plus most cargo ships are taking the long way around.  Too risky.

Yes.  We were on the catamaran snorkel trip in Grenada.  That was the excursion where we felt like they overbooked the boat with too many people. I would definitely not book that one again and gave our comments to Explora on the survey. 

Forgot to mention that when they refunded us for the 4 canceled excursions they would only refund in cash (USD or Euros).  I didn't want that much cash on me and would have preferred they just credit my credit card but they would not.

For those that don't use USD or Euro the passenger would then have to convert to their own local currency and incur additional FX charges.

@PaulMCO thanks for your review.  We had similar experience on the January 31st - Feb 9th cruise which we just departed.  We loved the ship, crew and restaurants but agree the biggest downfall was that the restaurant menus did not change during the entire 9 night cruise!   We would have liked to see the menus change at least mid way.

Our second issue was that we pre booked our excursions 60 days in advance of sailing.  We unfortunately had 4 of our excursions canceled.  One was weather related but we learned the other 3 were canceled due to lack of participation.  For us that is unfair as each was canceled the night before the excursion with no time to rebook something else.   Lastly we booked a catamaran snorkel and they put 60 passengers on a boat that should only have had 30.  Not enough room for everyone to sit and took for ever to get everyone into the water.

We were just on the Jan 31st sailing.  We booked 1 each reservation at Marble and Sakura in advance by calling Explora. On the ship we were able to get an extra reservation on the last night in Marble but had to take an early 6:30pm time slot which was ok for us.  Note that the ship only had ~600 passengers so was not sailing full.

We booked our excursions online through the website plus did our pre board check-in

We took the opportunity to book a Black Friday discounted journey.  We had been sitting on the fence at the higher fares but with a 30% discount we could not pass up.

Why isn't Crystal discounting near term cruises to fill the ship?  If they already have staff on board it would seem the incremental cost is negligible for food and getting some added revenue is better than no revenue from these empty cabins.  Other cruise lines do this.

Both

Sorry if my previous post was not clear.  We reserved what they call a Lotus Day Pass on their website.  It does not include a room but does include

1) storage of of bags

2) use of both pools, lounge chairs and umbrellas

3) use of outdoor shower and changing area

4) Lunch (main course and dessert) in their gourmet Lotus Restaurant

We considered getting a room but they cannot guarantee availability until 3pm

Day room cost is per person.  To get a reservation you must email the hotel.  I got confirmation about 2 days later.

I would say the biggest thing we saw was that the French did not participate much in the daily onboard activities such as lectures by the Guaquins and also planned activities such as bingo, trivia and wine tastings.  Many of these were ultimately canceled due to lack of participation.

Also, most loud speaker announcements were first in French followed by English.  I know a bit of French and could tell the French announcements were very detailed while the English version was truncated with just the bare minimum of information.

We attended a "cultural" discussion by the Guaguins where they talked about life on the various islands.  It was really interesting to hear about their school systems, medical treatment, family life, etc. Sadly my wife and I were the only ones in attendance.  I felt bad for the Guaguins as it seemed other guests were not that interested in their culture.

The cost of the day pass depends on day of the week.  It also includes lunch.

Mon -Thurs is 8,990 XPF

Fri - Sun is 10,700 XPF

Technical check in was 10am and check out 5pm.  However we actually arrived around 9:30 and left around 6:30pm.  We went to the bar and had an appetizer and drinks before departing.

We just completed the 14 day Marquesas trip and there were 220 French.

This was our 2nd cruise; the first being a 10 day Tuamotus cruise where there were mainly Americans, Canadians and Australians

We just returned and used the Intercontinental Day Pass after disembarking the ship as our flight was in the evening.  I emailed them from the Intercontinental web page with the request and they confirmed about 2 days later.

We just returned from the 14 day Marquesas trip.  All we receeved prior to the trip was the emailed boarding passes

Really appealing itineraries. Anyone know yet what upgrades will be done during dry dock while in Singapore?

Thanks @minidonuts85 for confirming wetsuit conditions. Looking forward to being there next month. Got my medical form signed by doctor yesterday.

How warm is the water temperature now. Are most diving with shortie wetsuits or heavier?

Thank you both for your quick answers.  Makes me feel better knowing there is now a single document download for certified divers.