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

[cutiepie43]

Droozy looking for penguins

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2013 by cutiepie43

[cutiepie43]

 

 

 

 

 

[cutiepie43]

 

 

 

 

 

[cutiepie43]

Sea days en route to Lima

Not a lot to report. A lot of relaxing and more good food. Passport pickup was a few days later as well as the Gala tea time and cupcake tea time. They also had the country fair and on day 17 they had complimentary cocktails at all of the bars between 6-8pm to make up for missing Pitcairn.

 

 

Polo Grill dinner

 

Ribeye

 

Surf and Turf

 

 

Key lime pie

 

Dessert burger

 

[cutiepie43]

Country Fair

 

 

 

Cupcake Tea time

 

 

 

 

[cutiepie43]

Lima

A whole lot of shaking going on at 6am as we were docking in Lima. We had arranged a tour with Mar Adentro excursions to see the islands off of the coast of Lima for some bird watching and hopefully swimming with sea lions.

It was an easy walk off of the ship and you had to take a shuttle to get to the main gate. It ran continuously and took about 2 minutes. They wouldn't let you walk as it was a very commercial port. There was also a complimentary shuttle to Milaflores which ran on a schedule that you could pick up from the passenger services. Outside the gate there were cabs available and that was where Eduardo was waiting for us. A short 5 minute ride we arrived at the pier that we would be leaving from. We were on a boat with a bunch of young exchange students from all over the world who were very friendly.

Let me stop right here and say one thing. This tour STUNK! Not the tour itself, it was fantastic. It just smelled really bad. There are a lot of sea birds and sea lions and in turn lots of poop. This was a far cry from the crystal blue waters in the South Pacific. If I were to do the tour again I would bring some Vicks or something to put under my nose.

We say a lot of birds on the islands and we were given a lot of information about the history of the islands. We saw some penguins and eventually got to the island with all of the sea lions. It was spectacular! He then asked who wanted to get in the water. About half of us donned the supplied wetsuits and jumped in. He told us not to look the sealions in the eye or you may frighten them. The juveniles would swim all around us and I had a great time. Jenni stayed on the boat and documented it. I will also say that the water was extremely cold! But with the wetsuit on it wasn't too bad. After about 30 minutes in the water we headed back to the boat and had a snack on the ride back to the ship. Laundry was in order for the rest of the day as well as our last dinner which was at Toscana. Our bags had to be out by 10pm. Relaxed and went to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cutiepie43]

 

 

 

 

 

[cutiepie43]

Final dinner in Toscana

 

Eggplant

 

 

Prosciutto wrapped shrimp

 

 

Lobster risotto

 

 

Spinach salad

 

 

Filet with gorganzola crust

 

 

 

Lobster

 

[cutiepie43]

Cannoli

 

 

Apple crumb pie

 

 

 

[cutiepie43]

Final cruise thoughts.......

 

Overall we had a fantastic time on the cruise. Our room steward Remy and her assistant were fabulous. The food was mostly always fantastic. I don't want people to think that the few times that I mentioned a bad meal that it had any effect on our trip. There were only a few bad dishes and out of 18 days it makes up a small percentage of the total food consumed.

 

I wouldn't have paid for the upgrade to the Concierge room in the future. Even though it only cost us $200 total we just didn't take advantage of the "ammenities" . We had one hot breakfast which wasn't very good. We only used the spa deck once and I got 3 things ironed.

 

I didn't find that my meals took as long as a lot of people had complained about before we left we were in and out in about an hour for almost all of our "sit down" meals.

 

I like the fact that there are not a lot of announcements on board but it would be nice if you could hear them. Even in the public areas we had a hard time hearing what was going on and if you were in your stateroom you couldn't hear a thing. It was annoying if there was an important announcement.

 

We saw about 4 other couples in their 30's and one couple with 2 young children on board. Other than that everyone else seemed to be late 50's and up. Everyone we met was polite and I never witnessed one episode of rude.

 

In the overnight tender ports the last tender was 10pm in Bora Bora and 6pm in Easter Island.

The ship was nice and clean and the staff always said Hi whenever they passed you.

 

I was disappointed to miss Pitcairn but I thought the chances were pretty slim that we would tender there anyways and the extra 1/2 day in Easter Island was nice. I wish I had bought/brought a guide book explaining all of the sights in Easter Island. A lot of times you would see a marker at the side of the road and if there were no Moai there you didn't really know what you were supposed to be looking for.

 

Like I said at the beginning we didn't do a lot on the ship. We went all out when we were in ports and relaxed a lot when we were back onboard. At the end of the cruise we had bought 3 drinks and played bingo once (the final jackpot was $4500). We never had any of the happy hour 2 for 1 drinks or during the free time on the second last day.

 

Our favourite specialty restaurant was probably Toscana mostly because of the selection. Even after two dinners there we still had items that we would have liked to try on the menu.

 

The tub and shower had plenty of room for one and it was a tight sqeeze but there was room for two as well. ;)

[cutiepie43]

Post cruise to Machu Picchu

We did not book this through Oceania but instead went through Sean from Adventures to Peru. He was always quick with his answers to my questions and tailor made the trip that we wanted for the time frame that we had. We disembarked on Monday and had to be back in Lima for our early morning direct flight on thursday morning. We paid for our own flights to Cusco for about $350pp aboard LAN. The 4d 3 night trip with ATP was 795pp. I probably could have done it on my own but it was worth it for the fact that everything was taken care of us and we ended up having private tours in all of the locations.

Our day did not start out very well. When we got off of the ship you don't have any customs to go through. All you have to do is collect your luggage and carry on with whatever your plans are. Everything was going to plan until we realized we couldn't find our second suitcase. We searched through all of the bags and couldn't find it anywhere. Jennifer was extremely upset as we had a tight time table and this was not making our trip any easier. As we started to fill out the paperwork for a lost bag a call came in saying that someone at the airport had the wrong bag. I was full of mixed emotions, on one hand I was very angry at the person and on the other hand I was extremely relieved. I know that some bags look alike but please people make sure that you have the right bag, your actions can have a lot of negative repercussions to others. They said they would hold our bag at the Lima airport which was where we were headed so it wasn't a huge deal in the end. However we wasted a lot of time looking for our bag and it put us behind schedule. It took a lot longer for the shuttles to the gate to arrive because most people that were not using the Oceania transfers were getting on with all of their luggage (like us). That made it more time to on/off load people from the shuttles.

We got on our cab at the gate (they had a sign with our names on it). The flight to Cusco was about an hour and we met our guide Washington at the Cusco airport. We then went to the JW Marriott in Cusco and checked in. The hotel was beautiful and the room was nice. We rested for a bit before going out on our tour around the Cusco ruins. The sites were nice and the weather was good. Back to the hotel around 5pm and we had dinner at Baco across the street from the hotel. Food was good and the bill was around 100 soles (about $40). We drank lots of water and took a few advil to help combat the altitude sickness. All we experienced was a dull headache for the first night and that was it. We went to bed early knowing we had a 5am wake up call for the trip to MP the next day.

 

ruins around cusco

 

 

 

 

ladies room

 

 

mens room

 

[cutiepie43]

Up at 5am and our driver took us to the bus station a few minutes away. They were busing us about 90 minutes away to the station where we would board the train. The busses would fill as people arrived and leave every few minutes. The scenery was nice on the way to the station. Once we arrived we boarded and you got into your assigned seats. The best seats were on the port side of the train. We were on the starboard side facing backwards, they had four seats facing each other with a table in between. They served a snack and drinks. The train ride took about 90 minutes as well. When we arrived we met up with Washington who had taken an earlier train. We walked through the market to the place where you board the bus that takes you up the mountain to MP. You must have your tickets before you get up there because they don't sell any at the entrance to the site.

The ride up took about 20 minutes and was pretty hairy when you looked over the edge. We had about a two hour tour with Washington and then I walked around some more on my own. The site was bigger than I had thought and there was lots to see.

There was a loooooonnnnggg line for the busses on the way back down. Everyone was leaving to try and get back for the afternoon train. We had a 6pm train so we got back to the base around 2pm and went for lunch. There are alot of restaurants around with Peruvian specialties as well as a lot of pizza places. We had a nice lunch for about 60 soles. There are also a lot of massage places around so I decided to treat us to a massage. When I enquired on prices I was told that a one hour hot stone massage would be about 50 soles each ($20). For that price I wasn't even going to bargain. The place wasn't exactly the four seasons but it was clean and the lady seemed very friendly. My massage was fantastic but unfortunately Jennifer had a lady give her a very "hard" swedish massage that she didn't enjoy very much. So much for my brownie points I thought that I was earning.

We went to the train station and had a nice ride back. They kept the lights on in the train so there wasn't much you could see outside with the glare. They had some dancing and a fashion show. We were dropped off at the station but there were no busses running that late so our driver was waiting for us to take us back to Cusco. There were also a lot of cabs there for people if they needed them. We were so bagged by the time we got back to Cusco we went right to bed.

 

 

 

meal on the train

 

 

 

 

[cruisecountess]

Your narrative is informative and well-written ~ you can no longer say you are not a writer :). The pictures are fantastic and really bring your cruise to life.

Perhaps I missed it, but what type of underwater camera did you use? My snorkel pictures don't come close to the quality of yours. Lastly, the photos of Droozy made me laugh out loud ~ makes me want to go out and buy a stuffed animal to bring with me on our upcoming Black Sea cruise. Can't wait to see your Macchu Pichu photos, having visited there myselfa few years ago. Thanks so much for your time and effort and expertise.

Harriet

[cutiepie43]

 

 

 

The entrance to climb Wayna Picchu

 

 

 

[cutiepie43]

 

This camera effect is supposed to make it look like a miniature model.

 

 

 

 

 

[alidor]

Want to thank you for these wonderful posts! We are doing this same cruise next year so I have followed your reports as to what to expect.

 

Thank you!

[cutiepie43]

Had a walking tour the next morning before heading back to the airport in the afternoon for our flight to Lima. Another cab ride to Milaflores for our stay at the Casa Andina. It was nice but a little bit noisy in that section of town. We ate at the hotel and in bed early again.

Another 5am wake up call for our 845 flight to Toronto.

 

 

Final Machu Picchu thoughts,

 

It was definitely worth making the effort to go. I could have done all of the reservations myself but there are so many transfers and connections involved with getting between Lima to Machu Picchu that I am glad that we had it all taken care of for us. Try and pack light for the day and buy any water/snacks at the base of the mountain before you board the bus. The prices are much higher at the top. I checked my larger packsack at the gate for about $4 and just brought in our smaller camera bag. You can get a stamp on your passport of Machu Picchu, it is self serve with a stamp and inkpad. Do it on the way in because there was a long line to do it on the way out.

 

For our pictures I used a sony NEX F3 which I had just purchased before we left. I was very happy with the performance, I also put on a polarizing filter which helped make everything quite bright. For the underwater shots I used a canon powershot elph 110 hs (you can see droozy using it in one of his photos). It came from costco with an underwater housing for about $160. I have had the Fuji XP before but it always broke down due to tiny bits of salt water getting inside. I would recommend to anyone to get a camera with an underwater housing as most of those cameras that you can just take underwater will eventually fail. Again, just my opinion some people may have great luck with them. I also like the fact that when I took it out of the case it was still a very compact little point and shoot camera to take along.

 

If I could do this trip again I would like to do it in the reverse order. I didn't like the fact that we were so busy right off the start. I love it when there are some sea days to get to know the ship. Also with doing Machu Picchu at the end of the trip we were a little tired. I think it would have been better to do it as a pre cruise trip and then have some nice sea days on the way to Easter Island.

[cutiepie43]

Finally thank you to everyone for the kind words. This did take a lot of work to do and I know that my wife and I always enjoyed sitting in bed and reading reviews before we travelled. I thought it would be nice to contribute something. Hopefully if anyone is taking this cruise in the future you learned at least one or two things. If anyone thought that it was just a bunch of pictures of fish and food and a stuffed dog, I apologize.

 

Again I invite anyone else that was on the cruise to chime in with their thoughts or photos.

 

I have all of the daily programs and can hopefully answer some questions if anyone has any.

 

Thanks again have to leave for work now,

 

Bryan.

[canuck.qc]

Thank you very much for taking the time to write this review.

We will be visiting FP next March, your info is much appreciated.

Quick question: must haves that should be included on the packing list for FP other than the obvious.......that you should have packed (vicks noted!!)

 

You mentioned your preference for Celebrity, which of their ships would you recommend that most closely resembled your Marina experience. We have sailed exclusively with Oceania but may consider an itinerary with Celeb.

Many thanks

[Paulchili]

You mentioned your preference for Celebrity, which of their ships would you recommend that most closely resembled your Marina experience. We have sailed exclusively with Oceania but may consider an itinerary with Celeb.

Many thanks

 

I have sailed with both lines multiple times.

IMO, I cannot think of one single category where Celebrity betters Oceania other than price (or possibly itinerary with so many ships).

YMMV :)

PS Celebrity Expedition has a fantastic add-on trip to MP after their Galapagos cruise.

[CintiPam]

Bryan,

 

Thank you so very much for taking the time to post such an extensive review and the most amazing photos. I have enjoyed each and every post, and love the stuffed dog photos. I am very glad you enjoyed your Oceania experience.

 

Pam

[Barrheadlass]

Thank you so much for posting all the beautiful pictures and commentary! The photography was stunning....all of it. We have an O cruise booked for 2014, and your articles made me even more excited!

[Merriem]

Your pictures are amazing. Thank you for sharing.

[Paulchili]

Bryan,

Let me add my thanks (again) for this excellent report and some of the best photography on CC - ever (not counting J&S' "special contributions" :D).

Edited May 16, 2013 by Paulchili

[RJB]

Wow, What a great review. We will be visiting FP in Feb. and this will give us a little look into what we can expect, even though some of the islands will be different. We are going the other way to Sydney, but it gives us an idea of the beauty we will see. Again thanks for the great photos. RJB :)