Bad Impression for a First-Time Client on Oceania's Marina

[shosh14]

Just returned from a 10-day cruise on Oceania's Marina. So excited to finally sail French Polynesia. When our plane landed at Papeete at 5am everyone on board was quite excited. We were bused to City Hall where we were warehoused on the second floor of the building. Cheap folding chairs were set around the room where we were given drinks (coffee, water, juice, soft drinks), NOTHING to eat and only one working bathroom in the building. We sat there for FIVE AND A HALF HOURS!!!!! Having just flown for 8 hours (some for 11) to be deposited in a bare room with no place to lay down, barely working air conditioning, no food since we ate on the plane around 3:30am and nothing to do, we were ANGRY. Buses picked us up around 11:45am to take us to the ship where we were able to board. After check-in, we were told our cabins were not ready and would not be for an hour or so but that we could go to the Terrace Café for lunch. By 1pm we were done with lunch and ready to go take a nap or a shower and unpack. When I went to inquire about my room I was brusquely spoken to by a gentleman in Reception who said it would be a while. I then asked about how to get Wi-Fi, he told me to go to see the IT guy ten floors away. I mentioned I was tired and hot and not carrying my bags up ten floors, could he please call him. No he could not and he could not assist me, effectively dismissing me. Unfortunately, my cabin (on a Concierge level) was not ready until 2pm. So, the first seven hours of my vacation left a VERY bad taste in my mouth. I paid a LOT of money for an upscale cruise experience and as of now, I had been treated poorly by everyone connected with the cruise. Not a good way to start off and a horrible first impression of Oceania. The rest of the cruise was great but if this is the way Oceania treats its guests, I am quite hesitant to ever sail this line again.

[no fuss travel]

This is very typical of Papeete. You did not have to stay at City Hall. You could have checked your hand luggage and wandered around on your own. City Hall's bathroom facilities are poor, and that has been mentioned on several other posts from prior cruises. Yes, the chairs are poor, but at least they had enough out for you to sit on. That is what they have available. Flight times coming into Papeete are awful, and most people would have recommended that you either book a day room at a hotel or come down a few days earlier and enjoy the other islands. The people disembarking cannot fly out until late at night, so it is a vicious circle, trying to look after those embarking and those disembarking. This is one embarkation port where the best solution is to come down early and avoid this mess.

[ORV]

Did you get this email below from Oceania before leaving? Please see the bolded italicized sentence.

 

Also, everything the Guest Relations guy told you was correct, the problem is they have one young man working there that no matter what he is saying rubs you the wrong way. Did he have a French accent?

 

I see you found this board to post this. Unfortunately you didn't utilize it before your cruise because this situation has been discussed quite a bit here in the recent past.

 

Unfortunately this is the way things are there.

 

 

 

 

Important Information Concerning

Embarkation/Debarkation Procedures in Papeete

 

Dear Valued Guests and Travel Partners,

 

In preparation for your upcoming South Pacific cruise aboard Marina, we would like to inform you of some important pre-cruise information relating to the embarkation/debarkation process in Papeete.

 

EMBARKATION

Embarkation times for your cruise is based on our standard schedule:

 

11 am Guests in Owner’s, Vista and Oceania Suites

12 noon Guests in Penthouse Suites and Concierge Staterooms (Category A)

1 pm Guests in all other Staterooms (Categories B through G)

 

 

Guests arriving on an early morning flight (prior to their embarkation time) will be taken to an off-site hospitality area where light refreshments and restroom facilities are available. Guests will be able to store their hand luggage in order to enjoy Papeete on their own. Prior to embarkation, guests must reclaim their hand luggage before proceeding to the ship.

[Cruseforme]

Yes, this is all true, and yes, it could have easily been turned around to a pleasant experience with a bit of due diligence on your part. When you embark on a new cruise line, please check with a reputable TA concerning boarding, times, and what the line usually does in the embarkation port. Also, check with others that have taken this particular cruise and do some research prior to understand the nuances of the line. O itself can also help, if you booked with them, any questions can usually be answered by their travel folks on the phone. When you travel at home, do you checkout things beforehand, or simply book and go? The Oceania at Sea person is in the Internet cafe upstairs...yup, you have to go to him or her. Yup, there is a wait after you board until your cabin is ready...and yup, not very comfy in the main bldg waiting. All true, and all avoidable negatives, if you would have set your expectations on a bit of research. Good luck on the rest of your cruises, I hope you set the correct expectations on them , or you will be easily upset. You spent a lot of money, without doing your homework. Cruise critic is one of several cruise sites online that you could have used, in addition to a reputable TA to give you information regarding any cruise line's nuances. I see as above posted, you did find it. I understand your frustration, but hopefully the rest of your cruise was satisfactory. Don't mean to rub salt on your wound, but posting your expectation in this manner just doesn't seem fair.

[TrulyBlonde]

A good TA would have advised you to get a day room at one of the local hotels. You can then shower, eat, sleep, relax prior to boarding the ship.

A suggestion for you would be to get a day room when you disembark the ship if your return flight is late in the evening. Most arrivals are at the crack of dawn and departures very late evening.

A bit of due diligence on your part would have greatly enhanced the beginning of your cruise.

[Floridiana]

What Oceania could do is offer day rooms - for a price. All hotel rooms in Papeete are expensive, but there are downtown hotels and more expensive ones at the ocean. People book expensive transfers in other places so why not a hotel on Tahiti as part of a transfer? ... or is it offered? I wouldn't know because we made our own arrangements when we travelled there to go on the Aranui.

 

Of course, it is always better to do research beforehand, but not everyone has the time, inclination, or a good travel agent.

[AllisonJames]

Thank you everyone for sharing. We will be sailing Oceania out of Papeete next year, will definitely come in several days earlier and get a day room on the day of disembarkation if we have a late flight. The travel there is tiring enough without having all those added inconveniences when you are already exhausted!

[JimandStan]

A good TA would have advised you to get a day room at one of the local hotels. You can then shower, eat, sleep, relax prior to boarding the ship.

A suggestion for you would be to get a day room when you disembark the ship if your return flight is late in the evening. Most arrivals are at the crack of dawn and departures very late evening.

A bit of due diligence on your part would have greatly enhanced the beginning of your cruise.

 

+1

And although I'm seldom a fan of the Reception desk, the IT people would not have been able to set the OP's connectivity over the telephone, so sending him up to the Internet Lounge was the correct response.

Newsflash: Blindly saying yes to every request is NOT good customer service.

 

Not to mention that there were undoubtedly other passengers who were already up there waiting for help.

Not cool trying to jump the line, dude

everybody paid "a Lot of Money"....:cool:

[Mura]

I'm willing to cut the Original Poster some slack here since this is his first post at CC. Obviously he was tired and upset after arriving exhausted and having to sit around even longer. Had he found CC sooner in the process, he probably would have gotten the needed advice before the fact rather than after.

 

We haven't done this itinerary but I've seen enough posts on the subject over the years to realize that a big part of the problem is the fact that new passengers arrive very early after a long flight, whereas departing passengers also have a long day waiting to board their flights home.

 

Also true that the only way to get connectivity is to go up to the Internet Cafe ... although my recollection from our last cruise or two was that I could do it from our room. I just had to turn on my computer and it led me through the procedure. Maybe it doesn't work that way in Papeete?

 

Mura

[canuck.qc]

Just returned from a 10-day cruise on Oceania's Marina. So excited to finally sail French Polynesia. When our plane landed at Papeete at 5am everyone on board was quite excited. We were bused to City Hall where we were warehoused on the second floor of the building. Cheap folding chairs were set around the room where we were given drinks (coffee, water, juice, soft drinks), NOTHING to eat and only one working bathroom in the building. We sat there for FIVE AND A HALF HOURS!!!!! Having just flown for 8 hours (some for 11) to be deposited in a bare room with no place to lay down, barely working air conditioning, no food since we ate on the plane around 3:30am and nothing to do, we were ANGRY. Buses picked us up around 11:45am to take us to the ship where we were able to board. After check-in, we were told our cabins were not ready and would not be for an hour or so but that we could go to the Terrace Café for lunch. By 1pm we were done with lunch and ready to go take a nap or a shower and unpack. When I went to inquire about my room I was brusquely spoken to by a gentleman in Reception who said it would be a while. I then asked about how to get Wi-Fi, he told me to go to see the IT guy ten floors away. I mentioned I was tired and hot and not carrying my bags up ten floors, could he please call him. No he could not and he could not assist me, effectively dismissing me. Unfortunately, my cabin (on a Concierge level) was not ready until 2pm. So, the first seven hours of my vacation left a VERY bad taste in my mouth. I paid a LOT of money for an upscale cruise experience and as of now, I had been treated poorly by everyone connected with the cruise. Not a good way to start off and a horrible first impression of Oceania. The rest of the cruise was great but if this is the way Oceania treats its guests, I am quite hesitant to ever sail this line again.

You should have joined in on CC before you left. There is a wealth of info on FP. plus great info on your RollCall. For some reason you found this board after the cruise, to voice your complaints. Your TA is also responsible for underlining the challenges of FP & the early flights & should have offered solutions. O also offered packages for hotels, transfers etc...when we sailed a few years ago. You are also informed of all embarkation & cabin info before the cruise. The outcome of your cruise could have been far different with proper preparation before leaving home.

[Baandb]

I then asked about how to get Wi-Fi, he told me to go to see the IT guy ten floors away. I mentioned I was tired and hot and not carrying my bags up ten floors, could he please call him.

 

or you could take the elevator....

[Travelcat2]

Agree with above posts. We have been to Tahiti several times and still dislike the flight times, long waits, etc. If you do not book a tour for yourselves or get a day room, you sit around for hours. There is so much that you could have learned by reading Cruise Critic or having a TA that regularly books cruises to Tahiti (not all TA's are created equal).

 

Also agree that the only way to get help with your internet connection is to go to the computer room. On the day of embarkation, there may be a line of people waiting for assistance (it isn't difficult to get online but many people prefer to have someone help them rather than reading the instructions that are available in the computer room.)

 

Why were you carrying bags onto the ship? Usually they are dropped off and you hold on to your carry-on only.

 

Really hope that, in the future, you get a TA that can help you (in addition to doing some research on your own). This way your expectations will be in synch with reality. On the other hand, few ports are more difficult to get into or out of than in Tahiti.

 

Unfortunately, with the exception of the person that was rude at Reception, what you experienced before your cruise was not the fault of Oceania.

[hawky]

One of my favorite pet peeves from being in the hotel industry for years . . .

 

You cannot expect to occupy your cabin on the day of arrival prior to check-in time . . . generally 3:00 p.m. With a ship running 100% occupancy, obviously all of the cabins need to be cleaned as soon as their previous guests check-out. That takes time and man power. And, please don't make everyone's job harder by wanting to "camp" in a dirty cabin.

 

A couple of cruises ago, we landed in Rome at 8:00 a.m. Rather than have disgruntled folks hanging around Civitavecchia for hours, Oceania chartered buses to take the guests who had opted for Oceania transfers, on a tour of Rome . . . at no cost to the passengers. To me, it was an amazing plus since time constraints negated the possibility of flying in a day or two early. I got to see a little of Rome.

 

That was also the thinking of most of the other 150 passengers on those three buses, except for the man who I swear, had steam coming out of his ears. I was waiting for him to implode.

 

By the time we arrived at the port, most of the cabins were ready and those that weren't, soon were.

 

Please learn to make the best of each and every situation. It just makes life better.

[sammiedawg]

We are on Marina now. On day 1 people were lined up around the IT desk on deck 14, many people needing logon help.

We received the email from Oceania about the embarkation timing and luggage storage. We had been on Moorea and were rested up. Oceania was letting everyone board the as they came. Fortunately no one had to wait for their boarding hour. Cabins were not ready yet per the Oceania policy.,

 

I sympathize with the OP on being tired and frustrated. Papeete is also very hot and humid which adds to the misery. We feel the same fatigue when we fly to Europe and arrive early am. It is tough figuring out how to kill time until we get into a hotel room mid afternoon.

 

The flights are the biggest issue with this itinerary. We always take Oceania air credits then find the best possible flights. It is especially important on this itinerary.

We came over on a day flight, left LAX at 3pm. We had a hotel in Papeete for that night before going to Moorea.

 

I love the idea about day rooms. We've not had much luck finding them. I suspect hotels are fairly full any night before a cruise.,

[norwegianwood57]

I dont understand the need to attack the OP. It matters little whether he didnt know about CC. Most people dont know about CC. His TA can do little about what is available for the weary traveller once you get to this destination.

 

As for luggage, on our first and last O cruise, the ship was very far from the gate where you get dropped off. No one met us to take luggage and it was raining hard. We carried our own luggage, got to the ship soaked and then waited for our room to be ready.

 

No amount of advice on CC would have prepared us for that.

 

Why am I on the O site? We had considered the Papeete to Los Angeles itinerary, but not anymore.

[Travelcat2]

I dont understand the need to attack the OP. It matters little whether he didnt know about CC. Most people dont know about CC. His TA can do little about what is available for the weary traveller once you get to this destination.

 

As for luggage, on our first and last O cruise, the ship was very far from the gate where you get dropped off. No one met us to take luggage and it was raining hard. We carried our own luggage, got to the ship soaked and then waited for our room to be ready.

 

No amount of advice on CC would have prepared us for that.

 

Why am I on the O site? We had considered the Papeete to Los Angeles itinerary, but not anymore.

 

Respectfully disagree with you. Travel Agents that regularly book cruises to FP would warn their customers about what will happen when they arrive and have hours to wait before embarkation. The fact that the ship was far from the luggage drop-off is not the fault of the cruise line. They have no say in this.

 

While I personally do not want to "attack" the OP, I do want to let them know that they may have been amiss by not doing more research into their cruise (and also let them know that their TA is clueless and hope they do not use them again on any cruise or cruise line.)

 

It is unfortunate that some people are not aware of Cruise Critic. On the other hand, the OP was able to find this site in order to complain. Had they done any research prior to the cruise, this thread would not exist.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Travelcat2

[Paulchili]

 

As for luggage, on our first and last O cruise, the ship was very far from the gate where you get dropped off. No one met us to take luggage and it was raining hard. We carried our own luggage, got to the ship soaked and then waited for our room to be ready.

 

No amount of advice on CC would have prepared us for that.

.

 

Where was your cruise from (what port) and who dropped you off?

Was it an Oceania transfer?

Edited April 16, 2016 by Paulchili

[Paulchili]

I dont understand the need to attack the OP. It matters little whether he didnt know about CC. Most people dont know about CC. His TA can do little about what is available for the weary traveller once you get to this destination.

 

One doesn't have to be a member of CC to have some common sense and take some responsibility.

As others have said, either the TA or Oceania informs passengers embarking in PPT about embarkation time and other options.

How would this situation be any different for OP if he was cruising from Civitavecchia (on any cruise line) and flying from West coast in July.

The flight would have been 12+ hours (even longer than what OP traveled), possibly landing in Rome at 5 or6 AM, it could have been 100+ and humid and OP would not be able to board the ship till 1 PM or so (in PPT he boarded before noon). OP would have to make plans to pass the time before boarding - not much different from what OP encountered in PPT (no beds to lie down, no A/C, no food, etc).

It's called planning your trip and taking responsibility rather than blaming others.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Paulchili

[nvgal]

One of my favorite pet peeves from being in the hotel industry for years . . .

 

You cannot expect to occupy your cabin on the day of arrival prior to check-in time . . . generally 3:00 p.m. With a ship running 100% occupancy, obviously all of the cabins need to be cleaned as soon as their previous guests check-out. That takes time and man power. And, please don't make everyone's job harder by wanting to "camp" in a dirty cabin.

 

A couple of cruises ago, we landed in Rome at 8:00 a.m. Rather than have disgruntled folks hanging around Civitavecchia for hours, Oceania chartered buses to take the guests who had opted for Oceania transfers, on a tour of Rome . . . at no cost to the passengers. To me, it was an amazing plus since time constraints negated the possibility of flying in a day or two early. I got to see a little of Rome.

 

That was also the thinking of most of the other 150 passengers on those three buses, except for the man who I swear, had steam coming out of his ears. I was waiting for him to implode.

 

By the time we arrived at the port, most of the cabins were ready and those that weren't, soon were.

 

Please learn to make the best of each and every situation. It just makes life better.

 

Oceania did the same for us once, landing early in Barcelona. We boarded the bus and had a great city tour, including glimpses of the ship from a look-out spot, before delivering us to the ship.

[DavidTheWonderer]

Attacking the OP for not knowing is not appropriate. If people universally knew everything about everything, there would be no need for teachers. Criticising the OP for not knowing about Cruise Critic is also not appropriate. Although it is similarly not appropriate to criticise him for not having a knowledgeable travel agent, he provides a good example of why having such an agent is always a most excellent idea.

 

Regarding the issue at hand, I've been on the Paul Gauguin about a half-dozen times, and day rooms in a hotel in Papete are part of the deal when schedules involve considerable waiting around. I am not criticising Oceania for not providing a similar service, since they are less expensive than the PG. But I would certainly invest some of those savings in a day room if I were in the OP's circumstance. As always, "Your mileage may vary."

[Floridiana]

I am not criticising Oceania for not providing a similar service,

 

One person wrote that they used the day room option provided by Oceania. It is not clear whether this option has been discontinued. If it was, it must be due to lack of passenger interest.

[TrulyBlonde]

One person wrote that they used the day room option provided by Oceania. It is not clear whether this option has been discontinued. If it was, it must be due to lack of passenger interest.

 

Actually, I discussed day rooms and a good TA for advice. I have cruised with O but not in FP. My cruise was with PG and my TA told me about getting day rooms and it is an extra cost, but a necessity. She was correct.