This was our second time on the Marina and it was as beautiful as we remembered. There were 4 of us travelling together and we all felt the same. Our trip started in Papeete where we spent two days before embarking on the Marina. The embarking process even though it would not have been our first choice was handled well. Since we were not embarking until 6 pm, everyone had to check in at the Papeete City Hall. It was very busy as is to be expected but check in went quickly and refreshments were provided. We opted to walk to the ship from the hall instead of taking the bus as it was fairly close. Once we were onboard we headed straight to our room to drop off our carry-on baggage. The room looked as good as we remembered and even had a few great changes in the bathroom. We always liked having both the bath tub and small shower but now there was some new shelving and a small glass partition so that you could shower in the tub as well.

Restaurants: Our first stop was the Terrace Cafe for dinner. We were some of the first passengers to arrive the first night but the staff soon had has us setup outside and enjoying the sunset and view. The Terrace cafe is probably our favorite restaurant to eat in. The food at any meal there has several selections and I can't imagine anyone finding fault with it especially when you can have grilled lobster every night. We also really enjoyed the speciality restaurants with Toscana still being my favourite. The Red Ginger and Polo would come in second as a tie. Jacques is good as well but prefer the menu at the other restaurants even though I love the pumpkin soup at Jacques. We did not eat in the Grand Dining Room as we much prefer the atmosphere at the Terrace Cafe. The staff and service in all of the restaurants and bars was exceptional and accommodating.

Excursions: We mainly did private tours this trip and I have written several reviews for them on tripadvisor so won't go into detail here. We did do one Oceania shore excursion in Raiatea to the island of Taha'a which was very good but severely overpriced. My biggest complaint with Oceania would be the price of their shore excursions. We were scheduled to do one more Oceania shore excursion in Moorea but we missed this island due to bad weather. We were lucky enough to be spending two days in Moorea after the cruise so not too disappointing for us. The staff handled this extra sea day very well and added a few more things to the ship's program that day. Read more