We took the Islands & Incas cruise on the Oceania Marina in April/May 2014. Easter Island was one of the ports of call. This is a blog on our visit.

Easter Island did not disappoint. We had two good days of nice, warm sunny weather, and the Moai were gorgeous. Hanga Roa was a tender port. Tendering in was a slow and challenging process. Because of the hidden large rocks lining the approach into the tender pier, only one boat was allowed to enter and dock at a time. Another tender was only permitted to approach after the docked tender had departed and cleared the area. Tendering started at 9:00 am on the first day we were in Easter Island. We lined up in the Marina Lounge at 7:00 am; by 8:30 am, the lounge was filled to over-capacity. We managed to get onshore to join our private tour by 9:30 am. Not bad at all! However, some fellow passengers who joined the line up after 8:30 am were only able to get ashore after 11:00 am.

Marina's tendering practice was actually very fair and efficient. Every passenger ready to go ashore had to be seated in the Marina Lounge and tender tickets would be given out one to each passenger when a tender is available to take the passenger ashore - no seat reservations were allowed; you have to be there physically in order to receive a tender ticket. Its other practice which allowed independent passengers to interlace with those booked on Oceania-ran excursions on the same tender was much better than many other cruise lines - in particular Celebrity. In February 2014, we visited Banoa, Bali on Celebrity's Millennium. The tender service was so poorly operated and managed; we waited for almost 4 hours before we could get into a tender to go ashore, and consequently missed most of our privately arranged excursion in Bali. Read more