last April I had a chance to book a trip on the Febrina for the first two weeks of November. I booked the trip and then spent the next several months in anticipation and looking for every bit of info that I could find on the Febrina and travel to PNG etc. There is not much out there. Here is my rather long trip report.
My travel consisted of flying from Oregon to Los Angeles on Unted. To Brisbane on V Austraila and to to Port Moresby / Hoskins on air Niguini then out to Walindi. All pretty straight forward if lengthy. About a month prior to the trip United decides to change my flights to a flight that would leave 12 hours later and of course would not make my connections in LAX. They had no other flights to offer, and this being a FF ticket there was no refund. ( I swore I would never fly United again prior to this flight but I had the miles left over, I gave those refunded miles away and will never book a flight with United again) I had to purchase a ticket on Alaska Air to get to LAX but that was an uneventful flight.
A week before my trip I logged on to V Austraila to check the flights only to find that they had canceled my original flight and now my new flight would not make my connection in Brisbane. I called V Austraila to find that they were not only totally void of any sort of customer service but they were at first not even willing to help. Their response was " that is what trip insurance is for" After several days of making phone calls to their customer service line I finally got a "supervisor" on the phone that made changes to the flights that would work. Not the best flights but they worked.
The flight to Brisbane was fine. The plane was packed full. The food so so but edible. Flying with V A was acceptable but certainly nothing to brag about, their marketing program is much better than the actual experience.
We had an overnight layover in Brisbane and then we were off to PNG.
Word of advice to anyone checking in at Air Niugini in Brisbane. If you have an electronic ticket make sure that you have a hard copy of your ticket with you as the check in counter at Brisbane apparently does not know what an "electronic ticket" is. They required a hard copy of the confirmation. I was fine as I had a copy but one of my travel companions actually had to go find an internet hook up in the airport and get online, print off a copy and bring it to the check in counter.
They were extremely fussy about the weight limits on our bags. It was not a big issue, I travel light but they did check every thing we had with us for weight including my briefcase.
The actual flight from Brisbane to PNG was a good flight. The plane was fine, the onboard service was good and the food was pretty good.
Clearing customs at Port Moresby was a lengthy procedure. It took about 45 mintues to get from the gate to the immigration desk. I was prepared and had brought KINA with me from home so I sailed right through. Many of the passengers did not have KINA so they had to go to the currency exchange in baggage claim area however the immigration people made that fairly easy, they held your passport but let you come right back to the counter when you had your money. Not to big of a deal.
We got our bags and then went directly to the domestic counter in the international terminal and rechecked them through to Hoskins. We then exited the building and walked over to the domestic terminal. Getting to our gate was a bit of a challenge because there is no clear direction as to where to go once in the domestic terminal. We managed to find it and then waited in a standing room only departure lounge for about an hour with no air con. Once we were called to the gate everything went smoothly and our flight to Hoskins was uneventful.
We were met at the Hoskins airport by the Walindi van and loaded up for the hour ride out to the resort. Interesting ride, the van was too full and some of the passengers made the trip with their bags in their laps but otherwise no problems.
Checking in at Walindi was efficient. We had a bungalow for the night as we had a layover before boarding the Febrina the next day. Walindi is a very nice resort. However in my opinion they are very overpriced for what you are getting, PNG or not. The bungalow room was $480 per night and I would have to say that they room was a little bit better than a camping cabin. It was clean, very very basic, little to no decor, no view of anything but the garden plants and the fan that cooled the room ( no AC) was barely capable of keeping the room cool enough to be in.
I realize that PNG is remote but I have stayed at much nicer resorts in much more difficult places to get to for a whole lot less money.
When we where shown to the room the attendant told us not to leave anything on the porch especially not our shoes as they would dissapear in the night. Not to leave anything of value in the room when we were at dinner even though we had a locking door. I really felt that this was unnacceptable as we ended up carrying our cameras and computers all the way back to the eating area.
Dinner was ok, the food was not great but it was edible. The service at dinner as acceptable.
There is a fairly well stocked bar. Hard liquor is very expensive. I asked the barkeep how much a gin and tonic would be and she quoted $18 U.S. Beer was resonable and the local brands are actually pretty good.
We were told to be back in our room by 10pm as that was lights out. After that we were in the dark as the generators would be turned off and there would be not lights going down the pathway to the rooms. There were a lot of local men sitting around on the sides of the pathways especially near the boat ramp and the road going out to the jetty. We never felt ill at ease but it would have been a bit uncomfortable to be walking through that area in total darkness.
The next day we had breakfast, again the food was edible not great. The Walindi dive operator came around and asked if anyone wanted to go on the day boat to dive before we boarded the Febrina. We opted for a two dive trip which cost $150. The boat was small and their were 4 of us on the boat. Anymore than 4 divers would have been too many for that boat. We had an hour ride out to the dive site.
This is were it got good however. The first dive of the trip was spectacular. The vis was excellent the reef pristine. Awsome dive.
The second dive was on a WW2 Japanese zero wreck. Although interesting because of the historical signifigance, it was not a memorable dive.
After the dive we tied off at a small island and had lunch then went back to Walindi to wait till boarding time on the Febrina.
Part 2 will be about the Febriana.
Jim
My travel consisted of flying from Oregon to Los Angeles on Unted. To Brisbane on V Austraila and to to Port Moresby / Hoskins on air Niguini then out to Walindi. All pretty straight forward if lengthy. About a month prior to the trip United decides to change my flights to a flight that would leave 12 hours later and of course would not make my connections in LAX. They had no other flights to offer, and this being a FF ticket there was no refund. ( I swore I would never fly United again prior to this flight but I had the miles left over, I gave those refunded miles away and will never book a flight with United again) I had to purchase a ticket on Alaska Air to get to LAX but that was an uneventful flight.
A week before my trip I logged on to V Austraila to check the flights only to find that they had canceled my original flight and now my new flight would not make my connection in Brisbane. I called V Austraila to find that they were not only totally void of any sort of customer service but they were at first not even willing to help. Their response was " that is what trip insurance is for" After several days of making phone calls to their customer service line I finally got a "supervisor" on the phone that made changes to the flights that would work. Not the best flights but they worked.
The flight to Brisbane was fine. The plane was packed full. The food so so but edible. Flying with V A was acceptable but certainly nothing to brag about, their marketing program is much better than the actual experience.
We had an overnight layover in Brisbane and then we were off to PNG.
Word of advice to anyone checking in at Air Niugini in Brisbane. If you have an electronic ticket make sure that you have a hard copy of your ticket with you as the check in counter at Brisbane apparently does not know what an "electronic ticket" is. They required a hard copy of the confirmation. I was fine as I had a copy but one of my travel companions actually had to go find an internet hook up in the airport and get online, print off a copy and bring it to the check in counter.
They were extremely fussy about the weight limits on our bags. It was not a big issue, I travel light but they did check every thing we had with us for weight including my briefcase.
The actual flight from Brisbane to PNG was a good flight. The plane was fine, the onboard service was good and the food was pretty good.
Clearing customs at Port Moresby was a lengthy procedure. It took about 45 mintues to get from the gate to the immigration desk. I was prepared and had brought KINA with me from home so I sailed right through. Many of the passengers did not have KINA so they had to go to the currency exchange in baggage claim area however the immigration people made that fairly easy, they held your passport but let you come right back to the counter when you had your money. Not to big of a deal.
We got our bags and then went directly to the domestic counter in the international terminal and rechecked them through to Hoskins. We then exited the building and walked over to the domestic terminal. Getting to our gate was a bit of a challenge because there is no clear direction as to where to go once in the domestic terminal. We managed to find it and then waited in a standing room only departure lounge for about an hour with no air con. Once we were called to the gate everything went smoothly and our flight to Hoskins was uneventful.
We were met at the Hoskins airport by the Walindi van and loaded up for the hour ride out to the resort. Interesting ride, the van was too full and some of the passengers made the trip with their bags in their laps but otherwise no problems.
Checking in at Walindi was efficient. We had a bungalow for the night as we had a layover before boarding the Febrina the next day. Walindi is a very nice resort. However in my opinion they are very overpriced for what you are getting, PNG or not. The bungalow room was $480 per night and I would have to say that they room was a little bit better than a camping cabin. It was clean, very very basic, little to no decor, no view of anything but the garden plants and the fan that cooled the room ( no AC) was barely capable of keeping the room cool enough to be in.
I realize that PNG is remote but I have stayed at much nicer resorts in much more difficult places to get to for a whole lot less money.
When we where shown to the room the attendant told us not to leave anything on the porch especially not our shoes as they would dissapear in the night. Not to leave anything of value in the room when we were at dinner even though we had a locking door. I really felt that this was unnacceptable as we ended up carrying our cameras and computers all the way back to the eating area.
Dinner was ok, the food was not great but it was edible. The service at dinner as acceptable.
There is a fairly well stocked bar. Hard liquor is very expensive. I asked the barkeep how much a gin and tonic would be and she quoted $18 U.S. Beer was resonable and the local brands are actually pretty good.
We were told to be back in our room by 10pm as that was lights out. After that we were in the dark as the generators would be turned off and there would be not lights going down the pathway to the rooms. There were a lot of local men sitting around on the sides of the pathways especially near the boat ramp and the road going out to the jetty. We never felt ill at ease but it would have been a bit uncomfortable to be walking through that area in total darkness.
The next day we had breakfast, again the food was edible not great. The Walindi dive operator came around and asked if anyone wanted to go on the day boat to dive before we boarded the Febrina. We opted for a two dive trip which cost $150. The boat was small and their were 4 of us on the boat. Anymore than 4 divers would have been too many for that boat. We had an hour ride out to the dive site.
This is were it got good however. The first dive of the trip was spectacular. The vis was excellent the reef pristine. Awsome dive.
The second dive was on a WW2 Japanese zero wreck. Although interesting because of the historical signifigance, it was not a memorable dive.
After the dive we tied off at a small island and had lunch then went back to Walindi to wait till boarding time on the Febrina.
Part 2 will be about the Febriana.
Jim
