2025 Raja Ampat

Itinerary

• Thursday Sept 25 - Sydney to Darwin on QF business class

• Friday Sept 25 - 2 nights in Darwin

• Saturday Sept 27 - Saturday October - 2 weeks Onboard Scenic Eclipse II

• Saturday October 11 - Tuesday October 14 - 3 nights in Darwin

• Tuesday October 11 - Darwin - Brisbane // overnight @ the Pullman @ BNE

• Wednesday October 12 - Brisbane - Sydney on QF business class

Darwin - pre departure

We left Sydney on a QF flight to Darwin at 8:30pm. The trip to the airport was somewhat hair-raising - We took an Uber and the ride, while half the price of a taxi, was a fraught with issues:-

• On entering the car the driver said "oh you're going to the airport !!" - I said don't you already know that and do you know how to get there?? He said no worries - as he waived to Google Maps on his phone. He then mentioned it was his third day driving and he never came into the city !!  Off we took - Google directed him the Western Distributor but he somehow missed the exit to the M8 - we ended up going around in circles on some back streets ending up in several dead ends. Dieter took over the navigation and we finally made it to the airport in about an hour. Fortunately we had left home early so were in plenty of time to relax in the lounge with a beer and a G&T and an inedible panini (Qantas' latest culinary delight).

Our flight was fine in QF business class (award tickets). We arrived at 00:30 Darwin time (1am Sydney) - the airport was a bit of a zoo but we collected our luggage and found a clapped out taxi (luggage had to go in the back seat as the boot wasn't working - maybe the driver was hiding a dead body or something). We checked into the Adina Vibe at the waterfront round 1:30am and plopped into bed.

Friday Sept 26

It was one of those travel dead days - we had brekkie at the Adina - par for the course for this standard of hotel. We did a walk around the water front checking out the shortest route to the cruise port then walked along the esplanade. It was hot, 30C+ and what felt like 90% humidity. We had a quick and light pub lunch before getting an Uber to the Art Gallery and Museum of the NT - there was a wonderful exhibit of paintings from Aboriginal artists - many of which were not the usual dot-jobs. Clearly they were not for sale as no prices were posted. 

As arranged Merry Cooper picked us up at about 3:45pm (Merry and her partner Mark moved to Darwin from Perth about 3 years ago). Merry drove us around for a bit pointing our various points of interest - including a new (opened Christmas Day 2024 on the 50th anniversary) memorial for Cyclone Tracey which had totally destroyed Darwin. We then went back to her and Mark's house before heading to the Trailer Boat Club for dinner and sunset viewing. As we were very tired we went home early (7:30pm).

First few days

Saturday Sept 27 

We were able to board our ship just after 1pm which was great - it went very smoothly - a 10 out of 10. We got to our cabin (517) and I unpacked while Dieter did a reco of the ship and sorted out our bookings for the speciality restaurants. We had been told before leaving that it was not possible to do so in advance (which was not true) - they had pre-booked us at each of three - Lumiere, Sushi and Night Market. We were able to make a couple of changes. We had a very nice dinner at La Lumiere.

Sunday Sept 28

It was an 'official' sea-day - breakfast, a lecture, a movie and trivial pursuit. We had dinner at the main dining room, Elements - it was pretty good food but somewhat lacking in atmosphere - we elected to dine on our own, not at a shared table.

Monday Sept 29

We docked at Ambon at around 1pm and had a short (1h30m) cultural tour - quite a waste of time. Back on ship for a late lunch and sail away - might as well have been another sea-day. We joined our team for another round of trivial pursuit - going from not so good to pretty bad (team members besides us were Scott and Alisha and Dodi and Alan). We had dinner at KoKo's Asian Fusion - about a 5 out of 10.

Tuesday Sept 30

We docked at Ternate around 11AM and after an early lunch setoff on a 4 hour tour of the town - no highlights worth mentioning and the whole day was a total waste of time. We arrived back at the boat a bit early 4:45pm so went immediately to the lounge for a well deserved beverage - we had a nice chat with an American couple from LA. 

At the daily briefing we found out the following day was pretty much at sea again with some late afternoon zodiac tours - still no mention of snorkelling.

We finished off with dinner at Elements again and this time shared a table with our neighbours (ie cabin beside us) - turned out they were Canadians from north of Toronto (John and Honda). 

Wednesday Oct 1

I got up pretty early and went to the Observation Lounge for an early coffee - a couple of the naturalists were there to I approached them and asked them when the "fun starts" - ie the snorkelling - apparently tomorrow. I told them that we and others we had spoken to were getting a bit antsy as no mention had been made of when and how often we would be snorkelling. I was advised that tomorrow would be the day and pretty much every day after that. Will (the naturalist) told me it had not been mentioned as that they did not want to overload us with information as "there was so much else going on" - I retorted that "what!! there's nothing going on".

Pulau Joronga

Zodiac cruise to nowhere + all the usual bumph

Gam Island & Kri Island

Finally some action - first stop was a cultural village tour on Gam Island - zodiacs out - our departure was 8:30am. Later in the afternoon we had a zodiac beach landing at Kri Island for some beach snorkelling - organisztion was a CF - we were the last group in the water for about half an hour - snorkelling was a 6 out of 10.

Pulau Penemu

There was a beach landing for some snorkeling, zodiac cruise and short hike to a lookout. Views were amazing.

Misool Island

Snorkeling and beach day

Second day at Misool Island

There was a beach landing for some snorkelling then a very long zodiac cruise in the afternoon.

Arguni Island

Village cultural tour

Banda Neira

Morning cultural show and village walking tour of the largish town of Banda Neira. 

We did an afternoon platform snorkel at the lava wall - added at the eleventh hour after many guests complained about the limited snorkelling options.

Kai Islands

Beach day with off the beach snorkelling - very poor viewing.

Pulau Matakus and Pulau Asutubun

The morning cultural village tour was a rain out (for us at least) a few hearty guests in the first group went before the storm really moved in. There was an afternoon beach landing with no useful snorkelling at a very crummy beach.

Sea day back to Darwin - 2 nights in Darwin

The title says it all. On arrival we had booked 2 more nights in Darwin - it was really a waste of time. We did catch up with Mark & Merry for lunch.

Back to Sydney

We flew again on award tickets on QF business class but due to limited availability we had to overnight at Brisbane airport. Our stay at the Pullman was fine as was our final flight home.