1st time to cruise

My wife and I decided to take our first cruise and chose the PG. We are extremely excited and I have most of my answers to questions off the previous message boards. We are taking the July 11th cruise for 11 days. Any suggestions on excursions? I love to snorkle and have my IDEA certification from 1994 after med school but I have never dove except in resort settings. Do you have to sign up for tour dives or will the staff take you on dives directly from the PG? I preregistered for the ledges, and a night dive and signed up for the first day discover SCUBA class as a refresher for my wife and I. We are in a catagory B balcony room and have no idea what a butler service is used for and just curious if any one can comment. Also wondering if anyone else is on the cruise date. I've read comments on the average cruise age is >50 and my wife and I are in our mid 30's and wondering if there are many people around our age. Thanks for the help.

Can't answer to the diving questions but I have been told the dive staff on the PG is great. As far as the butler, you can have him press your clothes, bring room service snacks or breakfast at the times you wish. He can also take care of your beverage and bar requests. You have made a great choice for your anniversary.

You will find people of all ages on the ship and on that ship the average age is probably a bit younger. Having said that, i'm sure you'll make friends with folks of all ages. :) I have found the folks on Regent cruises to be friendly and open...whatever their age.

Am not sure what IDEA certification but if you don't have your open water certification (usually through NAUI or PADI) then you have to take the resort/refresher course. And even if you do if you haven't dove in the past year they want you to take the refresser course. You can then go on the beginner dives but only to 40 feet. I did 6 dives a month ago and they were all fabulous. Most are done from zodiacs that leave from the Marina - there are no dives or swimming from the Marina. There are several dives that are done by outside operators but those are for the more advanced divers. The dive team is fabulous! I dove with dolphins, 11 foot lemon sharks, turtles, baracuda, manta rays, sting rays and tons of fishies! I am in my 40's and was one of the youngest but was on a 14 day trip. Am sure you will meet more people your age on the shorter trip. The drift snorkle trip is the very best (and I have over 500 dives!)and the wave runners are a must do! Am envious as I wanted to return the second I got home. Have fun!

I appreciate all the advice. I will try to get the drift snorkle trip in. My wife is under the assumtion that once we start SCUBA diving, we will not be interesting in going back to snorkling. Is there any truth to this thought? One more burning question. There seem to be to circumnavigation trips in Bora Bora, one by Jet Boat and one by waverunner. Which is the more enjoyable or is there much of a difference? As always this message board is a awsome.

DH & I were cert. on PG 2yr ago. Here is our experience.

We finished our classroom and pool at home and did the 4 open water dive with PG. The dive master verified all our pool skill before accepting our transfer. They also require people who has not dive >1year do pool skill check. For those who have not dive for a LONG time, they will need to sign up for the refresher (~80$) to do a pool refresher and some exam thing. Remember to bring your dive card/cert. or you won't be going on any advance dive, you will be stuck with beginners.

You don't need to sign up for any dive before the cruise, unless you are experience diver and have particular dive in mind. On embarkment day, the dive desk will be open at night and the dive master will be there answer all your questions and help plan your dives for the trip. They will arrange any dive they don't offer with outside vendor for you.

At the end of the cruise, they have a diver party and show all the underwater picture, they took during the dives. Of course you can buy the CD ROM for 40$ :) well worth it.

We came back from th PG on April 11.The average age was in the 60s.We are 46.Around 20 or so in our age group + 7 children.We do not dive.The older age group tend not to dive ,water ski etc so only a few participated.The dive boat is launched off the sports deck at the rear of the PG as is the water ski boat kayak and windsurfing(only if you can widsurf).1 ski boat 2 windsurfers 3+ kayak.Sign up the day before for 30 min time slots.A couple in there late 20s went on the Bora Bora jet ski and said it was great,not just put put putting along in a line.

So if I understand you correctly, the discover SCUBA course does not instantly allow you to dive even the beginner dives offered as excursions. I am not sure how much investment I want to put into recert. my dives before our trip. The last time I strapped SCUBA gear on was 1994 and I have an IDEA certification not PADI. My wife is not certified at all. We plan on taking the discover SCUBA course first thing on the boat. Are there dives offered from just the PG without signing up for an excursion and if so would these satisfy any requirement for my open water dives? So many questions and as always, I greatly appreciate the responses. The closer we get to July 11th sailing, the more obsessed I seem to be getting.

What do you hope to see/experience on the dive?

My main goal is to be underwater surrounded by breathtaking views with my beautiful wife of 10 years. Wouldn't mind seeing sharks and rays and nice tropical fish but the fact of the matter is I live in the mountains of TN and my work schedule is so busy that I may not dive again for 3-4 years. Are there dives available straight from the PG and are they worth taking on the trip. I don't mind being surrounded by beginners since when it comes down to it, so am I.

One other unrelated question. Can anyone tell me which is better, waverunner or jet boat around Bora Bora? You guys are great.

Dear Zitdoc,

For the discover scuba class (on PG), there is a 30minutes sit down talk (going over basic) and then 2 hrs of pool time going over the standard scuba tech(mask on/off, hand signal etc). After that, if the dive master feel you are safe, he will bring/let you dive. Those who are in the discover class are seperate from the regular dive class (the regular dive class will do some underwater test, while the discover class just dive). The diver with cert (beginner or not), don't mix with the any class. So if you and your wife are in the discover scuba class together, you will dive together, if you are in the beginner/certificed dive, you guys will not be together. I hope this make sense :p.

Just bring your cert. and show it to the dive master. See what they said, they might just do some pool check on you (most likely free) and you can dive all you want. Also, sign-up any other excursion you want, incase after you talked to dive master you decide not to dive at all, you will have something else to do. You can cancel all the excursion, once get onboard, at no charge.

As for if the discover dive will count as an open water dive, I am not 100% sure, but very likely.

All the class dive are offer through PG, they do not farm them out to outside vendor. But any of the beginner (cert. already) and advance can be farm out to outside vendor.

Relax! Enjoy! PG crew will take care of you!

cindy

Which islands will you visit? We went snorkeling in Rangiroa and brought some bread with us from the ship. We were surrounded by fish in about 10 feet of water. We also saw a shark and an eel. We ventured out a bit into deeper water and saw the divers from the boat below us. Honestly the fish are more surface dwellers than bottom. We met the divers back on the boat who surfaced to see our school of fish. They saw a turtle,we didn't. They had a sandy bottom, we had coral. Bora Bora in 4 feet of water we had 30+ sting rays surounding us and climbing on us like puppies wanting to be fed. We didn't see any Mantra rays anywhere. The divers in Moorea saw 15+ large sharks. We went on the catamaran sail and snorkle. We saw fewer fish but the sailing was terrific. It was also fun to jump of the boat into the clear water.

You guys are great and I appreciate the advice. I may elect to go to my local dive shop, take a refresher on the book work and do my check out dives on the PG. That way if there is a specific dive that I want to take then I will have that option, otherwise my wife and I can hang out with the discover SCUBA folks on the PG. I'm so excited.

Hi,

My husband and I (mid 40's at the time) have done both the jet ski and and jet boat excursions at Bora Bora. First time in 2003 we did the skis. Lots of fun!!! We went again in 2005 and did the jet boat. The excursion itself that time was not as interesting (not as many stops). There was talk at that time (2005) that these excursions might be stopped bacause of environmental concerns. I'm not sure if that was true or not, but I believe that the boats were the only option in 2005. Back to the question at hand. If you are going to each ride a jet ski, then that would be the one I would recommend. If you are going to ride both on the same craft, I think the boats were more comfortable. On the other hand, maybe having your wife's arms wrapped around you for the jet ski trip is more what you have in mind!!! Either trip is great fun--enjoy!!

Jacki

Just the answer I was looking for. I was hoping someone had done them both and could compare. Thank you so much for the advice and I have to say that this message board is a lot of fun. Now I need to get my mind off this vacation for a couple of months or I will go stir crazy.