Which docks in each port of call does Wind Spirit use in Tahiti?

Hi! I'm a newbie in both cruising and CruiseCritic and am hoping to get some advice.

My husband and I are going on the August 21 Dreams of Tahiti sailing on Wind Spirit and we want to go diving wherever possible.

While Windstar offers diving shore excursions, it doesn't tell me which dive operator it uses. I'm therefore looking into arranging myself with dive operators that get good reviews. My questions:

- Has anyone done this and would you recommend it?

- Do you know if the dive operator would be able to pick us up directly from the ship?

- If not, do you know which docks Wind Spirit uses in each port of call so I can tell the dive operators where to pick us up.

Thank you in advance for any insight!

Quick question to follow up on this post; we are thinking of booking the Windstar Tahiti cruise. What kind of excursions can we plan on our own on the Dreams of Tahiti cruise? We really just want to see some beautiful beaches but don't want to pay for the expensive shore excursions. While some days we are planning on using the swimming deck/platform, we would like to poke around the islands a bit too by vespa/scooter or something of the like. Does anyone have information or ideas of low budget ways we can explore some the islands? Thanks

We ended up arranging all the diving ourselves and did not join any Windstar excursion.

On the two days that we didn't dive, we were docked at Taha'a and Huahine. At Taha'a, we spent the day on the private motu that Windstar had rented. At Huahine, we just took the tender ashore and walked along the beach and ended up spending a few lazy hours at a beachside bar.

Sorry I can't help you with excursions other than diving, but we saw quite a few people joining a snorkel tour at Bora Bora that's not organized by Windstar.

That's great information, Seraya, thank you!

A) I didn't know wind star had a private motu in tahaa

B) I didn't realize you could just informally take a tender to land in Huahine and just stroll and find a nearby beach

So your post was exactly the kind of info I was seeking. Therefore we don't need to go ahead and book a private tour for every single day right now. Thank you!

Hi, this is one great trip. I normally never take tours off the ship. I have taken 19 WS trips. However, that being said we took 4 in Tahiti 3 were spectacular.

First motu day on Taha is not to be missed. We took Dr. Poodles Spinner dolphin trip, we were in small boats maybe 10 at the most. Fascinating! My feeling is Tahiti is all about the Lagoon, so georgeous. Islands nice but the Lagoon spectacular. Dr. Poole is an expert on the dolphin, he was great. In Huahine we took the moai trip, historical with a stop to see the holy blue eyed eels. Since we had been to Easter Island I wanted to see the moais in Tahitu. There is a terrific museum, great walk up a hill, you see the ancient fishing holes, wonderful again fascinating. We took the swimming with rays and sharks great. In the Lagoon all the sea life loved it. We totally disliked the Bora Bora land tour. I dislike bus tours, I do not need to see shops and tourist places, there was little culture. I should have gone over to the motu. My error. Truly a great trip would do it again if the flight was not so arduous. We were on the first trip back and crossed the Pacific on the Spirit, a dream come through. I think the only way to see Polynesia is by boat. Have a great time. Susanne

Just an FYI, Upon further research (reading and calling Windstar), the Tahaa private motu is no longer featured on the cruise, but the Bora Bora private motu is. Does anyone have advice for how to book lagoon excursions? Google searches are leaving me empty handed, and the cruise line excursions are more land-based.

We found it difficult to reserve privately therefore we used the ship's services. We were happy beyond belief with 3 out of the 4 as I stated previously. Also, cell service was very limited 2 years ago. When you get off the ship to go ashore to pick up taxi that was very limited. While the islands were nice on land the lagoon was spectacular and the views from the lagoon were out of this world. Too bad about Taha motu it was great. I had a terrible time trying to reserve anything in Tahiti. The people are beautifully laid back and very few people answered my email. If the motu is now Bora Bora stick to that. Bora Bora itself was the least interesting. Sometimes off the ship I saw private small boats taking you out to a motu but I never investigate further. Have fun. Susanne

We have booked Patrick's lagoon tour in Bora Bora. It gets rave reviews on Cruise critic, (PG) site and also Trip Advisor. It is expensive, but a little less than the one Windstar is offering. It is a private trip, so see you can find someone to share the trip with so the cost will not be so high. Google Patrick's lagoon tour and it will bring up his website. He doesn't list prices, so send him an email and he will repy to you. Be sure and tell him you are on Windstar. He can't take PG cruisers because they use him as their source.

Check the Paul Gauguin line on this site. They are a larger ship and their traveler's seem to offer more information. Go to the search area and search shore excursions under the particular island you are interested in.

Good luck!

Regarding cell phone service, we bought a local SIM card that worked on all the islands and it helped us massively in terms of getting in touch with dive operators to confirm pick-up times and locations etc. The cell service was good enough that we could always get through while we're docked. (I mean we could be in our stateroom and not necessarily standing on land.) I posted about this (and purchasing wifi) in an answer to another thread. Perhaps you can click on my screen name and find that post.

While it was more work to arrange all the diving excursions ourselves, it saved us a lot of money. There was quite a bit of e-mail back and forth and it took a bit of time, but everything went smoothly for us in the end.

My husband and I sailing with Windstar in Tahiti for our honeymoon in December. We're avid divers and were going to book through Windstar, but the dives seem expensive and short for the amount of time in port. Are there any dive operators that you'd recommend in particular?

My husband and I sailing with Windstar in Tahiti for our honeymoon in December. We're avid divers and were going to book through Windstar, but the dives seem expensive and short for the amount of time in port. Are there any dive operators that you'd recommend in particular?

Hi Scuboo,

My husband and I each did eight dives in total: two in Moorea, two in Raiatea, four in Bora Bora (over two days).

We saved quite a bit of money by buying a Te Moana Diving Pass, which includes 10 dives for 60,000 XFP. My husband and I shared the pass and paid extra for the additional six dives. I think the Pass includes all equipment, but we brought our own gear so it was irrelevant. I believe we also dived Nitrox without having to pay extra.

The dive operators we used were:

Moorea Blue Diving in Moorea - Diane, the manager, was very responsive to my e-mails and helpful in giving me info about the dives and pick-up locations. I told her we wanted to buy the Te Moana Pass and we completed the purchase at the shop.

Hemisphere Sub in Raiatea - This was the only dive operator in Raiatea that accepted the Te Moana Pass. It was also the operator Windstar used. They were initially not willing to take us on separately because they were worried that they'd get in trouble with Windstar and they tried to convince us to book the dives through Windstar. I told them I'd be using the Te Moana Pass and eventually they took us on. There were people from our ship that booked dive excursions with Windstar but they were on a separate diving boat. My husband and I ended up having a private dive boat and guide, which was great!

Bora Diving Center in Bora Bora - We used the last two dives included in the Pass for the first dive at Bora Diving Center. The manager was nice enough to let us pay the same per-dive price as the Pass for the additional six dives. The dive to see eagle rays was fantastic despite the really fast currents.

I have no complaints about any of the three shops we used and would recommend them in a heartbeat!

On Moorea we booked an ATV our with Alberts Fun Tours. They picked us up dropped us off at the dock. It was fun and we covered the whole island. No stops at some friends place for shopping or drinks, just a straight up tour. Did notice more options for just renting a car there, but the tour got us places we would not have gone to on our own.

We did vanilla plantation and snorkling on Tahaa. If they are using same guide as last September, there were black tip sharks as well as rays at the snorkle site, coral was so-so but the sharks were neat.

Can anyone confirm whether the private motu on Bora Bora (the one where they hold the complimentary BBQ dinner) is also available for passengers to tender back and forth to during the day before the evening event? I know the one in Tahaa is.

Also, we're thinking of having our on-deck Candles dinner the first evening we're in Bora Bora, but I hear it gets windy in Bora Bora so I'm wondering if it would be better to book that for Raiatea instead. Any experiences/suggestions?

I do not recall they ran a s tender to the motu during the day before the "event". I believe that motu is owned by one of the resorts. We did have dinner in Candles the first night in Bora Bora and it was comfortable (in September). Raiatea was the only stop we actually docked. I would not have found that setting to be as nice for Candles.

I do not recall they ran a s tender to the motu during the day before the "event". I believe that motu is owned by one of the resorts. We did have dinner in Candles the first night in Bora Bora and it was comfortable (in September). Raiatea was the only stop we actually docked. I would not have found that setting to be as nice for Candles.

Thank you for the feedback on Candles!

I just found a post from December 2015 where someone said the Wind Star had zodiacs going to and from the private motu (Motu Tapu, right?) on the day of the BBQ event, but only until about 2:00pm. Then at 5:00pm they take everyone from the ship to the motu by catamaran. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2285734

Does anyone else have any recollection of whether they were allowed to go to the Bora Bora motu during the day when they took this cruise?