June 24th-July 9th Trip Report

Hello All!

I thought that after the insane amount of reading and help that I got while preparing for this trip, that I should post my trip report. You know, a sort of pay it forward type of thing.

A little background about myself and travel buddy (the hubs). We are from outside of Chicago (27 and 32) and have been saving for this trip since we got married. We said we would no matter what, visit French Polynesia by our five year anniversary. We accomplished it and it felt soooo good. The paying of the trip didn't feel so good, but I knew it would be worth it in the end.

We booked pre cruise, and the cruise through PG back in January. We booked our post cruise trip to Bora Bora through Expedia. It ended up coming to 2000 dollars cheaper, for 1 more night to book on our own. I'll start from the beginning and hopefully get some pictures in here as well!

Day 1-June 24th, 2015

This is a fairly uneventful day. I booked the latest flight out of ORD as I had a grad school class that night that I thought I needed to attend. Little did I know my professor is from So Cal and said "Don't come to class, enjoy LA!" I tried to switch our flight to an earlier time, but was unwilling to pay 800 to switch it. So, 1040pm we were off to LA! We landed a few minutes early, and I booked a room through hotwire at the Wyndham. I called them to come get us and we were picked up with a few minutes. The driver was very nice, even for how tired and cranky I was.

We checked in, asked for late check out the next day and headed to get some shut eye.

Day 2-June 25th, 2015

The next morning, we woke up, grabbed some breakfast and actually went back to the room for more sleep. Way to start a vacation, right? We then had a workout, showered, and headed to check out at around 1230pm. The shuttle took us right to LAX with no issues at all.

We walked into the airport looking for the super long ATN line. Imagine my surprise when there was NO ONE in line. We walked right up, got our tickets, and went through security in under 25 minutes. We grabbed some lunch at Panda Express and counted down the minutes until it was time to leave.

The flight was not full in any way. Two (okay, 3) interesting things happened on the plane.

1. A 15-16 year old girl was laying in our two seats. I asked her to move because they were our seats and she threw quite the hissy fit. Sorry for assigned seating?

2. Many of the middle rows were empty. The attendants came around and put down all of the tray tables and then buckled them to the seat belts. I'm not sure if this was to avoid people fighting about having those seats or asking to sit there, but I thought it was interesting.

3. I had Mr. Muscles sitting in front of me (seriously, the guy was HUGE) and after about 6 hours I was almost gagging/nauseous at the sight of his huge watery/protein/pill shake thing he would make every hour. It was SUPER fun to have the whole chair shake each time he would make a new shake. Can you tell I get cranky when I am tired? :)

Anyway, My DH and I stayed up for the whole flight, in hopes that it would get our internal clocks switched right away. Although it made for a long flight, it worked quite well.

We landed on time, found our names on a board outside and were off to the IC Tahiti.

Check in went fine, it was late so things seemed to go fast. IC had so much confusion though about what was included in our package. I was surprised as I thought they dealt with the PG cruises a lot. They kept telling me that I had breakfast only 1 day and lunch on Saturday. Eventually we sorted it out, but it took some time. We walked to our room, I had booked the lowest category, and went to sleep almost immediately. I was so excited to wake up to a gorgeous view in the morning.

Day 3 to come next!

Day 3- June 26th, 2015

Day 3 began and I woke up to this.

Finally, it felt like we were really here! Our Friday ended up being an eventful one. I had booked Ciao 4X4 for the morning and a dive for the afternoon.

The 4X4 was fun, and it was only us 2 and one other French girl who was finishing up her 6 month internship in Bora Bora. We saw many beautiful things and had a great time.

Some of the Sights

Us, swimming in the river/lake/waterfall

The bridge

We headed back around 1:30pm and ate a granola bar that we had brought from home. We then ran off to TOPDIVE and began our first dive ever after certification.

It was a GREAT dive and Tiki was an amazing dive master. He was so caring with me, as I am sure he could tell that I was nervous. I highly recommend this company. I paid ahead of time online, and saved some money do that.

After diving, we decided lets run to happy hour! (Seriously, I'm usually a lax person, but I couldn't get enough of everything there.) We switched clothes and looked like slobs, but I was getting my happy hour drink. Clothes were not going to stop me. We both had mojitos and boy, there were strong. This made both us us talkative and brave, so we went to the concierge to inquire about the roulettes. We decided to go, so this time we showered first and then took a taxi down to the roulettes.

The roulettes.... sooooooo worth the taxi fare! AMAZING food. Seriously my DH still talks about it here at home. We had Chinese and it was so tastey. It was about 30 for the food, and 20 for the cab both ways. Our cab driver who took us there told us all the good places to go and how to get back. He was so talkative and nice.

After dinner, we watched the PG pull in and then headed back. We got VERY excited after seeing the PG pull into port.

Day 4- June 27th, 2015

The day had arrived! Time to get on the PG. We knew we would not be getting on the ship until 3-330pm that day. We decided to stay at the resort and just lounge by the pool and lagoon. The majority of the day, we did just swim with the fish in the lagoon. I much preferred that to the pool.

The day went by fast, but again the food thing got messed up. I had my letter stating we were supposed to get lunch included in our stay. There was much confusion about this and it took about 15 minutes for it to get straightened out. Again, if they have so many PG cruisers, why would there be so many problems with billing. hmmm...

We used their transit room to change and then headed off in the shuttle. Check in was uneventful and smooth. We ran to the pool deck right away and got our first drink. Hubs thought it was funny that I was the only one there. :)

Surprise in our Room

We were warmly welcomed by everyone and enjoyed exploring the ship. I was introduced to Christian who would ensure that I ate safely the whole week (I have celiac). I wish I could have brought him home too. Anyway, the ship seemed quite, empty. We inquired and found out that 188 people were taking the late night Friday flight. We decided to call it a night after that and slept until about 5am the next morning.

Keep those posts coming....I won't be on the PG until 2017 so need to live vicariously.

Day 5- June 29th, 2015- Huahine

DH and I awoke relatively early on Sunday. I wanted to see the sunrise and savor every last minute so we dragged our butts outta bed and went to the back of the ship to drink coffee and juice as we rolled into Huahine. One of the best moments of the trip happened at this point. I heard this HUGE splash and thought, "well, either that's a person or an animal." and got up to look over the railing. Right as I got up, a young humpback whale began to breech. He/She jumped another 2-3 times and it pretty much made my life. Unfortunately, DH couldn't get the camera out fast enough, but I have the memory in my head.

We headed then for the 'secret' front deck. There is no other word that magical to describe coming into Huahine.

Coming into Huahine

At the port in Huahine

Mike and I were the first ones on the tender to meet for Marc's Picnic. We were the only ones on the tender and worried about what was going on. Luckily, others came on the next and we were off! Another couple from PG joined as and it was Sammyboots! We spent a lovely day with them, and Kay's Husband, Peter saved our little behinds from Huahine jail (more on that later.)

We started with going to the pearl farm.

Then we snorkeled.

Then we ate.

Then we went to feed the sharkies!

DH got stung by something at this point and got out of the water. His skin bubbled up and itched, but with some anti itch cream it seemed to go away. Who knows what that was!

On the way back, we went to pay in cash and realized we only had 210. I swear I counted that money 5 times, but who knows. Luckily, Peter saved us from jail by lending us another 20 bucks to pay for it. THANKS AGAIN!!!!!

We made it back in time for the last tender. DH and I ran up to the pool and laid out to soak in the last hour of sunshine.

We watched the sunset and then went back to the room to shower and change for dinner.

We went to dinner at L'Etoile and enjoyed our dinner very much.

Now this is where we would crash for the night. Every night after dinner, we were figuratively done. We never made it to the shows. We would go rent a DVD and go to sleep for the night.

Day 5- June 29th, 2015- Tahaa

The next morning, I was up and early again as we would crash so early in the evening. DH and I went for our morning juice and coffee and sat at the back of the boat again.

We grabbed some breakfast and then got ready for our day at the motu. This was a very laid back day for us as we lounged on the beach all day. Although we had fun here, it was not our most favorite day of the bunch. The winds had began to pick up ( a tropical depression was in store) and made for a very windy day. I did not mind though as this meant that I never got sweaty!

We got our coconuts and picked a spot for the day.

PG from afar

Bora Bora from afar

We were the last ones in from the tender and this time we showered right away so we could head to the piano bar. Great music and drinks there! We were off to dinner this time at le grill, which I LOVED!!! THe only negative about having a food issue is that I had to always order my food the night before. No surprises for me. But, it meant that I was safe and could eat without getting sick. Which, for the record this is the FIRST trip I did not get sick on. Thanks PG!

Next, Bora Bora!

I love your report! We don't go back until the end of October so your report is filling my "FP/PG flu" needs! For us "older forks" we love Tahaa simply because we can rest the whole day and still be part of the action.

Please keep it coming! You are appreciated.

Day 6- June 30th, 2015 BORA BORA

Needless to say, DH and I were most excited for Bora Bora I had watched Couples Retreat a little too much (is that possible?) and couldn't wait to see all the colors of the ocean.

As our new schedule dictated, we were up and going first thing so that we could enjoy the sunrise. For today we booked the Patrick's excursion through the ship. I did not opt for the lunch as it was 199 vs 109. Plus, I technically paid for the lunch on the ship, so I was going to get my food there.

The snorkeling was INSANE. I mean really... INSANE. I was in utter shock to look down and see the bottom. Was this real life? Even when I think back to it now, I cannot believe what it looked like.

I mean, how Pro is this shot of DH?

We saw a lemon shark and sharks at the first dive, then went to see the rays and finally went to another spot for snorkeling. As I previously mentioned, the depression was picking up and the snorkeling at the last stop was pretty rough. I had to remind my self how to swim with a current like that in order to make it back to the boat. One of the men from our boat ended up with the underwater bike riding boat tour because he was struggling. Now that's service!

From the last stop-

Mr. Barracuda

We then went back to the pier where we went to the PG for lunch. We changed first, ate, and then went back to town to scope things out. I price shopped everything so I could come back with money for the next day. I knew I needed a few shirts, some sort of pearl, vanilla, and general souvenirs, so I was on a mission. DH took pictures on the way.

Infamous Church-

We had to get back on the PG for the anniversary celebration, so we headed in knowing we would come back to town to make our purchases tomorrow.

Us at the celebration-

I did fork over the money and purchased the photo from the blanket being wrapped around us.

The celebration was lovely and I loved giving DH a hard time about the fertility blanket. ;)

We headed back to le etoile for dinner and again, called it for the evening after.

Day 2 Bora Bora next!

Day 8, July 1st, 2015 Bora Bora Day 2

I was on a mission today. I knew I wanted to get our trinkets from the market and that we needed to be back on the boat by 10am for our bridge tour. We took the first tender out, I got all of my supplies, and was back in time for our bridge tour.

A large tip- buy any vanilla from Chin Lee. It was by far the cheapest of all of the places we had seen.

Here is an idea of prices for things-

pearl bracelet from lady on side of road- 35

T-shirt- 30

Vanilla beans- 10

Vanilla Extract- 8

Pearl Shell with bora bora painted on it (and a magnet to match) 65

Don't be afraid to ask for money off, even at the stores. I asked the t shirt store guy if I could have a discount since I bought 4 shirts and a dress and he did give me some money off. It never hurts to ask!

We made it back for the bridge tour which was interesting, but not totally my thing. DH the engineer was quite intrigued by it though!

We ate lunch and then headed to the private motu. I'll paint the picture for you... some one had brought their stereo and was playing Bob Marley... sipping rum punch... toes in the sand. It was truly paradise. I once again asked "is this real life?"

View from Motu

View from Ship

Decorations on the Motu

Sunset that evening

We made it back on the last tender (apparently this was a new thing for us, being last!) and showered and got ready for dinner. We went to Veranda, which was not my cup of tea. I am all for trying new things, but this was a bit too fancy for my tastes.

Off to bed and we would wake up in Moorea the next day!

Day 9- July 2nd, 2015- Moorea

This is when reality began to hit. Shoot... it is Thursday already. How is it Thursday already!?!

DH and I decided to take it easy this morning as we had been so go, go, go!

We had an ATV tour for the afternoon booked (through the ship), so we thought we would spend the morning at the pool. It was a lovely morning of day drinking and eating before we got ready to leave.

We headed to our ATV tour at the Hilton Moorea, where we filled out some paper work and were on our way.

This was my FAVORITE tour of the trip. I had so much fun on this tour.

We first stopped at the juice factory. No rum tastings for us as we were driving. Juice was fabulous though!

Then, we headed to the pineapple farm.

Next, we went to the agricultural school and got an amazing vanilla and pineapple shake. Which will never accurately be recreated here in Chicago.

Then, we headed up to Belvedere point for some photo opts.

Finally, we went to the sacred sites, which were beyond interesting. I loved hearing the history and was also sad to hear of the destruction of so many of their religious sites. It was beyond beautiful.

We set back for the ship and got ready for dinner. Tonight however, we were able to make our crowns with the local mamas. I had a lot of fun doing this minus the massive amounts of times I poked myself with a needle. Not all of us are good with needlework!

After dinner, we set off to our room. It was beginning to hit us that this was one of our last nights on the ship. The same 188 people who came late Friday night would also be leaving as soon as the ship docked Friday, so we knew we would have a half empty ship our last night.

Day 2 to come next!

Day 10, July 3rd, 2015 Moorea, Day 2

Our second to last morning. :( DH and I ordered room service for breakfast as we had an 8am dive with the dive team. I enjoyed the breakfast and almost wished we had ordered it more often. We walked over to the marina to begin our dive. Being beginners, we were paired with other beginners and taken out. This was my least favorite dive of the trip, as there was not too much to see. Not PG's fault, just an observation. I enjoyed the dive team very much though. They loved all my hot pink gear. ;) Yup, I am one of those... hello, I even have pink in my hair! I like what I like.

We got back from our dive and this is when the weather started to take a turn for the worse. Big black clouds came rolling in... and not the ones that look like it'll rain and go away. We had a jet ski trip booked for the afternoon and I was not about to lose any of my money. We decided to go, because, well, why not?

Then, it poured. It didn't stop pouring for the rest of the time.

On the jet ski-

I couldn't see, my bikini was going up my butt and it was COLD. I am from Chicago... I know cold, but this was just not comfortable. Over half the people that came with us ended up going back to the resort. I am not a quitter though, and we stuck it out. We ended up at the lagoon with some pineapple and rays. The water felt so warm and good at this point. I do not have many other pictures of this day as it was raining so hard.

Ray at the lagoon

We eventually got back to the boat and took a HOT shower and ordered some room service for a snack. There was no sail away due to the weather. We decided to just lay there for a bit, soaking it all in. Then I knew what I had to do next.... Pack.

The only thing that was making me feel better was that we were going to Bora Bora for 4 days after the trip.

This was also the one and only night that we made the show! Unfortunately, there were all of maybe 10 people at this show since so many had to go to the airport.

We headed to bed and began to get excited for our adventure in the morning. Back to Bora Bora. Plus, how many times can I say that in my life. That I would be going to Bora Bora again!?

I am absolutely loving your review ! We sail next week. Can I ask what underwater camera you use? The pictures are stunning. Can't wait till your next installment !

Thanks again :)

AMR87 I think you need to write a:

Message to self....come back again in 5 years. How perfect would it be for a 10 th anniversary!

I am absolutely loving your review ! We sail next week. Can I ask what underwater camera you use? The pictures are stunning. Can't wait till your next installment !

 

Thanks again :)

Hello!

Thanks a bunch. My only minor error are grammar and spelling. I'm just typing away and posting without rereading. ROOKIE mistake!

My underwater camera is Fujifilm FinePix XP60 16.4MP Digital Camera with 2.7-Inch LCD. I actually bought it through my credit card with points and I have been very happy with it so far!

AMR87 I think you need to write a:

 

Message to self....come back again in 5 years. How perfect would it be for a 10 th anniversary!

How funny you say that!

It cracks me up because we went from "we will probably never be able to come back again" to "when we come back next time, we are going to do _____ differently."

I'd actually like to come back for the cruise that includes the Marquesas islands. I hear the diving is much better there.

Day 11- July 4th, 2015- Dembarkation, Beginning of Bora Bora

Well, morning came, like all mornings do. We got up early to enjoy the last minutes of the ship. We got our last juices upstairs and then went down to breakfast to say goodbye to everyone. I of course, had to say thanks and bye to Christian who dealt with my celiac butt all week. We also chatted a lot to Ryan in the Veranda. We took some pictures with him and then he took out his phone and asked for pictures with us. I wasn't sure why this touched me so much, but it did. I had to hold my tears back. :(

We headed to the ship's store as we wanted some dive shirts and then headed off the boat.

My first piece of advice, you DO NOT need 2 hours between leaving the boat and an inter-island flight. We left at about 930 for our 1130am flight. It was way too much time. Yes, I did suck it up and just booked the taxi through the PG with the dumb 15 dollar fee. The taxi was there and ready though, so I guess I cannot complain. Which, also reminds me, they had specific room numbers for those taxis, so I highly doubt you could walk out and just get one. They knew who they were supposed to get.

We headed to the airport and had so much time to kill. There isn't much to do there, so DH and I began the game of what was your favorite. _____? It passed the time well.

Then, finally, our flight was called! We got on the plane and a quick 50 minutes later, we were there.

However, it was pouring. This would be the story for all of the days but one. It rained and poured and rained and then blew wind 30 mph.

Although, it made for some nice photos.

We checked into Intercontinental Le Moana, Bungalow 14. Our room was not ready, so we just sat and relaxed for a bit. Again, I booked through on my own, not through PG. I saved a lot of money for essentially, the same thing. We did not get breakfast or transfers with our package. I do not think that was 2K worth though.

Eventually we got to our room. They sent us champagne, which we enjoyed immediately.

I was very happy to be on the deck.

We walked over to Matira Beach when it stopped raining for the view. We then headed down to the larger grocery store to grab breakfast and lunch items. We saved a lot of money on food by doing this.

Finally, we walked back to our room and decided to order pizza from the resort. They actually had gluten free crust! At 14 dollars each, this was our cheapest meal in Bora Bora.

We went to sleep, hoping for nicer weather in the morning.

How funny you say that!

 

 

 

It cracks me up because we went from "we will probably never be able to come back again" to "when we come back next time, we are going to do _____ differently."

 

 

 

I'd actually like to come back for the cruise that includes the Marquesas islands. I hear the diving is much better there.

Don't know about the Marquesas. Been twice and no one ever talked about the diving. Everyone raves about the Tuamotus though.

How funny you say that!

 

It cracks me up because we went from "we will probably never be able to come back again" to "when we come back next time, we are going to do _____ differently."

 

I'd actually like to come back for the cruise that includes the Marquesas islands. I hear the diving is much better there.

In 2004 we took a once in a lifetime trip on the PG......9 trips later we are still looking forward eagerly to the next one.

Day 11- July 4th, 2015- Dembarkation, Beginning of Bora Bora

 

Well, morning came, like all mornings do. We got up early to enjoy the last minutes of the ship. We got our last juices upstairs and then went down to breakfast to say goodbye to everyone. I of course, had to say thanks and bye to Christian who dealt with my celiac butt all week. We also chatted a lot to Ryan in the Veranda. We took some pictures with him and then he took out his phone and asked for pictures with us. I wasn't sure why this touched me so much, but it did. I had to hold my tears back. :(

 

We headed to the ship's store as we wanted some dive shirts and then headed off the boat.

 

My first piece of advice, you DO NOT need 2 hours between leaving the boat and an inter-island flight. We left at about 930 for our 1130am flight. It was way too much time. Yes, I did suck it up and just booked the taxi through the PG with the dumb 15 dollar fee. The taxi was there and ready though, so I guess I cannot complain. Which, also reminds me, they had specific room numbers for those taxis, so I highly doubt you could walk out and just get one. They knew who they were supposed to get.

 

We headed to the airport and had so much time to kill. There isn't much to do there, so DH and I began the game of what was your favorite. _____? It passed the time well.

 

Then, finally, our flight was called! We got on the plane and a quick 50 minutes later, we were there.

 

 

However, it was pouring. This would be the story for all of the days but one. It rained and poured and rained and then blew wind 30 mph.

 

Although, it made for some nice photos.

 

 

We checked into Intercontinental Le Moana, Bungalow 14. Our room was not ready, so we just sat and relaxed for a bit. Again, I booked through on my own, not through PG. I saved a lot of money for essentially, the same thing. We did not get breakfast or transfers with our package. I do not think that was 2K worth though.

 

Eventually we got to our room. They sent us champagne, which we enjoyed immediately.

 

I was very happy to be on the deck.

 

 

We walked over to Matira Beach when it stopped raining for the view. We then headed down to the larger grocery store to grab breakfast and lunch items. We saved a lot of money on food by doing this.

 

 

Finally, we walked back to our room and decided to order pizza from the resort. They actually had gluten free crust! At 14 dollars each, this was our cheapest meal in Bora Bora.

 

We went to sleep, hoping for nicer weather in the morning.

Ryan is so very nice..isn't he. Really liked him last year.

Excellent review, thoroughly enjoying it, thanks so much for posting, Your pictures are amazing !

In 2004 we took a once in a lifetime trip on the PG......9 trips later we are still looking forward eagerly to the next one.

Ditto for that here too, next year will be trip number 5, back to the cooks...

Day 12 & Day 13 July 5-6th 2015

Ready for round 2! I ran out of steam yesterday and my goal for today is to finish this review as well as get our pictures ordered.

Thank you to everyone for the very kind comments! This is my first review of something of this nature (I am very into writing yelp reviews though!) so it is nice to hear that my writing is coming off as semi educated. ;)

Anywho-

I thought I would bundle our two full days in Bora Bora as we finally took the time to relax. After DH saw my itinerary for the cruise he ever so nicely asked "hunny, can we just not schedule anything for Bora Bora?" So, that is almost what we did!

We began the morning on Sunday with 2 tank dives with TOPDIVE. Again, I booked this all online and paid ahead of time, which saved about 10%. They came and picked us up on time and all went well. The water was insanely choppy, and I semi freaked out before the first dive. I went in nervous and came out nervous. Luckily, by the second dive I had calmed down a bit. I was impressed with what we saw. Many of the other experienced divers told me though, that diving was 'terrible' there and there was not much to see. These were also people that had a 7000 dollar underwater housing for their cameras. ;/ We were finished and back to our resort by about 1230pm.

Now it was time to relax!

For the next day and a half, the weather was pretty beautiful, but windy. Now, I have heard contradicting stories about Le Moana being generally windy, but this was WINDY. My shoes even blew away! I was lucky and found them back on the beach though.

We mainly did a lot of snorkeling and laying out over these two days. Breakfast was granola that we brought from home and milk. Lunch was meat and cheese (and doritos!) bought from the market as well as some fresh fruit. I began to crave vegetables by the end of the trip though.

Eagle Rays

Eel and DH's 'pet' fish under the bungalow

Brought my pink floatie!

View from the room

We tried to go to the sushi restaurant one night for dinner, but it was closed due to the Hevia festival. We made it to the restaurant next to our resort, which was fine. (GF options limited). We also made it to bloody mary's, which was touristy, but I enjoyed it. Due to the switch for that week's PG schedule, many PG cruisers were at BM the night we were. It was nice chatting with them.

We were in bed early each night, but up early as well. I wanted as much sun as I could savor.

And on to the last official day in Bora Bora... which, includes the best gluten free story of the trip.

Day 14 (I think?) July 7th, 2015- Beginning the long journey home

Well, it was now Tuesday morning. Time to begin our journey home. It was raining, again. Way to make me miss you Bora Bora!

Check out was at 11am, and our flight was at 530. We ensured that we could use the transit room around 3 as our boat was scheduled to leave at 4.

One interesting thing was that the day before someone from the front desk had called and offered me a 'proposition.' He wanted us to leave our bungalow and offered us free late check out from the beach room as well as 250 dollars back. After thinking about it, I realized that he was just giving us the difference between the bungalow and new room, so basically he was only offering us free late check out. I declined as I waited far too long to stay in an OWB to just give it up.

We checked out around 11am and then tried to sit at the beach. It began to rain, when we decided to get lunch. This is where my favorite GF story comes to play.

I ordered a GF pizza. It came out and did not look like the one I had ordered on a previous day. The crust was for sure a regular crust. The waitress did not understand what I was trying to tell her, so she got another man. This man came out and said "well, I'll just get the chef, because I don't understand. This pizza isn't crusty enough for you? We will just cook it longer." HA! So DH thinks quickly, and asked for the menu so that we could point. Long story short, it gets figured out and I get the right pizza. At the end, he brings a sheet of paper saying I needed to sign it to say why I sent the pizza back. Guess what he wrote on it? "Pizza not crusty enough."

Oh language barriers...

We walked to the pier to leave at 345

Picture from previous day, it was not this sunny.

And made our way back to the airport.

Our flight was late, but it did not matter as our night flight wasn't leaving until 1050pm.

When we got back to Tahiti, we paid for luggage storage and walked to the Ocean Restaurant for dinner.

That killed a good amount of time and then we walked back to the airport, checked in and got on the plane. I thought the ride back was faster than the ride there. Probably because I was able to sleep most of the time.

Day 15/16- July 8th/9th 2015

We arrived to LAX, where I had again used hotwire to book a room. This time I had the Hilton. I very much liked this hotel.

We checked in, walked to In n Out for lunch, then came back and used the pool. We then decided to go to Manhattan beach on the ocean express bus and had a blast! We had a wine tasting, went to the pier, had happy hour drinks and appetizers, and went to Mama D's for dinner. Way to end a magical vacation.

Our flight back home was on Thursday the 9th. All went well and we got back home in one piece.

I am going to do an FYI section next, for any newbies, or things that I was surprised by.

One last happy picture :)

The last section I wanted to include was things I was surprised by or learned even after doing my massive amounts of research on cruise critic.

1. Staff at IC Tahiti were very unaware of what should or should not be included in your stay. (food wise) Luckily, I always kept all my paperwork for proof. They wanted to charge us for our Saturday lunch as well as one of our breakfasts. Both of these took time to figure out and prove, which was frustrating.

2. If you have any dietary needs, just mention it at the time of booking. They took care of me, I swear, better than I do myself at home. When booking, they even asked what brand of gluten free items I liked. Guess What... they ordered that brand! The ATN flight had even made me GF meals as well. I did call them ahead of time to confirm this.

3. Laundry Package- Yes, this was awesome. However, they inspected every article of clothing. My PJ shirt had a tiny hole from home from bleach. They sent it back, along with all of the laundry saying they needed permission to wash it. I understand there are liability issues, but it stank (literally) to wait another day to wash all of the laundry. This happened again with one of my tank tops. I just started writing on the laundry sheet 'Has hole, please still wash." which seemed to fix the problem.

4.New Divers- I was all prepared to set up all my own gear, clean it all, etc. (That's how we were trained at home at lease.) I never had to do anything. Every place we dove, they took care of set up, cleaning, etc. It was nice to feel like I was truly on vacation and didn't have to clean up. Lazy people unite!

5. The juicing machine on the boat is amazing. We didn't find out about it though, until our 3rd day. I wish I would've known sooner.

6. Go to the star gazing on the boat. They turned off all the lights and brought out a huge telescope. It was pretty neat.

7. Look into booking post stays on your own. We did it on our own and saved a lot of money by doing so. We were even able to add on an extra night because it saved so much.

8. We were between upgrading to a balcony or staying in our room and decided to stay (deck 4). We were NEVER in our room, except to sleep and pack. I am glad we didn't spend the extra 1000 to upgrade.

9. Would I go back? Yes/No. I have a hard time going to places I have already been. I am a one and done girl, as I feel there are too many places in the world to see in 1 lifetime.

I wouldn't spend the same amount of money again. Seriously, I'm jealous of those who can afford to go 5+ times. I am glad I did it once. I wouldn't mind doing the cruise again, as I had more fun there than in Bora Bora. I did feel like royalty there.

I would not stay at Le Moana again either. I'd shell out the money and stay on one of the motu resorts, if we went back.

Please let me know if anyone has any questions. I would love to help out if I can!

I really appreciated your honest review and I am sure those with special dietary needs especially welcomed your report on the PG's ability to meet your needs.

The Marquesas are not known for their diving. The islands are quite different in geography and there are no reefs. Our daughter who went on many of our PG cruises reports at Tonga and Fiji are great for diving. You might consider those cruises if you are into diving.

I agree with your assessment that being on the PG is better than a land stay. We have done both before and after stays and found them to be expensive and not the value that the PG gives. I always advise to go for the longest time you can afford on the PG rather than popping for pre or post stays. Different strokes for different folks.

We are going on our 9th PG cruise due to the crew and the special environment on the ship. We have cruised other lines but never found the warm welcoming that the PG crew provides to their passengers.

I guess you did not attend any of the guest lectures while on board? They for the most part add so much to the cruise. We enjoy Anthropologist Mark Eddowes lectures and even attend the ones that we have heard before. I didn't realize how much I had soaked up until we were in New Zealand visiting a museum that had a section on Polynesia. I kept thinking I know this and why while viewing their exhibit.

Thanks again for taking the time to report to us!!!!