TP Trip Report 5/7 cruise Long

The following is my trip report of our May 7th Tahitian Princess cruise. I will try to cover in more detail some of the things that haven't been covered in detail before as well as some tour details.

We did a one night pre cruise stay at the Tahiti Beachcomber. I booked this online thru their website for $170 for a Lagoon View room. I requested an upgrade when we arrived and received a Panorama View room. The Beachcomber is a beautiful hotel on the best landscaped grounds of any hotel we saw. The staff are very friendly and we received very good service. Great snorkeling in their lagoon aquarium and good swimming in their great pool. There is no snorkeling worth doing off the OTW bungalows. The Tiki Bar is a hot spot at night full of locals and good music. All the food was very good. The express breakfast is a good deal at $11 and includes coffee, juice and a large plate of breads and rolls.

If you like shopping be sure to schedule some time to shop in Papeete. There are many black pearl shops. If you are not looking for the $1000+ pearl skip the fancy shops and search out the small shops on the side streets. Make sure you stop at the big market and get flowers for your room. Everything you will see on your trip at other islands is there to see and buy. Remember, if you see something buy it then don't wait until later, you may never see it again.

We did the 4x4 half day offered thru the ship. Was a good trip to the interior to see waterfalls. The roads are not too rough and it is a fun trip. You get to see several waterfalls, great scenery and if you go when it is raining like it was when we went, you will see hundreds of waterfalls.

Huahaine

Marc's Motu picnic is as everyone has said, the highlight of the trip. The scenery from the boat is beautiful. It took about 1 1/2 hrs. to circle part of the island. The drift snorkeling was one of the best of the trip. You don't need fins unless you want to swim to the side to see something. The water is deep enough that the coral heads are usually about 2 feet below the surface. Just relax and let the current take you, The boat will be there to pickup at the end. The food, drink and entertainment on the motu are great! The stop at the pearl farm was very good. If you are looking for a carved black pearl shell, this is the place to buy it. You will not find better quality or prices anywhere else.

Raratonga Cook Islands

We rented a scoot car along with two other couples. The scoot car was very small and difficult to drive. You can get tired after only a few minutes on the road. It is hard to get into and if you are over 5'5" tall you will drive with your knees under your chin. At full speed at about 30 mph it car is loud and vibrates like crazy. The steering is by handlebars and the accelerator is hard to hold at max speed. There is a floor brake that can be used to slow down but is hard to stop quickly. All traffic will be passing you. But it was fun for the first hour but after that it was a pain in the butt to drive. Rent a car or motor scooter unless you want the thrill of a three wheel scooter. If you just want to go to the beach, use the shuttle bus from the tender pier. The beach across from the Raratonga fruit stand is beautiful and the snorkeling is great. Be sure to check out the fish nursery near the shore. The baby Trigger fish are really cute. There is very good shopping in town with many shops. Everyone speaks english and are very happy to have you in their store. No pressure to buy. There are several liquor stores where you can buy beer and some expensive liquor. Money changing is not available on the ship, only on the island. At the tender dock is a money change table which will be there at the end of the day to change your money back before you leave the island. Most shops accept US dollars and charge cards.

Raiatea and Tahaa

These sister islands are very beautiful. Nice to finally have a dock and not have to tender. We booked with Bruno and waited on the dock for him for over an hour and a half. A guy showed up and said Bruno was running late and would not arrive until 10:00. Mata Tours has a desk just inside terminal. Our group decided to go with Mata Tours and not waste anymore of our short day. Stephan of Mata tours gave us a day we would never forget. We saved $60 per person by going with Mata Tours. He said we could stay out as long as we liked and could decide what we wanted to see and do. Great snorkeling near his private motu and fun feeding the stingrays. His version of shark feeding was so much more exciting than the Sharkboy tour in Bora Bora. He took us to his motu right next to the Tahaa Pearl Resort hotel. He gave us fruit for lunch while we enjoyed his incredible view of Bora Bora and explored his island. He even had a small vanilla plantation right on his motu. He also made a stop at the Tahaa Pearl Farm. We got back in time for the childrens dance show, which was great. If you can't make it you can still watch it on TV in your cabin later in the evening. The Tahaa scenic cruising the next morning is on the starboard side of the ship. A good morning to sleep in if you did a Tahaa tour the day before you have already seen this side of the island.

Bora Bora

We did the 4x4 tour thru Princess as soon as we arrived at noon. This is a wonderful tour as others have reported on. A word of caution. The roads up to the top of the hills are very very very rough! This is what make the tour so much fun. If you have back trouble and still want to do the tour, ask to sit in the front seat with the driver. There is little back support on the bench seats in back and you will get tossed around quite a bit. Our group did a sunset cruise with Richard Postma on his boat the Taravan. This trip was the second best tour after Marc's Motu picnic of the whole trip. Richard was a great host with wonderful stories about the famous people and movie stars that have sailed with him. The boat is really beautiful and he served endless wine and beer. After the cruise he dropped us at Bloody Mary's for dinner. The fresh fish they serve is great. We had to rush thru dinner so we could make the 8:00 pm tender. If you miss the 8:00 tender, you have to wait until 11:00 pm for the final tender of the night. The staff gave us really quick service and had transportation back to the ferry dock waiting for us as soon as we finished.

The next morning most of our group did the Sharkboy tour. Sharkboy sent two of his staff to take us on the tour, he did not come. The boat was nice but the shark feeding was a little dull compared to the great fun we had on the Mata tour. There was a strong wind that day so the water was too rough for good snorkeling. We went out to a Motu and had fruit and a nice walk on the beach. There are a few good shops near the pier and a large market with many vendors. In the market I found a lady selling vanilla beans. She had bags of large fresh beans for $10 for five beans. She ran out of beans but when I returned in the afternoon she had more.

Moorea

The early morning arrival is really beautiful. As you sail into the bay you get to see the best scenery of the whole trip. At the tender dock there are many small stands selling mostly jewelry, shells and tee shirts. The prices are good but shop around. Look for the lady selling carved fossilized ivory done by her husband. She has many beautiful pieces and we bought two. The ivory is from Alaska and is legal to bring back into the US. We went on the Aquablue Helmet Dive. The departure is from the Beachcomber and they will provide transportation from and to the tender dock. If you want to spend sometime at the hotel after the dive, transportation back to the dock is easy to get on your own. The helmet dive is really easy. Follow the instructions and they handle the rest. No swimming just walking on the bottom in 12 feet of water. The stingrays are like big cats rubbing against you. Many fish to feed and take an underwater camera for some really great pictures. Last tender back to the ship is 4:30 pm. It is a quick trip back to Tahiti arriving before 8:00 pm. If you are planning on a post stay and would like to have some duty free liquor then head down to the store and you can take your purchase back to your room with you.

Tahiti

Last chance to go ashore and see all the roulottes, food vendors, at the end of the pier on your last night on the ship. If you are taking the ferry to Moorea the next day, it is easy to get to the ferry dock which is a short walk from the end of the pier. It is all paved and it is easy to roll a couple of bags. Keep in mind that even a short walk in the heat can be difficult carrying bags. Making a couple of trips will be easy. Once you get your bags to the luggage container, a ferry porter will load it for you and you can go back for your other bags. We and another couple together had 12 pieces of luggage and the Princess luggage officer let us pay two of his porters to take our luggage to the ferry luggage containers on a large wagon. We gave them $10 each and they were very happy. We took the ferry back to Moorea for two nights at the Sheraton.

Moorea Post

At Moorea, I would make transportation arragements before your trip. Local Le Truck is fine if you have little luggage and you are in no hurry and don't mind riding in the heat. We used Alberts tours. Large vans, air conditioned and great drivers. They handled all the luggage for us. They charge $5 per person to all the hotels also few dollars tip if you have luggage is a nice idea. Contact Tino at tino-alberttrs@mail.pf to set up your transfers. The Moorea Sheraton is a beautiful hotel and the OTW bungalows are a great as everyone else has said they are. We were lucky to get 107. I requested 109, 107, 105 or 103 horizon view. Bungalow 107 is out on the far end of the left branch of rooms. It has a direct view of the sunset and is completely private in the room. Out on the deck you can see only 109 and 105. Nothing between you and the view. The snorkeling was wonderful. The water is crystal clear and about 5' deep. When you snorkel, you only see a few fish at each coral head. Throw some bread in the water and watch the fish come! turn on your under the bungalow lights at night and watch all the pencil fish. The food was very good at the hotel with the usual high prices. For lunch each day, we split a sandwich at the pool grill. Big sandwiches with enough fries for two and only about $12. We went to the dance show on Tuesday night at the hotel. The buffet and show were well worth the price. Make reservations early for a show floor table.

General Notes

The ship is very small compared to the mega ships we are all used to. The daily activities aboard the ship are few. The food was the average Princess fare and the service was very good. The ship decor is nice but seems out of place in the tropics with the dark heavy woods, over stuffed chairs and the fireplaces.

This trip is the best vacation I have ever taken. What made it so great is not only the wonders and beauty of French Polynesia but the great friends we made on Cruise Critic over the five months before the trip. We always had someone to share our fun with on our tours and someone to talk to back on the ship in the evening at dinner and the show. Get involved with the people on the roll calls, do research, book trips for others in your group and when you return "pay it forward" to the other groups following you with a trip report and answers to questions.

Mike

Hi Mike, great review. We too thought this was an absolutely terrific trip. We were very lucky as everything was what we expected and better. The post stay was great too. It really gave us a chance to unwind and catch up on sleeping and reading and we didn't do half the stuff you guys did!!! You must still be catching up!

I agree that Marc's on Huahine was probably the best shore excursion. I think the water around that island offered the best varying shades of colors, blues/greens/aquas etc. And the picnic itself was really a lot of fun. The drift snorkel was wonderful, little or no work at all!

We thought the food was great in the diningroom, never had a bad meal. Our waitstaff was wonderful, which made the whole experience even more fun. We're pretty easy to please buffet wise, so didn't have any issues there either (remember the bowls of prawns....I pretended I was taking some back for everybody....but I ate them ALL!) The egg guy in the morning was great too. He'd do up an omelette (even fried the onions and mushrooms and anything else you wanted in it). You could get them scrambled or fried too. The burgers where great and once the buffet wore off after 3 or 4 hours, a burger and fries filled that empty space just starting. Pizza was great everyday. Some very interesting combos, but really good nonetheless. Now that coffee............I will drink just about anything in the morning to get me started and finally came up with the 3/4 coffee to 1/4 hot water mix that worked OK. If you drink it with cream and sugar it might be alright, but I drink it black. It seemed to be better in the diningroom don't know why because they told us it came from the same source (a concentrate of some sort)

Moorea was great. The only disappointment was our dinner at Alfredo's. We knew it was going to be pricey, but the food just wasn't that great. Now the entertainment....well that was a different story......there was a great group of people in there the night we went and we did have a lot of fun. Some very intertesting waiters/ressess (really weren't sure which it was but very entertaining)

We did another shark/ray feeding motu picnic with Albert and it was really good too. The tables weren't in the water on this motu because of all the coral, but some of the best snorkeling we did. Entirely different fish that we'd never seen before. The rays were about 2 feet from the shore. You could just about walk right out to the reef. Did a 4X4 safari and circle island tour too, also with Albert and it was one of the best. We also took advantage of the freebie shuttles that the pearl stores offered, so spent very little on transportation other than our transfers to and from the ferry. We did manage to find some great little places to eat that didn't break the bank and with a few more days probably could have come up with a few more. But these places just don't advertise so you just sort of come across them. Most were in Le Petit Village not too far from the Beachcomber.

Got some of our underwater pictures developed today and they are the best we've ever taken. We got them put on a CD, so I'll have to figure out how to get them online or sent to everyone (very techie challenged here, so this may take awhile unless I can get one of my kids to help) I think because the water is so crystaline clear every color, stripe and fin came out great. We now have to go through the 500 or so digital pics and sort them all out.

Well back to work tomorrow....reality check. Hard to believe we've been there and done it already.

Linda

Tahitian Princess

Thank you so much for the report, Mike! It seems that you really enjoyed the Motu Tours on Raiatea. What was the shark feeding like? I'm thinking that we might cancel our Bruno tour (at a $100/pp) and go with Motu. Do you know if they can be contacted in advance for a reservation?

Linda, sounds like you had a fabulous time as well! All of the reports and reviews that we have been reading just get us even more excited about the trip. Thank you!

~Suzy

"Our" Maiden Voyage: Tahitian Princess Aug. 25

Hi Mike!

Great to read your review! How did I know you would love FP?!!!!!! Sounds like it was just as wonderful, as usual!

We should have fun comparing stories on the Star. Maybe you and Kaye will be interested in joining our group of CCers to Fiji next Feb? We are taking Blue Lagoon Cruises, a 70 passenger ship, for a week, then staying post cruise at a resort!

Nita

Suzy, I looked around on the net and I can't find anything on Mata Tours. I think they only book on the dock. I think that you would'nt have any trouble booking them when you arrived. Just plan to get off the ship early and talk to them inside the terminal. They said that they had two boats.

Nita, the Fiji trip sounds like a dream. Not sure that I could talk the wife into another trip to paradise that soon. Talk to you on the Star and on the roll call.

Mike

Mike, loved the review. I agree, Polynesia was absolutely the best, but meeting and putting faces to the names on the roll call was something we will never forget. I feel like Weldon and I have made friends that will last forever. It was an honor to meet each of you. I sure wish we were on the Star, but someone must birth the babies. Just wished we were not so sick. My daughter leaves for Australia tomorrow and she is now sick too. Again, thanks for you friendship and the memories.

nancy

Mike, Thanks for the heads up regaring Mata Tours. Once last question (yeah right!), do they take credit cards or just cash? It seems as though all the private tour operators only take cash.

Thanks again - and also to Cruisenurse. Your responses are so helpful!

~Suzy

"Our" Maiden Voyage: Tahitian Princess Aug. 25

Suzy,

Cash only on all the tours! Some take US$, others say FP only. If I remember correctly, only Dr. Poole requested FP, rather than US.

Use your CC at all the stores, car rental, hotels, etc.

Nita

Wow, GREAT reviews! Did any of you happen to save your patters and/or menus? I would LOVE to add them to my site!

JON

www.geocities.com/pattersandmenus

Golden Princess 7/11/04

Big Red Boat-1993 (Amy)

Celebrity Zenith-1993 (Jon)

Suzy, I don't remember if Mata Tours accepted credit cards. I paid them in US dollars. Many small places including some of the small tables setup at the tender dock in Moorea accepted credit cards. You might consider taking two cards. In the Cook Islands, the American Express system was down and the shops only wanted either visa or MC.

Mike

We were on the same trip as Mike and Nancy. We never changed a penny the whole trip and never had a problem. We used credit card (VISA) when we could and dollars the rest of the time. At no time did anyone refuse dollars at the same rate they were charging for FPF (French Polynesian Francs). Those that changed money lost on both directions due to charges assessed by the bank or other facility to convert money. Bring plenty of $$$dollars! It is an expensive area. Like full buffet breakfast for $32 and dinner for $70 (PP) at the hotels and major restaurants. You can pay less if you look around.

Until Caribbean Princess Sails November 13, 2004

Mike, thank you for such a great review. I agree with you Mark of Huahaine and Stephane of Mata tours, Raiatea are absolutely fantastic and should not be missed. They both prefer payment in US Dollars. We were on the 17/4 cruise. Although we haven't got round to writing a review our photo's can be viewed on Roll Call April 17th. together with a great review from Garry one of our C.C. cruise friends.We have now been home for four weeks and I'm just coming down to earth. We will certainly go back to F.P.

Kathy.

'67 Australis.Syd-Southhampton.

'68 Oriana.Southhampton-Sydney.

'92 Horizon. Eastern Caribbean.

'93 Majesty oftheseas.Caribbean

'94 Crown Princess. Alaska.

'96 Horizon. Panama Canal.

'97 Century. Caribbean.

'98 Crown Princess. Hawaii.

'99 Century. Mediterranian.

'00 Century. Caribbean.

'01 Enchantment of the Seas.

'01 Crown Princes Tahiti-Hawaii

'03 Regal Princes Syd -Auckland

'03 Sun Princess Mexico.

'04 Pacific Princess.New Caledonia

'04 Tahitian Princ.Cook Islands

Mike,

Thanks for all the information. I have one question. We have booked marc's picnic and I have a tendency to seasickness. I have been on many cruises and had no problem as long as I take pills. Will the smaller boat be real rough and did you see many people with seasickness?

Thanks

Jan

Thanks for the info. We will plan on bringing lots of small bills and $$ for excursions just in case.

~Suzy

"Our" Maiden Voyage: Tahitian Princess Aug. 25

Jan, the boat ride is around the island protected by the outer reef giving a ride "smooth as silk". We were there on a very windy day and no boat movement at all. The boat ride is very slow. You should'nt need your pills for this one.

Mike