PG 10 day June 26 Cruise Review

Disclaimer: First of all, thanks to all of you for your tips and help. It made things much smoother and easier. Secondly, it was great to meet all the CC people and they are some of the nicest people you could ever want with you on vacation. Lastly,this is just my opinion based on my experience. No vacation is without blips and bumps. I can't pretend everything was perfect when it wasn't. However, this was one of the nicest vacations we have ever had and if I could retire on Moorea, I'd do it.:D

We flew into LAX Friday night. Coming from the East Coast, it helped to break up the flight and get us adjusted to the time change. We stayed at the Radisson (Club Carlson points). We were on the 4:30 flight to Tahiti on Saturday. We had booked a pre-stay in Moorea through PG. An Air Tahiti Nui travel agent was waiting for us at LAX when we checked in. We must have been the last ones because after she greeted us she disappeared. We did get there a little later than we had planned, but it minimized the wait to board the plane. There was no line at the check in and it was very fast and efficient. The plane was one of the refurbished ones; it was colorful, but still just as cramped as any coach section. We did have one of the 2 seat sections, so it wasn’t as bad. They give you a pillow, blanket and a little package with socks, earplugs, mask, towelette and headphones. There are plenty of movies to choose from, as well as TV shows. I found the travel shows on French Polynesia interesting. The food was pretty good. I had beef stroganoff. They served another smaller meal 2 hours before landing, but I barely touched it and can’t even remember what it was.

Be aware that when you land at Faaa, you have to exit via metal stairs, so you may want to consider that when you pack a carry-on bag. The comments about immigration being slow weren't exaggerated. Some people in front of us were getting mad because they were letting people with children and in wheelchairs jump the line. I guess they never had children. They did finally open up another line on our side and things moved much better.

Once through and with our bags, we found the Air Tahiti Nui Rep (it was a little hard because there were a lot of people) and they greeted us with a lei and a cool bottle of water. They also gave us our transfer info and ferry tickets.

Check-in at the IC Tahiti was quick and the room was lovely. In the morning, we could see Moorea and the overwater bungalows. Breakfast was included and there is a wide variety of food to choose. The coffee was awful and the instant coffee I had made in the room had been better, which tells you how bad the coffee really was.

( I'd like to post a few pictures, but can't seem to get it to work. I get upload failed. Anyone have any tips on how to attach a photo?)

Since we had never been here before, we booked this through the cruise line. We thought it would be the easiest and that way we had nothing to do except show up on time. (We barely made it, because the alarm didn’t go off and put us behind and we just HAD to go and stand on the balcony and oh and ah over the view) We were picked up at 8:30 and taken to the ferry. The ferry is comfortable and there is a snack bar there if you get there in the wee hours and are waiting awhile for the ferry. We liked the seats downstairs better than the ones upstairs, so if you don’t get seasick, try sitting there. There is a snack bar. It takes 30 minutes. Once there, a transfer was waiting for us. We had to sit through a sales pitch for an island 4x4 tour, but it was mercifully short. The driver pointed out places of interest along the way—his English was bad, but he got the point across.

The IC Moorea is lovely. We were greeted with cool towels and mango juice. Since we were merely peons and not Ambassador status, we had to wait for our room. They offered us a transit room (a shower and sink) to change if we wanted to sit by the pool, but we declined and walked around instead. We had lunch in the restaurant (shrimp Caesar salad which was very good) and then inquired about our room. They said 15 minutes, but there was a bad sewage smell and were switching us to another room and it would be another hour. At that point, we took them up on the transit room and went and swam. The pools were very nice and there is a swim up bar. We had booked a beach bungalow and it was great –quiet with a nice stretch of beach by the lagoon. There is air conditioning and ceiling fans. The porch has 2 nice lounge chairs and a table and chairs if you want to eat breakfast outside. The porch does have glass doors. I can tell you first hand that there are mosquitoes there. I hated the hair dryer—you had to keep your thumb on the switch to keep it running. TV channels were minimal, but we don’t go on vacation to watch TV. We had dinner at La Villa des Sens, at the Legends Resort right across the road. Someone here on CC recommended it and we decided to try it. The food was excellent (pricey, but this is FP) and the view would have been great had it been daylight.

Breakfast was included and had a wide variety for all tastes. They had a section for Japanese visitors. The coffee was bad and the scrambled eggs were runny, but the croissants and pain au chocolat were terrific. Incidentally, they serve baked beans and green beans for breakfast.

We rented a car from Avis for 2 days.(we really only needed it for one day, but it kept our options open for lunch and dinner Tuesday) We did the circle the island tour recommended in Frommer’s. I highly recommend renting a car if you stay in Moorea or even for the first day the ship is there. You can do things at your own pace, stop at pearl shops and the grocery store (the big one was closed for inventory) and see parts of the island that the regular ship tours don’t take you. Make sure you stop at the plane memorial overlook by the Sofitel—incredible view. There is a public beach (Temae) if you wish to go swimming. We thought the agricultural school wasn’t worth the time (we did buy some papaya jam). We went to the juice/distillery and tasted their juice and liquors and there is no pressure to buy. We bought some of their tropical juice blend for our bungalow. We did stop at Le Petit Village and bought some water at their small grocery store. The store had water and drinks, but the rest was sparsely stocked. We had lunch at Patisserie Carmaline. People will just park behind you if they are running in to get something, so be prepared to be temporarily blocked in. We took most of the day for our tour. We drove to Rudy’s (about 30 minutes) and met FlightMedic and Mrs. FM for dinner since he and Keith were going scuba diving in the morning. I had parrotfish—tasty.

Tuesday Keith and FM went scuba diving. Top Dive has an office at the Hilton and their launch point is at the IC. They saw lemon and reek sharks and got to touch a non-endangered sea turtle. They enjoyed the dive. For lunch, we drove to Le Petit Village because we had noticed a restaurant there that was offering free wifi and we wanted to look at the shops. It is a blue and white restaurant past the pearl shops (Pizza Mahana or something Mahana). Ask for the wifi code and they’ll give it to you as long as you order something. We had the pizza. One was enough to share and it was pretty good and not expensive. The IC has kayaks you can use for 2 hours, so we got one and only had an hour due to the time and paddled around the resort. Leave time to go stand on the bridge by the dolphin enclosure to catch the sunset—incredible. For dinner, we went to Le Mayflower, just past Le Petit Village. They will pick you up, but I think it costs $10. We had the car, so it wasn’t an issue. Try their Lobster Ravioli. I live in the most Italian town in America and it beat any lobster ravioli I have had here.

Embarkation Day

I forgot to mention that we were celebrating our 30th anniversary on this trip. We chose this trip due to the ratings of the PG, so the ship chose the destination rather than choosing the destination then the ship. We have cruised on 4 other cruise lines and this was the smallest ship we have been on. We aren't big ships cruisers and prefer smaller ships.

The PG’s transfer back to the ferry was just as good as the previous transfers. So far the transfers get an A. We were picked up promptly at 1:30 for the ride back to the ferry and had about 20 minutes to wait once we were there. Once back in Papeete, we could see the PG a few docks over. It would have been an easy walk over and I wouldn't have minded if we had just strolled over there, but that would never do. We were met, put in a van and driven right to the gangway! We filled out a health form, Ian snapped our picture and we were escorted to Deck 5 and the Grand Salon for check-in. We were handed a glass of champagne had our picture taken for the security program, handed our key cards and escorted to our cabin, 422. Total time: 10 minutes max. It is by far the easiest embarkation we have ever experienced on a cruise and they get an A+.

We chose Deck 4 based on comments here on CC. Thanks for the recommendation because it suited us perfectly. Due to the mirrors and window, it didn't feel small or cramped and we liked the proximity to the tenders, marina and reception. No noise came from reception. They did like to use the lifeboat on our side for the tender and that was noisy when lowering and raising, but it wasn't any big deal since we were awake by the time it was lowered. Most of the time we had a nice view from our window and we saw a lot of sunsets that way.

There was a Happy Anniversary greeting waiting for us from the captain. Our bags were there waiting for us, but we grabbed the deck map and our camera and went to see everything. I forgot about the door on Deck 8! We went and made reservations for La Veranda and Le Grill, which were, frankly, screwed up. We booked La Veranda for the first BB night and Le Grill for the first Moorea night, and when the BB day came, we got cards for reservations for both places at the same time! Didn't they think that was bit odd? We later made another booking for La Veranda which they got correct, but then the Le Grill reservation came as for La Veranda! (We canceled that anyway, but someone was obviously confused. I think they got written in the wrong book).After touring around, we went to the Marina to get our snorkel gear. That was easy and efficient. A Happy Anniversary piece of chocolate cake had appeared in our absence, but we decided to leave it to later because it was too close to dinner. (turns out that was a mistake, because it disappeared the next morning.) There were plenty of hangers. The only thing I would have liked more of were drawers, but I made do with the shelves. The luggage fit nicely under the bed. There are 2 110 outlets for use—one on the vanity/desk and one by the mini fridge. The hair dryer was fine and didn't catch on fire ;) They give you a nylon knapsack that was handy for the beach towels.

From here on, I am going to break things into ports, meals/food, entertainment/lectures, service, then miscellaneous. If you want a day by day report of what we did complete with pictures, you can read my blog about it here: http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/njbeaglemom/10/tpod.html If that link doesn't work, let me know.

Nice blog! I respectfully disagree about the Agricultural school (as I am having a waffle with pineapple/vanilla jam from there). I always stock up there and get a year's supply. It is the best jam anywhere. I was able to get a tour once behind the scenes and its a lot of fun. Loved eating grapefruit and pineapple off the trees!

Welcome back to NJ - I get to leave again soon.....

I did say we bought a jar a jam :) There was a bunch of construction going when we were there, so all we saw were a bunch of gutted buildings. I think one classroom had 5 people in it. Other then that (and the concession area) there was no one around.

I started the blog because I have friends that wanted me to write one for our cruise 5 years ago. They told me there never got to go anywhere like that and wanted to go with me.

Huahine: Marc's Tour ( I think that it correct. Flight Medic Arranged it)

All day.Pearl Farm #1 (it was interesting the first time, but not the second and 3rd. I decided they are like Turkish carpet places--you can't avoid them) You did get to see the pearl farm owner's house--nice! First snorkeling I had done in a long time. Slight current, easy snorkel. The boat drifts along with you if you get tired. The motu picnic was in a beautiful spot. There is a port a potty and a hose "shower" to wash off the salt water. They show you how to make poisson cru. The food was good. The shark feeding--what an experience. I did go in the water. There is rope to hang onto and a metal platform for your feet ( I was too short.) I wouldn't want to do it again, but I am glad I did it once. It made me less afraid of the reef sharks and willing to go snorkel when they were present.

Bora Bora: Reef Discovery Tour

3-4 hours. What's not to like about BB? Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Fabien was a great guide and funny as well. He gets in the water with you, so if you are at all uncomfortable snorkeling, he'll take care of you. There are life vests if you need them. First stop was a coral garden. He guides you through it and tell you what you will see. Lots of fish, clams, urchins and beautiful coral to see. Next stop is a sea urchin with a family of clown fish. He took us to the Manta Ray spot. You must wear life vest here. The water was murky, but we did see mantas. Last stop was the "aquarium." Water was a bit choppy, but nothing too bad. He'll give you a piece of bread to close in your fist and you'll get trigger and angel fish swarming around you/ If that freaks you out, don't take the bread. Beautiful spot--lots of fish, an eagle ray and even a moray eel.

Day 2: 4x4 Safari (Ship's tour)

DO NOT take this tour if you hate bumpy roads, get car sick or have back problems. They aren't kidding about the warning. Take bug spray. We joked that the roads were built by the GIs in WW2 and not maintained since. :p The views are worth it though. The last stop at the TV antenna is worth all the bumps, jolts and foliage in your hair. Up there is probably the most incredible view you'll ever see. ( The other truck with us skipped at least one spot because (from what I heard) someone wanted to see some beach and didn't like the jolts) You'll also make a stop at the tour owner's Pearl Farm (named "The Farm")

Keith went on a dive through the ship to see the Manta Rays. It was even murkier than the day before, but they did get to see the rays up close. He said it was an incredible dive.

The Hieva was going on while we were there. We bought tickets for the grandstand ($38 US) so we wouldn't have to stand and hope we could see something. Really interesting piece of Tahitian culture. If you are there while it is occurring, make an effort to go. They tell you in French, English and Tahitian what the dance is about. Ours was about planting yams and plants on a mountain to preserve them (or something like that. I was tired and was nodding off during the explanation) Didn't matter. The dancing was great. They kept at it for over an hour.

I just read your blog and I loved all your pictures. We will be going over on Nov.2,2013. What kind of camera did you use? Your pictures came out so nice. Can't wait until it is our time. We will be celebrating our 32nd anniversary.

Happy Anniversary! Enjoy your cruise. It really is a wonderful cruise.

I used a Panasonic Lumix DMZ-F50. It is about 5-6 years old. The underwater pictures were taken with a Casio Exilim Pocket sized camera with a DiciPac WP110 waterproof case. I also used my Ipad Mini for a few of the pictures.

Nancy, spectacular blog. We are at the Tahiti airport now starting the long ride home.

Save travels, Eric.

Eric & Hillary,

It was a pleasure meeting both of you!! Where did you go post cruise?? Hope you have a safe trip home!

Nancy & Keith,

Great blog!! It was fun meeting both of you too!!

Shari & Alan

Post cruise we went to the Kia Ora on Rangiora for 6 nights.

We arrived home today, work tomorrow :(.

Nothing like taking a day to get your act together!

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

Rangiroa

In all honesty, I could have skipped this stop. I had booked a snorkel tour because Keith was going diving, but canceled it. I don’t know what my opinion would have been had I done the snorkeling, but since it was only an hour snorkel and I had snorkeled in other places and would be doing it at the next stop, I don’t regret not going and I doubt it would have made a difference in my opinion. Others who have done it can chime in and say how it was. We were only there from 12-5; not a whole lot of time to do much. I did take a tender and walk around for about an hour just to see the place. I did enjoy the down time and seeing how people lived.

Keith went on a 2 take dive. He said the first dive was to a beautiful reef wall with a strong current that left him a little nauseous. They had spotted some dolphins surfing in the waves and went on a blue water dive the second dive. This one was better and they got to see and swim with the dolphins.

Fakarava

Ato’s all day tour: I liked the snorkeling at the coral head. Lots to see (reef sharks, a stone fish, beautiful fish and coral) and we swam around the entire area. The water was a bit choppy on the outside of the coral head, but nothing bad if you are a decent swimmer. They give you an hour and I think we were out about 45-50 minutes. We hit a brief patch of rain on the motu for lunch. I found the basket making demonstration from palm fronds interesting. We didn’t snorkel in the lagoon. There was plenty of time for it, but we enjoyed just talking to people and watching them BBQ our lunch. The lunch was great—parrotfish, red fish, fish skewers, breadfruit, lentils, macaroni salad, fruit. I thought the afternoon dragged a bit and wouldn't have minded if we had gone straight back to the ship after lunch. We went to this place they call the mirror--deep blue water where you can see quite a ways down. Some got out and drift snorkeled to see the coral. The guide in the other boat speared 2 fish. We stopped at one other snorkeling spot, but I didn't snorkel. Maybe I was just tired or it could have been the weather—it started to rain, stopped and then rained again most of the night.

Tah’aa

I’m not a beach person, but if all beaches were like this one, I’d go all the time. The weather wasn't the best to start, cloudy and a little rainy, but improved. It is a wet landing, so be prepared to wade to the shore (not deep—below knees). There are vendors selling handicrafts, pareos, vanilla and pearl jewelry. The food was hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, salads, bread, fruit, brownies, corn. It was all good. Lots of people went snorkeling and used the kayaks. We didn't (we brought our gear, just never used it). I was enjoying just sitting in a lounge chair watching people and taking pictures of the place. The Gauguins sang and danced in the surf. The only negative on this day was that the bathrooms were closed due to the pump not working. We left at 3 and, they may have gotten them working just before we left because the mechanic was on the tender with us.

Awesome though I will tell you that some of the best snorkeling anywhere for me was in Rangiroa.

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

I figured if I missed out, I missed out. Gives me a good reason to go back.:)

Moorea-- I loved this place. I was glad we spent the 3 days pre-cruise there and was glad to go back for 2 more. Just spectacular in every way.

We did Trail of the Ancients with Mark Eddows on Day 1. Really interesting if you like archeology and/or anthropology. You stop at Opunohu Bay, the Agricultural school (did learn an interesting bit of history about the statue at the school), then go to Belvedere lookout (just as great the second time and it was different in the afternoon light) before starting the walk. The walk is mostly downhill, but the trail is rocky in a few places and you have to cross the brook, so wear good shoes. The walk is gorgeous –just beautiful. Make sure you look at the Tahitian Chestnuts by the brook—they have the neatest roots. (They’re called buttress roots). As you exit the forest, look at the mountain—the back looks like a Tahitian Chestnut root.

We also did Dr. Poole’s Dolphin watch on the last day. It would have been cool to see the whales, but it was a bit early for them. We did see the dolphins jumping. It was a bit of a tight fit in the boat, so if you don’t like getting knee to knee with people, you may want to skip it. You get a nice view of the island from the boat.

There are stalls by the boat dock (we docked next to the Papetoai Temple ) with handcrafts, inexpensive pearl jewelry, T-shirts, Pareos etc. There are also Pearl shop vans to take you to a pearl shop if you desire (there was Ron Hall, Albert's and Tahia when we were there)

Papeete

You have plenty of time before you have to be off the ship to go to the Public Market. You can find all kinds of souvenirs there. Some of it is your typical tourist junk. Make sure you go look at the flowers. Really pretty tropical colors and arrangements. If you are there pre-cruise, there are pareos galore and at good prices to buy before you get on the ship. You can even walk down one of the side streets and buy a bolt of pareo fabric to take home and make gifts for your friends. The pearl shops are upstairs.

We opted to take the tour offered after disembarking. We didn’t want to say we had gone to Tahiti and only saw the Market, the docks and the IC, so we took the tour. We found it interesting. They take you to the James Norman Hall home (who co-wrote Mutiny on the Bounty), then to a lovely waterfall, and then to Point Venus. We enjoyed all 3 places and were glad we did it.

I will comment on the Radisson here, since it was part of our day. We were given a suite as was everyone I talked to while there (didn’t talk to everyone, but it was unanimous among those I did.) They have free Wi-Fi (we had to go to the lobby area to get it, but it was free so we didn’t care.) The amount of time we were there was fine for us. We had time to shower, relax, eat and catch up on emails and such. We ate in the restaurant and we didn’t think the prices were outrageous. Not cheap, but not outrageous. The food was good.

Meals/Food:

Very good to excellent across the board. While not always hot, even warm it tasted good.

We only at at Le Grille once--the last night. Tattoo Boy arranged to have a final dinner there for the CC gang. We ate on deck by the pool with Papeete in the background. Not the best food I had on the ship, but when everything was good, even that isn't bad. Le Grille for breakfast and lunch was just too hectic for us. We tried a couple of times, but it was just too crowded.

La Veranda: Breakfast buffet had everything you could want and items you could order off menu. Try the local jams--papaya, pineapple etc. Lunches had themes American on July 4th, Indian (not my thing) etc. There were salads, fruit, hot items, a carving station and desserts. The blueberry cobbler was great! You could also order off menu--we didn't.

Dinners--the menu changed halfway through. We went twice and loved it both times. The snail fricassee was probably the single best thing I ate the whole trip. Make sure you try the salt sticks.

L'Etoile-- good food all around. Enjoyed the open seating, but if you are the first at a large table you may have to wait a bit to order. I think I tried fish, chicken, turkey, lamb, pork and beef. It was all good. There was no lobster (unless it was on the menu the first time we ate in La Veranda.) We always ate with someone. If you don't like the 2 wines they bring to start, ask for something else. I'm not a Sauv. Blanc fan and asked for a Pinot Grigio instead and the one they gave me was excellent. We never even glanced at the wine you could buy--we liked what they offered. I loved the soups. Desserts were works of art (and tasted good, too.) Terrific vanilla ice cream.

Room Service: Got it once. Everything was okay except the waffle. It was cold and rubbery, not the crisp waffle I was expecting.

Coffee-- sigh. Inconsistent (sometimes good, but mostly bleah and not my cup of tea..er, coffee.) Keith said the cappuccino was better but not great. I had to ask for 1/2 and 1/2 every time. (One nice thing about assigned seating at dinner--the waiters get to know what you like and I wouldn't have had to ask more than twice for it) Others may have liked the coffee and disagree, but I just didn't care for it.

Service: Great. They really try hard to do things right. They weren't always consistent putting the napkins in the lap, but I didn't much care.

Bars: good service the few times we went for pre-dinner or after dinner drinks. Le Pallette does have these really good grilled cheese appetizers.