warmsands

Thank you so much Nancy!  You have been more than helpful!  You gave me so many great ideas I hadn't thought of.  Enjoy your next cruise!!

Kristine

Thanks for the great ideas Peteoonya!  You have been so helpful.  I'm still not sure what we will do in Fakarava and Rangiroa.  I got a reply back from Vincent at Fakarava Diving Center and he said they would do a 2 hour morning snorkel for $20 pp.  If I don't get enough people for Ato, then maybe we could do the morning snorkel with Vincent, and then take the afternoon Blue Lagoon ship tour.  Is the morning tour much better for the snorkeling?  You mentioned we should take the morning Blue Lagoon tour.  I have also emailed Kariga2 about their Blue Lagoon tour but haven't heard back.  But that's a great idea to ask Ato if he would accept $300 for the 2 of us.  I will definitely try that.  We've been to Fakarava once before in 2014 on Oceania Marina.  It was an unscheduled stop (we were supposed to go to Nuka Hiva and Hiva Oa, but Hiva Oa was cancelled because of rough seas for the tender boats).  So they took us to Fakarava and we absolutely loved it.  No one had tours because it was unscheduled so we just got off the ship and hired a man with a fishing boat to take us snorkeling.  I don't know where he took us but it was incredible!  A whole wall of coral, thousands of fish, tons of sharks.  So we were so looking forward to going back, but I am a little frustrated with such a small number of tours.  02 Fakarava, Dive Spirit, and Top Dive all said they didn't have any snorkel tours that day.  Our diving days are over, I'm afraid.  My husband had a brain tumor a few years back and radiation took care of it, but the doctors think that diving would put too much pressure on the brain.  So we are going to stick with snorkeling.  

So I'll wait to see if we can get a couple more people for Y Aka Plongee in Rangiroa.  I guess we could always do a ship tour that day if we have to.  And I booked the Coral Garden snorkel through the ship in Taha'a.  Thanks for the tip.  We did that once before with Bruno's tour and it was really fun.  

A couple more questions!  You mentioned Tahiti Wifi in your review.  How did you reserve that?  And I think you mentioned you used an airbnb for a day room in Tahiti after the cruise.  Do you remember which airbnb you used?  Or another good place for a day room for the last day?  We were going to just rent a car, but I'm not finding too many must see sights.  

Thanks again for all your good advice!

Kristine

Several companies will not give a firm confirmation until there are more people.  Ato's Fakarava tour, the sailing charter in Huahine, and Y Aka Plongee's Tiputa Pass Drift snorkel in Rangiroa.  I emailed Rangiroa Plongee a couple of weeks ago and they said the tide schedule is not good for that day.  Y Aka Plongee said that they would take us to the Aquarium and then drift snorkel Tiputa Pass if the tides worked out and if we could get 2 more people.  Last time we were in Rangiroa, we did Leon's tour, so we wanted to try something different.  We have not done the Tiputa Pass snorkel.  I hope it works out.  I was interested to see that many of the tours you did on your cruise were the same ones that I had picked.  It was nice to get confirmation from someone who has done the tours.  Thanks for all the information!

Thanks Petoonya!  I will keep trying to get a group together.  Thanks again for all the great information!

17 hours ago, Petoonya said:

For some reason sometimes I can find it and sometimes I can't. But found it!

Here you go:

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=641857

Fantastic review!!  Thank you so much.  So much good information.  One question - which tour operator did you use for the drift snorkel/aquarium in Rangiroa?  We are past divers/avid snorkelers and I loved all the information about the snorkeling tours.  I had already contacted several of the tour companies you mentioned and they said they need 4, 6, 8 person minimum.  No one else has posted on our Roll Call that I started.  Is there another place I can post to try to get more people?

Thanks again for a great review! 

Kristine

On 12/24/2018 at 8:57 AM, Petoonya said:

Sorry that it's so long! It's been a week and a half since we got off that beautiful ship and I'm still on a high. Urge everyone to do this cruise.

I'd love to read your review.  We are booked on the May 20 Tahiti and Tuamotu cruise and would love to see what tours you chose.  I don't seem to be able to find your review.  I'm kind of new to cruisecritic.  Please let me know where you posted your review.  Thank you!   Kristine

We are trying to decide which Princess ship to choose for a 2017 June/July Vancouver to Anchorage cruise. We decided on Princess so we could see Glacier Bay. Is there a difference in the 3 ships doing that itinerary: Coral, Island, or Star? Does one of the ships have better viewing places? And if so, what are the best decks or areas for viewing the scenery, glaciers, etc? Thanks for your help.

Thank you so much for your replies. It was so helpful! I'll do my research and then book optionals onboard.

This will be our first river cruise. We will be traveling on the Viking Skadi Aug 23, 2014 from Amsterdam to Budapest. I have read through some of the posts and some people mention optional tours offered through Viking. Are you able to reserve these optional tours in advance online or do you sign up for them after you board the cruise ship? I'm hoping a veteran river cruiser can explain how to do this. Also - what are the best optional tours for the Ams to Bud itinerary? Thanks!

Kristine