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Trip report 7/30/16 Cook & Society Islands 11 day Cruise


luckybecky
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We had asked for room service breakfast between 7:30 and 8:00 It arrived at 7:25. We got room service breakfast every day that we had a morning excursion. The menu asks you to check off a 30 minute time frame for delivery. (7:00 - 7:30, or 7:30 - 8:00, etc). Every time it arrived at the very beginning of the timewindow we selected, sometimes even 5-10 minutes before. So make sure you are up and ready. It was lovely to eat on our balcony. Sorry my picture of the breakfast menu is so poor.

 

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Ready to start our day in Huahine!

 

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We went downstairs

to get on the first tender at 8:30. We had booked a private tour with two couples from our roll call. We met them in the tender boarding area. Every port except

Papeete used a tender.

 

Our guide for Marc's Motu picnic/Combo Tour was right on the pier. The tour was scheduled from

915 am to 3:00 pm and cost $140 per person. It included 4 x 4 land tour, private motu picnic, snorkeling, outrigger canoe, and a shark encounter. Here is the link:

 

http://huahine-nautique.com/tour2.html

 

 

We began with a drive around the island. Our guide dropped us off in the small town of Fare for about 15-20 minutes. We looked around the grocery store. Whole pigs for sale! Which is why I like to go to the local grocery store wherever I am. You see things that you would never see at home.

 

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We noticed lots of dogs everywhere, but very tame. We soon discovered this to be true on all the islands. Many loose dogs everywhere we went, but they were almost always very quiet and not bothersome.

 

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Next we went to see the marae, a vanilla "plantation" which was really just somebody's house who had a few vanilla plants in a small garden, along with a small shop. Our guide told us how the vanilla grows which was interesting.

Then we saw blue eyed eels. Our guide got in with them and fed them so we could get a good look.

 

Marae

 

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Vanilla "plantation"

 

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We also stopped at a little "boutique," a small shop with shell jewelry and a few other island items. Nobody in our little group was buying anything at any of our stops.

 

Then our guide took us to get on our boat, which took the 6 of us to the pearl farm, a hut in the middle of a lagoon. The lady there gave a good explanation of how the pearls are made. Prices seemed high, but I don't know what they are anywhere else. Exchange rate 10000 cfp = $100. This is the rate we found everywere. Just move the decimal point over two spaces to convert 1000 CFP = $10.00.

 

Next we got back on the boat where a bunch more people joined us so it got pretty crowded. There were about 20 of us I guess. We motored out to do a drift snorkel which was lovely.

 

Maria, our roll call friend who is a much more experienced snorkeler/diver, said the variety of fish was limited and the coral dead, but for us not having snorkeled much, it was wonderful. And easy. The current gently carried us along so was not strenuous at all. Our boat went on ahead so we just floated along until we caught up with it.

 

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This is the pearl farm

 

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Then back on the boat, we headed to our next stop to feed the sharks. Our guide stopped often to point out features on the island. Too often. It took a long time to get to our next destination. Most of the things he pointed out were just this and that resort or whatever. There was one interesting feature, a cliff or rock formation that looked like a face.

 

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Anyway, finally we made it to sharks. Amazing!!! Tons of sharks and fish. I was SOOO disappointed though because my camera died! I couldn't believe it! Not one shot, and this was the most insane part of the entire day! An experience not to be missed. You get off the boat onto a floating dock, from there into the water where ropes were tied. We were strictly instructed to grab the rope and not let go. Then one of the guides fed the sharks which completely ignored us and swam all around, along with large variety of other fish. Marvelous!

 

However, later in our trip we would have another opportunity to swim with sharks which was much less structured and seemed more natural. I liked that later experience even better. I'll tell you about it when we get there.

 

So as you can see there was a LOT packed into this one tour. Can you believe we did all that in one day? It cost $140 per person.

 

For purposes of price comparison, I could not find a comparable tour through PG. I don't see anything that offers the land tour plus the snorkeling and sharks. They have a 3 hour lagoon cruise that costs $105, plus a 3.5 hour 4 x 4 tour that costs $89. If it is possible to combine these two tours then you might get a similar experience to what we had, but without the motu picnic, which was a highlight of the day (lunch, alcholic and nonalchoholic beverages, poisson cru demonstration, swimming).

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Oops, I got a little out of order. Before the shark encounter, we had a picnic...

 

Back on the boat, we were taken to a secluded little motu for lunch. We were the only ones there. Our group was about 20 people. Picnic tables set in the water. All the beer and rum punch you wanted. They made fresh poisson cru, showing us how it is made. There was also salad, bread, saffron rice, chicken, fish, and fruit. A delicious meal. There was time to swim here. Very nice, since it was just our small group with no one else around.

 

Making poisson cru:

 

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Learning how to open a coconut

 

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Lunch

 

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One of the things I quickly discovered and loved about our trip: everywhere we went was so uncrowded. A typical beach in Florida or California is just teeming with people. Not so here. The most beautiful places seemed to belong to us alone.

 

Here is the secluded spot where we had lunch:

 

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Edited by luckybecky
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We got back to the ship late. Our tour was scheduled to last until 3:00, but it was about an hour late returning to the pier. So we got our money's worth, but I wanted to see the Children of Huahine show at 3:30 and we were much too late back on board for that.

 

I also wanted to see the Moonfish presentation but missed most of that too! Back onboard, I showered as quickly as possible and then ran up to the pool deck just in time to see the chef thanking the people who came to see the presentation, and saying goodbye.

 

It is of note that EVERY private excursion we took returned later than scheculed. Sometimes as much as 1-2 hours late. So if you want to participate in on-board activities, this is something to be aware of when scheduling your tours. We were never in danger of missing the ship, none of our tours was ever that late, but they did run later than scheduled.

 

So we missed the afternoon activities but did have time to go to the Captain's Welcome Party at 6:30. They were serving drinks and canapes. We had our photo taken with the Captain, but we never purchased any photos on board. I thought the pricing was just outrageous. The quality of the pictures was good, so whether or not they are worth the price is up to you. There was a special if you purchased early.

 

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Dinner in L'Etoile

 

Chateaubriand was excellent. Much better than my steak last night. Good salad. Easy conversation. When we arrived at the restaurant, the maitre'd asked if we wanted to sit with others or not. I liked being given the choice, unlike lunch on Carnival some years ago where we were not asked and were seated with some duds.

 

In this case the company was fun and friendly. Two other couples from the US and one couple from Australia. To my mortification, I spilled my neighbor's drink.

 

We are a bit out of our league, as I feared we would be, when it comes to travel. Others talking about their multiple trips on PG, Windstar, European travels, river cruises etc. We have travelled some, but not at the level of many others on board. But all were kind and my Australian tablemate whose drink I spilled was very gracious about the mishap. Service was superb as always.

 

I'm afraid I forgot to get a snapshot of the menu tonight. I think I got it almost every night so I'll have more menus for you as we go along, but I can't seem to find the one for tonight.

 

We went to the show after dinner. The Gauguines did the show where they pose in imitation of Gauguin's art. Then some traditional dances. After this they pulled several men out of the audience for some on-stage fun, but we left. We were tired after a very full day, but also because I figured if they were pulling men up on stage, the women might be next and I just wasn't up to it!

 

Tomorrow we have a sea day.

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We breakfasted at Le Grill. Excellent buffet. Try the locally produced jams. Wonderful. I think this was the last time we ate breakfast at Le Grill, however. I believe the food selection for breakfast and lunch is the same at all the restaurants, and I confess we like the air conditioning in La Veranda. As mentioned before, it was my favorite restaurant. I liked the big windows and ambiance.

 

 

 

GALLEY AND BRIDGE TOURS

 

I was very interested in the Galley tour, but when we went to Reception to sign up, it was full. They said there would be another tour later in the cruise so I signed up for that, but we had to cancel because it turned out to be at the same time as an excursion we had scheduled.

 

We had the same problem with the Bridge tour. My advice is do not wait until you see these events appear in the Ia Orana schedule! Go to Reception at the earliest opportunity, ask when these tours are scheduled, and get yourself signed up as far in advance as possible. We missed both of these tours because we didn't act quickly enough.

 

 

 

 

GUEST LECTURERS

 

We went to the Mark Eddowes talk, which I was really looking forward to, having heard good things about him on CC. But I found his talk a little hard to follow, and he talked nonstop for 90 minutes. Really went on too long. He stopped only because another event was scheduled to begin in that location. I wanted to leave after an hour or so but we were sitting right up front and I didn't want to appear rude.

 

Eddowes is very knowledgable and definitely enthusiastic about his subject, but his talk seemed to wander all over the place and was just disjointed. Paul really liked him. Paul agrees with my assessment that Eddowes tends to go off on tangents, but wants me to stress the Eddowes was extrememly knowledgable and imparted a lot of very interesting information.

 

Later in the day Ghislain Houzel, an expert on French Polynesia, gave a talk about the mutiny on the Bounty. I stayed only for about 10 minutes. English is his second language and he spoke slowly. I just wasn't engaged so I went back to our room for a brief nap. Paul stayed for the whole talk, said it was rough. The speaker is very elderly, had trouble with the audiovisuals, and his English was strained. The talk was a struggle.

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We had lunch in La Veranda. Buffet was very good. Salad bar was very fresh, not huge but enough selection. Roasted meat I think was duck. It was supposed to be seafood day but seemed more asian food. Sushi, egg rolls & vegetable dumplings (both excellent), cantonese fried rice. Also every day there was a cheese selection and several bread choices.

 

Paul went back to the room for a nap and I went to La Palette for the Polynesian Legends talk. Awkward. Only 11 people there so you can't sneak out if not interested. The talk was just OK.

 

My intent was to go to the bar and get a drink, sit in the back to hear the talk, then slip out early so I could go watch the blackjack tournament. As it turned out the bar was not open, and with such small attendance it was awkward to join in and then leave. This was not a formal presentation. It was a very informal talk with everyone sitting in a circle and each of the Gauguines telling a short tale.

 

There is a simple printed newspaper available for free every day at the reception desk. You can get USA news, Interntional news, or several other options of different countries. It's just a few pages. Here's a scan of the front page of the USA news from later in our cruise. If you really must stay plugged in during your vacation, there was also an option to pay for newspaper delivery to your cabin.

 

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I never used the spa. But a sea day is probably a good time, if you want to use it. Here are some scans of the spa brochure.

 

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Edited by luckybecky
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Block Party

 

At 6pm we attended the welcome aboard block party. This was fun and I recommend you make a point to do it. We enjoyed meeting some of our neighbors. We had already met some of them. Some roll call friends, Ashley and Rick, were just 2 doors down. We had spent the day in Huahine with them yesterday. Our room attendant Rona was there pouring wine. This is when we met the lady who said she had been upgraded upion embarkation.

 

By the way, Rona did a beautiful job maintaining our cabin. She always had a smile on her face. She said she was responsible for 13 cabins. I don't know how she did it. Our room was always impeccable with twice daily service. There was Diet Coke in our frig which Paul liked. But he discovered that they have Coke Zero at the bar and he likes that better. So he asked Rona if she could get Coke Zero for our frig, and she did. She kept us stocked with Coke Zero, Diet Coke, and ice for the remainder of the cruise. This was the kind of service we had throughout the cruise. Ask and you will receive.

 

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Internet

 

I signed up for internet access. I really had no idea how much I would need. I selected the medium package of 250 minutes.

 

I wanted to be able to post a few photos on facebook from time to time and check in with the kids occasionally. But we really were very unplugged for this trip. I put my phone in airplane mode when we left LAX, and I didn't turn it back on until we arrived back there after our cruise ended. I didn't want any international roaming charges or any other surprises on my cell phone bill.

 

The internet service was very slow but adequate for uploading a few photos now and then. It took some time but it worked. I uploaded one 30 second video. That took at least 20 minutes, so I never tried to upload any more videos. But the service did allow me to Skype the kids several times. We got disconnected on a couple of occasions but were able to reconnect and just check in with them a few times during the cruise.

 

The internet package we purchased turned out to be just right. By using it judiciously, it lasted just until the end of the trip. Once every day or two, I would select several photos to upload. It would take several minutes to upload. Maybe 15-20 minutes, depending on how many photos (not many -- I was not uploading dozens). Then I would spend several minutes Skyping (or attempting to Skype) with the kids. I might have had 5 minutes left by the time we ended our cruise.

 

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Casino

 

The casino had set out sign-up sheets for roulette and blackjack tournaments at 4:00 and 4:30pm on this sea day, but neither tournament had enough people sign up. So that was a bust.

 

Casino: We played often. Usually for just a few minutes at a time, between other activities. We like to play video poker. Make sure to check pay tables. Some better than others. Also cash out to round up, not down. They do not have Ticket In - Ticket Out like in Vegas. The machines accept only cash, not tickets. So when you cash out your machine, you must exchange your ticket with the casino attendant to receive cash. They only pay even dollar amounts, so your ticket will be rounded up or down to the nearest dollar.

 

Here are the video poker 25 cent pay tables (double bonus poker) if you are interested. These two machines were right next to each other, so it is worth it to pay attention when you choose a machine.

 

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We had dinner in L'Etoile with 2 or 3 other couples. Nice conversation. I really enjoyed eating with other cruisers. On 3 separate occasions during the cruise, we arrived at L'Etoile (almost always around 7-7:30pm) and asked to be seated with others, only to be told that no communal tables were available, so we had a table for two. But at other times, we ate with others and it was a pleasure on this cruise to have the opportunity to meet other people, several of whom we would become friendly with for the remainder of the trip. Paul noticed that whenever we were seated with others, it was always with couples who were roughly in our age group, and of course English speakers. I don't know how the maître 'd keeps up with it all.

 

At 9:30 we went to show briefly but we were just too tired to stay. The performer was singer Carly Woods and she was great. We really missed out on seeing her shows during this cruise. It just happened that between all our activities and the never ending drinks, we were wiped out on the nights she

performed and I don't think we ever made it through an entire show with her. Our fault, not a problem with the singer.

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Wow! Thank you so much for writing this review!! I always write very detailed photo reviews of my cruises, and I love reading them when preparing for my upcoming cruises, but there are so few reviews like this in the PG forums. I can't wait to read the rest of your review!

 

I have a few questions... did you notice if there is any shade or umbrellas for the lounge chairs near the pool? I also have very pale skin and can't sit out in the sun too long, so it would be great if they had a shade option out there!

 

Also, do you happen to have any photos of the closets with the doors open? Or perhaps you can just tell me... are the two tall closets identical (like a his and hers closet) or are they different (I've been on ships where one closet has the bar and one has shelves so we have to share one closet bar)? And do they have a hanging bar or shelves (or both)? Just wondering so I can plan accordingly :) Thanks!

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I have a few questions... did you notice if there is any shade or umbrellas for the lounge chairs near the pool? I also have very pale skin and can't sit out in the sun too long, so it would be great if they had a shade option out there!

 

There was very little shade on the upper decks. I don't think there were any umbrellas anywhere. I have a photo of the pool bar in post #20. You can see a few tables with chairs, and one or two sofas there which are in the shade -- no lounge chairs though. This, I think, is the only place anywhere that had shade. I agree with you that it would be great if they had more shade options!

 

 

 

Also, do you happen to have any photos of the closets with the doors open? Or perhaps you can just tell me... are the two tall closets identical (like a his and hers closet) or are they different (I've been on ships where one closet has the bar and one has shelves so we have to share one closet bar)? And do they have a hanging bar or shelves (or both)? Just wondering so I can plan accordingly :) Thanks!

 

The closets were not identical. One of them had a hang bar the width of the closet -- I guess about 24 inches? It had a couple of shelves at eye level and above, with the hang bar just below that. The safe was on the top shelf in this closet.

 

The other closet had a narrow hang bar, maybe half the width of the closet. The other half of the closet had stacked shelves. Neither hang bar was high enough for very long dresses. But certainly adequate for almost anything else.

 

Each closet had a few hangers. We asked our room attendant to give us more hangers. But within a few days, after using the laundry service, we had hangers coming out our ears.

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Breakfast on our balcony again. Ordered for 730-8. Arrived about 735. They brought coffee even though we didn't order it.

 

The tender today was VERY rough getting on and off. Bouncing all over the place. They had 3 or 4 people to help you. They had to continually maneuver the tender to try to keep it close to the ship platform. When it was close enough you took a quick hop to get on. Might be really tough for people with disabilities or elderly. Though they did a good job of helping. It was the same the next day too. Then for the remainder of the cruise it was smoother.

 

We had booked a private excursion with Teking Tours -- I want to say it was amazing -- and it was! But there were some problems. This was a tour that was highly recommended on CC and Trip Advisor.

 

http://www.tekingtours.com/our-tours/

 

 

We did the Snorkeling Safari Cruise, a 7 hour tour which includes 3 snorkels, four motus, and lunch. It cost NZ $125 per person, paid in advance. At the time we booked that came to $89 per person in US dollars (this will vary depending on the exchange rate at the time you book).

 

First, the good stuff. There were three opportunities to snorkel, each one more amazing than the last. Impossibly blue clear water with a huge variety of fish, giant clams, purple coral, blue starfish. I think this was the most amazing snorkeling of our entire trip, and is just not to be missed.

 

We stopped at Honeymoon Island which must be the true definition of tropical paradise. Beautiful white sand, blue water, and practically deserted. Several people kite surfing, but other than that it was completely uncrowded.

 

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There was an excellent Polynesian BBQ lunch: BBQ fish and chicken and delicious grilled bananas, grilled eggplant, curried potato salad, cole slaw, watermelon, papaya, some fruit I have no idea what it was, tossed green salad. It was a deserted private island, I felt like we were on Gilligan's Island. There were picnic tables set up in a clearing on the island. The food was presented beautifully in dishes woven from palm leaves.

 

Somehow I failed to get a picture of our lunch spread, but here are our two little boats moored at the deserted island where we ate.

 

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Here are some photos from our snorkeling stops:

 

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Then, on to One Foot Island which was just amazingly beautiful. No words to describe it, and my pictures cannot possibly do it justice. Truly a paradise.

 

Your passport is held by the ship, but for this tour they allowed us to pick it up so we could have it stamped at One Foot Island. I thought there would be some sort of, well.... something. I'm not sure what I thougt when I heard we should bring our passports to be stamped. But it turned out it was just our skipper Teking, with a rubber stamp and ink pad. It's a cool stamp in our passport though! We were the only people on the island! We had to return our passport to reception when we got back on board.

 

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So the tour was just incredible, but it wasn't perfect.

 

During our second snorkeling stop I suffered a jellyfish sting. Never saw what got me. But boy, it got my attenion! Felt like a hot poker being laid on my skin. I was stung severely on my arm and down my leg. I swam back to boat hoping Teking would have some experience with this sort of thing, maybe even a first aid kit with aloe or something. Given his line of work, I didn't think it was too outlandish to expect that he might have some idea what to do for this.

 

Instead, he told me repeatedly to calm down. I was perfectly calm, just hoping he had some suggestion for dealing with the problem. He said "calm down!" I said, "I'm ok, just want to know..." Him: "calm down!!" Me, "I'm fine, but do you have..." Him, "calm down!" What he really wanted was for me to stop talking. I am not a hysterical type, and "calming down" was not the issue. His admonition was extremely irritating and certainly not helping the situation.

 

Then, he actually told me, "s**t happens."

 

Ok, I know that. But really, I just wanted to know if he had any suggestions for what to do about the sting. It was quite painful and continuing to sting and burn very severely, with large red welps rising up on my skin. He had no suggestions. I thought his "s**t happens" comment was thoroughly unprofessional. Of course the jellyfish sting could not be prevented, but I thought he could definitely have had a better response.

 

He said it was a blue bottlefish that got me.

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Another issue: Teking required a prayer at lunch. On another tour, the guide also said that saying grace was traditional, and that guide did offer a brief prayer. Here on our tour with Teking, however, it was handled a little differently. Teking asked for a volunteer to say a prayer. He said if no one volunteered, he would choose someone. This is exactly what happened.

 

No one volunteered, a long uncomfortable silence ensued, and then Teking called one of the men by name, asked him to stand, and demanded he say a prayer. I thought this was very awkward and so unpleasant for the poor young honeymooner who was called upon. This is not a religious tour. If Teking wants to say grace, I have no problem having a moment of thanks, but it was very awkward for him to demand that one of his clients lead a group prayer.

 

Also, aside from a thermos of water at lunch, there was no water or any other beverage offered during this 7 hour tour -- except for beer, at a price of $6 each. But our guide made jokes about the price, "charge it to my room," "the bar is open" etc. So we weren't sure if the beer was included or not, it sounded like he was making a joke about it. Several of us on the tour were confused about this. Turns out it was no joke. This was the only beverage of any kind available -- alcoholic or otherwise -- and it was in fact $6 a bottle. Cash only, and he couldn't make change.

 

Really, he could charge just a few dollars more for each person and that would easily cover his cost to have an ice chest with sodas and water on board. To have no water at all, except for a thermos at lunch, seems cheap. Every other full-day tour we went on offered a wide variety of beverages included in the cost of the tour.

 

I know I'm making it sound awful, but despite all this, the snorkeling and the motus were just amazing beyond belief. I really, really loved the tour and want to say good things about Teking, but have to make note of these issues.

 

In spite of everything, this was one of my favorite days of our cruise. Lunch on our secluded motu was wonderful. The snorkeling was absolutely incredible. We had a small group (another reason I love to book private tours. No huge tour bus here!). We had I think 9 people on our boat. There was another small boat with us with a few more people.

 

The tour just can't be beat. I still recommend it in spite of the problems. But definitely take at least 2 bottles of water with you (one for the morning and one for the afternoon), and prepare a prayer in case you are the unfortunate one who is called upon!!

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We returned to the ship later than scheduled, showered and dressed for dinner. We went to the casino briefly while waiting for time to go to dinner. We had a reservation at Le Grill for 730. The casino is adjacent to the piano bar, where they were serving little bite sized canapes which were very good. They served pre-dinner canapes every night, different selections, while Alex played piano. And of course you can get almost any drink you want. Here is the bar menu:

 

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Finally, we went to dinner at Le Grill. This was our first dinner here. It was a little loud. Lots of engine noise or something. Very fast service. Pumpkin bisque was delicious. Very good peanut dressing on the wedge salad. There is always a bread basket at every meal, with a variety of breads, always excellent. I asked, and they said the breads were baked fresh on board. Egg roll (nam) was super. I had a steak. Paul's papaya dessert was outstanding. One of the best things he ate the whole trip!

 

 

We never got around to making a second dinner reservation in Le Grill. It was noisy, and sometimes warm. As previously noted, we liked La Veranda best for breakfast and lunch, and we ate most dinners in L'Etoile. We were told that like La Veranda, Le Grill would serve the same menu every night for a week, then switch to a second menu for the remainder of the cruise.

 

 

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79%20Le%20Grill%20dinner%20Aug%202%204_zpsbo4t0xxg.jpg

Edited by luckybecky
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Here's what we ate that night:

 

Vegetable nam

79%20Le%20Grill%20dinner%20Aug%202%205_zpsnrri5be2.jpg

 

Wedge salad

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Crab cakes

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New York Strip

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Five spice chocolate fondant (molten center chocolate cake) -- this was to die for!

 

 

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Papaya cake. Paul said it didn't look very impressive, but was one of the best things he at the whole trip.

 

 

79%20Le%20Grill%20dinner%20Aug%202%201_zpstcbuuzz6.jpg

 

 

The desserts were so good, I think I would have to order both if I went back again. I don't think you can choose!

 

 

After dinner we saw the magician Gustavo Vierini in the Grand Salon. Loved his show! He is very talented and funny. Make sure to go to his show. Coincidentally, his cabin was on our hallway. We would pass him in the hall from time to time, and saw him often at lunch or dinner socializing with other passengers.

 

 

 

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Rarotonga

 

We booked a lagoon cruise through Koka Lagoon Cruises. The first half of the cruise was identical to one you can book through PG, but we had some extras.

 

http://www.kokalagooncruises.com/cruises.htm

 

 

First, the drawback of using an outside provider: The PG passengers had a big bus waiting when they got off the tender. They loaded up quickly and off they went.

 

We had a lonely 20 mintue wait, until the appointed meeting time (we were a few minutes early, and they were a few minutes late.). A nice local lady used her cell phone to call the company and make sure they were coming for us. They soon arrived. Then we spent 45 minutes driving the long way around the island picking up other passengers. We finally made it to Muri beach an hour and half after we left the ship. So this is a drawback as opposed to using the ship tour, where you have a comfortable, air conditioned tour bus taking you directly to your destination. On the other hand, we had time to chat with the driver and see some of the island. I liked the drive.

 

We finally got to the beach. We checked in and were issued snorkel gear. We knew that snorkel gear was included on this tour, so we did not bother carrying our gear from the ship. Then we loaded onto 2 boats with about 30 or 40 other passengers on each one. It was very touristy but still fun. The crew were great and enthusiastically played drums and ukuleles as we motored through the lagoon.

 

Heading toward our snorkeling site, we passed a boat identical to ours, with people we recognized from the PG who were ahead of us on the tour. They had been on that tour bus that we saw leaving the pier. They snorkeled first. They were leaving just as we were arriving at the snorkel area.

 

The snorkeling paled in comparison to yesterday but we still enjoyed it. We were going against a bit of a current part of the time, which made the swimming slightly more difficult than on our last 2 excursions, but still do-able. Not too difficult.

 

Some older people stayed on the boat and did not snorkel. This is a good excursion for people who don't want to swim, because you still can enjoy the glass bottom boat followed by the cultural show.

 

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80%20Aug%203%20Rarotonga%202_zpsq6j88ums.jpg

 

80%20Aug%203%20Rarotonga%205_zpsoy1bicos.jpg

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After snorkeling, we got back on the boat and headed to a motu where we caught up with the PG tour again, they were leaving just as we were arriving. So our tours went to exactly the same places. I don't think the PG tour included lunch. It is not mentioned on the PG description of the tour. The people we saw on the PG tour were just leaving an area of picnic tables in the full sun. We were in a shaded area where we had a marvelous lunch on the motu, included in our tour: grilled fish and sausage, green salad, cole slaw, rice, bread, fresh grated coconut, papaya, star fruit, bananas, more fruits that I can't even remember.

 

You may have noticed that this is the third motu picnic we have had. Each one was marvelous. It's a totally different experience from the lunch you can get on board the PG. These motu picnics seemed more like authentic island food and were a highlight of our vacation.

 

Then we had a fabulous show with coconut tree climbing, coconut cracking, singing, pareo tying. The crew sang, played ukuleles and drums, and were just very enthusiastic. Good music. the guy who did the main show was very funny. The show really was very fun and definitely worthwhile.

 

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I loved this sight of a dog on a stand-up paddleboard coming across the water with his master!

 

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Like other places, there were lots of dogs everywhere. We saw one who apparently swam over to the motu where we had our picnic. When we all got on our boat and left the motu, the dog left too. We watched him swim several hundred yards to get back to the main island!

 

 

 

 

Here's a video of the guys playing music:

 

th_80%20Aug%203%20Rarotonga%201_zps7432jxcv.mp4

 

 

 

I don't think the PG tour included a show like this. The PG website offers a Muri Lagoon glass bottom boat cruise with snorkeling for $115, but does not mention the show or lunch.

 

Our cruise including everything the PG tour did, plus a polynesian lunch and show, cost NZ$79 per person, which translated to $54 each. This was the cheapest of allour tours and was a lot of fun.

 

As with our other tours, we got back to the PG much later than expected. We were scheduled to end around 1:30, but it was more like 3:30 when we got back to the pier.

 

After lunch and the show, we boarded our boats to return from our motu to Muri Beach and transfer back to the ship. It was already mid afternoon by this time. Our drive back to the ship luckily took the shorter route around the island this time, but then we still had to take the tender... we had thought we might be back on board in time for a nice long nap, but it didn't turn out that way.

Edited by luckybecky
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