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Wind Spirit in Bora Bora


vlaurend
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Can anyone tell me how late the tender boats run to and from Vaitape on the first night the Wind Spirit is anchored at Bora Bora? Would it be possible to have dinner somewhere on the island and get a tender back to the ship afteward? Since this is the one place the ship stays for two days, I would imagine they don't force you to return to the ship by 5:00pm, but. . .??

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  • 4 months later...
Can anyone tell me how late the tender boats run to and from Vaitape on the first night the Wind Spirit is anchored at Bora Bora? Would it be possible to have dinner somewhere on the island and get a tender back to the ship afteward? Since this is the one place the ship stays for two days, I would imagine they don't force you to return to the ship by 5:00pm, but. . .??

 

Going on the wind spirit in November and was wondering if you had the answer to your above question? Did you take any Excursions on Bora Bora? We were looking at one on the first day but it says we dock at 9 and the tour starts at 9. How fast were you able to get on island?

Thanks.

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Shoot, we are in the one right before you!! November 2nd.

Aww, too bad! What I can tell you is that we were able to book a lagoon & snorkeling tour with Lagoon Services for the morning we arrive in Bora Bora. I told them the Wind Spirit arrives at 9:00, they checked the schedule and verified that it does arrive at 9:00, then they said they would pick us up at the tender dock at 9:30am. They were hoping to pick us up earlier or have us switch to Bora Bora day 2 so they could pick us up earlier, but we told them we couldn't do it the next day so they agreed to pick us up at 9:30am on the first day. They are familiar with all the cruise ships so if they said 9:30am, then I'm assuming that's a reasonable time to expect us to arrive at the Vaitape tender dock. We paid via credit card online and got a receipt and confirmation document from them with the 9:30 time.

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Megastacey - We are on the Nov 2 Wind Spirit cruise with another couple. I'm trying to find out where we dock/tender in Moorea as well. We are arranging a car for the day to drive around the island since we will be staying on Moorea 2 days after the cruise. We need to know where we will be for the car pickup.

 

Susan

 

 

:cool:

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CA Traveler - I e-mailed my Windstar agent and asked exactly where we will be anchored and tendered on Moorea and she sent me the detailed port itinerary for our sailing (we sail November 16). Ours shows Cook's Bay, tendering to Paopao tender dock (next to the Hotel Kaveka on the east shore of Cook's Bay). Yours will probably be the same, but they do sometimes change so contact your Windstar rep and get the port itinerary for your sailing.. :)

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Vlaurend - I also called Windstar and got the same info which I passed on to Avis.

 

Megastacey - So far we are renting a car on Moorea for the day and on Raiatea for 1/2 day based upon my research on tripadvisor. We also have booked a snorkel 1/2 day the first day on Bora Bora.

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Vlaurend - I also called Windstar and got the same info which I passed on to Avis.

 

Megastacey - So far we are renting a car on Moorea for the day and on Raiatea for 1/2 day based upon my research on tripadvisor. We also have booked a snorkel 1/2 day the first day on Bora Bora.

 

 

 

We will be renting a car for the day on Moorea and a half day on Raiatea as well. Are you also planning on driving to Marae Taputapuatea on Raiatea?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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Just returned from this cruise on Sept. 2nd - it was fabulous!

FYI: In Bora Bora (not my favorite stop) we went with Vavau 4x4 Adventure the arrival day: very good tour but Santi, our driver/tour guide was not completely fluent in English. We did have to switch to the 1PM tour. The tour company kept telling me would arrive at 8AM and I finally convinced them that no, we were arriving at 9AM and could not make their 9:30AM departure.

The second day in Bora Bora, we went with Moana Adventure Tours on the snorkel cruise with shark and stingray feeding. It was a BLAST!!! Lots of large stingrays and several black tipped nose sharks came by that were easily 3 ft long. Then they took us to a coral area to snorkel where the water was very calm and coral and hundreds of fish were simply beautiful.

By far, however, I felt the most beautiful port of call on this itinerary was, Moorea. If one takes a private tour here, please at least consider Frankyfrank Tours. It was an A++ tour!!

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Just returned from this cruise on Sept. 2nd - it was fabulous!

FYI: In Bora Bora (not my favorite stop) we went with Vavau 4x4 Adventure the arrival day: very good tour but Santi, our driver/tour guide was not completely fluent in English. We did have to switch to the 1PM tour. The tour company kept telling me would arrive at 8AM and I finally convinced them that no, we were arriving at 9AM and could not make their 9:30AM departure.

The second day in Bora Bora, we went with Moana Adventure Tours on the snorkel cruise with shark and stingray feeding. It was a BLAST!!! Lots of large stingrays and several black tipped nose sharks came by that were easily 3 ft long. Then they took us to a coral area to snorkel where the water was very calm and coral and hundreds of fish were simply beautiful.

By far, however, I felt the most beautiful port of call on this itinerary was, Moorea. If one takes a private tour here, please at least consider Frankyfrank Tours. It was an A++ tour!!

 

Thanks, Procruise! Just read your cruise review as well! So what did you do on Taha'a? Did you do the drift snorkel? If so, did you do it with Windstar or with an independent tour provider? Also, which Windstar excursion was it that you did on Huahine? Was it the boat tour operated by Poetaina Tours that included the motu picnic, sacred eels, and several snorkeling spots?

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Thanks, Procruise! Just read your cruise review as well! So what did you do on Taha'a? Did you do the drift snorkel? If so, did you do it with Windstar or with an independent tour provider? Also, which Windstar excursion was it that you did on Huahine? Was it the boat tour operated by Poetaina Tours that included the motu picnic, sacred eels, and several snorkeling spots?

 

In Taha'a we took the Windstar tour - Scenic Exploration of Taha'a. It was actually a very nice tour and only $99 pp.

In Huahine we were suppose to take a private tour but the friend that I traveled with decided the night before that he just wanted to stay on the ship or swim off the back of the ship at this port. So, at the last minute I signed up for the Windstar tour: Scared Sites & Cultural Walk and went by myself. There were 5 others in our vehicle. I can actually say it was a really great tour, I thought. One does have to hike up a mountain side (no one was not able to do this) and the view was simply stunning. You also stop and tour a scared site that was quite interesting, stop at a fish trap site and further on, stop and view the blue eyed eels, that come by the dozens when the tour guide goes into the stream and starts feeding them! Cost was $89 pp. This tour was done by "Island Eco Tours" so you might be able to arrange it as a private tour at a slightly lower price, via the internet.

Hope that helps. You'll have a grand time on this cruise.

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I agree with you Procruise while Bora Bora was pretty, very touristy, other much more interesting and beautiful sites and places in Tahiti. I think Bora Bora was prettier from the water than on land. The private motu event superb. We also did Sacred Sites on Huahine absolutely fascinating. The mini museum, the places where their moais were, the hill, the eels. Great day, hot but thrilling. Ours was a wonderful cruise as well. Happy Sailing.

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In Taha'a we took the Windstar tour - Scenic Exploration of Taha'a. It was actually a very nice tour and only $99 pp.

In Huahine we were suppose to take a private tour but the friend that I traveled with decided the night before that he just wanted to stay on the ship or swim off the back of the ship at this port. So, at the last minute I signed up for the Windstar tour: Scared Sites & Cultural Walk and went by myself. There were 5 others in our vehicle. I can actually say it was a really great tour, I thought. One does have to hike up a mountain side (no one was not able to do this) and the view was simply stunning. You also stop and tour a scared site that was quite interesting, stop at a fish trap site and further on, stop and view the blue eyed eels, that come by the dozens when the tour guide goes into the stream and starts feeding them! Cost was $89 pp. This tour was done by "Island Eco Tours" so you might be able to arrange it as a private tour at a slightly lower price, via the internet.

Hope that helps. You'll have a grand time on this cruise.

 

Thank you! :D We want to do the motu picnic, snorkeling, etc., in addition to seeing the blue eyed eels and some of the other sights, so we have booked the Windstar excursion operated by Poetaina.

 

For those wondering about which bay the Wind Spirit is using: Cook Bay is their regular stop. However, when Paul Gaugin is in Moorea, WS goes to Oponuhu Bay. It was also used while the tendering pier was under repair this summer.

 

That's clearly not a rule, because the Wind Spirit will be at Moorea on the same day as the Paul Gauguin on our upcoming cruise (11/16 sailing), but the Wind Spirit will be anchored in Cook's Bay. I think the Paul Gauguin is typically at Opunohu Bay, but someone more familiar with PG may be able to chime in.

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We love French Polynesia and visit as often as we can, most recently in May. Huahine is our favorite island but a very close 2nd is Moorea.

 

Moorea is very easy to drive around....it's impossible to get lost. Make sure you drive up to the Belvedere where you can see both Opunahu and Cook's Bay. There's an agricultural school on the way up the mountain where you can stop for homemade jams and ice cream. Good reasonably priced lunch place is Les Tipaniers. Lovely beach and nice outlook. The Hilton offers the best snorkeling in a terrific setting but I think they charge a day use fee. I believe the fee includes lunch and use of SUPs and kayaks.

 

Huahine is so laid back and authenticly Polynesian. Very little tourism there which is part of the reason we love it. You'll find friendly local folks at the tender dock offering tours if you haven't pre-booked one. Our favorite is Manava. If you're into snorkeling and shark/ray feeding as well as an island tour, Huahine Nautique has a website where you can book their excursion with lunch on a motu which is good fun with great food!

 

If you're wanting a local experience on Raiatea, the snack at the pier has the best chow mein for a reasonable price and cold Hinanos! The local market is adjacent to the pier.

 

Any other questions, just ask.

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