Tahiti on the Regatta in August or Sept.???

[cruiser man]

Has anyone done the Honolulu to Tahiti cruise in either August or Sept.?  How was the weather and the seas?  Was it too warm or rainy?  We are considering doing either this cruise or the Papeete to Papeete cruise.  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[S4POPO]

Is this for 2024 or 2025?  I am guessing 2025 as I don't see anything available in 2024.  I am very interested in this itinerary as well.  I am leaning towards the Papeete round-trip and skip some of the sea days.

[WayneLaR]

Same for 2025, but looking at transoceanic cruises to ease the long flights in one of the directions.

[Acrusa]

usually these cruises depart in January or March

[EJL2023]

11 minutes ago, Acrusa said:

usually these cruises depart in January or March

Actually in 2025 per the website there are 7-8 of them in August and September. Now when may be best I have no idea.  

[seaventuregal]

We have sailed twice  in French Polynesia as well as a land vacation on Moorea during late March and early April. As I recall, both trips during those months were quite hot and humid and somewhat uncomfortable, so I am pleased to see that Oceania is now going to sail in the somewhat cooler winter/spring in FP which is about  5 or 6 degrees cooler.  The Windstar and Paul Gauguin have been sailing in the cooler months for several years now.  My son and wife just returned from 10 days on Moorea in mid-October and they said the weather was perfect....warm but not uncomfortable. 

[Wayco]

We did ours a few years ago in May.  Weather was beautiful in Tahiti as well as Hawaii

[seaventuregal]

1 minute ago, Wayco said:

We did ours a few years ago in May.  Weather was beautiful in Tahiti as well as Hawaii

Good to know.   I have heard that May and June are also good times to be in FP.

[marieps]

We did Regatta's Transpacific in early November in 2019 and the weather was great.  Seas were not nearly as rough as I expected.  We went on from Tahiti to Bora Bora for 5 nights with perfect weather.

[MVPinBoynton]

One of the reasons we booked the Aug 2025 Polynesian Dream cruise was that Aug and Sep are Tahiti's coolest months.

[Traveling Fools]

On 11/3/2023 at 1:43 AM, cruiser man said:

Has anyone done the Honolulu to Tahiti cruise in either August or Sept.?  How was the weather and the seas?  Was it too warm or rainy?  We are considering doing either this cruise or the Papeete to Papeete cruise.  Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

We did a Papeete to Papeete cruise last November aboard one of NCL's smaller ships.  We arrived 4 days early.  Gave me 2 days for diving and time for pre-cruise sight seeing.  The night we arrived it was pouring and we had rain the next 2 days.

 

On both dive days I met up with a couple who arrived aboard a HAL ship.  They embarked in Seattle.  They told me that upon arrival in Hawaii it started raining and continued raining until that morning.  They had been to French Polynesia many times and told me the best ship they had ever sailed on was the Paul Gauguin was the nicest ship they had sailed on.  They described it as truly 5 Star.

 

In that respect, a factor to consider is that the Paul Gauguin that only sails Polynesian waters.  It is considered a local ship and is going to be extended docking privileges other ships may not receive.  Maximum capacity of the Paul Gauguin is 332 passengers making it smaller than anything O sails.  Many of the Islands have grown wearing of the crush of people cruise lines dump onto their Island and have imposed docking limits on the larger ships.  Although we had an "overnight" stay at Bora Bora, the ship actually weighed anchor and the ship cruised in circles through out the night and drop anchor again the next day. 

 

It cleared up late afternoon of the 2nd day and remained clear and calm until the morning we anchored at Huahine. The weather was nice going ashore, but turned very bad enroute to the catamaran excursion we had booked.  Bad enough that all the passengers decided to cancel. The weather cleared up that afternoon and remained clear for the remainder of the cruise and at least one day after disembarkation.

 

[the more ports the better]

Between August and September, 100% September.  It is the start of whale season.  The Humpbacks are there with their babies.  Michael Poole has a whale swim, you get in and swim with the whales, that you can book while on Moorea or with O.

 

It is high season and weather is good both months.  Rainy season is Dec thru March.  Keep in mind that it does rain throughout the year, just more in rainy season.

[Traveling Fools]

14 hours ago, the more ports the better said:

Between August and September, 100% September.  It is the start of whale season.  The Humpbacks are there with their babies.  Michael Poole has a whale swim, you get in and swim with the whales, that you can book while on Moorea or with O.

 

It is high season and weather is good both months.  Rainy season is Dec thru March.  Keep in mind that it does rain throughout the year, just more in rainy season.

 

We had just missed it.  BUT on one of our dives you could hear one or more talking.  It was awesome!

[Cape Hernlopen]

Dear CM:

We sailed on the Regatta in May-June 2022 from Papeete to Darwin.  We stayed in Papeete-Moorea for three days prior to the cruise.  It was vey warm but still pleasant and we greatly enjoyed both our pre cruise and cruise.  It was very hot all the way to Darwin but the service, crew, passengers sights/seadays were wonderful. It did not get "cool" and comfortable temperature/humidity wise until we reached Sydney (via plane).

Joel Barry

[Redtravel]

May to October is dry and sunny.  Not much variation in temperatures.  It’s perfect.

Avoid November to April. Those months get more rain.