Live From the Tahitian Princess!!!

[captbill]

I forgot to add that you can exchange money on the ship and it is one for one, which is a great deal. The LA airport was 84 of ours to one hundred of theirs, which stinks. Then they added a service charge. In Papeete, it was 94, so just wait and exchange on the ship.

Debbi, I think you might have reversed those numbers? When you say the onboard exchange rate is one for one, I assume you mean $1 US = 100 XPF. But don't you really mean the LAX exchange was $100 US = 8400 XPF? If it was the other way ($84 US = 1000 XPF), that would be a VERY good deal indeed (at least before the commission got added on).

 

Today's rate on xe.com was: $1 USD = 99.3353 XPF

[LnJ]

We’ve been enjoying Debbi’s account of her cruise. Linda and I were on the June 26th sailing of the TP and had a super time! It won’t take us 12 years to get back to Moorea and Bora Bora like the last time. A highlight was Marc’s motu picnic tour on Huahine. I hate to seem like a blatant commercial for him, but this tour is not to be missed! The other most memorable experience was the introductory scuba dive on Bora Bora. My sister-in-law Judie almost scrubbed the dive while on the dive boat, but finally made the plunge. Afterwards she said she’d do it again in a minute, it was that fantastic. We booked this through Princess (Bora Diving Center). If it is full, you might try e-mailing them directly.

 

If you’re interested, I posted 155 captioned photos of our trip here:

 

http://www.koskiphotography.com/tahiti.html

 

Definitely better with a broadband connection… you’ve got to be very patient with dial-up.

[cjareb]

Debbi

 

Sounds so exciting. My husband and I are leaving on Thur 8-5 for the TP. We are going on our Honeymoon. How are the blow driers on the TP ? Do I need to bring my own. What about an iron? I also read that the beds were hard and that the balconys had no lounge chairs. We are also on the 7th floor. I hope that you continue to have a fantastic time.

Happy Sailing

Chrissy

[MrsFitz]

Linda & Jim: Thank you soooooo much for posting your photos! My husband and I are going the end of August on TP. I have viewed several online "photo albums" but you get the gold star for effort! I have been telling my husband the photos I am seeing are awesome, but they don't have sufficient captions or explainations so I know where they were taken! You did that wonderfully!

 

Susan

[Guest Anorak33]

cruzfvr - you posted:

 

"forgot to add that you can exchange money on the ship and it is one for one, which is a great deal. The LA airport was 84 of ours to one hundred of theirs, which stinks"

 

are you sure about this ???? - the proper exchange rate is about 100 for 1.

 

one for one is a terrible deal on the ship!

 

 

PS - Sorry - CaptBill has already mentioned this - I should have read page 2 before jumping in. But I do think CaptBill is correct.

[cruzfvr]

Sorry everyone for the misunderstanding on the exchange rate. When I said one for one, I meant one USD for 100 CFP. Also, the airport rate was only 84 CFP for $1.00 US. Hope this is clear (?) So, the ship has a better rate.

Someone wanted to know about the blow dryers on the ship. I brought my own, and am glad that I did. The one in our cabin is one the wall, so it was nice to have mine and plug it in where I wanted.

As for the lounge chairs on the balconies. We have two, but we are in a suite. Our kids have a balcony cabin and have two chairs, but no loungers.

Chrissy, you will have so much fun on this cruise. The islands are unbelievable. Wish we could stay on for your cruise on the 5th.

Now for my report on Sabatinis. One hint: Pace yourself! There is so much food, we could not eat it all. Eight courses. We had a table of eight, and those of us that had the seabass said it could have been cooked a bit longer, but it was still tasty. One of us had the lobster which was wonderful, as well as the scallops. We will be trying the Steakhouse on Monday.

Someone asked about bringing an iron, No need, the laundry area is very nice with two ironing boards and several washers and dryers. Each load is $1.00 (quarters, you can get from Pursers), and an additional $1.00 for a load to dry. You push a button to add soap which is included in the $1.00 price for the wash.

They offer a ceramic class in which you paint your own piece of pottery. Our daughter painted a plate, and they fire it up for you, and you pick it up later.

We have an early day tomorrow, so will sign off now. More later...

~Debbi

[MVPinBoynton]

cruzfvr,

 

Thank you so much for taking the time away from your wonderful cruise to let us know what is happening and about life on the TP. I don't want to have to wait to go till February. :(

 

LnJ,

I am so glad you posted your link. Awesome pics and the info was very helpful. You had pictures of some things that I had heard about but never seen. I have saved your link for future reference. I am glad to find someone else that takes lots of pics on their vactions. We took 2,400 on our most recent one, which makes it really tough to decide on which ones to post on a review. Thanks so much for sharing.

[CAPinBoynton]

cruzfvr, I'm enjoying your post. Thanks for taking the time. I have a question about "dress". On the nights other than formal, what are most people wearing? Is it more casual or dressy -- slacks and a blouse or a dress?

 

Linda and Jim, your pictures are great; and I also enjoyed your other albums as well.

[regent218]

we have friends who booked the os on this deck for a tahiti to hawai cruise in april. they want to know about open sea movement. any info on your 2 days at sea would be appreciated

[BurBunny]

Thank you so much for your time in making these posts. 6 weeks from now will be on the flight to Papeete!

[cruzfvr]

Hello Again!

Just back from dinner, which was very good by the way. Steak was perfect tonight. For dessert, I did the "make your own sundae" thing. Couldn't decide what topping to choose to go with my ice cream, so got them all! Today we were in Raitea, and booked the tour through Bruno. He met us at the Shell station by the ship. We had a wonderful time with Bruno and his first mate, Carolyn. The snorkeling at the coral gardens that he takes you to was one of the best we have done. So many fish, coral, and other sea life. The fish were so colorful. Bruno copied the digital pictures he took of our group, and made them into a photo cd for us. He met us at the dock later in the evening and gave the cd to us to take home. Can't wait to see how they turn out. Bruno is very friendly, and knowledgeable. One hint: No matter how unappealing the fish looks at the picnic...just eat it! It comes complete with the head, but was delicious. We had a great day. It was from 8:30 to around 5:00.

As for the questions regarding movement in the OS in the back of the ship. We had a considerable amount coming and going from Rarotonga, but that is about it. Actually, the whole ship was moving quite a bit, so I don't think it would matter where your cabin is. The OS suite is really roomy, and we are taking advantage of the free laundy, full breakfast in room, and of course, free internet! The balcony is huge!

The dress on the nights that are not formal varies from sundresses to shorts ( we saw a couple of nights), to pant suits for the ladies. A lot of the men had docker type slacks and Hawaiian shirts or polos. s

Some casual button down shirts also. I don't think anyone really cares what you wear, as long as you are comfortable.

Burbunny and everyone else coming on the TP, you will definitely enjoy this cruise. The ocean is so blue and clear, you won't believe it!

Our table mates did the sunset cruise (honeymooners!), and they saw spinner dolphins all over. They really enjoyed it.

We are off to Bora Bora tomorrow. We have the Princess 4X4 excursion booked, which is the only Princess excursion that we are doing.

More later...~Debbi

[CAPinBoynton]

Thanks Debi, I appreciate your taking the time to reply. We will all be anxiously awaiting your next post :D

[paulapatti4]

Debi,

I sail on 8/25 and I thought for sure the last few weeks prior to leaving would be unbearable but your daily updates are helping the time pass pleasurable.

Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

Paula

[MeetVirginia]

Hi Cruzfvr,

Thanks for all your detailed info. Do you have specfic pics of the Owners Suite you were in/on Tahitian Princess?

 

I am surprising my husband and on Jan. 2, 2005 and I have booked cabin #8067.

 

My e-mail is: MichaelesMM@aol.com if you would be so kind to e-mail some pics of the suite so I can put together a little program for him.

 

Thank you very much,

Michaele

[cruzfvr]

Hello Again! We have been so busy, that I haven't had time to report.

Yesterday we did the 4X4 through Princess, and it was a hoot! Climbed up some very steep hills, and went to some great lookout points. Bring your cameras if you go on this tour. Then we stopped at a Pearl Store (another one!), then a stop at Bloody Marys. Be sure to check out the men's restroom at Bloody Marys, and bring your camera in there. That is all I will say.

Today we took the shuttle into town, and stopped off at the Hotel Bora Bora. Beautiful hotel! Expensive to stay there I am told. Anyway, we went to their activity center, and booked a private sail from 11:30- 3:30. I know the name of the sailboat/catamaran started with a "T", but I have the brochure in the cabin, and can't remember it (and I only had two beers!). I will post it later, and check the brochure for a website if anyone is interested. The capt., Richard, and his first mate, Jonathan were great, and we learned a lot about Bora Bora from Richard. He is American and sailed over to Tahiti on a 25' boat with a couple of friends when he was 19. He has lived here for 35 years now. A really nice guy. We had all the soda and Hinano you could drink, stopped for snorkeling, and just enjoyed the peacefulness of sailing all over the island. I would highly recommend this. Some of our cruise friends did the sunset cruise last night and said it was fabulous, and very romantic.

Tonight is the second formal night. It is going to be hard to get dressed up after lounging around for two days, but we will do it.

Tomorrow is Moorea, which we did a pre-cruise stay at. It will be great to be able to enjoy the island again.

As for pictures of the Owner Suite, we don't have any, but I think someone else that posted a while back did. We are on the 7th deck, in between cabins, so no noise from the buffet or showroom. A little vibration when we leave a port, but it is not really a big deal.

We are not looking forward to the end of this cruise. It has been the best of our fourteen cruises. It will be hard to beat.

Wil try to post tomorrow night if I can get on. There are only eight computers, and everyone wants to email home it seems.

That is all for now...~Debbi

[MVPinBoynton]

Debbie,

 

I shouldn't have started reading your thread. I don't want to wait till February. I want to go to FP now! :eek:

[gvre]

The catamaran is the Tara Vana, and the captain is Richard Postma. We have booked with them for a private sunset sail on our 4th cruise on the TP in October with 10 people. Can't wait to see Bora Bora lagoon at sunset...it's worth a million dollars!!

Richard

[cruzfvr]

You are correct, Richard. The catamaran is Tara Vana, and the capt. is Richard. You are going to love your sunset cruise!

Today was Moorea, and we went over to the Beachcomber to do the jet skiis. Went out for an hour, and then waited a bit, then off for another half hour. It is so fun and the water is so clear and gorgeous. Others on our cruise booked a whale and dolphin boat trip and enjoyed that as well. I will let them report on that.

We left Moorea at 5pm today, and we got into Papette at 7 pm. We will just stay overnight on the boat until tomorrow, then we are going to the Beachcomber here in Papeete until we get a taxi to the airport for our long flight tomorrow night at 10pm. We didn't know that we would be here overnight, or we would have booked a room on Moorea, then we would have taken the last ferry over to Papette on the day we leave for the airport. Oh well, next time!

We are going to miss Tahiti, and wish everyone that is going in the future a great trip. We had wonderful weather, and hope you do also.

I will check the boards when we return to see if there are any more questions.

Happy cruising! ~Debbi ;)

[HighRoller]

Hey cruzfvr...HR wants to know what's the deserts been like towards the end of your cruise?..you've been getting kinda quiet on the deserts lately!

[auntieann]

Debbi,

You have been so kind to keep us updated on your cruise. Thanks for taking the time. Sorry it has to end. Did you find the perfect pearls?

[cruzfvr]

Back home after a long flight from Tahiti. We had the 10 pm flight. The airport in Tahiti was not as bad as we anticipated. Heard horror stories about it. We picked up our luggage at the cruise dock around 10 am the morning of debarkation. We took a taxi to the Beachcomber (Tahiti) since we booked a room for the day. We lounged around, swam in their pools, ate lunch and a light dinner, and then went to the airport around 7:45pm. One note, the Beachcomber is a really nice resort. They have a lagoon with the beautiful fish we have seen on all the islands. The pools are very nice also. We are a family of four, and they let us book only one room for the day.

So, off to the airport around 7:45 pm, where we arrived before 8pm (Beachcomber is only about 10 minutes from the airport). We got in a line with all our luggage, and after about 10 minutes, an Air Tahiti Nui representative asked us if we had any more bags to pick up (if you get the transfer, Princess takes your luggage over to the airport, and you pick it up there). We told him that we had everything, and he directed us to the front of the line, through the security check. After you show your passport, and tickets, put your luggage on to be xrayed, you come out where the shops are, so we did some last minute purchases. Then you take your carryons, go through customs, and have them xrayed again, and to the gate you go. Very easy we thought. Security personnel were very friendly to us. Just be sure you put your undeveloped film, and camera if it has film in it in your carryon instead of checked luggage. There were notices that the xrays for the checked in luggage could damage the undeveloped film. We put ours in one of those lead camera bags, and in our carryon. We got most of our film developed onboard the ship, as it was very reasonable, and we wanted to see the pictures ASAP!

Once in Los Angeles, we went through customs, picked up our luggage and walked over to another spot to put them back on. It was easy, and didn't take too long. The walk to our United airline counter was what took us the longest. Then we checked in, got our boarding passes, and went to the gate. No problems.

Anyway, that was our trip, and we all say it was the best yet. We were in awe (still are) over how beautiful the islands are, and how friendly everyone was. It was our dream vacation, for sure! Looking forward to the Caribbean Princess over Christmas, and hope everyone enjoys their future cruises.

By the way, our daughter and I did find our perfect pearls. We both bought earrings which are the dangle type. This was in Rarotonga. We also bought some very inexpensive ones at a pearl farm so we could wear them all the time. Our daughter bought her friends necklaces that have one pearl on them and they have a very thin metal string, which makes them appear "floating." They were $10/a piece, which we thought was a bargain. She also got one for herself!

Also, be sure to go to the market in Papeete on your first day of the cruise, which is across the street from the ship (you can't miss it). There are some bargains to be found there also. We bought flower arrangements for $15 and $20 (US) that were absolutely gorgeous and huge! All tropical flowers. They would easily have cost $150 or more in the states. You do not need a vase for them, as they come ready to go. The flowers lasted the whole cruise!

Here I go rambling along again, so I will stop now. :)

Have fun everyone!~Debbi