What Time to Book Aqua Safari?

[candydane]

I plan to do the Princess Aqua Safari excursion on Bora Bora. We're scheduled to arrive at noon the 1st day then all day the 2nd day. We don't have anything else booked for Bora Bora so our time is open.

 

What is probably the best time of day to do the excursion?

[Spikesgirl]

Morning will probably give you the best weather for diving. It often rains in the afternoon and the water might be choppy. It's also not quite as hot in the morning, so you won't burn quite as fast.

 

Charlie

[dot73]

Try to do it in the morning when the fish are still hungry. They give you bread to feed the fish but what the fish really love are bananas. I am not kidding. If you hold a peeled banana in your hand, the fish will nibble at it while you are holding it. It was a fabulous excursion.

[candydane]

Thanks.

[KruisingKaren]

Just back from the 05/26 cruise. The Aqua Safari was the greatest!! We booked the 2:00 pm on the second day and if the fish were full you sure couldn't tell it. There were hundreds of them swimming around us.

The only thing we wish we would have done is to book something else on Bora Bora. The only other tours we could pick up at the pier conflicted with the 2:00 pm time. If you plan carefully you could do an early Aqua Safari and also pick up a 1/2 day tour from one of the groups on the pier.

But no matter how you schedule it this is a tour that is not to be missed. You won't believe it. I was smiling for hours afterwards.

[ArizonaRalphie]

we did it and were the first boat out. What they do is have a boat positioned at the dive site and just rotate divers back and forth with another boat. While we did have fun, saw and fed fish and did the whole "diving" thing, we didn't think it was near as spectacular as Bruno's drift snorkel on Taaha. In fact spectacular is nowhere close to the Aqua Safari experience.

 

Remember that you are in much deeper water than you would be snorkeling so the lighting isn't that good. The fish were voracious eaters, but the variety just wasn't there. This is just IMHO and I'm 65. YMMV.

 

Ralphie

 

Also, we found that the excursion is only available through Princess and when Princess is in town, they do not book independently.

[CSloan]

 

Remember that you are in much deeper water than you would be snorkeling so the lighting isn't that good. The fish were voracious eaters, but the variety just wasn't there. This is just IMHO and I'm 65. YMMV.

 

Ralphie

 

 

What is YMMV?

[Tricia724]

What is YMMV?

 

Your mileage may vary.

[Polecat]

How deep do you go with the Aqua Safari? We are considering buying the new Olympus camera that is OK down to 33 feet. Would we be in danger of ruining the camera at the Aqua Safari depth?

 

Thanks.

[KruisingKaren]

You only go down 10-12 feet.

 

In response to Arizona Ralphie's reply, when we went at 2:00 pm the sun was shining brightly and the colors of the fish were phenomenal. He is probably right about the variety of fish. I've only snorkeled, so I can't compare this to diving - my guess is you see many more types of fish on a true dive. But when you're down right next to the fish you see so much more detail than looking from the top as you do when you snorkel. Plus they come right up to your face if you hold the bread out to feed them. We saw plenty of beautiful fish, two rays, a sea cucumber (I think - it was big and looked like it had starfish all over it), a King Baracuda, lots of coral and anenome's. It was a great experience!

[Stranger1]

Polecat, we did this last year and it was about 20ft down..no more. We just bought the new Olympus camera and we're planning on using it on this excursion in about 6 weeks.

[Polecat]

Stranger1 I will be anxious to hear how the camera works out. Thanks for the info.