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Trip report 10 day Society Islands and Tuamotus


kellig
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This was me and my DH's first trip to FP. We did the 10 day cruise of the Society Islands and the Tuamotus as I had always wanted to go to Rangiroa. Perfect duration in my mind, and the one sea day provided a nice time to relax mid-cruise. We did three nights at Le Taha'a Island Resort in an OWB prior to the cruise that we booked via Expedia for a pretty good deal and we were so glad we went there over BB, very authentic and peaceful resort and location. PG previously didn't offer this Resort as an option pre/post cruise, but I see it on their website now so I wonder if it was acquired by their parent company or if a deal was just worked out with Relais and Chateau.

 

PG General Information:

 

Arrival process was a bit of a mystery to us as we arrived separately in a cab from the airport since we had done a pre-cruise stay in Taha’a that we booked on our own. Eventually we figured out where to go. FYI, the check in process where you get your key is actually on board in the Grand Salon on Deck 5. We were used to this happening before boarding the ship. They do however ask for your passport and make sure your on the manifest prior to boarding.

 

The rooms were nice by our prior cruise experiences. Tub was nice for rinsing snorkel gear. Bathroom had lots of storage space. The room has two closets and lots of small cubbies everywhere, but only a handful of drawers. It was enough for us, but we heard someone else say they wish there were more drawers. We had a window stateroom, didn't want to splurge on the balcony. That was fine for us.

 

To say the staff on the PG are friendly is an understatement. We have never been treated so well before. Particularly by the cabin steward Clara, and many of the wait staff, Jaypee, Jeffrey, Marc, and the Sommelier Vishal too! The head waiter Mark is amazing with ensuring all the people with special diets don’t have any problems. All of the crew’s friendly smiles are such a pleasure.

 

Breakfast buffet was the same in La Veranda and Le Grill every day and had a reasonably large selection, but it still got a bit old after 10 days. We did Le grill for breakfast the first two days and then changed to La Veranda as it’s more peaceful (and the chairs are way more supportive, couldn't stand the chairs in Le Grill for my tiny frame). Both have decent views. Le Grill always felt uncomfortably hot to me. You can order some items special off the menu, I frequently partook in the eggs Benedict, and also ordered lamb chops one morning. My husband liked the banana pancakes.

 

Lunch buffet had a different theme every day. French, Italian, American, Pacific, Commonwealth. The French buffet rocked with a glass of cote de roses rose. Again, we preferred to eat in La Veranda over Le Grill but did do both. I found the variety on the lunch buffet to be even better than breakfast and liked that it changed themes each day.

 

Dinner was wonderful every night. We only ate in Le Grill for dinner one night (on the first night in Moorea- Polynesian night - where they serve the same menu in all 3 restaurants). I heard the Tuna Poke in Le Grill the first half of the week was great, but we never had a chance to try it. We ate in La Veranda for dinner on 2 nights including our anniversary. Very french inspired and rich food. I had truffle overload one night. Escargot and the Filet there are great too. We ate in Etoile all the other evenings. It was nice to be able to dine with other guests we didn’t know and hear their stories. The food was also extremely good in my mind. At times they might trend for under-seasoning (which was fine for me and not a bad choice to avoid raising your guests’ blood pressures), but there is always salt and pepper on the table if you need more.

 

Different drinks of the day, most were ok. Tropicana drink was probably the best. I also liked the Chi-Chi and Maitai. The wines offered during the cruise were quiet good, we had low expectations but were pleasantly surprised. Many were French, Chilean, New Zealand and some from California. They had a white and red specifically selected each night to pair with the food, but if you don’t like what they are serving you can often ask for a glass of something else they may have on hand. My husband did that about 5 times. You can get a glass of wine or champagne any time of day at the bars, it’s not just relegated to evening dinners.

 

Entertainment: Magicians, opera singers, the gauguins and Santa Rosa. I liked Santa Rosa best, they are pretty good singers and do a wide variety of covers.

 

Educational talk: Guest speaker Andrew Babbin a professor from MIT who studies the impact of oceanic microbiota on climate was fascinating. After his second talk on climate change the audience was so engaged I saw over 20 hands go up when he asked if there were questions. I’ts too bad they didn’t video record his talks for showing on future sailings as I think that future cruises would have also appreciated hearing the information. He did a great job catering to a wide variety of people knowledge and interest in the audience.

 

Departure, we booked our own day room Hotel Tahiti Tiare, which is right downtown about 2 blocks from the PG because it would be easy walking distance to the Marche and to the Roulettes (food trucks) which were in a parking lot right next to the PG. We heard these were don’t miss experiences, but for us they were just ok. We’ve been to open air markets in other destinations, so the Marche wasn’t that big of a deal to us. Prices and quality varied in the shops there, so look around before you purchase. The food trucks were pretty cool as we don’t have a specific destination where we are from where 10-20 food trucks gather all together, and they certainly don’t offer sit down dining like this spot in Papeette. In talking to a passenger from NY, they expected the number of food trucks to be every larger. We then took a taxi to the airport later that night for $26 (funnily enough this was less than the rate we were charged during the day time to go from the airport to the PG, which was $30 we may have been ripped off a bit on that one). If we were to do it again, we may have just booked a room at the IC instead.

 

We still saved about $200 booking our own airfare, day room and transport rather than using the PG. Part of the reason we did this is because I wanted to select our seats up front rather than waiting. I get a bit airsick and seeing the horizon out the window helps with this. On our Air Tahiti Nui flights both on the way there and back we didn't end up with the seats we believed we were originally assigned and ended up in the middle seats, even though I called ATN a few weeks prior to confirm our seat selections were for the window/isles (AB). The food was just ok on the flights, have had much better on most US based companies and many other international airlines. If we went back to FP, we would fly Air France instead next time.

 

Excursions:

 

Huahini- PG’s Sacred sites and legendary places- Learned about the history both past and present of FP including old temples/Marae, the blue eyed eels, and a quick stop at a private vanilla vendor. Enthusiastic and intelligent French tour guide who loves telling stories for hours, so come prepared to listen. Back on board, don’t miss seeing the moon fish demo this day, just to see the size of the fish was amazing. Tasted good too, you can order it in Etoile on this particular night only.

 

Bora Bora- Pure Snorkeling- saw Manta Rays, Eagle rays, and stops for fish at two coral reefs. One with a very large baracuda, the other with many types of fish. We didn’t make the sting ray and black tip reef shark stop on this day, but others who rented a private boat with them that day did.

 

Bora Bora- 4x4 Landrover tour with Natura Discover as they were substantially cheaper than PG. Guide was friendly, rough and steep ride, definitely had to hold on with both hands. Saw the old war cannons, good views, stopped for fresh fruit, the saw him demo a coconut spearing sport that he participates in and we got to try it too. This wasn't part of the usual tour but done as my DH took an interest in hearing about their recent competitions.

 

Rangiroa- PG’s Snorkel the Aquarium- This was some of the best snorkeling I have seen in a long time, and in my mind, it was better than the drift snorkel of the coral garden in Taha’a. Lots of fish, some quite big, some eels, and just a few black tip sharks. Coral was in good shape too. We were in the water for just about an hour. Need to be able to snorkel off a boat as water is a tad too deep to stand up here.

 

Fakarava- We joined another PG passenger who arranged a private tour for his family and a few other people with Ato to the South Pass (Tetemanu). It was a 90 minute boat ride each way. Our ride was fairly smooth, but if there was a little wind it could be a longer and bumpier ride. It was wild to get a perspective of just how large the lagoon really is. We only drift snorkeled about 1/2 the pass, and only once, so I wish we could have spent more time with that. However, the coral was incredibly dense, the pass is deep (we snorkeled on the side), we saw plenty of fish and plenty of reef sharks (primarily black tip), and also saw sever Napoleon Wrasses, one which was HUGE (3 feet long). We ate a BBQ of fish and rice and beer. Then they took us to a pink sand beach on a sandy islet. We spent about an hour there, and then people were getting a bit bored, so we finally boarded and went back to Fakarava. Definitely a nice day and was worth the long boat ride for me, but may not be for everyone. Most passengers this day were not able to book a PG tour as they filled up prior to sailing, so if you want one, reserve early. There are otherwise not many operators on Fakarava and most passengers just walked down the road and found a beach to hang out at for the day. I heard the snorkeling from the shore was actually pretty good though from several of them.

 

Sea day- There were plenty of ships activities this day. We enjoyed the educational lectures. The cooking demo wasn’t that great, the chef isn’t really much of a teacher and would leave out important explanatory steps and then when passengers would ask about those missing steps he would look perplexed and almost a bit frustrated. We enjoyed some quiet time in our cabin and a nap too!

 

Taha’a- we didn’t do any tours this day, there are a limited few short tours you can choose from (vanilla/pearl farm, or snorkeling). What we didn't previously know was that Motu Mahana didn’t start until 10:30, so those tours only missed 1 hour at the motu. The time flew by actually. Would love if they could start motu day earlier, but I suspect they are spending most of the AM with setup. Snorkeling here is just ok. Good for beginners as you can stand up in the water if you had to.

 

Moorea- We rented a car from Albert’s on the first day. They did’t show up for us or another PG passenger at the tender despite the fact that we both had confirmation emails (and followup emails) that noted where and when we would be arriving. There was a guy who arrived from one of their tour Businesses's who eventually called them for us, but initially he simply told us that there were no cars left. One of the other locals identified him as Albert’s son. We were a new customer, but the other customer had been a repeat user of theirs for many years. Ultimately this led us to getting an hour and a half late start, they did compensate us for this lost time by charging a lower rate, but only because the repeat customer asked on our behalf. The car was pretty beat up. After driving on Moorea, now I see why, the road to the Belvedere is not quite 2 cars wide and the road drops off, and the car is a low clearance vehicle. Ultimately, glad we rented a car instead of a bike or scooter, just wish we had more time with it that day rather than waiting around that morning.

 

Moorea- On day 2 we did the PG waverunner tour. It was our first time riding them and it was fun. The took us by boat from the tender pier to the IC and then we rode the wave runners along the west coast from there. We stopped on a motu for pineapple and lemonade, there were people snorkeling in that area, but we were never advised to bring a snorkel mask. The tour description talks about stopping to see the sting rays, we never did that, but I didn’t mind since I had done that in the past in Grand Cayman.

 

Overall the trip was a wonderful experience that can't be beat! I think the value in comparison to the land resorts also makes it an ideal choice for exploring FP for the first time.

 

Happy to answer more specific questions.

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for the thorough and complete review. Hard to make breakfast exciting for 10 days and this has always been an issue on any ship. Glad they still do a few made to order items. In the past we also went to La Palette for good coffee and vegetable and fruit smoothies. They often carried these down to our room!

 

Glad to also hear that the wines are still varied and good.

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Here's a more in depth report of our time a Le a Taha'a island resort, for those who are interested. Keep in mind I wrote this prior to boarding the pg, and I wrote my pg review at LAX on the way home, so the energy levels may appear different. I liked both experiences equally.

 

We stayed 3 nights before a cruise on the Paul Gauguin. That was the perfect duration. I think a week would be too long for us.

 

The property was just what we were looking for, remote and secluded with an authentic Polynesian ambiance. So glad we chose this over Bora Bora, as after going to BB for two days on our cruise, the ambiance is much different with resorts that are attempting to be ultra modern and there was lots of activity disrupting the peaceful environment. If you want peace and quite without a lot of activity disrupting the lagoon, this is the place to be. You really felt like you were out in the middle of nowhere, so much so that at night we could hear the local music from the main island across the lagoon.

 

We booked a regular OWB with a view of Taha'a. It was great in my opinion because we could see the boats go by, and there were some pretty cool sailboats. We could also see some great clouds at sunset and the island lit up really pretty too. We saw sunset over Bora Bora by taking a kayak out into the lagoon. No way I'd pay the up charge just to have the bora bora view bungalow after being there. I also got a few picks of BB just by walking on the boardwalk on that row of OWB’s.

 

The rooms were adequately spacious, especially if you consider the deck space which had a covered dining area, plenty of lounge space and a lower deck for hanging by the water. The room decor was in good condition and had the authentic Polynesian feel we were looking for. The room amenities included a hot water kettle, nespresso coffee maker, small refrigerator, and a electrical transformer, umbrellas, robes, slippers, TV. Wifi signal seemed very functional for us throughout the property including the room for us. We used all the amenities except the TV. Toiletries were nice, they included a small bottle of the Manoi Tiare oil too which has a great fragrance. I brought additional conditioner, as theirs are a 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner product. The bed was adequately comfortable, not the best I’ve ever slept in, but I have definitely seen worse when traveling overseas.

 

We ate dinner the first night at Ohiri, their high end restaurant. There were only 7 tables and they were all full that night. They are closed on Monday and Tuesday nights, so I emailed ahead to make a reservation. It took a few tries through 3 different routes before I got a response. Turns out the “Activities” email address on the resorts website is the best one to use for that. The food at Ohiri was very creative and beautiful, however the taste didn’t really live up to the visuals in our mind. A couple odd combinations, and unfortunately the duck my husband ordered must have been one old bird as the meat was very tough even though it appeared to be cooked correctly medium. Romantic spot, but we ended up actually liking the food in Vanilla Restaurant better the next night.

 

The canoe breakfast was incredible. You order whatever you like, we had so much food we ended up saving some in the fridge to eat for lunch. They take you out on the outrigger canoe while they are setting it up too! Otherwise we never tried room service, but the menu looked extensive. We ate the buffet breakfasts the other days. You could get eggs to order or there was some scrambled on the buffet as well as a water circulator to make 3, 5, or 10 minute boiled eggs. I liked the 5 minute ones best- cooked white with runny yolk. The 3 minutes barely cooked half the white. The pastry selection was very large and VERY GOOD! Particularly the croissant which was much flakier than we had on the Paul Gauguin. They had brioche and many other creative pastry items.

 

The lunch restaurant by the pool “La Plage” was also very good. Tables in the sand. Nice views. They have a BBQ at night also (not sure if it’s all nights), but we saw it at least twice on our three night stay.

 

Tuesday nights is the Polynesian buffet night at Vanilla. All the other restaurants are closed this night. The buffet was decent and there was lots of selection including freshly grilled beef, Pork, fish, and shrimp. Lots of raw fish options prepared in many styles. Desert bar was very good as many others have also said.

 

Wine list varied slightly from restaurant to restaurant with about 50% overlapping selections. Plenty of decently wine, >50% was French in origin.

Drinks are expensive. Some up to $35USD. They have happy hour at the pool bar from 4:30-5:30pm every day. Only some drinks get happy hour pricing. Has a passion fruit daquerie, it was just ok, seemed unbalanced. My husband had the BBC, Bailey’s Banana Coconut Milk, and he liked it. They have a drink of the day but we didn't try any

 

Service was very friendly all around, from housekeeping, waitstaff, baggage handlers, shopkeepers, and management. Check your bill closely in checkout, mine was far from correct, had nightly room rate (which I prepaid) and none of our food bills. Took them 25 minutes to make the corrections, so don't wait until the last minute to check out.

 

Coral garden drift snorkel was good. Lots of fish and coral of many types. I came prepared to be fully covered after reading reviews of people getting scraped up. I'm thinking they must have been poor swimmers or not paying attention. My advice is just go with the flow of the current and you'll be fine. Best way to reach the start is from the opposite bank. Swim or wade across then follow the land trail to the starting point. Stand there and take a look at the water and you'll see the river like current pathway. It appears more shallow from above the water than it really is. Keep your face in the water so your feet are more likely to float to the surface. We wore fins which also helps keep them up. If you wear fins you don't really need to kick, so be mindful of the coral and just float along with the current. If you don't want to do the whole drift you can go just past the rope barrier and see lots of fish without having much current to swim against. Please do not touch the coral.

 

Overall, we would return here in a heartbeat and saw others at the resort who have.

 

 

 

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Hint ...

 

I've done the drift snorkel around 10 times. The route you go from the opposite side is the least stunning as is the route most go from the resort side. There are basically 3 routes, the one in the middle is far more impressive. However, it does take some fast/hard swimming to get to it. You enter from the resort side as close to the reef as you can. As the water is really moving as your close to the reef inlet you must push off quickly and swim hard to get yourself positioned in the center channel as the water is pushing to along making it difficult to get to the center. Once you get to the middle channel your fine. It can be shallow here and there but the fish are plentiful and some very large. Coral is superior in the center channel. You can enter from the opposite side and get to the center channel but it is a bit tougher as the current seems to be quicker. Now you will need to return to try it again :)

 

Nice review .. thanks for sharing

 

See attachment

tahaa.pdf

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Great review, thank you for taking the time to post. My Itinerary is the same so it is exciting to read your thoughts.

 

In regards to the tender process, when the ship is scheduled at the port did you find the time listed to be the time you could debark ?

 

Did you use PG snorkel gear or bring your own ?

 

How do you feel your packing was, and if you were pleased would you share ? (trying to get by on carry on only)

 

Would you say people came back to the ship and got gussied up for dinner or more of a relaxed vibe?

 

Things you wished you would have done or missed ?

 

Personal favorite island or activity or highlight

 

Thank you!

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Great review, thank you for taking the time to post. My Itinerary is the same so it is exciting to read your thoughts.

 

In regards to the tender process, when the ship is scheduled at the port did you find the time listed to be the time you could debark ?

 

Did you use PG snorkel gear or bring your own ?

 

How do you feel your packing was, and if you were pleased would you share ? (trying to get by on carry on only)

 

Would you say people came back to the ship and got gussied up for dinner or more of a relaxed vibe?

 

Things you wished you would have done or missed ?

 

Personal favorite island or activity or highlight

 

Thank you!

 

We brought our own snorkel gear and glad we did. We use dry top snorkels and the ships were no. They also have those rubbery fins, and one person I spoke to felt they didn't propel very well as they were flabby. Ours were more stiff, and useful to us. If you opted to not bring snorkel gear and only brought 2 pairs of shoes (cute sandals that can be also worn at dinner, and reef shoes), then you may be able to pull off a carry on only bag. I don't think I could have done it though. We went hiking and also brought hiking shoes, and I just didn't want to feel limited with some variety since we did 10 days. I wore each of my PM dinner outfits 3 times during our 2 week trip. I also wanted room to bring home souvenirs. I do think people got gussied up for dinner. Many women had nicer outfits than I did. My husband was fine with clean khaki pants and a short sleeve collared shirt. I had two dresses, and a couple skirts that I could swap blouses with. Those were a bit more casual looking than what some women wore (I bought them at REI if that tells you anything). I like them for travel though as often we are doing our own laundry in the sink and they are quick dry. The laundry package was useful and if you put it out before 9AM it's back same day by 6PM, I probably could have brought one less dinner and daytime outfit now. I'm happy to share my spreadsheet. Last time I pasted from excel it didn't work out well, so I'll have to see if I can put it into a different format first.

 

From my recollection the earliest tenders seemed to be at 8:30AM, and that was accurate with what was listed in the Daily's, but perhaps a bit later than I think I saw listed on the original schedule when we signed up for the cruise. It didnt seem to matter though, even private tours we booked on bora bora were waiting for us (both earlier than their stated tour time or a bit later if the tender started later). Just take the first tender listed on the daily if you booked an early private tour. I also hadn't ever read anything on this PG forum of someone being inappropriately left behind by their tour operators either. I'll try and either take photos or scan the dailies and post here too. Unlike others, I did not take pics of the restaurant menus as there was always plenty to choose from. I can't imagine someone not feeling like they could find something quite enjoyable to eat on this cruise.

 

Like many others, Moorea was our favorite island as the beauty of it can't be beat. Wish we had more time there. My husbands favorite activity was the hike on Moorea. Mine was snorkeling to see the Manta rays on BB and secondly the snorkeling on Rangiroa. Despite liking Moorea as an island, I very much enjoyed the remote nature of the Le Taha'a Island resort for an OWB experience and would return back there in a heartbeat. Too bad I was too chicken to try and trespass on the locals property to try and access other parts of the Drift snorkel as the resort instructed us to cross the channel to walk up the bank because of the private property on the resort side. We enjoyed the drift that we did and we also swim upstream into some of that central area when tides were slower, felt we saw enough (just not an octopus that I was hoping for). If your less concerned about trespassing, the map TBK shared would be useful, but it seemed the residents of that property were always out there every time we went. We probably could have tried to talk to them and seek advice, didn't though.

 

What do we feel we missed out on... nothing really. We missed a couple shows because we were too tired to stay up for them. I wish our car rental on Moorea was on time as we were not able to complete the circle island drive after hiking the coconuts trail, but still don't feel too bad about that as we saw some of he scenery more easily from the water (waverunner tour) the next day. I think the something not to be missed is the snorkel in Raingiroa if you like snorkeling. I recommend you book that as soon as the reservations open. I spoke to many passengers who missed out on not having anything booked in advance in both Rangiroa and Fakarava and felt bad for them as they didn't expect that to happen. Ultimately I think most found a beach to go to and still had a good time.. My FOMO was a benefit for me on these days. :D

 

Happy planning! And yes, all the planning was worth it!

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Hummmm .........

 

In my many trips over the last 18 years to this area I've never been stopped from walking toward the reef. Interestingly the Helo-pad for the resort which is used for flights to and from Bora Bora is at the rear of the motu that the resort sits on. Maybe something has changed. As I said one can enter and get to the center channel from the other motu but it's a bit more tricky.

 

I've also found that when you ask permission from a local property owner they seldom say no, they love when you show respect by asking :)

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WOW Kellig so helpful !!

 

Was the 3 coconuts easy to find ? Planning that as well via car rental too.

 

Copy that on the Rangiroa, did that as soon as it opened.

 

Probably going to have to do those floppy fins as carry on weight is a concern with ATN. I wear shorties so I probably won't love them. Masks & snorkels, check.

 

Really having difficulty between Dr. Poole and Moorea Activites center for whales. While one is more geared towards the education and dolphins and the other just whales if possible. Manta's sound cool, we just have a LOT of dolphins so don't need to see that. We're home to the famous Winter the Dolphin of Dolphin Tale fame !

 

I have this idea for packing that I will bring things I might not have to return with. Old sneaks for the gym and hike, sample size products, hats I don't need. Delta moved up our return flight from LAX so it might be a mad dash from ATN to the terminal.

 

I'm not so worried if people are dressier, everyone has their style. Just don't want to be out of place. If we've been hiking and snorkeling all day I'm not overly excited about getting all decked out. We are native FL's so perhaps we have a more casual bent.

 

Super great info and if other things come to mind keep on typing !!

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WOW Kellig so helpful !!

 

Was the 3 coconuts easy to find ? Planning that as well via car rental too.

 

Copy that on the Rangiroa, did that as soon as it opened.

 

Probably going to have to do those floppy fins as carry on weight is a concern with ATN. I wear shorties so I probably won't love them. Masks & snorkels, check.

 

Really having difficulty between Dr. Poole and Moorea Activites center for whales. While one is more geared towards the education and dolphins and the other just whales if possible. Manta's sound cool, we just have a LOT of dolphins so don't need to see that. We're home to the famous Winter the Dolphin of Dolphin Tale fame !

 

I have this idea for packing that I will bring things I might not have to return with. Old sneaks for the gym and hike, sample size products, hats I don't need. Delta moved up our return flight from LAX so it might be a mad dash from ATN to the terminal.

 

I'm not so worried if people are dressier, everyone has their style. Just don't want to be out of place. If we've been hiking and snorkeling all day I'm not overly excited about getting all decked out. We are native FL's so perhaps we have a more casual bent.

 

Super great info and if other things come to mind keep on typing !!

 

On the Reunion Cruise people tend to be casual as they've gone through the process before. Many newbies are unfamiliar with the PG country club casual ... very different than many cruise lines ...... I love it :)

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