minidonuts85

We went last year didn’t that time period. We had short bursts of heavy downpours that lasted no longer than 20-mins. 

31 minutes ago, schmidlapp said:

Thanks for the info, I was on one of the virgin Islands websites and they listed west end to st John multiple times a day. Appreciate that you know firsthand.  We'll be in St Thomas for a few days pre cruise  before we head to St maarten. It looks like we'll do the red hook-Cruz bay ferry one day instead.  

You are welcome! Unfortunately many sites still have the pre-Irma/Maria hurricane schedules posted. Interisland used to do it multiple times a day. 
Aquatic Rentals ferry goes from WE to St John then to Red Hook daily at 9am, 11 and 3pm but it doesn’t stop in St John on the way back in to the BVI and you won’t have a ride back. 
The ferry from red hook to Cruz bay RT is a great plan and enjoy your stay! 

7 hours ago, schmidlapp said:

Next winter we're booked on the Surf. One of our ports is Tortola BVI. Our plan is to take the ferry , (very short ride) to St John USVI for a few hours. This will require us to have our passports for the day. Wondering how they will handle this?

Currently there is no ferry from StJ back to west end or Road Town Tortola and the only ones that stop in StJ to clear customs into the USVI from the BVI are those bound for Red Hook. Just keep an eye on schedules and have a plan B. We have a place in the BVI and use the ferries often. 

2 hours ago, Straddy said:

Can someone confirm that Grey Goose Vodka is on the included list and you don't pay extra for it.

ON our last Ponant cruise they served Smirnoff as the house vodka and were not even stocking Grey Goose which was surprising for a french vessel.

Grey goose/ soda and grey goose martinis …no charge. That is what is drink/drank  90% of the time. 

I use Insubuy.com to search various providers. You can filter for CFAR on their site. You probably already know but CFAR policies typically require you to buy within 14-21 days of your first deposit of the trip you are insuring. 

Cannot use OBC in advance. But you can book it now, cancel on board and rebook immediately using OBC. 

On 10/5/2023 at 12:35 PM, crilski said:

Where is this?  A tour?  Private or via ship?

We did this tours a few weeks ago. It’s with Marc’s Huahine Nautique 

https://www.huahinenautique.com

16 minutes ago, sjkoen said:

@minidonuts85 I didn't realize you got sick - sorry! We did mantas and rays, mantas were pretty amazing. Rays were hiding from us😆. Moorea too - lots of turtles and little fishes - but also crown of thorns which is a bummer for the coral. Lucky you to begin dreaming of next trip, have fun planning.

Thank you! Yea just a “temporary” visitor left me feeling icky. We’d definitely do the mantas again in Bora Bora; they were magical! Also saw some crown of thorns out there in Bora bora too. 😞 
We had a trip on Silversea planned for our honeymoon but decided we want to come back to PG instead as we enjoyed it so much. 
 

Did you do the Canyons, Gallery and/or Ledges on Moorea? 

@sjkoen Beautiful!!!
Did you do the manta dive on Bora Bora? That was our fave and because I got sick and called off our Moorea dive, was sadly our only dive day 😞 Looking for a re-do! 

Oh no so sorry to hear about your camera! Glad you were able to salvage some pics from the card at least. That happened to us in St Lucia at the mud baths…the latch came open just a tiny bit and mud got inside of the camera. 
 

No please don’t shut up 🙂 this is all such amazing info! We did look at the flights from PPT to Raro and right now they’re only one day a week RT (Sundays). I wish we could do a week on Cooks…sigh…

A private lagoon tour is right up our alley! Will have a look at your recommendation! 

@sjkoen thanks so much! Hopefully you were able to get some good diving in! 
 

my fiancee is stuck on the notion of doing the Cooks and it will be our honeymoon Sept 2024. Those Bali itineraries sound so wonderful too and wish we could take more time off of work for one of them. 

How was the lagoon there in Aitutaki? It looks amazing in pics! I wonder if we maybe just try and dive in Raro (plan with outside operator) and enjoy a lagoon tour in Aitutaki. 

On 9/25/2023 at 9:58 AM, sjkoen said:

I thought you might like those! They are on the way to Belvedere Lookout in Moorea. 🐎🐴

Welcome back! You did the 11-day cooks right? Do you have the dive info sheet by chance or can tell me the sites? We are looking at the 11-night for Sept 2024 🙂 

1 hour ago, WaggesAZ said:

Excellent, such helpful information!! I have settled on who we're flying, and it's United in the lie flat seats.  Flights home should be released Tuesday.  I just can't decide if it's worth the extra money for the flight there to be in first class, neither of us sleep well on a plane, and I think it may be better to not sleep to get on Tahitian time when we arrive.

We had the biz class seats and it’s was a delight. My fiancée never sleeps on a plane and he slept well. Don’t get the first 3 rows…a lot of the overhead bin space was being used for crew stuff and pillows/blankets. In SFO you board and deplane in the middle behind row 8/middle galley. In PPT they have the middle/front doors open. We had row 7 there and 3 back. I’d pick rows 5-7 both ways next time. 5 and 7 is a pair that is close together if there is two of you. 
 

We stayed at the Hilton for one night pre cruise and really enjoyed it. Food was good and a got a solid nights sleep.  Had a lot of fun at the grocery store across the street and there is a small Tiki Tiare outlet there we also walked to up the street with the oils, lotions and soaps. 

34 minutes ago, WaggesAZ said:

Thank you so much!!  That's awesome information.  We have Global Entry so that makes me think I should chance it.

I’d be confident in doing it again. 
The GE people were zipping through! 
There was a verrrrrrry long line off to the right as we were approaching and my heart just sank. As the overhead signs came into sight, turns out it was the foreign visitors line and not ours. 
 

You’ll likely land at a G terminal gate and we got through everything and over to F easily. Killed an hour in the Amex lounge before our flight home started boarding.  The United bag recheck was super easy  (and maybe the other airlines have it too) but as you exit CBP, you go towards the United bag recheck just about 100 yards away with 4 walk up lanes. They just scan your existing bag tag with a hand scanner as you walk up, they direct you to drop it off in a roped off section and you’re on your way.  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14ll7ywallxqbBIh2ZFtkJOd4G98VLXOm/view
 

Connoisseur wine list 

Hello, Fresh off of our first PG cruise. I sent copies of the drink menu to a friend and thought I’d post them here too. Also the Connoisseur wine list that I downloaded from the QR code on board. 
In the afternoon I really enjoyed an iced cappuccino with Baileys or Gran Mariner. You can also call your liquor on the drinks (e.g. grey goose martini). My fiancée got Don Julio in some of his Paloma’s and margaritas for $6 and they had pours of Blantons for $5. Included wines rotated each night; we were generally happy with what was on offer and didn’t buy wine. 
House champagne was Charles Heisdick. 

16 hours ago, sparks247 said:

Interesting new itineraries for '25. Put a deposit down on S'pore/Darwin and Darwin/Fiji trips.

We're considering the same. 

I’ll also add, it was a real treat to not have to tender out to dive shops and spend time on paperwork and gear fitting. We were done with two dives by 11:30, time enough to shower and have lunch. I know for some stops, the dives are contracted out but otherwise, it was very nice to just be ready to go. 

FWIW, we landed at 7:46am this morning in San Francisco and through CBP and customs by 8:20am.

Walk to TSA was 5 mins and then 8 mins to get through TSA. We didn’t have pre check but the pre check line estimated 10 minutes on the screen. I know every day can be different but wanted to share. 
We debarked the PG in the afternoon in Moorea Friday late afternoon before she sailed back to Papeete and then took the ferry over on Sunday to fly home. 

We debarked before the PG a few hours before she sailed back to Papeete so we could start our Moorea vacay. Pic of my fiancée waving as she sailed away. 
 

The cruise was just superb and the dive operation top notch. Here are a few snaps of the dive area. All of those kits are not going on the same dive boat! They are just staged and ready for the day. Each person has a name tag on their tank with gear. On the dive boat you’ll sit in front of your gear. We did side rolls off of the boat. There is also a shower with warm water on the marina if you care to use it and cubby’s for anything else you need to store. There really isn’t room on the boat for bags, phones, etc. they’ll stow things like sunglasses. I forgot my GoPro on the boat, after descending, on one of our dives and another one of the guides caught up to me underwater to hand it to me. Just cannot say enough good things! Also was able to dive with @ltdemptynest and her husband. Both are amazing people! 

7 minutes ago, oakridger said:

@minidonuts85  I have had Hinano and liked it but not Tabu beer.  Did you prefer one over the other?  

 

Thank you very much for posting your real time experience in Moorea!

 

~Nancy

Hi Nancy, 

The Tabu was a lemon shanty and quite lemony. Give it a try but we just aren’t into shanty’s.  My fiancée switched back to Hinano. Another good one is HOA, local craft brew from Papeete,  that wasn’t at snack Mahana but on tap at some other spots. 

We ate at Snack Mahana yesterday (no luggage) and walked there easily from the PG tender dock. Arrived around 10:45am and there were about 6 people there waiting. We got one of the last tables right along the rail on the water but there were lots of other tables that were full by 11:30. 
The food was so good! The three of us went a little crazy and got two orders of carpaccio, tuna tartare, curry shrimp and the fried mahi in coconut sauce. 

On 8/30/2023 at 3:34 PM, shrkdive1 said:

Thanks @minidonuts85 for confirming wetsuit conditions. Looking forward to being there next month. Got my medical form signed by doctor yesterday.

We even asked the dive team what they thought and they said we’d be fine as long as we’re comfortable with it. They did say if they thought it might be too cold, they’d tell us. They had shorties available as well and a warm shower for rinsing off. 

We have a 2 hour layover in SFO on Monday morning (the 930pm flight on United)…happy to report back. We will be using mobile passport. 

@Leejnd4 my fiancée has a TG6 for stills/macro and I have a gp11. If I can get a short video to load it will knock your socks off. Had one swim right over me pretty close. 

We dive along with @ltdemptynest today at Anau and wow, the mantas!