vlaurend

I'm a Kindle user, husband is not, so guess we'll bring a stack of paperbacks for him. Thanks very much for your help.

Petoonya, I left two books for you in the library of the Wind Spirit. We were there in November and I donated two lighthearted novels about a Tahitian family by Tahitian author Celestine Hitiura Vaite. Her first novel, "Breadfruit" isn't all that well-written but gives great insight into the culture and daily life in Tahiti. The other book--which is actually the third novel in the series--is much better written and was a very enjoyable read. It's called "Tiare". The second book in the series is called "Frangipani" and was also good, but I got that one on Kindle so I couldn't leave it there for you. ;)

Thanks for the great suggestions. We are doing this cruise on Jun 21st. I particularly liked the idea of the picnic with the Rum punch.. Were those little bottle classed as your 2 bottles per cabin, or were you able to just sneak them on

We just packed a bunch of the 50ml plastic bottles of Bacardi Gold in a bag inside our checked luggage. They didn’t even open the bag when they inspected our luggage in the check-in line when we were boarding the ship. Honestly, they don’t want to know, so make it easy for them not to know and everyone is happy. We found this to be true as the cruise went on.

The 2 bottles you can officially bring onboard are typically wine, and those bottles are held for you by the wine steward and poured for you at your request at dinner.

Definitely book ASAP! Especially if you want to do the Tahaa drift snorkel. The advantage to doing the ship’s excursion on that one is that they take you directly from the drift snorkel to the BBQ lunch on Motu Mahaea. Makes for a perfect day!

Agree with the above response. It usually passes after an hour or two, though. Bring rain ponchos and shoes you can get wet.

If you book the drift snorkel through Windstar, they will take you to do the drift snorkel in the morning, then drop you off directly at Motu Mahaea for the BBQ event right afterward. That's what we did, and it was perfect. The guides that conducted the drift snorkel tour were excellent and we still had plenty of time at the BBQ event afterward. Just wear a long-sleeved shirt and leggings (and gloves if you have them) for the drift snorkel, since it's possible to accidentally brush against the coral and get a coral scrape. The current wasn't strong when we did it, but I had to stand up and empty out my mask a few times and while standing there in the current and doing that, I did get pushed up against the coral once. I was fine because I had leggings on. My husband got a coral scrape on his leg. It is ABSOLUTELY a must-do excursion, but just go prepared and smart. And you will need water shoes for every beach excursion you do, including this one, because all of the beaches in the Society Islands have broken coral at water's edge.

My other recommendations are these:

On Moorea, we rented a car from Albert's (Look them up on TripAdvisor. They will deliver the car to the tender dock) and drove around the island ourselves. All of the tours go to the Belvedere Lookout and the Agricultural School (right on the way there), and those are good places to go on your own. Use mosquito repellent at the lookout, though. And we also drove to the Sofitel hotel for lunch, then went to Temae Beach--the best beach on the island--right next to the Sofitel. Just tell them you are just going for lunch and they will not make you pay for a day pass.

On Bora Bora, I HIGHLY recommend a half-day lagoon snorkeling tour with Lagoon Service. You can also find them on TripAdvisor. This was the highlight of our entire trip, and we loved it so much that we booked a trip to Bora Bora just 2 months later and went out with Lagoon Service again! We e-mailed them ahead of time and had them pick us up at 9:30am at the tender dock on our Bora Bora arrival morning, then had them drop us off at Matira Beach after the tour. We had a wonderful lunch and swim at Matira Beach, then took the bus back afterward. You can also have the beach restaurant call you a taxi. If you don't want to deal with that, and if you don't mind missing beautiful Matira Beach, then take Lagoon Services' full day tour on your arrival day and just have them pick you up at the tender dock and return you there. They take you to a beautiful little private motu and their lunch is delicious. For Bora Bora Day 2, we didn't book a tour because we knew the ship would allow us to hang out on the private island (Motu Tapu) where they were having the BBQ dinner event later. Other people didn't know that this was an option, so we had the motu all to ourselves, except for the watersports people who were there with kayaks and stand-up paddleboards for us to use. We called up room service and ordered sandwiches beforehand, and we took those with us for a picnic. We also had our own rum punch (bring thermoses!) that we had made with the 50ml Bacardi bottles we had brought in our checked luggage and the Rotui juice fruit punch we'd bought on Moorea (the Rotui juice factory is another fun place to stop and buy fruit punch and souvenirs when you're on Moorea).

P.S. Book your Candles reservation as soon as you board the ship. The guy taking the reservations will be right by the buffet line. We booked ours for the first night on Bora Bora, since we knew the ship would not be moving.

Have breakfast in Papeete at someplace like Le Retro, which is a short walk from the ferry dock. Centre Vaima | Front de Mer, Papeete 98713 (look it up on TripAdvisor). Then go to Le Marche Municipale (public market), which is at its best in the morning. It's a wonderful slice of local life and also the best place to buy souvenirs. Next, go pearl shopping. We contacted Manapearl (www.manapearl.com) ahead of time and made an appointment to come and look at their pearls and pick out a pendant and earrings and we had a wonderful experience. There is a luggage storage place at the airport, so I guess you'd have to take a taxi back to the airport to get it after that, but it's money well spent. Don't forego a chance to experience the down-to-earth charm of Papeete.

ABSOLUTELY bring it with you. A lot.

Vlaurend thank you for all your info and tips. We are sailing 26/4 and I would love to do the drift snorkel but confess to being a bit worried. I will wear the full kit but is it a fast current? Can I stand at all? Is there a sandy bottom or is it all coral? I really, really don't want to miss it as everyone says it is the highlight of the cruise. Thank you.

The current itself was not strong, and it was not difficult to stand up. And there are places to stand; it isn't solid coral. It's just that when your mask starts letting water in, and you stand and start fumbling with it while balancing, it doesn't take much to make you brush up against the coral just a little bit. And that's all it takes. Cover up and enjoy the beautiful ride!

We chose to make a pilgrimage to Marae Taputapuatea on Raiatea because it is the only sacred site (marae) in the entire Polynesian triangle--from Easter Island to Hawaii to New Zealand--that is considered an "international marae". In other words, it is the most sacred site in all of Polynesia. None of the maraes are structurally impressive because they are basically just mounds of stones with no permanent structures on them. However, this is the location from which the expeditions were launched that led to the Polynesians from the Society Islands settling the entire Polynesian triangle. 2600 miles by outrigger canoe is pretty amazing! And of course there were human sacrifices made to ensure safe passage for the expeditions. . . Excellent history lesson for the kids. And if you're lucky, you'll get a guide dog for free, LOL! When we parked in the parking lot across the street from Marae Taputapuatea, a very friendly and well-behaved dog met us and escorted us to the marae, then stayed with us and gave us the full tour, even showing us how to catch the little hermit crabs that make their home there. ;)

With all due respect, if you had wanted to save money, you would be doing something other than this cruise, or not staying 4 days in Moorea in addition to the cruise. Experiences like the Taha'a drift snorkel will be the unforgettable highlights of your visit to this part of the world and you want that experience to be everything it can be. There are several tour companies that take people to the drift snorkel, but those all leave from Raiatea, so you would have to do that on your Raiatea day instead of the morning of your Taha'a day. You want a really reliable guide for this drift snorkel, and that's one reason I recommend the ship's excursion. Also, if you go with the ship's excursion on Taha'a day, the tour operator delivers you directly to Motu Mahaea afterwards, where you will arrive just as the ship's BBQ lunch is starting. You will have all afternoon on this little private island and won't feel rushed at all. Most people were packing up and ready to go back to the ship at 3:00 or so because they got bored just sitting around on the island.

Having said that, if you want to book an excursion from Raiatea that takes you to the drift snorkel, one of them is called L' Excursion Bleue Day Tours. http://www.tahaa.net/index.php/en/ Another one is Arii Moana Tours. http://www.ariimoanatours.com/ TripAdvisor is your best resource for off-cruise tour reviews.

Whichever drift snorkel tour you choose, just be sure all of you are wearing water shoes, leggings, long-sleeved shirts or rashguards, and if possible, gloves. You can get brushed up against the coral and get a scrape even when the water is fairly calm. My husband got a coral scrape and I didn't because I wore leggings.

There is surfing on the island of Tahiti. More here: https://www.surftravel.com.au/destinations/french-polynesia/tahiti/

There is surfing on Huahine, but the local surfers are very protective of their waves and are not very open to "guests" joining in.

P.S. I would request a vow renewal ceremony the first evening on Bora Bora, since you will be anchored all night and the ship won't be going anywhere. The ship is also docked at Raiatea all night after the Raiatea day, but that is the evening of the deck BBQ so the deck would be in use and the entire crew would be busy with the BBQ.

One other option to ask about--since you will be able to tender back and forth to the little reef island of Motu Tapu in the late morning/early afternoon of your second Bora Bora day--is having your renewal ceremony there, on your own little private island. We found it to be idyllic and there were only about 6 other people from the ship there, since most of the passengers didn't know they could visit the island until the evening before.

I'd suggest contacting Windstar and asking if this is something the Captain can do on the ship.

As for the cabins, they are right across from a stairwell so you may get more noise than other cabins, but I like Deck 1 because there is the least rocking.

I did contact him to see if he was still there ( or even on FB) and he is. I'll try to put a pic with him on this post. He speaks Japanese, English, French, etc.

 

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Wow, Japanese, too? Too bad we didn't find him before our trip!

I really want to visit the marae vlaurend but do not want to rent a car. I am unable to find a tour that is focused on it. Would love to visit with a local archeologist but unable to find any contact info. Do you recall if there were any tours available at the pier when you docked offering this? If I can't find a tour, are there taxi's available?

That's exactly why we ended up renting a car for half a day. If you can contact the taxi driver above on Facebook, that sounds like a good option!

There is no scanner at the port of Papeete. When you board the Wind Spirit, they open your luggage by hand as you are about to board the ship (they open your luggage in front of you, after you identify it). I think they're mostly looking for dangerous, flammable items, and possibly liquor exceeding the allowed number of bottles. We did this cruise 2 months ago and noticed they were more thorough at the beginning of the line and more lax as the process went on. We were about halfway down the line while boarding at 1:30 and they pretty much just went through the motions with our suitcases. I had about 10 50-ml bottles of rum in mine. They were undisturbed.

The package worked great for us, both financially and logistically., when we did it 2 months ago Our room was very nice at LeMeridien, both on our arrival night and the day room we had on the day of departure. And I was pleasantly surprised with the seats on Air Tahiti Nui, where I found that I was actually able to find somewhat comfortable positions to sleep in, unlike many airplane seats (my husband thinks they are a little wider than many U.S. domestic airline seats). 2 weeks ago, we flew ATN back to Tahiti to do a visit to Bora Bora on our own and we had the same experience both ways. It did not feel like 7-1/2 hours.

In summary, I highly recommend the air and hotel package. I tracked prices for over a year and never saw a better deal come up, and it was *really* nice to be met at the airport, transported in a comfy air-conditioned bus, and never have to carry our luggage in and out of hotels!

Final thought: If you were doing this trip to save money, you wouldn't be taking the cruise in the first place; you'd be backpacking and schlepping all your luggage from one cheap hotel to another! Give yourself permission to enjoy being catered to just once. I gotta say, it was really nice.

The ferry to Moorea is just 30-45 minutes from Papeete, and is right next to the cruise ship dock.

Round-trip airfare PPT-Bora Bora is $400 per person, so at first glance, it seems more cost-effective to spend a few pre/post cruise days on Moorea instead. BUT, if you're like us, you'll just want to go back to Bora Bora once you've been there, so spending a few more days on Bora Bora after your cruise would actually save you a whole separate trip, i.e., $1,500 per person in international airfare from L.A.!

We stayed at the Maitai Polynesia Bora Bora, which is right on its own little beach, is just a 7-minute walk from beautiful Matira Beach and several restaurants and a 3-minute walk from a grocery store. It will save you tons of $$ over staying at one of the international resorts on the private islands, where you are stuck paying for food at their expensive restaurants and need to take a boat to the main island to do anything. The Maitai does have over-water bungalows, if that's something that's on your bucket list. The views from their ocean view hillside rooms are amazing, though. Highly recommended. We booked through TripAdvisor and got a ridiculously cheap room rate due to rainy season ($150 per night including all taxes and fees).

50 shades of blue...... we're going back for sure. 7 or 10 days, you can't go wrong either way. Hard choice.

Confession: We already went back, LOL! After our November "Dreams of Tahiti" cruise, we were so obsessed with the Bora Bora lagoon that we jumped on a cheap hotel deal we saw on TripAdvisor and cashed in some award miles to go back to Bora Bora a week and a half ago! Favorite place in the world!

We took the 7-day and loved it. If we were to do it all over again, we'd take the 7-day cruise and then spend another 3 days on Bora Bora afterward. Even though Bora Bora is the one island where you get to spend 2 days during the cruise, it only left us wanting more. The lagoon is indescribable, and the snorkeling is unforgettable.

You only have 3 days, so I'd go to Moorea if I were you. Inter-island flights are surprisingly expensive ($400 RT to Bora Bora), and Moorea is the only island you can get to without an inter-island flight. Just take the ferry, which conveniently departs and returns right next to the Papeete cruise ship dock. Also, Moorea is a magically gorgeous island worth spending 3 days on, and it's less expensive than Bora Bora. Rent a car on Moorea through Albert's Transport.

Unless you require luxury accommodations, I'd recommend spending your first night at the Fare Suisse pension in Papeete. We just stayed there overnight on our way to Bora Bora a week ago and it was just $103 per night . . . and that included the airport pickup and drop-off. Unbelievable! It's very basic accommodation, but very professionally run and you can get free transport from the airport and to the port for your ferry. They also serve a nice continental breakfast each morning for $10 per person.

Last January 2017, Polynesia suffered the worst rain/downpour/flooding they have seen for a long time. Everybody was impacted by this, including WS and PG. Rain is frequent but short-lived. Last year event was a rare occurence. You should be fine.

"You should be fine" is a relative statement, since people have different expectations and tolerance levels for rain. But it is true that the chances of a cyclone hitting the Society Islands is extremely low this season, which is a good thing. Regular rainy season rain is far preferable to a cyclone. :)

The weather in F.P. will always be a gamble. We took our cruise in mid-November, which is the beginning of rainy season, and we got 4 downpours that week: one very brief one while we were in Papeete (we ducked into the McDonald's until it was over), one on Moorea, but only when we were on the higher part of the island (just below Belvedere Lookout), twice when we were anchored at Bora Bora (once for about 2 hours in the evening--making us move inside for our Candles dinner--and again for about 2 hours the next morning). Just come prepared with a rain poncho and rubber shoes. We had ours on us on Moorea and actually enjoyed experiencing the rain in the rain forest!

This is the average monthly rainfall on Bora Bora. You'll see that November averages 8" and March averages 7": http://www.bora-bora-motu.climatemps.com/precipitation.php

This was the daily Bora Bora weather in March 2017: https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/french-polynesia/vaitape-bora-bora/historic?month=3&year=2017

and this was the daily Tahiti weather in March 2017:

https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/france/papeete/historic?month=3&year=2017

If you could make it down to Marae Taputapuatea on Raiatea either before or after your drift snorkel on Taha'a, that would be the best of all worlds! Check the tide tables for the drift snorkel. I think the roughest water is when the tide is coming back in. We had calm conditions but I still benefited from wearing a long-sleeved rashguard, leggings and dive gloves. I needed to stop and stand up a few times because I was getting water in my mask, and I accidentally brushed up against the coral while doing that. My leggings saved me. My husband just wore shorts and ended up with a coral scrape on his shin.

You are very welcome, cdastager! FYI, the Taha'a drift snorkel you would be doing via jet ski is the same one you'd be doing if you took the morning drift snorkel excursion with Windstar on Taha'a day. You'll be missing a pilgrimage to Marae Taputapuatea on Raiatea day, but the advantage is that you would then be able to do a different Taha'a tour on Taha'a day, i.e., the vanilla plantation, etc. We do kind of regret not having done that, since we had wanted to visit a vanilla plantation and had no other chance after missing the opportunity on Taha'a. If you can get vanilla beans for $5 per bean, buy them there. Otherwise, just buy them at the agriculture school on Moorea, where they are $5 per bean. That's even cheaper than the public market in Papeete. Slice the bean open lengthwise and use a knife to scrape the vanilla caviar into the granulated sugar that you are using for your recipe (I love using them in vanilla pudding).