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Could, Should Princess Offer RT Itineraries West Coast Cruises To Tahiti?


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With the Royal coming over next year wouldn't be advantageous for Princess to consider RT cruises from LA to Papeete" Tahiti?

 

Forego some of the Hawaii round trips and offer beautiful South Pacific.

 

I'd be all over that like a cheap suit.:cool::cool::cool::cool:;p:cool:

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With the Royal coming over next year wouldn't be advantageous for Princess to consider RT cruises from LA to Papeete" Tahiti?

 

Forego some of the Hawaii round trips and offer beautiful South Pacific.

 

I'd be all over that like a cheap suit.:cool::cool::cool::cool:;p:cool:

 

We would also enjoy the option of forgoing Hawaii and focusing on the South Pacific Islands.

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Several years ago, we had just finished our first cruise, and we were going to do the French Polynesian cruise the next year with Princess. Then we found out that they were no longer doing 10 day Tahitian cruises.

 

So disappointed. I would love to do that itinerary.

 

For those with lots of money, there is the Aranui, Paul Gaugin, and a couple other high end cruise lines doing the islands, but I would love to go with Princess.

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They need to bring back the 10 day around the tahitian islands I did it on the Tahitian Princess and it was the best
I would love to do it. But, lots of competition with Gauguin there year round, and some others seasonally. And air service to fill big ships is challenging.

 

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With the Royal coming over next year wouldn't be advantageous for Princess to consider RT cruises from LA to Papeete" Tahiti?

 

Forego some of the Hawaii round trips and offer beautiful South Pacific.

 

I'd be all over that like a cheap suit.:cool::cool::cool::cool:;p:cool:

 

Perhaps, but consider that a cruise ship averaging 18 knots would take 10 days just to get to Tahiti. And that would be 10 straight sea days. But one way to Hawaii only takes about 6 days. Personally, we would love a round trip cruise to the Society Islands (with 10 straight sea days each way) but doubt if this would be a good selling cruise. There seems to be a trend to offer shorter segments since much of the cruising public cannot spare more then a couple of weeks for travel.

 

A few years ago, Renaissance Cruise Lines (long gone) had one of their ships doing 7-14 day cruises around the Society Islands and Marquesas (we did one of these) and packaged it with low cost charter air flights between LAX and Papeete. It was the first time we ever visited those islands and was a lot of fun.

 

Hank

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They need to bring back the 10 day around the tahitian islands I did it on the Tahitian Princess and it was the best

 

 

That ship was the right sized ship for that itinerary. The Grand class ships' larger passenger capacity overwhelms the ability of the islands' ports to provide a quality time ashore for all. The current Pacific Princess is the only ship in today's Princess fleet that is the correct size for that itinerary.

 

 

The current Princess itineraries that include French Polynesia only go to three of the seven ports that the Tahitian Princess went to.

 

When the Tahitian Princess did French Polynesia it was mainly because the local government made financial concessions that made the economics favorable for Princess. When the multi-year agreement ended, Princess moved the ship elsewhere.

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Perhaps, but consider that a cruise ship averaging 18 knots would take 10 days just to get to Tahiti. And that would be 10 straight sea days. But one way to Hawaii only takes about 6 days. Personally, we would love a round trip cruise to the Society Islands (with 10 straight sea days each way) but doubt if this would be a good selling cruise. There seems to be a trend to offer shorter segments since much of the cruising public cannot spare more then a couple of weeks for travel.

 

A few years ago, Renaissance Cruise Lines (long gone) had one of their ships doing 7-14 day cruises around the Society Islands and Marquesas (we did one of these) and packaged it with low cost charter air flights between LAX and Papeete. It was the first time we ever visited those islands and was a lot of fun.

 

Hank

When Renaissance went bankrupt shortly after 911, Princess purchased three of the R class ships. One of them is now the Pacific Princess. Another became the Tahitian Princess and then later the Ocean Princess. Under the terms of the purchase agreement for the Tahitian, Princess agreed to base the TP in Tahiti for 5 years. In turn, they got a nice discount from France which owned the mortgage on the ship and acquired it in bankruptcy. The TP did mostly 10 day r/t Papeete cruises with an occasional 12 night Papeete to Honolulu followed by the reverse.

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With the Royal coming over next year wouldn't be advantageous for Princess to consider RT cruises from LA to Papeete" Tahiti?

 

Forego some of the Hawaii round trips and offer beautiful South Pacific.

 

I'd be all over that like a cheap suit.:cool::cool::cool::cool:;p:cool:

I don't see any change. No real money in it. Long cruises = less on board spending/passenger/day. Most who work can not take off more than a few weeks at a time.

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Princess already has a 28 day RT out of LA to the South Pacific and do one in the Spring and one in the Fall, LA-Hawaii-America Samoa-Western Samoa- Moorea-Bora Bora-Tahiti and back to La.

 

This is the routing we like and enjoy taking....I would could fly to Tahiti and stay a week for the price Princess would have to charge just to run a ship there and do a quick turn around....:halo:

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Going back to the original question, a LA to Papeete to LA cruise would entail many sea days. It is 8 sea days from LA to Papeete and the same number coming back. With 5 or so days in Polynesia, that is a 3 week cruise with 16 sea days. We have been on the South Pacific cruise several times. It has 18 sea days with 9 port days.

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Going back to the original question, a LA to Papeete to LA cruise would entail many sea days. It is 8 sea days from LA to Papeete and the same number coming back. With 5 or so days in Polynesia, that is a 3 week cruise with 16 sea days. We have been on the South Pacific cruise several times. It has 18 sea days with 9 port days.

 

We have taken the 28-day cruise with the 8 sea days from Tahiti to LA twice. That many consecutive sea days is not liked by a lot of people. It is my opinion that a lot more people would book the cruise if Princess changed the itinerary so they visit 2 Hawaiian ports on the way to Samoa and visit the other 2 Hawaiian ports on the way back to LA.

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We have taken the 28-day cruise with the 8 sea days from Tahiti to LA twice. That many consecutive sea days is not liked by a lot of people. It is my opinion that a lot more people would book the cruise if Princess changed the itinerary so they visit 2 Hawaiian ports on the way to Samoa and visit the other 2 Hawaiian ports on the way back to LA.

 

I made that exact suggestion to Princess after we did the first 28 day cruise offered in 2011. Made perfect sense to me.

 

Cheers, Denise

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First, as has been mentioned, the Royal Princess is the wrong sized ship for the French Polynesian islands. It would be able to go only go to Bora Bora, Moorea and Tahiti. While these are wonderful, they give only the most superficial taste of those beautiful islands.

 

However, the Royal Princess is perfect for sea days, and there would be a lot of them.

 

Instead of round trip LA, why not do a one way LA to Papeete? Five sea days to Hawaii, stopping at a couple of those islands, then Hawaii to Papeete, with Bora Bora and Moorea en route. It would still be a long cruise, 16 nights or so if just three Hawaiian islands are visited.

 

Then, people could decide whether to fly home from Papeete or fly to one of the other French Polynesian islands for a more extended stay. Heck, if time was not issue, they could stay in French Polynesia for the time it took the ship to return to LA and sail back to French Polynesia, assuming it does B2B2B of the same itinerary. (Disclaimer, we would be all over that like a cheap suit). ;)

 

Aside from my horror that a ship as large as the Royal Princess would be anchored in Cooks Bay and 3500 passengers would descend on beauiitful Moorea and Bora Bora, it could work.

 

ETA: But, please, for all that is holy and good...no Love Boat horn!!!!

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When Renaissance went bankrupt shortly after 911, Princess purchased three of the R class ships. One of them is now the Pacific Princess. Another became the Tahitian Princess and then later the Ocean Princess. Under the terms of the purchase agreement for the Tahitian, Princess agreed to base the TP in Tahiti for 5 years. In turn, they got a nice discount from France which owned the mortgage on the ship and acquired it in bankruptcy. The TP did mostly 10 day r/t Papeete cruises with an occasional 12 night Papeete to Honolulu followed by the reverse.

 

Wow, that is so informative. Thanks for the history. I was fortunate enough to do the 10 or 11 nights cruise on Ocean Princess' r/t Papeete itinerary in Dec 2013. It was one of the most memorable cruises as the small islands and the reef were so beautiful!

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The length and cost of that cruise severely limits the market of guests to fill most any size Princess ship for more than an occasional sailing.

I feel the same way & if sailing that many days would much prefer the Sydney to LA itinerary. Despite the long flight, visiting Sydney pre-cruise and the highlight of our cruise...New Zealand...was a much better itinerary for us.

 

We’ve watched prices for the roundtrip LA cruise without having to fly anywhere but prices are generally more than we’ll pay to repeat the same ports. Although this year prices dropped sooner which seems to indicate fewer bookings. And with more supply than demand discounts such as I saw for this year would probably be necessary if this itinerary was offered more than twice per year.

 

Twice per year they have 28-day circle round Australia cruises and both the September 2018 and March 2019 cruises are already sold out. The roundtrip LA cruise had to offer big discounts to get sold out including flash fares on their 3/16 list of discounted cruise fares. So maybe the market for the 28-day roundtrip LA to Tahiti is already dwindling.

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Demand for the South Pacific cruise from LA to Hawaii, Samoa & Polynesia and back to LA has declined based on the cutoff point for the Most Traveled Passenger. In 2015 it was about 750 days. In 2016, it was about 600 days. Last October, it was close to 500.

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Then, people could decide whether to fly home from Papeete or fly to one of the other French Polynesian islands for a more extended stay. Heck, if time was not issue, they could stay in French Polynesia for the time it took the ship to return to LA and sail back to French Polynesia, assuming it does B2B2B of the same itinerary. (Disclaimer, we would be all over that like a cheap suit). ;)

 

Aside from my horror that a ship as large as the Royal Princess would be anchored in Cooks Bay and 3500 passengers would descend on beauiitful Moorea and Bora Bora, it could work.

 

 

And 3500 passengers descending on the Tahiti airport would not be practical. There are not enough flights to handle this size crowd every few weeks. Also, for those who like to arrive the day before a cruise, not enough hotel rooms on Tahiti.

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They need to bring back the 10 day around the tahitian islands I did it on the Tahitian Princess and it was the best

 

On which ship? The only one in the Princess' fleet that could do it would be the Pacific Princess, and she is currently allocated for the 'World Cruise' sailings.

 

As Princess is further cementing itself as a mass-market mainstream cruiseline with ever increasing ship sizes, 'exotic' itineraries (like the one that you have suggested) will no longer be a viable possibility.

 

FWIW, our (RT Papeete)French Polynesia sailing on the (R-class) Royal Princess was our favorite Princess cruise to-date - for a multitude of reasons.

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On which ship? The only one in the Princess' fleet that could do it would be the Pacific Princess, and she is currently allocated for the 'World Cruise' sailings.

 

As Princess is further cementing itself as a mass-market mainstream cruiseline with ever increasing ship sizes, 'exotic' itineraries (like the one that you have suggested) will no longer be a viable possibility.

 

FWIW, our (RT Papeete)French Polynesia sailing on the (R-class) Royal Princess was our favorite Princess cruise to-date - for a multitude of reasons.

The ship was called the Tahitian Princess for about 5 years while she was based in Papeete. After that she was renamed the Ocean Princess and sailed under that name until she was sold to Oceanea a couple of years ago.

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