December Weather

[MNTraveler]

I am considering booking a December cruise to FP. I am nervous about the weather that time of year. Before booking, I was hoping to hear from some people who traveled the past few years in December. What was your weather like?

 

Also, does anyone have suggestions for room location? Port or Starboard/Aft or Stern??

 

Lasty, and very important, can I bring on a bottle of wine and pay a corkage fee at the table?

[rberne1]

Hi -

 

Decembers weather can be quite rainy - average of 13 inches. Personally I'd reconsider that time of year. That's a lot of dollars to blow if you get rained out the entire time. Again, just my opinion. Check www.weather.com, and check the averages for Papeete.

 

Suggestion for cabin location ... port side, aft. Had beautiful views from our cabin in all ports.

 

Do bring your wine. It's worth paying the $10 fee as opposed to purchasing bottle(s) from Princess. Or, when you get to Rarotonga, purchase the Australian wines there. Our dollar is "up" to their NZ dollar so you can really get good deals on purchases. Purchases on anything and not just their wines actually.

 

This is a great cruise, so much so that we're going back for our second TP cruise on Saturday!

 

Happy Cruzin' :D

[MNTraveler]

Thanks for the feedback. It looks like November has much less rain than December. Has anyone had experiences on this cruise in Novemebr?

[ljtinney]

rberne....please tell more of the $10 fee. That's news to me.

 

MNtraveler.....we're sail Nov 20. Never been before and hoping this is a good time of year to go. we wanted the Marquesas Itinerary and we're hoping for great weather

[laurieb]

any time of year can be rainy, it's the tropics. if you have read about the weather this week, it has been rainy, and they have had to postpone the surfing competition on Tahiti a couple of times. we have gone twice in January, and will go in January again if the ship is still sailing in 2007( if it isn't, we will do a land trip then).

[rberne1]

ljtinney -

 

The $10 charge is called a "corkage fee" ... Princess' way of getting $$ from you when you bring your own wine/champagne. (getcha' comin' and goin', don't they!) This charge is simply your waiter opening your wine bottle when you bring it to the dinner table. This is typical of Princess on all their ships, although I've heard other passengers say that their waiter forgot to charge it to their account. I've never been that lucky. :(

[MNTraveler]

laurieb - how have the winds been in Janurary for you. have you missed any ports of call because the tendors could not transport people?

[laurieb]

there weren't any winds to speak of, and the water was fine, not rough at all while traveling. we missed Raro both times. The first time, only the second TP sailing, I believe there were problems that had to do with something other than rough water, because the water was calm. This past January, it really was too rough to tender in. We had a bit of rain this year but not alot, it was always warm. I wish we could could go back January 06, hopefully the ship will still be sailing for 07. We live in wet Oregon, and if I am going to be in the rain, I would prefer warm rain over our rain.

[mimie]

I have been reading these posts with great interest. We are booked on the PG for December 27th - the New Years cruise. I now realize that the weather may not be the best but it is New Years and it is FP. Life is good. We are looking forward to it.

[badger71]

what is the weather like in july or august thinking of summer 2006 until jeanne retires from teaching in 4 yrs we are limited to school vacations any suggestions on the best way to see tahiti and the area:)

[sunsetme]

i'm going in april 2006--school vacation--will have to take some extra days off though.

[OnVacation11]

We were on TP in late December 2004 and had about 15 mins of rain in total but it was very hot and humid ! Next time (2007) we are going to try for July or August. So far it has been our favourite cruise destination.