Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Dr. Poole's tour now a Princess excursion

ms_shell

By ms_shell,
in Pacific Islands, All

Recommended Posts

ms_shell

ms_shell

Posted
Posted

Dr. Michael Poole's Dolphin/Whale watch eco tour can now be reserved through the Princess website, (or at the excursions desk onboard the TP).

I've noticed that this excursion was added to the Moorea itinerary for our upcoming 8/2 cruise, but there were no details, and it doesn't mention Dr. Poole. Went ahead and reserved it, but emailed Dr. Poole directly, and he informed me that it can now be arranged through Princess. Makes things easy.

The best part is the price is the same as booking directly with Dr. Poole!

Since Dr. Poole only does his tour on Thursday and Sunday, I wonder if the excursion is only offered on those sailings that will be in Moorea on those days.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
nancyrg

nancyrg

Posted
Posted

I just returned yesterday from Tahiti & we were on the Princess excursion with Dr. Poole-it was the 2nd week that it had been offered. It was fantastic! We actually were able to go in the water with humpback whales-we saw 2 & stayed with them for over an hour-then Dr. Poole let anyone who wanted get in the water and the whale swam to "check us out". It was a once in a lifetime experience! We saw roughtoothed dolphins along with the whales. They said at the shore desk that we would probably not see whales because it was early in the season-but we were very lucky.

Dr. Poole is a great guide-very knowledgable & personable-it was a fantastic excursion.

Since it was only the 2nd week, the excursion was empty-we were 8 passengers on his 40 passenger boat.

I would highly recommend this excursion!

 

Nancy

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jackiealu

Jackiealu

Posted
Posted

Chuck and others:

Do you think this will be offered on our Tahitian Princess cruise of 9-21-05. It is not currently available on the pre sign up on the princess web site.

I would still love to do this tour with Dr. Poole. I guess we will have to wait until we get on board to find out if it is offered on our sailing.

If you hear anything else, please let me know.

Jackie

Link to comment
Share on other sites
nancyrg

nancyrg

Posted
Posted

Jackie & Chuck:

you both will love this excursion! remember to take a mask & snorkle-princess does not tell you so that if the conditions do not allow snorkeling then folks are not disappointed.

Dr. Poole is awesome!!!

 

Nancy

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...
ms_shell

ms_shell

Posted
  • Author
Posted

We just got home a couple of days ago, from our 8/2 cruise, and I have to say snorkeling with a humpback whale was the highlight of our trip, (which was packed full of fantastic experiences!)

We never saw any dolphins, and only a few whale sightings, and we were a bit disappointed as we neared the end of the tour. Dr. Poole said we would try one more area, then head to an area to snorkel, if we didn't see any animals. A few minutes after we reached the area, a whale breached pretty close to the boat, then swam right up to us, and "checked us out". Dr. Poole said anyone with mask and snorkel, could get in the water, and there was a mad scramble to get our gear on and into the water! About 10 of us entered the water, and spent 10-15 minutes in absolute awe as this gentle creature calmly floated among us. Finally, he made one last circle around the boat, took a deep breath, and headed for the depths.

I've never seen grown adults so excited in all my life, and Dr. Poole seemed to be one of the most ecstatic of our group. We were all chattering like little kids on the ride back to the dock. As we disembarked, everyone thanked Dr. Poole for such a "once in a lifetime" experience, and some even hugged him.

It was something I will never forget, and I hope to return someday to repeat the experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CSloan

CSloan

Posted
Posted

Another question.. has anyone seen whales as late as November? We're booked for November 2006, but are considering moving it to Aug or Sept to maximize our chances of seeing more whales and wildlife. (I realize there are no guarantees).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
Second seating

Second seating

Posted
Posted

We just returned from our cruise on the Tahitian Princess. Dr. Poole's excursion was certainly the highlight of our cruise. We took the morning excursion (only 12 people; the afternoon excursion had 30). We saw two whales and numerous spinner dolphins during our excursion. Some advice for this excursion:

 

1. Bring your snorkel mask and vent pipe (no fins). At one point a whale was directly below the boat; those who had snorkel equipment got out of the boat and saw the whale beneath us.

 

2. You MUST book the excursion directly through Princess, even if you had made prior arrangements with Dr. Poole.

 

3. Do not expect to communicate with Dr. Poole via email on a timely basis. Although his excursion is the best around, he doesn't put a very high priority on communicating with his customers. Just book the excursion on Princess and enjoy the show! The cost of the excursion is $74 per person.

 

4. Dr. Poole now sells high-quality T-shirts if you want a memento from the excursion (2000 francs or 23 U.S. dollars).

 

Deana & Richard

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...
RumRunner01

RumRunner01

Posted
Posted

We are doing the TP on 11/20 and won't be in Moorea until 11/21 which is a Monday. I thought Dr. Poole did his tour only two days a week (Sunday and Thurdsay or something), and Monday was not one of them. But I see on our Ashore Tour Reservations sheet (and Cruise Personalizer) that this tour is open to us. Is he now doing his tour more days of the week? We are seriously considering this excursion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
maygoddess

maygoddess

Posted
Posted

We did the Dr Poole excursion last week when we were on our post cruise in Moorea. It was recently added as a Princess excursion, so whenever the ship is in Moorea he does it..then he also does it other days. We did ours on a Monday morning..so I would confirm with him now as he seemed to have changed his scheduling all around.

 

 

 

Now..as far as whales in November..you may be pushing your luck as this is the tail end of whale season in South Pacific. I know I would have been disappointed in the excursion had we not seen whales. We never saw any dolphins. We initially chased around a whale we saw breech once..just saw the blowhole and top part of its body before he submerged again. We sat for 30 minutes waiting for it to breech again..it takes anwhere from 7 minutes to 30 for them to come up for air. We saw the blowhole again..came up slightly and back down...but since the whale kept moving further away..we did not see this one up close. He then went to the eastern side of island and again saw a blowhole and rode fast over to that one..but decided not to wait it out again..so he rode again to the west side of the island after hearing from someone by cell that a whale was spotted there..much calmer water.

 

So as we approached this one area..there was a small boat with a film crew..there was one man in the water pointing down to the water indicating a whale was right below us. The two filmers were already down below us filming. Dr Poole told anyone with mask and snorkel to go ahead and jump in and check it out. So almost all of us got in the water..and looked down and there was a 40ft humpback directly below us! It was awesome. He was just resting there about 50ft below us..occasionally moving his fins...I was a bit scared as I was directly on top of this whale and had no idea how they resurface..thinking they just float up to the top..but after about 10 minutes..he shot straight ahead and popped up about 100 ft away from where we were floating near the boat! AWESOME!! We then left and went back to our hotels...

 

If all we had was the initial "whale chase" and saw only blowholes..we would have been disappointed..once we swam with the whale..it was the best experience ever.

 

The day before on our snorkel/motu picnic trip..while we were shark feeding, we saw whales actually playing near the reef really close to us..one jumped straight out of the water while others flipped their tales around...so we saw more whales than we bargained for.

 

You may want to email Dr Poole directly and ask him before you book for November to avoid disappointment that they are all gone by then!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 1 month later...
tsb2

tsb2

Posted
Posted

Hi - We are also on the Nov 10th sailing and trying to recruit others for a CC meet and greet at the pool bar during sail away (see roll call for TP for Nov 10th). So far we have two other couples confirmed. Please feel free to join us if you like.

 

I too was concerned about seeing whales so I e-mailed Dr Poole directly. He responded by saying that most likely we would not see whales during our trip, but dolphin sightings were likely. Because we were most interested in the whales we cancelled booking this excursion. If you would be interested just for the sake of listening to Dr Poole's lecture on these incredible creatures, I hear that he is an amazing teacher and it may be worth going. Hope this helps.

 

Tara

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...