TP Excursions - which to book

[K&R]

I am wondering which of the excursions provided by TP are worth booking and which ones should I book myself? I know about the helmut dive, which I have already booked through TP, but are there any others that shouldn't be missed?

 

What about Marc's motu picnic? On his website there are special excursions for TP passengers. I will be on Huahine for 5 days pre-cruise and am wondering if I should book the motu picnic on one of those days and take another excursion when we visit the island with TP?

 

Any information would be greatly appreciated. :)

[tsb2]

Hi K&R - My husband and I will be traveling with you November 10, 2005. I responded to your roll call, but have not had a reply. We are trying to arrange a "meet & greet" and have interest from another couple. Would you be interested? My husband and I are in our early 30's and celebrating our 5th anniversary on the TP. We are booked and have heard great reviews of the Michael Poole Whale and Dolphin Watch in Moorea. Our Frommers guide says that this excursion is "not to be missed" and if whales are present you are allowed to get in to the water to snorkel with them, can you imagine!!. November is the very end of the whale breeding season, so I hope we are still able to catch a glimpse but I hear just about everyone has seen dolphins no matter the date. Princess charges the same price as Mr Poole does if you booked independent of the ship so there is good value while insuring a spot on this excursion. I have heard from several reviews to not book the Nightime Motu Polynesian show in Raiatea, as the onboard show and dinner are better and, at $100 per person, alot cheaper! Good luck booking excursions, and hope to meet you and your husband.

 

:)tsb2

[annag]

Hi!

 

Definitely book Marc's Motu Picnic on Huahine. We were on the August 12th Tahitian Princess sailing and had an absolutely wonderful day with Marc's crowd. Great snorkeling spots, delicious picnic with plenty of food and Hinano beer, and live island music. People who booked a similar outing through Princess, paid a lot more money and were very unhappy with their choice.

 

We also booked Aqua Safari on Bora Bora through Princess and had a great time. I would not suggest that you purchase a DVD of your dive. Just take with you a $10 underwater camera and you will do fine. Do keep in mind, however, that there are certain dangers involved in partaking in this activity and I understand that a fellow cruiser on the morning dive had to make some hasty decisions when he tripped and fell on some underwater coral that compromised his helmet which started filling up with water... . Well, you can see what I mean. The tour operators do not give you any safety and/or emergency instructions prior to your dive, even though there were two of them under the water with the four people during our dive. Still, if something like that was to happen to me, I am not sure that I would react quickly enough as not to panic and not to swallow a lot of sea water, and/or to save myself. Just keep things in mind.

 

If November is still the whalewatching season, then I would recommend that you book Dr. Poole's whale and dolphin watching expedition on Moorea. About snorkling with the whales, well, it is not exactly that simple. Conditions permitting, i.e., if all is well and a whale or whales seem relaxed enough and are merely hanging out there, Dr. Poole will allow a certain number of people into the water. No splashing though. Some people on our morning excursion elected to go into the water and had a lovely experience. I understand that while the same two whales were still around in the afternoon, conditions did not permit snorkling around the whales. But, do bring appropriate gear. While the level of Dr. Poole' knowledge and experience in whale and dolphon research is impressive, it would not be the same if there was no opportunity to see whales, so I would not bother. Of course, even at the height of the whale season, as it was during our cruise, there is no guarantee that whales would be there. So, do find out about the whales in November.

 

As far as the "do not bother" list goes, DO NOT sign up for the vanilla farm/pearl farm/Hiro Legend stuff on Raiatea. It is a total waste of your time, not to mention your money, and you will learn nothing. The people who independently signed up to go on a Bruno snorkeling/picnic tour had a great day.

 

Do enjoy your cruise and if you have any specific questions, please feel free to e-mail me directly at agolan2@aol.com

 

Anna

[Ninjachyck]

We too are booked with Marc, and are really excited about it! We also booked l'excursion bleue with Bruno Fabre on Tahaa/Raiatea...really looking forward to it.

 

I have heard great things about the catamaran sail around Bora Bora, as well as a few others with TP. We right now are trying to decide between TP's intro scuba dive in Bora Bora, or going with Top Dive.

 

Good luck!

[K&R]

Thanks everyone! There are so many excursions that it's hard to choose and hard to know which ones are tourist traps and which ones are worth the money.

 

 

tsb2 - We'd love to do a meet and greet, just let me know when and where.

[tsb2]

See roll call for our cruise date, posted on 9/2 for possible arrangements. Good luck booking your excursions. P.S. My husband corrected me as he was reading these posts over my shoulder, we will be celebrating our 10yr anniversary not our 5th. My how the years fly!! :D

[land lover]

Just back and really all the excursions depend on your past experiences, weather, tides, timing etc.....etc.........people on the same excursions I was on stated they had the time of their life while I just had a good time....

 

As far as Dr. Poole..yes he is knowledgable and yes I did get to see a whale under water...for 1 minutes...(only a few of us did)but it took 2 hours before we found a humpback and then we had to return to dock in my view FP is not the place for whale watching even in season..and by the way we did not see one dolphin..I felt like I was on a deep sea fishing excursion...just hearing the motor of the boat.............according to Poole you see dophins 95% whales 85%.

 

To be fair....most of the people thought seeing the whale breech was the greatest thing(my DH included)...I just thought my time could have been spent more wisely since your time on Moorea is so short. And if you see dolphins, you won't go in the water, the spinner dolphins in FP will swim away per Poole.

Unlike Hawaii where we were lucky enough to have a whole pod swim and spin around us for an hour(we were out snorkeling at the mouth of a bay in Maui)

 

We went on Marc's, picnic food was great...two snorkeling spots we went to

OK.

 

Raiatea

Did drift snorkel thru ship in AM....tide was low, very tight, no current( we had to kick).....few fish in the coral garden... took us to another location much nicer. People in the afternoon said lots of fish and current was strong.

 

Horseback ride in PM I thought it was great, people in AM thought it was terrible.

 

I could go on...but I really think when it comes to ocean/nature excurisons it is just luck.....book what you think you will enjoy...

 

We never saw a descent sunset our whole trip until we left the ship. But we saw many beautiful sunrises.....Our ship tendered at every port...we rocked and rolled for the first 4 days..........2 out of five times the ship does not stop at Rarotonga.....we did but then were called back to the ship 3 hours early all afternoon excursions were cancelled .....enough,you will have a great time what ever you do...just be flexible.............:)

[Ninjachyck]

Wow, good to know land lover...I didn't realize that the ship rarely docks at Rarotonga. I will admit reading about no decent sunsets is disheartening, but I'm sure we'll have a great time. Fortunately both DH and I are able to adapt and be flexible, so hopefully we have an amazing time!

[tsb2]

Thanks for the info Land Lover. Tell me, how were you called back to the ship three hours early? I am planning to do my own independent tour of Rarotonga and am concerned that if the same conditions exist, I may not know that we are requested back on board.

 

What did you do in Bora Bora?

 

 

tsb2:confused:

[chipsahoy]

Why does the ship only stop 2 out of 5 times on Raratonga? That is an awful long way to go if we can't get off there.:(

[land lover]

They track you down...they knew 150 people had gone down to muri beach because we had purchased shuttle tickets which were numbered. So princess reps. came and walked the beach...the striped towels are a dead give away. They walked the town....They went to the car and scooter shops and found out what was rented. Tenders leaving the ship were stopped and afternoon tours were canceled.....people loaded in 4x4's and the tender at the time had to disembark they even asked people to leave restaurants. We were leaving the beach when a rep came up to us saying the seas were getting rough and the Captain reguested all passengers back on the ship, so we just went back on the bus to the drop off point and walked back into town, from experience we knew there was no way they could get everyone back on the ship it was 1:30 (it was raining off and on and we did watch the tender we would have been on struggle getting back to the ship).... no one stopped us and many people were unaware of the captains request that we met in town so we keep on shopping until 3:30...at that time a rep told us 80 people were still unaccounted for...and our tender ride to the ship with only 10 people on in was rather exciting, but we have had worse........by 4:15 the ship set sail.

 

My suggestion get on the first or second tender leaving the ship.....that way if the weather changes you won't be stuck on the ship....We left the ship about 9 so we could catch the first shuttle to the Beach at 9:30.

[land lover]

A lot of people like sea days...but the 2 out of 5 is what I was told by a tour director on Raiatea ,is it correct I don't know........my girlfriend went last Oct. and they only let one tender out before everyone was called back in. Alot of people on our ship did think it was a waste going that far especially since many were sick on the way out..the ship really rocks and rolls and rolls...I personally found Rarotonga to be beautiful and well worth the trip.

[land lover]

On Bora Bora..I did the intro scuba in the PM and my DH and I did Sharkboy in the AM the following day...which I would recommend it was fun...snorkeling just OK, but the rays and sharks great.

 

The best snokeling I found was on our post at the IC beachcomber infront of our OWB..it was the experience I was waiting for in FP,I saw 3 lion fish and several fish and sea creatures I had only seen before in books...they also had a lagoonairium that was awesome...a word I seldom use.

 

You will have a great time...I sure did.............L:) ri

[tsb2]

Land Lover - thanks for the info. It sounds like getting on the first tender is the way to go. Feel sorry for all those left behind--and sick:(. Did you find that there were long lines for the first tenders in the ports that tendered in?

 

We are booked for the intro to scuba, hope it is a good excursion. My husband's only scuba trip was a resort dive on our honeymoon ten years ago in Cozumel. I was an avid diver at the time and kept telling him that the scuba in Mexico was going to be great---it turned out to be underwater Kansas!! I know it isn't an advanced dive, but were you satisfied with the coral and fish you were able to see on this dive?

 

tsb2

[donna5]

Why does the ship only stop 2 out of 5 times on Raratonga? That is an awful long way to go if we can't get off there.:(

 

 

The seas are a little rougher there. If it is too bad they don't want to take the chance of people getting hurt, getting on and off the tender at the ship or the tenders running into the ship.

[laurieb]

we've sailed to rarotonga twice and have never set foot on land there. I am hopeful that we will get there in Jan 07, #3. Personally I wish they would stop going there and spend more time on the other islands.

[land lover]

Tender lines were never a problem....everyone on our cruise seemed to go to bed early and rise late I think it was because the ship was in perpetual motion.

 

But people with booked tours do get first priority, but that never held us up.

 

So by saying that your scuba experience in mexico was like Kansas does that me...nothing there? Well I just looked at my underwater photos and it looks like the bottom was pretty sandy I remember seeing some coral, but the shot I took of the shark in the distance shows very little......To attrack fish we used french bread...so I feel it is really just a " I went scuba diving experience". Especailly since the guy was holding on to me...to be fair though I needed more weights he claimed I needed to exhale deeper...but as I said on another post the other master was holding hands with his people too.....each situation is different......

It was alot of fun...just didn't anything that I had not seen before.....

 

Hope this gives you some insite.......L:) ri

[land lover]

Muri beach is beautiful and I got a beautiful cook island fancy peacock pearl pendant...so I hope you make it on cruise number three........ chat later ..L:) ri

 

Just curious on your Jan. sailings did you see many sunsets? We saw a few breathtaking sun rises but no sunsets to write home about.

[NEW YORK LADY2]

We've done this cruise twice before (03 & 04) both times in March and made it into Raratonga both times. Hope we have the same luck on our third cruise in March 06. It really is just the luck of the draw but if you make it to Rarotonga you will enjoy your day there. The people that lived there were the nicest people. Here is a little story from our first trip. While I was looking around the small market they have my husband had gone across the street to a store he wanted to look in. I got warm and thought "umm, I'll get some ice cream from that truck over there". The ice cream was $2.00 so I was ready to give them my USD but they wouldn't take the money. A young man in his 20's overheard the conversation at the ice cream truck and came over to me and asked what I wanted. I explained that I was trying to buy an ice cream cone but I only had USD (my hubby was the one with the NZ $). Well, he went and bought me my cone and refused to take the money from me (my husband finally turned up). He said I was visiting his home and a guest and he was going to make sure I was treated as such and able to have my ice cream. This just made my day. A truly remarkable and kind young man. And, ladies he was quite good looking too! Hopefully you will all get to enjoy this beautiful island with its friendly people and have no tendering problems.

 

Jackie

[laurieb]

we did see some beautiful sunsets, but really not as spectacular as the ones we have here at home.

[laurieb]

I so badly want to go to the Cooks! We have been considering a land vacation there for years, since it is so much more affordable than a land vacation in FP, but would really like to get a feel for it first.

[maygoddess]

Hey all...just to add to this thread..I just got back from the 9/1 sailing and we sadly did not tender at all in Raro. Got all the way there..within a mile of the ship and the captain came over the intercom that the seas were rough..he would wait an hour to hour and 1/2 and see if it changed..they didn't. To us..the seas looked fine enough..but then a tugboat came out to the ship to offload some supplies and we watched it bob up and down and get splashed and we said "okay, we believe you!". He circled the island and then took off to Raiatea. Luckily as a "make-up", he decided to leave Raiatea at Midnight rather than 5am which allowed us to arrive in Bora Bora at 8am rather than the usual Noon..so we had 2 full days in Bora Bora.

 

I don't understand with all the times they miss this port that they don't just eliminate it and add a few days on the other islands..it either has to do with having full sea days because some folks like them..or most likely they are "revenue days" for the ship..we are a captive audience to shop, drink, spa, etc!

 

We honeymooned in the Cooks 5 years ago..so we were glad we at least had seen them but were bummed we did not get to revisit some of our favorite spots this time.

 

I highly recommend it for a land vacation..much more affordable than FP by land..and if you add a few days stay in Aitutaki...it is even better!

[laurieb]

have often wondered why they continue to go to Rari, I am sure it is the revenue. twice we have gone and twice we have missed it. I would much prefer spending more time in the islands. I would spend just as much as I would being at sea. first time we missed it, we got to Raiatea early and had more time there, which was great, second time we were just stuck at sea for a longer period.

[Ninjachyck]

Not sure how I feel about potentially not seeing Rarotonga :confused: . We were really looking forward to it! Oh well, maybe we will get more land time somewhere else, as in Bora Bora or Raiatea...I just don't want more sea time.

 

land lover...where did you buy your pearl pendant on Rarotonga? And was it reasonable? :rolleyes:

[mpbmark]

Just returned from 9/1 cruise and could not get off at Rarotonga. The ship has to tender into the port and if the waves are too high, they cannot launch and take people across to the dock. Way too dangerous. We hung around the island hoping the seas would calm, but they did not. We left and sailed to Raiatea arriving in the morning. Instead of staying overnight, we left at midnight and had an extra half day in Bora Bora. Frankly, that should be a permanent change in the itinerary, IMO.