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Polynesia excursion recommendations


Clutj
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I would welcome any Oceania excursion recommendations for the Papeete-based cruises in the Spring.  We have been pretty pleased with other Oceania excursions and are not looking to DIY, thanks, except for Papeete, where we will be for two days before the cruise .   Bora Bora, Rangiroa and Nuku Hiva are our stops.  Thanks in advance.

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Since you are not interested  in DIY  look at what is offered in the excursions available by the ship  & pick the one that ticks most boxes for YOU

 

If you cannot swim  it would not be a good option to choose scuba or snorkeling  trip

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1 hour ago, Clutj said:

I would welcome any Oceania excursion recommendations for the Papeete-based cruises in the Spring.  We have been pretty pleased with other Oceania excursions and are not looking to DIY, thanks, except for Papeete, where we will be for two days before the cruise .   Bora Bora, Rangiroa and Nuku Hiva are our stops.  Thanks in advance.

Save yourself a lot of research. 

On Bora Bora, you'll want to spend the day with Patrick (owner of Maohe Nui) snorkeling, touring and enjoying lunch on his family motu.

Note that he books solid many many months in advance.

 

IMG_4225.JPG

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Define DIY. Does that include signing up for excursions on your cruise’s Roll Call that some else has set up and you just need to sign up for, or are you only interested in Mother Oceania tours? Based on efforts expended on your part how would one be DIY and not the other?

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23 hours ago, Clutj said:

We have been pretty pleased with other Oceania excursions and are not looking to DIY, thanks, 

 

I respect that you're very clear that you don't want to hear about DIY options, however I wish to say with the utmost sincerity I feel that you will be greatly limiting your French Polynesian  experience by limiting yourself to short 3-4 hour O excursions. 

Most of those fellow cruisers I spoke to on my sailing were not happy with what O provided, other than the one day in Huahine.

 

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On 11/18/2019 at 3:07 PM, Clutj said:

I would welcome any Oceania excursion recommendations for the Papeete-based cruises in the Spring.  We have been pretty pleased with other Oceania excursions and are not looking to DIY, thanks, except for Papeete, where we will be for two days before the cruise .   Bora Bora, Rangiroa and Nuku Hiva are our stops.  Thanks in advance.

 

3 minutes ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

I respect that you're very clear that you don't want to hear about DIY options, however I wish to say with the utmost sincerity I feel that you will be greatly limiting your French Polynesian  experience by limiting yourself to short 3-4 hour O excursions. 

Most of those fellow cruisers I spoke to on my sailing were not happy with what O provided, other than the one day in Huahine.

 

We almost always mix O excursions with private. 

Again, OP should use Patrick's Maohe Nui on Bora Bora. There's just nothing else that will compare.

And since OP appears to be staying in Papeete for a few days, s/he might want to consider staying at the Intercontinental and having at least one meal at Lotus (Michelin starred and fabulous).

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FOLLOWING!  We are going March 15th.  I'm trying to curate all of the excursions at the various ports.  Seems like in some places, there are not a lot of choices.  Thanks to all who have added such great information on FP in the past!

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Sorry if I'm violating your "no DIY rule", but Nuku Hiva is a small place that's easily walked, especially to the cute church and up on top of the hill over the port.

 

And on Rangiroa we rented a very tiny little "car" (basically an enclosed scooter) at the port and had a blast puttering down the one-and-only road to the little town at the end. Along the way we stopped at the black pearl place (and bought some gorgeous pearl jewelry), a small grocery store and talked with many locals.

 

Agree with Patrick in Bora Bora...one of the cruise highlights!

 

Enjoy...Polynesia is amazing!!

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On 11/19/2019 at 6:41 PM, Verokaren said:

FOLLOWING!  We are going March 15th.  I'm trying to curate all of the excursions at the various ports.  Seems like in some places, there are not a lot of choices.  Thanks to all who have added such great information on FP in the past!

 

If I may direct you to my last year's review... I did a lot of work putting it together and I believe a lot of fellow CC'ers here really enjoyed it as much as I did writing it! Tons of tips, photos and ideas at all ports for you.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2524044-marinafrench-polynesia-mar-4-192018-review-wlots-of-photos/

 

Note, that when Cruise Critic converted to this new platform, all my videos on this review were lost/deleted.

You are 100% correct... you need to do some pre-planning at most all of the ports.

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10 hours ago, Hoopster95 said:

 

If I may direct you to my last year's review... I did a lot of work putting it together and I believe a lot of fellow CC'ers here really enjoyed it as much as I did writing it!

 

Many thanks, Hoopster.  Just great stuff.  And I can't find anything with the search feature, so the link was so helpful

 

 

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Many thanks to those who've encouraged me to look beyond the O excursions.  I have reached out to Patrick for Bora Bora already and looking at other things as well.  I was confused by one poster who said that Nuku Hiva was small; it looks good-sized to me...

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We spent nearly two full days in Nuku Hiva overnighting there. Day 1 was a driving sightseeing tour of a big chunk of the island with its many historic spots. Day 2 was a half day horseback riding trip way up atop the island. Simply wonderful. It is a big island with plenty to see and do.

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We did the 10 day on the Marina February 2019.  Loved, loved, loved it.

 

As far as Oceania excursions:

 

Moorea - Capture Moorea Photo Adventure - Was a great excursion and we got lots of beautiful photos.  But I wish we had snorkeled.

 

Rangiroa - Glass Bottom Boat.  There were only three choices.  This was just ok.  We also walked about three miles on the island after the excursion.

 

Bora Bora - Moana Jet Ski Adventure was great fun.  If you ride two on a jet ski you only pay for one.  (We booked enough excursions thru Oceania that we also got the discount on it.)

 

Raiatea - Taha'a Coral Garden Snorkeling w/ Drift Snorkel - Best ship excursion of the trip.

Raiatea - Catamaran Sailaway - Fun catamaran ride and nice snorkeling

 

Huahine - Snorkel Safari - We did this in the rain.  It was still fun but was so overcast that the photos were just ok.

 

We did two private excursions.  One of them was so fantastic that we are booked with them again in October 2020 - 

Bora Bora - H2O Bora Bora.  He has a new boat that he takes only up to six people out on.  We went snorkeling in three of the four places: Stingrays, Reef drift, coral park, and then with sharks.  We had about 4 1/2 hours, and he went at our pace.  The dock that you meet him at is right at the pier where the ship is berthed and it is a very short walk.  We had booked with one other couple and it was just the four of us.

 

Fakarava - We did Sable Rose with Patrick - It was a very long boat ride.  We had a great bbq/picnic with some great beach snorkeling and then out to Sable Rose.  On our next trip we will do the Blue Lagoon.

 

I think Oceania did a great job in French Polynesia.  I wish they were going to be there in October 2020.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Heartfelttraveler
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We are going in 2021 on the 18 day Tahiti to San Francisco Regatta cruise. I would love to go with Patrick but I'm a novice at snorkeling and my wife would just be riding along in the boat to enjoy the day. Does anyone with experience in a Patrick tour have an opinion on whether we would get value for the cost of the tour? Or should we try something else?

 

By the way, hi Verokaren, we live in Vero too.

Edited by cayman09
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The underwater experience in French Polynesia is amazing.  If you have a chance to practice and get a little more comfortable, you will love it.  You can always use a vest which helps to keep you afloat.  Bora Bora has some really calm areas for snorkeling.  I have not done Patrick's tour but others will be able to tell you about the sites that he visits.  I would not miss it if I were you.  

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28 minutes ago, cayman09 said:

We are going in 2021 on the 18 day Tahiti to San Francisco Regatta cruise. I would love to go with Patrick but I'm a novice at snorkeling and my wife would just be riding along in the boat to enjoy the day. Does anyone with experience in a Patrick tour have an opinion on whether we would get value for the cost of the tour? Or should we try something else?

 

By the way, hi Verokaren, we live in Vero too.

Book the half day trip including the lagoon tour and lunch making sure you identify which cruise ship and port times.

Not all the snorkeling is in a single place. So, there is the boat ride element and historical sightseeing element to it as well as a great luau style BBQ. Even if Patrick has more than one outrigger canoe operating that day (using some of his close buds), he usually handles the lunch activities ashore on his family's motu (often including his own fire dancing).

We've used Maohi Nui twice and each time, at least one of the six to eight passengers didn't snorkel at all.

BTW, if you don't get Patrick himself (my initial picture in the earlier post) that day, you'll still have an awesome time with one of his buds (including  "Mick Jagger's" brother)

 

 

4C9EC5EC-4C1C-49AB-89FC-8B5137E91B1A.jpeg

Edited by Flatbush Flyer
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On 11/21/2019 at 11:55 PM, Clutj said:

I was confused by one poster who said that Nuku Hiva was small; it looks good-sized to me...

 

I was meaning that there are things to see and do near the port that are within walking distance. Sorry for the misunderstanding. 

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22 hours ago, cayman09 said:

We are going in 2021 on the 18 day Tahiti to San Francisco Regatta cruise. I would love to go with Patrick but I'm a novice at snorkeling and my wife would just be riding along in the boat to enjoy the day. Does anyone with experience in a Patrick tour have an opinion on whether we would get value for the cost of the tour? Or should we try something else?

 

By the way, hi Verokaren, we live in Vero too.

My husband does not swim at all and he really enjoyed this tour. As a matter of fact we have now done it twice and would do it again.  There are two stops at least where you can get out of the boat and walk around and see the fish without snorkeling. Wishing you luck on being able to go with Patrick.

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We are avid snorkelers so any advice I could lend would be of no use to you unless you LOVE snorkeling. But for anyone else who are devoted snorkelers, on BB have done Patrick's, Pure Snorkeling, Lagoon Service and Tohora Bora Bora. Tohora is our favorite- doing again in April. It is intense snorkeling- eagle rays, manta, rays, sting rays lemon sharks and much more. Only 6 passengers.

Other favorites:

Moorea jetski/snorkel with Moorea Activities Center. Then a day stay at the Hilton Moorea which is lovely and some of the best snorkeling on Moorea.

Raiatea- L' Excursion Blue (which also included The Coral Gardens). Coral Gardens is incomparable as Heartfeltraveler attests to. It's like snorkeling with fish on a living IMAX. We repeated it with the ship from Tahaa.

Rangiroa- the Aquarium with drift snorkel of Tiputa Pass. Water clarity unbelievable.

Fakarava- a day snorkeling with Ato Lissant

Huahine- Tahiti Voile, snorkeling from a 20 foot sailboat.

Nuku Hiva- no reef so no snorkeling but there is Tenarama Tours which is a tour of the island and sacred sites by 4x4. Pretty good and much better price than the ship's tour. Find on Tripadvisor.

 

Have been to Tahiti many times and returning in April 2020.

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