cruisemom9 Posted July 1 #1 Share Posted July 1 I am trying to find excursions for Papeete, Moorea and Raiatea. Normally I try not to book with the cruise ship as they are so over crowded. I am not finding a lot of options of tours that pick up at the cruise port. Is it better to do tours through the ship on these islands? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canadianbear Posted July 1 #2 Share Posted July 1 It depends on what you want to do. We did all our snorkeling in the South Pacific on our recent cruise as that was what was on my bucket list. It would help if you put if you want to sight see or snorkel etc. I read through various boards on Cruise Critic plus previous roll calls to get ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisemom9 Posted July 1 Author #3 Share Posted July 1 9 hours ago, canadianbear said: It depends on what you want to do. We did all our snorkeling in the South Pacific on our recent cruise as that was what was on my bucket list. It would help if you put if you want to sight see or snorkel etc. I read through various boards on Cruise Critic plus previous roll calls to get ideas. I am thinking snorkeling, catamaran or anything water related. If there are nice beaches maybe that too. The longer the excursion the better. I would love full day excursions versus 2-3 hours the ship generally does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canadianbear Posted July 1 #4 Share Posted July 1 This is who we went with: Moorea: Albert Transport full day Pearl/vanilla farm, snorkel, lunch on motu www.albert-transport.net Raiatea: aretoursraiatea@gmail.com full day snorkel lunch on motu Raiatea day 2: excursionbleu@tahaa.net Snorkel lunch on motu. This was the best one of any of the snorkel excursions we did. Papeete: Tahiti by Boat. Some loved it, some didn’t. It was very confusing where to meet him and some couldn’t find it & were left behind (this happened both days from talking with others on the roll call). Any question feel free to email me at: sammiepell at shaw dot ca 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisemom9 Posted July 1 Author #5 Share Posted July 1 Thank you so much. That is very helpful. I am hoping to find things that can pick us up at the pier. I am afraid of trying to meet somewhere else and not being able to find a taxi or being confused on meeting spot, kinda like what you described for Tahiti by boat. Going to the islands is at the top of my ultimate bucket list and I probably will only get to do it once so I want to make sure I get it right! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canadianbear Posted July 1 #6 Share Posted July 1 14 minutes ago, cruisemom9 said: Thank you so much. That is very helpful. I am hoping to find things that can pick us up at the pier. I am afraid of trying to meet somewhere else and not being able to find a taxi or being confused on meeting spot, kinda like what you described for Tahiti by boat. Going to the islands is at the top of my ultimate bucket list and I probably will only get to do it once so I want to make sure I get it right! The other vendors were great & picked up at pier. If you are snorkeling are you taking your own gear? Some don’t provide it. We always take our own. SP snorkeling was on my bucket list and we loved it. We are booked for 2025 but I think we may have to cancel only because of a medical issue. The tendering was an issue on our ship as it was very busy & of course if you aren’t on a HAL excursion you take your chances. Even as 4* we lined up very early to make sure we were off in time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisemom9 Posted July 1 Author #7 Share Posted July 1 5 hours ago, canadianbear said: The other vendors were great & picked up at pier. If you are snorkeling are you taking your own gear? Some don’t provide it. We always take our own. SP snorkeling was on my bucket list and we loved it. We are booked for 2025 but I think we may have to cancel only because of a medical issue. The tendering was an issue on our ship as it was very busy & of course if you aren’t on a HAL excursion you take your chances. Even as 4* we lined up very early to make sure we were off in time. I did not plan on bringing snorkeling gear but now that you mentioned it maybe I will. Do all the ships tender? Someone mentioned that it could take 90 min to get through customs in Tahiti. I was not sure if they meant that's how long it takes for the ship to clear or if once you get off the ship you then actually have to go through customs individually. I just want to get an idea so I know how much time to allow to get off and meet someone. I am not going till 2025 too. I hope whatever medical stuff is going on clears up and you will be able to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canadianbear Posted July 1 #8 Share Posted July 1 What ship will you be on? That could make a huge difference. Nuku Hiva tender port was the longest by far to get off the ship if you are going there. I did not get off but my husband did & because of his status he was off quickly but for others it took hours. Papeete isn’t a tender port & we were off quickly but trying to find Tahiti by Boat was a horrible experience until one of the others stayed he had used them before so we all walked as a group. Moorea was slow getting a tender even though we had priority. I can’t remember how long in Raiatea for us to tender but I know when we got there we convinced the vendor to wait 2 more tenders before leaving. Some of the ports you can grab an excursion at shore but we didn’t want to take chances with that so pre-booked all our snorkel excursions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Tahitianbigkahuna Posted July 1 #9 Share Posted July 1 Papeete and Raiatea your docked so getting off quickly should not be an issue. Moorea could be tricky as the ship anchors about 12 - 15 minutes from the tender drop off ... could take longwer as the tenders circle around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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