Tahiti - Princess Cruiseline Air, whats the schedule?

[kadiebug12]

We are considering booking a Jan 07 10 day Princess cruise to Tahiti. What we're wondering is, if we book the air through the cruiseline out of LA, when do they usually fly you out and back? For example, do you fly out the same day as departure, arriving that evening and basically missing your entire first day of your vacation? On the way back is there a significant time difference between when you disembark and when you fly out normally? If so, what do people do?

 

We're just a little gunshy about booking cruise air because we did the Med a couple of months ago and were booked to depart Venice at 6AM, meaning we ended our wonderful vacation with a 3AM wake up call, not a great way to end the vacation. I'm sure there aren't many flights from LA to Tahiti and I would think Princess uses similar schedules for most passengers.

 

Any info you have and can provide would be VERY useful. We havent' booked yet, but plan to in the next day or two.

 

Thanks!

[dog]

http://www.airtahitinui-usa.com/

 

Take a look at the ATN website and put in the cruise dates. Usually Princess will have you fly in the day you board the ship. ( flights from LA go about 1pm or 4pm ). On this cruise the ship doesn't depart until the second day at about 5 pm.

 

Return is usually at night on the day the ship returns to Papeete. You must be out of your cabin by 10 am approx. but are allowed to stay on the ship, have your meals and use the ship's facilities until you leave for the airport.

 

You can also purchase a flight deviation. Costs about $75 US each to choose to go earlier or/and leave later than the cruise dates. This deviation fee is non refundable if you cancel or make changes to your flight.

[ParrotTops]

I am dying to find this out too! I called Princess and she said they usually book thru "Air Tahiti Nui" (Air France also does this flight). There is a direct flight from Papeete to LAX that is 8 hours but the flights leave at 10:00 pm. I am wondering what on earth we would do all day long in Papeete until our flight home at night. Anyway, the gal at Princess gave me the direct number for the airline if that would be of any help to you (877-826-4846).

[ParrotTops]

Dog! I didn't see you post! Thanks so much for all the info!! You answered all my questions!

[tuknshak]

We had a very tight schedule getting there and then on our way back we stayed extra on our own. We booked our flight thru Princess and paid the fee to pick our own flights. We did the flight thru Princess becuase at the time we booked it the price was half that of ATN's website. We did notice at LAX many many people on our flight were headed for the cruise. From the people at Princess we spoke to and other guests it seems that Princess tends to pick flights on the same DATE as when the cruise starts/ends. Yes that basically means Day 1 you spend flying not at your destination. We flew in on Tuesday and out Sunday night. ATN as you will see on their site has a pretty basic schedule each week to/from LAX. We were lucky and got the 1pm flight out of LAX insteed of the daily 4pm flight. We heard from lots of people on board they were on the 4pm flight and got to the ship at around 11pm the first day, we got onboard around 8pm.

[patnlcc]

Hi, we just returned from the TP - fantastic! The other posters are right, ATN has just 2 flights a day, and as we hadn't taken air deviation, we didn't find out till our tickets arrived, that we were on the later flights. This meant we flew ATN from LA to Papeete on the 4.30pm (the earlier one leaves at 1.30pm) and we arrived around 9.30pm, getting to the ship around 11pm. The ship doesn't sail till noon on day 2, so you still have time to see Papeete and the rest of the island. Then on the way back, we were on the 11.30pm flight (the other one is 8.30pm) arriving at LA at 10.30am next morning. As others have said, you do have to be out of your cabin by 10am, but you can stay aboard all day, have meals, use any of the public rooms, and we appreciated the fact that they put movies on in the afternoon, so that helped pass the time. Princess also organises a couple of tours for the last day, so you can pass the time doing that if you prefer. Then we had an evening meal at the Panorama Buffet and before we knew it, it was time to leave for the airport. We really didn't find it a bother.

[SaveMeJebus]

Hi, we just returned from the TP - fantastic! The other posters are right, ATN has just 2 flights a day, and as we hadn't taken air deviation, we didn't find out till our tickets arrived, that we were on the later flights. This meant we flew ATN from LA to Papeete on the 4.30pm (the earlier one leaves at 1.30pm) and we arrived around 9.30pm, getting to the ship around 11pm. The ship doesn't sail till noon on day 2, so you still have time to see Papeete and the rest of the island. Then on the way back, we were on the 11.30pm flight (the other one is 8.30pm) arriving at LA at 10.30am next morning. As others have said, you do have to be out of your cabin by 10am, but you can stay aboard all day, have meals, use any of the public rooms, and we appreciated the fact that they put movies on in the afternoon, so that helped pass the time. Princess also organises a couple of tours for the last day, so you can pass the time doing that if you prefer. Then we had an evening meal at the Panorama Buffet and before we knew it, it was time to leave for the airport. We really didn't find it a bother.

 

 

Agree with everything said except the other flight is 10pm, not 8:30.

[kadiebug12]

Thanks for all the help!

 

With your info, we've decided to fly in 2 nights early and stay at the Intercontinental prior to the cruise. We found non cruiseline air for 899 pp with all taxes, etc. so we feel like that's a pretty good deal.

[tuknshak]

We flew on the 1:30p flight over and 11:30p flight back. The 11:30p was long and then add the three extra hours (time change to LAX) it felt like we were up for ever! I would check ATN's website but I don't remember the 1:30p flight be available every day of the week. I think it is only happens two or three days a week. When I just looked at their website it says Sun/Thu/Fri/Sat. The week we went in May it was only once - on Tuesday. I know the 4p flight happens daily and the 10p/11:30p PPT flights happen daily as well.