Nana TP !

[meherio]

ia orana

fresh from Tahiti press:

 

Tourism : updated on 12/23/2008 at 4:56PM

Tahitian Princess 5th cruise ship to leave Tahiti in 21 years, 2nd in 3 years

 

(Tahitipresse) - The 670-passenger Tahitian Princess, which was based in Papeete since December 2002, left French Polynesia for good over the weekend, becoming the fifth cruise ship to leave in 21 years and the second to leave in three years.

 

Renamed the Ocean Princess, the Tahitian Princess is headed for a new cruising life elsewhere in the world, remaining part of the P&O Princess Cruises fleet. Its sister ship, the 670-passenger Pacific Princess, is due to arrive in Tahiti next October for three months of cruising.

 

Both Princess ships originally started out as Renaissance Cruises' 684-passenger R-4 and R-3 vessels based in Papeete for weekly cruises from October 1999 until September 2001 when Renaissance filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

 

The R-3 and R-4 vessels were sold to Princess Cruises, becoming the Tahitian Princess and the Pacific Princess respectively.

 

Thus, the Tahitian Princess, whose capacity was reduced from 684 to 670 passengers, spent altogether some five years cruising in French Polynesia. That does not count the one-year it and the R-3, later to become the Pacific Princess, spent in between Renaissance and P&O Princess Cruises ownership.

 

No reason has ever been given publicly for P&O's decision to stop the Tahitian Princess cruises among Tahiti and Her Islands. It's most common cruise was a 10-day voyage to the Leeward Island of Huahine, the Tuamotu atoll of Rangiroa, the Leeward Islands of Raiatea and Bora Bora and Tahiti's sister island of Moorea.

 

The ship first left Tahiti for four months earlier this year when it operated cruises in Alaskan waters from June through September.

 

When operating in French Polynesia for a full year, the Tahitian Princess carried some 22,000 passengers in 2007 and some 15,500 this year. Since the majority of the passengers were American, that provided Air Tahiti Nui with a regular passenger volume for its Los Angeles-Papeete-Los Angeles flights.

 

Leaving Papeete for the last time over the weekend, the Tahitian Princess headed for Fort Lauderdale, Florida, via Moorea, Bora Bora, Pitcairn Island, Easter Island, Peru Ecuador, the Panama Canal, Panama and Costa Rica.

 

The ship is scheduled to make a world cruise and a season of unique Northern Europe sailings, followed by a series of Asian voyages. In announcing the Tahitian Princess' departure almost a year ago, Jan Swartz, Princess Cruises' senior vice president of customer service and sales, said, "As this ship is now sailing on itineraries around the world, we felt its name should reflect a more global theme." That explains its new name of Ocean Princess.

 

The Tahitian Princess' departure leaves two foreign-flag cruise ships based in Papeete for regular cruises. One is the 330-passener M/S Paul Gauguin, which celebrated its 10th anniversary of cruising in French Polynesia earlier this year.

 

The other is the 170-passenger, four-masted sailing ship Star Flyer, which began four years of 10- and 11-night cruises among Tahiti and Her Islands a year ago.

 

The Tahitian Princess is the fifth cruise ship to pull out of Tahiti since 1987, or 21 years ago. The four other ships were:

 

--American Hawaii Cruises' 715-passenger SS Liberté, which was based in Papeete from December 1985 to January 1987, and then was returned to Hawaii.

 

--Exploration Cruise Lines' 88-passenger Majestic Explorer, which was based in Papeete from October 1982 to November 1988 and then repositioned elsewhere.

 

--Wind Star Cruises' 148-passenger Wind Song, which was based in Papeete from July 1987 to November 1997 and from May 2002 until December 2002. It was replaced in January 2003 by the Wind Star, which left Tahiti in January 2005, ending 14 years of Windstar Cruises' presence in French Polynesia.

 

--The 439-passenger Club Med 2, which was based in Papeete from March 1995 until December 1997 and then was repositioned elsewhere.

 

Renaissance Cruises' 684-passenger R-3 operated out of Papeete from October 1999 to September 2001, later becoming the Tahitian Princess. The R-4 operated out of Papeete from January 2000 to September 2001, later becoming the Pacific Princess.

 

meherio

[Cruisedreamer1]

Isn't the Tahiti Princess going to cruise Tahiti seasonal now?

[flamomo]

Nope!

We were invited to attend the Captain's Luncheon in November on the Tahitian, and the officer at our table said the reason for pulling out is that the government of FP is very difficult to deal with and have made getting visas for the crew an extremely arduous process. Princess has apparently decided it's not worth the hassle. So when the Pacific Princess completes next fall's cruising season, Princess won't have a ship homeported in FP.

That's so sad because that itinerary is so wonderful, and the fare is decent, as compared to the Paul Gauguin.