French Polynesia Cruise Reviewed by Mike

Ports of Call: Tahiti, Polynesia; Moorea, Polynesia; Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands; Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands; Rangiroa, Tuamato Islands; Raiatea, Polynesia; Bora Bora, Polynesia

Embarkation:

We arrived at the ship about 10:45 AM on Monday. The Princess embarkation crew was just setting up the stations under the tented area where you register before boarding the ship. There was some confusion as to whether you should stand in the roped off section or wait at one of the stations. People were told to do both; and since it wasn’t marked, it did cause a problem as more people started arriving to check in. In all fairness to Princess, we were early; but a few directional signs would certainly help. Once they started checking people in at around 11:15 AM, it went very quickly.

Ship:

The Tahitian Princess is the smallest cruise ship we have been on. It was built in 1999, is only 30,000 tons and holds 680 passengers. It was the Renaissance R3 prior to Princess buying it; and is beautifully appointed in dark woods. Many of the public rooms make you feel like you are on someone’s large personal yacht. It is very easy to get around the ship. Since it is only 594 ft. long, it doesn’t take much time to walk from one end to the other. Additionally, since the main public areas are on decks 5 and 9, you can quickly get to them on the stairs or with the always available elevators. An interesting thing we quickly realized was that since both of the elevators open toward the front of the ship, you always turn the same way to get to your hallway, rather than having to stop and think about it. You still need to know if you are in the front or back elevator to know which way to turn once you got in the hallway, but there’s a diagram right there to help you.

Cabin:

Our Mini-Suite, Cabin 8021, was on the starboard side of the ship a few cabins forward of mid-ship. This was our first mini and what a pleasure it was. I couldn’t believe how big this cabin was. The main room was 12.5’ wide and 14.5’ deep. The bathroom had a full bathtub and plenty of room to move around in, really unusual in a ship cabin. Another benefit of the mini is that unlike the standard balcony cabins, it had a refrigerator; and robes were provided without asking. We did ask the steward to bring us a lounge chair for the balcony since there was plenty of room for one. He happily obliged, and I got to spend a lot of quality time looking at the ocean and the beautiful islands of French Polynesia while relaxing in the lounger.

Food:

We ate most of our meals in the main dining room when we could. We had outstanding tablemates at the main dinner seating. We had been very lucky on past cruises in finding good tablemates, but on this cruise we hit the jackpot. They were all such a pleasure, and we just hated having to say goodbye when the cruise ended.
We found the dining room food to be much better than the buffet. It was presented nicely and they had an excellent variety. The meat dishes were very good, and those who ate the fish raved about it. We always enjoy the cold soups; and on the Tahitian Princess they were outstanding with one exception. The Chilled Cream of Zucchini and Pear Soup was horrible! Desserts, especially the soufflés and ice creams were very good. Too good! One just wasn’t enough.

Entertainment:

Surprisingly, the evening entertainment was very good. We only missed one night’s entertainment, but it was the same singer we had seen earlier on the cruise. They had four production shows for the ten night cruise, two of them on consecutive nights. I think this qualifies in some countries as “dancer abuse”. They really worked hard. They were an excellent group and this was their first time together on the ship. This cruise only had two singers in the production cast. The rest of the voices were pre-recorded. This is one of the things I didn’t like about the one Carnival cruise we went on.

The male singer, Cameron Mannix was very good. I think the female singer must have been having some medical problems because she did have difficulty hitting the notes in the first three shows. I think she might have been lip synching in the last show, but I don’t know that for a fact. Due to the small stage on the Tahitian Princess, they were limited in the shows they could do; but for the most part, they were quite enjoyable.

We were very lucky to have an outstanding comedian named Elliot Maxx. He kept the house laughing most of the night. Fortunately he did shows on two different nights. It was such a pleasure to have a comedian with an original style, rather than some of the has-beens that tell the same old jokes. I also liked the fact that he didn’t resort to today’s common practice of negativism and cutting others down. If you see his name in a future Patter, don’t miss him.

Ports:

Everywhere we went on this cruise the people were so friendly and nice to the tourists. They were helpful and courteous. I had read that the French Polynesian people were a pleasure to be with, and I was happy to find that everything I had heard was true. One thing that was nice is that drivers are required to stop when you approach any of the cross walks. In most places around the world, drivers would try to get through the cross walk before you walked into it. In French Polynesia, they stop if they think you are going to cross the street.

If you are planning on taking a Princess excursion, you absolutely have to book it in advance online if you want any of the good ones. The day we boarded the ship we checked out the excursion list and about 80% of the excursions were sold out before anyone had even come on board. Those folks that didn’t use the internet or hadn’t booked any tours in advance were not very happy. If they had been reading the Cruise Critic board, they would have known they had to pre-book. Fortunately on most of the islands, other than the Marquesas, there are reasonably priced tour guides at the pier or tender docks to provide tourists with tours.


Papeete, Tahiti, Polynesia-

The island of Tahiti is quite beautiful with many high lush green mountains. The city of Papeete is a fairly congested small city with very few attractive structures.

The Marche (the large city market) is an interesting place with the best prices around for souvenirs. Many of the items for sale were of lower quality than you could find on some of the other islands, but since they were a lot cheaper it probably balanced out. I visited a few times for different things, but I couldn’t stay there too long because it was just too hot and humid in the non-air conditioned building. One of the best items was the bouquets of lovely tropical flowers that came in $10, $15 and $20 sizes. You could see lots of folks bringing them back to the ship. Unlike the Caribbean, there was very little bargaining in the stores; but there also was no badgering or begging by the vendors. It made shopping and walking around town much more enjoyable.

Moorea, Polynesia-

On Sunday we took the ferry over to Moorea and went on Albert’s Moana Lagoon Tour (http://www.albert-transport.net/p1_gb.asp). The ferry took a half hour and was a very comfortable and fast vessel. If you buy a round trip ticket in Papeete, you can avoid the long lines at the ticket counter in Moorea. It is a great way to visit Moorea for the day, but since the last trip back to Tahiti is normally 4:10, you need to keep an eye on your watch if you are on your own. Since almost everything is closed on Sunday, this six hour motu picnic worked out great.

Our guide, Siki, was quite a character. He kept us entertained all day. Our first stop was to feed the sharks. Since I am a scuba diver, swimming with sharks doesn’t concern me too much; but Carol can’t even watch sharks on TV. To my surprise, she got into the water with the black tip reef sharks swimming all around us to get to the fish. She told me later that she had decided that life is too short to miss out on extraordinary adventures just because you are scared. She also said that once is enough!

We were holding onto a rope, but the water was very rough and the sharks were really in a frenzy for the food. I had not expected there to be so many sharks. It was quite invigorating.

Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands -

Princess only does the Marquesas itinerary eight times a year. With these islands being more primitive and unspoiled, they make for an adventure that very few people will ever experience. Nuku Hiva is the largest island in the Marquesas, and was the site of the fourth season of the reality TV show Survivor. As we sailed into Taiohae Bay, it was obvious that this was an incredibly beautiful untouched island, and that this would be a remarkable day.

Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands -

Other than the possibility of having 10 days of solid rain, my biggest concern during the months prior to this cruise was that we would not be able to tender into Hiva Oa. Unpredictable accessibility had caused the previous five cruises to skip this port, so as we sailed into Traitor’s Bay, I was thrilled that the waters seemed to be fairly smooth. When we got down to the ship’s tender embarkation area, there was a long line. Apparently what appeared to be mild seas, was a bit rougher than I first thought. They needed to get clearance that all was well for tendering. At last we were allowed to get onto the tender, but we were warned to be careful about sudden movement.

Rangiroa, Tuamotu Islands -

After spending Sunday at sea, we arrived at the beautiful atoll of Rangiroa. An atoll is the coral reef that is left after an island sinks into the ocean. Rangiroa is the second largest atoll in the world after one in the Marshall Islands.
To our delight it was a beautiful sunny day, which is exactly what you want when you are diving or doing any of the water activities that are so popular here. Rangiroa is one of the best dive sites in the world, particularly the Tiputa Pass dive; which I had booked for this morning.

Princess uses the Six Passengers Dive Shop for the excursion. They use Zodiac boats rather than the traditional dive boats. I was apprehensive about diving from them because I didn’t know if I could pull my large body into the Zodiac after the dive. I had been reassured on other bulletin boards that it wasn’t a big deal and that folks that were fatter and in worse physical shape than me had no problems with it.

Raiatea, Polynesia -

The cruise past Tahaa on the way to Raiatea started at 9:00 AM on Tuesday. Lucky again, it was sunny. We were able to see Tahaa on the port side with Bora Bora in the distance on the starboard. Quite impressive. We got very close to Tahaa, making the cruise by it more like a circle island tour.

Bora Bora, Polynesia -

It was Wednesday morning, the last full day of the cruise. As we approached Bora Bora, the beauty of this relatively small island became quite apparent. The sun lit up the turquoise lagoons all around it displaying the different shades of the water. We had lucked out again with another sunny day. The ship had to navigate the Teavanui narrows to get into the lovely lagoon. We passed by the Radisson Paul Gauguin that was also in port. Fortunately the Tahitian Princess had an anchorage that was much closer to the tender pier, so it was a relatively short tender in.

Disembarkation:

The disembarkation process for the Tahitian Princess is quite different than on other cruises. Since most of the flights out of FAAA airport are late at night, Princess lets the departing passengers stay on the ship till they have to go to the airport. Since you can get on and off the ship; as well as eat all of your meals on board, it made the cruise seem like 11 days instead of just 10.

As with all cruises we have been on, we had to put all of our large baggage out in the hallway to be picked up the night before. We were able to check our carry on bags at the Sterling Steakhouse during the time we were waiting for our flight. This was very convenient, since you weren’t burdened with your luggage while you went shopping, took a tour or just lazed around the pool.

We had decided to take a taxi to the airport rather than use the Princess transfers. I had read that it would be much easier if you weren’t in the crowds from the Princess buses. I now understand what they meant. If you have transfers, your luggage is taken to FAAA in the morning to be picked up when your transfer bus arrives later that night. Reclaiming your bags involved a long line that seemed to be very slow. If you arranged your own transportation, your luggage was kept under the tent next to the ship where you checked in; and you picked it up before you went to the airport. Since most people had either had their luggage taken to a hotel for a post cruise stay or were on Princess transfers, it was very easy to find our luggage and get one of the many cabs that were waiting for fares. One of the pleasant surprises was that most of the cabs were small vans and had plenty of room for luggage. It was also cheaper to take the cab rather than the Princess Transfers, 2000 CFP or about $22 rather than the $25 per person that Princess charges.