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Wind Spirit Tahiti - tenders?


Beartrax
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Considering a Tahiti cruise in 2018. Does the Wind Spirit use tenders in any ports, and if so, how accessible are they? Just wondering if a dicky knee and shoulder would prevent me from using them. Thanks.

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They do use tenders most of the time, Raiatea they usually dock there, Bora Bora tendered but they are anchored inside of the Motu so usually not to “rocky”. Moorea I cannot remember. “Most of the time it is mostly smooth inside the “reefs”. That is the pleasure of Windstar in Tahiti they can get much closer than the Paul Gaugin.

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The Wind Spirit docks at just 2 of the 6 ports on the Dreams of Tahiti cruise: Papeete (departure & arrival port) and Raiatea. They drop anchor in the lagoon at the other 4 islands: Moorea, Taha'a, Bora Bora (2 nights) and Huahine. I think the bigger question is how well you'll handle the stairs onboard (there are no elevators) as well as getting on and off all the boats you'll be taking on the snorkeling excursions (because the lagoons really are the top attraction in French Polynesia).

Edited by vlaurend
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The Wind Spirit docks at just 2 of the 6 ports on the Dreams of Tahiti cruise: Papeete (departure & arrival port) and Raiatea. They drop anchor in the lagoon at the other 4 islands: Moorea, Taha'a, Bora Bora (2 nights) and Huahine. I think the bigger question is how well you'll handle the stairs onboard (there are no elevators) as well as getting on and off all the boats you'll be taking on the snorkeling excursions (because the lagoons really are the top attraction in French Polynesia).

 

Can you tell me where the ship anchors while in Bora Bora or Moorea?? We are bringing our inflatable Paddleboards and trying to plan our paddle.

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Will post a map tomorrow. Please note that in Moorea Wind Spirit can use either Cook's Bay or Oponuhu Bay.

 

 

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Thanks!! Do you remember what time you were able to get off the ship in Bora Bora? We wanted to book a trip but pick up is 9 am which is the time the ship supposedly disembarks.

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Will post a map tomorrow. Please note that in Moorea Wind Spirit can use either Cook's Bay or Oponuhu Bay.

 

Dandee2, when were you informed about where Wind Spirit would be anchoring? Or were you? We are having a rental car agency pick us up at the tender pier and I assumed it would be Cook's Bay so that's what I told them. I do know that the Paul Gauguin will be there at the same time as the Wind Spirit, so I just assumed--maybe wrongly?--that the PG would be at Opunohu and we would be in Cook's Bay. . .

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Cooks bay pier was under repair this summer. They used Oponuhu bay instead. That being said, my friend who own one of the excursion company un Moorea says that sometime the wind Spirit will use Oponuhu on some occasion but did not specify when. I know this does not help you. I did ask the capitaine when boarding in Papeete and I emailed my friend in Moorea with the anchorage in Oponuhu.

 

 

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Thank you! :D I actually e-mailed my Windstar agent and got the port schedule for our 11/16 sailing. For Moorea, it says, "anchorage Cook bay - tender station PAO PAO" Hopefully, this means the construction is done at Paopao and we will be tendered to the pier on the east shore of Cook's Bay, next to Hotel Kaveka.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The tenders on this ship are extremely rocky! Our entire week was windy, with really choppy seas. We saw one man almost fall backwards trying to get out of the tender on our trip. I'll say there were very few people with any physical ailments on this ship. It's super small, but with some steep steps and no elevator so just keep that in mind and have a good time!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Vlaurend is correct. The Wind Spirit docks at just 2 of the 6 ports on the Dreams of Tahiti cruise: Papeete and Raiatea. It drops anchor in the lagoons at the other 4 islands. But a word of caution. On our September 14, 2017 cruise our ship did not tender to Taha'a. Rather, we were tendered to an equidistant motu (Mahaea) opposite to Taha'a. Youcannot get over to Taha'a via the ship's assistance unless you're pushy and askto hitch a ride (on a space available basis) on one of their island excursions.If you're successful, you will have to both leave/return on the excursions'time table, and you will be left on your own for the 3-1/2 hours or so in between.

Dandee2 is also correct. In Moorea the Wind Spirit can use either Cook's Bay or Oponuhu Bay (they're adjacent to one another). On our cruise we tendered from Cook's Bay.

 

Megastacey's concerns about booking an excursion in Bora Bora with a 9 A.M. pick-up are really of no concern. On our cruisethe tenders to Viatape began at 8 A.M. and because of the short distance involved,cycled every 10 minutes or so.

 

Vlaurend's comment that the Paul Gauguin would be in Moorea at the same time as the Wind Spirit was not the case on our cruise. Rather, the PG was generally a day behind us. So we actually never saw the PG until our second day on Bora Bora.

 

Let me offer another tip. It can rain during your cruise. This happened on our excursion to motu Mahaea as well as the evening of our on deck BBQ. We were told that on the cruise two weeks before ours it rained during the ENTIRE cruise. Perhaps this was when Imonaboat123 went on his/her cruise (because we did not experience "rocky" tender rides)? So I recommend bringing a light weight wind breaker with a hood. It doesn't weigh anything, essentially takes up no extra packing space, and will be a life saver in the rain. When we adorned our wind breakers during our motu picnic "storm," a fellow passenger (jokingly) offered my wife $500 for her wind breaker.

 

Hope these observations help.

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P.S. Skitrips, I'll ask you the same question I've asked others (since I've received different answers): On your 2nd Bora Bora day, were passengers given the option to tender back and forth to Motu Tapu during the day, or were you only taken there for the evening BBQ event?

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