Just back from FP..

Just back from FP.: 1 night in Tahiti, 2 nights Moorea, 10 day PPT-PPT Oceania Cruise.

-Getting there & back: FP is a long distance to travel for most so if you find flying a challenge try breaking up your trip with an overnite in LAX. The Marriott airport is a good option, booked breakfast included. The hotel is clean and the service excellent, great breakfast buffet. Free shuttle. Priority Lounge at the Bradley Terminal is very comfortable.

-Embarkation: we were traveling on our own from a pre-cruise on Moorea, simply walked off the ferry onto the ship at noon, room ready at 3:00. No crowds, no waiting.

-PPT airport: fast getting thru & taxis are available. Booked a transfer to the IC Tahiti with Carl’s Taxi. He was waiting with a sign. Clean, AC van, 10 min. drive.

-Tahiti: port city, busy...we chose to stay 1 nite prior our time on Moorea, worth a tour before heading off. Many tour options and rental cars available. We heard, from other passengers, that the Meridian was very nice.

-IC Tahiti: Beautiful grounds, good service, book with breakfast included. Shuttle service available. Large, ground floor, walkout room with fantastic view of Moorea. WOW

-Ferry: no need to book in advance. Large & modern with restaurant and clean toilet facilities. Within short walking distance to the ship.

-Moorea: beautiful, picturesque, land & water based tours

-Car Rental on Moorea: We booked a car with Avis online, office is within walking distance of ferry dock. When returning car before embarking the ferry, give yourself ample time...disembarking passengers picking up their vehicles, it can get very busy.

-Hilton Moorea: Booked OWB, seemed to be recently renovated. Book with breakfast included. Intimate, very quiet & well maintained. Great snorkeling. Worth it.

-IC Moorea: Larger, with a more modern feel. More people-groups . We went to the dance buffet show. It was not as ‘traditional’ as other shows we saw during our trip & was rather expensive.

-Moorea excursion: Alberts ATV-SSV Tour was EXCELLENT....Louis, our guide, was great. Book online, well in advance to guarantee a place. The SSV option is a side by side vehicle, slightly easier to drive but fewer available. They offer a combo ATV & JetSki tour for a good rate.

-Raiatea: surprisingly nice port facilities can easily pick up tours at dock including Pearl & Vanilla farms. For the popular lagoon snorkeling tours (Maneva, Bruno Fabre) it’s best to book online, they fill up months in advance.

-BoraBora: great for water activities. Rental cars available

-BB excursions: Raanui all day snorkel & Motu lunch (also offers ½ day) was EXCELLENT, small family run tour (12person boat) Mother-Arieta & son were our guides and she literally held my hand thru the coral gardens. Their private Motu is exceptionally clean and quiet. Our lunch (4persons) consisted of BBQ steak, fish & chicken, vegetables, fruit, beer & soft drinks, was served on a colorful tablecloth with proper utensils, plates and flower arrangement. Wonderful tour, book online in advance.

-Jetski: Moana Jetski Tours, probably the best way to see BoraBora, and its numerous OWB...stopped for swimming and a coconut demo, beautiful views of the island and its extraordinary shades of water. We were 2 small groups each with a guide. GREAT fun.

-Nuku Hiva: This island is well maintained with tidy homes and lush vegetation. Beautiful, mountainous & picturesque, mostly land based tours. The inhabitants do not pen their horses, they are friendly and we saw several openly roaming & encountered several on our tour. They have interesting archeological sites & panoramic vistas.

-Excursion: Claude Pua was a full day tour. We drove in a convoy of 12+ vans & 4X4s. We stopped at panoramic view points and archeological sites, we would join the 1 fluently English guide who would talk about the island & culture. Some drivers speak a little English & try hard to converse and some do not. The tour ends with dinner at Yvonne’s Restaurant; she is a well known matriarch of the island. The drive back to the ship from there is over an hour. We had a great conversation with our driver (I speak French fluently) so the time flew by. There was some hiking inland among the ruins. That is where we encountered the only mosquitoes of our entire trip, I came prepared. We loved this port, it was a nice surprise.

-Jocelyn has a ½ day tour, larger AC van and a few 4X4’s. It is HOT while sightseeing, so a shorter tour might be a better choice for some. Book in advance.

-Hiva Oa: replaced by Fakarava: we knew it was likely to be cancelled.....so we pre-booked a tour. You can pick up a tour on shore. Bicycle rentals available at the dock, they rent quickly. There is a snorkel rental shop with good snorkeling nearby. A place where you sit at tables in the water to enjoy the views is within walking distance.

-Excursion: Ato Blue Lagoon tour. The boat ride to the lagoon was slow. There were several boats that joined up at the lagoon. A tasty BBQ was prepared while we snorkeled among the sharks & coral. On the way there & back we snorkeled in the open water over vast coral gardens...beautiful.

-Rangiroa: this was a short port visit.

-Excursion: Jean Pierre’s Blue Lagoon Tour had 5 boats. The water was choppy and the 1 ½ hr boat ride to the lagoon was choppy. There was a BBQ and snorkeling. The lagoon was beautiful. Time was a factor so the 1 ½ boat ride back was a high speed rollercoaster ride....we got to the ship with NO time to spare. Well worth it, but I still have bruises on my derriere!

-Trip Home: 10:40am flight out. We booked an 8am private transfer with Carl’s Taxi to avoid O buses and long lines to check in. There were cool places to sit, a duty-free plus a few shops to buy refreshments once inside the terminal.

-Tax-Duty: If you bought pearls for example, they will ask to see the items along with their papers that they stamp plus they will mail the vendors-copy to the store in a prepared stamped envelope (which the vendor should have prepared for you)

--IMO: If you don’t tolerate long flights, waiting, heat & humidity and don't swim or snorkel, are not in relatively good shape, you might want to re-think this itinerary. Some of the excursions are hard on the back & joints! Ex: ATV, Jetski, 4X4, boat rides to and from the lagoons & coral gardens, embarking & disembarking tenders when the water is choppy. I am in pretty good shape and must admit to having to take a few Tylenol’s at tours end...... If you are looking for a simple, sunny winter break and want to enjoy onboard activities, or laying on a beach, there are easier, more accessible places to visit. The journey to and from FP can be a challenge, with connections and red-eye flights and early AM and late PM flights. Chances are there will be a few glitches. It is well worth the trip if you research, plan and book good flights. To insure a good outcome of our trip we read up on the itinerary, booked well in advance and knew what to expect. We made all of our own transfer, hotel & excursion arrangements rather than booking with Oceania. This way, we got personal attention and had full control of what, where and when we did things. We opted for the air-deviation (270ish days out) asked for non stop flights to and from LAX and day time flights to and from PPT. We paid $100. each in upcharges and stayed overnite in LAX at our own cost. We booked thru an online Cruise Co. and received some perks.

Well stated, brief, to the point, good info ;)

Well done

Thanks Canuck, for the advice about Moorea. We're going back for our 5th visit this September, but will be doing a pre-cruise on Moorea for the first time, so I value your advice about ferries, etc.

Did you have to book your private excursion on Moorea before you travelled? I hadn't thought to do that. We'll be going back to Moorea for 2 days on the PG during our cruise, so thought we'd just take it easy on the pre-cruise. We will have a car so we can meander around, but will be recovering from jetlag as well. But might like to try a jetski. We're staying at Les Tipaniers, a smaller place near the IC.

We're also flying back to LAX on a day flight. Did you then fly straight home to Canada or did you spend the might in L.A.? I don't fancy the idea of a red-eye (haven't booked our flights to and from LAX yet, no rush since we're booking our own.) We are overnight in L.A. on the way out from Toronto.

excellent comments, very interesting thanks for posting. We will be going in Sept.

Thanks Canuck, for the advice about Moorea. We're going back for our 5th visit this September, but will be doing a pre-cruise on Moorea for the first time, so I value your advice about ferries, etc.

 

Did you have to book your private excursion on Moorea before you travelled? I hadn't thought to do that. We'll be going back to Moorea for 2 days on the PG during our cruise, so thought we'd just take it easy on the pre-cruise. We will have a car so we can meander around, but will be recovering from jetlag as well. But might like to try a jetski. We're staying at Les Tipaniers, a smaller place near the IC.

 

We're also flying back to LAX on a day flight. Did you then fly straight home to Canada or did you spend the might in L.A.? I don't fancy the idea of a red-eye (haven't booked our flights to and from LAX yet, no rush since we're booking our own.) We are overnight in L.A. on the way out from Toronto.

Hi Wendy,

-On the way back we were happy we broke up the flight because it seemed more difficult than going.. we took the 10:45a.m flight PPT-LAX and stayed overnite at the MariottLAX (clean with breakfast incl. excellent) The next day we flew the 11:00a.m flight AC direct to Mtl.

-On the way there we flew all at once, no problems & no jetlag.

AC 8a.m out of Mtl. - then ATN 4:30 out of LAX

-We have Priority Passes so the LAX connection was relaxing, the Tom Bradley Terminal is very nice and the KAL Lounge is great with a patio overlooking the area. A beautiful lounge & terminal by any standard, their 'digital tower' is fantastic to watch. We got to PPT around 10:20p.m, checkout was very fast and Carl from 'Carl's Taxi' was waiting for us at the gate. Drove to the IC and was in our room by 11:45. We had breakfast incl. took our time to check out, the hotel booked the return ferry tickets for us but you can purchase them at the ferry. Check the times online, we took the 12ish ferry over to Moorea. It's a bit of a melee for the luggage. You place them in open bins, if you have luggage security anxieties keep your valuables in your backpack. The ferry is modern with ac, clean facilities and a restaurant. Plenty of comfortable seating.

-Avis rental is with-in walking from the ferry to the left across the street.

We rented a car for 2 full days...we did not use the car as much as we thought and it wasn't cheap! During the day we went on excursions. The sunset is early, it gets really dark and not pleasant to drive. We did drive around the entire island stopping at a few nice boutiques (bought my pearls) but for real sightseeing we preferred the tours we booked.

In hindsight we should have booked a car for just a day.

-We precooked our excursions for the entire trip, the good ones fill fast. Plus none required deposits makes it easy to modify or cancel.

-We purposely did most of our Moorea excursions BEFORE the cruise to avoid the tenders and crowds disembarking etc..it is a big port day so we lingered on the ship while everyone else was out on early tours. We also prefer the personalized service we get when we travel alone, no waiting for the group.

-We booked with Albert, the ATV tour was great and do ask for their guide Louis. They also offer discount combo pkges with Jetski, 4X4 tours etc...and you don't have to take them back to back for the discount. They have a shuttle service to and from your hotel. They also have a SSV (side by side vehicle with steering wheel) which is easier to drive and no helmet required. We saw alot more on these tours than by car..

-Give yourself a good hour to return your rental car. The disembarking passengers picking up cars caused delays.

-We simply walked to the ship from the ferry, avoiding the crowds who were to arrive by groups later.

We would have needed more time precruise. For FP first timers we would have liked to stay at the IC Tahiti 1-2 more nites before going to Moorea for the 2 nites. This year we were tight on time.

I chose not write a formal review of the cruise but rather a trip report.

We cruise for the itinerary and ease of travel with good service and accommodations, not the same for everyone, which was made clear to us this time around.

This was our 2nd Marina cruise and we have also sailed their R ships.

We enjoy travel, the traditional land/car/train way and have vacationed south for 30+ years U.S,Carib... but we had never done a 'tropical cruise' destination, preferring the longer cruises to Europe, Med, Asia. I noticed, and it's hard to explain..a very different demographic of passengers. I must say we met very nice folks on our excursions but the ship had booked several groups, conferences, alumni giving the ship a very different atmosphere. On our previous O cruises we had more of a quiet, sober (not to be confused with somber), upscale experience basically made up of like minded independent travelers focused on the itinerary & a more refined on board experience. Whereas on this cruise we found the persons to be more familiar with one another, more casual, laid back, on the ship for a 'good old time'(nothing wrong with that) The pool & area was crowded (plenty of chair hogs) the bars & venues were full at times and generally larger groups around the ship & dinner..We had not experience anything close to that on our previous cruises. We always sailed on longer itineraries & this was a 10day....short cruises attract a certain type of booking:confused:. Just my personal observations not a criticism:o and it will not deter me from sailing O again.

Regards and nice talking to you Wendy, I follow all your adventures!

Go no further, go immediately to FranckyFranck Moorea Tours. We just sailed on HAL Statendam, and spent a full day tour with FrankcyFranck and the tour was the very best tour we set up on our entire cruise. His personality was so good, and he made what was my favorite island even better with such a phenomenal tour. He was flexible and the full day tour enabled us all to take it is a very leisure manner. He knows when the larger groups are at a certain location at a certain time, he takes you to the top of Magic Mountain for unforgettable views. I had wondered about the stop at the marmalade gardens but he even made that special and the distillery was unique and entertaining. With a full day tour, you can emphasize any part of the island. We chose to have a nice lunch at a beautiful ocean-side hotel with great food. There were 6 of us on this tour, and we were still talking about FranckyFranck at the end of our cruise, and how special that day had been. You can't go wrong with this gentleman.

Go no further, go immediately to FranckyFranck Moorea Tours. We just sailed on HAL Statendam, and spent a full day tour with FrankcyFranck and the tour was the very best tour we set up on our entire cruise. His personality was so good, and he made what was my favorite island even better with such a phenomenal tour. He was flexible and the full day tour enabled us all to take it is a very leisure manner. He knows when the larger groups are at a certain location at a certain time, he takes you to the top of Magic Mountain for unforgettable views. I had wondered about the stop at the marmalade gardens but he even made that special and the distillery was unique and entertaining. With a full day tour, you can emphasize any part of the island. We chose to have a nice lunch at a beautiful ocean-side hotel with great food. There were 6 of us on this tour, and we were still talking about FranckyFranck at the end of our cruise, and how special that day had been. You can't go wrong with this gentleman.

ifoundabuddy - how would one get in touch with FrankcyFranck. Does he have a website or an email? Thanks for posting this.