booking ahead or not

My wife and I will be cruising in FP mid Oct. this year and was wondering if we had to book snorkel tours in advance on Rangiroa and Raiatea. We'll be on the pacific Princess, less than 700 passengers, if that makes a difference.

We're on the same cruise right before yours. If you check out the Princess excursions you'll find the pickings are fairly sparse.

Based on reading lots of CC postings it seems most people do one or two select ship excursions and book private tours for most of the stops.

I'd suggest you check the Roll Call for your sailing and if you want more thoughts check out the Roll Calls for the other fall sailings.

Many postings will also refer to a link to a fantastic blog by Pescado Amarillo who with her husband "G" did 6 B2Bs on the Pacific Princess last fall. Tons of derailed info and a great read!

My wife and I will be cruising in FP mid Oct. this year and was wondering if we had to book snorkel tours in advance on Rangiroa and Raiatea. We'll be on the pacific Princess, less than 700 passengers, if that makes a difference.

Raiatea: there are tour vendors on the dock selling various excursions- to a vanilla farm & pearl factory. If you want to add snorkeling I would book in advance. Manava is a highly recommended company.

Rangi: there are very few companies. we used tereva-tane-et-vahine-excursions, friends used 'Rangiroa Plongee' check online and book ASAP. You can easily form a group with your RCall.