2/11 Tahititan Princess Review

Ok here it is... a very positive review (despite not so great weather) from two early 30-somethings. Enjoy!

Pre-cruise -

We took Air France LAX to PPT on the red eye 2/9. The flight was delayed about 45 minutes as we waited for a flight from Paris to arrive with a bunch of connecting passengers. Despite the delays we found Air France to be a pretty good airline. They did not have the individual movie screens as I hear Air Tahiti Nui does but the food was great. The only complaint about the air experience was that we specifically picked Air France because it is a part of the Skyteam and as Platinum OnePass members on Continental we were expecting some benefits. Well the whole Sky Team Alliance does not work and we were afforded none of the benefits that we were told we would get and when we asked about them the staff had no idea what we were talking about. We arrived to bright blue, sunny skies in Papeete about 6:30 am on 2/10 and even though most of the passengers were from France and the line to check US passports was much shorter, it took quite a while to get through as we stood on line in the very hot airport. Once all that airport business was taken care of and we breathed a sigh of relief that all our luggage made it, we were on our way! We decided to get a bit of Polynesian money first at one of the ATM’s (but we were confused about the exchange rate) and then we finally went in to one of the banks and exchanged about $100 (the exchange rate was 84 cents on the dollar). We then took a taxi over to the ferry dock (which cost 2800 francs). We were concerned about the logistics of taking ther ferry with our five pieces of luggage but they take your luggage from you and put it in a bin for transport making it very simple. We took the 9 am Moorea Express catamaran over to Moorea and we were really rocking and rolling on that thing!! Upon arrival on Moorea we took a taxi to the Sheraton (2000 francs) for our one night pre-cruise stay in an overwater bungalow. The Sheraton was beautiful and I highly recommend it for anyone staying on Moorea. Right from the chilled towels, pineapple juice and flower lei we received upon arrival we knew we were in for a treat. We snorkeled right off our deck, took a wonderful jet-ski tour, and spent some time on the beautiful beach and in the infinity pool. That night a complementary car from Te Honu Iti picked us for dinner. The restaurant was another must visit on Moorea. Wonderful French food with sting rays swimming around in the beautiful bay it overlooks. As all food in French Polynesia, the restaurant was quite expensive costing us about $150 (we paid by credit card). If you want to leave a tip (not customary in FP but they specifically say gratuities welcome at the restaurant) you need to let ther server know before they run your credit card through. The next day we ate breakfast at the Sheraton and then took the 1:50 pm ferry back to Papeete and to the Tahitian Princess.

Embarkation -

The ferry docks just a few feet from where the Tahitian Princess is docked so we were able to easily wheel our luggage over. There is no terminal building, just tents that Princess has set up for the embarkation process. They took our tagged luggage right away and promised to get it back to us as soon as it went through security. Unfortunately for us we arrived right after a bus full of a tour group so we waited about 45 minutes in the heat to get through the embarkation process. They only had two people working embarkation at that time (they are only fully staffed when the Air Tahiti Nui flights arrive). My big complaint about embarkation was that the photographers only work when the big flights arrive as well so we got no embarkation pictures, and I am obsessed with the ship pictures.

Our Room -

We stayed in mini suite stateroom 8061. The room was ok in décor and size. The bathroom was a little tight and my 6’3” husband could barely stand up in the tub/shower combo. The closet/drawer space was quite nice. We asked our cabin steward Jun (who was great) for a lounge chair and robes upon arrival as was suggested on these boards and while he said no problem on the robes he said he would have to ask about the chair. We did finally get the chair after leaving him $20 tip. We did hear some noise from the buffet above us but it was not at all a problem.

Dining -

For us the dining was the biggest disappointment of the cruise. Because we booked late we were given the early seating and after meeting our table mates (who were very nice but not people we had things in common with) we asked if we could switch to the late seating. We were given a temporary table on the next night (we loved that table and wish we could have stayed there) and the next day received a letter saying they had a new permanent late seating table for us. However, by that point we were so disappointed by the dinners in the main dining rooms we had decided to eat most of our meals in the specialty restaurants Sterling Grill ($15pp cover charge) and Sabatini’s ($20pp cover charge). We liked it in both restaurants much better than the main dining room. It was so much less crowded and rushed up there, the service was more attentive, and the food was great. We ate 2 times in each restaurant and our biggest tip is to go hungry to Sabatini’s – they serve you so much food up there you won’t need to eat again for a week! We ordered room service for dinner a couple of times (they will bring you anything on the dining room menu in addition to the small room service menu). And on the very last night we ate at the pizzeria. I think perhaps they have recently changed the pizzeria because I had read that pizza was all you could get (no salad or anything else) but that was not the case. They had a nice salad bar with soup and rolls, you could order spinach rollatini as an appetizer, and had good selection of fruit, cookies and pastries for dessert. I would recommend trying it.

For breakfast we mostly ordered room service prior to our excursions (you can write in eggs etc. onto the hanging door menu without a problem) but the couple of times we did eat breakfast in the dining room or the buffet both were very good. When we had the chance we ate lunch in the main dining room as well and found the lunches to be much better than the dinners. Afternoon tea in the dining room was also a nice treat with petit fours, cookies, sandwiches and a selection of teas available.

The Ports of Call -

The ship is overnight in Papeete prior to sailing and on the second day in Papeete we had booked the Princess 4-wheel drive excursion. While many people on this board recommend booking on your own with Patrick for this excursion, don’t be disappointed if he is all booked (like he was for us) and know you will have a great time on the Princess excursion. Our guide was very funny and informative and the scenery was beautiful. At the end of the tour we stopped at a local’s house for a buffet of local fruits and coconuts. Despite the warning in the Princess Patter not to eat local food, no one got sick!

It was upon sailaway that the Captain informed us that due to Cyclone Nancy and Cyclone Olaf he was forced to make a change in our itinerary, abandoning the Cook Islands (Rarotonga, which right in the path of the storms) for Rangiroa. While some people were very upset about this change, I was happy that the Captain was taking us out of harms way and was determined to make the best of our new port.

Because of the bad weather the first night after sailing was quite rough and many people (including my husband) got sick. One woman we met on board was demanding that the purser give her the patch because she “consulted with her meteorologist prior to the cruise and he did not mention anything about a cyclone”!! (FYI – they do not have the patch on board and I don’t have a personal meteorologist!)

Our first stop was Huahine – a tender port. We had booked a private excursion which was highly recommended on these boards, Marc’s Motu Picnic. Marc picked us up at the dock in an outrigger canoe and we toured around the island stopping at two different areas to snorkel. We then stopped at a motu for a fantastic picnic in the water. We were actually grateful for the overcast day as we would have been sweltering as we sat and ate. The food was great and the pareo tying and dancing demonstrations were a lot of fun. My only complaint about this tour was that our guide did not narrate as we toured around the islands. Apparently the two other canoes on the excursion had more talkative guides.

Our next stop was the substituted port of Rangiroa (tender) another cloudy day with a quick shower in the afternoon. Because of the last minute change in our itinerary, Princess rushed to make arrangements for tours on Rangiroa and in order to make booking fair they did not release sign up forms for the tours until after we sailed from Huahine. There were only three tours available, a glass bottom boat, a semi-sub tour, and scuba diving. We signed up for the semi-sub (which is a submarine that does not completely submerge) which we found to be very enjoyable. After then returning to the ship for lunch and a quick change into our bathing suits we came back and had a water taxi take us to the little “town” and then to snorkel. For $20 pp this was well worth it – the snorkeling was fantastic!! We even saw some sharks!

Next up was Raiatea (dock) where we had our favorite excursion of the cruise with Bruno. Much has been written on these boards about Bruno and we echo all the wonderful things said about him. As per his new rules we had to send him a $100 deposit check in advance of our cruise. Upon meeting him at the dock we paid him for the excursion and he gave us back our check. We then proceeded to a pearl farm, vanilla farm, the lagoonarium (where we ate lunch) and then the most amazing part of our whole trip – the drift snorkel in the coral gardens. Most of us got cut up on our legs from the coral but it was worth it! The coral was beautiful and the many varieties of fish were abundant we saw a morey eel and even “found Nemo”. Word is that Bruno is looking to drop one of the stops in order to make more time at the coral gardens. I would recommend dropping the vanilla farm as I would have loved to do the drift snorkel one more time. I found the pearl farm to be very interesting and I really enjoyed feeding the rays and learning about the dangerous fish at the lagoonarium. The dock area was very nice and we bought pearls in one of stores in the main terminal complex.

After spending the night docked in Raiatea we sailed for Bora Bora (tender). We arrived around noon to a beautiful day. First up for us was a submarine tour. We took a small pontoon boat over the break (which was quite an experience) to the sub which was anchored in the middle of the ocean. I have to say that I had a bit of a panic attack as I borded the submarine but we fine as soon as we submerged. This tour was a bit of a disappointment but I think any underwater experience would have been disappointing after the coral gardens on Raiatea. We then took a shuttle ($6 pp round trip) to Bloody Mary’s for lunch. This is a must do! The food was good and the ambiance great. Don’t be shy ladies – make sure you check out the men’s room. I won’t say more than that;-) Then we did a bit more shopping (more pearls for me, a hat for my DH, and pareo and a magnet) before heading to the sunset catamaran cruise we arranged privately with our cruise critic friends. If you can manage to get a group together book the Tara Vana it was a highlight of our trip. We were overnight in Bora Bora and the next morning we woke to terrible rain. Because of the bad weather and the fact that we did a lot on Bora Bora the day before, we decided to stay on the ship.

Our last stop brought us back to Moorea (tender). We booked a circle island tour with a visit to the Tiki Village Theatre for the morning. Our tour guide was great and we enjoyed the show at the Tiki Village. We then made our way from the dock to the Intercontinental Beachcomber Hotel ($10 by taxi) for lunch and our afternoon excursion – a dolphin encounter. The Intercontinental is a beautiful resort. The only things the Sheraton has over the Intercontinental is that the Sheraton has a better beach and pool. If those are important to you stay at the Sheraton. We walked around the grounds of the hotel including there sea turtle preserve (the baby turtles were sooooo cute!!) and then made our way over to the dolphins. The Dolphin encounter was amazing!! There are a few places in the world where this is offered (I know you can do it in Hawaii) and I recommend it highly. Just as we finished our time with the dolphins it started to pour as we made our way back to the ship for the last time.

The Ship and Activities Onboard-

The ship was small. Know that right off the bat. If you are used to the huge mega 3000 passenger ships this will be an adjustment. Now that’s not to say it was bad, just different. It had all the major activities you’d expect on a cruise, just on a smaller scale. The ship’s décor is very nice. A lot of dark wood and traditionally decorated (which while nice was not reminiscent of the area of the world we were cruising). The main staircase reminded me of the Titanic (which I only know of from the movie not from experience!). The pool is very small but we never had a problem finding a lounge chair. The spa was small but our treatments were wonderful and the private spa deck ($15 per day of use) is nice if you want some relative privacy while you relax. The casino – again small but never crowded and the dealers were mostly very friendly (props to super couple dealers Simon and Jane from Australia). There were not a lot of activities on the sea days and the ones they had were not very well attended. I never saw so few people at bingo on a cruise ship before. That worked out well for us, however, as my DH won twice! We played some games with the friendly cruise staff (due mostly to poor attendance we won a lot and have a ton of Princess memorabilia). And I took a computer class which was not worth it for $25. The instructors were not very knowledgeable. You also had your obligatory art auction but I heard the art director rubbed some people the wrong way. You will not be bombarded by the photographers as you are on the bigger ships. For most people this is a good thing, but I like the ship photographs so it was a disappointment. Jason the photographer was great and didn’t mind my constant questions:-) The deal to burn your pictures onto CD was a good one $9.95 for the first one and then it was only $5.00 to add additional pictures to it or $6.95 for an additional copy. And the stock photo you received free with all picture except the formal ones were very nice. Frank our cruise director reminded me of a game show host and we didn’t see him very much except at the shows at night. Regarding the shows, we did not see the comedian but heard he was pretty bad. The comedy magician was pretty cheesy but enjoyable. The big production shows were great. The first show about music of the 20th century was our favorite. The dance staff actually changed over in the middle of our trip with the old staff performing the first two shows and the new staff performing the last two shows. We were skeptical of the new crew as we thought the old crew was awesome but the new bunch came through in the end. The dancers also ran a lot of the activities on board and were a pleasure to talk to. Always a cruise highlight for me is karaoke. Well this cruise was an exception as I had a run in with a rude, drunk lady at the first karaoke session and then never went back

Cruise Critic -

Thank goodness for Cruise Critic. We had a great bunch of people in our trip’s roll call and we had arranged to meet at the pool bar right after muster drill. It was so nice to have instant friends and we all spent a lot of time together both on the ship and on excursions. We are already talking about using our future cruise deposits for our next cruise together!

Disembarcation and the Flight Home–

Since we had a 9:25 am flight we kept our luggage with us and left the ship at 6:30 am to grab a taxi to the airport. We had help getting our luggage off the ship and getting a cab (who was coincidently the same cab driver that took us to the ferry on our first day in Tahiti!). We were at the hot airport by 6:50 am and got through security/customs in an hour but there was a long line forming by the time we finished up. Our flight was delayed for an hour while we waited for people to get through that line. One big tip is to sit in the second floor snack bar while you wait for boarding time – it is air conditioned up there. The flight home was smooth and a nice ending to our wonderful trip.

Please feel free to ask me any questions you may have about the cruise or the islands.

Thanks,

Hilary

Awesome review Hilary! I'm heading that way soon and will read and re-read your review as there are a lot of good pointers in there.

Thanks!

Thank you for the review. We are going to Tahiti for the first time, April '06 so we are reading everything we can find.

Ok, I read it in all the reviews.......but what is a motu???

guardhouse - a motu a mini island or an islet. You will be hearing a lot about motu's in French Polynesia!

Hillary,

Thanks for the review. One question I have is regarding the non-Princess excursions such as with Bruno and Marc. Since we have to pay at the pier, do you know if we pay in cash or if we can pay by credit card.

Thanks,

Paula

We paid both in cash. Based on the fact that you pay right there at the peir I don't think they can take credit card unless you perhaps arranged something with them in advance. Send them an e-mail and ask!

Hilary