Tahitian Princess, Departure Day

[shar4]

We are scheduled to cruise on the Tahitian Princess May 14. I just found out that when we depart from Papeete on May 25 we will be on our own for the day. We will need to leave the ship about 11 a.m. and our flight back to L.A. isn't until 10 p.m.!! Apparently Princess other than providing excursions during the day doesn't provide a place at a local hotel, etc. to use while we wait out the day until we need to be at the airport later that evening.

 

I'm trying to find out what other passengers have done in the past.......any suggestions.

[swish]

This happened to our friends a few weeks ago. They didn't want to pay for an excursion so they just went to the airport and spent the day reading/sleeping and waiting for their plane.

[akroach]

We were on the TP 2 years ago and our flight didn't leave to 12 midnight. princess let us stay on the ship in the general areas until we were ready to leave. They even had a scaled down buffet for us. They actually don't sail until the next day so other then vacating our rooms it didn't seem to be a problem. We actually met and mingled with alot of the new people and gave them quite a few suggestions for excursions.

[ccrn]

We were on TP last summer, and had an evening flight. We had to vacate our cabins in the morning, but still had access on/off the ship. We did some shopping in the late morning, came back and had lunch in the buffet, then rented a taxi after lunch to take us sightseeing. We were able to store our carry-ons in a room on the ship, so we did not have to lug them everywhere.

[10X]

We just got back last month. You must vacate your cabin by 10-11AM, but have full acess to the ship throughout the day. We had a group of 18, and we staked out a couple of tables in the buffet, where we came and went all day long. Someone from the group always seemed to be there holding the tables. We went shopping in Papeete, ate all of our meals on the ship, and just hung out until about 7PM when we headed for the airport.

 

They will hold your carry-on luggage for you, using a check-in process with claim checks, so you don't have to carry it around with you all day long.

 

We had the 11:55 PM flight out of Tahiti.

[laurasue]

If you opt not to use the ship during the day, as other posters above have mentioned that you can, you can probably find a good rate on a day room at a hotel in Papeete. A friend of mine did this at Le Meridien when they had a late night and said the stay was great. I would also suggest the Beachcomber as a good hotel in reasonable proximity to the airport.

 

Also, I have been told that they do have lockers/luggage storage at PPT that you can use to keep your luggage safe. We found that many of the amenities at PPT close down fairly early and sitting around the airport was quite boring, and there wasn't much of anything to eat. We ended up keeping ourselves entertained in the internet/business center, the only place with AC that we could find. It was well worth the $$, for us. :)