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Live Review of 7 Day Society Island Cruise Departing December 9th


patrickmoran
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My wife and I leave soon for our cruise. I thought I would get the post started. I hope to add to it as the cruise progresses.

We are in our early 70s and have done many cruises, mainly Princess recently. We will fly to SFO on Thursday and fly to PPT on Friday, arriving early Saturday morning. We are flying Delta/Air France in Premium Economy. We have booked day passes at the InterContinental with the breakfast option. We will board Saturday pm. We are booked in Cabin 306, a porthole cabin. All of our excursions are booked through PG. When we debark, we have scheduled a day long tour of the island with Tahiti Eden Tours. We will spend Saturday night at the Tahiti Airport Motel and fly to SFO on Sunday. We will fly home to South Florida on Monday, 12/18.

This is our 1st trip to Tahiti and excited that it's finally here.

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I will be watching for your posts!   Please let us know how the Delta Premium economy flights are.  I will be flying from PPT to SFO one way in early 2025 and am debating going in Premium economy.

 

Have a wonderful cruise!

 

~Nancy

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We arrived safely on Saturday morning earlier than scheduled. Immigration was very quick though we were one of the first off. Don’t sweat the immigration forms. They just collect them and don’t review the information. 
We found the 🏧 outside to the right. I got 10,000 cfp. We got a taxi and went to the Intercontinental. We were there by 7:30 am, if not earlier. We left our bags and went to the restaurant to check in. Our day pass reservation was for breakfast and pool access from 10 am to 5 pm for a little less than 8,000 cfp per person. Breakfast was an extensive buffet with an egg station. It was very good. It was pretty empty when we got there. I checked with the pool attendant and we could access the pool right after breakfast. We found some loungers with an umbrella and some shade from the towel hut. The sun gets very hot. We changed in the pool bathrooms. It was pretty quiet at 8:30 but after lunch all of the loungers were taken. 
We dressed at 3 pm and got a taxi to the ship. 
Overall, getting the day pass worked well for us. It gave us a shady place to hang until we could board the ship. 

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We boarded the ship at 4 pm. There was no line and went straight to reception to check in. The ship is not full and we were upgraded to Cabin 406. So we have a window instead of portholes. We found plenty of room for everything. There is an American plug and an European outlet at the desk and an American plug on the credenza. 
We got food at Tea, unpacked and went to muster out on the promenade. It was fairly quick. Then onto the welcome talk from the cruise director. We then showered and went to dinner. After dinner we crashed as I got little sleep on the plane and at the pool. 

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The ship does rock. There has been a problem with the stabilizers plus we diverted to a distress signal, sinking boat so in more open water. 
Today we visited Huihane. We took the Cultural Highlights tour which went around the island. I enjoyed it. There were rain and sun and rain and ☀️
The shuttle runs every 30 minutes to a little dock where there isn’t much. A free bus is available to town where there isn’t much. It rains. Must be the rainy season. 

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Weather has improved for the last 2 days. We’ve heard from the crew that the last cruise was very stormy and rainy. 
Yesterday, we docked at Taha’a. PG has their private motu there. The 1st shuttle left at 10:15 am. We went over at noon, found a couple of lounges and chilled. Lunch was typical beach bbq. The bar served excellent drinks.
I didn’t stay long because something bothered my stomach.🤮 I’ll spare you the details but spent the rest of day sleeping. I was able to get something from room service that I was able to keep down. This morning I was fine. 

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Today we arrived in Bora Bora. We’ve had sun and clouds but no rain. The shuttle starts at 8 am and runs every 30 minutes. The 8:30 and 9 am shuttles are for ship excursions. Others can get on them if there’s room. 
We took the snorkeling trip with Mahai Nui (sp?). There were 11 people on our boat plus 2 crew. We had 3 stops. The 2nd was worthless, no fish at a sandy site. The 1st was fun as we swam with sharks, stingrays and a variety of fish. Two pretty ones were pretty aggressive. One even took a nip of my ring finger! 😮 I think it was attracted by my wedding ring. 
The 3rd stop was excellent. Lots of coral and fish. 
We got our snorkeling gear from the ship the 1st morning. It is in good condition and works well. We will return it on the last day 

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Just now, oakridger said:

@patrickmoran I'm glad you recovered quickly and the weather improved.  What do you think about your cabin so far?  Do you feel the larger window is a good upgrade from port holes?

 

Was the Delta Premium Economy flight comfortable for the ~8.5 hour overnight flight?

 

Thanks,

~Nancy

I like the upgrade but would not pay for it. The cabin space is the same. Deck 4 is a good location. I should add that I book a lot of inside cabins. I prefer quantity over quality. 
The premium economy was ok. Air France plane has the tray in the arm rest so you lose seat width. I would not pay the difference (twice as expensive as regular coach) but wife has been complaining about flying post Covid, which sucks. The cost worked out ok because I got the delta cc for each of us and the points earned for signing up paid for the flights to SFO. The flight to Tahiti was 2/3 full so room in coach to spread out. Premium economy was full. 

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Today was 2nd Bora Bora day and the rains returned. They canceled the afternoon excursions because of the weather.
We did the island tour in the Le truck which was fine. Despite what you hear, BB people are poor. Not much outside of the big resorts. 

Despite being notified weeks ago that we would not get to go to the motu, shuttle service to the motu was offered. They use a small shuttle and limited capacity to 40. Because of the weather, I didn’t get there. 

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Today was Day 1 in Moorea. We took an island tour this afternoon which worked well. It was very overcast but the rain stayed away. 
Tonight was Polynesian Night. All of the restaurants served the same menu. It was the best cruise dinner I have had and we’ve done over 60 cruises and have over a year of sea days. We ate in Le Veranda restaurant. I’ll post more details about food later. 

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Aloha. Have been blessed to sail Tahiti and the South Pacific. Posts such as yours on the PG are rare so I greatly appreciate it.  As far as flying, we regularly fly the Hawaiian route Honolulu to NYC which is about 11 hours but thoroughly enjoyed Air Tahiti Nui nonstop Papeete to NYC which was 14 hours which they no longer have.  A wonderful experience. Enjoy and all the best!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Alright, getting back to the review though not live.

The Tahitian gods smiled on us and we had perfect weather for the last 2 days in Tahiti!

Day 2 in Moorea, I took a snorkel cruise. We were on a catamaran that would hold 30-40 and had less than 15 plus 2 crew. We cruised  2 bays and snorkeled 2 sites. The snorkeling was OK but disappointing. The 1st site was swimming with rays and sharks. You had to stay near the guide as he was feeding the fish and there weren't any elsewhere. At the 2nd site, there were lots of colorful fish and good coral but the fish were small. The captain called the site a nursery. The water was shallow so you had to be careful that the current didn't push you up onto the coral. The current wasn't real strong but you did have to pay attention.

We had dinner in Le Veranda and packed. Luggage had to be out by midnight.

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I attended 2 shows. On the 2nd night I attended the Polynesian show put on by the Tahitian Hosts and Hostesses .I also attended the show put on by the Moorea Swing Boys. I enjoyed both. I was able to get good seats. The theater was not full.

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On Saturday we disembarked about 8:15 am and met our tour guide from Tahiti Eden Tours, Fabrice, the owner. We had a good day touring the island of Tahiti. We asked and he took us to fabric stores near the Central Market and the market since we weren't going to do any beach activities. Then he took us to the usual spots around the island. We enjoyed the private tour and our guide was very personable.

He dropped us about 4 pm at the Tahiti Airport Motel. The hotel is fine but spartan. We walked down the hill to a Chinese restaurant but the dining room didn't open until 6 pm. (We were there about 5:15). There was a take out kitchen on the side and was busy. We were going to get something and take it back to the motel. Because of the language barrier, eventually the manger came out and she openeed the restaurant early for us! We had a nice meal and went back to the hotel.

 We had an 8:30 am flight to LAX so it was an early morning for us. I thought we would walk down to the airport but that wasn't going to work for my wife so we had the hotel arrange a taxi for us. It was there by the time we came down to the lobby. 

Going home was uneventful but a long 3 days to south Florida.

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Food was very good. Not as much of a Polynesian spin as I expected, more Continental.

Breakfast and lunch were buffet in La Veranda. There were items that good be ordered with waiters.

Dinners were in L'Etoile or La Veranda. La Veranda requires a reservation and had the same menu except for Polynesian night when all restaurants serve the same menu. Le Grill on the Lido deck does B, L and D but I never checked it out. It is covered but open air 

The 1st night we were at a table for 8 in L'Etoile and were seated around 7:30 pm. Dinner was slow. After that we had a table for at 6:30 pm and that worked well. 

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Shuttles:

Generally PG uses 1 of the lifeboats. They are rated for 120 people and nominally PG restricts capacity to 80 passengers. We never had a tender that was near that but then the ship was not full and our excursions were through PG. We usually caught a 9 am tender.

 

Huahine:Tender started at 8 am and ran every 30 minutes. The 1st two tenders gave priority to PG excursions. Lat tender back to the ship was either 4 or 4:30 pm. There was nothing at the pier but there was shuttle every 30 minutes to Fare.

 

Taha'a: The tender to the motu was smaller, 40 passengers, and started at 10:15 am and ran every 30 minutes. 

 

Bora Bora 1st day: Tender started at 8 am and ran every 40 minutes. Last tender to ship was 9 pm.

1st tender to motu was 10:15 am and ran every 60 minutes with the last tender to the ship at 5 pm

Bora Bora 2nd day: Same except last tender back to ship was 4:30 pm from the pier and 4 pm from motu

 

Moorea 1st day: Tender started at 8 am and ran every 30 minutes. Last one back to ship left the pier at 10 pm

Moorea 2nd day: Same with last tender back to the ship at 4:30 pm

 

 

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