Star Breeze Tahiti October 2025 - shore excursions (also concerns about recent increase to cancellations?)

[BrookeJ75]

Hi All,

 

We are booked on this 7 night cruise departing 23rd October 2025.  Would love recommendations for each of the port days and whether you booked onboard or 3rd party?  We love the water and really want to see sharks and Manta rays. We are also looking to do 2-3 nights post cruise in OWB.  Would love suggestions on this that are reasonable priced and don't have to sell both kidney's to afford 🤣

 

I will also have my 50th Birthday on the Huahine port day.  Interested in doing something special during the day and then suggestion for dinner that night.

 

Also a little concerned after reading about people getting their cruises cancelled.  Does this happen at any time during the year or usually during specific seasons.

 

Thanks in advance

Brooke

[sunny days]

Hi Brooke,

I can't really answer your questions. Our first Windstar cruise will also be in October. 

 

In regard to the cancelations. From what I've been reading the cancelations were in July due to part of the Summer Olypics being held there. That's what folks have been saying.?.? Hopefully that's true. We had originally booked a longer cruise with only two stops in French Polynesia but canceled and booked this one because our last cruise had so many ports canceled. We were concerned about taking the other cruise and having one or both of the ports canceled and they were the only reason we had booked the cruise. We figured we will see much more of the Islands booking with Windstar.

 

Hopefully someone will answer your questions.

[jbsparks]

I am trying to figure out shore excursions too!! 

[Seattle Sails]

Hi Brooke--we did the Windstar Tahiti cruise five years ago and we're sailing again in August for our 30th anniversary. As far as excursions, we booked from the boat to ensure we would never be left behind if the excursion was late but I've heard the tour operators all have a very good adherence to the ships' schedules. For excursions, we liked the open water snorkeling versus the drift snorkeling. We had one drift snorkeling tour--I think it was the coral garden but unsure--where the water depth was so shallow that we were right on top of the coral and it was rough. You are snorkeling in a line behind someone else and if they stop--you have nowhere to go but on top of them or on top of the coral due to the current. But a lot of people really liked it. We stick to open water. Fakarava, Rangiroa and Huahine were the best snorkeling for us; we had one tour operator take us snorkeling and then to a small lagoon where he cooked us lunch and then off to more snorkeling again--amazing.  There's really no bad snorkeling experience there really, Enjoy!  

[SailingHigher]

On 6/30/2024 at 11:33 PM, Seattle Sails said:

We had one drift snorkeling tour--I think it was the coral garden but unsure--where the water depth was so shallow that we were right on top of the coral and it was rough. You are snorkeling in a line behind someone else and if they stop--you have nowhere to go but on top of them or on top of the coral due to the current. 

I did that Windstar excursion in 2023. It was called Coral Garden—Tahaa. My experience was similar. It was tough to avoid others and coral heads in the shallow waters and mild current. One collision from behind caused me to cut my knee, so I skipped repeating the last drift through the garden. An open reef is more my style.

[ridethetide]

21 minutes ago, SailingHigher said:

I did that Windstar excursion in 2023. It was called Coral Garden—Tahaa. My experience was similar. It was tough to avoid others and coral heads in the shallow waters and mild current. One collision from behind caused me to cut my knee, so I skipped repeating the last drift through the garden. An open reef is more my style.

I assume, it depends on whether it is high or low tide.

[Heartfelttraveler]

I did this cruise in February 2019 (on Oceania) and we loved it so much we are doing it again in 2025.  Most of ship excursions are run by the same people no matter what cruise line you are on.  Most of the time there will on be one ship docked or anchored at each port at a time.  I am now working on choosing and booking our excursions for 2025.

The excursions we did in the past are:

Fakarava - Private excursion to Sable Rose.  Long boat ride at pretty high speed.  Island was spectacular.  Halfway to Sable Rose we stopped at a Dive "Resort" to snorkel and have lunch.  It shallow and sharks swam around your feet.  Then the depth dropped to, it seemed like, infinity.  Sable rose was shallow water with crystal clear water and pink sand.  It was a great excursion, but for us at our age (it will be six years later) we are not doing 8-hour excursions anymore.  

Rangiroa - Glass Bottom Boat (and walking the Island for about two hours) - Would not do again.  (To be fair, we only had our choice of two excursions and the other one was a pearl farm.)

Raiatea - Coral Garden Drift Snorkeling - Loved it.  Will do it again in Tahaa and do the Jet Ski in Raiatea.

Bora Bora - Jet Ski - Loved it. Will do it again, but at another of the islands.

Bora Boar - Private excursion with Bora Bora H2O with another couple we met through Cruise Critic.  Perfect.  Loved it.  Will book them again for our upcoming cruise.

Huahine - Snorkeling Expedition - It was very good.

Moorea - Photographers Eye View of Moorea - We really enjoyed this.  Got lots of great photos.  Great if you do not want to snorkel every day.  This time we plan to snorkel at this island.

 

We absolutely loved French Polynesia and cannot wait to go back.

[SailingHigher]

21 hours ago, ridethetide said:

I assume, it depends on whether it is high or low tide.

There is a difference, but the amount depends on the calendar. See https://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Pai-Pai/tides/latest. I was told that the current is stronger during high tide. Also, there is more wind and a chance of rain during afternoons.

[MissEileen23]

I just got back from the Star Breeze. I did 4 excursions and booked two through the ship and two on my own.

 

Moorea - private snorkeling tour with Mermaid Private tours

 

This was probably my favorite tour since it was just my husband and I. I booked this independently. The guides, Luna and Clem, were fantastic. They picked us up at the tender dock so we got beautiful views of the North coast of Moorea on the way to the snorkel spots. Luna snorkeled with us and took photos and videos so we could enjoy the experience and still have the memories. Highly recommend!

http://www.mermaidprivateboattours.com/

 

Raiatea - kayaking the Faaroa River 

 

I booked this through the ship. I tried to book on my own but they were all booked up. I think it’s the same tour operator though. There were 14 of us on this tour with two guides. Vivien was the main guide and he gave us a lot of info about the river and the plants around it. The kayaking was difficult for me on the way in and out of the river but it’s doable. They only had two person kayaks so my husband and I struggled to get in sync - you would think after 30 years we could work as a team lol! It was a lot of fun but more exercise than I expected.

 

Bora Bora - Half Day Eco Snorkeling Shared Boat (Strenuous)

 

I booked this cruise through the ship. The tour operator is H2O. It was absolutely amazing snorkeling! We went to 4 different locations. The first was a coral garden which was beautiful and easy snorkeling. The second stop was the manta ray cleaning station and I was absolutely in awe as we saw about 10

manta rays. If you haven’t seen them before, you have to do this! It was really windy that day though and this area is not protected so there was a lot of bouncing up and down. The third location was a channel where eagle rays were common. This was just ok but the scenery was fantastic. The last stop was the aquarium and it lived up to its name. So many fish and relatively easy snorkeling. I loved this tour for the snorkeling but the tour guides didn’t really describe much, they just dropped us off at the different spots. I still would highly recommend it though!

 

Huahine - driving tour around the island

 

I booked this independently. We did a 4 hour tour around all of Huahine. Janou was our guide and she was a lot of fun and a wealth of information about Huahine. We stopped at a lot of scenic viewpoints, a vanilla plantation and a pearl farm. It was fun and relaxing after all of the activity of the rest of the week. 

 

https://www.huahine-private.com/

 

Hope this helps!