Feeling very smug...

[DEBBO1012]

After reading this board forever, making copious notes, and feeling very smug, I sat down this evening to reserve our excursions for our 14 day cruise beginning Sept. 26. I quickly lost that smug feeling as I tried to wade through tons of choices I've never heard anybody talk about. We are divers, so I have 3 of those reserved. Oh my, all the choices for the other days. My first question is everyone talks about how much fun the motu picnic day is. I've never heard anybody say you have to book that, but lo and behold, there it was on the excursion list AND the cost is $165. Yikes! I thought it was offered as a part of the cruise. Which is right?

 

Also, I checked the entire website and could not find the place to make restaurant reservations. Any help? A lot of people write about how wonderful the French restaurant is and to avoid the Polynesian one, but so far I have been unable to determine the names so if and when I book the reservations (with your help) I'll know which is which. Any help with this?

 

Finally, if anyone has an absolute favorite excursion, even a dive, they'd like to tell me about, I'd be forever grateful. Thanks.

[ChatKat in Ca.]

Debbo,

 

You have to register on My Cruises part of the Regent website and you will see the reservations link on your cruise page after you register on their site. You will need your booking number to do that. It is the same place where your excursions are for booking. You can't book reservations until fairly close in.

 

The Motu is free - both in Bora Bora and in Tahaa. There might be an excursion from the Motu. If you are a diver, there is great snorkeling from the Motu. My highlight was the underwater walk in Bora Bora - but - I am not a diver. Next time I go to FP though I will be certified before we go. WOW. The other highlight was the photography excursion on Moorea, but, I am a professional photographer. We also did a motor canoe ride circling the island on Bora Bora with a snorkel excursion.

 

If you are more active, there are Waverunners that people enjoy and you can rent little putt putt cars/dune buggy type things or motorbikes and circle on land. Go to Belevedere in Moorea - the view is wonderful.

 

You will be in Paradise.

[scuba diver]

I have not sailed yet, but I have the excursion list for the June 14th sailing. For the Taha'a Motu they are Coral Garden Drift Snorkeling, Duration: 3 Hours; Exploration of Taha'a Duration: 3½ Hours; Snorkel and Black Pearl Farm Adventure Duration: 3½ Hours.

 

These are the same for your cruise in September. It looks like you are confusing the "Exploration of Taha'a" with the general use and enjoyment of the motu. The motu is free, but the guided excursion has a charge.

 

The excursion is described as follows:

 

You will depart from the dock of Patio in a safari off-road vehicle for the drive across one of the highest mountains of the island. Your Taha'a guide will point out sights along the way before stopping at a scenic viewpoint, where you'll discover the traditional use of local plants and trees. You can also sample the various local fruits and learn the Tamure, a Tahitian dance.

 

The island of Taha'a is often called "Vanilla Island", and you'll learn about this fragrant spice while visiting a small family plantation. You will also visit a small black pearl farm to learn how these treasures are cultivated and harvested. These small "cottage industries" represent a large part of this small island's economic structure. During the return drive on the East Coast of the island, your guide will continue to entertain you with tales of island life and lore. The tour returns you to the ship, where a tender service is available to Motu Mahana throughout the day. On the motu you can enjoy lunch, water activities and snorkeling.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Yes, there are definitely Taha'a excursions, including the drift snorkel. I've heard it's very good, and you'd still have time to partake at the motu since it's an all-day event. In 4 trips around the Societies, I have yet to set foot on the island of Taha'a--the motu is just too enticing. And free--excursions are pretty expensive these days.

[WesW]

If I was diving on the PG again, as convenient and magnificent as the

PG's dive crew is...I would book at least one outside dive w/Top Dive

in Bora Bora to see Giant Manta Rays...here is an apt description of

this dive:

 

Manta Ray Dive in Anau Pass

Anau is the premier manta ray site, in the eastern side of the lagoon.

Supposedly seeing a manta is an almost 100% certainty. TOPDive usually

includes a cameraman on each dive, and I purchased my personalized dive

video without hestitation, considering I saw 3 mantas (which is actually

considered a low turnout). These creatures are absolute marvels, one

juvenile with a 6 ft. wingspan hovered about 2 feet over my head, while a

giant mother with a 12 foot wingspan also came by. They look like

underwater stealth bombers. The mantas congregate here because it's a

cleaning station, so you'll see all sorts of cleaner wrasses dart out from

the coral and begin their work. The nice thing about the site being a

cleaning station is that mantas will swim slowly, often circling back two or

three times. Interestingly enough, if you swim calmly enough the cleaner

wrasses will sometimes try and clean YOU. It was one of the most special

experiences in my entire life.

 

Know u only have one day in BB, but if it was me (and I dove for

14 days on the PG) I would choose this Manta Ray dive in BB. Good luck!

[TedC]

I no longer dive, but had some great snorkeling at Moorea last December with numerous friendly rays and some shy (and harmless) sharks.

 

It poured rain part of the time but so what - I was already wet and, anyway, I'm waterproof!

[DEBBO1012]

I did register on my cruises and still haven't located the restaurant reservation section. Below "My Booked Cruises" is a list of items to complete "before you sail". The first one is excursions. The next one is complete guest info. The last one is print itinerary. Nothing about restaurant reservations. Maybe I am too early as one of you pointed out. I'd like to know where it is, though. I'll just keep checking.

 

So the Motu day is free, but on the first day listed under excursions it says...Huahine...Motu picnic...$165 and it doesn't have anything listed as an excursion associated with the Motu picnic. It's a little confusing, but I'll just go with what you all are telling me.

 

I'll definitely give our excursions and dive another look...thanks for all the comments and opinions. They are truly appreciated.

[basedow]

I believe the window for securing restaurant reservations is 30 days before sailing, closing 7 days before sailing. That's what I'm doing for our August cruise.

[cavalier2]

We returned from our cruise on the PG a little over a week ago. It was terrific. I'm glad to share our favorite excursions with you. Our favorite was the Jet Boat excursion in Bora Bora. My husband is a diver, but I am not, and he thought the snorkeling offered on this dive was the closest he's ever seen to diving in the way of fantastic coral and fish. By far the best snorkeling I've ever done. We also saw dolphins (a welcome surprise) while we toured the island, and swam with sting rays and reef sharks. There were only 7 of us on this excursion. I highly recommend it.

 

We also very much liked the waverunners in Moorea, the photo adventure in Moorea, and the outrigger canoe/jeep safari combo in Raiatea. We did the land and sea safari with snorkeling in Bora Bora. It was good and I'd do it again, but the others stand out as perhaps more outstanding. The snorkeling spot in Bora Boara for the land and sea safari had a lot of current, and the fish were not as good as in the Jet Boat excursion snorkeling spot. However, the views we saw from the 4x4 portion of this excursion were stunning.

 

In my opinion, you don't need an excursion on the Motu Mahana day. There is great snorkeling right off the beach, and the whole day is so nice. You can sign up the day before to go water skiing (boat picks you up at the motu). That's a lot of fun and I recommend, but don't forget to sign up as the spots will fill up.

 

As to the restaurants, La Veranda is the French restaurant. It was very good. The menu doesn't change. We ate their twice and enjoyed it. Le Grille is the Polynesian restaurant. We ate their once. Also good, but more casual than the other two restaurants. Seafood choices were all excellent. The main dining room is excellent. Menu changes every day, which is fun. I wouldn't do the French restaurant more than twice, or the Polynesian restaurant more than once, but others may have differing opinions.

 

Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

[LovinDivin]

We just returned from our PG trip and we were "forced" in a way to dive with Top Dive in Bora Bora as we had 7 divers (our family) and the PG dive excursions were over booked (there were 2 large groups on our cruise - I had booked our dives the very first day excursions were available, but it didn't matter). To be fair, it worked out well for us because we did a 2-tank dive and that left us the next day open on Bora Bora to do other things.

 

Top Dive picked us up right at the PG sports marina, so it was still very convenient, but sorry, I still love the zodiacs! We were told the Manta Rays were hard to come by these days, some days they are there, most days they are not. We chose not to do this dive as the divemaster told us if the Manta Rays aren't there, there isn't much else to see.

 

Also of note, I would definately choose to dive Bora Bora over Moorea if you have to make a choice. I used to feel the complete opposite, however, the reef in Moorea is suffering big time from a type of "star fish" that are slowly devouring it. It was quite shocking to see how gray the reef looked from 2 years ago. We were told the only natural predator for these "star fish" have disappeared from the reef. Don't get me wrong we still loved our Moorea diving, "Shark Gallery" to be specific, but the Bora Bora reef looked far superior.

 

Our best dive of the trip was Tapu at Bora Bora, we had 4-5 lemon sharks and many black tip sharks follow us the entire dive. We also dove with Blue Nui again (last time at Le Taha'a) while staying at the IC Thalasso. We dove a site by the airport called Muri Muri....it was a wonderful dive! Highly recommend Blue Nui!

[egret]

I saw my first crown of thorns infestation earlier this year on the dive off Raiatea. We also saw them at Bora Bora and Moorea. the talk by Dominique &co. was that there is sort of a cycle to these critters. I don't know but the damage to the coral is very apparent when they are present. I guess the triton is the only know predator.

[drifting_away]

Actually the humhead wrasse and harliquin shrimp are also predators to the crown of thorns.

 

So LovinDivin, did the PG help you set up the excursion with Top Dive? Did you know prior to the cruise that you did not get your requested dive excursions?

[DEBBO1012]

Great information everyone. So you do have to sign up for the Motu? I have searched the RSSC website on my cruises section and can't find it anywhere except the aforementioned Moto Picnic for $165. Does anybody know where to sign up?

 

Thanks for all the additional information about excursions and dives. You guys rock!

[drifting_away]

Motu, lunch, drinks are free. :D Hop on the tender and your there. You can snorkel right off the beach.

 

The excursion is a snorkel tour of Tahaa.

[LovinDivin]

Yes, our diving was all set up for us before we even were on board the PG as we booked our excursions online. Pierre is great, he knew our family wanted to dive together (we dove with him previously) and the only way to do that on Bora Bora was with an outside operator as they were trying to accommodate all divers. So instead of doing a 1-tank dive each morning at Bora Bora, we did a 2-tank dive the first morning.

 

**Note: We also did the "drift snorkel" on the first day at Raiatea with private operator Stephan. I set it up through email. He is fantastic! He was waiting for us at the dock with my name, we jumped in his boat and took off. This is basically the same "excursion" the PG offers, we had eight people, so it worked to book it ourselves with a private operator. We spent the entire afternoon with him....after the snorkel (which really is absolutely wonderful...right next to Le Taha'a Private Island) he took us to his beach/home right at the motu and fixed us drinks and opened fresh coconut. It was a magical day.

[KLG]

Snorkeling off the motu--if you don't have your own equipment, does the PG provide it? Is there a place to get it on the beach? I'm not a snorkeler, but my husband is, and he'll want to take advantage of the opportunity to see the underwater sights.

 

We leave for Tahiti in 2=1/2 weeks!

 

Karen

[DEBBO1012]

I understand the motu day is free and you jump on the tenders, etc. What I don't know is how to sign up for it. Anybody help with that?

 

Thanks for the additional excursion and dive information too. Everyone is being so helpful.

[scb]

There is no need to sign up for the free day at Motu Mahana. That is why it is not on the excursion list. You just go! I think the staff pretty much assumes most everyone will be there at some point in the day. Some go early and stay all day, some only go for a portion of the day. :D

 

KLG--there is free snorkeling equipment on the PG. You get it at the on-board marina area and take it to the motu with you.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

You can go and get your snorkelling equipment at the marina on board, almost as soon as you board--watch for postings in the Ia Orana (daily passages.)

 

As others have said, you just hop on a tender and go to the motu, and stay as long as you like. Totally unregimented, just relax and enjoy.

 

There are snorkelling lessons early in the day, just watch for some semblance of organization on the right side of the beach, and join in. Even non-snorkellers can get the hang of it there, it's pretty non-threatening.