Trip report

[jacketwatch]

:cool: guys. We took the Tahitian Princess ouf of Papeete for a 10 day cruise beginning 8/16.

Day 1: We actually arrived in Papeete late on the 15th. You can board the ship the day before and use it as a floating hotel so to speak. Our flight leaving LAX was late so by the time we actually set foot on the ship it was nearly midnight. The service on Air Tahiti Nui was very good though we were crammed in. Conversely there was more room on Delta going from ORD to LAX. We went to the Panorama court for a late supper, a cold brew then to our cabin, 7001 which was all the way forward facing the bow. This turned out to be a mistake but more on that later. The next day we took a tour of Papeete which included a stop at the home of Jmaes Norman Hall who co-wrote "Mutiny on the Bounty." He was actually a WWI aviator B4 beginning a prolific career as a writer. He married a local Tahitian woman and lived there all his life. We also went to the local market and some of the stores. I had heard how expensive FP was and well, thats true! Most souvenir T's begin at $20.00 or so. Overall expect to pay about double what you would pay in the Caribbean for that sort of stuff. The tour guide told us the least expensive things there are the 3 F's: Fish, flowers (a gourgeous floral display from Le Marche, a flea market was only $15.00) and French bread. This is truly a bargain as loaves three feet long and baked 3 X per day are 50 cents. However, expect to pay $60.00-80.00 for an aloha style shirt. A watch I have here that cost $330.00 was $840.00 there! Yikes!

The ship left at 1700 and off we went. We explored the ship and as it is pretty small as todays cruise liners go it was not hard to get the scope of things pretty quickly. Overall the ship is VERY clean, nicely appointed and you really had no long wait times for just about anything really.

Being a bit jet lagged we retired early after dinner and that is when the "fun" began. We were all the way forward and that first night the seas became pretty choppy. Unfortunately for my wife this caused her to be very seasick and the next morning we had to see the ships MD. Some phenergan did the trick, at least for a bit but she was too sick to get off in our first port, Huahine. I did the 4X4 excursion led by one of the last remaining hippies on earth, a really cool guy named Joell who after attending Berkley during the 60's hopped a freighter, came to Tahiti, married a local and has been there the past 37 yrs. He was barefoot, had a pony tail to his mid back, chain smoked and seemingly knew everything there was to know about this island, esp. when it came to herbal and plant medicines. I can't rememeber how many times he stopped to point out a medicinal use from this bark, that leaf, etc. He showed us other interesting sites including fish traps that have been in use for decades, a grave/memorial built by local Tahitians for the invading French soldiers they killed in the late 1700's which is still in the interior today, a vanilla farm, and a pearl farm. Interestingly as there are now bees, wasps, etc. in FP vanilla, which is an orchid, has to be hand pollinated. The flower opens only once for a few hours and if is not pollinated then it too late so the process is labor intensive and time sensitive. Supposedly Tahiti has the best vanilla in the world. The pearl farm story is interesting as well. Guess where black pearls begin? Right here in the USA! Yes, clam shells are taken from the Miss. river and flown to Japan where a punch hole sized piece of the shell is removed and process into a ball shape. These are then sent to FP. First they open the oyster, take a small piese if its muscle out, wrap the processed clam piece with it and return it inside the oyster. Supposedly this irritant caused mother of pearl to be secreted. The oysters are hung on strings inside a fenced off area and feed on plankton that passes by. It takes about 18 mos. for the black pearl to develope and only about 5% of these are of top quality. Well I bought a bracelet for my wife, had my first (but not last) Hinano, the local brew and back to the ship I went. By that time my wife was much better and when she saw the braclet she was better still.

Day two was at sea. We lounged by the pool, sat in the hot tub and generally took it easy. We were fortunate in that our tablemates were all pretty cool and we really had alot of fun with them. However that night the seas became rough and my wife became ill again though not nearly as bad as the first night. We vacated our room early and headed to the amidships reception area where the motion was less noticeable. Then guess what? We couldn't tender into Raratongadue to high seas. YUK! In fact a crewman in a tender got tossed overboard and we actually watched him being rescued! Later that morning we heard our names being paged overhead. Now what? Well here's where things got better. A very attentive officer who knew my wife was ill and had seen her sleeping amidships in the reception area that morning came to the rescue. We were offered a mini-suite on deck 8 which was amidships. Fantastic caring I would say!! W/I 15 minutes the move was completed. Thats service. I actually sent a letter to Princess about him and his good deed. Things were certainly looking up. That night around 0300 we heard a "code Alpha" paged overhead. later we learned this was akin to a code blue. Most unfortunately an eldery woman suffered a cardiac arrest and did not survive. She was in her nineties and was cruising with all of her family so perhaps there is some consolation in that they were with her. Most of them got off the ship in Bora Bora but the husband and son stayed on. We saw them a few times and well what say you say? It was pretty sad. Yes, there are morgues on cruise ships.

The next day we were supposed to dock in Raiatea but guess what? We couldn't because the seas were rough and the Capt. was afraid he could not negotiate the narrow channel leading to the dock. Oh boy. However the day was not lost. We sailed on to Bora Bora and tendered in from there. The ship called ahead to be sure the passengers could do there excursions one day ahead of time and thank God all worked well. We were in Bora Bora by around 1000. As B2 has a shelterd bay the seas were no factor and all tendered in w/o incident. We did the circle island tour and folks I have to say this. If you go to FP don't expect the Caribbean. The level of developement is far less and perhaps this helps to keep it "unspoiled." There really isn't much there except some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. In the Caribbean you will always find private tour operators just waiting for business on shore. The only places in FP where I saw private tour desks were Moorea and Raiatea. Speaking of Raietea we doubled back there after B2 and were able to dock, albeit in reverse order. Who cares. We took a 4X4 excursion into the center of the island and folks this is THE most beautiful place I have ever seen! The lushness of the natural beauty is fantastic. Also the place is one big garden with fruits growing in abundance including papaya, (the best I have ever had), coconut, mangoes, avocados, bananas (the Tahitian fingers bananas are the best! So sweet!), pineapples, breadfruit, taro, guava and more. Its like a garden of Eden w/o apples. . However Eden has a cost. I checked out the market in town, i.e. where the locals go. Ice cream was $13.00 per container, about 32 ozs.

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After Raiatea we went to Moorea. There were about 15-20 stands set up on shore. I asked the ships tour guide where town was. She said "this it it" Yes, FP is unspolied. We met a beautiful young lady of mixed Tahtiian-French parentage whoofered us a ride to her store. We gladly took it and saw some more gorgeous scenery. Interestingly I asked her where she likes to travel forher vacations. Afterall where can you go once you are in paradise? Imagine my surprise when she answered LAS VEGAS! She had been there twice and was eager for more. We went whale and dolphin watching that day, saw nowhales though they were supposed to be in season, and di see quite a few dolphins. The tour was led by a marine biologist, a Dr. Micheal Poole who has studied spinner doplhins extensively. here is his web site: www.drmichaelpoole.com.

After this we went back to the ship, relaxed and had our last dinner onboard and said goodbye to our talemates with whom we had such a good time with. It was a short sail to Papeete. In fact you can see it from Moorea quite easily. Moorea does not have a high school so there kids have to ferry to Pa. twice daily. Takes about 30 min. We had to be out of our cabin by 1000 the next day though we could use the ship till 2000. As our flight home was 2200 we booked a day room at the Sheraton for a rel. bargain at $125.00 though we had to be oput by 1800. Still at least we had a nice room, beds to lie on and could take a shower B4 leaving. It was $$ well spent. More sticker shock at the hotel however. An 8 oz. bottle of suntan lotion was $40.00!! Hamburgers were $18.00. At the local market in Raiatea, well God help you if you like Jack Daniels. A 1.75 liter botle, about $37.00 here was a stagerring $130.00 there!

I'll post more about the ship tomorrow and anything else I've forgotton tonight .

In summary FP is the most beautiful place on earth I have ever seen, esp. the outer islands, but is also the most costly. However some things are priceless. The beauty is to be sure as. More importantly the people, esp. on the "outer" islands, from the eldery to the smallest children all smile and wave as you pass by them. We go to far flung places for such experiences and they live these every day. makes you wonder. :cool:

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[sailingrose]

It all sounds lovely. I love untouched places and I've always wanted to do this cruise. Maybe someday. Thanks for the review.

[SCIROCCO]

Now thats what I call a review Im tired from reading it! :grin: Thanks jacketwatch maybe when me and Annie Retire if we ever retire! :rolleyes:

[JohnG]

Thanks for the review! My wife and I are eying FP and the Tahitian Princess for 07 or 08.

[rogue]

It sounds like a great trip. Thanks for the review. :cool:

[jbond]

Thanks for the review. Your opinions of FP watch mine exactly. It really is beautiful.

[jacketwatch]

:cool: I'm glad you liked the review. I guess it became a bit wordy :grin: but the place is so nice its hard to not gush. :grin: The ships review is separate and was submitted yesterday yesterday so look for it soon. JohnG I would truly recommend this ship but be sure to do your best to get an amidships cabin. The TP is small, about 30K tons and as the water got rough you really feel it. Even if you don't get queasy its a bother at the very least. We originally had a cabin all the way forward literally facing the bow and this was a bad idea. We were able to chage to an amidships mini-suite on day 3 and this really helped. Cheers and Bon Voyage! Larry :cool:

[jbond]

We thought that the TP was the worst sailing ship that we have been on. We have been on small ships before, but felt that they were smoother than TP. We had pretty smooth seas, but the sail from Huahine to Rarotonga was "uncomfortable". The same sailing from Rarotonga to Raiatea.

[jacketwatch]

:cool: JBond: Where was your cabin? Actually Princess is building a new SMALL ship about the same lenght as the TP. I wonder if the sailing characteristics will be different as it will be new with hopefully imroved technology. The TP was originally the R4 of the Renaissance fleet. Makes you wonder how it was built. :cool:

[Hulagirl]

Your review of the ship and itinerary was interesting. We were on the ship for the July 2 and July 12 sailings. I was worried that 22 days on this size of ship would drive me crazy, but we really enjoyed it. Getting to know many of the people who worked on the ship made for a much more fun time on the cruise.

I'm curious about the ship you said Princess is building. I know they are acquiring the last R8 ship which will be the Royal Princess next year, but didn't hear anything about a new build. The ship is currently with Swan Hellenic and is the Minerva II and think this must be what you are referring to.

Sorry to hear you weren't able to stop at Roratonga. Captain Perrin told us he tries his best to stop there and even on our cruise it was a horrible tender ride back to the ship. Apparently one time he stopped but wished later he hadn't. It can be a wild ride in a tender.

Hulagirl