Review: Princess Cruises - Pacific Princess - [October 11, 2003]

[Net Reviews]

Review By:

Reviewer Comments:

Well, we got back Sunday night after one of the worst flights I have
ever had (and that takes a lot). I don't like to start a review with
negatives, but if anybody from Princess is reading this, FIRE OMNI AIR
and get a real airline for your charters. The slight price increase
will be soooooo worth the effort. I will get back to Omni later in
this review.

The Good:
The ship is awesome. It is a mini-Mega ship. You can look up the stats
online, but they do not do it justice. The room was the biggest room
we have ever had. Or else it just had the best storage. When we got
done putting everything away, my wife & I looked at each other and
asked what did we forget? We still had empty drawers and empty
shelves. That never, ever happens.

The food was great. We heard a lot of grumbling, but no one could
really point out what they didn't like when they were pressed for
specifics. The one night I didn't like any of the entrees, I had a
steak off of the "always available" menu. I usually had the caesar
salad (again off the "always available" menu) rather than one of their
more gourmet salads, just because I liked the caesar salad. It was
never a problem mixing and matching courses off the menu. My personal
favorite was the Beef Wellington, I think that is the best I have ever
had.

The diving was amazing. The coral was not outstanding, by Caribbean
standards it was pretty boring. It was the fish. Not a large variety,
just outstanding numbers of them. The Napoleon fish were awesome. They
are huge. Pictures do not do them justice. The first dive, on Raiatea,
included some "up close and personal" time with a Napoleon fish that
had to have been 6 feet long and over 300 pounds. When he came up and
nudged you to feed him, you knew you were being nudged.

On Bora Bora we did two dives. The first was on the ocean side of the
reef. Again, the coral was not very exciting. The sharks definitely
were. Our DM said to just move slowly as the sharks are "timid and
shy". I think somebody gave him the wrong definition of timid. These
sharks were not aggressive, but they were definitely curious and not
at all shy. A very cool dive. I have some great video from this. We
also saw some of the usual reef fish and a small pride(?) of lion
fish, if you can call three a pride. The second dive was on the lagoon
side of the reef. It was very interesting because just as we entered
the water, two snorkeling boats tied up nearby. It was amazing to see
all of the fish bail out as soon as the snorkelers hit the water. If
you have ever gone on a snorkeling trip and not seen any fish, I can
tell you why: you guys are noisy. Once we moved away from the
snorkelers into a little deeper water we saw all kinds of things,
including some huge anemones with their clown fish (Nemo fish to those
with little kids), a green moray eel another Napoleon fish (only about
4 feet this time) and a bunch of those South Seas giant clams (only
babies about 1 foot wide).

On Moorea, we did the motu picnic. That was fabulous. A motu is a sand
island on or near the barrier reef. This one had tree for shade and a
channel between it and the next motu for snorkeling. The stingrays
were at least as friendly as the ones in the Caymans and would
literally crawl up in your lap if you sat down in the water. I highly
recommend this excursion, but get it quick because it sold out early.

On Huahine we did the sacred sites walk and talk and this was also one
of our favorites. Paul, the young man that did the talk gave a very
impressive amount of background information on the history of the
islands and its people. It was raining when we did it, but that just
seemed to add to the mood. The walking was not that extensive. We had
a number of retired persons (most not recently retired) and none of
them had any trouble. If you need a cane or a walker, find a different
tour, but if you can walk around the block you can finish this tour.

The Bad:
Sunday in Papeete. Why they bother with Papeete on Sunday, I don't
know. The shops are almost all closed. The second floor of the market
is closed. There is nothing to do. We took a tour which was mostly "we
need to get back on the bus, so we stay on schedule". There were some
interesting spots and the bus was air conditioned (the last of that
until we got back to Papeete to go to the airport).

Saturday in Papeete. The shops close at noon. We didn't bother with a
tour this time. We just walked around town for a couple of hours, came
back to the ship, had lunch and waited for the shuttle to the airport.
The bright spot in all of this is that Omni now doesn't require you to
go to the airport in the morning to check your bags. You go in the
afternoon and stay until the flight loads, the same as ATN and ANZ.

Le Truck. Transportation on all of the islands (except Tahiti) is by
this demonic ally inspired contraption called "Le Truck". It is a
flatbed truck with wooden benches and a wooden roof over it. After the
second ride we christened it "Le Bone Shaker". When the cruise
director says to take a towel, do it. Even if you don't go to the
beach, sit on it, it will save your a**.

The Ugly:
The ugly truth is that the Society Islands, despite being a tourist
destination for more than 100 years, has virtually no tourist
infrastructure. Each island has a couple of hotels. Few if any tour
buses. Little to buy as souvenirs. The main products to buy are the
pareos (the colorful wraps the natives wear), postcards and pearls.
Air conditioning is virtually non-existant. And not to sound like an
ugly American, but if you don't speak a little French, it is difficult
to find your way around and almost impossible to communicate other thn
by pantamime. Paul (the speaker from the tour mentioned above) summed
it up by saying that the number one industry by value is tourism, but
the number one occupation is living off the handouts from the French.

The Bottom Line:
I am very glad that we went. I will need to think very hard about
whether I would go back. We loved the ship. If you will get to the
Society Islands only once in your lifetime, go there and take the
Pacific Princess. But if you do decide to go, make sure you make your
flight arrangements through Air Tahiti Nui not Omni Air. If there is
sufficient interest, I will be happy to go into detail about the
problems with Omni, but this is a review of the cruise.