OK, I finally have some time to review our trip. In one word: AMAZING. It was everything I hoped it would be, plus!
Friday, I hired a car to take us from our home near Philadelphia to JFK. First surprise, I ordered a Town Car but they were short of cars that day so we were upgraded to a stretch limo no charge. We immediately paid for this perk by being delayed for takeoff for three hours, two of which were spent on the tarmac in the plane. The plane was not very full. Another couple that we met on the cruise told us that they upgraded to Business Class from JFK for $800pp. 12 1/2 hours later, we landed in Tahiti near 3 am. Luggage and immigration went quickly, immediately found our hotel transfer. Check-in went smoothly and we were in our room at the Radisson Plaza by about 4:30 am.
Breakfast and lunch were included at the hotel while we waited to transfer to the ship, although we had to be out of our room by 11 am.
Embarkation was a breeze. I don't think it took 5 minutes before we were led to our cabin, champagne in hand.
Our luggage arrived almost immediately. We unpacked, selected our liquor, and were off to tea and explore before Rhea even had a chance to meet us. We confirmed our excursions, got our snorkel equipment, and booked the galley tour for Friday.
Dinners:
L'Etoile was the best and Antony runs the room beautifully.
La Veranda was good, but we weren't too disappointed that we could only eat there once. The same with Le Grill.
Always enjoyed tea in La Palette.
Excursions:
Waverunners around Bora Bora was the best! Our guide was FAST and a lot of fun. The lagoon will make you swoon.
Trails of the Ancients with Dr. Mark Eddows was fascinating. Don't miss his talks on the ship about Tahitian culture and the Mutiny on the Bounty. Moorea is as beautiful as I was told!
Motu Mohana was a blast and the marina crew was great. Not to mention the food, bar, pareo tying...Don't miss.
Lagoon Discovery and Snorkeling was fun and we saw spinner dolphins at one point. The boat quietly tracked them in the bay for some time.
Island and River Tour on Raiatea was very interesting.
In addition, my husband biked around Bora Bora in about 2 1/2 hrs. Watch out for the steep hill on the other side of the island!
Cabin:
Rhea was wonderful. I tried to keep the room neat and she still managed to put me to shame. By the way, does anybody finish all that liquor? We brought home an unopened bottle of vodka and gin with 6 gin-and-tonics out of it.
The bed was very comfortable. The TV with VCR has not been updated yet. Overall, lovely and plenty of room. We only brought one suitcase and a carry-on, so we did pack light.
General Impressions:
When my husband, who didn't want to take a cruise at all, said, "The next time we're here...", I knew it was a winner. I believe I'll be able to get him on another ship, but it will have to be this level of service. He doesn't realize what it's like on the maintream cruise lines. "The bathrooms don't all have tubs? Wait in line for buffets, launches? Pay for soda and water?" He wouldn't be happy.

Debarkation, we took the tour before going to the hotel. It was OK. We took advantage of the jacuzzi in our room before going to the airport to return home. Again, the transfer was seamless. The plane was 90% full back to JFK, with a lot of French tourists transferring to another plane for Paris in New York. I thought my flight was long! Our friends that we met on the ship could not upgrade to Business Class again, so they paid $1700pp for an upgrade to First. Just in case anyone wants to know!
I was greatful for the car waiting to drive us home after that long flight.

Finally, if anyone has made it this far without being bored, here are links to pictures.

Tahiti
http://www.photoshow.net/watch/HS2Qc8XJ
Raiatea & Taha'a
http://www.photoshow.net/watch/Yc3uT8QY
Bora Bora
http://www.photoshow.net/watch/UG2PM6Kw
Moorea
http://www.photoshow.net/watch/HX3GE5Cd
Moorea Day 2
http://www.photoshow.net/watch/sU8pF7yP

Thanks to everybody for helping us! We couldn't have done it without you.

Jill

Jill, thanks for your review. I'm glad your trip was amazing. In December 2005 we took the PG which was our first cruise in 12 years. My husband was not too excited about cruising again for various reasons, but I was convinced it was the best way to do French Polynesia. Like you, I knew it was a good sign that when some brochures were dropped off in our room sometime during the week, he reviewed them in great detail and came up with all kinds of cruises he'd like to take. So now we have a few more Regent cruises on the books, including a return to the PG (Marquesas) in December of this year.

Dena

Jill,

Great review!!!!! And your photoshows are terrific!!!! Don't you just love photoshow? I'm glad you had such a wonderful trip. Thanks for sharing!!!!!!!!

Photoshow is another thing I learned on this board and I love it! My friends are so impressed, I hate to tell them how easy it was.
I'm glad you liked the review.
Dena, I hope I can book some more cruises after this. It took 10 years to book the first.

Jill

Jill, I loved reading your review and the pictures were fantastic!! Thanks for taking the time to post them for us and welcome home!

so glad your trip was a winner! thank you for taking the time to share your experiences. welcome home.

Question: can you do an onboard booking on the PG for your next cruise?

Thanks, Anne

Last month on the Mariner I asked Lynn Madsen the question about PG onboard booking. She said they no longer have a cruise consultant on the PG, but if you book within 2 weeks of the end of the cruise, have your TA advise Regent that you were on the PG and you'll get the 5% discount. When someone tries this, let us all know whether it works.

Jill, I really enjoyed reading your review and seeing your photoshows. You did some of the activites we never did on our two times onboard the PG so now I've seen some of the things we missed. The community fish distrubution shot was true local color. I did notice the same dog with a curl to his/her tail on the Bora Bora motu. We saw a pair of them on each of our visits.

I remember that we got a form in our cabin towards the end about booking another cruise. I believe it even said something about having 10 days or so to contact them.
Kathy, yes the other dog was also on the motu, but we didn't get a picture of him.
We saw the fishing on Moorea during our Trail of the Ancients tour. Dr. Eddows had the bus pull over and he explained that the whole community will drop everything when a big school of fish is in the bay. The men will catch the fish and then everyone will work together to string them for each household. He was very excited that this was a unique opportunity for us to see how the community still works together.

We were on the PG in December 2005 and the "onboard" booking process described by jbittle and JillM worked for us.

We were already booked on MUSH at the time. When we returned from the PG, B&K was able to apply an onboard booking discount toward our MUSH cruise. It worked beautifully! We did not even need to send in the form that was given to us on the ship.

It does work.

Dena

Fantastic photos Jill.
Thank you for sharing them with us.
Glad you had a wonderful time.

Great review Jill and it wasn't long at all!! thanks for posting it, does make me want to seriously consider Tahiti.

Great photos and review, Jill. You and your husband are a darling couple. You have whetted our appetite for our June 21st PG trip!
Love, Elena <img border="0" alt="[bounce]" title="" src="graemlins/ubbbounce2.gif" />

Jill thanks for sharing your review and beautiful pictures. :)

Great Job Jill! And yes, once you cruised Regent, you can even fathom going on another line!

Jill, great review & pictures! Thanks so much for sharing!

My husband thought it was comical that I kept taking pictures of the bathrooms, but I told him somebody might be interested. I know I was.

Did you by any chance get any pictures around the pool deck?

I'm checking. So far, I see I have two on that deck. What are you hoping to see?

Jill, loved your photos and review! What kind of underwater camera did you use to capture Nemo?

Jill, enjoyed your review and the picture show. Thanks!

Sue,
I used a Fuji disposable underwater camera.

you're kidding. Wow, it worked GREAT. I'm picking up a few of those on my last minute shopping errands the next few days! thank you

I read a recommendation for that brand on the Tahiti-Explorer board. Yes, definately bring a few. I only brought one and I was so sorry.

Sue - they do work great. We even took one to Victoria Falls as there was a soaking spray!

Jill, thanks again for a wonderful trip review. We appreciate it. Sue, have a great trip on the PG!

Cheers, Anne

Great Jill

Regarding the liquor, we put ours in water bottles and transferred them to our "after" hotel and sat around and served everyone drinks at the pool at the Radisson. We had a little vodka left even the next day and enjoyed bloody mary's on our connection from LAX to DEN...

Thank you! I'll definitely be checking in. I love that we all can share our travels. This is a wonderful board. I envy your wonderful trip to Africa!

Hi Jill.
We were told that there had been some changes to the pool deck area since our cruise in 2003.
Just wanted to see some pictures to see if it was true.

Jim,
I was afraid you were looking for something like that. I've emailed you two pictures from the pool deck, but I don't know how much they will tell you.
Sorry.

JillM:
Those pictures and your review were wonderful.
Just one question: Were those sharks as close as they look? That Fuji disposable is great...we have a good underwater camera but those are really good and don't have to worry about "what did I do with the camera?"
Thank you for taking the time to share with us!
I hope I am as skilled and can share some pics when we come back from the 7/12!!
Carol

Glad you had a fabulous trip and enjoyed it so much! I'm considering it for April, so it was nice to see. Thanks!

Trish

Carol,
Yes, those sharks were right there. I was on the edge of a sharp drop-off in the lagoon. I was standing in water with the sting-rays and when I turned with my camera, those sharks were going by. I was so excited to get that shot, but I also decided not to go swimming in the deeper water.
I wish I could take credit for the pictures, but I don't think you can take a bad shot in FP. It is more beautiful than the pictures can show.

Jill

Jill:
Oh my!! We saw lots of nurse sharks in Australia but they just lay around. Out in deeper water we have had some "swim" by and I just almost walk on water to get out!! I am sure I will not go into real deep water if I can help it!! Though they say they don't bother you????? I assume those were from the sting ray snorkel?
Anyhow, thanks for the info!!
Carol

According to a Google search someone at my work did after seeing that picture, there has NEVER been a shark attack in French Polynesia. Their method of feeding is to swim up thru a school of fish, collecting their food. People just aren't considered lunch, too big.
Yes, I took that during the Lagoon Discovery and Snorkel on Moorea, which had a stingray stop. I really enjoyed it. If you don't go near the drop-off, I don't think you'll even see the sharks. My husband missed them.
Carol, I'm looking forward to seeing your underwater pictures with your camera!

Jill

Jill, great pictures! I really like this photoshow site! Thank you for taking the time to post them!

Jill:
You have certainly eased my mind!!
I live in So. Calif. and the surfers are sometimes "bait"...more in NO. Calif...the sharks confuse them for seals!!
Where did you get the camera? I checked some on line . I assume it is the Fuji Quicksnap 800??
Any particular store?
Thanks
Carol

Carol,
I bought the Fuji at Target. Like I told Sue, I only bought one and I regretted it. Get a few. I took it waverunning, to the motus, and on the snorkeling excursion. Anywhere there was water and sand that I didn't want to risk my digital.

Jill

Loved your pictures and review. It certainly brought back memories of our cruise 4 months ago. Thanks for sharing.

Jill,
Thanks....I hadn't read your post yet, but was driving by Target and popped in...and there they were and on sale too. Hope are pictures are as good as yours!
Carol

Carol,
That is so funny! And on sale? It was just meant to be for you.