Well, you both make really good points. I'm going to see what Tom thinks. But the more I think about it, since I hate to bake in the sun, I'll spend whatever time I am in the sun in the water to stay cool. Then I won't have to worry about the added weight on our inter-island flight or storing it somewhere. I guess I just saved $34 :) Plus, Kathy said she'd share hers with us (don't worry Kathy, I won't hold you to that :D ).

Okay, I thought will all the PIP stuff on the main cruise board, I'd bring this back up here.

We are all booked for Shore Excursions. That took a lot of planning.

That was a lot of work!

Sunday - Day 2 - Raiatea Island Tour
Monday - Motu at Taha'a
Tues - Bora Bora by Le Truck (AM)
Tues - Aqua Safari (PM)
Wed - Lagoonarium (AM) - Motu at Bora Bora
Thurs Island Drive/Belevedere (PM) (Could not do 2nd day - photo adventure was 1st choice of excursions overall!)
Thurs Sunset Sail
Fri - Photo Adventure (what else?)
:app: :app: :app:

Kathy, what great choices! I'm sure the sunset sail will be great. We did this on another sailing ship (which has now left FP), but I'm sure it will be just as nice. Especially if they have a musical crew similar to this one:

http://rancher504.smugmug.com/gallery/89651/1/3156342

We haven't quite chosen yet, but are close--I will probably do some bookings this evening.

Wendy,

Actually, I always take a sunset sail if it's offered. One of my photo series is sunset photos. The last photo on the LCT year in review is mine. It's one of the big reasons I booked PIP is for photo shoots and Lots of R&R and of course to meet all of you amd play!!

I booked on-line last night. Very easy. I got my e-mail confirmation from Radisson about 5 minutes later. Here's what we finally decided on:

Raiatea - Island Tour #RAI3568
Tahaa - Motu Mahana - of course!!!!
Bora Bora - 1st day - Motu and play the rest by ear
Bora Bora - 2nd day - Shark & Ray Feeding Snorkeling Tour #BRB1606
Moorea - 1st day - Dolphin Watching Expedition #MOO1798
Moorea - 2nd day - Island Drive & Belvedere #MOO1794

Notice - no waverunners. Oh well. . . .we'll be happy with the less taxing excursions. The rest who do go on that and the other more exciting ones will have to fill us in on all the fun details :)

Wendy, great picture of your "singers"!!! Can I change my mind about that excursion??? <img border="0" alt="[vhappy]" title="" src="graemlins/icon_vhappy.gif" />

Kathy, you'll have to get some updated shots of these guys when you go :)

BTW, very cute picture of you, Wendy!!

cyndi, ida enjoyed the Bora Bora shark & ray feeding best, even more than parasailing in Moorea..have a blast..r/wes

Wes, glad to hear that!! Very high praise after all the many exciting excursions both of you went on!!

We are set too:

Sunday, Raiatea Lagoon & Snorkeling
Monday, Motuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Tuesday, Helicopter and Circle Waverunner
Wednesday, Lagoonarium
Thursday, Parasailing
Friday, Lagoon Discovery & Snorkeling

$1191, OUCH!

You can see we are not going on any land excursions, just in the water or the air. We are psyched!!!!

Cyndi, David won't let me go on the sunset sail again! (At least, not without him.)

Here's what I've booked us so far, we can always change our minds later:

Wednesday May 25, 2005
Bora Bora
Coral Preservation & Snorkeling Program

Thursday May 26, 2005
Moorea
Dolphin Watching Expedition

Friday May 27, 2005
Moorea
Botanical & Agricultural Walk

Sunday May 29, 2005
Raiatea
Classic Sailing Tour (just David)

Sunday May 29, 2005
Raiatea
Raiatea Lagoon and Snorkeling (just me)

Thursday June 02, 2005
Moorea
Parasailing Moorea (just me)

Friday June 03, 2005
Moorea
Lagoon Discovery with Snorkeling

I thought David would enjoy the sail, and I get seasick (it's a serious sail, by the looks of it.) I like to be in the water, and up in the air--he doesn't. We'll rent a car one place or another, depending on our whim, and will perhaps pick up another excursion or two along the way.

Yes, Marc - Ouch. Tahiti is not inexpensive!
I think the only common excursion is us doing the Lagoonarium together. None with Cyndi and Tom or Wendy and David for us.

Kathy, just the one. However, we have three excursions with Wendy (but only one with David). Alas, none with Cyndi and Tom.

So far, Sheri and I have booked the BoraBora off road adventure on 5/24 (Tuesday).

We are seriously contemplating parasailing :eek: !! Sheri wants to do it in BoraBora if possible. I only see it available through RSSC in Moorea.

Of course, we will do the manditory excursion to Bloody Mary's in Bora Bora!

Wendy - Oh well, at least you have your current picture to remember the singers :) I'm excited that we will be doing the Dolphin Watching Excursion with you and David. That will be a fun day. Even with having the 2 weeks, you are doing a LOT!!! (We won't ask you the $$$ - it may hurt too much - :ohmy:

Kathy and Marc - I'm sad we don't have any together. Maybe things will change once we get there. But at least we'll have Motu Mahana!!!! And lots of fun in the evenings, I'm sure.

Suzanne & Sheri - I hope we end up doing something together with you two. Time will tell. Since we are pre-cruising on Bora Bora, not too far from Bloody Mary's, I imagine we will already have "been there, done that".

Sounds like everyone is going to have FUN, FUN, FUN!!!!!

Cyndi said: "Since we are pre-cruising on Bora Bora, not too far from Bloody Mary's, I imagine we will already have "been there, done that".

All I ask is that you leave us a couple of T-shirts! :banana:

Suzanne - will do!!!! :D

Cyndi, yes, glad we're doing the dolphins together!

Marc, I think you missed that our excursions are spread over two weeks, so at least two we have in common, but won't be doing together. And *spread* is the word--wWith two weeks, there will be a number of days without excursions at all. We may add or subtract once we get on the ship. Want to keep it down to about $1k. But we do want to rent a car at least one day, probably in Moorea, which is, IMHO, the most beautiful island (BB has the most beautiful lagoon.)

And walk around Vaitape (BB), and probably go in to town at Raiatea that first afternoon if it's not too hot--not much open, but I did see a few shops. And on Moorea, I believe there is some kind of shuttle service to the pearl shops, so we may do that, although just to oggle, not to buy.

Wendy, if Black Pearl Gem Company is still in the boutique on the PG (they were in 2004) you can get transportation vouchers from them to go to their store on Moorea. The store is air conditioned, offers free bottled water, soft drinks and Hinano Beer, has rest rooms off the garden in back, and is near Le Petite Village. When you get in a shuttle at the dock they'll ask you what time you want to come back to the dock so you can have plenty of time to visit all the other shops in the area. I did buy a pearl our first week, but just enjoyed the shopping trip (with a new friend) on the second week.

Right, thanks Kathy. I was wondering if you were constrained in any way to limit your visit to their shop, or to at least pretend you're going to buy something. Sounds like not. That's good. I *love* looking at black pearls, they are so beautiful!

Frank expects that he will need to "shell out" a few dollars to buy me a trinket since I usually get a little something on most trips. What can I expect in the way of pricing? If you search on the internet you can get an 18" strand of black pearls for a few hundred dollars, but, I expect the quality not to be very good for that.

You won't see anything of good quality for prices like that, at least not in my experience. It's been five years since got my two small pearls, but expect to pay big bucks for something nice. And think about buying loose, since gold is very pricey in FP.

That's what I was afraid of. I might have to settle for a pearl drop and earrings.

Kathy, Kathy Z is right, BPGC is still the boutique in the ship; for prices expect to pay $900-2000 for a good pearl drop (ouch we/ida did)
and $15-20K for 18" superior quality bp necklace
(fellow cruisers (an MD) did on our first week).
Also, while you shop, Frank can use (BPGC's shop in Moorea) their internet for free to prowl or send emails.

r/wes

Thanks for confirming my thinking. Oh, wouldn't it be nice to have an unlimited supply of money to do anything and everything you wanted to? Truthfully, probably not, but it sounds good!

You can buy Tahitian Black Pearls in the Pearl Market in Beijing for a fraction of what you pay in Tahiti. Of course I know they were not bought in Tahiti then as a momento of the trip. I did buy a few in Tahiti (lose single pearls) then got them set when I got home. I must say the ones in Beijing were beautiful, top quality and a great value.

Bejing is <img border="0" alt="[bang]" title="" src="graemlins/banghead.gif" /> not on the Itinerary for PIP!

Somehow, when we started crusing, I started collecting "baby bling" as a souvenir, nothing major but fun, memorable stuff. I got a beautiful chain is Skagway (I wear it everyday), earrings in the St. Thomas and St. Martin, a ring in Acapulco and another one in Canada, a necklace in Bermuda that matches the one from Skagway. I was hoping to add to my collection from FP too.
I collect refrigerator magnets too. That might have to do on this trip!

Kathy, there is also really beautiful mother-of-pearl jewellery available. With the beautiful coal-colour of the pearls. Not quite the same thing, but lovely. I will be certainly looking for more of that sort of thing--I have a pair of earrings, and a hair clip that I love.

Oh, and if your heart is set on pearls, you should be able to get a pair of small but nice ones for something in the $500 range. They won't be perfect (mine are not), but they will be stunningly beautiful, and you can turn them into earrings when you come home.

Well, Wendy, with the price of food on the pre-cruise hovering at a few hundred a day, well see. The Mother of Pearl stuff might be a nice choice. I still have a two week trip to Italy to fund this year.

Wendy - I love the idea about getting a hair clip. That is something I would use a lot and have my PG memories each time. It kills me to spend that much money on jewely, even though it is so beautiful.

Kathy - I just responded to your post to another thread about the food prices and the money we would save by not eating (good for the diets :D ) would help pay for some jewelry!!! LOL

I looked through my "Hidden Tahiti" guidebook, and could not find reference to any restaurants close to the ICB. A reference or two on www.tahiti-explorer.com to the fact that there aren't any. Looks like the roulottes are for you, or cafes in downtown Papeete, if you get there. You can use the "Le Truck" system to get there, it's really cheap, although you can decide if it's worth it in the heat. Have a look at the a la carte prices at various eating places when you arrive, I'm betting you can make out just fine at the hotel, especially with breakfast and Saturday lunch included. Just don't order too many pina coladas, I shudder to think what a drink costs. The local beer, Hinano, is quite good if you like a cold one. You might even find a supermarket near the hotel, maybe you could buy beer there--if you do, buy some french bread--it's the real thing, and about the only thing in Tahiti that's cheap. :rolleyes:

When we stayed at the Sheraton the night before out first PG trip, we went up to our room to check it out and thought a nice tropical drink sounded good. So we went down to the pool area bar and when we finally got someones attention, we ordered two mai tai's. They were pretty normal size, certainly not the drink of the day in a souvenir cup. The bill was a stunning $27! It was Hinano for us after that for a more reasonable $4.50 or so. The beer from the inroom bar was the same price as the regular bars, by the way, so if you are going to have beers you might as well start there.

Yes, we'll probably be visiting the grocery store. Frank laughed at me when I bought a travel flask for making Cosmo's when we travel, but, I might bring it with me to FP to have drinks on the balcony of our OWB.

Thanks, Michael for the drink info. We aren't beer drinkers. We will probably go buy a few bottles of wine for the room. It's going to be fun! I will feel like a college kid all over again bringing my own food and drink to a hotel for spring break only this time to a 5 star property.

Frank has a good sense when it comes to travel. He says it is what it is. I am just too practical about day to day stuff.

I'm thinking of bringing a bottle of wine with me, for that very purpose. I did a search over on the FP board, and a post about a year old said that fairly decent "vin de table" is about $9-12 US, available in grocery stores.

FYI, some info on the ICB and how to save money, from a recent review on tahiti0-explorer.com:

http://www.tahiti-explorer.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/ubb/get_topic/f/2/t/000111.html#000020

Kim and I bought pearls for our mothers at Black Pearl Gem Company. They were set for pendants with no chains. These were $150-200. Nice pearls- one drop, one more round. No visible flaws. The 4x4 on Bora Bora is great. They do mean it when they warn you about back problems etc. Went parasailing in Moorea. Saw a lot of dolphins and even "flying fish". Never saw them before and it was incredible seeing how far they can go out of water.
Finding wine in Papeete was difficult. Everyone gave us different directions or had no idea. We ended up walking 5 or 6 blocks from the market to a Champion Grocery store(on the way back to the Beachcomber saw one much closer). Wine was 800 francs and up. We took 3 bottles to Manihi. Two 850 francs, one 2000 francs. All were good.
Hans

So when are we going to talk about meeting on board? I guess when Ngaire comes back from Africa.

Gee, I didn't even think about the meeting part! We are having a Friday night (highway robbery) dinner at the Beachcomber.

Wendy, since you know the timing of the ship on arrival day you make the suggestion? I for one would like to meet right about embarkcation time or for cocktails the first night as soon as we unpack. If we board at 3, I think 6 is good so we can have dinner if we choose.

Kathy, the ones flying in that day won't be onboard until the evening. Those of us precruising will be the ones onboard at 3.

I think we should all meet for breakfast on Fred and Pat's balcony at 0700 on Sunday. :D

Kathy, good idea. Unpacking and such takes a while, but then there's tea from 3-5 in La Veranda. Then there's canapes in La Palette at 6:30!

Then there's the sailaway party at 9:45. Of course, there's the poolside bar, any time!

Oh my. Let's see what everybody else thinks.

Maybe we should make a pre-dinner and a post dinner meeting so that those arriving later can have a second chance meeting!