Bora Bora – All That We Had Expected and More

Today was probably the pinnacle of the entire trip, our stop in Bora Bora. This was the stop Stephanie had always dreamed of, and the beauty of the water was unbelievable. Hopefully some of the pictures captured the beauty of this island paradise. It ended up being a great day, but did start out with some trepidation, this was a tender port and it was slow to get off of the ship.  More on that later.

We were scheduled to arrive at 9:00 AM, so we set the alarm for 5:40 AM so we could make sure we were not in a rush to get to breakfast and load up our gear for the day’s adventure. Since this was a tender port, we wanted to try and get on the first tender because we wanted to get to an ATM at a bank and get some Central Pacific Francs to pay for  today’s tour. We could either pay in US dollars, which we did carry with us, or pay in Francs, which we did not have without the trip to the ATM. We were scheduled to meet the tour with Patrick at 9:30 AM, so our plan was to get on the first tender ashore, and go to one of the nearby ATM machines. We had wanted to do it this way due to a situation that arose yesterday with Princess on our pre-cruise purchased Casino credits that we had intended to use as cash. We had thought we would have access to that $400 in casino credits simply by following the instructions on the voucher, and submitting them at the casino for cash.

However, when we took them to the casino yesterday to “cash in ” two of the four vouchers we had, we were informed we would have to go to the Purser’s Desk. At the Purser’s Desk, we were told that they were issued as Shipboard Credit, and had already been credited to our account. We knew this from looking at our statement a few days ago. What we did not know was that we could no longer turn them into cash because our charges now exceeded the on board credits issued to our account. Apparently, they indicated we could have done it earlier in the cruise when we still had a negative (credit) balance on our account, but not now. 

We headed back to the cabin to consider how we would approach this, and that was when I discovered that the statement on the vouchers indicated they were different from some of the other actual shipboard credits we had received, which stated exactly that, they were credited as shipboard credit. The casino vouchers stated they were gifts that could be turned in at the casino, presumably for cash to gamble with. There was a lot of confusion at the purser’s desk, and I tried another person there after we discovered what the different vouchers said.

Long story short, we are supposed to get a call from a supervisor to resolve this situation. We had wanted the cash to use for some additional tips for the special crew that we have liked, especially the wait staff. However, we now needed most of our cash for the tour today unless we could get to an ATM before the tour started and withdraw the fee in Francs.  But on to today…..

This morning, all was going according to our plan. We finished our breakfast early and actually had some time to go up on the deck and take pictures of our arrival at Bora Bora  from the bow of the ship. We were heading directly into the rising sun, so the photo opportunities were less than desirable, so we left to get into the line for the tender tickets on the 5th floor, at the designated dining room. We were there about 45 minutes prior to our arrival time, and were very near the front of the line, much closer than we were for the stop in Maui, where we easily got on the first two tenders ashore. We were feeling good about our plan, and then as Stephanie likes to say, the “wheels fell off”, again.

We actually received tender #2 tickets, the couple in front of us in line got the last tender #1 tickets. However, based on the Maui experience, we still thought we would get on the first tender ashore. However, due to the large number of Princess Tours leaving early today, and the large number of Elite passengers (highest Princess frequent cruiser status that get tender priority as part of their benefits) we did not make it out on the first tenders. We actually had to wait an additional 25 minutes, and now we were close to the 9:30 AM tour start time. We were now no longer worried about getting to an ATM, we were now more worried we would not make the tour at all.

At about 9:25 AM, they called our tender number, and about 20 minutes later, we were ashore looking for our tour group. Nothing in Bora Bora seems to be highly organized, we had to ask several times where to go to find Patrick’s tour. There was a large powered catamaran at the end of the dock, and this was our tour boat.

In addition, there were the original 4 smaller boats that Patrick normally runs which is the subject I covered in an early trip planning blog post. We hopped aboard, forgetting about trying to find a bank or ATM, both of us just glad we had made it to the tour. As it turned out, we sat there for about 25 more minutes waiting on a few other passengers. Stephanie asked one of the crew about how far a bank was from the dock, and they indicated it was far away. We don’t think he understood, because when we returned later in the afternoon, we discovered we had passed right by a bank in our haste to find the tour. Oh well, the rest of the day was fantastic.

We were actually glad in the end that we were on the larger boat.  Although it was not as “authentic” as the other smaller boats, it was much more comfortable, had a restroom, and was a better platform for photos, especially the top deck, which was also partially covered. In addition, since there were a few rain showers early on,  the larger boat had roll down side covers to keep us dry. We never did see anyone collecting money, so we just thought they would collect it at the end of the tour as we departed.

Once everyone was aboard, the first thing we did was to go to an area on the outer reef where there were a lot of stingrays and some small sharks to swim with. All of the boats in the group headed over to that location, and there were a couple of others boats there from some of the different tours.

The water was not that clear due to all of the people walking on the sandy bottom, but it was still very fun and interesting to be that close to some large stingrays, and some 3-5 ft. black tip reef sharks. Stephanie really enjoyed it once she got used to being that close to them.

We stayed there for about 30 minutes, then we all got back aboard the boat and headed to another snorkel spot, this time a somewhat wind protected reef that was in a little deeper water. The ride over there was fantastic, it took about 40 minutes, and we passed by some of the hotels that feature the small bungalows with thatched roofs,  built out on the water.

The sun was now out in full force, and the water colors were just fantastic. I was glad that I had bought the polarizing filter for my camera lens, it really made a difference in capturing the true color of the water.

Once we arrived at the reef area, everyone got into the water to snorkel. There were a lot of fish there, many clams with different color animals in them, lots of pretty colored reef fish, and a few barracuda.

Stephanie was hard at work taking underwater photos, although we realized later we could also have taken some underwater videos with her camera. They had given us some bread to feed the fish, and we got some good photos of the fish. We snorkeled for about 30 minutes or so and then we all boarded the boat for the ride to the motu to have our lunch.

The ride around that side of the island was also beautiful, it is the side where most of the hotels are located. We never knew that there were so many of the thatched bungalow hotels here, most of them were on the motu’s, which are the smaller barrier islands that encircle the main island of Bora Bora.

It did not seem to be crowded at these hotels, not many people were on their outside decks that we could see. It did remind us a little of Venice, there were boats delivering people to the hotels from the nearby airport. The airport seemed like it was on the outer barrier islands also, we believe the only way to get to the airport appeared to be by small boat or by ferry boat. We saw some boats with both people and luggage on them, apparently heading to the hotels with arriving guests.

We arrived at the small motu owned by Patrick’s family, and the food was already cooking. They split the entire group into two halves, some of the boats stayed to snorkel longer while we headed over to the motu to eat. they had prepared two separate batches of food in two different in-ground ovens. We had small lobster, smoked fish, pork, some spinach and chicken cooked together, and some breadfruit. There was also some raw fish “cooked” in lemon and spices called ceviche, cooked really meaning marinated, but it was not considered to be raw. The acids and spices cook the fish so to speak.  There were a couple of banana dishes and some other sweet poi’s .

All of the food was served on plates made from palm fronds with leaves on them to eat off of. They served soft drinks and champagne with the food. There were no utensils other than your hands. Overall, although some of the items were unusual, most all of it was good.

There were some tables in the water to eat off of, and some in the shade, which were the more popular. The sun here is unbelievably hot and intense. We applied 55 SPF and 50 SPF sunscreens, and even reapplied after swimming, but later we still put on our special long sleeve Columbia brand shirts we had bought specifically for this purpose. We also were getting the reflected sun off of the water, it was just very strong since we are close to the equator, and there is not much air pollution here.

We stayed on the island motu for about an hour or so, and then started our ride back to the harbor. All in all, the boat rides took us around the entire main island of Bora Bora. We got back at around 4:00 PM and everyone started to get off of the boat.

We did not see anyone giving money, so we thought they were going to collect it on the dock when we departed, except no one was collecting. We went back to talk with the lady who was in charge and apparently, everyone else had paid up front before we got to the boat, so we did not know they had collected the money. We gave her our fee and thanked her for the wonderful experience. It was a little awkward not knowing we were supposed to pay up front, but no one ever said anything to us about it when we initially boarded.

When we were heading toward the end of the dock, we stopped in the visitor’s center and asked about a bank and ATM. It was then that we realized we had almost walked right past the bank when we were looking for the tour group. Stephanie tried to see if the lady we had paid was still at the dock to ask if we could exchange our US Dollars for Francs, but she was already gone. Oh well, we will just have to make due or really press the issue of the casino credits with Princess.

We then looked around a few shops before they were scheduled to close at 6:00 PM. Our plan was to then go to a bar and restaurant called Bloody Mary’s, a popular stop on Bora Bora. We rode on one of the local buses about 5 miles to get there, only to find out it was closing in 10 minutes for a private party. We went in to look around and took a couple of photos outside, and then some more photos out on their dock.

The mountain on the middle of Bora Bora, Mount Pahia, is famous for being the mountain on the mythical island of Bali Ha’i in the movie South Pacific, the one that is shown in the sunset scene. We took another bus back into town and got on a tender to go back to the ship at about 6:15 PM. We had hoped for a colorful sunset, but some clouds had moved in and that was about the only disappointing item for the day.  We ended up not getting a memorable sunset due to the clouds.

We went ahead and ate dinner in the buffet, before heading back to the room to get cleaned up. The showers were really nice after a hot day in the sun and salt water. The ship pulled up anchor a little before 10:00 PM and we headed out onto our balcony see the departure from Bora Bora under a full moon. We watched Bora Bora fade away in the moonlight.

Tomorrow we are at Moorea, where we are renting a car to drive around the island.