For the first time, I slept through our arrival in Bora Bora; besides, we needed to be in the Club Restaurant early, at 7am. Through the dining room windows, we could see that the day was not as sunny as we had hoped, and several large, gray clouds hung over the mountain peaks. Well...shoot. There was great excitement on board anyway...the ship's crew was being treated to a day on a private motu, and there was HUGE excitement among them all. I am so happy they got the chance to do this, even if the day wasn't perfect!!
It wasn't actually raining as we boarded a tender for Vaitape village, and security officer Tony Maxwell from Scotland greeted us on shore by saying he could swear he saw a bit of sun coming through the clouds. He was right, and that clouds/sun/clouds/sun cycle was the norm for the rest of the day. G and I could reach the St. Regis Bora Bora in a couple of different ways: by taking a taxi to the resort's base on the mainland and then taking one of the hourly boat shuttles to the St. Regis, located on Motu Tofari, or by taking the free Air Tahiti ferry from the Vaitape wharf to the Bora Bora airport, and then taking the resort's boat shuttle from the airport. Since taxis on Bora Bora are expensive; we opted to go the airport route, even though it added at least an hour to the trip.
The Air Tahiti ferry to the Bora Bora airport is the one we took our first day on Bora Bora this winter. With enclosed, air conditioned seating on the lower level and open air seating on the second level, it is a great way to see the part of Bora Bora between Vaitape and the airport on Motu Mute. It started to lightly mist on us halfway to the airport, so we moved down to the enclosed area, but, fortunately, that was the last actual rain we had all day. Once at the airport (very tiny, open air, with a runway protected only by a waist high fence with an open gate), we had a bit of a wait. Each resort on a motu has a reception desk in the airport, but most are manned only when an Air Tahiti flight arrives from another French Polynesian island, about ten times daily. We had arrived at the airport between flight arrivals, and the St. Regis desk was not manned nor was their shuttle at the airport dock. Eventually, though, the guest relations rep showed up and somehow knew to come over to us, greeting us by name. Oh, it's nice when things arranged through a third party work out! At the same time, other resorts' guest relations reps arrived by boat and took their places at all the desks. I could hear the Air Tahiti flight arrive, and, leis in hand, the reps all moved to stand out in front of their respective desks awaiting their arriving guests. It was as if Ricardo Montalban himself was directing, "Places everyone! Places!", and travel weary passengers disembarked the plane and, blinking from the sunlight, were welcomed to the fantasy of Bora Bora. Along with another couple, we had fragrant flower leis placed over our heads and were directed over to the dock where the St. Regis shuttle was waiting.
In an unreal moment, we noticed a travel weary single guy standing on the pier with one suitcase. He stood out amongst all the honeymooners. Then I noticed he had a shoulder tote with the words "Princess Crew" on it. We asked if he was going to the ship and he said he was and asked us if we knew how to get there. He was supposed to arrive with someone else who had been delayed, and there was no one there to greet him. He had been traveling for more than 40 hours from Italy, and was, of all things, a chef at Sabatinis, the specialty Italian restaurant on board. We directed him to the Air Tahiti ferry, and told him that once he got to Vaitape village, he'd see the Pacific Princess and the ship's tenders right there. And then we said we'd see him in two nights, as we are dining at Sabatinis the night we cruise from Moorea to Papeete, Tahiti (which I think is Thanksgiving night, so we'll have an Italian Thanksgiving!).
The St. Regis transfer, about 20 minutes through that gorgeous blue lagoon, provided wonderful views of Mount Otemanu, Patrick's motu and the Four Seasons Resort. Once we arrived at the St. Regis, we were greeted with heavenly scented cool cloths and pineapple juice, and led to the restaurant on the beach for lunch. We weren't counting on buying lunch, but since the rest of the day was costing us nothing, decided that regardless of how expensive this was going to be, it would be worth it
We both chose mixed satays as our entree (shrimp, beef and chicken) for 3300 CFP each (about $37 each) and they were incredible. Just as nice was our view of the beach and gorgeous blue lagoon. When we were presented with the dessert menu, we decided 'in for a penny, in for a pound'. I ordered the specialty coconut dessert and G ordered three scoops of ice cream (coconut, mango and dark chocolate) and they were beautifully presented. My dessert was coconut ice cream served in half a coconut sitting on crushed ice and topped with nut brittle chunks and tiny cubes of fresh coconut. It was so, so, so good that, like attending Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral in Papeete, it was almost a spiritual experience that threatened to move me to tears. (Must distract myself...focus on bare chested pool boys wearing nothing but pareos. Whew- that worked!). But, really, if everyone had a dessert like that once a week there would be world peace. Guaranteed.
The check arrived and before we could prepare ourselves for what was surely a $120 lunch bill, the restaurant manager swooped in and picked it up. "Non, non, non! You are guests of zee St. Regis! It ees our pleasure to have you here!" At that point, G and I gave each other a slow side glance. Who the heck did they think we are?? The bottle of scotch I owe my Tahiti tourism friend grows larger and older by the day!
We had already been told that there were shuttles going back to the Bora Bora airport at 1:30pm and 4:30pm, so we, of course, chose to stay at the resort until 4:30pm and spent the remainder of the day tooling around the expansive grounds via golf cart and lounging by the pool and generally hanging out on the beach. At the St. Regis, one does not sit in any lounger for more than five seconds before a pareo-wearing pool boy appears with large, luxurious beach towels to protect you from any sweat or sunscreen and just as quickly delivers Hinano beers (at $9 a glass). The St. Regis over water bungalows are all at least $1400 a night, but they have Royal bungalows and villas that cost $1000s...and they were at almost full occupancy! This place is spectacular. My very favorite area was the Oasis Pool which is a bit like a winding river where each couple has their own private cabana with a plunge pool that connects to the winding river. Who thinks up this kind of decadence?
About 4:15pm we made our way back to the shuttle pier in front of the lobby building. We were handed gift bags with parting gifts (beautiful pillow covers for throw pillows back home), bottles of cold water, were draped with more leis, shell leis this time, by white gloved stewards, and led back to the boat shuttle. The guest relations staff all came out and stood on the pier, waving goodbye to us until we could no longer see them. What a way to make people feel special!
I struck up a conversation with a lady traveling alone who turned out to be a travel writer from Texas who had just spent a few days at the St. Regis. Instantly interested (I could do that!) I asked her several questions. She had also stayed at the Brando, the minimum $3000 a night, 3-night minimum stay resort on the island of Tetiatroa, about 40 miles from Tahiti. The island used to be owned by Marlon Brando and the Brando, which just opened last summer, is considered to be one of the finest resorts in the world. Really interested by then, I asked her about her stay at the St. Regis Bora Bora. She was not pleased. "Did you see the wood rot on the bottom of the posts at the shuttle pier?" (I hadn't.) "Resorts of that quality shouldn't have that!" Okay, maybe I couldn't do that, not at all. I simply find no joy in being that critical, which is what you have to be in that role. I'll just keep blogging as Yellow Fish...
I was tickled to see, once back at the Bora Bora airport, one couple who had stayed at the St. Regis immediately go to the little snack counter and buy a sandwich to share and two candy bars, and wolfed them down. I understand that; if I spent several days at the St. Regis and had to pay those prices for food, I'd come away starved too. We waited until the 5:05pm Air Tahiti flight landed (once again, it was "Places everyone! Places!" as the various resort guest relations reps were greeting guests with leis) and joined those people staying at resorts on the mainland on the Air Tahiti ferry back to Vaitape. Following us out of the little airport harbor were the several smaller resort boats headed out with their newly arrived guests. And the cycle continues, ten times a day.
Our trip to Vaitape and the ship felt much like a return to the Real World, albeit it the real world in beautiful Bora Bora. We were lucky; there was a Pacific Princess tender waiting for us when we arrived at the Vaitape pier...it was nearly 6pm by that time. Back on the ship at 6:10pm, we took the fastest showers ever and were in the dining room by 6:30pm, when the doors theoretically close for first seating dining, but since we sit at a table for two and weren't holding up the rest of a table, we most likely wouldn't have been turned away anyway. We were starved. A $120 lunch does not contain a lot of food (there's a reason the rich are often so slim!) and enjoyed the familiar, not as fancy but still very good fare from the Pacific Princess galley served by friendly Jose and Olexandr. It was good to be home!
After dinner, we went to the Pacific Lounge to listen to duo Great Escape play for awhile. They are a husband and wife duo from Canada who joined the Pacific Princess since we've been here, and are very good. Production show lead singer Llainie Gullickson was performing a solo show in the Cabaret Lounge, and our intention was to go to that and then to the 9:45pm tropical deck party on the pool deck, but cruise director David made an announcement right then that, due to expected rain showers, the deck party was being moved indoors to the Pacific Lounge. That was enough to make us decide we were more enthusiastic about sleep than an indoor deck party, and we returned to our cabin for the evening.
Going back to our cabin was a bit like returning home after viewing the highly decorated McMansions in a Parade of Homes...it was the same room we'd been so happy with for over a month; but suddenly the clothesline with G's socks hanging on it, and the Tilley hats, backpack and St. Regis gift bag we'd thrown haphazardly on the loveseat in our haste to get to dinner, and that tiny porthole all seemed to scream, "NOT AN OVERWATER BUNGALOW AT THE ST. REGIS BORA BORA!!" No, but neither was our cruise fare in the same universe as the prices at the St. Regis, and the service we're receiving is every bit as friendly and welcoming. Princess is home in a way that no 6 star resort ever could be.
Life is good. Not 'Kardashian good', but that's fine by me. :-)
