Day 7: Bora Bora Two

We slept until after 6:30am (yay!), and after last night's Tropical Deck Party, this was a slow moving ship this morning. We had stopped at the bar at Bloody Mary's last night after dinner for a drink. Bloody Mary's is the world-famous bar and restaurant on Bora Bora, often visited by celebrities since its opening in 1979.   It is only a 10-15 minute taxi ride from the Vaitape (Vi-TA-pay) pier where the Pacific Princess tender boats come in, and while I wouldn't recommend it for a meal (too over priced for what you get), it's fun to kick off your shoes and walk across the sand floor to the bar.

The last tender back to the ship last night was at 10pm, but we returned earlier than that. I think there are a number of passengers who stay on Bora Bora over night, as these people were asked to identify themselves to the Passenger Services Desk. That's an appealing thought, but overwater bungalows on a Bora Bora motu start at about $600 per night, so it's not appealing enough. Our little cabin on the Pacific Princess costs far less, and is already paid for.

This morning, after coffee from the Club Bar and breakfast in the Club Restaurant (the usual:  fruit and egg beaters) we packed for...well, we weren't certain exactly how to pack today. We wore swimsuits and took masks and snorkels (but no fins) and beach towels, and took an early tender to shore. This morning was pretty and sunny, so we had several options open to us. We heard high praise last night about the $80 snorkel with the sharks and stingrays tour available right on the pier; there was also a $35 circle island tour in a minivan with only six passengers. Since we have already snorkeled here twice before on past trips, and will again on future visits, we decided a circle island tour and then a Matira Beach drop off sounded good for today. 

We were lucky to get Dino as our driver, a 43-year old Bora Bora native who has also lived on Venice Beach in California, so his English was perfect.

He took us on the island's 20-mile perimeter road, occasionally venturing off it on a side road to point out the many local trees, flowers and fruits. We had several scenic stops for photo ops of the gorgeous blue water and distant resorts on the surrounding motus. I was surprised the Bora Bora, as small as it is, has a distinctly wet side and a dry side, and most of the high priced resorts are on motus off the dry side of the island. 

The road around Bora Bora was built by Americans during WWII. They also left the airstrip and about 200 Polynesian-American babies behind when they left. 

Matira Beach was a smidge of a disappointment; I can point out many beaches in the Caribbean that are much nicer. And that's the reality of Bora Bora...the best beaches are on the motus (which is why the resorts have been built on them), and the best views of the island are from the water. We already had known the latter, which is why we took the airport shuttle yesterday, but now we know the former. It had started to rain a bit by the time we got to Matira Beach, so we decided to just continue on back to the Vaitape pier to board the tender back to the Pacific Princess. Had we chosen to stay at the beach, we could have just caught the $5pp shuttle back to Vaitape. 

We returned to the ship and got cleaned up before catching a late lunch in the Panorama Buffett. It had stopped raining by then, and we were able to sit on the outdoor terrace behind the buffet. Pasta arrabiata was being made in the buffet, and that is always a tasty lunch, so I just had that and still more fruit. I'm sure Princess is getting the pineapple locally...it is the sweetest I've ever tasted. 

We opted for a bit of a rest in the cabin in lieu of sun time on the pool deck. I am amazed at how much sun we have already gotten, while covering ourselves in SPF 50. I guess being so close to the equator makes all the difference. Also a fact of being so close to the equator: days in French Polynesia are generally 6am to 6pm all year around. I had never considered that, but it makes sense that it would be the opposite of being in Alaska, where days are temporarily either infinite or non-existent. 

We were up on the open deck for a gorgeous, sunny sailaway from Bora Bora. It would wrench me to leave, if I didn't know we'll soon be back. This is one beautiful place!  Then, as we returned to our cabin to dress for the evening, we spotted a rainbow in front of the island from our porthole window. 

We had a big evening planned...first, it was our second formal night of this cruise, but there was also a Captains Circle party tonight at 7:30pm, and you'll never guess who the most traveled passengers are for this cruise.  Yep, it was our first time (G was calling it our debut all day today)!  In addition to having a photo taken with the captain at the party, we also had a formal portrait taken tonight with the backdrop of our choice, and that will be the photo used on the front page of the final day's Princess Patter.  We were asked if we wanted to invite anyone to join us for the party, and we chose table mates Dave and Brenda and Sandy and Jeannette.  Us!?!  What a hoot. 

After a wonderful dinner with Antonio and Gerald, it was party time. We were gifted with an etched glass commemorative...I don't know what to call it. Paperweight?  Plaque?  Whatever, it was very nice and I'm certain we'll enjoy the bottle of Veuve Cliquot champagne (something tells me it's of higher quality than the Francoise Montand on the flight down here) too.  But I was really thrilled that this happened on this cruise, to get a Tahiti paperweight. We may never get back here again.  We did find out that, as there are fewer than 30 Elite passengers on this cruise, we were all given a complimentary dinner at a specialty restaurant in lieu of an MTP party. Next cruise there will be an MTP luncheon with the ship's senior officers instead. I like doing it both ways, and it's nice to have a bit of variety. 

And, finally, I am trying to be a bit smarter about using ship's wifi, and took the time to upload some of the photos in this post before we sailed from Bora Bora today at 5pm. It is definitely a bit better when the ship is anchored and not bouncing along the waves; even so, it took 20 minutes to upload the first six photos. Still, if Bora Bora photos are not worth spending internet minutes to upload, I don't know what are. After adding the final two photos and the text tonight, publishing this post should be rather quick. Fingers crossed...