This cruise was fantastic! We loved everyday just a little more than the last one. This was our sixth cruise but our first time on this line. Now we are spoiled forever and will not want to travel on any other line.
We flew in the day before our embarkation date. We like to do this so that we can reorient ourselves before boarding the ship. We stayed at the Intercontinental Beachcomber. It was lovely and the accommodations were adequate. I wouldn't want to stay there for my entire vacation but it was nice. It is not reflective of the others in the French Polynesia. Everyone was extremely helpful and we had very little to do once we arrived with baggage. We got in, in time to attend the Polynesian show. It was a nice segue into the vacation mode. We sat in the bar area and had a drink. Warning, drinks are expensive it you want one of those umbrella type drinks. The show was good, including a fire dance. The entertainers allow photos to be taken with them which is kind of cute.
The next day we got up and had breakfast. Again warning, it is very expensive to eat in the Tahitian Islands. Breakfast runs about $60 for two for the buffet. You can order al la carte but it is a very limited menu. Next, we had to figure out what to do for the day. We looked at the possible tours and none of them really gave us what we wanted. There were pieces of each of them that interested us but not the entire kit n' kaboodle. Also we had to pay for our transfer to the ship and the tours would have brought us back to the hotel. Transfers are pretty expensive as well...about $25. So we decided to hire a driver to take us to the places we wanted to go and some he thought we would like to see. Then he dropped us off at the ship. This turned out to be the best deal ever. We did some short hiking in to see waterfalls (5-10 minutes), we saw the Gauguin Museum, many lookout points and other neat spots.