Last night, we sailed northeast, leaving the Society Islands to spend a few days in the Tuamotu Archipelago.  These are a chain of 80 islands and atolls in the South Pacific Ocean that encompass an area roughly the size of Western Europe.  All the islands together have a land area of 328 miles, and are home to 16,000 residents, making this the largest chain of atolls in the world.  We were now enroute to Rangiroa, the largest atoll in the Tuamotus (and one of the largest atolls in the world!), which is located about 200 miles northeast of Tahiti, and is home to 2500 people.  

I’ll be mentioning this word “atoll” a lot over the next 2 port days, and I don’t know about you, but before researching this vacation, I had never heard of an atoll!  So in case you were curious, an atoll is a ring-shaped coral reef with a rim of coral that surrounds a shallow lagoon.  Looking at images of Rangiroa, I would compare that ring to Morse Code in that it looks like a series of dots and dashes with motus (tiny islands) separated by channels of water.  The atoll rests on top of a continuously eroding extinct volcano, so the new coral must grow at a rate equal to or faster than the erosion for the atoll to maintain it’s surface above water.  I hope that sort of made sense!

Ok, so back to our port for today… Rangiroa is made up of 415 motus which form the perimeter of the lagoon and span a maximum of 50 miles long by 20 miles wide.  The lagoon has a maximum depth of 35 meters, and is so big that it has its own horizon!  This lagoon is home to countless species of marine life, which makes Rangiroa a wonderful tourism destination for snorkelers and scuba divers.  There was never a question that we would do a snorkeling excursion when we visited here on our cruise, but the fact that we only had 5 hours in port (this was the shortest port day I have ever had on any of my cruises!), coupled with the fact that Rangiroa is very small and does not have many tour operators for snorkeling excursions (I was able to find many more with scuba tours, but we’re not certified), lead me to book today’s tour through PG.  We used some of our OBC to book the 1pm tour called “Snorkeling Rangiroa’s Aquarium” for $89 per person. I thought that was a bit steep for pricing on a tour that only lasts 90 minutes, but we didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity to snorkel here and saw this as our only tour option.  Here is the description of the tour from the PG website:

Rangiroa’s spectacular and diverse marine life is yours to discover during this scenic and memorable ride in the Tuamotu Islands.  Depart the pier via local boat for the ride to Motu Nui Nui, a natural, open-water aquarium renowned for its marine life. Upon arrival, you will receive your safety instructions, then enter the water to explore your surroundings. Along the way, you will observe an abundance of colorful fish and coral and marine life. Your guide will offer assistance in the water and throughout the tour. During the tour, you will also have an opportunity to hand-feed the fish.

Following your snorkeling session, you will be transferred back to the pier.

Please note: This tour is recommended for guests who are in good physical condition and used to snorkeling in deep water and strong currents. The Tuamotus are very remote islands. Although the guides used are the best available, they are not certified, and their command of English may be very poor; thus, narration will be very limited to non-existent. Your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated. Please wear a swimsuit under a cover-up, sunscreen, a hat, and sunglasses, and bring a bottle of water and a towel from the ship.

Here is the daily schedule for today:

 The ship wasn’t due to anchor in the lagoon until 12 noon, so that gave us a lazy morning on the ship.  With no need to set an alarm clock, we slept until 8am, then gradually made our way up to La Veranda for breakfast.  I really miss those glasses of half orange/half pineapple juice!

 As we ate, we could see the little motus not too far off in the distance.  It looked like it would be a beautiful day in paradise!

 After breakfast, I spent a few hours sitting outside of La Palette, writing in the trip journal and staring out at the wake.

 Alex was hosting a game of Name That Tune at the Piano Bar at 10:30am, so DH and I stopped by for a few minutes to see if we could guess any of the songs.  He has an interesting way of giving the clues… instead of just playing the song and having us randomly guess the title, he wrote out a sentence and the song title filled into the blank.  It was like Mad Libs meets Name That Tune.  Maybe it’s a generation gap but I couldn’t identify any of the songs he played haha  I do think part of the problem was that he played flowery instrumental versions of the song on the piano so it made it hard to recognize the music.  If he just played the simple melody, then maybe I had a chance? This was the question sheet from the game.  I blurred out our responses, but I honestly don’t even know if we got them right or wrong because we only stayed for half the game and then gave up and left!

 Part of the reason we left early was that we were due to sail through the pass and enter the lagoon staring at 11am and we didn’t want to miss the
action up on deck!  There was a party going on near the pool, so we stopped by for a few minutes, but decided we wanted a more straight forward view. From the pool area, we could see that we were lining up to enter the pass pretty soon!

 Now is when knowing about the secret deck is especially helpful as this was the perfect place to watch us sail through the pass!  DH and I had the space all to ourselves as I don’t think anyone else on the ship knew it was there, so we spent about 30 minutes standing out there enjoying the incredible views!

The ship must pass through the narrow space between those two motus…

 Just after we entered into the lagoon, we were treated to something I have never seen before.  Two dolphins jumped out of the water right in front of the ship, and proceeded to leap in and out of the water around the ship!  I have seen dolphins in aquariums and Sea World, and we saw dolphins at the Intercontinental in Moorea, but I have never seen anything like this!  If you look closely, you can see them just to the right of the middle of the ship…

 After all of that excitement, we went back out to the pool deck to listen to Les Gauguines and check out the views from inside Rangiroa’s lagoon.

 I tried today’s drink of the day, the Tropical Sensation, made with Bacardi Gold, Amaretto, Orange Juice, Pineapple Juice, and a Midori topper (which I think he forgot to add to my glass!)

 We try to take a photo like this on every cruise:

 At around noon, we went inside to grab a quick lunch at Le Grill.  Today’s theme was “American Buffet” but you could have fooled me!  I thought it was a seafood buffet based on what they were serving… No complaints here!!

 Make your own taco station

 Our tour was meeting at 12:45pm to take the tender together to shore.  It was maybe a 5 minute tender ride, if that.  When we stepped off the tender, we walked just a few steps to clear a path for everyone else getting off the tender, then we waited as tender pulled away and the tour boats pulled in.  I literally never walked more than 20 feet on land in Rangiroa today!  There were 48 people signed up for our tour and there would be 4 boats, so the organizer told us to stand together if we wanted to be on the same boat as anyone, and then they loaded us onto the boats in groups of 12.  Honestly, even if you get separated from a friend and you are put on different boats, it does not matter at all.  We were on the boats for less than 5 minutes before we reached our destination!  This photo will give you some perspective of where we went…  

You can see the PG anchored in the background, and we tendered from the PG to shore, which is beyond the edge of the photo to the right, and then came right back to this spot on a different boat.  Once all the boats arrived, we jumped in the water and spent the next hour exploring the marine life and coral garden.  There is basically no opportunity to chat with friends on this tour, and the entire thing start to finish is only 90 minutes.

 Before jumping in the water, I looked out over the edge of the boat to see hundreds of little fish!  And that was without the guides tossing food in the water to bait them!

 There were 2 guides on the boat with us, but “guide” is a generous term.  They were really just there to operate the boat and they did not provide us with any tour information aside from warning us to stay within the perimeter formed by all the tour boats so we wouldn’t get swept away in the stronger current outside of that perimeter.  We brought along the flippers that we borrowed from PG’s marina, so we put them on, put on our masks and snorkels, climbed down the ladder into the water. The coral garden here was quite large and there was a lot to see and explore.  I’ll let the photos speak for themselves…

 And then this happened…

 EEL!!!!  It was so cool!  I have never before seen an eel while
snorkeling and I was so excited!!

I honestly think that experience made this whole excursion worth it.  The snorkeling itself was good, but not as spectacular as I was expecting given all the hype I had read about the sea life in the Tuamotus.  There was a lot of coral, but most of it was bland and possibly dead.  There was the occasional interesting fish, but most of them looked like the same species we saw in Bora Bora and Moorea.  Maybe I was getting jaded by this time of the vacation? Haha  I think we would have felt differently about this coral garden had we visited here before the other ports.

 I stayed in the water for about 40 minutes. I wasn’t really sure when we needed to come back to the boat, so I called it quits and headed back.  Turns out I could have stayed in the water for 10 more minutes.  I really wish the guides would tell us that kind of information before we start snorkeling so we know how to pace our time and when to return, rather than worrying that everyone is already back on the boat and waiting for me so they can leave (or worse, that the boat would leave without me!)  Once everyone else was back, we returned to the tender pier by 2:30pm, and that was that.  

I’m not really sure what to make of this snorkeling excursion.  It really felt more like the water equivalent of taking a taxi from point A to point B, the taxi waits for you to do what you need to do there, and then it returns you to point A.  There’s no interaction with the taxi driver, and hopefully you knew what you were supposed to do at point B because the taxi driver sure won’t advise you.  I guess it just didn’t really feel like a tour. Looking back at the description PG provided, we were supposed to have an opportunity to hand-feed the fish but that did not happen (not that it mattered because I have done that before, but it may have made the tour a bit more exciting).  I am glad we did the tour though because 1) I got to swim with an eel… so exciting!! And 2) There really isn’t anything else to do in Rangiroa if we did not do this tour.  We spoke to a few people later in the day who did not take a tour, and they said there was really nothing to do here.  There was just one or two shops and a small restaurant/bar near the tender pier, and that was it.  If you do go to Rangiroa, definitely plan to take some kind of water-based tour since this is not a good island to just get off the tender and wander around on your own.

…Or is it??

One of the guests on our cruise (actually, she was staying in the cabin right next to us!) has cruised with PG many times and she has been to Rangiroa before.  We met her at the block party yesterday and she told us about a secret snorkeling spot literally steps from where the tender drops us off in Rangiroa.  She was also taking the Aquarium Snorkel excursion, so she told us to meet up with her afterwards and she would show us where to go. When the tour ended, she guided us literally 20 feet away to the opposite side of the tender pier where there was a small wood pier going out into the water.  She told us to leave our towels on the side of the pier and showed us where to enter the water because she said there was always great snorkeling here.  It was kind of funny because we were just steps away from the tender pier and anyone could jump in the water here for free, but no one knows about it.  

The entrance was very rocky and I did not pack my water shoes today (partly because I planned to wear my fins to snorkel in the current at the aquarium, and partly because I needed them to be dry for the following day in Fakarava).  Once I got past the initial entry, the water was deep enough that I was able to swim (although in general, the water was relatively shallow and I could probably stand up in it if I needed to).  No joke, the snorkeling here was BETTER than the snorkeling on the excursion that I paid for!!  There were so many varieties of fish, there was another large eel, and lots of interesting coral.  Again, I will let these photos speak for themselves…

 It was so fun not having a timeline and just being able to float on the surface and take my time.  One thing I really learned on this vacation was how wonderful snorkeling can be when you don’t try to rush things.  If you just calmly float in the water without actively swimming, the fish will come out from the nooks and crannies of the coral, and you get a chance to observe a lot more marine life.  On top of that, by going slowly, I had time to play with the macro settings on my camera.  It is incredible the details I was able to capture in this coral!!

 A Blue-Eyed Eel!

 After seeing all of this amazing free snorkeling, I can confidently say that if I were to return to Rangiroa, I would forgo the ship excursion and just snorkel at this spot for free!  We stayed here for about 20 minutes, and got out just in time to catch the 3:30pm tender back to the ship.  Of course, we took advantage of the short tender ride and sat upstairs on the outside deck!

 It was too early to get ready for dinner, so we went upstairs and hung out by the pool for a few hours.  The buffet was closed, but we were able to order from the lunch menu so we got an order of sliders to share.

 By the time we finished eating the sliders, it was time for afternoon tea so we got a few sweets for dessert.

 Most of the reviews I read prior to this cruise said that no one ever uses the pool deck and it is always quiet up there because people are on their balconies (since 70% of cabins have a balcony!). Maybe our sailing was different because we always found the pool deck to be lively and busy, with most of the loungers occupied.  

 Enjoying a Blue Hawaiian in the afternoon sun

 There is very limited shade near the pool, but you can usually find a spot in the shade as the ship rotates, either along the wall of Le Grill or on the opposite side closer to the elevators.  We camped out at this table for a while, enjoying our frozen cocktails and listening to Santa Rosa band.

 Tonight, we had dinner reservations at La Veranda, the upscale French specialty restaurant on board.  We planned it for tonight, knowing we would be back from our excursion early in the afternoon and would have plenty of time to get showered and ready.  We usually like dressing up for formal nights on bigger cruise ships, but PG does not have a formal night so we decided to treat tonight like our own personal formal night!

 Our reservations were for 7pm and we were promptly seated at a table for 2.  This was one night we were happy to eat with just the 2 of us as the dim lighting and elegant atmosphere created a romantic ambiance. As I mentioned earlier, tonight would be the first night of the new menus in La Veranda.  I don’t think I had a chance to post this yet, but this was the original menu that we never got to taste…

 This was the menu we had tonight…

 Our waiter explained that there are 2 parts to the menu here.  On the left side of the folio is Apicius, a menu created by famous French chef Jean-Pierre Vigato of the Paris Michelin-rated restaurant of the same name, and is designed to flow between the courses as one long meal.  The menu on the right side of the folio is called the La Veranda, and has a similar a la carte layout to the menus in L’Etoile where you pick from several options for each course.  You may mix and match between the 2 menus (ie: an appetizer from Apicius, an entrée from La Veranda, etc), but you may not make any changes to any of the dishes (no omitting ingredients, for example).  I am a picky eater and I was nervous about finding something I would like without changing any ingredients, but I was shocked to see that every single thing on the Apicius menu looked good!  I ordered all 3 appetizers and the mahi mahi entrée.  DH opted to pick and choose from both menus. The food here was truly outstanding! I got a glimpse of what it’s like to be a foodie as I tasted things I have never tasted before.

This foie gras appetizer was possibly the best appeizer I have ever had!!

 After we took that photo, I dug in and it wasn’t until the next appetizer arrived that I realized I never got a good photo of my foie gras.  I’m not sure if this will have the same effect, but this photo is zoomed in on the dish from the photo above…

Seared foie gras and tuna sashimi with fresh apple and ginger

 Escargot with parsley puree infused Asian boullion and braised romaine

 Blanc manger, peas mousseline, grilled shrimp, mint herbs salad

 Steamed Mahi Mahi with white truffle sabayon and mushroom sauce

 Lemon meringue tart

 Chocolates and candies to accompany our desserts

 Dinner took about 2 hours but it was well-paced with so many courses so the time passed smoothly.

After dinner, we went down to the piano bar until it was time for the evening show and tried a few of their after dinner cocktails.  I ordered the Chocolate Martini and DH ordered the Brandy Alexander.

 At 9:30pm, Santa Rosa performed a set in the Grand Salon, and Les Gauguines were on the dance floor encouraging everyone to come dance with them.

 The crew talent show started at 10pm.  Up first was a dance act to a medly of Michael Jackson songs…

 After that, one of the women in the crew sang a ballad, followed by a traditional Philipino dance act.

 It was all entertaining, but certainly far from the caliber of singers and dancers you see win shows like America’s Got Talent haha  We left early because we were tired, and had an exciting day to rest up for in Fakarava!