We arrived early and stayed two and a half nights at the Intercontinental .We booked on our own ( not the Princess package and had private transfers through hotel which avoided having to wait for anyone to show up late with arrival at 5:30AM. We were exhausted. This is the only drawback to the cruise. It takes forever to get there. But don't let this stop you. It is a wonderful experience.

The Ocean is a lovely ship. Like the others in it's class ( Oceania has 3 and I believe Regent has two) it was bought from a defunct cruise line. It is an old, elegant ship kept in tip top condition. The gossip is that after a 64 day cruise around South America in January it will leave the Princess fleet and go to Oceania where you will be paying three times the amount for the same cruise. This is a real shame. This cruise is a bargain. The airfare can cost more than the cruise. Every employee on the ship is first class from the room Steward to the Captain. Everyone is friendly except for one woman in excursions where her first reply is NO ( as in no you can't change or drop your excursion even if we have a waitlist). Do not listen, just go over their heads and go to reception where they will intervene. We booked all our tours online, on board most were already sold out.

The food is great. We ate one night in the Steakhouse and one in Sabatini's (Italian) which were nice but not necessary. If you do want to do it you must book immediately when you board as they alternate nights and fill up quickly. Papeete is a shabby industrial town. We got lunch at Le Retro near the water and the club sandwich was really good. We took a private tour around the Island. Very repetitive . The waterfalls are prettier on Hawaii and I didn't see one beach. Later I found out that the best beaches are on the Motos ( small,l often private Islands) so if you want a beach be sure to pick a trip to one). Our cabin was a mini-suite in the center of the ship It was more than spacious enough but we could smell smoke every evening. Our steward called for backup but we agreed that someone was illegally smoking in their cabin and it was coming through a vent. We had to unhappily live with it. The ship is so small that it takes 5 minutes to go from one end to the other. The elevators are lightening fast and it's never a problem to get on one. The entertainment is terrific. The boy dancers among the best I have ever seen in 30 cruises. The comedian Rich Shydner had me laughing so hard that tears were flowing. Princess had several native folkloric dance groups that were excellent including children around the pool one afternoon that were charming. Everyone cruising was so friendly, everyone said hello. We had a great time at trivia and lots of laughs. On Huahine we booked the boat trip to a moto and a picnic in the water. Jump on this, it is fabulous. The best. On the island with the Private Pearl farm, the bus never came as it was fully booked by the hotel. We had the last semi-sub trip and we enjoyed it but we saw the same kind of fish over and over. We don't snorkel or scuba but people that we talked to said it was great. In Bora Bora we took a glass bottom boat. This was terrific. The young captain played the uke and got into the water, petted stingrays and small sharks. It was like snorkeling with out getting your head wet. We saw a ton of colorful fish. My favorite island was Moorea. It has Bali Hai so take the four wheel drive trip around the Island. The most amazing scenery. It is only a 30 minute ferry ride from Tahiti. I wish we had another day there so we could have spent it on having another picnic on a moto ( I think the Paul Gauguin does that). Except for the smoke in the casino it was fun too and jammed, but too small with some slot machines broken and never fixed. We signed up for another cruise before we left. I hated to leave and go home to snow, cold and grey skies. Everyone had flowers in their hair and a smile on their faces. I guess I would too if I lived in Paradise.