Windstar Cruise - Wind Spirit from Papeete - advice please

[fred3798]

My wife and I are considering a cruise on the Windstar Wind Spirit from Papeete in July. We are in our 50s, with 150 dives each and Padi AOW. Our ports of call would include Moorea, Tahaa, Raiatea, Bora Bora, Huahine. We just did a Windstar cruise in the BVI that we loved. Does anyone have experience with this yacht? They offer a dive program with dives. It appears however that Fakarava and Rangiroa are not ports of call on this trip. We would love any advice from people who have dived with Windstar in FP. We realize of course that this is nothing like a liveaboard. We definitely want to dive a bunch but we also like a nice cruise. Does anyone have any experience on trying to do both with this trip?

 

[medic5]

Not sure if this helps but we have been on the Paul Gauguin 4 times out of Tahiti. They offered a varied scheduled including Rangiroa on some schedules. Jean Michel Cousteau also is about a few times each year. Listening to his talks and diving with him were great.

 

[rocketfodder]

I did this cruise in May 2014. I strongly recommend that you tack on additional days to dive Rangiroa and/or Fakarava. I dove at 2-3 of the islands on that itinerary (I think Taha'aa and Raiatea), and snorkeled in Bora Bora. I booked all my diving and tours separate from Windstar. The diving on one of the two islands was decent with lots of reef sharks, but I accidentally ended up booking with the company used by the boat. In that instance, it was me and 3 other cruise guests, 2 of whom were freshly certified. They ended up blowing all their air and ending our dive at something ridiculous like 25-35 minutes. The other island had rather unspectacular diving. Snorkeling in Bora Bora was incredible. We went to 3 sites, saw plenty of manta rays, a large school of spotted eagle rays, and tons of reef fish. Highly recommended.

On the other hand, the diving is phenomenal in Rangiroa. I dove there for 4 days or so after the cruise, and each dive was fantastic. I just didn't have enough time away to dive Fakarava, but I'd go back to either of those two islands in a heartbeat.

Here are some pictures:
French Polynesia