Dive Review of Moorea Blue /Moorea Manava in
French Polynesia/Moorea

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Moorea Blue /Moorea Manava: "Moorea Blues", Jul, 2017, by Alexander Armintor, AL, US ( Sr. Reviewer 10 reports with 10 Helpful votes). Report 9699 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Getting there: Bought tickets from Delta D.B.A. Air France. Arriving at the ticket counter 3 hours early, we found out Air France emailed us earlier in the day, bless their souls, that they were regretfully being forced to cancel us because they overbooked. Even though I knew the ticket agent was just one cog in the machine, I do believe Air Tahiti saved me from a potential life prison sentence, by agreeing to take us at the last moment. Adding injury to insult was 1 1/2 hours standing (standing) on an overcrowded bus on the LAX Tarmac, apparently waiting for a family of 4 to show up when they were good and ready. Finally on the plane, the next thing was opening my eyes as we touched down in Papeete 8.5 hours later, in the false dawn. Then an 11 mile, 45 minute passenger ferry ride as the mountains of Moorea emerged out of the gloom. It was a classic "we're not in Kansas anymore Toto" moment. Never thought I'd see it in person, but hey, diving. 17 July 2017, Moorea Blue Diving: House dive shop for the Manava Moorea Resort. After a 5-10 minute panga ride with maybe 8 others to just outside the reef, we moored in about 25 ft of water. As was typical in Polynesia, the pre-dive briefing was mainly in French, I can't precisely say what all they talked about, but it took a lot of talkin. The English briefing was something along the lines of a heavily accented "follow me". We got to the bottom and I was just getting my bearings as a lemon shark in the 7-8 ft ballpark cruised in front of me, I thought cool! as I watched him circling not far away, when another cruised through my field of vision. Now I was interested enough to look around and notice at least 3 reef sharks within a few feet of me, about the time a WTF was about to spit out my reg, I saw the rope hanging down from the boat with a bucket of bait just about real close. With the DM yankin my fin, I happily abandoned the shark zone. Back up on the boat after playing follow the DM, I asked me sweety if she'd heard anything about baiting sharks, she said she knew a few German cuss words, but no French to speak of, so no. I asked the DM if they always baited sharks and he looked at me with a big smile and said "Lemon shark!". Now I'm not above feeding sharks or any other large predators for that matter, done it plenty of times, I just like to know up front, I guess I'm kind of funny that way. The second dive we knew the drill and quickly got away from the boat, but no bait bucket and no sharks. After 45 minutes of playing follow the DM, we hadn't seen a single shark (or many other fish for that matter), probably because all the usual suspects were now under the boat, milling around in about 25 ft of water trying to figure out how to get into that bait bucket. Safely back on the boat after running the gauntlet, I smiled at the DM and said in my best French "Lemon shark!". 16-19 July 2017, Manava Moorea Resort: Pretty place on the beach with over the water bungalows, can't imagine what they cost, we stayed in a garden bungalow. We were the only English speakers at the resort that I could tell. Inclusive buffet breakfast starts at 06:30, if they can get going that early and the dive boat takes off at 08:00. Two dives a day seems to be the max in Polynesia, French labor laws and all, so there's plenty of time to stare at the view and ponder the $20 cocktails. Small store about a half mile down the street with outstanding 2 ft. baguettes for $.50 ea. and reasonably priced cheese and lunch meat, kept our lunch/supper prices under $10 ea. How expensive is the Resort dining room? Lets put it this way, our piping hot, straight out of the microwave, $18 cheese pizza ($1.80/inch) turned into an $80 cheese pizza ($8/inch) when settling the bill on the last day. When we started complaining and asked to see the receipts, the Chef de Affairs went into no hablo Englez mode and started looking for an exit, so, having a waiting driver, waiting to take us to a waiting ferry, on to a waiting airplane, we gave up, paid the pirates and jumped in the shuttle muttering about revenge. Moorea topside: Drop dead gorgeous scenery, some of the prettiest I've seen. The half day ATV ride into the mountains was a hoot, the ride up one of the roads(?) to an overlook will test you for acrophobia, but man, what a view! Besides the view and ocean, I'm not sure what's at Moorea, other than pineapples and coconuts, which are amongst the best representatives of their kind, by the way. Locals seemed friendly. No bugs to speak of. Moorea is worth seeing once anyway, but not being the type that likes to lay around and take it easy, 3 nights was plenty for me.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Florida, Alabama, Texas, Bahamas, Roatan, Turks and Caico's, Cozumel, Indonesia, Costa Rica
Closest Airport	Papeete	Getting There	Air Tahiti, ferry
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm, no currents
Water Temp	84-°F / 29-°C	Wetsuit Thickness	1
Water Visibility	40-60 Ft/ 12-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	Not sure, I don't speak French
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters	N/A	Large Fish
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	I don't take pictures

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Moorea Blue /Moorea Manava in French Polynesia/Moorea

Moorea Blue /Moorea Manava: "Moorea Blues", Jul, 2017,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Moorea Blue /Moorea Manava in
French Polynesia/Moorea