Just got back from my 3 1/2 week trip to French Polynesia. The Tradewinds Cruise Club part of the trip was amazing. French Polynesia as a destination was beyond what I could have imagined. It was like being in the Cayman Islands 40 years ago. (I went there when I was very young - at Grand Cayman is way too touristy for me now.). We flew into Papeete and stayed one night, rented a car, and took a ferry over to Moorea with the car. Stayed there 4 nights in a Pension. Moorea is a beautiful island with many blue toned lagoon beaches. There is a little motu you can get to via ferry, with a lunch place called Coco's on the motu. Great snorkeling at the motu. We took the ferry back to Papeete and flew to Huahine the next morning. Spent 5 nights in Huahine. Another beautiful island. Fewer blue water beaches, but less touristy than Moorea. Beautiful mountains and very scenic. Flew to Raiatea in the Saturday morning of the cruise. Most places are closed on Saturdays on Raiatea. There is a grocery store open in town, and 1 lunch place, but not much else. The sailboat cruise was fantastic. It was a great way to get to see Bora Bora and Taha'a. The lagoons are wonderful. Sailing was much fun. Meals were great. You will be lucky if you are on the boat with Alex and Tomas. Alex was the cook. Thomas the captain. A lovely couple from France. They have their own sailboat in French Polynesia right now. We did end up purchasing a small package of points. A typical week uses between 100,000 and 150,000 points. (Depends on season and boat type.). They offered 1,200,000 points for about $22,000, 4,800,000 points for $67,000ish and 2,400,000 for somewhere in between the two amounts. The points are good for a 12 year period. They don't seem to haggle on prices, but they will try to entice you by offering extra points for the same cost. We could not envision going more then every 3 to 4 years, but wanted to go to more places than the RCI offerings. (They have a boat that moves to a new place every 6 months or so, and has been to the Maldives and Seychelles. We wanted to be able to book that type of sailing, which one cannot do via RCI.). We explained that we would never use even 1,200,000 points over 12 years. They offered 6,000,000 points for about $13,500 (plus an initiation fee of $900.). We finally decided to do it when they added 100,000 points to the package. That would allow us to go on 4 trips on the sailboat that will travel across the globe over a period of 7 years, and one additional trip. (The Wanderlust trips (the sailboat that moves every 6ish months is called the Wanderlust) are 150,000 points for a weeklong trip.). They are adding a new bigger yacht that is uber fancy - but we were not interested. We figured we would enjoy being "forced" to go on a sailing trip every 2 to 3 years over the next 12 years. After the sailboat trip, we flew to Maupiti, which is the gem of the French Polynesian Islands. They do not allow commercial businesses on the island - no banks, no hotels. It is like a mini Bora Bora. Beautiful waters!! We rode bicycles around the island, walked from the island to one of the motus along a shallow part of the lagoon, scuba dove with Manta rays, and swam with sharks at the the pension we stayed at. The snorkeling at all the islands was fantastic. The dog at our pension had survived (over a period of years) attacking a shark, (yes - she attacked the shark - and then the shark came at her) a sting ray (she did get stung by the ray, and spent a month on another island recuperating) and a moray eel. An amazing dog was she! Another note about Maupiti - whenever we mentioned to anyone that we would be staying in Maupiti for 5 days, the reaction was always the same - a look of longing and letting us know how lucky we were to get the opportunity to stay there. They were all correct! It was our favorite island to visit.
As for Tradewinds - I would definitely do it again! If you do Tradewinds in Guadelupe or French Polynesia, you will get the 59 or 60 foot boat (one of the luxury boats.) If you go on Tradewinds to any other RCI place, you will most likely be on a 52 foot cruise class boat. Also, if you do purchase from Tradewinds, there is no longer a 1 in 4 rule with RCI. However, for us, it wouldn't make any sense to use RCI for a cruise because we have too many other things we want to do. As an aside - if you are interested in going on a cruise that is marketed in Tradewinds site, owners can likely get a cabin for you at 1/2 the cost that is shown. This is likely a bit higher (the cost would be $3500 - $4700 for a 2 person cabin including AI fees depending on place and season) than using an RCI exchange, but you can go on a Luxury or Flagship boat, and/or a place that isn't available on RCI. I think there are a few TUG members who are also Tradewinds members who can give referrals. I don't believe you can go on a referral cruise if you have used RCI for an exchange in the past.
If anyone has any questions about French Polynesia or Tradewinds, I'd be happy to try to answer them!
On buying Tradewinds - I think if you don't care about being on a bigger boat and having air conditioning overnight, and you don't think you would want to go more than once every four years - there is no reason to buy. But if you want to ensure being on a bigger boat and/or want to go to one of the specialty places, then buying could make sense. There really isn't a resale market for ownerships that I could find anywhere. I looked for a long time before actually going on the cruise. It is possible to buy points from someone and have them book a cruise for you if you can find someone who is trying to sell off some of their points.
Good luck to any and all who are interested! It was truly a vacation of a lifetime!! (That now I will get to go on every 3 years.
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