gq_dq

So they were going without you if you didn't agree?

SamirD

Yep. It's just one of those 'compromise' decisions that I hate making.

Xyzzy

When we were last there in June the staff at the resorts we stayed at told us that employees were required to wear masks at all times and that guests were required to do so nly indoors. As nothing was particularly crowded and we were outdoors most of the time, this seemed fine. It also represented pretty much what we've been doing for some time. I'm not sure what wearing a mask on a beach or at pool will do if you're a few meters away from others. Wearing a mask in a shop or other indoor space was required and also makes sense.

gq_dq

Well at least they came back with you and not someone else!!

I am sorta kinda in the same boat. Except we have the added confusion of being a party of 4 with one almost 75 and one almost 85. And my tiffs have just started.

SamirD

Same requirement, but I don't remember many even putting them on indoors as most places weren't completely 'indoors' anyways. Still, with the close proximity, it would have been prudent. Too late now though as the cat's out of the bag and running around on the islands...

SamirD

LOL!! I guess they could say the same thing about me, lol!

We actually were a party of 4 too--plus a child. It didn't get stressful until the night before the flight. But it all worked out in the end. I looked at the photos today and they almost look photoshopped they're so unreal.

mileagehighclub

What does the Sunday lockdown mean? Sit in your hotel only? I'm in Moorea on Sunday

OhDoctor

UPDATE: Lockdown now expanded. Includes the whole weekend (Saturday and Sunday) and is now being imposed on Raiatea and Huahine as well.

https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/c...k-end-20210818

EDIT: I'm going to add the full speech from the High Commissioner here:

http://www.polynesie-francaise.pref....la-Republique2'

It reiterates what I wrote above, but most notably, they are continuing ferry service between Moorea and Tahiti for now, but explicitly state they may suspend it in the near future.

All in all, things continue to deteriorate. Sadly, we may be at the point now where we are cancelling our trip for the second year in a row.

OhDoctor

UPDATE #2: French Polynesia has now entered a full lockdown for at least the next two weeks. All "leisure travel" is now prohibited. Tourists being asked to reconsider their plans (we have cancelled our trip officially). They will reevaluate every few days and may extend the lockdown further into September as needed.

More details here: https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/2021082...-for-two-weeks

FrontOfTheCurtain

I saw this was just published regarding the Society Islands:
“…Dominique Sorain said about 9000 tourists must remain in their hotels...”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/...ench-polynesia

However I saw here: https://tahititourisme.com/en-us/covid-19/
which was just updated two days ago:

• TRAVEL AND ACTIVITES RESTRICTIONS IN THE SOCIETY ISLANDS ONLY:
  • As of Monday August 23 until Monday September 6 2021, travel will be restricted to compealing reasons only (work, family, health and essential goods purchase). These measures may be renewed depending on the evolution of the sanitary situation.
  • The borders of The Islands of Tahiti remain open and commercial flights can continue to operate. Tourists who are already in our islands can continue their trip, as long as they comply with the restrictions in place.
  • Are allowed:
    • Travel within tourist accommodations. Activities in hotels remain accessible to clients beach /pool / lagoon, as long as the authorized areas have been delimited).
    • Travel to and from the airport or ferry terminal remains authorized (curfew and lockdown certificates are available on the High Commission website).
  • Visitors who have an itinerary that implies a change of accommodation can travel and take the domestic flight on which they are booked.

These reinforced travel restrictions do not apply to the other Islands.

FLLUAFlyer

Just got to St. Regis Bora Bora. Came in on UA115 last night and overnight at Intercontinental Papeete. Spent the night at SFO Hyatt on Friday, so woke up to new FP declarations.

Intercontinental was operating normally. St. Regis is operating normally, but as others have posted, tourists will be confined to hotels.

SamirD

Great to see they're still okay at the hotels. If you see Safi, tell her Samir and Susan say hi!

I breaks my heart to hear that 250 have died. I remember when our taxi driver said 140-something had died he said it like it was a big number...now they just blew past that.

mileagehighclub

Should probably give an update here. I landed in PPT on Thursday the 19th. I had known about the lockdown but only knew of it as a Sunday lockdown. I’m ashamed of how bad of a job I did in keeping up with current events compared to how diligent I am at home with COVID updates.

With that said I got into Moorea on Friday and upon checking in learned the lockdown was the whole weekend. It was not well communicated to me that the lockdown was 2 weeks, but we were in Moorea for the weekend only so it was effectively the same. We spent as much as Friday out and checking out the sights before coming back to the hotel at night. That was when we learned about the 2 week lockdown.

I just got to Bora Bora (Conrad) and noticed the mask compliance here is about 50% and pretty low outdoors. My observations match the anecdotes here. Most of my following observations are about Moorea though as I had spent a full 3 days there whereas I’m just getting acquainted with Bora Bora.

At the Hilton Moorea, almost everyone was really good about it even outdoors. I even found it a bit ironic that people were 100% compliant outdoors, and I felt bad being the bad guy taking photos without masks, although we’d try to mask up immediately after we were done. The irony was that indoor dining was alive and well and everyone was eating happily and conversing. During the Polynesian show, at one point we masked up from indoors to go outdoors to watch the fire show. Quite counterintuitive compared to most COVID measures… but whatever. I’m glad people are good about masks. At the Conrad, practically no one was masked outdoors. Perhaps a different clientele/aura here.

In Moorea, the lockdown at Hilton meant no kayaks, stand up paddle boards, etc, but the manager on Saturday night addressed the crowd at the dinner show that he was making it happen and they were bringing in cultural activities. It felt kinda depressing but also nice that they were trying to make it enjoyable for guests.

For our trip, we were looking forward to all the snorkeling adventures, so being confined to the hotel is really unfortunate. Our rental car in Moorea was basically wasted. However the positive side is I guess this forces us to relax—both of us are really intense about our trips and probably try to pack too much in to our trips. Even with a lockdown we managed to fill every hour of the day in Moorea whether it was taking photos, snorkeling around the resort, or walking around the resort.

One last tidbit was we used the “paper passes” to go buy groceries once and on our way out, we drove “the other way” around Moorea to get to the airport. There’s definitely some people out and about, but I’m not one to really push the rules too much. Some food trucks were still visibly open, but at one point we passed by the hospital and the parking lot was packed. That was a bit of a grim and sobering moment for sure.

It was a little depressing getting to Bora Bora and our guide who met as the dock for the hotel asked if we knew about the lockdown and asked that we still decided to come. Yeah I mean everything changed so quickly in the past week, and we were basically committed. Had our trip been in another week or so maybe we could’ve had time to react…..

SamirD

Thank you for the detailed report! Yes, quite grim to see the hospital parking lot packed. I hope the message has become clear to the islanders that this thing is no joke...just like the sailors that came to their islands hundreds of years ago.

OhDoctor

The >2700 new COVID cases diagnosed yesterday were an all-time record for FP and the trajectory is still going up. Not sure what other measures they could take aside from closing the borders entirely, though it seems like they are doing everything possible to avoid that.