South Pacific Cruise Reviews

All of the crew,  housekeeping,  dinning staff, guest services, etc. were very very hospitable and accommodating.   The ship's rooms, dinning area, etc. were all very clean; as they were constantly cleaning.  The laundry staff and services were so efficient and professional.  The cuisine in the dinning room,  hot dog/hamburger/ taco diner were all very tasty.  The food in the buffet dinning room was horrible on the fist day.  It was better the next day....however, the "hot" menu lacked verity i.e. basically the same every single day through out the trip.  

Those are all the pros. ...now for the cons.

 This ship should never have been rated four stars!!!  The ship is extremely dated.  The sounds that were iminating from our

room (especially at night when the seas were rough) would make you think that the ship was being torn apart.  The water coming from the bathroom sink and shower would change temperatures at random.  The sofa and mat for the bath tub are old and creepy.

The bed mattresses were horrible on for your back.  And there should be NO SMOKING

in the Casino.....smokers should go outside in a designated area for that.  I also notice children in the Queens Lounge while the band was playing and drinks were being severed.  That is a lounge, technically a bar.....NO PLACE FOR CHILDREN.

The movies and channels on the tv were very limited.   There should have been several stations with different type shows and/or series runing on them 24/7....not just FOX and MSNBC.

This trip was amazing! From the pre cruise 3 night stay in the over the water bungalows in Bora Bora to the 10 nights on the M/S Paul Gauguin everything was perfect. The crew & service was exceptional & the smaller ship with only 332 passengers made it more personable.

We just can't say enough good things about the whole experience.

Highly recommend it & plan on going on more Paul Gauguin cruises!

Loved the ship and the service.  Always clean.  Very comfortable ship and easy to get around. 

Constant sales pitch to purchase drink and fine dining packages was very annoying.  

Entertainment was good but not great.  

Price of photos was rediculously high. 

Enjoyed every port of call. 

Would definately repeat same cruise. 

The outstanding service was the highlight of our cruise. The entire trip was coordinated with exceptional precision.

We enjoyed the Gauguin hosts and hostesses that were always available and very entertaining.

We really liked the waiter Ryan in the La Varanda Restaurant and bartender Francisco in La Pallett.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like cruising the islands of French Polynesia, but Wind Spirit was exactly what I needed. The staff were amazing! The ship was just the right size and we were able to make many new friends that made the trip even more enjoyable. We received lots of information about every step of the trip and were able to make the best choices for us. DWI make our experience wonderful, he went above and beyond to make us feel welcomed and cared for. Hakim worked so hard to make our room clean and comfortable. We loved the towel sculptures and the thoughtful notes for our Anniversary.

We especially appreciated how hard everyone worked at learning our names and the things that we liked. It was sweet that our anniversary was acknowledged with a cake and a song on the Motu. I would totally tell everyone to sail with Windstar...it was the best experience ever.

This Paul Gauguin cruise actually exceeded our expectations and they were pretty high. The ship itself is comfortable, could use a little update in decor but you soon overlook this as the crew is amazing. They memorize your name, the bartenders remember your favorite drink if you have one, and are ready to tend to your every need. The islands visited on the cruise are breathtaking. Aitutaki was our favorite, the snorkeling there was amazing. 

The excursions offer a pretty good variety, our favorites were the snorkeling ones, particularly the swim with the Rays and sharks, sounds scary but it's really an amazing experience.

The food is good enough that your waistline will grow a bit by the end of the cruise. It's a good thing the activities keep you moving. The passengers range from newlyweds to those celebrating 50 year anniversaries so you will meet and make new friends along the way.

There were many passengers who had done the cruise before, many repeat customers which speaks well for Paul Gauguin. We may well fall into this group in a few years. Polynesia is a magical place.

First let's preface this review with, if you're on a long cruise what can you really complain about.  So let's begin

The Explorer of the Seas is an okay ship.  Last year we did an Atlantic crossing on the Allure and the two ships don't compare.  The crew as always on a Royal cruise were great.  The cabin was as usual.  I purchased the soft drink package, there were 5 soft drink machines throughout the ship, and at any given time, only one or two were working.  The food was just okay.  Actually the best meal of the day was lunch at the Sapphire dining room.  The nightly entertainment was a real highlight.  But now for the stops.  Noumea, New Caledonia is a charming little city.  I recommend the tchou tchou train tour, its only 2 hours, and takes you through the whole area.  The next stop was Mystery Island, a cruise ship stop.  Online its says no one lives there because it is taboo.  Islanders come over to Mystery Island to work the ships, then leave the island.  Crushed coral beaches, so wear shoes.  Beware of jelly fish in the ocean as many cruisers were stung.  In reality, I think it gets its name because it's a mystery that the ship stops there.  Next up is Vila, Vanuatu.  This is a perfect example of third world island.  The walk from the ship to the city center is about three miles.  And I have to mention the first half mile is on a two lane dirt road with vendors on both sides and taxis and vans trying to make it a three lane dirt road.  Dangerous at best.  Prices for things on the island go up when the ships arrive.  One shop actually changed the price on a bag of local coffee as I was paying, so I gave it back.  After a relaxing day at sea we pulled into Suva Fiji for an overnight stay.  Suva is a dangerous place.  3 crewmembers got mugged the first night and had to be sent home to recuperate.  One of our table mates was warned to be back on the ship before dark by a local.  Did take a tour to a spice farm which was great.  My advice, take tours and see city center by daylight only.  After Fiji it was 7 days of sailing then to Honolulu, then on to Maui for an overnight.  Nothing bad can be said about Hawaii.  then 5 days sailing to Seattle.  All in all it was an extremely okay experience.

Worst boarding process ever.   It started off the cruise on a very sour note.  I was told that we would have coffee in our suite every day.  On day three the cabin attendant said that they were out of coffee.  After complaining to the concierge, somehow they miraculously found enough coffee to keep us supplied for the rest of the cruise.  Debarking was not quite as bad as embarkation.  They had no signs indicating that you could leave via deck 1 as well as deck 4.  So, of course, everyone lined up almost the length of the ship.  

First of all, the Pitcairn Island was not advertised as an on board experience until after we had paid in full for the cruise.  (which added 4 sea days to the cruise) Then to add insult to injury, Oceania aired a documentary the day AFTER we bought items from the residents to learn that 6 convicted Felons were among the descendants living there! Wow, amazing we were supporting criminals thanks to Oceania.  THEN, the ONLY TOUR and the MAIN REASON we booked was Easter Island which had bad weather on the 22nd.  We circled the island to see if the Owners Suite (of course) could possibly get to their private tour from the other side, then circled it AGAIN.  The Captain then just started sailing to Lima!  We didn't even wait the next scheduled day to see IF the weather would clear. So this fiasco added another 6 days of staying on the ship!  Total 10 days out of 18 we were trapped with crew who mentioned THEY were glad to get to Lima early so THEY could get 'good internet, have a free day to shop and call home!  Seriously, and WHO was paying for this benefit?  The last and extremely disappointing thing was how Oceania dumped all the passengers that had late flights on the 28th (reservations were made by Oceania) at a Marriott hospitality room with no food, coffee cups with no coffee, no chairs and we had to drag our luggage up and down the elevator.  (Our flight was after midnight on the 29th, which meant we had a 17 hr layover, some guests had a 22 hr layover!!!!) Again all because Oceania wanted to fill the ship again.  Out of sight, out of mind!  Well, we HAD already booked another 23 day cruise, but are SERIOUSLY considering canceling our $44,000+ payment just because of this current cruise experience. Oh, and by the way, we were told several times to enjoy the fine dining while we were at sea.  WE DO NOT BOOK FOR FINE DINING, WE BOOK FOR THE ITINERARY!!! For $26,000 we could have dined in 5 star restaurants for a year!  Oh, and Destination Services blamed this on our AGENT!.........That was the last straw! 

Getting on board was a VERY BAD experience. About 500 people in line waiting to check in (most over 65 years of age) which took me THREE hours standing and waiting. There were plenty of seats available, and no one involved in the check in procedure was smart enough to pass out group numbers so people could sit and relax while those ahead could check in...

Once on board the crew and staff on the ship were very nice.

The ship itself needed to be fixed up, thread bare carpet on stairs, upholstery needed repair in crows nest, and a apparent window leak in the crows nest due to rain which made the crew put blowers on the carpet to dry it out 2 or 3 days.

Also, the air conditioning made several areas of the ship to cold for comfort.

Two first days were special. Guest with childrens reserving pools chairs, childrens jumping in hot tub. The staff have to police chidrens with a wistle. Parents were on vacancy.

Remaining days were a little bit better

The ship is small, old and needs some update. 

The entertainment is boring, not creative at all. 

The food generally over cooked, especially the fishes.

The photo/portrait staff only give flimsy insert to hold pictures, end up the portraits became curly after long trip home!

The shower curtain was smelly.  Bathroom clogged two times.

I may not cruise with Royal Caribbean anymore.  The literary was fine tough.

We have always heard good things about Holland America, and when we found this re-positioning cruise at a good price, we jumped on it.  Our first impression upon boarding the Noordam was how dark everything was.

New Zealand was beautiful, and we would like to return there someday to see more.  The ship had a mechanical problem with one of the thrusters, and we were forced to stay an extra day in Napier (which was nice, but not enough to see to warrant 2 days)  Then because of that delay, we had to skip the next two ports and spend an extra day at sea getting back to Sydney.

Holland america offered compensation in the form of a discount on our next cruise, but since we were not pleased with this cruise, we won't be taking another.

About the ship itself:  we had problems with noise in our cabin coming from the private cabanas on the deck above us.  This mostly occurred at night which was strange being as there should have been no one up there at night.  The crew kept telling us that they would fix it, but it continued to happen.

The atrium is small and cramped. Only thing it is used for is the front office and shore excursion desks.

In the buffet:  breakfast was good - lots of variety.  But lunch was very limited.  We don't eat pizza, pasta, sandwiches, asian food so we didn't find anything to eat there.  Hamburger and hot dogs by the pool were delicious, and the taco bar also.

Eating meals in the main dining room always took forever.  It seemed like the waiters were on top of everything, but the kitchen was slow.  Food was good, but not anything special, and breakfast was always the same menu.  We are used to the menu being changed daily.  

Service personnel always spoke to each other in their native tongue, which can get annoying.  We are used to other cruise lines where they always speak English around the passengers.

Cruise director was on the PA many times throughout the day advertising the various things for sale.  We have never heard so many announcements trying to sell us something.

To be fair, we did hear some loyal Holland America passengers say that this ship is not up to par with other ships.  But we won't spend the money to risk that another ship would be better.

Unfortunately, the Holland America cruise was a costly fiasco, and the worst cruise we've experienced. I'd like to point out only a few key examples of our experience aboard the ship, on our first day we noticed a bad combustible/ diesel like odor in our cabin, this was while trying to get some sleep, as well as a loud whistle-like noise throughout the entire cruise. Less than halfway through our cruise we had mechanical problems and the ship stayed in  Napier for two entire days which meant we missed two different ports and consequently missing some incredible and three of the best planned tours. This meant the ship was not at sea for the 4 days that was promised but for an entire 7 days instead.  My wife and I spent many months extensively planning this dream cruise, we were extremely excited to go to New Zealand, however this ship, its food or staying at sea were not the reason why we chose to go to New Zealand, that we wanted to get out of our trip to this beautiful location is to truly experience its world known geographical beauty and it's people.

We were offered a 20% discount towards another cruise by Holland America representatives, which was humorous and upsetting at the time especially when our cruise was a disaster and Holland America ruined our very costly and what we hoped to be our dream vacation. 

The cruise to Figi and back was delightful and the crew made the trip even more special. Our cabin stewards had ice always available in our ice box, the dining room waiters met our every special want and desire, the sunset bar bartenders search the ship from bow to stern to find every Miller Lite on board, the officers during the inside tour of the ship were very informative and remembered us through out the rest of the cruise and Karen the activities director even escorted us personally off of the ship an to our awaiting transportation. Service was over the top.

Overall the experience was good. Beautiful boat, fairly clean, and personable staff. We did have a few issues in regards to our dining, food, and wine experience. Specifically our server. Our "assistant server" (Komang) was ON POINT. He was always personable, helpful, and would talk to the chef or bar server to clarify any questions. However our "head server" (Andrew), was the complete opposite. When reviewing specials, he simply read from the menu, couldn't describe any of the dishes, and when asked any questions, would simply re-read the menu. In fact, the one time he did say he was going to ask a chef, he went away and never came back. I think Komang should be promoted to head server FOR SURE! The food, was pretty decent. However, it was quite obvious (mostly because of how Andrew was pushing the "specials" that the "specials" were created from left over ingredients from the night before). Lastly, regarding wine -- there were quite a few wines listed on the (very very small wine list) that weren't available throughout the whole trip. Unacceptable. Because the wine selection was so minimal, there was no sommelier on board so no one to really assist us with the proper wine selection for our meals (and yet for some reason Andrew kept pushing us to buy a whole bottle of wine each night). However, as I mentioned, Komang was as helpful as could be, and would ask the bar server for their recommendations or clarifications when needed. He even related his experience with a couple of varietals which ultimately helped us with our choices. 

The food was good but not always great.

The service was excellent.

Spa Service was wonderful

The entertainment was good but not great

We crossed from New Zealand to Australia in a Gale; the waves were 11-30 feet; it was exciting and a little scary; frequent weather updates were not reassuring.

Large Library; Cooking classes; Computer and Camera classes; Mixology classes

Supplied over-priced medically needed distilled water and then slapped a bar surcharge on it to add insult to injury.  Of the 7 other cruise lines that I have been on, none charged for distilled water.

Lido deck closed regularly, had limited hours, and limited coffee access

They kept laying new carpet in major hallways (at night) but I expected this kind of work to be done when ship is docked for "repairs"

5 ports on the first five days of the cruise left me exhausted; I will look at this more carefully in the future.  If it were not listed on the elevator floor, I truly wouldn't know what day it was.

Room Service was great.

The cruise was good.  Staff is very nice.  They provided us with special food which was palatable but not exceptional. The ship met with high winds for three days and was rocky perhaps that may be due to the fact that it is relatively a smaller ship.  What was not good was that there were very few day time entertainment opportunities.  The lack in this area big time.  Their Microsoft seminars were great and often people waited to get in to the small size room and went back as there were very few seats available.

There is this sense of luxury at its best, in the form of staff that constantly anticipate your wishes, indulging, gracious, with contagious smiles and cheer.

The Dawn Princess was the smallest Princess Cruise fleet we have been on.  We did miss some of the amenities like a specialty dining facility (Sterling Steak House is shared with Horizon Court Buffet), larger casino with video poker options, international cafe.