Our second time on PG, the first since they were bought by Ponant. The staff (except at the Excursion Desk) was fantastic, the food was great, the ship re-design is beautiful. Excellent ports. The ship is quiet without a lot to do (which l love) so bring a good book and be ready to chill and look at pretty mountains and the ocean. The embarkation and excursions were an absolute mess - their logistics are just shot to hell. After our first time on PG we planned to come back every few years, but I am on vacation to relax, not to scramble to find my luggage and re-book excursions (well outside the "some changes may occur" expectation - the excursions were messed up one after another after another). Given that, I'll most likely try a different ship next time. Or maybe just stay on Moorea in a hotel.
Embarkation
1 out of 5
Poor. We were picked up from the airport by the service we booked through the ship. They put our bags in a van with no tags (we asked if we needed to tag them -- they said no, we would identify them when we got to the ship). When we got to the ship the bags were taken to the lobby/reception in the ship and just.... left there. They all had a tag saying "reception" and there was no one there to take them to our room and no plan for someone to get them to our room. We took our bags to our room and then came back and got my parents bags and took the bags to their room. I asked staff what was going on but no one knew, there was no one to help, so we just did it ourselves.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
The food quality was very, very good.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
This ship is not for you if you are looking for much of any onboard activities. A few things here and there during the day (make a shell bracelet, bingo, etc). Onboard activities are just to the focus of this cruise, and if they are important to you, go elsewhere. Otherwise, bring a good book (or borrow one from the library) and find one of the many, many nice places to RELAX and look at the beautiful surroundings.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
With a few exceptions, the evenings either did not have any "big" entertainment at all or had crew talent shows. The last night's show with O Tahiti E was fantastic. There was a very nice piano player in the lounge each night and DJ'd music with a small dance floor later.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Top to bottom fantastic except for the Shore Excursions. I can't say enough good things about the room and dining staff!!
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Recently re-designed and its fun/tropical yet classy. A hard balance - looks great :)
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
There's a little bit of scooting around beds and furniture, but enough space if you are not planning to be in the room a lot. There is a LOT of storage so very easy to unpack.
Ship tip
Plan on the excursion being incorrectly booked, canceled/changed *while you are on the excursion* etc - have low expectations and then lower them. Especially for days your are overnight at a location and no issue getting back to the ship on time, I'd book an excursion or hotel day pass on your own..
Beautiful area, great for sea stuff. The "town" is just a street or two and almost everything is closed the day the ship is in port, so you don't really have the option to just go into town and explore on your own. But all the sea/lagoon options were nice.
That private island.... Amazing. That said, we had an excursion that day before going to the island and the excursion was changed to something very different than we signed up for **once we were already on the excursion boat** - no way to turn back then. Really crazy that we had to pay for an excursion that changed and wasn't told until we were already on our way. No chance to cancel, get refund, etc. Beware :(
Beautiful, lots of things to do. If you want to do a beach/hotel day, book & prepay a day pass yourself. The ones that the cruise book for you depend on the hotel they chose not being too full. So we were canceled on the day before and had to scramble for other plans. Wish we had known this was the policy and instead booked and pre-paid the day pass ourselves (very easy cab system, set pricing to hotels from port).
My favorite stop - perfect balance of untouched beauty + infrastructure. We also had a lot of issues with excursions here. We booked Whale Watching Fri for my parents (we were waitlisted for Fri since there were only two slots left when I booked a month or so before the cruise) and we booked nothing on Thurs (my husband was working in the morning). Without telling us, the cruise moved our Fri excursion to Thurs to take us off the waitlist. While I appreciate them trying to get us off the waitlist, they moved us to a day we could not use, kept my parents double booked (Thur and Fri) and none of this came about until we were already on the ship and, surprise, now the Whale Watching was sold out on Fri so my parents could not go (even though they had had a booking before we were moved without our knowledge) - we could not use the Thur slots so we missed Whale Watching all together, and had to find a private excursions ourselves for Fri since everything on the ship was sold out. It was a HUGE mess, the Excursion desk was NOT helpful at all. The only bright point was that we booked a private tour with Mermaid Tours (with Luna and Clem) and that was by far the highlight of the trip and I highly recommend you book with them!
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