Paul Gauguin Cruise Reviews - Reviews

What an amazing staff. Everyone from the room attendant, to the wait staff, to the bartenders were terrific; friendly, attentive and accommodating. I am still blown away when the staff remembers my name but, I was speaking to a gentleman that had been on the same ship one year prior. The bartender remembered his name from the previous cruise. A couple staff members that stood out; Jaypee, Adrian, Efrin, and Rowena. Don't hesitate to book this cruise, it's a great way to see a number of the French Polynesian islands and be well taken care of at the same time.

The staff on the Gauguin are totally wonderful without being stuffy.  Their dive staff is the BEST!  Food is great, locales and tours are fascinating and they have really quality lecturers on board, including a resident anthropologist and (for his last trip) Jean-Michel Cousteau.  They haven't renewed his contract and I CANNOT imagine why!!!  He's a super speaker and an absolutely lovely gentleman. 

The ship is a perfect size.  It's showing its age a little, but nothing major - mostly cosmetic. 

The fact that it is all-inclusive really makes life SO much better and easier.  You can budget your expenses and know you won't overspend. 

Fabulous cruise, once in a lifetime. Beautiful locations and great staff.

I would like to share a very negative experience I had with Paul Gauguin a few months ago in the hopes that if you are considering vacationing with them you are well informed about their booking tricks.  Paul Gauguin marketed the cruise my wife and I spent our 25th anniversary on as a 7 day - 7 night cruise to the Society Islands.  We purchased their Air and Cruise package.  This was our first mistake.  If you purchase their Air with the Cruise they will make every effort to fly you in on the last available flight and you will not get on the ship until midnight or later.  They mislead you into believing you will arrive by 10pm but Customs and Baggage claim at the Papeete airport are long and crowded with all the late flights arriving at the same time.  You have no choice when you use their air package.  Even if things go smoothly you will not arrive on the ship until after midnight so the cruise is really a 6 day – 6 night cruise.  They purposely do this to minimize their cost because passengers who embark at 3pm (which is when they claim you can board but make it impossible to do so) start drinking and eating and using their services.  They tactically avoid this if you buy their air package with the cruise.  The only ones on the ship at 3pm are those that book their own airfare and arrive the day before.  Additionally, services on Day 1 (or really Day 2) are awful.  They are so busy pulling up lines and heading out to sea that you will not be able to find someone to get a beverage or snack.  Also, the pool is drained.  My room service phone didn’t even work so we went straight to bed very frustrated.  My wife and I saved for this very expensive 25th anniversary trip and it was a huge disappointment.  The service throughout the week was good at times but also lacking in customer service.  Not sure how they got the Travel Awards but clearly they have a long way to go in customer service.

I did reach out to Sandy Stevens, VP Sales and Guest Relations but this was after the trip and she already had our money so she was not interested in a resolution.  Again, when you are paying the extremely high prices they demand and they say it is a 7 day – 7 night cruise you expect them to honor that which they don’t if you use their airfare.  Sandy argued that it’s similar to a hotel if you arrive after midnight and you still count the day before.  Clearly she missed the point because with a hotel you choose to arrive when you do so if you choose to arrive after midnight you pay for the room.  What Sandy doesn’t understand and missed is Paul Gauguin does not let you choose when to arrive.  They choose for you and their choice is to force you to stay off the ship as long as possible.  If you decide to cruise with Paul Gauguin then prepare yourself for a big let-down which is how you will feel after spending a life savings to be treated poorly.

This was an Olivia.com sponsored cruise, nothing but women. We stayed in cabin 751. The food was excellent, the service was excellent, the port of calls excellent. The night they served lobster was OMG good. Some folks got more than 1 of these perfectly cooked crustaceans. Don't know where they put it. This is a dream trip. Go! You won't' regret it.

I was amazed by the attentiveness of the staff! They were at the airport to greet us and were there every step of the way! The ship is beautiful.....perfect sizeo, not huge, which is why we decided to go with this perticular cruise  line. Our cabin was beautiful, our fridge was always stocked with beer, soft drinks water and ice! Our beds were always made up, our room cleaned and vacuumed, and at night Sharonette came and turned down our bed! Sharonette was our stateroom steward.....so great in every way! I got a feeling that everyone of the employees on this ship really enjoyed their job and never acted like they had a bad day! We especially loved Alex, at the piano bar(spent a lot of nights singing and drinking there)! Florezal (Flo) was fantastic and Francisco ALWAYS knew your name and what you were drinking! I'm still amazed by that! All of the staff on board catered to your every need! The excursions were great, I also loved that they gave you snorkeling equipment to keep for the whole trip.....that was great as it would have added weight in our suitcases. They had little boats available to take, if you wanted  to go on your own. Let's not talk about the food, which was fantastic! I gained 4 pounds in 10 days! All worth it! Waiter staff was the greatest! Really, even though our ship had some technical problems, everyone was very professional, and it didn't impact much! All in all, I WILL CRUISE AGIN WITH THIS SHIP! Exceeded my expectations, I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF MY TRIP!

The Paul Gauguin cruise ship was a great experience for our 11 night cruise Nov.10-21.  The food was excellent, the entertainment was fabulous, the waiters and workers were friendly and very helpful, making sure your cruise experience was wonderful!  There were 3 main restaurants on the ship and all were exceptional!  All the wine & spirits were included and all the gratuities were included.  The extras were an unknown extra cost of almost $1,000: snorkelling tours,guided island tours, etc at each island were extra costs and you had to sign up for them in advance or you couldn't do anything on that particular island!  That was a little frustrating but we learned to get signed up after the first or second day!  Our suite was nice sized but 2 small windows unlike some of our shipmates that had a large picture window and were several floors up.  We enjoyed our experience and liked that it was a small ship with under 300 people on board and we were all taken good care of the whole trip!

The Paul Gauguin is the perfect way to visit French Polynesia.  It allows you to visit many of the islands, and the size of the ship allows you to enter all of the atolls.  The ship is beautiful, decent size rooms, and delicious food in the three dining rooms.  My favorite hang out is at the Piano Bar before dinner, where Rey (my favorite bartender onboard) whips up some great cocktails. 

The Paul Gauguin has a private motu off of Taha'a and this is a really special part of the cruise.  The motu is unbelievable, the best day on the cruise!  It is a private island set up for the cruise with chaise lounges, a floating bar, fresh coconuts, and a delicious island bbq.  

Fakarava & Raingaroa were the two top dive spots, and are even great for snorkeling.  We booked all of our excursions and dives through the PG, and I highly recommend this option, there is not much to do on some of the islands without booking an excursion.  The excursions are reasonable prices and we did not have one that we did not love.

I definitely will be returning to the Paul Gauguin to cruise some of their other itineraries.

My only two complaints would be that the service is good not great on the ship, but you spend most of your time off the ship in the beautiful islands, and the embarkation and disembarkation is so poorly handled. 

For years I had thought of the Paul Gauguin as "top tier" and had longed for the opportunity to sail on her. That opportunity came this year when they offered a tremendous promotion. Given that we got a very good rate, the cruise was acceptable but it would have been disappointing had we paid full fare. The crew was great the first 9 (of 11) days but something must have happened because many definitely had attitudes (that once bordered on surly) the last two days. The ship is immaculately clean and well maintained but food (particularly dinner) did not measure up to luxury ship standards. Entertainment was okay but not compelling. The lack of any female servers in the restaurants and lounges was noted by several guests. For some reason, although we were in mild to medium seas, the ship seemed to have more motion than we have experienced on other ships of similar size in heavier seas. And a final complaint for any ship (PG included) that employs a photographer for revenue purposes: they are intrusive and the constant flashes going off all over the restaurant does little for the ambiance of a romantic meal.

Had cruised with PG cruises before and had a wonderful experience.  Decided to take family on "Familymoon" as we recently got married.  Planned trip months in advance.  Checked weather and found nothing of concern.  Avoya Travel and PG Cruises said nothing about it being the "rainy season".  On the flight from LAX, much to our surprise, a flight attendant informed us it is the "rainy season" in French Polynesia.  It was raining when we got there and rained the entire time causing very rough seas, much seasickness and a greatly modified itinerary.  Captain sailed out of Papeete at 2AM in the morning, sailed for 6 hours in very rough seas to Moorea which is 30 minutes away.  Cannot get an answer from PG Corporate as to why he did this!  Result was much seasickness.  This was the pattern the entire cruise.  Modified itinerary, all scuba cancelled as well as many other shore excursions.  Could not wait to get off this ship!

Good size as you can very easily be alone!

Very well organized and operated. Very good entertainment. Super food. Almost no obnoxious announcements on PA system. Shore excursions seemed expensive compared to do-it-yourself...

It actually been years since we were on the ship, but it gives us vivid memories we will always treasure. And those mentions memories make us wish to return to this part of the world and this glorious ship. Our mother brought us to join in renewed vows, we felt so privileged to be invited to something so personal. The staff did a wonderful job and the ship itself made us all fell like royalty the entire cruise. Nothing went without some sort of special attention. Since then our mother has fallen ill, but as a family we know what the future will hold, many trips to the Paul G. To remember the best times on a ship with her. The ship is smaller, witch makes you feel like it's your own personal yacht.

OLDER SHIP, HOWEVER WELL KEPT. WAIT STAFF WERE POLITE & HELPFUL. WE HAD AN OCEAN VIEW ROOM A BIT SMALL, HOWEVER IT WAS FINE FOR US. THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME WE WERE ON AN ALL INCLUSIVE SHIP & BOY WHAT A DIFFERENCE. WAIT STAFF WOULD'NT TRY TO PEDDLE THE "DRINK OF THE DAY" FOR $5.00-8.00 PLUS TIP. EXCURSIONS WERE A BIT PRICEY, BUT HEY YOUR IN TAHITI IT DOES COST MORE. SHIP OFFERED A DAY OUT IN A MOTOU (SPELLING?) TRIP. WHICH IS TAHITIAN FOR ISLAND. WOW IT WAS WONDERFUL & BEAUTIFUL. THIS SHIP IS GEARED FOR ADULTS, THEREFORE LACKED IN CHILDERN ACTIITIES.

SAILED IN EARLY MARCH 2010. PLANE ARRIVED A FEW HOURS LATE HOWEVER SHIP WAITED FOR ABOUT 40 PASSENGERS. PORTS OF CALL NICE, EVEN THOUGH A TYPHOON HAD BLOWN THROUGH FRENCH POLYNESIA A MONTH OR SO AGO. FOOD WONDERFUL & PLENTIFUL. WE ALWAYS HAD AN APPETITE FOR THE ROOM SERVICE MENU. I HAVE 1 QUESTION ABOUT THE DRINK SERVICE. IN ALL THESE SITES THEY STATE WINES & SPIRITS ARE INCLUDED & PREMIUM DRINKS ARE AT CURRENT MENU PRICING. HOWEVER ON THIS SHIP ALL DRINKS WERE INCLUDED, EVEN CHAMPANGE. ANOTHER GREAT THING WAS ALL TIPS WERE INCLUDED. ON MANY CRUISE LINES SOME OF THE WAIT STAFF & OTHER HELP WONT GIVE YOU THE TIME OF DAY UNTIL IT COMES TO TIP NIGHT, THEN THEY ARE ALL SMILES & ACT AS IF THEY HAD KNOWN YOU FOR YEARS. ALL STAFF VERY FREINDLY THROUGH OUT THE ENTIRE CRUISE. THIS SHIP IS TRUELY ALL INCLUSIVE.