azlew

If we see a few excursions that we like that are handled by third party companies and not contracted by Paul Gauguin then we might go ahead and schedule them. I think I read somewhere that Ato's Blue Lagoon is one that could be group reserved outside of PG?

I suppose though if PG changes their schedule that could mess up the reservations since the ship would not arrive in a timely matter to make those connections to the third party excursions.

Is it true that most of the third party excursion companies do not require upfront deposits?

WOW I just found out that excursions cannot be pre reserved on the Paul Gauguin website until there are 60 or less days before the cruise.

Have you Paul Gauguin cruisers that have cruised in Tahiti found a way around that?

We really appreciate everyone's input! Seeing what is popular is really helping us in starting our discussion on what our hopes and expectations are for this trip to FP.

Emdee: on PG's website they aren't listing the blue lagoon excursion in Fakarava. Is Ato's a private non PG excursion? If so do you have the url for them? (thanks!)

RZ3 : Thanks for the mention of the lagoon excursion with lunch on Bora Bora. I see there is also a shorter one with no lunch. How is the snorkeling? Is it calm waters ?

FlightMedic555: Sounds like the aquarium in Rangiori is for very experienced people? It sounds like a good one also. Thanks.

Wendy The Wanderer :Dr. Poole's Whale Watching on Moorea we are not finding on the PG website is that a private company tour? The Stingray Ballet on Bora Bora is one we have been considering. Is there much current on the waste deep water and just how athletic do you have to be :-) ? = Thanks for your suggestions.

I would do the blue lagoon in Fakarava.

 

Regarding OBC....the PG doesn't charge you for excursions until you are onboard so you should book whatever excursions you are interested in doing.

Thanks Emdee. Our travel agent said I couldn't use their OBC they gave us for prebooking excursions. I will have to check with PG direct I guess.

Is the Blue Lagoon a PG excursion?

Michael Poole's dolphin-watching trip in Moorea. Absolute best excursion we did. We're leaving for our second PG trip tomorrow, and the only excursion we are repeating is that one.

That sounds great! Thanks NC&KY. Arizona Wildcat fans wish you KY Wildcats a great trip!

MacawLover.

We want to make sure we have purchased (before the cruise) the excursion(s) that everyone feels is/are a great experience and we feel will be the best fit(s) for us. We have enough on board credit to purchase 2 or three more when we get onboard. But I have read on the internet that the excursions fill up fast . We don't want to be shut out from being able to experience the best. We were told that we obviously can't use the onboard credit for excursions before we hit the excursion desk when we get on the ship and that will be too late for the more popular excursions.

On another note we are retired non athletic beginner snorkelers and want to do it but we also want a safe experience in hopefully fairly calm water. We had a bad experience at Isla Contoy a few years ago and hoping to not repeat it again.

Thanks for telling us about your favorite!

Hello! If you were to pre book one non scuba excursion for the Paul Gauguin 10 day cruise in FP, what excursion would that one have to be?

Hey IceCat fellow Cat here!

Thanks for your help. I wonder if B of A will charge......

WOW! I just found out that we are on a PG cruise that has AOTE on board! Hopefully we can view the stars a few times!

Thanks guys for the help!

From the Hotel Director:

 

You are correct, we have large telescopes onboard and we are using them when we have some lecturers able to do stargazing and sometimes some of our AOTE are also doing stargazing.

 

AOTE is the Ambassadors of the Environment program. They were probably the youngish adults that were running the program last June.

Looking forward to finding them on our 2016 cruise! Thanks for your help MotuIslander!

Thanks again MotuIslander.

Thanks MotuInsider!

I called the Paul Gauguin reservations and they checked for the Paul G. Tahiti cruises and they claim they couldn't find a published event for the telescope for this Summer.

But she (the agent) said that it might have been someone that brought a telescope on board and had the event for a group of people.

In any case I see you have been on the Paul several times and apparently like it! We are looking forward to our first cruise on the PG either a July or August cruise next year.

Thanks again for your insight.

We are considering the Windstar Wind Spirit Tahiti cruise (we are first timers to Tahiti and small cruises).

We were wondering on the Wind Spirit watersports platform if they allow snorkeling and/or swimming directly off the platform? Do they have large float rafts that two people can float together on?

I am sure we will have more questions soon and we do appreciate your help!

Thanks.

Thanks for your responses!

Here is a thread I found about the telescopes. On it PG states there are two telescopes.

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1553889

But it is dated 2012.

Any recent cruisers see at least one of these on the ship in Tahiti?

Thanks.

Hello we are new here and look forward to learning as much as possible.

We read somewhere here that the PG had a event(s) that allowed use of a telescope(s) to view the stars and that the PG actually turned some light off to help in the viewing.

We imagine this is a special time !

My question to recent PG cruisers on the PG cruise in Tahiti is : does this event or events still exist?

Also on the voyage are there any star viewing telescopes onshore to use?

Another thing we would like to verify is that the PG still does not allow snorkeling right off of their in water back of ship deck? And are there two people rafts or large floaters available to use off that in water deck?

Thanks for your answers.