JIMinNC

14 hours ago, SWFLAOK said:

I wouldn't expect any of these to give you much of an experience with island life, other than seeing it go by as you pass through areas. I haven't done any of these excursions, but have driven all of the roads on the island on 2 different trips (one a week long stay at what is now the IC Moorea back in 1995, and the other time was a car rental from Avis on a PG cruise in December 2017). Off-road is usually a slow, bumpy way of seeing the same things you would see in a more comfortable ride. We usually only use our cell phones to take pictures, so the Photo safari would be beyond us. That would leave my pick as MOO-1794.

I had initially leaned toward 1794, but the more I read the description, it wasn't clear if it was more of a drive-by tour or if the bus actually stops at most of the places mentioned in the description. The description specifically mentions a couple stops, but is rather vague on the nature of the visits to the other areas. I'm a fairly serious photographer with pro-level cameras, so the photo safari is interesting, but I'm also wary of that one as many such photo treks are targeted at more basic-level photographers, so I don't want to spend $300 for two people for a more beginner-level tour. Those facts have me leaning towards the off-road trip, but am not totally convinced, hence my question above.

Thanks for all the thoughts and ideas. Shore excursion booking opened up today, and I was able to reserve:

Huahine - Island Exploration by Pirogue & Safari Truck (HHN-6224) - 9am - 12:30pm

Bora Bora Day 1 - Lagoon Excursion & Polynesian Feast (BRB-1602) - 9am - 2pm

Bora Bora Day 2 - Bora Bora Island Tour by Le Truck (BRB-1608) - 9am-11:30am

My biggest question now is which land tour on Moorea? We want something that is more than just a "drive-by" tour, and want a lot of stops for scenic photos, island life, etc. We don't know enough about the island to tell from the descriptions which one meets our needs best. The three we're trying to decide between are:

MOO-6893 - Moorea Photo Safari

MOO-1794 - Island Drive and Belvedere

MOO-5544 - Aito Off-Road Safari

Any additional thoughts  on those?

Thanks so much for the replies so far on flotation aids and Moorea options. Any additional feedback on my questions above on the Huahine land tours and our priorities on Bora Bora?

Shore excursion booking will open in a couple weeks for our June 8 cruise, so we need to decide what we want to do. It is our first trip on PG. My wife is not a big snorkeler (even with flotation, and she may not snorkel at all except where water is no more than 4 feet deep). I'm not even an expert snorkeler myself, but am comfortable in any water depth with a flotation belt or something like that. Does PG provide flotation gear in addition to masks/fins? I do want to snorkel as much as I can (nothing too advanced), but also need some excursions my wife will enjoy, either on or off the water. Also, as I mentioned in a thread a few weeks ago she is dealing with a sore hip, but she did very well on a 3 week trip we just finished to Hawaii, the only issues were long walks. So we would want to avoid any land tours that involve a LOT of walking.

My thoughts so far are:

Huahine - Island Exploration by Pirogue & Safari Truck (6224) or Cultural Highlights of Huahine (2300). Any experience with those? What else should we do on that island?

Taha'a - Motu Mahana basically all day, I think.

Bora Bora - two days here - definitely want to do Lagoon Excursion & Polynesian Feast (1602) and maybe a land tour (which one?). When would be the best time to go to the PG Bora Bora Motu? Is the Feast in 1602 at the PG motu or elsewhere?

Moorea - two days here - maybe do Island Drive and Belvedere (1794). What would be a good water activity here?

My wife and I love sunset cruises and boat cruise tours in general (we did eight boat trips of one kind or another during our Hawaii trip), so we were thinking of a catamaran or outrigger sunset cruise on day 1 in either Bora Bora or Moorea. Other boat activities we should consider?

We will also being staying at the Hilton Moorea for three nights post-cruise, so we can catch other things on that island during those days. How do the experts see that post-cruise stay impacting what we choose to do on the cruise?

How quickly do the PG excursions usually book up?

Sorry for SO many questions, but thanks in advance for any tips.

On 3/20/2019 at 10:29 PM, sita said:

Interesting that the deck plans have comment that 801 has king, (seems like if others on that deck did they would comment) I can tell you they used to call the PG beds 'European Kings' now they rightly call them queens. The first line under accomodations on the website says what follows so clearly a king size bed would be an exception. If it's important to you, recommend you call PG to get clarity. 

 

Nearly 70% of suites and staterooms have private balconies, and all feature an ocean view, temperature control, queen-size bed (a limited number can have twin-bed configuration)

 

I needed to call Paul Gauguin to verify that we would have transfers from the airport to our two-night pre-cruise stay at the IC even though we booked our air ourselves (we will), so while I had them on the phone, I asked the question about King vs Queen in cabin 805. The rep checked and said that it is a King. So, I guess we will have to see whether PG defines "King" the same as we do. Either way we'll be fine, but a full King or at least a "larger-than-normal-Queen" would be nice.

Also, when you select your cabin on the PG web site during the booking process, some are noted as "Configurable" (meaning two twin beds that can be combined into a single bed) while others are noted as "Non-Configurable" (which I assume means a single bed rather than two). The Configurable cabins are noted with a black dot in the online PG Deck Plans. So, since 805 is Non-Configurable, my assumption has been it will be one bed. Whether it is a true King as PG represents on the Invoice is yet to be seen.

40 minutes ago, SWFLAOK said:

I just checked our reservation online, and what it says for our Deck 8, Category B reservation is "joined" for the bed type. Our invoice does not say what type of bed we have. What does your invoice say?

We book through a cruise TA. We were put in touch with her after asking for a quote on the PG website when we decided to start taking cruises a few years ago. She's been great to work with and we have booked all of our cruises since then with her, even when they aren't with Paul Gauguin.

Is the email confirmation from Paul Gauguin, of a cruise travel agent? We don't normally receive any email directly from Paul Gauguin and there's nothing in any of our correspondence or in our invoice that says "room number/bed size".

They definitely aren't moving mattresses in and out of state rooms. I doubt that any cruise line does that since turnaround time is very limited, and where would they store mattresses on a small ship like the Paul Gauguin? You will have 2 twin mattresses pushed together (and they do that nicely). Is it a true California King? It doesn't feel like it, but it is plenty roomy.

We booked direct with Paul Gauguin, not through a travel agent, so all of our emails/correspondence is direct from Paul Gauguin.

On the official confirmation Invoice PDF we received from PG it says:    Cabin/Bed Type:  805/King

When I look at our reservation summary on the Paul Gauguin web site, it only shows room number, no bedding type. There is a tab you can click on for "Cabin" information, but it is just the standard boilerplate cabin description for Category B that is also shown on the PG public web site. So PG is representing the bed to be a "king". What that really means will be seen when we get on board.

Could the Cat B cabins have slightly larger twins that combine into a King when joined?

The whole bedding thing is confusing to me as well. The PG web site just mentions Twins or Queens, but when we booked our upcoming June 2019 seven-night cruise, we booked Deck 8, Category B, and the PG rep on the phone said those rooms included a King. Our email confirmation even says "805/King". I guess we'll find out for sure when we get there.

Not sure what "group" means in your case, but the shipboard credit we have on our accounts is listed like:

SBC $100PP 

and

SBC $200PP

I believe that means Shipboard Credit of $100/$200 per person.

Are you traveling on some sort of group fare?

We had a deck 7 Club Ocean Suite for our Sept 2018 Mediterranean cruise on the Quest. We loved it and have booked the same cabin for a Greek Isles cruise on the Journey for 2020. We never found wind to be an issue at all, loved the table and chairs for room service breakfast a couple of mornings, and used the loungers quite a bit, especially on the sea day. Most of the higher speeds were at night, but even when we were out on the balcony extensively on our final night at sea, it was still wonderful - but that night we were just going from Livorno to Civitavecchia, so the Captain had us going very slow that evening.

There was some noise from the bow thrusters when docking in the early AM, but I always wanted to be up and on the balcony watching our arrival into port anyway, so no big deal. (The sunrise light was gorgeous in Monte Carlo and Santa Margherita.) I also liked seeing where we were going as opposed to seeing where we had been, which would have been the case in a Club World Suite at the stern.

The only place we found wind to be an issue was during our sea day when we went up to the Sun Deck on deck 11. On the starboard side, the combination of the prevailing wind and the ship's speed created a mini gale. We moved over to the port side and it was fine.

On 2/1/2019 at 4:38 PM, number8 said:

 

Is this BBQ in Taha'a ??

 

 

Yes. That is where PG has their private Motu.

1 hour ago, SWFLAOK said:

Unless a bumpy  ride bothers her hip, these all look like reasonable activities based on your info. The most difficult PG activities are the 3 coconut trail walk  and the E bikes,  as well as a long walk up the hill from the tender drop-off for a scenic view (a free activity) on Moorea. The rest of those you've mentioned should be easy to do. Good luck with your trip.

Thank you. That is very helpful.

3 hours ago, SWFLAOK said:

Taking a long time to make it up and down this staircase will inconvenience others so there could be comments from other guests.

 

If you have any questions about a particular excursion, I may be able to answer it. We're headed off for our 4th trip to Tahiti in September,  taking the Tahiti to Fiji cruise.

 

1 hour ago, justmeindustland said:

I would also look at some of the small, independent tours.  Email them and find out if they can accomidate your wife. I have been on some that were very good with the less mobile people.

Thanks for the info. I don't want to give the impression my wife is significantly mobility restricted...sorry if I gave that impression.

We are both in our early 60s and she travels on business almost every week, schlepping a carry-on bag and a small backpack through airports, even up-and-down aircraft steps at smaller terminals without jet bridges. So, "less mobile" is not really an accurate description. She can do what she needs to do, and other than an occasional limp/gimp, she can keep up just fine. Certain things just cause her more pain/discomfort than others. She wouldn't really need a special accommodation sort of thing. We're just wanting to avoid situations where to see the most interesting sights, she might be forced into longer or more difficult walks/hikes that would become uncomfortable for her after a while.

As I said, we just got back from a week in Los Cabos that included a couple small boat trips, and we're leaving in late February for three weeks in Hawaii, where we'll likely do the same. So, we're just wanting to understand the tour options for our June PG cruise a little better to make sure there are options to see the sights on the islands that don't involve overly difficult walks that might exacerbate her hip pain and lead to a less-than-satisfactory trip.

Some of the tours (both PG and non-PG) I was looking at include:

Huahine - Marc's Combo Tour or Marc's Motu Picnic

Taha'a - PG Motu Mahana

Bora Bora - PG Bora Bora Island Tour by Le Truck, Lagoon Excursion with Maohi Nui, PG Catamaran Sunset Sail

Moorea - PG Capture Moorea Photo Adventure or PG Island Drive and Belvedere

Thanks for any additional input on these specific types of activities.

45 minutes ago, alwaysonaship said:

I have bad knees, and fell backwards very badly 4 days before we left for our trip. I landed on my right side and bruised my hand and knee badly.  It is now 2  weeks out and I am using a cane. I didn’t get off the ship except in Moorea to pick up some trinkets. We had been before so I didn’t feel like a missed much. However there are 12 steps down to the tender.  There was a man in a wheelchair who my husband saw and he was helped on the tender. Frankly I don’t know what they can do as all ports are tendered. Additionally the humidity makes the arthritis worse. I know my answer wasn’t any help, but wanted to give you some feedback. 

 

I do not think I would want to be recovering from surgery and go on a vacation. Maybe check with the surgeon. 

The issue really isn't whether she would need to be recovering from surgery during the cruise, since if we keep our current plans in place, any surgery would not happen until after the cruise. If we have to cancel/delay, we would not travel until four or five months post surgery, and she should be fully healed by then.

Our key question is whether the PG land tour excursions require extensive or strenuous walking that might cause her discomfort pre-surgery? We just returned from a week in Los Cabos, Mexico and she had no issues getting into and out of a couple small boats, and a very rough, bumpy, fast ride in a small boat for a whale watch was not an issue for her either. Her only issues were with a couple longer walks and some of the hills at the resort, hence my questions about the content of the PG land tours. Steps would probably only be an issue if there were frequent, repeated needs to go up-and-down lots of steps many times a day. We have plenty of steps in our two-story home.

We are booked for Paul Gauguin June 8-15, but my wife's arthritic right hip has been acting up a bit lately and she's going to need a hip replacement at some point in the not-too-distant future. We're trying to decide whether to delay the surgery until after the cruise in June or cancel/delay the cruise and go ahead and have the hip done sooner rather than later. We haven't paid in full for the cruise yet, but have already paid $4400 for two Premium Economy tickets on ATN. There is a cruise in late August we might be able to shift to that might allow her to go ahead and get the surgery done this spring and provide adequate recovery time, but air fares for those dates are quite a bit higher and we would have some change fees to deal with. We also slightly prefer our June Tahiti and Society Islands itinerary to the Tahiti Iti iteniraray in late August.

So, what we're trying to assess is how big of a limitation her hip will be in enjoying the June cruise fully? She can walk fine without aid, but longer walks or hills increase her pain. Many of the PG shore excursions caution against people with "mobility issues" taking them, but I have no idea what they mean by "mobility issues." Are they just referring to people who need help walking or do many of the shore excursions involve a lot of extensive, long, uphill walks that might be an issue for someone with a gimpy hip. Even with a perfectly good hip, she was never going to be a big water sports participant and would probably just stay on the snorkel boat or sit on the beach while I snorkel, unless there was a very shallow area where she would be comfortable. But if she couldn't enjoy the land-based tours due to the amount or type of walking required, we would have to reassess our June trip.

Can those of you with more experience with the on-shore activities offer any more detail on how strenuous the PG excursions are, and how much walking is required?

Thanks for the pictures bluemarble and Radar boomer. A picture is worth 1000 words, as they say.

Just looking at boomer's shot, the perspective compression would indicate it was also taken with a longer focal length zoom, but that front-side morning light is one reason a westbound cruise with the AM arrival is appealing to me as a photographer. Especially in the summer - which is probably when we would make such a trip - sunrise is around 5:30 AM, so unless QM2 came into the harbor especially early that morning, if it's sunny, the light should be really nice - the morning "golden hour".

Just looked at the satellite view for New York Harbor, and that raised another question...when going in and out of the harbor, does the QM2 basically make a beeline from/to the bridge and the dock, or does she usually curve out a bit to the west to provide passengers with a closer view of the Statue of Liberty?

Thanks! We're thinking summer 2021. Fly over to catch a little of the 150th British Open golf at St Andrews in Scotland, spend some time in England, and then take the Queen Mary 2 home.

3 minutes ago, Ubarrow said:

Arrival always seems to be at the same time and there is quite a bit of time to walk around the decks enjoying the view. If you’re on the right side there are great views from your balcony if you are on one of the upper decks.

Wouldn't the best views entering the harbor of the Statue of Liberty be on the left (port) side?

9 minutes ago, Jack E Dawson said:

On our crossing this past September we passed under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge at 5:45AM and passed the SoL at around 6:15AM. We went up to the observation deck above Deck 13 at 5:35AM. After passing under the bridge (a thrill to watch) we went back to the cabin. I had just enough time to get a quick shower while DW fixed coffee and then we watched the SoL go by from our sheltered balcony, perfect since it was raining at that time.  It was sort of like the scene from the movie Titanic when the RMS Carpathia enters NY Harbor.

Thanks. Whenever we do such a trip, it will probably be in July, and sunrise then is about 5:30am in NYC. With the sun rising in the northeast that time of year, the lighting on the Statue should be spectacular if it's a clear morning. For an eastbound late afternoon departure, the sun would be setting behind that statue, making it back-lit. So even though it means an early morning, it does sound like a westbound crossing, arriving in the harbor just after sunrise would be the most spectacular. 

I'm assuming the arrival times are pretty much the same from crossing-to-crossing?

4 hours ago, Jack E Dawson said:

Our personal preference is to sail out of Southampton into New York, an east to west crossing.

1. You gain an hour on 5 of the 7 days rather than losing an hour going the other way (25 hr days vs 23 hr days)

2. Sailing into New York harbor and past the Statue of Liberty (SoL) on arrival day (may be more of an American thing)

3. You move through weather systems quicker

4. Puts off your jet-lag until you arrive back home but then at lease you are in your own bed

5. If able to, select a port side room for the sun and view of the SoL

Bottom line, you are going to have a GREAT time either way.

 

We want to do one of these some day, and have debated the whole eastbound-westbound thing. On the east to west crossing, what time is the sail into the harbor past the Statue of Liberty? How early? I would hate to sleep in and miss it!

15 hours ago, FlightMedic555 said:

I would be comfortable with the last ferry.  I would hang out at the food trucks and eat at 6 when they start.  Taxi at 6:30 gets you to airport by 7:00 pm at the latest. That is fine for a 9:30 flight. 

I was thinking more along the lines of eating a late-ish lunch at the Hilton Moorea since we're more restaurant people than food truck people. Eat a big breakfast and a hearty lunch and then I assume we'll get at least some sort of light meal in Premium Economy on ATN and we should be fine.

I'm always someone who likes to have a Plan B/backup, so if we planned on the last ferry, what would be a back-up/Plan B to get to the PPT airport from Moorea if, heaven forbid, there was some operational issue with that last ferry?

On 12/18/2018 at 5:42 PM, FlightMedic555 said:

No need to book a ferry in advance. With a 9;30 pm return flight you want to be at the airport by 7:00, more or less. I prefer to be there early. You can take a ferry and then eat at the food trucks which set up at the waterfront st 6:00 pm and then taxi to the airport. 

1 hour ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

I agree you don't need to book the ferry in advance, in either direction.

 

As for coming back, your hotel can give you the ferry schedule, and you should be able to get one late in the day, but be aware that the ferries DO NOT run after dark, which is about 6 p.m.

 

And you'll want to get to the airport by 6:30 anyways.  The lines will be long, and the experience is awful, but that's just the way it is.   You should budget about a half hour to get by cab to the airport from the port--it might take 15 minutes, but it will be reasonably busy traffic at that time of day.

 Thanks. Perusing their online schedules, it looks like for both ferry companies the Moorea-to-Tahiti PM departures are generally at like 2:45pm and 4:45 pm or so. So the 4:45 would seem about right to get to the airport at 6-6:30 or so. But...I'm a little apprehensive about waiting until the last ferry in case of some sort of schedule/operational issue and no back-up options. The 2:45 is really early though, with lots of time to kill schlepping luggage. Thoughts on all that?

We made the same decision to book Premium Economy for our June 2019 PG cruise. At the time we booked back in late Sept, Paul Gauguin said they didn't have any of their negotiated fares yet for Premium Economy, and our only choices were Economy or Business Class. We wanted the 2-3-2 configuration in the 787 PE so we could get a window/aisle together for the long flights (the 787 Economy is 3-3-3). So we purchased our air fare direct from ATN.

We did purchase two pre-cruise nights at the IC Tahiti through Paul Gauguin, so they told us even though we didn't buy our air through PG, the land package would still include airport-to-IC and IC-to-pier transfers. If that is the case, we should be good on the front end. The 787 arrives at 9:45pm, so we should be at the IC before too late.

We have a similar issue to Hutchinj on the back end, where we've booked our own three-night post cruise at the Hilton Moorea. From reading here, it seems we can pick up our luggage after debarkation and go straight to the ferry terminal for the ride over to Moorea to hang out at the Hilton until our room is ready. So that should be reasonably simple. But after check-out from the Hilton, we'll need to catch an afternoon ferry back to Tahiti, but our ATN flight doesn't depart until 9:30pm. We can check-out of the Hilton, check our luggage with the bell staff at the Hilton, and stay at the hotel/pool until time to get to the ferry. I haven't looked at schedules yet, but I don't want to wait so long as to risk some ferry issue making it hard to get back to Tahiti. We'll then have some time between ferry arrival and airport check-in with luggage in tow. Anyone have thoughts on how best to play that last afternoon/evening? Also, should we book ferry space in advance?

On 9/24/2018 at 10:23 PM, BBMacLaird said:

Thank you for the booking!

Keep in mind your booking is eligible for our Best Price Guarantee. It’ll let you change your booking once if we offer a better fare or special on your cruise. The best deal is 12-months out or longer. So check your cruise on our website periodically.

Here’s the link: https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/plan/best-price-guarantee

How does this work when a category is sold out? We booked for Oct 2020 back in late September, and subsequently, all of the staterooms in our chosen category (Club Ocean Suite) sold out. As a result, we couldn't shop online to see if the price had dropped. Subsequently there must have been a cancellation because one Club Ocean is now showing as available, but whenever that books, we'll be back to the same situation

I guess if the category is sold out, Azamara has no reason to reprice/discount/add incentives to that category anyway, but I was just wondering how that all worked in that situation?