JIMinNC

Thanks so much! I just got off the phone with PG and they added the $400 of OBC to our booking. We now have $600 total.

From the PG website FAQ:

DATE OF CANCELLATION CHARGE
121 days or more prior to Departure Date:. . . . . Administrative Fee of $100 per person
120 - 91 Days Prior to Departure Date:. . . . . . . . .10% of Full Fare per person
90 - 61 Days Prior to Departure Date:. . . . . . . . .20% of Full Fare per person
60 - 31 Days Prior to Departure Date:. . . . . . . . .50% of Full Fare per person
30 to 0 Days Prior to Departure Date:. . . . . . . . .100% of Full Fare per person

7 minutes ago, alwaysonaship said:

The price on our cruise dropped considerably, so I had my TA cancel and book at the lower rate. You can do that if you are before final payment 

But there is a cancellation fee of $100 per person, so that would seem to negate the extra OBC.

I just saw the current PG promo offering $400 in OBC for Category B and above. When we booked our June 2019 cruise direct with PG back in September, the promo then only gave us $200 total OBC. The fine print for the current promo clearly says "New Bookings Only", so I'm assuming that there is no point in calling PG to see if they will add this promo to our exiting booking, but I wanted to double check with the experts here to be sure.

10 hours ago, shevais said:

We had this same debate and are fresh of the PG.  We originally booked on Deck 4, and were happy-ish with that choice, but the price to go to Level D was not worth it.  Now a couple weeks out we called and got an upgrade to Deck 8 for less than the upgrade to a Level D cabin.  We jumped on it, never looked back.  Outstanding location, butler service was incredible, the mini-bar and snacks, and whatever you wanted, in your room, for you.  Afternoon canapés, and that wonderful verandah... oh how we loved it, we spent a lot of time there, many times walking to the pool bar, grabbing a drink and right back to our balcony.  We love people, and are social, but we also love quiet alone time, and the balcony was perfect for it.  Worth the initial cost, no, a discounted upgrade, absolutely.  We looked at every category of stateroom the day we docked and the crew was cleaning the rooms, and we decided we could probably do a cabin on deck 4 all things considered.  

Great to hear your report. Makes me wish June would hurry up and get here! For us, even though deck 8 is quite expensive compared to some of the other options, when we made the decision to book the PG, we had just returned from our Azamara cruise in a suite with butler service and amenities similar to what PG offers on deck 8. That was such a wonderful experience, I fear we have been forever spoiled. We really wanted to book one of the larger suites on the PG, but those were even more pricey, so we settled for deck 8 as a compromise between service/amenities/balcony and price. Hopefully the amenities will make up for the smaller cabin.

1 minute ago, Wendy The Wanderer said:

 

In my case, when we had the deck 8 balcony, it was the hot sun.  When anchored, the ship slowly turns around, and sometimes your balcony is in the shade, other times in the sun.  When you're moving, on a sea day, it's either sun or shade, morning or afternoon.  It was just too hot when the balcony was in the sun, and even sometimes when it was shady.

I fully expect that our primary balcony usage will be early AM and late afternoon/evening. We're on a 7 night itinerary, so no sea day, and we'll likely be ashore during the day when anchored. As far as the sun/heat, we live in the southeast and are used to summers with temps in the 90s and heat indices around 100, so I expect FP to be great by comparison. 

55 minutes ago, DavidTheWonderer said:

To balcony or not to balcony on the PG?  As I said, we once stayed in a penthouse on deck 8. I don't think I ever used the balcony and Wendy, who on other ships adores them, hardly used it. If the penthouse were the same price as the deck 4 cabins, the small amount of extra space in the cabin and easy access to the pool deck would argue in favor of deck 8.  For us, it is not worth it.  But what is true for us may not be true for you.

Maybe we'll find out the same thing after our June 2019 PG cruise on deck 8, but I can't imagine why we wouldn't use the balcony with the amazing scenery in French Polynesia. For us, it's less about the price than the totality of the experience. Being able to roll out of bed in the AM and walk out onto a private balcony just seems like what a tropical cruise should be all about. No need to make yourself more "presentable" for the public spaces. From a purely cost perspective, you're probably right, the small extra space and balcony of deck 8 may be hard to justify on purely economic grounds given the amount of time usually spent in the room. But sorta like our choice to book a suite on Azamara, we tend to make choices based less on price than the desired experience.

Looks amazing. Our balcony on the Paul Gauguin won't be as large as our suite balcony on Azamara (see breakfast pic below), but I'm sure we'll use it a lot.

2 hours ago, Larro9 said:

Intimate and small is always better in French Polynesia...you will visit smaller ports in lagoons so a ship designed for this area like the PG is perfect! Older yes but no glitz, two story common areas or 1k plus passengers which is really what you want in Tahiti ...everything you read about the PG is true!  As for the ship being your cabin and balcony..many people say this and bunk on level 4 in a smaller cabin and that is ok for them...people are very friendly and social on the cruise but some of us enjoy a little private time also and a balcony in the early morning, late afternoon and evening makes the cruise even better ...not to mention fresh air ...coffee on the balcony in the am and champagne in the late afternoon became one of our fav things to do..btw, we have booked one of the five aft cabins on deck 7 in the past and already booked an aft cabin for early fall 2020...you see everything from the aft cabins and the only way for us....either way it will be wonderful 

I can't offer any advice to the original poster on the Paul Gauguin as we will be making our first cruise on PG next June, but I did want to second the comment above about the value of having a balcony. I too have read the recommendations from others to book on level 4 and use the ship as your balcony, but personally, I could never imagine cruising without a balcony. For our cruise next June, we have booked one of the Veranda Staterooms on deck 8. We too enjoy the privacy of a balcony early in the AM and in the late afternoon/evening. Even on a small ship like PG, when using the "ship as your balcony", you are still sharing that space with 300 or so other guests. With a private balcony, that space is yours alone.

On our Azamara Mediterranean cruise a few months ago, we used our balcony extensively. Watching the sunrise as we cruised into Monte Carlo and Santa Margherita, it was nice to get right out of bed and immediately go out to the balcony. We had a very large balcony on that cruise, so we were even able to eat room service breakfast a couple mornings. We also often enjoyed a glass of wine or champagne on the balcony late in the afternoon or evening. We could always go to the public spaces if we wanted to meet others and socialize, but we also value private time, and we get that with a balcony.

1 hour ago, marinaro44 said:

On both my Android tablet and Windows 10 laptop the Noise and Other comments columns don't appear on the page with the columns having stateroom number, yes/no, month/year, etc.  So I see those two rightmost columns in pages that appear below the pages with room numbers, month/year, etc., but without room numbers so it is virtually impossible to associate a comment with a room number.

Looks the same on my huge iMac screen. The problem appears to the PDF was formatted in a portrait orientation where it should have been formatted in an landscape orientation.

1 hour ago, Tom47 said:

If 10-19  cruise is sold out, I would expect more people posting on the roll call.  So far, I am the only one.  My TA has not contacted me, but I sure would like to know

It may or may not be sold out, but when we were shopping cruises about a month ago, it was definitely heavily booked. Not sure why your roll call is slow, but all suites and veranda staterooms were showing as sold out a month ago, and only inside and ocean view cabins were bookable. As a result, we booked a similar 2020 itinerary instead.

Could perhaps a corporate or other group have blocked all the desirable cabins for their group, but haven't assigned group members yet (like a sales incentive cruise for a corporate sales force where they won't know who actually earns the incentive until sometime in 2019).

On 11/3/2018 at 10:00 AM, marinaro44 said:

The 10/19/19 cruise is still not listed.  Last my TA heard is that it's sold out.  Strange that an almost sold out cruise was supposedly being considered for a charter a few days ago. 

I don't think there was ever a confirmation that a charter was the reason for the changes, was there? Wasn't it just a rumor?

In any event, when we were looking at October 2019 cruises after returning from our recent September cruise, I believe that was the Greece-focused itinerary that we considered, but there were only inside and OV cabins available, so we booked an October 2020 sailing instead. If my recollection is correct, and with that limited availability back then, it very well could be sold out now, I guess.

Cabin Number: 7005

Ship: Azamara Quest

Month/Year sailed: September 2018

Would you choose this room again? Yes! Already booked for 2020.

Is noise an issue: Only during docking (Not a problem at all) 

Balcony size: Huge balcony overlooking bow, with a table and chairs, plus two sun loungers

This is a Club Ocean Suite. As others have noted there was noise from bow thrusters during docking, but we did not find that objectionable at all, and more than made up for by the great room and service. Booked same room on Journey for Oct 2020.

3 minutes ago, Got2Cruise said:

I’m glad CC works fine for you on your 27 inch desk top. I have not owned a desk top for at least 15 years. I used my phone app for many years. The new boards are a step backwards. 

I use a phone too, just not for message boards. I'm at my desktop most of the day, and need the power of a large-screen desktop for professional level photo management and editing software. 

We are both early 60s, and I would say on our recent Barcelona to Rome cruise on the Quest that we were pretty close to the middle as far as age demographic, maybe slightly below the midpoint. There were quite a few people who appeared to be in their 70s, even 80s, but also a nice contingent who appeared to be younger than us. We commented that our college-age and recent-college-grad kids would consider this an "old fart" cruise, but we loved the age demographic for us. Lots of folks our age and enough somewhat younger people to offer some diversity and a little more energy.

The ship did seem to get very quiet after about 10 or 11pm. We are not early-to-bed folks, so we spent most evenings in the Living Room having a couple drinks and listening to the band or the DJ. That seemed to be about the only place with much activity later in the evening. Some nights were pretty busy there with lots of people dancing and socializing, but several other nights, there were only a few couples there after 11pm or so. We saw a lot of the same faces in the Living Room most nights.

I use my desktop 27-inch iMac almost exclusively and rarely if ever use my iPhone or iPad for message boards, so the new format works fine for me. Sounds like the issues are mainly with phone/tablet usage. The new format is closer to the format of some other boards I've used, so I'm OK with it.

On Tripadvisor go to the forums page, then choose South Pacific, and then French Polynesia.

 

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g294338-i867-French_Polynesia.html

Thanks. I'll go over there and take a look when I get a chance.

Just thinking about it, I would be transferring a booking to an agent that didn't have to do any of the legwork after I did pretty much everything. So, they would be picking up a commission for basically doing nothing. I guess if they offered enough benefits to me it would be worth it, but before I start investing time and energy looking into it, my obvious question is how much OBC/Rebate could I reasonably be expected to get by going through such an exercise? I only have $200 OBC from PG, and would love to get more to add to that, but am probably not inclined to start moving stuff around unless it's reasonable to expect I might get something more significant.

I'm kinda spoiled because on our Azamara cruise last month, we wound up with $1800 of OBC.

Even though you booked directly you can transfer the booking to a travel agent presuming they offer additional OBC or a rebate. I would be amazed if you can’t do this. Suggest you post on TripAdvisor and I’m sure some of us will PM you with suggestions.

Is there a specific page or forum on Trip Advisor that you would recommend?

We just booked our first PG cruise - for next June 2019 - and opted to book direct. I first spoke with both of the major travel agencies in our city, and neither could offer a better deal or more OBC than what we could get booking direct. When possible, I prefer to deal direct with airlines, hotels, etc and eliminate the middleman, unless there is a meaningful benefit to using an intermediary like a travel agent. We also opted to book our air travel direct as well, booking our LAX-PPT tickets with Air Tahiti Nui, since we wanted their new Premium Economy on the 787s and PG said they didn't have any group fares for Premium Economy. We're using frequent flyer miles to get to LAX the day before we leave for PPT, and are overnighting one night in LA to minimize the risk that a flight irregularity could cause us to miss our flight to PPT. We have asked Paul Gauguin for a two-night pre-cruise stay with transfers at the Intercontinental Tahiti to give us a couple days to time-adjust, but we booked our post-cruise stay at the Hilton Moorea Resort ourselves.

We just returned a few weeks ago from our first cruise in over a decade (on Azamara) and used a travel agent for that one since we hadn't cruised in a long time. Our TA was great, but in all honesty, she didn't do much that we couldn't have done just about as easily ourselves.

Hi JiminNC,

As an LCV member you’re eligible for the LCV quarterly savings on select voyages. Right now the voyages on that offer are all 2019. The new list of LCV quarterly savings voyages will come out October 1. https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/le-club-voyage/le-club-voyage-program/member-savings/quarterly-savings-voyages

Our current regular promotion is the Double Upgrade. It includes voyages through March/April 2020. https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/luxury-cruise-deals/double-upgrade

Good luck, and thank you for your loyalty! :hearteyes:

Thanks. We actually decided today to go ahead and put down a deposit on a specific October 2020 Greek Isles cruise we liked. Since it's still over two years away, we decided we could justify booking a Club Ocean Suite like we had on our recent cruise. But there were only two suites available of the four in that category, so we decided it best to go ahead and get something reserved. Two years is a long way away, but those cabins obviously book up quickly. We now know to plan better before the next cruise and be ready to book on board to get the discount.

It’s always worth taking out a future cruise certificate whilst on board to preserve the LCV discount should you plan to cruise in the future with Azamara. We always have one in hand, even though most of our cruise booking is done whilst onboard ship.

Not familiar with the "future cruise certificate" option. Can you explain? It's a moot point now, but would be helpful for the future, maybe.

We recently completed or first Azamara cruise on the Quest. While on board, we didn't have our act together with regards to our future vacation plans for 2019/2020, so didn't take advantage of the booking a future cruise while on board benefit. Subsequent to our return, we have better defined our plans and are looking at a 2020 cruise. So my questions are:

1) Am I correct in my understanding that there is NO discount for LCV members/repeat cruisers except for the on board booking discount? If we book now, we pay the standard rate?

2) I've seen little to no variation in pricing when looking at the Azamara website or other cruise sites. In booking our 2020 cruise, will using the direct Azamara web site result in the best available pricing?

Being on Bus 1 is a mixed blessing I believe as you then have to wait whilst the rest of the audience arrive. On the other hand being on Bus 1 when you leave is great.

In our case we did have to wait a short time while the others arrived, but the fact that we got first and second row seats for the show made it well worth the short wait. They had drinks for us while some other busses arrived and before we took our seats, so we just chatted with some of the other guests during the short wait before we were taken as a group to our seats. It was a great evening.

We returned over the weekend from our first Azamara cruise (Quest Sept 5 Barcelona to Rome) and without a doubt the enthusiasm many here have for Azamara is well-justified. It was a wonderful trip!

We were in a Club Ocean Suite (7005) and were blown away by the accommodations and the view over the bow of the ship. We were invited to an incredible multi-course dinner with the Captain and senior crew, got a bridge and engine control room tour, and special VIP seating at the Azamazing evening in Valencia, Spain. We dined in Prime C twice (once for Chef's Table), Aqualina twice, and Discoveries twice. Great food in all. Only did the Windows buffet prior to the Azamazing Evening. The entire crew was great, especially our butler Eyup.

Thanks to a lot of OBC, we booked Azamara shore excursions in each port of call and all were very, very good. Also was able to upgrade to the Ultimate beverage package, so it was nice not to have to worry about "included" or "not included."

The only bad thing is, having now experienced a Club Ocean Suite on our first cruise, we've likely been spoiled. My wife has already said she wants that same cabin for future cruises! This was meant to be a splurge for our 25th anniversary, but I fear the bar has been raised, so it will be more difficult to settle for a lesser, more affordable cabin in the future.

My findings...

By default everyone is set to receive e-docs. But North American guests have the option to request paper docs if they wish them.

Thanks for clearing that up. Our travel agent must have requested the paper documents. It's a very nice package.