MissEileen23

Thank you so much for all of your input!  I'm still deciding but hearing about your experiences really helps.

15 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

But my impression is that if Ponant hadn't taken over PG, it might have gone out of business altogether.  So I would temper my feeling about Ponant cancellation policies with that thought...

Thanks for sharing your experience with Ponant.  I also wasn't aware that PG could have gone out of business.

14 hours ago, Tahitianbigkahuna said:

IHowever, I now have 3 cruises scheduled for the Windstar Star Breeze ... I been told by many that the service and Food are equally as good as the PG. This simply comes down to price  ... all of my Windstar cruises are about a 25% savings even when you add the premium package. Love the bigger cabins on the Star Breeze.

 

Keep in mind Windstar is leaving the Star Breeze full time in FP ... so I would suspect the cruises will be very good as the intention is to go toe to toe with PG. 

I agree about the price.  If PG isn't noticeably better than Windstar, paying 25% more doesn't make sense!  I was also hoping that with Star Breeze staying in FP, they would have to try and keep up. 

1 hour ago, FlightMedic555 said:

So........we are anticipating that Windstar will be spectacular as the PG has been.  If the price was the same I would probably flip a coin.  You probably can't go wrong with either..

Thanks for your comments FlightMedic!  WindStar is actually a lot cheaper (just a little more than what you are paying in July) for this sailing so even if I add the all inclusive package it's still cheaper.  It seems like I should go with WindStar but for some reason I keep looking at Paul Gauguin.  The itineraries and dates are slightly different, but for the price I can't imagine that it would make that much difference.

I'm planning a trip to Tahiti for next June and I'm leaning towards the Paul Gauguin 7 night cruise.  I've seen a lot of comments on the boards here though about people who aren't comfortable booking with PG due to issues with refunds, etc.  I don't cruise often so I'm not used to booking trips far ahead of time and with such a large deposit.  Windstar seems to have a less restrictive cancellation policy along with a much smaller required deposit.  This trip is for a special anniversary so I'm not planning on cancelling unless absolutely necessary, but things happen.  Any thoughts?

The champagne I received was Monopole and it was in a chilled bucket as the previous poster showed. My husband went to the Concierge lounge a couple of mornings to get tea and we used it once to have the Concierge change our dinner reservation. I believe the lounge was open all day but the Concierge was only there in the mornings and late afternoon/evenings.

I got a salad from lunch room service and it was ok but my husbands burger was really overdone and they just put a slice of cheese on top of it that was cold. We also ordered a California roll appetizer and I don’t know what they brought us but it didn’t look like any California roll I’d ever seen! I’m probably being nit picky here but it was just a far lower quality meal than any other we had on the ship.

I just got off the Riviera Ionian passage cruise and wanted to post a few highlights. This was only my second cruise and my first on Oceania.

i posted my thoughts on the ships motion in another thread about cruising in October so I won’t share them again here. 😉

We misses the first port of Rhodes due to a combination of a medical emergency and rough seas. So we had a day at sea, then Heraklion, Santorini, Argostoli, Kotor, Dubrovnik and Venice. I loved all of the ports but I think the sail in to kotor was definitely the highlight of the trip for me. It might be one of my highlights of all my travels honestly!

The Riviera was a very nice ship. My stateroom was really comfortable and I loved having a balcony. The bathtub was nice too! I felt like I had plenty of space. I was in a Concierge Level A4 room. It’s hard to compare but I’m not sure the Concierge level amenities were worth the extra cost but when I booked Concierge level was all that was available. It probably helped somewhat to have the early access to dinner reservations but I like to eat late so I’m guessing it didn’t matter that much for me.

The food in the specialty restaurants, especially Red Ginger, was excellent! The Grand Dining room was good but not the same level in my opinion. The breakfast was very good at Terrace cafe and Waves. I only had lunch on board once and I ordered room service. This was the only bad meal of the trip for me. I didn’t experience much of the entertainment although I did see a singer one night and she was outstanding.

As most people have said, the WiFi is not good. The one device limit per stateroom seems ridiculous in this day and age, but it is what it is. The service everywhere on the ship was beyond outstanding. It really blew me away and is the main reason I would choose Oceania again if I decide to do another cruise.  

Ive attached a photo from all of the ports other than Venice. I hope you enjoy and please ask me any questions while my memory is still fresh. 🙂

I just disembarked from the Riviera this morning and wanted to clarify some things. I actually never got seasick thankfully but I took

Bonine every day. Originally I was just going to take it the first day to see how I did but once the captain announced rough seas were expected the first night I decided to take it every day. Since I’m not an experienced cruiser I wasn’t sure what to expect. Based on this experience, I would say that the amount of motion we had was somewhat worse than usual. The sea day was quite rocking for me to say the least! I don’t think most people were affected by it either though  as the bars, casino and trivia contests seemed quite well attended. I’m guessing that we had somewhat rough seas about 50% of the time. One day we had to stay in port longer than expected due to hurricane force winds (according to the captain). Another day I noticed seasick bags were placed near the elevators. The rough sea days were described by the captain as gale force winds, so again, I don’t think this was usual but it probably wasn’t totally out of the norm. We had a few days of calm seas and those were heavenly! We also had beautiful weather in almost every port. Even the cloudy day we had in Kotor had some sun and was probably upper 60s for a high temp.

I don’t feel like at any time there were unsafe conditions. In fact, I felt like Oceania went out of their way to make sure we knew what was going on and they tried to make it as comfortable as possible for everyone. I just want to make sure that was clear.

I also want to add that the service in Oceania was absolutely outstanding! The staff on board really went out of their way to make sure everyone felt welcome and had anything they needed. It far exceeded my expectations!

16 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

That is  a shame you are not  having a good time

Stay down on the lower decks 5 & 6   or at least mid ship  maybe it will help with your uneasiness

 

maybe cruising is not for you

rough seas can happen anytime of the year

 

Thanks, LTH28. I’m on 6 now and it’s sonewhat better. It may not even be that bad but I just don’t have much cruise experience. You’re right, cruising may not be for me! 😉

I’m on the Riviera now and I’m really not enjoying it so far. The unplanned sea day was bad enough but now the wind is kicking up and for me it’s really unpleasant. I admit that I’m a newbie cruiser (this is only my second cruise) and also a complete wuss. I picked this cruise specifically because it was in port every day.The constant motion is not fun and now I’m worried that we’ll lose more ports due to this weather. I’m wishing I had thought twice about cruising this time of year. I was having a blast in Athens precruise and I really miss it right now!