Detailed Photo Review of Paul Gauguin 10-Night Cruise 9/6/17 Plus Moorea Pre-Cruise

Funny, we did this excursion the week before last and didn't get bitten at all at the vanilla plantation. And I'm the one who gets bitten. Must have been less damp or something, or sunnier. Great excursion, we loved it. Wish I could remember the name of the lead guide, the anthropologist. Lovely young woman.

Funny, we did this excursion the week before last and didn't get bitten at all at the vanilla plantation. And I'm the one who gets bitten. Must have been less damp or something, or sunnier. Great excursion, we loved it. Wish I could remember the name of the lead guide, the anthropologist. Lovely young woman.

They said it had rained for 2 weeks straight prior to our arrival so it was probably more humid when I was there. That was the only place where it was an issue though because the rest of the tour was near the water so it was a little cooler and less humid. And yes, I loved listening to her talk! She was so passionate about Huahine and their culture and history. No idea what her name as though haha

Back from my most recent cruise and caught up on your review. Really enjoying it!

Back from my most recent cruise and caught up on your review. Really enjoying it!

Thank you! :D

I really liked this little guy…

That's a reef triggerfish, also known as Humuhumunukunukuapua in Hawaiian. That's my favorite fish.

That's a reef triggerfish, also known as Humuhumunukunukuapua in Hawaiian. That's my favorite fish.

Also called a Picasso Fish. This is the little bugger that bit me on Motu Mahana! They are quite bossy and kept swimming at my face apparently to scare me away. It turns out that I was probably near their eggs, it was nesting season. So when I put my feet down in the sand in shallow water, one of them came up and bit me in the ankle. Harmless, but it drew blood. They have two teeth, right at the front of their mouths. Comicaly creatures.

Also called a Picasso Fish. This is the little bugger that bit me on Motu Mahana! They are quite bossy and kept swimming at my face apparently to scare me away. It turns out that I was probably near their eggs, it was nesting season. So when I put my feet down in the sand in shallow water, one of them came up and bit me in the ankle. Harmless, but it drew blood. They have two teeth, right at the front of their mouths. Comicaly creatures.

Ouch! The jaws attached to those teeth can crush shells and coral.

That's a reef triggerfish, also known as Humuhumunukunukuapua in Hawaiian. That's my favorite fish.

Oh wow, that's so funny... I actually saw a triggerfish in the same location 2 weeks later when we visited Moorea on the cruise and our excursion went there. It was way less colorful though so I didn't realize it was the same species as this guy, but maybe they're distantly related since they were both swimming in the same area.

Also called a Picasso Fish. This is the little bugger that bit me on Motu Mahana! They are quite bossy and kept swimming at my face apparently to scare me away. It turns out that I was probably near their eggs, it was nesting season. So when I put my feet down in the sand in shallow water, one of them came up and bit me in the ankle. Harmless, but it drew blood. They have two teeth, right at the front of their mouths. Comicaly creatures.

Ouch! The jaws attached to those teeth can crush shells and coral.

The teeth on the trigger fish are NO JOKE!!! We were up close and personal with one when we did the underwater walk between the motus when we visited Moorea on the cruise so we got a really good look at his mouth. Those teeth were scary and everyone was afraid he would bite them! While I did get bitten by multiple marine species, I am happy to say that a triggerfish was not one of them lol I hope your ankle is healing well!

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This is a vanilla plant

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The things that look like string beans are actually the vanilla beans

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Our guide said we were very lucky to see this… it was a rare, delicate vanilla flower.

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Once we were all settled back in our jeeps, we headed off to our next stop.

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When we arrived at the hotel Relais Mahana, the guides told us we would stay here for 30 minutes and could enjoy the beach and swim in the bay if we wished. The tour price includes one drink here: beer, soda, or water. I’ll give you one guess what we picked?

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They had a section of tables and chairs set up for us in the shade of the big trees. The hotel features a truly beautiful beach, and I could barely sit still with all the photos I wanted to take!

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There were a few guests at the hotel who were enjoying the water, but I didn’t see many people on our tour getting wet. I honestly didn’t think 30 minutes was enough time to bother bringing beach towels and bathing suits on this tour, so we knew in advance that we wouldn’t go swimming today. In the end, I think we made the right choice because enjoying the views was a better use of our time and felt more relaxing than had we rushed to go for a swim, get dried off afterwards, and still have our complimentary drink.

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Standing out on the end of the pier, looking back at the restaurant and seating area where we were set up

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I just loved how clear the water was in every island we visited and we could see the coral looking down from the pier without ever jumping in the water

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Our 30 minutes here passed quickly and soon it was time to pack up and head back to the jeeps. As you an see, the space was a little tight in the back of our jeep as it was only big enough for 3 people on either side.

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You can see a small black box hanging from the roof above DH’s head… that was a speaker so our guide could talk to us while he was driving. I think he enjoyed this time because he kind of rambled a bit, just talking about whatever seemed to come to his mind about life in Huahine. That’s okay though… I would always prefer a guide who talks too much over a guide who does not talk at all. If I lose interest, I can always choose to tune him out! Haha

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That beach, instant lust.

Was there any vanilla aroma to the flower or plant?

That beach, instant lust.

 

Was there any vanilla aroma to the flower or plant?

haha seriously!! I literally spent 28 of my 30 minutes taking photos of that beach (the remaining 2 minutes were all I could spare to quickly drink that glass of Hinano haha)

I did not notice any vanilla aroma, but I admit I was a bit distracted from swatting the mosquitoes and may not have noticed if it did smell sweet ;p

Perhaps Wendy can chime in here... did you notice any vanilla smell??

Making our way back towards Huahine Nui, we had one last stop in Huahine Iti. I just loved seeing hundreds of palm trees like this… what a beautiful island!

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At this location, we saw one of the many ancient marae around the island. This was an ancient temple, built of stone.

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We spent over 30 minutes here as our guide told us about the history of FP and how people came to settle here.

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I took this next photo of us leaving the marae at 12:18pm. Our tour was due to end at 12:30pm back at the tender pier and we still had one more stop to make at a scenic overlook, so we knew we were running late. The guides wanted to skip the overlook spot, but some people on the tour wanted to stop there, even if for just a brief second, to get some photos, so the guides said that was doable since it was on our way back anyway.

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The views were so pretty out the back of the jeep as we drove along the coast to our last stop.

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Selfie in the jeep!

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The overlook spot was pretty and had a good view of a spot that will eventually become a motu and then an island (where the water is aqua in the photo below), but honestly, the spot wasn’t THAT special after seeing somany beautiful places throughout the morning.

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We got back in the jeeps and raced back to the tender pier, but unfortunately we arrived 4 minutes too late to catch the 12:40pm tender and we now had to wait 25 minutes until the 1:10pm tender. Looking back, I think we should have just skipped the overlook stop because it was quite hot standing around in the sun waiting for the tender, and we were all very hungry and wanted to get to lunch before the buffet closed at 2pm.

At least we had a great view of the ship anchored in the bay while we waited!

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Here comes the tender!

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This was the waiting area with the small tent for shade, 2 or 3 chairs, and some water, iced tea, and cold towels to enjoy while we waited.

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We waited for a few people to get off the tender (likely the people who were taking the 1pm 4x4 tour!), and then we could board.

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We got back to the ship and went directly to Le Grill so we could grab lunch before they cleared the buffet. Each day, they had a different theme for the lunch buffet (you can find it listed on the daily schedule). Today’s theme was French buffet, although I didn’t see anything that screamed “French food” to me. Regardless, there were plenty of prepared options to choose from. They also always have either a pasta bar or stir fry noodles station, depending on the theme of the day.

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I had a few pieces of salmon and the made-to-order pasta.

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And of course, we ordered a few drinks from the bar waiter. This was the first of many Blue Hawaiians that I ordered during the cruise (both because it looked fun and because it was one of the cocktails that wasn’t too strong to drink!)

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Dessert buffet

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The most French thing I ate today… a French macaroon!

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When we finished eating, we went back to the cabin to get showered and changed because we had a busy afternoon planned for today and the first activity was scheduled for 3:30pm…the Children of Huahine show! This show gets rave reviews here on Cruise Critic so we made sure to book our excursion for the morning so we would be back onboard in time to see it.

By the time we were done and returned back to the pool area 3:15pm, we were surprised to hear the first announcement we had heard over the loud speakers so far on the cruise (aside from the announcement to go to our muster stations yesterday). They said, “Due to unforeseen circumstances, we are sorry to inform you that…”

My first thought was that they had to cancel the rest of our cruise! I started to panic! Then they continued, “… the Children of Huahine show is cancelled.” What?!? No further explanation was provided. Were the kids all stuck in detention? What on Earth could have happened that they had to cancel the whole show?? Many guests were very disappointed to hear this news as we were looking forward to the show and came back onboard early to see it.

We now had an hour to kill before our next activity of the afternoon, so we got a few drinks at the pool bar and found an empty lounger to relax for a bit. It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, right? I wanted to try the drink of the day, Les Gauguines, and DH ordered a Miami Vice (his favorite daytime drink on a cruise!)

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Too bad you missed the Children show, although I'm sure you saw other great Tahitian dancers. The highlight of this one was a little boy about 2 who did his own thing on stage for the whole show. Danced, wandered around, really cute. All the other dancer were good too. We had seen the Children of Raiatea show a few times before, but were glad to see this one. Also good that they've moved it into the Grand Salon so that people don't bake in the sun.

Too bad you missed the Children show, although I'm sure you saw other great Tahitian dancers. The highlight of this one was a little boy about 2 who did his own thing on stage for the whole show. Danced, wandered around, really cute. All the other dancer were good too. We had seen the Children of Raiatea show a few times before, but were glad to see this one. Also good that they've moved it into the Grand Salon so that people don't bake in the sun.

Where else did they do the shows if not in the Grand Salon?? There's not really another stage area except for where Santa Rosa sets up near the pool, but that's not nearly as comfortable for the people trying to watch the show. I was definitely disappointed to miss the children dancing, but yes, we did see some other adult Tahitian performers later in the cruise :)

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A few minutes before the Moon Fish Demonstration was scheduled to start, the skies opened up and it started to rain, so they moved the demonstration inside Le Grill. I was surprised at how pretty and brightly colored it was!

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Man, that fish was HUGE! The head chef did a demonstration of how he carves the fish and how he plans to grill it for us to eat at dinner tonight.

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This fish can feed up to 80 people, and there are 2 of them on board, bought yesterday when we were docked in Tahiti.

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I ordered the fish entrée for dinner nearly every night because it was always delicious and incredibly fresh. Tonight would be no different, so it was fun to see the fish as a whole before it was served in a small piece on my plate tonight.

The demonstration only lasted about 15 minutes, then we continued on to our next plans. Before the cruise, our roll call arranged an informal meet and greet for 5pm on our first full day of the cruise (today!) so we could finally put faces to the names we had been chatting with for over a year. Yesterday was so busy with muster drill and getting unpacked and settled on the ship, so we had the meet and greet today instead. Only about half of the roll call members joined us, but we did eventually meet everyone within a few days. We hung out together in La Palette for about an hour, and at some point, Les Gauguines arrived to serenade us!

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We noticed the rain had stopped, the clouds had cleared, and we were treated to our first beautiful sunset of the cruise.

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We could see Raiatea, Taha’a, and the peak of Bora Bora in the distance!

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As the sun dipped below the horizon, we realized it was after 6pm and DH was violating the dress code, so we ran back to the cabin so he could change into pants and closed toed shoes. Jo Fe had already turned the bed down for the evening, and she left us an unwanted surprise… the disembarkation questionnaire! It was only day 2 of a 10-day cruise… why must they give us this paper soooo early and remind us that eventually, our cruise will end and we will have to leave??

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We had 2 days to complete and return the form, so I stashed it away for now, not wanting to think about the inevitable. We then went up to the Grand Salon for the Captain’s Reception where the Captain introduced all of the officers on board.

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The reception lasted about 30 minutes and, as we expected there to be, there was a mad dash to L’Etoile at 7pm as soon as it ended. We were among the first couples to enter the dining room and were immediately seated at a table for 8, with 2 couples from Australia and one couple from New Zealand. It was great getting to know a new set of fellow guests, and boy did we ever have a lot of time to get to know them! While we were the first table seated after the reception, we were nearly the last table to leave the dining room. Service tonight was so incredibly slow that we were there for over 2.5 hours!! About an hour and a half in, when we still had not received our entrees, our waiter came over to apologize for the service and he blamed it on the rush at 7pm. Doesn’t the same exact thing happen on every cruise?? We knew enough to sit at the back of the theater so we would make a quick escape when the reception ended. Obviously if they have a program that many people want to attend and they schedule that program during dinner time, then guests must wait until after that program before they can go eat, and everyone will show up at the dining room at the same time. If the dining room cannot handle that rush then they should schedule the reception at 9pm after most people have finished dinner! As always, the food was delicious, it just took way too long to receive it.

Tonight’s menu:

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Foie Gras Terrine

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Grilled Local Moon Fish

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Dessert Menu:

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Gauguines favorite dessert

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By the time we walked out of the dining room, it was 9:38pm and the evening show had already started. I was beyond exhausted after sitting in the dining room for so long, so we skipped the evening show and went straight to bed.

Again, great pictures (review too) deladane. A personal question if I may and please tell me to mind my own business if you don't want to answer. In a previous post you mentioned being in school for your doctorate. Doctor of what?