2/9/10 - 11 Night Tuamotu & Society Islands Review

[Friscorays]

Enjoyed re-reading the thread although it unfortunately reminded me of some dark days on the PG forum back in July of last year.:(

[DrmnOfMaui]

just "found" your very in-depth review....great job! we have cruised twice before, to Alaska and a 15 day Trans Atlantic to the Med, but are sure we will be blown away on the PG this dec. great pics as well :)

 

Modeshield... I'm SO excited for you!!! My husband and I truly think about this trip often and we miss the unforgettable tropical destinations. The peacefulness of the PG is one that stays with you forever and leaves you yearning to return! I will be eager to hear about your trip when you get home. Please drop a note to let us know how it all goes for you!

 

Enjoyed re-reading the thread although it unfortunately reminded me of some dark days on the PG forum back in July of last year.:(

 

I remember that too... but I try to skip over those posts and simply ignore them. Glad you enjoyed re-reading! My husband and I will occasionally pop back here to relive the trip too. We have an Italian cruise coming up in a few weeks, and while I will miss the South Pacific, I'm pretty darn excited to visit Rome!!

[Ahab10]

Thank you DrmnOMaui for re-igniting our love of the PG and FP. Our last visit on the PG was last October with our two daughters and their husbands. They are now feeling the effects of the FP flu. We however, know it won't be long and we will be back.:D

[modeshield]

:) can't wait to experience this part of the world. will post after we're back.

 

Do have a question though; on day 1 after we board in Papeete at 3pm or so, can we leave the ship? Or once we are on do we stay on as it sails at 1159 pm that night???

 

thanks again for you great indepth review & pictures!

[DrmnOfMaui]

Thank you DrmnOMaui for re-igniting our love of the PG and FP. Our last visit on the PG was last October with our two daughters and their husbands. They are now feeling the effects of the FP flu. We however, know it won't be long and we will be back.:D

 

Yay!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! My husband and I still have the flu and long for our deck chairs on the PG.

 

:) can't wait to experience this part of the world. will post after we're back.

 

Do have a question though; on day 1 after we board in Papeete at 3pm or so, can we leave the ship? Or once we are on do we stay on as it sails at 1159 pm that night???

 

thanks again for you great indepth review & pictures!

 

You will love it! I'll be eager to read about your adventures when you return.

 

As for your question... I'm not a good one to answer that one. We arrived only an hour before the 10 PM sailing so we were just thankful we didn't miss the ship. I'm guessing you would be able to leave again, but I would check to make sure. I know others on this board will have that answer for you.

 

Enjoy!

[DrmnOfMaui]

Planning our vacation for this summer had us just a phone call away from bringing the kids to the Paul Gauguin... but with conflicting schedules we are headed to the med.

Nevertheless, I took some time to re-read our trip report here and I'll admit to having a bit of the Island Fever brewing...

Miss you Paul Gauguin!!

[Emdee]

Drmn, why dont you plan for the repeaters cruise in 2014?

[DrmnOfMaui]

Drmn, why dont you plan for the repeaters cruise in 2014?

 

Oohh!!! That's an idea!! I will have to look into that!!:):):)

[Familygoboston]

Hi Kim- my DH and I have a PG trip planned for our 25 th in Oct...but weve been planning for 18 mos!;) much as I fantasize about being whisked away in vacation, I can't even imagine trying to do it all in 5 days:eek:

 

I wasn't on the PG boards when you first posted this, so I am glad it's been revived. What a wonderful photo review ( my favorite kimd!) I do have a couple of questions for you if you can stand it!

 

On what deck was your cabin? I'm wondering if we will have those chairs that lounge a bit? I sure hope so. As that is my biggest complaint on most balconies! We will be on 6.

 

Emdee has also mentioned the public balcony on 8...my husband is a real photo nut and would love that location for photos. But you mention alarms?! The last thing I want to do is bother folks staying there by setting off alarms. Maybe I should inquire about upgrading to be of those cabins before we leave;)

 

Thans again for your review...reading them all is one of the fun things about having a long wait to sail! Enjoy your Med cruise. We are taking our girls to Ecuador and the Galapagos this summer.

[DrmnOfMaui]

Hi Kim- my DH and I have a PG trip planned for our 25 th in Oct...but weve been planning for 18 mos!;) much as I fantasize about being whisked away in vacation, I can't even imagine trying to do it all in 5 days:eek:

 

I wasn't on the PG boards when you first posted this, so I am glad it's been revived. What a wonderful photo review ( my favorite kimd!) I do have a couple of questions for you if you can stand it!

 

On what deck was your cabin? I'm wondering if we will have those chairs that lounge a bit? I sure hope so. As that is my biggest complaint on most balconies! We will be on 6.

 

Emdee has also mentioned the public balcony on 8...my husband is a real photo nut and would love that location for photos. But you mention alarms?! The last thing I want to do is bother folks staying there by setting off alarms. Maybe I should inquire about upgrading to be of those cabins before we leave;)

 

Thans again for your review...reading them all is one of the fun things about having a long wait to sail! Enjoy your Med cruise. We are taking our girls to Ecuador and the Galapagos this summer.

 

I don't mind at all!! Glad you enjoyed the review... I have to admit that I've re-read it in the last few days and it has brought back so many memories.

 

First of all, we were on Deck 8, a Category B Veranda. The ship though, has been renovated since we were there, so the chairs most likely have been swapped out. Our chairs did lounge back though, and I have fond memories of leisurely afternoon naps at sea. :)

 

I'm a bit of a photo nut too (that's sort of an understatement...), and your husband simply must go forward to the front on Deck 8 for some of the entries! Beautiful, beautiful views. I can't remember what I had said about alarms, but I know that there were none. Simply walk through the doors for the view. We thought we had found some sort of secret place, but soon found out that it was not so secret.

 

Some of the best shots I have of the trip are from the ship looking out towards the islands. Somehow, seeing the view from the water brings a whole different perspective than taking the photos on land.

 

I'm envious of your Ecuador and Galapagos trip! I'll bet you will have some fabulous photos there as well.

 

I had to laugh at your comment about our last minute planning. I had never done anything like that before, and somehow it was exciting. We didn't know much about what we were doing, therefore I had no preconceived notions of what to expect and we just experienced. While we haven't done that again, our last two trips, this next one included, have been less than two month plans. Enough time to research, but still sort of last minute.

 

Bon Voyage to you! You will have a wonderful time on the Paul Gauguin... there is simply nothing like it.

[Familygoboston]

Thank you! Glad to hear that deck 8 is in the clear...last thing I want is the capt to make us walk the plank:eek: Our cabin on 6 is bound to have a smaller balcony, but being a New Englander, I can only take so much sun anyway, we like them so DH can get photos at sail way and sail in. On Adventure we will have one of those aft balconies that offers lots of shade, but there didn't seem to be a balcony quite like those on PG, as it's a smaller ship.

 

I'll bet your spur of the moment trip was wonderful, in some ways the hardest part of the trip is all the fretting over who needs to be where when;) Luckily, ours are nearly grown and one is driving, so it is much easier now!

 

We are excited about the Galapagos, we booked that one after the PG trip and thought we would go in June, then the dates didn't work out for our teens and we scheduled for August, but the two trips are less than 2 months apart and I'm a little overwhelmed by that being an advance planner! I will do a trip report for that one on the dis boards ( same screen name) and on "other" cruises here on CC, but we may not get to them till after Christmas. DH usually comes home with thousands of images to sort through on one trip, I am afraid what kind of back up we will have for this!:eek:

 

Thanks for answering all my questions! Have a wonderful trip in Europe!

 

BTW I loved the pearls you picked- that's more my style too, and after looking at the web etc, I was thinking I might not bother to shop much, but now maybe I will look around a bit!

[DrmnOfMaui]

Thank you! Glad to hear that deck 8 is in the clear...last thing I want is the capt to make us walk the plank:eek: Our cabin on 6 is bound to have a smaller balcony, but being a New Englander, I can only take so much sun anyway, we like them so DH can get photos at sail way and sail in. On Adventure we will have one of those aft balconies that offers lots of shade, but there didn't seem to be a balcony quite like those on PG, as it's a smaller ship.

 

I'll bet your spur of the moment trip was wonderful, in some ways the hardest part of the trip is all the fretting over who needs to be where when;) Luckily, ours are nearly grown and one is driving, so it is much easier now!

 

We are excited about the Galapagos, we booked that one after the PG trip and thought we would go in June, then the dates didn't work out for our teens and we scheduled for August, but the two trips are less than 2 months apart and I'm a little overwhelmed by that being an advance planner! I will do a trip report for that one on the dis boards ( same screen name) and on "other" cruises here on CC, but we may not get to them till after Christmas. DH usually comes home with thousands of images to sort through on one trip, I am afraid what kind of back up we will have for this!:eek:

 

Thanks for answering all my questions! Have a wonderful trip in Europe!

 

BTW I loved the pearls you picked- that's more my style too, and after looking at the web etc, I was thinking I might not bother to shop much, but now maybe I will look around a bit!

 

So sorry for the particularly tardy reply!! We did have a wonderful trip in Europe and I'm enjoying sorting through and editing the photos.

 

You're trip is coming close, isn't it?? Can't wait to hear about it when you return!:)

[Familygoboston]

Thanks Dreamin- glad to hear your Europe trip was great! If it was anything like our recent trip to Ecuador- you probably need a vacation after the vacation! I know we are looking forward to our PG cruise in less than 2 weeks to relax after a very busy aug and sept! When I get back DH and I will do a full photo review...but it always takes a while because we like to get all the photos processed first and then I have to write it all from my notes before I start posting. We are so looking forward to this trip!:D

[twin123185]

Drmn, why dont you plan for the repeaters cruise in 2014?

 

I wonder when there will be an announcement about this!

[Emdee]

Hi Twin,

Captain Zupan is on holidays now. I will be meeting Dianne Moore on the Tere Moana and hopefully all be finalized early next year. I shall post as soon as I have information. Tentatively settled for Sept 10th 2014 with likely precruise from Fii doing different islands before the main one.

[twin123185]

Date is good - not thrilled with Fiji to be honest but what the hell. Off to my own med/ta cruise in a month. I echo DrmnOfMaui as I can't wait to get back to Rome.

[Emdee]

Twin the main repeaters will be 10 day around societies.

I suggested a b2b for those who wanted to do it since the ship will be coming from Fiji. Therefore Fiji/Samoa and maybe some different cooks as well.

[sjn911]

A dream trip of a lifetime..thanks so much for this review and thread....Sarah

[DrmnOfMaui]

A dream trip of a lifetime..thanks so much for this review and thread....Sarah

 

Thanks Sarah! Somehow your reply just showed up in my inbox today... Glad it did though, you gave me a chance to look back at our trip. I'm missing the islands! Just had a friend return from Papeete with some gorgeous photos. I've got the Tropical Bug... I might need some PG!!!