Loved the cruise but it is not 5 star

[Leejnd4]

One more vote against Pia. She has been there since Regent days. Was extremely rude to us when we complained that we were forgotten at the Rarotonga airport and left to our own devices on a paid ship's excursion.

 

The ex Gauguinne at the desk is Sandi - and she is a real gem. Last year was kind enough to make arrangements for us to use the Sofitel's facilities and gave us any help and support we needed with arrangements.

 

Yes! Sandi! But she wears a different name on her name tag - begins with an L, Luta or something like that? She told us that when she was a Gauguinne they asked her to use a name that sounded more "Tahitian" so she used her middle name, but her real name is Sandi. She was a gem!

 

Wow, seriously they need to do something about Pia. I assume PG is reading this forum - they do seem to follow it, at least sometimes. I hope somebody take some action, because it's just wrong to have someone in such an important position disappointing so many people.

[Emdee]

Actually DD remembered another situation with Pia as well.

Maybe she is really good at something we cannot see!

[lithlith]

We had mixed interactions with Pia.

Her port lectures were great! They were a mix of on your own information and ship excursion information.

Then there was the day that paddleboarding was advertised in the daily paper telling people to sign up in advance. So we went to the desk, where she told us that we could only sign up 24 hours in advance and it was still a few days out from when it would be offered. We were annoyed since it was advertised to sign up, but we couldn't. A few hours later, she hunted us down in one of the bars on the ship, told us that the 24 hour rule wasn't fair and that she would sign us up if we would give her our room number. And we were first to try out the paddle board. We were impressed that she tracked us down and fixed the problem.

[stephenandrew]

The ship seems to lack upkeep in a preventative manner. It appears things are just being addressed as they occur, which is unfortunate. The snorkel equipment is run down and needs to be examined upon return of each use, these things break. Take the time to keep it nice, if you are going to offer it, keep up with it. Our room had rattles in several places, that were to the extent that could drive you crazy. The mirrors rattled in two places, the closet door on one side and the divider between our balconies had a rattle that was so terrible my husband had to finally wedge a dining napkin between sections to relieve it.

 

We sailed back in April (great trip), but I would note that we too had some noise/rattle issues in our cabin (Deck 7)---annoying at first, but as the cruise wore on, we no longer noticed. I would agree about the snorkeling equipment---it was a bit rough (still perfectly adequate). But these were very minor issues for us.

[DGK]

What was your cabin number on deck seven that had the rattle/ noise please ? Thanks, Donna

[ShoeP41]

What was your cabin number on deck seven that had the rattle/ noise please ? Thanks, Donna

 

Hello,

 

We were in cabln 729 this sailing. We returned to deck seven as our sailing two summers ago was without any issues.

[stephenandrew]

Hello,

 

We were in cabln 729 this sailing. We returned to deck seven as our sailing two summers ago was without any issues.

 

We were also in 729 in April for a 14-day trip; the A/C was noisy sometimes, but never had any other "rattling" issues. We may well have had different cabin attendants, but ours was great--we hardly ever saw her; she was always in and our of our room very quickly. Always left the place spotless, had fresh towels, minibar was replensihed, etc. We had a probelm with room safe too---could not open it, but someone came up to fix it immeidately. Clearly, the safe needs to be fixed LOL. I agree with you about the snorkeling equipment. It was a bit "tired", but in all fairness, it was perfectly adequate to meet our needs.

[Giskard]

ShoePi41

So sorry to learn of your issues on the cruise, what a bummer. I'm sure after the exceptional cruise you had two summers ago it was that much more disappointing. I'm glad PG reads the forums and can take some action to help correct the issues you and others have raised. (by the way I think I have a picture to email you of you guys flying in front of the mountain in the Helicopter, I'm sure its you as the timing is right)

 

Our experience on the same cruise follows LeeAnn's. We too were on deck 4. Our room was great and Erlinda, our steward, was awesome. She was very friendly, greeting us each time she saw us, asking about our day, etc, keeping us stocked in water and other small touches.

 

We also ate at a table for 8 most nights at La Etoil and had exceptional service each night, not rushed. At breakfast and lunches I had to let the wait staff carry my plates and had to stop them from refilling drinks several times. Bar staff is outstanding and the casino gals a blast!

 

Sandi and the new gal at the travel desk were great. Sandi helped me contact Patrick to let him know I couldn't keep my spot on his tour in Bora Bora (boo hoo hate I missed that one, Sandi didn't want me to cancel) due to my stitches. She called him and handled it all in French for me :)

 

I can vouch that the Dr is top notch. So many of the staff went out of their way and truly made it an incredible trip. We felt it was the friendliest staff and passenger mix we have ever experienced.

 

We don't have a previous trip on a ship like this to compare this too. All of our cruises have been on the mainstream lines so maybe it was easy for us to be blown away. Doesn't matter why, this was our best vacation ever and the ship and trip exceeded our very high expectations. Now, I will say I've already told people here at home that I highly recommend they go and I highly recommend the ship HOWEVER I'm not going to rush to go back in the very near future because I don't want to taint the experience we had. Next year is a land and cruise trip to Europe and I can tell this trip will influence which cruise line we choose for the Greek Island/turkey cruise part of that trip.

 

Debbie

[cruiseyj]

We were on deck 4. We had Mary Grace as our room attendant, and she was truly astonishing. I've been on many cruises, and even on the PG before, and she is by far the best I've ever had. She not only cleaned the room but organized everything, in such a manner that I always knew where everything would be. We did get a little messy in there - we were REALLY busy on this cruise, what with all of our dives and private tours, and there were times we left it a total shambles. Yet she always managed to make it not just clean and neat, but orderly and organized...any important documents were stacked on the table, unimportant documents were stacked in another pile (she somehow always seemed to know!). And she would fold any dirty clothes I left out. Her timing was also impeccable - she seemed to know exactly when we were going to be out for more than an hour, and it seemed every time we got back to our cabin, she'd been there sparkling it up, no matter how many times she'd already done it that day.

 

Anyway, I want to say I don't mean to belittle or invalidate the experiences of others. I'm sure they experienced is as described, and I'm sorry to hear that. I'm grateful I got the staff I got, as they contributed greatly to my overall enjoyment.

 

I don't think my standards are any less stringent - I've been on great cruises, I've been on not-so-great cruises, I'm not one of those people who thinks everything is great even when it's not. I know when something is not up to snuff. It sounds like so much of this experience is dependent on who you get - waiters, service people, room attendants. We got lucky and had really good ones. And of course equipment malfunctions in the room would be annoying, so I'm grateful we didn't have any of those.

 

Another comment I will make is about Pia - yeah, we didn't like her at all. She was actually quite rude to Sandy one day. But we didn't really deal with her - the person we worked with at the tour desk was a former Le Gauguin, and sadly I'm drawing a blank on her name...but I'll ask Sandy and she'll remember her. She was over-the-top helpful, and we adored her! And for them to have rearranged our private tours, including with a dive operator on Rarotonga - that was just phenomenal service, IMO.

 

No the cruise wasn't perfect - I've mentioned two issues already (the late bus/tender situation, and Pia's less-than-friendly attitude). And there were other annoyances: PG seems to fall down terribly in the land-transfer department (LOTS more about that in my upcoming review - mainly about chaos and haphazard luggage handling, but that's on land, not the ship). There was also one night in which the service was very slooooow in La Veranda (not Roderick!). But I can't say that these imperfections detracted enough from the experience for me to downgrade my overall rating of this cruise. There is no such thing as a *perfect* travel experience, in any class - I've been on Crystal, Regent and PG (all considered 5-star) and not a one of them went off without at least a few hitches, especially when it's such a lengthy trip (2 1/2 weeks).

 

I'm sad that there are some PG staffers who didn't hit the mark, and that my fellow cruiser seemed to get so many of them on one cruise!

 

oh my, the land transfer luggage handling was a horrible experience which made the start of the trip (we did a pre-cruise stay) start on the wrong foot... from IC Tahiti to the Ferry, they took our bags for us, but after that, we had to do it ourselves everywhere, as the transfer operators seemed to be merely "drivers" and didn't help at all. For those doing a pre-cruise Moorea transfer, prepare to physically unload your luggage from luggage crates (along with all people who were on the ferry and sent luggage through) once you reach Moorea, and drag and load it onto a small shuttle bus. Once you leave IC Moorea and arrive back in Papeete to get on the ship, prepare again to do it again, "claiming" luggage from a giant stacked crate where about 50 bags are on top of each other in a metal crate (with local luggage, non PG luggage, basically anyone on a massive car ferry who sent luggage through and nobody unloading it- passengers have to pull bags out themselves from under bags and bags), and drag it around a pier before you finally find a rep (who has NO PG sign by-the-way, you just have to ask a bunch of people standing around there who is from PG!), put it back on a bus, to be shuttled the 3 minutes to the PG ship (where thankfully they finally take your luggage!). If you weren't expecting to have to do this (we weren't, as we paid for all inclusive pre-cruise transfers/tour through PG), it is a big surprise. . . . . I don't think this was the right forum for venting this, but I just saw your comment on the land transfer and had to add my experience (i just got back yesterday btw!)

 

BUT- I can say that I had a lovely experience in all restaurants. My drink order wasn't remembered until about day 8 (I always got the same thing, and on Crystal after day 2 they had it memorised), but that didn't bother me like it seems to bother some. I had great waiters, and the food with the new chef was really good. I heard from those who went last year and said it was better this year. lunch could be better, but the breakfast and dinners were great, and we didn't have any complaints.