Review 25th June-4th July 2015 cruise

[sammyboots]

This was probably the most longed for, anticipated trip we have ever done! We originally had a cruise booked for January 2013, it was to be the holiday of lifetime for us to a place I'd always dreamed of visiting. Living in the UK most of my life, the idea of travelling eleven hours flight time to LA and then another eight hours onward to Tahiti sounded like a huge ordeal involving time and money! However circumstances presented themselves in that we would have the opportunity to go. Then fate stepped in, and as of November 2012, we had to cancel our long awaited trip as I was diagnosed with cancer. Long story short, a couple of surgeries, chemo and radiotherapy treatments later...we had the opportunity to book a transpacific in November 2014...and what a trip that was. We had two days in the Society islands, one day in Tahiti and one in Bora Bora. It was enough to wet my appetite further! We happened to meet a couple who had just disembarked off the PG and they told us all about their experience leaving us feeling quite envious and keen for the opportunity to get back out there. And so we ended up booking our first cruise on the Paul Gauguin! The chance to get out there to do this cruise as we had originally planned it held a strong resonance for us because of what we had been though and so we began planning the trip with military, if not slightly, obsessive tendencies!! During this time the CC boards were invaluable to us while we were searching for any tiny piece of information about the ship and the area that we could find so thank you to all of you who helped us with information along the way.

Our journey began on the 25th June flying Air France from LAX. The flight left at 11.55pm which worked well for us. We spent a few hours before takeoff in the Delta lounge, eating and relaxing there which provided a pleasant start to the holiday. The flight itself was on an older 777-200 and although the seat pitch of 32" sounds small it was actually very comfortable. The food was good and the service was excellent. There was also a good range of on demand seat back entertainment available. Many years ago I flew Air France from the UK to Boston and it was one of the worst experiences particularly with cabin crew service that I remember. I'm happy to report that our recent experience was a vast improvement!

We managed to get some sleep before arriving around 5am into Papeete. There was a queue at immigration but no more than you would expect and immigration were fairly quick getting everyone through. We had not booked our pre and post hotels through PG and would be travelling independently so after going to the ATM to collect some local currency, we went off to get a taxi to take us to the Terevau ferry for our one night pre cruise stay at the Hilton Moorea. There were plenty of taxis available and after a short journey watching the sunrise, we arrived at the ferry port. We bought our tickets, loaded our luggage into the crate and then went for a coffee in the cafe upstairs before going for walk along the dockside as we had a little time to kill before our ferry left at 8.05am. As we walked along the waterfront, we had a good view of the Windstar that was docked ready to take on their new passengers for the week. It was a cruiseline that we had the choice to book with but we had no regrets and felt the PG was the right choice for us. The tourist information office opened while we were there and we had a little look around inside, gathered a couple of maps etc. This is all within about ten minutes walk of the ferry terminal.

As we boarded the ferry we went outside to look at the view, we could hardly wipe the grins off our faces...we were actually here! One of the locals was kind enough to offer to take photos of us as we approached the island of Moorea and pointed out some of the scenery to us. So on arrival, after collecting our luggage, we found Albert's Transport waiting on the dock for us. The transport cost 1000cfp per person each way, we booked online with them and found them to be very reliable. They send an email to the hotel on the evening before you are due to leave confirming pick up times and were very good when we asked for an earlier than previously arranged time. Nothing seemed to be any trouble. We also booked a tour with them for one of the days the PG would be in Moorea which I will detail later.

On arrival at the Hilton we were presented with beautiful leis, our details quickly confirmed and then off we went to change before finding a quiet spot on the beach. Our cases were collected and we were told they would come and find us to say when our room was ready. I had no idea how they planned to seek us out and recognise us but frankly I didn't care two hoots at this point, I was just happy to be there! :D At around 10.30am my husband decided to check just in case the room was ready (note his impatience, not mine!) and he was told it was. The first I knew of it was a little golf cart scooting round to the path adjacent to the beach where I was sat and we were chauffeured around to our room. We had decided not to go for a OWB and were perfectly happy with our little garden view bungalow. We had taken out the Hilton Honors card and were even more pleased that our room was in fact, free! They gave us an upgrade to a bungalow with a plunge pool but on checking the hotel plans, my husband maintains that there was only one bungalow without the plunge pool anyway so I'm not so sure whether that was much of an upgrade but hey I'm certainly not complaining! We loved that room, so much that I didn't want to check out of it the next day! It was spacious, very clean and pretty with flowers on the bed and in the bathroom. The management even left a complimentary bottle of wine on ice for us for when we returned from our dinner that night along with a large bottle of sparkling water (to go along with the two complimentary bottles they offer anyway.) The food was very good at the Hilton and not as expensive as we had expected it to be. Although we found that local restaurants would pick you up for free to take you for dinner, in the end we decided to stay at the hotel because it was hassle free and actually just a pretty good place to be! We had crepes for dinner which we really enjoyed but had I realised how filling they would be, I would have shared a savoury one and then shared a sweet one to follow. After my savoury crepe I just couldn't manage dessert. We managed to catch a great view of the PG sailing out of Moorea that evening on it's way to Papeete, just as the sun was starting to set. The next morning, I got up early and went to watch the sunrise. It's incredibly beautiful, relaxing and peaceful. Make sure you take insect repellent though...I sprayed and my husband didn't so he ended up with the bites!!

The water sport equipment is good, we used a kayak and the stand up body boards during our first day although we didn't snorkel. The following morning we had one of the best breakfast buffets we have had in the main restaurant after a game of tennis on the court next to the fitness centre. At breakfast there was a lot of choice and the quality of the food was excellent. This was also included in our Hilton Honors booking.

We checked out at 11am exactly and placed our cases to be held with reception. We continued with enjoying the rest of our day, spending tine relaxing by pool until our taxi was due to pick us up for our 2.10pm ferry. We were given shell leis on departure from the hotel and taken to the ferry with plenty of time to spare. On arrival at the dock in Papeete, we were excited to see the Paul Gauguin was docked just a five minute walk away.:D

Edited August 2, 2015 by sammyboots

[cruisefun27]

Keep it coming!! Enjoying so far.

[Familygoboston]

Ooo, I'm enjoying it already, and you haven't even boarded yet! You make the Moorea overnight sound so hassle free and appealing, I may just have to try that next time! :D looking forward to the rest? (Any photos?:o)

[lkawartha]

Excited to hear more about your PG trip. So glad your experience at the Hilton Moorea was great....can't wait for our November trip and stay at the Hilton.

Keep feeding me more .....

[Cruisedreamer1]

Loving it! I look forward to more of your report!

[DGK]

Wonderful you enjoyed the Hilton Moorea as we also did prior to our PG cruise. Thoroughly enjoying your review. Thanks for taking the time to post

[sammyboots]

Thanks so much for your kind comments! :)

[sammyboots]

The Paul Gauguin sailing from Moorea to Tahiti.

 

[sammyboots]

Garden view bungalow at the Hilton Moorea

 

[sammyboots]

Arriving at the Paul Gauguin we were welcomed by smiling crew members who took our bags from us then quickly ushered us onboard where we were offered a glass of champagne. We were directed to the show lounge where we gave our cruise documents and passport info and remarkably, there were no queues, everything was smoothly organized. After check-in at the Show lounge our stateroom attendant, Helin, introduced herself to us, took my hat from my hand and promptly placed it on her own Head whilst leading the way to our cabin. Helin kept us entertained over the week; we often came back to the cabin to find my hat placed on top of the ‘tiki’ statue in our stateroom.

 

Our stateroom was on Deck four, 411. I had some concerns that it was very near to the stairwells, elevators and reception area so might be noisy. On the contrary, it was very quiet. The room itself was fairly spacious; it had a mirrored wall opposite the bed which gave the illusion of more space and light. The bed was very comfortable with good quality linens. Plenty of space under the bed for storage of cases and the storage in general around the cabin was very generous. Some of it was quite inventive, there seemed to be little nooks and crannies everywhere…the downside of this was all the checking and double checking that we hadn’t left anything behind at the end of the trip! The wood cabinetry looked better than in the brochure photos; it gave an air of sophisticated old style cruising. There was fresh fruit provided every day and also a fridge containing bottled water, beers and soft drinks which were replenished daily. The cabin had a large picture window but no balcony; we usually go for a balcony cabin but decided to save our pennies on this cruise and did not regret our choice. I think as it was a port intensive cruise, we would have had little time to use it. Perhaps if we had many sea days we may have felt differently. The TV / DVD player we only used once when we borrowed a DVD from the lending library from reception, so I can’t comment on the channel availability.

 

The bathroom also had much more than the usual storage. There was a full size bath with a shower over it. Toiletries were L’Occitaine , Good quality and replaced as necessary. The towels were slightly disappointing as they did not match the quality of the rest of the cabin but were more than adequate and clean.

 

Our cases arrived very promptly as we were being shown around the cabin by Helin. My husband always acts as my Butler when away and unpacks the suitcase for me, which is a real treat :D. Meanwhile whilst he was unpacking I read all the literature left in the stateroom. We decided to explore the ship prior to the lifeboat drill at 5pm. The ship was deserted as this particular cruise had three quarters of the cabins chartered by Cox Media Company with the flight bringing these passengers arriving at 11pm. The lifeboat drill was hassle free and highlighted to us the very high crew to passenger ratio. We were pleasantly surprised to find the ship felt much bigger than we were expecting. The smallest ship we had sailed on until this point was around 28,000 tonnes and of late we have sailed on considerably larger ships than that.

 

Before dinner we went and picked up our snorkeling equipment from the marina. I had decided to take my own snorkeling vest for this trip as I had correctly heard that the PG doesn't hand them out anymore. We didn't realise at the time but the mouthpiece of my snorkel was missing; we didn't notice this until our snorkel the following day but it was replaced no issues by the PG marina staff.

 

We had our first dinner at L’Etoile that evening and we were impressed by a great menu with plenty of delicious tempting choices. On entering the restaurant we spoke with the Maitre D' and he booked us a table in La Veranda but we were unable to access anyone from the Grill to book our table at that point. The food in L'Etoile didn’t disappoint and we loved the little extra touches such as the wonderful French cheese board and also the petit fours at the end of the meal. One tiny detail missing for me was the lack of any de caffeinated black tea…I would be happy with English breakfast, Ceylon, Darjeeling…even Liptons at a push (but that really would take desperation!!) there were fruit or herb teas available but that wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Thankfully I had some with me back in the cabin so my lovely husband nipped back and brought one for me. I realise this wouldn’t be an issue for anyone unless they were a Brit. ;)

 

There were so few passengers at this point on board that we retired early and were eagerly anticipating our first port of call the next morning to Huahine.

Edited August 4, 2015 by sammyboots

[Emdee]

Great posts....keep em coming!

Edited August 4, 2015 by Emdee

[justmeindustland]

Thank you for taking the time to post. I love the detail and can't wait for more

[sammyboots]

We were late leaving Papeete due to the majority of passengers arriving on a late flight. Not that this concerned us as we were fast asleep in our lovely comfortable bed by this point. I do enjoy waking during the night to the gentle (or even, not so gentle!) rocking of the ship, I find it very comforting. We awoke feeling refreshed as we were approaching Huahine and decided to have breakfast in La Veranda. For some reason over the week we didn’t try breakfast in Le Grill. There was still an outside area in La Veranda which we sometimes used but as much as anything, we loved the staff in there. We couldn’t believe how quickly they all came to know our names and anticipate our needs. Over the week, I’m not sure I managed to even pick a plate up without someone rushing to fetch it for me and to take it back to our table. Fantastic service, there’s no other way to describe it. The choice of food at the buffet was pretty standard fare but the whole breakfast experience was as much about the way we were treated by the lovely servers as anything else which is a first for me. I enjoyed the smoothie of the day, the fresh fruit and the swiss muesli was excellent. I was also a fan of the many varieties of bread and pastries they had on offer, the fruit bread being my favourite.

 

After some deliberation on what to do in Huahine, we booked Marc’s Motu Picnic. Arriving on a Sunday we had heard that there wasn’t an awful lot to do on Huahine. Initially we thought we would use the marina at the back of the ship if the weather was good and do some kayaking but in the end off on a tour we went. We’d heard good reports about this particular tour and we weren’t disappointed. As we left the tender, we saw someone holding a sign saying Marc’s Motu Picnic, we were led to our transport and who should be on already but Ali and Mike aka AmR87! Ali and Mike were THE ONLY folks on the PG roll call for this trip so it only seemed right that we should bump into each other at some point! Such a lovely couple! :) We were taken to meet our outrigger canoe where we were joined by a load of other people of different nationalities. The first stop was the Pearl farm which was interesting but not interesting enough to want to pay those prices! My husband did ask me if I would like a necklace. Once I’d picked myself up off the floor, I asked him if he had seen the prices and it turned out that without his glasses he had missed out one of the zeros on the price! I shall remember in future not to question such suggestions and just say “Yes please!!”:rolleyes:

 

From the Pearl farm we had enough time for my husband’s palpitations to ease before we went for a snorkel. I was a little dubious about the idea of a drift snorkel as I had read that some folk had found it a little strenuous. I’m an okay swimmer but not the strongest and so I had felt some concern about how confident I would feel in the current. Once we arrived at the area for snorkeling, we were shown an area that appeared (to me) to be a LONG way off, being told that the canoe would meet us there. For a while it looked as if the outrigger would have to sail with me still clinging on to it as I really wasn’t too convinced about letting go of the side lol! My husband was being very patient with me while keeping a safe distance as the last time I had a small panic in the water I ended up nearly drowning him by putting my hands on his head and ducking him ever so accidently. :o Anyways, he blew some air into my snorkeling vest, just a little to get my confidence and then away I went. It took me a while to realise that I didn’t need to swim just bob along in the current while looking at all the lovely fish! By writing this you will realise that I did in fact survive the experience as did my husband, no near drowning of him this time! :D I didn’t find the experience in any way strenuous, quite the opposite, once I’d got over my fear, it was actually very relaxing. We arrived at a little motu where we had a lovely BBQ and some freshly made Poisson cru, after a demonstration on how to make it. Thankfully I had my bug spray with me, lots of little buzzy things around; once again my husband got bitten and I didn’t! After the food it was on to meet the sharks! Oddly enough I had no fear of this compared to the drift snorkel. It was quite surreal to be in the water with so many sharks swimming around but there was a length of rope set up to hold onto to keep us in our places and the sharks also seemed to be familiar with the routine so it was all good!

 

We were fairly tired by the time we got back to the ship so we showered and had a little chill out time before dinner in La Veranda. Our evening meal we felt was good but we both preferred the food in L’Etoile. The staff as always, where ever we went on the ship, were great.

I’m unsure what nights we watched which shows but the shows we did see over the week were mainly local dancers or entertainment by the Gauguins and Gauguines. We thought they were all spectacular and very talented. I have heard some people on the forum state that they would prefer to see other forms of entertainment than the local cultural stuff but for us it was what the holiday was all about and I never tired of watching! One show I would’ve liked to have seen was the children of Huahine’s performance. It’s usually held on the afternoon of the day the ship is in Huahine, unfortunately we weren’t back in time.

 

After returning to our cabin for the night, we were delighted to find an invitation to have dinner with the cruise director, Cristian Frew the following evening. We were very pleased to accept his invitation and looked forward to meeting Cristian at the end of the following day on Motu Mahana, Taha’a!

[sammyboots]

Lions and tigers and....sharks!

 

[Cruisedreamer1]

Please put your "pen to ink" for more of your cruise report. We appreciate your efforts.

 

Did they have a star gazing night while you were on board?

[NanciEA]

I'm enjoying your reports very much. Keep them coming! You mentioned that 3/4 of the cruisers were from a company charter. I was wondering if this affected your enjoyment of the cruise either positive or negative? Did you feel left out socially?

[DavidTheWonderer]

I'm really conflicted by these lovely reports. It has been a whole 11 months since I've been on the PG, and a further 16 months until I am on her again. So on one hand I'm enjoying getting some of my worst "Polynesian Flu" symptoms massaged. On the other hand, I'm feeling sorry for myself for not getting to go again for a long long time. Sniff!

 

One small point: if you reduce the size of your wonderful photos a bit it will mean that reading this thread doesn't require using the horizontal slider to see all the text. But the shark photos are spectacular! Thanks.

[sammyboots]

Thanks for your comments folks, I appreciate them!

 

Cruisedreamer1, there was a star gazing night and I'm sorry to say we missed it! It was something that we really fancied doing, I think we got caught up in socialising or something and forgot about it unfortunately. We did have some quite cloudy evenings so I'm not sure how successful it would have been?

 

NanciEA, I think it's fair to say that it did impact upon our cruise a little. Many people were already in groups and of course, they had pre arranged private social events. I know from speaking to some of the staff that there were complaints. My husband even saw one passenger spit over the rail on the stern of the ship at La Palette. We did meet a few folk that were part of the chartered group and they were really lovely so I'm certainly not saying that everyone was an issue but unfortunately there were some that ruffled a few feathers. The general opinion of past PG cruisers and the staff was that it wasn't the usual PG ambiance. Did it spoil our trip? No way, nothing and nobody was going to spoil this trip for us. Would we sail again on a ship if we were aware there was a large group on board? Probably not. ;)

 

Davidthewonderer, Thanks for your comments. My husband and I have had issues trying to resize the photos, any tips would be most welcome, thank you. :confused:

[DGK]

When we sailed Jan. 2013 there also was very large organized medical group. It had some advantages and disadvantages. When we sail again our opinion the same as yours Sammyboots to avoid any dates with a large organized group if possible

[sammyboots]

We were excited to arrive in Taha’a and have a day on Motu Mahana! We had a lovely breakfast as usual in La Veranda and then made our way to the tender armed with beach towels and snorkeling equipment. It was a pleasant tender ride over from the ship passing lots of motus, we had fun trying to guess which one we would be going to, we never did get it right until we were out of choices! It’s a wet landing at Motu Mahana but that adds to the experience! It was all starting to look busy so we headed off to find a couple of sun loungers in a shady spot. Easier said than done but we eventually found a couple just on the water’s edge under a couple of palm trees. Weather wise, it looked like we might get rain later although it was certainly warm enough. The wind was getting up though and it was a little blowy where we were so my husband decided to try and find a more sheltered spot over on the opposite shore. It was sheltered alright but to the point of sticky humidity and loads of flies so back to plan A we went! There were various activities going on, pareo tying demonstrations, volleyball, which my husband enjoyed, and some stalls around with locals selling various merchandise. The bar was open for cocktails served in coconuts, beers and soft drinks and at lunchtime a BBQ buffet was available. We had a pleasant day but I wouldn’t say it was our favourite day of the cruise mainly because of the amount of people around; it’s certainly a lovely spot for swimming and watersports though. On the return tender back to the ship, we were sat next to a couple who had both managed to catch themselves on a sea urchin. :eek: Neither was wearing watershoes which is really recommended in the area. This happened to my husband several years ago in Mauritius and it isn’t a pleasant experience, once bitten and all that, we don’t take the risk now!

 

After changing for dinner, we went to the Captain’s party where the Captain and some of the other officers were lined up and shook hands with us all. Can’t remember the last time I got to shake a Captain’s hand, they’re usually keen to keep us at arm’s length these days. Oh I don’t think I’ve mentioned the pre-dinner canapés? They were offered in the bars before dinner and also put in an appearance at the Captain’s cocktail party. Very nice they were too.

It was our evening to dine with the cruise director, Cristian Frew at L’Etoile. A lovely Irish couple, who were on their honeymoon, also joined us. Cristian had us laughing all night; he was very entertaining and has such a warm personality. I happened to mention how much I enjoyed the chocolate covered strawberries we had eaten as petit fours the previous night and he said since I had enjoyed them so much he’d send some up to the cabin for me the following day. :D All the dinners we ate in L’Etolie we very much enjoyed. There were always plenty of interesting choices and some “always available” items in case nothing took your fancy. I know I’ve already mentioned it…but that cheese board takes some beating!

Cristian left in time to host the evening’s entertainment and we also followed to the Show lounge to watch the show. Afterwards my other half and I retired to bed, excited at the prospect of waking up in Bora Bora! :)

[disneydiane61]

Thanks for the very detailed Trip Report. I am looking forward to our 10 day, June 1, 2016 cruise and will eat up every word I can find about the Paul Gaugin.

[micmacmissy]

Awesome trip report! I look forward to reading the rest! Thanks for taking the time to do it.

[sammyboots]

Thanks for the comments Disneydiane61 and Micmacmissy!

 

Sailing into Bora Bora, is always incredibly beautiful; it’s well worth getting up on deck to watch if you haven’t a balcony cabin. We have wonderful memories of spending a day here en route to Australia last year, so we were very much looking forward to revisiting the island. Weather wise, it was a comfortable temperature, not too hot as it was cloudy and windy. The plan for the day was to do exactly what we did last time, go to the Intercontinental La Moana and spend the day there. We had emailed ahead to ask for a day pass for us both and at 6500 cfp to include a three course lunch off their beach pass menu, we felt it was a bargain. Once off the tender, we looked around for one of the mini bus taxis that run along from the dock past Bloody Mary’s to Matira Beach. They cost $5 pp each way. We arrived at the IC about 9.30am to find the beach virtually deserted so we picked out the exact same sun loungers that we used on our last visit. The weather was still quite windy so the lagoon was a little choppy compared to our last visit. The IC have a coral garden that they have placed under the underwater bungalows and it provided some of the best snorkeling we have ever seen; this was the main reason for our return and despite the choppier seas, the visibility was excellent! It is just like swimming in an aquarium with an incredible variety of fish all colours of the rainbow. Definitely a few sea urchins down there as well so once again, I was glad of my swim shoes!

 

After enjoying a snorkel we relaxed for a while before heading to have lunch. The lunch was very good, I had tuna carpaccio and my husband had tempura vegetables followed by steak and chips and then a molten lava cake for him and a trio of ice cream for me. It would take a couple of hours for that lot to settle before we could venture out again! :o Once we had recovered from the lovely food, we took a kayak out for a while. Officially, I believe the equipment is for hotel guests only but it was so quiet and hardly anything was being used so we thought we had nothing to lose by asking and the watersports guy had no problem with it. We also tried out the standup body boards. Now for someone with virtually no balance, this could have gone horribly wrong but amazingly I not only managed to stand up on it without falling off but also remain standing!! Steering was another matter and I did find myself heading towards two ladies having a nice relaxing dip. Thankfully they realized and kindly asked if they should move out of my way, my reply being that unless they had a death wish it would be a good idea as I had no control over it! Lovely ladies that they were they commented that I looked like I knew what I was doing, ha they couldn’t have been more wrong. In which case I now wonder if they thought I was trying to mow them down?! :eek:

Anyway, the day ended far too quickly and we headed out to the front of the hotel where a taxi soon came along and took us back to the tender area.

Going back to our room once we were back on board we weren’t let down by Cristian who had remembered to send chocolate covered strawberries along with a lovely note to say thank you for a lovely dinner! Even after the heavy lunch I managed to scoff most of them down probably at a 5:3 ratio ie what I ate to what was left for my dear husband! ;)

Dinner that evening was in Le Grill. Probably our least favourite dinner; mine was fine but my husband’s fish was overcooked and just presented in a sauce without any vegetables etc. The staff as always were fantastic. When they came to take the plate away, they checked if it was okay and if they could replace it with anything, my husband thanked them but declined; we were hardly starving after the lunch we had had (and of course the strawberries we had eaten!!) To be honest having a meal that wasn’t perfect just didn’t seem to matter, everything is just so chilled out on board and if we had wanted to reorder something it wouldn’t have been a problem.

Back at the cabin, we were surprised to find another invitation for dinner, this time with the Hotel Director, Jacques Le Tallec and also the Guest Relations manager, Christelle Raoul for the following evening. Something to look forward to, after our second night in Bora Bora.

[sammyboots]

The beach at the IC Le Moana, Bora Bora.

 

 

[sammyboots]

We had originally planned to do Patrick’s Maoui Nui snorkel boat tour but after doing the snorkeling trip at Taha’a, we decided it sounded much the same. As we had booked through the ship we were able to cancel in good time and decided to spend the day on the motu instead. As it happens, we heard from folk that did that very tour that the wind had made the sea very choppy and it proved difficult to snorkel, so for us, (us being ME!) it was a good decision. We didn’t rush to the motu but had a leisurely morning and even managed to fit in a visit to the gym just managing to catch breakfast before everything closed up. Sometimes it’s good on a port intensive trip just to chill out a little!

 

We took the tender over to the motu intending to spend a couple of hours there. It’s a longer tender ride than we expected, possibly a half hour but it very pleasant all the same. We found ourselves some sun loungers, read for a little while and then went for a swim. We had hoped to take a kayak out but they were pretty popular that day and we didn’t get the opportunity. There was a limited bar available, water, soft drinks and beer, I believe but no bathroom which is fine if you’re not planning to spend the whole day there. ;) We probably only stayed two hours max there; it’s lovely but we were happy to go back to the ship.

 

Once we had showered and changed, we went for pre dinner cocktails at La Palette where we watched the sunset and the sail away from Bora Bora. After enjoying the incredible view, we were looking forward to our dinner with Jacques Le Tallec and Christelle Raoul in L’Etoile. They were both incredibly good hosts and great company. It’s always interesting to meet new people but more so when they are likely to be able to answer all the questions about the ship that you might want to ask!! The food at dinner was extremely good…and of course that cheese board (again)at the end! ;) Being French, Jacques and Christelle shared our appreciation of it!

 

We managed to catch the end of the Crew show where we saw some very talented performers and after wards it was an early night for us! We were looking forward to seeing Moorea again and spending the next two days there.

 

One thing I should mention that we loved about this cruise was…the laundry package. I can’t believe how wonderful it was to be able to put out our laundry before 9am and have it returned before dinner that night. It needs to be booked before the cruise, so we just asked our TA to add it on for us. We had a little fun on the first night, filling in the laundry form as it was all in French! Now of course we could have contacted housekeeping for a one in English and in fact all the future forms we were given were in English…but I was determined to persevere with my school girl French. And yes, we could have used google to translate some of it for us but then I’m not one to step away from a challenge! :p

The internet package we bought also worked well for us. I had read some complaints on the board saying it was intermittent but we only had issues logging on maybe twice in the cruise and once we wandered out of the room and up the corridor it connected back up again.

These are the rates off the PG website:

 

Package MBS Price Price/MB

Pay-as-you-go 1 $0.40 $0.40

Small package (individual light user) 100 $29 $0.29

Medium package (individual heavy user) 250 $49 $0.20

Large package (family share and power user) 750 $99 $0.13

 

All charges are automatically billed to your onboard account. *A one-time account activation fee of $3.95applies to all users on first login only. Printing is also available at $0.15 per page.

 

We bought the medium package, which at $49 plus $3.95 connection fee, seemed a bargain. We had more than enough internet for what we needed but then we weren’t checking into work or anything; just checked our emails and fb messages and occasionally did a little surfing for info. When I’m away, I still like to have some ability to check in with the kids (even though they are grown up!) and make sure everything is alright!