Just Back, Some Quick Thoughts...

I will never, ever, ever fly Air France again. Total stress in both directions. We weren't able to check in on line, spent half an hour on the phone with them, they finally said they didn't know what the problem was, just check in at the airport. I asked if our seats were still assigned to us, and they said yes, they are Confirmed, no problem. Arrived to LAX four hours before the flight, 75 minutes at the counter--not waiting in line, but actually at the counter, and they had to make multiple calls to Paris, finally got boarding passes. Except our seats had been given away. Oh no, that wasn't happening. I was the first person to book PE a full year ago, I wanted the seats I had booked and had been confirmed that I had three times since booking, including that afternoon. They finally relented and reassigned whoever they had given our seats to and gave us the seats we had booked. Same problem on the way back. Utterly ridiculous.

Premium Econmy--the seats were hard as rocks. NO padding. Fortunately we had been warned and had brought folding stadium seat pads which made them bearable. Worth the extra $$ to not have someone reclined into your lap for eight hours. Enough leg room to stretch out pretty well. Also there are no air vents, and I found it got stuffy in and off during the flight. They were also very stingy with the wine on the way to PPT, but fairly generous on the return.

We had booked a standard room at the IC for the night before so were immediately given a room on arrival--much to the envy of others who were being told they wouldn't get a room until 3:00. Well worth the small expense to be able to take a nap for a couple of hours, then shower and begin to enjoy the vacation. While we were sleeping it rained, so many were camped out in the crowded lobby when we walked through on the way to a late breakfast. Be warned, they begin to pack the buffet five minutes before the official end time.

We walked to Carrefour and picked up a loaf of French bread, some cheese, a bottle of wine, and some chocolates for dinner that night, as well as croissants for breakfast the next day. On return, our OWB was ready and we moved our stuff. The OWB was wonderful, private, quiet, and spacious. We wished we could have stayed in it for a few days.

We took a taxi to the port, timed to leave about five minutes before the buses began to pick up at the IC. There were a couple dozen already in line. Boarding began promptly at 3:00.

A few days before we left, we had been able to secure an upgrade to a balcony cabin on deck seven for a very reasonable sum. It was nice, but to be honest, we really didn't use it much. The one day we thought we would have breakfast in the balcony got a bit twisted and that never happened. I probably would just book a room with a window if we went again.

The cabin itself was fine except for one thing--it was incredibly loud. There was no way to turn the blower off, and between that and the ships engines, it was as loud as an airplane constantly.

Our cabin attendant made us crazy. The ship had sent an anniversary cake, which my husband planned on eating when we got back from our excursion in Sunday. We returned to the cabin, and the cake was gone. She had taken it without asking. (It didn't need refrigeration.). She also moved our stuff around. I'm not talking about folding a sweater left over a chair or moving something a few inches to clean under it, I'm talking totally moving things. My reading glasses were moved from the desk to over near the TV several times, the small alarm clock was moved from the nightstand to any number of places, my hand lotion was moved from the nightstand to the desk, she moved my toothbrush from the glass in the bathroom several times to a folded facecloth, and moved my oatmeal soap from the shower to the sink several times. It made me crazy and to be honest, it got creepy. We ended up pretty much hiding everything in a drawer before we left the room so she didn't redecorate while we were gome.

We found the PG to be very unstable, and Thursday night half the passengers and many crew were terribly sea sick from the rocking. Even when in port we could feel the ship moving, something we had never experienced on any ship in the past.

Our first stop we had booked a tour with Marc at Nautique. We got to the dock at 9:30 per the confirmation that he had sent me the week prior and he wasn't there. Long story short, they had left without us. He claims he told me 9:00 am and had never confirmed with me, but I have all of the emails to prove otherwise. They did come back and get us, but we had missed the first hour of the tour. It was a nice tour, but not worth the aggravation/stress at the start.

We really enjoyed the day at motu Mahana, which went by way too fast.

We found the dining room menus to be repetitive. They really need to improve lunch offerings.

Service was generally very good, although could be disorganized at breakfast.

One huge problem, several pieces of my clothing were sent out to be laundered and didn't get returned. One was a brand new pair of board shorts that I had worn three hours, another was a pricey pair of Eileen Fisher pants. I realized when I got back to LA that I was also missing an Under Armour shirt. I was not particularly happy with the way it was handled. I can prove I had the pants on the ship, as I was wearing them in the photo from the Captains reception. One of two things happened, either they were given by the laundry to someone else who liked them and decided to keep them or who didn't realize they had them, or they were stolen by someone who had access to my cabin.

We had booked a tour with Patrick Aventure for the day we got off the ship, I emailed to confirm while we were on board and he wrote back with some story about his computer crashing and he no longer had room for us on the full day tour but could offer the half day. I told him no thanks, I was really disappointed, particularly after the mess with Marc. So much for private tour providers in FP.

Took the Trail of the Ancients tour and really enjoyed it. We learned quite a bit. Because it was a holiday, the Agriculture school was closed, which was disappointing. We also loved Dr. Pooles dolphin watching which was fantastic. We saw more dolphins then we had ever imagined we would.

My husband bought me a strand of pearls in Moorea from Ron Hall, I was very impressed with Mr. Hall. It was nice to work directly with the owner. His prices were very fair, and he was very patient as I tried on every strand in the store in our price range, and even a couple over our budget.

We renewed our vows in the Bora Bora motu, it was well done with the captain and cruise director officiating. Bravo to the PG for really doing that one up right. It was a top highlight of the trip, and something I would highly recommend.

When we disembarked on Saturday, we left our luggage on the dock and did a little shopping in Papatee before taking a cab to the IC. We had a panoramic view room for our final night, which was very nice, except the floor creaked so badly that regardless of how lightly we tried to step, it sounded like a herd of elephants. I felt very bad for those below us, especially when we had to get up at 4:00 am to get to the airport the next morning.

Oh, one thing about the IC, the hair dryers mounted to the wall don't work. They only blow barely lukewarm air. The handheld ones work fine.

So would I return? Not anytime soon. I had a good time, but unfortunately there were too many things that went wrong to make me want to go running back. To be honest, as we were coming into Papaetee we saw the Wind Star ship leaving, and we both said we wished that we had sailed on her instead. We did have a good time, but just don't feel like we need to go running back anytime in the foreseeable future.

That about sums it up. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thanks for the review. I had been thinking of Air France but discarded that idea. My stateroom is on deck 6. Cabins are in front of ship. Where was your stateroom located? I usually have aft cabins on ships and only once did I incur noise; and that was so bad I changed cabins. (One at midship was available.)

We were near the back. Also I need to correct, it was Wednesday night that we hit the very rough seas.

Ditto what ducklite said. It was a nice week and I loved FP, but the PG was really no better than any other mass market ship. There were a few cases of outstanding service, but a few too many not so great cases. Also, Air France's staff is great, but their computer system sucks.

- Arrived 6 hours before the flight with Air France because of the failed online check ins. Stood in line for 30 minutes after they opened check in and we were first in line for economy, then waited over an hour at the counter while they figured out why our tickets had been canceled... it was because the flight had been moved from 11:55 to 12:30, which broke the reservation system. We lost our original seats, but ended up closer to the front in the end. The counter staff worked as well as they could with the broken system.

- Flight was long and uncomfortable, but uneventful in economy.

- Friday morning Terevau ferry to Moorea was quick.

- Arrived at the IC Moorea at around 10 am. Given a phone for when the room was available, got a call 15 minutes later and checked into our OWB. Ambassador Platinum has it's privileges over there. Honestly, if we could have stayed there all week it would have been perfect. We did not want to leave

- Lunch at Les Tippaniers was fantastic!

- Checked out at 1pm Saturday and took Aremiti 5 back to Papeete. For those of you wanting to head over to Moorea for a day, it's not a bad trip at all.

- Got our luggage quickly after debarking and made it to the PG maybe 15 minutes after getting off the ferry

- Boarding process was great. Our luggage beat us to the room

- Marc's tour on Huahine was just OK. Would not do it again and we were on the whole ride. Snorkeling was just so so and the food was good, but it just seemed a bit off. We did, however, meet some great people on the tour that were staying on Huahine.

- Taha'a was beautiful and we enjoyed the snorkeling tour and Black Pearl farm. Motu Mahana is fantastic. They should spend more time there.

- Bora Bora was nice, but pricey... and Beautiful. We enjoyed Patrick's tour, but there was no sign of him all day. Must have been his day off. Lunch was tasty, but there was not enough for more than 1 1/4 plates. The staff was attentive and it was a good tour overall. Dan the pianist described it best. Beautiful, boring, Bora Bora. Great place to visit for a short time.

- Shark diving on Bora Bora was good, Manta Rays was good, but poor vis. Dive team on the Gauguin was very good.

- Back to Moorea, which is a great island. Did two dives which were great vis, but not a lot of sea life to see.

- Dr. Poole was a treat. Really enjoyed his tour as well as his lecture the night before. I liked his style.

- Debarkation was easy and the ship called Avis to have them pick us up at the dock. Avis was busy and inefficient due to a HAL ship that docked that morning.

- IC Tahiti was not that great. Beautiful views, but seemed a bit too mass market and rushed for us. We had a king ocean view. Not sure if my AC was broken or normal, but it didn't cool the room very well. Didn't care to have to wait for someone to show up and get it looked at. No time for that mess. It should have worked better without having to ask considering the price of the room.

- Air France return was not as bad, but the plane arrived late and the check in system broke again which delayed boarding. Flight was uneventful.

- LAX customs was more efficient than Miami, but that's not saying much. Two different agents didn't know what vanilla beans were. They thought my beans were agricultural products and didn't know what to do about them, though they were packaged properly. The place Tiki recommended on Moorea near the IC was out of them when we stopped by so I bought some at the duty free shop in PPT. Not much more commercial than that. They eventually let us through.

The ship was just OK. Cabins in the back on deck seven were loud due to the engines and the ship rocked quite a bit every night even in calm seas. We ate in L'etoile all except one night, which was OK. We ended up getting to know our wine steward pretty well since we saw him later every night in the piano bar. We ate in La'Veranda on Tuesday night. The food there was great, but the whole restaurant vibrated the entire meal due to the engines. It was horrible and difficult to enjoy the food. I concur with ducklite about the bad night at sea. I've been in worse, but that was due to a bad storm in the gulf with 30 foot waves. The sea was nowhere near rough that night, but I felt like I was going off the side of the bed several times. Fortunately neither my wife nor I get seasick.

My other complaint about the ship is the limited hours that anything is available. Several of us were up walking the decks at 5:30 or 6 am waiting for coffee to finally be available at 6:30. What the heck was that all about? Lots of people are early risers. Most activities were during the day while people were off the ship or late at night when we were in bed. How about some things to do between 4 and 8?

Will I go back to FP? I'd love to, but not likely on the PG. It wasn't a bad experience overall, but not really that great. It may be great for some, but wasn't really my thing. Just OK. At least our cabin stewardess didn't move our stuff around. That's a positive I guess. :-)

Sorry to post in your thread, ducklite, but I felt you did a good job describing the week and wanted to post some confirmations before the thrashings begin :-)

Wow, two underwhelming reviews of the PG! Oh well, it will be what it will be in September when we go back for our 6th cruise on her.

And AF PE. A couple of questions for ducklite:

- how did you get Air France on the phone? I poked around their website and couldn't find an actual phone contact. When I made our reservations, I only got seat assignments in one direction, with no explanation as to why, or when we would get assigned.

- your stadium seats, were they just the simple pads under your bum? What about the back of the seats--was there any lumbar support?

- I won't bother with online check-in. We'll be on the road anyways, and probably unable to print passes.

RZ3, glad you liked the Les Tipaniers restaurant--we're staying there pre-cruise.

Oh, and on the Terevau ferry--I'm rethinking flying to Moorea. Did they take credit cards for payment? Their Sunday 8:50 departure from Papeete should be plenty of time with a 5:10 arrival in PPT, if not their 7:20 ferry departure. Aremiti is not an option on a Sunday, for us, which is why I booked the air flight (but it's refundable.)

RZ3, no problem! While I'm sorry that your experience wasn't fantastic, it's good to learn that it wasn't our imaginations. What a mess with AF. It sounds like we were on several tours together, I'm trying to figure out who you were. :)

Wendy, from their web site: If you need help with the following items, please contact our Reservations Department at 1-800-237-2747. Reservations agents will answer your calls 7 days a week between 8:00 AM and 11:59 PM EST (Eastern Standard Time).

- Booking a reservation without using airfrance.us

- Ticket changes before and after departure

- Flight information, if you still have questions after consulting your flight status online.

- Seat assignment, if you're having issues doing this online.

- Special meals and other special service requests, if you're having difficulty doing these online or if they are not available online.

The stadium seats were just simple pads. They fold to about an inch thick and 14" or so in length and four inches or so in width. Made a big difference. I used my pillow behind my back, DH found the lumbar support to be good. I think it will depend in your height.

If possible, I would check in inline and print the passes at the airport so you can retain your seats.

Lucky you renewing in BB motu. I love that place. I had wanted that location a couple of years but they said no - finally we had it on the bridge.

Bad luck on the tours. It can happen. Its part of the island attitude but I would be upset if it happened to me as well.

I dont get the issue with the clothes. Unheard of before. Never had anything stolen either leave everything out except for passports and cash.

How was Ron Hall doing? The last time we were in FP he was in France for a kidney operation. We usually visit him when we are in Moorea though do not always buy from him. I have some good buys from him over the years. Did you know he came to FP with Peter Fonda and then stayed on?

We were originally supposed to renew in Motu Mahana, but they asked us to postpone to BB as the weather was predicted to be poor. Of course it turned out to be a gorgeous day, but the BB motu was quieter and just perfect. They did a really fantastic job with the ceremony.

Yes, weird with the clothes. If it was something I could have left someplace by accident (a sweater, book, etc.), I would have been inclined to take the blame. But there's no way I was running around the ship in my underwear, which after taking clothing off and leaving it someplace would have been the case.

Ron looked good, a little tired perhaps, but he's not a spring chicken. I need to get the pearls appraised for insurance purposes, and I suspect the conservative value will come back at 20% or so higher than what we paid. Yes, we heard the Peter Fonda story, he is quite a character, as is his friend Dr. Poole. :)

Ron gave my daughter a pearl one year as a gift and blew on it and told the pearl it was going to a good home!

No issues using a CC to get on the Terevau. I used my CC extensively and never used USD except for one taxi ride. I only took 16,000 XPF with me and came back with 2,500 which I gave to my kids as a reminder to explore the world.

Ducklite, your post about Marc's tour tells me exactly who you are. :) You took my picture on Bora Bora after setting up my camera. I'm generally quiet in person and keep to myself, though I enjoy meeting other people. I don't tend to stick out. It was nice to meet you. :)

Ah yes! I hope you were happy with the photo :)

I took 118,000 XPF ($1500 USD) with us, expecting to spend a lot more on shopping for trinkets, food in port, and expecting to pay for two private excursions in XPF--turned out one wanted USD and the other ended up cancelled. We paid for everything we purchased and taxi rides including our last night at the IC in cash but not including the pearl necklace, and still came home with 30,000 in XPF. I was surprised at how many people seemed to prefer and/or expect USD.

ducklite, have been anxious to hear about your trip !!

so sorry to hear about all the problems you encountered !:eek:

after reading several threads you have written re it all,

think i now know why lots of people take the roundtrip

to hawaii & tahiti on princess from los angeles -

even with all the sea days !!

at least we would not have to deal with airlines !!:rolleyes:

plus we have loved every princess cruise !!;)

ducklite, have been anxious to hear about your trip !!

 

so sorry to hear about all the problems you encountered !:eek:

 

after reading several threads you have written re it all,

think i now know why lots of people take the roundtrip

to hawaii & tahiti on princess from los angeles -

even with all the sea days !!

at least we would not have to deal with airlines !!:rolleyes:

plus we have loved every princess cruise !!;)

I would not have been happy on Princess. I'm glad you are, but the idea of spending all those "wasted days at seas" ( we aren't retired, so vacation time is dear to us), not being able to visit some of the islands, sailing with masses of people, nope, putting it into perspective, the PG was great. :D

Even with PG's "problems" there is no way the Princess cruise line is in the same category as Paul Guaguin. The experience is definitely not the same.

Been on both agreed.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

I took 118,000 XPF ($1500 USD) with us, expecting to spend a lot more on shopping for trinkets, food in port, and expecting to pay for two private excursions in XPF--turned out one wanted USD and the other ended up cancelled. We paid for everything we purchased and taxi rides including our last night at the IC in cash but not including the pearl necklace, and still came home with 30,000 in XPF. I was surprised at how many people seemed to prefer and/or expect USD.

That is true, but most everyone on this site refuses to believe me. We've never had a problem with either plastic or USD's including buying pearls.:):):)

That is true, but most everyone on this site refuses to believe me. We've never had a problem with either plastic or USD's including buying pearls.:):):)

Refuses to believe you? I believe I've said a few times on this forum that you should take CFP (XPF) to make small purchases, like craft markets, etc. But I doubt anybody ever said here that you need local cash to buy pearls. Plastic rules in stores and hotels, for sure. It used to be that cabbies preferred francs, but that may have changed.

I will be staying in Moorea for three days, and will get some francs from an ATM on arrival (I have $1,000 francs left from the last trip), so that we can buy things at the local convenience store, although they probably will do debit as well.

We found that we got a MUCH better rate when using XPF at small shops and vendors than we would have gotten using USD.

We found that we got a MUCH better rate when using XPF at small shops and vendors than we would have gotten using USD.

Absolutely true .........

I always try and pay in local currency, I would guess I save 5% - 10% by doing so, I'm talking about with street vendors/non-credit card purchases.

Refuses to believe you? I believe I've said a few times on this forum that you should take CFP (XPF) to make small purchases, like craft markets, etc. But I doubt anybody ever said here that you need local cash to buy pearls. Plastic rules in stores and hotels, for sure. It used to be that cabbies preferred francs, but that may have changed.

 

I will be staying in Moorea for three days, and will get some francs from an ATM on arrival (I have $1,000 francs left from the last trip), so that we can buy things at the local convenience store, although they probably will do debit as well.

Wendy check if your francs are valid. I thought I read something about the currency changing but I may be wrong here.

We always take a few hundred $ worth of XPF and then buy on the ship if we need more. A lot of the operators take US. I have asked all operators to quote in US for our repeaters excursions as it is easier for the various passengers.

I have also used Euros ( just because I had a bunch) in FP.

Almost all pearl purchases have been carded however once I had a problem and my card was not accepted by Visa. We had to go back to the ship and get another card. Visa used to give us all kinds of problems all over the world. Now that the cards have a chip we dont have any issues with any of the cards.

Wendy check if your francs are valid. I thought I read something about the currency changing but I may be wrong here.

One time we got back a very different size bill with the change than what we had gotten from the bank--might have been the 5000 XPF note. The new currency is very large, really a PITA as it didn't fit into anything except a #10 envelope. Also I had a hard time reading the numbers in the coin without my reading glasses.

Old currency will be good until September 30, 2014. http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g294338-i867-k7172884-New_Tahitian_Currency_Use_your_old_bills_by_September_30-French_Polynesia.html