Wendy The Wanderer

The first PG we did was a 7-day, but we did a 4-night pre-cruise to an island. That's a compromise. I do like the 10 and 11-day itineraries, however. Or you could do a b2b with 2 7-day cruises (something that we've done.) The Society Islands as a whole are the most interesting and satisfying, and can be done twice easily (we've done 4 7-nights over the years). The Tuamotus are good for snorkeling and diving. The Marquesas are very remote and are beautiful and mysterious, but hard to get to. Almost all the cabins on the PG are small. Most cabins are the C balconies, just marginally larger than the window or porthole cabins, so we tended to do the window cabin. They are very well laid-out. Bathrooms are small. The A and B penthouses on the same deck as the pool deck (8?) are nice, a wee bit bigger, but otherwise probably not worth the price except for the location and the butler, and the few "named cabins" are bigger but probably underwhelming to anyone used to a named suite on Regent. Frankly, we spent very little time in the cabins on the PG, because there's nice outdoor common areas on the ship.

I think doing FP on Navigator would be pretty nice. I'd miss the Gauguines, of course.

Alas, I followed all the threads of those who were "worked over" by Ponant when the pandemic was declared in 2020. Very shabby business practices, and enough for us to say, reluctantly, "never again". Background: we've been on the PG four times while under Regent, 5 if you count a b2b as separate cruises. Plus we were on her twice under the later ownership (Richard, uh, I forgot his name--owner of the Intercontinental in Papeete.) So this ship had been our absolute favourite since the year 2000, and French Polynesia our top destination. So if you decided to go, do it, it'll be lovely, just make sure you look at the contract closely. It's unlikely we'd make it there again at this point (75 & 80), but if we did, we'd have to choose Regent, since I don't think the Windstar sailing ships have elevators that extend to every deck. We still mourn the Paul Gauguin and cherish our time on her. P.S. we almost always booked our own air. Oh, and their cabins are small. Lovely little cabins, but small. Worth it still.

We either missed the block party on our last Splendor trip, or there wasn't one. I, frankly, have never really enjoyed them much, but try to participate.

Pretty low-keyed, most of the time.

I think you've lucked out with the weather so far, am I right?

Just to be clear on the subject of cocktails, no, there are no specific cocktails that are not included. Only the ultra-premium brands of the spirits that go into them. And the definitions are quite broad--it's not like going into a bar and getting a "well" drink at all, most of the top brands are covered. Funny, my husband prefers Jim Bean bourbon, not a particularly top brand. He asked for it in the room set-up and was told they didn't have any (perhaps temporary supply-chain issue). He was given Bulleit instead, which is quite a nice premium bourbon.

I can't answer since I did Egypt from another direction, but I will say that an ATM might not help much since what you need in Egypt is small currency, as small as you can get. For tipping, which is ubiquitous, and for bathrooms. But getting small bills in Egypt is difficult, and an ATM won't likely help. American dollar bills are overkill for such things, but a good backstop, and much appreciated, so I would take a bunch of those.

I had a decent experience with a couple of massages in January. It was a luxury, I admit, but I used my credits and was quite happy. She did try to upsell me and that is annoying.

Wine, yes. Beer, somewhat. I never asked for NA spirits. The wine brand was "Pierre" I believe, and it wasn't bad. They had red, white and rose. Beer was limited. I asked for some Athletic Brewing company beer for my cabin, but it didn't appear.

Although recovered somewhat from the post-pandemic chaos, I would avoid Pearson Airport in Toronto, YYZ. There are still lots of staffing issues and horror stories. Especially with the U.S. pre-clearance you must do.

Well they won't mind U.S. at all, although it would be nice, especially in small ports, to give them CDN.

Miami disembarkation is often delayed in even starting until 8 or 9.

Good to know. I didn't know there was dedicated parking at the Ft Lauderdale port.

The parking garage is right across from terminal J, literally. Just a note, however. On our return to Miami, we were docked at another terminal (The NCL one, can't remember the letter), so had to take a shuttle bus from that terminal over to the parking garage at J. Other than that glitch, parking was painless.

When we did Alaska we brought two pairs of binoculars so we wouldn't have to share. That's when I bought my lovely newer binoculars, for that trip. My 50+ year-old Bushnells held up, but the new optics were far superior.

I think that's true, Concierge only. But the ones we've had a couple of times were really pitiful, so my advice is to bring your own.

Oh wow, fingers crossed for you. A lot can happen in ten days but it's not looking good right now.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if parts of the Trans Canada Highway is closed. And the RM goes through Kamloops, which although I don't believe it's at risk, it must be darned smokey, and the route to the east probably go right through some of the areas of active fires.

I got a prescription mask years ago, and it's done well by me, worth it.

In the past we've told our TA that we would be amenable to an upgrade. Got one once, a great deal, but rare.

I admit I didn't even know there was an upgrade button. As far as I know, you will never just be bumped from a booked cabin by a GTY. In my small experience with upgrades, it's usually 2-3 weeks before the sailings that these offers are made, and you must accept quickly because they are popular. Presumably they might offer you a free upgrade if they really needed your cabin for a GTY, not sure about that.

We stayed at the Biltmore in January pre-cruise and loved it. It's about a 20 minute ride from the airport, so I suggest a cab or Uber. Ditto to the port.

In January we did this, but it was refundable OBC.

I would make that assumption, yes. Wraps and sweaters for the ladies, a jacket for the gentlemen. My husband hates suits, but he wore a blazer every night on Splendor last winter and was very glad I packed it.