shrkdive1

I'm confused once again now that I go back to the PG website. Is there only 1 form that is required to be signed by a doctor now for experienced divers. When I went to the website before there were 2 forms (very similar) for experienced divers plus 1 form for newbies.

As we are preparing for our upcoming trip I was reading on the PG website that besides our cert cards and logbooks we also need a medical certificate signed by our doctor within the last year. Is this the Medical Questionnaire form that I can download from the PG website or something else? Thanks in advance.

Thanks so much for posting these. This is exactly what I needed as it shows we can dive at each port in the Marquesas!

@FlightMedic555 we are on the Marquesas 14 day tour in Sept. We have cruised the 10 day Tuamotus itinerary several years ago and. dove every day we could but wondering what dives are offered on the Marquesas islands. If you could ask the dive team for us that would be greatly appreciated as we are trying to book island excursions on non-dive days too.

As of today the the website shows the only room listed as "wait listed" on the inaugural Serenity cruise are the single rooms. Even the Penthouse now shows "request a quote". The same is true for next 3 sailings. In addition the inaugural cruise on Symphony only has "wait listed" the single rooms. It seems people are canceling their early bookings.

What are the crew onboard telling you all about what renovations have started?

You would think NC would be posting pictures and updates on how the refurbishments of the two ships is going? Makes me think nothing has started yet.

I would bring the actual logs with you as they could question if the dive computer was used by you and only you. We brought our dive logs last time and they reviewed them intently.

We agree Fakarava's north pass is a dive not to miss as we did this one in 2013 and will plan to do it again this year. Are there any land based excursions in the Marquesas that should not be missed as opposed to diving that day? Trying to decide if we should skip a few dives there?

Following along to hear what others say about the Marquesas excursions versus diving as we are booked on the same itinerary in September and we are also divers.. This will be our second PG cruise. The prior cruise was the Society and Tuamotus islands only.

We will be on the same intinerary this coming September and looking forward to it. What excursions did you do in the Marquesas? We are starting to do our planning and looking for ideas.

Just booked tonight the Intercontinental overwater bungalow 2 nights precruise for our PG cruise next year. This is our 2nd PG cruise and decided the upgrade to an overwater bungalow would be worth it vs. the Hilton.

We are on a 14 day Tuamotus and Marquesas trip in the fall of 2023 and plan to dive most opportunities available. It is true that if you do a two tank dive you return to the ship in between dives to drop off and pick up additional passengers based on experience from our last trip on PG.

I don't know of any travel insurance that covers scuba. We maintain annual dive insurance through DAN (Diver Alert Network). They also offer travel insurance as an additional add-on.

Thanks all for your comments. We are now officially booked for our 14 day Marquesas cruise on deck 4. After speaking with the PG cruise consultant I am very happy with the room location we chose. Now we have plenty of time to start preparing to book our pre-cruise stay, dives and excursions,

Besides cabin 304 on deck 3 we were also told cabins 417 and 418 were available on deck 4. Are they noisy at all being so close to reception?

Thank you all for your comments. The last time we were on PG we booked a port hole cabin on deck 3. While we always book a balcony on large cruise ships, not having a balcony on the PG was no big deal for us as we spent most of our time on deck. I was just told by booking agent cabin 304 was our best bet. With the cruise more than a year away I'm not sure why there are not open rooms in the middle of the ship on deck 3 but oh well. Does anyone have knowledge on why cabin 304 is not a good location? I know it is in front of the water tight doors that close early mornings if we are coming into port. Anything else I should know about? I don't have a problem moving up to deck 4 and getting a full window if that is suggested as better location. I just don't think a $7K increase per cabin to have a balcony is worth it for us.

Looks like we will book a 14 day Marquesas trip in Fall 2023. I've received the quote from PG; including our 5% discount for prior cruise. I've seen many comments about finding a TA that may give us some other perks such a OBC but I have typically done my own research and booked directly online. I don't have a TA I trust and have seen only minimal TAs actually know anything about French Polynesia. Should I just take a chance with an unknown TA or just go ahead and book through PG directly?

I am confident you won't be able to sail in a PH for the same price as a regular cabin on Regent and Seabourn on the future the new Crystal. 1. The new owner overpaid for the ships as compared to the appraisals 2. The old ships will require more maintenence as they age plus are going in to dry dock for a costly refurbishment 3. The new owner is going to have to make a profit unlike the old Crystal that was not profitable and ultimately could not pay their fuel bills.

Thank you FieldstonEagle for your reply. Glad to hear Ponant has put money into upkeep and refurbishment. Has there been much influence from Ponant in new crew coming that previously worked on other Ponant ships or is the crew essentially the same? Also does anyone have experience on the food pre and post Ponant. My experience on my pre-Covid 2020 Ponant cruise was that the food was one of the worst I've experienced on a cruise ship and this was in the Caribbean where food supplies are much easier to obtain. Choices were limited, bland and I couldn't even get a steak cooked med-rare.

We are considering booking a 14 day cruise in the fall of 2023 that includes the Marquesas and the Tuamotus islands. We were last on the PG in 2013 and had a great time and thought the crew and ship were wonderful. I'm wondering if the condition of the ship has been maintained well since 2013 and what changes good or bad have happened to the ship and crew since becoming part of Ponant? We cruised with Ponant just once in early 2020 before COVID and did not like their style and food was not near as good as we experienced on PG and even other mainline cruise lines. We might choose Windstar if the Ponant culture has overcome the PG. We have sailed Windstar in the Caribbean and enjoyed their sailing ships.