Detailed Photo Review of Paul Gauguin 10-Night Cruise 9/6/17 Plus Moorea Pre-Cruise

Thank you so much or taking the time to post such a detail wonderful review. It brought back wonderful memories from our 2013 trip and have us starting to plan our next. The PG flu has returned !

Thank you, for this great review. And, the photos are amazing!

We’re doing a round trip cruise...LA to LA...on Princess, on March 30...28 days. We won’t see the small islands, but we got some good ideas for Tahiti, Bora Bora, & Moorea.

Thanks again.

Thank you Deladane, you put a lot of thought and effort into this review! Hope to get to FP myself someday.

We have also really enjoyed your review and are looking forward to our upcoming PG cruise even more after reading and viewing your posts. Thanks for providing great input that has helped us make decisions on what to do at various ports.

Have fun on Celebrity for your next adventure. We just had our first experience with Celebrity on a TA cruise last April on the Reflection. We loved it, our first full suite experience and we will definitely sail Celebrity again. In fact, we are booked on the to be built Edge for 2019 on a btb. Will look forward to reading your adventures next year on your upcoming cruise on the Celebrity board.

Thanks,

Doug and Linda

Thank you so much for this beautiful review!!! I have always enjoyed your reviews and this one is no different, just in scenery...wow, wow, wow!!! That water is just gorgeous and I would love to go there sometime. Definitely a "bucket list" item, that's for sure. I love your title pages for each day of your review and I enjoyed looking at the date and remembering what we were doing (starting on 9/9 anyway) each day in Hawaii. So sorry your hubby got the random selection in security. I'm afraid of what would happen to me if I was in that position because I'd be so scared they'd probably think I was hiding something/assume I was guilty of something. :eek:

Oh, I think I talked my DH into letting me get the Olympus Tough TG-5. :) We're Costco members and it's actually on special this month for $50.00 off, so I think I'm going to jump on that soon before he changes his mind. I think I told you my P&S camera that I got in 2007 is on it's last legs, only a matter of time and the largest memory it holds is a 2GB and I can't find those anywhere except Ebay or Amazon. I have the Canon Powershot D20 for underwater and I do like it & it's great for underwater pics, but definitely not the best for out of water pictures. I normally take 3 cameras with me, but would only need two. Maybe even just one, since I'd consider leaving the DSLR behind. I like it but I like to enjoy vacation too and it gets to be a pain hauling that one around and having to make sure no water/sand/dirt gets into it, etc. So, thank you for the information on that. I know that's what Mitsugirly uses too and when I first saw your pictures in this review, I noticed they were crisp/clear and the colors vivid and I was wondering if you had gotten one. Some friends we met through CC, then in person on our most recent cruise (2015), have an Olympus Tough TG-4 and their pictures are very similar. I just don't get that with the DSLR and trying to set it to get the perfect pictures, well, sometimes that results in missed opportunities.

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your honeymoon cruise and pre-stay in Moorea with the rest of us. I'm glad I saw you mention it on Trip's review or I'd never have known! :)

As they say at the opera, Brava !!!

Thank you! :hearteyes:

Fantastic read, loved sharing your journey [emoji41]

 

 

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Thanks for following along!

Thank you so much or taking the time to post such a detail wonderful review. It brought back wonderful memories from our 2013 trip and have us starting to plan our next. The PG flu has returned !

I totally understand this whole "PG flu" thing! When we originally booked/planned this trip, we thought it would be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. Now, looking back, I definitely want to return... someday! :cool:

Thank you, for this great review. And, the photos are amazing!

We’re doing a round trip cruise...LA to LA...on Princess, on March 30...28 days. We won’t see the small islands, but we got some good ideas for Tahiti, Bora Bora, & Moorea.

Thanks again.

Oh wow, 28 days sounds wonderful! Probably a lot of sea days though, I would assume. I would definitely recommend pre-booking your tours if you want to do any of the private tours as I am sure they will fill up in advance when a bigger ship comes to town!

Thank you Deladane, you put a lot of thought and effort into this review! Hope to get to FP myself someday.

Definitely add FP to your bucket list! The pictures don't even do it justice :cool:

We have also really enjoyed your review and are looking forward to our upcoming PG cruise even more after reading and viewing your posts. Thanks for providing great input that has helped us make decisions on what to do at various ports.

 

Have fun on Celebrity for your next adventure. We just had our first experience with Celebrity on a TA cruise last April on the Reflection. We loved it, our first full suite experience and we will definitely sail Celebrity again. In fact, we are booked on the to be built Edge for 2019 on a btb. Will look forward to reading your adventures next year on your upcoming cruise on the Celebrity board.

 

Thanks,

 

Doug and Linda

Thanks Doug! Definitely come say hi when I start up that review in March!! Unfortunately, a suite is a bit out of reach for us, but we still loved our last cruise on Celebrity in a meager veranda cabin and look forward to being in the exact same cabin number on a sister ship in a few months. It will be interesting to return to the Caribbean so soon after being in FP!

Thank you so much for this beautiful review!!! I have always enjoyed your reviews and this one is no different, just in scenery...wow, wow, wow!!! That water is just gorgeous and I would love to go there sometime. Definitely a "bucket list" item, that's for sure. I love your title pages for each day of your review and I enjoyed looking at the date and remembering what we were doing (starting on 9/9 anyway) each day in Hawaii. So sorry your hubby got the random selection in security. I'm afraid of what would happen to me if I was in that position because I'd be so scared they'd probably think I was hiding something/assume I was guilty of something. :eek:

 

Oh, I think I talked my DH into letting me get the Olympus Tough TG-5. :) We're Costco members and it's actually on special this month for $50.00 off, so I think I'm going to jump on that soon before he changes his mind. I think I told you my P&S camera that I got in 2007 is on it's last legs, only a matter of time and the largest memory it holds is a 2GB and I can't find those anywhere except Ebay or Amazon. I have the Canon Powershot D20 for underwater and I do like it & it's great for underwater pics, but definitely not the best for out of water pictures. I normally take 3 cameras with me, but would only need two. Maybe even just one, since I'd consider leaving the DSLR behind. I like it but I like to enjoy vacation too and it gets to be a pain hauling that one around and having to make sure no water/sand/dirt gets into it, etc. So, thank you for the information on that. I know that's what Mitsugirly uses too and when I first saw your pictures in this review, I noticed they were crisp/clear and the colors vivid and I was wondering if you had gotten one. Some friends we met through CC, then in person on our most recent cruise (2015), have an Olympus Tough TG-4 and their pictures are very similar. I just don't get that with the DSLR and trying to set it to get the perfect pictures, well, sometimes that results in missed opportunities.

 

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your honeymoon cruise and pre-stay in Moorea with the rest of us. I'm glad I saw you mention it on Trip's review or I'd never have known! :)

I'm so glad you found the review and were able to follow along! I wish I could have bought my TG-5 at Costco but they didn't sell it yet when I needed to buy it before our trip in August. By the time we got home in late September, I noticed that they started selling it, but by then it was too late for me. I got mine at Best Buy, so it did cost a bit more than Costco is selling it for, but such is life! In the end, I love the camera and the photos I was able to take, so that's all that matters :) I hope to see you following along when I post my Celebrity Eclipse review in March!!

Thanks for such a great review I enjoyed reading along. You guys are such a lovely and caring couple. Best of luck to u both!

Thanks for such a great review I enjoyed reading along. You guys are such a lovely and caring couple. Best of luck to u both!

Thanks Sue! So glad you enjoyed following along :)

Can you please explain details how it works at LAX since you didnt have a connecting flight , and you booked Southwest separately? Did you have to collect your luggage and go thru security again? Or since you had to go thru customs with your luggage, how did you get it to Southwest for check in ? Just curious if it is simple. I am possibly using Southwest also and know I can’t book straight thru when using them. Thanks.

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Can you please explain details how it works at LAX since you didnt have a connecting flight , and you booked Southwest separately? Did you have to collect your luggage and go thru security again? Or since you had to go thru customs with your luggage, how did you get it to Southwest for check in ? Just curious if it is simple. I am possibly using Southwest also and know I can’t book straight thru when using them. Thanks.

 

 

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On the outbound flight, we had to collect our luggage in terminal 1 like we would even if we didn't have a connecting flight. Then we went over to terminal 4 and re-checked the bags at the ATN counter, then went through security in that terminal.

On the return flight, you get your luggage and go through customs in terminal 4, then exit the terminal and go back to terminal 1 to check in from scratch for southwest. I would highly recommend paying for the early bird check in so you don't have to worry about your boarding number since you likely can't check in while still in FP. When you get to terminal 1, you will check your bags at their desk, then go through security again.

Hope that helps! It wasn't really a big deal, the hardest part was transporting the luggage between the two terminals in LAX.

Thanks for the details. Appreciate it so much.

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I'm so glad you found the review and were able to follow along! I wish I could have bought my TG-5 at Costco but they didn't sell it yet when I needed to buy it before our trip in August. By the time we got home in late September, I noticed that they started selling it, but by then it was too late for me. I got mine at Best Buy, so it did cost a bit more than Costco is selling it for, but such is life! In the end, I love the camera and the photos I was able to take, so that's all that matters :) I hope to see you following along when I post my Celebrity Eclipse review in March!!

I enjoyed following along on this one and really, really enjoyed it. I was looking at the TG-5 on Costco's website yesterday and it says "bundle", but Costco's bundle doesn't include much. I also looked at Best Buy (I'll pass) and Amazon. Amazon has some decent bundle deals, including some that include an extra rechargeable battery and a battery charger, plus a few other things (tripod, case, a few others). The $$$ I'd be saving for Costco's price would go right back in to immediate necessities for the camera (spare battery/charger), so I may end up ordering through Amazon. We'll see. With cameras, it's really iffy because they all claim to have clear, sharp pictures with vibrant colors but you never know. At least with the TG-4/TG-5, I have seen how the pictures come out and that's what I'm looking for in an all around camera.

I'll definitely be looking forward to your review for your next cruise in March. We have no cruises planned, yet. But we usually don't book until 3 months or sooner from the sail date, so who knows.

Hi! I am absolutely loving you review and taking so many notes for my honeymoon on March 7, 2018! Quick question about your camera...When using your Olympus for selfies, did you use the selfie screen? Or just turn the camera around and use the fisheye lens! Did you find the picture quality of the Olympus and the GoPro to be the same? I have the Olympus TG-4 and GoPro Hero 5, so I'm just wondering which I may find better use for. Thank you so much and congratulations!

I too was debating back and forth about if I should get the fisheye lens or not, and in the end, I am so happy that I bought it. Yes, there is a problem with air bubbles when you bring the fisheye lens into the water, but there's an easy fix to that. I just unscrewed the lens while holding the camera underwater so it filled the empty space between the camera body and the lens with water, and that eliminates the air bubbles :) It worked perfectly in French Polynesia where the water is super clean and clear... fingers crossed that it works equally as well on my Caribbean cruise in March haha Just remember to empty out the water when you leave the water.

 

I used the lens both above and below the water. In fact, my favorite way to use it was to take a photo with the lens half above and half below the water! This is one of my favorite photos from the whole trip...

 

 

 

The fisheye also made it much easier to take selfies. It shows a bigger frame so when I took a selfie of DH and myself, it showed more than just our heads lol Here's a good example...

 

 

 

I have a 16gb SD card and I only used about half of that (but I do delete the bad photos from the card as I go). I did bring a spare 16gb card on the trip, but I didn't need it so I'll probably just use it for my March cruise. I very rarely used this camera for videos, but those do take a lot of memory on the card so you might want a bigger card if you do take a lot of video.

 

I bought a combo pack on Amazon that incuded 2 spare batteries, a wall charger for the batteries, and a car charger, all for like $12. As it turned out, I think there was only one day when I burned thorugh my first battery and needed to change it out, but I liked having the spare batteries on hand just in case.

 

I think that answered everything :) I was very happy with the camera and while it is certainly pricey for a camera that I will probably only use on cruises, I think it was worth it. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Hi! I am absolutely loving you review and taking so many notes for my honeymoon on March 7, 2018! Quick question about your camera...When using your Olympus for selfies, did you use the selfie screen? Or just turn the camera around and use the fisheye lens! Did you find the picture quality of the Olympus and the GoPro to be the same? I have the Olympus TG-4 and GoPro Hero 5, so I'm just wondering which I may find better use for. Thank you so much and congratulations!

Congrats on your upcoming honeymoon! My Olympus does not have a selfie screen. There is a different model, I think the TG-870?, with a flip up selfie screen, but my TG-5 does not have that. So yes, I just turned the camera around and used the fisheye :) In general, I think the best use of the GoPro is for videos, especially in action sports where you can mount it on yourself or on something else to get a unique perspective. I found the Olympus photos to be much better, but that's because it is primarily a camera. The Olympus is too big and heavy to mount on your body, so I preferred to use it for photos and the GoPro for videos.

Oh wow, thank you so much for clueing me into this! It's my fiancé's Olympus, so I didn't realize it wasn't the same as yours! :') Thank you! And again, thank you so much for writing such an in-depth review! It's gotten me so excited and I took so many notes! I even made a calendar like you, haha! I'm pretty sure my fiancé won't look at it, but I love the organization! ;p

Oh wow, thank you so much for clueing me into this! It's my fiancé's Olympus, so I didn't realize it wasn't the same as yours! :') Thank you! And again, thank you so much for writing such an in-depth review! It's gotten me so excited and I took so many notes! I even made a calendar like you, haha! I'm pretty sure my fiancé won't look at it, but I love the organization! ;p

You mentioned you guys have a TG-4.... that is basically the same camera as my TG-5, mine is just the newest model of it. When I started researching cameras, I debated if I wanted the one with the selfie screen but opted against it because that meant giving up the fisheye lens. So if you do have the TG-4, you don't have a selfie screen either, but I definitely recommend the fisheye lens attachment :) And thanks for reminding me... I need to make another one of those calendars for our March cruise (which my DH probably won't look at again but it's still fun to have it so I can keep all of our days straight!)

Well, thanks to you, I now realize my fiancé doesn't have the TG-4, it's the TG-870! So thanks to you for saving me before buying the fisheye lens! Haha. I'm looking into the different underwater modes and such now to get acquainted with the camera before our trip! I'm hoping our pictures can come out as beautiful as yours! The macro mode seems amazing! The functions themselves seem pretty similar between the TG-870 and the TG-5, though. Also, I'm super excited to read your review on your upcoming cruise! Enjoy, and thanks again!!

You mentioned you guys have a TG-4.... that is basically the same camera as my TG-5, mine is just the newest model of it. When I started researching cameras, I debated if I wanted the one with the selfie screen but opted against it because that meant giving up the fisheye lens. So if you do have the TG-4, you don't have a selfie screen either, but I definitely recommend the fisheye lens attachment :) And thanks for reminding me... I need to make another one of those calendars for our March cruise (which my DH probably won't look at again but it's still fun to have it so I can keep all of our days straight!)

Were there kids on board the ship?

Were there kids on board the ship?

I was worried that there may be children on our cruise and I wanted to avoid that, so that was one of the reasons we booked in September because kids are back in school. Luckily, this paid off as there was ONE child on our ship haha She was 18 months old and was possibly the best behaved child I have ever encountered. She's actually in the photo of the whole crew at the farewell party in the Grand Salon on the last day of the cruise... she was drawn to the Gauguines so one of them is holding her haha