Princess tahiti cruise vs. Paul Gauguin?????

[new cruiser 2010]

I am trying to decide whether to book with PG, with a group of friends who have already chosen to go PG....or to look at cruising Tahiti with Princess. I am aware of the slight differences in itinerary and the HUGE difference in prices.

Has anyone ever done both of these cruises????

Any comparisons you would like to share?

I can afford to go with either, but I like to get the best value that I can.

Any thoughts on the different sizes of the ships?

Is the 'luxury' and 'prestige' of the PG worth the extra money?

What are your thoughts???

Thanks!

[grams98]

we did the tahitian princess ten day tahiti/dk islands itinerary in 2006 and loved it- booked originally with the paul gaugin, but was able to book a balcony, bc category on the tah prin. and still have tons of money left over for excrusions; we pulled up next to the paul gaugin at one port; not impressed; i am sure that it, too, is a wonderful cruise, but i just couldn't see that it was worth all of that extra money--tah. princ. was plety of comfort and luxury for us--what we did instead with the extra monwy was book an overwater bungalow for 3 night pre-cruise on moorea and 2 night beach bungaow on moorea--we considered our money better spent--just our opinion-grams98

[grams98]

i meant tahiti/cook islands itinerary--sorry for the typo grams98

[caribill]

We did the Tahiti cruise on the Tahitian Princess (now the Ocean) a couple of years ago.

 

For pictures of our experience, see http://fp.caribill.com/

 

I can't imagine a better experience on the PG.

[flamomo]

We did the Tahiti and South Pacific 10 day cruise on the Tahitian Princess (now the Ocean Princess) about a year and a half ago, and had a wonderful experience.

We booked our air thru Princess at a nice savings over self booking, and flew into Papeete 2 days early and stayed at the Intercontinental Resort. Gorgeous place!

We had a minisuite on deck 8, which was amazingly roomy. We loved the ship's size, decor, ambiance, service, friendliness ........... Oh Heck! There was nothing not to love about this cruise with Princess!

[new cruiser 2010]

grams98, caribill, and flamomo!!! WOW, thanks for your thoughts on this.

Your comments are much appreciated.

Caribill-those pics are amazing! What a wonderful album you put together.

I am inspired by the helpfulness that fellow travelers on this site have offered.

I hope all of our trips are great.....keep cruising!

Carol

[cflutist]

We went to French Polynesia and the Cook Islands in 2004 and French Polynesia and the Marquesas in 2007.

These were our favorite cruises.

There are links to pictures in my signature.

Rangirora and the "Aquarium" was hubby's all time favorite snorkel location.

 

This link has the 2007 trip sorted by island (hubby tends to take lots of pictures):

http://www.websailor.org/Tahiti_2007.html

 

 

Brother-in-Law has cruised twice on the PG and says it's very nice.

They have an open bar (we don't drink) and a dive platform that was useful to him since he is a scuba diver.