Jump to content

The Paul Gauguin is cruising


Recommended Posts

That is the flip side [we all know about the negatives with regard to refunds...] of Ponant's unique approach to running a cruise line:  they are particularly eager and confident about resuming cruises, and have 8 ships sailing in France and Iceland.  I don't have high hopes that our rescheduled Ponant cruise in New Zealand will happen in January but if anybody is able to pull it off, it will be Ponant.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

That is the flip side [we all know about the negatives with regard to refunds...] of Ponant's unique approach to running a cruise line:  they are particularly eager and confident about resuming cruises, and have 8 ships sailing in France and Iceland.  I don't have high hopes that our rescheduled Ponant cruise in New Zealand will happen in January b ut if anybody is able to pull it off, it will be Ponant.

I think that the current trip is a reschedule of a charter from Bali to Fiji. The charter had even less ability to get a refund than those of us who booked directly with PG. I hope they are having a great time. While they aren't doing the cruise they signed up for, July is a great time to cruise French Polynesia, especially if it's not a kid centric cruise. We won't be doing our booked itinerary since we were booked on Fiji to Bali, and our FCC doesn't extend to another Bali to Fiji of Fiji to Bali cruise being offered. We had planned this to be our last PG cruise, for a big birthday celebration,  and we only booked it since we wanted to visit Fiji and Bali one more time. We are unlikely to be able to afford either of those destinations again by air and hotel, and who knows  if the PG will offer it again.

Edited by SWFLAOK
typo
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does anyone know if all the people on this and other cruises got tested (as discussed on another thread) with a negative Covid 19 test 3 days before getting on the plane in the USA.  Currently this is almost impossible to do with most test results taking more than 3 days to get the results.  

I curently have a 10 day cruise in mid Oct that I may have to cancel within 3 weeks - final payment due Aug 15 because of the lack of clarity by Tahiti in relaxing the test requirements.

Rick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for that correction TBK. That sounds much safer for testing their reopening procedures than letting the whole world in at once.  I just hope they didn't allow EU citizens to come  in without testing once flights were readily available from LAX and SFO. The Bahamas had a huge spike in Covid19 after restarting commercial flights  on July 1. They banned US flights, but we heard from those that live there that the people who brought it in were not US citizens.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, SWFLAOK said:

Thanks for that correction TBK. That sounds much safer for testing their reopening procedures than letting the whole world in at once.  I just hope they didn't allow EU citizens to come  in without testing once flights were readily available from LAX and SFO. The Bahamas had a huge spike in Covid19 after restarting commercial flights  on July 1. They banned US flights, but we heard from those that live there that the people who brought it in were not US citizens.

 

 

Grand Bahama is essentially a suburb of Ft. Lauderdale.  People go shopping in Florida in weekly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ia ora na, bonjour,

 

We'll be on the 29th july 10-night cruise 😁 (we are me and DH, it's a 30th anniversary cruise😇).

We're leaving tomorrow and we've been tested negative so we can board our ATN flight😷

It seems that there won't be many passengers on the cruise, and the roll call is very quiet.

Thank you to all of you who wrote trip reports or gave great advices to explore the ports of call : I've been reading these boards since july 2019 when we booked the cruise.

I hope we won't be disappointed

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Gil3 said:

Ia ora na, bonjour,

 

We'll be on the 29th july 10-night cruise 😁 (we are me and DH, it's a 30th anniversary cruise😇).

We're leaving tomorrow and we've been tested negative so we can board our ATN flight😷

It seems that there won't be many passengers on the cruise, and the roll call is very quiet.

Thank you to all of you who wrote trip reports or gave great advices to explore the ports of call : I've been reading these boards since july 2019 when we booked the cruise.

I hope we won't be disappointed

 

Good luck, and keep in touch.  I really hope you have a wonderful cruise!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Gil3 said:

Ia ora na, bonjour,

 

We'll be on the 29th july 10-night cruise 😁 (we are me and DH, it's a 30th anniversary cruise😇).

We're leaving tomorrow and we've been tested negative so we can board our ATN flight😷

It seems that there won't be many passengers on the cruise, and the roll call is very quiet.

Thank you to all of you who wrote trip reports or gave great advices to explore the ports of call : I've been reading these boards since july 2019 when we booked the cruise.

I hope we won't be disappointed

 

Always look at the cup as being half full .... I bet your service will be top notch and who knows what else may be a present surprise. Have a good trip and report back when you return 😉

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you Wendy and TKB for your kind wishes.

 

I'll report back when we get home but not until the end of august as we board the Aranui 5 for a Marquesan islands cruise when we step out of the Paul Gauguin.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, you will a great experience! I'm very interested in hearing about your Aranui cruise. After 9 PG cruises, I would like to try the Aranui. I know it's an entirely different cruise experience. We will be waiting for your observations. I know your PG cruise will be wonderful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

20 hours ago, Cruisedreamer1 said:

Wow, you will a great experience! I'm very interested in hearing about your Aranui cruise. After 9 PG cruises, I would like to try the Aranui. I know it's an entirely different cruise experience. We will be waiting for your observations. I know your PG cruise will be wonderful.

 

I understand Aranui is launching a passenger only, 280 passenger ship in 2022. It will sail with a crew of 100 Polynesians. Artist renderings are beautiful. Along with the new Windstar Star Breeze, it appears there will be plenty of competition for cruising dollars/euros in French Polynesia in the near future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our first PG cruise (actually our first cruise ever) was early in 2017, and it was the 14 night trip to the Marquesas. We loved it. The Marquesas were so unspoiled, and uncrowded. They're beautiful, green and mountainous, and have a very interesting history. Everyone on the 4 islands that we tendered to were genuinely welcoming. The arrival of a ship is a celebration for everyone. We crossed paths with the Aranui 5 at 2 islands, and everyone onboard seemed to be having a great time. We watched them offload some cargo at Nuku Hiva. Those onboard watched as well. I was surprised at how much the Aranui 5 looked like a cruise ship. I had looked at the earlier ships quite a few years ago, and was afraid that they would be more like a freighter than I wanted to live on for that distance. I guess that will change even more in the future.

On our first cruise, the PG actually had reversed the order of its ports in the Marquesas since a large cruise ship was passing through from California to Hawaii to Nuku Hiva to Papeete. We were very happy to share the port with the Aranui 5 instead.  I don't remember which cruise ship caused our diversion since none of them were familiar to me at the time, but when I looked it up at the time, there were more people onboard (passengers and crew) than there were residents of Nuku Hiva, which has the largest population in the Marquesas.

I'm sure you will have a great time on your back to back cruises.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/24/2020 at 12:46 PM, Tahitianbigkahuna said:

 

Always look at the cup as being half full .... I bet your service will be top notch and who knows what else may be a present surprise. Have a good trip and report back when you return 😉

Too bad it will not go.  Covid is here again.  Mistake to even try without a vaccine available.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, RJB said:

Not worth getting sick over.  A year or two and we can get back to something near normal. Until then we will stay home of get in the car and go somewhere close.

Our next cruise is a Viking River Cruise in late May of next year., which we postponed from the same time this year.  We just rebooked our flights, and it's still scary to think about going to an airport and flying, even in business class. After that we have a September Regent Cruise in the UK and Europe, and then our postponed PG cruise in December of 2021.

Until then,  we're doing the same local travel within Florida, spending a lot of time outside, and not eating out unless we feel that it's very safe.

We hope that when people get in their car and come from another state to Florida,  they social distance, and wear a mask where you can't or where the local mandate requires it, just as we do at home, or on the road within Florida.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...