This review is meant to be critical with a purpose. I hope that PG cruises make the appropriate changes so that you get what you paid for, that I can return on a different itinerary and that they succeed as a company. To qualify my review I have sailed on 5 cruises including the large mass floating buffet line ships. I have also sailed on the Paul Gauguin in 2011 to French Polynesia on the 14 day Marquesas Islands itinerary. The Paul Gauguin is by far the best ship I have ever sailed on, in the best location in the world. She is 5+ star in every regard with the best food, drink and service in a paradise location.

We were planning a trip to another Caribbean island this spring when we received the brochure from PG cruises showing the new Tere Moana and the Caribbean itinerary. Based on the brochure and our past experience on the Paul Gauguin, we were sold. We expected the same great all inclusive food and service, on an even smaller more intimate ship to great Caribbean ports where the large ships don't go. It is obvious that PG cruises has marketed the Tere Moana toward those previous guests who loved the Paul Gauguin. We were already sold on the PG product, so we expected the same this time because that is how it is advertised. As my review title indicates, the Tere Moana is advertised to be the same as the Paul Gauguin but it is not. Even though the ships and locations are different, they advertise the same product or cruise experience. This is my biggest issue as the Tere Moana did not deliver the luxury, top notch experience that Paul Gauguin did. Bottom line is that we did not get the value expected as was advertised for the high prices that we paid. During our sailing on March 23, we had 70 passengers and no children. The PG cruises sales dept staff and VP were also onboard. They were actively asking for guest feedback as well as making their own observations and notes(over 20 pages). They openly admitted that things were not up to par and that changes would be addressed to the President Diane Moore directly. I was asked to email my comments that we discussed onboard so that they could pass them on. We were told that we would not recognize the ship in 6 months due to all the changes/improvements that would be made. I relished the opportunity to have dinner with some of them and discuss the issues. Many gueats made their opinions known and did not just smile and say everything was great. Good on you PG sales staff for this but it means little unless those changes are made. We were informed that there were problems with the refurbishment company who is being sued by PG cruises. Obviously there are some issues that are beyond the control of PG but I believe that they launched this ship too early before all the advertised levels of service were ready. We had hoped that 3 months in that all the kinks would be worked out. Obviously they were not and that was reflected in the comments and notes of the sales dept staff themselves.

My problems started well before we sailed. It was like the PG cruises office was divided between the Paul Gauguin and Tere Moana because we had absolutely no issues on our last cruise. I emailed them to find out the port locations as they only listed the island itinerary. They responded to my email with a letter showing a changed itinerary but no listing of the exact port locations. I emailed again with another request for the locations and questions about the Virgin Gorda BBQ, timings and excursions. They never even responded to my email. I had to find out through a TA and other members here on CC. Nice customer service.They ended up sending me the wrong change of itinerary letter not once but twice - through our TA and me directly. I only found out about the errors through other CC members. Then when PG cruises realized their errors, they did not bother to email any of the guests to apologize nor clarify the correct itinerary. Thanks to those here who helped, it was invaluable. Something that I learned from previous cruisers on this itinerary about tenders in Virgin Gorda proved to be correct and still makes no sense. They send tenders from North Sound to Gun Creek for the ship Baths shore excursion. Some of us wanted to take the tender over and then get a taxi to do our own tour of the Baths. We were told only those with ship booked tours could take this tender. We were told we had to tender to Bitter End Yacht Club which is at a location with no roads to the rest of the island. We pleaded with them to let us go on one of the tenders to Gun Creek after the Baths tour tenders were done. They agreed because there were only 4 of us but we would have to make arrangements for our own tender back before the tenders started at 12:30 to the beach BBQ at Prickly Pear island. When we showed up for the tender there were other ships excursions people going anyway and plenty of room available. Why not tell us that before and let us know that we could go anyway? Why not let people off to explore the island on their own as opposed to going to a dead end location with a yacht club? We booked our own return tender which they told us we had to but when we showed up early there were a whole bunch of guests there waiting and plenty of room available. We did not even need to do this and they never bothered to tell us we could come on the already scheduled tender anyway. We met other guests on the pier in the same situation who had to argue to get tenders. They are obviously trying to prevent non-ship booked excursions to the Baths. We paid $14 per person each way for the taxi and $6 per person fee to enter the Baths. The ship tour is $90 per person. Read more