This was our first cruise ever and we initially wanted our destination to be Hawaii. We asked a friend of ours who works as a travel agent if he could suggest a good cruise line. He had heard of Paul Gauguin cruises but he wasn't sure if they offered Hawaii as a destination and he said he would get back to us. That night at home we started looking at information on French Polynesia and it was love at first sight. So we booked our 7 night cruise of the Society Islands almost a year in advance. What a year it was building our expectations a bit more every day to the point where I started to think that we'd probably be disappointed. Well it was exactly the opposite as our expectations were met and exceeded. The whole experience can be summed up with WOW. The service, the personnel, the food, the surroundings, the islands; everything was above and beyond. Waking up early in the morning and seeing a new island come into view or on deck as the sun goes down looking at the horizon with the next islands and a beautiful sunset as a backdrop; a real taste of paradise. The entertainment was first rate with a very good live band (Santa Rosa) and the Gauguines. We planned this trip thinking this was going to be a once in a lifetime experience as it did cost us a pretty penny but as soon as we came back home we vowed we would repeat the experience. After all, the MS Paul Gauguin does have other destinations in the South Pacific. This was a trip for our twentieth anniversary; we'll surely go back for our twenty fifth, if not before. Thank you Paul Gauguin.