This review covers a cruise on the m/s Tere Moana from December 7-14, 2013. This was a round trip from St. Maarten.

Summary: The Tere Moana’s size creates too many compromises to be worth the micro-ship “experience”. The bottom line is that despite predominantly sunny skies, there was sufficient swell in the eastern Caribbean to provide an uncomfortable ride and make a shambles of the itinerary. Despite the ships limitations, the crew did an outstanding job and provided a level of grace and personal service that I have never experienced anywhere else. Keep in mind, however, that there were only 52 passengers aboard with a capacity of 90.

Paul Gauguin touts the fact that their smaller ships can go places that larger ships can’t. In the case of the Paul Gauguin it appears that they succeeded in providing a good balance of stability and features (according to fellow passengers) but they went way too far with the Tere Moana. Simply stated, the Tere Moana is too small to be able to handle the Caribbean Sea. If there is one thing you should take away from this review, be prepared for constant and sometimes fairly extreme motion. This includes when tied up at a pier. For experienced boaters, who would consider something like a sailing charter it might not be objectionable but I am going to bet that for most people it would be a struggle. Tere Moana’s size also means that your itinerary is at constant risk of change because of fairly minor changes in weather (swells, in this case). If you are flexible, fine but if you have your heart set on the destinations, you are more likely to be disappointed than in the case of a larger ship (to be sure, larger ships also miss ports due to weather). During our cruise, the captain sought out larger, more protected anchorages rather than the smaller ones for the sake of passenger comfort. For me, Jost Van Dyke and Les Saintes were the kinds of smaller destinations that I was hoping to experience and did not. Read more