We were three senior couples on the ten day Paul Gauguin cruise in the Society Islands starting from Papeete, Tahiti. It's a trek getting from the east coast US to Tahiti which required a 12 hr layover in LA before boarding our flight and arriving in Papeete before daybreak. The cruise package included a bus pickup at the airport (two busloads of us) and a short ride to the Intercontinental Resort which went well. This was necessary because boarding the ship is not scheduled until late afternoon. Check-in at the resort went smoothly considering the number of people needing rooms to rest up until the afternoon bus ride to the port. The resort was beautiful and the included buffet lunch was quite nice. However, it was very hot with no breeze that day and after being required to vacate our rooms late morning, there were limited places to go to get out of the sun. There were some loungers in the shade by the pool and lobby seating but not enough to accommodate the many wanting some relief. Then, the air conditioning on the bus to the port was not working so the start of our cruise was not off to a good start.

All of us had been on Seabourn cruises before so it was natural for us to compare Paul Gauguin to Seabourn and this may not be fair as Seabourn is the top of the line and more expensive. We stayed in the deck seven veranda cabins which were nicely equipped and well-appointed. Everything is all-inclusive except premium wines and there is a well stocked cabin mini fridge with beer and soft drinks but no wine. We requested a bottle of wine for our room but were told room service woud bring us glasses of wine but not a bottle. I would think it would be more costly and more inconvenient for the staff to serve wine by the glass in the cabins than to just leave a bottle at the guest's request....and what do you do if you want a refill?

The three dining facilities aboard were quite adequate for the 300 or so passengers so there was no problem getting seating, although some evening hours were more popular than others and required booking the day before. The meals were excellent and very well presented and the wait staff was good. In fact, we found all of the staff on board equal to the touted service of the Seabourn cruises. The sommeliers, on the other hand, were like so many around the world..........all-knowing and a bit snooty with their guests while trying to make inexpensive wine sound like top of the line products. Yes, the wine at the meals was, in our opinion, not very good and we are not wine snobs. (Good box wines are not excluded from our personal consumption at home.) One white and one red are selected each evening by the staff but you could ask for something different if you did not favor the selection. One evening the sommelier left our table and did not return after we requested something other than what we had started with for that night. The menus were nicely varied over the course of the cruise with cuisines from various countries featured each day, especially at the lunch buffets. For the evening meal, if you didn't want anything on the menu, you were free to choose from a good selection of anything from a standard menu. This was the same for breakfast and lunch where you could choose from the menu if nothing from the buffet line suited you. Read more