Great cruise to a beautiful location. Tahiti is all you would have imagined
Paul Gauguin Cruise Review by donpasko
- Sail Date: Oct 2019
- Destination: the South Pacific
We planned this trip a year in advance to celebrate anniversary and birthday and were not disappointed. We travelled with our favorite traveling companions but also met many wonderful and interesting people from around the world. The service was outstanding in our opinion, especially our favorite waiter Philip and especially in the Veranda restaurant. Those people who rated the service as less probably had a bad waiter. We enjoyed all the meals especially the themed lunch buffets and special gourmet dinners each night. Seafood was offered every dinner and most lunches. Breakfast buffets were the same menu each morning but were still great and you could order any special you wanted e.g. custom omelettes. Staff throughout the ship was attentive and friendly And free liquor of all types with meals, poolside, piano bar. etc. Snorkeling trips were the highlight of our excursions. The only negative was that even though we had signed up way in advance for many trips, some were cancelled because they were not full or because of equipment problems. So maybe a better way to insure trips went without a full load or screening of outside vendors would be in order.
The biggest negative had nothing to do with the ship but the airline which was chosen for the package. Air Tahiti Nui has bragged about brand new 787 planes but they are configured for maximum number of seats and the 8 hour flight was extremely uncomfortable. Could hardly fit in the seats and forget about trying to eat on the trays in your lap. Worst International flight I have ever been on compared to Air France, Lufthansa, United etc
Also we requested a deviation on our return flight to spend more time in Tahiti. In doing so we lost our ability to enjoy an afternoon in a day room with a meal and shower. Paul Gaugin should have included this since we paid the same price was those flying back home directly
It was a long idle time wait with baggage between 10 AM ship debarkation and 11:50 PM return flight.
Cabin Review
Nice cabin even though in one of the less expensive decks. Attentive butler service. Only negative was a shortage of electrical outlets.
Port & Shore Excursion Reviews
This was actually on Tahaa but there is no listing for this island. We did the drift snorkel dive which was fun but very shallow as advertised There was a lot of dead vegetation in the water and so it was not really clear as in Bora Bora
View All 15 Snorkeling ReviewsNice dive and Maud, the dive master, was very patient with me although I hadn't dived in a while and had trouble achieving neutral buoyancy.
View All 5 Scuba Diving ReviewsWhat a treat to be able to see the huge Manta ray! Made 4 very different stops (sharks, sting ray feeding, manta ray and tropical fish)
View All 35 Snorkeling ReviewsWe took the 'slow' tour of the island up the hill to the Belvedere lookout. It was fun and imperative to use the electric assist on the bike since it was a big uphill climb.Our guide stopped periodically to show us the local plants and the agricultural school. What a view from the top!
View All 15 Belvedere Lookout Reviews