Paul Gauguin Cruises

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Paul Gauguin

An incredible exploration of the Tuamotus, Marquesas and Society Islands

Pago Pago

From the very second our taxi dropped us off at the cruise port in Papeete, we were blown away at the services. Friendly greetings, clear and concise directions on how to board and a person at every turn pointing you in right direction.

Champagne greeting with the cruise host and then a little presentation and then to our room and our luggage was already there as well as a fully stocked refrigerator with beers and sodas.

I may mention that we are vegan and there was some concern as you never know quite what to expect. We met up with Ryan, the headwaiter at Le Etoile (their French restaurant) and not only did he assure us our food choice would be provided but literally met us every meal and supervised and sometimes served our vegan choices which were amazing. This included breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Now we get to talk about adult beverages:-) Bill, who was our favorite bar server went out of his way to make sure we were given great wines and plenty of it! There are also many others including Phillip, Manny, Norman and of course Anthony (the booze man:-))

If you are looking for a cruise where you are treated special every minute of the day, don’t look any further! Other cruise lines should take a page from their playbook!!

Exceeded all expectations 

I had researched this cruise for 3 years and I knew the ship was 25 years old this year so we expected an older ship. However, upon arrival, we were greeted with the kindest smiles and a beautiful ship that was recently remodeled. We stayed on Deck 4 with a window view, which was perfect for us as we were hardly ever in the room. We spent lots of time by the pool. We went directly to the spa and booked overwater massages for our day at Motu Mahana. We also reserved the steam room for our party of 3 for the following day at no cost. We then went to La Veranda and booked reservations for the week for there and for La Grill. We were lucky to have La grill on the Bora Bora night in port. there was along line for reservations and they filled quickly so if this is important to you then go there as soon as the open to secure our reservations. Food was delicious at all restaurants but we really liked La Veranda. Drinks were great too. Staff knew our names by day two and the service was amazing. We have cruised over 25 times and this cruise and our Regents cruise are by far our favorites. Day 2 we did the PG excursion Huahine exploration by 4WD and boat. We snorkeled in a beautiful coral reef, went to a pearl farm, rode an outrigger, then toured the island by 4WD. It was a perfect day. We had 30 yrs olds and 80 yr olds on this excursion. Fun for all. Day 3 was the Private Motu Mahana. We snorkeled, rested, and ate the best picnic lunch. One of our favorite days. Get on the first tender to secure a front row beach chair! Day 3 Bora Bora, we hired a captain to take our group of 4 around the island by boat and we snorkeled with sharks and rays, then the coral gardens. It was an amazing day on the water. We booked with La Plage and we highly recommend! Our captain picked us up at the pier where PG tender dropped us off. Very convenient. That afternoon, we went to the private beach of PG for a couple of hours and it was paradise. Located next to the 4 Seasons. Day 4 Bora Bora, we took a land tour by 4WD around the island stopping at beautiful landscapes for photos, Bloody Mary's, and Matira Beach. We enjoyed having a day on the water and a day on land. Our guide was very informative. We booked through Viator. They picked us up at the pier where the PG tender is. Day 5 was Moorea, our absolute favorite island. We rented cute mini jeeps for the day and drove around the island stopping to snorkel and eating lunch at the Hilton Moorea which was delicious! We had the Poison Cru!  This island is so magical. We rented from Moorea Fun Roadster and he picked up and dropped off at the pier. Day 6 we spent the morning by the pool enjoying the beautiful views. That afternoon, we jet skied and swam with sharks and rays. It was the best jet ski experience we ever had.  We rented through Top Jet. Amazing and fun crew that led us around. They were very informative. Day 7 we debarked at 10 am and took our on cab ($20) to the airport. PG charges a fee to book this for you. We rented a car for the day and drove around Tahiti to see fern grottos, blowholes, waterfalls, Teahupoo, and ate the best lunch a La Plage de Maui! Highly recommend this place! Our flight left at 9pm so we had a full day in Tahiti. This was a 10/10 experience for us. Perfection in every way! Our ages our 57,58,60, and 64. We all had a blast!

A Week In Paradise

We were excited to take this smaller cruise ship in the French Polynesia Islands and had read many reviews indicating what a luxury cruise line this was with excellent cuisine and more intimate since the ship is smaller.  The staff working onboard are terrific and attentive to every detail.  The ship itself is beautiful with updated decor making this very appealing, especially since this is an older ship.  The negative review comes from the food being completely awful.  No taste and everything tasted frozen and lacking in flavor.  The other mishap was this cruise was to take three days in the Cook Islands and the weather was terrible.  Unfortunately for us they stayed the course and we went through very rough seas to and most of the passengers suffered from sea sickness for three days!  We feel strongly that the captain or the cruise line could have diverted this part of the trip due to the weather and everyone would have been much happier.  The food was such a disappointment I can't even express how upset we were with spending the most $$$ ever for a cruise and it have such lousy food.  We are experienced travelers and I would NEVER recommend this cruise line to anyone.  We later learned that it was purchased by Ponant from the American run cruise line - they did a great job decorating but the food and decision making are far from a 5 star experience.

Worst Cruise Ever

We were a party of three on the 14 day Marquesas, Tuamotus & Society Islands trip.  As previous Ponant passengers (Antarctica and the Kimberley), we felt that this trip was more akin to a Ponant "expedition", the format of which we absolutely love.

We can't speak highly enough of our experience on this expedition.  While our stateroom on the PG was a tiny bit dated (dark wood instead of the Scandi neutral tone wood everyone goes for nowadays), the amount of storage was incredible - a place for everything and everything in its place.  The stateroom bathroom, while a bit plain, was great for a ship - quite large and loads of cupboard space to keep everything put away.  Our stewardess was superb - friendly and super efficient and handled our laundry (with special requests not to tumble dry certain items) perfectly!

The crew were the best we'd ever encountered.  Charming, friendly and nothing was too much trouble.  We absolutely loved everyone who looked after us.  We felt really well looked after by everyone - our stewardess, the bartenders, the entertainment staff, the dive team, our waiters, the restaurant maitre'ds and the reception staff!

The entertainment was terrific - the Gauguines Polynesian troupe were great fun and very charming.  We also had a singing duet from England, Alice and Olivia (Two Souls) who were great, and another duet (singer Pascale and pianist Juanyo) from Quebec, who performed in French and English and were skilled musicians.  The entertainment was rounded out by an onboard magician and visiting dance troupes from French Polynesia.  The onboard band and pianist were also great entertainers, and we spent many a wee small hour with the pianist, Jerry, in the piano bar.  There were a couple of karaoke nights, and disco dancing late in evening.  We had sailed previously with the cruise director, Maria, and we were welcomed by her as old friends.

The onboard lecturers (anthropologists and naturalists) delivered fascinating lectures about French Polynesia and its people, flora and fauna, and we were privileged to be guided by them on our daily afternoon shore excursions.

We spent each morning scuba diving with the superb dive team, and diving in the Tuamotus and Marquesas was a highlight of our diving life!

The food and wine were amazing - any aspirations we had of not going overboard went right out the window on the first day.  From eggs perfectly cooked to order at breakfast, through luncheon AND afternoon tea, to delicious multicourse meals for dinner, with matching wines, we stuffed ourselves silly.  There were different food theme days, and we got to try some different foods that we'd not had much experience with, such as Filipino food (delicious by the way).  Our bartender in the piano bar got to know us quickly and mixed our favourite cocktails exactly as we like them - we didn't even have to order them - we just turned up in the bar, smiled and said hello and the next thing we knew our cocktails were in front of us!

We loved that on the 14 day expeditions, the passenger mix tends to 75% francophone / 25% anglophone.  As French speakers, we had a chance to practise our French and meet people from all over France.  This also had the advantage that the English-speaking shore excursions were not at all crowded and had a very personal tour feel to them.

If you're looking for a cruise to lay about in the sun and paddle in lagoons around French Polynesia, there are choices other than the Paul Gauguin which better suit that.  But if you want an exciting, interesting and engaging experience, with scuba diving in the morning, an afternoon shore excursion with a local Marquesan guide, scrambling up breathtaking hills to fascinating maraes (sacred and communal archeological sites), lectures about the history and life of French Polynesia, cocktails with great people from around the world, delicious food and small scale but terrific entertainment in the evenings, then the Paul Gauguin is the right choice!

My spouse and I have cruised with 8 different cruise lines and we agree Paul Gauguin has been the most overrated based on critic and passenger reviews we read prior to booking and also the most overpriced.  First of all, the ship itself is quite tired/dated looking both inside and out, therefore needs a complete makeover.  On a positive note, it’s clearly an older ship thus the rooms and bathrooms are a comfortable size.  The service is nothing outstanding, pretty much what you experience with all of the major cruise lines these days in such a competitive industry.  Some staff were wonderful while others were just going through the motions and not so great.  The food overall was good, although bland at times, again quite consistent with other cruise lines, but definitely no where near the best we’ve had.  The dress code is not enforced at all, which diminishes the overall dining ambiance at dinner time in particular.  People were wearing shorts and t-shirts at dinner even though the dress code states men must wear pants, no ripped jeans and a collared shirt.  Numerous younger passengers were also wearing hoodies at dinner.  The restaurant reservation experience was quite unpleasant and inconsistent.  They track everything on paper and don’t have updated computer systems for reservations, therefore you rely on one head host to manually track reservations which results in a lot of errors.  For example, one day we were told the restaurant was full, the next day they had numerous spots available.  This happened a total of 3 times, so in order to get a reservation you had to keep on checking and be persistent, not a typical cruising experience for us.  The bartenders are quite inconsistent as far as ability and knowledge go.  The fitness centre is quite honestly the worst fitness facility we have ever seen anywhere.  There are only 4 weight machines, 2 of them are solely for the back.  All of the equipment is quite old, the universal weight machine is probably from the late 80’s or early 90’s.  For the price Paul Gauguin charges, they should spend some money on upgrading the ship in every way.  The decor everywhere is from the 90’s.  The ship even smells stale.  The salt water pool is nice, however very old and needs to be updated.  The entertainment was okay, pretty much what you’d expect from a Polynesian cruise.  Check-in was dreadful, there was no one from the ship there to greet us or even help us with luggage or direct us where to go.  We found 1 fellow sitting on a ledge on the dock who only helped with the luggage after we asked for assistance, no welcome greeting or anything.  Upon entering the ship, once again no one to welcome us or say hello, just a security person who told us to go up to the 4th level which is where guest services was.  The guest services staff were all very pleasant when checking us in.  The excursion booking process was a complete mess that numerous guests were unhappy with.  You had to book a minimum 1 week prior to sailing date, however this wasn’t communicated clearly, therefore over 50 people were lined up, including us, the following morning trying to book excursions.  Another thing we found odd was the extremely long winded captain during his daily announcements, particularly disruptive when he had to say everything in both French & English.  One morning he woke those who were still asleep, including us, up at 6:48am because he spotted a dolphin, in case anyone wanted to see it, quite odd to announce that over the loud speakers that early. We realized that one of the reasons this cruise line has such great reviews overall is because so many guests are repeat clients who only sail with Paul Gauguin and come back every year or two.  We met several people who were doing a Paul Gauguin cruise for the 5th and 6th time.  The majority of the clients are over 60 as with most cruises, however it appears to be a case of repeat clients who haven’t tried anything else recently and therefore don’t know how much better and higher end other cruise lines have become.  We loved the itinerary, however would recommend cruising the South Pacific with a different, more modern cruise line.

Would not recommend

We have just finished the Paul Gauguin 7 day Society Islands cruise.  It was a very disappointing experience for many reasons.  Firstly, the ship is old, and although the public areas have had a tasteful refit, the cabins, and specifically the bathrooms are dreadful.  Replacing a shower curtain over a bath with a static glass panel, so that you have to lean right in to turn on and adjust the water was unpleasant at best, and quite dangerous at worst.  Further, supplying an old fashioned rubber suction mat for the bathtub on a 5 Star cruise is ridiculous.  If a bath’s non slip surface is too worn to be safe, replace it.

Covid procedures were all but ignored by staff.  Hand sanitation machines were over to the side of restaurants and bars, very few people used them, and no staff members were assigned to see that they did.  Social distancing was also non existent.  I caught Covid on the second last full day, despite taking all precautions.  I tested myself in my cabin and immediately isolated and reported my case to guest services.  The doctor came to see me and then charged me $121 for a service I didn’t ask for.  She told me that she suspected many people onboard were not reporting their symptoms, not surprising, I probably wouldn’t have either if I’d known I’d be charged that much.  

Other examples of their incompetence and 3 Star service: when my husband questioned why his dinnerware was incomplete, he was told they didn’t have enough.  Whilst in isolation, my breakfast order arrived with only a butter knife, so I had to eat my pancakes with that, as no other knife and fork was supplied.  There were no guest artists on the whole cruise apart from the professional dance troupe on the last night.  No magician, comedian, or guest singer, just the house band and the cultural ambassadors onboard. I know this is not the usual case and it made for boring evenings.  Lastly, guest services were rude and argumentative when you challenged them regarding mistakes on your account of which there were many.

This was my first so-called 5 Star cruise, but it really was a 3 Star experience.  I’m going back to my usual cruise line that values and respects their passengers, doesn’t just take your money then treat you poorly.  Paul Gauguin under Ponant gets a big thumbs down from me!

Definitely Not a 5 Star Experience 

Seven day French Polynesian cruise with 300+ passengers October 29-November 5, 2022. Be aware the cruise is only six days (seven nights) which is too short for the travel time and expense to French Polynesia.  Plan to book island stays for a week before or after the cruise. Our favorite resort was “Le Taha’a” a 50 bungalow resort on a motu accessible only by the resort boat off the west shore of Taha’a.

 Cruise Positives:  

  No extra costs (except for excursions). The fare includes tips, alcohol and wine at bars and meals.  Wifi was free (although there was no service most of the time). The crew and service was excellent.  On par with the finest ships we have cruised on.  Crew ratio is 1:1.5 passengers.  Food was very good. Balcony cabin was small, but fine except the only two power outlets were opposite walls from bed with no nightstands.

  Limited shopping: for those of us who do not shop on cruises, there are no towns (other than Papeete) and almost no shopping.  The ship moored offshore on each island. Because of the small number of passengers, using the tenders was very convenient.

  Issues:  

  Travel Logistics.  West coast flights (Air Tahiti Nui, Air France, United) all land too late to connect to the afternoon boarding of the cruise. This requires at least one night hotel stay in Papeete (hotels are not close to cruise port downtown).  The cruise also require disembarking no later than 10am while the west coast flights do not leave until late at night (9pm-midnight).  This delay requires significant wait time (10-12 hours) or booking an extra night hotel if an early check-in can be arranged.  (Only the Intercontinental Hotel offers a pricy “day room.”)

  Ship “motion.”  The Gauguin is an older ship and apparently does not have the stabilizers of newer ships.  Despite the short distances between islands, the ship leaves at 5pm each night, long before the dinner seatings.  Each night walking to dinner and returning to our cabin was a “rock n roll” we have not experienced on cruises in recent years.  Between Bora Bora and Moorea, the overnight trip was uncomfortable.

  Weather.  Not the responsibility of P. Gauguin. The weather is hottest with the most rain from December-April and the coolest with less rain June-October (4-5 degrees difference). We traveled in late October-early November.  The temperature was fairly hot on land when sunny, but not humid at all.  During the cruise, the sky was overcast 80% of the time with very mild temperatures.  We had “passing” rain 2-3 times on most days which lasted less than 15 minutes. 

The day of disembarking and waiting for late eve flight,  the rain poured for 6+ hours.

Overall:

  A very nice, short cruise with wonderful staff.

Seven Day French Polynesian Cruise

This was a dream destination for us, postponed twice due to covid travel.

The size of the ship is good for this area. Only 230 passengers so excellent service. And spends longer in this area than the big ships.

The crew are all amazing, very quickly know your names. Nothing too much trouble.

Food was excellent . We especially liked The Grill and dining by the pool in Bora Bora was fantastic. Not so keen on menu options in Le Veranda.

Enjoyed the show band, the pianist and the local entertainers.

We’re surprised how much movement we felt on the ship. On way to Cook Islands many people suffered from sea sickness

Our suite was kept extremely clean and our butler Harry was a The things we did not like was the shower over the bath, poor water pressure  and the internet connection was just awful.

Would love to go back and visit other islands.

Best way to see French Polynesia

In wanting to explore the South Pacific and the islands, we chose the small ship, The Paul Gauguin. The service and information available to us in preparation for the trip was superb.  Each phone call was extremely helpful and thorough.  Even at the Airport in LA they had a very gracious representative who welcomed us and gave us information that would be helpful.

Once on the ship we were always treated warmly and with extraordinary service.  We ran into some medical issues and could not have been more thankful for the care received despite the health issue.  The staff on this small ship truly seems to get to know their guests.

The food was extraordinary; each dinner plate was a work of art.

We highly recommend this ship and its crew to such a beautiful part of the world. The excursions were plentiful enough that we were able to experience the culture of the islands we visited.

I cannot say enough about this small ship and the crew and the service! 

Have always wanted to see this part of the world.  Paul Gauguin did it better than I could have imagined!  The cruise ship was great, a little older, but clean and bright and had all the amenities needed.  Small ship, less passengers, no long lines.  Easy, efficient with their tenders to shore.  Shore excursions were amazing.   Crew members were spectacular!  So kind and so accommodating.  They made us feel so welcome and joyous.

Activities were fun.  Made wind chimes, bracelets got fake tattoos...all fun.  Everything inclusive  Food was great!  Ok, the wine was not the best.  But hey...the margaritas were pretty good.

Easy to get on and easy to get off.  The islands they take you to were beautiful.   Bora Bora for 2 days, was amazing.  Tahaa and the private island with the BBQ was fantastic,  everyone had so much fun, we didn't want to leave.   

Would go back in a heart beat!

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