DGK

Great, good to know Lonedaddy....never been to Milan , thanks for the suggestion...learning lots and taking many notes

Thank you so much wcsdkgh and Lonedaddy for taking the time to respond to my questions.

I think we are going to try and book through Regent Air with a deviation and will be prepared with many choices. Fingers crossed we only have to do one layover as there are many options direct Calgary to Europe and we are flexible regarding dates and definitely plan on arriving prior. 

Your assistance is greatly appreciated

I want to start off by thanking everyone for all of their valuable input and suggestions as I have gathered a huge amount of information from this board.

We have always booked our own air  ( 300 days prior ), only cruised minimally  and for a trip April 2025 we decided to book Regent Air plus paid the $175.00 as we live in Calgary a Non Gateway city and remain undecided regarding taking the air credit ( concern with not getting seats together, possible unknown up charge with too many layovers)  .Our cruise embarks in Fusina as we will be flying into Venice and disembarks in Rome. My understanding is 210 days prior to.... Is it flight departure date or cruise embarkation ? We can call and deviate along with the fee ( we will have many options researched ). Should I expect upcharge if we fly direct to Europe with a Regent designated Airline ( I think Air Canada is one ) and only have one transfer Fra. or do  I need to have two layovers one being in a gateway city which I believe Toronto is ?

Last question can we book Regent Air one way as I can possibly fly Westjet direct Rome to YYC and use points for the return and avoid layovers ?

Thank you in advance as this is all completely new to me and want to make sure I fully understand the process.

Thanks for taking the time to post . Hope you get some sunshine before you depart for home.

Thank you for your comments, much appreciated especially re choppy water and vibration

Another question please.... Any idea which cruise of the above two mentioned both Jan or Feb one larger with two sea days  and  going out to Marquesas would have more motion ?

At this moment we are leaning towards Regent as it is a different experience and hopefully another PG in the future.

Thanks so much for your response , We agree with your expertise there is no wrong decision.

Now we just have to decide soon....  if we choose  Regent  the upgrade etc will expire end of the month .Decision time !

We are trying to make a decision regarding what would suit us best.  Some background.....2013 we sailed on PG 10 night Society and Tuamotu's itinerary and absolutely loved it....we prefer ocean activities  over land based and unfortunately I am prone to motion sickness so prefer less sea days. I managed great in 2013 with the help of a patch.

 Regent cruise is on a larger ship Navigator 490 passengers ( does have some vibration issues from my reading ) and the itinerary has two sea days and stops at Nuku Hiva along with Raiatea still goes to Rangiroa, Bora Bora , Favarava and Moorea Jan and Feb 2024   . The price for this cruise currently with special promotions is about $1,000.00 more than a Nov 2023 PG 10 night . The Regent offers free excursion with the cabin we are comparing too so with the unknown PG price we think it may be similar or even cheaper for Regent. The Regent also requires less down payment at this point.

We live in cold snowy Canada and only desire to travel to FP End Jan- end of March even though we are aware of the increase humidity and possible rain. Our cruising history is extremely limited and last time we added a 3 night pre-cruise stay at the Hilton Moorea which we plan on combing a land trip again. Air will be on our own. Unfortunately we don't have the opportunity to visit our dream holiday frequently and want to make the best decision for us . .  We are very aware of the change in management with PG as we did have a cruise booked previous cancelled due to Covid and also aware the Navigator does not have the same Polynesian feel PG will offer.

We understand many of you have much more experience so any comments suggestions greatly appreciated as to if we should jump on the Regent cruise to see some new islands and new experience or wait for the 2024 PG Itinerary , Many thanks in advance

Thank you for your quick response Hutchinj. PG only has 3.5 weeks for my refund ( because it will be a year since my deposit ) otherwise credit card company here we come.

Thanks everyone for posting all your suggestions and comments as I have been finding it extremely helpful. Our PG cruise is booked through our TA for 2021. We are Canadian.  Going back and fourth since March with our TA regarding the best way to receive a refund instead of FCC. Our TA wrote an email 4 days ago with the recent policy changes requesting a refund minus the $100.00 cancellation fee. She suggest we wait as we are not a "priority " since our cruise isn't till 2021. Unfortunately we paid the deposit mid June 2019 so I will need to start the credit card 3rd party default  early June as I don't trust  PG  to come through with my deposit refund . Has anyone received a deposit or cruise  refund recently  without doing the credit card 3rd party default  and if so how long did it take ?

We put our deposit down June 2019 for a long awaited PG 2021 cruise. Our final payment will be due late Sept. and with all the uncertainty we do not feel comfortable putting more money down in the fall or even waiting out the summer. Our only option is to pursue our credit card company to get our deposit back. Has anyone had success with this option ? We have never had to deal with anything like this prior.

Thanks so much Dave and Larr09

Thank you everyone for your comments and clarifying. Larro9, when you hear back regarding  Pure Snorkeling response if you could kindly post an update that would be greatly appreciated.

Feeling confused regarding the following excursions . ….What is  the difference please between  two ship tours.... Lagoon Excursion with Maohi Nui code 1603- $119.00 and Pure Snorkeling with Reef Discovery code 1612-$145.00. they both state that they make 3 stops.

 I have also read on this forum that some have booked pure snorkeling privately and it was their fav. excursion. Would that be the same tour as the ships 1612. I checked the website and if booked privately it is approx.$115.00 ,

Thanks so much in advance

Great tips, thank you Notion of the Ocean, we are definitely doing a pre-cruise stay and will probably leave Tahiti following the cruise. 

Thanks everyone, the advantage for us using Air France is the flight leaves early AM the day the day we depart the ship. Some may not like this but since we are doing a pre-cruise stay we don't mind leaving early on our last day. The big advantage is we don't have to figure out how to spend the day waiting for an evening flight home without the day room from PG. . I very much appreciate your comments and advice.

Great suggestion Aururab, At the moment United doesn't fly the day we depart the ship which would mean an extra night in Tahiti , not too bad , Lots can change with their schedule as our flights wont be posted /available for 3-5 months. We will definitely consider.

We will be using Avion , Canadian Visa

Thank you both  for your great comments and tips. .We agree with your suggestion  TBK regarding the pre stay and will eliminate option 3 .   It is reassuring to know Sita that even though there was a strike with AF you still managed to get to Tahiti  in economy and not your designated carrier. I hope the timing was similar for you so you didn't loose a night in paradise. I wasn't aware that the airlines provided that. We are a long way out and flights etc wont be available for awhile but 1/2 the fun is the planning and researching. This forum has been extremely helpful.

We  booked our second trip on the PG 2021 ( lots of time, just starting some planning ). Our first trip we booked Air through PG . For 2021 we really prefer  P.E. seats and possibly have enough points. The current upgrade through PG for P.E. is out of our price range. ….Some options if you were us what would you do :

1. Book PE flights with AF , we will be doing a pre-cruise stay and would depart the ship last day extremely early for approx. 8AM flight. The early departure is no longer a concern as we will have the pre-cruise stay plus this cruise is longer than previous one. We realize AF P.E. seats are not as comfy as ATN . Our major concern is somewhere I read about possible A.F. Strike. We are not risk takers and curious regarding some of your expertise and comments please. This would be so stressful if a strike occurred. .. We really like this option for solving our day of departure dilemma without the cost of day room.

2. Book ATN PE on points and try and figure out a day room for day of departure, we can book the IC and transfer through PG at a huge cost. A day room is a must for us if we have an evening departure. Pre-cruise booked by TA,

3. Book ATN PE points and a short one night pre-cruise stay at IC through PG ( cheaper than post ) and do our previous planned pre-cruise now post cruise ( possible Hilton Moorea OWB or Vahine ).. This would solve the day of departure but think we would prefer doing the OWB pre-cruise as nothing compares to the service on PG which would be a beautiful way to end this special trip.

4. Book economy seats through PG for peace of mind. Not concerned regarding managing transfers just the unexpected  cancellation of a flight for this very special trip.

Any thoughts/ comments greatly appreciated

If you decide to do the organized tours ..... In 2013 we did the ship snorkeling tour to the aquarium in Rangiroa and Ato tour in Fakarava and they were some of our favourite excursions. Sorry no longer have Ato’s contact , we were extremely  happy with both.

Thank you so much Petoonya, you have been extremely helpful

Wow thank you so much Petoonya, was it hard to find the Airbnb ?  Great suggestion and much appreciated

Thanks for the update TBK, unfortunately not the news we wanted to hear. We are attempting to book our own air ( possibly on points ) for a PG cruise and after departing the ship would prefer a day room prior to the long journey home. Not interested in renting a car etc. The day room quote at I.C. without air is sooooo expensive through PG. We may have to reconsider the air pkg  depending on the total cost  .

Fantastic photo's thanks for taking the time to post