MrRandal

I found the heated floors, and the heated mirror that doesn't fog up to be exceptional. The shower is very nice, lots of hot water, and there are plenty of drawers and cupboards in the bathroom. However, I felt the lighting, especially for shaving was terrible. There was a halogen (halogen uses more energy and is a much harsher light source than most L.E.D.s) light directly above my head where I would stand at the sink to shave, and it caused shadows on my face and made shaving difficult. It was also most unflattering 🙂. I did pack a 5in 5X suction cup mirror that I used to put in and take out my contacts, but I was afraid to attach it to a heated mirror, so I used it on one of the side mirrors which was awkward. My wife used the large mirror at the desk for her hair and make up, and that is an ingenious design element, but one can hardly wet shave at a desk. This was in a PV1 on the Neptune on our Sept 18, 2023 Med Odyssey cruise. As Mia stated above, glad to hear Viking incorporating an extendable arm mirror on their new ships. Hopefully they have made improvements with their lighting.

We are on the same ship, same trip, and will be headed to Mestre train station for a train ride to Milan as well. We are using Airports Taxi Transfers to get from Chioggia to the train station. 134 Euro for a driver in an E class MBZ. They get good reviews, but I have no other knowledge. It made sense for us, Viking wanted to charge us $98 to take a bus to the airport, would only guaranty it would be between 3:30am and 8:30am, and then we would have had to take a cab to the train station (20-30 Euros and lugging a bunch of luggage).

According to Viking we are still scheduled to dock in Chioggia. Also verified that on Sept 29 and Sept 30 (our ship, our dates) the Viking Neptune is scheduled to be in port on the website www.whatsinport.com (great website by the way). I assume that may change, but will feel a little more comfortable when our final documents arrive. We got our luggage tags today, so hopefully the docs will arrive shortly via email.

I started scrambling when I first saw we were docking in Chioggia and called Viking direct. We booked our own air, and are taking a train from Venice to Milan on disembarkation day. They initially told me it was up to me to find transportation to Venice from Chioggia. I asked the rep if Viking was seriously going to just dump their passengers on a dock 30-40 miles away from their "advertised final port"? After insisting to speak to a customer service supervisor, I was finally told that Viking was offering a seat on their buses that they have for the people who booked using Viking air. This was a trip from the boat to the airport. We were told they would put us on one of their buses, but no guaranty when it would leave Chioggia or arrive at the airport, where we would have had to take a taxi to the train station. We were given a reservation and charged $49US each. Reading that some buses were leaving Chioggia as early as 3:30am, I found a company through rome2rio that will pick up the 2 of us in a Mercedes at the port in Chioggia at 8:30am and take us directly to the Railway station for $134US. I imagine that will be cheaper if we dock in Fusina, more if we dock in Ravenna. We leave Sept 18 from Barcelona for a Med Odyssey cruise, still scheduled for Chioggia at this point.

Just be certain to fill your laundry form out perfectly. If you miscount your items, or you put something in the wrong category, they will not launder your clothes until they find you and clear up any discrepancy. FYI, the laundry service on the ship may very well be the best I have ever experienced, from sandy socks to fine linen shirts, they do an outstanding job.

I don't know, we were on a 10 day cruise.

Although the local ladies were not on board to make leis and crowns for us in September, les Gauguines were in and around the piano bar passing out leis for all passengers on Polynesian night. These were not as elaborate as what the local ladies created, but it was a nice touch.

Yes it appears that things are changing daily. Perhaps you have someone who has tested positive on board. On our Sept cruise tenders were completely full. Initially we were required to wear masks on the tenders, but by day 4 or 5, the day Poignant stopped requiring Covid tests prior to boarding, they relaxed the mask policy on the tenders. The staff continued to wear masks, but 99% of the passengers did not wear them, anywhere.

No, the only thing missing from the new location is the view of Mt Otemanu that you had at the old location. The angle of the channel is a little different. And if water levels return to previous conditions, I would expect them to return to the old location. Either way, the view under the water is why you're there.

On our Sept 7 cruise they had moved the drift snorkel from it's previous location to a new location. We were told this was due to low water levels in the original location. The walk is a bit more difficult because you need to walk 50-75 feet from the shore into the water before you put on your snorkel gear, but the area itself is outstanding. It is wider, longer, the current is not as strong, and it is much easier to navigate through the coral garden. The coral is every bit as magnificent as the original area. For me, the drift snorkel is an absolute must do.

We did the drift snorkel on our first 2 cruises, and each time we "drifted" 3 separate times. The drift snorkel is usually a group of ten with 2 guides, one at the front of the line another at the end. The actual drift area is between 2 motus, perhaps 300 yards long, 150 or so yards wide. Your boat anchors at the end, then you walk up to the start of the drift area in your water shoes carrying your flippers and snorkeling gear, you then change into your snorkel gear and enter the water. The lead guide floats your shoes with him/her, and you change back into your shoes at the end and repeat. On our last cruise, in September, we actually went to a different area, which was much larger, with a milder current, and we only had time for two trips, although we spent every bit as much time in the water, and the coral garden was every bit as spectacular as the original spot. At this time the original drift area was not deep enough in many areas to safely drift. This has been a challenge with the excursion for years, you need to be a strong enough swimmer to swim around the coral that is too close to the surface to swim over it. But oh so worth the effort.

I wouldn't call it a tote bag, it's more of a small nylon type fabric bag with 2 thin ropes that act like a draw string back pack. It holds the 2 beach towels we take on excursions, but my wife always brings a number of other totes as well. We have a mesh bag that holds everything we need on a snorkel excursion, inside is our masks, fins and snorkels, water shoes, the small PG tote with our towels, also a small thin dry bag with our phones and key cards and any small amounts of XPF we may need ashore. I carry it over one shoulder, and it does a great job of keeping us organized.

Pure Snorkeling with Reef Discovery is a Paul Gauguin excursion now, which can be booked when excursions open up with your cruise. You may be able to book them separately, but that's not normally the case once a vendor becomes a Paul Gauguin vendor. Also, while you can sip cocktails and snorkel at Motu Mahana, the snorkeling there is pretty poor, and if that's all you did in Taha'a you would be missing one of the best snorkeling adventures of your entire cruise, the Drift Snorkel in Taha'a. The vendor picks you up from the marina deck and takes you to the snorkel area, you spend 3 hours drift snorkeling with the current in a huge, incredible coral garden, see some of the most pristine coral in the world, and then the vendor drops you off at Motu Mahana just in time for lunch. It's one of my favorite excursions the ship offers, although I have been out with Pure Snorkeling on 5 different occasions, both before and after they were PG vendors. All of their captains/guides are amazing.

They still have large pump bottles on the wall in the shower, shampoo, conditioner and shower gel, and on the bathroom sink. Supposedly the same French brand they use and sell in the spa, but I have my doubts. I was fine with it, my wife always brings her own.

It's not necessary to print the 14 page cruise document, although it offers a wealth of information, especially if you are a first time cruiser on the PG. However you do need to print the 3 page Covid questionnaire, as well as the very invasive 3 page health questionnaire.

I trust The Points Guy: https://news.delta.com/4th-year-delta-named-top-us-airline-points-guy

I agree, the vast majority on both of our PG cruises were native English speakers, and we never saw any preferential treatment to those who did speak French. Actually, the majority of the crew, those you will be interacting with in the dining rooms and your cabin stewards are from the Philippines. I'm sure with the new Ponant ownership there are probably more French officers onboard. But how often does the average guest interact with one of the ship's officers? However, you are very cordially greeted almost everywhere by the crew in Tahitian.

Pure Snorkeling with Reef Discovery is an outstanding excursion. We have taken it twice privately before they became a Paul Gauguin vendor and absolutely loved it. We have booked them again for our Sept cruise. They use modern speedboats, which allows them to take you to 3 different snorkeling sites very quickly. This is not a Polynesian outrigger boat with the Captain strumming the ukulele type of tour. But the guides are very knowledgeable and personable, and put you in great locations to snorkel.

They used to mail them, in a beautiful 6"x9" binder that was enclosed in a wonderful matching zippered pouch. The cruise documents detailed your itinerary and provided you with pretty much all of the information about the ship, your cruise, deck plans, available excursions at each port, restaurant locations, meal times, etc. It was a very exciting day when it was delivered in the mail. They are now delivering a 2 page e-Doc that shows what cruise you are on and what cabin you are in, plus a 6 page health questionnaire, which not only asks about your Covid Vaccination and any prior Covid infections, but basically your entire health history for the past 5 years. You need to fill this form out 2 days prior to boarding, and if the ship's doctor finds you not healthy enough to cruise, not just a positive test for Covid, but for any medical condition you may have they deem makes you a risk, they can refuse your boarding. It certainly dampens some of the pre cruise excitement, and removes what was a wonderful and professional "Welcome to your cruise" presentation.

We all have our own horror stories with airlines, because none are even close to perfect, they all make mistakes. However, I've flown over 800K miles with Delta over the past 30 years, and prefer them hands down to any other domestic carrier.

Upon further reading I discovered that flights from SFO are routed through LAX, with an hour layover going and a 2 hour layover returning.

For those of you who like to fly Delta, this is huge. They will be flying 767-300's with 3 classes of service, including Delta One, three round trips a week, flying on the days that their SkyTeam partner, Air France doesn't. At the moment, they are offering a flash sale, with reward seats in basic economy for as low as 59,000 miles round trip available, cash price of $796. Those fares have some restrictions, check Delta for details. Competition is always good for the consumer.

While we were able to access the "Manage Trip" feature yesterday, and add some information to our profiles that should already have been there, the new information does not "stick" to the website, and subsequent visits to the site showed it still missing. Today we have had intermittent success accessing the "Manage Trip" feature. After a call directly to pgcruises, I was told the feature is undergoing a "soft opening" and they are still working out numerous bugs. No indication on when we will be able to book excursions online, we can't even book over the phone as our cruise is tied in with Smithsonian, and there are a number of free excursions that will be offered. I'm pretty certain they will be walking tours amongst ancient ruins, but they can't figure out how to get them in the system.

Although our excursions still are not showing, the personal information showed up after logging out and then logging back in. Sorry.