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I'm looking at the forms page right now, and here's what I see: two links for forms - one for beginners, and one for certified divers. You only need to click one of those links. If you are not certified and plan on getting certified on the ship, then click the beginners link. If you are already certified, click the certified link. Are you certified? I'm assuming you are. So, once you click the certified link, there are THREE forms, totaling six pages: 1. Certified Divers Questionnaire (1 page) 2. Diver Medical (3 pages) 3. Boat Diving and Scuba Diving Release (2 pages) The only one that needs to be signed is the Diver Medical Release. Note that I was told by the Marina Supervisor that they were in the process of updating the forms and verbiage on the website, so it looks like they have done some updating. I still find the verbiage confusing, but I'm going to go by what the Marina Supervisor told me: print and fill out ALL THREE forms before I board, and have the medical form already signed by a doc.

Beautiful! They are like massive angels of the sea. I've never found myself so mesmerized by any creature on earth the way I am by Manta Rays. The grace of their movements, their enormity...I REALLY hope we see some on my upcoming PG cruise! Otherwise I'm gonna have to book another trip to Bali. 😉

I don't think I'd do private tours in those ports either! In fact, I doubt I'd be comfortable doing private tours in any port in the Middle East. I wouldn't even do it in Casablanca! I'm pretty bold and adventurous, but I have my limits. 😁

Absolutely! It's all gotta be case by case. I've done ship tours in a number of ports where there were no other options, or I just didn't feel comfortable going on a private tour. Earlier I mentioned a day trip to Moscow on a Baltics cruise - I don't think it would have been possible to do this privately. Agadir and Casablanca - I didn't feel comfortable trying to do a private tour. A few other ports come to mind. Regarding cruises with included excursions - I can't say I agree with you. If they are included in the cruise fare, we're paying for those tours whether we take them or not. If the fare is less expensive than other cruise lines that don't include tours, then I can't help but wonder what we're giving up in terms of quality, food, or other inclusions. Of course everything is subjective. 🙂 But I have heard way too many stories of those included tours filling up before most pax can book them, and the ones they CAN book being of such low quality, on crowded buses, with substandard tour guides, that I just have no interest in even trying. I generally dislike bus tours, and would MUCH prefer to be with 2 or 3 other couples in a van, with a dedicated guide.

While this is not really answering your question about the PG, I just wanted to mention that if you REALLY want to be 100% SURE to see Manta Rays, take a trip to Bali and book a dive to Manta Point at Nusa Penida. There are always Mantas there, as it's a cleaning station. Here's a 5-minute video I put together of one of our trips there - it's kinda old, the footage is from 2014 - but it's still the same. And as you can see, we got up close and personal with them, not just from below. It's a worthwhile trip if you are a lover of Manta Rays! I wish you the best of luck finding some on this upcoming PG cruise. I'm hoping to see some too. I find them to be just magical creatures.

That's the other reason we're doing one ship tour on our upcoming PG cruise - gotta use up that OBC. 🙂 We'll use the rest for massages. This is EXACTLY what roll calls are for. I've never done a cruise that didn't have a roll call, and I've always found people willing to join in on private tours. I tend to be the researcher in the group (I adore researching travel) and will usually find a list of tour options. I will post them in the roll call, and we'll take votes on who wants to do what. Sometimes I've ended up pulling together groups for private tours that I'm not even going on. LOL! It's one of the best things about Cruise Critic. Oh, and for the record, I know lots of folks have transitioned their pre-cruise discussions onto FB - I find that the formatting there just does not work well for managing private tours. The message-forum format here on Cruise Critic works WAY better.

Well I'm relieved to see I'm not the only Crystal fan in here who prefers private tours! I fully agree: I just don't get why people even care what Crystal is charging for their tours. It's so rare that I use any ship tour that it's literally not even a factor for me. Occasionally it's worth it to pay the extra for the convenience of a ship tour, and if money was no object I might do more of them, but most of the time I know I will get a better experience for less money going private. I'm on a 10-day Paul Gauguin cruise coming up in a couple months, and we're doing ONE ship tour - and that's only because that particular tour gets really great reviews, plus we dilly-dallied in deciding what to do in that port and the good private tours were already booked up. All other ports where we're doing tours, we've got private ops booked. And YES! That's exactly what roll calls are for! Which is why I'm bummed that Cruise Critic just doesn't get the same level of engagement that I recall from several years ago. On my last Crystal cruise (South America in 2019) we had a very active roll call, and a number of private tours booked with people from that roll call. And we remain friends with one of the couples, who happened to live near us. Heck, I'm still friends with a couple whom I met on a roll-call back in 2004! I remember on our first PG cruise, we had something like 20 people on that roll call. And that's on a ship that only takes 330 pax. Fortunately my upcoming PG cruise roll call has 3 other couples, some of whom are joining us on our private tours. 🙂

I did a Uniworld cruise a few years ago on the Rhone & Moselle rivers, and it was wonderful! I'd love to do another one, but Egypt is not on the agenda for at least a few years. Too many other trips planned. 🙂 I do hope to get there someday!

Well I suspect that if you can afford to do a Crystal World Cruise, the prices of the shore excursions won't break the bank. 😉 Not that anybody wants to throw money away, but if you're doing a World Cruise, it's all part of the equation.

Happy to help! This is exactly what Cruise Critic is for. 🙂

Interesting discussion. My thoughts: I rarely bother with ship excursions on ANY cruise line, except where it makes sense or is the only option. For example, we used the Crystal excursion for our day trip to Moscow on our Baltics cruise some years back, because it involved flights (and would have been too challenging to arrange privately). Yes the price was eye-popping but it was very much worth it. But for our tour of St. Petersburg, we hired a private guide for just four of us and it was WAY cheaper than the Crystal tour, plus no bus, and our guide managed to get us to the front of every line. I find that privately arranged tours are nearly always way better, and significantly less expensive, than ship tours. And they are often the same tour operators used by the ship, only we get a private guide rather than a bus. This goes for every cruise line, and most major port stops. This is one of the reasons I won't cruise the lines that "include" excursions. I've read too many horror stories of the good tours filling up too fast, poor quality tours, etc. Why pay a premium price for "included" excursions when I would rather book them on my own? As for Crystal's excursion prices - that won't be a factor in my decisions, because I probably won't even use them. This is how I cruise, anyway. YMMV. I haven't been to Egypt so I can't comment on the price point of Crystal's overnight tours. Have you checked to see if it's possible to arrange private tours? I don't even know if that's an option, TBH.

In FP everyone must stay with the DM. You will not be allowed to go off on your own with a buddy. Those are the rules of FP, not the PG. And as I recall, everyone generally ends at the same time...however, on one of my dives the DM sent a couple hoovers up to do their safety stops near the zodiac, and then stayed down with my husband and me for about ten more minutes. Most dives (other than the drift dives) have a mooring line, so this means the DMs can safely send up the hoovers to use the mooring line for their safety stop and ascent, and then stay down with those of us with better lung capacity. But I don't know if you can count on that. By law, the DMs can only take five divers each. The ship has four DMs/Instructors onboard. Whether you will be with newbies or experienced divers is completely dependent on which dives you choose. There are three different levels of dives - if you look at this list of available dives from another cruise (someone else posted this earlier this year) you'll see that there are dives for beginners, certified divers, and experienced divers. I'm not doing any of the beginner dives - Hey, we all were new once, but these are not cheap dives! I'm not interested in paying $129 to poke around for a half hour with newbies who have no buoyancy control and will silt up the bottom and kick my mask off. LOL! 😉 But I'll do some certified and some advanced dives. On the certified dives you may end up with inexperienced divers, but it won't be beginners. And if you have more than five divers, they will try to group them by experience level. And on the advanced dives you should be with only experienced divers. Oh, and I haven't logged a dive for many years either. And now that we live on a sailboat and dive off our boat nearly every week, it wouldn't even be practical to do so. I have no idea where my very old logbooks are -- probably in storage with most of our other worldly belongings, which we packed away when we moved aboard our boat four years ago. But again, according to the Marina Supervisor, we won't need our log books if we can convince them of our experience level. Which sounds like it won't be a problem for me, or you. Hope this helps!

Thanks for clarifying! Question: do you know if AOW will suffice for diving below 60 ft? I don't have a "deep diver" specialty - I have nearly 800 dives and we dive off our own boat weekly. Hoping AOW will suffice because there isn't any way for me to do a PADI course before our cruise. ***EDITING TO ADD*** Ignore my question! I just went back and looked at the email that the Marina Supervisor sent me, and it says this: The log book is usually for the unexperienced divers, and it's a way for us to check the level of the divers. So if you don't have it, it will be ok.If you are advance diver, you won't need the deep dive specialty, but something very important, it's the medical certificate from your doctor, it's mandatory So I should be fine to do the deep dives in Fakarava, which I REALLY want to do. I've been diving all over FP before, but never in Fakarava. I'm so relieved! Now I just need to find me a doctor in Puerto Vallarta who will sign my medical docs. 🙂

DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! Trust me on this. I too was confused, as the wording on their site, and the forms, is confusing and in some places it seems you don't need to get a doctor's signature. YOU DO! I emailed directly with the Marina Supervisor, and he confirmed that every single diver, regardless of age, health or experience, needs to have the medical form filled out and signed by a doctor...and according to him, the on-board doctor will not do it. (I suspect that you CAN get it done onboard, for a fee, as I expect they want to encourage diving...but I wouldn't chance it!)

I'm in agreement with @TheDarkestBlue - open sandals are not the best option for snorkeling. Besides leaving the sides of your foot open to stings, they will collect sand as you walk through the water and make it hard to move around. Dive booties would certainly work! That's what I use when I snorkel around here (Mexican Pacific Coast), but I'm not bringing my finds (too bulky and heavy to fit in my luggage) so I'm bringing a pair of water shoes.

Water shoes with a hard sole! If you're snorkeling, you will want them for sure. You do NOT want to step on a stonefish without protection on your feet. Also, don't forget to pack something white for their White Night, and something Polynesian for the Polynesian Party night. You don't NEED to wear something white or Polynesian, but I think it's fun to dress for the themed nights. 😁

YAAAY!

They are VERY different ships, and VERY different cruise experiences. The PG is all about immersion in French Polynesia, with the focus is more on the location and not so much on a luxury ship experience, although it's about as luxurious a cruise as you can find in that region. The service really is excellent, and it's a much smaller ship so a more personal and intimate experience. I recall the lunch buffets as being quite good, and I enjoyed how each day they featured cuisine from a different part of the world. Dining on the PG is definitely a cut above the mass market lines, but I'm well aware it's not going to be the Michelin-level dining that I expect to enjoy when I finally get on board Symphony. Yes, La Veranda had fabulous food! It was my favorite venue. But for me this cruise is mostly about the diving. And, of course, the gorgeous beaches, the Polynesian culture, the lush islands...and the DIVING! 😁

Thanks for the details Jerry. Now that I see the boat, and hear what the tour is like, I'm 100% sure Sandy won't be able to do it without me. We'll find something else for her to do while I'm off diving. I've read nothing but FABULOUS things about Ato's tour! If I wasn't diving all day, I'd be on it for sure. 🙂

I wish I could do this! But I'm going to be scuba diving all day. (The diving in Fakarava is supposed to be some of the best in French Polynesia.) And Sandy is mobility-challenged, so I need to be there with her to assist in any excursions she takes. I'll check with her, but I don't think she'd be comfortable doing it without me.

I wish I could do one sooner! I'm actually a bit concerned that all this talk of Crystal's awesomeness might taint my impressions of the cruise I AM taking this November, on the Paul Gauguin. I've cruised that ship twice before, and it's a fabulous cruise, with excellent food - but not at the level I'm reading about on Serenity. I will try to put it out of my mind when I'm onboard... 😉

Wow. Just...wow. Can't believe I have to wait more than a year to experience this! Ah well, that means y'all are gonna be stuck with me jonesing for my Crystal cruise for many months to come. And I will be voraciously reading every article, post and review. 😉

We love the IC Papeete! They get a bad rap on some review sites...their basic rooms are apparently not too great. But just move up a category or two, or even better, do an overwater bungalow, and you definitely will feel the luxury. The property itself is lovely, and the POOLS! And the VIEWS! We did pre and post cruise stays there for both of our prior PG cruises, and it's just a really nice place to hang out at the pool, get over your jet lag pre-cruise, or re-enter the real world post-cruise. We're not staying there this time (our upcoming cruise in November) - we decided to try something new. We've booked an AirBnb for four nights in the hills over Papeete, and have rented a car to do some touring. But I kinda miss the idea of the IC. Next time! Have a great cruise Jerry, and I'll be eager to hear how it went before we board ours on November 8.

YAY! So glad you got it all done in time. As for the logbook, remember that I was told by the Marina Supervisor that this is only for new divers. As an experienced diver, you won't need it. 🙂 Back when I used to keep a log, I never got ANY of my dives "verified" as I was never diving with a DM! In SoCal we did mostly beach diving in Malibu, on our own. And since we moved aboard our sailboat four years ago, we stopped logging dives entirely. But again, don't even worry about it. Just having a logbook at all will be more than enough. 🙂

I've been on the PG twice - once when it was owned by Regent, and once when it was a stand-alone company. I haven't been on it since Ponant bought it. I'll be interested to see how it's changed under new ownership. And yes, I've cruised Crystal in the past - in fact the last time I did a cruise was in 2019, and it was on Crystal Symphony Rio to Buenos Aires. It's my #1 favorite ship of all the ships I've been on! I've got a cruise booked on Symphony for November 2024. 😄 Enjoy your upcoming Crystal cruise! Certainly the excitement level is off the charts right now, with the re-emergence of Crystal. Wish I could get on a Crystal cruise this year, but that's not going to happen.