Lord_autolycus

On 6/21/2021 at 3:47 PM, boating_buddy said:

I was originally looking at the 10 day PG cruise in October 2022 which included the Tuamotos, but then thought we might get more time in the Tuamotos if we did a 7 day cruise, then extended our trip to include 4-5 days in the Tuamotos on our own.  My husband wants to dive after a long time away from it, and I snorkel, so this might be a great way to get back into it.  Has anyone done a combination PG cruise plus land stay in the Tuamotos? It seems like the 7 day cruises might have more deals/offers than the longer cruises. Any thoughts or recommendations are appreciated.

BB

Just remember to plan for a sufficient time between your last dive and any flights:

https://dan.org/research-reports/research-studies/flying-after-diving/

I mention this because it may affect how long you want to stay on any 1 island.

If you're interested in vanilla at all, Taha'a is probably the best place to tour a vanilla plantation and buy some to bring home for yourself and as gifts. That island produces 80% of Tahitian vanilla. We ended up buying a largish vacuum-sealed pouch of beans and made our own extract at home. We then put that into small glass viles to give as gifts. It was similar price to store-bought Madagascar vanilla, but I think much better quality. 

There are a variety of articles online about how to make the extract, but it's pretty easy. Basically just soak whole vanilla beans in a mason jar or similar that's full of vodka or white rum for several months. When it's ready, just separate the alcohol, which is now infused with oils from the beans. The beans can be reused several times for this process or you can then split them and use them for other things. We also stuck a couple of beans in a jar with plain white sugar and used that for coffee flavoring. It was incredible!

Anybody considering international travel should definitely get vaccinated well before any possible trips even if where they're going does not currently have a requirement for vaccination. Even if there aren't explicit vaccination requirements when you travel, there will likely be fewer restrictions like quarantines and possibly less strict testing regimes.

And remember that the Moderna vaccine takes 6 weeks from first shot to "fully vaccinated", so advance planning is necessary. Most places still do not have enough supply of all three US-authorized vaccines for people to pick and choose, so assume you'll get Moderna for timing purposes. It's always better to be done with it early than to be in a crunch right before a trip.

1 minute ago, jbmom2120 said:

Hi, Le Soleal did not end up taking the Nov 11th cruise. Ponant had switched the sailing back to the PG. Then It was cancelled 😞 one week before we were to set sail. (AFTER we made final payment 😡 the week before.) We were very disappointed. 
I’m happy for you that you received your money back. 

Oof! Sorry to hear that! Are they saying you’ll get a refund or did they push for future credit as your “only” option?

5 minutes ago, Supertuscan99 said:

Good news, lord A...329 days sounds about right...although the PG is older, it works perfectly for FP...I don’t like the new ships they might use eventually like le soleal...it is too modern for such a relaxed voyage and area but I know it has environmental benefits for FP...I was tipped off another line is looking to enter this market in the next year with a nod to fitting into the FP market share that Ponant is losing with a smaller manageable ship also!v

I have gotten notifications set up correctly now, so I saw your post immediately! Yay!

As far as another line coming into the market... that would be excellent news.  Aranui had announced a new ship which they expected to launch in mid-2022, but I don't know how covid has affected that. 

My wife and I are very worried that we will be priced out of the PG once Ponant is done with the renovations to it. We loved the PG and were excited to return to it in 2020. We shall see what the future holds, I suppose! We aren't planning any trips yet anyway. Want to see how the vaccine might help get case numbers down and relax restrictions everywhere.

Thanks for all the replies. I thought I had my cruise critic board account set up to send emails when people responded, but they never came, and I forgot to check regularly! Funny timing on me deciding to check the board this morning... I just got an email from my credit card saying there's a pending credit to my account from PG Cruises! Here's the full timeline for anybody interested:

1. February 25, 2020: Booked cruise and made deposit (can't remember the %, but it looks like 20-25% of total; no airfare was included). This was for the Nov11 Society Islands and Tuamotus departure (sorry, can't remember the exact name).
2. August 3, 2020: Had TA notify PG Cruises that we were cancelling before the normal deadline to get full refund - $100/person admin fee
3. Jan 19, 2021: Pending credit to CC used to pay deposit on Feb25. It is the correct amount (deposit - $200). This is 169 days after the cancellation. They had our deposit for 329 days total.

It looks like the last update on our particular cruise dates is that it did actually happen but on Le Soleal instead of on the PG. I'm sure that would have ultimately been fine. It was simply not ever worth the risk of a positive test from one of our 4 family members going or someone else on the ship, which would have ruined the whole thing for everyone. I'm glad we seem to be getting the credit finally. It's entirely too slow processing things from PG/Ponant. It will definitely have us a little less enthusiastic about recommending the PG to friends and family, and will make us less likely to do business with Ponant or a subsidiary of theirs. Maybe we'll get over it since FP is so wonderful and the staff and crew on the PG are amazing, but it might be lower down the list of trip priorities for a while.

I'm starting a new thread, although I suppose this could probably be added to one of the existing ones...

We booked our cruise in February 2020 for a November 2020 sailing. We made deposits of 20%--thankfully not much compared to what some people had already paid before cancellation. We eventually decided to cancel on August 3, given the challenges of getting into FP and the potential for a cruise having to stop mid-trip because of a positive test from anyone on board. We will be out the $100/person administrative/cancellation fee, but that's fine. We were initially told by our TA that refunds might take up to 90 days. 90 days came and went. Our TA was told by PG that the refunds may take up to 120 days. That came and went yesterday. I emailed PG customer service myself this morning, and their response was:

• We hope you are well and staying healthy.  When the pandemic arrived in the U.S. in late February, everyone in our industry thought we would be back to normal within 6 months and we all know now that the virus is still raging which has impacted not just our cruise line but many others.  Our parent company Ponant is committed to refunding all our guests who requested a refund however it will take time.  On a weekly basis we are refunding based on the sailing date and the date the guests or Paul Gauguin canceled the voyage.   Please rest assured your clients will be refunded but we cannot advise you of a date.   

   

  We sincerely appreciate your patience during this unprecedented time.

120 days from cancellation is more than enough time for them to process a refund, IMO, even in this unusual times. What are other people's experiences with the refund timeline? Are people really getting refunds without having to resort to chargebacks, threats of lawsuits, etc.?

Does anybody have a named contact at PG who might be able to help get our refund processed immediately as opposed to us having to continue waiting for some unknowable future date?  (DM if you aren't comfortable sharing publicly) We have some home maintenance that we had planned this month, expecting to have the refund by now. It's not going to break us to do the maintenance without the refund, but it's less comfortable than we want.

On 8/21/2020 at 1:16 PM, Heartfelttraveler said:

It has been a few weeks since the fateful Paul Gauguin itinerary where some crew and passenger(s) were found COVID-19 positive.  I have read some media articles about the ordeal.

I would like to hear from any of the passengers who were onboard and what they have gone through - both healthy and ill.  I find it a little odd that not one person has posted.  Unless PG has made them sign some sort of non-disclosure.  And I would like to hear about that too.

There are some posts from a passenger on that cruise in the roll call thread for PG Cruises.