silby

6 minutes ago, maryogreen said:

silby, I'm glad to know you enjoyed the review! I know what you mean about trying to figure out the differences between the two itineraries. The winning points for choosing the Inner Loop for us were the "iconic view" hike on Bartolomé Island looking out over Pinnacle Rock and the chance to see all three species of Boobies (San Cristóbal) as well as the great frigatebirds (North Seymour). If you want to see the waved albatross, the Outer Loop is the only chance to do that. 

 

I've just finished posting all my blogs from the Galápagos, which may help give you a better idea of what you will see on the Inner Loop. Here's the link:

https://www.themodernpostcard.com/category/ecuador/

 

There is also an excellent – and extremely long! – thread on the Cruise Critic Celebrity Flora Roll Call page called "recently returned on Flora" which has quite a bit of helpful information. 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/832-celebrity-flora-roll-calls/

 

The bottom line seems to be that both itineraries are fantastic and that travelers are happy with the one they chose. Best of luck with your plans, and please feel free to contact me if future questions arise!

Mary

Thanks so much for the quick response.  And yes, I did start to read your blog - great information for sure!

Thanks for the great review.   How/why did you chose the inner itinerary?   We are booked on inner next may, but started wondering why not the outer itinerary.     We haven't been able to find any good discussions on the differences.

Thanks all!   Those sandwiches always fill the void when Pizza isn't warranted!

Anyone know if they have the roast beef carving station on Liberty like they do in the Park Cafe on the bigger ships?   I love them!

Gorgeous photos.

 

 

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Thanks!

Here are a few photos if you are interested:

Sunset in Tahiti with Moorea in the background.

IC in Tahiti

Sharks in Bora Bora

Clown Fish?

View of the PG from Magic Mountain

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience and tips. We are more excited than ever about our December PG cruise and pre-cruise stay in Moorea! I particularly appreciate your Olympus TG5 recommendation as we are considering buying one. And, my husband is intrigued that he can order room service Eggs Benedict for breakfast. ;)

 

Happy Anniversary! Here's to many, many more! :champagne-toast:

Glad you learned something from the review. That was the hope!

I highly suggest that you also purchase the wide angle lens for the camera. It made for some amazing underwater photos.

Thank you so much for taking the time to post your review. We have our second PG cruise booked Oct. 2019, did you fly ATN in economy if so how bad was it? I am dreading the flight especially the return after being in paradise.

Yes, we did fly ATN economy. The flight to Tahiti was just fine as it was on one of the refurbished planes. The seats were comfortable and the service was just OK, however I slept for most of it so it worked out. The flight back to the US was a different story as we were unlucky enough to be on the only plane they haven't refurbished, the Bora Bora. The seats were very uncomfortable and the video players were horrible.

I think they have 787s on order. They should be awesome!

Thank you and happy anniversary

 

 

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Davwen81, I notice you are from Australia so I thought I would tell you about what our second choice plan was for our anniversary trip. Back in 1994 my wife and I spend about 9 months in Sydney and we did a 4 day dive boat in the Whitsundays. The boat we were on was a beautiful old 25m schooner. We were jealous of another boat we kept on seeing called the Mike Ball Spoilsport which was 5 star all the way. I made a promise to my wife that I would take her back to go on that boat for one of our major anniversaries. 5, 10,15, and 20 came and went without going, so 25th was the year. However once I started looking into the PG I was sold on that. Perhaps we will go back to Oz for our 30th!

Thank you and happy anniversary

 

 

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Much appreciated!

Thank you Silby, lovely review and one we found interesting as we have our first PG cruise next year. Did you do any PG excursions and if so which ones. Where Is Le Lizard Juane restaurant? We’re staying at the Hilton precruise and wonder if they’d pick up from there, or is it west of the IC making it a bit less acceptable for pick up for us. Many thanks Wendy

 

 

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Le Lizard was on the other side of IC away from the Hilton, however I believe they will pick up from most of the big resorts.

Thanks for your review.

 

I still remember so clearly my first trip on board the PG in 2003 almost 15 years ago. Like you we had only been on large ships before. This began a very expensive love affair and 13 trips later we cannot wait for our next trip.

 

The 10 day Tuamotu is amazing. Or even a b2b.

I just might be moving on that path as well. I could go every year!

We went on our first PG cruise for our 25th anniversary and had the time of our lives. We started with 3 days at the Moorea Intercontinental in an over-water bungalow and then proceeded to our amazing cruise. Here are some thoughts on the vacation that might be interesting to others.

Pre-Cruise at the Intercontinental

1) From others advice we chose to buy the Olympus TG5 and were glad we did. It took the most amazing pictures below and above the water. Most people were surprised when they found it the photos weren't taken from a professional camera.

2) We got a rental car from Avis and picked it up at the dock in Moorea when we arrived via the ferry. Great outfit and clean new cars. We found that having the car was nice as we could come and go as we pleased. However, in the long run it probably wasn't absolutely necessary. All restaurants and tours are happy to come pick you up and return you to the hotels. At the intercontinental there was a market just up the road in easy walking distance.

3) We drove out to Belvedere for the amazing lookouts and took a hike into the mountainside. One of the highlights for us was that we found a waterfall and both got into it. Nice and serene.

4) We hooked up for the ATV tour with Albert tours. This was an amazing tour, especially that we were able to go up Magic Mountain which has some of the best lookouts on the island. I would highly recommend this tour to anybody.

• If you can afford it, drive your own ATV. Don't share.
  
  
• The tour goes to Belvedere and hits the same lookouts that we had already seen. So, in the long run, we could have just waited for this tour to visit (however we wouldn't have found the waterfall).
  
  

5) We had the most amazing meal at the Le Lizard Juane Cafe in Moorea. They picked us up from our hotel and provided great service all the way through. Their Poisson Cru was AMAZING. We were hooked on this most amazing native dish and had it almost every day after. However, Le Lizard's version of it was leaps and bounds better than every other one.

6) We were extremely disappointing with the fixed price dinner/shows that the Intercontinental had. It was extremely expensive, the food wasn't that great (buffet), the show was sort of boring, and they charged you for water! Save your money, you will see plenty of much better shows on the cruise.

7) We believed that the OWB that we stayed in at the IC was the best there was. I don't recall the number, however it was great for the following reasons: a) It was as far out as you could go so it was very quiet. b) it was the only one facing due west so we were able to watch the sunset every night. c) the step into the water was easy - probably only 2 feet of water, however there were gobs of fish and coral to snorkel with every day. and d) we loved walking by the dolphin enclosure as they were always active and wanted to entertain you.

8) We grabbed some french baguettes every morning at breakfast and took it back to feed the fish. My wife would stand in the water and feed the fish I would get down on the bottom and watch and take photos. We saw some amazing fish.

9) We stocked our beverage fridge with beer from the store. It was significantly cheaper then buying it from the IC. It seems to me that most drinks at the bar were almost $20 each.

Cruise

1) After you check in on the ship - which was amazingly easy - you are free to go back in port and look around. I believe almost everything shut down early, so shop while you can. Also, if they have food trucks the night you leave, go for it! They were all very good. If you walk around the marina you will eventually come to part of it that is an aquarium that houses hundreds of different types of fish.

2) Sign up for the galley and bridge tour at the service desk as soon as you can. Fills up quickly. We did it right after we checked in on the boat.

3) We are used to very big ships and this cruise only had 220 passengers. At first it was a shock to us on how different the experience was, however we quickly got used to it and fell in love with the personal attention that you get. Amazing that the entire crew somehow memorizes every passengers name! One thing we had a hard time getting use to, however, was the lack of activities. So, typically we ended up shutting down the one-table casino at 2am. Not a complaint, just something more for us to get used to. As the cruise progresses you will find yourself worn out, so lack of many activities isn't an issue!

4) Breakfast on the balcony was the best way to start the days! We also found out that they will allow you to order much more than what is on the menu. We were able to get the eggs Benedict every morning. They were amazing!

5) One of our favorite excursions was in Huahine where we booked outside the ship with Marc's Motu Tour. There ended up being only 4 of us and we were catered to so well. The snorkeling stops were amazing, and the beach lunch was out of this world. Like many other tours they gave a demonstration on how to prepare Pousson cru.

6) We did two tours where we were able to swim with the sharks. This was certainly a highlight of our trip. The bora-bora one was in deep water and we were able to see both black tip and lemon sharks. The one in Moorea was in shallow water and the reef sharks (and stingray) were swimming all around us.

7) We fell in love with the Tahitian people and how into family tradition that they are. We attended the Tattoo talk on the boat and it illustrated to us how different their values are as a people than most westerners. All Tattoo's mean something, and it is typically tied directly to their personal family history. Every time the singers/dancers would come around we were excited to listen to them. Their songs got stuck in our head and we were watching the videos often when we returned home.

We had the greatest time of our lives and were glad that we could spend our 25th anniversary there. We look forward to going back and doing one of the longer cruises.

I hope some of the disjointed thoughts are helpful to others.

We went on the PG May 12th and had an amazing trip. Much thanks to this thread for all of the pointers, and especially the recommendation for the Olympus TG5. The underwater photos/videos that I was able to capture were absolutely amazing. Most people that see my pictures believe they were taken by a professional camera. Also, the ability to capture awesome pictures above water makes this camera an all around win.

Does anybody know if the liquor prices are better at Duty free in LA or in Tahiti when we arrive?

Thanks much!

My advice is to get comfortable with the basic settings, then add on the other settings gradually so you don't get overwhelmed trying to learn it all at once. For most of my underwater photos, I turned the scroll wheel on the top right of the camera to the underwater setting (the fish icon) and then let the camera do all the work. Within the underwater setting, there are 4 subsettings. I pretty much just use the standard regular setting, and occasionally switched to macro (that's how I got the detailed photos of the brain coral, but I only did that a few times). If I had the fisheye lens attached, you set that up the same way whether the camera is underwater or on land. For my land photos, I mostly just use the auto setting unless I wanted to force the flash, in which case I used the program setting which gives more flash options. The camera is really smart, so most of the time if you just use the auto settings, it will adjust according to your environment and do the work for you. Have a wonderful cruise and come back to let us know how it went!!

Thanks so much! I can't wait to try it out!

My camera is the Olympus TG-5. The new model came out a month or two before this vacation so I bought that instead of the TG-4. They are very similar cameras, but the TG-5 has a few extra features so may as well get the newest model. I also bought the fisheye attachment lens. I LOVE this lens!! It takes beautiful landscape photos, and it's what allowed me to take photos that are half below and half above the water line. Hope that helps!

deladane - We are leaving on the PG on Tuesday next week and are so excited! Based off of your review we purchased the same camera to get those amazing underwater shots. I find it overwhelming, however, when reading through the manual as there are a thousand settings! Can you by chance give me a few of the settings that you use for doing your underwater photography?

Thanks much!

Thanks all!

We are doing our final planning for our May 12th 25th Anniversary Cruise. First time PG cruisers and are so excited!

I keep reading about standard activities on the different islands however I can't find any official documentation on what to expect. I want to plan our excursions around some of these, however without details it is difficult.

I assume one or more of the islands has a free bbq on the beach? I read something about a moonfish?

Where can I find documentation on all of these free activities?

Thanks!