Review : Paul Gauguin - Papeete to Fiji - 8th May 2010

[bandt]

:)Murray stayed on the ship for the cruise back to Tahiti. He did two shows and a close-up magic presentation one afternoon. He is now on the American TV show, "America's got Talent" and has made it to the semi finals. Quite a nice guy. I talked with him several times around the ship.

John

 

Hi John

 

Thanks for the info. We don't get "America's got talent" in France but I looked at some of his performances on YouTube. Very impressive ! Not surprisingly, there were no tigers on the PG :)

[bandt]

You all know how it feels to be on the last day of your cruise ! The colourful brochures with details of next year’s itineraries offer some solace but “all good things must come to an end”.

 

 

We took the tender to the Musket Cove Resort where we were allowed use the facilities of the hotel. The beach and pool are beautiful but the snorkelling was disappointing. We had made the mistake of declining the offer of a snorkelling tour by the hotel – I think that it would have been a better option.

 

 

The internet on board was not working so I bought internet time at the resort to be able to print out our boarding passes.

 

 

The menu choices at the coffee shop/pool bar were not very exciting so, after an apéritif, we headed back to the ship for lunch in La Veranda.

 

 

Then it was time for the worst activity of our cruise – packing our cases! We wanted to get this task finished as soon as possible so we could enjoy the rest of our day.

 

We departed at 4.00 pm for the short sailing to Lautoka (2 hours). There was a Farewell Sailaway Party hosted by the Captain at 5p.m. by the pool. It was a really enjoyable event. Most of the staff was there to wave good-bye to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We exchanged addresses with new friends to keep in touch when we got back home.

 

 

We had a lovely meal in L’Etoile : Warm Tomato “Tarte Fine” with Basil Goat Cheese and balsamic vinaigrette. Main course was Fresh New Zealand Salmon with Béarnaise sauce. We couldn’t resist the Gâteau Opéra....... diets would just have to wait!

 

 

We said our farewells to the people who had served us so well and made our trip so enjoyable. The Paul Gauguin had been ours for two weeks and now it was time to hand over to the new “owners”.

 

 

4.30 a.m. wake-up call ! By the time we disembarked the sun was just creeping over the horizon.

 

A beautiful sunrise was a lovely gift to wish us “Bon Voyage” for our 32 hour trip home via Nouméa and Tokyo.

 

 

Epilogue to follow

[bandt]

Epilogue.

 





 

This rounds off the review of our Paul Gauguin cruise.

 

We hope that you have had as much fun reading it as we have had putting it together.



 

 

 

We are ending up with our favourite photo from the cruise.

 

It epitomizes the joyful time we had on board

and the friends we made.

 

 

John and Helen have aptly dubbed it :

“The Awesome Foursome”!

 

 



 

 

 

Would we go on the "Paul Gauguin" again ?

 

 

To paraphrase Helen: “In a heartbeat”!

 

A bientôt

 

Brian & Tony

[DrmnOfMaui]

Thank you SO much for your amazing review!! I've not visited these boards for awhile, but took some time this afternoon to peruse all the threads I've missed. You truly brought back so many memories from our vacation, and I fully enjoyed reading (and rereading!) many of yours.

 

We don't currently have plans to visit FP in the near future, but I do take a few minutes to look through each and every brochure that comes in the mail. I know that someday we will return!

 

Thanks again for taking the time to write about your trip! :)

[bandt]

Thanks, Kim, for your kind comments.

 

Coming from you, it is praise indeed. Your review of the "Tuamotu and Society Islands Cruise" is exceptional - just look at the number of "views"!

 

Although our itineraries were different, I made a point of not re-reading your instalments so as not to influence my own.

 

Your final comments were probably the best endorsement I have ever heard for PG Cruises and a lesson for us all - PGC should be proud to quote it on their website.

 

We are hoping to do the 14 day Marquesas Cruise.........

 

Will be in touch by private e-mail.

 

Brian & Tony

 

P.S. We are working on a condensed version of our review in a weblog with a more attractive layout. We'll post the url on Cruise Critic when it is ready.

[barbeaujo]

wow... thanks for this amazing review. We will be on PG next october on the 13 nights PPT to Fiji.

 

Reading your review makes me wish i didn't have a full year to wait until being there.

 

 

ps: have you posted the URL for the blog you are lastly talking about ?

 

Bonne journée ,

 

Josee. :)

[maxwebr]

We also just booked the Fiji Westbound next year. I cannot wait, after just coming back from one in August. PG is great, and looking forward to another amazing cruise!

[Hibiscus13]

We would also love to do the Westbound Fiji itinerary but October is too early for us. So I'm trying to convince hubs we should do the Eastbound in November. Maybe after our upcoming cruise with PG this November the convincing won't be so hard :)