Coronavirus French Polynesia

[Seabiscuit68]

We're booked on Ponant Le Soleal leaving Tahiti on March 20th travelling through Cook Islands and Wallis and Futuna to Fiji.  I have been monitoring the local press and it seems that Wallis and Futuna, Aitutaki and Samoa may not be granting entry to any cruise ships.  Has anyone else heard this?   If this is the case, 4 out of 9 ports of call are impacted.  I have reached out to Ponant but have not gotten a response on status of these ports of call and whether there is an updated itinerary.   

 

http://www.cookislandsnews.com/national/health/item/76147-coronavirus-response-people-not-money

 

https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/410932/coronavirus-cruise-ship-banned-from-wallis-and-futuna

 

http://www.samoagovt.ws/2020/02/health-travel-advisory-novel-coronavirus-covid-2019-effective-immediately-3/

[HappyInVan]

Where are you flying from? Hope that you don't have a problem with the flight.

 

 

[resistk]

Looks serious:

 

1.  No one can enter Tahiti by air w/o a health certificate within the last 5 days certifying clear of COVID 19

2.  Restrictions of some sort on docking

 

https://tahititourisme.com/en-us/media/press/travel-notification/

 

I am really concerned about Ponant keeping its eye on the ball, I have a cruise coming up in April.

 

 

 

 

[resistk]

More on French Polynesia travel restrictions:

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lauriewerner/2020/02/28/how-french-polynesia-is-protecting-against-covid-19/#293b80fa5c0b

 

[Bamboo99]

Don't expect any reply from Ponant. This is a "nice weather" only cruise-line. As soon as something goes wrong, or out of the ordinary, they go into hiding. Even their President does not reply to personal letters. They got messages from me in December, January and February: Until today, 10th March, I did not get one single reply!

[Seabiscuit68]

Same here.  I've calling and emailing every day and no reply.  It is unconscionable!

[SWFLAOK]

I was referred to Crew-center.com for info on Ponant cancellations, and tonight we received a cancellation notice for our April 11th Paul Gauguin cruise. While we would have loved our original Fiji to Bali itinerary, at this point we were only looking to rebook  another PG cruise (or a Ponant cruise)  without suffering a severe penalty. Hopefully those on Ponant hear the same news.