Curious to see how things have changed.

[RMS Olympic]

I just booked a PG cruise for Dec 2022. I sailed on the PG when she was managed by Radisson. Second cruise was under Regent....so this time it is under the new owners control. As I have read many crew members have been there for years...so I am curious as to see how things have changed. 
is it still a ship of high standards? My memories are still near and dear to my heart.

[SWFLAOK]

We've sailed 3 times on the PG, with the first being in early 2017; a 14 day Marquessas cruise. We booked a cruise to the Cook Islands while still onboard for later that year. We loved both of those cruises, and booked a cruise to Fiji while on the 2nd cruise. All 3 of those cruises were while Intercontinental Hotel Group owned the PG. Ponant took over while we were on our 3rd cruise. A rep came aboard while on that cruise and we had bad vibes from him. We were afraid it would look like a Ponant ship in the future, which wasn't something we wanted. Now that the recent refurb has been completed, we're relieved that it still looks like it has the same atmosphere as our 3 previous cruises. We hope that we still find some of the wonderful crew still onboard, and the same high standards as our 3 previous cruises.

Unfortunately for us,  we had already booked the April 2020 cruise from Fiji to Bali a year before the pandemic. We waited until they cancelled it, but they only offered us FCC. There is no comparable cruise offered while our FCC is still valid, so we have a repeat of a cruise with ports we've done as an option. Our first attempt at that was already cancelled in January, so we rebooked again for December 2021. Hoping we're on it, but have been delaying booking travel to LA and back to FL since French Polynesia has no reopening date for tourism, and is controlled by France, which is out of control with Covid. We lost money for a hotel and 2 rental cars on our cancelled trip last April.

 

[Wendy The Wanderer]

I don't have an answer, but have a keen interest.  We also first cruised the PG under Radisson, in 2000.  Last time was 2018, under the then new owners, post-Regent (it was wonderful, btw.)

 

But until Ponant has proven itself, I won't book again, especially with the way they have screwed people who had booked and/or paid for cruises that were cancelled during the pandemic.

 

I think we'll have to wait a while since no one is cruising right now, but I'm hopeful for those lovely crew members.

[Tahitianbigkahuna]

On 3/21/2021 at 12:18 PM, RMS Olympic said:

I just booked a PG cruise for Dec 2022. I sailed on the PG when she was managed by Radisson. Second cruise was under Regent....so this time it is under the new owners control. As I have read many crew members have been there for years...so I am curious as to see how things have changed. 
is it still a ship of high standards? My memories are still near and dear to my heart.

 

I fully expect things to be very similar ... ship is just returning from drydock 🙂

 

Edited March 28, 2021 by Tahitianbigkahuna