On Our Way - Sep 25 Sailing

[letsdive]

We’re flying from DFW to Papeete today and will be on the Sep 25 sailing.  We we’re also on the March 2020 sailing when Covid shut everything down - so looking forward to this second time around. 
I’ll post updates when internet is available. 
Cheers - and stay safe !

[ACRECL]

We are on the same cruise! Hope to meet you on board. 😀

[Shooz]

So excited for you both!!  We will be in November so can't wait to hear from you on the good, the bad, and hopefully NO ugly....You will have a beautiful refurbished ship in paradise.

Safe travels.

[letsdive]

ACRECL - good to know there will be someone else on this cruise 👍

[letsdive]

We made it to Papeete without difficulty. 
- United Airlines agent in Dallas asked for Covid test result and vaccination card. Briefly glanced at both (e.g. did not read any of the details)

- United Airlines agent in San Francisco asked to see the “barcode” on our ETIS form 

- Upon arrival in Papeete they first asked to see the ETIS form, scanned the bar code, and handed out self-test kits to be done in the morning and turned in to Hotel reception desk (we arrived around 6:30 pm local time)

- Next was checking passports with Immigration Control

That was it !  Fairly painless - just lots of paperwork to keep up with. 

[ACRECL]

Our experience was similar to Letsdive.  United in Houston checked to make sure we had our ETIS form only.  United in SFO confirmed the ETIS form and negative PCR.  Upon landing at PPT they only checked the ETIS form and handed us our self test kit. They asked if we were vaccinated but didn’t ask for proof.  They also didn’t ask in PPT for our negative PCR test (it was checked in SFO by the UA agent). 
 

After getting our bags we made our way to the hotel (Intercontinental).  From the time we walked off the airplane to walking in our hotel room was a little over 1 hour. Impressive! 
 

PPT airport was very well organized and the procedure was very easy to follow. Just have your ETIS paperwork and passport ready at all times.

 

I highly recommend pre-arranging a transfer to your hotel. It costs a bit more but the convenience is well worth it! We arranged ours through the hotel concierge. 
 

Tomorrow we board the ship. Can’t wait! The weather is perfect. Temps in the 70s, clear skies and low humidity. 

[ACRECL]

Our welcoming committee at the airport and the view of Moorea from our hotel room this morning. 

[ACRECL]

Waiting to board. 

[ACRECL]

 

The ship sailed last night as scheduled! PG handled the boarding process with their usual personalized hospitality. It was great to see the ship and get on board.  It appears all the soft furnishings are new. Carpets, draperies, chairs, pillows etc.  The  Casino is gone and there is a much larger piano bar. I will post some photos  separately.  
 

As for boarding and COVID tests. They look for a negative PCR test 3 days before boarding. Since we flew in early, our test did not qualify for the 3 day limit. No worries, they conducted a rapid test onsite. It delayed our boarding by about 35 minutes but since we arrived at 2 we were still onboard by 3. There were plenty of other passengers in the same boat so we were not unique in that regard. 
 

We were told there are 118 pax on this cruise so a little more than 1/3 of capacity. Life on board is normal except for masks in public spaces and social distancing. There are little signs everywhere in every other seat in public spaces. With so few pax this won’t be a problem. 
 

The itinerary for the cruise changed a bit also given the weekend lockdowns in FP. We are on a sea day today with Bora Bora on Monday and Tuesday.  
 

Most of the crew has returned. It’s nice to see some familiar faces. 
 

And we met Letsdive last night and had dinner with them. They are a very lovely couple. 😊

--

[ACRECL]

Pool area with new furniture  

[ACRECL]

Signs everywhere! 

[ACRECL]

La Pallette

[ACRECL]

Hallway along the Spa, Ships Store. 

[ACRECL]

Main Dining Room  

[ACRECL]

Piano Bar

[ACRECL]

No more casino. This is the expanded Piano Bar area  

[Tahitianbigkahuna]

Thanks for sharing

[ACRECL]

Main Salon

[MrRandal]

Boat looks beautiful. Any cabin pics?

[Wendy The Wanderer]

These all look great, thanks for the pix, and have a wonderful cruise on my favourite ship!  I'll be interested to hear reports on the level of service, dining and food, staffing, and specifically change in those from the past (pre-Ponant).  This may be difficult to ascertain with such a low passenger count, but for me the most important thing about this ship are things like that, plus the intangibles of staff enthusiasm and friendliness.

[davwen81]

Thanks for the fabulous pics of the updated areas. The piano bar was a fave area for us and enlarging it was a great idea. All looks gorgeous. 

[letsdive]

We are just finishing up the second day in Bora Bora. To date we are very pleased with the cruise !  
 

A few thoughts and comments (we were on the last cruise in March 20 so that is our reference point):

 

Level of Service - very good !  All of the staff is excited to be cruising (working) again and it shows in their positive attitudes. 
 

Dining and Food:  

- PG’s plan is available QR code’s which you would scan on your phone for things like itinerary, food and bar menus, daily activities, etc. Also free Wi-Fi for the QR system to work. There were a few hiccups along the way (French vs English menus), too small to read on phone, or phone not available. So the hard cover menus quickly surfaced and all is well. 

- All buffets are gone, as expected. Those were nice, but the sit down meals with table service is very nice as well. 
Food - quality and variety is as good as before. 
Seating - every seating area on the entire ship is marked as “every other seat” as a means to satisfy the 1m (3ft) Covid spacing. Yes, this includes dining tables where you’re not supposed to sit next to your spouse. We abided for a few days but now the staff is lenient and allowing us to sit together. We also sit together in the Piano Bar with zero comments (disapproval’s)  from the bar staff. 

 

Staffing:

- Appears to be close to 100%. For example there is not an Assistant Cruise Director - but that may change as the ship fills up with more passengers. 
- There is a marine biologist from Ponant on board and she gave an excellent underwater talk. She has been with Ponant almost 10 years and this is her first cruise on PG. I see this as a big plus in that Ponant can pull from there staff resources and make a positive impact on PG. 

 

That’s all for now. We’re having dinner tonite with @ACRECL- a really nice and fun couple !!

[ACRECL]

I will add that the staff is very enthusiastic and glad to be back. The crew is 172 and pax are 118 so the service is excellent. The menus are the same variety and quality that I remember. Someone at our table said  "it's like we never left". All is well so far.  Other than the Ponant expert referenced above I don't see any other Ponant influences. 

 

A tip we learned today. The medical staff will provide an antigen test to meet the US return test requirement. We made an appointment today for next week. There is a small fee.  I will report next week on how it goes. There was no announcement. I just asked one of the nurses and she said yes. Just be proactive if you want this and they may accommodate you on future cruises. 

[ACRECL]

On 9/27/2021 at 8:49 AM, MrRandal said:

Boat looks beautiful. Any cabin pics?

Will provide cabin pics at some point. Basically all the wood is the same. New couch, bed coverings and curtains with a lighter pallet. 

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Thanks for the updates, sounds divine, I'm so jealous! I wonder whether they could provide a PCR test if you required one for your jurisdiction, or whether you'd have to get that in Papeete somehow before flying.

 

It will also be interesting, as time goes on, whether their usual group of enrichment lecturers return.  Thinking of Mark Eddowes mainly.