Christmas On Board Le Paul Gauguin — Cook Islands & Society Islands — December 17 - December 28, 2022 — for Ponant Cruisers

[fizook]

13 hours ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Thanks @AussieBoyTX.  Your reports have been keeping me going.  We leave today, and will be in Taha`a by Friday if all goes as planned. 

Be advised there are rogue cigar smokers aboard. None of the other aroma though.

[Host Jazzbeau]

5 minutes ago, fizook said:

Be advised there are rogue cigar smokers aboard. None of the other aroma though.

Not sure which is worse... 

[AussieBoyTX]

(I forgot to mention that we ended Christmas Day with a lovely engraved shell waiting for us in our cabin. It will be perfect for our Christmas tree!)

 

Boxing Day began with a short sailing into Opunahu Bay, which I watched with my coffee from the deck outside La Palette.

 

We went scuba diving at 8 and 10 at sites just a few moments away from the ship. We dove both before in 2018 and although popular with all the dive operators (there were several other dive boats already moored), I didn’t think either dive was remarkable and the highlight was the dolphins that were porpoising near the ship. On the first dive, we did see a couple of sleeping turtles, which was good, along with plenty of attractive fish.

 

The second dive was at the unfortunately named “Shark Gallery” — a location that really doesn’t have sharks and we were fortunate at the good shark sightings in Bora Bora. The highlights were a swimming turtle and a pufferfish that didn’t immediately go into hiding.

 

Back on the ship, we had lunch at La Veranda and enjoyed the American-themed lunch. The tacos were a hit with us, but we’ll still hit our local Tex-Mex on the way home from the airport.

 

This evening was packed with Polynesian-themed activities, but before that, we had the Captain’s “Repeater’s Reception,” held on Deck 9 as there were so many repeaters, we all wouldn’t fit in the Captain’s Lounge. There were maybe forty guests attending — most had been on Le Paul Gauguin multiple times — and yes, I did hear correctly — the one couple was on their thirteenth Gauguin cruise. There were a few Ponant frequent guests as well — and we knew most of them… Aside from a mysterious man who wore various MSC-themed shirts, I kid you not, every day of the cruise. Well tonight, he had a Ponant polo shirt on in honor of the reception!

 

I had a few moments to speak with Captain Marchesseau about his experience with the pirates who captured Le Ponant in 2008 and held her for ransom. In the books I had read, Marchesseau’s early interactions with the pirates paved the way for the successful release of the crew and Le Ponant herself.

 

We also sold (and have seen the Ponant Options) to several guests — too bad we can’t earn referrals on “Multiple times on Gauguin, but first time on Ponant” guests. Lolz.

 

After the reception, we began Polynesian Night with local musicians playing pre-dinner music over happy hour at both the Piano Bar and La Palette. Les Gauguins / Gauguines were in their formal wear and you could get your photo with them if you wanted. There were also local mamas demonstrating how to make leis and had complementary leis for all guests.

 

All restaurants were featuring a Polynesian dinner, which we chose to enjoy at La Veranda. I had Poisson Cru “the most popular South Pacific dish”, a fish & shrimp bouillon, mixed green salad, beef tenderloin and chocolate fondant. We also tried the lobster, which Captain Marchesseau promised was locally sourced and pumpkin gnocchi. All were delicious.

 

After dinner, Moorea Swing Boys performed a local community show that was very well received and after that, the Santa Rosa Band performed at La Palette.

 

Disco was offered at La Palette and my Agent I assigned to the task can report that a member of the band was DJing tunes for four guests. I consider this task now completed.

[AussieBoyTX]

Tuesday was our final day in Moorea and it began with a surprise cruise between Opunahu Bay and Cook’s Bay. Our Captain decided there was no reason for us to have the same scenery two days in a row, so he fixed that problem by moving us over to a fresh view! Sometimes I think things like this and those sail-aways the long way actually happen all the time and are played as surprises for the guests — but a crew member said this was new to him and I’m inclined to believe him.

 

I went diving again at 8 and 10. The dives were more-or-less at the same locations, meaning we had a long Zodiac ride back to where the ship was a couple of hours earlier. The first dive was a bit of a cluster — we had two Zodiacs, sixteen guests and four guides taken to the same site. As usual, most of the guests are novice divers, but we had several having their first (and only) dive this cruise. This made for a pretty crazy dive with the guides preoccupied with keeping the guests safe and stable and actually with the right guide. Several of the guests blew through their air quickly, ending the dive for all of us, despite attempts to send the guests low on air to the surface and letting the remainder spend a few more minutes below.

 

The four of us with plenty of air remaining decided to stay on the bottom and wait for the substantial backup above us to clear and begin our trip to the surface a few minutes later. Still, this was the shortest dive of the trip, by far and I ended with a half tank remaining.

 

As for what we saw — more turtles than yesterday, which was nice.

 

The second dive was surprisingly not well attended (I guess people realized there were no sharks at “Shark Gallery”) and two of us shared a guide. This made for a pleasant dive — most interesting was some surprisingly aggressive Titan triggerfish that came right at me while I was videoing a swimming turtle. Amazingly, I got that on video (and also amazing they didn’t take a bite out of me). We also saw some racks that looked like they were used for growing coral, so that was interesting.

 

After dives, we had an Italian-themed lunch at La Veranda. We agreed the lasagna was surprisingly good, as was the veal Milanese.

 

Our afternoon was fairly relaxed, but also fairly busy as we answered questions from new friends who were trying to figure out what to expect on the Ponant cruises they had booked.

 

As our day finished in Moorea, we had the Farewell Party and got to thank all of the crew members who had made our trip memorable. We also got our scuba logs stamped by the guides. The French take signed logs more seriously than I do, but might we as well have a few dives that are actually attested to in our logs.

 

The ship then set sail for Papeete and we made an effort to pack during the short crossing.

 

Dinner at l’Etoile was heavily promoted to us as “Prime Rib Night,” but we decided to keep our reservations at Le Grille to try their second menu again. We were delighted to find that because of the beautiful weather at Papeete, we were able to eat outside with a view of the city. A gorgeous way to end the day and the other guests, most of whom were French, agreed.

 

Our final show was with the famous “O Tahiti E” group for one final set of Polynesian dance and music.

 

Then we finished packing, put out our bags before midnight and went to bed.

 

Wednesday was another beautiful morning and I enjoyed my final coffee at La Palette and breakfast at La Veranda. We liked that independent guests don’t have to leave until ten (and, it appears, really can’t leave much before that, as arranged transport has priority) and used the final minutes to complete the comment card left in our room.

 

At ten, we disembarked, leaving the key and key holder behind — no picture key card to keep as as a souvenir here — expecting to give a last goodbye to our cruise director and some others with whom we regularly interacted, but there was, actually, nobody but porters to take our baggage.

 

So, so long, crew of Le Paul Gauguin and think you for this memorable trip!

[highplanesdrifters]

14 hours ago, fizook said:

Be advised there are rogue cigar smokers aboard. None of the other aroma though.

Nooooooooooooo!  At least we are not on that ship this trip, just OWB next to the Coral Gardens in Taha'a, so shouldn't be an issue.  Sorry for the mini hijack AussieBoy.

 

@AussieBoyTX what it is with territorial trigger fish?  Years ago in Moorea I was attacked every day as I stepped off our OWB. I finally decided to fight back and aggressively chased them. After 2 days of this they left me alone.  Weird.

 

With any luck the "atmospheric river" will let us escape SFO and we will be in Papeete tonight, and Le Taha'a tomorrow enjoying Poisson Cru. . Trying the new Hilton in Papeete, fingers crossed. 

 

Thanks again for all your reports. Really wonderful.  You've really wet my whistle thinking about what awaits. Sorry about the less than ideal dives. But it was probably better than the deep freeze at home😃.

 

Fair winds on your next leg wherever it takes you.

[AussieBoyTX]

1 hour ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Nooooooooooooo!  At least we are not on that ship this trip, just OWB next to the Coral Gardens in Taha'a, so shouldn't be an issue.  Sorry for the mini hijack AussieBoy.

 

@AussieBoyTX what it is with territorial trigger fish?  Years ago in Moorea I was attacked every day as I stepped off our OWB. I finally decided to fight back and aggressively chased them. After 2 days of this they left me alone.  Weird.

 

With any luck the "atmospheric river" will let us escape SFO and we will be in Papeete tonight, and Le Taha'a tomorrow enjoying Poisson Cru. . Trying the new Hilton in Papeete, fingers crossed. 

 

Thanks again for all your reports. Really wonderful.  You've really wet my whistle thinking about what awaits. Sorry about the less than ideal dives. But it was probably better than the deep freeze at home😃.

 

Fair winds on your next leg wherever it takes you.

As far as I saw, the smokers of all types were pretty good about keeping to the deck outside La Palette on Deck 8. The area is actually much larger and much nicer than the “ashtray of shame” provided on Ponant — with the exception of the super luxe cigar lounge on ale Commandant Charcot — I almost passed out when I went in to check that out. 😉

 

The dives were just “something to do” this trip, so aside from Cook Islands, I wasn’t really disappointed or all that surprised. I had more empathy than anything for the guides having to deal with keeping their guests happy. 
 

If they were bucket list dives like Tuamotus or Marquesas, I’d have a completely different view. 
 

Yeah, Triggerfish have a way about them. I’ve seen a Titan bite before, so I’m cautious around them and was really surprised to see them come over the rise at me. 

Edited December 29, 2022 by AussieBoyTX

[AussieBoyTX]

[AussieBoyTX]

We researched cruising on Le Paul Gauguin carefully before deciding to book — not only what our friends told us (from pre-Ponant days), but also reviews and careful reading of the PG website — so our expectations were set and we were not negatively surprised by any aspect this cruise. it is clearly a different product with a different target market and it appears that Ponant is committed to keeping what makes the Paul Gauguin experience special.

 

While the product differentiation is clear in the North American market with the separate pgcruises.com website, I think there’s work to do in the rest of the world where Paul Gauguin cruises are marketed on Ponant’s websites and, apparently, travel advisors don’t fully understand the difference. Our French friends, who are way more high-end cruisers than we are, were “appalled” that breakfast & lunch were basically buffet-style and probably had dinner at La Veranda every night they didn’t eat ashore.

 

But that’s not to say that the food is bad. From our perspective, there were items that were very well prepared by any standard — especially at Le Grille, which doesn’t even have a full galley that I could see, which was able to produce coconut prawns fresh and hot from the fryer and main dishes that looked freshly prepared without heavy sauces or oils to cover any deficiencies. La Veranda also had a fine upscale experience and some of the dishes they offered could compete with a Ponant menu.

 

I really don’t want to beat on l’Etoile any more, aside to say that serving 100 people a complex menu is difficult and serving 200+ all at once is substantially more difficult for any team on land or sea to execute. This crew did better than many.

 

I do think a French-flagged ship should be required by law to serve a “real” baguette. Maybe it’s just us, but after trying once, we didn’t really eat any of the breads or pastries during this cruise. 

 

Housekeeping was okay, but on Ponant, we’re used to knowing not only our room attendant who knew when and how we liked the room serviced and what to stock the minibar with, but all the other room attendants on our deck. We also missed the pillow menu. We never really saw our Paul Gauguin room attendant and communicated with her via notes. Laundry on the other hand was excellent and was usually same-day service!

 

La Boutique felt very expensive compared to on Ponant, even with our substantial Ponant Yacht Club discount, so we only bought a Christmas ornament. Same with the spa services, but I have no idea how busy the spa was or how fair other guests considered the prices.

 

I think we all enjoyed the entertainment and having something substantial and worthwhile going on all day, whether hosted by Les Gauguins / Gauguines, the Cruise Director or the other performers on board, there wasn’t much time without something to do. Although we enjoy the dancers / entertainers onboard Ponant ships, Paul Gauguin has a more substantial investment in entertainment and we enjoyed the change of pace.

 

As we mentioned earlier, the interesting excursions were sold-out before we even boarded the ship, so we didn’t take any. A disadvantage of a ship this size visiting islands with limited infrastructure is that the islands can only handle so many visitors at once. Certainly not the 309 guests we had on board. So, if you’re cruising during a holiday, investigate the available excursions and book while you’re still home.

 

I expected scuba to be targeted to beginners and wasn’t surprised that proved to be the case. I do think the whole scuba process would benefit from clear communication on what forms and doctor approvals are required and receiving the forms from guests before the cruise. The shipboard registration experience was much more time-consuming than I expected, with us actually missing a dive opportunity in Huahine because of it.

 

On this cruise, diving was just something to do, so aside from not getting to dive at Attitavki (which I could have organized privately had I known), I was okay with the experience. However, if these were bucket list locations like Tuamotus or Marquesas, I would have been deeply disappointed!

 

Having Captain Marchesseau on board was a huge surprise and benefit and his sail-aways at Attitavki and Taha’a were spectacular. Crew members said these weren’t common and were a great value-add for us. Of course, we also enjoyed his numerous sailing stories and having his family along to join us was a treat. Our teen loved the invitation to the “Captain’s Daughter’s Table.”

 

The private island at Taha’a was gorgeous and it was a great way to spend Christmas. We enjoyed the iced rum drinks in coconuts along with the drift snorkeling just off the beach.

 

The ship is old, but it’s well laid out and comfortable, rarely feeling crowded. Here’s hoping there are upgrades in the upcoming dry dock that will further improve the guest experience on board.

 

So, where does that leave us regarding Le Paul Gauguin? Generally, we’re not itinerary repeaters, so although we enjoy French Polynesia, can’t see ourselves being regulars on the ship. There’s always the possibility for joining for the Marquesas in the future, but Marquesas would be bucket list diving for me, so I’d be extremely nervous about committing. However, the new two-week “Islands of the Marquesas and Tuamotus” itinerary looks good, so we we’ll see. 

 

Probably what would be more appealing to us to get our Jacques Brel & Paul Gauguin experience would be an expedition cruise aboard one of Ponant’s 184 guest Explorer-class ships (e.g. Le Laperouse) with minimal excursions replaced by naturalists & historians leading small group expeditions. And replace the typical entertainment and activities with some loaned Gauguins / Gauguines.

 

We respect the love that many have for the Paul Gauguin experience and hope that Ponant will preserve the experience. As I said before, it seems like this is the case and the comments we heard from very experienced Paul Gauguin cruisers were positive. Still, I think there’s room for some improvements that will make the experience more familiar to Ponant cruisers, without detracting at all from the current experience.

[highplanesdrifters]

23 hours ago, AussieBoyTX said:

I’ve seen a Titan bite before

Thanks sensei, will avoid. I am a mere snorkeler in the ocean of life. 

 

I see the Aranui 5 is docked in Papeete. I can only imagine how your French friends would feel about their buffet. 🤣

[17pandd]

What a great review.  Thanks!

[pittsburgh.joe]

Thank you AussieBoy Tx for your in-depth review.

We've been twice before on the PG, once under Regent Seven Seas and once  with Pacific Beachcomber. We are doing the Cook itinerary in April and look forward to how Ponant has changed things.

[jobrien91711]

Thank you AussieBoyTX -- really appreciate the detailed review!  We were behind you on the next sailing!   

[SkystheLimit]

Thank you for a great review.