Just back from the PG....Any questions?

[karenj4546]

We just got home from our anniversary cruise. I'm starting my review, but am also doing laundry and dealing with jet lag, so it's likely to take a few days. For now, if anyone has questions about the PG, the 7 day itinerary, onshore prices, etc. I'd be glad to answer what I can.

It was a WONDERFUL cruise! The crew was the happiest and most accessable group of people I've ever met. By day 2, everyone we had a chance to deal with knew us by name and knew that my DH loved the local beer. I'm SO glad that we chose Regent!

Karen

[caviargal]

Karen, so glad you had a wonderful cruise:) Can't wait til Voyager for our honeymoon in only 7 weeks!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Karen, I'm glad you had a good time, and that the crew of the ship are happy and in good shape! How was the band? Since Siglo left, I've heard mixed reviews about their replacement.

[Iamboatman]

Glad you had a great time.

 

Can't wait to hear how the saga played out on land...as the sea portion was, as expected, a success.

[Leejnd4]

Ooh yes, a hundred questions! We'll be on the PG for an 11-dayer in just over a month. Can't wait!

 

First, where did you stay pre and post cruise? Did you spend any time in Papeete? We're doing two nights at the Intercontinental in Papeete before the cruise, and 1 night after. I wish we could get to Moorea for the pre-cruise, but our flight schedule doesn't allow it, so I'm looking to learn more about what we can do to enjoy ourselves during our time in Papeete.

 

I'm sure you'll cover lots of this in your review, but just a couple quick questions:

 

Which was your favorite island?

How was the food onboard, and what was your favorite restaurant?

How was the weather?

Any comments on shore excursions?

 

The rest of my questions I'll hold off until I read your review...I'm getting SO excited about my upcoming cruise!

[canadagal]

It's nice to hear positive reports once again about the PG and I'm glad that you found the cruise and crew to be as wonderful as I remember.

 

Wendy, beat me to the question but I'll ask it too. What was the band like? I just loved Siglo and was really sad to hear that they had to leave due to the health of one of the band members. They really added to the enjoyment of the cruise.

 

I know on SS and Seabourn that you can order off of the dining room menu during normal dining hours and dine in your suite but I forget if that was true on the PG. We always seemed to make it down to the dining room for meals. But sometimes after a hectic day it is nice to have the option of just kicking back in your cabin and ordering in, while lounging in your liesure clothes. Do you know if this is offerered on the PG?

 

Pat

[karenj4546]

Iamboatman: Thanks! I'll get back to you (either personally or in my review) about the land portion.

 

Some answers:

The Band: Orion. Not horrible musically, but the lead female reminded my husband of "a bored and boring ABBA clone". I have to agree. She sat down at one function and while playing her marachas (spelling?) rolled her eyes and sighed constantly. We chose not to seek out the band for entertainment.

Never heard Amy Abler, pianist, but did hear others who thought she was very good.

Food onboard...

Dinners:

We never went to the Pacific Grill for dinner.

We LOVED L'Etoile (the main dining room). Make sure to look at both sides of the menu. One night, I wasn't thrilled with the "right side" and read the other. From it, I found I could order salmon (cooked to order) with bernaise sauce (a real favorite of mine). Also, when I wasn't thrilled with the "starters" our waiter offered me a caesar salad.

La Veranda: We made reservations there for one night. VERY slow service and VERY "French" (wonderful presentation, smallish portions, mediocre flavor). Did not "love" the food. Then, we got an invitation to eat there again with the Hotel Director and went back for the honor, not for the food (much better service, but the same food). Hey, food's subjective! Just my opinions here.

En Suite dining: Never ate in our room. We only used room service once, and that was for coffee in the AM. Called in the order and it arrived within 10 minutes. I did hear that folks were ordering from the restaurants and eating in their suites.....however, we were next to a Cat A suite, and it could have been a perk for the butler-level service. Hey, just ask! Everyone went out of their way to provide us with the trip of our dreams.

Meals, breakfast:

I was up REALLY early each morning so here's how I did my coffee-kick.

Cards for room service breakfast start at 6:30AM delivery. You could call 24/7 for other options, including coffee, but I didn't want to wake up DH.

La Palette: Coffee/tea and fruit/pastries available at 6:30AM

Le Grill: Buffet served from 7-9:30AM

La Veranda: Buffet served from 7:30--9:30AM

Meals, lunch:

La Veranda: Buffet served from 12PM-2PM

Le Grill: Buffet served from 12PM-2PM

We chose La Veranda for lunches. Air conditioning, attentive service (can you say "I really CAN carry my own plate back to my table"). Drinks were brought if asked for.

Drinks:

Okay, no one has asked, but I have to address this. Our final bar tab reflects the purchase of ONE drink the entire trip. Yes, we had 2 bottles of rum in our room. Being in Suite 714, we were right next to the elevator and stairs up to the pool bar. So, we'd go up and get "fruit punch" and come back to make drinks (we could have called room service, but hey...I'm just NOT that indulgent). However, at each "event" we were offered drinks (often champagne, though by day 2 a WONDERFUL young man discovered my husbands' like of Hinano beer and my taste for any rum-based mixed drink and provided them freely). We actually had to refuse once at lunch as we were headed out to snorkle and didn't want a buzz!

Favorite Island: Oh my...is that one ever subjective!

It rained all day at Motu Mahana. Had it not, it would probably be my favorite. However, I'll have to say that Mo'orea was my favorite. You'll see a glimpse of why later, but my review will be more in depth.

Weather: Mixed bag. The only "bad" day was the Motu. Otherwise, we'd have "mostly sunny with a chance of brief showers" (temps were around 86 F with 100% humidity during the day). The evening we left Taha'a (where Motu Mahana is), we had semi-rough seas. Many folks left the dining room. The crossing between Bora Bora and Mo'orea was also slightly rough...the captain made a choice to leave directly rather than in the wee hours of the AM as he often does so that the view in the morning is better.

Shore excursions: We chose water-based ones. We'd planned on the wave-runners around Bora-Bora, but I wasn't feeling great that morning and the seas were still a bit rough, so when we went to the Grand Salon to meet up, we were given the option to cancel. We did. We also had to cancel one other excursion (Coral Garden Drift) as my DH wasn't feeling well that day. We think it was the food at our pre-cruise, but it could have been a "bug". The folks at Regent went out of their way to accomidate us through our stomach-ills.

We did attend some lectures. If you're at all interested in history, don't miss Mark Eddowes. We also went to Michael Poole's lecture on Whales and Dolphins. From his lecture, we decided to sign up for his excursion the next day in Mo'orea...a dolphin and whale watching tour. He said to bring a mask and snorkel, but it might/might not be used. BOY, how we used them!!!! Wild dolphins will not stick around if you go in the water, but if you're calm and quiet, humpback whales will! (By the time the last folks joined us in the water (we were 2nd and 3rd in), it wasn't calm and quiet enough, so I've only got 3 pictures of humpback whales undersea). Can you guess which my favorite excursion was? We did other snorkeling trips (rays and sharks) and a coral garden, but by far, we liked the whales the most!

Papeete: We were housed at the Sheraton for pre-cruise. I'll put them in a review. The Sheraton is much closer to Papeete than the IC. We were told that we could walk to town. I'm guessing that it was about 2 miles in HOT and HUMID weather. We took taxis after that! Le Truck only takes local money, and would be affected by a strike. We did discover a pearl shop which would provide transportation back to our hotel. We got some nice gifts for our teenage/young adult kids from there. We enjoyed the local market very much, but I'd advise that there are MUCH better places to eat than La Marache (if that's how you spell it....my guidebook is downstairs and I'm not doing a review right now...). The ocean-side of the market (outdoors) has women making leis and other flower ornamentations. Really nice to watch. It's social time for them, so it's a lot of women gabbing in mixed Polynesian and French. Not all prices are alike for like items! We bought just a little on day one and then went back our second day and bought more stuff. Don't try to bargain! We "needed" 15 shell necklaces for the girls in our GS troop. We asked the vendor to help pick them out and she threw in extras. If you're kind, they will be also!

Dang...this is starting to look like a review!

Two more things quickly.....

Les Gauguines: When I'd first heard of the "social hostesses" I was very skeptical. However, their jobs are intense and they're wonderful! They teach classes in things like language, cooking, assorted Polynesian crafts, etc. They'll be candid when asked about political issues, schooling, etc. They sing and dance and smile whenever they see you. I can't imagine the trip without them.

The Staff on the Ship:

We didn't have a butler suite, but Jerry (the butler) served rooms right next to ours and went out of his way for us, too. Clifford is a bar waiter and a terrific kid! He's getting married in 2 months, but coming back 2 weeks later because he LOVES his job. Sabine (the head dining room waitress) is a terrific lady. We dined with one couple many times. The woman has celiac disease and the ship (and Sabine) went WAY out of their way to provide "altered" meals to suit. They even baked special bread daily for Leela!

WAY TO GO, REGENT!

[Leejnd4]

OhmyGOD what GREAT info! Now I'm more excited than ever! Thanks for being so forthcoming on your cruise experience. I'm so thrilled that Regent really came through for you in so many ways, and I know that this is going to be an amazing cruise.

 

My Mom keeps emailing me: "Can we GO now???" :D

[canadagal]

Thanks Karen! I look forward to your full review when you have more time.

Everything sounds like it is back to normal on the PG but I am sorry to hear that the replacement band and lead singer in particular are not up to snuff. Siglo really made the deck parties special. Swimming with the whales sounds so exciting. I really liked Dr. Poole's excursion but we never encountered any whales, nor did we have time to actually get in the water. Lee Anne, it will be interesting to hear what your opinion is when you get back.

Pat

[janey1245]

Hi

 

DH and I are considering a Tahiti cruise in May...just wondering if it makes sense for someone who LOVES the scenery and landscape of Tahiti but is not a beach bunny.

 

Is most of the time spent in the water and on the beach. Is there much to do besides snorkel and sunbathe?

 

Thanks so much.

 

Janey

[vaitape]

Olga, the female singer for Orion, is very shy. She has a great voice. She would cringe if she knew she was called an Abba whatever. We spent time with the band on our 14 day cruise last month and thought they were very versatile in their music.

All in all, the entertainment on our 14 day Sept cruise was superior to our other 2 cruises. We especially liked the flute player Vivianne and her gituarist Anibal.......AMAZING as is Amy.

[canadagal]

Janey, you certainly do not have to be a beachy type person to enjoy a Tahiti cruise. Each stop and island has a shore excursion where you can tour the island, shop etc. You don't have to put on a swimsuit once in order to have fun. In fact on our last cruise, hubby and I spent most of our time touring as we wanted to see what each island offered and next time around we will concentrate more on the beach tours. There is lots to see and do and the scenery is magnificant and the locals are very friendly. I suggest you log onto the RSSC website, pick the date you are interested in and then click on the available shore excursions for each port stop. That will give you an idea of what there is to do.

This is one destination where you will not be bored.

Pat

[stew300]

Since the planes to the United States leave late at night what do most people do after leaving the ship?

 

If you stay over for a night, I assume the hotels don't usually have rooms available very early.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Well, if you do Regent air, you get a dayroom at the Radisson hotel. And an optional afternoon bus tour. Oh, and you get to stay on the ship for lunch, so the time from disembarking to checking in is only a couple of hours, and you can sit around the pool until then. The dayrooms are vacated some time about 6 p.m., as I remember, and then there's a shuttle bus to the airport :rolleyes:

 

If you do your own air, you're on your own, but there are private tours available. Or you could rent a car for the day, and drop it off at the airport.

[karenj4546]

No, you do NOT have to be a beach bunny to enjoy this trip. Our newest friends from this trip didn't get wet once.

As to what to do about hotels....yes, if you buy through Regent, you're pretty well taken care of. For us, we spent the final day in Moorea and were evicted from our room at 11AM. The Pearl kept our bags locked up and offered use of their facilities until we were picked up for our trip to the airport heading back to Papeete. We shopped a bit more, but could easily have scheduled a day trip or rented a car. In all, it worked out okay (but I'd take Regents package in a heartbeat, if I could!)

I'm sorry if I offended anyone by my comment about the band. Music, like food, is very subjective. We just weren't impressed.

Karen

[Kathy Z]

I just read through this quickly and will answer a question that I think was missed. Yes, you can order anything from the main dining room menu on the PG to be delivered to you cabin via room service and you do not need to be in a special category for this. They'll also bring a bottle of wine for your meal. We did this one night in our window cabin in 2004.

 

Also, you can order from all over the menu at meal times. I quite frequently ordered from both sides of the menu at dinner. And if you can't make up your mind between main entrees order two!

[canadagal]

Thanks KathyZ! That's the exact in cabin dining info I was looking for. I don't remember if it was even offered when we last went to Tahiti so it's nice to know that one can order in from the dining room menus if you are not feeling well or are just too darn tired.

Pat

[koalabear6314]

Karen,

We're cosidering a PG cruise next year, either June or September (11 or 14 days). Now I know it's a personal opinion, but is a balcony cabin 'C' worth the almost $4000 extra it will cost us over an oceanview 'E' ?

We're flying from Europe so we have to factor in that additional cost as well ! Would we be better off in the cheaper cabin and spending the $4000 on excursions ?

I guess everyone will have their own opinion, but I was wondering whether you were able to compare the two types when you were on board.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

No, it's not worth it. Don't get me wrong, balconies are wonderful, but on this cruise, you don't have to spend much time in your cabin. The decks and lounges are wonderful, and with all the excursions and water activities, you won't miss it. We've done an "E" three times now, 4 weeks total. I would rather go there more often than spend all that extra money!

[karenj4546]

Sorry, I can't make the comparison. We never did see any cabin interiors, other than our own. We did use our balcony a lot, but I'm a smoker and DH isn't. So, for us, it was really important. I'd say that if the extra money is an issue, go for the ocean view and not the balcony. For us, it was important and we had the funds. Either way, you'll be given the same wonderful treatment by the staff, and there are places to sit outside all over the ship.

Karen

[Wendy The Wanderer]

The C cabins are identical to the E cabins, except for the balcony. YOu have a picture window, not a floor-to-ceiling window, but that's the diff.

[sergad]

Forgive me if this has been addressed elsewhere, but what was the dress for men in the various restaurants for dinner?

[karenj4546]

My DH brought 2 pairs of dockers and an assortment of shirts...2 polo and the rest "Hawaiian". Even on the dressiest evening, he was quite comfortable with this. Topsiders completed his wardrobe.

I brought one dress (didn't wear until our post-cruise),1 skirt, 1 pair of crepe pants with a half dozen interchangable tops. Looked different each night, but VERY easy packing! I had 2 pairs of shoes for my stuff. One pair of pumps and 1 pair of "good" sandals. Only saw 1 sport coat on Captain's welcome night.

[chick geek]

Go for the balcony if you can swing it. We were on the TP in May and are going on the PG this June. Wonderful eating on the balcony in one of the most glorious parts of the world. Utterly romantic. This trip is so special and the scenery so beautiful, it is incredibly decadent to have a private space on board like this. From what I understand of the PG, dining for 2 on the balcony will be sublime. We are really looking forward to it. While some say you don't spend much time in your room, believe me you're there more than you think and just having that ability to go "outside' is wonderful. This is one of those trips where I think a balcony is worth the xtra cost if you can do it and if you're into the romance (no kids along).

[DenaH]

Karen, who was the cruise director on your trip? Just wondering. Thanks.