Paul Gauguin November 18th

[tombo]

We are going on the PG 11/18 sailing, a 2-week itinerary from Fiji to Tahiti. We'd like to maximize the number of scuba dives we can do on the trip. I'd appreciate any and all tips or advice from anyone who has done this. We are experienced divers with 1,000+ dives each. What equipment should we plan to bring from home and what would be better rented? Can you book with local dive operators in the places where PG does not conduct dives? Is it possible to book the diving prior to departure?

 

I'd love to hear from anyone with experience on PG. Also from anyone else who will be on that trip.

[minxtabb]

Hi

we did the exact same trip in June this year primarily for the diving. We are BSAC divers with a similar number of dives logged.

We took all our own gear, we just prefer it that way, but the gear on board was in very good condition. We also took our own 3mm wetsuits, a preference thing! they only have shortie wetsuits on board. We get cold (yes, even though we are used to diving in the UK!) so prefer to have full cover - we also took thermal rash vests, but these weren't needed.

As far as the diving goes, in Fiji, it was all arranged by the ship using outside operators. In Lautoka, we went to an off island (Vomo) for 2 dives which were OK, nothing like I had read Fiji was like. The dives at Yasawa were cancelled due to PG not being able to arrange an outside operator. The island we stopped at was just a beach, so I guess that won't change. At Savusavu there was a 2 tank dive ($230!) but the sites were great, especially the first one, very colourful, lots of soft corals. This was with the Cousteau outfit, very professional.

 

No dives were offered by PG in Tonga. We chose to do an island tour but a couple of fellow divers managed to track down a dive operator and went for a 2 tank dive, not expensive, not great viz but awesome life apparently.

 

No dives offered by PG in Rarotonga. It was a Sunday when we were there, but there was a dive operator on the dock when we arrived. Again, friends of ours checked out their shop and had good things to say about their equipment and RIB. I think the operator had dives for 10 or 1030 and 2 that day.

 

We dived in Aitutaki, arranged through PG. We were supposed to see giant turtles and eagle rays, neither of which turned up. The underwater topography there was just so-so, and there were lots of crown of thorns. We had arranged an independent dive with the same operator in the afternoon (US$ 90 for one tank, versus $115 through PG) but his boat broke (the steering) when he was getting it out of the water, so that was that!

 

Bora Bora was our first dive from the PG - what a delight, so much easier than lugging all your gear around. Lots of sharks, hard corals, fish, very nice dive. In the afternoon, we dived with Top Dive on an independently arranged dive (a group of 6 of us) who took us out to a beginners site, supposed to see manta and eagle rays, not a sniff, and nothing much else, lots of sand and poor viz, and lots of finning. Def not our favourite dive! We would not use Top Dive again.

 

Moorea, another dive from the PG, again lots of sharks, turtles, many fish and hard corals, eels etc etc. Great dive.

 

It seems that only one tank dives are offered from the PG. Some of our fellow divers did join the beginners dives as well ( to the same site in Moorea) to get 2 dives in, but this was only if space was available.

 

We're used to liveaboards doing 4-5 dives a day, so this seemed a relaxed pace, which was nice in a way!

We were somewhat surprised about the quality and variability of the diving, but overall very much enjoyed our experience.

 

hope this helps, if you have any other questions, please ask,

 

Roz

[tombo]

Roz,

 

Thanks for the reply. We also would prefer to bring our own gear but wonder whether we'd have to clean it and store it in our stateroom. Does the ship have a storage area where you can hang wetsuits, BCs, etc.?

 

How would you recommend planning the diving over the 14 days? Should we try to sign up for excursions as soon as they're available online? Or, if we wait until we're on board, will we be able to handle everything through the concierge/activity desk?

 

Is there any shore attraction you felt you missed because you were so anxious to do a lot of diving? (Other than the $115 per tank. Yikes).

 

We also are accustomed to liveaboard diving and up to 4 or 5 dives a day. On this cruise, I'd love to be able to do a 2-tank trip on each day where diving is available.

 

Tom

[minxtabb]

Hi Tom

don't worry about cleaning and storing your gear, they have big wash tanks at the marina and they're very happy to store your gear and will help you do so. we did have a couple of times when we came back from dives arranged thru PG with outside operators that the marina was not open, so we washed our gear out in our bathroom and stored it there. we're quite used to having dive gear hanging around so it didn't worry us too much and it was only a couple of times. we didn't have a balcony, i know one of our friends who put their stuff out there to keep it out of the way. our cabin was actually the closest one to the marina which helped as we didn't have far to drag it.

oh, another thing, if you do bring all your own gear, the marina will lend you a mesh bag to carry all your stuff ashore (a good big carrier, not like a net sack just for fins and snorkel) which was really useful and saved getting our dive bag wet and filthy (esp as it doubles as a clothes bag at times!)

 

DEFINITELY book up for all the dives on line as soon as it opens up available. This way you will get priority on dives where numbers are limited (for example Aitutaki where they can only take 6 divers max). It also ensures that you get to dive from the PG when dives are offered, some of the people we met had to dive with outside operators as there were so many booked. Diving from PG is MUCH nicer, much more like liveaboard diving, but on a luxury cruise ship! The PG normally does a certified dive around 0830 and then beginners dive around 1030, so they are limited to around 18 divers (6 per rib, 3 ribs). You can always change your mind when you get on board on anything you have booked.

 

Our main purpose for taking the trip was to sample diving in a number of different locations to see if we would want to go back to do more in any particular spot. So I guess that we didn't really feel that we missed out on any land excursions. We usually had time to go ashore in the afternoon to look around which was fine for us. Our favourite island was Moorea. We did take a private excursion in Tonga where no diving was offered (not even on the pier) which we enjoyed very much, saw the blowholes which were fun, and lots of other "touristy" things - it was $15 per person, well worth it.

 

hope this helps, you will have a marvellous time! please ask if you need any further help,

 

Roz