Paul Gauguin in Tahiti, anybody done this?

[scubawife]

Okay, it's late and I'm tired so I'm going to respond to this more fully tomorrow, but after reading the rest of the responses, here are just a few comments:

1. This is NOT like your typical cruise. No formal nights...no boozers sucking 'em down at the bar...barely a casino at all (a couple blackjack tables).

2. You spend far more time on the islands than you do on the ship. It's more like a floating luxury hotel, traveling at night while you sleep so you get to visit more islands than you would otherwise, and you don't have to worry about making travel arrangements, or packing/unpacking.

3. The diving is UNBELIEVABLE! The crew is fantastic. You go in small groups in zodiacs right off the drop-down sports platform off the back of the ship. They do get a lot of beginners and resort divers, but they can tell when they get a diver who knows what they are doing, and they treat you accordingly. No herding, no cattleboats.

4. The price is amazingly reasonable compared to what you would pay for a land-based trip. The fact is that French Polynesia is incredibly expensive, rediculously so. Visiting it on the PG is one of the MOST cost-effective ways to do it.

5. The food is incredible...the service is top-notch. Crowd varies widely in age, depending on the length of the cruise. Shorter cruises (7 days) will have many younger people, especially honeymooners (it IS one of the most romantic places on earth!). Longer cruises will have more older, affluent people. I'm in my mid-forties, went with my Mom on an 11-day cruise...met up with several other people my age who happened to be there with their moms too, so we all hung out together and had an amazing time.

I have lots more to say, but I'll leave you tonight with this: I've been on numerous cruise, and traveled all over the world on land-based trip...this was one of my favorite vacations of all time. DO IT!

Lee Anne, I am sooooo jealous!!!! Like I said, I tried to get on this ship for 4 yrs (as a job benefit we were able to request a cruise from any of our 18 member lines once a year... in 11yrs there were only 4 I bothered with.)

Your comments are exactly what my impression was based on what I knew of the Gauguin in Tahiti. I had spoken to one of the onboard DMs at an industry event aboard the Navigator about a year ago and he told me that they do get a good number of experienced divers and really love to have "real divers" on board as it makes their week more enjoyable. He'd told me that they run a seperate boat for certified divers and on some days they will have more advanced dives as well. Do they still have the full shop on the ship with tanks, compressors, etc? And do you get a locker or someplace to store your own gear?

From having been on other RSSC ships I can second your comments about the food and service. And the varying age of passengers seems to be across the ships in their fleet. Which I actually prefer. We're in your age range and don't want a floating kegger, but I also don't want Boca at Sea...

How many dives did you get in on the 11-day sailing?

Thanks TSandM and Leejnd! NOW you've got me thinking about this trip. Again. This could be good incentive to get another client or two.

 

[Leejnd]

Y'know, ya could just decide to go do it! I'm dying to do that cruise again! It's actually amazing how many people do this particular cruise over and over. One of the people I met onboard and hung out alot with has done this cruise five times...and I met others who've gone on it many more times. It's really quite addictive. Trust me when I tell you it's like no other cruise on the planet.

Here's some more details, and answers to questions.

First, it's important to realize that this is a very small ship, as cruise ships go. Only 330 passengers. This is considered a luxury, six-star ship, and as such it is truly an entirely different experience than what you'll find on the mass-market cruise lines. It has a very HIGH crew to passenger ratio, among the highest in the industry, so you truly get spoiled. Examples: most of the crew that you encounter will know your name after the first day or two, and will greet you by name. They get to know your likes and dislikes. The guys at the pool bar learned immediately that I like to drink half lemonade and half iced tea. I couldn't sit down anywhere around the pool without one of them bringing me one within seconds. SERIOUSLY! The bartender at the bar at the back of the ship knew my favorite drink, and would have it in front of me the moment I sat down.

Another unique thing about this ship is that much of the crew has been on this ship for many years. The bartender at the aft bar (damn...can't remember his name!) has been on it for 10 years, and his attendant has been there for 8. The crew tends to mingle with the passengers more than on any other ship I've seen. They are very friendly great people on that ship! While the service is top-notch, it's not "over-solicitous" as I've seen on other luxury cruise ships.

Being a six-star ship, the food is some of the best I've had at sea...akin to some of the finest land-based restaurants. Oh, and it's truly "all-inclusive" -- even all alcholic beverages! They pour top-notch wines at dinner, and drinks at the bar are included as well (that's new as of this year...used to just include wine, now it's ALL drinks). There is NO tipping, and they are adamant about that...like most other six-star cruise lines, they do not want you to tip the staff. So none of that envelope-shuffling that you find on the mass-market cruise lines.

Now, on to the good stuff -- the diving!

Yes, they have their own crew, and they are truly wonderful. They do have their own equipment, but you might want to bring your own...it's not bad stuff, but not top of the line either. And they don't provide computers, only gauges. They will store your gear for you. Oh, and definitely bring your own fins...they ones they had are really snorkel fins, and gave me a blister! I wish I'd brought my own.

They do separate the advanced divers from the newbies. They have some advanced dives that they don't take beginners on at all -- the Tiputa Pass is a VERY fast drift dive, and one of my favorite dives ever! While we dove in small groups, they don't herd or corral you...you are free to do and see what you want, and as long as you are diving with a buddy, they wouldn't tell you that you have to stay with them. I was alone (traveling with my Mom, who doesn't dive) so I usually stayed with the DM anyway, which was great as he showed me all kinds of amazing things I wouldn't have seen myself. They also have dives that are just for the beginners, but a couple of times they let me and another advanced diver come along, and we went off and did our own thing while they herded and corraled the beginners.

I usually did two dives a day, at the islands where there was diving (there wasn't diving at every island we visited). I think I got in about ten or twelve dives...don't remember exactly!

For the advanced divers, they did some extra things -- they organized a dive at one of the Marquesas Islands with a local dive op just for the advanced divers, because the ship doesn't offer dives at that island. This is because the vis is iffy there -- it's often not very good, so they don't offer it as a regularly scheduled dive. But the vis was good that day, so they arranged for the local dive op to actually come out to the ship with their own zodiac and pick us up and take us for a dive, which was unbelievable -- that's where I saw my first giant manta ray -- twelve feet, I swear!

I posted a bunch of pictures of my dives, as well as topside adventures, on our local dive board...I'll go pull those up and copy some of them here, so you can see what I'm talking about.

As for topside adventures...there were so MANY things to do! My Mom would often go off on an excursion while I was diving. And these are not like the excursions you find on other cruise ships, where they pile forty people in a bus and bus you around to places overrun with tourists. These are small groups, with local guides, and they take you to some very beautiful and interesting places. Among my favorite excursions was the off-road adventure in Bora Bora -- that was an E-ticket! And we did a jeep tour on Nuku Hiva (one of the Marquesas) that took us to an archeological site...very interesting.

Anyway, I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. I encourage you to jump on this opportunity -- it'll be the vacation of a lifetime!

 

[Leejnd]

Here are some underwater pics from my PG trip.

ere's one of me and my dive buddy Angie, off Hiva Oa in the Marquesas Islands:

Here's an amazing lionfish that I saw under a shelf:

These next two are the giant manta rays we saw off Nuku Hiva, also in the Marquesas:

Here I am just before we slipped into the current in the Tiputa Pass on Rangiroa:

Here, if you look closely behind me, you can see a couple of the many sharks circling around us just outside of the pass:

Black tip reef shark (there were hundreds of these):

Silver tips:

Lemon sharks, that circle the bottom and are the scariest looking:

I also saw an enormous hammerhead about 20 feet below me in Rangiroa, but we didn't get a picture of it.

 

[Leejnd]

These are from Rangiroa. At the beginning of the Tiputa Pass dive, while outside the reef, we spotted some frolicking dolphins:

And a school of striped barracuda:

Although not the most beautiful, this particular fish was probably my favorite. She's just got...CHARM! I named her Geraldine.

The clams were very interesting in French Polynesia:

This was a school of fish that we spotted just outside the pass...this is just one part of it, it was the hugest school of fish I'd ever seen!

This was also the place where we saw the 8-ft hammerhead, although we were all so stunned nobody got any pictures! He was about 20 feet below us, and just swimming in a figure 8...we were transfixed. However, we did see lots of silver-tips that were much closer:

The Tiputa Pass dive is a FAST drift dive. We spent about 30 minutes outside the reef, and our divemaster told us that the moment we turn the corner into the pass to just let go...and he was right! As soon as we rounded the corner....WHOOSH! I have no idea how fast we were going, but we flew threw this pass from outside the reef to a couple hundred yards into the lagoon in the space of about 10 minutes:

We got no pics in the pass because, well, you're just zooming! I actually put my hands out in front of me like Superman and just flew!

 

[Leejnd]

Diving pictures from Hiva Oa

These next pics come from Hiva Oa. We weren't even going to dive there, because the vis can get pretty bad there due to lots of plankton. But we got lucky -- the vis was a good 20-30 feet that day, so they set up a dive for us, and this was when I got my first sight of a giant manta ray. They were so beautiful I thought I was going to cry underwater! The move like enormous, graceful angels, and are very curious. Their eyes are huge, affecting, and seem to almost speak to us. There were also sea turtles, and other interesting fish.

Someone told me later how poisonous these are, otherwise I might not have come so close!

This is a type of urchin that is unique to French Polynesia:

 

[Leejnd]

I thought it might be nice to include a few pics of what my vacation looked like when I WASN'T underwater!

This was the view from our balcony at the resort we stayed at in Tahiti for two nights pre-cruise:

Our ship, taken from the tender:

The little village in Rangiroa, There's really not much there at all...it's pretty remote:

This was what greeted us on Hiva Oa:

The view from the dock:

The Marquesas Islands are much more barren and brown than the Society Islands...you'll notice the significant difference in foliage. They are beautiful in a much more stark way.

This is an ancient sacrificial grounds, where human sacrifices took place!

A local. I just HAD to get a picture with him!

 

[Leejnd]

Above water pictures from Hiva Oa

More Hiva Oa...a church in the remote little village:

A view of our ship, from atop a hill in Hiva Oa:

The little island out there is where we dove:

In Nuku Hiva, I was just wandering around the little village can came across this cemetery with all these ancient tikis and carvings:

 

[Leejnd]

We took a zodiac around Nuku Hiva, and saw this very remote little farm:

Me on the zodiac:

We did an offroad adventure in Bora Bora which was a BLAST!

More views of Bora Bora - notice how green and lush it is compared to the Marquesas:

 

[DiveMaven]

Wow GREAT pictures!! Makes me want to go. Lynn, convinced yet??

 

[caymaniac]

Those are some most excellent pics, what were you using underwater?