OUR CRUISE AROUND FRENCH POLYNESIA
On the Radisson Paul Gauguin

May 11-19, 2002

Ever since the Paul Gauguin began cruising around the Tahitian islands in 1998, we've been wanting to take this trip. We'd been to Moorea and Tahiti back in 1994 and stayed at hotels there, but the ship allowed us to see the most islands in a short time. It was great exploring the islands in the morning, going back to the ship to have a nice lunch, and then either going back to the island of the day, or to a beach to relax or snorkel.

The trip was paradise. The service first class and the scenery unbelievable. Tipping and all water activities are included in the price of the cruise, as well as numerous free cocktail parties and wine at dinner.. Also, there is no tipping in French Polynesia - it is against their culture.

Getting There

Our journey started in Orlando with a 5 hour United Airlines flight to Los Angeles. As part of the cruise package, we stayed overnight in LA at the Hilton Airport hotel. This broke up the long flights nicely. After checking out of the Hilton, we took a flight to Papeete, Tahiti on Air Tahiti Nui, which is their national airline.

Once in Tahiti, we were bussed to the docks and quickly checked in. The ship was larger than I imagined considering it holds a maximum of 320 passengers. As it turned out, our particular cruise had only 196 passengers and 201 crew.

To read our daily journal (complete with photos), click on a date, or an island below.

DAILY JOURNAL

CHOOSE A DAY

CHOOSE AN ISLAND