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Paul Gauguin cruises sail out of Papeete Tahiti around the French Polynesian islands on 7 to 14 night cruising vacations. I travelled on a 7-night Society Islands cruise and spent time exploring what Paul Gauguin have to offer. In this I explore who they are, what they do well in my view, some watch-outs about the line and who I think they are best for and why. Paul Gauguin Cruises became part of the French luxury Ponant Cruise Group in August 2019. To find out more about what to expect cruising around French Polynesia watch my video: https://youtu.be/eqBB1qo6cHA
Note: I travelled as a guest of Paul Gauguin before making this video. They covered my cruise fare and some of my on-board costs. Paul Gauguin Cruises had no input on the opinions, content or images in my video. UK price for 2020 is £4,415 per person which includes the flights between LA and Papeete.
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Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 70+ cruises.
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you're about to discover everything you
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need to know about Paul Gauguin cruises
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what's good whoo it's ready for and so
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important
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watch outs hi I'm Gary Bembridge and
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this is another of my tips for Travis
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I'm currently as I record this on board
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the paul gauguin I want to share with
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you everything that I've learned about
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paul gauguin that you need to know paul
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gauguin is a small ship luxury cruise
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line it's a one ship cruise line and
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they cruise around the French Polynesian
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islands they focus on seven to 14 day
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round trips out of pur petty so what do
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paul gauguin do that's unique different
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or better in my view there are five
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things that they do incredibly well
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first of all small ship luxury cruising
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the ship only has 332 guests 217 cruise
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a very high crew to passenger ratio they
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have quite a wide range of cabins which
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range from very large owner suites down
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to porthole cabins I was actually
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cruising in the most common on board
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which is the balcony cabin and because
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it so beautiful it's great of a balcony
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if you're cruising through French
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Polynesia the ship has quite a lot of
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choice so there are three dining venues
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onboard all of which are included within
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the fare so the main dining room is
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called layer 12 they also have the
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veranda which is a buffet for breakfast
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and lunch and the evening turns into a
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sort of above market French restaurant
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and the Hoefler grill which is up on
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deck and again it's a buffet breakfast
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and lunch and in the evening it becomes
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a specialty dining venue the ship also
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has the kind of usual things that you
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would expect despite being a small ship
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so it has a theater it has a small
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casino a couple of bars on board pool
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deck it has aspired as a fitness center
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the ship also has a water sports
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platform which overs at the rear of the
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ship so it's obviously a small ship but
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it's a pretty luxurious ship it's fitted
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out in a very luxurious way and the
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service and attention to detail and the
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quality of the food is very high the
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company has been operating for over 25
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years
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within French Polynesia's so their
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understanding and their relationship
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with all of the islands and the people
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is very very strong so they really know
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and understand the islands and have
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incredible connections
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the Paul Gauguin itself has been
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designed to cruise around the French
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Polynesian islands so not only is its
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small but also it has a very shallow
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draught and that's very important
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because it can call on a lot of the
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islands that other ships can't get to on
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board they have what is known as the lay
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Goggins these are billed as Tahitian
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ambassadors and also Polynesian
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entertainers they then provide much of
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the entertainment and also many of the
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activities are run by the less gogans
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they will do dances they will do singing
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provide demonstrations on how to make
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local crafts so let's go guards are a
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key part of the whole Polynesian
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experience that is created on board the
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ship there's also an enrichment electron
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board who will give talks about the
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region and they have a big Polynesian
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night normally held in Marea
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where they bring on board local
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entertainers they have a Polynesian
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buffet a Polynesian food so I think one
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of the key things they do is bring alive
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the whole connection and the whole
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Polynesian experience the third thing
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which I think is really good is the
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fairs are largely all-inclusive pretty
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much everything is included so all of
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course your accommodations included all
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your Dining's including including eating
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at the specialty dining restaurants all
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your gratuities are included your drinks
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are included so wine beer spirits soft
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drinks use of the watersports platform
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that's included they also provide your
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snorkeling equipment also time at their
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private beach in Bora Bora and also
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access and the day on their private
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island martoma Hana and of course all
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the entertainment on the onboard
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enrichment activities so what's not
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included
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what excursions are not included Wi-Fi
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is not included and you can buy various
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packages of Wi-Fi so for example on the
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cruise that I was on it's around about
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twenty nine dollars a day for unlimited
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Wi-Fi and the Wi-Fi was actually pretty
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good
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another thing which I think is something
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they do incredibly well is some of the
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access to their private facilities so
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they're a little private eyelid called
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moto Mahana which is in the island of
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Faja and this is a beautiful day out
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where you headed ship heads across alone
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tainment you have water sports they have
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a fantastic and huge barbecue and also
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in Bora Bora they have a private beach
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so they will shuttle people to and from
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the beach I think that's a phenomenal
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thing some of their private facilities
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these are really top-notch they're
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absolutely beautiful and they of course
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included within the fair another thing
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that I thought was a phenomenal thing
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they did were the excursions there was
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an enormous range of excursions
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particularly considering is quite a
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small ship and just over 300 passengers
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so they had scuba diving snorkeling in
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every port WaveRunner
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activities in every port you had
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catamarans simple gentle sighting
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glass-bottom boats days out at very
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premium prestigious resorts which was
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one of my big favorites you'd have
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access to the beach the pool
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you'd have lunch included they then had
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much more active excursions so they had
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things like
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ATVs and 4x4 drives and some cultural
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and archaeological activities as well
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then on top of that you could also then
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go on helicopter rise float plane rise
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and get a view over the islands so an
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enormous range of excursions were
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offered and that I thought was a big
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plus especially as I said because it's a
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small ship with not that many passengers
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so who do I think that Paul Gauguin is
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most suited for most of the passengers
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are in their 50s and 60s and pretty
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active is a pretty active cruise for
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start all of the stops are tender stops
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- you have to be nimble enough to be
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able to climb in and out of the tenders
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a couple of places that were like on the
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private beach there was a wet landing so
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you have to be active enable enough to
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get off the tenders into the water
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mostly excursions are pretty actively
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there's snorkelling ATV drives as wave
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runners there's cycling so it's a pretty
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active experience you'll find that the
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passengers tend to be sort of 50s and
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60s but they are very active now of
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course it is a luxury line so it's
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relatively expensive so that does by
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definition attract the people who are
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able to have the time and the money to
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do that because French Polynesia is
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quite a long way to get to you from
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Europe it's about 21 hours even from LA
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it's a tower there were of course some
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younger people on board because of
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course French Polynesia come in a luxury
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cruise is also very attractive
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for honeymooners or people celebrating
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some significant birthdays or events in
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terms of the mix of people quite an
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interesting mix it's predominantly
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American lots of Canadians but there was
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a good representation of people from
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Asia because things like it are Haiti
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Nui
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it flies in from Japan quite a lot of
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French because of course the strong
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French connection with French Polynesia
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and of course with all cruises wherever
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you go you'll always find lots of
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Australians and New Zealanders who love
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cruising the language onboard is
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primarily English but all the
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announcements will be done both in
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English and French
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the menus will be in English and French
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the daily program you can get in either
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English or French so definitely is
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bilingual but it is predominantly
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English onboard so what about solo
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travelers and what about families there
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were a couple of solo travelers onboard
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the cruiser I was on but it can be a
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relatively expensive way to cruise
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what's very important is you need to
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work with your agent or with Paul
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Gauguin if you are a solo traveler I
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want to come on the cruises because they
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do do various offers and deals at
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various times of the year but you can
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end up paying particularly the premium
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cabins and the Suites the price of two
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people even if there are only one of you
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so very importantly so work with your
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cruise agent or work with Paul Gauguin
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and find out which of the cruises
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they're offering different discounts and
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offers with better prices for solo
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travelers it's all about families now
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Pokagon can be a pretty attractive
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option if you think you've come to the
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region with a family for a couple of
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reasons they are introducing certainly
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during the key summer school holidays
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and the more significant holidays sort
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of Christmas time they're offering a lot
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of opportunities in the centres for
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families to come on board so what are
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the deals for families if your child is
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aged 17 years old or under they
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cell-free if they're in the same cabin
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as you of course then you have the
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various taxes and the flights to get
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there also what they have introduced is
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a new program which is called the Mona
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Explorer program their run program for
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kids
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onboard aged between 7 and 15 and lots
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of activities really related to the
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marine life ocean conservation so it's
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really educational but fun at the same
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time and those are run on selector to
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cruisers so if you're planning to travel
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on Paul Gauguin with your family very
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poorly tech with Paul Gauguin in your
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agent that your cruise has those offers
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but also importantly check if they do
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have the Moana Explorer program onboard
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because that's going to make your
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child's life on board really fantastic
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now the dress code on board is
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relatively relaxed and informal and it's
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what sort of called country casual smart
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casual so in the evenings you're asked
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to dress up a little bit so you're asked
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to wear a collared shirt ideally no
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jeans some more slacks if you're a gent
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and the equivalent for lady so you know
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no torn jeans no shorts so if you're one
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of those people that want to get dressed
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up you can and if you're one of those
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who like to cruise in a relatively
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informal relaxed way you'll certainly
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find that on board paul gauguin that
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people did dress relatively smartly but
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not overly so the key thing is collared
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shirts and slacks is the most that you
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need to worry about the key strength of
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Paul Gauguin is that it's a small ship
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it's luxurious and there are absolute
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experts in French Polynesia I have loads
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of videos of tips about all the regions
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of the world including more about French
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Polynesia so why don't you watch one of
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those right now
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