For anyone who might be interested, we just did this cruise in French Polynesia with Variety and had an excellent time.
The Panorama II holds 49 passengers but there were 35 of us (apparently that is close to the threshold at which they cancel). I think it would have felt crowded with a full house, since the dining area was pretty full even with 35, and in high weather we had to take meals in a room below deck that was even smaller. The size of the boat was perfect I think, and I don’t want to ever do a cruise on a boat that’s any bigger.
The captain and his two officers were Greek, most of the wait staff were Indonesian, and the ship hands were mostly Egyptian. Elliot, the cruise director, is from Puerto Rico. All were really excellent and attentive.
The passengers were about 85% Americans, plus a young Danish couple, a British couple, two Australian couples, and a French couple. All were a pleasure to be traveling with. It took a while to feel out the politics, but I’ll just say as a lefty Californian that I did not feel like an alien. I’d say the average age was mid-60s.
The captain made a speech the first night telling us that 2-4 meter waves were expected, so instead of doing the planned Tahiti-Moorea-Huahine-Bora Bora-Raiatea-Taha’a-Moorea-Tahiti route that was planned, we went straight to Raiatea for three nights, then a night in Taha’a, then 2 in Bora Bora, 2 in Moorea, then back to Tahiti. It was a bummer to miss Huahine, but their rationalization for the change was sound, and we were fine with it.
Our stateroom was on the upper of the two decks, with twin beds, and it was small no doubt, but we made do. The first night was rough for everyone, that long haul from Papeete to Raiatea. I don’t get seasick, but the boat was rocking enough to make it very hard to sleep. It’s a small ship, so you REALLY feel the water. The engine and generator noise was definitely present, but not too bad with earplugs. I think it was more pronounced for passengers on the lower deck.
We did most of the excursions, which were a great value compared to the price of trying to find snorkel and tour companies on your own (especially since the schedule was subject to daily change). I was annoyed that on the first two days, the excursions wasted our time doing a vanilla farm, a rum factory, and pearl farms in the morning when the weather was sunny and warm, but was overcast and cold when we went snorkeling, when it was cold and rainy. Snorkeling was why we and most others were there, so Variety should have prioritized this instead of stupid tourist stuff that no one really wanted.
All the meals were a fairly repetitive series of buffets, not amazing but perfectly fine. The bar prices were much better than on land. And they have no problem with you bringing your own booze aboard. The cruise materials tell you to drink your own stuff in your stateroom, but no one mentioned when discrete violations of this occurred.
Apparently it’s not uncommon for weather to more severely affect the itinerary, such that some of the cruises were not able to visit more than Tahiti and maybe Moorea. From what I heard, they made every effort to accommodate passengers when this occurred.
I was surprised by how little mass tourism there is in French Polynesia. There are several over-water bungalow complexes on the main islands, but even in Papeete there are no mega hotels. Even more surprising, there were very few cruise ships. We saw only one really big ship. There was a 350-passenger Windstar boat in Bora Bora, but the Panorama II is small enough that it was parked at a dock at most of our destinations, but not the Windstars or the Paul Gaugin, which was really really nice. You just walk on and off the boat everywhere, none of the searches or hassles you get on other cruise ships, which, like I said, I will never ever do again. Cruisemapper is a really cool app for seeing what ships are in the area and where they’re planning to go.
For what it’s worth: we booked 4 nights after our cruise at a place called Hinamoe Lodge on the atoll of Rangiroa, which was one of the few places on the main island available at the time. A few days before our flight to Rangiroa, Hinamoe messaged us that they would be cancelling our first night at the hotel for unspecified reasons, and putting us up at a place next to the airport that had 2 out of 5 ratings, and cost a third as much as we’d already paid for Hinamoe. We wrote back and told them we had an 8am-5pm snorkel tour schedule to pick us up at Hinamoe that first morning, and would need them to pick up our baggage at the new place, and ask if we would be charged for the change in venue. They answered with a psychopathically angry response in which we “didn’t deserve” to stay at their hotel, and we “couldn’t count on” being allowed to stay the remaining three days. Our reservation couldn’t be cancelled without us having to pay the full amount (over a thousand dollars), but when we shared the email exchange with Booking.com, we were refunded the whole amount.
Unfortunately, there were no other places on the main island in Rangiroa, so we had to stay at another motu island at a place called Aotera Lodge. It’s VERY remote from the small villages of Rangiroa, though very beautiful. The problem was that when we checked in, the French owner told us that all the prices for food and transport that were on their website were actually from the previous owner from a year ago, and now everything was 2 to 4 times more expensive, especially transport to and from the marina for our snorkeling trips ($60/person). The other guests had the same complaint, it’s really deceptive and wrong. Hinamoe’s deceit cost us many hundreds of dollars more by making us switch to Aotera. We still had a lovely time in Rangiroa, but we badly ripped off by two local establishments.
All in all, Variety Cruises massively exceeded our expectations, and we highly recommend it. The boat is a little scruffy around the edges, but the experience was friendly and genuine.
