Before we went back to our room, Gil reminded me that he was supposed to pick up a pearl for his ex-wife Karen. (She gave him a budget to stick within. Yes she was paying for it herself). I suggested we look in Papeete in the morning before we had to leave the ship. He agreed and let me know that I should pick out one I liked in case Karen didn't like it.

The next morning Gil and I headed to the shops to buy his ex-wife a pearl and my son a present. First we did the shops and found a beautiful red/purple/green pearl. When we left the shop, Gil said he was sort of hoping Karen wouldn't like it so I could have it. Even if it doesn't wind up in my hands, I'm smiling at his sentiment.

Next we headed to Le Marche and found my son a sharks tooth on a cord and finally so as not to tax Gil with shopping anymore, we headed back to the ship to enjoy lunch before heading off to our tour. We did the tour of Papeete and of all the tours we did, that one was the weakest. We did enjoy napping on the bus though!

Finally around 3:30 we headed to the Radisson to our dayroom. Check in was quick and efficient, in marked contrast to our check in during our precruise stay.

At 6 we headed to the airport and breezed through checkin (biz class). What a zoo for the others. We headed up to the lounge until it was time to board and then took off about 1/2 hour later than our scheduled 10 PM flight. On board were most of the people we had met during our cruise so we started the evening laughing and joking. Got about 3 1/2 hours sleep and we landed at 8:30. Our flight from LA at 1:30 was also late leaving and when we got home to JFK, they had us sit on the runway for over 1/2 hour. Then bags took another 45 minutes. We walked in the door at midnight. After unpacking the essentials we fell into bed.

My impressions of the PG? I think it's a wonderful ship but it lacks some of the finesse of the other Regent ships. I miss the larger cabin (and we were in a Catagory B!), the quieter colors of the carpet and sofa and I miss the darker marble in the bathroom. I would have also liked a larger bathroom. (My favorite bathroom is the one we had on Navigator.) For us the smaller closets weren't a problem since we brought less clothes. We enjoyed having a balcony and especially enjoyed the "secret" entrance to the balcony on the front of the ship on deck 8. (Now you all know!)It's a great spot to be during the sail through the pass in Rangiroa.

I thought the service was generally excellent. Our stewardesses kept our room spotless and our room was cleaned as soon as we left for our morning tours. We had a butler (buttle) but we're still wondering what it is they do. Yes he brought canapes each afternoon and breakfast in the morning(and he was very easy on the eyes and a delightful man) but sometimes seemed just a slight bit slow in responding to phone pages. I chalk that up to him seeming to have too many cabins to attend to.

The waiters and stewardess's always had a smile on their faces, and the Gaugines did an excellent job. Matter of fact the waiters made us feel that they had alot of fun doing their jobs.

Siglo: They are probably the best group onboard a ship and I wish they had the opportunity to play even more than they did. I can now see why everyone thinks so highly of them. Wouldn't it be nice if they could also play on the other Regent ships?

The only tour we did not enjoy was the one post cruise in Papeete. My suggestion would be for Regent to offer the tour pre-cruise to give us an idea of what to expect as our guide was very informative about many of the foods and customs of the Tahitians.

We especially enjoyed the Pearl Farm and Mark Eddowes adventure. Michael's dophin watching was fun for me, but not as much fun for Gil although even with him being a bit mal de mer he managed to shoot quite a few dolphin photos. The off road adventure was very good but I thought the trip during the trip to the pineapple factory and the trip to the jam stand was unnecessary. I prefer to do my shopping when I'm not on a tour. The snorkeling and the trip to see the rays was great. What made the snorkeling even better was our doing it in shallow waters so those with less experience were also able to fully enjoy themselves.

If there is one negative about our trip it was the Radisson Resort. When we checked in for our precruise we found the room dirty. The bathroom had a wad of hair on the floor and cobwebs in the corner. There was hair in the tub. In the bedroom we found dried blood on the sheets and hairs in the bed. That is not the way to start a vacation. We arrived late and were tired and wanted to shower and relax. Instead we had to wait until they cleaned the room.

However, our precruise room was antiseptic compared to our dayroom. I walked into the bathroom and noticed just inside the door a jungle of mushrooms growing. There was attached to the mushrooms a cobweb and spider and on the floor was an anthill with ants and mold. On the other side of the door opening was a mushroom growing out of the wall. More cobwebs were observed under the light fixtures. Underneath one of the cabinets in the bedroom was a half eaten french fry. I marched myself down to reception (since no one was picking up the phone) and demanded to speak to the manager. Gil had taken pictures and all I had to do is show him the pictures. By the time I walked back up to the room, the housekeepers were in the room cleaning.

Finally I believe a simple solution to check out from the dayroom would have been to assign each person/couple to a bus, instead of all of us trying to crowd into the busses. Most of the group were fine but there was one or two who "needed" to be first. Personally I'd make sure those in coach were on the first two busses and those in biz/first be on the last bus. I say that because the line for biz/first at the airport is shorter.

I intend to write both Radisson and Regent about what we found at the Radisson, as I believe that Regent also needs to know about where they put their guests up.