Just attempted to take a highly anticipated 11 day cruise of Tahiti on Variety Cruise Panorama II on Nov. 3. After an extremely lax safety meeting (I.e. they did not properly demonstrate how to don life preservers or identify muster points) we completed first day sailing from Papeete to Moorea Island (approximately 2 hours). The sailing was extremely rocky, chairs were tipping over and unsecured items were flying around. Luckily I know of no passengers being hurt. Everyone was very concerned about the rest of the trip. First night at anchor in Moorea, at about 2AM, the power on the boat died. No engine control, no lights or water, pitch black, no emergency lighting, no flashlights supplied, no checking of passengers by crew, and travellers in lower level were impeded by flood control door which was electrically controlled. To me these are all violations of marine safety protocols. That morning we were informed by the captain and excursion coordinator that the cruise was cancelled because a required part needed to be shipped from Europe. We were informed that Variety Cruise would refund our money, they would transport us back to Papeete, and they would cover two nights accommodation and meals in Papeete, time for us to make alternative plans. After one day Variety Cruise rescinded their offer to only one night. During this whole time there was no Variety Cruise representative present, the only person available for information was the excursion coordinator, Sethora (who did an amazing job of organizing our return to Papeete on her own time). Our second day was to have been a 18 hour overnight sailing to Bora Bora. One could only imagine the potential disaster that would have ensued if the power failure had happened at night in open sea. As others have pointed out the Panorama II is not suitable for sailing the rough seas of Tahiti nor does Variety Cruise meet marine safety protocols. Operation of the Panorama II in Tahiti should be shut down immediately. Also I do not feel that Variety Cruise has sufficiently compensated us for our lost vacation time, extensive travel and emotional angst suffered during this failed excursion. For anybody planning on taking Variety Cruise on Panorama II be forewarned.