Can you help? Stopover on way to a Paul Gauguin Cruise

Hi,

I am my wife are hoping to be able to take a Paul Gauguin Cruise in 2011.

Our main concern is the flight over and back as would be flying out of Jacksonville and we both don't look forward to long airplane flights due to having to travel from the East Coast.

We have discussed the possibility of a stopover for one night on the way to and from Tahiti and wanted to pose a couple of questions that we would like your advice on.

1. Would it make sense to fly from the East Coast to LAX and stay one night and continue the next day. If so, are there any recommended motel/hotels you would suggest we consider staying at.

2. On our return, it would seem that again staying over a night after arriving at LAX would be the most sensible choice?

Typically, on flights from LAX to Tahiti, could you give us a idea on the most schedulable departure times for flights to Tahiti.

On return what are the most typical arrival times into LAX.

Thank you for any assistance you can provide and look forward to hopefully cruising with some of you on a Paul Gauguin Cruise in the near future.

We leave in 2 weeks for our trip. We are taking a late afternoon flight out of JFK the day before our flight to Tahiti. We need to work that day so we have the last flight of the day out of NY leaving at 7:55 pm and getting into LAX at 1102 pm. More logical would be to take a slightly earlier flight. We are staying at the Crowne Plaza LA Airport for the overnight which we booked via a bid on Priceline and got the night for $45.00.

The next day we are on the 1pm flight out of LAX to Tahiti shich arrives in Tahiti at 6:20 pm. I believe that Air Tahiti asks that we get to the airport in LA 3 hours prior to the flight and the only way to do that on the same day from NY would be to take a 6:00 am flight to LAX which would make too long of a day. Air Tahiti does have a later flight most days out of LA.

On the return the flights out of Tahiti are at 11:55pm arriving the next day in LA at 11:10 am. We then are continuing throught to NY for a very long day.

Hi,

WHen we got stranded in LA for the night because of the Papeete strike, the Airport Hilton gave us a "Paul Gaugain" cruise rate of $75. There was a shuttle right from the terminal. It was nice and comfortable.

Also, walked down to the restaurant at the Westin "City Grill" and had an exceptional pot pie and calamari... It was my "i'm supposed to be in tahiti and instead I'm here sulking meal".

mariah

Thats what most people do.....Fly to LA,stay over and then fly to Tahiti!Your flights to Tahiti as you know are red eye....you'll leave at 10p-11p and arrive 6a or so!No big deal.There are a ton of hotels in LA.Stay at one that you either like or ca afford.Personally,I enjoy the HILTON LA Airport!Have a great trip to Tahiti.I hate the 8-9 hour flight as you will too.:D

I don't agree that most flights from LAX to PPT are red-eye. Many leave at 1 p.m. or 4 p.m. and arrive after dark, often after midnight (we checked in to our hotel last trip at 3 a.m.)

Most cruise pax coming back to LAX fly on red-eye flights, leaving at 11 p.m. or so.

So it makes sense to spend the night in L.A. if you can, on the way out. Regent used to pay for a hotel if your flight from home had a "forced overnight", i.e., it was impossible to get you to LAX from home in time to make the PPT flights. The later 4 p.m. flights have made that less common, and I don't know if PG Cruises does this, if you book their air.

Our last trip we flew straight thru from Toronto, with a lengthy layover, arrived at 3 a.m., collapsed, but then when we woke up the next morning, ... we were in Tahiti, no L.A.!!

Also true that, with Regent at least, if you booked their air, but wanted to fly a day early and stay in LA, you had to pay a $100 pp deviation fee. PG Cruises I believe has some kind of arrangement to roll this into the fare.

We usually fly straight thru coming back, since you arrive in LAX fairly early in the morning, and it makes sense to just go on slogging home.

When we weren't put up in the Hilton by Regent, we used Doubletree, which had a complimentary shuttle.