IC two night Pre-stay / Early a.m. or late p.m. arrival

[cforge]

Hi everyone

 

Just found out we are on the 4:30 p.m. flight out of LAX to Papeete, arriving a bit after 9:00 p.m. We are doing the two night pre stay at IC. By the time we clear customs, get on a bus, and get to the hotel it might be close to 11:00 p.m. We are thinking of changing the flight to the night before, arriving in Papeete at 5:00 a.m. that morning instead of late in the evening. That way we would have the entire day.

 

Any luck checking in before their 2:00 check in time? Should we even bother to try and change the flight? It just seems like such a waste of $$ to get there and then go to bed. I have no problem changing into a swimsuit and hanging out at the pool until check in. Do they allow that? Pros or cons for a.m. arrivals vs. p.m. arrivals?

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

[FlightMedic555]

I presume that if you change your flight to the day prior you now have 3 nights?? If that is correct and you would get in early in the day I would try to change my reservation from the IC Tahiti to a hotel on Moorea. Moorea is only a 30 minute and approximately $30 USD round trip ferry. When you return from Moorea the ferry lets you off within easy walking distance of the ship.

 

We have only stayed at the Hilton on Moorea and love it.

[ducklite]

I certainly can't speak for all, but I can say for certain that we arrived early morning and went to the IC and checked into the hotel room paid for the previous night. It was well worth the expense to get into that comfortable bed in the dark, cool, quiet room (our flight was none of the above) and sleep soundly for a few hours. We then woke up, showered, and went to breakfast. The lobby was packed standing room only with cranky, exhausted travelers who had been on our flight who were escaping the rain but had no room to go to.

 

My husband had questioned the wisdom of paying for a room we'd only use for five hours until he saw that. He quickly decided it was money well spent.

 

By the way, they allowed us to keep that room until our OWB was ready. (I booked a garden view room for the previous night, and also sent them an email letting them know we would be coming in the following morning and not to consider us a no-show.)

[cforge]

So I got my answer today...$100 charge each if we want to change the flight or $230 each to change the flight and get early check in (which isn't to good a deal, why pay an extra $130 per person to check in at 6 a.m. when I've already paid to check in the same day at 2:00 p.m.) So I guess we'll stick with what we have, although I do feel disappointed that we'll lose the entire first day that we have the room.

 

Thanks to those that replied

[ducklite]

The reason they charge the extra for early morning check in is that the room goes empty the night before to guarantee it will be available for you on arrival.