Some pictures from our 7/2 TP cruise

[SaveMeJebus]

I'm a little too lazy to provide a comprehensive review of the cruise at the moment, so I hope the pictures will do for now. Suffice it to say, we had an amazing time in Franch Polynesia, and thoroughly enjoyed our honeymoon.

 

Just a few quick notes:

 

We stayed at the Intercontinental Tahiti for two nights pre-cruise. Beautiful hotel. Horrific check-out procedures for Ambassador Club members. This was the only time I wanted to physically hurt someone on this trip. Other than that, the hotel was great.

 

Marc's Motu Picnic - good tour. In fairness to Marc, we were poured on all day and couldn't do about half of the things we were supposed to. Still had a lot of fun, but I wouldn't call the tour the "must see" event of French Polynesia. We booked a few tours at $30/pp that we had a lot more fun on, but maybe that's just us.

 

Favorites - I'd have to say that our two favorite excursions were on Bora Bora. We did a booked from shore snorkling trip that took us out for four hours to coral gardens, a motu, feeding stingrays, and swimming with sharks. The next day we did waverunners around the lagoon. Both were a blast.

 

Favorite island - Hard to say. Tie between Raiatea and Moorea.

 

Until I can muster the time for a thorough review, enjoy the pictures! I'm happy to answer any questions.

 

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=dorkbgw.5jsk9n7w&Uy=-3klczu&Ux=0

[devinandcara]

Who did you book your excursions through on Bora Bora? Did you visit any other hotels in Tahiti than the IC or hear any feedback on them?

 

Our cruise sets sail in 28 days!

[SaveMeJebus]

Who did you book your excursions through on Bora Bora? Did you visit any other hotels in Tahiti than the IC or hear any feedback on them?

 

Our cruise sets sail in 28 days!

 

 

For our snorkling tour, we booked the "Magic Snorkling Safari" from the tours that were being sold on shore (as soon as you get off the tender at the pier there's 8-10 tours set up right there). It was $60/pp.

 

For the waverunners, we booked through http://www.boraboraisland.com/todo/maevas/miki.html

[devinandcara]

Are there islands where you booked Princess excursions that your wish you would have booked independantly or vice versa?

 

I have booked for Marc's motu on Huahine and Bruno on Raiatea but other than that, I was going to go with Princess. What do you think?

 

The snorkeling safari on Bora Bora sounds awesome and your pics were great.

[SaveMeJebus]

we didn't book a single Princess tour. we considered booking the catamaran tour for moorea, but in the end, we decided to be adventurous and just book tours on the islands. we were never disappointed and didn't regret any of what we did.

 

On Huahine, we did Marc's.

On Rarotonga, we took the $8 shuttle to Muri Beach - amazing beach

On Raiatea, we took the outrigger canoe tour booked on shore.

On Bora Bora, we did snorkling/waverunners.

On Moorea, we took a land tour.

 

All tours were either booked ahead of time or booked on shore. We had as much fun, if not more fun, than people who took similar tours with Princess, and I'd imagine we generally got out a bit cheaper too.

[patnlcc]

We were also on your cruise - the CC'ers all met after boat drill on day 2 - you should have joined us! What lovely memories of your honeymoon and beautiful photos to remind you of an amazing trip.

Congratulations from Pat and Bill (now back in Scotland)

[dot73]

Thank you for posting your pictures. I've only had a chance to look at the IC pictures and they are amazing. Sounds like you had a great start to your marriage.

I am also staying at the IC four days prior to my back-to-back cruise in January and have some questions.

 

1. Is there a coffeemaker in the room? Is the coffee "drinkable" or should I bring my own to brew?

2. Did you try any excursions in Tahiti offered by IC or did you book anything independently?

3. Are there any stores within walking distance of the hotel where you can buy bottled water and snacks?

4. Did you try any restaurants outside the hotel?

5. Any hints for an enjoyable stay at the hotel? Anything you wished you had brought with you?

6. What time did you check out? I've read similar horror stories about the IC check-in and check-outs. It sounds just like my experiences in Paris.

 

I am looking forward to seeing the rest of your pictures once I get home from work. Thank you so much for sharing.

[NAS-KARR]

Sounds like you had a fab time alright.

Dot has asked alot of the same questions I have, will be waiting for the answers.

 

Ciao,

[SaveMeJebus]

Afraid I'm not gonna be too helpful on these but I'll give it a shot.

 

1. Is there a coffeemaker in the room? Is the coffee "drinkable" or should I bring my own to brew?

 

Neither of us drinks coffee and honestly I never noticed if we had a brewer or not. If you bring your own you'll need a Euro power converter as the IC does not have US plugs.

 

2. Did you try any excursions in Tahiti offered by IC or did you book anything independently?

 

We just stayed at the hotel. With only two nights there we just weren't interested in leaving. The hotel really was too nice to leave.

 

3. Are there any stores within walking distance of the hotel where you can buy bottled water and snacks?

 

Not really. You can walk about a mile down the road and find a couple stores or take 'Le Truck' into town (it stops right in front of the hotel) and pick up stuff there, but water/snacks anywhere in Tahiti are excessively expensive. We brought a sizeable supply of snacks with us that lasted through the trip.

 

One thing we did was that we booked our room rate with the full buffet breakfast included. At breakfast we always took a healthy helping of cheeses/bread/etc. back to our room and stuck them in the fridge. That sufficed for lunch and afternoon snacks.

 

4. Did you try any restaurants outside the hotel?

 

Nope. We ate at the Tiare hotel restaurant both nights, saw the show on one of them. Food was good, albeit ridiculously expensive (can you say $40 hamburger?)

 

5. Any hints for an enjoyable stay at the hotel? Anything you wished you had brought with you?

 

This is related to your sixth question. Make sure you bring documented paperwork as proof of what you've paid for in booking your room. Keep all receipts while at the hotel. Review your bill thoroughly. Hydrate yourself when checking out because it's going to take a while. If you're an Ambassador Club member, be prepared for frustration.

 

As for general hints, the pools are all quite cold. I don't know what I'm hinting at, but I found that strange. The water in the ocean was quite warmer. For as big as the hotel is, I never saw a crowd. There was never an issue getting a chair at any of the pools. About the only thing we should have brought (and this is more toward the cruise and not the hotel) were either a windbreaker/rain jacket or (and this seems silly) one of those short sleeved wetsuit shirts. If it's raining and you're on a tour in either a boat or open 4x4... it gets cold.

 

6. What time did you check out? I've read similar horror stories about the IC check-in and check-outs. It sounds just like my experiences in Paris.

 

We checked out around 1 or 2pm. We could have stayed until 4pm with the Ambassador Club late check out but we wanted to get to the ship earlier and see if we could change our dining arrangements. As it turned out, we could have stayed at the hotel because the maitre d' wasn't around until 5pm.

[Trobrah]

Hi,

We are staying 4 nights at the IC Tahiti. We became Ambassador Club members solely to receive the free weekend night. What exactly was you problem at checkout since I want to learn how toavoid it. i plan to pay everything with my CC.

Thanks,

Jay

[lhbsurf]

I second the advice to bring proof of rates and keep receipts. Both hotels we stayed at (both IC's in Moorea and Tahiti) had issues either with missing reservations (thank goodnes I did have proof - they seem to have poor communication between reservations in the states and the hotels there) and meals being charged which were supposed to be complimentary, etc.

 

It was always resolved, but as a former Customer Service Manager - I can definitively say, they definitely don't have the training to handle this type of situation like we do in the states. It's not related only to the Intercontinental Hotel - several others on our sailing had some sort of issue with their stays.

 

My best advice would be to expect there to be some issues and remain calm (we freaked out a bit in one situation - in no small part due to the employees giving us too much information - wayyyy before they needed to, in my opinion).

 

In Tahiti, we eventually ended up with the "Ambassador Club Manager" who finally assured us that everything would be fine, she would take care of it, and she did.

 

Our issues were resolved and the resorts were so delightful otherwise, I can honestly say it didn't impact our vacation at all. If you're mentally prepared ahead of time - you'll do even better.

[SaveMeJebus]

Laura's issues are the type I am talking about.

 

We had pre-booked our room with breakfast included in the rate. At check-out we were charged for two breakfasts.

 

We paid for two nights at the hotel and were told that the Ambassador Club free night certificate could be presented to the hotel and they would refund one of the nights without issue. [Laugh].

 

But most frustrating was not the problems that arose, it was how the staff at the hotel handled them. My issues have been resolved now and they didn't ruin my vacation or sour me to the Intercontinental in any way. But the staff, including manager on duty when we were checking out, were incompetent and rude. Upon insisting that I pre-paid for breakfast, all I could get as a response from the manager was "prove it. prove it to me." Not exactly A+ customer service.

 

Perhaps worst of all is that there was 3 people in line, all Ambassador Club, all of which pre-booked their rooms with breakfast included in the rate. You'd think once they ran through the process once and sorted it out, it would have been streamlined. But instead it took a minimum 30 minutes to handle each person... which is a long time to be standing around.

[dot73]

Thank you for answering my questions. I will now be prepared for the "Ambassador" experience at the Tahiti IC. I think I will save my free night for an IC hotel in North America. I took a look at all your pictures. They are amazing. What a wonderful souvenir of your honeymoon. I think Moorea will be one of my favourite islands also. Thank you for sharing your pictures and taking the time to answer questions.

[kruzingtogether]

Your honeymoon looks like it was wonderful!!! We are going on ours (stay at the IC Tahiti, then the TP cruise) starting August 13, and as we are in the midst of final wedding preparation stress, it made us SO happy to see your pictures :-)

 

A few questions...

First-- were you in a Motu or Lagoon bungalow?

 

Second-- what type of underwater camera did you use (was it disposable or not? brand? etc..) Your pictures turned out so much better than our underwater ones ever do!

 

Third-- Where did you see the shark? We really, really want to get to swim with sharks... booked a tour with Hiro on Moorea, but want a backup...

 

We hope now that you are back home that your marriage is off to a wonderful start! Thanks so much for your pictures!

 

Lyndsey and Jim

[tuknshak]

kruzingtogether - a couple answers to your questions from our cruise. We did the same thing as SaveMeJebus but at the IC Moorea post-cruise. We used Kodak underwater cameras (the blue ones) at they worked diving down at 60-70 feet (only suppose to work to 25-30 feet) and we got good underwater pics like SaveMeJebus did. We watched the dive guides feed seven 10-12 foot lemon sharks while scuba diving in Bora Bora. We saw black tip sharks while diving in Moorea and all over Bora Bora but were told by our dive guide in Moorea Bora Bora has the most sharks. Make sure to also see the Manta Rays. We got in the wrong dive tour and missed seeing/feeding the manta rays and only saw regular rays (like the ones here in the states). We swam with blacktip sharks on Bruno's tour at the lagoonarium. It is sure was cool to have a seven 10-12 foot lemon sharks swimming within 3-4 feet of you! I know when we tell people at home about it they freak out and say they would have chickened out if they were there. Really the sharks are not scary - they are just big fish and have no interest in you when someone else has fresh snacks!

I will second SaveMeJebus comment about the IC Ambassador Club problems. We too had issues with the free night ticket. I gave it to them when we checked in as requested. Then we got our bill the morning of the last day and noticed the second night was charged. So hubby and I went to the front desk to get it corrected and over an hour later they still could not find our check-in sheet with the free night ticket stapled to it. The manager finally took my word for it and gave us the free night but it was a pain and I agree one of the only two times during the two weeks we both wanted to kill someone (hubby is pretty tolerant but he was at his wits end with the front desk by the time an hour had rolled around). I mean they had all my info and CC info to charge me but you loose the free night ticket and don't put a note in the system when you log the other check-in info? Kinda a stupid system if you ask me. I guess in the end it was ok because when the dolphin center messed up my picture the hotel manager was familiar with us and had my picture fixed within the hour and delivered to our room.

Another note about the Ambassador Club. When the club flyer says you get late checkout till 4pm that is not completely true. They wanted to move us from our overwater bungalow to a standard poolside room at 11am and told us we would only have that room till 3pm. As it turned out after the lost ticket episode the manager let us stay in our overwater bungalow till 3pm but it is a forewarning to others that the flyer doesn't tell you the whole story. We are glad we did the Ambassador Club and an hour waiting and extra four hours in our room was worth the $400 savings. But if so many people use this offer (as it seemed in the lobby Friday afternoon when we checked in) they should refine the system to not have so many issues with it. Besides the free night we didn't find any other perks from being part of the Ambassador Club that made it worth the $150 cost.

[70notout]

We were also on the 2 July cruise. We flew from Papeete to Moorea in 7 minutes and stayed at the Moorea Pearl and had a garden bungalow with a pool. We loved it. Could walk 5 minutes to the supermarket. The cruise was fantastic and the people we met on the roll call board were the highlight. But the ICB after the Moorea Pearl was a letdown. Crowds of people, the place needed a clean-up and the room was pretty faded. The grounds were beautiful and the water cold and glad we were only there one night as we had to get up at 4.00am. Mind you it was pouring with rain and we missed the luxury of the ship. Still the best holiday.

[SaveMeJebus]

A few questions...

First-- were you in a Motu or Lagoon bungalow?

 

We paid for a motu bungalow but were upgraded to a Lagoon. I called about a week before leaving to confirm that we would be upgraded, as it is one of the benefits of ambassador club membership. I don't know what the motu bungalows look like, but ours was wonderful. I've heard some people say something about the lagoon bungalows being dreadfully too far away from anything, but that's silly. Yes, the motu bungalows are practically right on top of the pool/lagoonarium/restaurant, but it's only a short walk to where we were. Personally, I'm glad we were further away because it was both nice having some privacy and the sound from the restaurant/show didn't really carry over to us.

 

Second-- what type of underwater camera did you use (was it disposable or not? brand? etc..) Your pictures turned out so much better than our underwater ones ever do!

 

I have a Canon Powershot A75 and used a friend's underwater housing with it (the case is designed specifically for the camera). I really preferred this over the disposable cameras mostly for the LCD screen in which you can frame your shots. A few times on our trip a gentleman asked me to take some pics of him with his disposable and it was nearly impossible to tell what I was shooting given the current/mask I was wearing/etc.

 

Third-- Where did you see the shark? We really, really want to get to swim with sharks... booked a tour with Hiro on Moorea, but want a backup...

 

The sharks were part of our "Magic Snorkling Safari" on Bora Bora. One of the stops on the tour is feeding/swimming with the sharks. Definitely a highlight because you're in open water, probably 50 feet deep, as opposed to a holding pen which is what you get on a lot of the other tours.

[kruzingtogether]

Where did you book the snorkeling safari? In advance or on the dock?

 

Thanks for all your advice!

[SaveMeJebus]

Where did you book the snorkeling safari? In advance or on the dock?

 

Thanks for all your advice!

 

On the dock. They have a morning and afternoon tour. We did it on our first Bora Bora day, so we did the afternoon tour which starts at 1:30pm (the TP does not arrive until 11:00am-12:00pm).

[NAS-KARR]

Was that a mini u were in ? Nbr. pls.

 

 

Tanks,

[SaveMeJebus]

Was that a mini u were in ? Nbr. pls.

 

 

Tanks,

 

yep. mini-suite # 8011.

[NAS-KARR]

Thank You sir

 

Ciao,

[pacurnl]

Thank you so much for posting your wonderful pictures. Those sunsets almost made me cry. I can't wait, we are cruising 9-18-06. I'm sure you had a wonderful time. Trish

[Hulagirl]

I have to chime in on this also. We just returned last night from our 2 B2B Tahitian Princess cruises July 2, 2006 - July 24, 2006. First, the cruises were wonderful and the ship was so perfect for these cruises. Also, I want to say the IC is a beautiful hotel. Would stay there again if we were to go back to Tahiti. The whole process there wouldn't keep me away! Just would know what to expect now.

 

We were the family in front of SaveMe at the IC trying to check out. When we got in line, there was a couple at the counter having issues with trying to check out. No line for members, so no problem we got behind them. We stood there for a good 15 minutes before they were finally able to solve their problem, but had no idea how long they had been there before. We started in with our check out now. Had joined the club basically to get the certificate for the one night. We were staying a Friday and Saturday night, so it worked out perfect since it can only be used on a weekend night. Thought it was be simple. From beginning to end it never was.

 

The night we checked in the woman had no idea what the certificate even was. I had all the paper work with me that I had printed out when making the reservation. Really don't think she ever caught on what it really was and wasn't the nicest in the beginning. Only after another employee came over and took her off to the side and explained something to her, did her whole attitude change. Then she was as nice as can be.

 

The day of check out, we got to the desk at 1:10 and didn't walk out until 2:00, so SaveMe didn't even leave until well after 2:30 it sounds like. We had also pre paid for the breakfast, but they have nothing that tells the restaurant this. They will charge your bill, so be sure and watch for that. You would think they could do something to show that you have paid, but they don't. I presumed they would just refund my credit card for 1/2 of what I had paid and that would be the end. Well, silly me! Was told that it would take forever for the credit to come through and it would be so much better if they just paid me in their currency. They would pay me the difference of the few charges we had on the bill and then I wouldn't have to wait. This was all after the lady at the desk went back into the back room several times and seemed to stay there forever. Finally I had, had enough and said, fine, just pay me. I realize later they really hadn't paid me quite enough, but I was just worn out.

 

Well fast forward to today when I was opening up my bills from while we were gone. Got to the credit card statement of the card I had used to pay for the hotel and saw we had a pretty sizeable credit on it. Looked through the bill and the IC had actually refunded me 1/2 of the original bill. Then while we were out today I had a message from the IC that they needed to talk to me about my bill and would I call them in Tahiti. I will wait for them to call again. This was a strange experience.

 

We had also paid for the Overwater Motu Bungalow and were upgraded to the full Overwater Bungalow. I agree, the walk to the main part of the hotel was not far at all, though I had read it was. The grounds are beautiful and we loved the infinity pool that had the sand on the bottom. It was cold, but felt so good once we were in it. There were 3 of us, so the bungalow felt a bit crowded, though I wouldn't have changed that room at all. We were able to stay until 4:00 had we wanted, but decided to check out around 1:30 (we thought).

 

Like said above, do print off all your paper work and present it to them so they can see it right away. This did help with not being asked to prove what we paid for, but still didn't make the whole situation much easier. I also agree it wasn't the problems that were that big of a deal, it was how the staff handeled them. Wonder what happened to the couple behind these people.

 

One thing is, Princess has their people meet in the lobby at 10:30 for the transfer to the ship. If you can stay until the afternoon, it makes it so much easier to get on the ship. When we got there, absolutely nobody else was checking in for the ship, so it was so fast and quick.

 

Can't believe our 22 days is over and we are back to reality.

 

Hulagirl

[dot73]

Thank you for all the information on the IC. I have booked and already paid for the hotel in advance. I will make a copy of my credit card bill and confirmation and have that with me. I think I will just pay for all my food and drink expenses at the hotel by cash so that I don't have to deal with the bill on check-out. You would think that a huge world-wide hotel chain like IC would have their act together, but as I found out travelling in France, the French tend to be different and we have to accept that. I will definitely be prepared to avoid any stressful situations. After all, that is why I'm going to Tahiti -- to get away from the stress. I have a picture of the IC pool on my desk top and I keep picturing myself in it. Less than six months to go!!!