New Atlantis Tahitian Islands cruise April 25-May 2, 2009

[sfgoguy]

Gary,

that all sounds good. I will not book anything until we chat this weekend. My home email is cporzucek@gmail.com .... I had intended to book via Orbitz. I was planning to fly Continental and connect to Air France in LAX. I thought it might be best to book it as 1 through ticket just in case there are any issues with delays etc. :)

 

-Chester

 

I thought I might have a great deal for business class tkts for 2 travelers on the same itinerary (through my AM EX card), but upon closer review, it only applies to travel in the US and to Europe - not the Pacific. So, we can book our air travel separately, although it would be nice to sit near each other. I'll fly the United Shuttle down to LAX and Air France RT LAX/PPT - separate bookings. Earlier this week when I looked at the Air France leg it was about US$1200 in coach.

 

More later tonight or this weekend, Chester. Looking forward to seeing you again. :)

[BobEspungy]

I thought I might have a great deal for business class tkts for 2 travelers on the same itinerary (through my AM EX card), but upon closer review, it only applies to travel in the US and to Europe - not the Pacific. So, we can book our air travel separately, although it would be nice to sit near each other. I'll fly the United Shuttle down to LAX and Air France RT LAX/PPT - separate bookings. Earlier this week when I looked at the Air France leg it was about US$1200 in coach.

 

More later tonight or this weekend, Chester. Looking forward to seeing you again. :)

 

D'oh! Now I am really disappointed. Would have been really nice to be in business class for that lengthy LAX/PPT flight. :o

I will book my flights on Saturday. Will let you know when I have booked them.

-Chester

[VagaBlondes]

New to CruiseCritic but my partner and I are signed up for this cruise and have been researching places to overnight in Papeete before the cruise on 24 Apr. I found a new hotel that is to open later in February in downtown Papeete called Hotel Tahiti Nui. There is not much info on the web and the hotel has not launched a truly formal website yet, but rooms can be reserved at this address http://www.etahititravel.com/Hotels/hotel_tahiti_nui.aspx?id_hotel=101&org1=%2FHotels%2Fhotels_tahiti.aspx%3F

Rate appears to be $199 (incl taxes). Although we have a past credit with Intercontinental so we will be at that hotel near the airport for the night, this NEW hotel in town would have been our first choice due to proximity of the dock and stores.

 

Just thought you guys may be interested. I would always choose a new hotel to try, especially if the rate is the same....

[twoontheisle]

Vagablondes-

 

Welcome to the cruise and cruisecritic! Thanks for the web site. We may try that for a couple of nights pre-cruise. We've stayed at the Mandarin before and it was ok.....they were doing a huge remodel at that time so it was a little messy. Downtown is actually quite fun at night with music and plenty of "cruising" on the streets. There are caravans of food trucks that pull up to the pier to serve foods, music etc. Then in just a matter of minutes around 9pm everything drives away. The food is quite swell and it draws a large crowd. The prices for hotels in Papeete have almost doubled since we were there several years ago. Whatever the price, you're in for the vacation of a lifetime as it is just spectacular, we think. We are still trying to figure out the flight situation.

 

S & G

[sfgoguy]

I've got everything finalized (just booked the Air France RT from LAX) and have a couple of questions for those who have done this itinerary before:

 

(1) Do you need the local Tahitian currency for use the day(s) pre- and post-cruise? Or are US dollars widely accepted? (I believe the exchange rate is about 100 Tahitian currency, the CFP/XFP - French Pacific Franc - to the US$.)

 

(2) Since my flight arrives at 3:30 AM (an Air France 777), will there likely be taxis for the intown trip to my hotel?

 

(3) Anyone else on this cruise on the Air France flight arriving on Friday, Apriil 24, that would want to share a taxi into town?

 

Thanks, guys, and happy cruising! :p

[twoontheisle]

Hi Gary-

 

We haven't booked our flights as of yet, but will call Atlantis tomorrow to see if the $968 fare still exists. Last time we took Air New Zealand (which got in around 5am), there was a string of taxis waiting. With so few flights into Papeete and given the fact that they're surviving on the tourist trade you can be sure there will be plenty of taxi's waiting. I think it was about $30 into town, but only $18-20 for the return. However I also remember the Mandarin being half the price it is now!

I don't remember using hardly ANY French currency. Rather than cash, we got a great exchange conversion rate using good old American Express whenever possible. U$D is widely accepted from what I remember. Even the prices at Le Marche were listed in dollars.....I think.

[VagaBlondes]

Before calling Atlantis for airfare quote, definitely go to the AirTahitiNui website and play around w/dates around the cruise (say the Tues or Wed BEFORE the cruise and leaving the Monday AFTER the cruise). There is a new fare sale going on that has the fare around $860 INCL TAXES! I don't think the Atlantis fare incl taxes, so it is really more like around $1200 RT once the taxes are included. The difference could pay for a couple of extra nites to wait out the cheaper days to fly on the AirTahiti web fare. Just a thought...this trip even w/the cruise discounts has us trying all angles to save a few bucks in what is probably one of the most expensive destinations in the world...(but I hear it's worth it!)

[twoontheisle]

We also have booked flights for the 23rd on Air France. We prefer to fly in on Thursday night, and ATN doesn't offer that option. We were considering booking the brand new Hotel Tahiti Nui (thank you VagaBlondes)and DH discovered the airport transfers were included in the 2 night stay to bring the total to $600.

 

Gary- any news about ship transfers with Atlantis, or is it only if the flights are booked through them on ATN?

 

I think we'd prefer to get a taxi on our own (or share) both ways, rather than being locked into a mega-van situation.

[sfgoguy]

Gary- any news about ship transfers with Atlantis, or is it only if the flights are booked through them on ATN?

 

I think we'd prefer to get a taxi on our own (or share) both ways, rather than being locked into a mega-van situation.

 

Below is the e-mail response from Atlantis re debarkation transfers. I didn't ask about embarkation transfers since there's such a time difference between when Air Tahiti Nui and Air France arrive prior to boarding the ship. I doubt Atlantis will have transfers to the ship, either.

 

 

 

Thank you for contacting Atlantis Events. We do intend on providing transfer arrangements from the Paul Gauguin upon debarkation, however no further information is available at this time. If you have registered your email address on our website, we will send you an update as soon as information becomes available.

 

 

My hotel roommate is booking the hotel and I'll alert him to the deal with the new hotel. We were planning on Le Mandarin, but this might be worthwhile. Le Mandarin provided a transfer, too, but there was an additional charge.

Look for me at LAX prior to boarding and we'll compare notes, guys. I'm carrying-on my Atlantis ubiquitous grey/orange duffle. I expect the taxis are too small for 4 guys with luggage, so it may be that you two and my hotel roommate and I get separate taxis.

Nine weeks and counting, guys.

Now, I have to be on line this Friday to book NZ/Australia in Feb '10! That promises to be a dream come true, too. :p

[twoontheisle]

I just love this site. I learned that the Paul Gauguin was recently dry-docked as she (she-PAUL!) had balconies installed on the deck 6 rooms. Any of you on deck 6? I also managed to find several photo's someone posted of the aft balcony rooms on deck 7. Nice rooms which are 2' wider than the side rooms in the same catagory. The balconies are deeper and wider as well. It appears that we will be able to look down onto the outside sitting area of the aft resturaunt from our balcony. (And visa-versa). We're in 765.

 

For anyone fairly new to this, pull up the Regent Seven Seas, or Roll Calls, or the Pacific Islands threads and you will find plenty to keep you entertained until we said on her (Paul)!

 

After mapping out the Hotel Tahiti Nui, it is equal in distance from the pier as the Mandarin. I belive it is just the opposite side of LeMarche, so it is possible to schlepp the luggage 2-3locks to the pier. After we board and can drop our carry-on in our room we will make a trip back to LeMarche to grab some fabulous flowers. What a steal for $20.

[Clay Clayton]

While I wasn't able to swing the time off or the $ for that matter to make this great cruise with ya'll, I have been lurking and living vicariously. Thought that those of you who haven't yet booked your airfare, might want to check out Travel Zoo dot com...their weekly specials is showing an air and 4 night hotel package through Air Tahiti Nui for $898 plus tax from LAX....the website says for two it works out to be $2099. Given the pricing ya'll have been discussing for hotels, it might be cheaper to book this package even if you don't use all four nights.

 

Enjoy your cruise...wish I was going!

Clay

[two4funtimes]

Hey Guys,

 

I just double checked our Le Mandarin Hotel reservations and this is what we booked.

 

We have confirmed a double standard room at 13,500 XPF nightly plus 13% taxes plus 150 XPF per person City Tax nightly for a total of 15,555 XPF per night (Approx. $165.00 USD).

 

I believe that the Hotel Tahiti Nui was $199.00 USD nightly including all taxes.

 

For the difference of $34.00 USD nightly I am gonna buy me some lonely flowers at the Le Mercher :)

 

We were also able to confirm a 2:00 pm check out at no additional cost. When we spoke to Atlantis they told us that they were going to start boarding the ship around 3:00 pm so the later check out is nice.

 

Our contact at Le Mandarin Hotel is Christopher Beaumont at www.hotelmandarin.com

 

I double check the hotel locations on Google Earth and the Le Mandarin is 2 blocks from the pier and the Hotel Tahiti Nui looks like is it around 5 blocks. Not much difference.

 

If you are booked at the Hotel Tahiti Nui try to get them to match the Le Mandarin's rates, sometimes hotels will do that if they are both the same star rating.

 

Well hope this helps and we will see you at the airport in Los Angeles or in Papeete.

 

Cheers

 

Anthony and Mario

;)

 

Vagablondes-

 

Welcome to the cruise and cruisecritic! Thanks for the web site. We may try that for a couple of nights pre-cruise. We've stayed at the Mandarin before and it was ok.....they were doing a huge remodel at that time so it was a little messy. Downtown is actually quite fun at night with music and plenty of "cruising" on the streets. There are caravans of food trucks that pull up to the pier to serve foods, music etc. Then in just a matter of minutes around 9pm everything drives away. The food is quite swell and it draws a large crowd. The prices for hotels in Papeete have almost doubled since we were there several years ago. Whatever the price, you're in for the vacation of a lifetime as it is just spectacular, we think. We are still trying to figure out the flight situation.

 

S & G

[twoontheisle]

Anthony & Mario-

 

Thanks for the info. I am waiting for a confirmation back from the travel agency regarding Hotel Tahiti Nui. Once I put in all the information it gave us a rate of $368

for 2 nights, two persons including continental breakfast. (Wasn't sure what the "American breakfast" consisted of so didn't do that.)

There are several piers in Tahiti and I don't which one the PG bellies up to, so it's anyones guess who will get the 2 or 5 block walk. I'm requesting a late check out as well.

We'll be in touch-

[sfgoguy]

Just booked the room for my friend and me at Hotel Le Mandarin and got a rate of 13500 XPF per night plus taxes. (We're arriving in the early AM on 4/24, so booked the room for 2 nights). That's not too bad a rate and I understand the hotel's about 3 blocks from the harbor/pier area - a big plus, too.

 

We'll be looking for you guys strolling the food and flower stalls! ;)

[two4funtimes]

Gary

 

Sounds like we are on the same Air France flight from LAX on 4/23 and we are also staying at the Le Mandarin Hotel arriving early morning of 4/24 for 2 nights.

 

We too are paying 13,500 XPF plus taxes which comes to 15,555 XPF (approx. $165.00 USD) per night for the two of us.

 

We booked our transfers with Christopher Beaumont at the hotel to have a driver (through Travel Tahiti Nui) waiting for us at the airport upon our arrival as we have been told that taxis are highly over priced at that early hour of the morning.

 

For the pre-arranged transfer we are only paying 1350 XPF plus taxes (approx $16.00 USD) per person. $32.00 USD sounds reasonable to me as we pay more than that in most of our larger cities here in North America.

 

This fee will just be added to our hotel bill.

 

See you at the airport in LAX or in Papeete.

 

Cheers

Anthony and Mario :)

 

(9 weeks to go)

(but who's counting, LOL);)

 

Just booked the room for my friend and me at Hotel Le Mandarin and got a rate of 13500 XPF per night plus taxes. (We're arriving in the early AM on 4/24, so booked the room for 2 nights). That's not too bad a rate and I understand the hotel's about 3 blocks from the harbor/pier area - a big plus, too.

 

We'll be looking for you guys strolling the food and flower stalls! ;)

[twoontheisle]

Well, so far most of us are on the same Air France flight the night of the 23rd. With so few options to fly into Papeete we can be assured that there will probably be more than 100 of the 300+ cruisers on our same flight. The airport bar nearest to our departing gate @ LAX should be quite festive at around 9pm, don't 'cha think!!

 

Regent has not yet updated their "Already booked" tab so that we can look at the excursions. It's supposed to be up by early March, according to a posting I read.

 

Dose anyone else think that it is a little strange that there aren't more Atlantis cruisers involved with cruisecritic? Maybe we'll pick up a few more along the way as long as the thread stays on the first page.

 

I will at some point include a few photo's of our previous Tahitian cruise........just to get the juices flowing!

[Atlcple]

Does anyone know if there are any cabins left?

[sfgoguy]

Does anyone know if there are any cabins left?

 

The last time I checked out the link (last night - Thursday), all categories were booked. There was a Wait List sign on the Porthole Cabins, though.

 

Might be worth a call if you can get through - the lines have been busy all day with callers booking the NZ/Australia '10 cruise. I couldn't get through and I've tried off-and-on all day. :(

 

Good luck.

[VagaBlondes]

[quote name='Twoontheisle;"Does anyone else think that it is a little strange that there aren't more Atlantis cruisers involved with cruisecritic? Maybe we'll pick up a few more along the way as long as the thread stays on the first page.

 

I will at some point include a few photo's of our previous Tahitian cruise........just to get the juices flowing!

"

______________________________________

Hi Twoontheisle- Say' date=' since you have done a cruise around the islands previously, do you have any "musts" on shore excursions for a particular island? My partner and I are divers and I e-mailed Top Dive to ask if there was anything particularly unique to a dive at Bora Bora. They replied that up until the last cpl years there was an amazing stingray area to experience, but a new hotel's construction (St Regis?) and resulting offshore disturbances caused the rays to abandon the site. Since we are spending 3 days on Moorea post-cruise, we are now considering doing snorkel-only based excursions on the islands and dive when we get to Moorea. Just thought the divers may be interested in what they e-mailed me this week about Bora Bora. This seems to follow in-step w/comments by many that while the island remains beautiful it has been victim to a few too many large hotels in recent years.

 

As far as why more Atlantis alum don't post here...maybe (like us until recently) they are simply not aware of this website.

 

We are excited about being on Deck 6 as the rooms were re-done with the new balconies. I hope our cabin's "new carpet" smell doesn't overpower the flowers we get for our room from Le Marche![img']http://boards.cruisecritic.com/images/icons/icon6.gif[/img]

[sfgoguy]

"

 

I hope our cabin's "new carpet" smell doesn't overpower the flowers we get for our room from Le Marche!

 

Do the vendors at Le Marche provide the vase, too, or is that a nice perk from the Paul Gauguin? I definitely want to have a nice bouquet in my room as well.

 

Nine weeks and counting, all you guys. :cool:

[Atlcple]

The last time I checked out the link (last night - Thursday), all categories were booked. There was a Wait List sign on the Porthole Cabins, though.

 

Might be worth a call if you can get through - the lines have been busy all day with callers booking the NZ/Australia '10 cruise. I couldn't get through and I've tried off-and-on all day.

 

Good luck.

 

Yeah I had the same bad luck yesterday trying to get through to Atlantis. I could not get through so I sent an email to them asking them about availablity but haven't heard back.

 

We weren't going to even consider this cruise since we are booked on next years Australia cruise and given we have done 15 Atlantis cruises we were going to skip this year :( and spend money on a new bathroom. Well as everyone knows these cruises become addictive and after reading everyone's glowing report of Tahiti, now we want to go and to heck with the new bathroom. I want to celebrate my 50th Birthday in Tahiti :D

 

So if any of you hear of any cabins becoming available or any of you single cabin shares team please shoot me an email george_scott27@hotmail.com.

[twoontheisle]

VagaBlondes- We're not SCUBA certified so we're limited to snorkling. We did the drift snorkle between 2 Motu's in Raiatea which was totally off the charts! You just steer yourself above the coral beds amongst millions of fish. Although a lot of the coral beds are gray and dying due to mans carelessness it is still beautiful. I got a kick out of the helmet dive, but scuba guys would consider it lame, I guess. I never heard one single person say they were not happy with any of the water excursions.

 

On Moorea we didn't pre-arrange anything we just wanted to keep the day open. From the dock we rented a 2 seater "Bugster" for anout $55 USD and threw our daypack in and drove around the whole island (40 miles or so) to see the sites and pull over to snorkle wherever we wanted. Quite fun. Really fun to drive, they're basically a cross between a go-cart and a quad. There were plenty left to rent, even though some people booked it from the ship. We saved about 25% doing it through the vender in person.

 

The PG has its own private Motu where it stops for a picnic and water sports. We did Marc's motu picnic on Huahune which was a blast. For all of the beer lovers, you'll want to enjoy the local beer "Hinano", it is quite swell and they provide lots of it on the picnics.

 

Gary-Yes you can buy flowers in a vase, or cut & ready to carry but most of the people buy the arrangements stuck into that jelly-foam crap that florists use. It sits in a plastic tray so all you have to do is change the water twice during the cruise to make them last. A vase might be a little tippy on the ship so the tray-type made a lot of sense to us. It kept making its way back and forth from our room to the balcony, back, forth, back. We had several parties in our little aft-balcony so we got our monies worth........many times.

 

OK. SOmebody help me here. I'm not very computer savvy so how do you insert a previous quote from someone on here? THEN, I'll try to attach some photo's for you as well.

[sfgoguy]

VagaBlondes-

 

Gary-Yes you can buy flowers in a vase, or cut & ready to carry but most of the people buy the arrangements stuck into that jelly-foam crap that florists use. It sits in a plastic tray so all you have to do is change the water twice during the cruise to make them last. A vase might be a little tippy on the ship so the tray-type made a lot of sense to us. It kept making its way back and forth from our room to the balcony, back, forth, back. We had several parties in our little aft-balcony so we got our monies worth........many times.

 

OK. SOmebody help me here. I'm not very computer savvy so how do you insert a previous quote from someone on here? THEN, I'll try to attach some photo's for you as well.

 

Thanks for the flower tip, guys.

 

Here's hot to include a quote in your response: Looking at the response you want to quote you'll find WITHIN that response box a tab on the lower right that's labeled "Quote." Click that and your new response box opens up with the entire previous quote at the top of your response box. You can edit parts of the quote that aren't relevant to your response (like I did with this one). Then add your comments below the quote and "Submit Reply." Pretty easy really.

 

Try it.

 

See you guys in a few weeks. ;)

[twoontheisle]

Here's how to include a quote in your response: Looking at the response you want to quot

e you'll find WITHIN that response box a tab on the lower right that's labeled "Quote."

 

Well.....don't I feel silly! I was trying to do that using the quick reply feature.

 

We still are doing e-mail tag with Hotel Tahiti Nui regarding our room. They said that the original quote of $368 was really supposed to be EURO'S not dollars so we're up to $516 now. You guys may see us at the Meridian. According to google earth the 2 hotels are about 2 short blocks away from each other. It's an easy walk to/from the pier from Meridian as long as you're not loaded down with too many hat boxes and steamer trunks!

[twoontheisle]

We still are doing e-mail tag with Hotel Tahiti Nui regarding our room. They said that the original quote of $368 was really supposed to be EURO'S not dollars so we're up to $516 now. You guys may see us at the Mandarin. According to google earth the 2 hotels are about 2 short blocks away from each other. It's an easy walk to/from the pier from Meridian as long as you're not loaded down with too many hat boxes and steamer trunks!

 

We're booked at the Hotel Tahiti Nui.......(the pool should be done by the end of March.)

We got the pricing issue resolved, they had us in a Jr suite instead of a standard room.

 

Guess I'm not doing something right while editing the quote, as I no longer see the quote in a shaded area.(?!)