CelticMutt

Just a final update. I've had a number of conversations with a very nice lady from Viking Customer Service and thought I'd post the info and some impressions.

The "Snapshots of Rome" replacement for the "Highlights" tour is only 5.5 hours as opposed to the 10.5 hours on the original. It appears to me to be a re-titled "Relaxing Rome" tour that was originally on the itinerary and has now been taken off. The Viking rep indicated that there might be a "paid for" version of the "Highlights" tour in the works. Huh? I'm reading between the lines here, but I think Viking has realized that they were giving away too much with a 10.5 hour included tour and are regrouping. So don't expect to see a free Highlights tour in the future. And it's not "free", it's actually "no additional expense" - let's be serious here!)

I was also told that we couldn't book a second "included" excursion on the same day even if there's enough time. Again, I question this response because our traveling companions did just that 30 days ago when they booked their own excursions.

Just a closing suggestion for Viking here. When we traveled on the Paul Gauguin last year we were in a similar situation. We were traveling with the same couple at that time and once again, they had a much higher cabin level. But, PG made every effort to make sure that we were able to enjoy the cruise together. Dinner reservations; excursions; hell, their butler even did stuff for us that was way above and beyond. That's a service level to be followed. Not all couples traveling together can afford the same class of stateroom, but they should still be given some level of courteous flexibility in booking. Viking did in fact note that the two reservations were linked, but so far that notation has not been any factor at all.

Pant, pant, pant...OK, I'm done. I'm putting this to bed and hoping like the good folk who have commented suggested, that something can be done on Board. Otherwise, what the hell; we're still going to have a good time!!

Salud!,

Bill

I think the suggestions to wait until we get on the ship to rectify this situation are probably the way to go. Despite assurances from the "tellus" folks, I still don't see the Snapshots of Rome tour on my itinerary nor on their web site for available Rome excursions.

There is no "Snapshots of Rome" currently listed on the available excursions for Rome.

OK; Viking got in touch both by e-mail and v-mail to let me know they had confirmed us on the Snapshots of Rome Tour. Apparently there's a glitch on the excursions web page for Rome, so I'd suggest anyone having problems contact them at TellUs@vikingcruises.com directly. CC postings do carry a bit of influence, no?

Also in answer to the point that Viking uses the limited availability on the tours as an upsell to the better cabin categories, well that still makes me question the term "included". I understand that there may be alternative time slots available for some of the excursions. And we certainly had no problem with availability on the add-on tours that we were willing to pay for. But here's the rub: because I was willing to shell out a couple hundred bucks for a day's "pay-for" tour, I get closed out of an included tour slot. Shouldn't happen!)

What's more, We're traveling with friends who booked excursions 30 days ago (big cabin!). They actually booked this cruise on our reco. But because of this arcane scheduling, 3 of the tour days we have to take our excursions separately because we can't make our schedules match!l

Just venting here in hope that Viking will add some availability. As I said previously, we've really enjoyed our past Viking River cruises and are very much looking forward to this one.

Dear CelticMutt,

 

We regret to learn of your displeasure and appreciate the opportunity to respond to your concerns.

 

Viking does, indeed, guarantee an included tour in each port of call – for all guests, in all stateroom categories. A particular start time may sell out, but the shore excursion, as a whole, will not.

 

While it was initially the name of the included shore excursion in Rome, Highlights of Rome was recently removed and replaced with a new included tour titled, Snapshots of Rome. This tour should be available to book, without charge, on My Viking Journey. If you are unable to view or book this tour, please contact us at TellUs@vikingcruises.com with your booking information so that we may book your excursion manually.

 

Our records indicate that the Marseille included tour, Marseille On Your Own, is still open and available to book. As this is another included tour, rest assured that space will be available for all guests onboard. Once again, if you have trouble booking on My Viking Journey, please reach out to us directly so we add the tour to your booking or, if necessary, troubleshoot the problem further.

 

CelticMutt, again, we appreciate the opportunity to respond. Your loyalty and satisfaction are important to us and we look forward to welcoming you aboard again in September!

 

Warm regards,

Viking Cruises

There is no "Snapshots of Rome" currently listed on the available excursions for Rome.

I'm pretty upset with Viking right now. Excursions opened up for our Deluxe Veranda Cabin this AM for our Sept. 4th Mediterranean Odyssey on the Viking Sea and already at 8 AM fully 3 of the "included" excursions were "sold out". This is deplorable! These are not "free" excursions - they are supposed to be included and we paid dearly for them.

"The Highlights of Rome" tour... gone! Really, Viking?! One of the main reasons your clients are taking this cruise is to see Rome and you haven't come close to providing enough availability - not if even the Deluxe Verandas can't get a slot at 8AM the first day of availability.

Oh, and "Marseille On Our Own" closed out as well!? It only involves a damn bus from the ship to the city! You can't schedule an extra bus?

When I called the Viking office to complain I was told there was nothing they could do. Oh c'mon! Yes there is. Schedule some extra availability; there's still plenty of time.

I'm a huge fan of Viking. I've written on CC glowingly of our past two river cruises. So, please Ocean Viking, let's keep the perception positive and fix this!

I'll keep y'all posted.

Slainte!

Bill

Thanks for the condolences; they were much appreciated. The ride home was a bear. While the Thursday plane to Papeete was 1/3 full, the Saturday flight home was completely full. Plus, leaving at 3PM versus leaving at 11:30 are two different animals! Full beverage service all the way at 3:30 PM; 1 drink at 11:30 PM - makes a big difference. The airport at Papeete was jammed with numerous flights leaving and seats were at a premium. When we do this next time (and we will!) we will either travel both ways on a weekday or make sure we're going home first class. Our friends were in the first class lounge and were much more comfortable. (We flew first from LAX to Newark and so that leg was a lot better as well!)

This might be a good place to mention that Air Tahiti Nui restricts carry on luggage to 10 kilos (22 lbs). That plus a purse or a personal item, (and yes, I was not above doing a man-purse thing for my camera and iPad and Kindle!) We were pretty tight with a 50 lb checked bag and a matching carry on that we packed with sundries (her shoes and stuff; my CPAP and stuff) and then stored one big and one small at the storage office at Papeete when were were flying to Bora Bora because Air Tahiti (not to be confused with Air Tahiti Nui - different airline!) has a pretty restricted weight limit. (It was just cheaper to store it since we didn't need all the stuff and didn't want to drag it with us!)

Just another little rant about the IC Thalasso Spa while I have you here. Much as we loved our stay here, there were some problems. The last of which was that Donna's iPad turned up missing as we were leaving. With the trauma of her mom's death we kind of hoped that we had layered it in our packing but suspected that it had been taken from the room and reported such to the concierge. Upon unpacking at home there was no iPad and we turned on her "Find My iPad" App. It took a week but we got a ping about a week after leaving and sure enough, the iPad was on the main island. We could identify it right down to the street it was on. I sent both IC headquarters and IC Thalasso Spa an e-mail about 5 days ago with a screen shot of the map just saying that we were aware that we were partially to blaim for the theft because we hadn't put the device into the safe, but that perhaps they could use the locator to share with authorities to track down the thief. Long story a bit shorter, I've neither heard back from either IC headquarters or Thalasso Spa. You'd think there would be a little interest in at least a follow up! Anyway...

Point on the helicopter tour: If you are on Bora Bora - do it; do it; do it! Even if it's just for the 15 minutes. It's a spectacular overview of this one of the most beautiful places on the planet. My one critique on their service is that they should offer a video DVD like the one that's offered in Hawaii. (Maybe they do if you get the service from their home base!?)

I'm going to do some shoutouts next, but going to revert to the iPad to do so since TapaTalk is so much easier to post photos with.

Sei gesund!

Bill

So sorry about how I fell off the earth. We've been so busy and the connectivity became a real issue. I promise to do a completed day by day when we get home. (Boo!)

Our last evening at sea and the whole 10 days have been phenomenal! Best cruise, no vacation EVER!

Will fill y'all in when I don't have to type on my iPhone. (Strongest signal on it!)

Quick note to those getting on tomorrow. Albert's 4x4 is quite good, but The Trail of the Ancients pretty much duplicates it. Mark is very good but the 4 mile trek through rough terrain is not for everyone! Choose one or the other; I'd suggest not both like we did.

On to the IC Thalasso - looks spectacular - at least from what we saw and heard!

Manuia!

Bill

First of all, sorry for being absent. It’s more of a connectivity issue than anything else. Had the time and connection on Monday – the last sea day. Tuesday in Rarotonga and Wed. in Aitutaki were so busy that … well you get the drift!

The ship switched schedule and hit Rarotonga first. Still not quite sure why, but all excursions were unaffected.

Weather on Monday at sea was a mix of sun in the morning and some nasty weather in the afternoon and evening. As others have posted, the seas can be rough making the crossing to the Cook islands and the ship rolled quite a bit. The four of us are boaters so we were fine, but we noticed that l’Etoile was a bit empty. Weather has been perfect since. We’re on our way back to Bora Bora as I write this and it’s a lot less “rocky”.

We took the ship’s Glass Bottom Boat (Captain Tama’s Lagoon Cruise) excursion on Rarotonga and while I wasn’t anticipating anything special, it really turned into a pretty good excursion. After a bit of a cruise we stopped for a nice snorkel. While the fish weren’t spectacular, the view through the glass bottom provided those not inclined to swim a nice up close experience. After about 45 minutes in the water we relocated to a nice little moto about five minutes off our starting spot for a swim, island exploration and a light, fruit lunch. Our tour guide, a transplanted New Zealander was quite informative about island life, costs and workings. After about an hour on the moto we were ferried back for our bus trip to the ship.

We spent the afternoon by the pool and the ship brought aboard a school age dance troop both boys and girls. Their native costumes were wonderful and the kids were very talented.

A quick word about food on board. It has been unfailingly wonderful. We have dined in all three restaurants and while menus remain the same (they’re changed for the rest of the cruise today) there has always been enough of a variety that no one is bored. Service has been superb with the wait staff knowing names and drink preferences after the first day.

We took the private tour on Aitutaki with Teking. At $95 – even tough he charges for water and beer – his tour is a real deal and the best snorkeling I’ve ever done…period! We stopped his two boats (total of 14 people) at three separate sites, each better than the last. Teking’s a bit of a character. (OK, a lot of a character!!) And can tease his guests, but it’s all in good fun. His lunch of grilled tuna, grilled banana (incidentally way good!), breadfruit , salads and fruit was superb! You could even pick your cook on the fish. Our last stop was at one foot island for a passport stamp. (Do bring your passport to have this done; very cool!). The only negative was that the one boat we all packed into for the ride back blew the prop and we had to limp a bit home. Still made it in plenty of time, but he said he’d have to have the (outboard) engine repaired in New Zealand so check to make sure he’s up and operating fully within the next couple of weeks. Even so, I’ve been a boater for 25 years and this was my best day on the water in all that time. Teking knows his stuff; has the best marked snorkeling routes and despite his quirky personalty (or maybe because of it!) it’s a real blast. Do this excursion! Tell him Bill says “Hi”; I was a bit of a “target” for a lot of his barbs!

I’m on Deck 8 by the pool on one beautiful day as I write this. These narratives are a bit shorter than I’m used to because Im typing on an iPad rather than dictating. As I said, connectivity issues preclude dictating. It would be prohibitively expensive and probably slower than my hunt and peck. I’ll try to fill in a bit when I get home and I’ll probably delay answering questions until then too (June 15). Not looking forward to leaving Paradise, but we still have over a week left!

Back to my gin & tonic!

Å’kålè ma’luna

Bill

Just some finishing thoughts on the Intercontinental Tahiti as we are packing up to leave and head on over to the ship. First impressions weren't great, but I have to say that after that initial contact efforts were made to smooth things over. Charles, the manager, became very attentive and we were offered the over the water bungalow when it became available. (We chose not to move – it was just too inconvenient). We also got the late (4 PM) check out that comes as a part of the Ambassador membership.

The property really is lovely with two nice pools and excellent views of the island of Moorea. The buffet breakfast in the morning were great and the rooms were reasonably well appointed. The draw for us was – still is – location and it's certainly convenient for travel to and from the airport and to the ship itself. We read today that the Intercontinental chain and Paul Gauguin are owned by the same parent company which explains the interrelationship a little bit more clearly.

I'd give the place – will give the place when I do the review on TripAdvisor – 3 stars or so simply because the level of service just didn't make the grade. (In spite of Charles' hard work after the fact!)

Give you an example: we went for lunch yesterday at about 1:45 at the Lotus restaurant and were told there weren't any seats available. Since there were other open restaurants available on the property my thought would've been that a trained employee would have tried to find us open seating someplace else on the since we were obviously guests. That didn't happen. Perhaps in the long and short of things that's a small point but it's stuck with me because it exemplified the feeling that I had leaving the property. People just didn't try quite hard enough!

Don't give me completely wrong, we enjoyed our stay here, but if I was coming back for the same sequence of events I would probably look for a different property. Sorry, IC!

Na zdravie!

Bill

Aztec and anyone else from the cruise that wants to chat; we are in the palapas in front of the panoramic rooms by the infinity pool. Five hours till boarding!

Kanpai,

Bill

Wendy, the plane was as you described. Our friends were in "business" and had clam shells. I'm hoping home bound is as good because we're doing it all sequentially. Leaving Bora Bora at 5 on Sat and getting back to NJ late Sunday evening! Not thinking about it!!!!

Just decompressing from our first full day in paradise on the panoramic deck overlooking Moorea. I'll give my final thoughts on the IC tomorrow upon leaving, but for now I'd sooner concentrate on the wonderful day we had today in paradise. A very nice breakfast buffet comes with the room – or at least our reservation had this. The food was very good and the view was spectacular looking out on one of the two pools and the island of Moorea.

We had scheduled a half-day tour of the West Coast of Tahiti with Tracy – the owner of Unique Tahiti Tours. Tracy picked us up in the lobby at precisely 8:30 AM and her $75 per person tour which lasted a full four hours was worth every penny! Tracy's a transplanted Brit,t but knows the island cold and her continual conversation as she drove her air-conditioned red minivan around the west coast of the island was both informative and personal. If you have a morning or afternoon to spend with Tracy, I would highly recommend you doing so. She offered just the right amount of "tourism" to give us a taste of Tahiti and then got us back in time to spend the rest of the afternoon poolside. Thanks, Tracey!

While the morning was beautiful, the afternoon turned a bit cloudy. But the interplay of clouds and sun across Moorea and the waves out on the reef as we sat at the infinity pool was spectacular.

There is a Friday night buffet/Island entertainment at the buffet restaurant tonight that we're going to pass on. We're all a little bit sleep-deprived so were just going to hit a local Italian restaurant (Casa Bianca) and call it an early night!

Sorry if this started out a little bit "grumpy" but as I dictated the report early this morning I was feeling the effects of a long day in the plane. We are looking forward to a well-rested day tomorrow and boarding the ship in the afternoon.

(A quick aside – apology. I'm dictating this as it's an awful lot easier to do it that way. This makes for a little bit of a more constrained narrative and may cause some errors in the dictation itself. I apologize for them up front and hope you will all understand that proofreading on an iPhone may not be the easiest chore to undertake.)

Salud!

Bill

Damn "send" button on a dark balcony! Anyway, just an aside for those thinking that this will be a walk down a PG memory lane. My intent here is to pay info forward - one of the reasons for the lack of photos. The narrative may serve as a reminder of your time here for you but I hope I don't disappoint by being too dry.

OK, first reco and review from a frequent traveler. 1. Air TN is wonderful! Forget all the negative hype. No one is going to be happy after 8.5 hrs on a plane! But these folks did it well. We were in coach (16 A & B) and our friends were in First. But traveling on a Thursday evening, the plane was less than half full. We were able to spread out to all those empty seats once the plane leveled off. Some even had a 4 across to sleep in. Food (2 meals - they say the second is a snack, but it's really a full meal 90 minutes before touchdown) was good for airline chow. Adult beverages (talkin' booze here folks!) are free and easily refreshed. I asked for a gin and tonic and the attendant then went on to ask, "yes, but what type of wine do you want with dinner?" There is a USB recharger right next to the video screen - very cool - and the movie selection was very good! (Imitation Game [i cried!], the new Exodus and my 4th go around on Die Hard kept me occupied for most of the 8 hours! Bottom line was that we weren't a whole lot less uncomfortable in coach than our friends were in first class and we saved $3200! Now the situation may reverse itself on the way home (Saturday) when the plane is more full but for right now my recommendation is to fly out Thursday in a relatively empty plane and take advantage of the empty seats!

(Both couples also stopped at duty-free in LAX and picked up wine and spirits for use in our room when we got to Tahiti. Drinks are about 20 bucks a pop here so the cartage was certainly worth while!) ATN restricts your carry-on to 20 pounds so be aware of how much yours weighs before you get on line! But the duty-free carry-on does not count toward that weight!

ATN gives you a cute little package with ear phones, sleep mask, socks and ear plugs just like the first class folks get! Pretty cool!

Got off the plane about 9 PM and customs and immigration are about as slow in the islands as you would expect. Having a low seat number or walking quickly can buy you some extra time, so do with that information what you will! With seat number 16 – they went up to 45 – we are relatively forward in the line and our luggage was waiting for us when we got off. They made sure that first class got off the plane way before everybody else did! Cabs were plentiful – even at 10 PM at night but be aware that they charge you per luggage piece. Even so, the 1.5 mile drive to the IC hotel cost us about $20 U.S.

Okay, here ends my positive part of the review for the day! Our initial impressions of the Intercontinental Hotel have not been very good. We had booked a panoramic view room at the hotel almost 9 months previous. I am also an Ambassador member and while that is supposed to get you and upgraded room, I frankly didn't expect that to be the case. However, when we arrived at the hotel we were informed that because we had arrived late they had given away our panoramic view room and they were assigning us to a garden view room! The exclamation exclamation being that the over-the-water bungalows had to be closed due to hi wave activity. My lovely wife blew a gasket and after a lengthy conversation with the on duty hotel manager he reluctantly agreed to give us a room in the panorama area that he would "clean himself". Note that our friends who had checked in two minutes before we did received their panoramic view room without a hitch!

Long story short – (well I guess it's already a long story) these rooms were already available and cleaned - we were just being told that they weren't available! A little honesty would have gone a lot farther than the subterfuge! Also, I can understand the fact that weather can play a part in assigning rooms when they are so close to the elements, but these OTW bungalows should have been designed a little better in the first place.

Some guests actually had to be moved out of their OTW bungalows because the wave action was jostling items off of the shelves!

Okay, it's starting to get light and I'm sure today is going to be better than last night was! We've got a half day island tour booked with Tracy this morning and breakfast awaits after a shower so more later!

The light has revealed Moorea and some palm trees – an infinity pool and lovely grounds so – okay I'm not really pissed!

Cheers,

Bill

Hi from Tahiti on a very early Friday morning 4 AM local. My circadian rhythms are a bear going west and since my East Coast bod thinks it's 10 AM I might as well be productive.

Wendy, Between GPS and a tidal app we should be OK. Worst case both of us have pulled boats off NJ groundings. Believe

me, I'd sooner go over the side in Bora Bora than in Barnegat Bay!

Just a quick aside. We just spent a very pleasant night at the JW Marriott Santa Monica Le Merigot on the recommendation of a previous Cruise Critic member. The property is right on the beach and a five minute walk to the Santa Monica Pier. We grabbed a car service to the hotel – about 15- 20 minutes and will get the same at 12:30 this afternoon for our 3:30 PM flight on Air Tahiti Nui. We had a nice walk on the pier and grabbed a snack and a beer at Bubba Gump's Shrimp. We walked back down to the "Lobster" restaurant for a sunset dinner. The window table view of the sunset and the pier at night were indeed spectacular but the food was only "good". The ladies had a 1 1/4 pound lobster and the guys crabcakes and we all had a couple of cocktails but the $500 tariff was a bit much considering the quality of the food. As I said it wasn't bad but for these prices I would've expected spectacular!

All in all though the stop at the Marriott was a good way to decompress while waiting for our next leg of the trip.

Will try to answer Aztec's questions on the plane before we leave as it's going to be a bit tight once we reach Tahiti tonight.

Prost,

Bill

Wendy, both the other gentleman in the group, Mark, and I hold New Jersey boating licenses, however to rent the 16 foot pontoon boat a license is not necessary. Price is about $400 for the entire day – about eight hours. We figured to provision the boat before we get on in the morning. Beer, ice, sandwiches, water etc. The web sight for Laplage, the rental company, is listed on the photo itinerary above.

Since we'll be taking Patrick's tour of the lagoon on the ship the week before we figured we would at least have a working knowledge of the lagoon and that coupled with the GPS on our phones we should be able to manage the navigation pretty well. Worst case scenario is that we get lost in Paradise!

Bill

Might be a blinding glimpse of the obvious, but TapaTalk picks up my Google screen name rather than my CC one.

Bill

How do you plan on getting from the airport to the hotel and then from the hotel to the cruise terminal? We are going on the same cruise but are fLying in on May 29th at night.

Aztec, The IC is 1.6 miles from the airport. (If my lovely wife wasn't so intent on over-packing we could probably walk it! :))

The couple we're traveling with had their travel agent arrange car service, but it's doubtful that it'll fit all four of us. We'll just grab a cab for the five minute ride.

Bill

Twin, we've corresponded on this cruise's Roll Call; we're from Point Pleasant. You're from Toms River, no?

I will be doing my third "live from" shipboard review starting next Saturday, May 30 from the Paul Gauguin. Specifically the - Cook Islands & Society Islands 11 Night Cruise.

To get background minutia out of the way upfront, I'm traveling in a group of 4; two couples – from the New Jersey shore; in our mid 60s. My wife, Donna, and I are retired and we consider ourselves to be seasoned travelers with over 40 individual cruises under our belts. (Literally and figuratively!) This, however it will be our first trip to French Polynesia and our first experience on the Paul Gauguin. I'll list my other two "live from" reviews here in case anyone's mildly interested, but more as a reference. (The review on the Viking Embla garnered over 30,000 reads and I understand that's not an insignificant number.)

Viking Embla - Grand European -- April-May 2013

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1834574&highlight=celticmutt

Viking Heimdal - South of France - May 2014

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2038879&highlight=celticmutt

I'm sure I personally don't bring any different insight than any other reviewer would to this forum, but there is something about the immediacy of this daily format that appeals to me. Impressions do fade quickly!

I'll also be including our two-day pre-cruise stay at the Intercontinental Hotel in Tahiti and a three-day post stay at the Intercontinental Thelasso Spa in Bora-Bora. (While we booked these properties ourselves, both are offered so frequently as part of the PG package that I thought it was a good idea to include them as well.)

We booked our own air on this trip as my lovely wife is pretty good at travel management. I'll fill you in on the particulars as we go.

We leave from Newark on Wednesday morning flying to LAX on United (Donna scavenged us a first class, round trip to LA using frequent flier miles alone!) Overnighting in Santa Monica at the JW Marriott Le Merigot. We then board Air Tahiti Nui Flight #1 at 3:30 PM on Thursday the 28th arriving in Papeete, Tahiti at 8:50 PM that evening. (We are in the cheap seats this leg, but our friends opted for first class! We just couldn't justify the extra $3200 in incremental airfare. That's almost another whole vacation in and of itself! We're then on to the IC Tahiti. Nothing much substantial as to this report will happen until Tahiti so I'll leave you until then.

I'll try to do this as many days as possible on the cruise as Wi-Fi connectivity and geriatric energy will allow! No promises; but as I said, immediacy makes for better copy!

Manuia!

Bill

Kyrie, We booked the Duo directly because we wanted to fill the time we had on the ship with other activities and reserve the helicopter ride for the last view we had of the islands. With a pickup directly at the hotel the whole excursion including travel to and from will take 30 minutes and since it'll be our last day on the islands we wanted to savor every last drop of time! Cost came out to $350 pp and then they added another $45 pp for the resort pickup. Bear in mind, however that it's a private tour. We only have the 4 of us travelling together on our helicopter as opposed to their "normally" scheduled 5. (Of course I guess you could get lucky and have less on your flight depending on bookings.) I don't know if Tupai itself is worth the extra, but I'm thinking the extra time in the air will be as we leave and approach Bora Bora itself. 15 minutes just didn't seem like enough!

We will be staying at the Intercontinental Thalasso Spa for a few days right after the May 30th sailing. We want to take a helicopter tour with Tahiti Helicopter while there. It seems like a no-brainer to book a private tour with a resort pickup since the cost for the four adults in our party actually comes out to less money than cost of four single adults on a normal, 5-passenger tour. ($840 for private vs $263 pp).

We were thinking of adding the side trip to Tupai, but it doubles the price. My question is whether the 30 minute combo of Bora Bora and Tupai at $1680 versus the simple 15 minutes over Bora Bora is worth an extra $210 pp?

TIA, Bill

We will be staying at the Intercontinental Thalasso Spa for a few days in mid-June after a Paul Gauguin cruise. We want to take a helicopter tour with Tahiti Helicopter while there. It seems like a no-brainer to book a private tour with a resort pickup since the cost for the four adults in our party actually comes out to less money than cost of four single adults on a normal, 5-passenger tour. ($840 for private vs $263 pp).

We were thinking of adding the side trip to Tupai, but it doubles the price. My question is whether the 30 minute combo of Bora Bora and Tupai at $1680 versus the simple 15 minutes over Bora Bora is worth an extra $210 pp?

TIA, Bill

We actually booked The Trail of The Ancients through the ship. I tried to get it myself but they referred me back to the ship.

I'm a bit of a history/ anthropology buff so this excursion particuarly appealed to me. Besides, it gets pretty high marks in and of itself as well.

Bill