UnrulySun

Looking forward to the rest of your review & the dailies. We're on the Christmas sailing with our 10 year old. She loved Splash Academy on the Pearl in Alaska this summer, and was excited about moving up to Dolphins on this sailing. There were only maybe 15 kids across all age groups enrolled on that trip in the program, so from your review and others, it sounds like it's going to be a totally different experience this time around for us and her... 

Thanks for the tip on the SA closures... I'm going to check all our dining and show reservations now! 

Thanks all for the advice! Our itinerary has changed somewhat. We are now doing the June 1st, 10 night cruise, with a 4 night stay & wedding in Bora Bora pre-cruise.

I ended up getting the IHG card for the bonus points, and also purchased additional points in the sale on dailyrewards. We redeem the points for ambassador status and a total of 5 nights in Bora Bora (2 at the Thalasso & 3 at Le Moana). We're not actually using any of the nights we redeemed with points ourselves (other than the ambassador certificate), instead we decided to give those nights to family members who would have had difficulty affording the trip otherwise.

We are so excited about this trip, and are counting down the days!

Thanks so much for the input so far, it has been very helpful!

Yes, we are planning to do a symbolic ceremony only. The legal will be done stateside pre-cruise.

Hi All!

We're new to PG and are getting ready to book the 7/30/16 11 night Society & Cook Islands trip. We have lots of questions!

We're planning a wedding & hope to be able to hold the ceremony at the Intercontinental Thalasso while docked in Bora Bora, but are a little nervous about doing so, as we were informed there is a possibility the ship wouldn't be able to dock. Has anyone experienced this before during early August?

Next, is it possible to book the overnight stay at the Thalasso direct with the hotel instead of the ship excursion? I've looked at the pricing through the boat, and at $2,125 it looks like they are making a hefty profit off of that when you can get a room direct through the hotel for $800-$1000 for the night. I just can't see how transportation, champagne, dinner and breakfast would add on another $1100+, but maybe I am missing something?

We will also have a few guests traveling with us, some who may want to stay at the hotel overnight and others who will want to come back to the ship. It looks like it may be possible to take a taxi from the ship to the IHG Moana and take a shuttle boat from there to the Thalasso. Can anyone confirm that this can be done on your own? And if so, any idea how late the shuttle/taxis operate and is there a cutoff time to re-board the ship at night?

My other question is, should we splurge for a balcony room or just a window room? We really enjoyed the balcony room on our last cruise in the caribbean, but the $3,200 price difference could open up room in our budget for other things...

Any other advice on room choice/excursions appreciated!

There was a Huffington Post article in November that said the bioluminescence had dropped suddenly, and several tour operators were having to cancel excursions. They weren't sure what was causing it. I'm guessing it hasn't improved and that is the reason for cancelation?