ebay33

The end of the cruise, when I had to get off the ship.

Port: Kuşadası Ship: Spirit Cabin: Any, no preference

I recently returned from French Polynesia where I had rented a car at three different locations. They were all booked directly with the rental car agencies in advance and every single location was just a little different. Hopefully this recap will assist others that are looking to rent a car when in French Polynesia. I wanted to use Hertz exclusively because I am a Gold Plus Rewards Five Star member, which makes it much easier and faster to complete the rental at the time of pickup. Unfortunately, I only found Hertz in the airport in Tahiti. As it turned out, I was lucky that I only found one Hertz location. First stop was Tahiti. I arrived late in the evening, so I opted to stay at the Tahiti Airport Motel and rent the car the next morning as opposed to picking it up in the evening and then driving to a hotel and parking it overnight. The hotel is right across the street from the airport, so there was no problem walking back the next day to rent the car. I reserved the car with Hertz and expected everything to go as usual, with a fast, easy rental. I was completely wrong. First of all, upon arrival to pick up the rental car, there is a "room" with all of the rental car agencies in the room for car rental pickup and drop off. Just entering that room was stressful. Everyone was arguing at every counter, and it seemed as though no one was happy. I was really glad I had my Gold Plus reservation and was just patiently waiting for the customers in front of me to wrap up their reservation. I had no idea what was going on, but there was a lot of back-and-forth discussion and complaining. They had the contract printed and reprinted again and again. I waited almost 30 minutes for them to complete their rental. Finally, it was my turn. I thought it was going to be fast and easy, but alas, not so. First of all the Hertz employee mentioned that I had booked my reservation online, at Hertz.com but the benefits I had requested weren't offered at this location. Specifically, unlimited mileage. He quickly offered to quote a new price on a new rental reservation that included unlimited mileage, but the rental would be significantly more expensive. He really wanted to cancel my reservation and sell upgrades like mileage, insurance, etc. I felt like it was back in the 1980's and 90's when it was so hard to rent a car. I really wanted to get my vacation started, so I just stuck with my original reservation and agreed to pay the mileage. I noticed on the invoice; the rental company was Polyrent SA and they probably just pay to use the Hertz name. The rental itself was only $67.96 and the mileage was $86.56. I kept the car for three days and drove about 200km. I dropped off the car in the morning and it was a lot of bickering again in the rental car "room". I guess you just have to be prepared for this when you rent at the airport in Papeete. The drop-off was still a lot faster than the pick-up and overall, it wasn't a terrible experience as I look back upon it, as the overall price was still only just over $150, and I drove the car as much as I wanted to over the three days. If I had unlimited mileage, I may have driven a little bit more, but other than that, everything turned out fine. Next stop was Moorea. I only needed a car for the day, so I booked it in advance from Albert Location in Moorea. I booked it via email conversations and had to pay in advance at the time of reservation. I made sure to keep all of my email communications and was prepared for any issues that may arrive at pick-up. Fortunately, everything went rather smoothly. The rental car representative drove to the port to pick-up everyone that was renting from them that day and day. Surprisingly, the rental cars were a bit of a drive from the port. It was about a 20–30-minute drive. As luck would have it, I had paid in full and was ready to go, but the other renters that were in front of me had not yet made a reservation and had a lot of questions. Since there was only one person working at the counter, I just had to wait. Finally, I got up to the counter and my car rental was ready and paid-in-full. This rental did include unlimited mileage. I paid $73.71 (in advance) for the rental car. Not a bad price for a full day with unlimited mileage and full insurance coverage. If you need it, the address of the actual rental car location is BP 77- 98728 Maharepa, Moorea. The rental car agency drove me back to the port, this time going really, really, really fast and taking less than 15 minutes to get back to port. Overall, this was a good location, easy to use, no additional charges, and easy to drop-off. Final stop was Raiatea. I rented from Raiatea Location. This time I reserved in advance, but they did not charge me until I picked up the car. The reservations were all made via email with this location as well. This rental was $62.34 and included a full day rental and unlimited mileage and full insurance coverage. The rental car agency has a booth at the port, but they weren't there upon arrival. A few of the other vendors did their best to try to track down the rental car staff, with no luck. Finally, after about 30 minutes, they showed up and everything from there went smoothly. The driver quickly escorted all of the renters from the port to the car rental agency. This one was not very far from port. About a 5–10-minute drive (about 35-45 minutes walking). They also drove me back to port when dropping off the rental car. This was a great location, great price and recommended to anyone looking to rent a car in Raiatea. The address of the actual rental car location is not on the receipt, so I can't provide that. In summary, I would use Albert Location and Raiatea Location again in the future. I'd definitely try to get exactly what I want next time in Tahiti and make sure my reservation includes everything at the time of booking. I would not use Hertz again at the Papeete airport, just for the sake of trying a different car rental agency in Tahiti. At least I had no problems securing my rentals at all three locations, which is really the most important thing when planning a vacation like this. For anyone that is interested, I also rented cars at several locations in Hawaii. I will post in the Hawaii section on my experience with those car rentals.

UPDATED - APRIL 2023 I posted the original post back in 2019 regarding rental cars in Hawaii. I just returned from Hawaii and repeated the entire itinerary. I can now report back on changes and updates to the rental car process. I recently returned from Hawaii where I had rented a car at four different locations. They were all booked directly with Hertz and every single location was just a little different. Hopefully this recap will assist others that are looking to rent a car when in Hawaii. I used Hertz exclusively because I am a Gold Plus Rewards Five Star member, which makes it much easier and faster to complete the rental at the time of pickup. Note that this time I also rented a car in Oahu for the entire day, so that is all new information for the Honolulu rental car experience. On this trip I did not visit Kona, so I have no update to the Kona information. First stop was Hilo. Hilo no longer provides a shuttle from port. The distance from the dock to the rental car location is too far for walking for most people. It would be about a 45-minute walk, so you would have to make sure to have time for the walk and the weather would have to be clear. Be sure to rent from the "city" location and not the airport location. I had to take an Uber to and from the port. Neither Uber ride was any problem with booking and the wait times were less than 3-5 minutes. The Uber ride takes about 10 minutes each way. The cost was just around $15 each way (including a $5 tip there and back). The nice thing about Hertz with Gold is your car should be ready to go and you don't have to spend much time getting the car. Sure enough, a quick stop at the counter and I had the keys and car location and was ready to go. Less than 60 seconds in the rental car office. You have to return the car by 4:45 or the office will be closed. This is a good reason to get the day started early in the morning. This city location was great, not too crowded, and the staff was friendly and helpful. The exact address of this location is: 80 Kuhio Street, Island of Hawaii (Hilo), HI US 96720 Next stop was Maui. Last time I rented in Maui I ran into problems. Fortunately, I learned from my past mistake and had no issues this time! Last time I had booked the wrong Hertz location. You have to make sure you book the correct harbor port. I incorrectly booked this one: 200 Nohea Kai Drive, Maui (Kaanapali-Lahaina), HI US 96761 This one was wrong. The correct port was located in Kahului Harbor which was this location: 170 West Kaahumanu Avenue Maui (Kahului) , Hawaii , United States, 96732. The location was accessible by an easy walk from the dock. The car was ready for me upon arrival at the Hertz desk located in the lobby of the Maui Beach hotel. The rental car must be returned by 5:30 pm or it will be dropped off after close. I did opt to return it after closing, but they make that easy with a key drop box in the hotel lobby and a nice, well-lit parking lot to leave the car. This is always my favorite of all of the car rentals in Hawaii. Great location, easy to use, no additional charges, and easy to drop-off. It is a win-win for sure! Next stop was Kauai. This Hertz office is located at the airport and is more of what you would expect when renting a car. There is no shuttle provided, so you have to get an Uber to and from the airport. There was no problem getting an Uber, with about a 4-minute wait. The Uber ride was about 10 minutes and was $13.94 with $5 tip. This was the only location that provided true Gold Plus service with the car preassigned and waiting to be picked up with keys already in the car and no need to stop in the office at all. Since it is an airport location it is open later and you could always drop off the car later or earlier as needed. I kept the car overnight. Parking on the street was no problem at all. When walking from the port, head towards the ABC store. It is about a 5-minute walk to/from the street parking from the port. Parking is free and is clearly marked on the street. You can't park the car for more than 24 hours, but that should not be an issue unless you are staying an extended amount of time. When returning the rental car, there was a person offering $5 rides to the ship port, so I didn't have to use Uber for the return trip. There were a few other passengers taking advantage of this service, so it was a good deal for both the driver and the passengers. The exact address of this location is: Hertz - Kauai - 3250 Hoolimalima Place, Kauai (Lihue), HI US 96766 Final stop was Oahu. This Hertz office is located at the airport and is more of what you would expect when renting a car. There is no shuttle provided, so you have to get an Uber to and from the airport. There was no problem getting an Uber, with zero wait time because it is a huge ship port.. The Uber ride was about 15 minutes and was $27.48 with $5 tip. Since the car was being rented from the airport, and I was departing the airport that evening, I only needed a 1-way Uber ride this time. This was the other location that provided true Gold Plus service with the car preassigned and waiting to be picked up with keys already in the car and no need to stop in the office at all. Since it is an airport location it is open later and you could always drop off the car later or earlier as needed. This Hertz is the only location that really wasn't fair on the billing. I filled up the tank at the nearest gas station I could find. I filled it up less than 4 miles from the airport. For some reason, they went and charged me for the fuel and that added about $18 on the final bill. Of course, by the time the final charge comes through, I'm back home and it isn't worth the fight. The exact address of this location is: Hertz - 300 Rodgers Blvd, Oahu (honolulu), HI US 96819 All of the rentals were booked in February for an April trip. I would highly recommend renting a car in all of these locations. There is so much to see and do! For those that are interested in pricing, here is what I paid at checkout: Kauai - $50.56, Maui - $7.32 (free rental day), Hilo -$42.02, Oahu - $70.39. The only other expense related to the rental cars was gasoline, which varied in cost based on miles driven during the day as I had to return the rental car on full at each location. For anyone that is interested, I also rented cars at Papeete - Moorea - Raiatea (3 separate locations) in French Polynesia the week before arriving in Hawaii. I will post in the French Polynesia section on my experience with those car rentals.

Valdez is very walkable. You can visit the entire town on foot. You won't need a tour to see the town.

Yes, here is the information on luggage storage and lockers: Luggage Storage & Lockers – Luggage storage is available landside in the International Terminal. Rate: Cabin Roll-On (55cm) 700XFP • Medium Bag (64cm) 800XFP • Large (75cm) 950XFP • XL (86cm) 1100XFP • Surfboard 2200XFP. Hours: 6:00AM – 12:00PM and 1:30PM – 10:00PM every day except Thursday when it closes at 11:00PM. Luggage Storage open 7 days a week 6:00-12:00 13:30-22:00

Technically the cruise you are on does not require a passport, so a future expiration date won't make a difference on your specific cruise.

Mine now says Latitudes. It changed in just the last couple of hours.

Mine says JADE as well. Could be completely unrelated, but I'm also not getting the shore excursion discount even when I go all the way through to check out and pay for the excursion. Should be getting a 10% discount for Platinum.