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IC-Tahiti/Booking/Cook Islands


minabruuke
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Hi Everyone!

 

 

We are planning on taking the 11 night Cook Islands & Society Islands cruise this year. As I wanted to use our airlines miles for business class tickets, I booked our airline tickets months ago so the dates are set but we still need to book the actual cruise. I decided to wait to see if another two week sale pops up before booking the cruise just in case the sailing ends up on the list (fingers crossed;)). However, I do have a couple of questions..

 

 

IC-Tahiti-

Normally I would book our own hotel arrangements (we stayed at Fare Suisse last time) but given that we will have an early morning arrival and will only have 1 night before the cruise I am actually considering booking Paul Gauguin’s pre-cruise one night stay package (w/ early morning arrival) at the IC-Tahiti. I just know that my husband would really appreciate the early morning check in and it will give us more time to just relax and rest up for the cruise. The package is more than I’d like to spend but on this occasion, I am looking for super easy and relaxing. My husband does not like taking time off from work. We own a small business and have to actually close completely to take a vacation and that causes him some stress. As a result, I want to make sure that he has the best experience possible so that he will actually want to go on another vacation.

 

 

I see that the PG website gives pricing for the lagoon bungalows but it does not mention the motu bungalows which are what I am most interested in. Has anyone been able to book the motu bungalows through PG? If so, do you recall the approx. price per person? In pictures the motu bungalows look so much nicer than the lagoon bungalows. Does anyone have an opinion as to whether or not they really are that much nicer?

 

 

Booking-

I typically book my cruises direct with the cruise line. The truth is that I really enjoy the travel planning and making the arrangements so I prefer to handle it myself. However, with PG I know that you can get some pretty nice incentives if you book through an agent/agency and thus I realize that is my best option. I have looked at the lists of agents PG provides, I have used Google extensively, and have done a lot of reading on TripAdvisor but I still haven’t been able to narrow down my search. I just don’t want to waste anyone’s time so I feel bad contacting multiple agents for quotes to see my best options. I know we can’t discuss agents on here but if anyone has any advice that they would like to provide, I’d love if you could e-mail me: benelson1985 at gmail dot com.

 

 

Cook Islands-

I’ve read many of the reviews and comments on these boards and gathered some ideas for our activities for Aitutaki and Rarotonga but if anyone has any recent experiences or suggestions that they’d like to share I would love to hear them. We love to snorkel and tend to book more water activities than land activities and are always on the look out for the best snorkeling options.

 

I can’t wait for our next PG adventure. Thank you in advance for any suggestions you are willing to provide!

 

 

Brooke

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On Rarotonga we booked a private tour via tuk tuk, and it was a hoot, we had a great time. It was cheaper than the ship's bus tour, and we got to customize our time. It's at http://www.tik-etours.com/ .

 

I would just call PG Cruises about the OWB's at the IC. And then it's just a straight price comparison with what it would cost to book privately. In general, the cruise package will be a bit pricier, but not bad value, especially with that early check-in (although sometimes you'll get an early check-in anyways.)

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My suggestion on suggestions on excursions would be to go checkout the reviews on the PG forum. There are two that are within the last year. One is mine, the other by deladane ;)

 

I've actually already read those reviews. They were fantastic and I greatly appreciate the time that you put into those posts!

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On Rarotonga we booked a private tour via tuk tuk, and it was a hoot, we had a great time. It was cheaper than the ship's bus tour, and we got to customize our time. It's at http://www.tik-etours.com/ .

 

This really looks like a lot of fun. Definitely a strong contender on my list. I really like that this is something a little different than what we normally do for our excursions. Thanks for sharing!

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I've actually already read those reviews. They were fantastic and I greatly appreciate the time that you put into those posts!

 

On Rarotonga the most popular area is either in Avarua for shopping or the Muri Beach area. There are a few ships excursions to this beautiful area of the island as well as some private vendors. Muri Beach is very pretty and not to be missed IMO.

 

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