Showing posts with label Moorea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moorea. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Intercontinental Moorea Review and Trip Report

Our trip to Bora Bora, Moorea & Tahiti
We were just sitting around being bummed with the less than spectacular Hilton Diamond stay. We decided to hurry up and pack and take an early taxi to the IC Moorea. The private taxi was $25 from the Hilton to IC and a scenic 10 minute trip. The rain held off until we got our luggage out and under the roof of IC. Perfect timing. 
We were greeted with usual amazing ambassador recognition. We were led to the ambassador check in area, which were nice seats in a roped off, exclusive area. We were served two fruit drinks with hand towels that had that amazing Tiare fragrance that I have fallen in love with. I looked at the Mister and said "we are home." He very much agreed. They gave us two vouchers for Mai Tai's at the bar for our Ambassador welcome. 


 This trip has hands down shown me which hotel chain will receive my loyalty. 
While we waited for our room, we went to see the dolphins and the sea turtles. We were able to see both and take pictures to email to the kids back home. 
Sea Turtles

Dolphin Habitat

We had just come back from swimming with the dolphins in the Bahamas, so seeing the sea turtles was exciting and new for us! 
The landscape and scenery here are exactly what I was looking for when I decided to come to Moorea. Hilton let me down and made me a little nervous of my decision to come to Moorea, but this is exactly what I wanted to see. Lush, velvety-green mountains (that are extinct volcanos.) Turquoise emerald waters with the mountains in the backdrop are to die for. I think I would rather have a lagoon bungalow here or a beach bungalow (versus an overwater bungalow) because of the views.  

There were no robes or slippers in our room. Maybe the bungalows have them?
We spent several hours in the infinity pool. The sea wasn't the view I couldn't stop staring at, but the volcano was the most beautiful part. I was mesmerized. Unfortunately both our cameras were charging so we didn't get any pictures of this. 
We received a pinapple delivered to the room as a thank you gift for being an Ambassador. 

Ambassador gift

Upon checkout I chatted with a lovely lady from the South of France named Maud. She had helped us the day before when checking in also. We discovered that both of our Grandmas are from the Amiens area of France! She commented that my French accent was good and it made me so happy. I felt my Grandma was beaming with pride. I have been using my late Grandmother's wheel chair and feel like I am bringing her presence with me on these trips. Again we were thanked for our loyalty as we were leaving. 
Premium Lanai room




Bathroom amenities

Complimentary Mai Tais



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Hilton Moorea Review

Our trip to Bora Bora, Moorea & Tahiti
When we arrived to the airport in Moorea, I had my camera out ready to take a picture of the person who was going to be waiting for us with a sign with our names on it, which was arranged through the resort. No such person was there. Several minutes a van pulls up and a man walks in with a piece of paper asking if we were one of these four couples. We were, so we loaded up in the van. A French couple was with us as well and they had a small child with them and held her, not worrying about a carseat. It was maybe a 15-20 minute ride from the airport to the Hilton. It was pouring and there was mild flooding going on in low lying areas of the streets. 

View from plane
It was $32 for the pick up of 2 people from the airport to Hilton, with a shared taxi. We were able to charge the taxi ride to our room upon arrival. This saved our cash plus then we were able to get HiltonHonor points for the taxi ride!
We arrived and I was shown where the front desk is to check in. Silly as it may be, I was like "ohhhh, I have to use the front desk!" I have more status with Hilton as a Diamond member than I do with Intercontinental as a Platinum Ambassador, so I was expecting to be wow'ed at least the same. When it was finally my turn, we were told we had been "upgraded" to the same room just closer to the beach. We were also told we were upgraded to a room with a pool, when the room we booked clearly states it has a pool. We were not close to the beach at all. Sometimes through the trees I could see a very small glimpse of blue that I assumed was water. We were offered pineapple juice at check in. I had to ask about the diamond (and gold) member benefit of free breakfast as there was nothing in the envelope she handed me about it. I was told I would get the continental breakfast free and that to upgrade to the American breakfast was $10 per person. Just show up and they would know it would be free. I also was concerned there was no water given to me, but I wasn't feeling well and just wanted to get to my room so I could lay down. We were told that normally the concierge would want to talk to us but because we were diamond she didn't want us to have to wait.  We waited for a porter to take us to our room in a golf cart since it was raining. 

Front desk

The outdoor appeal was okay, nothing gorgeous. 

Garden Bungalow

Inside the bathroom were our 2 waters. No recognition note or amenity. But the wifi worked well so I set it up quickly, climbed into bed and FaceTime'd the kids back home. There was an ice bucket, but no lid or liner. The bucket itself was dirty on the inside. 

Bedroom


View from bed

Bathroom vanity

Shower

View of pool at night

For lunch we went to Rotui and shared a Margherita pizza beachfront. 


The restaurant's Margherita pizza has black olives on it, where as room services does not. But room service has a $17 fee for delivery so we opted to go out. It was raining so we did not have a great view, however the insane heat was now just a nice breeze. No need for sunscreen or hats and sunglasses. After lunch we walked around, then headed back to the room as it was pouring and there were no activities we could join. 



I called the spa but they were booked for Valentine's Day. I decided to take a dip in our private pool. Once I got in, about knee deep, I realized it was way too cold for me. The rain may have played a part in that. 

Instead I decided to take a hot bath in the pretty claw tub.

 I went to turn it on and there were hairs the opposite color of mine in there, plus dried old soap. I called and told them and they sent housekeeping to re-clean it. I had to wait about 45 minutes for the cleaning to happen, which meant there was no time for me to take a bath before our 7pm dinner reservations. 
They did provide two robes, but it also had hair on it. No slippers.  Before we left for dinner our phone continued to make a ticking noise. We finally called the front desk and were told we needed to come back and see the concierge about booking their travel for when we left the resort at checkout. I thought that was tacky to bug us to come spend more money. 
The  Arii Vahine steakhouse had just changed their menu, so we each had to pick out new entrees from our previous selections. No big deal on my end as I just picked a different pasta. But the husband was looking forward to swordfish and had to switch it out for mahi mahi. Overall our dinner was good. We asked to be moved inside under the fan because it was so humid. Before we left on the trip, I was emailed a Saint Valentine's Day schedule of events and special dinner. We decided not to reserve the dinner because it was food we did not eat, such as kangaroo steaks. I was eager for the dancing however I never saw any special Valentine's Day activities at all. Obviously the beach dinner had been rained out and moved to the Rotui restaurant. But there was no dancing? Not a huge deal. As we were eating, a lady came over and verified our room number. She said  we were receiving a complimentary bottle of champagne and cookies and we asked that it be taken to the room instead. 

Mahi Mahi
Valentine's Day

The room did have great air conditioning. On the way back to the room we made a stop at the crepe restaurant where we were told at night there are sharks. We in fact were able to see 3 sharks and many fish. 
Reef shark

The sounds of the birds were intimidating. One sounded like a baby crying. We seriously thought there was a baby in the ocean until it dove at our heads and we realized it was a bird. Some birds growl. It felt a little like the Wizard of Oz's flying monkeys were about to make an appearance. 
We also stopped in to the concierge to make those taxi arrangements to the next hotel. We were not offered a late checkout, but I am completely okay with that. I would rather get to the Intercontinental sooner where I feel appreciated. 
The champagne was waiting for us in a nice new clean bucket of ice as well as a thank you card for being a diamond, and a box of cookies. 
Ambassador gifts

The bed was comfortable and I slept well until I was awoke at 5am with roosters crowing.  Another new bird noise, similar to a whooper wheel had decided to make my window its home. They could be heard over the pouring rain. 
Breakfast was served at the same steakhouse that we had dinner at. The continental breakfast was more than enough for us to get full on. I had a taste test of all the local jams. There were doughnuts, pain au chocolate, croissants, breads, cereals, yogurts, fruits, eggs, cheeses and cold sliced meats. Juices, milk, hot chocolate and coffee were also included.





 I stood up from my chair to get more peanut butter and apparently I had been sitting on a lizard. It scurried across my seat and I was sure to switch chairs. 
After breakfast we wandered around taking pictures again. At the front desk, they were giving flower and shell necklaces to those arriving. We did not get either yesterday so I was a little let down. 



Since it is still raining I wanted to finally take a hot bath. No joke, brown water came out. They had told us not to drink the water and only drink bottled, but I was not expecting brown bath water. So I never got to take a bath.  

The grounds crew staff does work very hard to keep the resort grounds beautiful. They were out very early to clean the leaves after the storm had stopped. 

Looking back on the stay, I wished we would have just asked and paid for an upgrade. Maybe it would have made our stay enjoyable, having a great view. 

*edited to add, upon leaving we were given a shell necklace. Apparently on arrival we were supposed to have received the flower lei and departures receive the shells. 

Another note, I was just not happy with how this stay went. When I got home I reached out to customer service with my complaints and I feel they made it right with me. Kuddos to their amazing customer care team. 

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How We Hacked This Trip to Bora Bora, Moorea and Tahiti



Our trip to Bora Bora, Moorea and Tahiti



Just like everyone else in the world, we have dreamed of seeing the aqua waters of Bora Bora. My ultimate goal when I began "travel hacking" was to get to Bora Bora. 3 years almost to the date and we made it happen!

I used the IHG Rewards MasterCard by Chase to get the bonus points upon sign up. I put every bill we had on this card. Insurance, utilities, gas, food ect. 3 years worth of living expenses got us enough points to make the trip of our life happen! 
I was also able to add on an extra night from the recent Priceless Surprises Promotion where I received an additional 51,000+ points. 

 The Breakdown:
The 1st night we stayed at the Intercontinental Le Moana in Bora Bora using my Chase Free Anniversary night certificate that you get on each year of the year anniversary of opening your credit card. The overwater bungalow was listed for $1039 a night for our dates.

Nights 2, 3 and 4 were 50,000 points each at Intercontinental Thalasso.
 *Note, IHG has just changed their point levels, future reservations will be 60,000 points here, still completely worth it. The sapphire overwater bungalow on our dates, was listed at $1251 a night. 

Night 5 was at the Hilton Moorea using 133,900 points. The Deluxe Garden Bungalow was listed for $547. 

Night 6 was at the Intercontinental Moorea using 40,000 points. The premium Lanai room was listed for $320. 

Night 7 was at the Intercontinental Tahiti using 40,000 points + $180 to upgrade to the brand new Motu Overwater Bungalow. We saved $725 (minus $180.)

I also purchased an Ambassador membership from IHG for $200. That got is a lot of great perks such as upgrade rooms, fruit plates, drinks and gifts. We received a value much over the cost of the membership! 

Airfare-
You can hack the majority of this trip with points and miles. But the flights from Tahiti to the other islands are on an airline called Air Tahiti (different airline than the larger Air Tahiti Nui.) There is no loyalty program with them and no way to use miles to redeem for free flights. The only way around this is if you have a credit card, such as the Barclays Arrival card where you purchase the travel, then use the $400 sign up bonus to credit back the flight cost. 
We used our $400 to go to Jamaica for a surprise anniversary trip, so we had to pay for these flights at full price. We paid $435 each including taxes for our flights from Papeete, Tahiti to Bora Bora, and from Bora Bora to Moorea. (We took the ferry from Moorea back to Papeete.)

The flights from the US to Tahiti:
Air Tahiti Nui flies out of LAX with a nonstop flight to Tahiti bit is about an 8 hour flight. They partner with American Airlines as a code share, which means you can book this flight for free (just paying taxes) with American Airlines miles! 
Air France also flies from LAX to Tahiti, but they have a limited schedule that did not fit our timetable for this trip. Sadly, because I would have preferred to have their miles versus Air Tahiti Nui Club Tiare miles or American Airlines miles. 
Hawaiian Airlines also flies from Hawaii to Tahiti. You can use their miles for a free rewards flight as well. This would be a great option to break up the length of the flights with a really awesome layover, possibly even adding extra nights in Hawaii. (Shout out to Gina and Tonya who just did this!) I believe Air Alaska is also a partner so if you have miles with them you can book the free reward flight through them. 

We weighed our options and decided to purchase our airfare from LAX to Tahiti. We found a really great sale from Air Tahiti Nui. For what our miles are worth, it made more sense for us to by the tickets, as the worth of the amount of miles we would have to redeem for this trip was alot more than what we paid. We are saving our miles for another trip back to Europe with the whole family. Our fare was $998 per person. 
I recommend signing up for the above airline's email newsletters. That is how I found out about the great sale. We bought the tickets for $600 less per ticket than the original price we saw when we started planning this trip! 

Side note, we met several couples who flew Air Tahiti Nui to Auckland, New Zealand with a layover both ways in Tahiti. You can pick how many nights your layover is and plan a French Polynesia trip with the New Zealand trip to save money. I saw airfares from $888 roundtrip from Los Angeles to Auckland! I also hears there are packages that include free hotel in Tahiti for your layover! It is about another 5 hours to get to New Zealand from Tahiti. 

So this brings us to a grand total of over $6200 in free hotel! And not just run of the mill hotel rooms. Some of the most luxurious rooms with the best views in the world!

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