#79263 - 02/26/09 11:43 AM
Question about Boat Transfer fees...........
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gregorygrady
Junior Member
Registered: 02/26/09
Posts: 34
Loc: USA
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I see all the BB Resorts have "boat transfer fees". I'm staying at 3 different resorts during my 8 night stay in BB next month. How do they all handle the boat transfer fees if I'm just switching between resorts and not actually going to/from the BOB airport each time? Here are the boat transfer fees for the resorts I'll be at:
IC Thalasso = COMPULSORY fee of ~$55 per person each way
Le Meridien = $75 (roundtrip I assume?) charge pp per stay
IC Thalasso = COMPULSORY fee of ~$55 per person each way
Since the ICs are my first and last stays, I assume I can do a one-way to/from the airport for $55 for each of us. How about the LM stay? Can I walk the 1/4 mile from Thalasso next door to LM and save myself $150 in boat charges for the two of us? Or will they try to charge me the $150 regardless even if I never step foot on their boat? I was even thinking of throwing a night in at the BB Nui since I can get it for a paltry 40k Hilton pts, but dealing with the transfers there seems like it might be a bit too much of a hassle.
Thanks in advance for any tips if you've switched hotels in BB and had to deal with this.
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#79267 - 02/26/09 12:18 PM
Re: Question about Boat Transfer fees...........
[Re: gregorygrady]
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DenverJoe
Expert Advisor
Registered: 09/10/02
Posts: 1849
Loc: Denver, Co.
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3 resorts for an 8 day stay? You'll spend most of your time packing, transferring, and then unpacking. I'd cut it to a max of 2 (and that's pushing it IMO) resorts. And you plan on walking with your luggage? Keeping it to 1 or 2, at most, resorts, you'll save transfer fees also.
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Nothing better than a Hinano in hand and toes in the sand.
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#79268 - 02/26/09 12:20 PM
Re: Question about Boat Transfer fees...........
[Re: gregorygrady]
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Poehere
Expert Advisor
Registered: 08/18/07
Posts: 2340
Loc: FP
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Any reason you're staying at 3 resorts within a 8 day stay? Usually it is the "collecting" resort that sends a p/u transfer some do foc... ask them and negotiate! The shuttle from LM passes virtually in front of the Thalasso when heading to the landbase on the main island.
In theory you could walk, only one "hoa" (water channel) between Thalasso and LM, it'll be something though dragging your luggage lol
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* with sunshine *
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#79272 - 02/26/09 01:23 PM
Re: Question about Boat Transfer fees...........
[Re: Poehere]
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gregorygrady
Junior Member
Registered: 02/26/09
Posts: 34
Loc: USA
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Thanks for the quick answers!!!
We don't pack or unpack when moving. We live out of our suitcases. So that's not a problem, nor is lugging them from place to place since we only travel with carryons. We'd each have a single 22-inch roller bag that weighs maybe 20 lbs max. After many, many trips to Hawaii we've learned to only pack 2 swimsuits and a few pairs of underwear, a couple shirts, etc.
And the reason we are staying at 3 different resorts is cuz we have 4 free nights at LeMeridien and we have 2 BOGO (Buy One Get One Free Weekend Night) certs for IC. We could do both IC weekends at IC Thalasso but I figured it would be nice to check out IC Moana as well. So shelling out for 2 nights and getting 8 nights is the reason we are switching.
I'm not worried about crossing the "hoa" as from Google Earth it looks like there is a bridge (or 2 or 3) across it. I'm more worried about Le Meridien trying to charge me $150 when I never stepped foot on their boat.
And I'm not worried about the IC transfer since there is a free boat that goes back and forth between ICs, so that shouldn't be difficult.
If anybody else has transferred hotels on BB, let me know how it went and if you were charged the boat fees by all hotels, etc. Thanks.........
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#79275 - 02/26/09 02:47 PM
Re: Question about Boat Transfer fees...........
[Re: gregorygrady]
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Poehere
Expert Advisor
Registered: 08/18/07
Posts: 2340
Loc: FP
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I'd stick to the Thalasso in that case, no comparison at all with the IC Moana and you could check it out by taking the free shuttle for a lunch trip or so!
If you don't have an airport p/u from LM they can't charge you for that. You'll just have to negotiate a "descent" transfer between Thalasso and LM, as said the LM shuttle passes right in front of the IC so it is not like they'd have to do an island tour to pick you up. BTW you won't be able to roll your bag between the Thalasso and LM.
In view of the number of tourists at this time anything should be negotiable so I would give that a try.
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* with sunshine *
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#79341 - 03/03/09 11:40 AM
Re: Question about Boat Transfer fees...........
[Re: Poehere]
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gregorygrady
Junior Member
Registered: 02/26/09
Posts: 34
Loc: USA
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[quote=Poehere]I'd stick to the Thalasso in that case, no comparison at all with the IC Moana and you could check it out by taking the free shuttle for a lunch trip or so!
If you don't have an airport p/u from LM they can't charge you for that. You'll just have to negotiate a "descent" transfer between Thalasso and LM, as said the LM shuttle passes right in front of the IC so it is not like they'd have to do an island tour to pick you up. BTW you won't be able to roll your bag between the Thalasso and LM.
In view of the number of tourists at this time anything should be negotiable so I would give that a try. [/quote]
I think 6 nights on the motu will probably be more than enough for us, so I think I'm gonna stick with my plan to try out IC Le Moana for a couple nights, especially with the ease of the free transfer between Thalasso and Le Moana. Although who knows, maybe we'll love it so much on the motu that we'll change out plans and do 4 nights at Thalasso.
We'll probably also give the short trek a try as well. We'll know whether ot not it'll work when we get there as I'll walk over and see how difficult it is when we arrive and before we schlep with our bags. But it won't be necessary to roll our bags between hotels. Not sure if I mentioned it, but each of our bags will be less than 20 pounds, hopefully we can carry 20 pounds for a quarter mile.............afterall, we do need SOME exercise after lounging around on our OWB deck all day. :-)
Oh yeah, and thanks for the info on the airport pickup charge. That will save us $150........................I'll consider that a "free" dinner at Bloody Mary's for us. ;-)
Edited by gregorygrady (03/03/09 11:42 AM)
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#79811 - 03/29/09 04:33 PM
Re: Question about Boat Transfer fees...........
[Re: Poehere]
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gregorygrady
Junior Member
Registered: 02/26/09
Posts: 34
Loc: USA
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[quote=Poehere]I'd stick to the Thalasso in that case, no comparison at all with the IC Moana and you could check it out by taking the free shuttle for a lunch trip or so!
If you don't have an airport p/u from LM they can't charge you for that. You'll just have to negotiate a "descent" transfer between Thalasso and LM, as said the LM shuttle passes right in front of the IC so it is not like they'd have to do an island tour to pick you up. BTW you won't be able to roll your bag between the Thalasso and LM.
In view of the number of tourists at this time anything should be negotiable so I would give that a try. [/quote]
Well, I guess I'm not a good negotiator. Actually I didn't really even get the chance to negotiate. IC Thalasso told me what time to be at the dock for my transfer to LM. I assumed it must be free since they didn't charge me for it. Of course it turned out LM picked me up and chaged me the full 5000 XPF for it. I asked at the LM front desk about this and they said the charge is the exact same for the 20+ minute airport transfer as it is for the 0.5km transfer over to IC Thalasso. What a crock!!! Anyways, you better believe I didn't pay it on my way back to IC Thalasso on my return. Instead I used the outrigger canoe, paddled over to my OWB at LM, tossed my bags and wife into the outrigger, and paddled over to Thalasso. When we pulled up to the Thalasso boat dock, they said they'd never seen anybody transfer themselves before. :-) I dropped off the wife and luggage and paddled back and then ran back to IC. Saved me about $60 and was a fun adventure (not like we were doing anything else that day other than lounging on our OWB deck anyways). :-)
One interesting thing is that the airport transfer fees vary quite widely depending on the hotel:
Le Meridien was only 5000 XPF roundtrip per person.
St Regis was 7500 XPF roundtrip per person.
Both ICs were a whopping 8470 XPF roundtrip per person.
Not sure why the ICs think they deserve to charge so much more for their transfers. In fact the St Regis boat looked much nicer then the IC boat. From the wording on the IC reservations, it seems like the IC transfers are "compulsory" or mandatory. I guess its just another add-on fee to gouge money out of customers. Especially if you are staying at IC Le Moana, it seems like it would be far cheaper (and not much less convenient) to take the 800 XPF bus to Vaitape and then the free Air Tahiti boat from there to the airport. And you'd save about $75 each way per couple.
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