brodielayne

Expensive call? Use Skype and give them a ring.

LA_FadeAway

Good idea. I've never really used Skype but I could probably figure it out, lol.

brodielayne

I was a late bloomer myself. I strictly use it for crap like this.

LA_FadeAway

Well, Skype was going to cost between $5 and $20, depending on how long the call takes, so I decided to chat with T-Mobile to find out how much one call would really cost. After they gave me a bunch of inaccurate info a supervisor came on and gave me one month of their stateside international calling plan for free so I can call the hotel for $0.35 a minute as much as I want for the next month now, lol.

LA_FadeAway

Following up on the above, I just called the hotel directly using the "customer care" number listed on my reservations. The nice man I spoke with said they do not charge a monetary penalty, but they do charge one night's points (120,000) for cancellations within the 30-days leading up to the reservation. I asked if that would be 360,000 points since we have 3 reservations and he said, no, they recognize and link multiple reservations for the same people and it would only be one night's points. I reiterated the question several different ways and he confirmed that it would only be 120,000 points total even though we have 9 nights reserved on 3 separate reservations. I believe the Diamond desk agent earlier today may have misunderstood, since English was clearly not her first language, or maybe she didn't clarify exactly how many points would be charged. Regardless, if the man I spoke to at the hotel was correct, this is a much better scenario. Hopefully, none of this will matter since we fully intend to go and have an awesome anniversary trip in April!

Splotly

Does anyone have experience they can share of getting from Moorea to Papeete airport for an early morning flight?

We’ve 2 nights in French Polynesia after we leave Conrad Bora Bora and we’re thinking of going to Hilton Moorea.

The flight we need to be on leaves Papeete on a Tuesday at 10am.

I can see there’s ferries that leave Moorea between 5-6am so in principle it seems possible. But I’m keen to hear what practical / actual experience anyone has of trying to do this without it going horribly wrong!

Xyzzy

I'd go the night befre and stay at the Tahiti Airport Motel, though I suppose an early ferry would probably do it. The Hilton Moorea is at the opposite end of the island from the ferry, so you'd have to leave quite early.

wlp07

Stayed six nights on points over NYE 2024. Weather was great 5/6 days, so we lucked out there.

Both of us are diamonds, and we received a one category upgrade to a tropical beach view villa 504. These are set back against the hill to the side of the building which houses the gym and entry-level rooms. It was nice to not have to share walls with other guests, but views from the spacious deck were mostly obstructed by the palm trees growing in front. A nice atmosphere, but not a dazzling view to be sure. At check-in, I asked our butler/personal concierge about the possibility of a further diamond upgrade, and was told that the hotel was full, but many guests were checking out Jan. 1 so that could be looked into at that point. Well Jan. 1 came and I asked, and was referred to the front desk to inquire, and was told that there would be no possibility of a complimentary diamond upgrade and was quoted about $1k/nt if I wanted an OWB. We've stayed in owb's before and didn't want it that bad. This did, however, portend a pattern of behavior from out butler wherein he would routinely redirect us to other personnel around the resort versus taking care of requests himself and simplifying our stay.

The NYE dinner: Two options: Buffet at $350pp, or sit-down at $500pp. Buffet was at Iriatai, the breakfast place, while sit-down was at the sandy floor restaurant beside the pool. Sit down was sold hard as the "premium option" with a live band, but in reality there was live music at the buffet too. The buffet is what we chose and it was amazing, with super high-quality fresh sushi, sashimi, nigiri, beef wellington, duck, etc. Food offerings were diverse and top notch. We were disappointed about getting charged extra for water, and in an underhanded way, in our estimation. At each table, they had already set a bottle of still water. No price was noted on it, and unlike at breakfast, the buffet offered no other drinks. So in context, we (and we know of a few others) presumed that this water was included in the $350 pp for the buffet. Wrong! Found out after getting the tab that it was an extra ten bucks if you wanted to drink water with your meal! Just came off as a cheap cash-grab.

Is NYE dinner/gala required? It appears not. It's strongly pushed by ALL butlers if they become aware that you are not already signed up for one of the options, but rather than telling you straight out that it's required, they say that everything else is closed on NYE evening and it's the only available option. In line while checking out, we overheard a lady contest the bill for the NYE buffet, stating she hadn't attended, and the charge was removed. Also, at booking, there was no language stating that attendance or at least paying for the dinner/gala was mandatory. May have been an omission, but either way, it wasn't there. At least for this past new year's it strongly appeared that one could "get out" of having to go to or pay for the NYE meal/festivities. As impressive as the buffet was, I'd say this is probably a good night to dine in on food that you brought to the resort with you

NYE fireworks: At midnight, a barge some distance off of the pier let off an impressive display of fireworks, considering the remoteness of the location. The display went on for several minutes and even had a pretty good grand finale. This was definitely arranged by Conrad, as there's nothing and no one else out there to see it. Still, it was a fairly small gathering of folks at Upa Upa/ the pier to watch it, where there was a DJ and even a couple of people dancing from time to time. Some may have watched from their bungalows, but it seemed more like most people just crashed out before the clock struck midnight (I may have wished to have been among them).

Service: Very hit or miss to put it mildly. Our butler/personal concierge was not interested in doing much for us, preferring to direct us to talk to various departments around the resort. Remote communication with your butler is achieved via WhatsApp. It appears to be a "party line" where other personnel can also see and respond to messages, but the understanding seems to be if your assigned butler is on duty, they are to be the one to help you. One day we asked for our butler to reserve us a spot on the boat going into town. This time, he replied he'd look into availability and would get back with us. We were kind of surprised that he appeared to accept the request without redirecting us elsewhere, but we also weren't fully convinced if he'd come through for us. An hour passed, and we'd heard nothing. We happened to be at the pool at the time, so I decided to take the short walk to the concierge desk dockside to make the reservation myself, which was quickly and favorably handled within seconds. Another hour passes, and it's now thirty minutes prior to the boat's departure time, and our butler pipes up via WhatsApp and states, quite matter-of-factly, that the boat is fully reserved and therefore my wife can't go on this one (which happened to be the last free one of the day). I didn't respond and just had to laugh at the laziness/incompetence. Good thing we'd already picked up on the vibe that he couldn't be trusted to achieve anything that mattered. Though our butler probably had no business working in such capacity, it appeared that others may have been quite good. It wasn't uncommon for us to cross paths with other butlers (who weren't ours) around the resort, and they'd often ask us all on their own if there was anything they could do to help us. Maybe they assign the bad ones to those staying on points. Who knows. The ladies working the pool bar didn't have the rosiest of personalities, either. That seems like a position where you'd want friendly and outgoing folks, but what do I know. Service at the breakfast buffet was always top notch, and the folks working the front desk were consummate professionals and quite friendly.

Oddities associated with layout of the resort itself: Conrad BB has an amazing beach. It is long, fairly wide, consists of soft, powdery white sand, and even has areas where the entry has a sandy bottom so you don't have to wear swimming shoes to avoid broken reef bits. It is difficult to overstate how rare it is to find these qualities in a beach in the society islands. It is truly unique and special. Yet, I noticed that there was seldom a soul on any of the hotel's beaches, which seemed curious to me given that the hotel was at capacity. No doubt many folks with OWB's choose to lounge on their back porch and with good reason. But the hotel also has many land-based rooms, and for them the beach is their access to the legendary waters of Bora Bora. So what gives? Here's my theory: Poor layout of the OWB's. About 90% of the aforementioned wonderful beach feels "closed in" by the owb's and their walkways. They are laid out such that, in most areas, owb's are aligned parallel to and close to the shoreline, so your immediate view is of concrete pylons, walkways and railings, and bungalows. There are "gaps" on either side of the dock, and in front of the two beach bugalows, but that's really about it, and the gaps aren't as big as you'd like them to be. Most other resorts on BB have their OWB's laid out such that they do not extensively obstruct views from their recreational shorelines. In short, the chosen layout for OWB's negates the otherwise amazing and unique beach.

Diamond benefits: Aforementioned 1 category upgrade, late checkout (to 4pm when we were leaving the resort, very nice), complimentary breakfast (no one bothered us with the hot/cold distinction), welcome amenity of chocolate and a separate bottle of wine, access to the diamond/honors beach. Overall, very good benefits and recognition.

Strange charge after checkout: Having fully settled the bill at checkout, I noticed a couple days later a strange charge of several hundred bucks to my credit card from the hotel which I was unable to reconcile with my copy of the bill. Come to find out that room service charged us for a couple bottles of booze after we'd checked out. Because, ya know, everyone loves to buy booze at 10x the retail price immediately before leaving the resort for places where the same stuff is dirt cheap by comparison. The kicker was whoever did the charge also tipped themselves to the tune of 100% of the bill. That took this out of the ambit of a possible mistake to pretty obvious and intentional fraud. The hotel was quick to reverse the charge and provided some honors points for the trouble, but this obviously left a foul taste in my mouth.

Overall vibe/decor: This has been stated elsewhere, but the room decor doesn't throw a strongly polynesian vibe. If you close the curtains, the room starts to feel closer to any other high end hotel in the west. This can be a positive or negative depending on who you are. For me, if I'm down in french polynesia, I like seeing a thatched roof from the inside, and lots of decor/furnishings which convey the south pacific vibe.

Overall, even with the shortcomings we experienced, it's a great value redemption of hilton points. That said, I don't see myself rushing back to this resort. I enjoyed my stay at IHG Le Moana and Thalasso more in prior years. I would, however, like to try the Hilton Moorea, but they seem even harder to score on points than Conrad BB!

IntTraveller

Thank you for your thorough review. When making my reservations in November I saw a note on the webpage that the dinner was mandatory - it looks like it is in the sense that all other dining options are closed but not completely enforced. I am guessing, are the $350 / $500 dinner charges before the added taxes and service charges or it this the final amount billed ?

I agree that the beach was mostly empty and the view is indeed obstructed by the OWB. It would have been nice to see a wider stretch of the open ocean. The beach wasn't busy at all during our stay, likely less so since there were quite a few heavy downpours.

At the checkout I noticed a small discrepancy with one of the room service tips. 200 CPF (about $2) had been added to one of the room service tips. It was unlikely a data entry typo but I did not want to make a big deal out of it. In light of the reported incorrect mini bar charge plus tips I am starting to wonder if there is a common theme here by some workers to inflate the charges and tips.

LA_FadeAway

Great review wlp07. Thank you so much for sharing!

Xyzzy

We recently stayed at the Hilton Mauritius resort. There were similar notes at booking time about mandatory dinners for Christmas and NYE. nce at the hotel, though, it became clear that that while they were pushing the dinner the requirement was only for guests who were on the hotel meal plan. Perhaps that was the same at the Conrad Bora Bora.

wlp07

I rented the stronger 30hp pontoon. Yes, they did verify my boater safety ID card, issued by Florida, which is not a boater’s “license”.

wlp07

IntTraveller Apparently inclusive of any taxes/service charges. One pleasant surprise was the lack of those across the board at checkout, save some flat daily local tax which was de minimus.

wlp07

Other details relevant to staying over New Years (or mid-year) in relation to hilton credit card credits:

This was a stay from dec 29to jan 3. Didn’t call or email ahead to run any charges. Front desk personnel were very good, understanding, and happy to run charges in the desired amounts on our various hilton cards prior to the new year. We ran charges on the cards on Dec 30 and the transactions posted to the CC accounts the same day. No issue separating charges at checkout either.

Don’t bother mentioning this stuff to your butler when you first show up on the dock. They will ask for a card to have on file, but in my experience are clueless as to whether and how to spread charges across cards/ability to charge cards mid-stay before checkout. Just handle with the front desk.

We’re still waiting for the credits to post, but I’m not sweating it at this point.

wlp07

The butlers certainly pushed the dinner on us, despite us not being on a meal plan. Even butlers who weren’t assigned to us would bring it up if we happened to converse in the days leading up to NYE. There was very much an emphasis on signing up/reserving one of the two options. I’d be curious to learn what would have happened had we not voluntarily signed up. I suspect there would have been no charge, as the process was ultimately the same as any other restaurant on any other day where they bring the tab at the end, and you sign and bill to the room.