SCL-IPC seat assignments - For the flight to IPC, get a window seat on the right side to see the island on the way in, and fly on the left when leaving the island.

National Park Ticket - The airport-only discount rumored on other threads, reducing the price from $60 US to $50 US seems to have ended. Expect to pay the full $60. However, despite losing my national park ticket within a few hours of arrival, I never had to show my national park ticket. Maybe I was just lucky.

Hotel reservations upon arrival - Per the advice of others on this thread, I decided to book/negotiate my hotel upon arrival. Unfortunately, I can't recommend the one I ended up with -- Hostel VaiHere. The owner/operator is a very nice woman, but the room I ended up in wasn't great. The location was very good -- a few minute walk to the main road of the town.

The hostel is pretty much a personal home divided in half: half residence, half hostel. The room for my first night had only two light bulbs, and no fan. There were two doors connecting to the room, but they were blocked, as it led to the private residence. It was quite warm. Never underestimate the benefit of having a fan in the room! My second night, I spent in a room with a nice large window, which was a welcome benefit, but the bathroom was shared (despite my insistence I'd have a private ensuite bathroom).

I really shouldn't complain for the rate I received (20,000 pesos per night, or $35), but the two rooms I stayed in were rather uncomfortable. Other operators at the airport were offering rooms at 30,000 pesos per night.

Car rental - Again, based off of other reports, I decided to wait to book my vehicle by walking down the main road to the various car rental places. The rate I was quoted at the airport was 55,000 pesos/day (~$98) for an automatic transmission. After visiting four car rental places on the main road (I later learned there's a fifth if you go uphill from the post office), the best price I could find was 50,000 pesos/day (~$90, cash only), a discount off of the 85,000 pesos/day (~$153) credit card price for a 4WD pickup truck. The price should have been around 30-35,000 pesos, but my hostel owner was unable to negotiate such a rate.

The only gas station - There's only one gas station on the island. And there's only two choices of gas: diesel or unleaded. You can pay for gas with a credit card... provided that the convenience store is open. The convenience store was closed all day Sunday and most of Monday morning.

Currency denominations - According to multiple people on the island, small denominations of currency are scarce, since everyone comes to the island with 10,000 peso notes. Which might explain why everything on the island seems to be 5,000 peso increments.

Sunday on the island - Don't expect anything to be open before the early afternoon. And due to the rainy conditions, I figure a lot of owner/operators decided to stay in and not open their business. Then there was a power outage Sunday evening, further limiting the operating hours.

Businesses with backup generators - The two supermarkets on the main road, the pharmacy, maybe others, but if the power goes out, not much will be happening on the island.

The moai - I don't regret going to Easter Island, but it reminds of a destination like Niagara Falls. Once you've seen it, you're kind of done with it (a Japanese tourist I encountered on the island: "I don't care about statues any more!"). And since most of the moai are toppled, it's hard to distinguish which piles of rocks have significance, and which ones don't (or at least, without a tour guide). Although I preferred my self-guided, self-paced tour compared to the large groups being herded around the island. It's still a really cool place to visit.

Stargazing - One thing I cannot recommend strongly enough is to go stargazing at least one of your nights out on the island. Drive only 15 minutes away from the town on the island, and you'll see tons of stars with the naked eye. I saw at least a dozen meteors, and my visit didn't even coincide with a meteor shower. The Milky Way is also visible, and very awesome to look at. I doubt you'll find a cab driver to drive you to a remote part of the island in the middle of the night, so this is another reason to rent a car.

If you bring items to the island - If you do decide to bring items to the island, be it food or something else, I recommend taking your trash with you back to the mainland. I'm not an environmentalist, but when I thought about where all the trash from the island ends up, I decided to cart out all of my trash to a place that probably has substantial recycling facilities. There's trash/recycling cans as soon as you disembark in SCL, so it's pretty easy to do.