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# Trouble booking at resorts - no reply Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Fiji
mankoff 12:48 UTC 30 Oct 2007 | I've bought the plane ticket and am trying to reserve a bure, but Alberts resort and Vale Levu / Indigo Waves are simply not responding. I've sent stuff through their websites and tried calling and I cannot get ahold of anyone. Any advice on what to do? Should I pick a different place? Are they still open? Is it OK to just show up without reservations? Any advice on a minimal place on Kadavu would be appreciated. If Alberts and/or Vale Levu / Indigo Waves do not reply we're thinking of Matava or Waisalima. Suggestions/advice welcome. Thanks & Happy Travels, -k. -- Sent from Antarctica: http://pace.edgcm.columbia.edu</a> |
andrewboyle 07:51 UTC 17 Nov 2007 | Alberts place is gorgeous - you should have a great time. There could be any reason why you haven't had a response. I note there's a phone number in the LP Fiji book. give them a ring. country code is 679 Good luck Andrew | 1
cardamom 09:04 UTC 17 Nov 2007 | "Is it OK to just show up without reservations?" There's always someplace to stay no worries. Have you tried Kenia? | 2
5waldos 09:55 UTC 17 Nov 2007 | Pick up the telephone and call. These days it isn't that expensive anyplace in the world. And there is almost always someone speaking English. | 3
raro 15:08 UTC 17 Nov 2007 | Hi 5Waldos---just to add to your statement for others reading this who may be traveling to the Cooks: "Pick up the telephone and call. These days it isn't that expensive anyplace in the world." True of course for the most part, as most countries have some competition in the telecommunications industry. However, for anyone heading to the Cooks [not Fiji] from N. America, etc. , it still costs US$8 a minute to call the Cook Islands from the US!! Telecom NZ owns the monopoly Telecom CI! Third-highest int'l phone rates in the world in and out (after McMurdo Base in Antarctica, then Myanmer (Burma) ). | 4
5waldos 21:27 UTC 17 Nov 2007 | There are calling cards available from US to Cook Islands, some less than a dollar a minute. Try Google. On Sprint, it is $5.00 a minute- not great. But you might at least get through and alert them to the fact that you have emailed them and PLEASE answer. | 5
raro 03:17 UTC 18 Nov 2007 | Good to know about those cards. But if one does not take the time to get a card via the internet, and just picks up the phone to call the Cooks, they should just keep it short! We actually had a guest who was shocked to learn it would cost about US$3 a minute to call the US from the Cooks (it is just cheaper in that direction). So, she decided to call her sister "collect" since she "knew phone rates in the US were lower". They spoke for about 15 minutes. She e-mailed me a week after she got home and told me the phone call cost her sister (whom she reimbursed) about US$150!!! They charged her sister US$ 18 "connection fee". US$15 "operator assist fee", and then US$8/minute for the actual call! | 6
5waldos 03:26 UTC 18 Nov 2007 | arghhh....that is awful. Do any of the internet systems work to the Cooks? I know Skype will, but I think that requires Skype on both ends. I read that there is a plan underway to try and drop the prices. The differences in phone costs are astonishing- these prices to the cooks, and free to Saipan (on Sprint). Makes zero sense. I am glad to know this though because I do tend to pick up and call without thinking anymore. Not that I am on my way to the Cook Islands, sadly. | 7
raro 06:12 UTC 18 Nov 2007 | Well, first there was "Callback", a plan out of Seattle, about 1997. You paid US$10 a month. you'd phone a number in Seattle (from the Cooks), then hang up after one ring. It would then automatically call you back, and you'd be on a US system where it cost US$1/minute to call anywhere in the US or Canada. So, a lot of people signed up for it, including me. Then Telecom CI (with the monopoly) found out about it, and got the gov't to make it ILLEGAL to use any callback services. So, it actually became a CRIME, punishable by a fine and/or prison, to use it!! We thus joined some of the other great democracies in the world that also banned it, such as Albania, Haiti, Myanmar and Cuba. Then SKYPE started. We all signed up, but as we were on a slow dial-up, so all our conversations by phone (via the computer of course) were virtually unintelligble. Then we got a type of limited broadband, so SKYPE could be used a bit, but you'd get a half-decent connection only about 25% of the time. So, still frustrating. Then the long-term Telecom monopoly was finally coming to an end in 2006, after maybe 10 or 15 yrs, or so. So, everyone proposed we open it up to other providers, mainly from Australia and NZ. Facing this, Telecom finally came up with a flat-rate charge for calls up to 1 hour to NZ and Austr., and later to the US. So, calling out for an hour or less to the US it would be a flat NZ$10. However, this rate only applies to home and business lnes, not to the telephone card tourists have to buy to call overseas. That rate is about US$2/minute when the connection fees, etc are included. It should be getting cheaper. Not sure if has recently been opened up to other companies, but Telecom has seen the writing on the wall to some extent. If you look at those charts on the phone cards via Google, you'll see most countries it is about 1 cent to 5 cents a minute. Then one sees the Cooks, Niue, and Nauru--- 150 cents a minute! | 8
mankoff 06:20 UTC 18 Nov 2007 | I'm the original poster, and i already stated i tried calling, and there has been no reply. But thanks for the all the info on int'l phone rate plans. | 9
cardamom 06:56 UTC 18 Nov 2007 | Kadavu is a remote place and time passes differently there-you'll love it! | 10
5waldos 07:11 UTC 18 Nov 2007 | so you did- oops. Keep trying- island time is quite different. Did you let it ring 20 or 30 times? They might be having a discussion and be reluctant to interupt it for something that might entail work. At least I've seen things like that on other islands. Or it might be lunch. Or the ringer might be off. Etc etc etc. But think of it this way- if nobody can get through, and it still exists, it will almost certainly have rooms available! | 11
raro 03:46 UTC 19 Nov 2007 | I second 5Waldos last statement. I once was having dinner at a friend's house in the Cooks, and the phone rings. and rings. and rings. and rings. maybe 20-30 times. Then someone finally gets up and answers it! I asked my friends why they let it ring so long. They just said "Well, if it was real important they would have just come on over and talked in person!" Of course, one would hope a tourist business would have a better attitude, but Kadavu is not really one of the main tourist destinations, so----well, try again---and again--and again!! | 12
5waldos 05:17 UTC 19 Nov 2007 | Maybe- but not if it interrupts a good story. | 13
borisphotosafari 11:31 UTC 20 Nov 2007 | I stayed Waisalima in Oct and it was really nice. It is remote but that was what I wanted. On the way there we passed Albert's and it was closed then. Also there is a dive shop at Waisalima and the diving is good. | 14
joolz2 09:14 UTC 22 Nov 2007 | I've stayed at Matava and really liked it, but the main purpose of our trip was diving. I'd hesitate to recommend Matava for non-divers. If you are interested, we arranged our stay via email and they were quick to respond to every enquiry. It's worth booking in advance just to avoid having to wait around at Kadavu airport for the transfer. It's about an hour by boat to the resort, and they won't send a boat to meet the flight unless they're dropping guests off or are expecting new guests on the flight. | 15