Pomona Travel Agency and Tami are the best! Our first experience with Pomona Travel Agency was in…read morethe booking of our honeymoon, and more recently, we just returned from our 25th anniversary trip that Tami booked. We travel often and the fact that we've used Pomona Travel Agency exclusively for 25 years speaks volumes about the company.
The two weeks we just spent in French Polynesia were the best ever and Tami's involvement had everything to do with it. Even while we were in the middle of our trip, Tami was still actively working for us and following up to make sure our trip met all of our expectations (kinda long, but please read on).
Our first week was split between two resorts on the islands of Tahiti and Mo'orea, and then our second week was spent cruising the area islands. Tami coordinated all the details of the trip, including all the transfers from the airport to Resort 1, to the ferry, to Resort 2, back to the ferry, to the cruise ship, to Resort 3, and back to the airport. All of our stays and transfers were scheduled perfectly. We didn't have to do anything except sit back, relax, and follow the itinerary laid out for us. It was like painting a masterpiece with a paint-by-numbers kit. The itinerary included small details that we would never have thought of ourselves, and that saved us from a lot of stress. Trust me, we know, because we were traveling with a couple of friends of ours that booked the same trip, but they booked everything themselves (flight, resorts, cruise). They didn't think about the transfers needed between destinations and were left to find last minute transfers. Lucky for them, they were able to copy our schedule of transfers. Without our schedule as a reference, they would have been left with a lot of head scratching.
As I mentioned, our 2nd week was on a cruise. We booked our cruise 6-months ahead, which is relatively late, and as a result we got one of the last available staterooms. All of the desirable staterooms with balconies were already booked by then and we were left with a stateroom with two porthole windows. Cruising French Polynesia while looking through a porthole window is not ideal. Tami knew this and knew that we would not have a complete experience looking through a porthole. When we did our initial booking, she said that she would continue to keep a look out for any cancellations in hopes that we could upgrade from our portholes to a balcony.
Fast forward to our trip. We were out and about in Tahiti on the first day and Tami emailed with news that there was a cancellation on the boat and she was able to upgrade us to a stateroom with a window. Not quite a balcony, but this was a cabin with a large window that offered a better viewing experience than two portholes. Then later that week, the day before we were to set sail, Tami sent us another email saying that there was another cancellation and she was able to upgrade us again, this time to a balcony stateroom! Mind you, at this time, the trip had already been booked, paid for, and we were already in the middle of it. Tami could easily have told herself that her job was done and called it a day, but to her credit, she continued working hard for us to ensure that we would have the best experience possible, even if it meant extra effort on her part. We are so grateful of her followup because, as it turns out, the balcony made a HUGE difference in our enjoyment of the trip. You might be thinking that most people don't spend much time in the cabin so why would a balcony matter? We thought the same initially, but to wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is walk onto the balcony and take in the beauty of Polynesia, as well as ending the evening the same way, added so much to the experience that a porthole or any window couldn't. Also, if you're in your cabin fighting a bout of seasickness, a balcony is highly desirable. Ask me how I know.
Also, Tami recommended that we renew our wedding vows while on the cruise. This was a service the ship offered that we did not know about. The ship offered two vow renewal services. One service was complimentary to all passengers celebrating anniversaries, but it was done on the boat in a group ceremony. The other, the one that we participated in, was a paid for ceremony offered on a limited basis, but it was private, conducted beachside on the ship's private island, resembled a Polynesian wedding ceremony, and we were treated like king and queen for a day. I would equate our ceremony to a "church wedding" and the other ceremony to a "courthouse wedding". We are so grateful to Tami for recommending the private ceremony as it was by far the highlight of an already amazing trip.
Thank you Tami and Pomona Travel Agency for our best trip ever, and we look forward to many more amazing collaborations!
