Why are the cruise liners bypassing Napier in favour of Gisborne?

I've been wondering for some months why in recent times most of the cruise lines have opted for tendering in Gisborne rather than porting in Napier.

Napier is a beautiful art deco city, with lovely restaurants, wineries, golf courses and beaches.

Gisborne by contrast, has in my view, very little going for it. It is tendering for a start and I've noted that several cruises have by-passed Gisborne because of rough seas.

Does anyone know why Napier has been deleted from cruise schedules and replaced by the rather sedate and soulless Gisborne?

Not according to the cruise schedules for the ports.

Gisborne is a new port of Call. Both ports can be missed if a strong Easterly or South Easterly are blowing and Napier can also be effected by a strong tidal flow .

Napier is still miles ahead of Gisborne , in terms of ship visits.

Port of Napier Cruise Schedule

http://www.napierport.co.nz/shipping-info/cruise-schedule/

Port of Gisborne Cruise Schedule.

http://www.eastland.nz/eastland-port/operations/shipping-schedules/

We had a NZ cruise that originally included a stop in Napier which we were looking forward to. It then got taken off our cruise Itinerary with no major explanation. I don't know how true this is, but a very experienced Guide/Driver in NZ told me that most of the Larger Ships would be dropping Napier due to the local authorities greatly increasing the berthing costs at the Port, thus making it more convenient for the ships to take their Business elsewhere where costs are much cheaper.

Still on The RCL calendar for Mar next year. I'm booking that so they better not bypass the port:eek:

Still on The RCL calendar for Mar next year. I'm booking that so they better not bypass the port:eek:

haha well I hope you get to go. It was still listed as one of our ports up until about 4 or 5 months before. In fact one cruise site never bothered to remove it off it's page.

The full season's schedule for the Golden Princess which we will be on in a couple of weeks time does not have one call at the Port of Napier. Similarly, I note, that most, but not all of RCI, have also given Napier a miss.

It must surely have something to do with port costs. As most of NZ's ports have been privatised I'm guessing that price gouging is not out of the question. For us Melbourne folk, if we want to see Napier, it means boarding a vessel in Sydney.

I went to a meeting the other day from Cruise Ship people whom run the tours. And they confirmed one of the reasons why they like going to places like Gisborne whom do not port the boat - is that it is cheaper to not dock the ports and it saves the cruise ship liners a lot of money.

Gisborne has heaps going for it, you have several tours on the cruise ship such as feed the stingrays and a steam train ride with kids performing the haka at the turning point.

Plus Gisborne is known for great weather, chardonnay capital of New Zealand. There is an independent winery tour operator Wrights Vineyard and Winery, whom to date have received several five star ratings from independent excursions on trip advisor. I see it is very reasonably priced.

Sorry to hear on the challenges on not having as many ship stops at Napier. That was one of our "Best of the Best" highlights during our Napier stop two years ago. Full details on my live/blog below. Below are few sample pictures. We did Cape Kidnappers, the gannets, a luxury lunch at the golf course that is ranked as the 22nd best in the world, seeing the art deco downtown architecture, etc. This is a wonderful NZ area with such nice people and spectacular sights.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 134,304 views for this posting.

Here are some of the famed gannets at this Napier location. This is just one small sampling of many big groups of these super cute birds at this location. Since we were so close, we could BOTH see . . . and SMELL them very vividly!! At twelve miles SE of Napier, this area hosts a protected breeding site for over 6,500 pairs of Australasian gannets. These birds (takapu) are one of three species of gannet belonging to the booby family. They have been nesting at Cape Kidnappers since the 1870's. This location is the largest and most accessible mainland colony in the world. This headland was named after an attempt by local Māori to abduct the servant of a member of Captain Cook's crew aboard HMS Endeavour, during a landfall there in October 1769.:

Here is one of the soaring birds here at Cape Kidnappers that I captured with my camera. Is there a better-looking bird that this one?:

Here is our expert guide/driver, Jo, traveling along the ridge near the water (on the Pacific Ocean) as we go to see more of the nesting areas along this super scenic coast.:

Here is John from our group and guide/driver Jo talking about this wonderful area. In the background is a longer view of the actual Cape Kidnappers with its famed “hook” showing to the left out in the water.:

At The Farm Lodge we got a personal tour by their General Manager and had great scenic views, including the Pacific Ocean in the distance. Here are members of our 14-person group enjoying our scenic and dramatic setting at a private, outdoor-viewing location for our three-course, gourmet lunch this day.:

In returning to our ship, the community of Napier said a big “thank you” with these various older cars, people dressed in period costumes and a nice jazz-style band that brought back nice memories of New Orleans style/fun. They were located in the area as we walked to re-board the ship.:

Napier is on our itinerary for the emerald princess in February next year..:, fingers crossed we get to go!