Trans Alpine Express

Is it worth the $383.75 to take this trip, that is what Celebrity cruise charges.

Can you do your own private tour.

Thanks Askwith

Is it worth the $383.75 to take this trip, that is what Celebrity cruise charges.

Can you do your own private tour.

Thanks Askwith

To do the full , and proper Tranz Alpine Express , you would have to stay 2 nights in Christchurch. It is an early start , a full day , and returns late.

The ships tour is a special arrangement which is organised to give cruise ship passengers a taste of the experience in the time frame available.

Here are a couple of threads which may help.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1841201

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1721845

The regular Tranz Alpine Express from Christchurch over to Greymouth is a full day return trip departing around 0800 in the morning and returning around 1800. As such it is impossible to get from the ship to the station do the day return trip and back to the boat within normal ships docking hours.

So the only way you can do it is with a ships excursion where you normally travel by coach one way and return down from Arthurs Pass to Christchurch by a special Charter Tranz Alpine train that returns in time to meet the ships departure.

Yes the cruise lines price is an absolute "rip off" as shorex along with gambling and grog are major profit centres for all cruiselines.

Is the trip worth it, well definitely YES one of the worlds great train journies along with the Trieri Gorge Railway offered out of Dunedin also as a ships excursion . Which one is more spectacular ? probably the lesser known Trieri Gorge Railway with its superb bridges and Scottish engineering .

My DH and I were particularly underwhelmed by the Trans Alpine, maybe because we were there in the summer. The train went the same speed as a normal commuter train, the outside carriage for photos was crammed and you could not get to the rails because 'serious' photographers had picked their spot and stayed there the entire trip. The one stop at Arhurs Pass was not particularly interesting. We have done tourist rail trips before which were far more interesting and will be doing the Taeri Gorge Trip on our up coming cruise and I hear it is a really scenic trip.

I won't say we didn't enjoy it but noticing there was a road mirroring the train line, next time we are in New Zealand we will consider doing it by road instead where we can stop and take photos instead of being whizzed past a particularly scenic spot. Also it may be different in winter when there is a lot or snow about.

It sure is different in winter.

At the moment Arthurs Pass is buried under one of the biggest snowfalls on record.

My DH and I were particularly underwhelmed by the Trans Alpine, maybe because we were there in the summer. The train went the same speed as a normal commuter train, the outside carriage for photos was crammed and you could not get to the rails because 'serious' photographers had picked their spot and stayed there the entire trip. The one stop at Arhurs Pass was not particularly interesting. We have done tourist rail trips before which were far more interesting and will be doing the Taeri Gorge Trip on our up coming cruise and I hear it is a really scenic trip.

 

I won't say we didn't enjoy it but noticing there was a road mirroring the train line, next time we are in New Zealand we will consider doing it by road instead where we can stop and take photos instead of being whizzed past a particularly scenic spot. Also it may be different in winter when there is a lot or snow about.

I thought a lot of the windows open so not sure why anyone would have to camp out in the same spot the entire trip.

Jade 13, there were not any 'opening' windows in our carriage and all the other carriages looked similar, I don't know if there are any, someone who has done the trip more than once might have that answer. We got good pictures through the glass though. We had 18 or 19 carriages on the day we went (could have even been more I am being conservative) and there was only ONE open air carriage. It was the height of the tourist season so that suprised me.

The windows are nice and big so the view was reasonably good but they don't seem to be set up with carriages like you see advertised for the Canadian train trip.

Jade 13, there were not any 'opening' windows in our carriage and all the other carriages looked similar, I don't know if there are any, someone who has done the trip more than once might have that answer. We got good pictures through the glass though. We had 18 or 19 carriages on the day we went (could have even been more I am being conservative) and there was only ONE open air carriage. It was the height of the tourist season so that suprised me.

 

The windows are nice and big so the view was reasonably good but they don't seem to be set up with carriages like you see advertised for the Canadian train trip.

18 out of 19 didn't open? Were you on the excursion with HAL? That sure isn't what the gorge train people are telling me.

Now that we have established that a cruise passenger can only do the TranzAlpine by the ship's excursion, can anyone who visited in the summer tell me if they thought it was worth the cost?

Is there anything particularly jaw dropping about the scenery that can only be witnessed from this train?

I notice on the website , for cruise ship passengers ,

Kiwi Rail are calling it the Tranz Alpine Excursion,

and directing passengers to book with the cruise line.

http://www.kiwirailscenic.co.nz/trip-explorer/cruise-ship-excursions/?servicename=TranzAlpine