krisean

We are considering renting e-bikes. Are you permitted to bring those on the ferries?

We are planning to arrive Sunday morning to Sydney, with the cruise leaving on Tuesday so we will have 2 full days in Sydney pre-cruise. Typically like to stay at a Hilton brand property so we can use points. Any suggestions on places to stay and things to do greatly appreciated!

Thanks everyone for the feedback. We are looking at using New Zealand Air (for their Skycouch option), which means a flight from LAX to AKL to SYD. Will we be required to clear customs (and baggage retrieve) in AKL, or only in SYD? What is the earliest flight time out of SYD that we should be looking to book, post cruise. Ship arrives back into port at 6:30am on a Friday.

This is a huge plus for us!

Thanks for this! We are very used to the US Dollar being accepted everywhere so will review best options on credit card usage or exchanging USD for local currency.

We are very close to finally booking a cruise out of Sydney to New Zealand in March 2024. We are long time cruisers (US based) and have only sailed from USA or Caribbean ports and have not ventured so far away before. For those who have cruised out of both Australia and the US, I would appreciate any insight into what differences we might find on an Australia cruise experience versus sailing from a US port. If it matters, we are looking at the Ovation for 10 nights. TIA!

What about Sun vs either Encore/Bliss? We can get 9 days on Sun (vs 7 on the bigger ships) , but have never sailed on this class of NCL ship. 2 extra days would be awesome but will is the smaller ship be limiting in it's onboard activities/amenities?

Thanks for the info. Jewel does not sail in October so not an option for us this time. Had not heard of the Lower Inside Passage but I can see where that would be. Thanks again.

Hi - we are considering an early October cruise to Alaska. In reviewing the itinerary for Encore vs Bliss, I am confused. NCL's page appears to show the exact itinerary for each, but some 3rd party sites show Encore sailing the Inside Passage on Day 2, while Bliss is shown At Sea. Are both ships really on the same path, just 1 day apart? We would sail Bliss (if the sailing path is the same) since she would be a new ship for us, but don't want to miss the Inside Passage. Any insight is appreciated. We have never sailed Alaska before so maybe I am just missing something? Thanks!