azbirdmom

You are in port long enough. We did this tour with Zealandier last week. Zealandier will give you a tour of the area around Tauranga and get you the tickets to Hobbiton for a specific time. Once there they hand you off to the Hobbiton staff where you will go on a 2 hour tour with a guide. Hobbiton has 40 person busses so you're not going to be with a small group for that part. The Zealandier bus held up to 11 passengers. Hobbiton is no longer selling their tour to cruise lines from what we have been told. They apparently lost $1000's in food and staffing costs when the ships failed to make port. With their latest attraction opening they have plenty of business from other sources and don't need the hassle that cruise ships add to the equation. Would recommend contacting Zealandier, Viator, or another independent company if you want to do Hobbiton. From our very recent experience you won't regret it, it's wonderful.

In the past we've done taxis and ship transfers. This trip (disembarked yesterday) we took the train. It was so easy and inexpensive too (roughly $7 USD one way per person). We each had a large suitcase and a rolling backpack. The train stations at both Circular Quay and the airport have elevators you can use, and you can roll your suitcases right onto the train. It's a flat short walk to / from the ship and the train ride takes maybe 20 minutes. Very easy and quick IF you don't have trouble handling your luggage.

Thought I'd update my post with an actual review. No one ever responded but we took a chance and booked this tour. Very glad we did. It was a fantastic way to spend the day. We ended up hopping off at Omaka (beat the Princess tours there and practically had a private tour of the WWII section with a very knowledgeable volunteer) and Wither Hills (wine tasting and lunch). We chose to stay on the bus enjoying the scenery for the rest of the route. The busses were prompt and we didn't have any problems getting on them nor did anyone get turned away at any of the stops. We booked in advance but the HOHO sales booth is right across the street from where the Princess shuttle drops passengers off and most of their business seems to be walk up. There were a fair number of ships entertainers taking the bus too and it seemed to be a popular choice for the young folks, actually for any age. Great way to see Marlborough on your own.

Thanks for sharing! I had read the announcement and got excited that the Star would be sailing from Port Canaveral but read it wrong. At least the Sky is better than the Caribbean Princess.

Sure hoping that Zofran did the trick and that you got better. Safe driving home, hope you can make it there before the storm is in full force. You sure need a break!

It was so nice meeting you! Looking forward to reading the rest of your review. We are back home a couple of hours now. A very long trip for us but so worth it.

Thank you for sharing. This news release doesn't answer my most important question. Is it non smoking or do they at least have a separate walled off section that is non smoking? The rest sounds great but I really do hope they come up with a solution for a pain point for many of us.

Part headwinds / tailwinds and the other part route. At least our on last flight to Sydney we actually flew north from SFO over Alaska then down over Russia and China. And our flight back was more direct. I can't recall if our prior flights to / from Australia were similar. Of course we lose a day going to Australia and arrive back in the USA before we left. That's fun.

Our United flight tomorrow from SFO to SYD is scheduled at 15 hours 25 minutes. Return from SYD to LAX is 13 hours and 25 minutes. Thank heavens for Polaris! 😉

We were both on the third cruise after the restart and had to suffer through the new app. I remember taking screen shots of errors I was getting, sending them to their team, then getting a response back we think we fixed it please try again and let us know. Did a few rounds of that before we boarded. I just worry that it took them a very long time after that to get the app to be mostly usable and now they are starting from scratch. Hopefully they can get it to work on both iPhones and Android phones and it doesn't behave differently based on what version of those phones you have.

Can't wait. Our flight to Sydney leaves tomorrow! Enjoy your return to New Caledonia.

Oh man. We board December 2nd. No way am I trying something new at this point. I can only hope that Princess learned their lesson from the Medallion app and tested the heck out of this before releasing it. Well I can dream can't I?

Nope! And I used Stockperks for one recently too. No problem.

Same here. The last couple of times it's been between 10:30 and 11. And that's for the Elites / Suites.

I will definitely ask when we get the invite. Sounds like you will enjoy it. The food I did eat was tasty and the visual / sensory experience was fabulous.

You would have loved our steaks then. As for substitutions we could just ask them to hold the octopus. As I recall it was served on lettuce and we could nibble on that.

Thank you, good to know they adapted after the trial!

Our friends live in Cape Canaveral so it will be wonderful to cruise with them from there. They can actually walk to where the Mardi Gras docks but I think the Caribbean will be back with the other ships. Will be nice to see Princess among all of the other big cruise lines there.

I have heard this and are curious how they found out about your eating restrictions. Do they ask when you are invited? Do they alter the choices for you too? I ask because we did 360 in October 2022 right after they started the trial on the Discovery. We weren't asked about preferences and there were a couple of things we'd change. First off we didn't touch the Octopus (note others around us were commenting on how tender it was but it's not our thing). Second the steak came mooing as in if it came close to the cow it would heal back to the source. I like mine medium, DH likes his medium well. The waitstaff disappeared after delivering each course so we couldn't send it back nor would it have been appropriate given the timed visuals. Thought it was weird that they didn't ask because folks have such clear preferences for how they like their steaks. I'm asking because we booked a full suite on the Enchanted next Spring and we will be invited back. If the meal is "as is" DH won't want anything to do with it. I'm hoping to go again as it was a wonderful experience, but would just like it better if we didn't have to skip a couple of the courses. It could very well be that they adapted after the trial. When we were leaving we saw TV monitors were set up for every couple so they definitely observed us and I'm guessing that there were hidden microphones too. We weren't asked for opinions but that's because they likely already knew.

Another fine example of the phone reservation folks sharing misinformation. The deposit that turns into OBC is refundable if not entirely used on the ship and can be used for ANYTHING onboard. Who knows what that phone rep may have been thinking, maybe shareholder OBC which states in the fine print that it can't be used in the casino?

^^this^^. It did this to my husband too when I booked a cruise after they enabled the ability for consumers to book casino cruises on the Princess website. It thought he was a new cruiser as there is no way to input his Captain's Circle number and issued him a new number. The cost of Princess insurance was also higher for him. When I called to get it fixed the "fine" folks on the normal 1-800 number wanted to charge me for changing the second passenger on the booking. And that charge put me into a position where I had to pay it or the booking would cancel. It took an email to Princess corporate to get it fixed. I've recommended to multiple Princess folks since then that they should at a minimum have a box where one can type in the Captain's Circle number of their traveling companion (better yet if they could include a dropdown of passengers you've traveled with in the past as some airlines do but anything would help). It works for some, others like me have a problem with this.

Yes, the booking is through Princess so all of the views and functions that aren't available when you book through a TA are there. We have a wonderful TA but she won't touch casino bookings. I had booked a couple through the offshore call center and had to get corporate involved to fix them. Some months after that we were assigned a CVP. He is one of the outsourced folks in London and actually seems pretty good. What I see for the cruise booked through the call center vs. the cruise booked through the CVP is the same.

I hope you and others stateside do get the chance to return to work for Princess. This outsourced, off-shored customer service experiment has definitely failed. By now they should be up to speed on how to do their jobs but either they aren't well trained or not empowered to fix issues. Maybe both. It really is sad to see how bad it's gotten.

That language just means that if you cancel the cruise you don't get it back. But if you do go on the cruise you'll get it in the form of onboard credit.

To pile on in the unlikely event that you don't use it all onboard it is refundable and you'll get a check for the remaining balance a few weeks after the cruise is over. It is your $$ after all, not a gift from Princess or a TA.