dreams_of_travel

If this reply was directed at me, I'll wait a bit since my travel isn't until October. I think waiting until late August to early September should be fine. Please define "may take some time to be approved".

Thank you. That makes sense. It's like renewing a passport before it expires, which replaces the old one.

Australian ETA question: I applied last year for a trip this past January. My expiration date is 23 Oct 23. I am returning to SYD, leaving the US on 23 Oct 23, arriving SYD on the 25 Oct. I know I need to apply for a new ETA. Is there a problem with applying before the previous visa expires? I searched the Australian govt site, and couldn't find any info about overlapping visas or other time constraints.

I think the Blue Bus tour operating from the dock does a round trip for the cost of that one way taxi trip. The taxi could be problematic to try to get a return from the park. FYI the cell service at the park can be spotty, so trying to get a taxi sent to you may not be possible. I agree the public bus option is a long distance to walk from the bus stop, and may not be the best.

I was at Mendenhall in May last year. I was pleasantly surprised how accessible/smooth/paved the trails were most of the way to the glacier. FWIW I rarely do the ship excursion b/c they don't allow enough time at the park. I usually just book at the tour booths after getting off of the ship. Super easy, and you can stay as long as you like at the site, which also gives you time to hike as close to the glacier as the trails allow. YMMV

This is a dumb question (maybe) but how does one book a window suite? Which category pulls that designation class up?

Thanks for following up. Sadly, there is not an excursion for that currently being offered.(There's not one offering Wave Dancer either). I'll see if I can find one via Viator or some other site. What year was it that you did Daydream? I'm wondering if it just hasn't started back up with the cruise lines.

Yes, thank you. The Wave Dancer site was well done, and easy to find all the info. I was wondering about the Daydream Island site. Do you recall what you paid for that excursion/day?

I've poked around on the Daydream Island site, and really can't work out their cost for a day pass or whatever would be. Any suggestion for where to look would be appreciated. I'll also check what shore excursions are being offered with the ship. Thanks for the Wavedancer recommendation. I'm traveling with an open ocean swimming adverse person, and I think their offerings would be okay for them while I go off to snorkel.

I was just on the Eclipse, and as my usual routine went to book a future cruise onboard. I laughed at the prices they were citing for their upcoming cruises. They wanted over $3k for 7 day in an interior cabin in the Med for spring of 2024. I wasn't even booking as a solo. IMO they have priced themselves out of the market for me personally. I will wait to see if they have last minute price reductions, but I'm not holding my breath. FWIW I've got two Princess cruises booked at prices I am happy with for each of their respective lengths, 7 and 14 days.

If you are going to Auckland I can recommend WETA Unleashed there. It is an in-depth look at their creations, not just LoTR stuff. Their gift shop has all sorts of LoTR things that the WETA workshop were out of, so of course I spent too much there. I just did a "cruise to Middle Earth", and visited the usual sights in each of those ports. Christchurch is Mt. Sunday, but you won't have time to actually climb it, sadly. You could try to arrange a private tour, but it will be pricey. I've done this tour twice with the cruise ship excursion. Wellington is the WETA workshop. Tauranga is Hobbiton. I do recommend visiting again, and doing a land based tour to see even more filming sites. There is a land based tour company that specializes in LoTR/Hobbit tours of up to 14days. I did it about 10yrs ago, and want to do it again some day. They really do a great job, and you get to see lots of the country.

I just got off of a Sydney to Auckland with Celebrity, and they offered the Queenstown overnight etc, leaving from Milford Sound since that was where we entered New Zealand. I think they offer that going either way around NZ.

The only excursion I have done from your list is the Bay of Islands, Glow worm/forest tour. It was an enjoyable trip. Walking up to and through the glow worms caves was good. I liked the forest part as well as getting to walk through the forest. I don't know what else to add to describe this excursion. I think it is a good choice based on your requirements.

Sorry to read your hubby got Covid. Hope he has recovered by now. I am kinda feeling the same about Celebrity after my recent cruise. I sailed the Eclipse from Sydney to Auckland starting 2 Jan. The MDR food was horrible. They somehow made usually flavorful food inedible multiple times. The staff were fine, although the feel on the ship was all business, not the usual friendly crew. The pizza was totally tasteless. Room service was equally bad. What is weird is there weren't any food issues last May on Solstice. I'm not sure what is going on but it isn't a good change. I took one of my adult kids along, and he was beyond disappointed with the food compared to Princess food. For a first Celebrity cruise, it was not a good one at all. He has said never wants to go on this line again.

I got off of the Eclipse on Saturday. The food in the MDR was awful. We ate there for breakfast, and dinner. I could list the items that were inedible, flavorless or just wrong, though I may not remember them all. A few things stick out. One morning the bacon was rancid, having an awful odor, smelling like it had been fried in old oil that had been used for frying fish. My travel partner had the schnitzel one night, and it lacked flavor beyond the telling, so he requested dijon mustard to try to eat it. On several occasions a dessert was so bad it couldn't be eaten. One was a pineapple upside down cake, another cheese cake, the third was an apple tart with caramel sauce with the sauce having been burned, so the whole dish was bitter. FWIW I am not a picky eater but it was such a challenge to figure out what if anything would be better than the previous night. Meaning we began to joke about which dish would have flavor each night. It wasn't just me or my friend, it was our entire table of six. The buffet was not any better. The pizza was flavorless. I didn't know that was even possible to get pizza wrong. Room service food was equally flavorless. We did eat in Sushi on 5 three times. Those meals were quite good. There was a theory we considered, that Celebrity is purposefully making the free food so terrible that it would drive guests to the specialty/for fee venues to raise more money for their coffers. YMMV

Thanks for posting. I hadn't researched this for a few years, so it is better than I had remembered.

Don't most places charge a 3% fee for foreign credit cards transactions? While the exchange rate USD to AUD is quite favorable currently, that 3% fee will add up over many transactions. YMMV

Pretty sure if you pull the bed out from the wall there is an EU plug down towards the floor. Though it may not be practical to use with your power block.

I'm curious which tour you decided on for Tauranga. I looked at the Zealandier site, and found one that seems to do it all in 7 hrs. Seems reasonably priced as well. I just haven't booked yet as I'm still researching this port stop.

Sorry OP for all the troubles. Hope you have a relaxing cruise. I'll never use EZAir again. I didn't have terrible issues, but once I realized they were just an airfare consolidator similar to other online airfare travel agents I decided it wasn't worth the travel risk. They are no help during IRROPS at all, and I've read will just tell you to deal with the airline directly. I always book directly with any airlines, and hotels b/c the $$$ saved is not worth the hassle. YMMV

Re: not having Word or similar. I'd suggest using the Note app on either iPhone or iPad. Type up your post, then copy/paste it into the Cruise Critic thread of choice.

How far in advance of the cruise did you get that email? I sail Jan 2nd, and haven't seen anything yet. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Where do you request the Go Green for a sailing? In the past I got an email asking me to opt-in. I sail in January.

Re: wifi being reliable. Generally yes it is quite good. On my Crown Princess cruise in November I was able to stream the entire Sandman series on Netflix with little to no issues. Posting your reviews should be just fine. I would suggest you compose in Word or whatever app you normally use b/c I've had Cruise Critic forums eat entire posts, or refuse to post anything. On my Emerald Panama Canal cruise I had issues getting Cruise Critic to load. All the other sites I normally use were just fine. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I'm looking forward to your review. Safe travels, and weathering the incoming storm.

When I'm looking at cruises, there is no price differences between selecting Standard vs Plus. When you get through the booking and select show promos, there is none showing. As someone mentioned above IT is clearly not ready for this offering. I will keep looking, and hope they (IT) get things sorted soon.