Private or Ship Sourced Excursions on Solstice for New Zealand / Australia

Hi Everyone,

We are considering booking the Jan 17, 2019 cruise to NZ/Australia and was just wondering do most people book their own shore excursions or purchase the ship sponsored trips? I've read numerous posts about allowing for extra time if you plan your own since the ship won't wait for you, etc. Also, how long does it typically take for over 2,000 people to

disembark, possibly tender, and get organized on excursions? Unfortunately we've only taken 2 cruises, one on RCCL almost 20 years ago, and one on Celebrity 13 years ago, so we don't have "status" to get off earlier like I've read on some posts. Greatly appreciate any insight - we're torn between cruising or doing the whole trip via land on our own for both countries. We're fortunate to have no time constraints and roughly planning on 4 - 5 weeks. TIA, Heather :cool:

we have just returned from a RCCL circumnavigation of Australia and New Zealand's South Island. We only used a ship excursion once for the GBR. Otherwise we did some ports on our own and several with private companies. I suggest you use one's that have high ratings on Trip Advisor. They won't stay in business if you miss the ship! In Akaroa we did a fun informative excursion with a local mail man :) Have a great time!

When needing tender tickets one of us went down to the issuing location and stood for 1/2 to 3/4/ hour before it opens and got very early tenders...never missed our excursion.

Hi Heather, we did the ships tours and they were very good. A lot better than the Celebrity tours in the Med.

Tour / bus drivers all gave us a running commentary along the way. Stops for a few minutes for photos at the side of the roads. And no worries about being late back. Some dropped off at the nearest shops to the port before driving to the ship. Sometimes private tours are no longer allowed to the ship because of security.

We had a great time with family in Perth before and time in Sydney after.

But we both said it was not long enough on land so when we retire we plan 3 months with a cruise in the middle around the top of Australia as we only traveled around the south before New Zealand.

If you can plan to have the cruise and land time you can see the highlights and know what to see next time.

Happy planning.

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We did New Zealand & circumnavigated Australia on the Solstice in 2015 - it was a great trip.

We did not do any ships excursions but rather did private tours with others from our Roll Call. At the GBR we booked a seaplane to the reef with snorkeling - about 1/2 the price of the ship offering. All were excellent and the cost was considerably less than the ships excursion. I would suggest you join the Roll Call for you cruise. You may be able to join tours that others with more experience are organizing.

Hi, we did all private or DIY excursions, the only ports that really have a wait are the ones where you are tendered, you should be able to find that info on the Celebrity website. AS long as one member of your party gets in line about an hour before they start handing out tender tickets, you'll be fine. Enjoy, New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. :)

We did private tours except in Tasmania as we were too late to book one there. It was just fine-went to see Tasmania Devils. We pre booked all of the private tours before we went. We also did the Celebrity Queenstown overnight Excursion. Was absolutely Fabulous-- there were 4 buses (most they ever attempted) --we happened to have the best guide & driver! Vicky & John)per Feedback from others on different buses. It is a grueling 2 days! leave ship very early in the am in middle of Milford sound- then finally to sleep about 1am up early next morning to continue on to Dunedin but well planned, excellent food & accommodations! rejoin ship there just before sailing. upon return to our rooms-- bottle of Champagne with a note plus the officers out to meet us & welcome up back! I do understand the price has increased by about $200 pp since we booked spring of 17 for out 2/5/18 cruise. As I had been to NZ twice before--I felt my traveling companions needed to see more of NZ. Was fun to see changes since '94 & '96--lots more wineries plus Lord of Rings attractions. Do check out Trip Advisor plus look up New Zealand day tours on the internet & email different companies then ask people to join you via your Roll call

How do you find out when/where tender tickets will be issued, in order to join the queue before starting?

...............we're torn between cruising or doing the whole trip via land on our own for both countries. We're fortunate to have no time constraints ............

Talking of New Zealand - We spent 10 days in the south and 5days in the north followed by a 14 day cruise on the Millennium. If I were to repeat I would choose the land tour without any doubt. The South Island is stunning with so many must-sees that the cruise doesn’t touch the surface, Queenstown and the Remarkables a sight never too be forgot. The cruise ports of call are so short that you will miss so much.

How do you find out when/where tender tickets will be issued, in order to join the queue before starting?

On our recent cruise on Solstice the 'tender tickets' were issued at cellar masters from 0730

we had no problems getting a tender ticket or getting off the ship in a timely manner - in fact we were very impressed with how smooth and quick the tender service operated

In your 'celebrity today' information pack that you get each night, it will tell you where and when the tender tickets will be issued for the next day.

Solstice is a wonderful ship & New Zealand is a most beautiful country & having cruised it on Solstice as well as driven the South Island I thoroughly recommend it. We have always either booked private tours or done self guided tours of New Zealand. Lots of excellent tour operators & you can use TripAdvisor comments as a guide as well as the many comments on cruisecritic. Any tours we did were 1/2 day tours anyway, which reduced risk of missing the ship, & that also allowed us to check out the port cities/towns.

The ships tours are very spendy down under. We've done both the NZ/Aus and the Barrier Reef cruises. The excursions on both were quite expensive. We still did a few as well as booking our own. Overall, I preferred the private tours over the ships. Some of the ship tours try to jam in too much and you end up driving a lot and spending very little time at each stop (the ship winery tours were a good example of this). We did a private winery tour and it was far superior to the ships tours. Same with a snorkeling tour, we did a ship and private tour, the private tour was much better. The other thing I like about the private tours is you can call/email, talk to someone and get exact details on what your doing. Try that on a ship tour....:rolleyes:

Tendering is not a Solstice strong point. TheTender ports in NZ are Akaroa and Bay of Islands. Ships tenders are used for these ports and can take some time to get ashore unless you queue up early for Tender tickets. You best solution on getting private excursions is to join your roll call and hope that some of the members experienced in organising private excursions are l;ooking for participants. Over the years I have organised many private excursions and have never been let down yet.

Tendering is not a Solstice strong point. TheTender ports in NZ are Akaroa and Bay of Islands. Ships tenders are used for these ports and can take some time to get ashore unless you queue up early for Tender tickets. You best solution on getting private excursions is to join your roll call and hope that some of the members experienced in organising private excursions are l;ooking for participants. Over the years I have organised many private excursions and have never been let down yet.

We've done two NZ cruises on Solstice.The tendering at both the Bay of Islands and Akaroa was quite good on the first cruise, but the tendering at Akaroa on the second cruise was abysmal. We didn't rush to get off as we were just meeting a friend for lunch, so didn't get tickets until around 10am and it still took 90 minutes to get ashore.

Luckily most of the NZ ports are docks although some require shuttle buses through the wharf area - no walking allowed.

Research what you want to do at each port. Have a look in the Australia/NZ Ports of Call forum for ideas. Some ports will need excursions, at others you can just do your own thing.

We did this cruise in 2016 and arranged all our own tours in each port. We had no problem with tendering or getting back to the ship on time. I would say though on reflection a cruise is not the way to see New Zealand. Whilst we enjoyed our time on the Solstice we wish we had flown to Auckland from Sydney, as we had spent 2 weeks in Australia prior to the cruise , hired a car and toured around on our own.

Greatly appreciate any insight - we're torn between cruising or doing the whole trip via land on our own for both countries. We're fortunate to have no time constraints and roughly planning on 4 - 5 weeks.

If travelling by land is an option, do consider this seriously. It is IMO by far the best way of seeing NZ.

The beauty of a visit to my country is that beyond the cost of accommodation, car expenses and food, there are very few other essential costs. The highlight is nature and driving and walking amongst NZs best sites is generally free. Unfortunately a large number of those sites are not on the coast, so a car is the easiest way of reaching them.

My only advice is not to underestimate the time it takes to travel from one place to another. To see the main highlights of both Islands, you would want a minimum of 3 weeks.

Having travelled around Australia by cruise and car, I also prefer the latter. The drive from Melbourne, along the Great Ocean Rd and up to The Grampians is pretty special.

If you do opt for the cruise, I would opt for a tour if travelling some distance from the port eg Rotorua or Hobbiton, but otherwise I would organise things on my own. The tours are pretty costly.

Tendering is not a Solstice strong point. TheTender ports in NZ are Akaroa and Bay of Islands. Ships tenders are used for these ports and can take some time to get ashore unless you queue up early for Tender tickets. You best solution on getting private excursions is to join your roll call and hope that some of the members experienced in organising private excursions are l;ooking for participants. Over the years I have organised many private excursions and have never been let down yet.

I disagree.... we were on Solstice March / April this year and were tendered into Cairns and Port Douglas - I thought the tender system worked well, we didn't have to queue up for ages or anything. We were very mpressed with the whole process

Heather,

We did Australia/New Zealand on the Solstice last year. We spent several days in Sydney pre-cruise and if you can would strongly recommend doing this. In Melbourne we did the free walking tour with several people from our role call. We did the ship's excursion in Ankara since it was a tender port (Harbour cruise which we enjoyed very much). In Bay of Islands we had booked the Hole in the Rock cruise ( a friend had recommended it) with the ship but cancelled it a few days before as the weather prediction called for rain and rocky seas. That said there were plenty of cruises to book right at the port. We did private tours for the other ports with others we met on our role call. Some were full day tours but no problem returning well before the scheduled time. Enjoy your cruise. We loved it!

We just did 16 night Aus/NZ on Solstice in March. Great cruise and wonderful ship and crew. We did a mixture of ship tours and private tours. In general we much prefer private tours as they are usually better organized, customized, much less crowded, less expensive, and you can set them up with your new friends that you meet here on Cruise Critic roll calls. So when will do some occasional ship tours? 1) Tender ports*, 2) if we have a lot of OBC to spend, 3) the ship excursion is more interesting than any private excursions offered, 4) excursions booked at the last minute if all privates are booked in advance.

*As for tender ports, privates are usually ok, but a private excursion might be risky if it goes a long distance and comes back late. Another point is if you are in a suite you will be escorted off the ship so don't need tender tickets. If you are Captain's Club Elite or above you will get priority tender tickets.

On Solstice at our one tender port, we got a note in our stateroom to meet in Michael's, then she escorted us past all the lines to the next available tender. I think it was for Elite & above and Suites.

Wow, thanks everyone for all the great info. Seems like lots of folks prefer private tours or combo of both ship/private. Especially to hook up with fellow guests on the roll calls.

Since some members have definitely spoken about doing land vs. cruising it brings up some very good points about my options. Little bit of background: OZ/NZ has always been on my bucket list (like everyone else!!) and will probably be only 1 visit for us. Unfortunately due to some medical issues for me I'm limited in what I can do in NZ in regards to long drives with curvy, winding roads. I know most people want to visit NZ for the beautiful scenery and take their time driving which is difficult for me; thus the reason we started investigating cruises. The Australia portion of our trip (Kangaroo Island, Adelaide - have to visit those wine regions, Melbourne, Sydney and maybe GBR) are all land based with flights in-between each.

For those of you that either live there or familiar with land options of NZ, any suggestions of whether cruising is the better way to go? If we were to do land/driving, my thoughts were to limit ourselves to 3 main areas: Auckland, Marlborough region and Queensland. Using flights in-between each. We're not adrenaline junkies; just interested in seeing the beautiful scenery, food & wine (I am a retired chef after all!) and the culture. So greatly appreciate the input! Heather

Would definitely recommend flying up to northern Queensland with in Australia. We spent a week in Cairns with a hire car and that area is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It would be a shame to go all the way to Australia and not see one of the most wonderful sites on earth the Great Barrier Reef. We took a trip out to snorkel and flew over it. Australia was always my bucket list trip and it didn’t disappoint. Hoping to go back next year but to west coast this time.

For those of you that either live there or familiar with land options of NZ, any suggestions of whether cruising is the better way to go? If we were to do land/driving, my thoughts were to limit ourselves to 3 main areas: Auckland, Marlborough region and Queensland. Using flights in-between each. We're not adrenaline junkies; just interested in seeing the beautiful scenery, food & wine (I am a retired chef after all!) and the culture. So greatly appreciate the input! Heather

By Queensland, do you mean Queenstown, or are you just considering 2 places in NZ and one in Aus?

I lived in Auckland for many years, but don’t think, for a once in a lifetime trip, it represents the very best tourist highlights of NZ. Neither, I believe, does Marlborough, even though the wine there is good and the coastline is lovely.

Queenstown in beautiful, but it’s also being able to travel outwards of the area (eg out towards Milford, Glenorchy, north to Wanaka and the West Coast, NE towards Aoraki/Mt Cook or even just an hour East to the wine regions of Bannockburn and Gibbston Valley) that the magic of NZ truely presents itself.

While our roads are generally well sealed, they can certainly be windy. So if driving makes you uncomfortable, then it’s understandable that you are considering a a cruise and that may be the way to go.

Happy planning with whatever you choose.

By Queensland, do you mean Queenstown, or are you just considering 2 places in NZ and one in Aus?

 

I lived in Auckland for many years, but don’t think, for a once in a lifetime trip, it represents the very best tourist highlights of NZ. Neither, I believe, does Marlborough, even though the wine there is good and the coastline is lovely.

Queenstown in beautiful, but it’s also being able to travel outwards of the area (eg out towards Milford, Glenorchy, north to Wanaka and the West Coast, NE towards Aoraki/Mt Cook or even just an hour East to the wine regions of Bannockburn and Gibbston Valley) that the magic of NZ truely presents itself.

 

 

While our roads are generally well sealed, they can certainly be windy. So if driving makes you uncomfortable, then it’s understandable that you are considering a a cruise and that may be the way to go.

Happy planning with whatever you choose.

Oops, yes, thanks I meant Queenstown. I was hoping to maybe base ourselves in those 3 areas and be able to make a few side trips within an hour or two without it being too too winding? Thoughts were also to book certain tours - ex: Milford Sound, doing a fly/cruise/fly option

Oops, yes, thanks I meant Queenstown. I was hoping to maybe base ourselves in those 3 areas and be able to make a few side trips within an hour or two without it being too too winding? Thoughts were also to book certain tours - ex: Milford Sound, doing a fly/cruise/fly option

So, just to confirm, is it time sitting in a car that is concerning you, or motion sickness from winding roads?

The roads in the North Island generally aren’t as windy as the Sth, and rather than base myself in Auckland, I think you would be better to travel from stop to stop doing overnight stays eg Auckland - Matatmata (for Hobbiton) - Rotorua and Taupo - Waitomo - back to Auckland. Or you could head North to the Bay of Islands.

Auckland is a busy city with bad traffic and while it has some gorgeous regional parks and a nice waterfront, I wouldn’t spend more than a day or two there. Travelling back and forth to Auckland everyday would cause you to spend more time on the roads, particularly if you get stuck in peak hour traffic.

If you are a big city lover, perhaps consider Wellington instead?

There are plenty of day trips you can do from Queenstown, but do know that the roads in pretty much every direction are windy. I live about an hour from Queenstown via what is the highest (and one of the windiest) public roads in the country (The Crown Range). The plus side though, is that like most roads down here, there are plenty of scenic places to pull over and take photos, meaning that you never have to travel more than 20mins or so without being able to pull over and take a break.

The road to Milford is also windy, but stunning. Beginning right from the Devils Staircase, I love the road more than the actual fiord, which is why I don’t think a cruise is the best way to see the area. Going through Homer Tunnel and coming out in the Valley of Waterfalls will literally take your breath away - particularly after a good rainfall). A bus-boat-flight is a good combo as it means you only need to do the road one way. However, it does mean traveling on windy roads over quite a long distance, so if the roads are simply not an option, the return flight will also be beautiful.

Other great day trips from Queenstown include Glenorchy, Arrowtown, Gibbston Valley Wineries and Wanaka (all unfortunately via windy roads, perhaps with the exception of nearby Arrowtown).

An option for Marlborough is to spend a few days there and then travel over to the Nelson, Golden Bay, Abel Tasman side of the country. One of my favourite roads in the country is the Queen Charlotte Drive road from Picton to Nelson. Again very windy, but plenty of scenic places to pull over.

At the end of the day, if travelling too far on roads outside the main centres of Auckland, Blenheim and QT is going to make you uncomfortable, I personally would opt for the cruise. If you think you’d be okay with a car, taking plenty of breaks (and perhaps not driving more than about 3 hours per day) then I would go with that. I’m happy to help you with an itinerary.

Either way, happy planning. Only you know what will work best for you. :)

Just throwing another thought out there: The road from Christchurch to Wanaka (done over a 2 or 3 days) would be a great introduction to Sth Island driving. The Canterbury plains to Tekapo are very straight. The road into Aoraki/Mt Cook village (my personal favourite spot in the country) are wide sweeping style roads rather than sharp corners. Then it gets windier as you travel over the Lindis Pass, but nothing too bad.