Sun Princess 11/14-27 Trip Report

[HubbieO]

Very long.

 

My wife and I returned last week from a cruise (Sydney – New Zealand- Sydney) on the Sun Princess. I got so much useful information from the forum that helped me plan, I just wanted to give a little back. So, here goes…

 

Flew on United Business class through SFO to SYD. Long flight, but pretty tolerable in Business class. Seats were comfortable and the food was edible. Plenty of entertainment choices, but the audio is subpar. The headsets were not noise cancelling, and uncomfortable for me after a while. Couldn’t use my own noise cancelling earbuds. Not a big problem though since we slept most of the way.

Landed at SYD before 8am. Early. Cleared immigration and customs quickly, but my observation is that the process is pretty disorganized. It’s not really clear what to do after collecting your luggage. I asked a customs agent who was standing around talking to some other agents what I needed to do, and he just asked for my filled out form, asked if I had any food or other prohibited items, stamped my card, and then told me to find an exit. Used an ANZ bank ATM right outside customs. No problems. Like any major modern city, there are ATMs everywhere. Never had a problem using them.

Taxi queue is pretty long. Took about half an hour to get in a taxi. Took about 30 minutes to get to the hotel, Marriott Harbour Circular Quay. $46 AUD.

The Marriott is nice, but a bit dated. Bed is comfortable, the room was reasonably clean, but there’s not a lot of storage. Had a nice view of the bridge from the room though. Spent four days in Sydney before the cruise.

Sydney is a very nice city. Liked it a lot. Did a lot of walking, and didn’t use the public transportation nearly as much as I thought I would. Ate at the Sydney Fish Market. If you like seafood, I strongly suggest you go there at least once. Did the Bridge climb. Fantastic experience. I was a bit apprehensive since I don’t like heights, but that was not even a minor factor. Took a Blue Mountain tour with Sydney Wilderness Tours (http://www.sydneywildernesstours.com.au/) . Excellent. Went to Featherdale. Wish we could have spent more than a hour or so there. Stopped at several scenic overlooks, the town of Leura, and Scenic World. Last stop was Olympic park, and then we got on the jetcat ferry back to Circular Quay. Other places visited during the four days include the Chinese Friendship Garden, Paddy’s Market, Chinatown, the Opera house, Botanic Garden/Mrs Mcquarie’s chair, Darling Harbour, Manley, the Rocks…

Took a taxi from the hotel to Darling Harbour Wharf 8 after checkout. Fast and efficient check in and boarding process. Onboard shortly after 12 noon.

Some general observations of the ship and cruise…

The Sun Princess is definitely showing its age, but she is still a fine ship. It’s good though that she is due for a maintenance upkeep period soon. Probably the most annoying problem was that the windows were pretty dirty and salt encrusted. The buffet on Lido deck forward would have been much more enjoyable if the windows were clean. A friend of ours travelling with us had an outside cabin forward on deck 11, and you couldn’t see out of the window at all. It was like frosted glass. Our balcony glass was fine though, so maybe the steward cleaned them.

The food and service was pretty poor at the start of the cruise, but improved significantly by the end of the cruise. I suspect that they had a big turnover in kitchen personnel. Same with the dining room staff.

The shows were quite good, although several of the “headliners” were very bad. I was very surprised by the popularity of the shows. Not sure if it’s because Australians really like shows, but to get a seat, you had to get to the theater an hour before showtime. This was quite unlike previous cruises I’ve been on where seats were usually available until shortly before curtain. We had early dinner seating, and the second night, we were wondering where everybody was running off to around 7:15p. Turns out people were skipping dessert to go to the theater. This went on the entire cruise.

Now, for the cruise itself…

Major disappointment occurred shortly after sailing when the Captain announced that due to a storm in the Tasman Sea, he had to alter course to avoid it. That meant going between the North and South Island of New Zealand, and missing Fjordland. Everyone was quite disappointed. The transit itself was not rough, so I guess the Captain did a good job avoiding the rough weather.

First port, Port Chalmers/Dunedin. Took a tour with Mark Dixon and Awesome tours (http://www.awesometours.co.nz/). Excellent and highly recommended. The views from Nature’s Wonders were extraordinary. Larnach Castle had some nice views and very nice gardens. Interesting history. The building itself is not that remarkable IMHO. One lesson learned is that this may have been the best (least expensive) port to buy souvenirs in New Zealand.

Lyttleton/Christchurch. Took a tour with Discovery Travel (http://www.discoverytravel.co.nz/) . Very nice guide. Semi-retired gentleman who emigrated from the US. Nice little city, but nothing that really stood out.

Wellington. Took the ships tour “Footsteps Lord of the Rings”. I think unless you’re a LOTR fanatic, you’ll be quite disappointed. The filming locales we saw were unremarkable, to say the least. The movie sets were all gone, of course, and the film was made, apparently, with a lot of digital effects and enhancements. After the tour, we had about half a day to roam Wellington, so we took the cable car up the mountain side, walked the botanic gardens a bit, rode the car back down, and walked to the Te Papa museum. In hindsight, I think we should have skipped the LOTR tour, just taken the cable car up, walked down through the gardens, and spent the rest of the day at the Te Papa museum.

Napier. Booked a tour with Indigenous Trails, and they subcontracted it out to a small one person tour company in Napier. Nice lady and a nice tour of the countryside. Visited several wineries and a farmers market.

Tauranga. Tour with Indigenous Trails. Definitely not your normal commercial tourist experience, but very focused on Maori culture. Also visited the Kiwi 360 farm.

Auckland. Mount Classics City Highlights tour. Nice tour of the city and surrounding area. Went to a several places where the ship tours (and large buses) couldn’t go. Nice modern city.

Bay of Islands. Took the ships tour to the Glow worm cave and Kauri forest. My thinking was that since this was a tender port, taking a ships tour would get me off the ship before independents. Not true. In fact, while those of us who signed up for ship tours waited in the theater, independents were leaving. It was interesting to see the glow worms, and the Kauri forest is okay. Not sure what else there is to do, but there isn’t much in Paihia.

New Zealand is very pretty and lush. The people are very friendly, and there are sheep everywhere. Lots of cows too on the North Island. Just wish we could have cruised Fjordland.

Smooth transit back to Sydney. Booked a FCC. Ship was about 30 minutes late. Had a 4:25p flight out, so we were in no rush. Got off the ship around 1030. Customs and Immigration were a breeze. Long slow line for taxis, but Princess (or people wearing Princess nametags) were loading people into shuttles to the airport for $20 pp. United started check in about 1220. After check in, we got through immigration pretty fast. Lots of duty free shopping available. Uneventful flight back to the US. Arrived SFO about 30 minutes early.

Well, that’s about it. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

[vivian02]

HubbieO,

Thanks for the information. We will be sailing out of Sydney in January and your information will be very helpful. Thanks.... Tim and Cathy

[aussiedisneyfan]

Thanks for the report. :)

[Paulchili]

Thank you for the helpful report. We are doing a B2B on the Sun out of Sydney in Jan (New Caledonia/Vanuatu followed by the same NZ cruise).

I learned a lot from your review.

Thanks for sharing.

[jbeb]

Thanks for the break down by port of call. Ed and I are taking this cruise Feb5 2010 and really have to wonder if the ships tours are worth the price of admission. We have also booked the Lord of the Rings tour in the morning. I was thinking it would get us out of town to see some of the scenery. Do you strongly feel it a waste of time and money? I guess it is still on us to choose...

 

Thanks again for your insights. Happiest of New Years!

Jan

[Billy and Charlie's Mum]

Thanks for the break down by port of call. Ed and I are taking this cruise Feb5 2010 and really have to wonder if the ships tours are worth the price of admission. We have also booked the Lord of the Rings tour in the morning. I was thinking it would get us out of town to see some of the scenery. Do you strongly feel it a waste of time and money? I guess it is still on us to choose...

 

Thanks again for your insights. Happiest of New Years!

Jan

 

Skip the Lord of the Rings tour. There really is nothing to see. Spend more time in Wellington and surrounds.

[Glaciers]

Thanks for the break down by port of call. Ed and I are taking this cruise Feb5 2010 and really have to wonder if the ships tours are worth the price of admission. We have also booked the Lord of the Rings tour in the morning. I was thinking it would get us out of town to see some of the scenery. Do you strongly feel it a waste of time and money? I guess it is still on us to choose...

 

Thanks again for your insights. Happiest of New Years!

Jan

 

HubbieO, Thanks for posting.

 

We we on this cruise as well. Didn't do the Lord of the Rings tour. It was one of the ports where staying in the city was fine. The Te Papa museum was fabulous and the botanical gardens were very nice. Both filled up our day. We found Napier, Dunedin and Tauranga good places to explore further from the port. If you are even slightly ambitious and adventurous you can do just about any of the ships tours for a fraction of the cost. It did require renting cars and driving on the left side of the road but that was part of the adventure!