shirazcruiser Posted April 15, 2020 #1 Share Posted April 15, 2020 We're looking at New Zealand cruises for March 2021 on both Celebrity and Princess, but was wondering if any experienced New Zealand cruisers would recommend one itinerary over the other. I highlighted in red the ports that are different on each cruise. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Celebrity: Princess: 03/24/2021 Sydney/Australia 03/25/2021 Cruising 03/26/2021 Cruising 03/27/2021 Fiordland National Park 03/28/2021 Port Chalmers, Dunedin 03/29/2021 Christchurch 03/30/2021 Picton 03/31/2021 Napier 04/01/2021 Wellington/New Zealand 04/02/2021 Cruising 04/03/2021 Cruising 04/04/2021 Sydney/Australia 03/27/2021 Sydney/Australia 03/28/2021 Cruising 03/29/2021 Cruising 03/30/2021 Fiordland National Park 03/31/2021 Port Chalmers, Dunedin 04/01/2021 Christchurch 04/02/2021 Wellington/New Zealand 04/03/2021 Cruising 04/04/2021 Tauranga 04/05/2021 Auckland 04/06/2021 Bay of Islands/New Zealand 04/07/2021 Cruising 04/08/2021 Cruising 04/09/2021 Sydney/Australia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUT2407 Posted April 16, 2020 #2 Share Posted April 16, 2020 Price? Bay of Islands is beautiful, but I adore quaint little Picton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shirazcruiser Posted April 16, 2020 Author #3 Share Posted April 16, 2020 21 minutes ago, GUT2407 said: Price? Bay of Islands is beautiful, but I adore quaint little Picton. Celebrity is 11 days and Princess is 13 days with Princess being $400 more for 2 more days. Price isn't a factor on either, the ships are good and the cabins are comparable so it's the itinerary that's the bottom line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Big_M Posted April 16, 2020 #4 Share Posted April 16, 2020 Auckland/Tauranga/Bay of Islands easily > Napier/Picton Auckland is the largest city and worthy of its own, somewhat akin to Sydney. Tauranga and Bay of Islands have their own special, unique characteristics - just one for example is Rotorua and the thermal centre, but there are many others. Napier and Picton are scenic, but cant outweigh the above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericosmith Posted April 16, 2020 #5 Share Posted April 16, 2020 Picton is a nice little town, but unless you're a wine drinker, I didn't find many excursions (including private) of much interest there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shirazcruiser Posted April 16, 2020 Author #6 Share Posted April 16, 2020 Thanks for the responses from everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare OzKiwiJJ Posted April 16, 2020 #7 Share Posted April 16, 2020 The Princess itinerary definitely. It's odd that Celebrity have cut their itinerary short, omitting some of the most popular NZ ports but it is late in the season for an NZ cruise, Celebrity ships usually head back to the US in April. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shirazcruiser Posted April 16, 2020 Author #8 Share Posted April 16, 2020 (edited) 47 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said: The Princess itinerary definitely. It's odd that Celebrity have cut their itinerary short, omitting some of the most popular NZ ports but it is late in the season for an NZ cruise, Celebrity ships usually head back to the US in April. Thanks...We initially booked Princess since it is a 13 day sailing, but later noticed that Celebrity had B2B 11 day New Zealand and 11 day Australian sailings. With Celebrity we would be able to visit both New Zealand and Australia in one trip. However, we do want to sail on the best itinerary. Edited April 16, 2020 by shirazcruiser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare OzKiwiJJ Posted April 18, 2020 #9 Share Posted April 18, 2020 On 4/17/2020 at 8:44 AM, shirazcruiser said: Thanks...We initially booked Princess since it is a 13 day sailing, but later noticed that Celebrity had B2B 11 day New Zealand and 11 day Australian sailings. With Celebrity we would be able to visit both New Zealand and Australia in one trip. However, we do want to sail on the best itinerary. Honestly, you'd be better doing some land travel in Australia after your Princess cruise as you end up with quite a few sea days on Australian itineraries as it's a long way between ports. Better to choose 2-3 places to visit and fly between them. Don't get me wrong, cruising around Australia is great but you need to allow more time than 11 days. Sydney to Perth is usually around 17 days and the whole circumnavigation is 28-30 days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shirazcruiser Posted April 18, 2020 Author #10 Share Posted April 18, 2020 Thanks for the response. That's something to think about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nini Posted April 29, 2020 #11 Share Posted April 29, 2020 We are booked on the same cruise! However, I am having serious doubts that it will happen. I have read on this forum that "Down Under" may not open their ports or allow tourists until AFTER a Covid 19 vaccination is available. Comments anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nini Posted April 29, 2020 #12 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Personally, we do not care for Celebrity and love the Regal princess! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shirazcruiser Posted April 29, 2020 Author #13 Share Posted April 29, 2020 7 minutes ago, nini said: Personally, we do not care for Celebrity and love the Regal princess! As you said, these sailings are probably a no go. We have sailed quite a bit on both lines and each has their strengths and weaknesses; however, we do prefer the suite cabins on Princess over Celebrity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nini Posted April 29, 2020 #14 Share Posted April 29, 2020 Sad, but I am still hoping for the best. We enjoy meeting "fellow" cruisers on Cruise Critic. I have not even joined the Roll Call (if there is one). New Zealand is supposed to be so beautiful... and the wine! 😉 I have a few favorites from there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare OzKiwiJJ Posted April 30, 2020 #15 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Cruising in the Australia/NZ region may have restarted by then but the main issue is whether Australia and New Zealand will allow international visitors in by then. The powers-that-be are discussing an Australia/NZ bubble allowing travel between the two countries but not from outside that bubble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shirazcruiser Posted April 30, 2020 Author #16 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Thanks for the responses! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iancal Posted July 1, 2020 #17 Share Posted July 1, 2020 (edited) We did two cruises from Australia. Not quite back to back-two weeks in between. First was 14 day Fijii on Princess. Second was RCI 21 day OZ/NZ. We enjoyed both. One difference was that the onboard currency on Princess was AUD. The onboard currency on RCI (and probably Celebrity) was USD. Plus the drinks were more expensive on RCI. Overall, each drink, wine etc, that we had cost us about 50 percent more on Royal Caribbean. Same for the tips. One plus was that we booked the RC cruise on short notice and we booked direct by calling RCI in Sydney. The fare that we paid by booking with their Sydney call center was 30 pecent less that the best price that our US on line TA or the RCI North America web site could provide. We got some good information, including info on our last minute RC cruise pricing from the OZ/NZ group on cruise critic below: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/564-australia-new-zealand-cruisers/ Edited July 1, 2020 by iancal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shirazcruiser Posted July 1, 2020 Author #18 Share Posted July 1, 2020 5 hours ago, iancal said: We did two cruises from Australia. Not quite back to back-two weeks in between. First was 14 day Fijii on Princess. Second was RCI 21 day OZ/NZ. We enjoyed both. One difference was that the onboard currency on Princess was AUD. The onboard currency on RCI (and probably Celebrity) was USD. Plus the drinks were more expensive on RCI. Overall, each drink, wine etc, that we had cost us about 50 percent more on Royal Caribbean. Same for the tips. One plus was that we booked the RC cruise on short notice and we booked direct by calling RCI in Sydney. The fare that we paid by booking with their Sydney call center was 30 pecent less that the best price that our US on line TA or the RCI North America web site could provide. We got some good information, including info on our last minute RC cruise pricing from the OZ/NZ group on cruise critic below: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/564-australia-new-zealand-cruisers/ Thanks for responding. I think at this point, these March sailings are now sooner than we plan to cruise again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iancal Posted July 2, 2020 #19 Share Posted July 2, 2020 It is academic. I doubt very much that Australian or NZ will be open to Americans (if anyone) by March. Australia's very recent experience with the veracity of pre arrival information that cruise lines provide has led them to be err on the side caution. With very good reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zalusky Posted July 3, 2020 #20 Share Posted July 3, 2020 (edited) I think I would add that I would not expect them to send a ship down late in the season for a sailing or two especially if the intermediate ports of Hawaii are still closed. It’s a long way to send a ship if you can’t fill it along the way. Right now most ships are sitting in the gulf. They would have to create new long distance itineraries and fill them quickly if they decide to open in February or even March. Then there is the likely capacity reduction issue so the revenue is even going to be less. Finally I fully expect initial cruises to be short ones as you can’t check people for viruses they caught coming back from ports even if they cleared the embarkation. At least with short cruises if they do get infected they won’t be infectious during the remainder of the cruise. If you have long 14 day even 10 day sailings there is a possibility of people infecting others on the ship creating bad publicity and possible quarantining of the ship Diamond princess style. Princess has already been dinged multiple times on this. The one possibility I see is a ship dedicated to Australia year round for short sailings with locals only. I d0nt know if that’s profitable. Edited July 3, 2020 by zalusky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare OzKiwiJJ Posted July 3, 2020 #21 Share Posted July 3, 2020 3 hours ago, zalusky said: The one possibility I see is a ship dedicated to Australia year round for short sailings with locals only. I d0nt know if that’s profitable. It's been profitable in the past. P&O Australia, Carnival, and Princess all operate year round here, although over the past couple of years Princess has had a gap of three months while Sea Princess was doing the world cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zalusky Posted July 3, 2020 #22 Share Posted July 3, 2020 16 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said: It's been profitable in the past. P&O Australia, Carnival, and Princess all operate year round here, although over the past couple of years Princess has had a gap of three months while Sea Princess was doing the world cruise. Do you think they would fill the ship if it was locals only or be profitable if they had to limit capacity to 50%? Which are possibilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare OzKiwiJJ Posted July 3, 2020 #23 Share Posted July 3, 2020 Yes, they would be profitable with locals only - the winter season cruises are mostly locals now including the very popular Round Australia and Hawaii/Tahiti cruises. 50% capacity could be borderline. It may depend on the ship - the older ships are less economical than the newer ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare OzKiwiJJ Posted July 3, 2020 #24 Share Posted July 3, 2020 Essentially the Australia/NZ cruise market was one of the fastest growing in the world up until this blasted virus came along. In the summer season we did get a fair number of overseas visitors but once the NZ cruise season tapered off the numbers of overseas visitors dropped. Most of NZ is affected by adverse weather and sea conditions over winter so only the northern ports - Bay of Islands, Auckland, and Tauranga - are possible and even then you have to be lucky although Auckland is usually OK. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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