Back from Sydney/Auckland 2/25/06 Cruise

[NH Cruiser]

We really enjoyed this itinerary, even though we missed Christ Church when gale force winds forced the Diamond to stay Dunedin overnight. Due to work constraints, I won't have time in the near-term to write a review; however, if you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them.

 

Look for pictures to be posted on Webshots in about two weeks.

[doyleb]

We really enjoyed this itinerary, even though we missed Christ Church when gale force winds forced the Diamond to stay Dunedin overnight. Due to work constraints, I won't have time in the near-term to write a review; however, if you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them.

 

Look for pictures to be posted on Webshots in about two weeks.

 

Welcome back Jean - DW and I are on the 21 March Diamond sailing from Sydney, so we'll miss the review and pics. I think I'm the last American CC poster left on that thread... :)

 

Glad you had a good time and I've heard the weather hasn't been too kind lately, so we're planning on packing some additional layered clothing and maybe a few less pairs of shorts and t-shirts. Did you have any princess tours planned in Christchurch? If so I assume they didn't charge you for it. One of my concerns is with that large of a ship and that many people on board, other than hunkering down in the room during bad weather, was there enough to do / places to go / things to see in the ship to keep folks busy and not feel like you were cheek and jowl with your ship mates?

 

Take care,

Brendan

[NH Cruiser]

We missed the port due to gale-force winds. We had booked the TranzAlpine Experience. Our account was credited when they made their next posting, which is at midnight and noon each day. We didn't get any port taxes back. Not sure if they refund that to the travel agent.

 

Definitely pack warm clothes. It was quite cool after we left Hobart and until we reached the northern island of New Zealand. A lot of people assumed it was "summer," so they didn't bring warm clothes. Temperatures were in the mid-50s but it felt colder with the wind chill. We had a brief but heavy rainstorm while we were in Dunedin.

 

I didn't think there were a lot of places to sit and read on sea days. Some people used a window table in the Horizon Court and stayed there reading or playing cards. The few chairs along the windows (for example, outside the Wheelhouse Bar) were also taken early. The lounges are quite dark for reading and often have events scheduled during the day (Explorer's Lounge was filled with art work most of the time). Some days it was too cold to sit on the deck or balcony. They gave us blankets the day we sailed Fjordland.

 

I personally didn't think there was a lot to do on sea days and the staff was unprepared to handle the unexpected additional day at sea. The weather wasn't conducive to using all the outdoor pools and the indoor pool was closed the two coldest days for maintenance.

 

You might want to note show times, which changed from day to day. The theatre is very small (holds 705 and we had 3000 on board). People got to the theatre as much as an hour ahead of the posted time. Some people were even standing on the stairs which was a safety hazard especially when the ship had a lot of movement in rough seas. I was amazed at how small the theatre was for a ship holding that many people. On at least one occasion they did a simulcast of the show in the Explorer's Lounge. Unfortunately some things were just not handled well by the Diamond staff. I hope they have their act together for your cruise.

[Andrea A]

Hello NH,

Sorry to hear you missed a port, ChristChurch on your cruise. We board the Diamond (hopefully) on March 21. Currently I am In Cairns at the Hilton as we purchased a pre-cruise land package. We were so looking forward to the Great Barrier Reef, but Cyclone Larry, a category 4, is heading straight for us, due to pass over about 4 a.m. with gale force winds, torrential rain, etc. With luck, it will be gone by 4 p.m. , but we are basically stranded at the hotel. the airport is closed, no boats on the water, emergency vehicles only for the streets tomorrow, schools closed, elective surgeries cancelled, etc. You get the picture. I don't know what's better, being stranded in port or on the ship? I think the ship would be better as there are things to do. Tomorrow, we will be eating our breakfast in a ballroom as they do not want us by glass windows in the dining room. Currently, they have no plans for us for the day. This is understandable as we won't really know what's in store for us until we wake up.

I hope this weather doesn't follow us on the cruise!!

Let's hope all weather related issues are cleared up for the next group after ours , which is the April 2nd cruise.

Time to batten down the hatches! ( what does that mean?)

Andrea

[NH Cruiser]

The little wind and rock-and-roll motion we experienced sailing to Tauranga is nothing compared to what you're going through. Please post so that we know how you are doing.

 

I did a quick search on weather for the next 10 days for you. Here's what I found:

 

3/21 - Sydney - cloudy 70F

3/23 - Melbourne - sunny 81F

3/25 - Hobart - sunny 65F

3/29 - Dunedin - cloudy 60F

 

I couldn't find these ports this far out but this is the trend through 3/28. On our cruise, some days the skies were quite cloudy, then a brief rain moved through with the skies then turning a beautiful shade of blue.

 

ChristChurch - partly cloudy 65-68F

Tauranga - partly cloudy 69-71F

Auckland - partly cloudy 68-70F

 

Couldn't find Fjordland listed, but it was quite cold and windy when we were there, but very good visibility. Princess gave us warm blankets to use for the day. We eventually went to our cabin and took pictures from the balcony: most of my pictures are from starboard side :)

[Von]

We leave NZ this afternoon for Sydney and have been anxiously listening to the weather in Cairnes knowing there are several of CC folk there Andrea I do hope its not too horrible and you are able to continue onto Sydney to join the DP tomorrow.

 

Best of luck, see youu on the 22nd

No more sleeps!!!!

Von

[Andrea A]

Cyclone Larry hit with a vengence but not too bad here. We were evacuated from our hotel rooms at 5:00 a.m. to the main dining room and are cofined to the hotel. Lots of rain and wind and downed trees. property damage but no damage to people according to the local news. we are hoping the airport opens tomorow and we can fly out. I notice my typos but am doing this quickly as there is always a line for the 2 computers at the Hilton. It's hot and muggy, no ships out and no one on the streest but emergency personnel. It's just a shame to be missing this part of the trip but rest assured we are safe, There are about 144 of us on this land tour so we are making friends before we board the DP. The BBC news is reporting this as akin to Hurricane Katrina which is vastly overstated. Not sure if the USA is even reporting on this but it did hit as a category 4 and 5 in some areas. The eye was directly South of us and that town was pretty devasted. The good news is that the tides are low so the real danger of coastal flooding is at a minumun.

The power is on now and they are now letting us use the elevators again, yeah!!

So I'm off to the ballroom for lunch. (hopefully on Princess!!)

Thanks for those who posted being concerned for us and for the weather update. I'm so glad to have this site to keep in touch. I may not have the opportunity to get back on line, if not, I promise to post when our tripis over so everyone knows we made it out OK

Andrea

[SPI_Rick]

Andrea, I'm glad to here you are well. We are in Port Douglas also and have suffered no real damage other than the loss of the tours to the Great Barrier Reef. We will see you tomorrow (if the road to the airport is open) for embarkation on the Diamond Princess....we can compare "Cyclone Larry Survival Stories".

[NH Cruiser]

Please post to let us know you made it to Sydney and are on board the Diamond. FOX News had the cyclone as breaking news most of yesterday (Sunday). They showed the same footage each time of downed tree branches and heavy rain. I'm not sure where the footage was shot. Several stations were reporting this as Australia's Katrina. There were also reports of a second cyclone forming off Vanuatu.

 

Have a safe flight to Sydney and let us know you are all safe.

[maxx]

Please post to let us know you made it to Sydney and are on board the Diamond. FOX News had the cyclone as breaking news most of yesterday (Sunday). They showed the same footage each time of downed tree branches and heavy rain. I'm not sure where the footage was shot. Several stations were reporting this as Australia's Katrina. There were also reports of a second cyclone forming off Vanuatu.

 

The cyclone hit in Queensland. Lots of damage, our banana crops have been eradicated up there. It was a cat 5. No loss of life thankfully.

 

[luvs2cruzga]

Planning on this itinerary for Mar 2007 with land tour of Australia post cruise. Can anyone tell me if they booked their air with Princess? How did they route you?

[NH Cruiser]

We booked our own air in two segments: BOS/LA and then LA/SYD, with a return from Auckland. We bought the BOS/LA/BOS flights when they were first available from American Airlines at a really low price. We stayed one night in LA on both legs. I watched Qantas to have a sale and then bought the LA/SYD/AKL/LA tickets. The total for the two tickets was $1500 per person, considerably less than the Princess air package.

 

If you're booking Qantas, they have 747s with two-seat configuration in the last six rows, starting with Rote 70. Those were great seats with lots of room.

 

If you're looking for a great hotel in Sydney, we stayed at Sir Stamford and Circular Quay (http://www.stamford.com.au/sscq/). It was a wonderful boutique hotel just a block from the Opera House and across from the Botanic Gardens.

[luvs2cruzga]

NH cruiser

 

How far in advance did you book your flights on Quantas?

[NH Cruiser]

We booked the American Airlines flight on May 17, 2005 for a departure February 19, 2006. The price was $300 each round-trip from Boston/LA. We booked Qantas (LA/SYD/AKL/LA) on July 16, 2005 for a departure on February 20, 2006 for $1200 per person. I also held Princess air (LA/SYD/AKL/LA at $1698 per person) until I secured the cheaper fare. Booking our own flights gave us flexibility in scheduling our department and gave us immediate seat assignments. We wanted row 71, which has a two-seat configuration on the 747.

[luvs2cruzga]

Did you book online or did you call Qantas? I haven't figured out how to book a round trip on Qantas with the two different cities.

[NH Cruiser]

The Qantas website doesn't allow you to do multiple cities. I used Orbitz to track the pricing. When my husband heard a Qantas ad on the radio talking about lower fares, I called Qantas. The fare Qantas quoted ws $100 per person less than Qantas was showing.

 

When I booked directly with Qantas, I was able to add on the Australian Visa and also select my seats. You need an Australian Visa: there are several ways to get them, but it was easy through Qantas when I made my reservation.

[luvs2cruzga]

Thank you so much for the info. My Princess invoice says the visa is included in my price. Are you talking about a different visa. Also, I don't know if I mentioned that my cruise will be starting in Aukland and the cruise tour will be the end of the cruise in Australia.

[SPI_Rick]

luvs2cruzga, the visa in question would be the same....you can get it through a number of sources: Princess, Airlines, Travel Agent, On-line at:

https://www.ecom.immi.gov.au/visas/jsp/index.jsp?visaType=VSS

 

Just a couple of comments: I originally had Princess set up to do my visas and they were including a $20 per person fee in my booking for the service. My travel agent said she could do the visa on-line for free, so I had her do it instead of Princess. She then provided a printout of the electronic visa that we clipped to our passports for the trip. We encountered no problems. So, if you are dealing with a traditional travel agent you might check to see if they can handle the visa for you. However, I have seen postings from some people who did their own on-line visas where they said that they had some uncomfortable moments at the airport where agents couldn't find a listing of their visas......in each case the travel was approved after a short delay, but I would advise having something in writing to tuck into your passport before leaving.

 

On your question about the Princess Air connections: we were very happy with our results with Princess. Our routing was: Dallas to LAX via American Airlines....LAX to Sydney via Qantas.....Auckland to LAX via Qantas.....LAX to Dallas via American. There were no long layovers and there was no running to catch a plane. Unfortunately, the flight from the US to either Australia or New Zealand is a long, uncomfortable haul.....unless you can afford to pay the big $$ for Business Class or First Class.