NZ private shore excursions

[Como Cruisers]

On Majestic Princess to NZ in Jan. Should we organise all shore excursions beforehand or are there plenty of vehicles at the dock offering tours?

 

Thanks,

Cathy

 

 

[Senga]

59 minutes ago, Como Cruisers said:

On Majestic Princess to NZ in Jan. Should we organise all shore excursions beforehand or are there plenty of vehicles at the dock offering tours?

 

Thanks,

Cathy

 

 

Check out the Port of Call board and your Roll Call.

[charliedalrymple]

We did this cruise in 2016 and there were plenty of vehicles at the dock.  We're doing it again from Sydney to NZ on December 22 and don't plan to book anything in advance--we'll just see what we can find at the dock.  I'll let you know how that works out.

 

We return to Sydney on January 5.  Will you be boarding that day?

[Como Cruisers]

1 hour ago, charliedalrymple said:

We did this cruise in 2016 and there were plenty of vehicles at the dock.  We're doing it again from Sydney to NZ on December 22 and don't plan to book anything in advance--we'll just see what we can find at the dock.  I'll let you know how that works out.

 

We return to Sydney on January 5.  Will you be boarding that day?

Yes we board on 5th. Keen to hear how you go.

[hal2008]

which port exactly?

 

At Picton, they have stopped renting vehicle to cruise pax (you must keep it overnight)

 

They claim pressure from local tourism related businesses.

However, it seems rental car companies were not getting left with enough cars for land tourists who are not allowed to bring rental cars on ferry across the cook strait on cruise in port days and those folks rents for many days/weeks compared to several hours by cruisers.

 

Wellington, Christchurch  you dont need to rental cars as buses provided by cruise or port or local transport is quite enough.

Edited November 30, 2023 by hal2008

[Como Cruisers]

On 11/29/2023 at 12:24 PM, charliedalrymple said:

We did this cruise in 2016 and there were plenty of vehicles at the dock.  We're doing it again from Sydney to NZ on December 22 and don't plan to book anything in advance--we'll just see what we can find at the dock.  I'll let you know how that works out.

 

We return to Sydney on January 5.  Will you be boarding that day?

Would be great if you could post during cruise to give us a heads up as we board as you disembark.

 

Many thanks!

[Zach1213]

On 11/30/2023 at 4:32 AM, hal2008 said:

However, it seems rental car companies were not getting left with enough cars for land tourists who are not allowed to bring rental cars on ferry across the cook strait

 

I'm confused about not being allowed to bring your rental car across. While most (all?) rental car companies in New Zealand restrict you from picking up on one island and dropping on the other (unless you pay a crazy fee), plenty of companies allow you to go back and forth on the ferry if you return the car on the same island you picked it up. For example, earlier this year, I picked up a car in Wellington, took it to/from Blenheim, and dropped it back in Wellington using the ferry both ways in between. This was with Hertz and there were no problems (even their website says that's fine).