Nov. 29 2024 Australia/New Zealand itinerary change

[Findingmywings]

We received an email yesterday from Viking telling us of an itinerary change that isn’t a good one.  We were supposed to dock in Auckland the day before disembarking, giving us a chance to explore the city for a day before flying home.  Now we are going to have a sea day before docking for disembarkation, forcing us to buy an extension or pay for a deviation if we want to see the city.  This is the only time frame that works for us and it wasn’t clear if the change applied to just our sailing or all of them.   
 

What would cause them to make such a negative change almost a year out?  For those who have been to Auckland, are there must see sights that would warrant the extra time and expense? 

[QueenP]

What kinds of things do you like to do and see? Auckland is a very spread out city with long drives between points of interest and not particularly good public transport, so you'll have to be sure about what you want to do before booking extra time (NZ also v expensive, sonething to keep in mind).

[Peregrina651]

3 hours ago, Findingmywings said:

 

What would cause them to make such a negative change almost a year out?  For those who have been to Auckland, are there must see sights that would warrant the extra time and expense? 

 

Okay, I'm only guessing but there is a good chance that the change was out of Viking's control. Like the port saying that they don't have a berth for them.  

[CDNPolar]

We have had changes made to our Ocean itineraries that were not ideal, but if you read the ticket contract, Viking have the right to do this, and even though they will try not to, sometimes they have to. 

 

What Peregrina651 says could well be the case.

 

First off, I would write tellus@vikingcruises.com and ask them?  Tell your reason for your concern, and see what they say - you will likely get a phone call back.

 

Unfortunately now, you will have to make the decision to extend your stay which if you are doing your air through Viking you will have to pay a diversion fee and then also a hotel and any tour fees that you want to book privately.

 

Unfortunately this stuff happens, but I would prefer it to happen when I have the time to decide to cancel or make alternate arrangements and not be a last minute thing.

 

 

[Mich3554]

7 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

We have had changes made to our Ocean itineraries that were not ideal, but if you read the ticket contract, Viking have the right to do this, and even though they will try not to, sometimes they have to. 

 

What Peregrina651 says could well be the case.

 

First off, I would write tellus@vikingcruises.com and ask them?  Tell your reason for your concern, and see what they say - you will likely get a phone call back.

 

Unfortunately now, you will have to make the decision to extend your stay which if you are doing your air through Viking you will have to pay a diversion fee and then also a hotel and any tour fees that you want to book privately.

 

Unfortunately this stuff happens, but I would prefer it to happen when I have the time to decide to cancel or make alternate arrangements and not be a last minute thing.

 

 

Exactly!  Viking did this on our Trade Routes cruise, where we’re were supposed to have a day in Barcelona before tossing us off.  Unfortunately, we get to the first stop in Spain and are told we are only stopping in Barcelona to disembark….no tours.  Turned out, there were protests going on and while that they hadn’t gotten violent, Viking was not willing to take a chance.  

We had already booked a hotel for an extra 3 days in Barcelona, so it wasn’t a big deal for us, but there were a lot of unhappy people at the end of the cruise needing to get off the ship and go directly to the airport.  
As for the protests, there was a huge police presence and we did see quite a few demonstrations, but just exited stage right to avoid getting caught up in them.

[MarkTapley]

12 hours ago, Findingmywings said:

We received an email yesterday from Viking telling us of an itinerary change that isn’t a good one.  We were supposed to dock in Auckland the day before disembarking, giving us a chance to explore the city for a day before flying home.  Now we are going to have a sea day before docking for disembarkation, forcing us to buy an extension or pay for a deviation if we want to see the city.  This is the only time frame that works for us and it wasn’t clear if the change applied to just our sailing or all of them.   
 

What would cause them to make such a negative change almost a year out?  For those who have been to Auckland, are there must see sights that would warrant the extra time and expense? 

Sandi, 

 

Thanks for posting this.  We’re on this cruise (from Vancouver) and hadn’t received the message yet from Viking.  Bummer if you haven’t been to Auckland.  It’s really worth spending a few days there, if possible.

 

Jerry

[KBs mum]

The itineraries in the brochures are 'indicative and may change'. Don't rely on them when booking. 

Found this written in the brochure that arrived yesterday. From experience, Viking now view sea days as equal to port stops. 

We have switched to looking for late availability discounts, when the itinerary is more likely to be correct, and the price more sensible for the now lower standards

[PasadenaDave]

Well, we are missing a stop on Christmas at Dunedin which is likely due to the entire town and port being closed on Christmas Day.

 

One suggestion is that you leave the ship in Tauranga and take the bus or hire a car for the 3-4 hour journey to Auckland.  You also could just stay an extra day or two on your own, if Auckland is so important for you.

 

We travel next week and will be on our own for one night in Auckland and two nights in Sydney at the end.  Much cheaper to do each end on our own and both places are easy to navigate and they speak a language similar to ours.

[QueenP]

Lol all of NZ is closed on Christmas day, if you were ashore you would just be wandering around a completely empty city.  Better to enjoy a sea day 😄

[KBs mum]

13 hours ago, QueenP said:

Lol all of NZ is closed on Christmas day, if you were ashore you would just be wandering around a completely empty city.  Better to enjoy a sea day 😄

The scenery, flora and fauna, and architecture are still there. There will be a few people about. Shopping is not essential for enjoyment.

Not everyone in NZ follows one of the versions of Christianity, likewise for those on the ship

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by KBs mum

[Over from NZ]

On 12/10/2023 at 3:48 AM, KBs mum said:

The scenery, flora and fauna, and architecture are still there. There will be a few people about. Shopping is not essential for enjoyment.

Not everyone in NZ follows one of the versions of Christianity, likewise for those on the ship

 

The scenery, flora and fauna will be there.. but the instagram scenery ain't near the ports where cruise ships go lol. Christmas day.. Maccas or the local service station for a pie will be as good as it gets haha

[QueenP]

13 hours ago, Over from NZ said:

The scenery, flora and fauna will be there.. but the instagram scenery ain't near the ports where cruise ships go lol. Christmas day.. Maccas or the local service station for a pie will be as good as it gets haha

Lol exactly!

[KBs mum]

On 12/14/2023 at 4:44 AM, Over from NZ said:

The scenery, flora and fauna will be there.. but the instagram scenery ain't near the ports where cruise ships go lol. Christmas day.. Maccas or the local service station for a pie will be as good as it gets haha

There's plenty scenery about there, all ports are interesting, we travel to see reality, not Instagram fantasy. 

Food is available on the ship if nowhere is convenient on shore, we often skip lunch

 

[amtatom]

We did this cruise earlier this year, so here are my thoughts, which are just opinions, of course.

 

First of all, I’m truly sorry that your itinerary has changed without a readily apparent reason. It’s very disappointing when you’ve paid that much money and will be spending so much time to get to a place you may never visit again. At least a last minute change due to weather (as happened to us and the after effects of Cyclone Gabrielle) is understandable.

 

Re: Auckland. Honestly, we found Auckland the least interesting port on this entire cruise. The city itself is a basic large nondescript city. We had booked a private tour to Piha beach but it was canceled three days prior due to mud slides from the cyclone, so we did the HOHO bus at the last minute. Even the “top” sights as included on that were not interesting to us. We also have friends who live in New Zealand (we met up with them earlier on this cruise), and they warned us Auckland was only good for major shopping. However, having said all that, there is a large sailboating community in Auckland, so I imagine if that’s your thing, you could probably find something fun to do.

 

On the positive side, if you’re disembarking in Auckland with a Viking transfer, you will likely have several hours that day to do something in the city. New Zealand required an empty ship by a certain time early in the morning (9:00?), so Viking took us all to hotel downtown and we had 4-5 hours to explore before we had to return for our bus to the airport.

 

As others have said, you could use your day in Tauranga to travel to Auckland, but I wouldn’t recommend it. There is so much more to see in Tauranga; we weren’t even able to see everything we wanted on our day there. Plus it is several hours of driving each way. Again, that’s just my opinion. If Auckland is essential to you, I feel booking a day or two on your own is the best option.

 

Re: Dunedin on Christmas. The ship doesn’t actually dock at Dunedin, which was about a 30 minutes shuttle bus ride away. The dock here is a very small town and the port is an industrial port that required a bus to even leave the port area. In addition, the port is in a narrow (but beautiful) harbor that requires a pilot boat to travel through a very narrow dredged lane (we saw the dredger and learned about it on our excursion). I would imagine that since it will be Christmas, Viking may not be able to obtain a pilot for the boat and/or drivers for the shuttle buses. The port itself may be closed for the holiday. Even if you docked, this is not a port in which you may walk off the ship by yourself. In my opinion, a relaxing coastal day at sea would be the better option in this case. You’ll actually see more beautiful scenery than the containers and industrial cranes, etc, at the dock.

 

I wish you both a lovely time on your cruises, whatever you decide about these ports.

Edited December 16, 2023 by amtatom

[millybess]

2 hours ago, amtatom said:

We did this cruise earlier this year, so here are my thoughts, which are just opinions, of course.

 

First of all, I’m truly sorry that your itinerary has changed without a readily apparent reason. It’s very disappointing when you’ve paid that much money and will be spending so much time to get to a place you may never visit again. At least a last minute change due to weather (as happened to us and the after effects of Cyclone Gabrielle) is understandable.

 

Re: Auckland. Honestly, we found Auckland the least interesting port on this entire cruise. The city itself is a basic large nondescript city. We had booked a private tour to Piha beach but it was canceled three days prior due to mud slides from the cyclone, so we did the HOHO bus at the last minute. Even the “top” sights as included on that were not interesting to us. We also have friends who live in New Zealand (we met up with them earlier on this cruise), and they warned us Auckland was only good for major shopping. However, having said all that, there is a large sailboating community in Auckland, so I imagine if that’s your thing, you could probably find something fun to do.

 

On the positive side, if you’re disembarking in Auckland with a Viking transfer, you will likely have several hours that day to do something in the city. New Zealand required an empty ship by a certain time early in the morning (9:00?), so Viking took us all to hotel downtown and we had 4-5 hours to explore before we had to return for our bus to the airport.

 

As others have said, you could use your day in Tauranga to travel to Auckland, but I wouldn’t recommend it. There is so much more to see in Tauranga; we weren’t even able to see everything we wanted on our day there. Plus it is several hours of driving each way. Again, that’s just my opinion. If Auckland is essential to you, I feel booking a day or two on your own is the best option.

 

Re: Dunedin on Christmas. The ship doesn’t actually dock at Dunedin, which was about a 30 minutes shuttle bus ride away. The dock here is a very small town and the port is an industrial port that required a bus to even leave the port area. In addition, the port is in a narrow (but beautiful) harbor that requires a pilot boat to travel through a very narrow dredged lane (we saw the dredger and learned about it on our excursion). I would imagine that since it will be Christmas, Viking may not be able to obtain a pilot for the boat and/or drivers for the shuttle buses. The port itself may be closed for the holiday. Even if you docked, this is not a port in which you may walk off the ship by yourself. In my opinion, a relaxing coastal day at sea would be the better option in this case. You’ll actually see more beautiful scenery than the containers and industrial cranes, etc, at the dock.

 

I wish you both a lovely time on your cruises, whatever you decide about these ports.

Thanks for this.  It's very helpful.

[KBs mum]

We found the log loading operation in Port Chalmers very interesting, we sat on our balcony for some time watching it, and admiring the skill of the telehandler operator. Once clear of the usual dock secure area we strolled along a few roads happily arguing about plant and wildlife names. 

We also did our own Auckland extension, and regretted not allowing more time. The museum and war memorials took up one day, then a general wander another. There were also options to visit the glow worm caves and other local sites. 

We fell into interesting conversation with several locals in a pub, that filled an afternoon. 

KBs Dad had relatives in NZ, and so has visited a few times over the last 40 years

Edited December 16, 2023 by KBs mum

[amtatom]

Hubby and I enjoyed watching the industrial ports for a while, too, before or after our day out (there are several on this cruise). It’s fascinating and humbling to see how much stuff is moved around the world, for better or worse. In Auckland (not an industrial port per se), a commercial container-size ship was docked next to us but it was full of only cars. We watched in morning and evening and even the next morning as they moved all the cars off the ship and onto car trailers. Thousands and thousands of brand new cars! Mind-blowing for a small country.

 

But I personally wouldn’t want that to be my only view for an entire day. Also, on Christmas, I doubt the port is operational.