bigsky

Were the shuttles close by after getting off the ship? Were the botanical gardens close to the aquarium? Shuttle back?

Rafting sounds fun. Another posted an idea as well that sounded fun. That link for Suzie didn't work. Nothing came up. Was she expensive? We're going to fly into Auckland for 4 days to stay with a friend that lives there. Then we'll fly to Austrailia to spend a few days pre cruise. We have one day we'll be watching a sailing event. Then I do want to go to a zoo. Have to ck that link out! Thank you!!

Yep! I replied on our roll call! : )

Thank you...We'll be in Wellington, Picton and Dunedin from your stops...also Napier. I'm torn with Napier. What you did sounds perfect, but someone mentioned rafting. More research. Thank you for your ideas. This helps!

We like to do a variety of things. We enjoy sailing, seeing wild life… we’re open. no limitations. Don’t really have a budget, also dont want to spend a fortune. Reasonable priced excursions. Guess it’s not real specific. Thanks for suggestions

We've gone on many cruises, but first time to NZ. We'll be cruising out Feb 9th. We have friends that live in Auckland, so we'll spend 3 days there first, fly to Sydney and spend a few more nights before cruising back to NZ. We usually do excursions on our own instead of with the ship. I usually have things figured out by now as well. Anything that are must do's in each port? Any places you reccommend booking excursions thru? Thank you!

It’s very easy! Once u exit the airport, they’ll be a place right in front of the buses to buy your ticket. Pretty easy to figure out. It’s by the curb and u can’t miss it. Just know where u want to get off at. We took ours straight to the Plaza Catalunya. Our hotel was very close to where the bus stopped. Going back to Barcelona in August and spend time just there!

Before our cruise, we had a balcony room that had views of the plaza. It was noisy at night. After the cruise, our airline canceled our flight and didn’t see that til we were on our way to the airport! Had our driver take us back to the h10. Luckily they had a room!! We got a different location that was so much better! Very nice staff!!! Found a wonderful place to eat dinner in their recommendation. Are there each night for dinner… haha

We stayed at the h10 Plaza Catalunya. Loved the location! Walk to so much around you. Taxis are also out front if u want to grab one. We took the bus from the airport. Cheap and easy!

We actually would like to visit Sydney a few days prior to the cruise since we’ve never been. No, we visit the Sounds and the other visits the Bay of islands. We don’t visit Auckland and Christchurch as well.

Both are on the Ovation of the Seas. We are booked on it currently and it’s out of Sydney.

We currently have a cruise booked to NZ Feb, 2025. We usually escape the cold every winter. First NZ cruise. I found another itinerary for March. Wondering which one to choose now. Ours currently goes to Picton, Wellington, Napier, Dunedin and the Sounds.... The other one goes to Bay of islands, Auckland, Napier, Wellington and Littleton (Christchurch). The Sounds look beautiful, but maybe the other itinerary maybe better?? Love to hear others' opinions.

I used the same train station. Just a stupid move on my part. yes, not for me. Plus we were exhausted and hot. Too much packed in the week

We just returned from our cruise. Barcelona cruise port was the easiest of all ports to board. We ended up at the port around 11:30. We showed our doc's, they showed us where to go inside and went straight up to the counter. We just wanted to get onboard finally and enjoy it! All that planning you do and you're finally onboard!

Well, we just returned from our cruise. Wanted to post in a few of my posts where I had questions. We originally booked with a tour guide and they had to cancel on us since not many signed up thru the ship. It was very unfortunate since we didn't get to use them on one of our tours. It was amazing, organized and small! Much less than the ship as well. Anyways, we took the train to see the Colosseum. We booked a tour once we knew our other canceled. This one just met us there. Got off the ship later than I wanted. Didn't do advance tickets. Got there at 9:05, but next one was 9:53. Not knowing how long this would all take, I was a tad nervous. Then had to take the metro which is a block away. Ended up getting to our meeting point with 5 minutes to spare! Make sure when you return, take B back, NOT A. Ugh....I remember there were two stops, but we went in the wrong direction. Hubby warned me to check and I didn't listen. Someone finally was able to tell us once we got off that we needed to go on the other side to B. Very confusing to figure out at the time. Found some police and they told us. In my mind, I kept thinking when we got off the train, the metro was down below where we were. You have to exit out of the building, walk left to down the street to get the metro. Also, when we bought our tickets, she gave me to duplicates and hubby got the other two duplicates. I had both coming back and he had both going. A gal that worked there told me to put one in the machine to validate it. It validated the wrong one. We finally figured out what happened, didn't do anything more, and thankfully they didn't check them. They really should have someone there that can help direct you. Also, the train showed up 20 minutes prior to us leaving. We weren't sure to get on or not. No one speaks English either that didn't help. Next time if we had to do it, would be much easier. But next time, we'll be sure to have a tour guide that picks us up and drives us to all our spots.