Tom F

We're looking at doing this cruise, but have never done a world cruise before and have no idea what to expect in in terms of incentives from our TA, who we've only just begun working with (to complicate things, we're in New Zealand, so I expect TAs here may operate differently than in the US and elsewhere). @mrlevin mentioned 8-10%. Is that typical? Is that in the form of a straight discount, or a portion discount and OBC? Do agent affiliations with Virtuoso or other associations mean anything? Any other tips or things to look for (or look out for?).

Hi, we're also new to Seabourn and just discovering this. Would love to understand it and work with someone. In Dec 2023 we booked a July 2025 cruise on Encore through our travel agent.

This is a strong itinerary with lots of great suggestions. I'll toss in a few more! Queenstown, in my view, is a fabulous base for exploring portions of the South Island. It has a bit of an Aspen CO vibe (and is actually a sister city) and has heaps of tourism for good reason, with a tremendous range of adventure activities and day-trips organised through established tour providers. Take a day trip to Glenorchy for stunning scenery (used in various movies), toward Cromwell to the east for Otago wineries with some of the best Pinots (Gibbston Valley, Mt Difficulty, others have cellar doors and restaurants), before heading to lovely Wanaka and up the west coast toward the glaciers. And maybe reserve a day or two in QTN with no plans because you'll probably find something of interest to do on the spur of the moment (preorder your Fergburger online to avoid the line though, haha). NZ has a number of "great walks" and likely the most famous is the Milford Track through Fiordland. There are a limited number of spots, so reservations are essential when the booking window opens. We've done the glamping version (departs from QTN or Te Anau) and very, very highly recommend it: https://www.ultimatehikes.co.nz/multi-day-guided-walks/milford-track (it ends with a lovely boat ride from the aptly-named Sandfly Point to the Mitre Peak lodge with stunning views of the sound). There are helicopter tours from the Fox/Franz glacier area to the top, possibly with an opportunity to go into a wee ice tunnel, if that's of interest. We enjoyed this and learning about the glaciers and visiting the top was interesting, but the stunning scenery from the air was the highlight, tbh. Hokitika is part of the "west coast wilderness" bike trail from Greymouth to Ross, if cycling is of interest: https://www.westcoastwildernesstrail.co.nz - we're not avid cyclists, but we've rented e-bikes in Hokitika for an out-and-back towards Lake Kaniere, which takes you through some fairy-tale like forest scenery for a fantastic day trip. We live in Christchurch, so some suggestions there: it's a lovely mid-size city and great place to live, but not a lot of wow factor for tourism. Take a day to walk through Hagley Park and the botanical gardens, do punting or rent kayaks on the tranquil Avon River, walk over to Riverside Market for lunch and up past the historical cathedral (under repair from the quakes) to New Regent St to view some of the city vibe. Hop on/off Christchurch Trams are beautiful and convenient, and you can even have a dinner on a tram at night and see the city that way. Sumner beach / Taylor's Mistake hike for a taste of beach life here. Highly recommend a day or two to the beautiful Banks Peninsula with hiking, kayaking, or a short harbour cruise out of french-influenced Akaroa to see the world's smallest/cutest dolphins in their natural habitat. Maybe a stay at Otahuna Lodge (Relais & Chateaux) between Akaroa and ChCh to recover from all your activities. 😃 We love living in NZ, but a drawback is that's it's quite remote, obviously. But I guess that's all the more reason to encourage others to combine a land portion of their NZ trip with a cruise, since getting here is a long flight for most. I don't think you'll regret taking extra time in NZ. Back to your original question: you can't go wrong with #1 or #2, but if doing the south island land trip, then #2 itinerary would certainly edge out #1 for my tastes (unless you want to also do a land trip in the north island as well, haha). Hope this helps!

Surely the answer has to be to do a back-to-back! 😃 As someone who lives in NZ (south island), I'd say you can't go wrong with either. I don't think #2 is getting the love it deserves, tbh. Overall good ports and an overnight in Napier is interesting and would allow more time to explore that beautiful region, especially if you enjoy wines, along with Gisborne. Some interesting excursion opportunities from the north island ports, especially Tauranga, with more opportunity to learn about Maori culture. While there may not be a lot to do in New Plymouth (hiking Taranaki?), some ports on #1 aren't exactly flash either (looking at you, Timaru, Dunedin, and Bluff...). For my tastes, #1 wins hands down for scenery and #2 for ports, but you will have a fantastic trip with either! (P.S. Since both itineraries stop in Napier: if you rent a car or arrange other transportation, lunch at Craggy Range followed by a visit to Te Mata Peak is quite something).

Ok, so not just us down here in NZ, thank you very much.

My wife and I are soon-to-be empty nesters and looking forward to trying some luxury cruises. Thanks to all the experts on this board: your info is so helpful, and the "Live from..." threads are really fun. Now for the question... we live in NZ and last week I was on silversea.com happily looking at cruises, doing some mock bookings to see which cabins were available, etc, with no problems. A couple of days ago I started getting an "It looks like there's a problem..." error when I went to "Book Your Cruise" on the page that asks for number of guests. I called the phone number shown, and she was very nice in providing more cruise info and offering to book us, but said they had no access to IT help and wasn't familiar with the issue. I've tried different devices, clearing cookies, etc, and get the same result. Are you in NZ or elsewhere and familiar with this error? Wondering if it's temporary while Silversea loads new itineraries or updates airfares or something like that, or if it's something on my end and/or specific to NZ. Not sure why it was working last week but not the past couple of days! In the end we'll be working with a travel agent, but it's nice to be able to use the site to check availability, etc.