Muffinz

12 minutes ago, gators70 said:

Thanks for the heads up.

 

We're on a cruise that docks in Sydney 26 December and our preferred flight was 11:45am.... and there is a 90% chance we could make that flight, but for piece of mind we chose a later flight

We used Redy 2 go in 2018 to get from Sydney Airport to the hotel and they were fine for us, but yes they do have pretty bad reviews online.

As others have said the Train would be fine and we plan to take the train in December when we arrive in Sydney for our cruise

I've heard the Princess Transfer leaves at 0800 or 0830 and if that's the case then you should be at the airport by 0900 and be in plenty of time to make the flight - providing there are no issues with the ship docking

I personally think you may be pushing it to make a 11:50a.m international flight - everything has to go to plan for that to be possible, so make sure you have a plan B - just in case the cruise is hours late arriving back into Sydney or something

We're on a Princess cruise in December 2024 from Sydney that goes to Melbourne (among other places) and we're going through the excursions for the different ports, deciding what we want to do.

None of the excursions in Melbourne really appeal to us, but my dear wife has found out there is a DFO shopping outlet in Melbourne - and it looks like it's only about 3km from the cruise terminal?

Would there be Taxi's / Uber at the cruise terminal that we could get to the DFO and back?

Also can anyone confirm if Princess provide free shuttles at the ports that to go into town?

Some threads / posts I've read on CC say Princess do and some say they don't, so it's a bit confusing....

The other 2 ports we are undecided on are Port Lincoln and Hobart, so if there is a free shuttle that goes into town we will happily stroll around these places at our leisure 

any advice would be appreciated 🙂

I always say - if you can afford to spend thousands of $ on a vacation / cruise, then you can afford to buy travel insurance.

We buy travel insurance even if we are flying domestically within New Zealand.... because you never know what can happen. It's piece of mind really.

There was a story here a few years ago about a family who went to Bali for a holiday and the wife / mother suffered a serious medical event and ended up in hospital there for some months costing over $150k NZ.... They didn't have travel insurance and started up a couple of go fund me type pages.... if they'd have spent a few extra $ on travel insurance they would have been ok

38 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

At Bay of Islands things are very weather dependent, which is why it can be tricky to book an excursion ahead of time. If the weather is good I'd suggest a trip out to "Hole in the Wall", which is a natural tunnel through an island in the south of the Bay. If it's calm enough the boat will take you through the tunnel. You can book in Paihea.

just a minor correction - it's 'hole in the rock' and the boat goes from Paihia 

I've not done it but I hear it's very good

30 minutes ago, pooh/tigger said:

Will we need a heavy jacket in Feb? 

not in NZ or Australia at that time of the year...

31 minutes ago, pooh/tigger said:

Here you go Muffinx.

 

Wed, 02/18/26	Bay Of Islands, New Zealand Water Shuttle Required wheelchair Access Limited	7:00am to– 5:00pm
Thu, 02/19/26	Tauranga, New Zealand	5:30am to– 4:45pm
Fri, 02/20/26	Auckland, New Zealand	6:30am to– 7:00pm
Sat, 02/21/26	At Sea	to
Sun, 02/22/26	Wellington, New Zealand	8:00am to– 6:00pm
Mon, 02/23/26	Christchurch (lyttelton), New Zealand	8:00am to– 6:00pm
Tue, 02/24/26	Dunedin (port Chalmers), New Zealand	11:45am to– 8:00pm
Wed, 02/25/26	Fiordland National Park (scenic Cruising) Scenic Cruising

that looks a good itinerary

Bay Of Islands - you will probably tender into the wharf at Waitangi

Waitangi is where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed on 6 February 1840 (NZ's founding document so to speak), you can walk through the treaty grounds (at a cost) but the cruise shuttle will probably take you into the town of Paihia. There's not a lot to do at Paihia itself but you can take the ferry from Paihia to Russell, which is a nice little place on the other side of the harbour. there's cafe's / restaurants there and a lovely Pub that I think is NZ's oldest pub

Tauranga - not a huge amount of things to do there, but they do have some nice beaches (Mt Manganui / Papamoa) but from Tauranga you can go to Rotorua (Geothermal capital of NZ) or go to Hobbiton in Matamata (about an hour away)

Auckand - this is a big city and where I live and there's a number of things you can do

Go up the Sky Tower (tallest building in NZ), take the ferry to Rangitoto Island (extinct volcano), take the ferry to Waiheke Island and do a wine tour or an Island Explorer tour

or you can do the hop on hop off bus in Auckland, go to Kelly Tarltons underwater Aquarium.

You can also bungee jump off the harbour bridge or take the ferry to Devonport on the North Shore - it's a lovely place

Wellington is our capital city - you could visit the Weta Workshops, take the ferry across to Eastborne, there's wildlife sanctuary in Wellington too called Zealandia that's supposed to be very good, or our national museum 'Te Papa'

Christchurch -  you could take a shuttle bus to Akaroa, a lovely town on banks peninsula, or take a trip up the Christchurch gondola. Lyttleton itself (where the ferry docks) is a nice place with an arty vibe, there are also many award winning wineries about 40 mins north of Christchurch 

Dunedin - it's been ages since we've been there, but you can walk up the worlds steepest street - Baldwin Street, or you can take a trip to the Otago peninsula to see the Albatross  colony 

I've not been to Fiordland National Park, but I believe the views are stunning 

Enjoy your cruise!

There is no Tipping in NZ or Australia, so you won't have to worry about that

We stayed at what I believe is now called 'Sydney Harbour Hotel' - it's literally across the street from the cruise terminal.... it was so great waking up in one morning in March 2018 looking out the hotel window seeing our cruise ship docked!

it was like a 3 minute walk downhill to the cruise terminal

Some of the things we did on our 2 trips to Sydney were:-

Ferry from Circular Quay to Manly

Ferry from Circular Quay to Watsons Bay

Bondi Beach

Pitt Street Mall - if you like shopping (sadly my wife does!)

Opera house and Botanic Gardens

let us know what the cruise itinerary for NZ is and we can give you some advice based on what ports the cruise stops at

We flew Auckland - Vancouver return in July 2023 on Air NZ

the flight left Auckland 8pm and got to Vancouver 2pm same day

going to Vancouver we had upgraded to the sky couch and it was 'ok'

all you're really paying for is the extra seat so 2 people can have a row of 3 seats between them. The seats were just the same as ordinary economy seats really and there was no way 2 slightly larger people could lie down comfortably.

Unfortunately on our flight we had a lot of kids who were quite 'vocal' which didn't help

I listened to Pink Floyd Dark side of the moon on the plane, thinking that would help me sleep... but while listening to it I realised what a great album it was! LOL.

So we didn't get much sleep at all on the flight over, but surprisingly we both felt energized when we got to Vancouver...possibly to do with the excitement of being there?

during our stay in Vancouver we got an e-mail offering us the chance to bid for a PE upgrade for our return flight, which we did and our bid was accepted! We slept a lot better on the flight home

If we had the $$ we'd choose premium economy any day

We were also lucky that shortly after booking our cruise for December, Air NZ had a sale and we managed to get PE seats going to Sydney for not much more than economy, so that's all good 🙂

on our cruise I wore my mankini (https://www.amazon.com.au/mankini/s?k=mankini) and I had the whole pool to myself! 😄

7 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

  Find me someone who ordered and ATE 2 of those a day????

We're on Crown Princess in December and have the plus package... I don't know if I could eat one of those big deserts a day, but I'm willing to give it a try! 😁

23 minutes ago, Sparky74 said:

Good grief! We’re paying about half that! And I thought that was pricey enough. 😱

that price was for a balcony cabin with the plus package

That sounds like a great cruise to me

I just did a dummy booking and it's $12,230 NZ with the plus fare for me and my wife

does anyone have a spare $12k (NZ) we can borrow 😄