Redking

Good morning from across the harbour. Wishing you a wonderful day in the Bay of Plenty. Loving your reports of this amazing voyage.

Welcome to New Zealand!

I suspect the issue is that for many of the lines, these itineraries are effectively repositioning cruises which occur in March/April and then again in about October. We've done French Polynesia in October and the weather was good. From memory there are about three "local" options. PG which you've mentioned, Windstar and the Aranui (Half cargo, half passenger). We particularly want to go to the Marquesas Islands and none of those ships appeal. Ponant has just introduced itineraries on one of their sister class ships, I forget which one? Guessing that will be expensive too. Reasonable and French Polynesia are mutually exclusive items🤣I hope you get there, it's beautiful.

Thank you so much for your wonderful review. Love your writing style, easy to read and also informative. Please come back when you sail on her again with an update. We only have about 790 days until we sail on her 😁

Normal services resumed for me too.

This really is odd. Be great for someone from CC to drop in here and provide feedback. Hope they haven't been hacked😱

The only notifations I'm receiving are those connected with this thread 🫤I'll try the community email as suggested.

I agree. Thought it was a problem over our side of the world, but seems it's everyone. Hopefully we'll get an update soon. I didn't realise how much I enjoy getting notified about everyone's posts 🤞

I'm having the same problem. I haven't received any notifications for threads that I'm following since Saturday. When I go into these threads, I can see new posts.

Following along. I think I'll enjoy your humour as much as your Granduer review! We too will have our first Regent experience on Granduer but not until 2026. She'll be a Grand Dame by then😉

Very frustrating, sorry I can't help. We've cancelled the last of our Retreat bookings with Celebrity. A brave new world for us moving onto smaller ships and new cruise lines. It almost feels like anticipating our first cruise after sailing exclusively with Celebrity for 13 years. I do hope you get confirmation and enjoy your cruise.

🤣Left my heart there twice, fifty years apart! I love that city and the coast line.

Yes please. The live food intensive, not the flooding and snowstorms😉 Enjoy!

Adding my thanks for your taking the time to do this review. Curious and apologies if you've already covered this, was guest capacity on your cruise limited to 200? Seems to be the norm in the Antarctic.

Again, I'm not much help.as this is not offered in the NZ market 😪 The people on this roll call might know? https://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/search/?type=forums_topic&search_and_or=or&search_in=titles&nodes=45&q=Mar March

Agree!

Fortuitous that I've dropped in here because we're doing our first Scenic Eclipse cruise in nine weeks (can you sense the excitement) from Chile to Tahiti via Easter Island, a couple of other Chilean Islands and two of the Gambier Islands in French polynesia. We're then booked with them to do Antarctica in January 2025 (from NZ which is brilliant for us). We've cancelled our remaining Celbrity bookings to do Scenic on the recommendation of friends so 🤞I think it will require a shift in our thinking back to destination and not just the ship or discovery yacht as they call it. Closest I'll likely get to being on a gin Palace so I intend to consume G&T's and Negronis on a regular basis 🤣 As you say Charla, there's very little action on their CC forum so I plan to do a live(ish) and will post a link. There's also a great doco on them called Maritime Masters, not sure what streaming service it's on in the US? It features Tom Goetter, the chef that you mentioned. Also a good FB group, not a roll call, so hopeful I can mention it😱 Scenic Eclipse Cruisers. Watch this space!

Other forums too! Rats and sinking ship or discerning travellers 🤣

Great point Jim. On reflection, when we first cruised with Celebrity we were in what I recall was their then target market: 55+ travelling with our then teenage/young adult family. We moved up to suites when the family stopped cruising with us (or at least we no longer offered to pay🤣) Time moved on .... we matured 🤫 and our family flew the nest (they occasionally cruise and have stayed with Celebrity.) I think you previously summed it up using a relationship metaphor ... maybe we're just not that into each other anymore 😕 Safe travels home and best wishes for a peaceful Xmas and healthy new year!

Might be tendering? They sometimes offer an overland overnight excursion between Milford and Dunedin (our vice versa) so that you can see Queenstown and parts of Otago. Jim?

Indeed. Thoughts are with everyone over there. I saw a croc in the flood waters on the news footage!

Just glorious Jim. I saw on FB that the weather was good. Mother nature most definitely came to the party today. They say that the sun shines on the righteous 😉

It's a big place. After 19 years in Australia, we've never been to Western Australia or the Northern Territory. I've an aunt in Scotland who's travelled to all the states in the US. She's also pretty much covered the rest of the world too.

Sad you didn't make it there, it's a cool little capital. Also didn't have Bay of Islands. Bit puzzled about what X is doing with its itineraries. We felt we had very short times in port in the South Pacific last January. I suppose overnighting in Akl and CCH allows people to explore further inland? Either way I guess we should give thanks for our travels.

Mutual appreciation, we've still to discover so much of the US. So many choices and times a ticking!