New Zealand Cruise

[DGK]

We have been reading these boards for many weeks and need to ask your expert advice please. After much research we decided a cruise (approx. 12 nights) best fits our life style to tour New Zealand. We reviewed many different Ocean lines (Princess, Celebrity) and not keen on all the sea days. Through our research we came across a small vessel called Oceanic Discoverer which only cruises around New Zealand with minimal sea days. The only concern is the price as it is more than double the large vessels. I am extremely prone to motion sickness with this being such a small ship would there be more motion? Also in your opinions is it worth it to postpone our trip ( need to save more funds ) in order to take a more port intensive cruise and see much more ? Unfortunately I cannot find many reviews on Oceanic Discoverer in order to assist with my research. Your opinions are greatly appreciated. Than you in advance

[kuldalai]

If you book on DAWN PRINCESS round trip ex Melbourne (8 departures 2011/12 & 9 departures 2012/13) you have as few at sea days as geography allows. Basically 2 getting to NZ & 2 returning . Once you hit NZ you cruise overnight and each day is a new Port - Fiordland, Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga, Auckland.

 

If you suffer from motion sickness :

- Book your Stateroom on a lower deck and midships.

- Secondly if it goes get up a swell go the Ships Medical Centre and ask for the sea sickness injection, that fixes most travellers very quickly .

- Dawn, Sun & Sea Princess are big boats with great stabilizers and ride very well in the Tasman Sea. Any movement tends to bow to aft rather than the more upsetting wallowing .

[Bruin Steve]

We have been reading these boards for many weeks and need to ask your expert advice please. After much research we decided a cruise (approx. 12 nights) best fits our life style to tour New Zealand. We reviewed many different Ocean lines (Princess, Celebrity) and not keen on all the sea days. Through our research we came across a small vessel called Oceanic Discoverer which only cruises around New Zealand with minimal sea days. The only concern is the price as it is more than double the large vessels. I am extremely prone to motion sickness with this being such a small ship would there be more motion? Also in your opinions is it worth it to postpone our trip ( need to save more funds ) in order to take a more port intensive cruise and see much more ? Unfortunately I cannot find many reviews on Oceanic Discoverer in order to assist with my research. Your opinions are greatly appreciated. Than you in advance

 

IMHO, I would go back to looking at the bigger ships...

I get seasick easily on small ships but have never had a problem on large modern cruise ships...it's not only a question of size, but also technology...the cruise ships are built with computer driven stabilizers that keep the ship steady...If you have a seasickness problem, that small boat will bother you...

 

Also, the big ships have better amenities and far more to do when you are onboard...

 

And, for me, that "twice the price" thing is an issue...I'd rather save the money and go on another cruise...

 

Now, "at sea" days are generally an issue because most New Zealand cruises are coming from Australia...or even round trips back to Australia...We prefer one-way cruises to save on the backtracking, but, still, sea days are inevitable...We used to dislike them...or so we thought..."wasting" days without touring somewhere...but we've learned to appreciate them--nice to have some relaxing days onboard...We can exhaust ourselves on the port days...

 

We are taking a New Zealand cruise on Celebrity Century over Christmas/New Years:

 

Day 1 Sydney 5:00 PM

Day 2 At Sea

Day 3 Melbourne 8:00 AM 6:00 PM

Day 4 Burnie 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

Day 5 At Sea

Day 6 At Sea

Day 7 Milford Sound 7:00 AM 8:00 AM

Doubtful Sound 12:00 PM 1:30 PM

Dusky Sound 3:30 PM 4:30 PM

Day 8 Dunedin 9:00 AM 6:00 PM

Day 9 Christchurch 8:00 AM 6:00 PM

Day 10 Wellington 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

Day 11 Napier 7:00 AM 2:00 PM

Day 12 Tauranga 10:00 AM9:15 PM

Day 13 Bay of Islands 10:00 AM 6:00 PM

Day 14 Auckland 7:00 AM

 

As you can see, there are three pure "at sea" days, though I suspect the one on Christmas Day is to avoid dumping passengers in a port when most things are closed...So, there are really only the two at sea days to get from Australia to New Zealand...

Once in New Zealand, the first day is not a port day, but not your typical "At sea" day as we spend the day cruising in and out of Fjords...After that, it is six straight port days...

 

It actually IS fairly port intensive as we're in most ports for a full day...

 

Is this the cruise you were looking at?

 

http://www.relaxingjourneys.co.nz/cruises/oceanic/od13s.php

 

It appears to be FAR MORE than "twice the price" of our Celebrity cruise...though it is sort of an "apples and oranges" sort of thing...And, several of those days do not appear to be days in port, rather, days when you stay on the ship as well...

 

It is a different sort of experience, so it really depends on what you want and how much you are willing to pay for it...

[DGK]

Thank you both for your input. You mention excellent suggestions. Yes Bruin Steve that is the cruise in NZ dollars and it would delay us going on a holiday for some time in order to save $$. Our ideal trip would be anytime Jan. -March cruise focus on New Zealand( possibly avoid Jan. due to Summer holidays ) with some time to explore Sydney along with ending up at Great Barrier Reef or one of the islands.

[Trend]

We do not like to pay through the nose at holiday time but our son is in Med school in Australia and this is why we are visiting. We selected the Century Dec.12th as it is just at the start of some school breaks and we are off by the Christmas stuff. Love Celebrity.

The days at sea are also around the Sounds so it is a viewing time then the rest is going to Melbourne.

We are traveling up to the reef on the 24th and taking a Christmas Day tour on the reef(paying a little more but a full day with meals) that way we do not have to worry about what is closed.

This cruise was much lower cost then traveling during the holiday.

We will come back to Sydney for two days visit his school and go home.

[pacmom]

We just returned from a trip on the O>Discoverer. She is small. The Tasman Sea and the Southern Ocean are not the calmest of waters. We were all experienced cruisers. The pressure bans were an accessory on many, also the patch. If you are prone to seasickness and don't want to use any type of prevention, then this is not the craft for you. Lindblad/Natl Geographic has this ship leased for 3 trips next season, so it will be difficult to get a cabin. We booked our trip thru Scenic and it turned out to be a Lindblad trip. It was definitely a naturalist type trip. We are not birders and found that they could dominate an excursion. There were also professional photographers with a lot of "stuff". That said it was a wonderful trip.

The ship. Our cabin was a good size with plenty of storage space. There was a laundry service and those using it were pleased. There was no TV--not even bow cam.

Food. Breakfast and lunch were buffet--wonderful fresh fruit and veggies. A bit of truoble keeping food hot at breakfast. Dinner was plated and excellent--lamb was soooo good. The first dinner was a seafood buffet really good.

Lectures were very good--history of NZ my favorite The bird lectures also excellent. The one naturalist actually employed by Lindblad gave a lecture on photography geared to point and shoot cameras which was excellent and very easily understood.

Life on board. Not a thing to do in the evening. We did find the DVD collection--not great. Had movie nite for the Bucket List. They arranged the chairs in theater mode and even made us popcorn.

We enjoyed our fellow travelers and the drew of the boat. Am in awe of the naturalist staff and the crew of the boat. 3of the 4 naturalists were Kiwis and carried on with the trip except for the head naturalist who did go home to his family in Christchurch--they were safe. The boat is out of Cairns in Australia--had just weathered the cyclone.

Excursions. All included, very well done. No zodiacs. They have a 70 pax boat that we used in the fjords and to tender if we couldn't dock. It was on a platform at the rear of the boat which was hydrolically raised and lowered--no wet landings.

If you are not inot nature, then go with the big boat. If you want to swim with the dolphins and whale watch and go ashore where Capt. Cook first landed and see some of the most marvelous scenery, this might just be for you. Happy to try to answer any more questions. Pat

[DGK]

Thank you, thank you Pat as you gave me the details we have been searching for. We love nature, photography, scenery and wonderful views as an interest but certainly not up to the standards of professional photographers. My motion sickness is also very severe even though I am sad to hear how rough the sea may be I appreciate knowing ahead of time. A question please knowing what you know now and being the experience cruisers you are if someone wanted to see as much of NZ as possible would you recommend the Discoverer or a huge Ocean line? Your comments are greatly appreciated,

Donna

[pacmom]

Donna,

When all is said and done, I would go on the Discoverer again in a heartbeat. Unlike my soon to be Cruise mate,Bruin Steve, I don't ever want to go on one of those very big ships. Our trip in Aug is on a 1200 pax ship and that is really stretching is for us. None of us on the trip were bothered by the rocking and rolling--it was just for less than 24 hours. Many of us used some type of seasick prep. I too am prone to severe seasickness and really didn't suffer. There was avery intimate feeling about this trip. We were able to go places that the big guys couldn't. We made landings in the fjords. Spent the day on Stewart Is. It was a trip of a lifetime. Factor in the cost of what is included with Discoverer, you may find not much diference. Good luck. Pat

[DGK]

Excellent point Pat as we need to look at the cost more closely to see what the true differences are. The Ocean line cruise excursions can be very pricy. We have only done one Ocean cruise in the Mediterranean with Celebrity and currently leaving this spring for a European River cruise with 138 passengers. There are no huge shows casinos, pools etc on the river cruise so it will give us a taste I think of what the Discoverer would be like. When you did your excursions were you divided into small groups? Was there much travel time from when you docked? We never want to go for miles on the huge tour buses following the guides holding lolli pop signs stopping at tourist traps. We witnessed some of that while in Europe. I appreciate your time answering my inquires as there is minimal info on the Discoverer. How did you find out about it initially?

Thanks so much, Donna

[pacmom]

Donna, like we found the trip by searching the internet. Our TA worked with Goway tours in Vancouver BC and booked us with scenic tours out of Australia. When we received our final paper work it was a Natl

geo/Lindblad trip. We spent 2 weeks driving before the trip and enjoyed the scenery, people and wineries. There were only 2 professional photographers on our trip. They realized a few days into the trip that they were not the most important picture takers on the trip. The bus ride from Queenstown to Milford is long--nicely broken up by a wondeful morning tea and two Pat other stops. We had to also stop at the Homer tunnel because the traffic was against us. The only other longish bus ride was out to the Otago peninsula about 40 minutes, but worth it. You also are given tea there also. Everyplace we went someone tried to feed us--still didn't gain any weight.

[pacmom]

Sorry, we are not from Canada, but Ohio in the US. We had a bit of an odysses of a trip. Supposed to leave on 1 Feb, but the world started closing down on the 31st. We managed to get the last two seats out of Dayton to Atlanta and on to LA. Overnited in a hotel and spent most of the 1st in the Air NZ lounge waiting for our evening flight. We did fly business class both ways and it was wonderful. Pat