What is the difference between "at sea" and "cruising?" According to X?

[CruisingGatorGirl]

We are thinking of planning our next family cruise. Probably going to be the

 

17 Nights, Tahitian Treasures Cruise, Celebrity Solstice

 

When you look at the itinerary on X website, it says:

 

.

Day 2: At Sea

Day 3: At Sea

Day 4: Bay of Islands, New Zealand

.

Day 6: Cruising

Day 6: International Date Line

Day 7: At Sea

 

 

So how is "at sea" different than "cruising?"

[fredflint]

Maybe means not really going anywhere? My cruise just says at sea

[RL1180]

Typically "sea days" are simply getting the boat from point A to point B, as quick as possible. "Cruising" typically means that there is something interesting to see along the way, so the boat will be going slower, or the course takes it closer to some interesting shoreline. It means that although there isn't a port stop for that day, there is still some interesting landmark or attraction that they want to highlight on the cruise itinerary.

 

Some examples of "cruising" days are the Tracy Arm Fjord/Glacier Bay/etc. in Alaska, the Inside Passage through the islands north of Vancouver, the Panama Canal, etc.

 

In your case, it sounds like they are highlighting the crossing of the International Date Line as a "cruising" event on your itinerary.

 

So to answer your original question, there is really no difference between a "Sea Day" and a "Cruising" day, other then the scenery and some special events they may have planned throughout the cruising day to highlight the special location the ship is "cruising" past.

[Kamloops50]

Cruising is usually thru a scenic area like a glacier or fiord. At Sea you are actually in the open ocean.

Alaska cruise do a lot of cruising in and around glaciers. We they in the ocean between Seattle and Ketchican they call that day "At Sea'".

[boogs]

When doing a transit of Panama Canal without stopping in a port, the time in the canal is identified as "cruising".

[Oriana1]

Unsure why they have at sea and cruising. There is no landmarks/sights etc between Bay of Islands/Auckland and Tahiti just lots of water.

 

We did the same cruise in April this year and loved every minute of it.

 

Kim

[OCruisers]

Always seems "Cruising" is when you can see interesting things as you are cruising though.

"At Sea" is when you are getting from one place to another and the only thing you see is the ocean.

 

LuLu

~~~~

[miched]

They may want you to see the International Date Line. :confused:

 

 

.:D

[dkjretired]

They may want you to see the International Date Line. :confused:

 

 

.:D

 

Yes, I heard its the same color as the first down markers on the NFL games.

[rakes5]

I think it also has something to do with what happens when you cross the date line heading east. You get to live the day twice! We are going on the same cruise in 2014, and there are some fellow passengers that are planning on celebrating their birthdays and anniversaries twice,

 

I think they list it this way to count the days correctly.

 

 

Also, in 2014 we are stopping in the South Pacific over Easter weekend. hopefully things will be open at our ports.

 

If you are leaving on April 3, 2015, this is Good Friday, so you would be at sea on Easter.

[miched]

I think it also has something to do with what happens when you cross the date line heading east. You get to live the day twice! We are going on the same cruise in 2014, and there are some fellow passengers that are planning on celebrating their birthdays and anniversaries twice,

 

I think they list it this way to count the days correctly.

 

 

.

 

Does that mean that you get an extra day on the drink package or do you get charged for the extra day? Gratuities? etc....? :confused:

 

 

.:D

[nijh]

Does that mean that you get an extra day on the drink package or do you get charged for the extra day? Gratuities? etc....? :confused:

 

 

.:D

 

We did it 2 years ago and only paid for 17 nights drink package, even though it was an 18 night cruise. Seems the 'computer' didn't like there being 2 Fridays of the same date.

 

I kept waiting to be charged for the extra night - never happened.

[CruisingGatorGirl]

Great information! Thank you everyone :)

 

Those of you who did this cruise in the past, what did you think?

 

Thoughts- pros/cons?

 

How rough were the crossings?

[tbugstwo]

Does that mean that you get an extra day on the drink package or do you get charged for the extra day? Gratuities? etc....? :confused:

 

 

.:D

 

I just booked my drink packages for 2b2b cruises both of which are listed as 17 nights, but one crosses the international dateline. Guess what that one was counted as lasting one more day and the price of the drink package was HIGHER to reflect this extra day.

[CPT Trips]

Unsure why they have at sea and cruising. There is no landmarks/sights etc between Bay of Islands/Auckland and Tahiti just lots of water.

 

We did the same cruise in April this year and loved every minute of it.

 

Kim

 

They'll cruise in circles crossing the International Dateline both ways. Yesterday or tomorrow but never today?

[Oriana1]

Great information! Thank you everyone :)

 

Those of you who did this cruise in the past, what did you think?

 

Thoughts- pros/cons?

 

How rough were the crossings?

 

We did the cruise in April this year.

 

It was my first time on Celebrity as I had mainly cruise with Princess and P & O.

 

I loved the hot glass show and went there nearly every time it was on, just to watch and try to win a piece of what they had created.

 

The water was as flat as a pancake all the way from Sydney to Honolulu. Some passengers did think it was rough (maybe first time cruisers or prone to being sea sick).

 

There was a great debate on our cruise critic forum if it was a 17 night, 18 day or 18 night cruise. It turned out it was 18 nights, even though Celebrity only had it as a 17 night cruise. Again due to a day being repeated.

 

It was the first time we had been to Tahiti and loved every minute of it there.

 

My main complaint was getting off the ship in Maui. All passengers had to go through Immigration and apparently/allegedly the Immigration Officers were working to rule. So they only sent one Immigration Officer to check all passengers and crew before anyone was allowed ashore. It took until after lunch for us to get ashore, we lined up for one and a half/two hours. The crew ended up not being allowed ashore as they had run out of time.

 

Another slight complaint, is when you are cruising from Australia you do not pass many cruise ships. In all my cruises I think I have only passed another cruise ship a handful of times for which they normally announce that if you look on the port/starboard side we are passing such and such a ship. On our first day at sea, we passed a P & O ship and there was no announcement. Then the second day we apparently passed another cruise ship, which we did not know about, and again no announcement. When we asked at Guest Relations they said that they would have heaps of passengers down complaining if they made any other announcements than the 10.00 am Captain/Cruise Director announcement.

 

Crossing the Equator, which I have done once before on P & O's Canberra many years ago was a fun event with the Doctor pretending he was doing an operation, the Captain doing something else, a flour fight and just a lot of craziness. This time, it was boring. They just had some Hawaiian dancers dancing and then asked if any passengers wanted to be christened (or whatever the word was) in the pool and that was it.

 

Personally I would not buy any artwork on the ship from Parkwest. We purchased two pieces of artwork in memory of my Dad as he passed away whilst we were on the cruise. The artwork arrived and it had been badly framed, the picture was wavy, the frame moved, plastic covering that you could not see the Thomas Kinkade pictures at all. Parkwest said to return the artwork and they will give us a refund. So now Parkwest have the two pictures and we are still waiting on our $3,000 refund all these months later. We are going again on Solstice in April next year, just doing the usual Pacific islands but we will go to the art auctions to see what they are selling and to have the free champagne.

 

The Medical staff were excellent. Now on all my cruises I have never been to the Medical centre before. Our 16 year old daughter fell over doing something up at the basketball courts and grazed her knee. So the Medical centre telephoned to say she was down there. All she had was a graze about 4 cms round but she wanted it attended to by the Medical staff as it had dirt etc on the graze. I thought, how much is this going to cost I could wash it out myself. They did it for free as it was done at a teenagers/kids event. Then a couple of days later whilst we were still docked in Papeete the teenagers had a pool party in the adult only solarium pool. Well our daughter jumped in and hurt her ankle. Again she was taken down to the Medical centre and had x-rays. It turned out she had sprained her ankle. Again the x-rays, crutches and medical appointments were free because she had done it at a kids/teenagers event. Unfortunately she could not ashore in Moorea as her ankle was too sore. Unsure if this is normal not to charge but the staff were excellent.

 

Kim

[CruisingGatorGirl]

We did the cruise in April this year.

 

It was my first time on Celebrity as I had mainly cruise with Princess and P & O.

 

I loved the hot glass show and went there nearly every time it was on, just to watch and try to win a piece of what they had created.

 

The water was as flat as a pancake all the way from Sydney to Honolulu. Some passengers did think it was rough (maybe first time cruisers or prone to being sea sick).

 

There was a great debate on our cruise critic forum if it was a 17 night, 18 day or 18 night cruise. It turned out it was 18 nights, even though Celebrity only had it as a 17 night cruise. Again due to a day being repeated.

 

It was the first time we had been to Tahiti and loved every minute of it there.

 

My main complaint was getting off the ship in Maui. All passengers had to go through Immigration and apparently/allegedly the Immigration Officers were working to rule. So they only sent one Immigration Officer to check all passengers and crew before anyone was allowed ashore. It took until after lunch for us to get ashore, we lined up for one and a half/two hours. The crew ended up not being allowed ashore as they had run out of time.

 

Another slight complaint, is when you are cruising from Australia you do not pass many cruise ships. In all my cruises I think I have only passed another cruise ship a handful of times for which they normally announce that if you look on the port/starboard side we are passing such and such a ship. On our first day at sea, we passed a P & O ship and there was no announcement. Then the second day we apparently passed another cruise ship, which we did not know about, and again no announcement. When we asked at Guest Relations they said that they would have heaps of passengers down complaining if they made any other announcements than the 10.00 am Captain/Cruise Director announcement.

 

Crossing the Equator, which I have done once before on P & O's Canberra many years ago was a fun event with the Doctor pretending he was doing an operation, the Captain doing something else, a flour fight and just a lot of craziness. This time, it was boring. They just had some Hawaiian dancers dancing and then asked if any passengers wanted to be christened (or whatever the word was) in the pool and that was it.

 

Personally I would not buy any artwork on the ship from Parkwest. We purchased two pieces of artwork in memory of my Dad as he passed away whilst we were on the cruise. The artwork arrived and it had been badly framed, the picture was wavy, the frame moved, plastic covering that you could not see the Thomas Kinkade pictures at all. Parkwest said to return the artwork and they will give us a refund. So now Parkwest have the two pictures and we are still waiting on our $3,000 refund all these months later. We are going again on Solstice in April next year, just doing the usual Pacific islands but we will go to the art auctions to see what they are selling and to have the free champagne.

 

The Medical staff were excellent. Now on all my cruises I have never been to the Medical centre before. Our 16 year old daughter fell over doing something up at the basketball courts and grazed her knee. So the Medical centre telephoned to say she was down there. All she had was a graze about 4 cms round but she wanted it attended to by the Medical staff as it had dirt etc on the graze. I thought, how much is this going to cost I could wash it out myself. They did it for free as it was done at a teenagers/kids event. Then a couple of days later whilst we were still docked in Papeete the teenagers had a pool party in the adult only solarium pool. Well our daughter jumped in and hurt her ankle. Again she was taken down to the Medical centre and had x-rays. It turned out she had sprained her ankle. Again the x-rays, crutches and medical appointments were free because she had done it at a kids/teenagers event. Unfortunately she could not ashore in Moorea as her ankle was too sore. Unsure if this is normal not to charge but the staff were excellent.

 

Kim

 

Thank you for your thoughts! We are hoping this will work out for our family :) We have to get through my wedding first (less than 2 months!) then we will start really make plans.

 

Have a great night!

[Oriana1]

Thank you for your thoughts! We are hoping this will work out for our family :) We have to get through my wedding first (less than 2 months!) then we will start really make plans.

 

Have a great night!

 

I forgot to add about the shore excursions.

 

Our cruise in April went to Noumea, but all future Honolulu to Sydney or vice versa go to Auckland instead. I have been to Auckland before and would probably do the tour to Rotorua.

 

For Papeete we did a Dave's VIP tour.

 

In Moorea we just took the tender to shore and paid $5 for a taxi ride to one of the motels. From that motel we were able to hire a small tinny boat that could fit four people in and as we could not leave the bay area that the motel was in we were able to go to an area that had sharks, sting rays swimming below us. There was a similar excursion on the ship that went to the motel next to us that would have cost a lot more money. Being in the tinny we could stay above the sharks and sting rays for quite a while whilst people on the proper shore excursion were in a larger boat and only stayed for a few mintues.

 

In Bora Bora we went on a Patrick's tour which cruised all the way around the island. This is probably the best shore excursion we have ever been on. We had a hangi style lunch which you ate your food on a banana leaf with no knifes/forks etc.

 

In Maui, due to the lateness of getting off we just went to a shopping centre and then went back to where the tenders come in and spent ages going along all the shops there.

 

 

 

The passengers that we met and were mainly with on this cruise are doing it again in April 2014. We would love to do the same cruise again, but our daughter will be in Year 12 (last year of school) and the cruise is not during school holidays. So we may consider doing it again in April 2015. The cruise we are doing in April 2014, the day we have to get off the ship is the day the Sydney to Honolulu cruise departs. So we will be able to catch up the people we met.

 

 

Hint for getting off in Honolulu. Make sure you get a porter as they can take you to a different taxi rank than the passengers who just get their luggage themselves and they had to stand in a very long queue, where we got a taxi/hire care straight away. The lady was so nice that took us from the ship to the airport, we arranged for her to pick us up at the end to take us from the motel to the airport to fly home. I have her contact details if you would like. I have kept her details in case we go back again. She can also do shore excursions in Honolulu and take you to same places that we had booked and it would no doubt work out cheaper or you can stay longer at a spot if you like it there.

 

Kim