Photo Review: Solstice 12 Night New Zealand Holiday Cruise Dec 23 2019

[vickykay]

Thanks for doing this review.   Also cruised Australia and NZ on the Solstice about five years ago and stayed at the Marriott.  Your review is bring back great memories.   So glad you are posting as great to read travel reviews while not able to cruise for awhile and encourage others to do s as well.  

[mahdnc]

 

 

Plants With Bite Exhibit (The Royal Botanical Garden Sydney)

 

There was a wonderful pavilion called The Calyx which had an exhibit, small TV theater, workshop area, gift shop, and even a cafe.

 

 

It is home to noe of the largest green walls in the Southern Hemisphere.  The exhibit was entitled “Plants With Bite” which was technically free but they ask for a donation. 

 

 

As you would guess from the title, there were a lot of carnivorous plants such as the famous Venus Flytrap which is familiar to us Americans. 

 

 

There were, however, quite a few carnivorous plants not so familiar to me. 

 

 

Like a zoo, there were feeding times for the plants, but those times did not work for us so we missed it.

Edited October 31, 2020 by mahdnc

[LGW59]

59 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

 

Plants With Bite Exhibit (The Royal Botanical Garden Sydney)

 

There was a wonderful pavilion called The Calyx which had an exhibit, small TV theater, workshop area, gift shop, and even a cafe.

 

 

It is home to noe of the largest green walls in the Southern Hemisphere.  The exhibit was entitled “Plants With Bite” which was technically free but they ask for a donation. 

 

 

As you would guess from the title, there were a lot of carnivorous plants such as the famous Venus Flytrap which is familiar to us Americans. 

 

 

There were, however, quite a few carnivorous plants not so familiar to me. 

 

 

Like a zoo, there were feeding times for the plants, but those times did not work for us so we missed it.

Such a lovely and positive post, thanks so much for taking time to do this!!

[flwinejunkie]

 Thank you so much for posting this review!  I booked Celebrity Eclipse from Aukland, New Zealand to Sydney for March 2022 and excited to see you're visiting some of the same ports as my cruise.  Looking forward to reading more.

 

Thanks for the info about the Sydney Harbour Marriott.  It sounds like the perfect place to stay so I'll look into it.  You mentioned that your wildlife tour was cancelled.  Do you remember the tour operator?  I'm interested in doing something similar (btw, the tour, breakfast, lunch and dinner links in your itinerary spreadsheet jjust go to a jpg picture of the spreadsheet.  Didn't know if you meant the link to go to a website for the restaurant/tour..)

 

Also, thanks for posting a link to your Great Barrier Reef cruise.  I'm planning to read that one next since I'm going on a similar cruise out of Sydney on Carnival (casino rate was too good to ignore a couple of months ago).

 

Thanks again for sharing your cruising experiences with us!

Mary

 

 

[vickykay]

The other advantage of the Marriot is that it is a very short downhill walk to the cruise terminal.

[mahdnc]

17 hours ago, flwinejunkie said:

 Thank you so much for posting this review!  I booked Celebrity Eclipse from Aukland, New Zealand to Sydney for March 2022 and excited to see you're visiting some of the same ports as my cruise.  Looking forward to reading more.

 

Thanks for the info about the Sydney Harbour Marriott.  It sounds like the perfect place to stay so I'll look into it.  You mentioned that your wildlife tour was cancelled.  Do you remember the tour operator?  I'm interested in doing something similar (btw, the tour, breakfast, lunch and dinner links in your itinerary spreadsheet jjust go to a jpg picture of the spreadsheet.  Didn't know if you meant the link to go to a website for the restaurant/tour..)

 

Also, thanks for posting a link to your Great Barrier Reef cruise.  I'm planning to read that one next since I'm going on a similar cruise out of Sydney on Carnival (casino rate was too good to ignore a couple of months ago).

 

Thanks again for sharing your cruising experiences with us!

Mary

 

 

 

Mary, the spreadsheet that you were clicking on is just an image.  Here is the link to the actual spreadsheet.  There you will find active links in the spreadsheet to take you to the web pages that you were expecting.  If you still have problems, let me know.

 

The tour operator for the cancelled wildlife tour was Boutique Wildlife Tours.  I was so disappointed that it was cancelled.  The tour is designed to extend into the night to give you a chance to see some of the nocturnal animals.  When it was cancelled, we received a prompt refund.

 

David

Edited November 1, 2020 by mahdnc

[flwinejunkie]

23 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

Mary, the spreadsheet that you were clicking on is just an image.  Here is the link to the actual spreadsheet.  There you will find active links in the spreadsheet to take you to the web pages that you were expecting.  If you still have problems, let me know.

 

The tour operator for the cancelled wildlife tour was Boutique Wildlife Tours.  I was so disappointed that it was cancelled.  The tour is designed to extend into the night to give you a chance to see some of the nocturnal animals.  When it was cancelled, we received a prompt refund.

 

David

 

David,

Wow, the spreadsheet with the links is a wealth of great information!  I was overwhelmed being a newbie on Celebrity and not knowing anything about New Zealand and Australia, so this New Zealand and Great Barrier Reef reviews are a fantastic starting point.  Now I'm really excited to start my "homework".

 

I can't thank you enough for sharing all of this great information!

Mary

 

[flwinejunkie]

On 11/1/2020 at 6:07 AM, vickykay said:

The other advantage of the Marriot is that it is a very short downhill walk to the cruise terminal.

 

This is great news!  Is the walk uphill from the cruise terminal with a rolling suitcase doable or should I get a taxi?  We're getting off the Celebrity New Zealand cruise to spend 3 days in Sydney then getting on a Carnival Great Barrier Reef cruise.

 

Appreciate the insight!

Mary

[dani negreanu]

3 hours ago, flwinejunkie said:

This is great news!  Is the walk uphill from the cruise terminal with a rolling suitcase doable or should I get a taxi? 

 

We stayed at Holiday Inn Old Sydney, a mere 5 min walkable from the cruise terminal. It's more "budget" than the Marriott, but IMHO worth checking out.

[mahdnc]

2 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

We stayed at Holiday Inn Old Sydney, a mere 5 min walkable from the cruise terminal. It's more "budget" than the Marriott, but IMHO worth checking out.

 

It is now a Rydges hotel.  The name may be different, but the location is still excellent.  The Park Hyatt Sydney also is excellently located within easy walking distance to the pier.

Edited November 3, 2020 by mahdnc

[Suzi66]

5 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

It is now a Rydges hotel.  The name may be different, but the location is still excellent.  The Park Hyatt Sydney also is excellently located within easy walking distance to the pier.

Which reminds me that now that our mutual January cruise has been cancelled I need to cancel our booking there.   I transferred the booking from our first cancelled cruise in March to Jan and now need to cancel altogether.   I quite like the Holiday Inn Old Sydney/Rydges because of the close proximity to the OPT for dropping off luggage in the morning.   Last time we were there it was the Holiday Inn on the evening we arrived and the next morning it had swapped to Rydges.  

[h20cruzer]

Loving your review. Any chance of a picture of the 4 of you? With the news that Celebrity has cancelled all cruises through 12/31/2020 I know its brought a lot of disappointment to many. My next cruise is on the Solstice Sep 10, 2021 Trans Pacific, just hope it happens. 

Norma

[mahdnc]

4 hours ago, h20cruzer said:

Loving your review. Any chance of a picture of the 4 of you? With the news that Celebrity has cancelled all cruises through 12/31/2020 I know its brought a lot of disappointment to many. My next cruise is on the Solstice Sep 10, 2021 Trans Pacific, just hope it happens. 

Norma

 

 

Here is a photo of my family.  My wife, Marcia, and I reside in the southern suburbs of Chicago.  We are both chemical engineers although my wife specializes in industrial safety while I focus on technical and production projects.  Our daughter, Katie, graduated last year with her Ph.D. in reproductive toxicology and resides near Raleigh, NC working for the EPA.  Our son, Chris, is a mechanical engineer and lives in San Francisco.  He just resigned his Apple engineering position (I couldn't believe it) to take a job with McKinsey & Company in his quest for fame and fortune.

 

The photo was taken on Dec 30th during our wildlife tour of the Otago Peninsula when Solstice called on Dunedin.  It was the only cloudy day during our visit to New Zealand.

 

David

Edited November 3, 2020 by mahdnc

[dani negreanu]

Thanks, David. New Zealand was amazing, we were also lucky with the weather (only in the Bay of Islands it was raining buckets, but you cannot be too greedy....)

 

Your picture reminds me of our visit to the sanctuary for yellow-eyed penguins, same peninsula...

 

 

[Suzi66]

I think our worst weather day we have had in several cruises to NZ was at Tauranga.   We decided to have a walk around and then the skies opened.  Talk about wet sheep.  They were there on the hills and I was one as well.  Almost every other day has been lovely and sunny.  We have been very lucky.

On the same cruise it was quite windy and the ocean a bit wild (although it wasn't really that noticable I thought) as we left Wellington and the pilot had to stay on board with us until we docked at Tauranga 2 days later.   The pilot said he was happy that he wasn't the one on the car carrier that left just before us as he wasn't going to be able to get off until it stopped in Japan.

[mahdnc]

Bondi Beach

 

 

Fri Dec 20 Sydney Day 2 Evening

 

The last time we were in Sydney, I was not satisfied with the restaurants that we chose (ok, that “we” was me).  Part of that was my reluctance to spend very much money for dinner because I felt the dinner prices in Sydney were exorbitant (even when taking into account the USD/AUD exchange rate and that there is no tipping).  Or maybe it was the mathematics involved with feeding a family of 4.  Either way, I decided not to do that again on this trip and I ended up booking a couple of higher end restaurants.  Our dinner that evening was at Icebergs Dining Room and Bar (6:30 pm reservation) which overlooks Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach was something that we did not get to see during our first visit there. We took a cab to get to get the restaurant and we had a chance to look at famous Bondi Beach from above.  Dinner turned out to be $298.27 AUD.

 

Outdoor seating at Icebergs Restaurant

 

 

But the evening was not done.  We had 9:00 pm tickets for the Sydney Observatory Night Tour which included a viewing session through one of their telescopes, weather permitting.  Fortunately the weather was fine but that was only part of the story.

 

There were approximately 25 people in attendance.  The tour consisted of a lecture, a guided tour of the museum (including some of its key exhibits), and at the end there is a telescopic viewing session.  

 

 

The observatory is located near the Rocks and was built in the mid 1800’s.  There is a historic 11 inch refractor telescope located there built in 1874 which, although still functional, does not provide any useful science today.

 

Great Orion Nebula photo taken by my young nephew in Detroit!  Feb 2020

 

 

The tour’s main attraction was the viewing through the observatory’s 16” Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope manufactured by Meade Instruments.  Although the weather was clear, the haze and smoke in the skies from the bush fires rendered most of the views of very poor quality which was a great disappointment to me.  The tour guide first set us up to see a binary star which looked fine through the telescope.  She later had us view a star cluster and the Great Orion Nebula (the latter is a easy and beautiful object in my 6 inch reflector) and both of those fine deep sky objects were marred by the smoke and the haze.  None of the planets were up in the sky so no views of Jupiter nor Saturn.  I guess I will have to come back next time when the sky has better transparency.

 

Sydney Harbour Bridge as viewed from the observatory grounds at night.

 

 

On the other hand the view of the lights of Sydney from atop Observatory Hill was very nice as we waited for our Uber to take us back to the hotel.

Edited November 7, 2020 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

 

 

Sat Dec 21 2020, Sydney Day 3 

 

This was supposed to be our wildlife tour day (including dinner) which was cancelled due to the bush fires.  So, we had a wide open, unscheduled day on this weekend day.

 

 

After sleeping in, we walked out to The Rocks to explore the charming area and to visit the Rocks Market.  This was an area that we did not get a chance to checkout when we visited Sydney two years earlier.

 

 

The Rocks was decorated in a holiday theme. I believe the people in the above picture are taking photos of the Sydney Harbour Bridge which looms over The Rocks.

 

 

Norwegian Jewel was docked at the Overseas Passenger Terminal which is next to The Rocks.  She would end up overnighting there.

 

 

We went to the Park Hyatt Sydney for afternoon tea.  The hotel is very nice and has a magnificent location at Dawes Point.  It also is well placed to view the New Year's Eve celebration at Sydney Harbour but with room prices to match!

 

 

Afternoon tea is served at the main dining room in the restaurant which has large glass walls giving you a nice view of the harbour.

 

 

Because the cancelled wildlife tour was supposed to provide dinner, I did not have any plans made in advance for this day.  My wife and I asked our kids to choose and they decided on going to Sydney Madang Korean BBQ Restaurant. 

Edited November 15, 2020 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

 

 

Sunday Dec 22 2019, Day 4

 

The highlight for our last full day in Sydney was to visit the famous Sydney Opera House.  The last time we visited Sydney three years earlier, we had drinks at the outdoor Opera Bar but we never went in the Opera House itself.

 

But first we went to do some shopping along George Street.  We also went to the theater there to watch the latest Star Wars movie (Rise of Skywalker) that had been released.

 

 

After the movie was over, we took an Uber over to the Opera House.  Norwegian Jewel, which remained at the Overseas Passenger Terminal over the previous night was there to greet us. 

 

 

Before this trip started, I had already gone on line and purchased the 5pm Sydney Opera House Tour ($37 AUD per person).  I believe that this tour ran every 15-30 minutes.  There were other types of tours available, such as a Backstage Tour and an Architectural Tour but their tour times did not work with our schedule.

 

 

The one hour guided tour was excellent.  We were able to visit all of the performance halls/rooms.

 

 

While we were briefly seated in each performance room, the tour guide would tell us what the venue was commonly used for and would point out special design features.  The tour also featured discussions of the areas outside of the performance rooms. 

 

 

Of course the guide also spoke about the history of the Opera House as well as how the location and design were selected.  A large amount of time was also devoted to discussing the visionary architect, Jorn Utzon.  Born in Denmark, his design was selected from among 232 designs that were submitted. 

 

 

The famous Opera House shells represented a feat of engineering and construction.  Unfortunately a dispute arose between Utzon and the state government during construction.  Before the Opera House was finished, Utzon abruptly resigned as the architect and left Australia. Utzon died in 2008 and never came back to visit his masterpiece.

 

 

Years later some amends were made when Utzon was asked to provide the interior design for the above performance room which bears his name.  The Utzon Room was finished in 2004. 

Edited November 22, 2020 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

 

 

Sun Dec 22 2020, Sydney Day 4 (Dinner)

 

After our 5pm tour concluded, we had dinner at Bennelong, the fine dining restaurant located inside the Sydney Opera House.  I made the reservations for 6:30pm through my Open Table app before our vacation.

 

 

The architecture of the Opera House extends into the restaurant.  There is an impressive soaring ceiling to greet you when you walk in along with terrific views of the bridge, harbor, and Sydney skyline.

 

 

The food was excellent.  I had a seafood dish (pictured above). My wife and daughter had a salad appetizer that they swore was the best salad that they ever had.  That was a good thing, considering that the meal for the 4 of us cost $512.70 USD.

 

 

After dinner we walked back to the hotel which allowed us to take in some pretty views of the harbor at night.  After a good night's sleep, we would be boarding Solstice on the next day!

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by mahdnc

[Blighty770]

Thanks so much for your review! I was last in Sydney way back in 2007 and actually had the pleasure of seeing a performance of La Traviata at the Opera House. One of the best experiences of my life and I hope to get back there again before too long.

 

Really looking forward to reading about your cruise on Solstice. My partner and I were some of the lucky few to travel earlier this year (BC - Before Covid) and we arrived back in the UK, after a brilliant 12-night Caribbean cruise on Silhouette, about two weeks before the UK went into its first lockdown.

 

It will be fantastic when we can all get back to cruising once more, but, in the meantime, I will live vicariously through your adventures on this journey. 😄

[mahdnc]

5 hours ago, Blighty770 said:

Thanks so much for your review! I was last in Sydney way back in 2007 and actually had the pleasure of seeing a performance of La Traviata at the Opera House. One of the best experiences of my life and I hope to get back there again before too long.

 

Before booking the tour of the Opera House, I looked into buying tickets for a show there instead.  I figured that was the best way to experience it.  The only show that had going on was a comedian on the evening that we would be flying in from across the Pacific.  There weren't any good seats left, so we didn't do it.

[mickey89]

We enjoyed NZ to Aus cruise aboard the Millennium many years back.  The most memorable part was the excursion from Dunedin to rejoin the ship in Milford Sound staying overnight in Queenstown, which is the jewel of the South Island.  Highly recommended for anyone doing this itinerary in the future, expensive but the most memorable.

[mahdnc]

View of Solstice from the Sydney Harbour Bridge Pylon Lookout

 

 

Mon Dec 23 2020, Embarkation Day!

 

There were two cruise ships scheduled for Sydney on that day.  I got up early in the morning so that I could see both of them sail in from our hotel window.  It was heavily overcast and gray outside, so there would be no sunny skies that day.

 

At 5:15 am, I saw the first ship to arrive which was HAL’s Maasdam.  A relatively small ship, she would sail under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and dock at White Bay Cruise Terminal.    By the way, Maasdam was one of the ships that was purged from HAL’s fleet this past Aug.

 

 

30 minutes later, I saw my first glimpse of Solstice sailing towards the harbor. 

 

 

Even though it was early in the morning, you could see passengers watching the sail in from their balcony.

 

 

There are two webcams with magnificent views of the harbor: webcamsydney.com and the Sebel Quay West Suites Sydney webcam.  I thank @Suzi66 for introducing me to the latter webcam.

 

 

We had one more activity planned before we would get on board Solstice that day—and that was to climb up to the Sydney Harbour Bridge Pylon Lookout. The Pylon Lookout was a short 20 minute walk from our hotel and we would have sweeping views of the harbor with Solstice there (first picture in this post).

 

 

My wife was more interested in doing some last minute shopping instead of visiting the bridge.  So this time it would be the two kids and me.  We arrived there right at the opening time of 10:00 am.  There were very few people.  The stair climb was not too bad and you could buy drinks and snacks from the counter near the top of the stairway.  If I remember correctly you pay your admission at that counter which is good because that means you don’t have to worry about paying and then realizing afterward  that you can’t make it to the top.  On the way up and on the way down the pylon were several informative exhibits about the bridge and its construction. 

 

 

In the above photo you can see both cruise ships docked in Sydney.  Solstice is at the Overseas Passenger Terminal (left of the bridge) while Maasdam is docked at White Bay Cruising Terminal on the Darling Harbour side of the bridge (in the distance to the right).  I want to thank @cruise kitty for her well written (and well photographed) review of her 2017 New Zealand/Australia Solstice cruise.  It was in her review that I learned about the Bridge Pylon Lookout.  When I saw her photographs, I knew that I had to pay a visit there in the morning before we boarded Solstice.

 

 

Pretty much any time that you look at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, you can see the bridge climbers if you are close enough.  They are clearly visible in the above photograph.  I had seriously considered booking the BridgeClimb.Sydney.  It is expensive $200-$400 AUD per person depending on when you go and the climbing route selected.  You also cannot bring your camera with you on the bridge climb because of concerns that you may drop it onto the car traffic below.  So for those two reasons we didn’t do the bridge climb this time, and the thought was that we might do it on our next cruise out of Sydney.

 

 

The observation deck allows you to get views from all four sides of the pylon.  The view was mesmerizing and it was fun to see all the activity going on in the harbor.  It was really from this vantage point that I finally I understood how outstanding the Overseas Passenger Terminal was located for cruise ships that call on Sydney.  Passengers have wonderful views and easy access to the iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge.  The historic Rocks are adjacent to the cruise terminal.  You can easily access the harbor ferries to visit other places like the zoo and Luna Park.   And of course, you can easily walk to the downtown Sydney itself (or take a cab or train).

 

So our time in Sydney was fun, but now it was time to get on board Solstice to start our cruise!

Edited November 26, 2020 by mahdnc

[mahdnc]

On 11/26/2020 at 1:47 PM, mickey89 said:

We enjoyed NZ to Aus cruise aboard the Millennium many years back.  The most memorable part was the excursion from Dunedin to rejoin the ship in Milford Sound staying overnight in Queenstown, which is the jewel of the South Island.  Highly recommended for anyone doing this itinerary in the future, expensive but the most memorable.

 

Your excursion has had many very favorable reviews by others like you on Cruise Critic.  It was also available for this cruise and I seriously looked into it but decided against it for several reasons--partly because of the expense involved for my family of 4.  @waweidman and his wife, whom I met thru the roll call for this sailing, decided to take the excursion and really enjoyed it. 

[mickey89]

Most of the people on our cruise were really disappointed as the the ship was unable to enter Milford Sound due to high wind.  As you know the entrance into the Sound is narrow and many cruises fail to enter, so that is another reason we were so lucky as we saw the two icons of NZ, Queenstown and Milford Sound.  
 

Others need to be aware, nature can be a pain.  Glad you enjoyed the cruise itinerary, it’s one of the best.