Transpacific Number of Nights

[Tedferg]

Looking at two itineraries Sep 2021 Honolulu to Sydney and Apr 2022 Sydney to Honolulu. Both say '18 nights' but as I look at details I see Southbound is 20 nights and Northbound is 18. Wonder if this might have to do with International date line. I did not see a jump in dates. One show 5 days Tahiti to NZ the other shows just 3 NZ to Tahiti. I had a Chat session with X but lost the contact when I refreshed the page and could not get it back

[hawkesbaynz]

Fantastic cruises but eyewateringly expensive for the September trip excluding a premium price for flights. It shows five sea days between Moorea and Auckland. 

[Tedferg]

X Chat said it was due to crossing Dateline in opposite directions. This makes sense but there is no jump in dates on itinerary. I thought I would see 13th and then 15th in one direction and then 13th twice in the other direction. This would be a bucket list trip so accept the price tag 🙂

[deadzone1003]

34 minutes ago, Tedferg said:

Looking at two itineraries Sep 2021 Honolulu to Sydney and Apr 2022 Sydney to Honolulu. Both say '18 nights' but as I look at details I see Southbound is 20 nights and Northbound is 18. Wonder if this might have to do with International date line. I did not see a jump in dates. One show 5 days Tahiti to NZ the other shows just 3 NZ to Tahiti. I had a Chat session with X but lost the contact when I refreshed the page and could not get it back

I think you are calculating the nights by date rather than counting the nights, one by one.  Ships do not go faster going East or West.  What you should considered is the number time zone changes.  If you go on a Easterly direction, count on a few 23 hour days while you will have a few 25 hour days going the other direction.  Above all, what do you plan to do in Sydney should be the deciding factor in which direction you should travel.  If you have no plans, it may not manner which direction.  If you plan to spend 3-4 nights in Sydney, how would like to arrive at Sydney, 14-16 hour flight from the USA or being disembark from a cruise ship.  Only you can answer that question.    

[jagoffee]

13 minutes ago, deadzone1003 said:

I think you are calculating the nights by date rather than counting the nights, one by one.  Ships do not go faster going East or West.  What you should considered is the number time zone changes.  If you go on a Easterly direction, count on a few 23 hour days while you will have a few 25 hour days going the other direction.  Above all, what do you plan to do in Sydney should be the deciding factor in which direction you should travel.  If you have no plans, it may not manner which direction.  If you plan to spend 3-4 nights in Sydney, how would like to arrive at Sydney, 14-16 hour flight from the USA or being disembark from a cruise ship.  Only you can answer that question.    

You are correct concerning the time changes.  If my recollection is correct you either gain a day or lose a day when you cross the international date line.  This is independent of the actually time changes.  The date change is not gradual.  It is always possible that my recollection is incorrect.  The cruise is actually 18 nights either way.

 

[4774Papa]

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=620702&et_cid=3065755&et_rid=17221689&et_referrer=Boards

 

Here is my review of our trip and TP cruise from Sydney to Seattle.  I think it was 23 nights.   We did one day twice due to crossing the IDL.

 

[patty1955]

When we booked our transpacific several years ago, we had a problem with the number of nights. Trying to book the Alaska Railroad excursion at the end of our cruise was impossible before we cruised because it kept trying to book it on the wrong day.  

[deadzone1003]

I need to modify my statement where I said "Ships do not go faster going East of West".  Well, they may actually do when you have one of those time zone change.  Time difference between Honolulu and Sydney is 3 hours, I believe.  So, you have 3 days where you have either a 23 or 25 hour day.  Basically, those days the captain can have differing amount of time to travel the same distance though in opposite directions.  The Op is thinking he is taking 2 days longer in one direction.  Well, the difference may only be 6 hours in total hours travel provided the embarkation and disembarkation times are identical.  I have done 3 transpacific cruises, SF to Sydney, Bangkok to Alaska, & LA to Osaka, none of these were on Celebrity.  

Edited January 21, 2021 by deadzone1003

[jagoffee]

20 minutes ago, deadzone1003 said:

I need to modify my statement where I said "Ships do not go faster going East of West".  Well, they may actually do when you have one of those time zone change.  Time difference between Honolulu and Sydney is 3 hours, I believe.  So, you have 3 days where you have either a 23 or 25 hour day.  Basically, those days the captain can have differing amount of time to travel the same distance though in opposite directions.  The Op is thinking he is taking 2 days longer in one direction.  Well, the difference may only be 6 hours in total hours travel provided the embarkation and disembarkation times are identical.  I have done 3 transpacific cruises, SF to Sydney, Bangkok to Alaska, & LA to Osaka, none of these were on Celebrity.  

When you crossed the International Date Line, you either gained or lost  a day, correct?

[chemmo]

As we were packing up to leave the Solstice after our TP we collated one of each of the ‘Today’ sheets. Most we had two of, it wasn’t until we had gone through the mountain of paperwork (including the art auction junk) twice we remembered we wouldn’t have a second Wednesday one as it didn’t exist!

 

Fantastic cruise, what a pity we were cheated out of a day!

[deadzone1003]

6 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

When you crossed the International Date Line, you either gained or lost  a day, correct?

Yes, I wouldn't put too much thought into it.  All it does is confuse you.  Anyway, it happens in the middle of night - you could go to sleep on Tuesday night and wake up on Thursday morning.  In the other direction, you go to sleep on a Tuesday night and wake up on Tuesday morning, not quite Groundhog Day, but you get the idea.  Just use the dates that Celebrity provides you in planning like it was a regular cruise.  

[deadzone1003]

3 minutes ago, chemmo said:

As we were packing up to leave the Solstice after our TP we collated one of each of the ‘Today’ sheets. Most we had two of, it wasn’t until we had gone through the mountain of paperwork (including the art auction junk) twice we remembered we wouldn’t have a second Wednesday one as it didn’t exist!

 

Fantastic cruise, what a pity we were cheated out of a day!

If you feel that way, you should sue Celebrity, LOL.  At least, ask for some FCC.

[chemmo]

4 minutes ago, deadzone1003 said:

If you feel that way, you should sue Celebrity, LOL.  At least, ask for some FCC.

 

I must say it remains our favourite cruise to date. I would love to repeat even if I was going to be cheated out of a day again!

[Tedferg]

I do follow all of your points but if you look at the itinerary for Sep 2021 Transpacific starting at Honolulu Sep 29 all dates are listed concluding Sydney Oct 18. If I pull up the calendar and count the days between Sep 29 and Oct 18 there are 28 days ! Maybe the Dateline has me flumoxed.

[deadzone1003]

Tedferg, better do a recount of the calender before someone else see your entry.

[emmas gran]

One consideration will Australia allow international travellers this year?? Personally our friends in Sydney think its doubtful, I would look at 2022

[upwarduk]

40 minutes ago, emmas gran said:

One consideration will Australia allow international travellers this year?? Personally our friends in Sydney think its doubtful, I would look at 2022

I sure I have read that there won’t be any International flights in 2021.

[chemmo]

5 hours ago, Tedferg said:

I do follow all of your points but if you look at the itinerary for Sep 2021 Transpacific starting at Honolulu Sep 29 all dates are listed concluding Sydney Oct 18. If I pull up the calendar and count the days between Sep 29 and Oct 18 there are 28 days ! Maybe the Dateline has me flumoxed.

 

Our itinerary showed one day as the Dateline, that was the day that didn’t exist.

[ExArkie]

5 hours ago, chemmo said:

 

Our itinerary showed one day as the Dateline, that was the day that didn’t exist.

That is what I was going to say...

 

I looked back at our itinerary for a westbound transpacific in 2017. Each day was listed with date and location (most being "At Sea") . One day's location was shown as "International Date Line," but on board ship, that day never existed.

 

We also have an eastbound transpacific booked for 2022 (assume that depends on whether the Solstice gets to the Asian side of the Pacific this year). The itinerary for it shows each day with date and location, where the "International Date Line" date is the same as the day before it (April 30).

 

Not quite as disconcerting as flying west across the International Date Line. We flew US to Australia in  November 2019. When someone asked me, "How was your Thanksgiving?" (a November Thursday holiday for those of you who may not know), my response was that it literally did not exist that year.

[Tedferg]

11 hours ago, deadzone1003 said:

Tedferg, better do a recount of the calendar before someone else see your entry.

Fat finger - I hit the 8 instead of 0 😞

[Tedferg]

Correction X says '18 Nights' I was counting Days last day is debark Sydney so that does not count, also if International dateline is not a separate night/day that would not count. Applying this logic to Eastbound, last day in Honolulu would not count and Dateline would give an extra night/day so that is 18 too.

[deadzone1003]

1 minute ago, Tedferg said:

Correction X says '18 Nights' I was counting Days last day is debark Sydney so that does not count, also if International dateline is not a separate night/day that would not count. Applying this logic to Eastbound, last day in Honolulu would not count and Dateline would give an extra night/day so that is 18 too.

Like I said earlier it should play no consideration which direction you should travel.  Those 3 25-hour days may make your cruise feel a little more leisurely while those 3 23-hour days may make it feel a little rushed.  More importantly, I think you should make your decision based on what you plan to do in Sydney as well as Honolulu.    

[Tedferg]

23 minutes ago, deadzone1003 said:

Like I said earlier it should play no consideration which direction you should travel.  Those 3 25-hour days may make your cruise feel a little more leisurely while those 3 23-hour days may make it feel a little rushed.  More importantly, I think you should make your decision based on what you plan to do in Sydney as well as Honolulu.    

Our feeling is to have Sydney at the start, that is part of the bucket list and doing it first seems better. We have been to Hawaii many times so no big deal there. In fact we are comparing Celebrity with a Princess Trans Pacific. Princess is 28 days and ends in SFO. Our thought is we might have had enough by the time we got to Hawaii and so five more sea days is too much.

[jagoffee]

Tedferg,  

 

My DW and I cruised on the Solstice from Hawaii to Sydney.  The ship was excellent and we had a great time.  The ports were amazing and the FP is our favorite cruise area.  
The temperatures dropped as we cruised towards and around New Zealand.  I would have preferred to have the weather get better as the cruise progressed.

 If I were to repeat this cruise, I would consider the spring version in the opposite direction. I have never taken the Spring TP, therefore I cannot really compare.  But I have read that the weather is better.  
If the Spring and Fall are both good options for you, you might wish to factor in the weather probabilities.

 

[deadzone1003]

1 minute ago, Tedferg said:

Our feeling is to have Sydney at the start, that is part of the bucket list and doing it first seems better. We have been to Hawaii many times so no big deal there. In fact we are comparing Celebrity with a Princess Trans Pacific. Princess is 28 days and ends in SFO. Our thought is we might have had enough by the time we got to Hawaii and so five more sea days is too much.

The best cruise of my life was a 30-day cruise from San Francisco to Sydney on the Star Princess back in 2009.  We even embarked at Pier 27, where the current cruise terminal is, but it was the American President Line terminal back then.  By the time we got to Sydney, we were not eager to get off the ship, but more eager to visit Sydney.  For you, it will be a 14 hour flight from SFO to Sydney.  If you have no problem with jetlag, go ahead.  As a retiree, I find it better to recover from jetlag at home.   I would highly recommend that you find a restaurant that serves Mud Crab - some of the best crab you will ever eat.