Travel to New Zealand/Australia for Cruise

[knightgrad03]

We booked the Celebrity Australia & New Zealand cruise for January and was wondering if anyone used celebrity to book the air travel. Who did they fly you on? How was the experience. I am looking for travel to the Embarkation port and back to the US. I am debating on booking my own travel or using Celebrity. Please help!

[MICHAEL_01]

If you are looking to book your own travel, maybe this can be helpfull.

 

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch/prego

[ToBe]

We booked the Celebrity Australia & New Zealand cruise for January and was wondering if anyone used celebrity to book the air travel. Who did they fly you on? How was the experience. I am looking for travel to the Embarkation port and back to the US. I am debating on booking my own travel or using Celebrity. Please help!

We found Celebrity much cheaper and since we are on Celebrity Club(?) we were able to pick our flights. We traveled this January.

I really recommend the expensive 30 hour trip in either Dunedin or Milford Sound. It was worth twice the $599 pp price. The road to Queenstown is all it is advertised to be. The bus stopped at every site recommended by tour books. A 76 year-old FLA man did the bungee jump. After all the jump is free for anyone over 75.

 

Temma

[knightgrad03]

What Airlines did you use when traveling from the US?

[wrk2cruise]

Many people who booked through Celebrity were on the QF26 flight LAX to Auckland (we did the Auckland to Syndey route). Many were complaining about the very tight connections Celebrity gave them in LAX.

 

We booked our travel via our travel agent and did better on the price. We flew through to Queenstown on the south island for a week pre-cruise self drive up the west coast to Greymouth then on the TransAlpine train to Christchurch then flew to Auckland to catch the ship.

 

I agree with the previous post that Queenstown is lovely. I'm not sure I would want to spend the day off the ship to see it but if you have time the south island is absolutely beautiful.

 

If you have a good travel agent I would have them investigate if they can get decent air-sea fares.

[Psoque]

Regardless of how you make your arrangements, I highly recommend that you arrive at Auckland a day or more before the cruise.

 

We were on the January 6, 2008 sailing from Auckland. We did not have a problem, but was a problem with flights leaving LAX on January 4 (we left LAX on January 3), and a lot of people on the ship were without their luggages until a few days into the cruise.

 

I'm not sure what Celebrity will do next year, but my understanding is that most of the people who flew on Celebrity-arranged flights were booked on flights that arrived on the day of cruise, not the day before.

 

We made our own arrangements and arrived there a day before. We had some time to explore Auckland, which is a great city. Also, more importantly, we were not totally stressed out getting there because we had one night in Auckland before the cruise. Obviously, you can never predict airport weather, but having an extra day will at least give you some peace of mind.

[Kathie44]

We were on the Mercury 1/20 cruise from Sydney to Aukland. We flew in to Syd. a day early. We booked through X for convenience. I never want to mess with super long distance air arrangements. Others on our roll call, including Temma (above), did the same.

We didn't pick our flights, but were able to get Custom Air to fly from Dayton. In this first season for the itinerary, X was using only Cleveland, Cincy and Columbus for departure. The latter two are 90 min. from our house, but the Dayton ariport is 15 min. We flew from Dayton to Chicago to San Francisco. We made it just in time to board our last flight. It actually left a bit early and some cruisers from Kansas City missed it and had to wait till the next evening. So they missed their extra day in Syd., but got there in time to board the ship. The ship stayed in Syd. the first night. I know some pax planned to get there the day of boarding, but were a day late. (don't know about their flight arrangements.) Good thing the ship didn't leave till the 21st.

Coming home we flew Qantas after staying in Aukland 2 extra nights. It was delayed on the tarmac for 1 1/2 hrs when someone got sick and it took that long to decide what to do about her. :eek: So of course most of us had to be rebooked in LA. We would have been anyway due to the closing of snowbound O'Hare airport. It just bugged me having to be stuck in the plane any longer than the 11 1/2 hr flight. We ended up going on Frontier through Denver.

Definitely fly in at least a day early for Syd. and I would go two days early to Auk.

[Ms Understood]

I have never used X air so can't really answer the original ? but we went last year with Princess and got 2 for 1 biz class on Air New Zealand thru Amex. It was a great flight, comfy seats and ultra pleasant crew. Loved it and almost didn't mind how looooong that flight was! We went in 2 days early to spend some time in Melbourne which was a really fun city. So we flew LAX to Auckland changed to Quantas and flew to Sydney then on to Melbourne. It was a heck of a day.

[chasetf]

We found Celebrity much cheaper and since we are on Celebrity Club(?) we were able to pick our flights. We traveled this January.

I really recommend the expensive 30 hour trip in either Dunedin or Milford Sound. It was worth twice the $599 pp price. The road to Queenstown is all it is advertised to be. The bus stopped at every site recommended by tour books. A 76 year-old FLA man did the bungee jump. After all the jump is free for anyone over 75. Temma

We did the Sydney to Auckland trip on Princess. I agree Queenstown is well worth the effort. My suggestion is, instead of getting off the ship that you have paid to be on, and spending an additional $600 for that privilege, spend pre or post cruise time and fly from Auckland to Queenstown if you have the extra time. The $1200 you save will go a long way toward that extra time.

 

I do not know what Celebrity does, but Princess took off all the extended tour people after we sailed up Milford Sound in the early morning when it was overcase. They ended up missing the whole day of fjord cruising which included the rest of Milford Sound as well as Dusty and Thompson Sounds.

[Sea the World Again]

For the best deals on air look at those flights that stop in Fiji or Tahiti on the way to Auckland or Sydney.

 

Serves two purposes - lower cost and breaks the flight into two relatively small segments (9 hours and 6 hours) with a nice break in between.

[ToBe]

We did the Sydney to Auckland trip on Princess. I agree Queenstown is well worth the effort. My suggestion is, instead of getting off the ship that you have paid to be on, and spending an additional $600 for that privilege, spend pre or post cruise time and fly from Auckland to Queenstown if you have the extra time. The $1200 you save will go a long way toward that extra time.

 

I do not know what Celebrity does, but Princess took off all the extended tour people after we sailed up Milford Sound in the early morning when it was overcase. They ended up missing the whole day of fjord cruising which included the rest of Milford Sound as well as Dusty and Thompson Sounds.

We cruised into Milford Sound and then ended up traveling through the Alps. The poeple who stayed on the ship we greeted by fog and rain for the next two fjords. We had fantastic vistas and just did so much. We had heard about the Homer tunnel and it was rustic and we came out to piles of snow. We learned so much about the countryside and saw the deer farms along with sheep and dairy. The drivers were great tour guides. The hotel was lovely and we ate at a sheep ranch reached by a turn of the century steam boat a la African Queen only a wee bit larger. The men went gaga over the engines. We sang on our return trip across the lake. It was magic!

I know that we had already paid for meals on the ship. They didn't have piles of freshly picked cherries and other stone fruit and local cheeses. Perhaps the only flaw I find with cruising is that we don't get to eat and visit with the locals. This was our chance.

[Richard Stein]

Australia and the US recently signed an open sky treaty that kicks in early next year. Virgin Blue, and others are lining up planes. Prices will come down. We took Quantas both ways to Sydney in Feb and from Aukland in Mar. 14 hours going and 12 1/2 coming backs + flights in the states. Hold off it may be cheaper to do your own next year.

[chasetf]

We cruised into Milford Sound and then ended up traveling through the Alps. The poeple who stayed on the ship we greeted by fog and rain for the next two fjords. We had fantastic vistas and just did so much. We had heard about the Homer tunnel and it was rustic and we came out to piles of snow. We learned so much about the countryside and saw the deer farms along with sheep and dairy. The drivers were great tour guides. The hotel was lovely and we ate at a sheep ranch reached by a turn of the century steam boat a la African Queen only a wee bit larger. The men went gaga over the engines. We sang on our return trip across the lake. It was magic!

I know that we had already paid for meals on the ship. They didn't have piles of freshly picked cherries and other stone fruit and local cheeses. Perhaps the only flaw I find with cruising is that we don't get to eat and visit with the locals. This was our chance.

I agree what you saw was well worth seeing. We just did it after the cruise by flying down to Queenstown for five days and using that as our jump off point with our rental car. So we ended up seeing all you describe plus some more..... It is just that we did it after the cruise and did not miss those days of the cruise we had already paid for.

 

In our case it was just the opposite. We had a foggy overcase morning sailing into Milford Sound, then the folks got off.... It then cleared up and was beautiful the rest of the day back out Milford, through Dusty and Thompson. (picture link in my signature block)

 

So as far as the weather......it just a matter of the draw. ;)