unclegrandpa

It is ok for what it is, a 3 hour tour. I personally prefer full day group tours if it's hiking or bicycling. So it depends on what you plan to do for the rest of the day. It was good for me because it let me rent the bike from them on the spot and go over to the French side. So I toured Phillipsburg with the group for the first half of the day and then did the French side on my own for the rest of the day. I would recommend this tour to people who plan to do it this way or have something else planned. The bikes were ok. The helmets were ok as well. They were the cheapest Trek bicycles, hybrid type. They were better bicycles than a bicycle I got on my St Lucia rainforest tour. Over there neither the bicycles nor helmets were ok.

I need to learn more about that area. I first had an impression that that was like a national park with a trail system. So I was planning to take Uber to a trail head, hike and/or run for a couple hours and then take Uber back to Melbourne. If it's just villages and gardens with no forest that definitely won't be much fun then

Anyone considering Dandenong Ranges? Seems like about 1 hour away and around A$100 each way using Uber. Does not seem horribly far or super expensive.

I will look. This may be too complicated for me. I prefer to use sites that have a straightforward way of canceling everything. NCL started changing our itenarary again today. So this is all up in the air again.

There is a lot to see. It just all either starts or ends at the wrong time or takes longer than the time the ship is there. Unless you are a museum geek or able to rent and drive a car on your own, choices are not that great.

I don't think so. First it's only one person and not two. Secondly the NCL excursion includes other things besides just a ride to Sovereign Hill. They also take you to Balarat. All fees are probably included. So it would be equivalent to 3 long taxi drives plus all the entry fees. I get $50 USD off one excursion in each port plus a 10 percent discount. So it would probably be more like $250 USD which is still a lot. But makes more sense than paying for a taxi.

They are sold out. Normally they just add more. So I am not sure how all of them are sold out. Their website says they usually do Sovereign Hill and Wildlife Park. https://www.ncl.com/shore-excursions/MEL_01/Sovereign-Hill-Wildlife-Park I understand it's 113km or about 80 minutes each way. I am usually interested in outdoor activities. I would look at the museums there if there is nothing else to do

Those don't seem to be bookable online. Unless I am missing something.

I am planning to be in Melbourne with Norwegian Spirit on January 19. They don't offer any shore excursions for that port, and I was wondering if it's possible to book anything online on my own or maybe at the port itself. I looked at viator but pretty much everything is 12-13 hours and doesn't work with the time I am in that port. I would be interested in doing the Sovereign Hill and the Wildlife Park excursion. Or something similar. Which companies offer shore excursions in Melbourne that you can book yourself online?

Did you have to make any reservations or did they have bicycles available?

In my case the NZ ETA app did not scan the passport number correctly. For example it put in BB instead of 88. It does not read the chip like the Australian app does. So be careful and double check everything.

I am planning to rent a bicycle to ride on the off-road trails or go to some hiking trails from the port and just for general sightseeing. The ports of call are Dunedin, Timaru, Wellington, Napier, and Tauranga. Would I usually need to rent a bicycle in advance or is it possible to do it on the spot? I found some stores in Dunedin and Wellington. But I have not received any response from them yet. I will probably call them on skype or something like that if no one here responds. Is it ok to leave a bicycle at the hiking trail head or is it uncommon/unsafe?

I understand that the December 23 cruise had more stops originally. I am aware of the places where the ship isn't docked and it's just another day at sea. It's strange to me that they don't just add more excursions like they did on all the other cruises I was on. We will see what happens to the January 4 cruise. If they don't have any more port cancellations that would look better.

I was not saying all. There were like 11 left total. Some ports have nothing. The ones that are left are mostly just a couple hours. Of course I don't have to have an excursion in each port and I don't have to buy from them. If you book outside tours and they cancel ports you may not be able to get the excursion money left after a certain time. It's normal for them to go back on sale because some people cancel.

I did call them. They just say they are sold out. In case of other cruises they would just keep adding more excursions, more buses. The local authorities may limit traffic or something. But because I never experienced this before and they cancelled ports for the same cruise on a different date, I am concerned. Besides if you buy from them you get 50 dollars off on excursions as part of the fare and 10 percent off after a few cruises with them. So you end up losing that benefit if you cannot book anything even if you do end up in that port.