BINDY31

3 hours ago, Tippy_Toes said:

I'm also flip flopping back n forth about time of year to visit, May/June or late Aug/Sep to hopefully see the Northern lights

The time to travel is something only the individual traveller can decide.

decide on what’s important to you to see and take it from there.

August is good but Northern lights can be a bit hit and miss….. the later you get the better the chances for the lights,. However other things start to shut down.

once the snow starts to melt on the glaciers, helicopter landings and dog sledding stops.

good luck with the planning. It can be frustrating at times, but once you start locking things in the anticipation takes over.

We are from Australia too, and are embarking on our bucket list trip in June 2024.

like you, we love scenery, wildlife, history and food.

we opted for a Cruisetour with Holland America.

this will be a one and done trip to this part of the world. Unless we win lotto we won’t be back again so have splurged a bit. 
 

we chose 18 day Yukon/Alaska trip with Holland land first.
 

why land first??  We will be touring the Rockies and doing the Rocky Mountaineer after this tour so it gives us land, cruise then land. Seemed to make sense at the time….lol

also gives us a Southbound cruise.more on that later.

we start off in Vancouver, fly to Whitehorse in the Yukon and overnight there.

next morning we have a tour to Caribou Crossing where they have a great museum with lots of displays. We get to see plenty of scenery as well along the way. 
then fly to Dawson City for 2 nights. Lots of gold rush history here. 
 

then fly to Fairbanks, 2 nights. We will go on a riverboat tour, see sled dogs, learn about how the First Nations people lived and survived here. 
 

then off to Denali National park. This time a Road trip. 3 nights.

hopefully on our tour of Denali the weather will be kind and we get to see the lovely mountain.

on a free day here we are taking a flight into the Arctic Circle where we will meet some of the residents we stay all year round, even when it gets to 80 below!!!

then board a lovely domed roof train for the scenic trip to Anchorage  2 nights.

our first whole free day here will see us helicopter up a glacier and go dog sledding. This can also be done while on the cruise. We chose to do it out of Fairbanks as Fairbanks receives less rain, therefore less cancellations due to the weather. 
 

then another canonic train trip to Whittier where we board our ship for 7 nights back to Vancouver.

we have scenic cruising of Hubbard Glacier, we booked the catamaran excursion here to get a close up view of the glacier.

scenic cruising in Glacier bay.

followed by a day each in Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan.

last day on cruise scenic cruising through the inside passage.

back in Vancouver we have 1 night then hit the road again, visiting Vancouver Island 2 nights, Whistler 2 nights, Sun Peaks, Jasper 2 nights Banff 2 nights the board the Rocky Mountaineer back to Vancouver. 
 

this an escorted tour with Globus for us as hubby didn’t want to drive over there but just as easy to do it yourself.

we then have 4 nights in Vancouver before heading home. A busy, busy time for us but ticking off those bucket list items.

hoping to see lots of wildlife during our travels, top of the list for hubby is bears, although we might be a little early but fingers crossed. For me, it’s Moose and Caribou.

i hope you find something suitable for yourselves.

any questions, ask away….

cheers

Belinda

There is a walk from Manly Beach to Shelly Beach. It’s called Fairy Bower walk.

you can snorkel from near to Shelley beach in calm waters… not the surf like Manly.

it seems to be very popular with local snorkelers.

I have no personally stayed here…. But friends of mine have. They would willingly stay again. They thought it was excellent for the price they paid. Hotels in Sydney can be quite pricey.

it is walkable to Circular Quay for boarding the ship, it would probably take 10 minutes or so. 

On 8/14/2023 at 11:24 PM, YoPhilly said:

I've been researching the train to Katoomba, but reached a dead end when arriving in the town.  Can you help with these questions?  From the Katoomba train station, is it walkable to any of the lookout points (like Echo Point), and/or are the views of the Jamison Valley and Three Sisters seen from just about anywhere in Katoomba?  We're not interested in taking the Scenic World cable car over the valley....if DIY by train to Katoomba, what would you recommend doing/seeing/eating, etc.?  I've also read that Leura is a charming town; would you recommend spending an hour or two there as well?  One last question, are taxis or Ubers readily available in Katoomba and Leura?  Thanks so much for your assistance.😁

Once you get to Katoomba you will find the Blue Mountains Explorer bus…. Our very own Hop on, Hop off bus….  I live in the Blue Mountains.

Explorerbus.com.au has all the info regarding costs, timetable, and a useful map of the route.

scenicworld is worth exploring…. If you get the train down into the valley there is a great boardwalk around a loop down there…we even saw a lyrebird once!!

you then can either go back up on the train or use the gondola to go back up the top. 
there is also a cable car…called the Skyway over the valley 

the train trip from Sydney will take you through busy inner city suburbs… to suburban suburbs… over the Nepean River that separates the plains from the mountains… through the beautiful bushland areas up the mountain to Katoomba. Well worth the 2 hours it takes.

there is also a hop on hop off bus that takes in the sights of Sydney.

enjoy!!!

cheers

Belinda

On 10/27/2023 at 5:03 AM, pking said:

We've been busy booking excursions for our trip and I am wondering if any of you have plans for Napier/Hawkes Bay? 

We had found one that had a trip to a farm with sheep (which my wife loved) and a couple of wineries (which I love).  Unfortunately, when pressed for a more detailed itinerary, the farm/sheep experience was dropped, and it was all wineries.

What are your plans for excursions in Napier/Hawkes Bay?

 

Additionally, we have booked a Viator tour at Christchurch on March 19th.  Our tour operator mentioned that 4 additional people were needed for this tour to go.  A link to the tour is below.

 

Shore Excursion with Farm Tour: Lyttelton to Arthur’s Pass 2023 - Christchurch (viator.com)

 

Anyone else interested in this tour?  It does stop at a sheep farm and goes to Arthur's Pass National Park which looked like it has great scenery.  

16 hours ago, Firefly74 said:

I have read this information multiple times. Does anyone know if it will be possible for a passenger to go into Lyttelton without a pre-arranged tour? We had hoped to grab lunch in a grocery store and then take the ferry to Diamond Harbour when we cruise to that port.

The port at Lyttleton is a working port so you cannot walk out. The ship ru s shuttle into town all throughout the day, only takes about 5 minutes.

they drop you at the information centre and you use the same stop to go back to the ship.

it is a cute little town and not difficult to get around,

weare considering doing something similar, as we have been to Christchurch a couple of times.

cheers

Belinda

Thank you so much for a great compilation of this tour.

we have this one booked for June 2024, travelling from Australia.

we mow feel that we know so much more than we did before.

hoping that we are as lucky with the weather as you were.

On 4/21/2023 at 7:18 AM, junebug61 said:

We have booked an Aft cabin for our Alaskan cruise in June 2024. I am having second thoughts about the location with regards to the scenery especially at Hubbard Glacier. Would we better off trying to book a cabin more towards the middle of the ship? 

We have an aft for our cruise June 9 2024. Land tour prior to cruise.

we have had aft cabins twice before, once on Hawaii, once in Australia and have one more booked for New Zealand before our trip ro Alaska. 
we love them. No wind, large balcony and when you are in scenic areas the captain will turn the ship around so everyone gets to enjoy the view.

15 minutes ago, siforest65 said:

It doesn’t help that Cunard have removed the prices on their on line menus.

I seem to recall that the previous lists there was a good selection under the price limit. Hoping it is still the same. We also enjoy several cups of coffee a day, juices etc so hoping the package works well.  Thanks for your input.

First time Cunard cruiser in just a couple of weeks. We usually sail Celebrity with the benefit of a drink package. Very convenient, no surprise bill at the end of the cruise. 
my question is, are there many drinks that come in under the $12 limit? I know that most spirits are going to. But wondering more about cocktails etc. very partial to a cocktail or two before dinner, or would we be better off just buying as we go?

cheers

Belinda

We are cruising to Tasmania and Melbourne in March on Queen Elizabeth and wondering what to do in Burnie?  Ar hire seems to be from Wynyard airport..... would love to drive ourselves around for the day. Anyone done this?

cheers

belinda

The other option you have is to have breakfast with your daughters family, lunch when on a sea day and have dinner separately.  You could always have a little after dinner dessert and coffee in Cafe al Bacio. You will still have plenty of dining options with the family but just not dinner. 

It’s a great cruise.... we used tourmaui.com for both days in Maui... first day, road to Hana. Second day we did their upcountry tour... we went to the Iao needle, up to the top of Haleakala, had a lovely day. They use small 12 seater buses and even provide lunch.

both days on the big Island we used Marylous big island tours, but as mentioned they are not operating at the moment. On Kauai we used ?Roberts for a trip to Waimea Canyon and river cruise and the fern grotto. Second day we had a scenic flight over the island. 

Cheers

belinda

On 5/23/2019 at 6:37 AM, Muffinz said:

We cruised on Solstice in March / April 2018 from Sydney to the Great Barrier Reef and back over 12 nights and we loved every minute of it... so much so we've booked another cruise on Solstice in April 2020 and a 3rd (on Millennium) in March 2021

It was our very first cruise and we had done a lot of research before booking with Celebri

We were on that cruise as well.  What I found funny was someone writing on Facebook during the cruise and saying  the food was crap, no bars open, no entertainment etc etc. I certainly couldn’t figure out what ship they were on, but it couldn’t have been the same one as me.....lol

cheers

Belinda

We are from ?Australia and will embark on our 4th Solstice cruise in October. We have only had one bad experience onboard that was 2 years ago when we decided the timing was too good to miss, there was a mini 2 night cruise for hubby’s birthday so we booked. Never again!! Ship was full of people taking  advantage of f the drink package, most Australian lines don’t offer the packages unless sailing for 7 nights or more. There were people literally falling down drunk, so no more quick getaways for us. 

Never had a problem with the food, either in MDR, Blu or the specialty restaurants. Service has always been impeccable. Is she getting a little tired? Perhaps, but she is still in great shape. I just hope that when she gets her big makeover in 2021 that they put in more comfortable seats in the theatre....lol..  

still my favourite 

We were therefor 2 weeks in Jan this year. One week on the cruise. Weather on Oahu for our 5 days prior to the cruise was great. Warm days, cooler evenings. Lots of sun. On the cruise we had calm seas, a little rocky on the final night. We had rain come in on our final day in Kauai, mist and low cloud meant the Napali Coast wasn’t as spectacular as on a sunny day......but the rain did bring hundreds of waterfalls. As they say, every cloud has a silver lining. I would not hesitate to visit again at the same time,

On 2/23/2019 at 11:15 AM, CupcakeSusie said:

Awesome posts - so helpful! Thank you!

 

We would probably book an aqua class suite on solstice and eat at Blu ... does anyone have experience with these suites and the restaurant? Are the cabins nice and quiet? I remember reading that some of them were noisy a while ago but I’m not sure if it was A1 or A2. This would definitely sway our decision because I’m a really light sleeper.

Many of the A1 cabins are below the pool deck. We always book A2 Aft cabins as they have other cabins directly above. We enjoy this position, although a high deck movement is minimal. Solstice is be far the most stable ship we have sailed on. The aft cabins are also nice and quiet. Although our next cruise we managed to snag on of the 5 aft view cabins, which are A1. We shall see how we enjoy this position. Blu is lovely to dine in, although the MDR  on Solstice is fabulous as well.

On 2/21/2019 at 10:53 PM, Hunter69 said:

Where did they tender the passengers too; Not Circular quay; gets choppy they with all the ferries... Plus I wonder how long the tender ride was. Hope it's quicker then Port D...

 

 

 

Solstice wastendering to  wharf at Dawes Point, Arcadia was tendering to Man o war steps near the opera house

16 minutes ago, felicityd said:

 

Thank you for all the info!  I'm relaxing about it now.  I'm sure we'll have a great time!

 

By the way - I see you're going on the Pride of America in January - enjoy!  We had a fabulous time in August last year. 😊

 

You are bound to have a great time. She is an amazing ship, full of fabulous staff.

as for the Pride of America,  I have only heard good things, thanks for confirming that it’s a great cruise. Really looking forward to our trip..cheers.

We have just booked our 4th cruise on Solstice....we love this ship!!!  We have done 2 cruises in ?Aqua so far and really enjoy it. Our last cruise wasn’t, and it was just as magnificent.

Blu is a lovely dining venue, open for breakfast and lunch. Great views out of the big windows and as the others have said, it’s just  more intimate. The food everywhere on board is magnificent including the buffet. 

Yes the the menu changes every night in Blue, but the breakfast menu doesn’t but there is plenty to choose from.

you get complimentary use of the Persian Gardens, which has heated tile beds, saunas, steam room. And also the relaxation lounge, which has the same views that the captain has from the bridge.

your cabin comes with plush terry robes, slippers, the use of binoculars and an umbrella. Your bathroom will have an anti fog mirror, which you don’t even notice you have until you don’t have it!!!!....lol

as for daily activities, Celebrity is a little quieter than some lines, but there is trivia most days and quite often something on around the pool. We have always found the nightly entertainment quite good. The production shows are really well executed.

enjoy your cruise.Solstice around NZ is amazing!!!

Belinda

Cruise planner always shows the same picture...😀

both f those cabins should have bed by the bathroom, which is our preference.

the way you tell us...on the deck plan some cabins have a black square...this denotes a convertible sofa bed for a third berth. This is always next to the balcony. Every second cabin has this set up whether it is just a sofa...or convertible for a third person. 

Hope this helps

cheers

belinda

On 10/29/2018 at 11:31 PM, Villanelle said:

Thanks for posting this.  I've been reading through the info and getting entirely overwhelmed.  We are doing POA in January, so don't have much time left, and I can't seem to get started as there are just too many choices!

Which cruise are you on in January?

we are sailing on the 19th.

so far have booked road to Hana in Maui, 2 day trips for Hilo and Kona and a sightseeing flight in Kauai.

cheers

Belinda

On 10/30/2018 at 7:46 PM, Davidc5412 said:

Nice to have another  X ship down under but a pity they weren’t more adventurous with itinieries. Agree a trip out west or round Australia would be most welcome

Yes I was hoping for some different itineraries, such a shame to see more of the same. I thought it would be way more exciting with the 2 ships here. Let’s hope that they listen ..

We used Wings Over Kauai a few years ago. It was fantastic and such a memorable and beautiful flight.

Thank you for the insight. We are looking forward to the flight.

Cheers

Belinda

We've booked a Cessna tour with Wings Over Kauai. So looking forward to this!!

We have booked the Cessna tour as well for ourJanuary cruise...