General Max

I certainly appreciate all your comments. Thanks so much.

 

I decided to use another airline and leave at 1:35 PM.

 

 

 

 

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I would still book that 1:35 flight for the next day. Enjoy the sites and sounds of Sydney for one night and a relaxing breakfast the following day.

We don't need CNN to tell us that Australia is a great place to visit. We are returning for our second visit on February 15, 2017. Our trip will include the GBR as well as the GHAN train from Adelaide to Darwin. Also 24 days on Celebrity out of Sydney.

Avoid the stress and stay overnight. As one poster mentioned, it is more relaxing and unrushed.

I probably should have added to the couple hundred bucks for the hotel that an extra day of vacation will be required if you are still working. When you are retired you do not need the extra vacation time.

The last time we had a flight out of Sydney, it took an hour to progress through Immigration, Customs and Security.

Hope you will take advice from previous posters to stay overnight, before your flight home.

Avoid the stress and stay overnight. As one poster mentioned, it is more relaxing and unrushed.

We do not recommend using APT Tours in New Zealand. They are a low budget operation and you get what you pay for and nothing more.

Take the train to Katomba from Central Station then ride the HOHO bus.

Thanks for that General Max. We will certainly be looking out for kangaroos and other wildlife, and hope not to see any road kill. Thanks for warning though.

You will enjoy Kangaroo Island. We spent two nights there in 2011

I am booked on Celebrity Soltace South Pacific & Figi Cruise March 1-13, 2017 leaving and returning to Sydney Australia. The flight that l want is fine going to Sydney so l can use the cruise transfer. However, returning to the airport after the cruise, my flight leaves 45 minutes before the allowable transfer. It's the only American Flight ( and l need to use American ) back to the USA. Do you think l can make it on time ( the ship arrives at 6:30 AM and my flight leaves at 10:45 AM) ? If so, what means of transportation should l use. If by cab, about how much would it cost and do they take American money? I walk with a cane, so l can't get to a train with my luggage. I need to use a shared shuttle or cab or something that you can get right at the cruise terminal. (BTW I have spent weeks in Sydney so l don't need to spend another day there and pay for a hotel ) I appreciate any advice. Thank you so much.

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I agree withGUT2407. Stay an extra night in Sydney and fly out the next day. What is a couple hundred bucks if you miss your flight. This is why we NEVER fly in or fly out the days of embarkation and disembarkation.

Hi

 

Three of us - adults 55+ - are booked on the April 3 Celebrity Solstice Sydney to New Zealand back to Sydney.

 

We'll have a week in Sydney post cruise from April 13-20. We have a quote from Hyde Park Inn for $215 or $237 per night for either a studio or deluxe room respectively. Are these prices to be expected for accommodation in Sydney? How safe is the area around Hyde Park Inn? How close are transportation (bus/metro), grocery stores, other shopping, reasonably priced restaurants?

 

We hope to alternate time in Sydney with day tours to the Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley, and possibly Canberra. Any must sees/not to be missed?

 

Thanks in advance for any comments or tips you might have.

 

Bev

We stayed at the Hyde Park Inn for one week in February, 2011. Bus No. 555 has a stop half a block from the hotel and it is free. Ride it to Central Station and explore from there.

APT Tours runs a low budget operation in New Zealand. Basically you get what you pay for and not mush else.

We are visiting KI on our cruise ship QM2 on 20th Feb. We have decided to hire a car (4 wheel drive, with sat nav) and tour the island on our own as we don't like ships tours and the private tours are very expensive in our opinion. Anyone got any helpful advice or tips on driving on KI ? We plan to see the main sights if we can, Flinders Chase NP, Koala Walk, Vivonne Bay, Seal Bay etc. What are the roads like ? anything to watch outdoor? Any other must see sights, not to miss etc. We are not interested in stopping off anywhere to eat, we do enough of that on board the ship, more interested in seeing the sights...and hopefully lots of wildlife.

You need to watch out for the kangaroos. They roam wild all over the island. You will see a lot of kangaroo road kill in your car hire.

We travel with 2 adults and 2 children. We have found that Ready 2 Go shuttles are the same cost for us as the train. We now do this option as we don't have to walk to the train station. Especially handy this time around as we had 11 bags in total (just finished a 4 month holiday!)

We are traveling to Australia for 6 weeks in February, 2017. During that time we are doing 2 cruises for 24 days. There are just 2 of us and we will use one bag each plus a shoulder carry-on. Travel light and you won't regret it.

Over 18 month old thread...

But it still has some good information.

March is still within the cylone season for the South Pacific and Queensland Coast so there is a slight risk. However you can also get gorgeous weather and calm seas in March - we did. :D

Here's hoping for calm seas and no cyclones.

Just back from NZ cruise. This was our first Celebrity cruise, although we have been on many cruises I the past, To start with our bags were left on the pier in Sydney in the pouring rain before the ship departed. Almost everything was wet inside. This happened to many people. They did launder some pieces, but one tee-shirt was stretched out. I had wet clothes hanging all over the room. All our papers were soaked as well.

 

Because of the bad weather we did not get to sit on our balcony until near the end of the trip. I was under the impression that this was a non-smoking ship, but it appears the one smoking area was right below our balcony on the lower deck. We had to come in due to the cigar smoke. I spoke to customer relations the next day and the said our travel agent should have been aware of this, but they would switch our room if we desired. I have a card from them showing where everything was on the ship, and it did not indicate this smoking area. As we were at the end of the trip, we did not want to pack everything to move. They indicated this was our only recourse. How can they design a smoking area below a balcony room? They said they just change rooms if people complain. This was unacceptable to me.

 

There were also too many sea days, and for a ship this size we were amazed there was no bridge program. There were 5 tables open to a noisy atrium for "games" and you had to make your own card games. Five tables for 2800 passengers was ridiculous. If you found a game, there was no table to play at.

 

We took an expensive excursion to Queenstown, which was very good, except for the lunch the last day. It was a terrible buffet, and we ate very little. I barely made it off the bus before I was sick, and I was sick all night. They said they would report this to the shore excursion people, but again no compensation.

 

My recommendation would be to take a road trip in NZ rather than a cruise, and we would not use Celebrity again.

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Thanks for your less than encouraging review of your Solstice cruise. If you decide to do a land tour of New Zealand, do not use APT. We had an extremely bad experience with them following the Christchurch earthquake in February, 2011.

We are doing a South Pacific cruise and a Australian Great Barrier back to back cruise in March of 2017 and appreciate the weather information.

Click on the SEARCH THIS THREAD button on the Australia New Zealand thread blue task bar. Insert the name of the port you are interested in getting info on and it will bring up threads that reference the requested port.

We do not recommend using APT for any tours. We had an extremely bad experience with them.

We will use Qantas for intra-Australia flights. We have never flown on Qantas.

I would go with the taxi. Less stressful.

Friends and we have decided to book a Celebrity Solstice sailing on March 29, 2019 from Auckland to Sydney. We have been waiting for a Celebrity cruise that would include Hobart, Tasmania (a bucket list item for our friends who have travelled extensively). We will be booking an Aqua Class cabin.

 

For those who have cruised this route before, is there a particular side of the ship that is preferable (port or starboard)? Other considerations before we book?

 

Thanks. With so much lead time on this, we might as well get the best possible cabin.

 

And, yes, I have checked out the S Class Cabin spreadsheet :)

A trip to Hobart could be done post-cruise and you could have more time there than a one day port stop. The airfare from Sydney is relatively cheap and a few extra nights in a Hobart hotel should not be that expensive.

It wasn't exactly a luxury cruise! I listed it just for the record.

 

1945. End of World War II. My mother was 7 months pregnant and doctors said that she would die if she stayed in the Sudan for the birth. My father was in the UK Diplomatic Service and the UK Government pulled some strings, so that mother and I (aged 3) were on the first ship out of Alexandria, bringing troops home from Egypt.

 

I remember being spoiled rotten by the soldiers.

I also remember that the ship hit a floating mine in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea and sustained some damage. We had to be transferred to another ship in the middle of the night. I remember being lowered to the other ship in a cargo net.

 

We reached England safely and my brother was born 6 weeks later.

Thank you for filling us in on that 1945 transfer to England. I am sure it did not have any specialty restaurants. With respect to hitting the floating mine, didn't the UK navy use degaussing to demagnetize their ships?

We are flying domestic to Sydney on 3rd October (believe it is a public holiday). Any suggestions on best way to get to cruise terminal? Thanks

I hope your plane was not late getting into Sydney. This could cause a problem in making it to your cruise on time. We always fly in at least a day early.

Thanks for replying, but that walk into town is 28 minutes too long for us!!!:)

Try the Adina Apartments waterfront. We are staying there in February, 2017

SF- Part of your problem is that 2 Queen beds in one room is not a common configuration in NZ (unlike the USA).

 

You may be able to get a room with one King/Queen/Double bed and one single bed, and ask for a second, portable bed to be added.

My god. Seventy-one years since your first cruise in 1945, That is awesome.