wendy_woo
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Posts posted by wendy_woo
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The russian ship only brought 22 crew and had to spend $50,000 minimum on refit and hire NZ staff for hospitality, the difference I expect is PONANT insisted on staffing it with low pay hospitality staff, to say what is normal re visas is ok in normal times, but there is a pandemic on you know!! We are regular cruisers and in no way would we want to risk more money (having lost so much) on cruises that are unlikely to sail! Stay safe everyone
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It was obvious from the outset the ship would not get in to operate as a cruise ship, my understanding was they were given permission to enter NZ for maintenance and refit, spending over $50,000, This is how the super yachts are getting in to watch the Americas cup, by bringing money and work into NZ for the benefit of NZ businesses, they do their 14 days quarantine off shore.
The Ponant ship got Visas for the 29 crew who were essential to maintain and sail the ship. The 61 were hotel and kitchen staff, hairdressers and masseuse. These are not essential to the operating of the ship. Yes it was promoted by some travel agencies, but it was impossible to find any confirmation in the press any where that this ship had approval. I know all this as I was approached many months ago to buy tickets, indeed you will find me earlier in this thread!!
I will stand corrected, but believe there was a lot of trickery going on to get NZ'ers to part with their cash up front.
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Hi Lorna and Donald, this is Wendy in Whangaparaoa, Auckland - are you booked directly with Ponant, or are you on the charter with Bryce Read? how confident are you that the ship will be coming in to New Zealand, have our Government approved it yet?
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21 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:
@wendy_woo can you post a link to the ad or other info about this charter? It would really help @seven1113 and me to pursue refunds. TIA!
This is the cruise, I was informed by the TA:
"A Kiwi Co. has done a charter and it’s pricing exceedingly well! ! It is the only Ponant charter."
https://thetravelco.nz/ponent-dunedin-auckland-cruise/
it does not say its a private charter on the ad, but if you go through to the itinary, you will see its priced in New Zealand dollars, if it was a Ponant cruise it would be priced in Australian Dollars.Hope this helps, if I hear more I will post back here, stay safe!
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33 minutes ago, seven1113 said:
Hello wendy woo and all on here
Ponant has now delayed their "decision" on the sub antartica feb8, 2021 cruise until dec. 30, or maybe before. Ponant has has my huge deposit for a really long time. I will accept nothing less then a full refund from the company. My airline, Qantas has already graciously canceled my flights and is giving me a full refund. No questions asked. I do not want to "LOAN" Ponant my deposit. I have already after originally, booking a back to back Antaritica exploration, leaving from South America, been told that the ship I was on was hired out as a private cruise, so I got bounced around and ended up with a different cruise. I was supposed to travel nov, 2020. I wanted to see the eclipse in south America, and that would not have happened, because they changed my plans after months of planning.
At this point I cannot get to New Zealand or Australia, but as far as I know, they are keeping everyone's money,,,pay the people working there, build a ship?? Will I ever travel with them, I doubt it. This can go on for years and thy can go bankrupt like any company or change and puff, there goes our money. So, nice Ne Zealand person, any ideas? Thank you for listening.
Hi Seven1113!
I understand a private NZ company has contracted the whole ship from Ponant for the 30th Jan - 8 Feb 2021 sailing Dunedin to Auckland being marketed at New Zealand Residents, I have the intinary and prices from a TA here in NZ who has been heavily marketing it to New Zealanders, hence my interest, as a nice New Zealand person (thank you!) I am putting a link below to todays news, you will see that we have been getting "leakage" at our borders of COVID letting in Commercial Shipping and have tightened up our quarantine requirements, I cannot see NZ Government allowing a foreign tourist ship in (unless it is carrying goods) I am also 100% sure you will not be let in before a vaccine has been proven and delivered.(unless you are an essential worker)
I can only suggest you push these articles towards Ponant (or TA) and demand your refund>?
NZ immigration https://www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/covid-19/border-closures-and-exceptions
I hope this may help in some way and not make you more depressed!
Wendy
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On 10/18/2020 at 2:01 PM, seven1113 said:
Hello, Carolyn here, I am on that cruise with you. I also got the dec. 30 2020, date. The only problem is,, I got a call and email from Qantas, my airline, and they have canceled my flights to New Zealand , I was starting in Australia as well, so I have no way of getting there. Qantas is graciously sending me a full refund because they canceled the flights. So, Ponant is on alert as far as I am concerned.
I thought I would connect on this thread as we are in New Zealand and there is now a big push to sell Ponant in New Zealand sub antarctic cruises on La Perouse in and out of New Zealand, I am very tempted to book however...... We are at level 1 and the ONLY people coming in to New Zealand are Citizens, Permanent Residents and Essential workers. When you arrive you are taken to managed Isolation where you stay for 14 days. The last set of Essential workers were Fishermen (200, with 200 following) from Russia and Ukraine who were destined to go onto our deep sea fishing vessels to work for 3 month assignments, 32 now have Covid which they brought with them and will remain in Isolation until cleared as recovered, delaying the arrival of the second group of 200. The last community outbreak came from an Engineer boarding a commercial ship to undertake work, he was in full PPE yet still came off the ship with COVID and infected 2 or 3 others (we count in single figures here).
I would love to see Ponant in our waters but cannot see the Government permitting this ship from a foreign company with crew coming into our waters unless there were very big financial benefits an no risks. I am going to keep close to what is happening and decide if I want to book based on how things develop. Stay safe.....
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10 hours ago, Cruisegroover said:
The Australian Government has a no international travel ban in place. Last night the government handed down the annual budget and they indicated they will be low inbound and outbound travel until the latter of part 2021. Travel is limited to essential travel only on approval from Federal Government.
I suspect all other cruiselines to follow suit. The current cruise ban is until 17 Dec having been extended by 3 months from 17 Sep. The government can only extend the ban by 3 months at a time under the current legislation and is most likely to extended again.
We are been encouraged to travel locally to help out our tourist industry when the state borders are open without the need to quarantine in hotels.
Australia is opening New South Wales (Sydney) and Darwin (Northern Territory) to New Zealand visitors from 16th October, but if we go we have to quarantine when we get back to New Zealand, (crazy eh?) so I cannot see cruise ships or passengers from the European/US Territories being allowed to dock whilst COVID is rampant in those Regions. We got our cancellation today for our Eclipse Melbourne to New Caledonia trip in February 2021, I did enquire for Lift and Shift, they are running a similar itinerary but from Sydney not Melbourne so they said no to our request. We will take the refund and see what options open over the next few months. Take care!
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On 4/13/2020 at 1:49 AM, excitedofharpenden said:
After your post about Guayaquil a few days ago I looked it up. Truly awful.
Phil
I moved my Galapagos cruise to next May, was due to go this May, we added on a private land tour on return to Guayaquil and my Agent who does land tours through South America was pretty happy to re-book us for next year as they are expecting some normality back by then so that’s hopeful!!
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We are finally running up to our cruise to the Galapagos, May 28th Departure, no-one else is going as we are the only ones on the Roll call! We are flying Auckland NZ to Santiago, overnight then to Lima and on to Quito, should be there by the afternoon! Coming back we have gone for a private 7 day tour from Guayacil up to Quito then direct flight Quito to Santiago, 7 hours layover in the airport.
I am an ex-scuba diver and love snorkelling, my husband likes it but not as enthusiastic, could we split up and take one of the hikes or just take the zodiac for viewing whilst I am snorkelling? Has anyone else done this?
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On 8/23/2019 at 8:59 AM, jamieandsam said:
Maybe that's why my rate is lower.
Just checked my hotel rates and its more expensive than when I booked in March! We leave New Zealand in just over a month, fingers crossed all will be well!
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Hi, great to have found this post! We are on the May 2020 cruise, I have a couple of questions:
Do they offer Scuba dives from the ship? If so did anyone do them?
How did you get there?!! We have booked a 7 day private tour through Ecuador at the end of the cruise, starting in Guayacal and ending in Quito, we are flying from Auckland New Zealand and as others have written it can take a long time to get there!
Would anyone consider going through Bogota, Columbia, sounds dangerous but looks like its our fastest route?
I don’t see a roll call for our trip but its early still, thanks in advance for any help out there!
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Strange, they must code share as my Cathay Pacific flight is booked with Air New Zealand and I get points!
They must have some arrangement that I was not aware of. So, that is great for you.
Hi, just found out they are not Alliance partners, you are right, but have a special arrangement to code share from Auckland to Hong Kong only, obviously this is an important route for both of them!
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As a resident of Auckland I have to question what 8,000 people off a mega ship are going to do for the day! We are pretty saturated when two smaller ships are docked at Princes and Queens wharf, the transportation and infrastructure needs work. We have a changed government and our beloved deputy prime minister wants the commercial ports moved North, so I think there will be a lot of Politicking and protesting before this goes anywhere!
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[ Cathay pacific to HK and Air New Zealand home, both Star Alliance airlines, so get the points, safe travels all of you!
Cathay Pacific is a member of OneWorld, not Star Alliance. Air New Zealand is Star Alliance.
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Strange, they must code share as my Cathay Pacific flight is booked with Air New Zealand and I get points!
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Good idea, but I would not have chipped in as we live in New Zealand! This interested me as it was Bangkok, a city I know well! we are on a cruise leaving HK finishing Shanghai and have chosen a hotel in the city with their own shuttle to PVG, its 12 hours flying for us, so Cathay pacific to HK and Air New Zealand home, both Star Alliance airlines, so get the points, safe travels all of you!
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If I do journeys such as these, I look at the arrival country first, in this case Thai airways, who are a great carrier and have excellent business class services, they should, as a national airline, get you as close to your home possible and they are part of Star Alliance. However, my last holiday was to Malaysia and I was not prepared to fly their national Airline, so used my home carrier (business class) Air New Zealand to Singapore with a stopover in Singapore then on Singapore Airlines flight to Kuala Lumpar. As it was a land based tour for domestic we flew Air Asia low cost carrier, thus avoiding MH flights completely, I am please the OP has decided to cancel, I would not be starting a cruise with such a difficult start, especially as Bangkok to the cruise terminal is a long haul too!
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Why are you starting/ending a cruise in Bangkok, if the flight there is going to be a chore may I ask? I fly business class these days but you must select the airline that offers the most comfort in the Aircraft, I would also suggest no overnights as you have access to business class lounges and no queuing to board the aircraft, you would have to join queues to leave through security, travel to hotels,and return in time for your flight more security, now thats a chore! unless you take a mini break of 3 days to tour the mid point city I would recommend going all the way in the way in one go.
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Hi
We have been looking and looking for a Asia/Aus cruise since we missed booking the Carnival Spirit 2 years ago that did Sydney to Singapore. Also I posted this on the P&O board but its rather quiet there. We are used to US lines and have been on 6 longish cruises with Royal,Carnival, Celebrity and Norwegian.
The cruise is on the P&o Pacific Aria August the 15th 2018 to August the 29th going to Benoa,Komodo Island, Timor, Airlie Beach and cairns with a majority of sea days.Anyway, by chance this cruise popped up on a site and is at a good price. We are happy with lots of sea days and happy with a smaller ship.
The main worry for us is that in the UK P&O has a rep being full of older cruisers and being a bit stuffy/formal. We like cruises with a lot of things to do/a good atmosphere as we are both early 30s with no kids. We can't sail at another time due to work. We do like to party but we also enjoy the elegance and ambiance of a cruise and have been on longish cruises with US lines in the past in different parts of the world.
So...any one who has knowledge...
1) What is the entertainment like? (We like trivia/pool fun/wine tastings/food demos etc)
They have really good Trivia in the coffee shop early evenings
2) Do a lot of people turn in early? We like energy into the night (not necessarily nightclubs but full bars etc)
Some really good music in the bars where the speciality restaurants are
3) Will there be our age on board or lots of families? (we prefer cruises with these groups on board)
We saw lots of families but we were leaving and returning to Brisbane
4) How is the customer service? (UK P&O doesn't have the best reputation)
It was pretty good, we made good friends with the bar staff and our rom steward was brilliant
5) Is the ship OK? (I have heard she is falling apart due to age)
Its ok, my only gripe was the really old rusty furniture on our Balcony
6) Any other tips for cruising Aussie style
Where to start! No, the Aussies like to drink and enjoy themselves just like the Brits! Service is the same because all your wait staff are going to be from Asia,
Thanks :)
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We did Pacific Aria last October from Brisbane return around PapaNewGuinea, it had just come out of refurb, we are older Brits, it was full of young families who had taken their kids out of school as P and O were filling up the ship with a Fire Sale, this meant the main swimming pool was packed with screaming youngsters, hated the cafe as you had to queue at seperate stations to get your eggs then your bacon. MDR was fine, Speciality restaurants amazing, entertainment was quite esoteric, having said all of that, I am sure it will be different as it travels from Singapore to Brisbane, so hopefully you will get a different mix of passenger nationalities and not too many kids, bless them if you have them with you!
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We take land vacations to locations where you need to immerse yourself in the country and travel inland to see sights. We take cruises to destinations where whats in Port is not so compelling, we go for the cruise experience more than the destination, we try to do one of each a year
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We went to Falmouth with Celebrity 2012 I think, using trip advisor we found an amazing place along the beach called Time n Place, sadly it is now closed, the port area at that tome was full of market stall holders selling wares, you leave through double gates and enter real Jamaica! We headed for a taxi who took us to our destination and agreed a time for him to pick us back up (just two of us) I would check out trip advisor to see if other travellers have done something similar recently to see if it is still safe to go out on your own.
Cozumel is easy to navigate on your own, very pretty town, we walked in to town ourselves, it rained so we went to the synagogue there, very interesting, had a bite to eat in town and returned to the ship.
Grand Cayman we did a private boat trip to the Manta Rays, amazing you can feed them, would highly recommend researching on trip advisor, have fun, we loved it!!
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All the Fiordland cruising goes through all three sounds, and they are different - Milford in particular. I've been through them twice on Solstice.
Both cruises go through Cook Strait. The first cruise does not go to any South Island ports other than Picton and does not go to Fiordland.
Not sure I agree, I have been to Milford Sound a few times by land and only once on the Azamara which is a much smaller ship than Solstice and we felt like Giants, so you miss the beauty of being up close and personal that you would get if you were there on a little boat (not a cruise ship) Doubtful sound is even smaller, I have been here too and I don't think it is as splendid as Milford Sound, to be fair I have not been to Dusky sound. The leaving and arriving on the Cook Straight providing it is during daylight will be as magnificent as the Fiordland sounds and at Picton you can get on a wee boat for a trip on Charlotte Sound, its all amazing, maybe toss a coin and see if you are disappointed with the result, normally works for me!!!
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Sorry ,meant to say you will miss the beauty of the South Island
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Depends on what you like to do, cruising three sounds is quite intense as they are similar, this ship is big so by comparison the sounds are small, The earlier cruise must go around the bottom of the South Island, if this happens during the day its a pretty amazing sailing, if its at night you will miss the beauty of the North Island. They are both s bit strange though as one misses out the North and one misses the South Islands, If you want to get to know more about New Zealand (i live here) go with the earlier sailing, Hobart is a beautiful little city,
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Le Laperouse denied entry to NZ waters
in Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
Posted
Don and Lorna, I do hope your massive credit will be honoured, and you get to enjoy a cruise somewhere, I am sitting on lots of massive credits and live in hope!!