lovestx

Thanks Frenchberet! Glad you enjoyed the cruise.

But I'd like to know the port times BEFORE we book.  Is there a way to see that online?

I am trying to help my son and his fiance book their honeymoon on Viking with the Into the MidnightSun itinerary.  I am new to VO and can't seem to figure out how to find the specific times they are in each port.  Can someone educate/coach me?

Also would be interested in any firsthand experience with this cruise. The 'kids' know that the crowd will be much older than they (mid20s) but they are o.k. with this.  They are not big drinkers and are really interested in doing a cruise that would be unique.

Thanks in advance!

In case it's helpful, here's what we did on our port day in Hobart off Celebrity Solstice last April (great day!).  We took an Uber to Bonorong Animal Sanctuary where we spent time with kangaroos, Tasmanian devil, koala.  Great experience.  Were relieved to get an Uber back to Hobart where we grabbed some lunch in one of the renovated pubs in the Salamanca Market area.  Then we walked uphill to the Cascade Female Factory and took a tour.  I had read "The Tin Ticket" before our trip to Australia as I wanted to understand the country's penal history better.  Much of the book took place in Hobart and in the Cascades so it was a very interesting tour to take though there isn't much left of the factory itself (which I knew in advance).  We enjoyed the walk (2 miles maybe?) as it gave us a chance to see everyday life in Hobart.  Took a cab back to the wharf area and then walked back to the ship.

I wish we had made time for a walk around Battery Point which others said was lovely. 

We were fortunate enough to be able to book a trip on M/S Paul Gauguin for the Society Islands and Tuamotus (10 days) from October 2 to 16, 2019.  I think we booked the last available cabin about three months beforehand so I scrambled to get information here on CC.  My thanks to all who have contributed information and answered my questions.  Now it's my turn to try to Pay It Forward.

I won't give you a trip report as I'm not great at posting pictures and much has been covered before.  I will try to offer thoughts on things that I debated before our trip with the hope of helping others.  For background, 'we' are me (60YO) and my hubby (58YO).  We've been retired for five years and have done some amazing travel since (and before) then.  I am the travel planner in the family and I obsess over details.  Often we make our own arrangements (flights, transfers, tours, hotels), especially if we are travelling in an English speaking country.  That was the case on this trip.

Booking - I booked through a travel agent that I found using the website I don't think I can name here.  You post your desired cruise and travel agents 'compete' for your business.  By doing so, I got $300 in additional OBC from the TA (Rob Durkee at seamyworld.com).  It worked great and Rod was very responsive and thorough.  Would do again.

Pre and Post Cruise - we did not book these arrangements with PGCruises.  I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to picking flights and seats (the devil is in the details).  I might have saved a bit of money but mostly I had control of our flights as well as our transfer times which I prefer.  We spent two nights at IC Tahiti (which we thought was a great resort) and four nights at the Hilton Moorea (which we really enjoyed).

Flights - We booked through American Airlines as we have Platinum status on them.  AA from BOS to LAX and then ATN from LAX to PPT.  Daytime flights.  Couldn't get Premium Economy on ATN due to late booking and the timing with the cruise (flight was quite full).  ATN Economy has poor leg room and I thought the movie selection was not great at all.  But it was fine.  Then returned ATN PPT to LAX and AA from LAX to BOS.  This time we were in Premium Economy on ATN for the midnight flight,  My seat didn't recline much at all and my husband felt his seat wasn't comfortable.  But being in Economy, I'm sure we wouldn't have slept at all!  If I didn't have AA loyalty, I think I would have flown through SFO on United as that flight left at a more reasonable hour at night.

M/S Paul Gauguin - our first time on a luxury ship (we usually cruise on Celebrity but only began cruising in 2012) and we enjoyed the experience.  Loved the all inclusive feel and the friendliness and professionalism of the staff is as noteworthy as everyone says.  I thought that the ship could use a freshening up....the decor is a bit old fashioned.  Loved the meals in L'Etoile and really loved the al fresco dining in Le Grill while moored overnight in Bora Bora.  A highlight.  The staff talent show is not to missed!  And the small band (why can't I remember the name?!?) was excellent with a relatively new vocalist who is AMAZING.  We followed them around 🙂

Fellow Guests - We met lots of nice people with most from the States and Canada.  Many French on the ship as well but the language difference did cause the ship to split up a bit.  We found, due to the cost of the cruise, that most people we met were as well-traveled as we if not more so.  This wasn't off putting.  Just an observation.  I would also so that the demographic of the ship was very homogeneous--almost everyone was White and 50 years old or older.  But it was an energetic and active group so that made it fun.  There were a few 'characters' onboard that kept things interesting, too!

Excursions - we usually stay away from ship excursions and book our own private tours.  We had so much OBC on this trip that we did do quite a few ship tours and they were great.  We loved that the small size of the ship and the high level of service made tendering a breeze and not the usual 'scrum'.  And the excursion staff was incredibly nimble and helpful and even helped us book something with Avis on Bora Bora that was an independent booking.  And when we had trouble returning the electric 'car' to Avis (they were on lunch break), the excursion staff sitting at the tender dock helped us figure out what to do (there was a slot to leave the key) and said they would follow up with Avis to make sure all would be fine.  That's service!!

Laundry - this is often debated here so I will add my own two cents.  We bit the bullet and paid the $189 for the laundry service for 10 days and LOVED it.  With two days pre and four days post cruise, we needed to get some laundry done.  I was so glad not to have to do hand wash in the sink or shower and live with clothes hanging around the cabin.  We made full use of the daily drop offs and found the service of high level.  I did take a picture of the order form each time I placed it but never had a problem.  And it was great to have fresh clothes for our Moorea extension.

Dress - I like to be appropriately dressed wherever we travel and found the help on this board great for that.  For evening, I took some nice dresses and some casual dresses and wore them all (most of them twice to cut down on luggage space).  I wore flat sandals and never felt out of place. My husband wore Dockers and short sleeved polo and button down shirts.  I was glad someone told me to bring something floral to wear to the Polynesian night.  Many ladies wore pareos that night or floral dresses and it was a great evening.  I brought a black pashmina in case the dining rooms and venues were cold but think I only wore it once.  Didn't need sweaters or jackets as the ship isn't super-chilled.  If you are on the fence about what to pack, I'd say casual dresses were more the norm.  During the day, people wore shorts, hiking pants, and bathing suits with cover ups.  We used our water shoes only once (Moorea) but did make use of our rash guards.

Internet - various boards led me astray on this.  I read recommendations to use our Verizon Wireless $10 a day international plan to connect to the internet as the PG internet was notoriously slow.  This was a mistake.  When you are out in the Tuamotus or at sea, there is no cell signal.  We ended up buying some internet days ($29/day) towards the end of the trip just to get connected. And we thought the PG signal wasn't bad. There may be better options but Verizon isn't it.

Transfer days - I debated a bit about all of this in advance so will share our experience.  On embarkation day, we wanted to get on the ship at 3 p.m. so that we could get some dinner reservations we really wanted (Le Grill for the al fresco night) and to get the cruise going.  With check out at 11 a.m. from the IC and embarkation at 3 p.m. with no place to put luggage in the interim, we decided to check out and leave our bags at the IC.  We then took their shuttle into Papeete for a look around and lunch.  Then back to the IC and and taxi to the ship.  It all worked fine but, honestly, Papeete did nothing for us and I actually think I got food poisoning from our lunch stop.  If I do it again, I'd just stay at the IC and enjoy that lovely resort.  On disembarkation, we simply walked off the ship around 10 a.m. and then walked 5 minutes to the Aremiti ferry dock for Moorea.  Our last day of the trip was a bit of a schlep but our plan worked as well as any other would have.  We got a 12 noon check out from the Hilton Moorea (we are HHonors Gold), left our bags with the porters, drove our rental car to Les Tipaniers for lunch, went back to the Hilton for about an hour and read by the pool.  Then we got our bags, took the rental car back to Avis and boarded the last ferry to Tahiti.  In Papeete, we took a cab to the IC Tahiti (again!), left our bags with the porters and asked them to reserve a 9:15 p.m. taxi to the airport, went to Happy Hour and then Le Lotus for dinner.  After a nice dinner, we changed into our plane clothes in the IC rest rooms, got our bags, grab our waiting cab and went to the airport.  Much better than hanging out at the airport for hours!

I am happy to answer any questions.  I could write a lot more but hope this at least helps.  If you'd like excursion info, let me know.  I can always be reached at ccrosner@aol.com if I'm not responding.

In the last week, we did Three Coconuts as a PG excursion with a great guide and Magic Mountain on our own. Three Coconuts was strenuous and a bit tricky.  Close to 5 miles round trip. Also not great if you have an aversion to heights due to switchbacks and the need to use a rope at one point. Magic Mountain you could walk to from tender point. Steep hike but on concrete road. Took 35 minutes up and 20 or so down

Last week we had CD Carlos from Brazil and Capt.Ljutic. Some told us that Captain Ljutic said he would be leaving the ship at the end of his contract in April or May due to new owners, Penang. He was very friendly.

For another idea...we booked a private excursion with Reef Discovery and it was one of the best of our 10 night trip. It was the Shared Lagoon trip and we made three or four stops to see eagle rays, manta rays, the area with great fish and an AMAZING moray eel.  Nice boat with total of eight people. Back on the ship for lunch and then our to the private motu for a nap!

We are still in the middle of our trip but can add that we flew BOS to LAX and then immediately connected to Air Tahiti Nui on the 4:40 pm departure. It was a long day but we don’t like decoupling connected flights (two check ins,etc). We stayed at the IC Tahiti for two nights so that we could attempt to be over jet lag by the start of the cruise.  It all worked well. We will reverse that euphemism we fly home this Wednesday. If you can afford Premium Economy, go for it.  The leg room on ATN is poor in Economy. And their movie selection wasn’t great. 

JIMinNC, thanks so much for the very helpful information!  We are getting very excited now that the trip is so close.

Thanks for taking the time to share this detailed review/Trip Report.  I had read it earlier as we began to plan our PG cruise but read it with even more interest as we prepare to embark on PG for the Society Islands and Tuamotus on October 2.  VERY helpful.  We will arrive two nights early to get over East Coast jetlag and will stay at the Intercontinental.  Our cruise is 10 days long, we are staying in a C balcony cabin and we are staying four nights afterwards at the Hilton Moorea.  Great minds clearly think alike!

I hope you and others won't mind answering a few additional questions:

1.  I understand that it is important to make good use of our time when we first board to make dinner reservations for La Veranda and Le Grill (for the Bora Bora overnight I believe) and to get our snorkeling equipment.  Would you agree that we should do both of these things immediately upon boarding?  Anything else we should attend to?  Marina reservations?

2.  Given that we have booked almost all of our excursions with PG or with private operators that we will pay with credit cards, did you find that you needed much extra cash?  We will probably eat off property in Moorea more often so I know that will make a difference.

3.  We have booked an overwater bungalow at the Hilton.  We are HHonors Gold.  Do you think you got an upgrade to a better location?

4.  We were sorry that you got to the airport at 6 p.m. for a much later flight?  Hoping we might be able to go over to Papeete a bit later.  We have Premium Economy seats on the way back.

5.  Any advice for getting upgraded to PE for our flight down?  

I know that's a lot to ask.  Anything you might be able to offer would be greatly appreciated!

28 minutes ago, rwcorne said:

 

Hi lovestx,

 

We are thinking of hiking to Hinewai Reserve and wondered what you meant by 'crazy hike'. It does look to be a very long hike, is there anything else can you share about it? 

 

Thanks!

I will try to describe what we did and perhaps it will help you decide about Hinewai Reserve hiking.  Take a look at this map:

https://www.bankspeninsulawalks.co.nz/akaroa-walks/

Ou ship's tender brought us into the Main Wharf.  We then walked over to a street opposite Daly's Wharf and walked up to The Giant's House, an uphill grade but not too bad.  Then we turned right out of The Giant's House and began hiking up towards the 4/5 trail.  It was partly on a paved road and then on pasture trails and, to be honest, it was a very steep incline the entire way.  We finally gave up as we probably got to the point where you see the numbers 4/5 on the trail because the view over the bay was spectacular, wasn't going to get better and the hiking was just too hard (and we're in decent shape).  We returned via the yellow 2 trail which was much more interesting and more of a downhill meander through some woods, etc.  It would have probably been better to go up the 2 and down the 4/5!

Not sure how you plan on getting to the Hanawei Reserve but it does look like a great place to hike but on the other side of the mountain from Akaroa.

Ombud, I think your plan looks good.  We did not visit Napier.

Akaroa - I think it's a pretty long ride into Christchurch but might be worth it as the city is really interesting.  Hard to believe that there is still so much devastation 8 years after the big earthquake.  The museum there....Canterbury maybe....was really interesting.  And I would say that the sail in and out of Akaroa is gorgeous and not to be missed.  

Auckland - not sure about your plans there....looks like you will be flying home the day you disembark perhaps?  If so, you might enjoy a walk around the  Ponsonby area, a trip up the SkyTower (my fear of heights kept me from that) or some time at the Auckland Memorial Museum if you have an interest in the World Wars or Maori culture.

Tauranga - looks like you don't want to go see the geothermal area.  Your walk about Manginui could include a hike (somewhat challenging as it's pretty steep) up to the summit.  There are some cute shops in the town too and it's a very easy walk from where the ships dock.

16 minutes ago, msswamp said:

would you mind sharing the tours you too on this cruise?  We leave in February on this cruise and are trying to decide which tours to take.

 

Here are the cruise excursions we took:

Tauranga - Archer Tours that included the Lost Village (we added as we thought it would be interesting and it was), Te Puia and Rotorua.  Jim Archer was great.  I'm sure I wrote a review on Tripadvisor

Wellington - DIYed to include TePapa Museum, cable car ride and walk down through the Botanical Gardens

Akaroa - DIYed the Giants House (fabulous but go when they open) and did a crazy hike up the mountain

Dunedin - Went with Iconic Tours around Dunedin and then on to Larnach Castle, including lunch stop.  Didn't love our tour guide.

Tasmania - DIYed Bonorong Animal Shelter, walk around Hobart and Cascades Female Factory Tour (read "The Tin Ticket" before the trip and that figured big in it)

Melbourne - did a two hour walking tour with Melbourne by Foot - Cultural Walk.  Very good guide.  He tailored the small group tour (just four of us by design) to our interests

Sydney - DIYed Bondi to Coogee and Manly Beach.  Did the one hour tour of the Opera House...well worth it.  Also did The Rocks Walking Tours which was very good as well.

Just an update as you have all been so helpful....

Our excursions loaded sometime overnight on the 60th day out (today).  I went online at 5:50 a.m. EDT and was able to book all of the tours I wanted.  Some SCUBA in Moorea was already sold out and one or two other tours on Moorea had only 1 or 4 remaining tickets.  I ended up booking some extra excursions as I had planned in case I can't get the private tours that we are hoping to do.  Figure I can cancel them 7 days before the tours.

Here's our current plan thanks, in large part, to many of you and to some others on CC who have offered trip reports:

Huahine:  Booked Huahine Nui Safari with PG but may cancel and go with Huahine Nautique instead

Bora Bora: Booked Shared Circle Lagoon Tour with Pure Snorkeling and plan to go to the Motu.  Still need to find something to do on Day 2 so I booked Maohi Nui 1/2 day tour with PG but not convinced we want to do that yet.  Would rather be on the water in Bora Bora.

Rangiroa:  We don't like the options with PG.  Would like to do a drift snorkel with Plongee Diving center but they aren't responding to my email.

Fakarava:  Have been in touch with Ato.  There are 4 of us now on his waiting list but he needs 8.  Unfortunately, there is no one but me on our Roll Call.  But I'm hoping that others will add to it or that we'll find people onboard who will book.

TaHa'a:  Motu Mohana

Moorea:  Wanted to do both the Dolphin excursion with Dr. Poole and the Trails of the Ancients Trek with Mark Eddowes but they only offered them on Day 2 and both at the same time.  Hoping they may add one of these on Day 1.  Anyone know if they will?  Also booked the Three Coconuts Trails Hiking trip in case we need something else here.  Planned on hiking during our post-cruise tour but could do it off the boat.  We plan to do the Lagoonarium post-cruise thinking it will be less crowded than when we are on the ship.

Feel free to give me feedback!

And please tell me if I'm crazy to book the laundry package.  It seems ridiculously expensive but I'm not sure I want to spend time washing clothes while in my cabin and it seems there isn't a wash and fold kind of place on Bora Bora or Moorea that I could use.

Thanks for all of the incredibly helpful replies!  So it sounds like we should try to book as soon as we get up this Saturday and know that it may not work.  We aren't going to go Scuba diving and don't plan to do a PG excursion on Bora Bora so maybe we will be fine.

I am planning on booking with Pure Snorkeling and, from what I've heard from many previous cruisers, we won't want to spend more than a couple of hours on the BB Motu given there are no chairs.  At my age (just hit 60), I'm not that comfortable lying on a beach towel for very long!

vjr, which ATV tour did you book that was popular?  On Moorea?  Looks like we will be embarking the day you disembark!

And Mr. Randal, I think you have it confused....We disembark on October 12th....and close friends are embarking that day for the 7 day cruise.  Have a great trip!

Thanks for the quick response FlightMedic!  We plan to book privately with Pure Snorkeling and to spend time on PG's private motu on Bora Bora.  Trying to figure out what to do our second day as most of the snorkeling trips look the same (so would be a repeat of Pure Snorkeling).  Any suggestions?  I looked into a day pass at the Thalasso but they do not let you use their pool so I  don't think that's worth $100 per person.

We are embarking on Paul Gauguin on October 2nd so we assume we can register for excursions as early as this Friday, August 2nd.  I have heard they can sell out quickly.  Is there a specific time that they load the excursions on to their site?  We are on East Coast time.

And I'm also happy to hear your opinions on any specific excursions....we are planning to do a combination of PG and private excursions.

While planning our October 2019 trip, I read as much as I could about booking our airline tickets given that Air Tahiti Nui does not easily let you select seats when purchasing through a partner airline.  I just booked my tickets last night and thought I would record what worked for me so that others have the information going forward.

We booked our flights independently as we are Platinum members on American Airlines AND we had $2000 in transportation vouchers from American that we needed to use.  We wanted to book Premium Economy for the LAX to PPT/PPT to LAX legs but they were only available  on the return trip.  I didn't want to purchase the PE tickets on the return until I could be sure that we could get seats together and that they weren't the last row of PE and didn't have a big recline.

I booked the flights and class I wanted on AA.com.  I put the tickets on HOLD (as American allows you to do) for 24 hours.  The next day, I called Air Tahiti Nui during their business hours and asked about seat availability on those flights.  The agent was very helpful and was able to book seats for me that I liked for each leg of the ATN trip.  She told me it would be much easier for her to do so if I selected flights on AA and put them on HOLD...which I had already done.  After I selected my seats, she gave me the record locator would be using to manage my flight which was different from the one that AA used.  Also note that the ATN agent told me that she could not book my trip herself as the ATN site does not quote the correct pricing for flight itineraries that have different classes in them.

I then called AA to use the vouchers to purchase the tickets.  Most of you won't need to do this.  Had I not had vouchers, I would have simply gone to AA.com and purchased my tickets.  I could already see all of the seat assignments.

Hope this is helpful.

Since you haven't heard from Drake/Darrin, I'll offer some thoughts.  We spend the winter on St. Croix and have been vacationing there since 1998.

Here's what I'd do:

8:30 a.m.  Pick up rental car

9:00 a.m.  Drive through the rainforest but don't spend time stopping to see the pigs.  

9:30 to 11:30 a.m.  Dive the wall at Cane Bay

12 noon Depart Cane Bay area.  Or you could eat at Eat at Cane Bay. The Chicken Shack isn' t "all that" in our opinion...and it's a bit out of your way.  Drive into C'sted.  Maybe grab a quick bite at Cafe Christine or Rumrunners or Shupe's on the boardwalk.  Or drive through C'sted so that you can see the Danish architecture and the pretty harbor and stop just outside town (at the Bypass intersection with Hospital Road) and pick up some Killer Tacos from this famous truck

1:30  p.m.  Drive out the East End Road to Point Udall.  There are many beautiful views of Buck Island and the area as you drive.  Will take you 30 minutes to get to Udall from town.  Spend 15 minutes at Udall.

2:15 p.m  Start driving back to F'sted along the gorgeous and undeveloped South Shore Road eventually connecting with the highway (DEFINITELY get a map from the rental car company).  You will be back in F'sted in 45 minutes if you don't stop.

3:30 p.m.  Grab some rum drinks at Tap Deck Bar or Louie and Nachos.  You'll be close enough to the pier to be walking back onboard by 4:30

Thanks for the honest answers to this question as we do like to add special tips to certain staff (in addition to autograt) and always fear that we are tipping too little.

On our recent 14 day trip on Solstice, we tipped our cabin steward $40, the head and assistant waiters in Blu each $40 and the sommelier $20 (I think).  They all gave us excellent service and were deserving of recognition.  And we (our travel group) all feel very fortunate to be in a position to give a bit extra.

A great story:  we never 'met' our asst. cabin steward but would see him often.  Towards the end of the cruise, I said to my husband that I wasn't sure he ever serviced our room but couldn't be sure (not realizing that Celebrity no longer had asst. cabin stewards).  So on the last full morning, I gave this man $20 for a tip.  He said that I should be giving it to my cabin steward.  I responded that I did give him a tip.  Later that day, this honest man came to me and said "I am not your cabin steward and haven't worked in your room."  And gave me the money back!!  I thought that was incredible integrity and made sure to comment on this to his superiors.  So refreshing to know that there are honest, good people still in our world!!

Having spent hours (okay, more like months!) researching what to do in NZ before our 14 day cruise in March/April 2019, I thought I'd pay it forward by sharing our abridged trip report. We thought NZ was beautiful and the people just lovely.

travelers include hubby and two friends we met cruising the Galapagos in 2014. We booked on the Celebrity Solstice that embarked in Auckland and visited Tauranga, Wellington, Akaroa, Dunedin, the Sounds, Hobart, Melbourne and disembarked in Sydney. 

Pre-Cruise:

Days 1, 2: Queenstown

Hotel:  Hilton Queenstown

Activities:  Dart River Boats, TSS Earnslaw Dinner and Sheep Demonstration, town visit

Days 2,3, 4:  Wanaka

Hotel: Wanaka Haven

Activities:  Bungee jump viewing, Arrowtown Museum and Lunch, Drive to Haast via Blue Pools, Day trip to Mt Cook

Days 5,6:  Christchurch

Hotel:  Rydges Latimer Square

Activities:  Mosque Memorial, Earthquake Museum, Canterbury Museum

Days 7,8:  Auckland

Activities:  Waiheke Island Wine Tour, Auckland War Memorial, lots of walking including to Ponsonby

our plans for much of this trip changed when record-breaking rains (which eventually caused a road bridge to wash away and landslides to close roads) were predicted. So we cancelled our Franz Josef hotel (Rainforest Retreat) and visited Christchurch instead.

happy to answer any questions if it's helpful

Hey Cathie!  We are just now flying back to Boston from a five week NZ and Australia tour that included 14 days on Celebrity Solstice.  Great trip though not nearly as warm as the Eastern Med!!

we loved Bonorong when we visited Hobart. We didn't do Mt. Wellington but those who did said it was very cold. And it seems like it would be a long bus ride....I think there is a hop on hop off that goes there...

sorry not to be more help!

We visited the Giants House a few weeks ago (were on Solstice with OzKiwi) and I would say it's a 20 to 30 minute walk. We did it on our own and we're glad we arrived at opening time (11) so it was a bit less hectic. The walk is a steady incline up from the port area and then a very steep climb of about a block up to the stairs.

and I would highly recommend the one hour tour of the Sydney Opera House!

We plan to self-disembark this Friday off Solstice in Sydney.  The Celebrity Today yesterday explained that we could wait in public areas starting at 7 a.m.  My big fear is getting an elevator on disembarkation day.

Any tips?  I was thinking that we would try to get out of our cabin by 6:45....maybe ahead of the rush....and then go for breakfast at CAfe al Bacio or Blu (if they are open).

While preparing for our March 29, 2019 cruise on Celebrity Solstice out of Auckland, I found little information about the embarkation on these boards.  so I am now going to Pay it Forward for future cruisers.

Celebrity Solstice docks right in Auckland CBD using the pier adjacent to the Hilton Auckland (where we stayed on points).  About 2 weeks in advance of our cruise (and several times afterwards), we received an email from Celebrity telling us that we would be embarking by groups and laying out the time slots for each group (Aqua, Suites, Concierge, etc.).  We were AquaClass and were assigned the first time slot (11:30 a.m.).

On the day of embarkation, it was chaotic around the Hilton as passengers were disembarking and grabbing cabs, tours, etc.  We had been told that we could probably check our bags in early and then go off to explore more of Auckland.  This was true.  The port authority has a great ambassador system as there were many workers around the pier willing to help.  We were led to a somewhat hard to find area where several port workers were accepting luggage.  We dropped all of our items off (being sure to keep our paperwork and passports with us for check in) and went off to the Auckland Museum.  

We arrived back at the port around 1:30 p.m. and joined the queue for checkin.  While it looked chaotic, Celebrity had the process well-oiled and we were checked in and onboard in less than 15 minutes.  It clearly didn't make a difference that we checked in after our proscribed check in time.  And our suitcases were waiting for us outside of our stateroom.

It was odd to embark right into the Martini Bar but Deck 4 has often been used for the Gangway on this cruise.

Happy to answer questions now or later.