Over from NZ

They're all going to give you the same useless odds. That's a given. Other than that.. it depends on what your idea of "best casino" is? Smoke-free as said above is probably the best! 🙂

Yep. Our last cruise was the same trouble.. get there in line early for the sign-up or miss out.

What.. some other staff smoke.. so non-smoking staff should just put up with it?? What sort of weird logic is that. Haven't been to any Indian casinos. Gee they must be a backward place to visit? Modern thinking countries started banning smoking indoors almost 2 decades ago.

It's 2024. Time to stop whining like little babies and grow up. There's smoking areas outside for you to use. No staff member anywhere, in any business, should have to put up with working in an environment with smoke. They don't on land.. so why should they have to on a ship??

But Queenstown is one of the reasons why you would do a land tour??

No, you've got it back to front. NZ is an ideal place to do by land and not cruise.

I did! Ok, August might technically be the end of winter rather than the middle.. but it's still winter and freaking cold in NZ! 😋

I'm aware of when our summers are.. lol.

Thank you (and Aus Traveller). Sounds good to me. We usually like to snorkel when we go to the Islands. Will be the middle of NZ winter.. so will be great! 🙂

Hiya. Is Dravuni Island a good stop? We're heading there later this year and I haven't done any homework on the ports yet. Any recommendations? 🙂

I wouldn't call it harrowing at all. Far from it - it's a great drive.. and would be even better from a bus (I drive it about 5-6 times a year and have done it by train also). Certainly not harrowing at all though.

Are you doing it by train or by Van/bus? Arthurs Pass/Otira is stunning. The first hour or so is a bit average.. but once you get past Springfield and into the Arthurs Pass it's very scenic. Castle Hill is interesting too (was used for one of the LOTR scenes). Would recommend that trip (unsure if the farm tour will be any good - that's up to you). If you don't do it.. Christchurch is only about 15-mins from Lyttleton. Wouldn't be a lot to do in Lyttleton for a day.. so would recommend heading over the hill to Christchurch.. do the Tram, Punting on the Avon, the Botanical Gardens etc.. and then if time on the way back, the Gondola.

Where abouts are you from?

Totally agree. Although would strongly recommend not driving from Queenstown to Milford - take the tour bus with glass roof! It's a windy drive, but spectacular and you're far better staring up at the peaks through the glass-roofed bus than concentrating on the windy road. They pick you up from your Hotel. Alternatively, stay a night in Te Anau and have them pick you up from there. If they could squeeze in 3-nights.. they could have a look around Queenstown on the day they get there.. do the Milford drive the next day (it's a long day.. about 12-hours or more from memory) and then the next day take the rental car and get to Arrowtown, Glenorchy, the wineries, or whatever floats their boat. Heck, you could spend weeks down there.. but 3-nights would give you a great taste.

Interesting. You'll see the fjords from the ship even if you do take the tour - the ship will have to enter the Sound to reach a point to drop you off. Yes, the drive into Milford Sound is rather spectacular (Google Te Anau and also the Mirror Lakes for example).. but it will be expensive as heck. Where will they put you up for the night? In Dunedin? Other than the drive from Milford.. what else would you see or do on the HAL excursion? It's got to be about a 5-6 hour drive from there to Dunedin. If you've got the time.. it would probably cost you no more than the cost of the excursion and be miles better.. to instead fly from Auckland to Queenstown after your cruise and spend a few nights in the Jewel of NZ and see Te Anau etc from that direction.

Exactly!! 100%!!!

Lucky you doing it twice. We've been there twice. I would do a full day trip on the longer day and spend the shorter day in Kotor old town. We filled in a whole day of each. On the excursion.. you've got places like 2500 year old Budva down the road, Perast, lady of the rocks and other places to see. Kotor old town is fun to wander.. check out the old walls.. eat lunch in the square etc.

The medallion is the key-card. It's no different.. other than you don't have to insert it in the key-hole.. it picks up that you're nearby. Don't sweat the small stuff.

I'd beg to differ and would suggest the opposite.. NZ is best suited for land-trips because it's so stunning and you just don't see the good stuff travelling by cruise-ship. It's much easier to do by land.. whereas Aussie is huge.. and you would spend all day in a car looking often at the same scenery.. and better to attack it by cruise-ship. Cities are usually near the ports.. and Aussie has the better cities. Whereas arguably.. NZ has some of the best scenery in the world if you're prepared to get inland to see it.

In NZ at least; the cruise-sector is small bananas. About 2% of total tourist expenditure. I've got a mate who's a tour guide. He boasts to me of the free money tourists are giving him. He gets paid to do a job he loves.. and then as he puts it.. the silly buggers give him cash too! lol. Of course he's not going to turn it down is he. And it could be argued that it's foreign money entering the country that's going to circulate through the economy. However.. the main point is - Kiwis & Australians don't want that culture to become imbedded here. It's not how we roll.. it's not what we want. We're already seeing it in NZ in tourist hotspots like Queenstown - where hospitality outfits are starting to expect it.. and that's starting to rile people up. They can take a flying hike if they start that nonsense! 🙂 Just tell your husband to spend more if he's trying to offload cash in NZ!! haha.

If your bids are accepted.. then obviously you hear about it. What they're saying - is if your bid isn't accepted - you won't get notified that your bid has missed out. You'll just hear nothing and keep your existing room.

We had 21-nights last June on the Enchanted in an interior room. We weighed it up. Would have been over $5k more to go balcony. We've had Balconies before.. and seldom get much use out of them.. so, although they're nice.. just couldn't justify it. Particularly as there was only 5 sea-days. I can't be bothered going on a cruise and then spending most of my time staying in a little room with a balcony.. much rather enjoy the bigger spaces on the ship 🙂.

I'm not screwing anybody. The driver is technically a self-employed person.. who's only way of doing business is to cut his margins to undercut taxi businesses. If he's not making enough with what he's charging - screw him.. his business model is faulty.

If you just want a "half day to hang out" without going far or putting a lot of effort in.. in Darling Harbour near where the ship embarks - is the Sea Aquarium, Madame Tussauds wax museum and the Australian National Maritime Museum which has the replica of Captain Cook's Endeavour ship (it is excellent) which you can go aboard (as well as a retired Naval submarine and Destroyer). All within a few hundred metres of each other and with Darling Harbour cafes and restaurants there too.. easily able to kill half a day or more.

You can't say it's going to "save them money".. because you don't know what their spend was going to be. I don't drink alcohol.. there's no way I would drink $45 worth of non-alcohol drinks a day. I would usually buy 3x long blacks and maybe 1 soda or zero alcohol beer a day. Couldn't get near $45.