sunscreen Posted April 1, 2018 #1 Share Posted April 1, 2018 Looking for advice or opinions on booking excursion for 13 night New Zealand cruise on Ovation of the Seas locally or on board. Because on board acct is in U.S. dollars and we are converting from Canadian funds, I would rather book locally due to currency exchange being better. However I'm wondering if certain ports have time constraints and recommend booking via the ship. i.e. Brisbane port recommends booking via ship because of proximity of port and heavy traffic. So wondering if certain ports in New Zealand have same issues. Anyone have any experience with this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
888sydney Posted April 1, 2018 #2 Share Posted April 1, 2018 Did 14 night NZ on Ovation and no problem with using credit card to pay for excursions at port. Only Dunedin port, cruise terminal is far from city centre. Option is pay cruise shuttle ( I think it was $25 USD) or take local bus ( NZ cash only), no foreign exchange at port. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiliburn Posted April 1, 2018 #3 Share Posted April 1, 2018 We did a 12 night cruise on the ovation around NZ. We found the ship tours weren’t that much more than the private tours.about 20%more or less. The bad thing about the ship tours ,the ship canceled a couple of them at the last minute.no apology ,no alternative.nothing. They did give a refund but everything was booked out. It wasn’t just us because everyone was talking about it. So at those ports we just went ashore and had a look around. One local tour operator I recommend is Arrow tours in Taraunga. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
banzaii Posted April 2, 2018 #4 Share Posted April 2, 2018 One thing we dd notice was RCCL shore excursions rarely have discounted rates for kids. The exact same tours were invariably cheaper for families by booking through 3rd party sites or direct in port. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozscot01 Posted April 2, 2018 #5 Share Posted April 2, 2018 If you’re happy to post your ports of call you may get some specific recommendations. Viator offer a number of tours in NZ specifically for cruise passengers with a return to ship guarantee. Zeelandier is another well regarded operator. I would give some thought to tender ports in particular as often ships tours get priority and there are a lot of passengers to move afterwards, which can cut into your day. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasp 0401 Posted April 15, 2018 #6 Share Posted April 15, 2018 Here's a link to some tour suggestions. https://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/showthread.php?t=2623580 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare aussielozzie18 Posted April 15, 2018 #7 Share Posted April 15, 2018 We used a local company in Tauranga which we docked at. They guaranteed getting you back to Port in plenty of time which they did and they refund your monies if your ship does not make it into port for any reason such as bad weather etc. Did my research and they were recommended on this site by fellow cruisers and on TripAdvisor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasp 0401 Posted April 15, 2018 #8 Share Posted April 15, 2018 We used a local company in Tauranga which we docked at. They guaranteed getting you back to Port in plenty of time which they did and they refund your monies if your ship does not make it into port for any reason such as bad weather etc. Did my research and they were recommended on this site by fellow cruisers and on TripAdvisor. Yes there are some great local tour guides .Do you you remember the one you used .We had a large roll call group use Scott tours in Tauranga . https://www.scott-tours.co.nz/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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