Review of our New Zealand cruise on the Dawn Princess 6th - 19th Feb, 2010

[barnsey1802]

Hi Jas,

 

Thanks for that. Hells gate sound great. I think it adds to the excitement of the cruise also if you just play things by ear.

 

Deidre.

[cazz0069]

Hi Jas,

 

Thanks for that. Hells gate sound great. I think it adds to the excitement of the cruise also if you just play things by ear.

 

Deidre.

 

Totally agree. Seriously though, if you have any questions re tours etc, please ask, I have all the correspondence here, but trust me, the ship ones are far too expensive, and i can guarantee i could give you a cheaper option by at least half :)

[robinph]

Totally agree. Seriously though, if you have any questions re tours etc, please ask, I have all the correspondence here, but trust me, the ship ones are far too expensive, and i can guarantee i could give you a cheaper option by at least half :)

 

We just got off Sun Princess on Thurs and agree with Cazz don't do anything from the ship there is no need plenty of options at every port. We pre booked a tour on line before we left, in Dunedin with Mark at Awesome tours out to Nature's Wonders on! the Ottago Peninsula and all the highlights of Dunedin we had an unbelievable day it was the highlight of our NZ trip would highly recommend him. it is only a small group on each tour we only had 6 people 4 of us, and 2 others who picked the tour up at the I Site in Dunedin and all day we were in front of all the coach loads of people who had tours with the ship it was a lot more personal. We also pre booked a tour to Rotorua with Carlton Tours can't say I was overly thrilled with their tour, not that much commentry and a lot of hopping on and off the bus for quick photo's (and I mean quick!) and at times I found his commentry to be quite derogitory towards the Moari people. Loved Rotorua"s Geysers and mud pools but we went to Te Pua Cultural Village but found the whole experience very commercialized , not very authentic.(but this is just my opinion)Other people I spoke to just picked tours up from the wharf for similar or less money than we paid and said they were very good.All in all we had a great time, but found the whole cruise very busy, 8 port days in a row,and you are not going to go that far and not see what you can,so we were craming an awful lot into each day..... and night! need a nice relaxing Island cruise to get over this one!!! :):):)

[barnsey1802]

Hi Jas & Robinph,

 

Thanks for the info on the shore tours, I will definately be picking your brains throughout the year. I do agree it's a lot of ports in a row, and I certainly don't want to miss anything, I hope I can keep up the pace.

 

One question I did want to ask is how much roughly do you recommend I save for the tours. My previous cruises didn't really have many ports where you needed to do a tour, so I don't really know how much to save. There is 4 of us.

 

Deidre.

[rugbypopsie]

Check out the NZ tourist board sites...every port has a great local tourist office offering great tours..no need to prebook but you can at less than half of the ships price. All the shuttles leave you close to these offices...NZ is a great itinerary, fantastic scenery, friendly locals, great prices...if you want to catch up with home the local cafes that have internet are around $2 NZ an hour!

 

I usually find allowing $100 per person per port day more than enough to cover tour lunch and a souvenir in our parts of the world.

 

Significantly less in Asia except for Japan then it is significantly more.

[cazz0069]

Hi Jas & Robinph,

 

Thanks for the info on the shore tours, I will definately be picking your brains throughout the year. I do agree it's a lot of ports in a row, and I certainly don't want to miss anything, I hope I can keep up the pace.

 

One question I did want to ask is how much roughly do you recommend I save for the tours. My previous cruises didn't really have many ports where you needed to do a tour, so I don't really know how much to save. There is 4 of us.

 

Deidre.

 

 

Diedre, it depends on what you like doing. If you are into City sights tours and things like that, go to the nearest tourist info centre and they usually have tours ranging from about $20. Either way, i would budget for at least $50 a person for tours and activities.

 

I just remembered too, the free shuttle bus in Lytellton (Christchurch) that takes you to the town centre also offers a 3 hour city sights tour of Christchurch for $45 (as opposed to the $100 fee the ship charges)

There are bargains to be found, you just have to keep your ears and eyes open. :)

[barnsey1802]

Yep, I'm filling up my notepad with ideas as we speak.

 

Thanks Deidre.

[robinph]

Diedre, it depends on what you like doing. If you are into City sights tours and things like that, go to the nearest tourist info centre and they usually have tours ranging from about $20. Either way, i would budget for at least $50 a person for tours and activities.

 

I just remembered too, the free shuttle bus in Lytellton (Christchurch) that takes you to the town centre also offers a 3 hour city sights tour of Christchurch for $45 (as opposed to the $100 fee the ship charges)

There are bargains to be found, you just have to keep your ears and eyes open. :)

 

We did this tour and it was quite good for the money, we were going to go on the Gondola and punting on the Avon river but weather did not permit this ,so walked around Christchurch in the morning, had a tram ride and picked up the tour after lunch and they drop you back at the wharf. Gondola ride can be accessed by public bus(number 28 around the corner from where the shuttle drops you off. Bus fair is less than a couple of dollars. Gondola ride is about $20. NZ (not sure about kids prices) then you can hop back on the public bus and continue into Christchurch Punting is agin around the $20 mark ea.In Wellington you can buy a group pass on the yellow public buses(trolly cars) for $15 NZ for 4 people, you can hop on and off any yellow bus all day long for $3.25NZ ea we did this and had a good look around Wellinton and it's outskirts.We caught the bus to the cable car but we went for a ride to the end of the line first and the driver told us where to get off on the way back for the cable car (they are all very helpful)Cable car ride was $5 NZ adult return which we bought but ended up walking back down through Botanical Gardens, so if you want to do this just buy a single. NZ public transport is extremly modern and clean. (not like ours) no graffitti any where.and very regular services.Te Papa museum is really worth while visiting (free entry) but give yourself plenty of time to do it as it is huge, we left it till last and did,nt have enough time to see it all.In Aukland a must see is Kelly Tarltons Antartic encounter and underwater world. the Antartic encounter is amazing. We caught a free bus to Sky City ( I think thats what it's called, looks like centrepoint in Sydney) and downstairs there is a booking office which were a bit cheaper than buying the tickets at Kelly Tarltons, then they pick you up at 10 past the hour for a free ride to the aquarium. If you have time to kill, they run an interesting video on NZ and Volcanoes while you are waiting. I found with NZ you need to have a backup plan if you have planned anything outside as the weather is very unpredictable and plays a big part in what you do( this is also why it does'nt pay to pre- book).Best investment we made was in nylon wind jackets with a hood, we lived in these for at least half the trip, weather even in Feb was cool and showery a lot. from Rotorua on weather was pleasant. Robin:):):)

[SanDiegoSue]

Enjoyed reading your review. We're doing the Dawn Princess to NZ, roundtrip from Melbourne, leaving Jan. 29 and I can hardly wait!!!!

I started a Roll Call, but so far nobody has joined in.

Sue

[Guest012]

Hi Jas thoroughly enjoyed your review and it was great to hear you both enjoyed yourselves...take care Shiona

[cazz0069]

Hi Jas thoroughly enjoyed your review and it was great to hear you both enjoyed yourselves...take care Shiona

 

Thanks Shiona! How was Rhapsody? We saw her docked and thought of you....Did you have a good cruise? :)

[aussie57]

 

My suggestion for Dunedin, is if you want to do the train journey, get a cab or shuttle directly to the station, providing you are there by 9.30am, you will essentially get the same tour thats offered to the cruise passengers for $76.00, rather than the $245 that the ship charges....:)

 

Interesting that it's possible to do that. When we were in Dunedin on Sapphire princess in 2007, Princess had booked out the train for all trips while Sapphire was in port so it was go with princess or miss out :(

[SanDiegoSue]

....All in all we had a great time, but found the whole cruise very busy, 8 port days in a row,and you are not going to go that far and not see what you can,so we were craming an awful lot into each day..... and night! need a nice relaxing Island cruise to get over this one!!! :):):)

 

Didn't it help to have the 2 relaxing days at sea after the ports?

[cazz0069]

Interesting that it's possible to do that. When we were in Dunedin on Sapphire princess in 2007, Princess had booked out the train for all trips while Sapphire was in port so it was go with princess or miss out :(

 

Yes Princess will do that. Our taxi driver in Dunedin said that usually Princess will delay their arrival into port, thus ensuring that the only train option is the one that the cruise books which is about 12 carriages long. But there is still the option for the general public to go and that leaves earlier at 9.30, and is only 6 carriages long...and if the ship arrives early like it did the day we were there, then we just got a taxi straight to the station and got the `public`one. Effectively in these situations they have 2 trains on, its hardly fair that the general public and people who are not on cruises to not have:) access to it just because theirs a ship in..

[robinph]

Didn't it help to have the 2 relaxing days at sea after the ports?

 

1 and 1/2 if you take out time for packing plus I hate missing out on anything I want to do it all !!! I could have done with a sea day in between each of the City Ports these were big days for us. :D

[Guest012]

Thanks Shiona! How was Rhapsody? We saw her docked and thought of you....Did you have a good cruise?

 

Hi Jas thanks for thinking of us:)....we had a great time 8 nights wasn't long enough for us though...we treated Johns son and girlfriend to their first cruise...must say they had a ball and we thoroughly enjoyed watching them:D

The ship is still a lovely ship with one of the friendliest crews we have ever encountered...they are keeping up to date with the onboard maintenance with the Solarium pool closed for the best part of our cruise due to a major overhaul.....which it did need...looks great now....plenty of complaints but that's cruising and quite honestly doing it during the Tassie cruise was the right thing to do....not too many hot days on our cruise....

Had two lovely days in my beautiful Melbourne ...first day we played with the grandchildren:cool: strangest port tour we have ever done:D.. next day we spent in St.Kilda seeing the sights.(mostly kept behind closed doors nowadays:p unlike the old days) and then went into town..

Our Bass Strait crossing was smooth with our first tassie port being Burnie a lovely little place..it rained but the shopping was A1 so we were happy ....next up was Hobart for 2 days....on departure Cpt announced we were heading east to Hobart not west as planned as the weather on the west coast was going to be too rough....

Correct decision we thought..we both slept well that night... got up at 0600 to do our daily walk...turned on cam tv and were stunned silent...it was sooooo rough out there...went upstairs and struggled to open the door..wind was howling sea's were churning so definately no walkies for us....instead we sat upfront in the Windjammer restaurant eating our breakfast watching the bow plough through the ocean....it was great...this ship is so stable...if i remember right we had gusts in excess of 70knots...:cool:

Sea's died down fairly quick during the morning and we were only about 30 mins late into Hobart....well done Cpt........we shopped the first day and the next we jumped onboard the old double decker bus city tour cost $15pp ...the views of this harbour are stunning to say the least....visited Cascade Brewery....over the Tasman Bridge to the lookout...great tour highly recommended...off the bus we then headed to Salamanca Place and from there walked to the Wrest Point Casino for a looksee......all in all had a great day.....i was worried we would be disappointed in the ports but was proved wrong....definately worth a visit at least once.........cheers Shiona

[cazz0069]

Hi Jas thanks for thinking of us....we had a great time 8 nights wasn't long enough for us though...we treated Johns son and girlfriend to their first cruise...must say they had a ball and we thoroughly enjoyed watching them

The ship is still a lovely ship with one of the friendliest crews we have ever encountered...they are keeping up to date with the onboard maintenance with the Solarium pool closed for the best part of our cruise due to a major overhaul.....which it did need...looks great now....plenty of complaints but that's cruising and quite honestly doing it during the Tassie cruise was the right thing to do....not too many hot days on our cruise....

Had two lovely days in my beautiful Melbourne ...first day we played with the grandchildren strangest port tour we have ever done.. next day we spent in St.Kilda seeing the sights.(mostly kept behind closed doors nowadays:p unlike the old days) and then went into town..

Our Bass Strait crossing was smooth with our first tassie port being Burnie a lovely little place..it rained but the shopping was A1 so we were happy ....next up was Hobart for 2 days....on departure Cpt announced we were heading east to Hobart not west as planned as the weather on the west coast was going to be too rough....

Correct decision we thought..we both slept well that night... got up at 0600 to do our daily walk...turned on cam tv and were stunned silent...it was sooooo rough out there...went upstairs and struggled to open the door..wind was howling sea's were churning so definately no walkies for us....instead we sat upfront in the Windjammer restaurant eating our breakfast watching the bow plough through the ocean....it was great...this ship is so stable...if i remember right we had gusts in excess of 70knots...:cool:

Sea's died down fairly quick during the morning and we were only about 30 mins late into Hobart....well done Cpt........we shopped the first day and the next we jumped onboard the old double decker bus city tour cost $15pp ...the views of this harbour are stunning to say the least....visited Cascade Brewery....over the Tasman Bridge to the lookout...great tour highly recommended...off the bus we then headed to Salamanca Place and from there walked to the Wrest Point Casino for a looksee......all in all had a great day.....i was worried we would be disappointed in the ports but was proved wrong....definately worth a visit at least once.........cheers Shiona

 

Sounds like a wonderful time. I am glad the `youngens` enjoyed it too. I definitely have to sail on her one of these days. I was surprised to see on the itinerary that it was going to go down the west coast, that is known as treacherous so glad you got to go the smooth way, although in hindsight sounded much the same...Anyway welcome back..

 

I just came out of hospital today. I dislocated my shoulder on our cruise, then i did it twice last friday night, so i managed to get a shared appt with the orthopedic surgeon as Eric had to see him about his knee, as it worked out he looked at my scans and told me i needed surgery. It was either the following day or way after easter. So i had it done yesterday, now i have 2.5 weeks off work to recover. I tell you what with my shoulder and Erics knee, Sandy was right in calling us a couple of old crocs :):p:D

[Guest012]

I just came out of hospital today. I dislocated my shoulder on our cruise, then i did it twice last friday night, so i managed to get a shared appt with the orthopedic surgeon as Eric had to see him about his knee, as it worked out he looked at my scans and told me i needed surgery. It was either the following day or way after easter. So i had it done yesterday, now i have 2.5 weeks off work to recover. I tell you what with my shoulder and Erics knee, Sandy was right in calling us a couple of old crocs

 

OMG Jas....see what happens when you unwind on a cruise..:D:p glad things worked out okay....i have cancelled shoulder surgery (tendon tear from bone spur) 3 times since December... being a big woose....dr. is hopeful but no guarantees..:( will wait a little longer...last week i found out my knee reconstruction of 30yrs is needing a 100,000klm service :D:D end of month will see that right.. thank god for private health insurance..got to stay fit to feed my cruise habit.... we should definately get a "CROC'S CRUISE" theme cruise happening... best wishes to you both for a speedy recovery......cheers Shiona

[Sandielle]

I just came out of hospital today. I dislocated my shoulder on our cruise, then i did it twice last friday night, so i managed to get a shared appt with the orthopedic surgeon as Eric had to see him about his knee, as it worked out he looked at my scans and told me i needed surgery. It was either the following day or way after easter. So i had it done yesterday, now i have 2.5 weeks off work to recover. I tell you what with my shoulder and Erics knee, Sandy was right in calling us a couple of old crocs :):p:D

 

Hi there, Jas. You don't do things by halves, do you? :rolleyes: Hope the surgery will fix your shoulder for good!

 

We arrived home today, after a wonderful cruise. I certainly felt an old croc after walking around Mt Maunganui - my back, knees and feet were complaining bitterly, but it was worth it. Just trying to catch up a bit on the posts and will start working on my review soon.

 

Cheers

Sandy

[wildweston]

Hi there, Jas. You don't do things by halves, do you? :rolleyes: Hope the surgery will fix your shoulder for good!

 

We arrived home today, after a wonderful cruise. I certainly felt an old croc after walking around Mt Maunganui - my back, knees and feet were complaining bitterly, but it was worth it. Just trying to catch up a bit on the posts and will start working on my review soon.

 

Cheers

Sandy

 

Hi Sandy I am glad you had a great cruise, glad to have you back on the boards :D

[Guest012]

Welcome home Sandy look forward to your review....wow you walked around Mt. Maunganui well done we did about 1/8th was way too hot when we were there on the cards for next time..

cheers Shiona

[Sandielle]

Hi Cheryl and Shiona,

 

Thanks for your greetings. We had the best time and definitely want to do this cruise again.

 

Haha, don't worry, Shiona, before we got half way round the Mount I was regretting the idea. It was very hot and humid - no breeze until we got to the ocean side, then not much either. We were so hot and sticky we went straight back to the ship to have a shower and change clothes (stopping for a hokey pokey ice cream on the way :D:D:D).

[Goodyab]

Whow....what a fantastic read....Thanx....

 

You have just confirmed... what i cant wait for.....our cruise in Feb 2011...its been a while for me..our last cruise was in 1990...so it was great to hear about your adventure on the ocean...

 

It doesn't matter what ship your are on ...you still will have a funtastic time....

 

Thanks for keeping me where i need to be....so far away is next year hehehe...I am excite.....

 

Cheers

Angie :)

[cazz0069]

Hi there, Jas. You don't do things by halves, do you? :rolleyes: Hope the surgery will fix your shoulder for good!

 

We arrived home today, after a wonderful cruise. I certainly felt an old croc after walking around Mt Maunganui - my back, knees and feet were complaining bitterly, but it was worth it. Just trying to catch up a bit on the posts and will start working on my review soon.

 

Cheers

Sandy

 

Hey Sandy, welcome home. Hope it was a great holiday with a lifetime of memories. How did your meet and greet go? Did you bump into anyone you would have preferred not to?;)

[wildweston]

Hey Sandy, welcome home. Hope it was a great holiday with a lifetime of memories. How did your meet and greet go? Did you bump into anyone you would have preferred not to?;)

 

Yeah Sandy, do tell :D