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Photo Review of Solstice November 11, 2017 New Zealand & Australia Cruise


cruise kitty
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Hi everyone! Now that the holidays are over, I thought I'd put together a little photo review of our recent trip: Celebrity Solstice 14 night New Zealand & Australia! We've cruised on Celebrity 7 times prior to this, mostly to Europe, so this was a big change for us!

 

A little background: We're Steve & Debbie, both in our early 50's, from Los Angeles. Here we are:

 

 

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spoiler alert: This was our best cruise ever! If you're on the fence about cruising to New Zealand, all I can say is: book it! I'm going to post a lot of photos but they simply don't do it justice.

 

 

We booked this cruise while on board our previous cruise, so we had about 18 months of planning & research put into this, luckily I actually enjoy that almost as much as the actual travel.

 

 

So, away we go!

 

 

Day 1, we flew out of LAX with the kind assistance of our elder daughter who acted as our chauffeur & saved us a $30 uber charge. We flew Air New Zealand, which we've used a few times prior, going to London, they're definitely my favorite airline product.

 

 

Steve, ready for his glass of champagne:

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we were delayed boarding as well as taking off, but they made up the time in the air, & we landed in Auckland on time. (side note: wish they always flew that fast!) After a good meal, & several glasses of New Zealand wine, we both managed to get a good night of sleep.

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Day 2: sometime in the middle of the night, day 2 disappeared, I'm told we'll get it back on the way home, but it's very, very strange ;)

 

 

Day 3: Welcome to Auckland!

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We have Global Entry, & Auckland actually has express lanes for those who bring their card, but these were closed so we had to go through the normal immigration lane, but it was fast & painless. Your luggage also goes through a special scanner to make sure you aren't bringing any food, soil, insects, etc., We took the SkyBus to the CBD, (18 NZD) & it was a quick half mile or so walk to our hotel, unfortunately it was raining, & by the time we were walking we were waiting for an ark to float by, but we were shortly in our room, with a lovely harbor view, & ready to head out & explore Auckland a bit.

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Keep em coming. Two quick questions. Is Steve in a Premium Economy seat? It looks like it based on view of engine out the window. If so how would you evaluate the leg room. Also did you take the Skybus to the last stop? We have a mobility impaired person and was wondering how far it is from the last stop to the cruise terminal. Thanxs

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Auckland, continued.

 

Day 4: We took the ferry to Devonport (less than 15 minutes) & spent the day walking & wandering the lovely little village & hiking up the extinct volcano at North Head, which also has old tunnels from WW2, pretty cool to explore! The houses in Devonport are just adorable, & there are cute little boutique shops & nice little restaurants, it was a nice, relaxing day! Ferry back, an early dinner, & we went to bed early, as we both had big plans for the next day!

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Keep em coming. Two quick questions. Is Steve in a Premium Economy seat? It looks like it based on view of engine out the window. If so how would you evaluate the leg room. Also did you take the Skybus to the last stop? We have a mobility impaired person and was wondering how far it is from the last stop to the cruise terminal. Thanxs

 

Hi, yes premium economy, first row, so pretty much unlimited legroom to the bulk head. Yes, we took the Skybus to the last stop, due to construction they stopped earlier than usual, hence the longer walk. We were at the Hilton which is where the ship docks, it was a flat walk of less than 15 minutes. Hope this helps :)

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Day 5:

 

We both had made separate plans for today, & had early morning pick ups, so we ordered room service breakfast & headed downstairs to wait for our drivers. Steve had hired a private fishing guide to take him fly fishing, he had a great day, caught a few fish (catch & release, with special non barb hooks as to not harm the fish.

 

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Now fishing's great, if that's your thing, but I was headed to Hobbiton!! I booked a smaller semi private tour in a van with 5 others rather than a big bus tour, it was an early 6 am start, but we got there before the crowds & large tour buses, it was fantastic! I'm a real LOTR fan, so I'm going to get my geek on & post lots of pics

 

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Hobbiton, continued:

 

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The tour included a beer at the Green Dragon Inn, & a nice buffet style lunch. The driver was kind enough to offer to drop me off close to the sky tower, rather than back at the hotel, so I had a few hours to wander Auckland before meeting Steve for dinner.

 

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Day 6

 

We were up early again, had a great breakfast... I highly recommend the Hilton Auckland, not the fanciest hotel, but comfortable, & you can't beat the location, the ferry terminal is right next door.

 

We decided to spend the day on Waiheke Island. It's about a 45 minute Ferry ride, & absolutely worth it. From the Ferry terminal it's an easy 20 minute or so walk to Onya Bike rentals, the island is very hilly, but the e bikes make it easy to get up even steep hills. There's also a hop on hop off bus to wineries if you're not into biking http://www.ecyclesnz.com

 

(A little explanation here, you're going to see Peter Rabbit in some photos, we brought him along to take photos for our grandson, & I'll be making him a photo book of our trip later on, so excuse the bunny photos please)

 

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A little more Waiheke:

 

This is us feeling virtuous for biking instead of busing, enhance

 

& this is me, when someone who clearly had too much wine, cut me off, causing me to fall & seriously cut up my knee :')

 

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It was a great day, & luckily my leg was just bruised & bloody, not actually injured.

 

There had been rumors at the hotel for days that our ship might not be allowed to dock due to the Noro that was raging on the cruises prior to ours. Sure enough, there was a letter letting us know that boarding would be delayed & not the usual procedure. We were a little bummed, as we should have been able to check in downstairs from our hotel, but that's the way it goes. The letter requested that we make our way to a building about a 15 minute walk away, with our luggage, we were to check in, leave our luggage, then return later to be bussed back to the hotel for security & check in. In the middle of the night this showed up outside our hotel balcony: I actually took this photo from inside our room in the morning. We were able to watch the workers in haz mat suits disinfecting the rooms.

 

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On the advise of the hotel concierge, we decided to just drop off our luggage downstairs at the ship. why drag luggage across town if we could avoid it? Apparently, the luggage was being trucked right back to the ship Also, we did our check in at the other building right away, We were ok with it, that way we had the whole day in Auckland to explore some more. Good thing we did, because the day turned out to be long & exhausting. We returned to the hotel lobby later to get a few drinks & watch the fireworks of irate passengers. We finally decided to join the line to board with more check in and security procedures & more annoyed passengers, personally, I think celebrity did the best they could with an unfortunate situation. We were given a $100 on board credit to cover the additional expenses of the day, which was nice.

 

We weren't allowed to access cabins till after our late Muster Drill, but we had a Tuscan Grill reservation so we never did get to our cabins, luckily we pack super light, so unpacking only took about 5 minutes.

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We didn't have any real plans for this extra time in Auckland so we just wandered around & had a leisurely lunch.

Auckland fish market:

 

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Our very late Sail Away, view from Tuscan Grill ( dinner was delicious, & the service was stellar) enhance

 

Next Up:

 

Bay of Islands. ;)

 

Happy New Year, everyone!

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Definitely enjoying your review as we board the Solstice on March 5 for 16 nights Perth to Sydney including 4 ports in NZ as well as a day cruising The Sounds.

 

Hi, the day cruising the Sounds was nothing short of incredible, we had absolutely glorious weather & stunning views!

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