back from Australia/ New Zealand

[paradise4me]

32 minutes ago, countess5 said:

Thank you for that info, I will work with Eli if she is still onboard or whoever the Diamond concierge is. We are all Diamond or Diamond Plus.When she did help you did it take long to get off and get to shore? We have, of course, times we need to meet our guides.

 

Thank you again

 

Cheers

She told us to meet her at 8:15 and walked us straight down. Took no time at all. The tender was about 5 minutes to Auckland. The long tender port was Bay of Islands which we had a ship excursion and that was super organized as well but ride over was at least 20 minutes. 

[CRUISEFAN0001]

23 hours ago, countess5 said:

Thanks for the weather info, we have been watching it and one thing for sure is that it is unpredictable. Will pack warm and cooler clothing. Cooler weather not an issue, just hope rain can be avoided. 

 

The train is not in our plans we have another private tour booked but I am sure whatever we see it will be stunning. Your pictures look great. 

 

One additional question, how was the tendering? We are Diamond so hope the C&A helps. It is a large ship and a lot of people to move. Do they use the life boats as the tenders. That happened in Edinburgh last year and was a nightmare. 

Despite Ovation being among Royal's 2nd-largest ships, both disembarkation and boarding were quite efficient.

 

As another poster mentioned...since you are Diamond...you can seize the opportunity to get serviced with any tender stops you require in a prompt manner as well. We will be Diamond on our next cruise, but learned about that status benefits onboard Ovation this time around, even though none of our ports were tendered on our route in New Zealand.

 

For those folks who plan to capture their photo memories on the Ovation Sydney-to-New Zealand cruise...plan to take ALOT of photos and sort them out (as to which ones to keep) after the fact. The variables of lighting, weather, point-of-view angles, and position from which you are doing the photography (including excursions) are too numerous to try to solve along the way.

 

I typically take 800-1000 images on a 7-day cruise, and narrow them down to perhaps about 300 as the final number kept as memories.

 

On this 2-week trip (4 days in Sydney plus the 10-day cruise to New Zealand and back),  I ended up with about 2000 images (including some video clips in HD that my camera supports). My goal was to narrow that inventory down to a collection of perhaps about 500. It's going to end up more like 600 (about 10 hours labor of love to crop, refine, and label for electronic storage) - there's simply too much to see and recall from this amazing trip. A couple more tidbits to wet your upcoming trip appetite are below.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[countess5]

Thanks for sharing thoughts and pictures

 

We are ready for pictures, I have a camera that once the interior memory is used up then it switches over to a 64 GB memory card. Also picked up a new HD digital video camera just for shooting video. 

 

Someone on our thread had said that last year when tendering out of Auckland, getting back to the ship was a mess. They were delayed from leaving until 7 PM when they were supposed to leave at 5. Hopefully C&A status helps us! 

[CRUISEFAN0001]

4 hours ago, countess5 said:

Thanks for sharing thoughts and pictures

 

We are ready for pictures, I have a camera that once the interior memory is used up then it switches over to a 64 GB memory card. Also picked up a new HD digital video camera just for shooting video. 

 

Someone on our thread had said that last year when tendering out of Auckland, getting back to the ship was a mess. They were delayed from leaving until 7 PM when they were supposed to leave at 5. Hopefully C&A status helps us! 

Yes...hopefully they have the tender issues rectified so that you don't have a problem.

 

As for your camera...a 64GB memory card should surely suffice.  I use a 128GB card and it can store more than 9000 photos and/or 4 hours of 60FPS HD video - enough for multiple cruise trips.  You're in fine shape on that front...enjoy your cruise!

[SmashatSea]

Do you have any more info you can share about the tour to the Symbio Wildlife Park? We're staying in Sydney before our departure and would love to find a driving tour option that would allow us to visit there. We'll just be relying on cabs/Uber in the city. 😏

 

[Lv2sail_18]

Gorgeous pictures! Can’t wait for your review!

 

Do you know if “The Key” program was offered on your cruise? If so, did it include priority access to NorthStar, iFly, bumpercars? Thanks!

[ShazM]

7 hours ago, SmashatSea said:

Do you have any more info you can share about the tour to the Symbio Wildlife Park? We're staying in Sydney before our departure and would love to find a driving tour option that would allow us to visit there. We'll just be relying on cabs/Uber in the city. 😏

 

I'm from Sydney and haven't been to Symbio but have heard it's fantastic. There is also the main zoo at Mosman and you can catch a ferry from Circular Quay (where the ships dock) straight across. There is also the Australian Reptile Park at Gosford which is an hour north of Sydney and has lots of different animals there. Catch a ferry across to Manly Beach, again from Circular Quay, Bondi is overrated and expensive, nice to visit I suppose but that's it. So much to do and I guess it depends on how long you are here for. If you had a week or more before or after you could go out to Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo which is run by the same people as our main zoo but out in the country 5 hours or so from Sydney and you can stay inside overnight in really well set up tents with their own showers, they are huge and you get to go to late night feeding for all the babies and again in the early morning they have all different things that are part of the price. Not cheap but worth it. Symbio is also worth it. Or up to the Hunter Valley (wine country in this state) for the day or stay for a night or two. 

[CRUISEFAN0001]

On 1/11/2019 at 5:03 AM, ShazM said:

I'm from Sydney and haven't been to Symbio but have heard it's fantastic. There is also the main zoo at Mosman and you can catch a ferry from Circular Quay (where the ships dock) straight across. There is also the Australian Reptile Park at Gosford which is an hour north of Sydney and has lots of different animals there. Catch a ferry across to Manly Beach, again from Circular Quay, Bondi is overrated and expensive, nice to visit I suppose but that's it. So much to do and I guess it depends on how long you are here for. If you had a week or more before or after you could go out to Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo which is run by the same people as our main zoo but out in the country 5 hours or so from Sydney and you can stay inside overnight in really well set up tents with their own showers, they are huge and you get to go to late night feeding for all the babies and again in the early morning they have all different things that are part of the price. Not cheap but worth it. Symbio is also worth it. Or up to the Hunter Valley (wine country in this state) for the day or stay for a night or two. 

 

On 1/10/2019 at 9:42 PM, SmashatSea said:

Do you have any more info you can share about the tour to the Symbio Wildlife Park? We're staying in Sydney before our departure and would love to find a driving tour option that would allow us to visit there. We'll just be relying on cabs/Uber in the city. 😏

 

I went to their site for all sorts of information to start:

https://symbiozoo.com.au/

 

It's a wonderful place that is so much better than a "zoo", in that you can get much closer to many animals and the walk-through for the Kangaroo zone is amazing.  You can get a reasonable-priced tour or else a shuttle drive there from the city - it's not that far out of the main city of Sydney.

[jdg623]

Spectacular photos - looking forward to your review! DS & DIL live in Sydney (she's a native) and this cruise is definitely on our bucket list, perhaps as an add-on to our next visit.  Sydney is one of my all time favorite cities - I'd move there in a heartbeat if I could 😊