Auckland to Auckland Jan 5th 2024

[harbourside]

This New Zealand itinerary for 15 days has 4 duplicated ports, and 4 missing ports as per the map for this cruise.  After cruising the Sounds, it just does the same itinerary in reverse.  I queried this with Windstar, and was told that this was correct, NZ had limited ports  and it was so people could see the places twice?????

Ridiculous.  All other cruise lines visit the missing ports.I live in NZ and thought this would be a great cruise to see the Sounds and not have any air trips, plus I would love to be on the Sea Breeze.   I do not think many people coming from UK or USA would appreciate the changes to this itinerary.  The itinerary was not always like this.  It just changed recently.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Wow!  The original itinerary really lived up to the name "Comprehensive New Zealand" (except for no mention of Milford Sound ???), but the new one really sucks.  I didn't catch it at first, because the Windstar website still shows the old map – but the port list is indeed two 7-day cruises with the same ports.

[Ski Mom 2]

We booked Star Collector: New Zealand and South Pacific Escapades January 5—24, 2024 over a month ago. We also added on Polynesia: Pearls of Paradise : January 24—February 4, 2024. This took us from Auckland to the South Pacific to Tahiti; a one of a kind cruise in our minds. Here is what the original map looked like:

 

Tonight we received an email that said:

"We have been looking forward to you joining us on the Star Breeze, January 5, 2024 sailing. At this time, we need to inform you that the Star Breeze is no longer available during this timeframe as the ship has been taken out of public service for these dates, and as a result this cruise has been cancelled."

 

What?! So I get we are over a year out but this was a one of a kind sailing. What the heck does "taken out of public service" mean? We recently sailed on Wind Surf and there were several things that weren't quite up to par from pre-Covid but we were willing to try again (we really do love Windstar) but my husband is very unhappy. What has happened?

 

1 01/05/2024 AUCKLAND BERTH 1:00 pm 5:00 pm
2 01/06/2024 RUSSEL, BAY OF ISLANDS ANCHOR 7:00 am 4:00 pm
3 01/07/2024 AT SEA
4 01/08/2024 WELLINGTON BERTH 1:00 pm
5 01/09/2024 WELLINGTON BERTH 5:00 pm
6 01/10/2024 LYTTELTON, CHRISTCHURCH BERTH 8:00 am 4:30 pm
7 01/11/2024 PORT CHALMERS, DUNEDIN BERTH 9:00 am 6:00 pm
8 01/12/2024 STEWART ISLAND, OBAN ANCHOR 8:00 am 5:00 pm
9 01/13/2024 CRUISING DUSKY SOUND 7:00 am
9 01/13/2024 CRUISING DOUBTFUL SOUND 8:00 pm
10 01/14/2024 AT SEA
11 01/15/2024 PICTON BERTH 11:00 am 9:00 pm
12 01/16/2024 KAIKOURA ANCHOR 8:00 am 4:00 pm
13 01/17/2024 NAPIER BERTH 1:00 pm 10:00 pm
14 01/18/2024 GISBORNE BERTH 8:00 am 4:00 pm
15 01/19/2024 TAURANGA BERTH 9:00 am 6:00 pm
16 01/20/2024 AUCKLAND BERTH 8:00 am 9:00 am
16 01/20/2024 AUCKLAND BERTH 1:00 pm

16 01/20/2024 AUCKLAND BERTH 5:00 pm
17 01/21/2024 AT SEA
18 01/22/2024 AT SEA
19 01/23/2024 AT SEA
20 01/24/2024 LAUTOKA, VITI LEVU BERTH 8:00 am 9:00 am
20 01/24/2024 LAUTOKA, VITI LEVU BERTH 1:00 pm
20 01/24/2024 LAUTOKA, VITI LEVU BERTH 5:00 pm
21 01/25/2024 SUVA, VITI LEVU BERTH 7:00 am 6:00 pm
22 01/26/2024 SAVUSAVU, VANUA LEVU ANCHOR 8:00 am 10:00 pm
23 01/27/2024 AT SEA
24 01/28/2024 NUKU'ALOFA, TONATAPU BERTH 8:00 am 5:00 pm
25 01/29/2024 AT SEA
26 01/30/2024 AT SEA
27 01/31/2024 AVATIU, RAROTONGA ANCHOR 8:00 am 4:00 pm
28 02/01/2024 AT SEA
29 02/02/2024 BORA BORA ANCHOR/WATERSPORTS 8:00 am 6:00 pm
30 02/03/2024 MOOREA ANCHOR/WATERSPORTS 8:00 am 6:00 pm
30 02/03/2024 PAPEETE, TAHITI BERTH 10:00 pm
31 02/04/2024 PAPEETE, TAHITI BERTH 10:00 am

 

 

Edited October 29, 2022 by Ski Mom 2

[harbourside]

Weird.  I live in New Zealand  and  thought this was a great itinerary and would love to have booked it. I do not like big ocean cruisers so I was looking forward to going on the Windstar.  Your itinerary sounded great and it must be a great disappointment to you to not be going on it.  It will not be easy to find a replacement cruise as interesting as the one you had booked.

[Ski Mom 2]

4 minutes ago, harbourside said:

Weird.  I live in New Zealand  and  thought this was a great itinerary and would love to have booked it. I do not like big ocean cruisers so I was looking forward to going on the Windstar.  Your itinerary sounded great and it must be a great disappointment to you to not be going on it.  It will not be easy to find a replacement cruise as interesting as the one you had booked.

We had been looking for quite a while for New Zealand and Australia. I thought I wanted to go all over New Zealand and then up the Gold Coast of Australia. There are only a handful of those and the timing doesn't line up for us. When my husband saw this one he said we'll do Australia another time and I thought heck yes! We have friends in Dunedin we were planning on seeing so this is a double bummer. I've already been looking but of course, it's all the same I saw prior to booking this one. And we had an awesome deal too 😞

[Host Jazzbeau]

If you want an almost-as-good itinerary for this time frame, take a look at Silversea.

https://www.silversea.com/find-a-cruise.html?refinementList[destinationName][0]=Australia %26 New Zealand&refinementList[departureYearMonth][0]=2024-01

 

They have four cruises on two ships in January 2024:  

•  Muse 14-day Auckland to Sydney sailing Jan. 4;

•  Whisper 16-day Sydney to Auckland sailing Jan. 13;

•  Muse 14-day Sydney to Auckland sailing Jan. 18; 

•  Whisper 16-day Auckland to Sydney sailing Jan. 29.  

[plus a truncated 13-day version of the last itinerary ending in Geelong...]

 

Prices are higher than Windstar, but they include a choice of shore excursions in every port as well as flights, transfers, hotel night before and after, and 'all-inclusive' onboard experience.

 

Muse is a newer ship with more dining choices, but IMHO the Jan. 29 itinerary on Whisper is the best of the four.  [Full disclosure, after thinking about this now-trashed Windstar itinerary, we are booked on Silversea Whisper Jan. 29.]

[Ski Mom 2]

Thanks Host Jazzbeau for the suggestions!

 

Today all the January 5, 2024 Star Breeze cruises have disappeared from the website. We have one week to decide if we take our deposit back plus a $200 OBC each that must be used by October 2024 or move to another cruise paying the current price with $300 OBC each. Of course this doesn’t take into account our 40% off for one of the cruises and the 7/7 discounts in the second leg,  our back2back discounts, our all inclusive rate of $79 pp versus $99 pp it will cost if we rebook, and all our onboard credit. We have friends that were joining us and they are unhappy as well. Again such a bummer!

[LTCOP]

Do you think “taken out of public service” means that it is doing a private charter?

[Bigdogwon]

On 10/28/2022 at 5:27 PM, harbourside said:

This New Zealand itinerary for 15 days has 4 duplicated ports, and 4 missing ports as per the map for this cruise.  After cruising the Sounds, it just does the same itinerary in reverse.  I queried this with Windstar, and was told that this was correct, NZ had limited ports  and it was so people could see the places twice?????

Ridiculous.  All other cruise lines visit the missing ports.I live in NZ and thought this would be a great cruise to see the Sounds and not have any air trips, plus I would love to be on the Sea Breeze.   I do not think many people coming from UK or USA would appreciate the changes to this itinerary.  The itinerary was not always like this.  It just changed recently.

Wow I did not catch this, we had decided to take this cruise because of the R/T Auckland but now I don't think so.  What do you think of Viking's itinerary with overnight in Sydney and Auckland?

[Bigdogwon]

On 10/29/2022 at 12:22 AM, Host Jazzbeau said:

If you want an almost-as-good itinerary for this time frame, take a look at Silversea.

https://www.silversea.com/find-a-cruise.html?refinementList[destinationName][0]=Australia %26 New Zealand&refinementList[departureYearMonth][0]=2024-01

 

They have four cruises on two ships in January 2024:  

•  Muse 14-day Auckland to Sydney sailing Jan. 4;

•  Whisper 16-day Sydney to Auckland sailing Jan. 13;

•  Muse 14-day Sydney to Auckland sailing Jan. 18; 

•  Whisper 16-day Auckland to Sydney sailing Jan. 29.  

[plus a truncated 13-day version of the last itinerary ending in Geelong...]

 

Prices are higher than Windstar, but they include a choice of shore excursions in every port as well as flights, transfers, hotel night before and after, and 'all-inclusive' onboard experience.

 

Muse is a newer ship with more dining choices, but IMHO the Jan. 29 itinerary on Whisper is the best of the four.  [Full disclosure, after thinking about this now-trashed Windstar itinerary, we are booked on Silversea Whisper Jan. 29.]

We have been on SS and it is way to formal for us

[harbourside]

10 minutes ago, Bigdogwon said:

Wow I did not catch this, we had decided to take this cruise because of the R/T Auckland but now I don't think so.  What do you think of Viking's itinerary with overnight in Sydney and Auckland?

I am doing the Viking Sydney to Auckland in Feb 2023.  It does not go into the Sounds, but I had a credit to use from a South American cruise, so decided in these times to do one close to home.  I liked the sound of the Windstar Auckland to Auckland cruise  for 2024 and as we no longer want to do the long flights to Europe, just cruise either Australia or New Zealand as long as it was on a nice small ship.  Really, it is more  for the ship experience now.

[harbourside]

9 hours ago, LTCOP said:

Do you think “taken out of public service” means that it is doing a private charter?

I have just read that the Windstar Sea Breeze is going to be permanently homed in Tahiti from February 2024.   No reason why it could not have done the New Zealand cruise

Edited October 30, 2022 by harbourside

[Ski Mom 2]

Spent the last two days looking at different options to replace our WS cruise in January 2024. Have narrowed it down to Azamara, Silverseas or Seabourn. Timing is right for us and ports are about the same. We have never sailed on any of these cruise lines. Prices are a bit all over the board. We will try to do the Gold Coast/Great Barrier Reef on our own afterwards. 
 

We have loved Windstar and have a cruise coming up on Oceania. Any ideas on what to think about in regards to any of these lines would be appreciated. 

[r&rd]

I’ve done 40 Windstar cruises but our backup has always been Azamara. Much the same vibe as Windstar. We like their destination focus.

[Ski Mom 2]

Well my TA spoke to the DM at Windstar and basically got the runaround,  "Star Breeze is being pulled from this location, you should convince her to continue to sail with WS," blah blah blah. Lip service at best and at worst. My husband is totally pissed and we are moving on.

 

I looked at Silverseas and at Seabourn as well as Azamara. I think we have found a new cruise on Azamara sailing on 4 January 2024 Australia/New Zealand for 17 nights. It has loads of NZ ports with many late nights. I have a Veranda Plus stateroom on hold that is on Aft Deck 8. There were no suites available at this time. The room is a bit smaller than Wind Surf so I think we will be fine (I'm liking the idea of the aft balcony).

 

If anyone has any thoughts they'd like to share about Azamara I'd appreciate it. I have also posted on the Azamara page.

 

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

@Ski Mom 2 I posted some thoughts about upgrading to a suite in Azamara on the other thread.  But I didn't realize that you have a P1 Veranda Plus aft-facing balcony!  That's a real conundrum, because the location is so great.  [And you were very lucky to be able to get it – they sell very quickly.]  I'm not sure I would upgrade to a CC suite from a P1 aft...  I would bid for a CW upgrade.

[Ski Mom 2]

Thanks Jazzbeau for your thoughts. We had our choice of aft balconies - deck 6 or 8. I couldn’t make up my mind but the rep suggested 8 so that’s what we picked. And to be honest it’s one reason we decided on Azamara…love me some aft balconies!

[Host Jazzbeau]

4 hours ago, Ski Mom 2 said:

Thanks Jazzbeau for your thoughts. We had our choice of aft balconies - deck 6 or 8. I couldn’t make up my mind but the rep suggested 8 so that’s what we picked. And to be honest it’s one reason we decided on Azamara…love me some aft balconies!

Earlier today when I looked there was still one available on deck 6.  So here's my thoughts:  because of the taper of the aft profile of the ship, deck 6 aft balconies are deeper and deck 8 are the smallest (but still large).  Deck 6 usually gives you a combination of sun and shade, which depending on the climate can be helpful.  Deck 8 puts you under the Sunset Bar, which might produce a little noise but shouldn't be anywhere as bad as the CC suites under the pool deck or The Patio.  The aft view will vary with deck 8's higher elevation, but I frankly don't remember exactly what this does [we have been in a CW on 6 and on 7] .  Deck 7 solves all these issues, but that's why these are always the first to go...

[Ski Mom 2]

Thought I would post an update…

 

We canceled our Star Breeze New Zealand cruise and asked for a refund of our deposit which is suppose to give us each a $200 Credit to apply to our next WS cruise. Haven’t seen either yet. 
 

We booked a 17 day New Zealand/Australia cruise on Azamara for January 2024 to replace the Star Breeze cruise which has been pulled with nothing in its place (nice hole in SB schedule still). 
 

We are disappointed but ready to move on and try something new!

 

Thanks to all that responded. We appreciate your input!

[Host Jazzbeau]

Glad you found an acceptable alternative.  We love Azamara.

 

I hope you will post on the Azamara board about how you are flying from the Florida panhandle to New Zealand.  Our Jan. 2024 Silversea cruise will require flying from PNS, so I'm looking for other people's ideas/experience.