dumb question re: flights

[Suzanne123]

Hope someone can make this simple for me --Just booked a 12 day cruise on the Sapphire Princess Sydney to Auckland leaving March 24th, 2007. I thought I'd look into scheduling my own airfare, but with the time zone changes, I'm clueless as to what dates I should be booking. Will it be March 24th in the U.S. or Australia when the cruise begins? And what would be the date of the flight home? We'll probable spend a day or two pre-cruise in Sydney, but if you could just get me started on the basic flight dates, I'd really appreciate it. Also, do most people just use the cruiseline airfare? We can leave from BWI/Washington area or PHL.

Thanks.

[cands]

You are right in spotting the challenges of working out days and times when travelling between North America and Australia. It often seems to get more confusing the more you look at it.

The cruise departure date in Sydney will be in Australian Eastern Standard Time. I can’t remember which week-end the Australian Summertime finishes – it is sometimes delayed for different reasons – the Olympics in Sydney and this year again for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

The way I do it is get both departure and arrival times for any flights I am looking atand plot them in a daily diary. They both will be in local time and day i.e. departure in Nth American time and Arrival in Australian time. In airline timetables they usually have a +1, +2 or -1 or -2 adjacent to the times depending on which way you are flying. The +2 happens more with flights that start a long way from the dateline and end far on the other side. Sometimes, depending on your timings, you don't lose or gain a day at all.

Also be careful of flights leaving around midnight as it is easy to get confused even further about the days.

I would suggest that you have some time (days) in Sydney before embarkation for several reasons:

1. Jet lag is very individual, and considered to happen less when travelling west – but you might be the statistically odd one out. A few days to adjust is good.

2. There are lots of things to do or see in Sydney – even if your brain is not in full gear.

3. Sometimes with trans-pacific flights odd things can happen with delays. I have been waiting for a flight that is few hours late, and it suddenly flips to 10-12 hours late for departure. I believe this is due to crew running out of time – the long flight would put them seriously over the limit. If another crew is not available, the first one has their sleep break and come back for their next shift – 10-12 hours later. Meanwhile you have a very boring time – and arrive very late. Not a good look if you have cut it fine for getting to the ship.

Hope this is helpful

Chris

[cands]

I didn’t notice that you are coming from the East coast when I first read your post. This presents a few added challenges. You can probably go either East or West to get here, or use an around the world fare continuously in either direction. RTW fares are generally cheaper than Returns in Australia – this may be different for you as the fare rules are different in different continents.

I would put some serious hours into planning you own route then comparing what is on offer from Princess.

We embarked for a cruise in Cape Town a few years ago. Our entertainment for the first few days was discussing the flight itineraries given by the cruise line. Some were seriously out of the way, with hideous timings and stopovers in transit (and many lost suitcases).

It also depends on how price sensitive you are, how long you can sit in a plane, and how many airport stops you can bear.

You might like to consider one of the foreign (for you!) airlines that are more used to doing long haul flights. We love Singapore Airlines – but in business class for the seriously long flights. We find it is worth the money to arrive vaguely human and be able to start holidaying immediately. Also we don’t dread the airport and flight experience. Emirates & Cathay Pacific are both getting good reports. The calibre of the airline service appears to be very different to the North American market. It really depends on where you want to go and which airline or group of airlines fly convieniently for you.

If you are very price sensitive, be very careful with having multiple discount tickets purchased separately. Some airlines are reducing baggage allowances by weight – and not allowing the North American piece system. Theoretically you can have a domestic budget ticket in some countries with a small baggage allowance for a small leg of your journey. In some situations this can end up being the maximum for your whole trip around the world if there is no flexibility.

I'll give you time to think now!

Chris

[james j feller]

I don't know if this helps but here goes.

 

We are flying to SYDNEY AU. this month APRIL 21, we arrived on APRIL 23 at 5:30 am , we live in NEVADA.

 

The flight leaves at 10:30 pm from L.A.

 

JIM

[NH Cruiser]

We did our own air this year to Sydney with return from Auckland (we're from the Boston area). Plan to do the flight in two stages, spending a night in LA for a 10:30 p.m. flight to Sydney the next day. Staying overnight helps with the jet lag. Also ask your doctor for a prescription for Ambien to take on the long-haul flights.

 

We booked American BOS/LA for $300 each, and then booked Qantas LA/SYD/AKL/LA for $1200 each. Qantas had a sale in early May last year (watch for it this year). The fares they usually advertise are for in-Australia connections, so make sure you look for a sale fare that allows you to return from Auckland. We also booked seats in the back of the plane on Qantas (71 A/B) where there are only two seats: more room with the two-seat configuration.

 

When you leave LA on the evening flight, you arrive in Sydney two days later and in the morning. For example: we left LA 2/20/06 at 10:30 p.m. and arrived in Sydney at 8:00 a.m. on 2/22/06. We boarded the Diamond Princess on 2/25/06. We left Auckland on 3/9/06 at 6:10 p.m. and arrived in LA on the same day at 9:15 a.m. We flew back to Boston the following morning.

 

Definitely plan a prestay in Sydney: we did three days and that wasn't nearly enough time. We stayed at Sir Stamford at Circular Quay (http://www.stamford.com.au/sscq/). Great hotel across from the Botanic Gardens and a half block to the Opera House/Circular Quay. Service was exceptional and their packages are very good. Remember when pricing in Australia that the Australian doller is about 73 cents to a US$.

 

You'll love this itinerary. To see our pictures, click the Webshots link under my signature. If you have any questions, post them here.

[gipper77]

We will be on the Island Princess on May 6, Costal Cruise to Alaska. We plan to book this cruise for Australia on March 24 , 2007 at this time. My husband spoke to our TA and he has also suggested that we go about 5 days ahead. Once we book we will get him to work on our cruise for hotels and tours and greet and meet and most important air line tickets. My husband said that Quantas has tickets NOW round trip for $900. This only applies for 2006. This will be our first time to Austalia so we will enjoy reading all the comments.:)

[SPI_Rick]

We recently did the Sydney to Auckland cruise on the Diamond Princess. We used Princess Air for the air travel arrangments and it worked out pretty well......American Airlines from Dallas to Los Angeles with about a 2 hour layover in LA followed by a Qantas flight from LA to Sydney. The return was similar: Auckland to LA via Qantas with a 2.5 hour layover and LA to Dallas via American. We paid about $1500 for our roundtrip airfare through Princess which was competitive with other pricing at the time we did the booking. As gipper77 noted, Qantas has recently announced some tickets in the $900-$1000 range.....but when I tried to find them a couple of days ago I couldn't find any flights in that price range so I suspect there aren't many seats at that price.

 

Our initial flight left Dallas around 6pm on 13 March and we arrived in Sydney around 8am on 15 March. Coming back we recovered the "lost" day so we left Auckland in the early evening of 4 April and landed in Dallas just "an hour or so later" on the same day....but it was a very long hour.

 

I would recommend going at least a couple of days early to see a little of Sydney and coming back a couple of days after the cruise to see a little of Auckland. Most people don't get to make a trip of this length very often so it would be good to make the most of it.

 

We chose to go on a 6 day pre-cruise land package through Princess and had a 2 day post-cruise stay in Auckland....and we could have used even more time at both ends of the trip....there is a lot to see and do....so I would encourage you to try and extend your visit beyond the cruise portion of the trip.

 

But, however you plan your trip, you have a great experience ahead of you.

 

(Some of our Australia/New Zealand experiences are in the travel website shown in my signature below and also listed in another thread in this forum.)

[kenexx]

Several times a week (cant think of the days right now) Qantas has QF008 which departs LAX around lunchtime and arrives in Sydney at around 1030pm + 1 day. You could come from the east coast and overnight at LAX if you can schedule it that way.

 

It's a much easier flight than the long overnights and there is no worrying if your hotel room will be ready when you arrive. Often for people arriving in Sydney in the early morning if they want to be able to go right to their room they have to book it from the night before so it's kind of wasting one nights accommodation.

[Suzanne123]

Oh my goodness! Thanks so much for all the information. My sister is joining us on the cruise, and she's leaving from Chicago. We've both printed all your suggestions and are spending the next few days getting organized. I like the LA connection idea. Again, thanks!

[Globaliser]

Several times a week (cant think of the days right now) Qantas has QF008 which departs LAX around lunchtime and arrives in Sydney at around 1030pm + 1 day. You could come from the east coast and overnight at LAX if you can schedule it that way.

At the relevant time next March, this will be Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

 

It is actually possible to start from JFK on the same day, and connect at LAX to this "day flight" to Sydney. However, it's a very early start - an 0800 departure from JFK on QF3096 (actually operated by American Airlines as AA33) which arrives at LAX at 1116. The onward departure is at 1250. It should be an easy connection as both flights should operate from the same terminal at LAX and there are no immigration or customs issues at LAX in this direction.

 

If the night flight is better for some reason, there is also a direct (one-stop) Qantas flight from JFK to LAX, which goes on to Sydney as a night flight. At the relevant time next March, this will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. If you can plan to take this Qantas flight across the US to start your trip, you would be mad to fly across to the West Coast any other way. Try it, and see how good the difference is.

 

Next year, Sydney summer time ends at the normal time, ie Sunday 25 March 2007, so if the ship sails the day before then this time change won't be a factor in planning your air travel arrangements. Also, international air schedules change from summer to winter and vice versa on daylight saving time change day, so you don't need to worry about that, either.

 

So if the OP is looking to spend a couple of nights in Sydney before the cruise starts, then a departure date from the USA of about Tuesday 20 March would be about right. They would either get to Sydney in the late evening of Wednesday 21 March or the early morning of Thursday 22 March, depending on whether they go on the day flight or the night flight.

 

[Note to kenexx: You're slipping, mate! You should know all of this off the top of your head! ;)]

[kenexx]

[Note to kenexx: You're slipping, mate! You should know all of this off the top of your head! ;)]

 

LOL...My case is that I was at home after night shift so was working "in the dark" without the full facilities of the Qantas Res system to hand!!

 

The defense rests :p

[Acrusa]

We just booked Qantas Jan 26th 2007 to arrive on Jan 28th 9:15 Am Sydney time. This is for our HAL cruise of Feb 2.We leave JFK and stop in LA but do not change planes.It goes direct from LA to Sydney.What I like about this flight is you dont change and your luggage dosnt move off the plane.Coming back from Aukland on Feb 20th staying one nite in LA and taking the Qantas flight Feb 21 at 8:50 Am arriving at JFK the same day.This cost was $2021.00 PP.

[SPARKLE10]

Suzanne123:

 

Hi:

 

We just booked this cruise today on the Sapphire Princess for March 24, 2007. We added a five day land tour before the cruise, which is March 18 - 23rd. Our travel agent told me this morning, that we will leave March 16th, arriving March 18th. We live in the midwest and this will be the furthest we've had to fly:) for a cruise to-date. We've flown to Hawaii and to Fairbanks, Alaska; and San Juan for cruises, but never as far as this one will take us. We're very excited about this cruise. We've been on 37 cruises, 6 with Princess, but this will be our first time to Australia. This will give me a lot of time to research and find information for the things to do when we get there; and of course, this web site and the people on it, are always so helpful. I didn't see a "Meet & Mingle" started for this date on Princess Meet & Mingle site. My husband and I, we're in our late 50's and after our kids left home and graduated from college we started taking cruises and now we're lucky enough to take one or two a year. This one being so expensive, it will just be one next year. I don't have any idea what our flight schedule will be. That's the only thing I'm not looking forward to, is the long flight. I can never sleep, nor get comfortable on planes. I think I will take some Ambien with me for this flight; although I've never taken it before on any of our cruises. Looking forward to hearing from you, or anyone else who has some suggestions for our wonderful destination of Australia.

 

Happy Cruising...Anita aka Sparkle 10

[Suzanne123]

Hi Anita - This is our first cruise to Australia, too. In fact, my husband has no idea we're going -- he thinks the "surprise" destination is London. I have to get home before he does every day to get the mail and hide the Australia brochures! I'm on the phone to my sister every night plotting flights and excursions. He'll either have a big grin or a stroke when I give him the boomerang for Christmas!

 

(Sis also did the Sydney to Bangkok cruise a couple years ago and claimed the flight was long, but absolutely worth it.) More later....Happy planning!

 

Suzanne

[NH Cruiser]

Congratulations on booking this cruise. We were on the 2/25/06 cruise Sydney/Auckland. The itinerary was wonderful and you will love Sydney. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

 

As for the flight, definitely get Ambien from your doctor. Start taking it a week before the flight to make sure you have no problems. We were on the Qantas flight that left at 10:30 p.m. They gave us a full dinner (food wasn't too bad on Qantas but that was kind of late for us to eat dinner). We took the Ambien around midnight. The next thing we knew they were waking us up for breakfast . . . we were two hours from Sydney. Ambien relaxed us too and we didn't wake up stiff or in pain, which I was afraid of happening after sleeping on the plane. Our return from Auckland was a 6:10 p.m. flight and we took Ambien around 9:00 p.m. and again woke up for breakfast two hours out of LA.

 

Our only problem was the change from freezing in Boston to roasting in Sydney and we hit a brick wall around 2:00 p.m. Plan your first day in Sydney with places to break off and return to the hotel to rest.

 

Our first stop was the Sydney Opera House, a five-minute walk from our hotel. The only way to see the performance halls, other than going to the opera, is to take a guided tour. Here's the link (http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/).

 

My husband also climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge, which he said was a fantastic experience (http://www.bridgeclimb.com/). The picture they take of you at the top has the Opera House in the background :) You'll need to make reservations for the bridge climb when they open up (about three months before). The climb books quickly even when groups leave every 15 minutes.

 

I also took a walk of The Rocks (http://www.rockswalkingtours.com.au/index.html), which was one of the highlights of the trip. You will learn a lot about the founding of Sydney and about the people who took the long journey to settle there.

[SPARKLE10]

Thanks to NH Cruiser and Suzanne123, for your replies. Suzanee123, it's funny you mentioned that your husband has no idea he's going to Australia, because mine doesn't know either. He always lets me plan our cruises and then when the time gets near, he just says, where are we going this time? If it were the other way around, I would be so curious I would have to know right away. Thanks to NH Cruiser for your helpful information also. I know what you mean about the weather. We live in the midwest and when we cruise in the wintertime and come home we're always leaving and coming back to very cold weather, after being some place very warm. In March it is still very cold where we live. This year we went on the Adventure of the Seas in March, leaving from San Juan, and we're also booked on the Freedom of the Seas for New Years Eve. I have one cruise to look forward to before the big one next March. I am so excited about the Australia cruise I can hardly stand it; even though we've been on 37 cruises.....Each one is exciting but for some reason, the Australia cruise has me more excited than any we've taken. We've been to Alaska and Hawaii several times, along with a lot of Caribbean cruises and Mexico and one to the Panama Canal, but the one to Australia has been my dream cruise for a very long time. Looking forward to hearing from everyone again when you have time.

 

Happy C;) ruising.....Sparkle 10 (Anita)

[SPARKLE10]

Me Again:

 

PS to Jean. You mentioned that your husband climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge. That is something I would like to do. If you're not afraid of heights (which I'm not) is it something that an average person could do or do you need:rolleyes: to be super athletic? Just wondering. I'll probably have a lot of questions before we go. Thanks for all of your help.

 

Happy Cruising....Sparkle 10 (Anita)

[Globaliser]

You mentioned that your husband climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge. That is something I would like to do. If you're not afraid of heights (which I'm not) is it something that an average person could do or do you need:rolleyes: to be super athletic?

Sorry, I'm not Jean, but I can give you an answer. An average person would have no problems at all with this. The only remotely strenuous part of the trip is climbing up what is, in effect, a stepladder for about two stories. Other than that, it's just a gentle stroll. A lot of the adventure and excitement is hype for marketing purposes, but it's a really worthwhile thing to do for the views.

[NH Cruiser]

Globalizer is right . . . other than the ladders you climb the bridge climb itself isn't difficult. The steps are very low and not a steep climb. I have a problem with my arches and was concerned about the steel-rung ladders. I didn't want to damage my arch before the cruise even started. My husband said after the climb that I made the right decision. It was a narrow ladder and not very far out from the cement wall where it hung. He had a few bruises on his shin from hitting it. If you're not afraid of heights, definitely do it. My husband said the view from the top was wonderful . . . and he has a picture to prove it.

 

You can't take anything with you on the climb. They take pictures along the way that you can buy afterwards. We only bought the one at the very top, but the view of the Opera House and Circular Quay is well worth the price.