Embarcation in Sydney

[Birdmom]

To recent Australia/New Zealand cruisers. In reading reviews from last year, embarcation in Australia was AWFUL! People wrote of hours waiting in lines. Are things better this year? :o

[Toto2Kansas]

It has been a few years since we disembarked in Sydney, but I can tell you what the hassle usually was the times we disembarked there.

 

Australia has very strict rules about things like wood and meat items. If anyone onboard purchases something made of wood, and usually about 75% of passengers end up with something, it has to be inspected. Each piece of luggage is screened and x-rayed when being taken off the ship. Anything remotely suspicious shows up and it is red tagged and then they must search your luggage thoroughly. We had disembarked in Sydney several times previously so knew the rules and were very careful, but we still had two of our 4 bags red tagged. Nothing in them against the Australian Customs rules, but they still saw something in X-Ray that didn't look right to them.

This holds all the lines up and makes it a bit of a confusing mess when disembarking.

 

I doubt things have gotten any better lately. Just pack your patience in your carry on bag and go with the flow.

[Toto2Kansas]

Here we go again, double post, sorry about that.

[Toto2Kansas]

Triple post, very sorry, this board is really acting crazy this AM.

[Tina G]

Toto is right! The problems are not with Princess, but with Australia. New Zealand is just as bad. There's no getting around it. Just be ready for a long wait, and remember that once you are aboard, it will be wonderful.:) Don't even THINK about smuggling food off the ship for shore excursions! You will be arrested!:eek:

[ErinH1]

We arrived at about 12:30 p.m. and saw the long lines plus people from the prior (Asia to Sydney) cruise still present. Said to ourselves why stand in line for an hour or two? Checked with some of the guys putting luggage in trucks and they said sure, we'll take your luggage for you. So they took the luggage and we walked around beautiful Sydney until about 5:00 p.m. When we returned, there was no one in line so we went through the whole process flawlessly; we had more friendy people & attention than you can imagine. Luggage was there waiting in our cabin. In retrospect I guess we missed all the first day, pre-sailing activities plus we were tired so just ate at the buffet. But our preference was to spend as much time as possible in Sydney.

[CruisinChris]

In Syndey last year our disembarkation was quite comfortable - albeit slow while onboard. Once we disembarked and were in the terminal it was a nightmare. One of our bags wasn't in the correct area - in fact for some reason it wasn't even in the building. We had to wait for it to arrive by truck (probably held up in the aforementioned screening area). Then we joined a HUGE SLOW queue for a taxi. It was frustrating. Many AUtralians onboard had friends or family picking them up at the terminal, which isn't optimally set up for car traffic. We were only going next door to the Park Hyatt. If we'd had one bag fewer and it hadn't been raining I'd've walked the bags over - even over multiple trips. I think we waited 45 minutes for a cab and 45 for the missing bag to appear. We were also one of the last groups disembarked. As I've posted elsewhere, embarkation in Auckland wasn't any better. Pack your patience and paste on that smile and endure. It's worth it.

[ErinH1]

This post has reminded me of something I was amazed at. When we exited customs/immigration in Auckland & were attempting to leave the ship around 10:00 a.m., there were hoards of people outside everywhere, quite chaotic. Turns out many of them were there attempting to get on the ship for the next cruise. I know everyone's anxious to start their trip, but how fair is it to the folks trying to get off, as well as to the Princess staff, when you try to bend the rules even more by attempting to board so early? Does an extra 3 hours really mean that much . . . Especially in these 2 posts--Auckland and Sydney. They are both right in the center of town with many many things to see withing walking distance of the ship. Go hang out somewhere and arrive at the appropriate time. OK, I'm off my soapbox now!