New Cruise Review: 10 days out of Sydney to NZ

jacketwatch · August 2, 2018

"Very nice ship and destination"

AndiD · August 3, 2018

Thanks for the great review! I have not attempted this class of ship on Royal, but may give it a try after your experience.

Jason · August 3, 2018

Larry, sounds like a great cruise. I'm impressed that Royal is now using iPads for check-in .. I could only imagine how much paper that is saving them!!

Thanks for sharing.

jacketwatch · August 3, 2018

Andi the ship is a marvel. You should try its class someday.

Jason I wonder if other ships will do the iPad check in too. Its such a time and paper saver.,

zebra · August 4, 2018

Wow the Quantum sounds wonderful Larry! We have a daughter living on the south island of New Zealand .... in Nelson. sounds like you enjoyed your excursions in NZ.

jacketwatch · August 5, 2018

NZ is simply beautiful. We ported at Dunedin, Picton, Wellington and Napier and for the most part it was green and lush. People are friendly and the pace of life is relaxed.

We were supposed to go thru several NZ sounds but the captain had to divert to miss a storm. Too bad as this was beautiful scenic cruising we missed. Well better than the alternative of ploughing thru a storm of course.

Jan115 · August 5, 2018

Great review, Larry - thanks for sharing! New Zealand and Australia are near the top of my bucket list. ? I, too, love the iPad idea, and I have heard great things about the check in process. I believe it’s also available now on Anthem, Ovation and Harmony.?

jacketwatch · August 5, 2018

I imagine the iPad thing would go fleet wide if it isn’t already as it works so well.

Oz and NZ are great destinations. We stayed in Sydney for two days before our cruise then flew to Brisbane for two days to see our niece and nephew and their daughter. Then back to Sydney for a day before embarkation. We stayed at the Holiday Inn old Sydney and the location to the port can’t be beat. You literally walk to the ship and it’s a gentle down slope so shlepping luggage is easy.

I did find that Sydney hotel prices are pretty high ala Singapore but Brisbane is more reasonable.

Aussies seem as a whole content with their lives and living circumstances so that makes it a positive place to be in. I rather liked that vibe.

BTW if you want coffee with a shot of espresso ask for a “long black”. I call it a turbo and they looked at me like I was from Mars. ?

Edited August 5, 2018 by jacketwatch

zebra · August 5, 2018

Larry our daughter used to live on the north island in Whangarei before moving to Nelson on the south island. I must say New Zealand was very green, lush and pretty but in the 3 weeks we stayed there with our daughter and doing the daily things, grocery store, meeting locals etc we unfortunately did not find the people very friendly. Never once did anyone talk to us at the checkout at the grocery store. Also we did not like the weather, it rained most of the 3 weeks and everything smelled moldy. Then we flew to Oz ..... we have many family in Australia (Sydney, Perth and Brisbane) and the people were fantastic ..... we loved our stay there. We also stayed at a Boutique hotel in The Rocks, Sydney - right across from the cruise terminal, an easy couple fo minutes walk with our luggage to our 26 day cruise. I would go back to Australia in a heartbeat .......

jacketwatch · August 5, 2018

I'm sorry you were treated that way. You were there much longer than us. We came into contact mostly with people in the tourist industry so maybe they are more geared to CS however we met quite a few locals too like in shops, a book store, restaurants and so on and felt welcomed. I've always thought Kiwis are more reserved and Ossies but that is not to excuse how you were treated. The nicest person we met was a guide in the Peter Jackson WW I aviation museum and guess what he was from NYC. Go figure ?