twangster

My excursion is Scenic Cruise and Queen Charlotte Track Hike booked through the ship.     I'm very grateful I bought that hoodie.  Out here on the cool Pacific waters of New Zealand it's quite chilly.  Some guests, like me, did not come prepared for this.   
A guide walked around to illustrate where were going.





A twenty five minute boat ride over to Mistletoe Bay.


We broke into three groups each with a guide and headed around a short hike.  As hikes go it's what I would consider easy but for anyone with less mobility you'll want to consider if this is an appropriate excursion for you.  I wore running shoes without issue so it's not like hiking boots were required.  





It was a pleasant hike and an informative guide who knew a lot about the flora and fauna of the area.  
After a 90 minute slow paced hike we boarded the boat to make our way back to Picton.

The excursion bus dropped us off near the small boat harbor where our scenic cruise began but this is not where the cruise ship shuttle bus operates from.  I could have gotten off the scenic cruise and jumped on the waiting bus but I wanted to walk around a little.  Read the instructions carefully and map out where you need to go to reach the main cruise shuttle bus, it's a fifteen minute walk from the boat harbor.  
We depart from Picton and sail out of Queen Charlotte sound across to Wellington.  This will take several hours much of which is in the dark.  Wellington is at the bottom of the North Island of New Zealand.  


I upgraded my phone for this trip to enjoy a better camera and I'm still exploring it's capabilities.

Not terrible for a handheld phone from my balcony.

Dolphins on the port side.

PictonDolphins.mp4.f8da625426e377dcf1449da9b269fdf8.mp4 Eventually we reach Picton where we do a 180 and reverse into the cargo slip.  Free shuttle busses will take us into town. 



Water cannon welcome.









A time lapse of our transit into and through Queen Charlotte Sound.

PictonTL.mp4.15834bb58cb8a3bf441b08aa1d853b35.mp4 The cargo port with wood exports being readied for shipment to China. 

Day Four
Picton, New Zealand
With Picton positioned on the top of the South Island we enter the gap between the North and South Islands then sailed down Queen Charlotte sound to reach Picton.  It's very beautiful.  







I love on the older Q class ship the suite sun deck allows you to quickly move from side to side.  On various trips on this class I've used this area extensively for great photos.  On Odyssey this is a Teen club area.  

Beautiful sunset tonight.

Day Three (B)
Neglected to mention there were time changes on night 1 and night 2 of cruise #2. There will be more time changes on day 8 and 9B.
Given our two time changes so far we are now on New Zealand time.
Slight motion due to minor swell.  It's a lot like standing on an airport train or subway with subtle back and forth motion once in a while.  
Fortunately motion doesn't tend to bother me until it is severe which is why I don't mind being so far forward on deck 6.  I actually enjoy a slight rocking to sleep.
CAS Top Tier in the Theater.
705 Gold
362 Platinum
173 Emerald
544 Diamond
542 Diamond Plus
111 Pinnacle
13 Aussie Pinnacle
16 Canadian Pinnacle
9 UK Pinnacle
1 French Pinnacle
72 US Pinnacle
7 new Pinnacle this cruise
Top cruiser is from Australia with 3,354 points.  
Captain claims there are over 18 million CAS members worldwide.  
Due to the high numbers of D+ and P, D members are not allowed in the Crown Lounge during the evening happy hour. There was someone on duty every night checking sea pass cards. This is becoming common on high top tier cruises such as transatlantic, transpacific, Panama Canal and so on. 
In other news I came to the realization I under packed warm clothing for the New Zealand portion so I dropped by the logo store to find a full zip hoodie on sale.  

Sail away from Sydney is usually pretty great unless it's pouring rain but fortunately the forecast had turned out to be wrong much of the day and we had a pleasant departure. 

An exclusive CAS event tonight.














With that our adventure had begun.

Cabin 6128 - Category 5D Balcony
Technically as a 3 person cabin I didn't qualify for this cabin being solo but since they moved me from Ovation and on Ovation this is a 4D cabin, I was allowed to keep it.  







I like the location of these cabins and that they are directly over the ocean.  No walkways, lifeboats or anything else between you and the view to the sea straight down. They are super convenient and down one flight of stairs to deck five and Schooner Bar.  Down one more deck to the Theater and Esplanade.  Very convenient.  



Two bottles of water courtesy of the CAS for a 21 night cruise.  I'll need to ration them carefully. 🙂

Enough time had passed that the boarding process had commenced.
Fortunately we had been given an In Transit card which was like a magic fast pass into and through the Overseas Passenger Terminal.   It couldn't have been easier with a dedicated entrance, ABF and security queues.  It was really easy.  
With that I was back on board enjoying a beverage in the pub waiting for cabins to become available.

I figured I might as well have a local beer or two and some lunch while I waited.

When ABF gives you lemons, make lemonade. 🍋
Having sailed from Sydney before and knowing the area I decided to walk over the Sydney Harbor Bridge to get some photos of Quantum in Sydney.  I already knew the route, it's pretty easy with elevators in places where there are stairs if you need a lift.







A constant flow of ferries in and out.

Someone is getting blocked!

Newly minted Diamonds in the making.

In the theater waiting...
New Sea Pass card, In Transit card and my passport.  One of these would be a massive time saver later.  

In the theater they asked if we had planned to get off to explore or planned to get back on board right away.  Forecast was rain and the weather radar didn't look promising. Thirty or so of us chose to wait in the theater and re-board immediately.  ABF would require the ship reach zero count much like CBP does in the US but we were informed we would be processed and return to the ship immediately.   
There were several pages for two guests failing to disembark.  We all waited for them to be found. 
Finally it was our turn.  Away we went...

ABF and the Intercruise agents in the terminal had a different plan.  We were marched to an elevator and then outside to join the masses waiting to board.  It was a sea of people but fortunately the light rain observed earlier had stopped.  

So now we are outside in GenPop.  

Overcast with rain forecast.






No Godzilla!  Don't attack Sydney!

A consecutive cruiser letter let me know the exact process was still to be determined by the Australian Border Force.  We were to meet in the theater the next morning where we get our new Sea Pass cards and more details how ABF would process us.  The consecutive cruiser letter had a specific time to arrive at the theater and they would be enforcing this time.  No need to be early. 
Mandatory NZeTA check for consecutive cruisers.









 

Day Two (A)
Day two is a sea day as we sail down the coast from Brisbane to Sydney.  It was a beautiful day with lots of sun.  At times we could make out the Australian coast on the starboard side.  
Still not on Aussie time I was up early, working.



The sun rises from the bottom down under!

Later that night...
The Instant Reward Casino offers are different down under.  There is no short versus long offers, there is only one list for any cruise from Australia.

 
Ah.  Smell that smoke free casino air!

I took a quick nap and woke up just as we were sailing away.  Quick shower and off to Coastal Kitchen for dinner.


I already knew I made the list for the Suite Lounge and Coastal Kitchen access on the transpacific so I made Coastal Kitchen dinner reservation on select nights.  I didn't want to book all twenty three nights in Coastal Kitchen figuring that by picking select nights there would be some time slots available for Sea class or Junior Suite guests as well.   On other nights I'd have a burger in The Pub or eat in the Windjammer.  There is no shortage of food on a cruise.

The Brisbane cruise terminal as seen from the ship:




 

I have sailed on Quantum to Alaska and three other sister ships in this class so I was already comfortable with the ship.  I had received an email letting me know as a Pinnacle I had made the list for access to the Suite Lounge and Coastal Kitchen.  The top forty are given access to manage the numbers and save space for suite guests.   I headed to Coastal Kitchen to make dinner reservations.  Night one is still the Filet night so how could I resist?
Given that I made the booking for the two night repo cruise not long before the sail date I had a different cabin compared to my cabin for the transpacific.  With only two nights I didn't unpack my suitcase for the first cruise.
Cabin 7244 - 2D balcony

Cruise Day!
My friends are loyal Royal cruisers who had just gotten off Quantum having completed several consecutive cruises to wrap up the Australia cruise season the day I arrived.  As frequent cruisers their car pretty much drove itself to the port albeit on the wrong side of the road.  
The cruise terminal in Brisbane is nice but a bit of a drive from downtown.  

Boarding had already started so it was very quick through the regular boarding day steps.  I will say that security was very particular, even more so than the security at the Sydney domestic airport terminal, requiring anything electronic, anything at all, to come out of my backpack.   It was more thorough than the airport security in the US, Japan and Australia.  At least I know we will be safe on board!

Many other species here as well.  

There are some weird looking animals in Australia!








We did some other Brisbane sightseeing as well.

Later that evening it was off to a Broncos game.  The Brisbane Broncos in the NRL that is.  




Still not fully on Australia time it was late but a thoroughly enjoyable night.  Broncos won!  Time for bed.

Brisbane
My friends live just outside of the Brisbane city limits.  After taking them out for dinner it was time to head to bed.
The next day they took me to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  You can't visit Australia without seeing Koalas and Kangaroos!   
So cute!





They warned me to keep an eye out for drop bears.  Fortunately non presented themselves during my visit.
First time feeding a Kangaroo using the Roo food acquired at the sanctuary.  These things have incredible teeth and claws.  Note to self - don't ever upset a Kangaroo.

A transpacific has long been on my bucket list so this was my first.  The ports in New Zealand had just one duplicate port with my last New Zealand cruise and with three new stops in French Polynesia a lot of this cruise would be new to me.  I liked that.  As it turns some of the port stops were over weekends so that meant I didn't need to take as much time off work since I can work remotely on sea days.
Cruise #1
Sun 06 April 2025 Brisbane, Australia - 04:30 PM Boarding
Mon 07 April 2025 Cruising - - Cruising
Tue 08 April 2025 Sydney, Australia 06:30 AM - Departure

Cruise #2
Tue 08 April 2025 Sydney, Australia - 05:00 PM Boarding
Wed 09 April 2025 Cruising - - Cruising
Thu 10 April 2025 Cruising - - Cruising
Fri 11 April 2025 Picton, New Zealand 11:00 AM 08:00 PM Docked
Sat 12 April 2025 Wellington, New Zealand 07:00 AM 06:30 PM Docked
Sun 13 April 2025 Cruising - - Cruising
Mon 14 April 2025 Auckland, New Zealand 07:30 AM 06:30 PM Docked
Tue 15 April 2025 Cruising - - Cruising
Wed 16 April 2025 Cruising - - Cruising
Wed 16 April 2025 International Dateline - - Cruising
Thu 17 April 2025 Cruising - - Cruising
Fri 18 April 2025 Cruising - - Cruising
Sat 19 April 2025 Papeete, Tahiti 08:00 AM 11:59 PM Docked
Sun 20 April 2025 Moorea, French Polynesia 08:00 AM 08:00 PM Tendered
Mon 21 April 2025 Raiatea, French Polynesia 07:00 AM 05:00 PM Tendered
Tue 22 April 2025 Cruising - - Cruising
Wed 23 April 2025 Cruising - - Cruising
Thu 24 April 2025 Cruising - - Cruising
Fri 25 April 2025 Cruising - - Cruising
Sat 26 April 2025 Cruising - - Cruising
Sun 27 April 2025 Honolulu (Oahu), Hawaii 07:00 AM - Docked
Mon 28 April 2025 Honolulu (Oahu), Hawaii - - Departure
Australia has laws regarding smoking inside and these are enforced on cruise ships sailing from Australian ports.  On this cruise the interior smoking ban remained in effect for the full voyage all the way to Hawaii.  
Twenty three nights of smoke free bliss.  

Many other species here as well.  

There are some weird looking animals in Australia!








We did some other Brisbane sightseeing as well.

Later that evening it was off to a Broncos game.  The Brisbane Broncos in the NRL that is.  




Still not fully on Australia time it was late but a thoroughly enjoyable night.  Broncos won!  Time for bed.

Brisbane
My friends live just outside of the Brisbane city limits.  After taking them out for dinner it was time to head to bed.
The next day they took me to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  You can't visit Australia without seeing Koalas and Kangaroos!   
So cute!





They warned me to keep an eye out for drop bears.  Fortunately non presented themselves during my visit.
First time feeding a Kangaroo using the Roo food acquired at the sanctuary.  These things have incredible teeth and claws.  Note to self - don't ever upset a Kangaroo.

Twenty three nights on Quantum of the Seas including Brisbane, Sydney, Picton, Wellington, Auckland, Papeete, Moorea, Raiatea and Hawaii.
I am writing this review in May having arrived back home in Florida.  Twenty three nights is a long time to take off from work and with so many sea days on this journey I decided to make this a working cruise.  That ended up working out really well but it left little time to post this thread live so I am posting it all from the future, of the cruise, in the past, tense that is, which will become a recurring theme managing the date and time difference with the US as I worked remotely during the voyage.
The transpacific cruise by itself was 21 nights.  I added a 2 night repositioning cruise before it to make it a total of 23 nights.
I don't see a lot of transpacific reviews or trip reports so I thought this could help fill in that void.
I've been waiting to post this here as @mashley1021 has been posting live from Quantum's voyage from Hawaii to Vancouver occurring after my cruise.   I didn't want to steal her thunder or cause confusion posting this now historical account of Quantum's Transpacific from Australia to Hawaii.  You can check out her most excellent thread here:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/52355-hawaii-is-calling-quantum-of-the-seas-42825/