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Why doesn't anyone sail a 7 night New Zealand Cruise?


steverk

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There are no restrictions that would prevent a cruise out of Auckland around NZ but generally if a cruise does depart Auckland it will either go to Australia or up to the a South Pacific. P&O, Princess and Celebrity occasionally depart Auckland and I have seen Royal once or twice but not recently.

The main reasons I think it is not offered are

  • cruises over 7 nights would be primarily limited to the North Island and the tip of the South Island due to time constraints
  • Most Royal cruisers are Australian and with Auckland’s population being Just over 1 million it would not be economic to have regular cruises from here. P&O originally did have a ship home ported in Auckland but it moved to Australia so that suggests a better return on investment.
  • it is cheap to fly around NZ so most kiwis would just fly or drive to see NZ. Also generally if we do travel we prefer to go overseas.
  • a large part of our tourism is based on Australians coming here for their holidays.

These are just my thoughts but I wouldn’t expect any Auckland departures in the near future.

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16 hours ago, F1guynz said:

There are no restrictions that would prevent a cruise out of Auckland around NZ but generally if a cruise does depart Auckland it will either go to Australia or up to the a South Pacific. P&O, Princess and Celebrity occasionally depart Auckland and I have seen Royal once or twice but not recently.

The main reasons I think it is not offered are

  • cruises over 7 nights would be primarily limited to the North Island and the tip of the South Island due to time constraints
  • Most Royal cruisers are Australian and with Auckland’s population being Just over 1 million it would not be economic to have regular cruises from here. P&O originally did have a ship home ported in Auckland but it moved to Australia so that suggests a better return on investment.
  • it is cheap to fly around NZ so most kiwis would just fly or drive to see NZ. Also generally if we do travel we prefer to go overseas.
  • a large part of our tourism is based on Australians coming here for their holidays.

These are just my thoughts but I wouldn’t expect any Auckland departures in the near future.

 

8 hours ago, Shanenz84 said:

Actually Dream Cruises based the ‘Explorer Dream’ out of Auckland over the summer 2019-20 for a series of 7 night cruises, from what I heard they were very popular! They did a total of 7 sailings and they went down to Milford & Doubtful Sound and a few other ports around NZ.

Thank you both for your thoughtful and informative replies. 

I'm planning to take a Celebrity cruise from Auckland to Sydney in November (assuming the COVID gods don't intervene!) and that's what got me thinking about this.  I'm looking forward to both the NZ and Australian ports, but have to say the NZ ports look more interesting, and that's what got me thinking about this.

Please note, that flying from the USA to Australia or New Zealand is about equally painful, so a shorter cruise hitting the most interesting ports would have been attractive.

Any thoughts on NZ and Australia being open to cruising by November?

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4 hours ago, steverk said:

Any thoughts on NZ and Australia being open to cruising by November?

We have two cruises booked Ovation scheduled for November but I am not hopeful that they will go ahead.

NZ is currently in lockdown and we are getting close to eliminating the virus, we will find out today whether this lockdown has been extended and when we might expect to move into a lower level of isolating.

Once the virus is eliminated or kept low the Government has warned that travel restrictions will remain in place, possibly until the end of this year. There maybe some limited travel between Australia and NZ but it is likely that there will be some isolation required.

There is also a lot of anger towards the cruise industry due to the Ruby Princess which has indirectly caused a large number of cases in Australia and a few in NZ. I think people will be scared to let ships into their ports at least until there is a vaccine available.

I personally don’t feel the cruise season will restart until the 2021/22 season in October next year.

i think we will need to wait a couple more months before the situation gets a little clearer.

 

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1 hour ago, F1guynz said:

We have two cruises booked Ovation scheduled for November but I am not hopeful that they will go ahead.

NZ is currently in lockdown and we are getting close to eliminating the virus, we will find out today whether this lockdown has been extended and when we might expect to move into a lower level of isolating.

Once the virus is eliminated or kept low the Government has warned that travel restrictions will remain in place, possibly until the end of this year. There maybe some limited travel between Australia and NZ but it is likely that there will be some isolation required.

There is also a lot of anger towards the cruise industry due to the Ruby Princess which has indirectly caused a large number of cases in Australia and a few in NZ. I think people will be scared to let ships into their ports at least until there is a vaccine available.

I personally don’t feel the cruise season will restart until the 2021/22 season in October next year.

i think we will need to wait a couple more months before the situation gets a little clearer.

 

I sadly agree.

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On 4/20/2020 at 12:42 AM, Zambia-Zaire said:

I wonder...do NZ limit the number of ships in its waters like Fjord in Alaska?

No limit on cruise ship numbers apart from Milford Sound and Dusky Sound which limit the ships that can enter at a time (1 or 2) due to safety and environmental impact. Probably the biggest restriction would be the number of ships ports can accommodate at a time with some of the smaller ports only having facilities for 1 or 2 ships at a time.

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I agree with @F1guynz comments.

Auckland has been home to a few ships over the years but doesn't really have the demand to keep one. New Zealanders are more likely to fly or drive around NZ and when we holiday it is often overseas (The pacific islands are 2 to 3 hours flight away as is Australia). With Australia so close it just makes sense for NZers to travel to Sydney and cruise from there.

I can't see cruising in NZ this year to tell the truth or until there is a vaccine/antibodies test. The Ruby Princes saga has absolutely turned public opinion against cruising and if it is found the Captain was aware of cases on board when they docked in NZ and Australia that will certainly not help (If the authorities can't trust the cruise lines to give accurate/truthful information then there will likely be quite restrictive processes put in place to ensure compliance). It seems unfair that all the cruise lines are lumped into that one ship but I'm afraid that is how non cruises (i.e the majority) will see it.

 

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