repositioning Archives

Another transpacific cruise, this time to New Zealand

Majestic Princess in Papeete, Tahiti, en route to Auckland, New Zealand

I’m behind on blogging as we settle into our year back in Paris. Still, I do want to write about our time in New Zealand (which included 2000 miles of driving!) before too much time slips by. So, first here’s a quick recap of the Princess repositioning cruise that got us there:

The Covid-19 pandemic canceled a three-week trip to New Zealand we’d planned to start in March 2020, within days of New Zealand shutting down. With the pandemic mostly behind us and New Zealand again opening, we were finally making the trip.

We’d originally planned to fly to New Zealand and return via repositioning cruise during their fall (our spring). This time, we were going in our fall (New Zealand’s spring) so the order was reversed: We sailed from Los Angeles to New Zealand via Hawaii and Tahiti and flew home. As always, one-way cruising has the benefit of eliminating jetlag, and the price on repositioning cruises is almost always a great deal. Usually, there’s also the bonus of unusual out-of-the way stops along the way. Our original cruise would have stopped in the Kingdom of Samoa, Tonga, Bora Bora and Maui in addition to Hawaii and Tahiti, a much more appealing itinerary. This cruise (leaving from Los Angeles) had originally offered only the addition of American Samoa, but that island was closed due to Covid concerns. Likewise, Tonga suffered a devastating volcanic eruption in January 2022 and looks unlikely to recover any time in the foreseeable future. So, we were left with overnight stops in Honolulu, Hawaii; Papeete, Tahiti; and, a new one-day stop in Tauranga, New Zealand. I wasn’t thrilled with this itinerary, but it was still a pleasant-sounding way to get from the U.S. to New Zealand.

The three-week cruise turned out to be a mixed bag. Engine trouble had us staying longer in Honolulu than expected and an extra night in Papeete. There was also a Covid outbreak onboard, but that didn’t effect us too much. We’ve been to both Hawaii and Papeete, so weren’t really interested in too much touring. We went to Iolani Palace in Honolulu, an easy walk from where our ship docked at the Pier 2 Cruise Terminal. I hadn’t been in years and enjoyed revisiting the only royal palace on U.S. soil. After that, we just caught a Lyft to Waikiki Beach and a favorite beachfront spot for maitais, The Edge of Waikiki at the Sheraton. Not a bad way to spend a day!

I’d planned to rent a car in Papeete and do the ring road around Tahiti, something we’d not done before. Unfortunately, due to the delay in Honolulu, the ship arrived so late in the day that I decided to cancel the car and spend our full day at a resort where I’d purchased day passes. Te Moana resort turned out to be a great choice and we had a lovely, leisurely day there lounging around the pool, enjoying a top notch lunch, and kayaking along the coast. The resort boasts a spectacular view of nearby Bora Bora which only gets more dramatic at sunset. [Note: It’s an easy ferry ride from Papeete to Bora Bora which is more naturally beautiful than Tahiti. If you’ve never been or are willing to hire a tour or do a little planning (and spend a bit more) to rent a car, it’s well worth the trip. We’d been to Bora Bora not too long ago, though, and decided to relax and stay on Tahiti this time.] I highly recommend a day pass at Te Moana for those looking for a way to spend a day in Tahiti.

View from our lounge chairs of the Te Moana infinity pool and beyond

Te Moana offers 3 types of “relaxation”/day passes. We chose the 7000 CFP/person package (10am-6pm) which included pool/motu access, lunch plus coffee or ice cream, and two hours of kayak or paddle board. (The “motu” is a manmade “island” with a small snorkeling area, not an actual small private island as you might find in Bora Bora.) Other options ran up to 14,000 CFP/person and included a scuba dive or massage sessions. Other day pass options were available at the Hilton for a higher price and less positive reviews. The Intercontinental apparently now has day passes, but didn’t at the time.

View of Bora Bora at sunset from Te Moana resort

We arrived in the port of Tauranga to local fanfare and waiting media. It turned out our ship was the first to dock in New Zealand since the pandemic. The cruise port is actually at Mount Maunganui, a pretty resort town, across the bay from the city of Tauranga. We had a great view of the small mountain for which the town is named from the ship and couldn’t wait to get ashore and do a little hiking there. We originally thought we’d need to take a ferry to Tauranga, but a woman who was part of the waiting information brigade on the dock told us not to bother. The town and mountain of Mount Maunganui were the places to see. We took her advice and had a great day.

After a quick walk into town to an ATM machine, we strolled along a waterfront promenade to a trailhead at the base of Mount Maunganui. The small mountain is well covered with paths and popular with locals. A hike to the summit rewarded us with sweeping views. The mountain sits at the tip of land that shelters the inland bays and harbors from the Bay of Plenty. We headed back down the opposite side of the mountain to wide Maunganui Beach (which makes lists of most beautiful beaches in the world) to watch surfers before walking on to Maunganui Road, the main street of the town of Mount Maunganui. The town bustled with cruise ship visitors and shop owners seemed thrilled to be busy again. We had our first encounter with “possum merino,” a unique New Zealand knit made from Australian possum fur, sometimes combined with sheep wool and/or silk. The Australian possum is an invasive pest according to some, and a treasure according to the many vendors of possum products we met during our time in New Zealand. The wool is soft and very warm. I bought a gorgeous sweater in Mount Tauranga and David bought a cap. It was still cold in this antipodean “spring!” Stops for lunch and local beer and iconic sauvignon blanc wine boded well for the rest of our trip. This first, unexpected stop in New Zealand was a great beginning and had us looking forward to leaving the ship the next day in Auckland where we’d kick off our three-week explore of the country’s two islands.

The start of a one-month cruise from Singapore to Italy

The 8 “Sweet Sixteen” port-side cabins on Celebrity Millennium class ships are just above the “S” through the blue space after the “N” in “CONSTELLATION” the photo above.

As part of our 3-month around-the-world journey, we spent one month on the Celebrity ship Constellation. This was actually two 2-week, back-to-back (“B2B”) cruises. The first two weeks were more a traditional cruise with many stops: Phuket, Thailand; Colombo, Sri Lanka; Cochin, Goa and Mubai, India; Muscat, Oman; Dubai and Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. The second two weeks were more along the lines of a repositioning cruise, i.e., fewer stops and a bargain price as the ship moved from one region to another for a season. This cruise took us from Abu Dhabi back to Muscat, Oman, through the Suez Canal, to Piraeus (Athens) and Katakolon (ancient Olympia), Greece, and dropped us off at Civitavecchia, Italy (the port nearest Rome, although we did not go back to Rome on this trip, but rather picked up a rent car to spend a couple weeks in Umbria and Tuscany before flying from Florence to Belgium).

Upcoming posts covering the cruise period will have more information on ports, directed to cruisers, in addition to regular travelogues. [I’m not that into cruise ship activities and such, but tend to view ships as moving hotels and chose cruises based on itinerary, i.e., ports-of-call and transportation from one point to another. Click here for an earlier post on my philosophy on cruising as well as tips for finding the best deals.] I had some misgivings that a month might be too long on a ship, but we had an amazing time and my only regret is that I can’t do it all for the first time again!

With regards to Constellation, one of Celebrity’s Millennium class ships: I once again booked one of the “Sweet Sixteen” cabins about which I blogged when we sailed trans-Pacific on Constellation‘s sister ship Millennium. [Click here for that post.] These cabins offer a suite-type, double-sized balcony for the price of a regular balcony cabin. For some reason, the extra-large balconies do not appear on the ships’ diagrams and the cabins are categorized as regular balcony staterooms. I prefer the rear-most of these cabins because they offer extra privacy from the cabin just sternward and a more open view. (Both times I booked one of these staterooms, the booking agent had no idea that these cabins existed.)

Repositioning cruises and my personal philosophy on cruising

My personal verdict on ship vs. plane when crossing an ocean: Boat may be way slower, but this is way better than any airplane seat I’ve ever had!

I’ve been on quite a few cruises over the years, but they’re the minority of my travels. Very occasionally we just want an easy getaway, but most often lately we use cruises as transport from one point to another. I’d eyed “repositioning” cruises with envy for years, but could never take advantage of them due to my sons’ school schedules. With my boys off on their own now and David and I both retired, I’m loving taking advantage of these seasonal moves of ships from one “theater of operation” to another. Prices on these cruises are usually much lower than comparably-long regional cruises. The lines are basically trying to make some money while relocating their ships. The trade-offs for the passengers are fewer ports and frequent time changes (albeit incremental–an hour a day or so–rather than the large time-changes you get with an overseas flight).

We meet lots of people who take repositioning cruises and then fly straight home, but for us they’re a way to launch travels on another continent. When it’s time to come home, we use miles and/or points to buy one-way tickets home. (While one-way plane tickets purchased with cash can be ludicrously expensive–often more than a roundtrip ticket–, most mileage programs allow one-way tickets at a simple and fair one-half of the roundtrip mileage cost.)

Not only are repositioning cruises one of the best travel values out there, they’re a great way, if you’ve got the time, to get somewhere far away, comfortably and with no jet-lag. A trans-ocean cruise can give you 2 weeks (or more) of room, board and entertainment for much less than a first class flight and sometimes for less than a business class flight. (Any cruise ship cabin is infinitely more comfortable than either a first or business class seat on a plane…and economy seats are hardly worth a mention in a discussion of “comfort.”) This is especially true if, like us, you don’t gamble, don’t drink much alcohol, don’t like soft drinks, don’t do the overpriced cruise excursions, aren’t tempted by “specialty” restaurants, spas, “duty free” shopping, onboard internet, or any of the other myriad ways cruise lines seek to pull more money out of you. For us, they’re primarily moving hotels where we enjoy our time alone together and meeting new people, reading and watching the water from our balcony, disconnected from the rest of the world for a while. We also plan our own time ashore. If you love all those cruise extras– and many do–your costs can be substantially higher. It’s a matter of choice and preference, of course, just be aware.

Cruise stops are, by their very nature, a quick peek at a location. Often no more than a classic “toe-touch”, say-I’ve-been-there, remain-in-a-protected-bubble kind of affair (usually a pet peeve of mine), they can be fun and they do have their place in my travel plans. The ports can be limited on a repositioning cruise, but we look at them as an added bonus. And, like Dutch Harbor, they can be unusual–and unusually remote–locations.

Visiting somewhere via cruise can also be a good option if it’s a place you’d like to see, but aren’t really sure you want to spend an extended amount of time there. Cruise ports of call also make for good reconnaissance; sometimes I find a place begs for a longer return visit. And, of course, if mobility is an issue, cruises can be perfect for people who would otherwise find their travel wings clipped.

“Sweet Sixteen” cabin balcony: Not on the deck plan, but twice the size for the same price as a regular balcony.

Anyway, since they’re not my focus, I don’t plan to do too much in the way of cruise reviews. I will share, though, if I come across a particularly good deal or interesting angle. E.g., see my review of the “Sweet Sixteen” cabins on Celebrity’s Millennium-class ships: double-large balconies that don’t appear on the ship deck plans and for which there’s no extra charge. Since we prefer to avoid cruise ship excursions and do things on our own or in smaller tours, I’ll also document port details if the port of call is one (like Dutch Harbor) for which I had trouble finding information, pre-trip, on one of the many cruise-focused web sites.

There are lots of web sites out there that offer cruises, but I find vacationstogo.com to be one of the best sites for exploring cruise options and I always start there. They often have the best prices, too, but if not…well, I can be bought!