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Best cruise line to cruise Australia and New Zealand with?


lucywestie
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So planning a back to back Australia and New Zealand cruise for our 30th anniversary in late 2020. In the past we have cruised with Royal (Serenade, Navigator and Rhapsody), Princess (Sapphire) and NCL (Jade). We have cruised Alaska, Pacific coast and the Caribbean and all our cruises were pretty much back to back as we like an extended period at sea etc.

 

We tend to like the smaller sized ships (2400 pax or less)

 

As its our 30th I want to make it a bit special and so far I'm leaning towards Celebrity or Holland America. But saying that I was wondering what peoples experiences were like with all the cruise lines. The good, the bad and even the ugly (cue the Clint Eastwood music).

 

I realise cruise line choice is subjective and we have only tried 3 ourselves. I have friends that highly recommend HA and Celebrity but others have also cruised 30 times with NCL so I'm all over the place. Price could obviously be a factor as we will be away for such a long period of time.

 

One question would be, is a balcony necessary? We cruised Alaska twice and had an inside cabin as we found we spent so much time outside on the decks getting a better view of the ocean and shore line. In the Caribbean we had balconies.

 

Any help would be appreciated

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Although we mostly cruise Princess, we like Celebrity Solstice for NZ cruises because of the Sky Lounge which is our favourite spot for a late afternoon / early evening drink when leaving the various ports.

 

A balcony isn't necessary but it's nice and the Solstice balcony cabins are lovely. I recommend being up on deck for the Fiordland scenic cruising though.

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For us a Balcony is always necessary. But there are always other places to view the scenery.

 

Personally I thought it was a big plus through the sounds, why you ask. Because the full length door allowed me to stay warm (important to me) while enjoying the scenery, step out for a few photos from time to time (about 500 that day) and back inside again.

 

Now which line or ship? We have most of our cruises with Princess, but aren’t hugely in love with the ships currently here (service will always be great I expect and refurb if Sun May make a difference) our second choice to date is Celebrity and the only negative I can say about our Solstice cruise (only one so far) would be that there was a Niro outbreak the cruise before us, and they were still in safety mode most of the cruise, so I’m not sure we got the full benefit.

 

I’m assuming a bit here, but if it’s your 30th you are probably under 60, so on most HAL cruises in Aus you will be the baby. To be fair that probably applies on Princess too. Mrs Gut and I have 40 coming up (but we did marry rather young) and are usually among the younger third on Princess the mother in law and her sister did HAL to NZ a few years back (late 70s mid 80s) and were around average age wise, in fact both said they felt young.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We love Viking. They have a great back to back itinerary...the first 2weeks are Bali to Sydney stopping in some unusual ports followed by the 2nd 14 days or so from Sydney to Auckland. All their cabins have balconies and price includes an excursion in each port, spa, alternative dining, WiFi, etc.

that said we are doing HAL from Sydney to Auckland next January. Timing worked out better for us than Viking. We like HAL and we are in our 50’s and 60’s. Prefer HAL to Celebrity. Just like the smaller ships better.

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Rather than asking “Which cruise line?”, you may want to ask “Cruise or land tour?” Having traveled several times to NZ and having lived in Australia for several years, I believe the best way to see those countries is via land, not sea. If your goal is to take a cruise and incidentally see some of Australia and NZ, then a cruise is fine. But if your goal is to actually see something of those countries, then you need to do it on land. Perhaps you can combine the cruise with a land trip—2 weeks on land would be good.

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we've cruised all of the mass market lines you've mentioned plus more upscale and luxury lines. Celebrity is more classy, better food and service & has less announcements. Royal has the best entertainment, NCL and Princess have nice cabins for the money but their food is only fair. HAL is more formal and attracts an older crowd. Of course any of these comments are generally speaking and a good group of pax on any ship make for a great cruise. We prefer Celebrity but itinerary plays an important part in our decisions.

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I apologize in advance for the length of this post but my husband and I are are in a quandary trying to choose between 2 cruises to Austrailia/New Zealand next year. It is between a 14 night Holland America Noordham, Nov. 2019 and a 12 night Celebrity Solstice, Oct 2019. We will be celebrating our 50th anniversary but are not as old as we sound as we married young.

Both itineraries sail from Sydney to Auckland. The ports on Holland America are Melbourne, Hobart, Milford Sound, Fiorland Natl Park (1 day), Dunedin, Acaroa, Picton, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga with 4 sea days.

Celebrity ports are Hobart, Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound, Dusky Sound, (1 day), Dunedin Akaroa, Picton, Tauranga and Bay of Islands with 4 sea days. We would take the overnight shore excursion on either cruise when cruising the sounds, so this is not an issue.

We are partial to Celebrity and have never taken a Holland America cruise. On one hand, we feel the Holland America itinerary is better but on the other hand, we are elite members on Celebrity and the perks offered (includes beverage package, OBC, gratuities) and in a cc cabin vs. balcony cabin on Noordham may add to the overall experience and enjoyment on our special occasion. We are also able to make reservations for select dining on Celebrity before we cruise so that we are assured to get the time we want to dine. I tend to get seasick in very rough waters and wonder if the Solstice will handle it better since it is larger. We will add days on both ends of either cruise to explore Sydney and Auckland. I apologize again for this long post, but I would value the opinions of Cruise Critic members.

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I apologize in advance for the length of this post but my husband and I are are in a quandary trying to choose between 2 cruises to Austrailia/New Zealand next year. It is between a 14 night Holland America Noordham, Nov. 2019 and a 12 night Celebrity Solstice, Oct 2019. We will be celebrating our 50th anniversary but are not as old as we sound as we married young.

Both itineraries sail from Sydney to Auckland. The ports on Holland America are Melbourne, Hobart, Milford Sound, Fiorland Natl Park (1 day), Dunedin, Acaroa, Picton, Wellington, Napier, Tauranga with 4 sea days.

Celebrity ports are Hobart, Milford Sound, Doubtful Sound, Dusky Sound, (1 day), Dunedin Akaroa, Picton, Tauranga and Bay of Islands with 4 sea days. We would take the overnight shore excursion on either cruise when cruising the sounds, so this is not an issue.

We are partial to Celebrity and have never taken a Holland America cruise. On one hand, we feel the Holland America itinerary is better but on the other hand, we are elite members on Celebrity and the perks offered (includes beverage package, OBC, gratuities) and in a cc cabin vs. balcony cabin on Noordham may add to the overall experience and enjoyment on our special occasion. We are also able to make reservations for select dining on Celebrity before we cruise so that we are assured to get the time we want to dine. I tend to get seasick in very rough waters and wonder if the Solstice will handle it better since it is larger. We will add days on both ends of either cruise to explore Sydney and Auckland. I apologize again for this long post, but I would value the opinions of Cruise Critic members.

I prefer Celebrity and we are going on the Auckland to Sydney cruise with them in November. I went on one Holland America cruise (to Mexico) and felt the population was just so old and not diverse - we don't mind that but it was really overwhelming with many many people with wheelchairs and walkers and we felt out of place somewhat.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Look at Enrichment Journeys - we are doing the land portion of Australia and then the Solstice cruise to NZ in Nov. this year. They take care of a lot of the details and we get the best of both worlds - land and sea.

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Check out Azamara's small ships, which are more expensive than the mass market cruise lines, but worth considering for a special occasion.

 

I would cruise with AZ as more overnights and late nights. Great White Night Event and we have special evening on each cruise. Mostly on land.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have been sailing with HAL all through my 50s and now 60s, there are all age groups, depending on the itinerary. Their itineraries are port intensive, which I prefer when traveling, more destinations for the $$$. My favorite part is there are few children, which is the appeal. The Noordam is a perfect mid-sized ship, a little worn around some of the leather club chairs last year in Alaska, but am looking forward to sailing her again to NE Australia & Paupau New Guinea in Dec. Entertainment includes BBC Earth, unique to HAL, BBKing Blues Club for dancing to 60s, 70s, 80s now Motown and Billboard Music piano bar & pops classical. Something for everyone besides show tunes, which isn't my deal. Have tried Princess, Celebrity, NCL and RCCL, but keep coming back.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

We were in the same exact situation as you.  We were debating which cruise line to take but in the end, decided on Holland America Noordam.  We've sailed with Princess, Celebrity (our favorite due to their modern décor) and Holland America in the past.

Basically, I wrote down the list of the different ports/cities for each cruise line doing the Australia and New Zealand itinerary and found that you get more for your money with HAL in term of port visits.  We are in our 30's and yes, even though HAL attracts older crowds, we did not feel out of place as we managed to find and hang out with people in our age group and even older.  Yes it's nice to be in a newer ship but we'd like to visit as many cities as possible in our first trip to Australia and New Zealand and HAL will deliver just that.  We enjoyed the food and customer service of HAL.  The breakfast room service easily our favorite versus all the cruise lines we tried.  We love grilled salmon and we would manually write down Salmon in our breakfast card and boom there's always salmon with our breakfast, with no extra charge.  Also, the room are pretty large for our needs.  We paid a base price of $925/person before taxes and port charges and under $1300/person with those charges included for a midship Oceanview room... for 14 days cruise!  Yes it's fully obstructed but it'd be nice to get some natural sunlight for this long sailing.  And you know you can always look in between the tender boats to take a glimpse of the scenery haha.  Or better yet, within minutes you can just walk outside.

 

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1 hour ago, laurieb said:

Azamara!  Typically port intensive, often with overnight stays.  Smaller ports that the bigger ships don’t go to.  And mostly inclusive.  Well worth the higher per diems. Oh and only 700 pax 

I’d love to try Azamara but we are restricted to Sydney to Sydney  and they seem to offer nothing in that category, as much as anything else we love those R class ships.

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Just starting to explore a possible Australia and New Zealand cruise for 2020.  All your posts are so helpful since i have the same questions as you all..which line and which itinerary.  I'm leaning towards Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, and Viking since we have sailed on all these cruise lines previously.  I'd love to do Viking but they require all the money so far in advance.  Hmm...decisions, decisions...

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1 minute ago, laurieb said:
  • Actually, you or your travel agent - I hope you're using one- should be able to request final payment farther out. 

Good Point.  I don't mind paying a deposit but thousands 1-2 years out is hard to do.

 

Btw, I grew up in Tucson and my family still lives there near Ventana Canyon 🙂

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  • 3 weeks later...
8 minutes ago, Irina said:

We are looking at Oceania, Sydney to Auckland. We have been very happy with the line in the past. But are wondering if it's worth the extra money, or if we should look at celebrity instead. Thoughts?

If you know the difference between the lines, inclusions, level of service and cost, that’s a decision for you to make, personally we are happy with Celebrity and Princess, we can’t justify the extra$$$$ for Oceana

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