What cruiseline? What ports?

[tripster]

I'm seriously thinking about an Australia/New Zealand cruise and need to know what cruiseline is best for that area. This will be a dream-cruise of a lifetime and want to do it right. Also, would like to know what ports should NOT be missed and what ports could well be done without.

 

If anyone who has already been to Australia and/or New Zealand can help me out with this, it would be greatly appreciated.

[CruiserBruce]

Have been to Australia and New Zealand many times, including 2 times on cruises.

 

Which is "best"? Chevy or Ford? McDonalds or Burger King? It's all subjective. That being said, some reading here will reveal several cruise lines home base ships in Australia (Princess and Carnival leap to mind, I may be missing some), so their selection of cruises are larger and with far more variety. We found this aspect beneficial when we did our "over the top" cruise from Perth over the northern portion of Australia, on Dawn Princess, ending in Sydney last September. It covered the areas of Australia we had not seen yet, so "best" for us.

 

I see you have a number of cruises with RCI. They are also in Australia and New Zealand...I think I saw they will be home basing a couple of ships in Asia/Australia in the near future. They may already be there.

 

Have been "down under" many times, I would say anywhere in New Zealand is great- but I would also recommend a land tour in NZ. You can see a really good selection of NZ on a 3 week driving tour. It is very easy.

 

"Must see" is what interests you. A little reading would certainly suggest the Great Barrier Reef is a key site to see.

[GUT2407]

Now me I live here, so I guess I've been.

 

The big issues are, not in any particular order

 

Do you have a preferred line/ship

 

What are your interests

 

What's your budget

 

How much time have you got

 

When do you want to do it

 

What do you want to see.

 

Remember on a cruise you will only see the costal fringe (but that is where about 90% of us live) and none of the great outback (to my mind the most interesting part).

 

 

Are you thinking a full circumnavigation or just in and out of one Port.

Edited March 26, 2016 by GUT2407

[lyndarra]

We've done three Aus/NZ cruises with three different cruise lines - RCI, Carnival and Celebrity. For us Celebrity ticked all the boxes.

All NZ ports have something of interest so go with the cruise lione you like that takes in the most.

Celebrity North and South Island cruises go Sydney/Auckland or Auckland/Sydney meaning you Cruise from Sydney then fly back from Auckland or vice versa. If time is limited, as it is with many cruisers from the States, it saves a couple a couple of sea days which can mean more time exploring Sydney or other places.

[gogo65]

If you travel in our summer, the. The options increase.

Celebrity and RCCL have ships down here in summer but they return to the northern hemisphere in April.

Celebrity seem to do at least half there cruises in NZ, So it could be a good option if you want to include NZ.

I would bypass carnival and P&O Aust, they are just not in the same league as the U.S. based ships.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Holland America are good too. They sometimes visited more ports. You need to check out each ones itinerary and see what each one offers. They tend to vary a little bit each season , but for NZ most include Fiordland, Dunedin,Wellington , Tauranga and Auckland. Those are the main ports and others are chosen depending on how many days they allot.

[OzKiwiJJ]

You might like to spend some time browsing the Australia & New Zealand Ports of Call forum http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=77. There is a wealth of information there.

 

Most NZ cruises take 12-14 days, and February/March is the best time. Celebrity is very good and has the wonderful Sky Lounge which is a fantastic place to be when leaving the various ports, especially when it's a bit cool outside. Celebrity mostly do one-way itineraries. Auckland to Sydney or vice versa.

 

Princess are also very good. They use the bigger ships for the NZ itineraries - Diamond (ex Sydney), Golden (ex Melbourne).

 

It gets a bit trickier if you also want to cruise Australia. There aren't many round Australia cruises, and when they do have them they take about a month. Princess has one in October 2016 and again in March 2017. Both of these are in the shoulder seasons - when it's not too cold yet in the south and not too hot and wet in the north. Another option is to do a Northern Explorer cruise Sydney to Fremantle or vice versa, combined with a cross-Australia train trip on the Indian Pacific. Celebrity doesn't seem to have any round Australia itineraries showing at the moment.

Edited March 26, 2016 by OzKiwiJJ

[GUT2407]

If you want to do a circumnavigation I think your choices are

 

Princess who offer at least 2 each year it seems, one (Oct Nov) includes part of NZ, the March one tend to be just Aus.

 

HAL do an Aus one

 

Cunard some years offer one as a leg of the World cruise

 

Celebrity often offer a great option (sold as two cruises which leads some t0 miss it) Aukland to Perth across the bottom, Perth back to Sydney around the top end, that tends to be in March-April, sometimes Oct-Nov as well could be a good option f you have the time, fly to Aukland spend some time in NZ do the cruise some time in Sydney fly home

[jspqld]

As other have said, choices of ports etc can be very subjective. The bigger & better ships will be based in Australia between about November to April and mainly out of Sydney. Keep in mind school holidays between early Dec to late Jan. Personally I like big ships like the ones from RCI, Celebrity or Carnival & would prefer one of those if I was to sail to NZ. You could also take one of these ships to sail north up the Australian Coast or out to countries in the Sth.Pacific like Vanuatu. I personally wouldn't choose to do a cruise out of Melbourne or down south from there as the waters are known for being very rough. As for ports, well in Oz you wouldn't want to miss Sydney, and maybe ones like Cairns if you wanted to get close to the Great barrier reef, all others would be a bonus. In NZ the standout for me is Milford Sound. Auckland is scenic and very easy to just walk off the ship. Any other ports will be a bonus.

[Aussie FF]

Now me I live here, so I guess I've been.

 

The big issues are, not in any particular order

 

Do you have a preferred line/ship

 

What are your interests

 

What's your budget

 

How much time have you got

 

When do you want to do it

 

What do you want to see.

 

Remember on a cruise you will only see the costal fringe (but that is where about 90% of us live) and none of the great outback (to my mind the most interesting part).

 

 

Are you thinking a full circumnavigation or just in and out of one Port.

 

What Gut said.

42 different ships visited this cruise season.:)

[GUT2407]

Having done the circumnavigation last year (34 days) I'd love to do another with a different mix of ports.

 

Albany, two or three of the stops in the North West, Cooktown, Townsville, Cairns, Brisbane, Newcastle, Hobart or some of them at least, could all be added in.

[cassamanda]

RCI also does a circumnavigation in Oct and Feb with Radiance. Can be done as a b2b. They often include Albany and Esperance in W.A.

Voyager and Explorer also do reposition cruises from Singapore to Sydney via either the west coast (Explorer) or East Coast.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Repositioning cruises often have a much more restricted number of ports stops in Australia, so not so good for people who want to visit Australian ports.

[hopestotravelmore]

Hi I did a cruise just this February with Princess Cruises and it was fantastic. We left from Melbourne and went to 7 ports. Like others have said that you only get to see a little of NZ but it was still wonderful and Princess was a great cruise line and it was my first cruise.

 

I have wrote a cruise review on it here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/showthread.php?t=2322939

[Meamat]

As others have said, it depends a lot on your interests and what you'd want to see and do.

 

I live in Australia and have done some traveling in New Zealand. Of the places I've visited in New Zealand, I loved Christchurch and especially Dunedin but wouldn't feel the need to return to Wellington or Picton. Nothing wrong with them, just not the standouts for me. I'd still love to see Aukland and especially the western side of the South Island (Milford sound, etc). I've seen overland trips to fjordland national park at times, it's magnificent.

 

In Aus, I'm a touch biased but Sydney is a must-visit city and all the cruise ships are located in the best parts of the city to visit. Melbourne is also gorgeous. I'd not be fussed on Brisbane, nothing stands out to me there and cruise terminals aren't as well placed. North of Brisbane (Cairns, Townsville, Port Douglas etc) is a different story and I'd include one of those northern ports near the reef if possible. I've not been to Tasmania yet but would love to and have heard fabulous things from those that have cruised there. Same with some of the western Australian ports and Adelaide, though again I've not been to those so can't speak first hand.

[GUT2407]

As others have said, it depends a lot on your interests and what you'd want to see and do.

 

I live in Australia and have done some traveling in New Zealand. Of the places I've visited in New Zealand, I loved Christchurch and especially Dunedin but wouldn't feel the need to return to Wellington or Picton. Nothing wrong with them, just not the standouts for me. I'd still love to see Aukland and especially the western side of the South Island (Milford sound, etc). I've seen overland trips to fjordland national park at times, it's magnificent.

 

In Aus, I'm a touch biased but Sydney is a must-visit city and all the cruise ships are located in the best parts of the city to visit. Melbourne is also gorgeous. I'd not be fussed on Brisbane, nothing stands out to me there and cruise terminals aren't as well placed. North of Brisbane (Cairns, Townsville, Port Douglas etc) is a different story and I'd include one of those northern ports near the reef if possible. I've not been to Tasmania yet but would love to and have heard fabulous things from those that have cruised there. Same with some of the western Australian ports and Adelaide, though again I've not been to those so can't speak first hand.

 

Whereas I'd go back to Picton in a flash. And yes the Sounds are simply beautiful.

 

I also agree that Sydney Harbour is special, friends who have sailed into most Ports in the World rate it in the top three.

 

Tasmania is our "Go to" cruise, we have two booked at the moment, personally I absolutely love Hobart and Mrs Gut loves Port Arthur (but then her PhD was largely based on the kids prison there) but maybe more importantly sailing up the Derwent and into Port Arthur are very special.

[Meamat]

Whereas I'd go back to Picton in a flash. And yes the Sounds are simply beautiful.

 

I also agree that Sydney Harbour is special, friends who have sailed into most Ports in the World rate it in the top three.

 

Tasmania is our "Go to" cruise, we have two booked at the moment, personally I absolutely love Hobart and Mrs Gut loves Port Arthur (but then her PhD was largely based on the kids prison there) but maybe more importantly sailing up the Derwent and into Port Arthur are very special.

 

Yep, that's why it's so good to have lots of viewpoints available here in the forums :)

 

It depends so much on what people's interests are and what they care to see. I'm not a city person, so something about the spirit of a city really has to grab me for me to love being there for very long, but I could watch the changing scenery of a coastline for ages.

 

I also haven't traveled to any of those ports by cruise ship (In New Zealand I was a wandering high school student who crashed on the floor of friends' houses for a couple weeks, so my destinations were really determined by where I could find accommodating people!), and my own tastes are likely to change over time, too.

 

I'd love to visit Tassie... a lot of our travel funds and time are directed to family visits at the moment but a cruise there sounds amazing.