Sydney vs Melbourne

[possum52]

Thrak, are these all departing from Melbourne? If so the first B2B2B covers most of the south east of Australia and you would also sail in and out of Sydney Harbour. That would probably be my choice. 

 

Yes the Australian equivalent of your social security pension is the aged pension. Your trips for the remainder of this year sound amazing. Have a fantastic time.

 

 

Leigh

Edited May 16, 2019 by possum52

[Thrak]

2 are out of Melbourne and the last one is out of Brisbane. The one you mention, the first one,  is the one I lean toward. My wife just keeps on coming up with alternatives though. I thought this one would work well but, like all cruises, it's really just a sampler. One takes what one can get. Thanks for your input.

Edited May 16, 2019 by Thrak

[SinbadThePorter]

6 hours ago, Thrak said:

2 are out of Melbourne and the last one is out of Brisbane. The one you mention, the first one,  is the one I lean toward. My wife just keeps on coming up with alternatives though. I thought this one would work well but, like all cruises, it's really just a sampler. One takes what one can get. Thanks for your input.

 

That first one would be the Sapphire Princess in November to December 2020?

 

Good time of year, just before the school holidays. It takes in pretty much the whole of the Australian coastline between Port Lincoln and Port Douglas. An excellent choice if you go with it. Melbourne is a fine city to visit, just that it lacks some of Sydney's attributes, but that would be covered by your Queensland cruise anyway.

 

Of course for your next Australian cruise, you could try a circumnavigation of Australia and/or side trips to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Fiji.😎

 

Whatever you choose, remember to take it easy and go with the flow.

[Thrak]

Yep, that's the series of cruises. My wife keeps trying to find a good series earlier in the year - February or March - but isn't coming up with things that really work. I don't have a problem with the timing of this series. As for a circumnavigation of Australia... That is also something we are seriously looking at but not at this time. Australia is so big and so diverse that we feel we actually ought to do a circumnavigation. Of course, if we had the money, we'd just do a land trip for a month or more and would still barely scratch the surface.

[GUT2407]

On 5/16/2019 at 5:55 PM, Thrak said:

Wow. Lots of interesting replies! My wife keeps looking and, just today, hit me with several other cruise groupings in the same "area".  Fortunately there is plenty of time to look into all of them. I now have 3 "saved vacations" on Princess. We leave in 2 days for a 15 day connoisseur cruise tour to Alaska and will spend 3 days after that visiting folks outside Vancouver. (You can meet some very nice folks on cruises.) After that we'll do a cross country camping trip - Northern US this time - for probably 6 weeks or so. We have a little teardrop trailer which is essentially a queen sized bed on wheels with a "kitchen" area under a rear hatch. We did 7 weeks up to Fairbanks a couple of years ago and it was great. My wife is "collecting" US National Parks. Of course we had to cruise to get the one in the Virgin Islands and the one in American Samoa.

 

After that trip we have a 12 day Northern Lights cruise out of Southampton to Alta, Norway. When we get back to Southampton we fly to Barcelona for 4 days and then take a 14 day TA to Florida and fly back to California from there. I find it amazing she is checking into all of these Australia/New Zealand cruises already. However, I just say, "Yes, Dear" and check them out. Like I said, I now have 3 saved vacations on Princess. I wish we could do a combination of cruising and land tour (I won't rule that out) but Australia is so dang big there's really no way to "see" it on a brief land tour and cruising may be all we get. (Which of course allows one to see even less of the country...) I suppose I could start buying lottery tickets and hope for the best but that's not a very "certain" way to afford anything. We're lucky we can cruise at all. My wife says she's having trouble with the Sydney cruises lining up for B2B2B whereas out of Melbourne it seems to be easy to make it work.

 

Some of the trips we are looking at are:

 

6 Days Southern Australia Explorer

13 Days New Zealand

14 Days Queensland

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7 Days Southern Australia Explorer

5 Days Tasmania

13 Days New Zealand

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10 Days Tasmania

4 Days Australian Getaway

14 Days New Zealand

======================

 

They all are in the $12,000 + range without flights or hotels. Strange since I have a very modest pension and we both have small Social Security pensions as well. (Not sure what that is called in Oz. Age Pension?) Not what one would call wealthy by any means. I'm sure my wife will come up with more for me to look at. She's like that. I will, of course, once again say, "Yes, Dear" and look at them. I find that she's worth it. Heck, she's put up with me for a very long time. 😏

 

Not having the full itineraries (and being too lazy to go looking) the first would take my fancy if I were a visitor to THe area.

[GUT2407]

A circumnavigation is always an option, especially if you can snag one that includes PNG and some of NZ

[OzKiwiJJ]

The first combination looks like the ideal combination. Is that US $12,000+ per person or for two, and for what cabin type? 

 

I can check the AUD prices for you if you give me the dates.