March or October cruise?

[sandinmyshoes]

We would like to do a Transpacific cruise between Vancouver and Sydney.  Will the weather be more mild (cooler with less humidity and less rainy are our priorities) for a March cruise from Sydney or an October cruise to Sydney?  Rough seas are not a problem for us, so the outside temperature will be our deciding factor.  

[nini]

Transpacifics are only offered basically two times a year, due to re-positioning. We are booked on a TP which begins on March 31, 2023  and begins in Sydney.

There is a 27 day TP from Vancouver to Sydney on September 23rd, 2023 on the Princess website.

[sandinmyshoes]

Exactly.  That is why I am wondering if March or October is the better choice for this itinerary.  🙂

 

[nini]

1 hour ago, sandinmyshoes said:

Exactly.  That is why I am wondering if March or October is the better choice for this itinerary.  🙂

 

March would be their Fall and October would be their Spring. Hopefully, someone from down under will join in.

[SinbadThePorter]

At the Sydney end, March is definitely warmer than October.

 

Across the Pacific there isn't really enough difference to matter. October is maybe a little drier in the South Pacific. The ocean is probably a little warmer in March.

 

 

[Thrak]

My wife said she has checked these out and found the itineraries to be very different depending on direction. When she looked the trip from Vancouver (or LA) to Australia had only one brief stop in New Zealand. She said that going the other way - Australia to Vancouver (or LA) there were a number of stops in New Zealand before heading out across the big water. Not sure if this is the case for the cruises you are looking at but it would make a huge difference for us if we were looking to book one or the other.

[SinbadThePorter]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

When she looked the trip from Vancouver (or LA) to Australia had only one brief stop in New Zealand. She said that going the other way - Australia to Vancouver (or LA) there were a number of stops in New Zealand before heading out across the big water.

 

That depends on whether the ship is doing one last NZ cruise before heading across the Pacific. If that's the case then the NZ stops are rolled into the TransPacific. It's been known in both directions.

 

It's more usual to make stops only in Auckland and maybe Bay of Islands in NZ, but the other cruises with more NZ ports do exist.

[OzKiwiJJ]

On 5/25/2022 at 7:14 AM, sandinmyshoes said:

We would like to do a Transpacific cruise between Vancouver and Sydney.  Will the weather be more mild (cooler with less humidity and less rainy are our priorities) for a March cruise from Sydney or an October cruise to Sydney?  Rough seas are not a problem for us, so the outside temperature will be our deciding factor.  

If you are asking about the weather in Sydney before/after your cruise then October will be starting to warm up but probably less humid, March will still be fairly warm and more humid. Typically (apart from this year) the summer weather pattern in Sydney is a four day (on average) cycle going warm -> warmer -> very warm -> hot with a thunderstorm in the late afternoon/evening, then repeating. This pattern rarely starts as early as October but could still be happening in March.

 

If you are asking about the weather during your cruise remember you are crossing the equator and going from autumn/fall to spring. It will be cooler at the start/end and could get very warm in the tropics. You will probably get some showery days. March is at the tail end of our cyclone season so there is a very slim chance you might get affected by the edges of a cyclone but cruise ships tend to avoid going through the middle of them, thank goodness.