Cheap prices on Aurora!

[paulatsea]

1 minute ago, wowzz said:

Yes, my idea of hell is to be sitting with hundreds of others in rough weather.

Me too -  for me a balcony is best - in any weather.

[jeanlyon]

17 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

If you can find a seat in the Crows Nest when the weather is too rough to be on the open decks.

Have never found it to be that crowded yet and there are other places on Aurora.  Library etc.

[Britboys]

16 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

If you can find a seat in the Crows Nest when the weather is too rough to be on the open decks.

Never had a problem getting a seat in the Crows Nest during the day. Can be a challenge getting one immediately next to the windows but with it being a tiered room, you can see out from most of the seats.

[Fionboard]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

Never had a problem getting a seat in the Crows Nest during the day. Can be a challenge getting one immediately next to the windows but with it being a tiered room, you can see out from most of the seats.

Yes, plenty of seats on this cruise and most people are inside.

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

Nope, we just go to the Crow's nest with a book!

How do you manage to frighten someone into giving up their seat????

[yorkshirephil]

25 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

How do you manage to frighten someone into giving up their seat????

I usually shout "whale" then when someone jumps out I jump in, simples😆

[Happy afloat]

1 hour ago, yorkshirephil said:

I usually shout "whale" then when someone jumps out I jump in, simples😆

If you shout "ICEBERG" they all run to the back of the ship!

[tring]

Well just got a very cheap price on Arcadia.  We have just booked J306N departing 6th June for 16 nights for a tad under £1600pp select price for a grade ED balcony (the agent discount increased a bit because of my Blue Light Card - they give a discount equal to the OBC we would receive from P&O if we booked direct). Also got free parking and £175pp OBC.  So cannot complain about that.

 

It is a very good Fjords/Baltic itinerary.  Seems more worthwhile for us traveling to Southampton if spending a while on a ship, rather than just a short cruise.  Sadly I fear the 16 nighters will not be repeated for new season releases, going north, now that SPB is a no go.

 

[paulatsea]

1 hour ago, tring said:

Well just got a very cheap price on Arcadia.  We have just booked J306N departing 6th June for 16 nights for a tad under £1600pp select price for a grade ED balcony (the agent discount increased a bit because of my Blue Light Card - they give a discount equal to the OBC we would receive from P&O if we booked direct). Also got free parking and £175pp OBC.  So cannot complain about that.

 

It is a very good Fjords/Baltic itinerary.  Seems more worthwhile for us traveling to Southampton if spending a while on a ship, rather than just a short cruise.  Sadly I fear the 16 nighters will not be repeated for new season releases, going north, now that SPB is a no go.

 

Good deal . Well done 👍 

[paulatsea]

Apologies but off topic - anyone done uk to Australia fly cruise ? 
don’t know which forum to look at but want do this 2024.

best time and best line etc ?

Any p&o we could do this on ?

[Waju]

1 hour ago, paulatsea said:

Apologies but off topic - anyone done uk to Australia fly cruise ? 
don’t know which forum to look at but want do this 2024.

best time and best line etc ?

Any p&o we could do this on ?

It would be a World Cruise segment wouldn't it?  So Arcadia, I believe, for the next two years - I think Australia would fall end of January/early Feb?

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, paulatsea said:

Apologies but off topic - anyone done uk to Australia fly cruise ? 
don’t know which forum to look at but want do this 2024.

best time and best line etc ?

Any p&o we could do this on ?

Presumably you mean sail one way, fly the other? P&O, Cunard, Fred Olsen, Ambassador I think all have that as an option. Mostly ships leaving Southampton early January and arriving back early April-ish...

[wowzz]

Your question is not clear.

Are you wanting to fly to Australia,  and then sail back to the UK? 

Edited March 25, 2023 by wowzz

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, paulatsea said:

Apologies but off topic - anyone done uk to Australia fly cruise ? 
don’t know which forum to look at but want do this 2024.

best time and best line etc ?

Any p&o we could do this on ?

Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, as well as some other lines, all have ships positioned in Australia during the southern hemisphere summer, generally November through to March.

We did a Princess Sydney to Auckland cruise 16 yrs ago but organised our own long haul and internal flights along with Barrier Reef, Ulhuru, Sydney and Auckland highlights through Trailfinders, and very enjoyable it was, despite BA c*****g up our outbound flight.

[wowzz]

32 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, as well as some other lines, all have ships positioned in Australia during the southern hemisphere summer, generally November through to March.

We did a Princess Sydney to Auckland cruise 16 yrs ago but organised our own long haul and internal flights along with Barrier Reef, Ulhuru, Sydney and Auckland highlights through Trailfinders, and very enjoyable it was, despite BA c*****g up our outbound flight.

Sounds like a great trip.

I've been following a live worldie blog from Island Princess.  The passengers on board had exactly one day in Sydney!  I mean - what is the point of sailing around the world, paying thousands of pounds/dollars and then having just 8 hours ashore in a great city ?

[paulatsea]

5 hours ago, wowzz said:

Your question is not clear.

Are you wanting to fly to Australia,  and then sail back to the UK? 

Sorry - I meant fly both ways and do say 2/3 weeks cruise in Australia.

thanks for all replies everyone.

Edited March 26, 2023 by paulatsea

[paulatsea]

5 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, as well as some other lines, all have ships positioned in Australia during the southern hemisphere summer, generally November through to March.

We did a Princess Sydney to Auckland cruise 16 yrs ago but organised our own long haul and internal flights along with Barrier Reef, Ulhuru, Sydney and Auckland highlights through Trailfinders, and very enjoyable it was, despite BA c*****g up our outbound flight.

Thanks terrierjohn - that sounds the best option - to organise our own flights and pick up a ship there as I haven’t seen any cruise company that does flights both ways and a cruise all together - I would prefer that option in case anything went wrong with the flights etc but I don’t think it’s possible - but like you did we could do the whole package via trailfinders and have some support if needed.

The world cruise segments I have seen only seem to fly one way.

 

Bucket list job !

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by paulatsea

[Waju]

2 hours ago, paulatsea said:

Thanks terrierjohn - that sounds the best option - to organise our own flights and pick up a ship there as I haven’t seen any cruise company that does flights both ways and a cruise all together - I would prefer that option in case anything went wrong with the flights etc but I don’t think it’s possible - but like you did we could do the whole package via trailfinders and have some support if needed.

The world cruise segments I have seen only seem to fly one way.

 

Bucket list job !

 

I saw a cruise advertised the other day that circumnavigated Australia, it looked amazing.  Sorry, not very helpful but I can't for the life of me remember where I saw it 😒 

[Selbourne]

7 hours ago, wowzz said:

Sounds like a great trip.

I've been following a live worldie blog from Island Princess.  The passengers on board had exactly one day in Sydney!  I mean - what is the point of sailing around the world, paying thousands of pounds/dollars and then having just 8 hours ashore in a great city ?

One of the drawbacks of cruising unfortunately. I was looking through the detailed itinerary the other day of the ‘proper’ World Cruise - the one that is taking 3 years! Absolutely amazing itinerary, as you’d expect. As well as going to pretty much everywhere that you’d want to go around the world, it does every country in real detail. Only the smallest places have a one day visit, most have two days and the biggest locations have up to five days and sometimes a week. You’d have the best of both worlds, with no flights or packing and unpacking at each place (the advantage of cruising) but still get chance to really get to know places and travel much further afield from the ports (one of the drawbacks of traditional cruising). 
 

Also, one of the many things that deters me from a ‘traditional’ world cruise is the long runs of sea days, of which there are many. On the 3 year one if there’s a small island they can stop at on major crossings they do! If we didn’t have children or elderly parents still alive, we could have been tempted! A proper ‘once in a lifetime’ experience and, if you are of a certain age, cheaper than a care home!

[yorkshirephil]

3 hours ago, paulatsea said:

Sorry - I meant fly both ways and do say 2/3 weeks cruise in Australia.

thanks for all replies everyone.

Trawl the travel agents on t'internet, there are lots that do fly cruises to Australia.

[paulatsea]

22 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

Trawl the travel agents on t'internet, there are lots that do fly cruises to Australia.

Yes - I was interested to hear of any personal experiences from people on this forum.

[wowzz]

Personally,  I'm not convinced that a cruise is the best way to see Australia. 

[yorkshirephil]

25 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Personally,  I'm not convinced that a cruise is the best way to see Australia. 

That is my view too, although there are some longer cruises that circumnavigate Australia. We are looking at OZ and NZ in 2027 for my 70th birthday and even now in the initial stages it is looking impossible to do everything we want in one. 

[paulatsea]

28 minutes ago, wowzz said:

Personally,  I'm not convinced that a cruise is the best way to see Australia. 

I agree - but we just want a taste of the Southern Hemisphere and Australia  -  if you know what I mean - without to much hard travelling !

 

I think we will do the world cruise segment - fly  out to Brisbane and back from Hong Kong via Manila. Looks good. Arcadia feb 24.

 

 

[Dermotsgirl]

1 hour ago, paulatsea said:

I agree - but we just want a taste of the Southern Hemisphere and Australia  -  if you know what I mean - without to much hard travelling !

 

I think we will do the world cruise segment - fly  out to Brisbane and back from Hong Kong via Manila. Looks good. Arcadia feb 24.

 

 

I can recommend that approach.

 

I really dislike flying, but wanted to go to Australia.

 

In 2017, we did 2 legs of the Aurora world cruise. We flew out to Singapore, and boarded the ship, sailing down to Australia, where we docked at Perth, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island (tender port), Melbourne and 2 days in Sydney. Originally, we thought we’d fly back to the U.K. from Sydney, but the ship was going on to New Zealand, so we stayed on to do NZ as well. There was no way I was up for flying back from Auckland, so we sailed across the Pacific, which gave us the opportunity to stop at Hawaii for Pearl Harbour, and we ended up in San Francisco, another bucket list place.

 

This all took 7 weeks, and it was a fabulous experience. We saw a lot of the things we had always wanted to see, with flights that weren’t ‘too’ long.

 

Hope you get the chance to do something similar.