Not sure what to book

[Casper2007]

Hello All:)

I am new to this site.Me and hubby are thinking of cruising next year but have no idea where to go.Never cruised before so not sure the best Islands to go to:confused: .So if yous could please give me some ideas I would really be grateful to you all..

Thank you:)

[maxx]

Welcome.

I'm sure you will be surprised at the help you get from here. It's amazing. Even those really stupid questions are answered, I certainly had plenty. This forumis like an extension of your circle of friends. Lots & lots of wonderful people, full of encouragement and good wishes.

[Casper2007]

Hi Maxx,

Thank U for your reply and yes I am really hoping I can get a lot of information from all you cruisers.And I really hope it is not a stupid question:confused: .So I thank who ever can answer me..:)

[karmac]

Hi Casper

 

Welcome to the boards. As Maxx said, your questions (no matter how silly or trivial you think they are) will be answered from one or more of the very friendly people on here.

 

As for where to visit on your cruise. For us, ports weren't an issue. We just wanted a cruise & didn't really care where we went. We now only have 18 days to go & boy are we excited:D

 

Karen

[Casper2007]

Hi Karen,

Yes I understand it is all about the relaxing and meeting people but I love to look at all different places as well.Just to check out how different and beautiful the people are and there islands.I bet U are very exicted to be going in 18 days.If U dont mind may I ask where U are going and what ship??:)

[DanFromSyd]

Hi Casper,

 

Im assuming your doing a cruise from either Sydney or Brisbane.

 

I can recommend any cruise on the pacific Sun, its a wonderful ship!

My favourite islands are

Mystery Island

Wala.

 

I belive Isle of pines is also wonderful.

based on the info I've gathered from here and my own experiences;

 

The cruises tend to go to either Noumea or Villa (Villa seems prefered althoguh Noumea was quite nice)

Then a series of lslands which are all nice but some are better then others.

 

hope that helps,

 

Dan

[Whoey]

Hiya, as there are only two of you a two berth cabin (called a twin) would be the go. These are available on all the ships, so the question really is where do you live (which state) and do you want to cruise the

 

A) South Pacific Islands

B) North East of Australia

C) New Zealand

D) Asia - there are some fly/cruise trips on offer for Pacific Sky

 

These are your basic three choices and do depend on where you start from. We live in Melbourne and flew up to Sydney to catch Pacific Sun and cruised the South Pacific, was awesome! I highly recommend the South Pacific islands as they are simply beautiful.

 

Also, how long a cruise do you want to take which can be worked out based on your approximate budget.

 

I hope that helps.

[Casper2007]

Hi Dan,

Thank you very much for your input and yes it all helps. Yes I have heard the Sun is the better ship to go on.Any chance U could answer a question 4 me plz.... How long is the longest cruise U can do on the Sun??? We both can get a month off if needed. (By then we my need it LOL) Will be getting on at Sydney.

Thank You

[karmac]

Hi Karen,

Yes I understand it is all about the relaxing and meeting people but I love to look at all different places as well.Just to check out how different and beautiful the people are and there islands.I bet U are very exicted to be going in 18 days.If U dont mind may I ask where U are going and what ship??:)

 

Hi Casper

 

We (myself, DH & 3 kids) are going on Pacific Sun. We leave 2nd April & go to Luganville, Wala, Pentecost, Vila & Lifou. Vila is the only place I've been to before. As Dan said, most go to either Noumea or Vila (although I think all Brisbane ones go to Noumea). I personally prefer Vila & am glad we're going there & not Noumea. We booked this in Oct '04 so as you can imagine we can't believe it is almost here.

 

BTW Dan, how are you mate? You've been quiet. Maybe we should re-hash the "Chat Thread".:)

 

Karen

[Casper2007]

Hi Whoey,

We will be going from Sydney.As from picking where to go that is the problem:confused: Dont know where to go.Hubby does not care where we go as long as we are together(REAL SWEETHEART). And I have never been outside Australia and there is so many places to visit. Thats why I was told about this site from a friend and she said to get on here and ask all you's lovely people. As for the budget that is not a problem and we can take at least a month off also..So I am just confussed as to where the heck to go:confused: LOL

[Skyrules]

Hi Dan,

Thank you very much for your input and yes it all helps. Yes I have heard the Sun is the better ship to go on.Any chance U could answer a question 4 me plz.... How long is the longest cruise U can do on the Sun??? We both can get a month off if needed. (By then we my need it LOL) Will be getting on at Sydney.

Thank You

 

I think the longest cruises on Pacific Star & Pacific Sun are 12 nights.

 

Pacific Sun does a mix 9-12 night cruises out of Sydney to New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji

 

Pacific Star does a mix of 7 - 12 night cruises from Brisbane to North Queensland, New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji.

 

Pacific Star also spends 2-3 months in winter based in Auckland and does cruises to New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga. There is also a Brisbane - Noumea - Auckland and an Auckland - Noumea - Brisbane cruise at either end of the Auckland season. Don't know whether they still have them, but there were special fly/cruise packages available for the cruises out of Auckland.

 

For longer cruises you'd probably need to look at Diamond (or Sapphire next year) Princess or Pacific Princess during the summer months - they do the longer cruises.

 

 

Go to this website http://www.pocruises.com.au/html/brochures.cfm and order yourself a brochure for the 2006/07 cruise season - or pick up the brochure from your travel agent - that way you can compare all the cruises in one book.

 

Kym

[Casper2007]

Thank you kim for that information..Will have to check everything out as i wont to book by June.

[Whoey]

I think P&O do a November cruise from Sydney which is 13 nights and goes to Fiji. I don't know of any other longer cruises, I have seen a few 12 nights. You could always do a back to back cruise like 9 nights then 11 nights or something like that. Back to back cruises get an additional 5% discount on the second cruise as well. Therefore a 35% off cruise would become 40% off.

 

Most people try one cruise first to see how they go with seasickness, that sort of thing. I think some of the Pacific Star (Brisbane) cruises terminate in New Zealand which means you could always do one of those and then spend a week or two seeing New Zealand, hire a car or whatever (then fly back).

 

Just be aware the longer you cruise the more spending money you would need for drinks and whatever else.

[aussiedisneyfan]

I think 13 nights on Pacific Sun from Sydney is the longest. We have recently done that one and loved it. It does Fiji and Vanuatu. If you want duty free, Vila is a must for alcohol and cigarettes.

 

I really like Lamen Bay, Isle of Pines and Mystery Island. Everyone says Champagne Bay is beautiful.

 

As Skyrules says you will need to look at one of the international ships for a longer cruise. You could do a back-to-back cruise if you wanted to stretch it out. I think you get an extra discount for booking back to back but it may depend on what kind of fare you book.

[Whoey]

Here is a link to the Nov 10, 1006 Pacific Sun cruise from Sydney - 13 night cruise:

 

http://www.pocruises.com.au/html/n634.cfm

 

Empress Deck (best deck short of a suite) is currently $2967 with the 35% off discount on offer for bookings before end of May 2006. This is for an outside (has two large windows to see outside) twin cabin per person.

 

Effectively that would be $6000 for the two of you before any spending money (shopping for Souveniers, casino, onboard photo's at $20 per photo, drinks etc etc). Most people go through a fair amount of money on a cruise, especially in alcoholic drinks, cocktails, bottles of wine, beer, spirits, whatever you are into :)

[mummsie]

You can do much longer cruises with Princess. It depends what you want to do. If you have never been out of Australia everything will be fantastic. You can do P&O out of Sydney or Princess out of Sydney - they usually go between Sydney and Auckland so you would have to fly one way. We flew to Auckland and cruised back to Sydney. I loved this cruise. Good length and good amount of sea days. As somebody else said, you don't necessarily go for the ports. I much prefer the sea days. Nice and relaxing just watching the world slip by. Our next cruise, we are flying to Singapore and cruising up to Bankok and back. So you see, its all up to what you want out of your cruise. Mummsie

[Skyrules]

I think some of the Pacific Star (Brisbane) cruises terminate in New Zealand which means you could always do one of those and then spend a week or two seeing New Zealand, hire a car or whatever (then fly back).

 

There's one cruise Brisbane - Auckland and one Auckland - Brisbane;

 

 

Cruise R618 Dep Brisbane May 20th http://www.pocruises.com.au/html/r618.cfm Brisbane - Noumea - Isle of Pines - Mystery Island - Auckland

 

Cruise R626 Dep Auckland August 11 http://www.pocruises.com.au/html/r626.cfm Auckland - Mystery Island - Isle of Pines - Noumea - Brisbane

[DanFromSyd]

BTW Dan, how are you mate? You've been quiet. Maybe we should re-hash the "Chat Thread".:)

 

Karen

 

Hey Karen,

Im well thanks.. I'll find the chat thread and post so as not to clutter this thread :-)

 

Cheers,

Dan

[Skyrules]

A good back-to-back combination is two combine the two 7 night cruises out of Brisbane on Pacific Star

 

Brisbane - Whitsundays - Cairns - Port Douglas - Brisbane and (eg http://www.pocruises.com.au/html/r703.cfm)

Brisbane - Noumea - Lifou - Vila - Brisbane. (eg http://www.pocruises.com.au/html/r704.cfm)

 

These two cruises are repeated regulary throughout the year, and always run consectutively - enabling the back to back option, with a discount for the second cruise. This combination is good as you don't double up on stops.

 

The drawback of any back to back cruises on the P&O ships is you'll see the same shows/activities/etc twice, and have the same menu will repeat from one cruise to the next.

[NARELLE]

Casper

I have been on quite a few ships and different cruises from 12 days to 6 weeks.

Personally we favour the longer cruises for the love of cruising.

We went pn pacific sun for New year. my favourite pacific islands in order wld be

Champagne Bay, Yasawi-rari, Wala, Vila, Isle of Pines, Mystery Island, Lifou, Lamen Bay and definately hate Noumea.

Last year we went from Sydney to Bangkok on the Sapphire Princess - a truly outstanding ship. We have now just booked to go on Sapphire next January again flying over to New Zealand and picking up the ship to cruise back to Sydney.

R & R and fun in the sun is definately on Pacific Sun. Next year a new ship the Pacific Dawn will be in our waters. Itineraries for this ship have not been released yet and cruises aren't till the end of the year. I am not sure when you are planning on going?

if yhou have specific questions feel free to ask

[Gyyp]

 

The Pacific Sun is doing a 14 night cruise on 16/8/06, cruise N625, but normally 13 is the max. It goes to Noumea, Dravuni Is, Suva, Yasawa-I-Rara, Vila, Mystery Is and Ouvea.

[girl05]

Hi, welcome:)

 

I've just come back from a cruise which went to Noumea,wala,vila,

Hienghene,Isle of the Pines and Port vila. My favourite port was Wala and my least favourite was Hienghene(It was a lot of other peoples least favourite stop too)

 

I want to book another cruise for next year around Feb/March and have been thinking about N705 Summer Rose-13nights, it goes to vanuatu, fiji, and New Caledonia:)

[smurfette]

I personally love Isle of Pines - that just oooozes relaztion (and believe me it takes alot for me to relax).

My family found that in Vila we did and all day island adventure and got out of the main town. We toured the whole island with a guide with lunch included and a traditional canoe ride. The kids loved this as did my hubby and I. In Noumea we didn't find it smelly or as dirty as everyone said and did the Lil Petitte Train tour and a 4 wheel drive tour. This once again took us out of the town and showed us more than just what the city was like. My TA advised me to take the family out of the main cities as it shows you what it is truely like to be in those countries.

 

As with any holiday it's what you make it.

 

Have fun booking.

[Casper2007]

:) Hi everyone,

I really must thank you all for your help. It is so wonderful of you's to help me.Showed hubby and he was blown away with all the help:) So now we just have to decide on where we wont to go..:) So once again THANK YOU ALL very much:)

[suexxx]

welcoming your family to our family. Iam also new and have had great help. We dont cruise until feb 2007.We are going on the sun. If you go to the P&O aust web site you can see all the ships and where they are going up till i think may 2007. You can also follow which ever cruise you want. I am doing this and get great delite.When members return I look forward to their reviews. our cruise will be our first and I hope to do more.