Australia/New Zealand worth it? Any advice/thoughts?

[DaisyUK]

• Wow, thank you Stickman and everyone else who has responded. Plenty of food for thought. We are still deliberating. If we decide to go ahead I'll take you up on your offer! Thanks again!

[Old Sea Dog]

Yes it is well worth the experience.

We have been fortunate to do it three times however if you are elderly like ourselves we would recommend breaking the journey each way

On our first visit we did the return direct from Auckland with just a change of planes in Singapore and it took us nearly a week to recover. Subsequent visits we have stayed over in Dubai, Hong Kong, and found the trip totally manageable and enjoyable.

All the advice you have been given is very relevant to a trip of this nature from the U.K. 

[Midtowngal]

10 hours ago, Roland4 said:

Since you are going to be there four nights, I highly recommend a trip out to Doyle's at Watson's Bay for lunch. You can take the ferry from Circular Quay out to Watson's Bay, and the restaurant is right off the pier to the left! Some of the best seafood in the Sydney area, as Stickman, a good friend, will attest! Reservations recommended, and try the Seafood Tower!!! Just don't plan on a big dinner that evening!!!!

Thank you!

[Txcotn]

16 hours ago, seasack said:

I agree completely a lot of unforced errors on Crystal’s excursion. What I was trying to put across was I enjoyed the experience of being there for NYE very much and when I was there to experience it. 

I was on that Crystal organized NYE party cruise a previous year (2012) and it was awesome. In the intervening year there was a change in management and that meant all the difference. We 2 boats, fully stocked with lobsters and Sydney oysters etc, and never ran out of Veuve. It was an amazing experience, we had our whole family with us and they were wowed. I know Terry had an awful time of it the following year, but I would hope the problems will be no more, especially under this new management.

Edited October 1, 2023 by Txcotn

[Roland4]

10 hours ago, Stickman1990 said:

Book a table on the beach - the views hard to beat

Then order the seafood tower 

 

 

March 2020 with Stickman!! And other than some of the fries, we finished it!!

[Txcotn]

I'm not good at uploading pictures but we had an amazing seafood tower at Cafe Sydney, atop the Customs House, fabulous views. And if you are somewhat physically fit, the bridge climb is amazing!

Terry is right about Manly, it's a fun day trip. I would skip the Zoo and do Featherdale Wildlife Park as it focuses on Australian wildlife, and while the zoo is a great zoo, it's still a zoo. A trip up to the Blue Mountains would be a wonderful day too. You better plan a week in Sydney!

Edited October 1, 2023 by Txcotn

[mariners]

DaisyUK, Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, all offer fabulous scenery, wonderful food, diverse experiences, and are well worth visiting (multiple times).  If you are on the January 4 - 21 cruise, you will get a taste of what they have to offer.  

 

After experiencing flights to and from Canada a few times, the most recent in 2019, I'm not sure that I would recommend arriving just one day before a cruise, nor flying directly home after a cruise.  To mitigate that experience, we found it best to spend time both pre and post cruise, and would not hesitate to do the same thing again.  For us, that included spending time in other areas such as Margaret River/Perth, Bay of Islands, etc.  If going earlier/staying longer is something you would consider, Stickman, and I'm sure some other people on the board, would be able to provide excellent, current information to you.

 

I join others in their recommendations of taking the local ferries, and enjoying the amazing seafood towers.

[Stickman1990]

6 hours ago, Txcotn said:

I was on that Crystal organized NYE party cruise a previous year (2012) and it was awesome.

Yes we had heard reports from friends on that one about all the fabulous catering and the whole experience - so our expectations were high but sadly not fulfilled 

 

My wife says she knew it wasn’t going to be great the minute we boarded and were handed cheap and nasty paper hats and whistles from a nickel and dime shop. Actually that’s not correct as the staff quickly said - “don’t give one to everyone as we don’t have enough” 

 

One of the other posts about not arriving the day before the cruise reminded me of meeting people in Circular Quay who had flown in from the UK and US to join Serenity in March 2020 for the future legs of the WC2020 - sadly it wasn’t long before they were advised no new guests were boarding Serenity and it was diverting to Perth. It was all downhill from there I’m afraid - and of course they had the challenge of joining the global exodus of travellers trying to get home in the early days of the pandemic before borders shut  

 

Oh well all this talk of Doyles and seafood towers has made me think about heading there for a meal - but we’re having a heat wave at the moment so it’s too hot for outdoor dining - 35 degrees (95 F) yesterday and tomorrow for our holiday weekend - it looks like we’re in for a long hot summer this year 

[sasejm]

On 9/30/2023 at 11:24 AM, DaisyUK said:

Hi, we are considering a 30-day cruise on Symphony in January. Neither of us has ever visited Australia or New Zealand and I am trying to get a feel as to whether it's worth the very long journey or not. Wondering whether any of you who have experienced this part of the world on a cruise think it is unmissable, or whether there are better options closer to home? I realise as I'm typing this that it's very broad question, but nevertheless any insights/advice would be most welcome.

 

About ten years ago, we sailed on Crystal Symphony from San Pedro, California, to Melbourne, Australia. It was around a 40-day cruise, and we visited Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand, Sydney & Melbourne, Australia. We were fortunate enough to be in Sydney on New Year's Eve. Crystal rented two large catamarans, included in the price of the cruise,  for the passengers to see the fireworks display on the Harbour Bridge. We really enjoyed our cruise and highly recommend a cruise to New Zealand and Australia.

[TRIPACIAN]

Another wonderful experience is the “Bondi beach to Coogee” coastal walk!  It is around 3 1/2 miles and is spectacular.  We do this on every visit to Sydney.  As someone said Manly beach is a fun day.

Edited October 1, 2023 by TRIPACIAN
Sp

[May B]

22 hours ago, Roland4 said:

Since you are going to be there four nights, I highly recommend a trip out to Doyle's at Watson's Bay for lunch. You can take the ferry from Circular Quay out to Watson's Bay, and the restaurant is right off the pier to the left! Some of the best seafood in the Sydney area, as Stickman, a good friend, will attest! Reservations recommended, and try the Seafood Tower!!! Just don't plan on a big dinner that evening!!!!

And walk up along the area called The Gap, I think! Loved that very much. Then after lunch, take a city bus to Bondi Beach and walk south to the next beach. Fun!

 

Aha! See Tripacian’s post just before mine.

 

And the bridge climb is a wonderful experience. Mr B wouldn’t do it, but a friend joined me. 

Edited October 2, 2023 by May B

[DaisyUK]

Thank you again everyone for your help and ideas. We're 90% decided that we will do the 17 day sailing, rather than the 30 days so if there are any more 'must-see/must-do' suggestions please let me know! We will not be in Sydney for NYE unfortunately - it's all a bit last-minute and the earliest we can fly out from the UK is the 31st Dec so we plan to arrive late on the 1st Jan and then stay a couple of days after the cruise ends.

[Poppy1966]

On 9/30/2023 at 9:08 PM, Stickman1990 said:

 

We were on that excursion and I certainly wouldn’t call it awesome I’m afraid - but it’s certainly something we’ll never forget! That particular NYE excursion was very memorable - sadly for all the wrong reasons - it was poorly executed by Crystal who ended up compensating guests $1000 each 

We witnessed an actual fight between two guests over a seat on one of the two excursion tenders. They ran out of champagne on one. Basically they chose a local provider for the tenders who was certainly not up to Crystal's standards. Hopefully that never occurs again. I do stress this was old Crystal so there’s no reason to believe it would happen again 

 

We did a NYE cruise on another providers boat (Captain Cook Line - Sydney 2000) last year and there was no comparison - food and atmosphere was 10x better. If the OP is organising a private NYE cruise to enjoy the fireworks let me know and I’d be happy to give you details (ironically I put Crystal friends who were here in 2017 onto that option and they loved it - while we floated around on subpar crowded Crystal excursion boats with inadequate seating, toilet and catering facilities 

 

Re cruising and land in Australia and New Zealand - particularly on Crystal we’ve done several itineraries in the area and Sydney to Bali or reverse on multiple lines including Crystal, we live in Sydney and are from NZ. It’s a great easy way to see a variety of ports - but do try and spend sometime pre cruise to do one or two areas in depth. It’s unfortunate that the cruise you’re looking at doesn’t appear to include cruising the other fjords in Fiordland except Milford Sound - Crystal’s cartographers need a lesson as they’ve com0etely missed that detour off their map! 
 

I can see the 30 days is a combo cruise - Sydney to Sydney cruise around NZ - https://crystalcruises.com/cruises/none-csy-017-240104 - with the one after, on 21 Jan I wouldn’t bother with it if your objective is to see Australia and NZ although an overnight in Cairns is good. The rest of the itinerary is good though if you want to experience some different places like Aloutau and Komodo and ending in Bali gets you close to Singapore to head home (I’d recommend looking at Singapore Airlines Business class for an air option - they are great and the service superb)   - https://crystalcruises.com/cruises/none-csy-013-240121

 

An alternative would be to finish in Sydney and consider a land tour to include the Indian Pacific or Ghan trains (if you can get on at short notice) or explore parts of Australia like Adelaide or South East Queensland - you could easily spend 2 weeks doing that 

 

You have a lot of options depending on your interests and ability to understand land based touring - happy to help with itinerary suggestions 

I was on this cruise too and the NYE Sydney harbour catamarans…I enjoyed the fireworks and well, it was an experience 😂😂..looking after a crew members mother who had a few toots…but the queues to get back onboard through the port terminal must have easily taken over an hour ..think I got back onboard about 1.45am. Oh well we laugh about it now..