Help me make a decision

[lefty1966]

First time to Australia & NZ trying to decide between HAL 42-day South Pacific Is. & NZ collector(Jan4-Feb 15/26 or Azamara 21N Australia Intensive Voyage/16N Australia&NZ Voyage(Dec 14/25-Jan 4-Jan 20/26. Azamara starts in Singapore and goes down west coast to south and over to NZ. HAL starts in Sydney and goes up and east to Pacific Is. and over to NZ, visits Tasmania and back to Sydney. Appreciate any advice TIA

[Muffinz]

depends on a number of things like - Which one has the most port stops you are interested in?

and which one offers best value for money?

 

the Pacific Islands like Fiji, Tonga, Samoa are very hot in the summer months with temps regularly in the 30's (celcius) with high humidity and Jan / Feb can also be their rainy season

 

We've not cruised with either HAL or Azamara, but friends have cruised with Azamara and said it was amazing

 

 

[SinbadThePorter]

9 hours ago, lefty1966 said:

Appreciate any advice TIA

 

It depends on your preferences.

 

The HAL cruise is a loop through the Pacific Islands and East Coast Australia. The Azamara is one way Singapore to Auckland around the southern coast of Australia.

 

If your preference is tropical islands, then HAL. If it's to see Australia/NZ, then Azamara.

 

If it was me, I'd be jumping on board Azamara.

[Aus Traveller]

In my opinion, the HAL itinerary sounds much more interesting.

[icat2000]

Both are great choices. But as others have commented on it depends on what your number 1 priority is it desintation or is the ship the destination.

 

The HAL one sounds amazing. Especially the Tahiti port stops.

[lefty1966]

4 hours ago, Muffinz said:

depends on a number of things like - Which one has the most port stops you are interested in?

and which one offers best value for money?

 

the Pacific Islands like Fiji, Tonga, Samoa are very hot in the summer months with temps regularly in the 30's (celcius) with high humidity and Jan / Feb can also be their rainy season

 

We've not cruised with either HAL or Azamara, but friends have cruised with Azamara and said it was amazing

 

 

I’m gonna have to research the ports, I was hoping for an easy do the west or do the east answer. We have been to French Polynesia, so I’m thinking the HAL route would be like that. I have heard Azamara is amazing as well 

[lefty1966]

4 hours ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

It depends on your preferences.

 

The HAL cruise is a loop through the Pacific Islands and East Coast Australia. The Azamara is one way Singapore to Auckland around the southern coast of Australia.

 

If your preference is tropical islands, then HAL. If it's to see Australia/NZ, then Azamara.

 

If it was me, I'd be jumping on board Azamara.

I’m leaning towards Azamara. We want Australia/NZ experience. 

[lefty1966]

3 hours ago, icat2000 said:

Both are great choices. But as others have commented on it depends on what your number 1 priority is it desintation or is the ship the destination.

 

The HAL one sounds amazing. Especially the Tahiti port stops.

No Tahiti, but nice tropical places. Priority is the destination, but for that length of time a decent ship rates high as well

[SinbadThePorter]

1 hour ago, lefty1966 said:

We have been to French Polynesia, so I’m thinking the HAL route would be like that.

 

The islands on that HAL itinerary are more third world than is FP.

 

The Azamara itinerary would be more familiar in terms of infrastructure and facilities.

[MicCanberra]

As far as cruiselines go, I would cruise Azamara over HAL, smaller ships, better service, more inclusions for the price, etc. Of course prices can vary dramatically depending on itinerary. Both normally have great itineraries, and this is the case here.

 

HAL

 

Azamara

Personally , I prefer the HAL itinerary as it has Australia,  NZ and numerous Island countries but internationals would most likely want a more comprehensive Australian and NZ cruise so Azamara is better for international.

[sewgood]

17 hours ago, lefty1966 said:

Azamara starts in Singapore

Singapore is very interesting if you haven't been there before.

There's lots to see and do in the city so it makes a great start or end cruise port.

Sydney is great too especially for English speakers but Singapore is a little more westerners and on both cruises you will see a bit of Sydney.

 

 

[Aus Traveller]

35 minutes ago, MicCanberra said:

As far as cruiselines go, I would cruise Azamara over HAL, smaller ships, better service, more inclusions for the price, etc. Of course prices can vary dramatically depending on itinerary. Both normally have great itineraries, and this is the case here.

 

HAL

 

Azamara

Personally , I prefer the HAL itinerary as it has Australia,  NZ and numerous Island countries but internationals would most likely want a more comprehensive Australian and NZ cruise so Azamara is better for international.

thanks Mic for showing us the itineraries. This reinforces my preference for the HAL cruise, however obviously the OP will be guided by their personal preferences. The Azamara option has a lot of sea days.

[MicCanberra]

Another thought is flights, one would be Canada to Sydney return, the other Canada to Singapore and then Auckland to Canada.

Return flights tend to be cheaper than Multicity flights.

[arxcards]

+1 for HAL.

For the Aussie part, it has QLD ports that offset the ports Azamara has in WA & SA.

 

Also depends on whether you want to do pre-post cruise in Singapore & Auckland, or in Sydney.

[Muffinz]

Having looked at the itineries the HAL cruise does go to more interesting places... but some of those islands may be quite small and and might only be accessable by tender boats?

[Aus Traveller]

54 minutes ago, Muffinz said:

Having looked at the itineries the HAL cruise does go to more interesting places... but some of those islands may be quite small and and might only be accessable by tender boats?

The HAL cruise certainly goes to a lot of very interesting and very scenic places.

 

Re tender access - by my calculation, the Azamara option has five gender ports (Bali, Margaret R, Kangaroo Is, Eden and Bay of Islands) while the HAL option has six tender ports (Bay of Is, Dravuni, Inyeug (Mystery Is), Kiriwina, Conflict Is and Moreton). I hope I haven't missed any. 🙂

[MicCanberra]

Azamara Pursuit is a small ship, 777 pax 380 crew, it is a lovely ship. It will be able to dock in Eden and most likely able to dock in Bali as well. Even with tender ports it goes easily with so few passengers.

HALs Noordam is much larger, also a nice ship, over 1900 pax, 800 crew.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, Aus Traveller said:

The HAL cruise certainly goes to a lot of very interesting and very scenic places.

 

Re tender access - by my calculation, the Azamara option has five gender ports (Bali, Margaret R, Kangaroo Is, Eden and Bay of Islands) while the HAL option has six tender ports (Bay of Is, Dravuni, Inyeug (Mystery Is), Kiriwina, Conflict Is and Moreton). I hope I haven't missed any. 🙂

Eden isn't a tender port for reasonable sized ships - we docked there on Grand Princess last year.

[arxcards]

11 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Eden isn't a tender port for reasonable sized ships - we docked there on Grand Princess last year.

True. And they are still upgrading to be able to take most of the not so reasonably sized ships too.

[Bubbeh]

Do the Azamara one, come see our beautiful side of the country.