Oceania or Princess Sydney to Bangkok

[Cruise Junky]

Hi were currently comparing the two lines. Any suggestions? we've cruised princess before but not Oceania. The itinerary looks a bit better on Oceania.

[shifty]

We love them both. Oceania has great food and more ambiance, as well as no formal nights (country club casual). Princess has better entertainment/night life. We've done both & would do either again in a heartbeat.

[Cruise Junky]

Good to know, thank you. We'll see when the 09/10 itineraries comes out and see suits best.

[Spikesgirl]

We did this itinerary with Princess in 2006 and it was the best cruise we've done to date - out of 10. We were aboard the Pacific Princess, so the ship was smaller, but we thoroughly enjoyed the ship and the crew. We chose to use Princess to tour each port and it was a wise investment of time and money as we really got to see a lot of things that we might not have if we'd tried to do it ourselves.

 

Wealso took advantage of Princess's land tour package post cruise and had an incredible experience with that - Xi'an is not to be missed. If you'd like, drop me an e mail at charliekirby@comcast.net and I will be happy to send you our travel diary.

 

Good luck and I hope you have a great cruise with whatever line you choose.

 

Charlie

[greatam]

One advantage with Oceania-they some overnights in some of the ports. Saigon is difficult if you are on a large ship-you may port in Vung Tau (about 2-3 hours away with the traffic). And I think Oceania overnights in Halong Bay-actually gives you time to see Hanoi AND Halong Bay (which is NOT to be missed)

 

So you spend a LOT of time getting to and from. Bangkok and Beijing are also a LOOOONG way from the ports, so the overnights offered by Oceania allow you to actually see something and not spend your entire port time in traffic (which is a nightmare in most of Asia).

[Cruise Junky]

Thanks guys, looks like the only overnight on the Oceania one is Bangkok. 11 Sea Days on Princess, 8 on Oceania. I think itinerary wise, Oceania gets the nod, but we'll see what dates they both run. Tx

 

OCEANIA

 

1 Sydney, Australia 10:00PM

2 Cruising the Pacific Ocean

3 Brisbane, Australia 8:00AM 6:00PM

4 Cruising the Coral Sea

5 Whitsunday Island, Australia 8:00AM 6:00PM

6 Townsville, Australia 8:00AM 6:00PM

7 Cairns, Australia 8:00AM 6:00PM

8 Cruising the Coral Sea

9 Thursday Island, Australia 7:00AM 1:00PM

10 Cruising the Arafura Sea

11 Darwin, Australia 8:00AM 4:00PM

12 Cruising the Timor Sea

13 Komodo, Indonesia 10:00AM 4:00PM

14 Bali (Padang Bay), Indonesia 9:00AM 8:00PM

15 Cruising the Java Sea

16 Semarang, Indonesia 8:00AM 6:00PM

17 Cruising the Java Sea

18 Singapore, Singapore 11:00AM 7:00PM

19 Cruising the South China Sea

20 Ko Samui, Thailand 9:00AM 4:00PM

21 Bangkok, Thailand 10:00AM

22 Bangkok, Thailand

 

PRINCESS

1 Bangkok (Laem Chabang), Thailand 5:00 PM

2 Ko Samui, Thailand 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

3 At Sea

4 Singapore 8:00 AM 6:00 PM

5 At Sea

6 Ho Chi Minh City (Vung Tau), Vietnam 7:00 AM 7:00 PM

7 At Sea

8 Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia 7:00 AM 6:00 PM

9 At Sea

10 At Sea

11 At Sea

12 At Sea

13 Darwin, Australia 7:00 AM 4:00 PM

14 At Sea

15 At Sea

16 Yorky's 7:00 AM 5:00 PM

17 Airlie Beach, Australia 8:00 AM 6:00 PM

18 At Sea

19 Brisbane, Australia 8:00 AM 6:00 PM

20 At Sea

21 Sydney, Australia 7:00 AM

[greatam]

Now that I see the itineraries, you have to decide whether you want to see a very small portion of Vietnam and Thailand or spend time in Indonesia (which scares the hell out of me-I won't go back to Bali even though I need to for business after the bad vibes I got last year).

 

I thought you were looking at one of the Oceania cruises which touches on Australia but spends a lot of time in Asia.

 

Oceania is by far a more exotic cruise-touches on some little seen places. Princess is more "touristy". Tough decision