cruise or travel on own???

[Travel-Bug]

My husband and I are celebrating our 25th anniv. and want to visit NZ with a stop in Sydney. Being a teacher I'm stuck with going around holiday breaks since I can't take much time off. We are looking at late Nov. which has Celebrity Milen. doing a 14 night or waiting for my spring break in April. I've never booked a cruise so late. Will I get stuck with horrid rooms? Should I go for the guaranteed balcony to save money and see what I get.

 

Or should I do it on my own flying to Auckland, Christchurch and Sydney from SF Calif. My husband refuses to drive on "the other side". Will there be enough transportation to get around and still see the beautiful country? He hates unpacking at hotels so I'd like to have these three home bases if we go on our own.

 

Help!!! Any suggestions? Go with the cruise and be done with it?...........Thanks!

[moojar]

Weeeell, I have never cruised. We are about to, after doing a too-many-stops trip to Thailand last year. Totally sick of the unpack/pack/move-to-next-hotel thing now, we will give cruising a try! :)

 

The problem I see with cruising is, just doing day-trips in those cities you are not going to really experience them other than as 'photo opportunities'. You are flying a long way to just watch places go by from your cabin. IMHO. My idea of the benefit of cruising is it gives you a taste of each place. What you like, you go back some other time and do "properly".

 

Anyway, two options I would consider if it were me:

- take one of the many one-way Auckland - Sydney cruises (or other way) and spend several days before / after the cruise in each city.

- forget the cruise and hire a campervan in NZ. (I think you call them winnebagoes or RVs?) Very popular with Australians: NZ is a relatively small place, so there's not too much driving. And the scenery is fantastic.

 

Don't worry about the "wrong" side of the road, I have driven all over Florida no worries. Well, apart from that time I overtook another car near Naples ... and forget to go back to the right side of the road. LOL. You just have to concentrate real hard at intersections! :)

 

Don't know about the horrid rooms bit - never cruised, don't know. Are there bad balconies, or just 'fantastic' and 'slightly less fantastic'? :)

 

Weather in April will be cooling down in NZ. Here in Sydney it doesn't turn real wintery until mid-June, but we start getting cold snaps from May on. NZ is further south (away from the tropics), and there's nothing between them and Antarctica...

 

Oh, and congratulations on your anniversary! My wife and I are thinking of a trip to the US for our 20th - a 7-night Alaska cruise then a few days each in San Francisco / Las Vegas / Honolulu. Gotta get our money's worth out of that airfare!

 

Cheers.

[moojar]

Oh, and we have two weeks school holidays around Easter time. The different states stagger them a bit with some overlap. In 2009 there will be school holidays from April 3 to April 25 or so. NZ probably about the same, but I don't know personally.

 

November is usually very good weather, late spring and still a little cool at night in Sydney. Monsoon season in the east Oz tropics is end of December to April/May. Here in Sydney we get a small effect from that. No cyclones down here, but most of our rain comes in late summer, March / April or thereabouts. Our government weather people are the bureau of meteorology: http://www.bom.gov.au . They should have all sorts of historical records for you to consider.

 

Cheers.

[Forever dreaming]

My husband and I are celebrating our 25th anniv. and want to visit NZ with a stop in Sydney. Being a teacher I'm stuck with going around holiday breaks since I can't take much time off. We are looking at late Nov. which has Celebrity Milen. doing a 14 night or waiting for my spring break in April. I've never booked a cruise so late. Will I get stuck with horrid rooms? Should I go for the guaranteed balcony to save money and see what I get.

 

Or should I do it on my own flying to Auckland, Christchurch and Sydney from SF Calif. My husband refuses to drive on "the other side". Will there be enough transportation to get around and still see the beautiful country? He hates unpacking at hotels so I'd like to have these three home bases if we go on our own.

 

Help!!! Any suggestions? Go with the cruise and be done with it?...........Thanks!

 

 

Hi,

 

I havent cruised New Zealand either but I have done a land holiday there last year. I agree with Moojar in the fact that a good cruise for you would be a one way Sydney to Auckland or the reverse then you get the best of both worlds. Extra time in Auckland and Sydney and you would still get to see most of New Zealand. That would be the way to go as there would be less packing on the cruise than if you did a coach tour around NZ. There are also cruises to NZ that depart from Sydney and return to Sydney as well. The only drawback is you would only have the one day in Auckland. (But wouldnt need to unpack again !!) One of the high lights of NZ is cruising the sounds which are beautiful and scenic. If you dont want to drive then a cruise is the only way you will see it unless you want to do a coach tour. There are a few good ones available plus there is a public coach bus which will drop you at various towns but that takes alot of organising. Moojar's suggestion of hiring a campervan is a good one too and would only have to unpack once.

In Sydney there is a good public transport system but if you want to see some of the country the easiest way is to drive. I would hire a GPS if hiring a car- saves the stress of finding your way with a map!

[SheilaNC]

IMHO, you should definitely cruise to get the most bang for your buck and time. Two weeks is precious little time to do an indepth visit to Australia and NZ. First of all the distance between the 2 countries is long...not really 'next' to each other as it appears on maps. Second...I call cruising smorgesbord travel (pardon spelling) - you can get a taste of a lot of places and decide where you might want to go back for longer time. Third, it really is less expensive and more convenient for a 2 week trip - all meals included, transportation between places included and, most important, you're not wasting time packing, checking in, unpacking and looking for the places you wish to visit. We have been to Australia twice (once on our own and once cruising) and to NZ 4 times (twice for business and once on our own and once cruising for pleasure). We thoroughly enjoyed both kinds of trips, but we experienced a bit more on the cruise because of the number of places we saw. When we did it on our own we stayed in each location at least 2-3 days so that we could see more and not waste time getting from one place to another, locating accommodations, and getting our bearings.

 

If you decide to cruise, please scroll on this board for information about both ship and private tour reviews and join the Roll Call of members who will be cruising along with you on the same ship and at the same time. Good luck whatever you decide - it's an amazing place to visit - one of our all time favorites. Happy 25th anniversary!

[Travel-Bug]

Thank you posters for your thoughts about cruise/vs own travel. I would love the camper van option but my DH would have a heart attack! So I believe I'm either cruising or maybe looking into the train system in NZ. (any thoughts about the trains?) Still lots of packing and unpacking. My problem is having very restrictive dates to travel. The only cruise that fits my schedule is coming up very quickly around Thanksgiving in end Nov on the Celebrity Millen. I just hate to give up the days on the ship when I could be on the land at another port. Could you please remind me of the name of the cruise line that caters mainly to the locals. Maybe that one might work with my dates. Thanks so much for all your help!

PS sorry for the late reply...school has just started...no rest for the teachers!

[bobsydney]

I just hate to give up the days on the ship when I could be on the land at another port. Could you please remind me of the name of the cruise line that caters mainly to the locals. Maybe that one might work with my dates.

 

All cruises from Australia to NZ or the South Pacific take 2-3 days to get anywhere ... such is the tyranny of distance. This applies equally to our local lines, P&O Cruises and Princess Australia, as it does to the visiting Princess, HAL and RCI ships. From our perspective, it is a great combo ... a few days to unwind (and forget about work) followed by some intensive port days and then a few relaxing sea days to finish off the holiday.

 

We did a 14-day cruise to NZ and back on Sun Princess with friends earlier this year. It was our first time to NZ but their second ... they had previously done the motorhome thing. While you certainly don't see as much on a cruise as you do driving, we and they certainly didn't feel left short in the sightseeing department. The highlight was Fjordland (Milford, Doubtful and Dusky Sounds) but Rotorua was also a never to be forgotten experience. The only problem is that we have to do it again as we missed out on Christchurch and Wellington due to bad weather.

 

Cheers

Bob

[Travel-Bug]

Thanks for the info on the local cruise lines and your thoughts on cruising. I really appreciate the different perspective! I can't wait to visit!!!

[Forever dreaming]

Thank you posters for your thoughts about cruise/vs own travel. I would love the camper van option but my DH would have a heart attack! So I believe I'm either cruising or maybe looking into the train system in NZ. (any thoughts about the trains?) Still lots of packing and unpacking. My problem is having very restrictive dates to travel. The only cruise that fits my schedule is coming up very quickly around Thanksgiving in end Nov on the Celebrity Millen. I just hate to give up the days on the ship when I could be on the land at another port. Could you please remind me of the name of the cruise line that caters mainly to the locals. Maybe that one might work with my dates. Thanks so much for all your help!

PS sorry for the late reply...school has just started...no rest for the teachers!

 

With our land trip we hired a car from Christchurch and drove around most of South Island ended up at Greymouth where we caught the Trans alpine train back to Christchurch.We then caught the train from Christchurch to Picton then another train from Wellington to Hamilton. We then hired a car from Hamilton to visit Rotorua and Bay of Islands etc. We only travelled by train because my DH loves them. I wouldnt recommend the train as a way of seeing all the sites. The views with the Trans Alpine were lovely and worth doing. The other two train trips were really a way to get from point A to point B. If you want to go site seeing then driving is the way to go if doing a land holiday.

 

Also with our 'local' cruise line P&O most of their cruises dont visit NZ -one ship departs from Auckland(NZ) in our Oz winter (July, August ?) and goes to South Pacific. The other months P&O departs from Sydney or Brisbane and visit South Pacific or Australian East coast but rarely NZ. As Bobsydney has said check out RCCL-Rhapsody of the seas, Celebrity-Millenium, HAL- Voledam? Some Princess ships too- I think Rhapsody is doing some NZ cruises in January from Sydney round trip.

[Forever dreaming]

Travel-bug,

 

Sorry - Just wanted to correct my information on P&O to NZ- Pacific Sun departing from Brisbane has a few cruises to NZ return. One in late November and one in late January. (This ship isnt as posh as the other ships but is lots of fun.)

 

Cheers,

Fiona

:)

[Globaliser]

Help!!! Any suggestions? Go with the cruise and be done with it?

My advice would always be the same. Ask yourself very carefully: Do you want to see these places, or do you want to have a cruise? A cruise will be good for getting you a cruise holiday, during which you will lightly graze the surface of a few places that happen to be close to where the ship docks. But you will not see the countries concerned.

 

If you want to see the countries you're going to, there is no alternative to doing a land tour of some kind. There are plenty of bus trips if you might consider those, but I would echo the recommendation of a campervan if you can possibly talk your husband into it. Driving on the other side of the road is no big deal. After all, you do it all the time!

[lynncarol]

Several years ago we rented a car and toured New Zealand on our own. My husband is an extremely nervous driver and had no problems in New Zealand. There is very little traffic on most of the roads. Just be sure you rent a car at the airport which is south of Auckland and head south. Do NOT drive north into Auckland if you have any qualms about getting around in a rental car.