Australia 28 Day Circumavigation Cruise - Dawn Princess Review

[starskyfan]

Hello to everyone,

Here is the link to my Dawn Princess review of the cruise around Australia. What a vacation! Sorry it's so long, about 14 pages, so you may give up long before you get to the end. If there are any questions let me know.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=49560

Also, if interested here is the link where I posted a few photos while we were gone. I still have thousands of others to go through, but these were the ones I pulled out to share with family and friends.

http://community.webshots.com/user/starskyfan

Brenda

[vickie_bernie]

great review, we sailed her two years ago out of San Francisco we had anytime dining at that time with one dining room reserved for anytime the other for traditional. Guess they changed to just traditional when it went to Australia, did you find out if they will be doing anytime soon?

[Druke I]

Thanks for the comprehensive review and photos.

 

The circumnavigation of Australia is an itinerary I would very much like to do - but the flights to and from Australia are a real pistol!

 

We were scheduled for a New Zealand/Australia cruise on Oceania's Nautica this coming January, but cancelled, as we did not feel up to the flights.

 

Luckily, we have been "down under" before, which does reduce the

bad feelings the cancellation brought.

[starskyfan]

great review, we sailed her two years ago out of San Francisco we had anytime dining at that time with one dining room reserved for anytime the other for traditional. Guess they changed to just traditional when it went to Australia, did you find out if they will be doing anytime soon?

 

Nothing was mentioned of their plans for anytime dining. I don't know why they stopped it for Australia either. Truth is I probably only would have gone to the diningroom once anyway, but still like the anytime dining option.

[starskyfan]

Thanks for the comprehensive review and photos.

 

The circumnavigation of Australia is an itinerary I would very much like to do - but the flights to and from Australia are a real pistol!

 

We were scheduled for a New Zealand/Australia cruise on Oceania's Nautica this coming January, but cancelled, as we did not feel up to the flights.

 

Luckily, we have been "down under" before, which does reduce the

bad feelings the cancellation brought.

 

Although I can certainly understand how you feel, I can honestly say it is SO worth it. I have a bad knee and was really concerned about the flight, but I'm amazed at how quickly 14 hours went, in both directions. Usually going home from vacation is miserable. I drank a lot of water and got up every couple of hours to stretch and use the restroom. I made sure to have an aisle seat so I could do that. I took an anxiety pill to help me sleep, but my husband took a tylenol pm and that helped him too. We both managed to get quite a bit of sleep considering we were on a plane. We put in a full day of sightseeing when we landed in Sydney. And most importantly, we flew Qantas! 14 hours on United would have sucked. My husband watched a lot of movies and I played a lot of video games. They treat you like royalty compared to the US airlines I'm sad to say. Who needs first class? They even provide free alcohol. In short, I'm ready to do it all again, and we have to add another 5 hour flight from Baltimore. I'm not sure how much you saw of Australia in the past, but the circumnavigation is a good way to get a "taste" of the country. Problem is, it's never enough. And then there is the Outback which we didn't even get to touch at all. Maybe next time!

[Alessandrina]

Great review and enjoyable read. I'll miss the Dawn Princess.

Just came back from The Land Down Under!

[kobecat]

Brenda, what a fantastic review, thank you.

 

We were on the Dawn from SF to Sydney (with your friends Vera and Randy) and had a fantastic time. As you know we had anytime dining which we love and would hate to be without it now!

 

We had friends who did Sydney - Fremantle (one of the 300 who got off in Fremantle) and they had some very similar thoughts to yours, particularly about the age group!

 

I am sorry that the guide in Fremantle was not great and that you did not get to do the walk in Kings Park but I hope you enjoyed our city nevertheless.

 

Thanks again - brilliant.

 

Beryl & Bob

[borgy]

Thank you for the review and photos. We will be on the Sun Princess for the Mar 2 2009 circumnavigation cruise and I found your reviews of the shore excursions and shuttle services to be helpful.

 

bev

[starskyfan]

Brenda, what a fantastic review, thank you.

 

We were on the Dawn from SF to Sydney (with your friends Vera and Randy) and had a fantastic time. As you know we had anytime dining which we love and would hate to be without it now!

 

We had friends who did Sydney - Fremantle (one of the 300 who got off in Fremantle) and they had some very similar thoughts to yours, particularly about the age group!

 

I am sorry that the guide in Fremantle was not great and that you did not get to do the walk in Kings Park but I hope you enjoyed our city nevertheless.

 

Thanks again - brilliant.

 

Beryl & Bob

 

We met a couple in Sydney on our Blue Mountains Tour who were from Perth that also did the Sydney to Fremantle portion of the cruise. Small world to run into them on a Sydney tour. But yes, we did enjoy Fremantle very much, and wish there had been more time. Having an overnight stay was nice, but there is still never enough time. I'd like to have gone out to see the Wave Rock and Mystical Pinnacles but they were just so far away.

[PescadoAmarillo]

This cruise is on our "as soon as we both finish working" list; hopefully they'll keep it going for 5 more years or so. Thanks for posting a review.

[jjones]

I appreciate your review, especially the detailed shore excursion comments, because I will be on the Sun Princess next March and I'm eager to discover the available shorex. You posted the prices - were they Australian or US dollars? Sounds like I'd better find some more money in the next couple of months, economy be darned!

[rugbypopsie]

Great review thanks for taking the time to post it..Hopefully more of your countrymen will brave the long flight to come and visit with us:D

 

I am so looking forward to our trip on the Dawn (except for the laundry rage):eek:

[NSWP]

Excellent review, we did Perth to Sydney (19 days) on the sister ship 'Sun Princess' earlier this year. No anytime dining on that either. Both Sun and Dawn are still under Princess control here in OZ.

[Colo Cruiser]

Excellent

[starskyfan]

I appreciate your review, especially the detailed shore excursion comments, because I will be on the Sun Princess next March and I'm eager to discover the available shorex. You posted the prices - were they Australian or US dollars? Sounds like I'd better find some more money in the next couple of months, economy be darned!

 

Yes, excursions were a small fortune. But my view is, if you go that far, you've got to see what interests you the most because you may never get back. Having said that, the prices were in Australian, which at the moment is a huge saving for us Americans. I had "estimated" all our costs at $1 to $1 so came in under budget which was a nice feeling.

[starskyfan]

Excellent review, we did Perth to Sydney (19 days) on the sister ship 'Sun Princess' earlier this year. No anytime dining on that either. Both Sun and Dawn are still under Princess control here in OZ.

 

Another member commented the same thing so now I am unsure of excactly what I heard. I'll have to let you know when my friends return because I think it was them that were saying there was some difference between the Sun & Dawn when they booked their next trip on the Sun.