Australia / New Zealand Cruise or Cruise Tour

[Heartfelttraveler]

Has anyone cruised Australia-New Zealand? I am considering a cruise or cruise-tour in 2016 versus a land only tour and have a few questions.

1. Did you have enough time in the ports to enjoy excursions?

2. Was there anything to see on “at sea” days, or were you just in open waters?

3. Were you happy with your experience?

4. Do you wish you had more time on land?

5. Did you do a Trans Atlantic, or did you fly to Australia or New Zealand? (I am thinking we would fly there.)

6. How long was your trip? (We are considering 11 (cruise only) to 21 days. Would really like to keep it to about 14 days.)

7. Any suggestions?

We will be in our early sixties & late sixties, and active. We are new to cruising, getting our feet wet with an Alaskan cruise in May 2015. We are very well traveled, and the reason I am considering a cruise or cruise-tour is so that we do not have to live out of a suitcase.

Again, I am looking for information particular to Australia and New Zealand and NOT Tahiti or French Polynesia.

[paul929207]

We took the 28 day Circumnavigation of Australia in 2011. It was on the Dawn Princess. We had previously (25 years ago) did a land tour of Australia and NZ.

 

1. Like other major cities around the world, a port stop on a cruise is not enough time to see Sidney or Melbourne. We thought we had enough time in the other places, but there is always more to see.

2. Little to see on sea days, but this is the norm for cruises.

3. We loved the trip. The Aussies are great people.

4. Always want more time. The one thing you can't see from a ship is Ayers Rock.

5. We flew to/from Australia

6. 28 days around Australia, 14 day cruise to Fiji, Vanuatu & New Caledonia, about 4 nights in Sidney.

7. Go for it. We are about your age and loved the trip.

[kruisey]

Loved those countries.Picked a different shore excursion each time.From Darwin and the crocodiles to the barrier reef ,Sydney that great city in Australia to Lord of the Rings Tour,Tribal dancing tongues out,the small blue penguins In New Zealand.

Would cruise there again and never be disappointed.Go for it.....:)

[CruisinKiki]

We did a 12 day cruise New Zealand and Australia on the Diamond Princess about 5 years ago. It was fabulous! We flew into Auckland and added a couple of days there. Then we cruised both islands of NZ, and stopped in Tasmania, Melbourne and Sydney. We disembarked in Sydney, spent a few days there and then went up to the GBR and stayed in Port Douglas. We booked independent excursions in each port so we could make the most of our time, seeing what WE wanted to see. Lots of good recommendations for tour companies here on CC. We found all of them here. You will never see everything in one trip. That's like trying to see the entire US in one trip. I'd recommend a combo of cruise and land if you have time. It worked well for us.

[MMDown Under]

One option, with 21 days, you could fly into Auckland and do land content there, then a cruise from Auckland to Sydney, with land content there. NZ is a small country, with distances small, so ideal for cruise and land travel.

 

14 days is not really long enough to fly all the way to Australia. If you enjoy train travel or are willing to hire a car, both are excellent ways to travel in Australia. You could pick one or two bases and do day trips from there, without living out of a suitcase.

 

Enjoy your planning.

[nasa1974]

Looking forward to answers to your questions. We are thinking of doing the cruisetour of Austalia and New Zealand in January of 2016. Princess offers an 18 or 19 day cruisetour. Researching airfare right now. We have friends in Brisbane and might fly in early to visit a few days. Good luck.

 

Marty

[paddingtonbear]

One itinerary on offer in NZ drops you off the ship at Milford sound then you take a tour to Queenstown and meet the ship at Dunedin.

 

If you fly into Sydney and spend a few days there prior to the cruise you would see more. You could do Sydney by yourselves with a bit of research. Auckland we did in a day.

[rehab444]

We are booked on the Jan 28, 2016 Australia/New Zealand cruisetour. Please check the roll call for our cruise.

 

Stan

[lanikeekee]

Hi Rehab...l live in Australia but have cruised to new Zealand from Melbourne... Fly from the USA to Sydney... Australia is a big country and traveling internally can be expensive if you don't book flights way in advance... You can get cruises that circumnavigate and you will get a feel for each port in one day... Get your cruise from Sydney to New Zealand...I had never been the before and found it was fabulous.... To me the idea of the cruises is that they are like a tasting plate... It's a way of trying lots of things with the intention that you may come back and just enjoy one thing in a larger portion. ... If you have any questions about the ports just ask :)

[Aus Traveller]

I think the Princess cruise-tour hits the 'high spots' - Sydney, Ayers Rock (Uluru) and the Great Barrier Reef. You could easily design the same itinerary as a 'do-it-yourself' tour allowing some extra time where you feel you might want it. It would be somewhat less expensive than the Princess tour.

 

I don't know what month you are thinking of going. Summer (Nov - February) are the best months for New Zealand. For touring Australia try to avoid a trip that goes to Northern Australia (the Barrier Reef) in mid summer (Jan-Feb). It will be very hot, humid and likely to be raining. Maybe an early summer trip (November) might give you the best chance of good weather in both areas.

 

As the others have said, on sea days there is usually only sea to be seen.

[cruisefan2012]

Heartfelttraveller

 

I`m flying to Australia to cruise on Dawn Princess from Sydney to New Zealand for 13 nights

 

My plan is to spend 8 nights in Sydney before the cruise then the 13 nights onboard the ship

 

Then when the ship returns to Sydney, fly back to the UK via Singapore

 

I`ve literally spent hours days and weeks trawling the internet for things I`d like to do in Sydney and I think I`ve found the perfect things to keep me entertained in Sydney pre-cruise - The Cruise itself is the easy part of the holiday planning

 

Whatever you decide to do you must tell us on here - you may give me some ideas for more things I would consider doing in Sydney !!

 

Cruisefan2012

[s1amblue]

Last March we flew to Sydney, stayed 3 nights & then boarded ship and did SYD-AUK B2B. We realized that we would probably never be this way again (66-66) We had full days in each port & because we did most of them twice we were able to head off with a different experience, focus each time. This was WONDERFUL, Many itineraries cruise the Sounds (Milford, Doubtful etc) those 'sea days' were spectacularly scenic! Bear in mind, Australia is hugely expensive, NZ a Lille more reasonable for activities etc. off the ship. Go see Tracks - movie out just now in the States.... You'll get a feel for parts of Australia might never see..... (great movie, we saw it in Sydney b4 we boarded the ship...)

[donaldsc]

First of all, I would not do a cruise or a cruisetour to Australia. The only way to see the country is a DIY land trip. Also, 14 or even 21 days is not enough time to see much of Australia at all. The place is the size of the United States with great distances between places. The average American sees a few places on the eastern coast of Australia and tells everyone that they have seen Australia. That would be like coming to the US and seeing Maine, New York and Washington and feeling that they have seen the US.

 

To extend this analogy, if you take a cruise to Australia where you spend you spend one day at each place, it would be like spending one day in the above mentioned places and saying that you have seen the US. It makes as much sense. There is a lot of the US west of the Appalachians.

 

We did 2 1/2 months on the ground and did not see even half of what we wanted to see in Australia.

 

Just my opinion but I feel that doing a cruise or even a cruisetour of Australia is a total waste of time and money.

 

DON

[GradUT]

Donald makes some excellent points. I agree with almost everything he has said. (I disagree that you can't do a good visit in 14 - 21 days.)

 

Further, I have seen questions similar to yours posted here on CruiseCritic and I always have the same answer--if you mainly want to do a cruise and incidentally see portions of Australia and/or New Zealand, then take a cruise. If you really want to experience either of those countries, do a land-based tour. (And for this land-based tour, I highly recommend you do a self-guided tour. They are not difficult to organize and you'll be able to see and do what YOU want to see and do, not what the tour organizer thinks you should see and do.)

 

I have also read the itineraries of various land tours associated with cruises and I have found ALL of them to be too rushed. They try to take you to too many places in too little time. I would avoid those as well.

 

You can organize a very good trip to either Australia or New Zealand in a 14-day time frame, but you can't visit them both in that amount of time. If you only have 14 days, you could either spend that time in NZ (1 week for each island or 2 weeks on the South Island) or you could spend that time in up to 3 destinations in Australia. (Any more destinations results in too much time spent in airports.) With 21 days, you can see more of each country or visit them both (2 weeks in Australia, 1 week on ONE of the NZ islands.)

 

Also, as Austraveller pointed out, the time of year of your visit will impact on what areas you should plan to visit. Unfortunately, the cruises (and cruise tours) go to places at the "wrong" time of year. Many cruises operate around Australia from Dec - Feb, but that's the worst time to go to the Great Barrier Reef area and Uluru. So, if you can plan your own land trip, you can organize it so that you visit the places you most want to see at their optimal times.

 

Finally, FWIW, my comments are based on having visited both Australia and NZ numerous times and having lived in Australia for several years.

[Mommypig]

We did a week in NZ in 2013, and found it nowhere near enough time. We had done the 10 day French Polynesian circuit cruise on the Ocean Princess, and then flew to NZ to visit a friend.

 

In 2014 we did a 51 day cruise that visited some ports in NZ, and touched Australia at Sydney. That cruise ended in Tahiti and we flew back to NZ for a month long self drive tour. Still didn't see everything we wanted to. Gonna have to go back. New Zealand is actually a pretty easy country for a self drive. We booked motor hotels thru bookings.com and found that most New Zealand hotels have a kitchenette so that we could have simple breakfasts or dinners at the hotel. Saved a ton that way, and got to experience the local grocery stores. (We love to go in grocery stores and hardware stores in the different countries)

 

Driving on the "wrong" side of the road was not too much of a problem for hubs. The only problem turned out to be that we had had a starboard balcony on the 51 day cruise, and after the land tour when we returned to Tahiti to rejoin the ship for a cruise to Hawaii we had a port balcony. Got into the stateroom and couldn't figure out which side of the bed was mine.

 

We have found that the benefit of cruising is that you find out where you really want to go tour. Since the ships generally are only in port for one day, there is time only for a small taste of what the area can offer. Sydney was enough of a taste that we have decided we would like to do a circuit cruise followed by a land tour. We do touch on a few ports on the 2016 world cruise, but that will probably only make us want to see more. Maybe winter 2017. We shall see.

 

Linda

 

 

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[p0240]

Hi

I am Australian living in Perth, West Australia. The comments above are very true, you will not see much of Australia from ports.

Australia is a huge country and long distances between cities and sights.

However, I liken it to our trips to Europe,we have done several land based driving holidays in Europe, and last year did a 21 day Med cruise on the Ruby Princess, seeing it from the ports. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience seeing the Med from the sea. With 8 hours in most ports, we did private tours which get you a fair distance from the port (Rome good example).

I think if you do the cruise first,and explore the major sights in a day excursion, it will whet your appetite to come back to Australia another time (yes I know it is a long flight) and explore our beautiful country further.

Try and arrive into Sydney on the east coast, and spend a week there before boarding the cruise ship,it is a beautiful city and you can do lots of day trips from there.

When you start your planning, don't hesitate to ask any questions if I can help in anyway.

Pat

[ReturnCruiser]

Greetings,

We took the Princess cruise-tour to Australia and New Zealand in January 2013. The trip started in Sydney and ended in Auckland - though we actually traveled back to Sydney on our own to visit the Blue Mountains. Our trip extended to about a month and was well worth the time. I was still working at the time, but had transitioned to half time, knowing that my retirement date was just a few months out.

 

All the cruise-tour and cruise stops were largely one day visits. Plenty to do at each stop. Most of the port stops we handled on our own. The Princess cruise-tour guide was excellent. One particularly memorable event, was enjoying the sunset at Uluru, with Princess supplied adult beverages and snacks.

 

If you visit my below blog link and view the entries from January 2013 you will be able to see some of our photos and narratives from this trip.

[Heartfelttraveler]

Ok, let me see if I fully understand your thoughts:

If I cannot spend enough time to thoroughly see the entire country of both Australia and New Zealand, don’t even bother. To me that is like saying “If you plan to go to the Grand Canyon and cannot see Niagra Falls in the same trip… don’t bother.” Wow, you have thoroughly depressed me and put a big damper on the thrill of planning and enjoying a vacation.

My post asked the question of other’s experiences. I am sorry that 75 days was not enough for you to enjoy your holiday and I am assuming it must have really ruined your trip to have warned me away because I only have 21 days tops. If you had given land only ideas of your favorite places, your post would have been most welcome. In the past we have only done land based travel. The tours I have found of New Zealand and Australia seem to have a lot of car or bus travel during the day. One day to get there, one day to sight see, then again a travel day, and then a sight see day. I thought that with the cruise, we would travel at night and sight see during the day (New Zealand) and do a land based for Australia. With two days of flights from and to the US, I figured we would have time to enjoy some beautiful country.

I am still stunned and confused why you would think that if I could not see the whole country in a single trip, it would be totally unfulfilling, un-enjoyable and a waste of our time and money. I am not trying to start an on-line fight – I just wanted to let you know that I thought your post was harsh (just my opinion).

Ok, now I am over your stunning warning!

We only have up to three weeks, and would prefer to keep it to two plus air travel days. (I will miss my grandchildren, friends, and pets.) Now that I got that off my chest - I want to thank all that replied to my questions giving me your opinion of your cruise and/or tour. I am still researching ideas and have not crossed off the cruise idea, thanks to the people who took the time to let me know what you liked and did not like about your past trips. To the people who are booked for future trips, don’t forget to check in and let me know what you thought.

[cojuqui]

Hi there,

 

We took a 12 day cruise on Diamond Princess from Auckland to Sydney. The ports of call were:

Auckland

Taraunga

Akaroa

Dunedin

Fiordland Nat'l Park

Hobart Tasmania

Melbourne

Sydney

 

We added a few days at the end and went to Uluru/Ayers Rock.

 

We really felt we got a great taste of the land and several things it had to offer. I wrote a detailed review of the ship and what we did in each port with lots of pictures.

 

I highly recommend a cruise with land add on. I love waking up daily in a new place.

 

Have a great trip whatever you choose. Feel free to ask any questions I may not have covered in my review.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2112413

 

 

 

Connie

 

 

 

PAST CRUISES:

 

Discovery Sun 2003 Freeport Bahamas Day Cruise

Celebrity Solstice 6/26/09 Eastern Mediterranean

Carnival Conquest 08/10/10 Eastern Caribbean

Carnival Victory 06/10/12 Southern Caribbean http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1659913

Carnival Miracle 07/30/13 Alaska http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=39476968#post39476968

Diamond Princess 12/23/13 New Zealand/Australia http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2112413

 

[p0240]

Ok, let me see if I fully understand your thoughts:

If I cannot spend enough time to thoroughly see the entire country of both Australia and New Zealand, don’t even bother. To me that is like saying “If you plan to go to the Grand Canyon and cannot see Niagra Falls in the same trip… don’t bother.” Wow, you have thoroughly depressed me and put a big damper on the thrill of planning and enjoying a vacation.



My post asked the question of other’s experiences. I am sorry that 75 days was not enough for you to enjoy your holiday and I am assuming it must have really ruined your trip to have warned me away because I only have 21 days tops. If you had given land only ideas of your favorite places, your post would have been most welcome. In the past we have only done land based travel. The tours I have found of New Zealand and Australia seem to have a lot of car or bus travel during the day. One day to get there, one day to sight see, then again a travel day, and then a sight see day. I thought that with the cruise, we would travel at night and sight see during the day (New Zealand) and do a land based for Australia. With two days of flights from and to the US, I figured we would have time to enjoy some beautiful country.



I am still stunned and confused why you would think that if I could not see the whole country in a single trip, it would be totally unfulfilling, un-enjoyable and a waste of our time and money. I am not trying to start an on-line fight – I just wanted to let you know that I thought your post was harsh (just my opinion).



Ok, now I am over your stunning warning!



We only have up to three weeks, and would prefer to keep it to two plus air travel days. (I will miss my grandchildren, friends, and pets.) Now that I got that off my chest - I want to thank all that replied to my questions giving me your opinion of your cruise and/or tour. I am still researching ideas and have not crossed off the cruise idea, thanks to the people who took the time to let me know what you liked and did not like about your past trips. To the people who are booked for future trips, don’t forget to check in and let me know what you thought.

 

Oh no not at all, any days in any place is always worth it, better to go than to not go at all.

I am not sure what your ports are, but if you need any help selecting port excursions, please don't hesitate to ask. The circumnavigation cruises look really great, remember that the hottest months are Nov to March, and in Qld, NT and top of WA that is really hot and humid during those months, and yet down south of WA and Qld, NSW, Vic, Tas are beautiful in those months. The opposite is in winter, May to Sept, when the southern states are the coldest and rain, whereas up north is beautiful, wildflower month is September and is beautiful.

But with an airconditioned cruise ship, the heat is not an issue.

Sydney is always a great start city, it is truly beautiful, the harbour, Opera House and river is stunning, so please add a few days on there.

NZ is a WOW country around every corner, so anything you decide to do there is awesome.

Australia is vast and long distances to anywhere, but the northern area is just stunning.

So plan ahead, and enjoy the planning.

Pat.

[GUT2407]

Princess also offer a great Circumnavigate Australia and NZ, but it is something like 35 days, however I'd think that if you are going to fly all that way it would be worth it.

 

 

Remember though that Aus is a big Country and even an around Australia is only going to visit about a dozen cities and you'll see nothing [or near enough] of the interior.

[GUT2407]

Sorry I missed that you only had 21 days.

 

Thus there are two different cruises open to you, one does something like Sydney, around NZ back to Sydney [also goes ex Melbourne and Ex Brisbane] the other Goes Sydney, to Melbourne, Hobart, then NZ finishing in Auckland [also done in reverse]. Both of these options are 13 or 14 nights.

 

So I'd probably do maybe flay to Sydney then 4 days in Sydney then the cruise to Auckland and 3 days in New Zealand, that would let you at least visit Melbourne and Hobart as well and have a few days in each country.

 

I do hope that helps a little.

[Mommypig]

I don't think anyone is saying that a 21 day trip to visit Australia and NZ wouldn't be wonderful. If that is all the time you can allot, then that is how it is.

 

In New Zealand Princess stops at Auckland, Tauranga, and Bay of Islands, all in the North Island. All beautiful ports. We were content just to wander and explore on our own. It is possible to do a ship tour to Hobitton and the glow worm caves, but if there is not enough interest the tour won't go. Our tour was cancelled, so we did it on our land tour. Our cruise also was diverted from cruising through the Fiordlands due to gale force winds on the Tasman Sea. So we did the New Zealand ports twice. We also did not make it to the Fiordlands on our land tour so we will have to go back some day. FYI the Tasman was still rough when we crossed to Sydney and back to NZ. Pack the Bonine and the ginger gum.

 

The highlights of the land tour were 1) Hobbiton -- very beautiful even if you aren't a LOTR fan, 2) Rotorua hot springs and Maori village 3) driving between Wanaka and Queenstown -- absolutely breathtaking, 4) helicopter ride to the Franz Josef glacier (hubs grandpa was named Joseph Franz so had to do that) 5) Larnach castle near Dunedin, 6) soaking in a woodfired hot tub watching the stars near Twizel, 7) the Antarctic experience and earthquake museum in Christchurch, and 8) seeing a HUGE pod of dolphins on the boat over to Poor Knights Island (dive master said they were probably being chased by an orca...sigh), and 9) seeing my friend Carol-Ann. Other things we loved were SHEEP EVERYWHERE (I am a knitter/spinner and hubs is a weaver), apricot cookies, and the fence hung with hundreds of bras outside Cardrona. Things we didn't like were the one lane bridges on the main highways throughout the south island, white bait fish which is supposed to be a delicacy but looked like deep fried giant maggots, having to lug the suitcase in and out everynight, and the windy roads that made me carsick around Tutukaka in the north island. So overall an excellent adventure.

 

If we hadn't done the short trip in 2013 we would have never known how much more we wanted to see. So take the trip that you can and love it. We are headed back to South America this year. We touched on Guayaquil and Lima on the 51 day cruise and decided we wanted to explore more. Traveling is expensive and cruising is actually a pretty cost effective way to visit a variety of places, in a comfortable and relaxed way. Then you can find out the places your really want to explore in more depth. It can be a long way between ports so there may be sea days. We had an extensive number of sea days on the 51 day cruise, only 18 port days. In fact we were so used to being able to recoup after an intense port day that when we had 3 port days in a row in New Zealand we were all moaning and groaning about how tired we were.

 

Linda

 

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[CruisinKiki]

As posted earlier, we did 3 weeks in AUS/NZ including a 12 day Princess cruise. By no means did I see all of both countries. But, I had enough wonderful experiences that I will remember them the rest of my life. I hope to get back there again, but if I don't, I will remember my travels there fondly.

 

Go,. See what you can. Enjoy your time. Soak it all in. Don't rush, spend every minute enjoying these magical places!

[GradUT]

I think my post made it clear that you CAN do a good land-based tour of both Australia and New Zealand within a 21-day period. (I only said it could not be done within 14 days which you initially stated might be the length of your vacation.)

 

The best way to see Australia in a 14-day time frame (leaving 7 days for NZ) is to choose 2 - 3 destinations and then fly between them. The iconic 14-day Australian vacation is called the "City, Reef, Rock" combo which includes stops in Sydney (City) for 5- 6 days, Cairns/Port Douglas (Reef) for another 5 - 6 days and Uluru (Rock) for 2 - 3 days. Of course, you can choose your own destinations based on your interests and the time of your visit, but don't try to visit more than 3 destinations within a 14-day time period or you will find yourselves spending valuable sightseeing time getting to the airport, sitting in the airport, flying, and then getting from the airport.

 

For the NZ portion of your vacation, choose either the North Island or the South Island to visit and then rent a car to get around. Having been to NZ a number of times, my recommendation would be a visit to the South Island focusing on the areas around Queenstown, Te Anau and the Fiordlands.