Marseydotes Posted August 18, 2015 #1 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Thinking about a future South Pacific cruise either beginning or ending in Australia. There do not seem to be a lot of options here! Can anyone recommend a specific cruise line or ship? Would starting in Hawaii make sense? We enjoy longer cruises, but our budget would not cover the most expensive luxury lines. Also, time of year? Any other suggestions, such as ports to avoid or those most desirable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuiteTraveler Posted August 18, 2015 #2 Share Posted August 18, 2015 (edited) Here is the Nov 22 Twenty five day Holland America Noordam round trip Sydney - cruise fare is priced very low - more like a 1 week Caribbean cruise - would this be of interest? Sydney has an excellent international airport - easy to fly in and out of. Our winter is Australia's summer: Sun Nov 22 Sydney, Australia 4:00pm Mon Nov 23 At Sea Tue Nov 24 At Sea Wed Nov 25 Milford Sound, New Zealand / Fiordland National Park, New Zealand (Cruising) 7:00am 8:00am Thu Nov 26 Dunedin (Port Chalmers), New Zealand 8:00am 6:00pm Fri Nov 27 Akaroa, New Zealand 7:00am 6:00pm Sat Nov 28 Wellington, New Zealand 8:00am 4:00pm Sun Nov 29 Napier, New Zealand 7:00am 2:00pm Mon Nov 30 Tauranga, New Zealand 10:00am 8:00pm Tue Dec 1 Auckland, New Zealand 7:00am 5:00pm Wed Dec 2 Bay of Islands, New Zealand 7:00am 2:00pm Thu Dec 3 At Sea Fri Dec 4 At Sea Sat Dec 5 Sydney, Australia 6:00am 4:00pm Sun Dec 6 At Sea Mon Dec 7 At Sea Tue Dec 8 Mare, New Caledonia Noon 8:00pm Wed Dec 9 Lifou, New Caledonia 8:00am 5:00pm Thu Dec 10 At Sea Fri Dec 11 Lautoka, Fiji 8:00am 5:00pm Sat Dec 12 Dravuni Island, Fiji 8:00am 5:00pm Sun Dec 13 At Sea Mon Dec 14 Noumea, New Caledonia 8:00am 4:00pm Tue Dec 15 At Sea Wed Dec 16 At Sea Thu Dec 17 Sydney, Australia 7:00am Edited August 18, 2015 by SuiteTraveler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Essiesmom Posted August 18, 2015 #3 Share Posted August 18, 2015 (edited) I think you need to define what you think of as a South Pacific cruise. There are lots of cruises from Australian ports during their summer, and even some in their winter. Go to http://www.cruisetimetables.com and choose departure ports from the first list, and see who is sailing and where they are going. Cruises from our west coast are in the fall and are repositioning cruises, when the ships are leaving Alaska and heading to OZ for their summer season. They return in early spring. Not many of those cruises include Tahiti, so for cruises visiting those islands, try cruises from French Polynesia. EM Edited August 18, 2015 by Essiesmom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calliopecruiser Posted August 18, 2015 #4 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Thinking about a future South Pacific cruise either beginning or ending in Australia. There do not seem to be a lot of options here! Can anyone recommend a specific cruise line or ship? Would starting in Hawaii make sense? We enjoy longer cruises, but our budget would not cover the most expensive luxury lines.Also, time of year? Any other suggestions, such as ports to avoid or those most desirable? There aren't a lot of transpacific cruises, but you still have probably more than a half dozen choices if you're flexible about when you're going. You'll have many more choices if you start and end in the South Pacific. Celebrity, Princess, RCCI, and Holland America all do transpacifics to or from Australia; I know Crystal also does them, but you said that's out of your price range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floridiana Posted August 18, 2015 #5 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Oceania might still be in your price range. Anyway, do you have a good travel agent who can help you with your choices? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marseydotes Posted August 18, 2015 Author #6 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Thanks, very one! Yes, Tahiti and Bora Bora are what I think of as "South Pacific." Also heard about Moorea being beautiful. Oceania is our favorite line, but their choices are limited. The weather in the Australian summer sounds pretty hot! I had thought that fall or spring would be better bets for us, and, being retired, no problem. The HAL trip sounds good. I have had no experience on that line, but will explore further! Any other ideas, please!?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floridiana Posted August 18, 2015 #7 Share Posted August 18, 2015 We have cruised on HAL and Oceania. Oceania is our favorite, but with the right attitude and the right price, we can enjoy a HAL ship. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul929207 Posted August 18, 2015 #8 Share Posted August 18, 2015 We circumnavigated Australia on the Dawn Princess. 28 days. Basically the month of October, so the temperatures were moderate in most parts. North was hot, but it is tropical and hot all year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floridiana Posted August 18, 2015 #9 Share Posted August 18, 2015 We circumnavigated Australia on the Dawn Princess. 28 days. Basically the month of October, so the temperatures were moderate in most parts. North was hot, but it is tropical and hot all year. That's what we did. Great itinerary with lots of easy going Australians on board. Not everything on the ship worked perfectly. The ship was in dire need of dry dock which was scheduled weeks later. We haven't booked another Princess cruise since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crzndeb Posted August 18, 2015 #10 Share Posted August 18, 2015 I sailed on Carnival Spirit repo to Australia in 2012. I actually took a B2B2B, doing Alaska, then Hawaii, and and the South Pacific to Sydney. It was a total of 35 days, and I had a wonderful time. Last year I sailed the Carnival Legend from Long Beach, Ca. to Sydney. I absolutely love the South Pacific, and Bora Bora is my favorite. The Legend will be going back after the Alaska season this year, but I think the plan is for it to do summers in Alaska and then back to Oz. You can keep an eye open for future trips. I travel solo, and I met some great people on both cruises, and we all seem to manage to book cruises together now. I usually sail between RCI and Carnival, and I have had a great time on both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPacificbound Posted August 19, 2015 #11 Share Posted August 19, 2015 Take a look at Royal Caribbean's Transpacific cruises. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iancal Posted August 19, 2015 #12 Share Posted August 19, 2015 We did a 14 day I Sun Princess Fiji cruise from Sydney last Feb. Then we did a last minute 17 day Australia/NZ cruise in March-from Sydney. The Sun Princess cruise was far superior to the RCI cruise in terms of food, quality, variety, preparation, etc and MDR service than the RCI cruise. Perhaps we had an off cruise. We very much enjoyed cruising with Australians. We often meet them on our travels. if we were selecting a country to move to Australia would be at the top of our list.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dorisis Posted August 19, 2015 #13 Share Posted August 19, 2015 I like the Princess itineraries best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuiteTraveler Posted August 20, 2015 #14 Share Posted August 20, 2015 How about this cruise round trip San Diego Oct 2, 2015 on HAL Amsterdam: Fri Oct 2 San Diego, CA 5:00pm Sat Oct 3 At Sea Sun Oct 4 At Sea Mon Oct 5 At Sea Tue Oct 6 At Sea Wed Oct 7 At Sea Thu Oct 8 Hilo, Hawaii, HI 8:00am 6:00pm Fri Oct 9 Lahaina, Maui, HI 7:00am 6:00pm Sat Oct 10 Nawiliwili, Kauai, HI 8:00am 6:00pm Sun Oct 11 Honolulu, Oahu, HI 8:00am Mon Oct 12 Honolulu, Oahu, HI 6:00pm Tue Oct 13 Kona, Hawaii, HI 7:00am 5:00pm Wed Oct 14 At Sea Thu Oct 15 Cross International Dateline (Cruising) Sat Oct 17 Fanning Island, Kiribati / Crossing The Equator / Cross International Dateline / At Sea (Cruising) 8:00am 2:00pm Sun Oct 18 At Sea Mon Oct 19 At Sea Tue Oct 20 Pago Pago, American Samoa / Cross International Dateline (Cruising) 8:00am 6:00pm Thu Oct 22 Apia, Samoa 8:00am 5:00pm Fri Oct 23 At Sea Sat Oct 24 Suva, Fiji 8:00am 11:00pm Sun Oct 25 Dravuni Island, Fiji 8:00am 5:00pm Mon Oct 26 At Sea Tue Oct 27 Nuku'alofa, Tonga 8:00am 5:00pm Wed Oct 28 Vava'u, Tonga / Cross International Dateline / At Sea (Cruising) 8:00am 3:00pm Wed Oct 28 Nuku'alofa, Tonga 8:00am 5:00pm Thu Oct 29 At Sea Fri Oct 30 Rarotonga, Cook Islands 8:00am 5:00pm Sat Oct 31 At Sea Sun Nov 1 Bora Bora, Society Islands 8:00am Mon Nov 2 Bora Bora, Society Islands 11:00pm Tue Nov 3 Raiatea, Society Islands 8:00am 5:00pm Wed Nov 4 Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands 8:00am Thu Nov 5 Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands 5:00am Thu Nov 5 Moorea, Society Islands 8:00am 5:00pm Fri Nov 6 Rangiroa, Society Islands 8:00am 5:00pm Sat Nov 7 At Sea Sun Nov 8 Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands 8:00am 5:00pm Mon Nov 9 At Sea Tue Nov 10 Crossing The Equator (Cruising) Wed Nov 11 At Sea Thu Nov 12 At Sea Fri Nov 13 At Sea Sat Nov 14 At Sea Sun Nov 15 At Sea Mon Nov 16 San Diego, CA 7:00am Or this Jan. 7, 2016 aboard Oceania Marina: DAY DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART Thu Jan 7 Santiago (Valparaiso), Chile 8:00pm Fri Jan 8 At Sea Sat Jan 9 Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile 8:00am 5:00pm Sun Jan 10 At Sea Mon Jan 11 At Sea Tue Jan 12 At Sea Wed Jan 13 At Sea Thu Jan 14 Easter Island, Chilean dependency (Hanga Roa, Chile) 8:00am Fri Jan 15 Easter Island, Chilean dependency (Hanga Roa, Chile) 4:00pm Sat Jan 16 At Sea Sun Jan 17 At Sea Mon Jan 18 Pitcairn Island, UK Territory 8:00am 6:00pm Tue Jan 19 At Sea Wed Jan 20 At Sea Thu Jan 21 Fakarava, Tuamotu Islands 9:00am 6:00pm Fri Jan 22 Rangiroa, Society Islands 8:00am 5:00pm Sat Jan 23 Bora Bora, Society Islands Noon Sun Jan 24 Bora Bora, Society Islands 5:00pm Mon Jan 25 Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands 7:00am Tue Jan 26 Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands 5:00am Tue Jan 26 Moorea, Society Islands 8:00am 6:00pm Wed Jan 27 Raiatea, Society Islands 8:00am 7:00pm Thu Jan 28 Bora Bora, Society Islands 8:00am Fri Jan 29 Bora Bora, Society Islands 4:00pm Sat Jan 30 At Sea Sun Jan 31 Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands Noon Mon Feb 1 Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands 6:00pm Tue Feb 2 At Sea Wed Feb 3 Rangiroa, Society Islands 8:00am 4:00pm Thu Feb 4 Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands 7:00am Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoncom Posted August 22, 2015 #15 Share Posted August 22, 2015 Also, Princess 28 day RT.Pacific from LA on Crown I think. in October,15. No long air required. Younger crowd than HAL. Saw it at $2699 recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flatbush Flyer Posted August 22, 2015 #16 Share Posted August 22, 2015 Thinking about a future South Pacific cruise either beginning or ending in Australia. There do not seem to be a lot of options here! Can anyone recommend a specific cruise line or ship? Would starting in Hawaii make sense? We enjoy longer cruises, but our budget would not cover the most expensive luxury lines. Also, time of year? Any other suggestions, such as ports to avoid or those most desirable? "No brainer" here. Oceania. Note that the included airfare (or credit) levels the playing field with the wannabes like HAL, Celebrity, et al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacs Posted August 22, 2015 #17 Share Posted August 22, 2015 (edited) The royal Carribean and celebrity repositioning cruises usually include French Polynesia (so Tahiti, Bora Bora and Moorea), they start in Hawaii and end in Sydney. You can do it as a B2B and leave from Vancouver. They head over in Sept/Oct and return in April. We did the celebrity solstice a couple if years ago, it was a fantastic cruise. It was 19 nights and had 11 sea days, so you need to be prepared for that. There is also South Pacific cruises that leave from Australia, usually 8-12 nights and go from Sydney or Brisbane and visit Some of the islands of Vanuatu, New Caeledonia and Fiji. Popular ports are Vila, Noumea, Lifou, Mystery Island and isle of Pines. I guess these are a bit like your Carribean cruises, most lines will do these routes numerous times a season, but the locations are not over developed touristy cities with Palm trees, they are pretty natural still. Google some of the places to get an idea if that would interest you. Lots of cruise lines visit here, RCI, Celebrity, Princess, HAL, plus our local cruise lines Carnival Australia and P&O Australia. Edited August 22, 2015 by Jacs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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