Best cruise ship in Australia/New Zealand?

[Esilef]

We are now ready for the biggest and most exciting cruise season that we have ever had.

 

So please do tell, what cruise ship do you believe is the best sailing in our waters?

 

Why is this the best? Service? Drink prices? Cabins? The ship? Where the cruise to?

 

Elise

[RosieCanberra]

The best is Celebrity Solstice. The ship is beautiful, the service is really good, the food is great. A big range of cabins too. The only downside is spending is in USD.

 

Cheers

Rosie

[gbenjo]

Have got to agree with Rosie, the Solstice is the best cruise ship, home porting in Australia, by a country mile. None of the gawdy decor of the Carnival Legend & Spirit, bigger staterooms than Princess and the crew and service are first class. We have not tried the "new" P&O ships Aria and Eden so cannot judge them so will reserve my judgement....... but they are still P&O:rolleyes::rolleyes::D

[Vader1111]

Haven't sailed on the Solstice, so can't comment there.

 

My favourite is Radiance of the Seas. The ship has a great layout, but not the sheer size of the Voyager class.

 

My least favourite is the Oosterdam, a ship with few redeeming features.

 

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

[joandian]

I'd say either the Solstice or Explorer. We have sailed on the Eclipse, Solstice's sister ship and it's a beautiful ship but we love the RC product and the class of ship that Explorer belongs to.

 

I think it depends what you are looking for from a cruise. If you want completely laid back luxury and you don't want too many organised activities, go with Celebrity. If you are younger or have children with you, the Royal Caribbean brand is a better fit.

 

We normally cruise for the destination so have swapped between Celebrity and RC depending on which line is cruising where we want to go and been happy on both.

[GUT2407]

Haven't sail Soltice yet, but Mic and Rosie say she's great so she must be.

 

I've only saile Celebrity once and really liked it, in fact if it was in AUS$ with tips in the fare they would perhaps even overtake Princess in my list.

 

However at the moment it has to be Princess, and whilst there are some things I really didn't like about the Diamond (still preferring smaller ships) she still wins for me, but of course she stays in Asia after this year.

 

Not a big fan of the pre refurbished Sun, Sea and Dawn, but the refurb my change my mind.

 

Still really turned off by the mega mega ships, aside from the on board experience they just tend to iver run the smaller Ports.

[GUT2407]

Whoever brings down a small ship (under 1000) with Goid, not overwhelming, service sailing Sydney to Sydney with good itineraries, is likely to win about 109% of my business.

 

And it will probably increase my cruising rate.

[MicCanberra]

Definitely the Solstice for all the reasons that RosieCanberra and Gbenjo have stated.

:D

[Hgwells01]

Not been on them yet but Amazara is down under this year. Friends who sale regularly say it's awesome. For me it's HAL the Noordam, on her again 2 Jan.

[GUT2407]

Not been on them yet but Amazara is down under this year. Friends who sale regularly say it's awesome. For me it's HAL the Noordam, on her again 2 Jan.

 

 

But no Sydney to Sydney sailings it seems

[MicCanberra]

But no Sydney to Sydney sailings it seems

 

That is a shame.

[goodycruising]

But no Sydney to Sydney sailings it seems

 

That is my big issue with Solstice. Love Solstice, but she has very few NZ trips that come back to Sydney. Doing the same itinerary in reverse to get back without flying isn't what I want. Flying is not something I actually mind, but the dragging your suitcases around to Auckland airport and the extra time and cost that ads to getting home was a spoiler when we did it.

 

On the recent Voyager cruise several people asked which was our favourite RCI ship. We said Radiance and each time the person asking would say - everyone says that! (don't actually know how many people they had asked!)

 

All the glass and views of the sea give Radiance such a fantastic atmosphere, and the staff are just a bit happier in general. I am not a fan of the promenade area on Voyager class ships, and the Promenade Cafe has a very poor selection of food compared to the Park Cafe on Radiance, or even the Solarium cafe.

 

The common areas like bars are actually larger pro rata for passengers on Radiance compared to Voyager. (for example Schooner bar and Viking Lounge areas) I think that makes for a better experience for customers.

 

Voyager is very stable due to its size, and so is Solstice.

 

The food on Celebrity Solstice is a step up. It also has less school age children in the school term time. We were very surprised at the amount of kids out of school on out two November sailings on Voyager. Did nearly the same timings on two trips on Solstice last November and mainly only younger than school age kids.

 

That is my opinion (or opinions!) Can't comment on other lines, but when we ask others on board generally people say Princess is good also.

Edited December 4, 2015 by goodycruising