Australia New Zealand Cruise Question

[Turk1]

While I know the answer will be subjective since we all have different interests, I'm wondering when the best time to cruise Australia/New Zealand would be. Also, would you recommend more Australian ports or more New Zealand ports for the cruise? We have this on or "list" and trying to plan for future. Thanks for any and all input!

[paul929207]

We sail around Australia in October/November a couple of years ago and had a wonderful time

[Kinkacruiser]

Australia is best in the latter months of the year, while NZ cruising is good in the first couple of months of the year. A good average to strike for would be December.

Personally I'd favour more NZ ports.

[treesah]

We cruised in December. Australia is beautiful but New Zealand is beyond stunning.

[joybook]

I hope my comments don't upset too many New Zealanders but because of the size of Australia you are not going to see the best bits just visiting ports for a day. You need to consider at least a week or so before or after your cruise to see some of the better parts. The same could be said for New Zealand but at least with New Zealand, being a fair bit smaller you will be able to see a fair bit from your daily port visits and excursions. Quite frankly though either would be great if you have not done it before.:)

[mum and son]

As an Aussie, I can honestly say that NZ is far better for a cruising holiday. It's spectacular. Australia is huge and a circumnavigation is a much longer journey. Perhaps combining a Queensland coastal cruise (that incorporates the Great Barrier Reef), with a stay in Sydney, followed by an NZ cruise would give you a well-rounded trip down under. :)

[GUT2407]

We sail around Australia in October/November a couple of years ago and had a wonderful time

 

We did the circumnavigation last year October November hard to beat. But humid up north in October, but bearable, bit cool in NZ in November but not too cold.

[partybarbie]

We're currently in the process of planning our first cruise to Australia and New Zealand. We've decided to fly to Auckland and spend two nights in a hotel there, then we will board the Sun Princess for a 4-day cruise to Sidney. We'll use the ship transfers to get to the airport, then fly up to Cairns for 4 nights. We'll fly back to Sydney for 3 nights, then board the Diamond Princess for a 12-day cruise to Melbourne, Tasmania, and then back to New Zealand. We're going in February of 2018, so hopefully will have some decent weather.

[GUT2407]

We're currently in the process of planning our first cruise to Australia and New Zealand. We've decided to fly to Auckland and spend two nights in a hotel there, then we will board the Sun Princess for a 4-day cruise to Sidney. We'll use the ship transfers to get to the airport, then fly up to Cairns for 4 nights. We'll fly back to Sydney for 3 nights, then board the Diamond Princess for a 12-day cruise to Melbourne, Tasmania, and then back to New Zealand. We're going in February of 2018, so hopefully will have some decent weather.

 

February in Cairns is likely to be hot and humid, Sydney could be hot, NZ probably nice.

 

Melbourne us known to have four seasons in one day and Tassie is almost anyone's guess it has been known to snow there on Christmas Day, also known to be extremely hot.

 

A lot of course depends on what you are used to at home.

[easyboy]

As an Aussie, I can honestly say that NZ is far better for a cruising holiday. It's spectacular. Australia is huge and a circumnavigation is a much longer journey.

Perhaps combining a Queensland coastal cruise (that incorporates the Great Barrier Reef), with a stay in Sydney, followed by an NZ cruise would give you a well-rounded trip down under. :)

How many days will that be?

[partybarbie]

February in Cairns is likely to be hot and humid, Sydney could be hot, NZ probably nice.

 

Melbourne us known to have four seasons in one day and Tassie is almost anyone's guess it has been known to snow there on Christmas Day, also known to be extremely hot.

 

A lot of course depends on what you are used to at home.

 

Thanks for the weather info. We live in the Northern California foothills, so hot, dry summers. I'll make sure to pack for everything. :)

[happysnapper]

Also take into consideration Australian and New Zealand Christmas school holidays. Try an avoid these times if you are doing a couple of short cruises as the December/January ones are very popular.

[joybook]

I would agree that it would not be a bad idea to stay away from say mid December to the end of January because of school holidays. However having said that I have taken a cruise over Christmas and also two cruises in January from Sydney and while there have been quite a few school kids on the ship they were not noticed all that much and certainly were not bad enough to suggest I should not take another January cruise.:)

[shredie]

While I know the answer will be subjective since we all have different interests, I'm wondering when the best time to cruise Australia/New Zealand would be. Also, would you recommend more Australian ports or more New Zealand ports for the cruise? We have this on or "list" and trying to plan for future. Thanks for any and all input!

 

We did the cruise in January and had a fabulous time. There were more NZ ports than Australian, but we did get to see three cities there. Part of the trip was cancelled because of rough seas, but we got a nice compensation for it. My biggest surprise was how large Auckland is! I don't know what I was expecting, but it turned out to be this grand big city and just beautiful.

[mum and son]

How many days will that be?

 

The Qld coastal cruises out of Brisbane are only 7 days, possibly a couple of days longer ex Sydney if they are available. If you do a one way NZ cruise (starting Aus, ending in NZ or vice versa) you'll be able to cut down on days as opposed to doing a round trip. Then fly home directly from NZ or whatever.

 

It'll be a matter of finding the match up of cruises and cruise lines. As others have said, the upper half of Aus will be very hot and humid during our summer months of Dec - Feb, but that's when the "better" visiting cruise ships are here because it's our peak holiday season. P&O cruise out of Brisbane almost every second week to the reef but the ships are only 3.5 star.

 

At peak times of year you might be able to find a combination of Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean, or even HAL, covering these routes, and usually out of Sydney.

[crochetcruise]

Thanks for the weather info. We live in the Northern California foothills, so hot, dry summers. I'll make sure to pack for everything. :)

 

Remember a high strength sunscreen-sunburn is painful! Been caught as a stupid kid, so now fussy!

[mrs and mrs]

Dosent really matter about the weather,you will probably be with a heap of aussies and kiwis,so you will just have a blast.:):)Standard procedure=north aus,gee shes a bit hot mate/Yep better have a beer to cool down hey.Standard procedure=NZ shes a bit mild bro,/yeh,yeh,yeh better have a beer to chill down aaaa.

Enjoy ya cruise Mate/Bro:cool:

[Dididi]

We were looking into 2017-18 schedules because of the Captain's Circle Launch Fare reduced deposit offer. The July 2017 Sydney to Perth itinerary caught my eye because it includes a New Guinea port. After reading this thread, I booked the Golden Princess NZ Xmas 2017 cruise because (1) there's a port every day while in NZ, (2) one fewer sea day than the Sea Princess itinerary because Melbourne is closer to NZ than Brisbane (so one more day to spend in Australia), and (3) more kids (versus a July cruise) for my preteen daughter to meet because it's school holiday time Down Under. For us, more kids (within reason) is better than no kids.

 

We love Xmas cruises and this one will be very special!

[Kellyansapansa]

While I know the answer will be subjective since we all have different interests, I'm wondering when the best time to cruise Australia/New Zealand would be. Also, would you recommend more Australian ports or more New Zealand ports for the cruise? We have this on or "list" and trying to plan for future. Thanks for any and all input!

 

As others have said, you will get much more port time and less sea time on an NZ cruise vs an Aussie cruise.

 

Also, be aware that the climate varies greatly between Aussie cities but visiting in our Autumn or Spring would be best as you'll avoid the worst extremes in temperature.

[mattie00]

visiting in our Autumn or Spring would be best as you'll avoid the worst extremes in temperature.

 

Good to see a comment about autumn being a good time to visit as most of the comments have recommended spring. We have a 13-day New Zealand cruise and a 29-day Australia circumnavigation cruise planned for February through April of 2017.:D Also have a 10-day stopover in Cook Islands on our way down.:cool:

[GUT2407]

Good to see a comment about autumn being a good time to visit as most of the comments have recommended spring. We have a 13-day New Zealand cruise and a 29-day Australia circumnavigation cruise planned for February through April of 2017.:D Also have a 10-day stopover in Cook Islands on our way down.:cool:

 

Be aware though that February is usually our hottest month.

[mattie00]

Be aware though that February is usually our hottest month.

 

We did note that and are prepared for the heat....humidity might be another thing. I was born and raised near Lake Ontario and remember the humidity there in summer.....much drier here in Alberta. I also realize that the humidity we will experience in Australia will be much worse than that I experienced as a kid in Ontario.:eek: Still very excited about visiting regardless of weather.:D

[kleffy8]

Hi: We just did a 12 day roundtrip on the Sea Princess Feb 3 of 2016 of New Zealand, from Sydney, then flew to Brisbane and did a 7 day Australian coast trip from February 19-26 on the Sun. New Zealand was nice, but chilly, we hardly used the balcony. Sydney was a lovely temperature. The Sun trip was hot, we used the balcony every day. The water temp on our Great barrier reef excursion was 30 C. I packed for spring temps for NZ and summer temps for Au.

[Corfe Mixture]

As an Aussie, I can honestly say that NZ is far better for a cruising holiday. It's spectacular..... combining a Queensland coastal cruise (that incorporates the Great Barrier Reef), with a stay in Sydney, followed by an NZ cruise would give you a well-rounded trip down under. :)

 

Sounds like we might have our plans spot on. Three days in Hong Kong, four days overlooking Sydney harbour, cruise round New Zealand followed by cruise to Vanuatu and New Caledonia, then a final day in Sydney beach resort before flying home.

[mum and son]

Sounds like we might have our plans spot on. Three days in Hong Kong, four days overlooking Sydney harbour, cruise round New Zealand followed by cruise to Vanuatu and New Caledonia, then a final day in Sydney beach resort before flying home.

 

Corfe - looks great. Pack for all weather conditions. Hong Kong can be freezing in December so make sure you have a warm jacket, especially for the night you'll go down to the Harbour to watch the laser show (assuming you will :)). The buildings should also be lit for Xmas which makes it extra special.

 

NZ can be chilly too - we definitely needed warm jackets for Dunedin and Milford Sound in December.

 

When you go to the Pacific Islands make sure you get away from the port. Vila and Noumea are pretty uninteresting, so you'll have to plan your day if you want to see some of the natural beauty of these places. Have a fantastic holiday!