Looking to cruise Australian coast line.

[uvasag]

Hello. We are a family of 4 with boys aged 13 and 15. We would either have to book 2 balcony suites or a suite large enough for 4 adults. Most cruises seem to be from Australia to NZ. Really looking for something that covers Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns and possibly back to Sydney. We will probably visit Australia in July 2019. I see Pacific Dawn but seems like it's $2K pp. Is that the regular cost for a cruise in Australia? Would like at least one balcony suite and maybe 2nd one could be inside.

[GUT2407]

There aren’t a lot of options at that time of year as it is Winter.

 

a balcony you can expect to pay $200-$300 pp pd.

[OzKiwiJJ]

There aren't many ships in our region at that time of year, just P&O Australia's ships, and Carnival Spirit. Princess has reduced the number of ships staying year round and Sea Princess will still be on the world cruise. All the other cruise lines head off to other regions in March/April. 

 

By now many of the cruises that are available at that time are booking up, so prices for remaining cabins will probably be higher.

Edited October 30, 2018 by OzKiwiJJ

[MMDown Under]

July is a beautiful time of year to visit Queensland.  It is just not a good time to cruise along the Queensland Coast, because all the overseas ships only come here for the Northern Winter, and return around April for the Northern Spring. 

[SinbadThePorter]

10 hours ago, uvasag said:

Hello. We are a family of 4 with boys aged 13 and 15. We would either have to book 2 balcony suites or a suite large enough for 4 adults. Most cruises seem to be from Australia to NZ. Really looking for something that covers Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns and possibly back to Sydney. We will probably visit Australia in July 2019. I see Pacific Dawn but seems like it's $2K pp. Is that the regular cost for a cruise in Australia? Would like at least one balcony suite and maybe 2nd one could be inside.

 

The only cruise that does what you want at that time of year is P&O Pacific Explorer, 10 nights, 22nd July, Sydney to Cairns and back.

 

Pacific Explorer is a better ship than Pacific Dawn, which is a bit run down. Also Dawn departs Brisbane, not Sydney. The Explorer doesn't actually go into Brisbane, but visits Tangalooma, which is a resort across the bay from Brisbane on Moreton Island, and very nice.

 

P&O will often discount their fares close to departure time, but at that time of year there is no competition so maybe not.

 

$200 per person per day for a balcony is pretty standard, although full price. If I was you I would look at 2 Insides with 1 adult and a kid in each cabin at $1K pp. There are some interconnecting Insides available.

 

Remember that these are Australian dollar prices. If you come from overseas it will be much less in your currency.

Edited October 30, 2018 by SinbadThePorter

[uvasag]

36 minutes ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

The only cruise that does what you want at that time of year is P&O Pacific Explorer, 10 nights, 22nd July, Sydney to Cairns and back.

 

Pacific Explorer is a better ship than Pacific Dawn, which is a bit run down. Also Dawn departs Brisbane, not Sydney. The Explorer doesn't actually go into Brisbane, but visits Tangalooma, which is a resort across the bay from Brisbane on Moreton Island, and very nice.

 

P&O will often discount their fares close to departure time, but at that time of year there is no competition so maybe not.

 

$200 per person per day for a balcony is pretty standard, although full price. If I was you I would look at 2 Insides with 1 adult and a kid in each cabin at $1K pp. There are some interconnecting Insides available.

 

Remember that these are Australian dollar prices. If you come from overseas it will be much less in your currency.

 

Thank you. Will look at the exchange rate. Good point that it may not be as costly in USD. I also found Carnival Spirit sailing 19th June with slightly cheaper prices. 

 

I know this is a cruise forum but for someone flying in from US would you advice a cruise to Australia or do you think I would appreciate the country more by land? Trip by land is cheaper but I want to avoid the hassles of packing/unpacking every 2-3 days, spending time in and out of airports etc. I feel cruise is more relaxing and it still hits the cities that I would be visiting anyways.

[Russell21]

42 minutes ago, uvasag said:

 

Thank you. Will look at the exchange rate. Good point that it may not be as costly in USD. I also found Carnival Spirit sailing 19th June with slightly cheaper prices. 

 

I know this is a cruise forum but for someone flying in from US would you advice a cruise to Australia or do you think I would appreciate the country more by land? Trip by land is cheaper but I want to avoid the hassles of packing/unpacking every 2-3 days, spending time in and out of airports etc. I feel cruise is more relaxing and it still hits the cities that I would be visiting anyways.

Bear in mind that Australia is nearly the same size as the USA, and quite a bit of it is empty or near enough to it. Distances are the killer here as a lot of time can be spent travelling. I would get hold of a good map and a good tour guide book, and then spend some time planning. The time spent planning will be well rewarded.

 

I don't think cruising is a great way to really see Australia, and I love cruising.

Edited October 31, 2018 by Russell21

[GUT2407]

57 minutes ago, uvasag said:

 

Thank you. Will look at the exchange rate. Good point that it may not be as costly in USD. I also found Carnival Spirit sailing 19th June with slightly cheaper prices. 

 

I know this is a cruise forum but for someone flying in from US would you advice a cruise to Australia or do you think I would appreciate the country more by land? Trip by land is cheaper but I want to avoid the hassles of packing/unpacking every 2-3 days, spending time in and out of airports etc. I feel cruise is more relaxing and it still hits the cities that I would be visiting anyways.

Land. (Maybe with a cruise thrown in if time permits)

 

would you visit USA by land or cruise.

 

The first couple of weeks of July are also school holidays in much of the country which will bump up prices a bit.

[The_Big_M]

2 hours ago, uvasag said:

 

Thank you. Will look at the exchange rate. Good point that it may not be as costly in USD. I also found Carnival Spirit sailing 19th June with slightly cheaper prices. 

 

I know this is a cruise forum but for someone flying in from US would you advice a cruise to Australia or do you think I would appreciate the country more by land? Trip by land is cheaper but I want to avoid the hassles of packing/unpacking every 2-3 days, spending time in and out of airports etc. I feel cruise is more relaxing and it still hits the cities that I would be visiting anyways.

 

One other thing to note is that Australian airports are not as unpleasant as US airports. They still have security but without the unpleasantness rigmarole and attitude that often occurs in the US. 

 

There's obviously a bit more effort with packing/unpacking but you'll have more time on the ground to see places if you take the land option. Cruising is relaxing but less efficient and more restricted time wise so depends what priorities and preferences are.

[Cruise Junky]

22 minutes ago, The_Big_M said:

 

One other thing to note is that Australian airports are not as unpleasant as US airports. They still have security but without the unpleasantness rigmarole and attitude that often occurs in the US. 

 

There's obviously a bit more effort with packing/unpacking but you'll have more time on the ground to see places if you take the land option. Cruising is relaxing but less efficient and more restricted time wise so depends what priorities and preferences are.

Australian airports are pretty close to awesome. And you can fly with liquids, don’t have to remove your shoes and the staff are actually pleasant. It’s soooo not painful to fly compared to North America. 

[SinbadThePorter]

3 hours ago, uvasag said:

 

Thank you. Will look at the exchange rate. Good point that it may not be as costly in USD. I also found Carnival Spirit sailing 19th June with slightly cheaper prices. 

 

I know this is a cruise forum but for someone flying in from US would you advice a cruise to Australia or do you think I would appreciate the country more by land? Trip by land is cheaper but I want to avoid the hassles of packing/unpacking every 2-3 days, spending time in and out of airports etc. I feel cruise is more relaxing and it still hits the cities that I would be visiting anyways.

 

At the moment 2000 AUD = 1400 USD.

 

That Carnival Spirit cruise does not include Cairns.

 

I think Mr Gut expressed it best, how would you prefer to explore the continental USA? By cruise or land? You are looking at three million square miles. Or maybe one million if you are only interested in the East Coast.

 

A cruise is more relaxing and if the boys like it then I say go ahead. Just remember you will see very little of the country by cruise, which only matters depending on what you want to see.

 

Traveling in winter, my personal preferences would be:

 

Cairns for the Great Barrier Reef and rainforest.👍

Darwin for Kakadu.👍👍

Uluru for the big rock.👍👍

Sydney because it's probably the prettiest Australian city (at least around the harbour).👍

 

Because of winter I would not go to:

Tasmania

New Zealand

Kangaroo Island

Melbourne

 

p.s. Unless you have relatives there, there is really no reason to visit Brisbane. The Gold Coast in winter is pretty drab too.

 

One of the disadvantages of coming to Australia in winter, is that the south of the country is cold and wet. One of the advantages is that the north of the country is warm and dry. In summer it's often very difficult to get to the tourist spots from Darwin because of torrential rains. In the winter there is no such problem.

Edited October 31, 2018 by SinbadThePorter

[Hgwells01]

I agree with Sinbad’s post completely.  I’d fly in, find an apt to stay in for a few nights at least in each location and explore.  We did this in Europe, stayed min 3 nights or more in each location but we drove as it’s all so close. We had Canadian friends visit, we did a week in Newcastle and Syd, flew to Alice Springs for 4 nights and then to Cairns for a week to show them how different it is and also how large.  On a cruise I did have a funny conversation with an American lady, she was flying in to Syd, then wanted to see Perth, Darwin and Cairns and assured me it was all within 2 inches on her map so was possible to do it in a week.  I couldn’t convince her she would spend the whole time flying almost just to get to those places was a days flight each leaving her a whole day in each place to “see the sights”.  I told her to just pick one and fly in and spend the week.  I finally told her that we have a cattle station in Western Australia that is the size of the State of Texas and she was gobsmacked. 😜

[MicCanberra]

Sinbad has made some great points. Although I think the cruise is a fairly effective and efficient way to travel and see various ports, it is still fairly limited as you only get one day in each port. Perhaps the fly/stay method would be better. Maybe do a shorter cruise along with the travel.

[Cruise Junky]

13 hours ago, Hgwells01 said:

  On a cruise I did have a funny conversation with an American lady, she was flying in to Syd, then wanted to see Perth, Darwin and Cairns and assured me it was all within 2 inches on her map so was possible to do it in a week.  I couldn’t convince her she would spend the whole time flying almost just to get to those places was a days flight each leaving her a whole day in each place to “see the sights”.  I told her to just pick one and fly in and spend the week.  I finally told her that we have a cattle station in Western Australia that is the size of the State of Texas and she was gobsmacked. 😜

Reminds me of my sister.  She came to visit me in Vancouver from the UK. We were discussing day trips of where she wanted to go, you know, Seattle, Victoria, Whistler, etc. and she asked if we could go to Niagara Falls... Hmmm NO. It's a 4 day drive each way.

[OzKiwiJJ]

That doesn't only happen in Australia. Many years ago I was involved in organizing a conference in NZ. One US delegate called to confirm that if he flew into Auckland and rented a car that he'd be able to drive to Wellington in a couple of hours. Ah, no, sorry mate! 

[GUT2407]

I find it so funny they can look at a map of USA and know it’s a long way from NY to LA but look at the same scale map of Aus and not realise it’s a long way from Syd to Perth.

[MicCanberra]

1 hour ago, GUT2407 said:

I find it so funny they can look at a map of USA and know it’s a long way from NY to LA but look at the same scale map of Aus and not realise it’s a long way from Syd to Perth.

Happens a lot, some people also get Austria and Australia mixed up.

[magpie9]

I didba top end cruise with RCI in the month of March. Left Freemantle, we t up WA coast to Geraldton, Port Hedland,  Darwin, Cairns, Brisbane and Sydney. Great trip 18 nights. Really worth it and learning about all the places from the Barrier Reef environmental  pilot we had onboard. 

You can book via vacations2go un USA and get far better deals than we can in Aust. Ask them to advisebyou when this route is next available.

I would not go on a Pand O cruise if it was free.

[SinbadThePorter]

12 hours ago, magpie9 said:

I didba top end cruise with RCI in the month of March. Left Freemantle, we t up WA coast to Geraldton, Port Hedland,  Darwin, Cairns, Brisbane and Sydney. Great trip 18 nights. Really worth it and learning about all the places from the Barrier Reef environmental  pilot we had onboard. 

You can book via vacations2go un USA and get far better deals than we can in Aust. Ask them to advisebyou when this route is next available.

I would not go on a Pand O cruise if it was free.

 

The schedule is July, 2019. There are no RCI ships that overwinter in Australia.

 

The only options at that time are Carnival and P&O, and Carnival only goes to New Caledonia.

 

I would definitely go P&O if it was free. Although I admit I'd be disappointed if it had to be on Dawn or Jewel.

[MicCanberra]

A cruise is a cruise and P&O suit me perfectly fine, just as other cruise lines do. If I could cruise for free, I would be happy with any line offering.

[GUT2407]

I’ve only done one P&O cruise and said never again.

 

but I’ve since come to realise how crook I was during it, it was actually my first cruise in a wheelchair.

 

How sick was I? Well the girls talk about stuff that happened and I have no recollection at all. I don’t think I got off the ship at any port, preferring to just collapse in my cabin

Edited December 8, 2018 by GUT2407

[Toryhere]

On 10/30/2018 at 11:44 PM, uvasag said:

Hello. We are a family of 4 with boys aged 13 and 15. We would either have to book 2 balcony suites or a suite large enough for 4 adults. Most cruises seem to be from Australia to NZ. Really looking for something that covers Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns and possibly back to Sydney. We will probably visit Australia in July 2019. I see Pacific Dawn but seems like it's $2K pp. Is that the regular cost for a cruise in Australia? Would like at least one balcony suite and maybe 2nd one could be inside.

As people have explained above July is winter in Australia. Sydney will be chilly, but not by American standards. 

Far North Queensland and NorthWest Australia will be lovely and warm.

I’d suggest you spend a week in Sydney doing the sights and then head to either one of the beaches north of Cairns or to Broome in Western Australia. 

[MicCanberra]

Just remember the large distances between all these places, flights are best when crossing the country.