Holiday Australia & NZ cruise - advice please

[candylover]

I am considering the above cruise which spans the Christmas & New Year period.  We travel as a couple.  All of our past Seabourn cruises have been outside of the holiday period.  We have enjoyed all past cruises and particularly enjoy the social, convivial atmosphere we have found onboard.  We love socialising, enjoying dinner etc. with others that we meet.  My only hesitation about this holiday cruise is I wonder if the vibe is different over the holiday period i.e. mainly family groups etc who may not (understandably) be wanting to mix outside of their group.  I would love to hear from other Seabourn cruisers who have cruised over the holiday period as to whether the whole atmosphere is different from cruising at other times during the year. I look forward to hearing your thoughts of cruising at this time of year as a couple.

[DC Traveler244]

Candylover, we've taken a number of holiday cruises with Seabourn and enjoyed them (including Australia & NZ).  While there tend to be more family groups on holiday sailings, there are loads of couples (like us) and we haven't found the the overall vibe to be very different than on other SB cruises. While some family groups don't mingle, others do.   

 

We really like the holiday cruises:  you need to get your holiday tasks out of the way early, but once you're aboard, you can just relax and enjoy a festive experience that's not over-the-top. 

 

 

[Catlover54]

DH and I agreed that our Caribbean holiday cruise for two weeks a few months ago had a different ambience than SB non-holiday cruises.  On average, people were unnecessarily louder, ( especially  when in big family groups), less considerate, service was slower when seated near a big group, and it was harder to find pax interested in joining  other pax at dinner as so many were sitting in their groups or cliques.  Cruises are pretty much guaranteed to be both sold out and more expensive. 

 

We still had a very good time and made the best of it and rated the cruise 4/5 overall. There were plenty of quiet niches other than our suite, we just had to go at atypical times ( like the aft hot tubs in the early morning, usually empty, or the roof deck loungers during dinner or show time, also empty).

Caribbean may also be a bit more rowdy than elsewhere, as it is caters to beach and fun in the sun crowd more so than NZ.

If I had a choice I would travel outside holiday times on SB.

 

[princeton123211]

The biggest thing we've found on the 2 Seabourn trips we've done over holiday periods is that it trends younger-- not necessarily big families either (although there were a few of those)-- just younger couples. 

[candylover]

6 hours ago, DC Traveler244 said:

Candylover, we've taken a number of holiday cruises with Seabourn and enjoyed them (including Australia & NZ).  While there tend to be more family groups on holiday sailings, there are loads of couples (like us) and we haven't found the the overall vibe to be very different than on other SB cruises. While some family groups don't mingle, others do.   

 

We really like the holiday cruises:  you need to get your holiday tasks out of the way early, but once you're aboard, you can just relax and enjoy a festive experience that's not over-the-top. 

 

 

DC Traveler244, that is good to hear.  We have toyed with the idea of a holiday cruise for some time now  and your comments do provide some assurance.

[candylover]

6 hours ago, Catlover54 said:

DH and I agreed that our Caribbean holiday cruise for two weeks a few months ago had a different ambience than SB non-holiday cruises.  On average, people were unnecessarily louder, ( especially  when in big family groups), less considerate, service was slower when seated near a big group, and it was harder to find pax interested in joining  other pax at dinner as so many were sitting in their groups or cliques.  Cruises are pretty much guaranteed to be both sold out and more expensive. 

 

We still had a very good time and made the best of it and rated the cruise 4/5 overall. There were plenty of quiet niches other than our suite, we just had to go at atypical times ( like the aft hot tubs in the early morning, usually empty, or the roof deck loungers during dinner or show time, also empty).

Caribbean may also be a bit more rowdy than elsewhere, as it is caters to beach and fun in the sun crowd more so than NZ.

If I had a choice I would travel outside holiday times on SB.

 

Catlover54, your comments are very interesting.  We did a Caribbean cruise a few years ago (not at holiday time) and even then we found the ambience to be very different to our other cruises.  Definitely a different vibe, still enjoyable, but definitely not our favourite cruise.  So I am hoping that our experiences are more symptomatic of the destination rather than the time of the cruise.

[candylover]

5 hours ago, princeton123211 said:

The biggest thing we've found on the 2 Seabourn trips we've done over holiday periods is that it trends younger-- not necessarily big families either (although there were a few of those)-- just younger couples. 

Thanks princeton123211.  That is good news for us.  We are at the younger end of the Seabourn demographic so not a problem for us.  Will certainly give this holiday cruise some more serious thought.

[Isklaar]

We've been on Seabourn at Christmas/NY for most years out of the past 7. We feel that the onboard ambience is slightly different at that time of year, with a number of kids onboard, but until now it hasn't put us off and we remained  serial Holiday cruise bookers.We agree that the crowd trends younger overall, particularly on the Caribbean itineraries. 

However, our most recent was on Ovation in December 2018. This cruise felt very different, and not just because of the larger ship. So, we decided not to take one of the Holiday cruises this year, and that means we won't be on SB at all in 2019.

[raphael360]

Candylover,

I'm not sure what the take away is from the various posts above but the vibe we experienced our SB holiday cruise was a happy vibe.  Fellow cruisers were in a better mood than non-holiday cruises.  I can't comment on the 'families with children' issue except to say there weren't any children on our cruise. 

 

Our SB holiday cruise was one of our favorite cruises ever.   Seabourn's Christmas decorations were better than Disney World's while the 'rock the boat' New Years Eve party was the best New Years Eve celebration we've ever had.

 

On an unrelated note, we just came back from our Sydney - Auckland cruise which we loved.  You are so lucky being local.  The 24 hour (each way) trip from Florida was a killer.  Merry Christmas :)

[candylover]

On 4/26/2019 at 9:58 PM, Isklaar said:

We've been on Seabourn at Christmas/NY for most years out of the past 7. We feel that the onboard ambience is slightly different at that time of year, with a number of kids onboard, but until now it hasn't put us off and we remained  serial Holiday cruise bookers.We agree that the crowd trends younger overall, particularly on the Caribbean itineraries. 

However, our most recent was on Ovation in December 2018. This cruise felt very different, and not just because of the larger ship. So, we decided not to take one of the Holiday cruises this year, and that means we won't be on SB at all in 2019.

Isklaar, thanks for your comments.  If we do take this holiday cruise it will be on the Encore - our first SB cruise on one of the larger ships.  Can I ask where you cruised with the Ovation when you found the feeling very different onboard.  

[candylover]

10 hours ago, raphael360 said:

Candylover,

I'm not sure what the take away is from the various posts above but the vibe we experienced our SB holiday cruise was a happy vibe.  Fellow cruisers were in a better mood than non-holiday cruises.  I can't comment on the 'families with children' issue except to say there weren't any children on our cruise. 

 

Our SB holiday cruise was one of our favorite cruises ever.   Seabourn's Christmas decorations were better than Disney World's while the 'rock the boat' New Years Eve party was the best New Years Eve celebration we've ever had.

 

On an unrelated note, we just came back from our Sydney - Auckland cruise which we loved.  You are so lucky being local.  The 24 hour (each way) trip from Florida was a killer.  Merry Christmas :)

Raphael360, sounds like your holiday cruise was terrific.  Can I ask what area and what ship you were on.

Yes we are very lucky being in Aus for the Aus/NZ cruises but for all the others we have a very long trip.  Two years ago we did SB caribbean - Melb to LAX,  LAX to FLL, then FLL to Bridgetown (both ways).  We were wrecked by the time we arrived in Barbados.

[Isklaar]

1 minute ago, candylover said:

Isklaar, thanks for your comments.  If we do take this holiday cruise it will be on the Encore - our first SB cruise on one of the larger ships.  Can I ask where you cruised with the Ovation when you found the feeling very different onboard.  

 

It was Singapore to Hong Kong. I've done the cruise previously on Sojourn and it was superb. 

 

 

[raphael360]

2 hours ago, candylover said:

Raphael360, sounds like your holiday cruise was terrific.  Can I ask what area and what ship you were on.

Yes we are very lucky being in Aus for the Aus/NZ cruises but for all the others we have a very long trip.  Two years ago we did SB caribbean - Melb to LAX,  LAX to FLL, then FLL to Bridgetown (both ways).  We were wrecked by the time we arrived in Barbados.

We were on the Encore for the AUS/NZ cruise.  The seas were really rough in the Tasmanian Sea but the Encore handle the seas beautifully.  Business class from FLL to SYD and back from ALK was was $13K pp USD so we decided to fly coach - yuck. 😱

 

We're doing a 21 day SB Caribbean holiday cruise this year.  Barbados is only 3 hour flight.  Closer that our Starbucks 😉

[Williwannago]

Always late to the party, we sailed Encore this past Christmas/New Year and loved it. Cruising would be our preferred Holiday event but other demands of life get in the way. Have fun! Everyone is happy, full of cheer, we’ll 99.9% were happy including us.

 

Aloha,

willi