Which line for S. pacific/Australia?

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?

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

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

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.

Oceania might still be in your price range. Anyway, do you have a good travel agent who can help you with your choices?

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!??

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

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.

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.

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.

Take a look at Royal Caribbean's Transpacific cruises.

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..

I like the Princess itineraries best.

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

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.

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.

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.