ANZ 14 nts on RCCL Voyager w/ 3 y/o - good or bad idea?

My husband is taking his sabbatical next year, which is an extra 8 weeks of vacation that only happens every 7 years, and we want to do something very special. We are considering taking this cruise with our 3 y/o next November.

Pros:

- Voyager ship has Dreamworks experience with characters, should be plenty to keep occupied on ship.

-Wildlife excursions to keep her interest (koalas an kangaroos in Sydney and Melbourne).

Cons:

- Long trip to get there (15 hour flight LAX - SYD plus a 2 hour flight to LAX and layover, will be in business class so probably not too miserable).

- Some of the NZ excursions may be boring for her.

- Probably not many other kids onboard.

Anything I'm missing?

1 Sat, Nov 23 Sydney

9:00 P 2 Sun, Nov 24 At Sea

3 Mon, Nov 25 At Sea

4 Tue, Nov 26 Auckland 3:00 P 10:00 P 5 Wed, Nov 27 Tauranga 8:45 A 8:00 P 6 Thu, Nov 28 At Sea

7 Fri, Nov 29 Wellington 8:00 A 6:00 P 8 Sat, Nov 30 Christchurch 8:00 A 6:00 P 9 Sun, Dec 1 Dunedin 8:00 A 6:00 P 10 Mon, Dec 2 Dusky Sound 8:00 A 9:00 A 10 Mon, Dec 2 Doubtful Sound 11:30 A 1:00 P 10 Mon, Dec 2 Milford Sound 4:30 P 6:00 P 11 Tue, Dec 3 At Sea

12 Wed, Dec 4 At Sea

13 Thu, Dec 5 Melbourne 8:00 A 6:00 P 14 Fri, Dec 6 At Sea

15 Sat, Dec 7 Sydney 6:00 A

Have you thought about doing a self-drive trip in either Australia or New Zealand with your 3-year old? We went to Australia for 2 weeks when our DD was 3 years old and we followed that with a 2-week trip to New Zealand when our DS was 3 years old. So we have plenty of experience in touring each country with 3 year olds.

I would probably prefer a land trip with kids this age rather than a sea cruise. You'll have more choice in where you go and what you see. There are a lot of neat things in the interior of these countries that you miss when you cruise. You don't have to worry about boring (and expensive) excursions either. We found plenty of activities that interested us and the kids, plus there were playgrounds everywhere when we needed a break from driving.

One nice things about both countries is that they have lots of serviced apartments. So you can find accommodations with 2 bedrooms, a living room, a full kitchen and, often, W/D. We really liked being able to put the kids to bed and then stay up watching TV or whatever. Cabins on cruises are definitely not great when you have to share it with kids.

Of course, if you take a land cruise, you will not have the option of taking the child to the Kids Club--you'll be with her 24/7. You may consider that a "pro" or a "con". (For me, that was always a big "pro".)

Thanks for the response. IDK, but hours of sitting in the car with a 3 y/o does not sound appealing to me. I don't mind not having the kid's club (my daughter would not go there last cruise anyway) but I really like the convenience of a cruise for not having to worry about travel details.

Have you considered one of the cruises which cruise from Auckland to Sydney or visa versa?

That way you would have one shorter flight and you could arrange land content in both Auckland and Sydney. The advantage of NZ is distances are short, if you hire a car. In addition, you wouldn't have two ocean crossings.

If that didn't suit, I'm agree with your pros for the Voyager.

I have travelled extensively with daughters, at all ages, and I found 3 year old was a wonderful age for travelling. Just take lots of small surprises to entertain on long flights and stopped for fun breaks, before the child gets bored or overtired.

Enjoy the wonder of seeing the world through her eyes!

Have you considered one of the cruises which cruise from Auckland to Sydney or visa versa?

 

That way you would have one shorter flight and you could arrange land content in both Auckland and Sydney. The advantage of NZ is distances are short, if you hire a car. In addition, you wouldn't have two ocean crossings.

I definitely love the idea of cruising from NZ to Sydney because then we could have a few days in NZ prior to the cruise. However, having recently been on a Disney cruise, we were looking for something similar and came across the Dreamworks experience, which looks like it would be very entertaining. The experience is only on a small # of ships. If we do the Auckland to Sydney route, it might be on a ship that has less entertainment to offer. There are so many tradeoffs. I guess I'll take another look at this option. Thanks for the suggestion!