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Advice from Australian cruisers needed


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We are from the US and considering a cruise from a choice of several beginning in eastern Australia and traveling up to either New Guinea or Indonesia. All three cruises that interest us are in the month of March (either in 2019 or 2020). From what I’ve read, March is one of the rainier months and still in monsoonal season. Is it really an undesirable time? Or are we just talking afternoon showers?

 

Any comments appreciated.

 

 

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March is our Wet season and to be honest a great time to visit the Tropics. The Wet changes how our region looks and feels.

 

You would be very very unlucky if a cyclone (hurricane) would spoil your trip but it’s technically a possibility.

 

Coral Sea weather events tend to happen later in the Wet Season (just a lay persons observation) and our weather forecasting is well developed to give ships masters plenty of heads up of suspicious systems.

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We did a repositioning cruise up to Japan that departed from Sydney 22nd March this year. We had very good weather overall. Departure day was a bit showery, and we had one downpour late afternoon off the coast of Far North Queensland. Yes, there is a risk of cyclones - in fact one was going down through the Gulf of Carpentaria as we were going up the east coast.

 

We did a South Pacific cruise a few years ago in March, and had the best weather ever.

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Yes, more than just showers as that is when you get cyclones in that area.

 

While a cruise ship may detour if you have specific land destinations planned as you sound to with PNG and Indonesia, you may well find heavy rain every day or worse.

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Hi,nobody can predict the weather at any time of the year months out.

We are doing Sea Princess to New Guinea early February 2019 and hoping for no summer storms,that’s all you can do is hope

Cheers Carole

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Hi,nobody can predict the weather at any time of the year months out.

We are doing Sea Princess to New Guinea early February 2019 and hoping for no summer storms,that’s all you can do is hope

Cheers Carole

 

I can accurately predict that there will be no cyclones during our winter, because the water has to be a certain heat before a cyclone can form. However, I cannot accurately predict when/if a cyclone will form during the cyclone season, when the water is warm.

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I can accurately predict that there will be no cyclones during our winter, because the water has to be a certain heat before a cyclone can form. However, I cannot accurately predict when/if a cyclone will form during the cyclone season, when the water is warm.

🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

That’s a bit nit picky

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Thank you all. I must say I’m even more confused now. (-; I don’t understand why two different companies are choosing March if they run the risk of unhappy customers due to bad weather. I understand that bad weather can come any time but why invite it? Unless, they consider these repositioning cruises and are willing to risk it.

 

I’m trying to relate this to hurricane season in the Caribbean. It runs officially from June through November but no one really expects hurricanes until late Aug to October. That may be changing with global warming.

 

Anyway, I guess we can book and see how he feel later before final payment.

 

 

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🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪

That’s a bit nit picky

 

Yet accurate.

 

It's the same as parts of America having their own hurricane season, for the same reasons.

 

Prices are cheaper then - but you run the risk of having a bad holiday due to hurricanes. Which is not a risk at certain other times of the year.

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Thank you all. I must say I’m even more confused now. (-; I don’t understand why two different companies are choosing March if they run the risk of unhappy customers due to bad weather. I understand that bad weather can come any time but why invite it? Unless, they consider these repositioning cruises and are willing to risk it.

 

I’m trying to relate this to hurricane season in the Caribbean. It runs officially from June through November but no one really expects hurricanes until late Aug to October. That may be changing with global warming.

 

Same reason you also have cruises in that area of the US at that time of the year. The surrounding times are good for cruises, so it's still convenient to run them then - but there is a risk.

And there's still more demand for cruises in the surrounding Summer-Autumn season than in Winter, so they take the sales, hope for the best and be ready with alternate plans when the eventual does happen.

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Don't be put off by talk of cyclones. They are relatively rare and usually only affect a limited area.

 

December to March is the time to expect them, but the area in which they can be expected is about 20 million square miles. So you would be very unlucky to be on a cruise affected by them. I think bad weather around NZ is far more limiting on cruising there.

 

The other thing is that outside of cyclones the weather during that time of year is usually quite good. You get some spectacular afternoon and evening thunderstorms, but the mornings will often be clear and bright. I think that it's less windy that time of year, although that might only be my impression, but you seem to get very flat seas which you don't see much of in the Dry Season.

 

On the whole, March is a perfectly good time of the year to go north. Besides which, cruise options in Australia for the autumn and winter are pretty limited because the cruise lines pull out their best ships for the northern summer season.

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Don't be put off by talk of cyclones. They are relatively rare and usually only affect a limited area.

 

December to March is the time to expect them, but the area in which they can be expected is about 20 million square miles. So you would be very unlucky to be on a cruise affected by them. I think bad weather around NZ is far more limiting on cruising there.

 

The other thing is that outside of cyclones the weather during that time of year is usually quite good. You get some spectacular afternoon and evening thunderstorms, but the mornings will often be clear and bright. I think that it's less windy that time of year, although that might only be my impression, but you seem to get very flat seas which you don't see much of in the Dry Season.

 

On the whole, March is a perfectly good time of the year to go north. Besides which, cruise options in Australia for the autumn and winter are pretty limited because the cruise lines pull out their best ships for the northern summer season.

That's a pretty good summation Sinbad. We've cruised the S Pacific in March and never had a problem. We skirted a cyclone in January last year on the way to Darwin/Bali/Perth, no problem.

Edited by lyndarra
typos
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That's a pretty good summation Sinbad. We've cruised the S Pacific in March and never had a problem. We skirted a cyclone in January last year on the way to Darwin/Bali/Perth, no problem.

 

 

 

Agreed!

 

We followed a day behind a cyclone near Noumea last April and you wouldn't even have known there was one in the region. It pretty much hit Noumea direct at category 3 but nothing so much as looked out of place.

 

Lately there has been far more cyclone activity out near the islands than closer in despite the warm shallow waters in the gulf being ideal if the upper atmospheric conditions are right!

 

 

Cheers

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Don't be put off by talk of cyclones. They are relatively rare and usually only affect a limited area.

 

December to March is the time to expect them, but the area in which they can be expected is about 20 million square miles. So you would be very unlucky to be on a cruise affected by them. I think bad weather around NZ is far more limiting on cruising there.

 

The other thing is that outside of cyclones the weather during that time of year is usually quite good. You get some spectacular afternoon and evening thunderstorms, but the mornings will often be clear and bright. I think that it's less windy that time of year, although that might only be my impression, but you seem to get very flat seas which you don't see much of in the Dry Season.

 

On the whole, March is a perfectly good time of the year to go north. Besides which, cruise options in Australia for the autumn and winter are pretty limited because the cruise lines pull out their best ships for the northern summer season.

 

 

 

Sinbad,

 

Very specific and helpful. I was leaning towards not doing one of these cruises and you’ve turned me around (along with those that have commented on your post). I’m leaning toward a cruise in 2020 so have a lot of time. Thanks!

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

We cruised Sydney to Singapore in March this year and had seas like glass the whole 2 weeks. Beautiful weather, sun all day every day and no rain. It was perfect cruising weather! We always cruise March or April and have never had a problem. The one time we cruised in May we followed a cyclone but the seas were only rough a couple of days although we did have the itinerary change along the way due to some devastation in a couple of ports! All part of cruising!!

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