Australian or South Pacific Island cruising

Hello everyone

My husband and I are from the Gold Coast in Australia and starting to do a little research - well in advance of our Sept/Oct cruising plans in 2016 for possibly an Australian trip or South Pacific Islands...really open to suggestions at this stage.

I'd like to get some feedback to see which of the Ocean liners would be suitable for us as we are in our 50's and even though we know that we won't completely avoid kids/teenagers altogether, it would be nice to take a cruise where it's less likely that too many kids would be aboard or if there are kid free swimming pools etc.

We have both been on P&O in our past - the Pacific Dawn was nice, but my husband heard that Carnival has less of the "riff-raff".

We'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on these.

Thank you

Carnival Spirit from what I have read seems to also be set up more for

the younger set. We can't fault Princess from Australia, we have been on

Princess 7 times since 2008, granted most of them have been longer cruises

but we have done 3 Pacific cruises of 14 nights and have noticed that you

don't seem to even notice the children on board. Someone will probably

help you with other cruise lines.:)

Can only comment on the cruiselines I have been on and with your kid free cruise in mind, recommend that timing of the cruise is more important than the cruise line. If you take a 2 week or longer cruise outside of school holidays then you are more likely to not see any kids at all. That said, a lot of ships have fantastic kid's programmes that seem to occupy the kids for most of the day.:D

if you want to avoid kids/teenagers then DON'T go on Carnival!!, we did a cruise on the Carnival Legend and we had 600 kids on board! and you could NOT get in to any of the swimming pools as it was how many kids could fit in to them!

When thinking about where you want to go ether Australian trip or South Pacific Islands, think about want you want to do :)

If you like been at the beach or in the water, snorkelling etc.. or exploring the islands then a South Pacific cruise, might be for you :)

or if you don't like the beach or in the water as much then a Australian cruise might be better for you :)

To avoid huge numbers of children google when school holidays are ( they vary state to state but are generally only one or two weeks different).

Try this link

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/department/pages/datesterm.aspx?&Redirect=1

We have cruised Sth Pacific and FNQ in November and March on Royal Caribbean and never had an issue with children at these times. Again, as mentioned previously,those that were on board seemed to attend the kids club. A couple of times we saw a group of a particular age group dressed as pirates on a scavenger hunt or another group designing parachutes. My husband and I actually enjoyed watching how much they were enjoying themselves and kind of wished we could have joined in on the fun :p

We went early to a show one night and the children were putting on an end of cruise performance for their parents and I would guess at the most there would have been 40 children on stage ranging from 3 - 14ish.

I think as long as you cruise outside school holidays there won't be a problem

The itinerary may also keep the families/kids away, i.e. Trans Atlantic cruise with lots of sea days will have less kids on board than a island cruise.:D

Hello everyone

 

My husband and I are from the Gold Coast in Australia and starting to do a little research - well in advance of our Sept/Oct cruising plans in 2016 for possibly an Australian trip or South Pacific Islands...really open to suggestions at this stage.

 

I'd like to get some feedback to see which of the Ocean liners would be suitable for us as we are in our 50's and even though we know that we won't completely avoid kids/teenagers altogether, it would be nice to take a cruise where it's less likely that too many kids would be aboard or if there are kid free swimming pools etc.

 

We have both been on P&O in our past - the Pacific Dawn was nice, but my husband heard that Carnival has less of the "riff-raff".

 

We'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on these.

 

Thank you

Hi,

My recommendations would be Royal caribbean or Celebrity Solstice.

Solstice is a beautiful ship and is ideal for people of your age.....It is 5 star but very reasonably priced.

I might add you need to be aware that on both lines USD are used for onboard purchases.

I would steer clear of both P&O and Carnival.Princess are a very good line with a mature passengers and the 3 ships that cruise permanently from australia use AUD onboard.

Col

I haven't cruised at all yet, but am booked on a South Pacific cruise with Carnival in June (with 3 kids). I fully expect there to be lots of kids on board but it isn't school holidays, so maybe less? I think Carnival is known to be kid friendly. The only one I discounted was Celebrity as I was travelling with children, there may be less kids on that, and known as being not so much a riff raff crowd from what I hear.

Hello everyone

 

My husband and I are from the Gold Coast in Australia and starting to do a little research - well in advance of our Sept/Oct cruising plans in 2016 for possibly an Australian trip or South Pacific Islands...really open to suggestions at this stage.

 

I'd like to get some feedback to see which of the Ocean liners would be suitable for us as we are in our 50's and even though we know that we won't completely avoid kids/teenagers altogether, it would be nice to take a cruise where it's less likely that too many kids would be aboard or if there are kid free swimming pools etc.

 

We have both been on P&O in our past - the Pacific Dawn was nice, but my husband heard that Carnival has less of the "riff-raff".

 

We'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on these.

 

Thank you

I have a friend who swears by the Arcadia, which is a British P&O ship and nothing like P&O here. The Arcadia only takes people 18 and over, it is a step up from Princess in terms of quality and dining (according to my friend) and you can often buy a sector of one of the world trips.

My friend does this. They sometimes join the cruise in Melbourne and have travelled to England that way and I think the next time they go on a cruise will be on the other British P&O ship, Aurora & they will be off to Sth America via NZ and some of the pacific Islands this March.

They always seem to get a good price on the sectors.

If you are open to times/itineraries, then it may be worth your while having a look at the Arcadia and seeing if there are any sectors that appeal to you. There are quite a few that you can join in Brisbane. I am not sure the trips for Sept/Oct 2016 have been published yet but if you look at the March timetable you will get an idea of typical prices etc

......We have both been on P&O in our past - the Pacific Dawn was nice, but my husband heard that Carnival has less of the "riff-raff".

 

We'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on these.

 

Thank you

Carnival - less riff-raff. Can't say I've heard that comment before :D Maybe that just isn't said on Royal Caribbean or Celebrity cruise ships. ;) I actually think that some people from any country, and from any age group can be annoying if they don't consider those around them. Generalisations are commonly made, but I think people's idea of riff-raff can be very wrong.

We sailed with a couple that were business people with a medical type business. They had tattoos and liked to wear a bit of leather, and I was amazed at the looks they got from some. We found them very interesting to talk to, and on other trips would have preferred to have them around again in preference to some people that think they are a bit richer and better than others.

We also find that longer cruises have an older demographic, and cruises 10 to 12 days or more, outside school holidays, are usually our preference. (early 50's) We went on a 18 nighter from Perth to Sydney via NZ, and that really had a much older age group. (wheel chairs and oxygen bottles)

Another thing we find is the shorter cruises have a lot more people cramming as much as possible in the days they have. Our shortest cruise was 5 days, and while there wasn't a huge lot of kids, there was a lot of groups having celebrations etc. as well as larger family groups. There was also some special interest groups that booked out some of the lounges which can happen any time, and we were unable to get into one of our favourite lounges for most of the trip to "private functions".

We feel that the cruise lines are more similar than different in general, if you are talking the usual mass market like P&O, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Princess.

Another thing we look for is the age of the ship itself. We find the newer technology makes ships more stable, and also that applies to the larger tonnage ships. We google the ships name and wiki to check out the statistics on wikipedia.

Just to touch on one of the OP's opening questions, an Aussie cruise (Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Port Lincoln) is less likely to have as many children as a South Pacific Island cruise.:D

Most of the comments given an pretty correct. I would have said stay away from school holidays and on most times you would be free of kids. Having said that we were on the Sea Princess on a Christmas cruise out of Brisbane the Christmas before last and had 400 kids on board yet they were not a problem at all.

I have also been on the Rhapsody in January a year or so ago around the Pacific Islands and while we had kids on board once again they were hardly noticed.

Having said that I would probably go with Princess and go outside school holidays.:)

Agree with comments above. There aren't really any liners that have lots of children outside the school holiday period, so you have a lot of choice. :-)

Of course, if you want to go during school holidays/new year then your task will be a bit harder...

Hello everyone

 

My husband and I are from the Gold Coast in Australia and starting to do a little research - well in advance of our Sept/Oct cruising plans in 2016 for possibly an Australian trip or South Pacific Islands...really open to suggestions at this stage.

 

I'd like to get some feedback to see which of the Ocean liners would be suitable for us as we are in our 50's and even though we know that we won't completely avoid kids/teenagers altogether, it would be nice to take a cruise where it's less likely that too many kids would be aboard or if there are kid free swimming pools etc.

 

We have both been on P&O in our past - the Pacific Dawn was nice, but my husband heard that Carnival has less of the "riff-raff".

 

We'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on these.

 

Thank you

If you are concerned about too many children on board do not even think of going on Carnival Spirit.

We have been on the Spirit twice making sure it was mid term, but we still had approx. 500 children on board both times, they were very well behaved and didn't really worry me, in fact it's great to see them enjoying themselves.

The only trouble is they do rather take over the pools etc. in fact the spas were jokingly referred to as kids soup.

Princess I think would be a good choice for you and the longer the cruise the older the passengers.:)

Mum and I (77 and 45) fit and active have just finished our 9 day Sth Pacific Cruise on the Celebrity Solstice. This was our first cruise experience and we were very happy with the Solstice. The ship was lovely and it was a great mix of people. The Islands were lovely and whilst i snorkelled and swam mum was quite happy to sit and read on the beach soaking up the beautiful views. My tip would be to do a tour of Noumea, we did the hop on hop off bus and i think it was a bit much for mum. (It was very hot)

We had a few kids on the ship as it was the last two weeks of the xmas school holidays, i only found them noticeable on some sea days around midmorning and midafternoon. I would not hesitate to recommend this ship and that particular cruise to anyone.

In my experience HAL will have the least kids followed by Princess then Celebrity, but you won't have a lot if you avoid school holidays, but check each states dates.

P&O and Carnival will almost certainly have the most kids.

Just to touch on one of the OP's opening questions, an Aussie cruise (Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide, Port Lincoln) is less likely to have as many children as a South Pacific Island cruise.:D

Agree

I haven't cruised at all yet, but am booked on a South Pacific cruise with Carnival in June (with 3 kids). I fully expect there to be lots of kids on board but it isn't school holidays, so maybe less? I think Carnival is known to be kid friendly. The only one I discounted was Celebrity as I was travelling with children, there may be less kids on that, and known as being not so much a riff raff crowd from what I hear.

We've cruised the Pacific Islands on Carnival Spirit in March last year. It appeared to us to be family ship. Although there were quite a few kids on board they did not bother us - we're in our 60's. Didn't really see much of them during the day as the kids club activities seemed to keep them occupied. I think you'll have a good time.

The pool issue isn't really a problem on Carnival Spirit because they have the Serenity Deck which is for adults only.

The pool issue isn't really a problem on Carnival Spirit because they have the Serenity Deck which is for adults only.

Admittedly, I haven't sailed Spirit (Yet...But Soon)

Sailed on "sister" ship, Legend late Oct/Early Nov. - (Not in School Holidays. - to Our knowledge)

There were 600 Kids on the ship.

Serenity, was Always Packed, with people.

No Hope, of getting anywhere to Recline.... :(

Pool was either empty - they had some sort of "issues" for at least 2 Seadays,

or "packed" with people...

Maybe, you need to "stake your claim" Early in the day...

Seems we are always, Tardy, to the Party...

Mum and I (77 and 45) fit and active have just finished our 9 day Sth Pacific Cruise on the Celebrity Solstice. This was our first cruise experience and we were very happy with the Solstice. The ship was lovely and it was a great mix of people. The Islands were lovely and whilst i snorkelled and swam mum was quite happy to sit and read on the beach soaking up the beautiful views. My tip would be to do a tour of Noumea, we did the hop on hop off bus and i think it was a bit much for mum. (It was very hot)

 

We had a few kids on the ship as it was the last two weeks of the xmas school holidays, i only found them noticeable on some sea days around midmorning and midafternoon. I would not hesitate to recommend this ship and that particular cruise to anyone.

Welcome to cruise critic. Glad you liked the Solstice, I love it.:D

We are over 50's and like Princess best - Carnival don't restrict the number of children so on my first cruise on the spirit there were 400 on board and although not too bad they sometimes did run riot. If there is kids on princess they tend to be more controlled.

Also after your first princess cruise your P&O one will also count toward the Captain's Circle if you are going to keep cruising.

Best thing is no matter what cruise is to do it out of school holidays. We like the longer cruises as very few kids.

I do love kids I have 9 grand children.:D

We are over 50's and like Princess best - Carnival don't restrict the number of children so on my first cruise on the spirit there were 400 on board and although not too bad they sometimes did run riot. If there is kids on princess they tend to be more controlled.

 

Also after your first princess cruise your P&O one will also count toward the Captain's Circle if you are going to keep cruising.

 

Best thing is no matter what cruise is to do it out of school holidays. We like the longer cruises as very few kids.

 

I do love kids I have 9 grand children.:D

I don't think any main stream line restricts the number of kids just some are more kid friendly than others with more child oriented things so more families with children choose them to cruise with.

I can only speak from personal experience & would seriously suggest you avoid Royal Carribbean going by our recent cruise on Rhapsody . Never had a problem on our cruises with Princess, they tend towards a more elegant style of cruising. Celebrity has a good name , we cruise on Solstice this Dec .

We were advised against Carnival awhile back as being very family/ kids oriented & many say they do a great job at that. Can't speak for P & O.

RC is a 2 star line trying to impress with a lot of gimmicks but I'll keep on advising older cruisers to put their hard earned somewhere else.

As for cruising Aust or Pacific either will be enjoyable on the right ship/cruise line.