Which cruise line would you use on a Australia/New Zealand cruise?

Which company would you use on this once in a lifetime trip? They both look fantastic. Having a hard time deciding. I am leaning toward Princess but my husband is leaning toward RCCL.

We are looking to do a 14 day cruise and plan on seeing both Australia and New Zealand. Though have not picked an itinerary yet.

How did you decide which company to use?

Thank you for any insight. :)

Which company would you use on this once in a lifetime trip? They both look fantastic. Having a hard time deciding. I am leaning toward Princess but my husband is leaning toward RCCL.

 

We are looking to do a 14 day cruise and plan on seeing both Australia and New Zealand. Though have not picked an itinerary yet.

 

How did you decide which company to use?

 

Thank you for any insight. :)

Hi I know it is hard to pick, but my husband and I have only sailed Princess and LOVE everything about it. The staff the food the shows everything. We are doing a b2b in Oct/16 on the Sun Princess, 13 day New Zealand and 30 day Australia out of Sydney. It's a trip of a lifetime for us and would not trust it to any other cruise line. We are from Canada. We booked this trip last June. We needed time to save...:D:)

We've cruised NZ three times in last 3 years, Celebrity, RCI and Princess. We've also experienced Carnival and HAL.

We reckon Celebrity has been best for us for service excellence and consistency having compared our Celebrity experience here and in the US twicw last year and we've booked again (Alasaka) for later this year. We put RCI at the bottom of our list after a cruise to Perth via NZ last November. It wasn't a bad cruise its just that the others, overall, do it better. HAL would be our #2 pick.

I'm biased toward Princess. Personally, I would look at the itinerary and price to help you decide.

The Celebrity NZ cruises can either start in Sydney finish Aukland or vice versa. This can be an advantage. For example cruise from Sydney and fly back from Aukland and you save a couple of days at sea that you can use for extra touring (in Australia or NZ) if time is tight, as it often is for visitors from the US. Aus/NZ flights are short and reasonably cheap.

As detailed below from live/blog, plus in a link to more pictures and details on the Solstice, you can research and dream more. Lots of very good options and potentials. Part of your decision/choice is about whether you have a stop in Melbourne or Tasmania. Most cruises will not do stops in both as you are either departing from Sydney or heading there after departing from Auckland.

Also consider carefully if you want to do the overnight excursion to Queenstown that many ships offer. That worked super well for us. Just post to my live/blog for any added questions, info needs for what we did and enjoyed.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 133,814 views for this posting.

Did a “Solstice: Visuals, Highlights Shared!” summary from two different adventures on this ship with many pictures and other details on its many options. This includes our recent Australia to New Zealand sailing. Check it out, including these early 2014 updates, at:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1803477

Now at 36,175 views for this posting.

I am popping my vote in for Princess :). We sailed Diamond Princess from Sydney to NZ to Sydney 14 days last year ...loved it so much we went back & did the exact same cruise & exact same ship just 2 months later :p.

I havent cruised with RCCL so cant directly compare but we did have that cruise line on our list before we did the 1st NZ cruise & the reasons we went with Princess are:

1. Cruises ex Australia back to Australia on Princess have an onboard currency of AUD. Given that your USD is strong against the AUD at the moment this makes your onboard spend a lot lower.
   
2. Itinerary - Milford Sound is as stunning as everyone says it will be. That said due to weather we missed it on the 1st cruise but got there on our 2nd.
   
3. We liked the sound of the food & we were not disappointed at all - fabulous food
   
4. Being able to cruise in a mini suite is a great option on Princess cruises for extra room
   

I do agree with the previous posters as well that itinerary stops are the thing - check how long you get at the ports of call that are most important to you.

Have a great trip :).

And feel free to ask any questions are there are heaps of more experienced cruises than me on the Aussie board and I think they have all done the NZ run many times. They were able to answer all my Qs before cruises :D

I really like Princess, but the one way on Celebrity offers a better itinerary, three or four less sea days that let them squeeze in Hobart and Melbourne.

If I was coming all this way, that'd probably swing it for me.

We've done a couple of Princess cruises (Sun and Dawn) and embark on our third (Golden) in April.

We did Auckland to Sydney on Celebrity over Christmas and have booked again for Feb 2017..

Both cruise lines are good but, personally, I think Celebrity Solstice has the edge for an NZ cruise as it has the wonderful Sky Observation Lounge at the front of the ship. We loved sitting up there as the ship sailed out of the NZ harbours in the evenings.

But you should choose by itinerary foremostly. As others have said, the one way cruises allow you tto do land touring in each country before/after the cruise if you wish.

Sometimes even the Cunard ships travel NZ but restrictive on dates. I love the Celebrity product in Europe (same class as Solstice ) so would most likely use Solstice but people love Princess. Guess that means you cant really go wrong. So check which has the best itinerary.

I would look at the itinerary's and see which cruise line visits the most New Zealand ports, as not all ships visit all NZ ports.

Which company would you use on this once in a lifetime trip? They both look fantastic. Having a hard time deciding. I am leaning toward Princess but my husband is leaning toward RCCL.

 

We are looking to do a 14 day cruise and plan on seeing both Australia and New Zealand. Though have not picked an itinerary yet.

 

How did you decide which company to use?

 

Thank you for any insight. :)

I would suggest you check out Celebrity Solstice... Great ship

One thing to consider is that Princess goes to Aussie dollars while it is here, but RCCL and Celebrity stay in US$ for on board costs. (correct me if I am wrong and it is not the case on all the Princess ships over here!)

RCCL is perceived by many here to be expensive on board with the US$ sea pass charging due to the lower AUD rate these days, so often they are cheaper than Princess for similar itineraries. Also sometimes as the RCCL ships sail over here the prices for things like drinks etc change, usually upward anecdotally.

Princess does have the gratuities rolled into the cruise price. (again correct me if I am wrong)

If you tick prepaid on RCCL then you can compare your prices.

I also agree to compare the itineraries as to what you may want to visit. :)

IMO, the Celebrity Solstice is the best ship by far followed by the Diamond Princess, Royal's Ships,then the Aussie Princess Ships & P&O's ships that are here in Australia. However, which line you pick would really depend on the itinerary, timing and price that suits you best.:D

Go princess emerald or golden. With the sliding dollar the ships with us currency will bite into the budget.

Go princess emerald or golden. With the sliding dollar the ships with us currency will bite into the budget.

That shouldn't be an issue for them as they are from the US, although it may help spread their $ further. They may in fact get better deals for the USD based ships than for the AUD based ships from their TA.

It would depend on the ship. If I was doing Princess I would only go on the Golden Princess or Diamond Princess which I believe are here at the moment. I would not go on the Sun, Dawn or Sea Princess for anything longer than 5 nights as I do not think they are suitable for long voyages. There are also more facilities on the Diamond and Golden Princess.

The only issue I have with Princess cruising in Australia at the moment is that it has lost that "home away from home" appeal. When I did the relocation cruise on Golden Princess all my favourite wines and alcoholic drinks that I got used to on Princess were removed in favour of an Australian menu and the dining room menu suffered a knock back too with "Australian versions" of everything. The Baked New York Cheesecake was removed to name one. As Princess is a line I have sailed with year after year having missed my favourite menu items when I stepped on the ship made me feel a little peeved knowing that they did it "just for Australia".

I prefer Princess over Royal Caribbean.

Royal Caribbean is good and has some great ships here. I would tend to go on Radiance of the Seas with them as it is a ship which has a more comfortable passenger load to disembark in smaller ports where they are only allowed one gangway. There was one port in New Zealand that only allowed one gangway for the Celebrity Solstice and it was a nightmare to disembark and that ship is no where near the size of the Voyager or Explorer.

The only issue I had with Royal Caribbean is that on the 3rd December sailing to the South Pacific there were far too many children on board who should have been in school. There was not a swimming pool I could use that was not full of little children and big children. The dress code on Royal Caribbean for this sailing simply did not exist. My smart casual looked "formal" trousers, collared button up shirt to these people who only wore shorts, t-shirts and thongs (flip-flops) even in the main dining room. People get better dressed for horse races in Australia than they did for this particular cruise. I just went along and wore shorts and t-shirt to dinner also when I realised it was the norm.

If I cruise around Australia or New Zealand I would lean towards Princess on the above ships I mentioned. If I go with Royal Caribbean I would never cruise with them in December again and try to pick a month where it is more than likely children will have no excuse to be anywhere else but school.

I was also on that cruise and agree with you regarding how many children were on that cruise. They were everywhere.

I hadn't cruised on the Radiance for some time and I thought she looked a bit run down.

Elaine.

We cruise Princess and have for all our cruises.

Which company would you use on this once in a lifetime trip? They both look fantastic. Having a hard time deciding. I am leaning toward Princess but my husband is leaning toward RCCL.

 

We are looking to do a 14 day cruise and plan on seeing both Australia and New Zealand. Though have not picked an itinerary yet.

 

How did you decide which company to use?

 

Thank you for any insight. :)

My husband and I have been on two cruises on Princess and I heartily recommend them. Great food, service and entertainment and plenty to do during the day.

Ha, does all of that make it easier? :D

We have some excellent ships currently doing the rounds in the Aus/NZ season and I think the responses above have identified them all. I agree that once you have a short list of ships you can refine your choice by selecting the itinerary that suits you best.

I am biased towards Celebrity but I do know that a lot of people with similar lifestyles to us love Princess. Regardless your trip will be fantastic!

Try Oceania, they are very good small ships cruising

We have done Princess and Celebrity and both thought Celebrity was much much better than Princess. As you are from the States it would not matter that Celebrity has USD on board. We cruised with the Sun Princess the first time and found the average on board was 70 plus and the entertainment was aimed at this age group we are in our 50's. It is very rough crossing the ditch over to NZ and back and we did have rough seas both times. The swells were stronger this time with Celebrity and we did not feel the rocking of the ship as we did with Princess. I am not sure it was because the Solstice was a newer ship. Service was impeccable on both ships and the food was on excellent on both as well. We found the Solstice is a beautiful elegant ship with beautiful artwork, glassware and paintings. It is a quiet ship with only one announcement from the captain a day and just so relaxing. The average age on board was around 60 and you find more British and American people than Australians. We loved Celebrity that much we booked our Baltic cruise for this year and already looking at going on the Solstice next year. It is a beautiful elegant ship

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We have done Princess and Celebrity and both thought Celebrity was much much better than Princess. As you are from the States it would not matter that Celebrity has USD on board. We cruised with the Sun Princess the first time and found the average on board was 70 plus and the entertainment was aimed at this age group we are in our 50's. It is very rough crossing the ditch over to NZ and back and we did have rough seas both times. The swells were stronger this time with Celebrity and we did not feel the rocking of the ship as we did with Princess. I am not sure it was because the Solstice was a newer ship. Service was impeccable on both ships and the food was on excellent on both as well. We found the Solstice is a beautiful elegant ship with beautiful artwork, glassware and paintings. It is a quiet ship with only one announcement from the captain a day and just so relaxing. The average age on board was around 60 and you find more British and American people than Australians. We loved Celebrity that much we booked our Baltic cruise for this year and already looking at going on the Solstice next year. It is a beautiful elegant ship

 

 

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The larger ships definitely handles the larger seas better.:D

We have booked 2 cruises with Princess for 2017. One is a Sydney return to New Zealand for 13 days and the other is a Sydney return circumvention of Australia for 29 days. Big draw for us is AUS$ onboard as the CDN is at only $0.68 to the USD presently and no sign it is going to improve any time soon. Luckily we booked our cruise in CDN$