wet season should I cancel cruise

HI,

I posted a thread on the Australia/NZ forum and was grateful for the advice received advising me Ausralasia cruise January not good..high humidity,torrential rain, cyclones,mozzies and stingers! You'd think that would be enough to convince me to cancel my cruise yet I am STILL undecided. I guess I was really excited about this trip but as it's our first cruise and it 's taken years to persuade my husband to consider a cruise, I really don't want it to be a disaster. Humidity, heavy showers not a problem, but days of continuous rain and grey overcast skies would be so dissapointing. Just like being here in England. Please can you help me decide?

Sheila

HI,

I posted a thread on the Australia/NZ forum and was grateful for the advice received advising me Ausralasia cruise January not good..high humidity,torrential rain, cyclones,mozzies and stingers! You'd think that would be enough to convince me to cancel my cruise yet I am STILL undecided. I guess I was really excited about this trip but as it's our first cruise and it 's taken years to persuade my husband to consider a cruise, I really don't want it to be a disaster. Humidity, heavy showers not a problem, but days of continuous rain and grey overcast skies would be so dissapointing. Just like being here in England. Please can you help me decide?

Sheila

Hi Sheila,

Don't fret too much, the weather is quite unpredictable here. We went in aug/September and got stuck in a cyclone. I also know of people who went away in Jan and feb and had lovely weather. It's quite unpredictable really. If it is something you want to do, do it, you will not regret it. Irrespective of the weather you will have a great time. You would have to be really unlucky for it to be bad for your whole cruise.

I think January is a great month , but then I live in tropical Queensland. The wet season usually starts about the time school resumes in late January and with the amount of rain we had last January, you have reasonable odds that it won't be that wet again. There are no mozzies at sea and the ship has air conditioning.

If you go with the intention that the weather won't be an issue, then you will have a great time. Good luck with your decision, Sheila.

It is a long way to come from the UK for unpredictable weather. If your cruise is north of Brisbane and around the top end the weather will be very humid and most likely rainy. We live just north of Brisbane and when our son and family come up from Melbourne they often end up going home early because the weather is so bad. If you are visiting Sydney and Melbourne or any of the southern states it is a great time to come so it depends on your itinerary.

I'm originally from the UK so .... the weather will not be as grey as it is there :p

There are always plenty of activities on the ship inside if the weather is "bad" and it is unlikely it will stay that way for long.

If the captain knows a cyclone is in a certain area he/she will keep well away from it.

Besides .. if it does rain, you will be able to tell everyone when you return what rain is like here :rolleyes:

Bring an umbrella as your insurance. It works for me :D

We can't make this important decision for you. We've told you the possible downside to travelling in northern Oz in January in the other thread but only you can decide if what we've told you is enough to make you reconsider. I cruised up the east coast, across the top end and then up into SE Asia in late Feb this year knowing the weather probably wouldn't be great but as it turned out it was perfect. But that was unusual and we just struck lucky. I boils down to what is or isn't an acceptable 'risk' for you personally.

Rainy grey skies here are no comparison to England! :D

Weather is unpredictable, seasons are unpredictable.........life is unpredictable.....JUST DO IT! :D

Rainy grey skies here are no comparison to England! :D

 

Weather is unpredictable, seasons are unpredictable.........life is unpredictable.....JUST DO IT! :D

Hey Debsta.....are you related to me;) cos thats my philosophy:D

Go for it while you can!!

Besides OP it will get you away from those grey skies and freezing temps in our motherland. I remember it being cold there in summer! We were just letting you know what it may be like, that's all.

Jen:)

HI,

I posted a thread on the Australia/NZ forum and was grateful for the advice received advising me Ausralasia cruise January not good..high humidity,torrential rain, cyclones,mozzies and stingers! You'd think that would be enough to convince me to cancel my cruise yet I am STILL undecided. I guess I was really excited about this trip but as it's our first cruise and it 's taken years to persuade my husband to consider a cruise, I really don't want it to be a disaster. Humidity, heavy showers not a problem, but days of continuous rain and grey overcast skies would be so dissapointing. Just like being here in England. Please can you help me decide?

Sheila

Hi Sheila, as others have said, any weather can be unpredictable. I have cruised three times to the South Pacific over December / January & April, and can only remember a couple wet days in total. I have also cruised to New Zealand in December / January and had a bit of drizzly weather on a day or two, but on the South Island.

The worst weather I have experienced was on a South Pacific cruise in December, where we did have a nearby cyclone. There were strong winds, heavy rain and large swells for a day or two, but other than that, the rest of the cruise was warm and sunny.

Other than the above encounter, we have been fortunate to have great weather on our cruises, and are booked for our next cruise to the South Pacific in January.

While we have had great weather at that time of the year, there is no guarantee that you will have good weather at any time of the year.

Hope this helps and you are able to make the right decision for you :)

Typical monsoon weather is high humidity during the day and refreshing rain late in the afternoon. Downside if you are into swimming is the cloudiness of the water..however I have often cruised in Dec/Jan and never regretted it. I'm with Debsta when the opportunity is there grab it you will have a good time regardless of the weather.

Hi Sheila, sounds like you're from our part of the world. We too are booked on a cruise in the rainy season, Ocean Princess Sydney to Papeete in December. Not going to think about the weather too much, I'm sure it will be fine. We did Australia and New Zealand last January and were warned about the weather, in fact the weather was just about perfect, had a couple of downpours but nothing to write home about. Take the cruise and enjoy.

If you are from the UK - then you have never really seen rain . What you get is "drizzle" - days of it. In the Tropics (here in Australia or anywhere else) during the "wet season", when it rains - IT RAINS!!! Short sharp very heavy downpours. 5 minutes later the sun is back out and steam rises from the hot roads.

As a first time experience - I am sure it will be interesting for you . But whether you like it or not, is up to you. For me, wild horses could not drag me to the Tropics in summer (wet season) - and I live in Queensland!!! On the other hand - I love all seasons of British weather and, inspite of the fact that it is said that it rains all the time in the UK, over 6 visits (up to 6 weeks each) over the past 15 years, we have never had our holidays there spoiled by the British weather . We just LOVED the snowy conditions and the cold of this last December.

So - continue with your plans - any weather conditions that you come across here will be significantly different to whatever you have experienced at home.

Barry

Hi Bazzaw, Yes experienced the tropical rain in Cairns in January this year, have to say it was preferable to the freezing black ice we left behind! Being English we had our waterproof jackets and we weren't going to let a 'bit of rain' keep us in as it did our American friends! lol! It obviously didn't put us off as we're back in the Southern Hemisphere again in December. We'll just hope for the best and take what comes.

And just remember...... when it does rain, it is still not cold. What's a bit of water..... you dry! :D

Sheila, if you can cope with the wind, cold, and rain we experienced in England and Wales in Feb/March, you can cope with anything here! Trust me. (By the way, it didn't stop us doing anything, even slipping and sliding 'under the fence and up the muddy path' to get supplies. It's all an adventure. :)

average temp

Cairns

SPRING (Sep-Nov): 17-31°C / 63-88°F

SUMMER (Dec-Feb): 23-32°C / 73-90°F

AUTUMN (Mar-May): 19-30°C / 66-86°F

WINTER (Jun-Aug): 16-26°C / 60-80°F

Atherton

SPRING (Sep-Nov): 12-29°C / 53-84°F

SUMMER (Dec-Feb): 18-30°C / 64-86°F

AUTUMN (Mar-May): 13-27°C / 56-81°F

WINTER (Jun-Aug): 10-23°C / 50-73°F

Far North Queensland enjoys a tropical climate, with two distinct seasons: the dry season from May to October, with mild temperatures; and the wet season from November to April, with warmer temperatures.

Around the Cairns area, seawater temperatures vary from a minimum of 23ºC in July to a maximum of 28ºC in February.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summer (December to February)

Autumn / Fall (March to May)

Winter (June to August)

Spring (September to November)

Apart from Antarctica, Australia is one of the driest continents on earth. With a climate ranging from tropical in the North to the generally cooler, more temperate regions in the South, the average temperature above the Tropic of Capricorn (which runs through Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia ranges from 23-26°C. The southern areas are more temperate, although subject to variations.

In winter you can be skiing in the southern states one day and be diving at the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland the next.

Due to its size, geographical location and the lack of extensive high mountain ranges Australia has a wide range of climates generally there are no severe extremes, although Summer temperatures in many areas are known for being quite hot, and the sun being quite strong. Australia has one of the highest incidences of skin cancer in the world, so sunscreen (at least 30+) is a must for any extended periods outdoors.

As you head north the variation in seasonal temperatures become fewer until, in the far north around Darwin (the monsoon belt) there are just two seasons - hot and wet, or hot and dry. The "wet" season is usually during the summer months, and can last anything from October / November through to about March or April.

The center of the continent is arid hot and dry during the day and often bitterly cold at night.

There are many web sites on the weather in oz but many have advertizing in them so I can not list them on here , google is great.