Australian or South Pacific Island cruising

[MicCanberra]

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.

 

Agreed.:D

[cruisine21]

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.

 

 

Everyone has their own opinion. I'm about to embark on my third Royal Carribean cruise in a couple of weeks and have not had any problems. Maybe I'm classed as an older cruiser but I don't feel that old. My parents are in their 80's and have been on several Royal cruises.

 

 

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Edited February 3, 2015 by cruisine21

[MicCanberra]

Agreed.:D

 

I was agreeing to this statement.

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

[Emptynesternow]

As an American, who wants to cruise from Australia, what are the months that your children are mostly on vacation? Thank you

[SeaDog-46]

Main holiday period is from mid to late December to end of January.

Next is from Good Friday for two weeks.

Mid year - from late June for two weeks.

Then last half of September into October for two weeks.

 

The dates vary each year a little & are slightly different between states.

 

Best time in Australia to see the GBR is May to October.

[MicCanberra]

As an American, who wants to cruise from Australia, what are the months that your children are mostly on vacation? Thank you

 

There is a thread in this same forum that is called School Holidays and has all the answers http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2159019

.:D

[The_Big_M]

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.

 

P&O Aust do limit the number of children onboard each sailing.

[Aussie FF]

Rhapsody is our favourite ship.:D

Cruise number 13 coming soon on her. Making cruise number 20 on RCI.

Just do not go on school holidays. We also don't hang around the pool, that is where the kids are.:eek:

Only ever has minor irritations with kids.

[GUT2407]

P&O Aust do limit the number of children onboard each sailing.

 

 

It must be a high limit then, or our only P&O cruise out of about 2,000 PAX they said 600 and something were kids.

[The_Big_M]

It must be a high limit then, or our only P&O cruise out of about 2,000 PAX they said 600 and something were kids.

 

Sounds like a holiday cruise with that many. ;)

[GUT2407]

Sounds like a holiday cruise with that many. ;)

 

Being married to a teacher, unfortunately they're all holiday cruises, we get about 10 days a year outside normal holidays because she's at a private school.

[CarolynAustralia]

We just did an NZ cruise on Celebrity Solstice. I think I saw two little people (under 3) the whole time on board. There were a few teenagers and once I saw the Kid's Club taking 7-10 year olds to the buffet. I would thoroughly recommend the Solstice.

[MicCanberra]

We just did an NZ cruise on Celebrity Solstice. I think I saw two little people (under 3) the whole time on board. There were a few teenagers and once I saw the Kid's Club taking 7-10 year olds to the buffet. I would thoroughly recommend the Solstice.

 

So would I, such a wonderful ship.:D

[Aus Traveller]

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.

P&O and I think Princess also, limit the number of children in each age group to the capacity of the kids' clubs. They simply won't accept bookings that include a child if their age group in the kids' club is full.:)

[chrisandkaryn]

I would highly recommend Celebrity Solstice. Being of similar age group to yourself, we found it suited our needs perfectly. The one cruise line we will never use again is Carnival - their boast of it being the FUN ship should have been a dead giveaway. The demographic on Carnival Legend meant that, like others have mentioned, we were bombarded by children. In fact on the one evening I dared to go to the hot tub to relax after a long day trip, I was kindly told by the 10 or 11 year old kids that the "adults" pool is at the other end of the ship. And don't be lulled into safely thinking it will only be during school holiday times! I won't go into the food etc but suffice to say "you get what you pay for" and it is truly worth paying a little extra to enjoy the added benefits of a Celebrity cruise.

 

We've done both FNQ (Barrier Reef) and South Pacific and loved both, although perhaps my favourite spot now is Isle of Pines - mainly for the snorkelling :)

[MicCanberra]

On some ships, the pool area is described as 'Kid soup'.:D

[chrisandkaryn]

haha MicCanberra - makes total sense. in fact during out cruise one of the pools had to be closed for a day or two because of .. well lets just say it wasn't 'soup' but it came from a child ;)

[MicCanberra]

haha MicCanberra - makes total sense. in fact during out cruise one of the pools had to be closed for a day or two because of .. well lets just say it wasn't 'soup' but it came from a child ;)

 

Too Much Iinfo ---yukko..:eek::eek::eek:

Edited February 7, 2015 by MicCanberra

[Emptynesternow]

Thank you all for the information.