Why do you think cruising isn’t as successful in Australia as it should be?

[Ozwoody]

2 hours ago, losfp said:

I don't know that it's that unsuccessful from an industry point of view to be honest. Considering the population here, distance to travel for overseas guests, lack of nearby ports etc, the industry appears to be going ok. There's a shipload of people leaving every day out of sydney in summer.

 

Now, as for INTERESTING cruises out of Australia... that's tougher. There's not a lot of options nearby so you either cruise up and down the east coast, or you go up to the south pacific islands - but because it takes 2 days to get there from Sydney, it's all just sea days and so-so ports.

 

Cruises are massive out of Florida because there's a multitude of options within a day's sail so you can have a variety of itineraries from 3 day to 7 day.

 

We've done 8 cruises and only half of them have been out of Australia, I just find the overseas itineraries more interesting. After our two Europe cruises in October, our local cruise count will be 4/10.

Sort of confirms the OP's contention doesn't it?

[cruiser3775]

Lots of overseas visitors tell me they think being able to cruise to Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu etc and to New Zealand on relatively short cruises is a good choice.

There are few cruises that go to our north - PNG, Indonesia, Philippines etc. Mostly they continue on to Singapore. Some more round trips from the East coast might be welcome.

[Ozwoody]

19 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

Lots of overseas visitors tell me they think being able to cruise to Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu etc and to New Zealand on relatively short cruises is a good choice.

There are few cruises that go to our north - PNG, Indonesia, Philippines etc. Mostly they continue on to Singapore. Some more round trips from the East coast might be welcome.

Unfortunately Fiji has not been on Brisbane cruise agenda. Would love it if Princess gave us a turn, instead of just Sydney.

[OzKiwiJJ]

47 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

Lots of overseas visitors tell me they think being able to cruise to Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu etc and to New Zealand on relatively short cruises is a good choice.

There are few cruises that go to our north - PNG, Indonesia, Philippines etc. Mostly they continue on to Singapore. Some more round trips from the East coast might be welcome.

The problem with round trips to SE Asia from the East Coast is the amount of time it takes to get there and back. Sydney to Darwin takes five days without any port stops, Brisbane to Darwin would be four days. So that means any round trip cruises would need to be 14 days or more, and they would need to break up the to/from Darwin sea days with one or two Queensland stops. Although I love lots of sea days there are a lot of people who don't.

 

Basing a ship in Cairns during our winter would make it possible for some interesting itineraries without too many sea days and would probably be popular with people wanting a warm getaway from the winter chills. 

[MMDown Under]

5 hours ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

The problem with round trips to SE Asia from the East Coast is the amount of time it takes to get there and back. Sydney to Darwin takes five days without any port stops, Brisbane to Darwin would be four days. So that means any round trip cruises would need to be 14 days or more, and they would need to break up the to/from Darwin sea days with one or two Queensland stops. Although I love lots of sea days there are a lot of people who don't.

 

Basing a ship in Cairns during our winter would make it possible for some interesting itineraries without too many sea days and would probably be popular with people wanting a warm getaway from the winter chills. 

Basing a ship in Cairns would be an excellent idea for cruises to Darwin and the South Pacific.  With Darwin, they could do two one way 7 day cruises to and from Darwin, like they do in Alaska.  So a choice between a 7 day cruise or a 14 day cruise.  

[Aus Traveller]

P&O has tried basing a ship in Cairns, but they ended up having to heavily discount the fares. Maybe people were reluctant to book because of the cost and bother of flying to Cairns.

[Ozwoody]

17 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

P&O has tried basing a ship in Cairns, but they ended up having to heavily discount the fares. Maybe people were reluctant to book because of the cost and bother of flying to Cairns.

Absolutely, Cost & Flying would put me off, I like good old terra firma, the more firma the less terror.😄

 

But just had a thought, (please don't snigger I do get them occasionally), In Qld we get cheap return train travel to Cairns, it could be an option if they did run some cruises from there.🤔

 

[MMDown Under]

17 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

P&O has tried basing a ship in Cairns, but they ended up having to heavily discount the fares. Maybe people were reluctant to book because of the cost and bother of flying to Cairns.

Cairns should be a success if they market it correctly, with enough notice.  From Cairns cruises to PNG, Fiji and further away South Pacific islands, or Darwin.  I would prefer to cruise to Darwin, but there are no

cruises so I fly. I would have loved to cruise more from Brisbane but I had other travel plans by the time they released cruise dates.

[Aus Traveller]

1 minute ago, Ozwoody said:

Absolutely, Cost & Flying would put me off, I like good old terra firma, the more firma the less terror.😄

 

But just had a thought, (please don't snigger I do get them occasionally), In Qld we get cheap return train travel to Cairns, it could be an option if they did run some cruises from there.🤔

 

I think when the cruise company tried Cairns as a turn-around port and it wasn't successful, they would be reluctant to try again.

[Ozwoody]

18 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

I think when the cruise company tried Cairns as a turn-around port and it wasn't successful, they would be reluctant to try again.

Hmm, actually if they put together a good itinerary, and marketed it with return train travel from the major cities, it might be a great alternative holiday option🤫. ..... Maybe?

Edited May 30, 2023 by Ozwoody

[MMDown Under]

15 minutes ago, Ozwoody said:

Hmm, actually if they put together a good itinerary, and marketed it with return train travel from the major cities, it might be a great alternative holiday option🤫. ..... Maybe?

We need that innovative company in SA which marketed train travel through the Centre to join cruise ships in Darwin.  As a child, I travelled on the Sunliner from Brisbane to Mackay annually, a beautiful rail trip.  It would be a great alternative holiday option connecting with cruises.  

[cruiser3775]

45 minutes ago, Ozwoody said:

marketed it with return train travel from the major cities, it might be a great alternative holiday option

I love train travel, but long distance train travel in Australia is generally terrible. There's no way I would travel from Melbourne to Cairns to join a cruise if I had to go by train.  For a start, think how many days it would be.  Now, if we had the mythical "very fast train" between major east coast cities that politicians have been promising us for decades.......

[MMDown Under]

4 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

I love train travel, but long distance train travel in Australia is generally terrible. There's no way I would travel from Melbourne to Cairns to join a cruise if I had to go by train.  For a start, think how many days it would be.  Now, if we had the mythical "very fast train" between major east coast cities that politicians have been promising us for decades.......

I love long distance train travel in Australia and am looking forward to repeating the Indian Pacific from Sydney to Perth.  Train travel would attract those who love train travel.  I have travelled on the very fast trains in Japan and found the travel boring, as it is too fast to see anything! But they are good to get from A to B quickly. 

[cruiser3775]

The Indian Pacific is a luxury tourist train that costs $A1000 per day. Catching a regular public transport train from Melbourne to Sydney, then Sydney to Brisbane (partially a bus trip), then Brisbane to Cairns is completely different.  The first two legs are very slow and not particularly comfortable.   The Queensland train, the Spirit of Queensland, is much better, but still takes 25 hours to travel 1700 kms.

These three trains don't connect well either, so you'd probably be spending a night in Sydney and another in Brisbane en route.   Just not practical as the start of a cruise holiday.

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

P&O has tried basing a ship in Cairns, but they ended up having to heavily discount the fares. Maybe people were reluctant to book because of the cost and bother of flying to Cairns.

Was that in our winter?

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, Ozwoody said:

Hmm, actually if they put together a good itinerary, and marketed it with return train travel from the major cities, it might be a great alternative holiday option🤫. ..... Maybe?

Or decent deals on flights.

[OzKiwiJJ]

22 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

I love train travel, but long distance train travel in Australia is generally terrible. There's no way I would travel from Melbourne to Cairns to join a cruise if I had to go by train.  For a start, think how many days it would be.  Now, if we had the mythical "very fast train" between major east coast cities that politicians have been promising us for decades.......

We did Brisbane to Cairns by train once. They still had the Queenslander Class pullman carriages then so it was lovely. The Queenslander Class had a lounge car and a dining car as well. It took about 30 hours from memory.

 

Now I think they just have reclining airline-type seats and a buffet car.

[OzKiwiJJ]

16 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

I love long distance train travel in Australia and am looking forward to repeating the Indian Pacific from Sydney to Perth.  Train travel would attract those who love train travel.  I have travelled on the very fast trains in Japan and found the travel boring, as it is too fast to see anything! But they are good to get from A to B quickly. 

The Indian Pacific and the Ghan have become very expensive these days. We did the Indian Pacific about 20 years ago and loved it. I really want to do the Ghan but ... 

 

I enjoyed the fast trains in Japan - you have to focus on the distant scenery though, anything else flashes past too quickly.

[MMDown Under]

4 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

We did Brisbane to Cairns by train once. They still had the Queenslander Class pullman carriages then so it was lovely. The Queenslander Class had a lounge car and a dining car as well. It took about 30 hours from memory.

 

Now I think they just have reclining airline-type seats and a buffet car.

Yes that is how we always travelled with a sleeper and dining car.  The reclining airline type seats don't appeal which is a shame.

[cruiser3775]

They actually have lay flat seats, like in business class, on the Spirit of Queensland now. So you get a bed for the night sections. I wouldn't do it as a straight 25 hour trip, but there's scope to do it in sections, and spend a day or two at places en route. That's what I did.

[MMDown Under]

1 minute ago, cruiser3775 said:

They actually have lay flat seats, like in business class, on the Spirit of Queensland now. So you get a bed for the night sections. I wouldn't do it as a straight 25 hour trip, but there's scope to do it in sections, and spend a day or two at places en route. That's what I did.

That sounds like a great idea.  Where did you stopover?

[cruiser3775]

I got off at Maryborough West and went on a two day tour to Fraser Island, with a night at Kingfisher Bay resort.

The next stop was Townsville and I went to Magnetic Island for three days.

Last stop was Cairns.

[Ozwoody]

47 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

I love train travel, but long distance train travel in Australia is generally terrible. There's no way I would travel from Melbourne to Cairns to join a cruise if I had to go by train.  For a start, think how many days it would be.  Now, if we had the mythical "very fast train" between major east coast cities that politicians have been promising us for decades.......

Actually from Melb to Cairns would be about 3 days, would be in three bits I would imagine, overnight Melb-Syd, then Syd-Bris, then Bris-Cairns.

Also would imagine the trip would not be train cattle class, but sleeper class. would give people time to spend a little time in Syd and Bris, on the way through. Seems to me that could appeal to a lot of people.

I would not hang out for the fast train, they have been talking out that since I was a nipper, and that is an eon ago.😁

 

Just looked up above and you guys seem to have got ahead of me.

[Ozwoody]

22 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

They actually have lay flat seats, like in business class, on the Spirit of Queensland now. So you get a bed for the night sections. I wouldn't do it as a straight 25 hour trip, but there's scope to do it in sections, and spend a day or two at places en route. That's what I did.

Yes we have been planning on doing a trip Bris-Cairns, stopping at Rockhamton & Townville on way up, and Mackay-Gladstone on way back, using our pension so called free travel, which the charge a fee for.

[MMDown Under]

16 minutes ago, cruiser3775 said:

I got off at Maryborough West and went on a two day tour to Fraser Island, with a night at Kingfisher Bay resort.

The next stop was Townsville and I went to Magnetic Island for three days.

Last stop was Cairns.

Did the train company organise these stopovers or did you?  Fraser Island and Magnetic Island are great stopovers.  I’ve always thought the journey is as good as the destination.