Tasmania or road trip?

[bbfgator]

Hello - We leave on Celebrity Edge 10/22/24 on b2b2b cruises.  The middle cruise is 11/2-11/6/24 and is 3 sea days with 1 day in port at Hobart.

We are starting to question if perhaps we should cancel that cruise and just rent a car in Sydney and do a road trip for 3-4 days to return to Sydney on 11/6 to board Edge again for the New Zealand cruise.    We prefer not to stay in Sydney between cruises as we are flying over early and will have spent 5 days there already.  I'm thinking Melbourne might be too far for the time allowed.  Wondering if anyone has any ideas??  BTW, we are 70 and prefer, here in the USA, National Parks & State Parks to big cities.  We are not shoppers.  We enjoy outdoors/scenery, hikes in the 3miles and under variety and wildlife.  Thank you for any thoughts or ideas - Brenda

 

[mauimary]

We are on these same segments as you are only we are starting with the one before this beg on Oct 3 in Honolulu.   We too have already spent extra time in Sydney pre pandemic and have been on excursions to both the Blue Mountains, Hunter Valley, have also been to Manly and attended  a musical at the Opera House. 
We are doing the short Tasmania Cruise in lieu of getting a hotel room for 4 nights in Sydney.  We did not want to have to pack up all our things and lug them off the ship and back on again and unpack once again so for us it’s more of a convenience factor. 
Mary

[bbfgator]

mauimary - Hi, I hear you!  We currently have the same cabin on all 3 cruises so I'll really have to convince myself to get off and skip Tasmania :).  I've booked Blue Mountains tour on one of our days before cruise starts - did you like it?  I'd love to see a musical at the Opera House - I need to look in that.  Safe journeys, Brenda

[mauimary]

4 hours ago, bbfgator said:

mauimary - Hi, I hear you!  We currently have the same cabin on all 3 cruises so I'll really have to convince myself to get off and skip Tasmania :).  I've booked Blue Mountains tour on one of our days before cruise starts - did you like it?  I'd love to see a musical at the Opera House - I need to look in that.  Safe journeys, Brenda

We did enjoy our private small group tour.  We also stopped at Featherdale Wild Life Park. 
 

We are in the same stateroom but do have to switch before the New Zealand segment. We do not mind as it is pretty easy to do. 

[beatleman]

On 3/12/2024 at 10:52 PM, bbfgator said:

Hello - We leave on Celebrity Edge 10/22/24 on b2b2b cruises.  The middle cruise is 11/2-11/6/24 and is 3 sea days with 1 day in port at Hobart.

We are starting to question if perhaps we should cancel that cruise and just rent a car in Sydney and do a road trip for 3-4 days to return to Sydney on 11/6 to board Edge again for the New Zealand cruise.    We prefer not to stay in Sydney between cruises as we are flying over early and will have spent 5 days there already.  I'm thinking Melbourne might be too far for the time allowed.  Wondering if anyone has any ideas??  BTW, we are 70 and prefer, here in the USA, National Parks & State Parks to big cities.  We are not shoppers.  We enjoy outdoors/scenery, hikes in the 3miles and under variety and wildlife.  Thank you for any thoughts or ideas - Brenda

 

At your age you don't need road trips that entails you driving on the left side of the road. Tasmania is a great destination for your outdoor preferences, stick with the cruise you don't need the stress of driving in NSW.

[yarramar]

On 3/12/2024 at 10:52 PM, bbfgator said:

Hello - We leave on Celebrity Edge 10/22/24 on b2b2b cruises.  The middle cruise is 11/2-11/6/24 and is 3 sea days with 1 day in port at Hobart.

We are starting to question if perhaps we should cancel that cruise and just rent a car in Sydney and do a road trip for 3-4 days to return to Sydney on 11/6 to board Edge again for the New Zealand cruise.    We prefer not to stay in Sydney between cruises as we are flying over early and will have spent 5 days there already.  I'm thinking Melbourne might be too far for the time allowed.  Wondering if anyone has any ideas??  BTW, we are 70 and prefer, here in the USA, National Parks & State Parks to big cities.  We are not shoppers.  We enjoy outdoors/scenery, hikes in the 3miles and under variety and wildlife.  Thank you for any thoughts or ideas - Brenda

 

If you prefer national and state parks, 3 sea days extra doing nothing worthwhile would be, to me & my wife (also in her 70's) a royal PIA.

I would ditch the 4 day party cruise, which is what it will be, and do a road trip from Sydney down the south coast on the Grand Pacific Drive, through Royal National Park (second oldest national park in the world), Stanwell Tops and hug the coast until you reach Nowra. There are many beautiful places to stop along the way as well as historic towns. From Nowra, drive to and through Kangaroo Valley to the Southern Highlands, Bowral and back to Sydney on the inland route. This will give you a taste of some spectacular scenery and native wildlife in their natural environment. 4-5 days is a perfect amount of time for the trip. If you are interested in art, a visit to Bundanon is a must. The home of one of our most famous artists, Arthur Boyd who left his home and property to the Australian people

[bbfgator]

Beatleman -  At my age, hadn't heard that yet!  But alas, we had a home a few years ago in Grand Cayman so are not worried about the driving.  But I do appreciate your input and I hope Beatleman means you are a Beatles fan...I certainly am - went to Liverpool for the first time last year and enjoyed everything "Beatles".

Yarramar - that sounds perfect, I will pull out a map and see if it works for us.  Thanks so much for the suggestions.

Happy & safe journeys all.

[mauimary]

I know this cruise is short and it looks like many are doing this as part of the chain of cruises before the New  Zealand one.  Just because it is four days does this mean that it is a party cruise.   We would never do a four day cruise out of Florida.   So that brings me to the question about a cruise between the Australian one and New Zealand one become a four day party cruise.  We have never done one this short. 

[yarramar]

1 hour ago, mauimary said:

I know this cruise is short and it looks like many are doing this as part of the chain of cruises before the New  Zealand one.  Just because it is four days does this mean that it is a party cruise.   We would never do a four day cruise out of Florida.   So that brings me to the question about a cruise between the Australian one and New Zealand one become a four day party cruise.  We have never done one this short. 

We are not allowed to link TAs on this board but an Australian TA is advertising a music cruise on this sailing. 
the ship has up to 3000 capacity so there would be different groups taking the short cruise for different reasons. 

 

As it is 4 days, many would be sailing for different reasons but groups of inebriated

Aussies would not be my idea of fun. 

 

The music component may be Ok if you like this type of music and can join in. “Join us to farewell Gill Delaney on her last Music Cruise before she retires. It will be a wonderful opportunity to cruise on the luxury Celebrity Edge, enjoy fantastic music/entertainment, and spend a day in beautiful Hobart. The cruise is fully escorted and includes fun-filled singalong sessions, and other special events, with Gill Delaney and John Howie.”

[mauimary]

Yarramar thanks for the info. Oh My!  This is good to know.   I looked the brochure up.  We’re not familiar with either musician.  

[bbfgator]

Wow, that is a unwelcome surprise. That road trip is sounding like a plan.  Thank you!!

[SinbadThePorter]

On 3/12/2024 at 9:52 PM, bbfgator said:

We enjoy outdoors/scenery, hikes in the 3miles and under variety and wildlife.

 

If you didn't mind a flight back to Sydney, four days would be just enough for a drive to Brisbane up the Pacific Highway.

 

I'd recommend Myall Lakes, Southwest Rocks, Dorrigo, Bundjalung National Park or Byron Bay as stops along the way, but there are a host of places along the coast worth a visit.

[bbfgator]

Thank you SinbadThePorter - I'm going to look at all the suggestions I have been so kindly given.  Best - Brenda

[cruzky]

Just spent 5 nights in Tazzie. We did 2 cruises but nothing  going to Tazzie. Decided to fly over from Melbourne which is where we got off the last cruise. Flights were cheap. Absolutely loved it. I’m 66 and my husband is 70. We are from the states and decided we did not want to chance driving. We booked excursions with viator. We stayed at the Hotel Grand Chancellor. Port stop is not enough time there.

[cruzky]

Forgot to mention all the excursions with viator were less than 15 people and were all to nature and historical places. 

[possum52]

17 hours ago, cruzky said:

Just spent 5 nights in Tazzie. We did 2 cruises but nothing  going to Tazzie. Decided to fly over from Melbourne which is where we got off the last cruise. Flights were cheap. Absolutely loved it. I’m 66 and my husband is 70. We are from the states and decided we did not want to chance driving. We booked excursions with viator. We stayed at the Hotel Grand Chancellor. Port stop is not enough time there.

Just a correction - Tassie, not Tazzie. Glad you enjoyed your holiday in Tasmania.

[yarramar]

10 hours ago, possum52 said:

Just a correction - Tassie, not Tazzie. Glad you enjoyed your holiday in Tasmania.

Many Americans were brought up on WB Loonie Tunes cartoons (and many Aussies) One character is Taz, the Tasmanian devil, quite understandable to extrapolate the diminutive of Tasmania as "Tazzie"