14 day Australia or 14 day New Zealand cruise preferences

[kmyers57]

Hello all, We're looking to book a down under cruise and wanted to get experienced opinions of which would be more scenic from a Balcony cabin view. Also, what time of year do you prefer.

Thanks

[Ozwoody]

7 hours ago, kmyers57 said:

Hello all, We're looking to book a down under cruise and wanted to get experienced opinions of which would be more scenic from a Balcony cabin view. Also, what time of year do you prefer.

Thanks

 

Do you have particular cruises in mind, Australia is a big place, are you planning NZ cruise out of Australia or from within NZ?

Need more info to be able to help.

 

Regards

[cruiser3775]

Depends if you like a lot of sea days. Cruises around the Aust coast, especially the south and west coasts don't have many port stops.  You won't  spend much time in sight of land between ports.

A cruise is also not the best way to see the Great Barrier reef.

NZ cruises are more scenic with frequent port stops. The Fjordland area at the bottom of the south Island is spectacular from a ship.

If you have limited time, find a cruise that starts in Sydney and ends in Auckland or vice versa, saving two days sea crossing.

Australia is better seen from land if you have limited time.

 

Edited May 17 by cruiser3775

[MicCanberra]

I would say that NZ has more scenery coming into ports.

Port Chalmers for Dunedin, Lyttleton for Christchurch, The Sounds, Bay of Isalnds ans the sail into Auckland all have a great view coming in and going out.

Australia has the sail into Sydney Harbour,  Hobart, Port Phillip Bay for Melbourne but otherwise the sail ins are not that great.

[lyndarra]

Time of year could depend on your heat tolerance. Summer, Dec/Jan/Feb, I imagine would similar to LA - hot. Humidity will vary depending on which part of Australia.

[Mycruiseobsession]

Many people are surprised just how big Australia is and how much the climate changes between Tasmania to Far North QLD and Darwin.

 

As others have said, we would really need more information on what you would like to experience?

 

Reef, Rainforest, Snow capped mountains... we Australians have it all.

 

On the other hand New Zealand is not as diverse in the climate differences and doesnt't have tropical humidity areas. It's a wonderful country with plenty to see and do - it's just different.

 

Cheers 

Edited May 18 by Mycruiseobsession
Typos

[kmyers57]

Thanks for all the comments. We are looking at a northern route, Sydney to Perth perhaps or reverse and in Feb to July time frame. Would be nice to do a side to side Australia & NZ cruises if possible. 

Looking at Princess, NCL. Have any of you done same and any advice would be welcome?

Thanks

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just now, kmyers57 said:

Thanks for all the comments. We are looking at a northern route, Sydney to Perth perhaps or reverse and in Feb to July time frame. Would be nice to do a side to side Australia & NZ cruises if possible. 

Looking at Princess, NCL. Have any of you done same and any advice would be welcome?

Thanks

On the Northern route you'll see some of the coast if the ship goes along the Queensland coast inside the GBR, and there will probably be some scenic cruising on the Western Australia side (Kimberleys and sometimes some other areas), but other than that the ship will usually be further out to sea. Still, it's a very nice cruise - we did it Perth to Sydney, and also as part of a full Round Australia cruise, both on Princess. 

 

We've also done a number of NZ cruises. 

 

I would suggest looking at doing an NZ cruise first, in March, which may make it possible to do the Northern Australia route after that or even the full Round Australia cruise. Be aware that the Princess Round Australia cruises, full or sectors, sell out very quickly. 

Edited May 18 by OzKiwiJJ

[Bubbeh]

I'm coming to this for a bit of a different angle to most responders.  I would suggest doing a circumnavigation of the continent.  You could even extend with a B2B onto NZ.  Unfortunately, we tend to get a bit forgotten over this side of the country as does South Australia.  Others have said it and it's very true, she's a big country and you couldn't hope to get a feel for her in anything less than 2 - 3 weeks.  And, yes, I do think Australia identifies as female not male, non-binary or anything else.

 

[buchhalm]

Fly into Perth.

Take the Indian Pacific luxury train straight across the country to Sydney over 4-5 days (google that one), then cruise to NZL (and possibly back to SYD) over 10-14 nights. 

[Bubbeh]

12 hours ago, buchhalm said:

Fly into Perth.

Take the Indian Pacific luxury train straight across the country to Sydney over 4-5 days (google that one), then cruise to NZL (and possibly back to SYD) over 10-14 nights. 

Now that's a wonderful suggestion.  Good thinking buchhalm.

[SinbadThePorter]

On 5/17/2024 at 11:14 PM, kmyers57 said:

Hello all, We're looking to book a down under cruise and wanted to get experienced opinions of which would be more scenic from a Balcony cabin view. Also, what time of year do you prefer.

Thanks

 

There is a cruise season here that runs basically from October to April. There are some local cruises outside of that time, but they are mostly P&O Australia (which is not P&O UK) and Carnival. Both of which are regarded as budget cruise lines. The luxury lines come and go irregularly.

 

For balcony scenery, NZ hands down. The time of year for NZ, February or March. That avoids summer school holidays in both countries and also is the best period for weather in NZ.

 

Depending on how much time and money you have available to throw at this trip, the base of it would be a NZ cruise from Sydney with some time spent in Sydney and surrounds.

 

The other option would be catching one of the TransPacific cruises that leave Australia in April and transit to the US via NZ, Tahiti and Hawaii. Lots of sea days though.

[lyndarra]

Half circumnavigations are usually about 16 days. I saw a recent Priness full circumnavigation recently advertised which was 35 days. I have done both north (x2) and south CNs. The south was Sydney/NZ/Perth 16 days (Celebrity). The north was Sydney/Bali/Perth, also 16 days (Celebrity & RCI).

 

Edited May 20 by lyndarra

[cruiser3775]

You need to be aware that there are very few of the Australian coastal cruises to choose from. It's not like cruising to the Bahamas from the US.

One option you might consider is a cruise from Darwin to Broome or vice versa, along the Kimberley Coast. There are quite a few choices including some nice smaller ships on this very scenic route. The season runs from roughly May to September.

[Blackduck59]

I will throw my thoughts in. Having planned and cancelled 2 down under trips, and now planning our 3rd attempt, I've learned a few things. First keep in mind that Australia is about the same size as the United States, simply put vast, it's own continent. Right from the start we planned for a ne way cruise starting in Auckland and ending in Australia (first Melbourne and the second try was Sydney) This was scheduled to be followed by a road trip to explore OZ. Those first plans were for an 11 day (1st plan), then 14 day (2nd plan) cruise and about 3 weeks on land. Even with 5 weeks away from home it was just going to scratch the surface.

When we planned the first 2 attempts we were constrained by time off work. For the 3rd try we are now retired so the time frame was more fluid. Originally we were doing our land portion after the cruise and flying home. It was a good plan when time was limited. As it turns out time is not an issue and we are doing the land part first before flying to Auckland to embark our cruise with several port stops in New Zealand and 3 in Australia. We will then stay on board for the transpacific voyage home.

I can say if you ask the right questions here you will get lots of good advice from many helpful folks.

[Sparky74]

50 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

…First keep in mind that Australia is about the same size as the United States, simply put vast, it's own continent…

This is of paramount importance. Many international visitors fail to grasp the size of Australia. Our population is relatively small and mostly distributed near the coast but the land mass is huge. 
Here’s a map of the USA overlain with a map of Australia. 

[arxcards]

A little island cruise around Australia is usually 28 days. 

 

A return cruise out of Sydney up the east coast to Cairns is 10 to 11 nights. Most Australian departures to NZ are 14 days, with departures from Sydney & Brisbane, with perhaps a few from Melbourne. There are return cruises and there are 1 way cruises between Aucklland & Sydney. Perhaps the latter will give you the best of both worlds, as the 1 ay NZ cruise usually includes Australian cities Hobart, Melbourne & Sydney.