Completely confused. Please help us decide

[sjkabak]

My wife and I are trying to plan a vacation in November. We have been looking into our options and we have found a bunch of them. At the moment we are considering the following:

 

10 night cruise on the Tahitian Princess in Tahiti

14 night cruise on Millennium in Europe

14 night land based vacation around Australia

 

We have sailed with Celebrity several times and love it. But not sure that Europe is that exciting for us. We love the Caribbean and Mexico and Hawaii because we can do active things in port and in the water. Can you do that kind of stuff in the European ports. I imagine it is all about the museums and churches and historical stuff.

 

Tahiti sounds real cool, but from what we hear, the crowd on those cruises tend to be much older and we are 30 and 27.

 

Finally, we are so used to cruises (all of our vacations are cruises) that the idea of jumping around Australia and going to different hotels and finding restaurants every night does not sound like fun.

 

So that is our dillema. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Steven

[caribbean dreams]

Have you thought about the Australia to San Francisco Cruise, its a longer trip but you will get to see tahiti and many other south pacific Islands.

[2happytravelers]

I haven't been on the other two, but my dh and I did go on the Tahitian Princess and we would go again in a hearbeat! There was a pretty good variety of ages on the ship (we found quite a few other younger couples on board with us) plus it was total paradise!! If you are all about waking up almost every day to a new island to snorkel, lay on the beach, eat amazing fruit, look at stunning blue water, swim with rays (our favorite), you might like Tahiti.

[ldadar]

I read somewhere (I'm sure it was on cc website or boards) that the longer the cruise, the older the pax.

[melika091900]

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4333355&a=32129793&pw=

 

check out this link,, someone who just went to tahiti on the tahitian princess... we are 28 and 29 and we would go there in a heartbeat , it might be an older crowd but oh well... tahiti looks gorgeous.....

 

good luck deciding

[Trevoli]

As much as I loved our cruise around Aus and NZ, I do agree that packing, schlepping, unpacking repeatrepeatrepeat does NOT sound like fun.

 

Have never been to Tahiti, but would like to if I had an SO to go with.

 

I did a Med cruise in 1998 and absolutely LOVED it. In fact, I had planned on going to Greece, but couldn't find an itinerary and a ship that I liked, so we did the Med instead. I have to admit that I didn't have high hopes. Before going, I had dubbed it the ABC and ABM trip. Another Bloody Church and Another Bloody Monument. I so wanted to go to Greece and was disappointed that didn't come together.

 

Well...... the trip to the Med was the trip of a lifetime. Cruising into Venice with a balcony cabin is something I will never forget. Seeing the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Livorno. It was so great seeing all these things in person that I had only seen in pictures before.

 

We spent a few days in Barcelona before sailing and it is a lovely city full of gracious people.

 

I'm hoping to do the Med and Greek Isles cruise next year, on Princess maybe, and want to spend some time in Rome either pre- or post-cruise, depending on which itinerary we pick.

 

Santorini or bust!!

 

Have a great time, whichever you choose.

 

T

[cwc]

Ok... We did a 10 day (PG) Tahiti last year. 10 days Canary Island (3 yrs ago) & 7 day Med. cruise +2day before in Nice & 2 day after in Rome = 11 days (5 year ago).

 

We are 36 & 32 now (so you can count back on the years).

 

We will do any of the Europe cruise again in a heart beat, but Tahiti is just once in a life time is good enough for us. You need to love the water & scuba dive (we did) which make Tahiti is a worth doing.

 

In Europe, if you go during the summer and do the cruise with a small ship like Windstar or Silversea (I think), they have a water platform you can do all sort of water sport (for free) off the ship.

 

Never been to Australia, so can't help you, but Nov is their summer there so tons of water sport if you like that.

[Jane110]

I read somewhere (I'm sure it was on cc website or boards) that the longer the cruise, the older the pax.

 

That's generally true because of the following reasons:

 

Older people tend to have more money, have more time and can take a vacation without the kids.

[Jane110]

sjkabak,

 

My vote is for the land trip to Australia.

 

We've been there 5 times and will probably go back again next year.

 

I love cruises, but the truth is, you really don't get to see a place as well from a cruise experience and Australia is just so much fun. The people are wonderful, the food is awesome, and the sites and animals you'll see unique and unusual and your american dollar will go far.

 

For a two week trip, I'd suggest 3 spots - 4 at the most. Visit Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns (great barrier reef) and then depending on schedule, Adelaide/Kangaroo Island.

 

What a nice "problem" to have, isn't it? :)

 

Jane