Hal Aus/NZ Christmas Cruise - How many kids on board?

[Lobbylin]

I really should be posting this question on the Celebrity board as our Aus/NZ Xmas/New Year 2007 cruise is booked with them, but they have never offered an Aus/NZ cruise before so I'm looking for advice elsewhere...

 

I know the Statendam regularly cruises this area at Xmas and I'm making an assumption that HAL/Celebrity clientele are similar when posing my question.

 

We're booked on a 14 day cruise and was wondering if anyone could shed any light as to how many children might be found on the equivalent HAL Auz/NZ Xmas cruise? Timingwise our cruise is from 23 Dec to 6th Jan and I'm guessing that because it's an expensive place to fly to, that there would be significantly less children than found on an equivalent Caribbean cruise?

 

Maybe I'm completely wrong, but I just want to know what I'm letting myself in for. Thanks!:)

[Roz]

Any 14-day cruise will have far fewer children than a 7-day cruise. The length of the cruise, plus the airfare, would prohibit most American families from considering this as a holiday cruise.

 

However, I'm not familiar with the school calendar Down Under, so I don't know if any Australian or New Zealand families would use this as an opportunity to cruise.

 

Roz

[cands]

Christmas/New year is the busiest holiday season in Australia/New Zealand. The school holidays are from late December until early February, and many parents take time off over the Christmas/New Year period.

 

However, Holland America markets as a premium product in Australia. P&O Australia has a couple of 'fun' ships which cater to the family market. These are jam packed with families over the holiday period.

 

There will be more kids than usual on Statendam, but I don't expect you'll be overrun with Aussie and Kiwi kids. JMHO.

 

Also the itinerary of the cruise is a bit 'ho hum - been there, done that' for Australians/New Zealanders, so is not likely to attract huge numbers of locals. (not for us, though - we are on the Nov 24 sailing!)

 

Steve.

[gillianrose]

Aha! I see I'm not the only Celebrity-booked person to sneak over and check out the HAL board re Australia and New Zealand. (I'll be going over to Princess, too.)

 

We've sailed HAL and Celebrity both and YES, the clientele was very similar on both our 7-day cruises. We like both lines for different reasons.

 

I would imagine that most "Down Under" residents would enjoy seeing something of the South Sea Islands on their itineraries, so hopefully our cruises won't be jammed with children. What is the earliest day in December that children are out on vacation? Does this differ much from area to area?

[cands]

Hi,

These are for this year, but you'll get the idea.

 

New South Wales, Tasmania, ACT, Victoria Dec 22

Queensland, South Australia, NT Dec 16

Western Australia, Dec 8

Return to school is in early February.

 

There are 6 states and 2 territories in Australia, listed above.

 

Regards,

Steve.

[gillianrose]

Thanks, Steve.

 

That's very helpful!

[Lobbylin]

Thanks to everyone for their help and advice here. I don't dislike kids, but I just wanted to let myself know what I was in for as I usually avoid taking holidays when the kids are off school, but as Aus/NZ is so far to travel for us (from UK) then a Xmas break is ideal so we can get as much time off work as possible! :)

 

Hi Gilllianrose - looks like we're in for a great time on our cruise! Do let me know if you find out any other useful info whilst surfing the other boards!:p

[sandydownunder]

We did the Diamond Princess Auckland to Sydney in February this year. A big surprise for us was that there were not that many Australians on board & hardly any New Zealanders so I'm sure you are not going to get many Aussie kids sailing. 1376 Americans,404 British, 244 Canadian, 372 Australian, 117 Japanese, 48 New Zealand,30 German and the other countries represented in twos and fours.

 

There were children onboard, not many, hardly saw them.

[Lobbylin]

Hi Sandydownunder,

 

Thanks for the tip-off! It always amuses me that we all have such wonderful places on our own doorstep worth visiting and yet we chose to travel to the other side of the world and see someone else's doorstep!:p

[Kruizefan]

I don't dislike kids, but I just wanted to let myself know what I was in for as I usually avoid taking holidays when the kids are off school, but as Aus/NZ is so far to travel for us (from UK) then a Xmas break is ideal so we can get as much time off work as possible! :)

 

Hi Gilllianrose - looks like we're in for a great time on our cruise! Do let me know if you find out any other useful info whilst surfing the other boards!:p

 

Hi,

our own ones are grown up, but as my wife works as a teacher we can´t avoid the holiday seasons and we are "looking forward" already to many "quiet" Italien kids on our Arabian cruise on Costa 2007.

 

Lbackwith, do you know already what airline you will prefer to AUS and NZ? We can only book 330 days ahead.

 

Peter

[Lobbylin]

Hi,

our own ones are grown up, but as my wife works as a teacher we can´t avoid the holiday seasons and we are "looking forward" already to many "quiet" Italien kids on our Arabian cruise on Costa 2007.

 

Lbackwith, do you know already what airline you will prefer to AUS and NZ? We can only book 330 days ahead.

 

Peter

 

Hi Peter,

 

We're the same as you - can't book yet either. Flights will open for booking Jan 07. We're probably going to go with BA or Cathay Pacific.

 

BA have an alliance with Cathay, so we can use our airmiles for upgrade if upgrade flights are available on both airlines. BA fly direct to Sydney, and Cathay go Auckland to Hong Kong, then Cathay or BA Hong Kong back to Heathrow.

 

Linda

[Kruizefan]

Hi Peter,

 

We're the same as you - can't book yet either. Flights will open for booking Jan 07. We're probably going to go with BA or Cathay Pacific.

 

BA have an alliance with Cathay, so we can use our airmiles for upgrade if upgrade flights are available on both airlines. BA fly direct to Sydney, and Cathay go Auckland to Hong Kong, then Cathay or BA Hong Kong back to Heathrow.

 

Linda

 

Linda, thanks!

 

We don´t know yet what airline we will take, considering Emirates.

We´ve just used our airmiles with Air Canada to Vancouver and Calgary, so haven´t any spending for Australia.

 

Peter

[Lobbylin]

Linda, thanks!

 

We don´t know yet what airline we will take, considering Emirates.

We´ve just used our airmiles with Air Canada to Vancouver and Calgary, so haven´t any spending for Australia.

 

Peter

 

Emirates are an excellent airline - if I can get a good deal at a discounter for club class at the same price as my standard fare +airmiles for upgrade, I'll be booking with the discounter and saving the airmiles for another time.

 

I certainly won't be ruling out Emirates. My key thing for us is getting a flight from Auckland back to the UK that doesn't have to go via Sydney as that will just add too many hours.

 

A brief 2hr stopover in the Middle East/Far East is the ideal solution on the return journey. We'll probably look for an overnight in H Kong on the way out to break the journey.