Australia/New Zealand Cruises
 

Thinking of taking a cruise of Australia/New Zealand. I see Princess is offering one in December,January,February- on a brand new ship. Does anyone know if any other cruise lines offer this destination any other time of year? What the weather and seasons in Australia? THANKS!

Gail,

as much as I love cruises (and my company specializes in them), there are certain areas of the world where they work well, and others where they don't (in my opinion). To really SEE an area like Europe (unless it's a Greek Isle cruise or England/Scotland/Ireland) or Australia/NZ, you will not really get the feel for the area with a short amount of time in port. (I mean, really, can you "see" Rome with 8 hours in port and 2 hours are transferring to & from)?

If you're just looking for a "taste" of Australia and NZ, then a cruise is fine, but for most USA travellers, it's a long way to travel for such a short amount of time spent seeing the highlights.

Hope this is helpful!

Regards,

Melodie
Certified Aussie & Kiwi Specialist

Thanks Melodie for your feedback. We are really just looking for a "taste" of Australia/New Zealand, so I think the cruise will work great. We are kind of "NEW SHIP" fanatics and we really enjoy cruising. We will spend some extra time in Sydney, and plan to do many of the shore excursions. We can always go back and do a land tour later on.. Thanks for your feedback!

We cruised on the Star Princess last February and enjoyed it. I believe next year's itinerary leaves out Adelaide which is a shame.

We traveled early to Auckland and stayed over in Sydney. This gave us time to see more of the countryside. We were blessed with good weather, especially crossing the Tasman Sea, which can be a little on the rough side.

Expect very hot weather in Melbourne and Sydney - cooler temperatures in New Zealand.

We found all the ports enjoyable.

Jerry

Jerry (olderpilot),
It was nice to hear someone "enjoyed" an Australian/New Zealand cruise. Our cruise will leave in January out of Sydney so we are pretty happy about that so we have some extra time to see the city. We end in Auckland, but unfortunately won't be able to see much of it due to time restrictions. We will probably end up going back again and tour it by land on our own. Thanks again for your
reply... Happy Travels!!