I am considering taking a 12 day Princess cruise through Australia/New Zealand in late January. Cruising is not my favorite way to explore a place, but there are no limitations on where and how we travel since my husband is now in a wheelchair. Will we get a good enough "taste" of the place or will it just be a frustrating exercise? There is an option for pre- and post-cruise packages in both countries. Any opinions on this?

OOPS...I meant that there ARE limitations of where/how we travel because of the wheelchair and my husband's disabilities. Sorry!

I think under your circumstances, a cruise through Australia/NZ would be the way to go.

I think it is a good idea as long as you can take advantage of the shore excursions and see what Australia and NZ have to offer apart from the great cities.

I think the Princess cruise only goes into Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart and stays for only a few house in Melbourne and Hobart. If that is the case then I do not think you will get any flavour of Australia at all really. There are other cruises which go from Sydney through the Barrier reef, Coral Sea, and to Darwin and on to Singapore which would be a lot better, in fact I would like to do that myself although I have been to those places many times before.

P&O Cruises <http://www.pocruises.com.au/html/> might be another option.

Hi Beachmama!

If I put my other hat on, my agency's main email address is "cruisexprt", so I guess you can tell that I book cruises. However, that doesn't mean that I think cruises are the way to go for every itinerary.

For example -- doing the UK/Ireland/Scotland itinerary or Greek Islands - perfect. They are smaller destinations and you CAN see a great deal in one day in port.

Exploring the rest of Europe? Not so good. For example - you get to the port in Rome, and it takes 2 hours each way to get into the city -- now you have about 4 hours to "see" Rome. Yes, you get the idea...how much can you really see in that timeframe?

The same holds true in Australia or New Zealand. I agree with LizF (egads, what's happenning?!) that you will have barely scratched the surface.

The shore excursions offered by the cruise line are sort of what I call "cookie cutter" excursions. Highly mass produced tours.

And for the pre or post excursions, they are very inflated. I never put my clients on these and can always find them accommodations separately for far less money than the cruise line charges.

sorry, I hit the send button too soon!

I feel as though I'm the "wet blanket" on your trip plans, but then again, I feel you'd want all the imput you can get.

You don't say where you're travelling from, but I just wonder if doing one of the many packages available, at good rates, is a better way to go. Maybe concentrating on Sydney, doing some day tours and then up to Cairns on a smaller cruise might be the way to go.

Hope this is helpful!

Regards,

Melodie
Certified Aussie Specialist

I really appreciate getting all the feedback. Because of my general reluctance to cruising anyway, I have decided, based on some remarks, NOT to take a cruise. Now, I'm trying to find a travel agent who could put together a nice package to Oz/Nz for someone who is disabled. Although I'd love to hike and do outdoorsy things, that is no longer possible in my husband's condition. If we were to do a three week trip, anyone have a suggestion for an itinerary for a disabled person and his caregiver (me)? We love wildlife and nature. No interest in wineries or nightlife. Very interested in local culture, though, especially indigenous peoples.Not into big cities or looking at structures/temples, etc. Ideas, folks? Thanks for being so helpful!!!

Beachmama,

I hope I haven't been the one to sway you, rather just provide you with all the information to have you make an informed decision! (oh, the GUILT)!

The best thing for you to do when looking for a travel agent who specializes in Australia is to go to www.australia.com and find a Premier Aussie Specialist in your area.

Go to the website and find "Plan Your Trip", once you put the mouse over that, you'll see "Find a Travel Agent".

Then plug in your zip code or state and find the nearest one to your town/city. (and if you don't like the tone or feel the agent closest to you, just keep looking because I have lots of clients from all over the states that I've never met, and we plan an entire trip via email and a few phone calls).

It will be challenging because of your husband's disability, but not impossible.

Regards,

Melodie
Certified Aussie Specialist

It is not the first place one would think of when planning a trip to Australia but you might want to consider visiting Canberra.

As you probably know that is the capital of Australia and it is a planned city. It doesn't have the "wow" factor of Sydney by any means but I can vouch for it as being wheelchair friendly.

We spent a week there about 2-3 ago and specifically chose it because my son was in a wheelchair. Virtually everywhere we went was wheelchair friendly.

As to what is on offer there is to your taste is another matter altogether. I was a bit sceptical as to whether we could fill in a week there but we were very pleasantly surprised. You obviously wouldn't want to spend that amount of time but you might consider three days or so.

Just browsing around with your dilemma in mind. Have you looked into the site http://www.ebility.com/travel/guides_state.php (aims to provide info on travel and places with wheelchair access by state) - might be worth a look.