Your guide to the best winter cruising for Australians

• Now the summer season is over, many cruisers feel their sailing days are done until next season.
• But there are many destinations waiting to welcome cruisers with open arms, and winter sun.
• Read our guide to Winter Cruising and pick the itinerary for you and how you can sail from $93.

Cruising in Australia is generally considered a summer activity, with the vast majority of cruises available coming between late September and March. 

Winter cruising, while there used to be a few more options, isn’t currently very popular in Australia, mostly due to a lack of options. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a few different options to check out if you’re thinking of cruising during the winter. 

Carnival Cruise Line sails year-round in Australia, offering the opportunity to enjoy a range of different tropical destinations and escape the cold, or enjoy shorter cruises just within Australia. 

If you’ve got a craving for adventure, you could also try a small-ship cruise in the Kimberley. These generally leave from Darwin or Broome. Being smaller, expedition-focused ships they offer a very different experience in a bucket list destination for almost all Aussies.

Then, if you’re willing to fly outside of Australia, there are options much closer to home than an European cruise. 

You can try a deeper dive into the South Pacific with Norwegian Cruise Lines, with Norwegian Spirit spending the Aussie winter sailing between French Polynesia, Fiji and Hawaii. This is actually the perfect time to visit the Pacific as you’re totally away from hurricane season, conditions are generally more relaxed, there are less tourists around. As a bonus, you get to escape the cold in Australia and head to the sunny South Pacific instead.

Then, over in Singapore, you have another interesting option, with the new Disney Adventure, which has just recently started its first sailings and is already proving a big hit. 

To help you decide on a winter cruise, Cruise Passenger has put together this guide to help you pick out a winter cruise.

Carnival sailings in Australia

While Carnival Adventure will be abandoning its Aussie winter sailings from 2028, for now we still have Carnival Adventure and Carnival Splendor sailing out of Sydney during the winters and Carnival Encounter sailing out of Brisbane. 

Cruises range from quick three-day cruises to nowhere, up to longer cruises into the South Pacific. 

South Pacific cruises are where you can find the best value, for example, for example this 10-day Vanuatu and New Caledonia cruise out of Sydney starts from just $929. 

For something a bit different, you can still grab a balcony or a suite on this 12-day Fiji and South Pacific cruise out of Brisbane.

If you’re after an Aussie adventure, this 10-day Carnival Adventure cruise goes to the Great Barrier Reef from Sydney, starting from just $1184.

Head here for a longer list of available sailings.

Kimberley 

The Kimberley is a different cruising experience to what a lot of Aussies might be used to.

Rather than big ships carrying thousands of passengers, you’re looking at small expedition ships that carry at most a couple of hundred passengers, and use their expedition teams, equipment and design to immerse guests right into the heart of the Kimberley.

There are Aussie cruise lines like Truth North and Coral Expeditions sailing, as well as prominent international cruise lines like Ponant, Scenic, Silversea and Seabourn. 

However, because of its remote nature, a cruise in the Kimberley can be expensive. , you’re often looking at upwards of $12,000 per person or more for a cruise of 10-days or more, particularly if you’re purchasing last minute. 

But there are some good bargains at the moment, with many of the leading lines offering big discounts.

The season runs through the Aussie winter making it an interesting option if you want to explore one of Australia’s most remote corners, and do it in luxury. 

Head to the Pacific with Norwegian 

While Norwegian Cruise Line isn’t quite as popular in Australia as Carnival or Royal Caribbean, it’s one of the biggest cruise lines worldwide and offers some interesting pacific sailings that no other large lines offer during Australia’s winter months.

From around May to September you can find a range of sailings that leave between Hawaii, Fiji and French Polynesia on Norwegian Spirit. 

These cruises are generally a little more than a Carnival cruise for example, but they do have major benefits. For one, there’s generally the chance to visit some areas that you can’t see cruising out of Australia, such as Hawaii, Samoa, American Samoa, the Cook Islands and French Polynesia. 

Also with Norwegian’s free-at-sea deal you can generally get a drinks package and a wifi package included in your fare, as well as some other perks like specialty dining and shore excursion credits.

For example, you could sail on an itinerary like this 12-day sailing out of Papeete, that finishes up in Hawaii, visiting Moorea, Raiatea, Bora Bora, Kauai and more along the way. Right now you can actually get a great deal on this cruise, with fares starting from around $1700.

Another option is this South Pacific cruise, which goes from Fiji to French Polynesia, with stops in both those countries, as well as Samoa, French Samoa and the Cook Islands, starting from around $1600. 

Try out Disney Adventure

Over in Singapore, you can sail on what is by far Disney Cruise Line’s largest ship, the Disney Adventure. The new ship only arrived in Singapore a couple of months ago, and will now be sailing year-round, offering sailings that don’t visit any ports, where the destination is rather the ship. 

Disney cruises are not cheap, especially on Disney Adventure. A three-night cruise starts from $2532 and a four-night cruise from $3361.

If you’re a Disney fan, Disney Adventure does promise to offer the ultimate Disney experience and features a range of entertainment, activities and shows that you can’t find on other Disney ships. 

Singapore is also a great location to head out for more vacationing across Asia. Singapore’s main cruise season coincides with Australia’s, but Disney is there year-round, plus you can find cruises on some Asian based cruise lines through the winter, such as on Genting Dream with Genting Cruises.