Australia cruise

[travelmadmum23]

I have just booked a cruise from Sydney to Singapore and I'm so excited!

Flying from Manchester to Sydney (26hrs) in one go - Has anybody done this with 2 children (11 & 12)?. I'm hoping we can keep them entertained and sleep through some of it.

Flight back is from Singapore and is 14hrs so not too bad.

I did UK to NZ a while ago, & wish I'd had a 1-2 day stop-over along the way.
It's exhausting.
And we didn't have kids to worry about.

Yes, I think you'll be fine with kids that age they can just watch endless movies and snooze. Mine both suffer from motion sickness and tend to throw up numerous times (the journey to Oz is always a delight) so we always have at least a short stopover in Asia, just to give everyone at least a days rest. The one time we did go straight through was when my Step-Dad died, it wasn't fun, but the kids were tiny and I was obviously an emotional wreck, you will inevitably have a better experience.

I hate stopovers. It will be fine on the plane. I've done it loads of time with my two and no other adult. They can't get off so there's nothing to moan about.

At 11 and 12 there is loads on the IFE for them to watch and play. I’d check the menu beforehand and make sure there is food for them to eat. Take some extra snacks. They’ll be alright. Have an amazing cruise.

An 11 and 12 year old can read, play cards or watch movies. I flew to Australia with a baby and three year old - now that was exhausting!
Have a great time!

You're spending time in Australia first right?

Yes - we went on holiday to Australia with that aged children and a non-stop flight from London to Sydney with just an hour or so at Singapore to change planes (BA). They both found it quite exciting to travel round the world - the asd child loved it so much he asked if there were holidays you could take which were 2 weeks non-stop on a plane. He liked the entertainment films provided having his ipad different timezones lots of food and drink and the blanket they give you. My daughter was fine on way out as excited about travelling round world, again ipad, films, music - on way back she struggled with the turbulence hurting her ears so we needed to get painkillers at Singapore airport, that was relatively easy. We also booked the quieter seats for 2 at the back and did 2 and 2 which worked well for us.

Sounds a wonderful trip.

We arrive into Sydney 6pm on the 1/4 and cruise departs 4pm 3/4 so we get a couple of days to explore Sydney and sleep.

Sounds fantastic 😊 Hope my two are as compliant as your two sound x

What is exciting about flying all that way for most days at sea? I’d just do a holiday in Australia!

This! A long flight to an amazing destination, where you spend 2 days getting over jet lag, only to then get on a boat to spend 10 days at sea to another amazing destination (I guess with a few stop offs along the way, but only time to have a brief glimpse of them) and then fly home.
I'm very much an 'each to their own' kind of person, but this sounds crazy!

We stopping off at various places in Australia then bali then Singapore...

I hope you enjoy your holidays as I'll enjoy mine 😘

Thanks for those replies who have done the journey. Happy holidaying 💋

Hope you have a lovely time. We managed to sleep on the plane and didn't get jet lag on way over. First morning after flight we did breakfast with the koalas at the zoo, we went to Featherdale which is just outside Sydney but think Sydney zoo also does. If you are going in our summer then there are whale watching trips and we did one further north from Port Stephens but there were also from Sydney and we saw about 150 whales and dolphins though I guess you might see anyway with a cruise. There's a bridge climb in Sydney, we didn't do that but looks good. Think in our summer 2 days is enough in Sydney and that's all we did as its their winter. If you go to Cairns we used Seastar there who were excellent for a small boat Great Barrier Reef trip, if timings work.

The Tripadviser Australia forum had some wonderful locals on it who were excellent at recommending the best thing in each area. Like the Great Barrier Reef some trips they said are much better than others and they recommended Seastar and also a lovely place with tree kangaroos etc but that wouldn't be viable on a cruise but there will be lots of nice other things.

We were planning on either going to blue mountains on the 2nd day or doing the bridge climb. I'm hoping we won't be too jet lagged so we can utilise our 3 days in Sydney. We also have 2 days in Singapore at the end of the cruise too 😀 Very excited. Iv looked and found a half day barrier reef trip which works in with timings as we are docked there overnight.

I hope you have a fabulous holiday and what a good plan to get the long flight out of the way and then you can relax.

That sounds great. We went to Blue Mountains (hired a car and stayed in the Sofitel) and went by Glendale where there were kangaroos. It was only about 10C in August, whereas Cairns was about 27C and sunny.

Thank you 😊 We have a longish flight this year 15hours so hopefully that will prepare the kids 🤣

I’m sure your have an amazing time but the jet lag is horrid and needs 2days ish to acclimatise. There’s loads to do around Sydney I wouldn’t necessarily rush off to the blue mountains in such a short space of time. It’s easy to boat hop on the ferries around the harbour you get some great views. If you like outdoor swimming there are fab sea pools, plus the 50m pool under the bridge, and beaches along north shore like Deewhy & Narrabeen.

OP please please please update with excursions you picked and what you did in Sydney. I have booked an Australia/New Zealand cruise for January 2026 with a stay in Sydney and Auckland either side of it. Well actually it’s two cruises back to back.

Who are you cruising with? This sounds like something I'd be interested in.

Royal Caribbean

So Cairns, Darwin and Bali? Are you really saying your dc want this flight for these stops? Yes, your holiday but how is a cruise ship exciting? And the jet lag?

but how is a cruise ship exciting?

Have you been on a cruise ship, my DC have been on 16 and they find them very exciting?

Blimey why do some people just post to say negative things? Who pissed on their chips 🙄

have a lovely time op - sounds wonderful!