16 Day Australian Indonesian Cruise - with kids!

We love cruising and occasionally we will check website to see if there are any good deals or any cool places we’d like to visit. My husband found this cruise back in May and we booked it almost immediately. This would be part of our Christmas to each other and our anniversary present, plus it was on my bucket list to visit Australia. 16 days around Australia for 4 people for under $7,000 seemed like a great deal. Keep in mind this price was for the boat itself and didn’t include gratutities, excursions or anything else purchased on board. If you’d be interested on a breakdown of everything else spent, I could certainly put together a post! We booked our cruise directly through Holland America and our flights through Trip.com.

Holland America Westerdam ship in Komodo National Park

One thing we didn’t consider was just HOW LONG 16 days is with kids. Then we added multiple days to the front and back end of our trip for a grand total of 23 days on vacation. What were we thinking?! Honestly though, our children did great and Brandon and I haven’t stopped talking about what a great trip this was and we’d do it over again.

Our girls thrive on a routine so having a “home base” (or “home boat” as Millie calls it) really helped them adjust quickly. This way we were able to venture off on excursions but they knew we’d be coming “home” to the same routine each night. We had to travel with our pack’n’play for the Airbnb and hotels and anticipated using it on the cruise ship as well. Not a chance. Even though we had a verandah suite (on the Holland America Westerdam ship), it wasn’t big enough for the couch to pull out and use the pack’n’play. Also, London broke her arm the night before we got on the ship and we were worried how she would sleep the first few nights. We don’t share beds at home and we don’t co-sleep, so our girls struggled to have their own space on the couch bed so eventually we caved and used both the couch bed and the bunk bed. Best decision. Everyone slept much better from them on. The pack’n’play fit under the bed the entire trip.

Our cabin set up for bed time. Fold down bunk bed for London and Millie sleeping on the fold out couch bed.

They also have insane amounts of energy so finding excursions where they could have more freedom - on a beach with multiple activities versus being stuck on a 5 hour boat tour - was key. We’re pretty active when we are home so being able to walk the promenade deck was another great energy release. For some reason our ship didn’t seem to have the dinner schedule down pat and dinner every night was an arduous process. I prefer a sit down dinner, especially since we did room service for breakfast and the buffer for lunch. We also do a family dinner every night at home at our kitchen table, so keeping this routine helped. HOWEVER dinner took for-ev-er every night so we missed all of the early shows/entertainment, and 9:00 is past Millie’s bedtime. One thing I think was well worth the cost was the unlimited laundry package at $112. It is definitely a convenience but so worth it knowing I wouldn’t be taking 4 suitcases worth of dirty laundry.

Millie was 3 months away from turning 3 and at this age there’s still growth and changes every month. One thing that will be very helpful in the future is that Millie will be able to go to the kids clubs during the day. Children can’t attend until they are 3 and potty trained.

Sydney / Bondi Beach:

We arrived in Sydney on New Year’s Eve and prices for lodging were out of this world. To counterbalance this, we booked 2 nights in Bondi Beach and 1 night in Sydney near the port. While I don’t think we saw half of what we could’ve in Sydney (also due in part that my daughter broke her arm at 10pm and spent most of the last day in a hospital) I know we wouldn’t have seen as much of Bondi if we hadn’t stayed out there. We chose a quaint little AirBNB right near Tamarama Beach that was minutes from Bondi and Bronte. A car was not needed as everything was in walking distance and we each had the Uber app. Millie is still at the age of needing a carseat per Australian laws (laws are much more flexible in Southeast Asia) so we lugged one around our entire trip just for this. We kept it in the bathtub on our cruise when we could.

Moreton Island:

Moreton Island is a tender port and while there’s a ton of excursions offered, you can also go to the island just to hang out. Tours on the island are cheaper than offered through the cruise and there’s also a resort on the island. There are helicopter tours offered, snorkeling, kayaking and a ton more. A lot of sailboats docked in the harbour as well. It is also home to the Tangalooma Wrecks and maybe because it was a dreary day, I was disappointed in them. This is what I was most excited to see and snorkel around, but didn’t stick above the water as much as I had pictured and sailboats docked between the shore and the wrecks which was annoying. I also thought the gift shop and restaurants on the island were overpriced. Two hamburgers and fries were $44AUD.

Airlie Beach:

If you’re looking to explore the Whitsundays, Airlie Beach is the place to do it from. This was our shortest port day so we didn’t take a tour to do that. Instead we hit up the Saturday markets, strolled through town and lazed at the beach. (There’s also a lagoon which is where we thought we made it to but we hadn’t walked far enough. The beach was still a prime spot as it was nearly deserted.) I love shopping at local markets and so much of this was one was handmade and handcrafted. I bought a piece of art from the sweetest couple - I wish I could link them but they don’t have Facebook or instagram as it’s just a hobby for them. Almost all of the vendors took credit card.

Cairns:

Cairns has so much to offer, it would be great if this was a 2-day stop. If you’re traveling around Australia or you’re looking to visit the Great Barrier Reef, you’ll want to spend multiple days here. We spent the day at Green Island, but there’s also Fitzroy Island, day tours spent on a boat in the Great Barrier Reef, helicopter and airplane tours, and Cairns itself. The Great Barrier Reef is a bucket list item for so many people and our day on Green Island was a great choice for family friendly activities. You can read about our day in The Great Barrier Reef here.

Darwin:

Of all of the stops in Australia, this was the hottest and had the least amount of activities (for us) to do. We took the city bus tour, walked the town and visited Crocosaurus Cove. There is a little water park with inflatables but since our oldest had a broken arm we didn’t visit it. I’m sure this would’ve been a hit though! Darwin is the only place in Australia that was part of WWII and holds a lot of interest for history buffs. Bring a personal fan as it was incredibly hot.

Komodo Island:

I’ll be the first to admit that I had no interest in the Komodo dragons but I was so happy with this excursion in the end. You needed an excursion to leave the boat and I was happy that our group was able to find one that combined the Komodo dragons and a pink beach. Pulling into Komodo National Park was like something out of a dream. Walking around Komodo National Park was extremely hot and our personal fans came in handy. Wear closed shoes and breathable clothes. We were sweltering. The Komodo beaches are gorgeous and worth the visit. The coral is everywhere so you don’t have to swim far from shore. The beaches are hard on the feet so if you have swim shoes, you’ll thank yourself for bringing them. You can read my Komodo blog post here.

Lombok, Indonesia:

Lombok is a shipping port and there’s absolutely not a thing to do right off the boat. I heard about the southern Gili Islands from multiple people and it seemed like a relaxing day. This was our longest day at port - we were there until 10:30 at night. It’s a 30 minute drive and a 15 minute boat ride to get to the Gili Islands and I highly recommend going! We spent 4 hours boating, snorkeling and island hopping and if it weren’t for the storm blowing in, we would’ve stayed much longer. I’d love to go back. You can read my Lombok blog post here.

Bali:

I feel like Bali’s traffic has gotten even worse since the last time we were there. This time around we decided to hang out in Canggu for shopping and lunch. Traffic was so congested getting there and it took a solid hour and a half drive from the port, and because of afternoon traffic, it took the same going back. If you’re looking for something relatively closer, Kuta would be a great spot for beaching and shopping. Sidewalks are narrow and not great for strollers. Also, at this point we had 3 port days back to back and I was exhausted. I prefer no more than 2 back to back and was thankful that the next two days were sea days before disembarking.

Singapore:

This is our second time to visit Singapore so we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted to do. Our cruise offered a Singapore excursion for people with flights leaving after 4:30pm and if you’re not staying the night, I recommend doing the tour through them. One of my favorite things from last time is the Singapore Night Safari at the Zoo. So much fun and I never want to visit a zoo without having a tram ride the entire time anymore. This time we stayed at Marina Bay Sands and visited the Gardens by the Bay. Because of the rain this time, we walked the Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands and didn’t venture far from the hotel. We took the Big Bus tour to visit Chinatown since it was Lunar New Year. I love the city bus tour but the rain was a real bummer this time. We also did the Big Bus tour our first time in Singapore with much better weather. I highly recommend it if you’re short on time. We already have plans to go back to Singapore and I want to do the nighttime Big Bus Tour. I love how beautiful Singapore is when lit up at night and I think this would be great way to see it all from the ground.

Shout out to our stroller - the QB Pockit stroller. I am a die hard BOB stroller girl, although if someone could put the BOB tires on my Bugaboo stroller, I think the would be my ideal stroller. I needed something much smaller than both of those that we could take on the plane and would fit into our hotel and cruise rooms easily. I put so many miles on this baby and she held up nicely. We took her on the nicely paved sidewalks in Bondi Beach and the rough sidewalks in Bali. It’s hard to push/turn with one hand (like when you’re holding a coffee) but that’s a personal problem and not a stroller problem. The bottom basket is deceiving and holds more than meets the eye. It was incredibly convenient when taking Ubers because of the amount of luggage we already had. We were able to keep it in our cruise room fully upright but it also would’ve fit in the closet or under the bed. We used it around the ship as well, Millie seemed to think it was comfortable enough for afternoon naps. If you’re on the fence about this one, I highly recommend it.