There has been considerable interest in Unlock the Past history and genealogy cruises. We would love to have you on all our cruises, but of course that is unrealistic for perhaps all but the most avid (and financial) genealogy and cruise die hards. So we have set out an over view of what coming over the next 2½ years to help you plan – with a hint of what may come beyond that. Click on links for further information and sign up to our cruise email newsletter and Facebook page to keep up with latest developments and discussions.
Cruises 4 to 7
Feb 2014 to Jan 2015 – open for bookings (6th cruise to open Dec 2013)
- Southern Australia cruise (4th cruise) – 9 nights 4-13 Feb 2014 (a few places left)
- British Isles discovery cruise (5th cruise) – 10 nights 19-29 July 2014
- Eastern Australia cruise (6th cruise) – Oct 2014 (to be announced early Dec 2013
- Southern Western Australia cruise (7th cruise) 5 nights – 19-24 January 2015
Cruises 8 to 10 (or 11)
mid 2015 to Mar 2016 – expected to be confirmed and open for bookings around Mar/Apr 2014 when cruise lines release they 2015-16 schedules
- Baltic cruise (8th cruise) – from England or Europe, visiting northern Europe, and Scandinavia
12-14 nights mid 2015. We are considering two different Baltic cruises, with choice of time, slightly different itineraries, ships and presenter teams. In order to be ready to sign up to a cruise contract the day schedules are released with first choice of conference facilities (we were pipped to the post for some space on our 4th cruise!), we need to be sure we have sufficient interest to run two cruises. To be ready for this we expect to do a Baltic cruises survey in December. Possible Baltic cruises based on 2014 schedules are:- mid June 2015 (1st Baltic cruise)
- late August 2015 (2nd Baltic cruise)
- Transatlantic relocation cruise UK/Europe to the US (9th or 10th UTP cruise) – probably with a migration theme
12-14 nights late 2015 - Australian-New Zealand cruise (10th or 11th cruise) 12-18 nights, possibly March 2016 – very likely one way Auckland to Sydney or Auckland to Fremantle
Beyond March 2016?
Tell us what you would like – with our future cruises survey.
Some major itineraries that will be considered – based on survey feedback so far:
- a European river cruise (2016?)
- England to Australia (36-40 nights) late 2016? – follow your ancestors’ voyage!
- another British Isles cruise 2016 or 2017?
- an Australia top end cruise – one way Sydney to Fremantle – early 2017?
- other shorter regional cruises
“very likely one way Auckland to Sydney or Auckland to Fremantle”.
“an Australia top end cruise – one way Sydney to Fremantle – early 2017?”
Now fancy that. The usual suspects.
Ken, the reality is that Sydney is the base for almost all cruise ships that operate out of Australia. Astor operates out of Fremantle and the Pacific Dawn of Brisbane – and that offers mostly Pacific cruises (which we have done out of Brisbane) and a few quite expensive ones to the barrier Reef and even New Guinea. All other main line cruise ships operate out of Sydney which gives us maximum choice variety and best value in most cases. Adelaide, Melbourne and Hobart has no cruise ships based there. But there is a recent trend towards operating select cruises out of some other cities. The problem for us with these is that most of the ships are not suitable for our conferences and the choice is very limited.
Another fact is that most most people who cruise come from states other than cruise departure state – and it is cheaper as a rule to fly to Sydney than it is to other cities.