OzKiwiJJ

I think they'll do their utmost to get the next lot of passengers onboard some time tomorrow even if the ship just sits at the wharf overnight.

I think they've become a lot stricter about mask wearing in the last couple of weeks.

Apparently the Port of Brisbane has just closed due to weather conditions. Passengers have been told the ship might not arrive until 11am. From the forecasts I've seen the weather will actually be worse tomorrow. That could be interesting!

The Captain's daily announcement mentioned the current conditions and someone posted the details elsewhere: "Heading South and just over 300 nmiles from Brisbane. Wind speed 40 to 50 knots. A short swell with seas 4 to 5 metres." That's fairly bouncy but at least they're heading into it mostly.

The International Cafe isn't in the Atrium on Coral. It's on deck 6 and the seating isn't next to any of the windows so people don't tend to linger there too long. It's much more obviously a place to eat, not just to sit. However a few too many people were doing that at the Good Spirits bar on deck 5 as that is where the IC usually is on other ships and is the alternative place to get coffees. However we usually managed to find somewhere to sit within a few minutes of getting there.

By the looks of the total wave height map she's probably encountering 3-4 metre seas at the moment, and that could increase to close to 6 metres overnight before she reaches the shelter of Moreton Island.

The isolation period is currently seven days. I'm not sure how Royal Caribbean will handle it but the two lines operating at the moment, Princess and P&O Australia, isolate you in a cabin for the remainder of your cruise. If that time is shorter than seven days you will be tranferred to a hotel for the remaining time. The cruise lines currently pay for this. Whether this will change by November, and whether Royal Caribbean offers the same deal, remains to be seen.

I think you have a very good chance. Your cruise is nine months away, and at the end of our summer season, so things should be stabilizing by then. Yes, Covid cases are increasing in Australia at the moment as we are right in the middle of winter but the number of cases will drop again once the warmer weather arrives. Coral has been getting a few passenger cases onboard every cruise but are handling it well (apart from not policing the mask mandates enough IMHO). There was an outbreak among the crew last week with about 100 crew members affected. I haven't heard any more news about that so presume they are recovering OK and Princess has managed to contain the outbreak.

They are still doing it on Coral. We saw it a few weeks ago. Great show!

I think it's great fun to try different lines, although you always end up coming back to one favourite. Princess in our case for a number of reasons - AUD onboard costs is a big one for us, so much easier. When does the first Royal ship arrive. Surely you've got time to do a short cruise on Coral Princess before then? We'd love to go to Europe again but don't handle the long distance flights very well any more.

Too short. IMHO you need a minimum of five days to really get enough time to explore a ship and how the daily routines work, to experience the different types of entertainment, try out different dining venues including a speciality restaurant, and so on.

If that's the one later this year I wouldn't bet on it happening. I'm not sure if PNG will be open to cruise ships by then. Try one of the cruises out of Sydney.

Why don't you just do one of the cruises to try out the ship? Bugger the itinerary. At the moment there isn't much choice of places the ship can go anyway. She really is a lovely ship. A small ship that feels like a bigger ship is some ways, as it has very good public spaces. We really enjoyed our 7 night cruise on her and are looking forward to a longer, B2B, cruise on her in September.

I don't know why cruise lines like Viking call those sort of cruises a "world cruise". I might be a bit pedantic but to me a true world cruise should go right around the world, starting and ending in the same port, travelling in either a westerly or easterly direction overall, and crossing all longitudes.

So do we! 😊

No testing requirements for entry to Australia now but passengers still have to test negative before boarding: - either within 72 hours for a PCR test which may allow them to test before flying here. - or within 24 hours for a RAT which would probably have to be done after arrival in Australia.

Your fares don't include the daily gratuities either, which are built in to the fare for us.

We have two in September - we bailed out of this chopped up 22nd August cruise and have booked 3rd Sept instead, which is B2B with the 13th Sept one. I really hope they don't stuff around with the 13th Sept cruise either, although for that cruise we don't really care where it goes. We're celebrating a couple of milestones onboard so as long as they don't cancel it completely we'll be happy.

In the USA. I suspect it will still be monitored here for a few more months.

She is indeed a very nice and tidy ship. 😊

Not newsworthy because it's not traceable.

What the media should be looking out for is a cruise that finishes with zero cases onboard. That would be a newsworthy miracle!

Oh no! Sorry to hear that. Hope you recover quickly. That is indeed an excellent article. Thanks for posting the link.

I agree.

Princess has said it will provide transport home to anyone who lives within two hours drive of the cruise terminal.