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15 hours ago, arxcards said:

Hasn't stopped them before. When P&O announced Pacific Explorer, Royal arrived with Explorer of the seas. Carnival Legend was in Australia when Legend of the Seas arrived. Other conflicts between cruise lines over recent years, including Sun, Dawn, Jewel.

 

Maybe confusion is a good thing? I have friends that booked on Pacific Dawn, which turned out to be Dawn Princess when they arrived at the terminal. Hey, it is a big white ship with restaurants and bars, so who cares what the name is? 🤣

True, similar names here before. Which still leaves me wondering why RC would not send a ship that is new to Australia, even though the same class as previous ships here. Radiance class seem popular here. 

It does seem weird to send Voyager here when she has already been here. I would think that to stir a bit more interest RC would send a ship that has not been here before. Perhaps the problem with sending Adventure here is that the name is too similar to the P&O Pacific Adventure? They don't want potential customers to be confused? Could the reason be that simple?

3 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

Carole, nobody here is talking about a "cruise line membership".   This is about a particular Australian cruise specialist travel agent, who offers a "cruise club" membership when you price a cruise with them. It costs $90 per year. You get some perks - entry into a raffle of a free cruise, a  large cruising magazine posted out to you, "discounts" on an overpriced travel insurance quote, invitations to some events which seem to be thinly disguised hard sells.  You may also get offers for cruises that are better than those offered to the general public.  I had the membership for a year when I booked my first cruise and did not receive any offers that could not be matched elsewhere.   

It's a TA offering the "club price". $90 p/a. I am noting significantly reduced fares on one line next summer offered to club members. 

Thanks everyone for your input. Yes, I agree that this is a TA club, not a cruising club. Just trying to assist with identification without breaking the rules regarding naming TA's. 

Happy Easter to everyone here. I have noted a TA offering a Cruising Club for $90 p/a. On some itineraries, I can then see significantly cheaper fares. Payment terms don't seem too different to the usual. conditions. Has anyone here had experience with this one? Any catches that I cannot see? Or is it as good as it seems? TIA for your thoughts.  

Hello, prices on board RCI are in $US. We have never bought drink packages, and always come out ahead v's buying a package. Some days we have several drinks, some days only a couple or even none. We are not going to drink fresh juices, fancy coffees (they often taste average anyway) or smoothies etc every day. Just have one now and again if we want one. Enjoy your cruise. It becomes addictive.

I have heard only positive reports from someone who uses Rex regularly on the Sydney to Brisbane route. 

I have not had to deal with this myself. What is your concern? March 2024 will be 18 months of sailing in Australia since the restart. It's not an unreasonable amount of time to give to use a credit.  Are you unable to sail by March 2024?

9 hours ago, Gwendy said:

On Pacific Encounter last week, I bought some candles in Fiji, when getting back on ship I was pulled up at scanning station and told, “these are not allowed on ship, I should confiscate them, but I won’t, just make sure you do not use them in your cabin”.  
I had no intention to use them on the ship as they were going to be used as gifts and with over 60 cruises, I know the rules BUT how many first time cruisers had candles or the demographic of P&O who think rules are not for them had them.

my point is they should have been taken and kept for collection when we disembarked.  Trusting everyone to do the right thing is a dangerous situation.

Oh dear, why would security be so sure that the passenger would not use the candle on board. Slack work IMO.

10 hours ago, arxcards said:

Is it possible some smokers on balconies were in covid isolation? This was an acceptable plan B policy for the cruise lines to manage iso, and when a smoker sees others smoking on their balconies, they are seeing an excuse to join in. While they would be seen clearly from the bridge, I don't think the officers would have a clue between who was in iso and who wasn't in iso. Also, not just a P&O thing but common across most of the lines here over the past year.

 

Still, it isn't a good policy if someone with covid is allowed to smoke on their balcony if it places the ship at risk.

It is possible that a small number are in iso and are also smokers. Maybe less possible though when observed before we have even left port or within the first 24-48 hours. I would guess that the officers/crew could work out who was "legally" smoking on the balcony as they would be able to find out who was in iso? I am sure that PO is trying to balance the requirements of iso against the needs of smokers. It is still poor policy to allow smoking on the balcony in my view. As I said, I felt that there was zero emphasis by PO on the significant danger that fire at sea poses to human life. So, if you are new to cruising, which is common in the PO demographic, you never get to understand how important it is to manage the risk of fire at sea. And I don't trust everyone to do the safe thing when they are not being observed. Examples of people finding cigarette butts on their balconies are a case in point. Why do smokers feel the need to flick their butt into the sea or elsewhere?

We were on Pac Adventure in January and I thought the emphasis on the danger of fire at sea was nonexistent, along with the management around smoking in designated areas only. From the upper decks, we saw plenty of people smoking on their balconies on the lower decks over the 10 days. The mismanagement of the messaging and lack of enforcement of the policy put me off P&O for next time. I can cope with cheap and cheerful for the right price, but not blatant disregard for health and safety as I saw on this cruise. 

4 hours ago, onlyslightlymad said:

I try to avoid the Gulf carriers if I can.  My reason is that they are fully state owned and backed by their government.  They capacity dump on the Tasman.  There is no way the likes of Qantas and Air NZ can compete with them as it is simply not a level playing field.  Also, those same governments are dictatorships with terrible labour laws, and punitive laws against women and those with same sex partners.  I don't feel good about supporting them and will avoid them if possible, no matter how good the service is.

Yes, I agree. I don't want to support these dictatorships and their terrible human rights records. 

An example may be checking into a hotel: I am almost certain that a PIN would be required when either paying for your accommodation and also when authorizing any security hold processed through EFTPOS terminal that the hotel may request. 

Agree with the person above regarding Costco, if my purchase is over $200 I am required to enter the PIN. i.e. Tap, then PIN required before transaction is processed.

I cannot imagine tapping for a $10K transaction and not being asked for a PIN. Perhaps the EFTPOS machines in AU will default to a signature required if no PIN is available? I am not sure.

We just debarked Adventure on Thursday. Ten nights.  In order of preference we rated them Angelos, Dragon Lady and then Waterfront a very distance third. Pantry food was better than Waterfront. Waterfront staff seemed to be really struggling, very new I would say. Staff in the other two were very good. We don't mind trying new food so Dragon Lady is an interesting way to mix it up. We quite liked the rotation system. The menu seems to change every four days apparently? We were 7.45pm every night. Not many kids eating by then so the restaurant seemed calmer. The restaurants often seemed only half full. Paid restaurants still not open. 

1 hour ago, chubbypiggy said:

So, to use those cards in Australia and NZ, I need to call my bank and find out if I can set pin numbers on those cards? 

Yes, I would definitely get set up with a PIN before you leave home. Usually transactions over $200 will require a PIN. Sometimes lower, occasionally higher. 

Love this so far. We had a great 10 days on Coral a month ago, We were in aft in E630. Loved it. Quiet, lifts nearly always empty, would be happy with aft again. Enjoy your trip.

Most people drive the South Island in a loop of anywhere between 8 days.(super rushed, you will only see a few highlights so not recommended) to 21 days. Two weeks is a common amount of time. Done as CHC to ZQN or reverse. Or a loop from CHC. TripAdvisor has some excellent info on the SI forum.

10 minutes ago, Auscruisefam said:

No one knows the answer to that. Staff have a right to wear masks regardless of mandates and so do cruise passengers so you will see some of that for years to come. Not just because of Covid but flu etc. I have to admit that masks in the buffet are a good idea, so much more hygienic. I was on a cruise recently and the mask thing is not as bad as it seems but it’s not great either especially when on a tender boat in 30 Degree heat. 

As for vaccines I think they will drop them next season. We would love to take our kids but they are not vaxxed so we are just waiting for that to be dropped. 
But really who knows it’s just a waiting game. We had a family cruise booked for Jan but have had to cancel because of mandates. 

 

 

Good point regarding staff and passengers choosing to use masks for quite some time. TBH, whilst I don't love them, having now found out that it doesn't kill me to wear one, I will likely use masks in certain settings, particularly during winter with flu etc around. I work in a school, plenty of bugs floating around in schools at times. Some cultures have been using face masks for years to reduce their risk of catching or sharing illness. 

I think it will be some time yet. Several more cruises ships are yet to start up from AU ports. I would think that the joint cruise deal with the Australian Eastern states will want to see out the summer season before they bring in significant changes. Need a crystal ball though really. Mandatory masks have just been reinstated on some overseas cruises as case numbers are going up in those areas. I also feel that the cruise companies themselves are keen to keep the case numbers down; if they have a solid outbreak onboard they will struggle to care for the cases on board. They also need their staff to stay well in order to continue to offer their services safely and to the standard expected by cruisers. I imagine that staff will be staying masked beyond passengers. We just had 10 days on Coral Princess. About 90% mask compliance I would say in early Sept. It really did not overly bother us. I was so grateful to be back onboard, it was wonderful. Masks in crowded areas and indoors. We spend a fair bit of time on deck or our balcony/room, so plenty of time to have a break from the mask. 

The main possible complication that I can see is that the ship ends up needing to skip Brisbane. Very small chance, but that did happen on the Coral itinerary leaving Sydney on 3rd Sept. 

I am also unlikely to use a TA in the future. Had to use my credit card charge back process to get both our fully paid cruises back last year. One agent had the cheek to contact me and ask me to remove the charge back and then they would magically refund me. I declined, as if I removed the charge back I could not reinstate the claim with my bank if they did not come through with the refund. I feel that if I had not instigated the charge back I would still be waiting for the refunds 9 months later. 

2 hours ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

There don't seem to be any ports in NSW on the north coast. I would have thought that Coffs Harbour could have rated as a tender port. The main basin seems deep enough and is protected from northerly and southerly seas, just open to the east. They could also throw in extended sails to Lord Howe island and Ball's Pyramid. I don't see why it would be necessary to land there, the places are spectacular enough just from the sea.

 

 

We got an unexpected scenic couple of hours of LH Island and Ball's Pyramid in March 2018. RC VOS took a diversion east on the way to Noumea to avoid a cyclone. Ball's Pyramid was quite sensational. It seems that even the captain and crew were excited to see it, out taking photos etc as it is not on any regular shipping lanes so rarely seen. It was a fabulous afternoon. 

13 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

We have 6 weeks till this current ban is reviewed.

 I can understand the international travel ban but domestic cruises should be allowed.

Singapore has had success and have extended cruises till the end of April.
With possibly more ships and a port call.

 

 Surely we can follow their example.

Domestic cruises sound great, BUT, I am imagining a scenario whereby a typical 10-12 night itinerary, Syd-BNE-Airlie-Port Douglas-Cairns-Morton-Syd has all it's port cancelled because Sydney has an "outbreak" and QLD closes their borders to people who have been in Sydney or NSW.  To have any good chance of success the cruises would need to visit destinations in the same state as the cruise passengers embarked. 

On 1/18/2021 at 7:24 PM, possum52 said:

Sorry, that is absolute rubbish! Where do you hear or read that? The tennis people are in hotels that don't do HQ for returned travellers. The returned traveller numbers were reduced by National Cabinet at their last meeting because of the outbreaks. Victoria did not have their number dropped so they are still taking the same number of travellers that have been coming since the beginning of December.

 

 

Leigh

This is true, but, I get skeptical  when I recall the states announcing they will take less o/seas arrivals into quarantine whilst they "work out what this new variant of the virus is doing" and "protect our health system" and "protect our citizens". If you take in more people from o/seas you are increasing the likelihood of leakage from quarantine and strain on the health system. And they are supposedly still working out the new virus variant behavior. And they are not letting in people from Sydney (or BNE until yesterday) even though they do know where the virus is there and which strain it is. 

2 hours ago, SinbadThePorter said:

 

You would think that a plan for the whole of Australia would be the job of the government that has responsibility for the whole of Australia. Instead we've seen the Feds run away from covid responsibility faster than Usain Bolt.

 

Each state is going to do what they think is best for their state. That is what state governments are for. We had Federation in 1901 to create a government that had responsibility for the welfare of the nation.

 

Border closures are caused by covid outbreaks from the hotel quarantine of international returnees and also possibly the free movement of international flight crews.

 

Why are international returnees and crews a state responsibility? Where is Border Force in all this?

 

Who thought quarantining in the middle of the largest cities in the country was a good idea? Almost every city in Australia has a historical quarantine facility situated somewhere isolated, not in the center of the city. That sounds like a very good idea.

I think I agree with you. 🙂 We do seem to be stuck in a quandary in AU currently. COVID is a global problem and AU borders are a federal issue, but it's left to states to manage in a way that best suits them. I don't think this strategy is in the best interests of us who are supposed to be "all in this together"

I do understand that this situation cannot be changed without changing in the constistuation. I think I would be a great great great grandma before that happened.

I was thinking the other day about this time last year, when bushfires did not recognize state borders: those awful fires jumped backwards and forwards across state borders, certainly between VIC and NSW. A virus however has stopped most people in most states at some point since March from moving in or out of their state.