Chiliburn

It’s a beautiful ship with quality furniture. If you match over to elite or better you get the happy hour . The happy hour is pretty much a football scrum. You find a nice place to sit about 4:00 and at 5:00 it’s survival of the fittest. Royal’s vouchers are much more practical ,they might be introduced by your cruise. There’s no decent free coffee so take a coffee plunger and the cabin attendant will get a kettle. I would consider the drink package because prices are higher than R.C . The happy hour only gets the lowest quality drinks and if you want better you have to pay . I bought a Makers mark and coke $ US 19.50 , coffee was about $6 Theres some good fares on Edge at the moment,it’s actually cheaper than Anthem.

https://www.travelweekly.com/Cruise-Travel/Royal-Caribbean-Discovery-class

@springaussie any word on Serenade after the Alaska season? Things don’t add up ,Serenade should be on sale and a deployment announcement ,it’s just over a year away. Ovation is still on sale in China and also a season in Singapore Christmas 2025 but there’s a big hole where it’s supposed to go Los Angeles. I know it was announced but nothing is on sale. Ovation is sounding pretty hot in L.A and Americans keen to book it but nothing.

Rumours are ,Micheal Baley said at the launch of Utopia of the seas in Port Canaveral the other day. They are finished with the big ships for now ( 10 ) and are going to build 8 discovery class ships by 2029 ! They are going to be low and wide at 130 k tonnes so they can access smaller ports while still having RCL ‘s. Signature features. That’s a pretty big statement,they will probably need 2 ship yards to do it.

I think they might have been hoping for some U.S aid as they just opened an embassy is Vila . But the current political landscape in the states doesn’t look like that. It wasn’t viable in the first place with just a few ships here ,it’s just not the Caribbean. I think RCG will build a terminal in L.A and develop some ports and maybe an island in Mexico . La Loco cay sounds good.

They will sneak you into the suite area. If you like your coffee,they have kettles,just ask the cabin attendant. We took a coffee plunger. I think Royal might be withdrawing from the pacific to a degree and chasing the $U.S . Los Angeles is going to expand its cruise port in San Pedro by about 3 times and I think Royal Caribbean will definitely build its own terminal there. That will really threaten our market as the Alaska ships will just go there. Back to Celebrity Edge , I found most people end up in the buffet toward the end of the cruise. The food is spectacular and here’s my favourite,scotch filet and eggs for breakfast in the buffet

You will like the Edge . Nice ship ,great food but I don’t like the elite happy hour. It’s a real food ball scrum. The cruise and travel dude has a video about Lelepa,I would post it but apparently he is an agent. Have a look on YouTube.

There’s a supermarket,some restaurants and most importantly a train station 5 minutes walk away you can go back into Sydney. https://www.ihg.com/holidayinn/hotels/us/en/sydney/sydbr/hoteldetail

Oh ,that’s what you said about Quantum

Celebrity Edge has a good price on the east bound transpacific,$150 a night

Ovation redeployment to Hell A has come from nowhere and obviously the money just isn’t there for the shareholders in Asia and probably Australia. In that article it says they are happy with Spectrum but China is a big economy and if one ship is viable surely 2 would be viable. I think there might be some decisions on Spectrum in the near future.

Ovation has been operating in some pretty small islands in the Pacific for years.

There goes Ovation. https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/ship-operations/royal-caribbean-sending-2nd-ship-los-angeles-lieu-china-taking-part-port-rfp

Holiday inn airport.

How about the Grand Hotel? Looks like a nice old pub for $130 a night in a quiet spot.

That’s almost 7 weeks after leaving Sydney. I don’t think it would go via Hawaii with PVSA ,not with passengers anyway.

Can you elaborate, Cheryl?

I don’t know but Glen is probably right that Ovation won’t replace Voyager. They had trouble filling Quantum. Do you think Ovation will go to L.A. Via Singapore or Tahiti ?

There’s pretty strong evidence Ovation won’t be going to China and is going to L.A.during our winter next year.

Tahiti has a booking for Ovation

The economy there is not so good and there is supposed to be a negative feeling towards the western world.

I wonder what the story is there? It looks like Ovation finishes in September and Quantum takes over. Do you think they are giving China a miss? Do you think Ovation might take over Voyager?

There’s some lovely old buildings around there,any old pubs that have accommodation that are worth a night? Also what’s the train trip up the Hunter like? We can do it on the Opel $2.50 deal but I would have to stay the night somewhere.

I did the train trip up to Newcastle the other day Geoff. As you say the actual trip is pretty unimpressive but the Hawkesbury River is nice . As a local what’s the highlights of Newcastle? I caught the light rail to the beach and walked back along the harbour waterfront.

There are rumours they are going to drop the visa requirements for us . https://thewest.com.au/travel/bali-visa-fees-to-go-c-15315764