reeves35

Looking at a single cruise during school holidays is not really representative of what demand looks like during winter.  I cruised on Spirit on the equivalent cruise in 2013 and it was also full with lots of families but it really isn't the best time to cruise out of Sydney.  The first sea-day and the last are very likely to be too cool to be outside and Australians aren't really attracted to cruising when you can't be outside. (I can't see P&O Australia ever attempting to copy P&O UK with winter cruising to cold weather ports across winter.) 

I'm sure if we looked at all cruises out of Sydney across winter, we would see demand remains seasonally low and discounting is rife.

Obviously cruising out of Brisbane over winter largely overcomes the weather issue but the value equation drops off as travellers from the 2 major population centres now have to either add airfares or incur higher airfares.

On 3/10/2024 at 6:26 AM, notamermaid said:

APT and Travelmarvel in 2025: https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/travel-agents/apt-travelmarvel-unveils-2025-european-river-cruise-programme

Interesting that Travelmarvel has UK and Ireland exclusive cruises. Other companies do this of course but I would not have thought that an Australian company would go for this. I guess it makes perfect sense to put the shorter cruises, which are not worthwhile coming to Europe from Australia for, only on the UK and Irish markets.

 

notamermaid

 

I wonder if these are unique itineraries or just unique packages for UK travellers.  On our Travelmarvel cruise last year, most travellers were Australians and New Zealanders doing the classic 14 night Amsterdam to Budapest itinerary but nearly all the UK travellers were doing 7 night itineraries of Amsterdam - Nuremberg or Nuremberg - Budapest. 

These itineraries were not really advertised to Australian travellers and a lot of them were last minute type deals with no single supplements etc.  They also seemed to miss out on things like Travelmarvel backpacks and nametags.

1 hour ago, Okahukura said:

Someone wanted Cafe al Bacio prices. Here you go. My husband is currently on the Behind the Scenes tour. Looking forward to hearing what he thought of it. 

AUD9.50 for a coffee is ridiculous.

26 minutes ago, dianeh said:

Questions for the experts please. HAL Westerdam

1) on previous cruises smoking was permitted on the Seaview deck. Is this still allowed?

2) We dock early in Auckland. We can either fly home to Vancouver at 8:30 pm that same day, checking in 3 hours prior, or stay a night in Auckland giving us a fair amount of time to explore. Would option 1 work but where do we store our luggage? I don't fancy killing time for hours in the airport.

3) If you think overnight is a better option what decent hotel would you recommend? And any must sees? 

Thank you all.

You've come a long way; you may as well stay the extra day.  Lots to see in AKL.  I'd definitely recommend Kelly Tarlton's which is a Antarctic Seaworld type experience.  We were there last year and also spent a half day at the Auckland Museum which was really good. 

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express which was new and very comfortable.  The Voco is right next door is you want something a bit more upmarket.  Both are only a 15 minute walk from the ship.

2 hours ago, cruiser3775 said:

Out of interest, I just checked the price of one of the white wines on the list above. The Torre Penalas Albarino from Spain is $18.95 a bottle on a US wine shop site. Celebrity wants $72 a bottle.

So assuming Celebrity get a bulk discount, it is likely their unit purchase cost is around USD9 or so!!!

12 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

I heard at the bar a couple times,someone order a cocktail or a fancy glass of wine.

The bar tender said your drink package doesn’t cover that it will be an extra $6 or $8 

 

 

So, in addition to a drinks package you pay another AUD9 - AUD12 for a drink and then there will probably be an 18% service charge (AUD1.50 - AUD2.20) added on top of that.....you'd want it to be a nice wine!!!

3 minutes ago, Okahukura said:

Kia Ora sure is!!!  Super scary when you look at the exchange rate. 

They are ridiculous.  So Celebrity force you to spend USD89 per day for a drinks package and you'll need another for your spouse so USD1246 (~AUD1900) for a 7 day cruise or you can spend around AUD35 per glass.  Either way, that is bonkers!! 

I realise you can often get drinks packages for less than the headline price but, either way, these prices really affect your overall holiday cost.

Cunard is often accused of being expensive for drinks but their per drink prices are nothing like those you have shown for Celebrity.

Those wine prices are scary!!!  Is that USD??

20 hours ago, bluemarble said:

 

This sounds like Cunard may need to delay the start of her Mediterranean season to accommodate a drydock which in turn implies some scheduled cruises may need to be canceled. I guess we'll have to stay tuned for further developments.

I hope not.  I'm booked on a 14 Eastern Med cruise from Rome from 12/5/25.  If Cunard are going to cancel, they'd better let us know sooner rather than later.  Travel from AU is expensive so I don't want to have to fiddle airfares late in the piece.

It is very sad that this has happened and I feel for affected travellers but I am not surprised and, unfortunately, think we will see more cruiselines cancel or reduce their Australian seasons.  We have already seen Cunard announce 24/25 as the last season they will homeport in Australia and it is unclear if RCCL intend to replace Quantum in Brisbane.  

The Red Sea conflict and the resulting much longer repositioning cruise for a Europe based ship is really just the finishing touch on top of a situation where revenues from Australian seasons are unattractive compared with alternatives such as the Caribbean and extra costs such as those now imposed by NZ for ships that want to visit the Sounds and high Australian port costs make matters even worse.

We will still see some ships down here that do NS Alaska seasons but the forecast growth of the Australian cruise industry is definitely going to be much less than was expected just 12 months ago.

Travelmarvel quoted 24 hours but we usually got it back in around 12 hours.

WIth APT terminating its longstanding partnership with Amawaterways at the end of 2024, APT has released information about its 2 new ships that will launch in 2025, the Solara and Ostara.  In a striking all-black livery, the 2 ships will hold 154 passengers and 60 crew. 

Two ships will represent a reduction of capacity from its current leased AMA fleet so I assume extra ships will join in coming years.  As well as these 2 new ships, APT's other brand Travelmarvel will continue with its 3 riverships (Polaris, Capella, Vega) that were built over the pandemic and began operations in 2022.

Details of the new ships can be found at https://www.aptouring.com.au/why-choose-apt/our-fleet/solara-ostara

So what you are saying is that they do not police the policy as written on their website which is generally good but you are always concerned that you get the officious employee on the day you board that decides today is the day where the policy is enforced.

From what you say, a drinks package does not seem appropriate especially if your cabin-mate is a non-drinker.

It is also important to assess your itinerary.  If you are on a port-heavy itinerary, you will be off the ship for a great deal of time so won't drink as much whereas an itinerary with lots of sea-days changes the equation a bit.

There are few places on earth where you are tracked as much as a cruise ship with or without an app.  Apart from cabins, the entire ship is covered by CCTV and facial recognition does the rest.  In addition, anyone with a device connected to WiFi can be tracked.  Systems track what you buy and where you go and feed a complex CRM system so targeted marketing can be directed to you for years to come.  If you crave anonymity, cruising probably isn't for you.

Acquiring a new company to join a group like Carnival is complex but that is no excuse for Carnival not having common back-office systems.  The last major acquisition by the group was P&O/Princess and that was 21 years ago.  That is at least two generations of IT systems ago. 

Bizarrely, Carnival Corp still seems to be a series of fiefdoms with at least 4 distinct groups with little crossover.  Apart from common IT systems with visual difference largely being limited to reskinning a common white-label product, you would expect a shared loyalty program where status from one line os recognised on another.  This is not radical and largely mirrors what airline alliances and hotel groups already do.

Am I right in saying Cunard doesn't have a mobile phone app but instead just has the My Voyage mobile accessible webpage which has some but not all of the features of a proper app?  I think P&O UK is the same with its My Holiday webpage.

I don't understand why both don't have proper apps already.  They are part of the global Carnival Corp and many of its brands including Carnival, Holland America and P&O Australia all already have proper apps.  It surely can't be too hard to re-skin any of these apps and get up and running in the short to medium term.  Does anyone have any insight as to why they have not done so as yet?

Given all the Christmas Market cruises are completed now, how many river cruises are actually operating now?  I imagine, given it is mid-winter, that the numbers of active cruises is actually very small with most ships hibernating for the next couple of months.

As has been said, the entertainment on river cruises is unlikely to appeal to 20+ year olds.  I imagine they'd even think the disco pretty daggy.  But there are lots of day activities that would appeal.  On Travelmarvel, we had bikes as well as younger entertainers who were quite active and did good fitness activities as well as tougher walks in some ports.

I'd look for an itinerary that spends nights in ports or at least has late departures.  This would mean the younger ones can experience the nightlife of the towns and cities they are visiting rather than having to spend every evening onboard.  Of course. some ports don't have much nightlife or the dock is not towards the centre of town but ports such as Amsterdam, Cologne, Bamberg, Passau and Budapest all offer a good night experience.   The biggest worry would be making sure they are back onboard before the ship heads off!!  Vienna has great nightlife too but the ship mooring is not that close to the vibrant city centre though taxis are plentiful.

The Edge class has some amazing innovative features but they sure aren't the prettiest ships.

I do not get seasick so no, but in the first couple of days I did find it kind of weird with the scene moving outside the windows with no sensation of moving onboard.  It kind of made me momentarily dizzy.  I found this most when sitting near the window in the dining room which is basically at water level onboard the Travelmarvel ships.  The sensation passed after a day or so.  

Is this time of year comparatively quiet on the Rhine and Danube?  The main season is now over and, I assume, the Christmas cruises don't really reach their peak until December.

14 hours ago, smithp7 said:

Thank you so much for this very informative explanation. I will be watching daily to see if anything changes here on the forum. I’ve really enjoyed following you and your excellent informative information. When we were there in October, we were not able to sail beyond Passau  and we were not able to get on the boat in Budapest. It’s so interesting how much it changes. Thanks again, Pat

Yes, it is surprising how much the level changes.  We were on the Danube in August and had to bus from Nuremberg to Passau with a ship change due to low water.  At the same time, there was significant rain in the upper Danube catchments and 2 days after we left, ships were unable to get through Passau due to high water.  The flow was very strong and the captain had difficulty docking in Vienna and sometimes it felt like we were surfing towards Budapest.

7 hours ago, Kristal Blade said:

Hi ural guy,

Yes, we are with Travelmarvel. We have had a very good guide today who told us lots of historical facts about Budapest. 
 

The weather let us down badly this afternoon. We were out in a thunder and lightning storm. But the central market was our shelter. 
 

We are currently checking out the programme for today on our tv screen. Cocktail party at 6.30 then gala dinner. I’m going to wear a dress!

 

We are a tiny bit annoyed that there is no washing line in the shower room. But… we have strung up our washing line, which I brought from home, between the towel rail and the towel hook by the shower. I now have a line of undies drying nicely but we will need to take it down so we aren’t garrotted whenever we go into the shower!

I mentioned in my trip review to bring along your own clothesline with suction cups at either end.  We brought one along with pegs and never had a problem.  Having said that, the laundry service is super cheap and really quick.

I wonder what APT are doing for ships from 2025.  I assume they must be doing bespoke newbuilds like they did for Travelmarvel.

8 hours ago, notamermaid said:

Oddly, TUI had done river cruises before. The German company so to speak had a branch called TUI Flussgenuss. It started in 2011 and ended in 2014. It was only aimed at the German-speaking market. The TUI river cruises now are only on the British market but may be advertised in other English-speaking countries by now.

 

notamermaid

 

TUI continues to only market its river cruises in the UK.  It is the same with its ocean cruise division (Marella).  Both are sold as fly-cruise packages from UK.