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The TT-Line (Spirit of Tasmania ships) shifted operations from Station Pier to Geelong recently due to claimed Victorian Ports Corporation 'price gouging', plus there were some issues with the 1950's infrastructure at Station Pier... (When it was first announced back in 2020 I assumed the ports corporation was just pushing the Tassie ships out to make room for more cruise ships)

ACA segment, nothing exciting, basically all the same info again:

The first couple of minutes of the 7 Tasmania news last night was about this drama:

Being mindful of the /s.... Medical and weather issues are slightly different to a cheap and lackluster hull clean... NZ has warned the cruise companies about how strict they would be this year so there's no excuses really... I feel for the people that are financially and emotionally invested with weddings or 3rd party tours and the likes... (edit: with the P&O saga) It's the same with any travel or adventure, you need to be prepared to take these things in your stride, mentally prepare for the worst, if it all goes to plan that's just a bonus.. (it is very trendy to be 'outraged' these days, so I suspect a lot of the people jumping up and down are just acting that way because it gets them attention and such)

The forecast isn't looking great: http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/forecasts/melbourne.shtml Cloudy. Very high chance of rain, becoming less likely in the evening. The chance of a thunderstorm. Winds southeasterly 30 to 45 km/h. Possible rainfall: 5 to 20 mm.

Certainly, I live on the side of it... It's generally not bad this time of year, but Tassie being Tassie, you never really know what you'll get with the weather hour to hour... It's magic up there when the conditions are right:

The summit is cloud covered today so even if the road was open it would hardly be worth heading up there: https://www.hobartcity.com.au/Community/kunanyi-Mt-Wellington/kunanyi-Mount-Wellington-webcams

The itinerary suggests it's due in Melbourne on Wed 29th, arrive 7am, depart 5pm... Looking at the trackers, they're all suggesting it'll arrive at 10am on the 28th, Tuesday?, a day early... Odd... ETA:November 27, 23:00 (UTC I assume) https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9104005 ETA: Nov 27, 23:00 (in 12 hours) (UTC I assume) https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9104005 Reported ETA: 2023-11-28 10:00 LT (UTC +11) https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:370965/mmsi:310327000/imo:9104005/vessel:GRAND_PRINCESS It's position suggests it will probably arrive tomorrow also... Edit: from the Roll-Call, they say it's 'racing' to Melbourne to avoid the storm: Hmmm... https://www.windy.com/?-41.533,158.247,6

Cunard often offer decent 'on board credit' when they run sales in Australia, like with the 'Big Balcony Sale' a couple of months back, they included $230usd OBC per person for a 14night cruise, enough to cover the daily service fee...

Some Kiwi news about it, with a photo of some of the biofouling: https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/331927-minor--cleaning-but-major-nz-biosecurity-threat.html

It's not only the biofouling... The Majestic Princess was in Hobart a couple of days ago and the amount of smoke it was billowing out really isn't a good look for places that pride themselves on being "clean green' locations... They probably need to clean up their act all round but we'll be the ones that end up paying for it..

I can understand them having issues last year with the covid shutdown but there's not really any excuses this year... (NZ released statements a couple of months ago stating they would be very strict with biofouling this year > https://www.mpi.govt.nz/news/media-releases/dirty-bottom-alert-for-visiting-cruise-ships/ ) I'm jumping on the QE on the 3rd of Dec heading for NZ so I've been keeping an eye on her movements.. While in Singapore a few days ago there was a dive boat alongside for 10 hours, so fingers crossed she's all clean...

I've been tracking this since I noticed it mentioned on Reddit and here, a couple of days before it left Australia: We have just discovered some high-risk invasive species on a small, localised section of Pacific Adventure’s hull, which needs to be removed before the ship will be permitted to enter New Zealand. The hull had been deemed clean during a recent full dive inspection that was carried out to ensure the ship was ready to enter New Zealand. However, a final inspection has now uncovered this high-risk species, which was unexpected given the recent full dive. It went over to NZ and stopped way offshore near Tauranga and a couple of dive boats headed out to it, it sat out there for around 24hrs drifting at 2kn, earlier today it started steaming west... https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9192351 Not a good situation for the passengers 😞 ... Odd they're allowing it into Tassie ports, we're usually pretty careful, unless it's a species we already have...

Sorry about the smoke in Hobart today, there's a fuel reduction burn up the river a bit:

It would be best to give them a call, their phone support people are surprisingly good... I called them today from Australia to sort out a few things for an upcoming cruise, it would be the best phone support service I've experienced for a lot of years...

To add to the above... The dive boat was around the QE for 10 hours today, so with luck she wont be turned away from any Aus&NZ ports due to biofouling this season 🙂

I notice a dive boat has been alongside the QE for the last few hours, I wonder if they're doing a hull inspection and/or clean before heading to Australia and NZ?