arxcards

Today, 2nd July 2024 finds Pacific Explorer departing Brisbane on her final day in QLD. Thursday 4th July, marks the final day the ship will spend in Sydney, 5762 days after Sydney first became Dawn Princess' home base on 24th September 2008. In Australian cruising terms, I believe her length of Aussie service is only surpassed by TSS Fairstar. On Thursday, she departs for New Zealand for an Auckland season lasting till the end of October. November till January sees her based in Melbourne & Adelaide, followed by a very short season in Fremantle, departing Australia for the final time on February 7th. Personally, we have done 2 x Dawn Princess + 3 x Pacific Explorer cruises. Overall, she wasn't our favourite ship for either brand, but she was in the right place at the right time and we have heaps of great memories from our time aboard. Very co-incidentally, we are in Sydney on Thursday to board another ship. At the time we booked Pacific Explorer still had a future in Australia, and there was not a sentimental thought in my head. As I was able to clear some work this morning and snag a sub-$200 room at the Sydney Harbour Hotel (formerly Old Sydney Holiday Inn, Rydges Sydney Harbour), it feels like a good excuse to get some photos of her final arrival into Sydney.

I disagee. My wife is more than intolerant, she has been cruising with coeliac for 17 years. NCL is as good as any of the others if you heed the advice of touching base with the maitre D for guidance and pre-ordering instead of winging it with "safe choice" meals.

All of the mainstream lines cater for food allergies very well, if that is what you mean by picky. Just notify them when you book, and touch base with the maitre D/Head waiter soon after boarding. This works best with fixed dining (same waiters each night), and the allergy free meal is pre-ordered a day ahead. Viking comes to mind, but with such broad questions, perhaps try a travel agent.

I would agree. Around the port you feel safe, but it is grubby and dilapidated. Champagne Bay is an awesome spot to swim if you can organise it. There is also a nice beach only 5-10 km from the port in Palikulo Bay, which had cheap ship shuttles last time we called there. That was on Radiance of the Seas though. For anyone into scuba & snorkelling, Million Dollar Point is less than 5kms away. It used to be a popular attraction, but I don't know of anyone who has been there recently.

You are correct. It what is likely to be her final call there.

Yes, it happens. More likely a symptom of overbooked cruises.

That is just a bollocks CLIA thought bubble about why cruise ships are departing. There has been an exemption in place since 1998. The current exemption is in play because the 12yo Coastal Trading act is not ready to be implemented. When it becomes law, each of the cruise lines just need to apply for 2 year permits for each ship.

Hey big $pendor 🤣 A Freudian slip, perhaps. We have some OBC, so it won't be too bad. Yes, we would prefer if they had a $65 plus package, but will moderate our spending to suit.

You checked ✔️ the no upgrade option, so they respected your choice. The upgrade bids are, at best, a partly discounted upgrade. The only time I consider bidding is when we wanted one of those cabins, but they were already sold out at the time we booked.

The headline had me there for a bit. I saw the winter bit, and thought Royal was finally committing to a year round homeporting. Then I realised it is actually for our summer, and should probably read that way, instead of RCI's head office winter.

Until recently, there was a couple of stray cabins above our grade for Spendor next week. They have now been sold or allocated to someone else, so it looks like our prefect record remains intact.

I agree, for that price it would likely be for a chauffeured hire car, likely a Merc or Ford LTD - in US terms, a town car. It would be a very expensive option for a short transfer.

I figure you have already spent enough hours on this, but I also want to make the most of my weekend with other downtime things. As Sydney is the base for so many lines and appears to be the most expensive port in the world, the NSW government should be targeted directly about their per head passenger tax. Their own mantra was that these charges were fair and reasonable and required to “allow a greater investment in cruise infrastructure”. It is only fair that their charges meet that investment, and not be just a revenue stream that makes Sydney the most expensive cruise port in the world. From Cruise Weekly, June 2012: The introduction of a $20 per passenger fee in Sydney is “fair and reasonable”, says State Minister for Roads and Ports Duncan Gay. A CONTROVERSIAL new head tax for cruise passengers visiting Sydney, set to be introduced next year and increased annually until 2015/16, is quadruple the amount proposed by the cruise industry, according to peak body TTF. But the State Government, which announced the $20pp fee yesterday, said it was required to “allow a greater investment in cruise infrastructure”. State Minister for Roads and Ports Duncan Gay said the current charge of $250 an hour to berth in Sydney was “not economically sustainable” and it was time for the industry to cough up. “The NSW Government had already launched an $87 million program to improve infrastructure to support the State’s booming cruise ship industry and it’s only fair to ask the cruise industry to help meet the costs,” Gay said. “There is no reason to suggest cruise growth in Sydney will be impacted by this new, fair and transparent fee,” he added. But as a TTF spokesperson explained to Cruise Weekly, the increase in Sydney Harbour’s wharfing costs has gone too far. “An average P&O ship would use eight hours at most, leaving it liable for $2000, which divided between 2000 passengers is $1,” he said. “Clearly that was too low and the industry had been talking to the Government to work out a rise, but we feel the $20/pax from 2013, then $25 in 2014 and then $30 in 2015 is unjustifiable.” The cruise industry had proposed a passenger charge of around $5 per head, he said. TTF chief executive John Lee also condemned the fee as “a tax on success”. “The cruise industry recognises that it should pay its fair share but this new charge goes beyond cost recovery and is designed to give Sydney Ports a new profit stream,” Lee said. “Overnight, Sydney Harbour will become one of the world’s most expensive for cruise ships.” Lee said TTF was particularly concerned that other states may follow NSW’s lead, leading to massive increases for passengers visiting multiple Australian ports. “TTF urges the NSW Government to undertake genuine consultations with the industry before the tax commences in 2013 to devise a system that more fairly recovers costs,” Lee said. I understand this needs to be supported by a state MLA. From your advocacy to date, is there such a member that would support an e-petition to the NSW government?

Kandos of the Seas to the rescue 😉 (PS: No, I don't have the photoshop skills to turn Quantum into a cement ship, complete with a North Star pumping boom).

Maybe so. Money dissolves in Vanuatu. I am pretty sure that along with the other lines visiting Port Vila, that a fair bit of money is fed into local coffers via port charges, and then they support via tour companies and admission fees. For the amount of tourist dollars in the area, they can't afford to keep an airline in the air, maintain a hospital to a polyclinic standard or even fill the craters they call potholes. Hard to be charitable when funds don't make it to where they are meant to be spent. Maybe we could do a working bee?

I will wave if you pass us off Tangalooma.

One nighters are fun. More of a night out than a holiday, but still a bit of fun.

You can request that when you book. I agree, not all upgrades are good ones.

The NZ hull cleaning hose broke, spraying water everywhere. Honestly, no idea. I can't think of any milestone, and the ship was just returning from a QLD coastal cruise.

A cruise in domestic waters still requires international insurance. For some insurers you buy a domestic policy with a cruise add-on, as with 1cover. For most insurers you buy international insurance, which covers for onboard medical and medivac. Medicare does not cover you while at sea in domestic waters.

The Australian government e-petition link, yes, it would be Australia only. The earlier link to change.org, I believe is available to all.

Maybe we could garner some editorial support from Cruise Critic instead of "spamming" the other forums. If you contribute to that forum, anyone can add it if they want. Here is a clean version of your link, so that people don't earn brownie points from the source. Simply: https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN6353

Just a ready source of methane.

Does the new LNG terminal come with a new Icon fire brigade?

Carnival's quarterly earnings have been positively received. No dividend yet, but getting closer to one. The $AU price for 100 cruise OBC shares went up by approximately $75 overnight.