arxcards

I had the cherries on QM2 some years back. I had Crepes Suzette for the first time on Princess 18 months or so back. After all those years waiting, I was rather disappointed at how boring the crepes were.

You don't need to give them a US broker name. How old is your version of the app?

A marketing company suggesting they should spend more on advertising - ingenious! 🤣 They do need a hook though. For mine, they need to find a way of turning P&O passenger goodwill into a tangible benefit on Carnival, or risk losing them to other brands. I reckon it would be cheaper to woo existing P&O cruisers than to advertise for new cruisers to replace them. Either way, I think there is some interesting news for Carnival to drip feed us with.

Not so sure about it being hidden. Prior to covid, for most policies, international travel was international travel regardless of by land, air or sea. Post covid, some policies have cruise as an add-on, some don't. Just looking at one of my pre-covid policy PDS, the only distinction given to cruising was that a domestic cruise required international insurance. With that same company now, cruising is an add-on which has specific cover around covid isolation, missed ports --- and insurance for your tux. I wish it was simple again. I don't need to insure my tux or most of the long list of items and can readily suffer the disappointment of a missed port in one of the bars on the ship.

I have enjoyed watching this clip this morning. A bit nostalgic, but also funny to imagine being applied to today's cruising.

I have just noticed the Joel Katz story with 9 news yesterday referencing the Coastal shipping act. CLIA will be waiting a while for 2025 to be rubber stamped, and while there is no real evolution of discussions about how the act will be implemented, it will indeed be a rubber stamp. The exemption for 2024 wasn't made official until 13th December 2023, and with these underlying comments from Catherine King: “COVID-19 really affected tourism and the cruise industry, so the Australian Government is continuing to support cruise tourism by guaranteeing another year of the exemption. [the government is supportive of cruise tourism] “The exemption reduces red tape and costs while supporting THRIVE 2030, our national strategy for the long-term sustainable growth of the visitor economy.” [the reference is about red tape and costs, not about preventing foreign flagged vessels from domestic cruising] “The one-year exemption will also provide additional time to consult on a range of potential amendments to the Coastal Trading Act to aid in the revitalisation of the Australian maritime industry.” [Changes need to be made, as there are unintended consequences. AFAIK, not much is progressing here, and CLIA should already be aware of that]. I get that all the cruise lines want certainty instead of an annual extension, and they really don't need yet another layer of charges and taxes. However, our wonderful people in Canberra collect GST off each domestic cruise fare, and it would be lame brained for them to put that at risk.

That is somewhat how it currently works with Tangalooma. It would be nice to book a tandem parasail while we are anchored there in a couple of weeks, but I believe that is restricted to resort guests.

I have just revisited this and been doing a bit of extra reading. I hate reading parliamentary documents, as they read like politicians sound. The main gist of the Coastal Trading Act is a potential cash grab. Sure, there are things intended in the interest of the country, by trying to establish Australian staff (and taxes) on foreign flagged vessels. The allocation of Coastal Trading licenses is based on the payroll, not the ships registry. Even when the exemption is no longer in play, while there is no Australian licensed ship, there is no protection to be granted and permits can be rubber stamped. An unlicensed ship may be granted a permit to trade on the Australian coast in the carriage of either cargo or passengers where: there is no suitable licensed ship available for the shipping task the service carried out by licensed ships is inadequate for the required task and it is considered to be desirable in the public interest that an unlicensed ship be allowed to undertake that shipping task. The key is how much these permits will cost, and if that becomes onerous the the cruise lines. Additionally, if someone ever bobs up with an NCL like "Pride of Australia" to claim to be a suitable licensed ship, they can be protected by their license. Even then, we can all claim "desirable in the public interest". Pride of Australia - how good. Arrive at OPT all keen for a holiday, but the crew have just called a 48hr strike. 🤣

The sheet is a bit confusing, because Cunard is not in $AU, but determined by the onboard currency of your cruise (US or UK). You do get OBC on Cunard here, per the $US dollar amount on the table. The Australian brands referenced on the table are the brands with $AU onboard, where the OBC is applied in $AU.

As I understand it, I see no affect. It is the Sydney to Brisbane; Sydney to Melbourne etc "line" voyages that are under contention if/when the exemption is removed. An existing 7 night coastal from Brisbane would be unaffected, as long as you are returning to Brisbane. Beyond that, if it requires a foreign port such as Conflict Islands or Honiara, I am all for it - although those without a passport won't be aboard.

For the past 15 years, it seems that nearly all cruises along the QLD coast have been represented by Brisbane, Airlie Beach, Cairns, Port Douglas & a cruise by Willis Island. I am all for these ports, but some added variety has to be a good thing, and passengers can choose accordingly. I recall that years ago, some ships used to tender to Hamilton Island instead of Airlie beach. That would be another variant I would like to see come back. Some of my outlaws live in and around Townsville, but that isn't necessarily an incentive 😉 It also means we have done a fair bit there over the years, but we have pretty much done Airlie Beach and the neighbouring islands to death over the past 40 years.

We have had issues, but only on shorter cruises. On Coral Princess in Australia, everything was cruisey until the premier packages came along. Just a perfect storm of short cruises with a bunch of passengers holding 2 x specialty vouchers and limited capacity of Bayou/Sabatini's. With advance booking via the app, the specialty restaurants were sold out prior to boarding on one of the short coastal relocations we did. Suites had allocated space and were indeed catered for.

It could be years. The trigger for the violence hasn't been resolved, just deferred.

You depart the day after the new system comes into effect. Good luck! As with everyone else in your shoes, it looks like 1st July is now your date. They keep a number of sittings aside for 1st night suite specialty dining. Also, if it is busy on night one, they will be flexible to switch to another night. There is not a heap of suites on Coral, so you should be looked after. For all your other nights, for reserve collection you just do walk-up and are comfortably accommodated.

To be expected, as there is going to be no change to the way they are booked. Unlike the MDR's, specialty restaurants aren't being split into separate fixed/anytime/walk-up restaurants. Like the MDR's though, you still have the option to book a specialty restaurant after boarding and not paying a cent until you receive your folio on the last night. I am a bit annoyed that my upcoming reservations disappeared after I had spent 5 minutes making them after we booked, but I really don't get the FOMO of having to wait till 75 days out to book something, especially considering half the passengers are not going to be bothered to book anything until after boarding. When the time comes, I will find 5 minutes to do my bookings again.

Yes, it would be as simple as changing the app to read available from July 1 instead of saying no bookings available. The lack of info is annoying, but specialty restaurants are available for booking, and anyone cruising within the next 75 days can book their tables under the existing system.

I hope the passengers still get to do these cruises, under-turd!

Or is that just a discharge?? 🤣

I read somewhere yesterday that the airport in Noumea reopened in the past couple of days. It is a long way back, but a starting point.

Unless you need to do it for a cruise in the next month or so, I think it best to sit back and allow others to be beta testers anyway.

In the case of domestic cruise departures, mostly full of Aussies, they have already screened the passenger folio prior to return and the incoming passenger card is just collected as you stroll past. Outgoing cards are no big deal for us when cruising, as we have spare cards that we fill out on the train on the way to the ship. It will certainly smooth things considerably in the airports, and could make cruise embarkation even slicker, if they don't swap the improved efficiencies for reduced staff.

All that is built into the slide at the start of the post. No daily grats means they pay their staff direct and you pay a higher upfront fare. The trick is to notice when you are getting squeezed, and to let other passengers take the hit instead.

The dining process is being updated and is supposed to go live overnight (17th, US time). Try again tomorrow.

That is kinda how they set it up on the app originally, except so many of their traditional dining cruisers weren't being catered for. It is an improvement to cater for fixed bookings, flexible bookings and walk-up without booking options. We have pre-loaded flexible bookings for the past few cruises, and it has been a breeze. The issue is walking-up with pre-booking and joining a line of people doing walk-up, so separating the dining rooms as planned should make it much easier.