arxcards

If they are cruising overseas for variety, as long as you choose their brand they still win. P&O lack the ability to have you cruising with them overseas, yet they also have less variety than they did a few years ago. Currently, for most brands, it is lowest common denominator cruising. That would appear to be driven by lower price point, and shorter itineraries fit with that. When I lament the lack of variety, I look at where Melbourne and Freo currently are and am happy to mostly settle for what is available from Sydney or Brisbane. For great island itineraries, look at Pacific Explorer ex-Auckland. They have pinched the good ones. https://www.pocruises.com.au/cruises/fiji-encounter/x431 (plus 5 more dates). https://www.pocruises.com.au/cruises/tongan-discovery/x532

Pacific Explorer is currently circling cyclone Olga as she makes her way from Broome to Komodo Island. That is much better than what Celebrity Edge will face heading to Tassie & Ovation of the Seas will encounter returning to Sydney from NZ this week. Carnival Spendor, Brilliance of the Seas & Pacific Encounter should be able to dodge the worst of it.

Is it a colony somewhere in France?

We are the minority John. The mainstream lines are catering to the boring bottom line and are selling cruises in a way to fill the ships. Sydney attracts international cruisers, and they help to fill these 2-week Pacific itineraries out of Sydney. Karen from Princess marketing things that anyone from QLD only wants to cruise for more than 9 nights if they are going to NZ. Aside from the dual porting of the long voyages, it is a bit of NZ, a bit of Tassie, one to the Pacific and one to PNG, Everything else is 8 nights and under. On top of that, your Princess QLD season shrinks rapidly with Coral Princess leaving. Phyllis from P&O agrees. They do a few PNG with encounter, but mostly out of peak season which is also out of cyclone season. Encounter is your year-round ship, yet between now & early 2026 they go to Fiji once (in May) and a Bounty cruise in August. They are both off-season and outside of school holidays. Very few cruises longer than 7 nights. Short cruises from Brisbane are an easier sell for P&O. Carrie from Carnival is in the same boat. The only local Luminosa cruises longer than 8 nights go to PNG, of which there are 3 over the next 2 seasons. I haven't checked Royal, but suspect Voyager will be the same as it was for Quantum, with most cruises up to 8 nights. It costs me less than $10 to get from home to OPT, yet we have cruised out of Brisbane in 2022, 2024 and have two cruises out of BICT next year. I actually like the option of doing 7-night cruises from Brisbane. It isn't that far back that Brisbane only had a single ship from P&O, so hopefully there are incredible alternatives ahead in the next few years.

Fingers crossed for Lelepa, or it will be more of the same itineraries on a ship from the 20th century.

Width in the channel is also a factor. Voyager has had port entries for Yorkeys Knob for several months. To save on having 3 tender posts, they are overnighting at Yorkeys instead of going up to Port Douglas.

WOW, just WOW. That is so funny. I was just about to post here. I have just been reading Royal's Australian social media feeds, and they are copping a bagging for trying to WOW their loyal patrons with a cookie-cutter ship. Apparently the show is different. Flogging a dead giraffe? I look forward to them spinning the WOW of a 20th century ship heading for Brisbane. I would be more WOW'd if I could get a Southo & Coke for under $AU15 and a meal at Chop's for under $AU70. At this stage, until I can get the last few nights to diamond qual, it looks like I can only afford Anthem if we are going on a detox cruise.

In the end, she has kept south past Sydney Heads. I hope she comes back for her passengers before heading to Hobart.

Ouch indeed. Footy days over Mic?

Not just the ship. How marvellous is that skyline!

The speed does confirm both pods are working. It may not need a fancy turn if they know that the control issue has been resolved. If I didn't know better, I reckon she will be going into OPT tonight. She is in the shipping lane and will be off Sydney Heads in time to collect a pilot off one of the departing ships.

21 knots

She only needs 4hrs max to get to Sydney, so I am keen to see if they are going to do some maneuvers overnight. Already at 13 knots.

Bang-on her PLAN E departure time, Brilliance of the Seas is backing out of her Newcastle berth. Fingers crossed for those still aboard tomorrow & beyond.

Looks like the wind changed direction at 3/4 time. Go Swannies!

Hasn't stopped them before. When P&O announced Pacific Explorer, Royal arrived with Explorer of the seas. Carnival Legend was in Australia when Legend of the Seas arrived. Other conflicts between cruise lines over recent years, including Sun, Dawn, Jewel. Maybe confusion is a good thing? I have friends that booked on Pacific Dawn, which turned out to be Dawn Princess when they arrived at the terminal. Hey, it is a big white ship with restaurants and bars, so who cares what the name is? 🤣

Similar wideness. Do you remember the one about the Canadian who booked in $US for an Aussie based world cruise sector, and the exorbitant package price? Well, if I check the personaliser for our Diamond Princess cruise next Feb, on the beverage tab a standalone premier package will cost us $195.63pp per day. If you go to the bundles tab instead, then you can pay for plus or premier at $65/95pp per day. We have the current plus for next years WC, but it will likely be the new old plus by the time we cruise. If there is any weirdness with how they are treating older versions/pricing, I won't be upgrading but will be cancelling the plus fare and relying on carry-on, mini-bar and very moderate bar purchases.

I believe there is a discrepancy between plus fare drink caps and standard fare + standalone drink package caps. The weirdness appears to come from those that purchased standard fares, then purchased standalone drinks packages via their personaliser.

Yes, for the Royal class ships. We felt the same with a suite on Majestic late last year. Spending each evening in the concierge lounge, we didn't get value out of our drinks package. We could have easily managed with concierge and our mini bar. Because of that, we have booked a suite on Discovery as a standard fare.

I am not sure they had changed their destination to Tangalooma, and were just looking to get out of the weather overnight. Plenty of time to get to Eden for tomorrow.

A bit of a see-saw happening. Is it windy at Mt Barker?

I read it that there are some agencies that will give you additional OBC as part of your booking, without having to pay a membership fee for the privilege.

I get that, but why wouldn't they just make the port bookings with Adventure to get the WOW tongues wagging early. I would suggest that the name on the booking is the most probable ship.

I would guess boarding starting at around 1pm. There will be a crowd of people who will gather from before 11am and wait. You should get a text from Princess in the morning.

They had engaged an architect, so presumably have plans drawn. Much of the talk around being green & carbon neutral makes it sound like it will be on par with what already exists at Conflict Islands, with maybe an extra bit of WOW. What has been removed from Royal's slate - billions of dollars lost by RCI during the covid years. Dollars spent now need an accelerated return on investment.