arxcards

Thanks Charlotte. I had one to claim for next month, so thought it would be nice to tick boxes on some other cruises early next year and get them out of the way. I did try with the app last night, and it stated to comeback in November for 2025 cruises. All good, I will take care of them then. It can be useful to lock OBC in early when you can use it to pay for tours, specialty restaurant bookings etc.

I think they have geared the 1 nighter for a media night.

Good PR on their part, but it doesn't fit. The void is for mainstream cruises ex-Melbourne, Freo, Cairns & Auckland. That is the void that a departing Pacific Explorer leaves behind, and that is only if Carnival chooses not to replace the ship in the year ahead. It may not be Luminosa, but it makes sense for Carnival's Brisbane ship to spend the off-season in Auckland, Freo & Melbourne. There is another void here, and the reason why Cunard, Princess, Royal, Carnival/P&O, Virgin have all taken a step back. The void of cash/yield/profit is what will discourage Azamara from ratcheting things up. If anything, look a little closer at how NCL is trialing departures from Melbourne & Cairns. Those itineraries are already available, so they are several steps further into the void.

I was just poking around with a semi-related topic, and thought a Melbournians might get a bit of a grin from this media release: https://www.carnivalaustralia.com/media-releases/2016/november/victoria-sails-into-biggest-summer-of-cruising-as-emerald-princess-makes-maiden-visit.aspx

Somewhat true, depending on the investor. Institutional buyers still like dividends, as that is cashflow while growth is being realised. The other side to a lack of dividends, is that the company is not generating cash. I find it difficult to see why RCCL is bucking the trends when they aren't generating cash.

The T&C's state that the current OBC arrangement is in place till the end of 2024. Just curious if anyone has had any applied via Stockperks for 2025 dates? I have applied for a Carnival cruise next month, and it seems to be in progress as expected. As an Aussie, we have no choice but to upload our statement. We are unable to provide our brokerage account login for them to access. All they get from me is name name and address and the knowledge of my Carnival shareholding. If I can request 2025 dates, I can knock over a few with the currently uploaded statement.

The discrepancy only makes sense to those that have taken a position in TCCL stock. Carnival does have upside, but that is held back due to the massive quantity of $8 bonds that were issued in 2020. Neither company is currently returning a dividend. I haven't taken much notice of NCL.

Sort of a maybe later thought. There are heaps of Azamara sized ships here already, and it seems those with premium ship cash are less affected than the mass market. I noticed one of the R ships is back up for sale too - didn't Azamara snap them up? I just wonder if Gavin is finally going to get to dance on P&O's grave, or with only two Royal Caribbean ships in Australia, are they only just hanging on to their local office.

Are you trying to sell her on Marketplace?

Ozamara?

Who knows. If you all chip in $100 each, you might get lucky.

Dora is now showing as for sale, so at this stage, she hasn't been sold for scrap. It isn't a sellers market though. Apart from Dora's newer sister, ships like Rhapsody & Radiance have been up for sale for several months. If not sold by February, Carnival will not await a possible buyer - scrap = cash.

For anyone wanting to start an Aussie cruise line, Dora is now showing for sale. 1997 Cruise Ship Cruise Ship for sale - YachtWorld

That is the bug. The freebies are based on turnover, not wins or losses. Any gambler will tell you they can win money on a free cruise, but in reality the house always wins.

Or worse.

One thing in Dora's favour of keeping afloat is that she has had a more active life than her sisters, all of whom are still intact. Sun Princess - Pacific World aka Peace Boat Dawn Princess - still Dora for now Sea Princess - now sailing from Tianjin, China as MS Dream. This is her 2nd post-covid owner/identity. Ocean Princess (Oceana) - Queen of the Oceans - laid up, for sale. Either the price is too high, or there is no market for her. As an Aussie cruise ship, Dora's length in service here is only surpassed by the iconic Fairstar. Crossings between Australia & Noumea are tough on cruise ships, and I can't recall much in the way of breakdowns for Dora. Her three sisters all changed ownership during the covid pause, so at least she survived Carnival's 2020 cull. She will be 28 year old when she departs Fremantle in February. In comparison, Pacific Sun was only 26yo, and Pacific Dawn was 29yo. Time was just about up anyway, and her 18th February drydock date is likely one of the triggers for P&O being dissolved. If a decision had been made to not spend the drydock money on Dora, that would leave P&O Australia as a two ship fleet, with an even higher ratio of overheads. Her final day for P&O is in Singapore, and that is relevant. Whether Dora is drydocked/rebranded in Singapore for another line, or just stripped of assets ready for scrap, time will tell.

98% of the time, it will work out perfect. If there is no severe weather and our customs are playing fair, it will be 100% do-able. Princess transfers don't wait for the bus to fill up, These are pre-ticketed and have their own disembarkation group, however there can be stragglers and they will wait a while for those passengers. Talk to guest services to find out the disembark time they are assigning to the transfer and take it from there.

Pacific Dawn was extremely lucky, in that the buyer who thought he had a future for the ship hadn't done his due diligence. If he had, there were no other buyers at the time and she would have been sold for scrap. Dora will also need some luck. She has a younger sister, the former Oceana/Ocean Princess. This ship was sold to Seajets in 2020 and is now called Queen of the Oceans. The ship is currently laid-up, not seeing a passenger for her new owners. The ship has been for sale for some time. Unless Dora is a more attractive purchase, it would seem there is no future for her in the secondary market. Carnival will not lay her up to await a buyer, unfortunately, scrap = cash. Not a done deal yet, either way. Perhaps a cashed-up Aussie buyer can save her. Gina for Port Hedland to save on FIFO costs, or Clive could pretend she is Titanic 2, and run her aground in every port in the Pacific. Fingers crossed, we have loved cruising on these Sun class ships.

Stanging is when you finally have a day where you hit your 15 drink limit, a combination of standing and staggering. 😉

I love a good old fashioned - preferably bourbon or Southern Comfort.

Not fair. Barb does an excellent eggs benny, but nowadays she thinks its OK to charge me a fee.

Not yet. Compared to 23/24, there is one less ship for 24/25, two less ships for 25/26. Part of that is from them withdrawing from Melbourne. For those P&O cruisers that have a dislike for Carnival, I guess that in time, it will drive-up demand for Princess. There is lots of choice over summer, but with our only full time based Princess doing her annual world cruise, we now get a sole choice of Carnival each winter. C'mon Royal, where are you. It looks like Carnival has kicked a bit of an own goal here, and a year round Lelepa would fill a significant void.

Dig deeper. The NZ thing is a recent issue, and affects all cruise lines operating here, including Carnival. There were no chinks at the time the newbuild was announced. P&O Australia was driving incredible growth and opening up new ports in this part of the Pacific. The newbuild was a logical next step. Carnival corp reneged, and a new P&O ship was changed to Carnival Legend being upgraded to Splendor. The chinks were bought about by Carnival Corp themselves at the time they decided to place Carnival Spirit in Sydney. While the brand is P&O, in reality the demographic has been an Australian version of Carnival. Adding Spirit undermined the market P&O had built for Carnival Corp. It was a smaller market, but per-capita numbers were world leading. Now that Carnival has left the door ajar for Royal and Norwegian to capitalise, they have no choice but to rationalise to try to hang onto their slice of the market.

As did several other ships with "dirty" hulls. The same could still happen next year if Carnival Adventure fails her routine hull inspection.

All booked now. Ship coffee is usually rather shippy coffee, and not a P&O exclusive. Charlie's Bar coffee is a more consistent quality than some of their competitors.