arxcards

While they had two ships, for most years in the dead of winter one was on a 100+ night world cruise while the other did 45 to 75 nights on Pacific/Indian circle, leaving no ship on the east coast for winter. P&O also had 5 fulltime ships for around 3 years as they tried to get more cruising out of Fremantle, Cairns, Melbourne & Auckland. Yes, I would love an extra Princess here, as it would be nice to be doing 2 weeks Sydney to Fiji or PNG.

Yep, all good. I got your point. Some laughing clowns would be great though, until someone nicks the ping pong balls. Like Royal, Carnival's interests are co-operative at best. Carnival Australia has been fostering ties in the Pacific for decades, and are usually the first ship in town to assist with supplies after a cyclone. It isn't all charity though, with lots of efforts toward improving or repairing tender wharves. With no IOP or Mare on the cards, Mystery Island needs to be more attractive for repetitive visits. Also like Royal, these are currently just plans.

I struggle to see any link to Lelepa, unless they are planning on putting laughing clowns in the cabanas.

Yes, changes suck. Object constructively with the head waiter, maître d' , front desk, and on passenger survey.

They each have their own way of balancing their books. Royal charge over $100 to eat at Wonderland, Chops Grill, Jamie's etc. Crowns Grill, Sabatini's, Catch are in the $60's, so they are just going about managing costs in a different way.

The pork sounded tempting, and the Princess snot block looks nice.

There has been ongoing tweaks, but that has been around for around for some time now. It is just that it shows-up around 2 weeks from embarkation. The boarding QR code popped-up for us in late October for our November cruise on Majestic, and the app had its last tweak on 26th November.

With even Aldi promoting $100/kg lobsters, the price in Maine is less than half of that. That goes a fair way to why you will pay extra for lobster tails on their Aus based ships. At least the option is there.

Never seen wet swimmers in a MDR, even on P&O.

No doubt the taste is there Les, but that looks as stodgy as it gets.

So was the Captain on Brilliance of the Seas 🤣

My Mrs loves the Crown Grill Lobster as well. I guess that is the plan - if you want lobster, it is on the MDR menu as a pay extra dish, or it is in the specialty restaurants.

Bring it on Royal? If only they had some testicular fortitude - even to keep a 25 year old Voyager here year around. If they could fill a ship in July, they would have one here in a flash. There is no money in it. Even Princess sends their "Oz based" ship on a 1 month cruise around the islands followed by a 3 1/2 month world cruise to avoid having to discount through the winter. Indeed, nothing is as exciting about Carnival or P&O as it would be for Royal but if you want to cruise from Sydney or Brisbane from May to September, they are the only ships it town and the only reason I mention them. Personally I loathe P&O, but just sometimes it is worth looking at what the OP is looking to do vs cheerleading any personal preferences.

Pretty much covered already. We have 4 ships based in Australia/New Zealand over our winter months, and the cruise lines have trouble filling them. They have been trying to develop year round cruising numbers for the past 20 years, and they aren't about to bring more ships down to sail half full and take away from their sister brand that is already discounting to sell. Of our 4 ships, two are based in Sydney - Carnival Splendor & P&O Australia's Pacific Adventure. One is based in Brisbane - P&O Pacific Encounter, while the other spends most of her time based in Auckland - P&O Pacific Explorer. For the P&O ships, try this out for size as there may be an alternative. https://www.pocruises.com.au/cruises/search?c=FJI&p=AKL&p=BNE

Read up on site rules, and you will see that travel agent links are forbode. Try direct with Celebrity. Prices on their Aussie site are in $AU, but onboard spending will be in $US Cruises: Award-Winning Luxury Cruise Line | Celebrity Cruises Australia For that 25th January cruise: https://www.celebritycruises.com/au/itinerary-search?sailStartDate=2024-01-01&sailEndDate=2024-01-31&dateToggle=M&q=edge&departures=SYD or ask your preferred travel agent for a price.

QLD Ports shipping page. It is rather searchable with a little bit of practice. https://qships.tmr.qld.gov.au/webx/

Voyager is also Yorkey's for 25/26

Celebrity Edge is showing bookings for 24/25 and 25/26 for Yorkey's Knob.

Hi Cheryle, I get it. For us, there is a fine line between relaxing and boring. The former is what we are after, and if I get bored I will often grab my camera and go for a walk up on deck. We only do longer cruises for the ports and we already find most cruise ship activities repeat from earlier cruises. Trivia is way too competitive for a prize of a bottle of ship champagne and bingo is a donation we don't participate in unless we have surplus OBC on the last day. The bright lights of the casino are not for us either. In all, I am not really sure how we fill our time, but will rarely do any patter activity on a port day, and only one or two on a sea day. We generally avoid trivia unless we are joining in with friends, and theatre shows are a rarity for us. For many brands, it is all a bit predictable even before we board. If we graduate to the bored state, I would be inclined to look for something on QM2, or even try Virgin or something else out of the square. I see the point of your initial question being about any extra activities and/or enrichment lectures on the longer cruises, in order to stave-off repetition & potential boredom. The right speakers can be awesome but, since covid, I have no idea what Princess has available.

This is where blue medallions will let them off the hook, but I figure the head waiter is having a night off.

I trust you and your mum will have a great time. I am looking forward to your updates. We will have to trade pics for Christmas & Boxing Day dinners. For us it will be City Extra for Christmas dinner, and Carnival Splendor for Boxing day dinner.

Anyone who booked the Plus or Premier after 13th December 2022 ($65/95) had the "new" Ocean Now charge and "Casual" restaurants included in their package. That is why that is still a key date around OBC. Initially, it was only those who had older (pre Dec 13) Plus & Premier packages that were advised they were getting the consolation OBC, but others on standard fares prior to July 27 have been able to individually argue their case at passenger services to get the OBC.

Evergreen is just a tour operator that added their name to the attraction on google maps.

Congratulations, and an extra gold star for you. I am more than happy with the previous answer though, as it has been generically known as the Mele Cascades for decades.

Correct, and yes, it can be a stunning place when it isn't full of cruise passengers 😁