woodscruise

I think it will go via Asia as the first date it appears on Ports of LA is 27 May.

So Phil, do you think Voyager will make it to Brisbane?

Glen, Port of Los Angeles is showing Ovation on a regular basis from May 2025 to September 2025. Wasn't she supposed to go to Asia after leaving AU at the end of the 24-25 season?

Sydney ports list has been updated and it is showing Pacific Adventure from July 2026-July 2027. I thought, especially for the new entries it would have shown Carnival Adventure.

Royal Caribbean to Deploy Two Ships in Australia in 2025-26 June 28, 2024 Two Royal Caribbean International ships are set to spend the 2025-26 winter season in Australia and the South Pacific. Sailing in the region for the first time, the Anthem of the Seas is set to offer various itineraries from Sydney. The Quantum-class ship will be joined by the Voyager of the Seas, which returns to Australia after a hiatus for cruises departing from Brisbane. Together, the vessels will offer a total of 44 cruises in the region, including two- to 18-night itineraries to the South Pacific, New Zealand, and Australia, sailing between November 2025 and April 2026. Following a repositioning cruise from Hawaii, the Anthem of the Seas will offer 24 departures from Sydney. The program of the 4,100-guest ship features short coastal cruises, in addition to five-night cruises to Tasmania and nine- to 18-night itineraries to the South Pacific islands and New Zealand. Ports of call being visited include Noumea, Dunedin, Bay of Islands, Port Vila, Mystery Island, Airlie Beach and Hobart. Debuting in Brisbane, the Voyager of the Seas offers a total of 20 cruises to destinations in Australia and the South Pacific. Itineraries include seven- to nine-night cruises to Noumea, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu, as well as four, six, and seven-night cruises to Airlie Beach and Cairns on Australia’s Queensland coast. The Voyager’s program is highlighted by the introduction of a new destination to Royal Caribbean’s lineup in the region: Luganville in Vanuatu. Before starting its 2025-26 season in Australia, the 1999-built ship also offers a repositioning cruise from Singapore. The 12-night cruise sails to Brisbane and features visits to destinations in Indonesia and Australia such as Bali, Darwin and Yorkeys Knob. For the 2024-25 season, Royal Caribbean International is also deploying two ships in Australia, including the Quantum of the Seas sailing from Brisbane and the Ovation of the Seas sailing from Sydney. Source Cruise News 28June 2024

A win for Aussie cruisers Although bad for the local cruise industry, the sunsetting of the P&O Cruises Australia brand (CW 05 Jun) could be good news for Aussie travellers, Dan Monheit (pictured), Chief Executive Officer and founder of creative agency Hardhat believes. Monheit told CW although the closure of the P&O Australia brand would mean less domestic options for local cruisers, the result could include more competitive prices elsewhere. “It’s possible the net result of this is good for Australians but bad for Australia,” he pondered. “Maybe the net result of this is more options and more competitive prices in other markets, but locally, having fewer options,” Monheit added. A leading behavioural economics expert who will present at the upcoming Travel24 conference (CLICK HERE), Monheit said navigating the closure of the cruise line will be a challenge for parent company Carnival Corp, particularly given how the Australian industry fared duiring the COVID-19 pandemic. Monheit believes one way Carnival Corp can capture the positive attention of the cruising public is through advertising. “I think there’s definitely a desire for confirmation, commitment, and certainty things are actually going to happen,” Monheit said. “In every category, part of the marketing spend is to reassure people who have already bought the product that they did a good thing,” he added. “Especially at a time like this, it wouldn’t be a bad strategy to overinvest, having people feel like the brand is still behind them, and they’re still going to get every bit as good an experience as they’ve been anticipating.” The value of being in-market is highlighted by the fact Carnival Corp’s competitors are likely to increase their advertising presence in the wake of P&O Australia’s closure. “I’d be very surprised if we didn’t see lifted competitive activity, especially as business gets tougher,” Monheit said. The Hardhat head also suggested the loss of the cruise line billed as “Australia’s home grown” may not be as broadly felt within the travelling public as within the cruise industry. “I think the play for Carnival Corp is to get P&O loyalists experiencing [Carnival] as soon as possible and backing themselves they can give these people a good experience.,” Monheit added. “They’re going to enjoy it, they’re going to go again.” Source cruise weekly 21June 2024

The Australian Border Force (ABF) wants trials to simplify trans-Tasman travel expand to involve cruise, Commissioner Michael Outram told the Tourism & Transport Forum’s Outlook Tourism Conference last week. The ABF, along with a working group made up of travel stakeholders, is currently trialling contactless outbound travel, working with airlines to collect the data required for Australia’s incoming passenger card through a mobile app. This would then be securely transmitted to immigration, and see travellers pass through a SmartGate without even showing their passport. Outram said the ABF is going to recommend the trial expands to include cruising. “The cruise industry does a lot of things in the United States around pre-clearance of passengers [and] biometrics, that I think would be really useful across the trial of our region,” Outram said. “We’re going to recommend the trans-Tasman trials expand to include cruise.” The goal would be the elimination of the much-maligned incoming passenger card, which passengers have been promised would be retired many times. “We’re also thinking about inbound contactless [travel and] if we can get rid of the inbound passenger card [and] collect that data before you travel,” he added. Outram said if the ABF and Australia’s inbound industry does not further digitise in the next decade, the risk profile presented will be far harder to manage, as the country faces a projected 50% increase in travellers over the next decade. “We’re never going to get thousands more officers [and] government budgets are tight, so how are we going to manage that increase in travellers? Outram said travellers are not going to want to line-up at airports or cruise terminals. “If we’re not digital by then, it’ll be very hard to manage that risk manually...it really is about the data, it’s about AI driving a lot of our decision-making...so the vast majority of low-risk travellers can come straight through.” Source Cruise Weekly 17June 2024. Anything to get rid of the incoming passenger cards would be a good thing. When we just arrived back from Thailand the only time, we needed the incoming card was for customs and quarantine. We used the smart gates for are arrival and departure.

When an airline has a schedule change, this will change the status of the flight from HK (holding confirm) to either TK (minor change) or SC (schedule change major). This will automatically fall onto the agent's queue they do have to change the segment back to HK. There is no need to notify Princess of the time change as they will be aware already.

My guess if they are moving any ship around would be Pacific Encounter. The reason why I say this is that the Pacific Adventure had her funnel shorten so that it could fit under the Sydney harbour bridge to get to White Bay.

With this news today, I wonder if the additional charges that P&O have will continue when the ships become Carnival. (This is one reason why I have not cruised P&O for a number of years). A prediction, Australia will lose at least one ship during the winter months.

This would work if the onward flight was in the same reservation, and hence a through fare to Melbourne. If on a separate ticket and reservation, then the airport staff do not see the onward connection.

I think the OP is purchasing a return ticket from the US to NZ. A return ticket to and from the same city is usually cheaper than what in the industry calls open jaw ticket (that is US to AU surface New Zealand and return to US). If all the flights were issued on the one ticket, then the luggage will be through checked to Melbourne, however if it is a separate ticket, then the passenger would be required to collect luggage and re-checkin.

There is one Air New Zealand flight in the morning, however a couple in the afternoon and evening. To avoid stress in case of delays etc, I would personally go for the afternoon flight, especially since you will need to clear customs and immigration in NZ.

Savanah Mitchell, who is from Mullumbimby, during a question and answers said Carnival does not employ Australians on their AU based ships. She was employed as she holds dual nationality (New Zealand) and uses this passport to work on the Splendor. She has now left the Splendor as she is engaged to her Trinidad boyfriend, who is applying for AU citizenship.

I don't know if Ruby will be a success in Australia, as this was the ship that made the media headlines down here with Covid19.

Discovery will be 5 years old in 2025 and due for a dry docking. She is schedule in Australia in December after her dry dock in Singapore. Is it possible the only reason she is coming to Australia in the 2025/26 season is because of the proximately of the Singapore drydock? And in 2026/27 Australia reverts to the Royal Princess again?

Within the travel industry, there is a book called T.I.M (Travel Information Manual). When I check for New Zealand this is what TIM gives us: My search data is based on departure from Australia to destination New Zealand with country of citizenship Australia and on a normal passport. Passport Passport required. Passport Exemptions: Nationals of Australia with an emergency passport. Document Validity: Passports and other documents accepted for entry issued to nationals of Australia must be valid on arrival. Passports issued to permanent residents of Australia must be valid on arrival. For the 3 months validity left on the passport for New Zealand, sounds like it could be a cruise company restriction.

Hey Chilli, I wonder if this is why they have not released a deployment for Radiance and Serenade.

I have done the same, and switch to the USA. The pop-up is very annoying.

After the 2025 Alaska season, Radiance and Serenade are still not deployed anywhere. Considering that most of the deployment has been released until April 2026, one has to wonder what is behind Royals thinking here.

Norwegian Cruise Line will not base a ship in Sydney for the 2024/25 wave season, opting instead to sail from Melbourne as part of a temporary adjustment to its presence in Australasia. The strategic shift was picked up by Cruise Weekly in the line’s reveal of maiden itineraries for Norwegian Sun between Mar and Oct 2025, which will see the ship return to Far North Queensland for the first time since 2019. Prior to that, the 1,936-guest Norwegian Sun will offer five oneway sailings between Melbourne and Auckland from Dec 2024 to Mar 2025, with the ship making just one visit to Sydney on 13 Jan during one of these itineraries. Norwegian Spirit, which recently left Sydney on charter operations for next summer, will return to Sydney from late 2025. The brief adjournment marks the first time Norwegian Cruise Line has not based a ship in Sydney since the brand debuted in Australia in 2017, excluding the pandemic when all cruise ships were locked out of Australia. Instead, Norwegian Sun will begin a new series of 14 cruises in the Asia Pacific region, including three sailings between Cairns and the Fijian port of Lautoka, the first time NCL has used either city as a turnaround point. The Mar-Oct season will also see NCL make maiden visits to Port Douglas and Townsville as part of this schedule. Additional maiden calls for Sun will include Mystery Island, Port Vila, Dravuni Island and Noumea. Travellers will be able to explore the South Pacific in greater depth, with Sun to offer three islandhopping itineraries between Fiji and Tahiti which also call in Aitutaki in the Cook Islands. The revised deployment also confirms the operations of Norwegian Sun after NCL last year cancelled seven months’ worth of sailings as a result of a “fleet redeployment” (CW 27 Nov 2023). Norwegian Sun is the slightly larger and younger fleet-mate of Norwegian Spirit and offers 15 dining options including French, Italian, Brazilian, Japanese and other Asian cuisine options. ML Source Cruise Weekly 30April 2024

I thought RCCL would have also had the transpacific reposition cruises released at the time of the AU 2026 season end, however RCCL has not released any cruises past April 2026. In the past the Ovation has repositioned to Alaska for the season, and the last 2 years they have had 2 Quantum ships there as well as 2 Radiance class. I cannot see Ovation going back to Alaska in 2026, I think it will remain in Asia, however I cannot see where they will downgrade the premium Alaska, so I think Anthem will continue with the current rotation. It will be interesting to see if they do move Quantum to Alaska in 2026. My feeling is if any ship will be based in Australia year-round then it will be Voyager.

From reading through this topic, one thing comes to mind that you do not put all your eggs in one basket. With the Oasis and Icon ships, they are primary based in the Caribbean, and more recently in the New York region, with another doing a European season in conjunction with a dry docking. What happens if there is another financial crisis as we saw in 2008. By building these mega ships, Royal is limiting to where they can put their assets. I personally, cannot see an Oasis or Icon ship based in the Pacific region, unless China improves dramatically with the Spectrum and Ovation being based there from 2025.

From todays Cruise Weekly 18April 2024 Australia was the world’s fourth-largest cruise market last year, with 1.25 million passengers embarking in 2023. The Land Down Under finished behind the United States (16.9 million), Germany (2.5 million), and the United Kingdom (2.2 million) in terms of total pax, according to data released by Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) (CW 16 Apr). The rise in short-break cruises being offered by lines is reflected in CLIA’s data, with the average duration of an ocean voyage taken by Australians last year being 8.1 days, down from 9 days pre-pandemic. The most popular region for Aussies to sail in, outside of Australia and the South Pacific, is still the Mediterranean, with 5.3% of passengers embarking on a cruise there last year, followed by Asia (2.5%), Alaska (1.9%), Northern Europe (1%), and the Caribbean (1%). Growing segments of the Australian cruise industry include trans-Atlantic and world cruises; Hawaii & and the West Coast of the US; and expedition cruises, which captured 0.8%, 0.7%, and 0.7% of the market respectively. “Australians have not just returned to cruising, they’ve come back with enormous enthusiasm and at a faster pace than in other markets worldwide,” said Managing Director Joel Katz (pictured). “Australia has long been one of the world’s most passionate cruise source markets, and these figures confirm an enduring love for cruising among Australian travellers,” he said. Katz said although demand for cruising is strong, close collaboration from Australian governments and ports is needed to support the sustainability of cruise tourism in the future. “To maintain our position as a leading destination and meet demand, it’s crucial that regulatory frameworks and port charges remain internationally competitive,” he said. “Balanced regulation and reasonable costs are fundamental to fostering a thriving cruise sector capable of contributing significantly to the Australian economy,” Katz added. MS

Phil, can you tell me the benefits of Sky Junior Suite. I notice this on Anthem's sailings.