woodscruise

In Australia, my blood doner card is on my phone. It would be interesting to see if they accept this id. It also shows my donation history.

Phil, I just check Brisbane ports for the 2026/27 season and Royal has no port booking for this season. Do you think they are withdrawing from homeporting in BNE. If Voyager does come in 2025/26 where will it go to after this season? I wonder if the 2026/27 season deployment is contributing to the 2025/26 season

7 hours ago, Teeara said:

Does anyone know roughly when the transpacifics open for booking?  Looking for Hawaii to Australia.  I think it was around April this year for 2025, so that might mean April 2025 for 2026?  

The transpacific to Australia usually opens with the Australian season, which is late March to April.

Thanks Hogbay. I think the drink package might be the way to go 😊

I have booked a cruise on Carnival Splendor in February and was wondering the current costs of  glass of wine and the bucket of beer. Thanks in advance.

37 minutes ago, Chiliburn said:

I don’t know but Glen is probably right that Ovation won’t replace Voyager.

They had trouble filling Quantum.

Do you think Ovation will go to L.A. Via Singapore or Tahiti ?

 

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

2 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

There’s pretty strong evidence Ovation won’t be going to China and is going to L.A.during our winter next year.

 

 

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.

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.

4 hours ago, Jean C said:

Perhaps as an extra precaution also alert Princess staff to the Qantas flight time change, you never know, those organising the transfers could be oblivious to it.

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.

17 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see at least one of the ships currently based in Australia to be pulled out and used elsewhere.

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.

1 hour ago, Kiwi Afloat said:

Best case scenario you book your return flight to Auckland and your AKL-MEL flight with a carrier in the same “alliance” e.g. One World and at check in ask if they can check you all the way through to Melbourne. They will give you your boarding passes for both flights and you will be a transit passenger in Auckland and will not have to go through customs etc before boarding your flight to Melbourne. 

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.

21 hours ago, arxcards said:

Seems strange, no Aussie CDs on P&O, yet they have Aussie CDs here on Carnival.

 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.

2 hours ago, SCX22 said:

 

Too early to say...but if you guys want the Ruby in Australia fine by me, and we'll take the Royal in San Francisco.

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.

53 minutes ago, SCX22 said:

Royal Princess will replace the Discovery when she departs for the Australia season.

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

15 hours ago, Chiliburn said:

Rumours are ,they are close to being sold .

Hey Chilli,

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

3 minutes ago, Pushka said:

So, I've just switched to a private VPN so Cruise Critic thinks I'm in the USA. The pop up has gone. They are only doing it to Aussie internet users. Shameful. 

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

8 minutes ago, colourbird said:

With recent cruise cancellations on Radiance, I'm sure they are working on plans to replace her. It will likely take several years until replacements for that class are in service. I doubt they will want to keep her going for 30 years.

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.