chrisb74

31 minutes ago, BND said:

Well, the reality is, most people doing social media don't make that much money. 

I agree that 99.999% of people don't make much, but the reality is there are people earning 6 figures per month on social media. 

One woman i saw was 37, had both parents die of cancer at 65, had cancer markers and had a double mastectomy. She has decided retirement will never happen so just do retirement things now. You can't take it with you! 

4 hours ago, BND said:

I doubt there's any woman of childbearing age doing the entire WC. 

You'd be surprised. There's at least 5 women in their 20's and 30s that i've seen on social media who are on the whole cruise.

In this age of influencers and digital workers its entirely possible to do a cruise like this and even have it pay for itself. 

Spectrum of the seas has Starlink. Latency and speeds are not great. This is 12.30pm on embarkation day. Unless the ship is doing a lot of data for boarding the load should be light. 

They've rebooked us on another cruise which looks OK but it completely contradicts the schedule i can see online. I'm wondering if someone messed up or if they're redoing the 23 schedule. 

If you buy it now and the price drops you can simply cancel it and buy at the lower price. 

With the drop in flight capacity out of Australia Cunard may not have been able to get end to end business/first class for them. Economy may not be suitable for some medical conditions. 

Did Crew actually get off the other day? Chris Wong has gone quiet (but he said he would)

Royal is flying thousands of crew home. It will take a month just to get them all back again and that can only happen once the virus has settled not only where the cruises leave from but where they sail to. (remember these are all contractors so there's recruitment/offers, contracts, visas, travel arrangements, etc - all for  probably over 10,000 crew) 

Even September is probably optimistic. It will be a slow ramp up. I would expect the entire cruise schedule will be tossed out and it'll start one ship at a time doing "sampler" cruises to nowhere to ramp up operations. 

His video is up. 

13 hours ago, rafinmd said:

I think I saw something about grocery stores opening just for seniors ahead of letting everyone else in. 

Supermarkets after opening exclusively for elderly and disabled from 7am to 8am to allow them to shop without being subjected to busier periods. 

2 minutes ago, ReneeFLL said:

Why would they skip Brisbane since it's part of Australia?

Time. They've lost a day at the start of the cruise due to weather causing them to stay in Sydney. 

2 minutes ago, mr walker said:

The problem with this cruise re the 3 sea days rule

They may be taking 3 days but they don't need to. The next cruise is doing Mystery Island to Sydney in 2 days. So they could speed up if there was an issue. 

I wonder what would happen if the Itinerary changed mid cruise - would they kick the family off at whatever the next port is? The logic is the same. 

5 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Too bad the ship is not at the terminal

Yeah, Norwegian Jewel is due in at 5am so Ovation has to move. 

2 minutes ago, jsg612 said:

ave a cruise leaving 25th feb and have lots of island stops

My understanding is that this delay is not due to closed islands, it's due to the cyclone transitting down the Australian coast. It'll be long gone. 

Ok. This might be even more crazy than i thought. the first "sea day" is actually anchored in Sydney Harbour from 3am tomorrow to 6pm tomorrow when it sails for Noumea. 

53 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Not much out there between Sydney and Vanuatu/Mystery Island.

But the cruise was always going to those places! It changed from 

Sydney -> Noumea -> Mystery -> Brisbane -> Sydney

to 

Sydney -> Noumea -> Mystery -> Sydney. 

So they're cruising slower at some point to waste time. At no point will they be further from land than they would have been anyway. 

Two things:

Yes, your diamond benefits reset on every cruise. So does your cruise account. 

Also, Opal cards aren't really required anymore for Sydney transport. You should be able to use your credit/debit card (but each person will need their own) https://transportnsw.info/tickets-opal/opal/contactless-payments

16 minutes ago, smplybcause said:

Unless you're spending thousands of dollars on those extras I don't see anyway the profit margin on those would not equal the operating costs on the cabin. 

You need to look at the bigger picture. They over sell it order to make more money and normally they do. Occasionally it doesn't and its a cost of doing business that they might make a loss on certain cabins. 

Just keep saying no until you get everything you want. You're not the only one in a Grand Suite or higher and you're not the only one they're talking to. They will make you feel like this is your problem but it is not. It's theirs. 

33 minutes ago, Bloodgem said:

What will happen to the ship and other passengers?

 

It will be a decision of the company and the captain.

My guess: they'll cancel Wellington & Dunedin, probably stay where they are for a couple of days and come back to Sydney, perhaps via the sounds if time permits. They're due back on the 16th. 

9 minutes ago, plettza said:

OK, thanks.  I didn't ask him which ship he was going so he may setting sail this week or next.

Ovation left Sydney on Wednesday the 4th. This was the 3rd stop. 

8 hours ago, not-enough-cruising said:

Don’t book a guarantee cabin and you’ll have nothing to worry about. 

Seriously. Guarantee is right there in the name - it's not hard to expect it be honoured. 

23 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Good job are there many repeat ports?

I assume its these two so the answer is all ports are the same. 

https://www.cleancruising.com.au/itinerary.asp?sched=PRIGOL272_20191207

https://www.cleancruising.com.au/itinerary.asp?sched=PRIGOL272_20191124

1 day is rarely enough in most locations so i don't see an issue. 

5 minutes ago, M-H-B said:

Is it always the same person all week?

Yes. They'll introduce themselves on the first day and be with you for the cruise. 

Question: If only soap & water hand washing is a suitable way to prevent this why don't they have proper soap and water washing stations at the entrances to the food venues? It wouldn't be that hard to do.