Cruise ship fan

Sorry to tell you that you were misinformed. The Explorer is bigger (size and capacity) than the Voyager despite being the same class ship. and it is the biggest ship here at least until the Ovation arrives at the end of the year.

 

Voyager of the seas

Gross Tonnage 138,000

Length 1,020 ft

Max Beam 157.5 ft

Draft 29 ft

Cruising Speed 22 knots

Capacity: 3,138 passengers

Crew: 1,181 crew

 

 

Explorer of the seas

Gross Tonnage 138,000

Length 1,025 ft

Max Beam 157.5 ft

Draft 29 ft

Cruising Speed 22 knots

Capacity: 4,029 passengers

Crew: 1,180

I think I trust the bridge crew on the ship over some information found online. If they get the figures wrong there is some major issues. In fact they even confirmed that it is nothing but a advertising method they use.

Also to add those figures you have given are impossible figures.

Really wish they would stop the largest business. Since it is actually shared biggest. After Royals big song and dance about the ship being bigger then every other ship in Australia, I asked the officers on the Voyager where it was confirmed she is the same. The only place that their size is referenced differently is on promotional material.

Alun is now on the Eden.

Also note not to judge Royal Caribbean based on the Explorer or the Voyager. The ships do have a major issue with crowds. Which the other ships in the Royal fleet do not have. So just remember after the cruise and you are looking for another cruise, don't hold that against royal and assume all their ships are like that. It is only those two (It's an early Voyager class issue, that has just been made worse over the years).

We have been on her once when we couldn't go to any events and had to take all our food to the room as it was impossible to get a seat, the major issue was it being a 3 night cruise. Another time when it was still bad compared to other ships but not as bad as the other time. I am sure you will have a great time anyway, just make sure to not get worked up over the crowds.

It can go either way. We were on the Diamond Princess going around the NZ South Island and getting ready to make the crossing to Tasmania, when we were told by the captain that we may have rough seas as the Sun Princess had just made the crossing in the opposite direction and had been delayed so much by the seas they had to skip the entire south island. Yet as we made the crossing there was no more then a small ripple in the water. So it is all luck.

Not always a cost cutting measure. On Royal Caribbean I HAVE to wash all my clothes by and, since there is something in the soap they use that I am allergic to. So we always need to do my washing this way as the one in the bathroom is no where near big enough, even when we have a suite.

Was just there on the Radiance for its Christmas cruise. For the most part they have recovered however there is still a fair bit of damaged buildings still standing, just cornered off, as well as some additional washed up boats added to the shores. Do note that when we were there the markets on the shore in town were gone.

Actually there was more unrelated construction going on then rebuilding.

I wouldn't be surprised if they sold off the Jewel, she seems to be the most troublesome of the current fleet. If not her it would have to be the Pearl, since she is the oldest and they don't seem to be adding all the upgrades to her.

The only port we have had an issue with tendering is Port Arthur. There is one wharf for the tenders to pull along side, and they need to share that with a harbour cruise vessel, which would return every 20 minutes and stay there for 20 minutes. Which caused huge delays for the ship.

When we were in Bali on New years day 2015, the tendering process run smoothly, and the only issue was how much road traffic there was being new year and everything.

The slowest tendering in the South Pacific I have seen was this last Christmas on the Radiance, for some reason it took 4-5 hours to get through all the tender numbers. At Isle of Pines the captain took the ship right up to the shore so there was only a couple minutes tender ride, and the conditions weren't bad, but for some reason it was just so slow. I have been on the ship to the exact same ports several times before and it has never been so slow.

Lifou has also been a bad port for tendering in my experience. About 50% of the time we have been there tendering has been rough, since the wharf is so exposed. The first time we were there (on the Pacific Star) one of the tenders got beached and the ship need to send crews to rescue it off the shore. Then a couple of years ago on the Radiance they called off tendering at mid day because the tenders were almost hitting 45 degree angles just before getting to the wharf (the rest of the trip was smooth but right near the shore there was a rough patch), lucky they managed to get everyone back onboard and the ship left early.

You have to count the internal company ships as competition because there are many a passenger who will sail on Princess but will not be seen dead, alive or in any form on P&O Australia.

 

I think your 140,000 ton quote is BS and from people not in the know. In the early days ships were built below this tonnage yet the cruise lines managed to make such a significant profit they could invest in larger and more innovative ships.

 

The expansion of the P&O Australia fleet is only in response to the competition basing ships here. They underestimated Australians desire to cruise. It is not because they are popular or great it is more coincidental to the fact that Royal Caribbean sailed in and took over.

 

Unfortunately there are some who cruise who do not know the difference between ships and cruise lines and will book on any and find out the hard way. Getting hand-me-down ships is not something to be proud of in my opinion. If it were Princess getting them could you imagine the uproar.

 

In answer to your post P&O Australia's expansion is "responsive" to the completion and not due to popularity/demand.

Seriously. You really have no idea how business work. If Princess was taking passengers from P&O, they wouldn't expand P&O top try and compete. That would be the dumbest thing imaginable. The only one they need to compete against in such a way is Royal.

Also you can make money out of ships of other sizes but 140 000 has been found to be the sweet spot. As the more passengers you fit on a ship the more money they can make as the running cost per person are smaller on larger ships. However if you go too large the ship is too hard to use, aka the Oasis which is very restricted. Why do you think so many cruise lines are making ships all around 140 000. There is a reason. A line would not spend $1 Billion on a cruise line that is not guaranteed to sell well. They would be more likely to give the new ship to another line and then more one of their ships over.

Also your expectations of a cruise line with out sailing on them, is wrong. Having sailed on several lines many times, I can say I have actually seen the worst crowds on Royal. As well as had the worst experience on Royal.

Lastly if you hate P&O so much by are you in a thread about P&O.

Actually P&O have done an amazing job in the Australian market. They manage to charge more for their cruises while still filling their ships and having an massive expansion of size of the fleet within a few years. The fact that a cruise line within such a small market is getting a brand new ship is incredible and shows how well the line is going. There is only one competitor in the market. The others are not competitors, as they are owned by the exact same company. Competition is a good thing for everyone, even more cruise lines by the one company is good, as it gives more people experiences in cruising and while some may like some styles, they may like others. If they weren't doing well they wouldn't still be here. Their "game changers" was to do with the new style of the ships which is completely different to the other 3 P&O ships, and I am guessing those two ships where test runs for the new ships design.

Secondly how is Carnival Crop failing. I hardly see how P&O Aus, Costa and Princess booming says they are failing. These three lines have had a massive increase in size within the last few years. While almost the only ships the company have lost are ones that are too old to keep.

In regards to size 140 000 has been found to be the most profitable for cruise lines. Anything smaller and the cost of fuel and crew causes profits to go down, anything more and the ship being overly difficult to run, due to being too large. This is according to a few Royal Caribbean Officers (who help in the organisation of the line and not just the specific ship) on recent cruises.

Will be interesting to see what happens with the Ovation. Being in both Asia and Australia, where both usually get charged for things Americans don't. With Australia being that way because they think they can get away from it. However Australia has strong consumer protection laws. If they decide to charge here on the Ovation they better make sure they like looking at the inside of a courtroom.

This isn't the only cost cutting measure they have made recently. There are a bunch of things that have been cut just these past few months and others in the last week. On the Voyager of the Seas cruise at the start of the month they had a welcome back and a top tier party. This cruise on the Radiance they have started a fleet wide merger of the two events. Plus now if you have more then one diamond plus member in a cabin you don't get one gift each you just get one per cabin. These both changed between our two cruises. TBH the way they have handled C&A this cruise is extremely poor. It feels like they are just pushing us under a rug.

Ok thanks for that. The captain mentioned a course correction. Did they say which way they tried to go, turning the ship away from the wind or into the wind?

From my understanding they turned away from the wind. Although more as an act to get the turn to force the ship to lean the other way rather then just getting away from the wind.

I am on the Radiance at the moment and did a bridge tour today and got confirmation of the 150 knot wind. Apparently the Explorer tried to turn the ship to counteract the wind but it was extremely difficult and slow.

Their computer systems are not that great and cruises regularly go off line. The cruise I am currently on even completely disappeared for months and we couldn't even add it to our cruises on their site. Which actually made making final payment quite difficult.

I am currently onboard the Voyager Of The Seas. We have a sea day tomorrow, so I can run some tests on my laptop and let you know how it goes. So far I have just being using my Android phone to use the internet.

That aerial footage has got to be from a drone, right?

Yes that footage was taken from a drone. We spotted it flying around the ship. Had no idea who owned it at the time though. Apparently the cruise director announced it would be flying around getting footage.

Here are some photos from the Voyager.

https://m.facebook.com/michael.banks.3192/albums/10207981585445984/

If it doesn't work let me know and I will fix it or find a different way to upload it. Video is uploading now.

On the Voyager right now. Yesterday was incredible to watch first hand. I got some good photos and a video that I will either upload after dinner and the show tonight or tomorrow after we get back onboard after Melbourne. Although might need to wait to get back to Sydney for the video.

Onboard there were chants going back and forth between the two ships. Overall it was a great atmosphere onboard. Anyway now its time to get ready for formal night.

From the RCI website here are the stats on the 2 ships:

Voyager:

Gross Tonnage 138,000

Length 1,020 ft

Max Beam 157.5 ft

Draft 29 ft

Cruising Speed 22 knots

 

Explorer:

Gross Tonnage 138,000

Length 1,025 ft

Max Beam 157.5 ft

Draft 29 ft

Cruising Speed 22 knots

 

So Explorer is 5 ft longer. Technically bigger but all the other stats are the same.

I wouldn't trust their website. Those figures are impossible. Also else where it says that the Voyager is actually 1 ft longer. Apparently the Explorer has one extra bar according to Royals website, however I just scanned through the deck plans and was unable to find any major differences, no extra rooms or anything. Has anyone been on both and know where this extra bar is?

One thing I have wondered is, how much the temperature would affect the size of the ship. If they measured one ship on a hot day and the other on a cold day, it would make a difference.

If they are both Voyager class then aren't they the same size?

Royal does this sorta thing fairly often. They are the same except I am guessing they added a tiny expansion on. Say added a tiny square box to the ship and they say it is bigger. There just need to be one slight change to the ship that causes it to be called bigger, even though it is almost impossible to notice in most cases. They do it fairly often when they build new ships, look at the Oasis and Allure. The Oasis was the worlds biggest cruise ship, but they made the Allure a tiny bit bigger and they could then call it the biggest ship in marketing, so they pretty much get double to marketing capacity, when there really is no difference at all.

Anyway, I will be on the Voyager for this and I get free internet the whole cruise so I will post some shots, either here or in the other thread (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2270259)

But can you prove that was the "only" reason price went up rather than a part of the normal price movements, a bit like fuel prices.

Well when they do it so consistently the only other option of it being a coincidence just gets thrown out the window. There is no way that time and time again they start a sale and then fuel prices cause tickets to go up that same day. It is far too common for that to be a cause.

Seems fine to me. In fact it would have been perfectly fine for them to put the price up and given nothing extra in return, or even less than what was originally offered. That's their call & it's the punters call as to whether buy or not. I really do not see what your point is, and to call it "dishonesty"?

 

Reminds me of an old Two Ronnies sketch, where the customer complains that the price of £10 is £2 higher than the shop across the street & the shopkeeper says 'why didn't you buy it there then?'. The customer says "they didn't have any". Shopkeeper says "oh, when we don't have any, our price is only £5" :)

Except the only reason the price went up was to cover the cost of the benefits. It is misleading to the customer as they are lead to believe that they are getting a better deal, when in fact they are not as the cruise never actually sold for the price they are saying it is selling for.

Imagine going to buy some bread. One day the bread is $2 then you go back the next day the bread costs $4 but they have 50% signs everywhere so it is only $2, this makes the bread look more attractive due to the potential savings, when they never sold for $4 anyway. This is pretty much the same idea.

Only the cruise lines add a benefit that makes it look more attractive but raise the cost to what it would be if the customer purchased it separately. It is even getting customers who may not of brought the package and would of opted to just buy the cruise to get it. This really benefits the cruise line as packages such as drink packages rarely work out in the customers favour, especially when the customer wouldn't of purchased it anyway.

May also be the different authorities (unless you were also in Melbourne - in which case I would have to ask, what's in the Melbourne air? :-p)

Yep it was in Melbourne as well. However on our ship the dog actually smelt military uniforms which had been used around explosives.