Cruising in Australia in 2022.

[MMDown Under]

30 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

I can see why people criticize the government's restriction on people leaving Australia, but I feel we have to consider that if this restriction wasn't in place, we would have had thousands more people leaving. That would not be a problem, but virtually all of them would want to return at a later time. How would it have been if the government had said that if they left, they could not return until the COVID emergency was a thing of the past. Wow!

I have sympathy for Aussies with elderly family members living in other countries.  I know I would sign not to return until after the Covid emergency was a thing of the past, if I felt my parents needed me.  Of course, this would only work if your parents had their own home overseas and you were a self funded retiree, with adult children.  

[GOTTODOIT]

1 hour ago, MMDown Under said:

I have just received an email from Oceania Cruises offering 19 cruises to Aus and NZ from Jan 2022.

The first one is trans Pacific from LA to Perth, via usual South Pacific ports of call.  I can't understand how cruise lines can advertise these cruises, with a clear conscious, when Aus and NZ borders are closed and South Pacific ports status are unknown.  These are not local cruises but long cruises with long haul flights involved.  I hope American passengers know to check with the appropriate Governments whether they are able to enter Aus/NZ etc.

 

I have received the same emails and think "why would these Companies send out details of cruises that will not happen".  Is it a money grabbing exercise, get them hooked and then they will rebook when cruising does start.

Also, it has been reported, that the Australian borders reopening could be politically motivated.

There is an Election in mid 2022 and that the borders will not open until  after the election.

Scomo (Prime Minister), I hear is departing on a overseas trip today.

 

 

[MMDown Under]

9 minutes ago, GOTTODOIT said:

 

I have received the same emails and think "why would these Companies send out details of cruises that will not happen".  Is it a money grabbing exercise, get them hooked and then they will rebook when cruising does start.

Also, it has been reported, that the Australian borders reopening could be politically motivated.

There is an Election in mid 2022 and that the borders will not open until  after the election.

Scomo (Prime Minister), I hear is departing on a overseas trip today.

PM is meeting NZ PM today.  All Aussies can now visit NZ.

[Aus Traveller]

30 minutes ago, GOTTODOIT said:

 

I have received the same emails and think "why would these Companies send out details of cruises that will not happen".  Is it a money grabbing exercise, get them hooked and then they will rebook when cruising does start.

Also, it has been reported, that the Australian borders reopening could be politically motivated.

There is an Election in mid 2022 and that the borders will not open until  after the election.

Scomo (Prime Minister), I hear is departing on a overseas trip today.

The PM isn't going on a holiday - he is travelling to NZ to meet their PM.

 

Maybe cruiselines are sending our promotional emails to keep interest in cruising. If they didn't do this, we might think they had closed up shop! 😁

[OzKiwiJJ]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

I can see why people criticize the government's restriction on people leaving Australia, but I feel we have to consider that if this restriction wasn't in place, we would have had thousands more people leaving. That would not be a problem, but virtually all of them would want to return at a later time. How would it have been if the government had said that if they left, they could not return until the COVID emergency was a thing of the past. Wow!

 

Our quarantine system for returning citizens has been over-loaded for a long time and this is where infections in the community start. Some of those who unfortunately brought the virus in, had been granted an exemption to travel overseas, but brought the virus with them when they returned.

 

We have all heard about the tens of thousands of Aussies 'stranded' overseas who cannot get a flight home or the required place in a quarantine hotel. With no restriction on departures, we would have many more thousands trying to get flights home. Maybe those who left Australia after the pandemic started, should be at the end of the queue when applying for a return flight.

Agreed. It's not leaving the country that creates a problem, it's returning. It definitely should have been that anyone leaving after the pandemic started should go to the end of the queue to come back. Instead there are rumours of thousands of exemptions happening and I suspect many of those are jumping the queue to get back again.Didn't someone here say they knew someone who'd been exempted to go overseas, not once but twice, to visit their partner and returned, which seems a bit unfair.

[By The Bay]

24 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

PM is meeting NZ PM today.  All Aussies can now visit NZ.

Except ones from Victoria.

[possum52]

33 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

PM is meeting NZ PM today.  All Aussies can now visit NZ.

Except Victorians ATM.

 

Leigh

[possum52]

10 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

Agreed. It's not leaving the country that creates a problem, it's returning. It definitely should have been that anyone leaving after the pandemic started should go to the end of the queue to come back. Instead there are rumours of thousands of exemptions happening and I suspect many of those are jumping the queue to get back again.Didn't someone here say they knew someone who'd been exempted to go overseas, not once but twice, to visit their partner and returned, which seems a bit unfair.

It's very unfair!

[By The Bay]

I came across this interesting article about overseas arrivals by private jets.

 

"The COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped the rich and famous from coming to Australia by private jet – at least 113 private international flights have landed since April last year, mostly from the United States.

 

But the busiest airport for arrivals was Bunbury Airport in Western Australia, with 22 flights - all from the US and all this month." Full article here. "Twiggy" Forrest? "Gina" Rinehart?

[lissie]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

I can see why people criticize the government's restriction on people leaving Australia, but I feel we have to consider that if this restriction wasn't in place, we would have had thousands more people leaving. That would not be a problem, but virtually all of them would want to return at a later time. How would it have been if the government had said that if they left, they could not return until the COVID emergency was a thing of the past. Wow!

 

You are assuming they will want to come back within a year or so!  Piece in the Sunday paper of a 30yo couple leaving NZ for a long-delayed OE based in  Ireland/UK (they are dual citizens)  - I doubt that they have return tickets. 

 

Are you sure that your incoming quarantine is still overrun? Ours was until the bubble- now not even slightly. People can get bookings a few weeks out.  

[lissie]

48 minutes ago, MMDown Under said:

PM is meeting NZ PM today.  All Aussies can now visit NZ.

Unless they've been in Victoria within the las t4 days - that's been the case for some weeks 

[OzKiwiJJ]

2 minutes ago, lissie said:

You are assuming they will want to come back within a year or so!  Piece in the Sunday paper of a 30yo couple leaving NZ for a long-delayed OE based in  Ireland/UK (they are dual citizens)  - I doubt that they have return tickets. 

 

Are you sure that your incoming quarantine is still overrun? Ours was until the bubble- now not even slightly. People can get bookings a few weeks out.  

Last I heard there were still 30,000-40,000 people waiting to return. We have limits on the number of returnees allowed into each state each week through the major airports. I think Sydney takes about 2,500, other states take less.

[john2003]

Canada has the private jet thing. I guess the politicians don't want to upset the rich. Very frustrating when there are different rules for special people.

[Aus Traveller]

20 minutes ago, lissie said:

You are assuming they will want to come back within a year or so!  Piece in the Sunday paper of a 30yo couple leaving NZ for a long-delayed OE based in  Ireland/UK (they are dual citizens)  - I doubt that they have return tickets. 

 

Are you sure that your incoming quarantine is still overrun? Ours was until the bubble- now not even slightly. People can get bookings a few weeks out.  

Yes - our quarantine system is full. From what I understand, that is the reason there is a cap on the number of people who can come into each state each week.

 

I agree that some people who want to leave might not want to return in the short term. That is why I suggested that people should be allowed to leave, provided they do not return before the end of the pandemic.

[lissie]

8 minutes ago, Aus Traveller said:

Yes - our quarantine system is full. From what I understand, that is the reason there is a cap on the number of people who can come into each state each week.

 

I agree that some people who want to leave might not want to return in the short term. That is why I suggested that people should be allowed to leave, provided they do not return before the end of the pandemic.

I can't find the figures for Australia - how many hotel rooms does Australia have? We have 4000 https://www.mbie.govt.nz/business-and-employment/economic-development/covid-19-data-resources/managed-isolation-and-quarantine-data/

[By The Bay]

7 minutes ago, lissie said:

I can't find the figures for Australia - how many hotel rooms does Australia have? We have 4000 https://www.mbie.govt.nz/business-and-employment/economic-development/covid-19-data-resources/managed-isolation-and-quarantine-data/

National Cabinet agreed to a national review of hotel quarantine in July last year. They found that: "There is no single source of complete data on hotel quarantine." Link to Review PDF

[OzKiwiJJ]

Here's the current info on Australian artival caps, copied from the government website.

 

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications administers passenger caps applying to arrivals into Australian airports.

These caps are set by National Cabinet based on advice about state and territory hotel quarantine and related resourcing capacity.

The following international passenger arrival caps are in place:

• Adelaide: No more than 530 arrivals per week.
• Brisbane: No more than 1,300 arrivals per week.*
• Melbourne: No more than 1,000 arrivals per week.
• Perth: No more than 512 arrivals per week.
• Sydney: No more than 430 arrivals per day.
• In addition, Darwin is accommodating the additional return of Australians on Government facilitated commercial services.

* Includes additional surge capacity of 300 passengers per week.

National Cabinet will continue to monitor the ongoing appropriateness of quarantine arrangements and caps on international passenger arrivals in light of the global and local COVID-19 situation.

[Aus Traveller]

28 minutes ago, lissie said:

I can't find the figures for Australia - how many hotel rooms does Australia have? We have 4000 https://www.mbie.govt.nz/business-and-employment/economic-development/covid-19-data-resources/managed-isolation-and-quarantine-data/

The problem isn't the number of hotel rooms, but the number of hotel rooms that have been designated as quarantine rooms.

[lissie]

Just now, Aus Traveller said:

The problem isn't the number of hotel rooms, but the number of hotel rooms that have been designated as quarantine rooms.

Exactly - the whole of Australia only has 907 managed isolation hotel rooms available a day - compared to NZs 4000 - give the size of our respective countries - that's the issue. I had no idea Australia had such small figures 

[OzKiwiJJ]

14 minutes ago, lissie said:

Exactly - the whole of Australia only has 907 managed isolation hotel rooms available a day - compared to NZs 4000 - give the size of our respective countries - that's the issue. I had no idea Australia had such small figures 

I think you're reading the NZ figure wrong, lissie. NZ has a total operational capacity of 4,000 based on a 14 day quarantine and cleaning time, so 4000 every 15 or so days, not every day.

 

The Australian arrivals cap is 6352 per week, not including Darwin arrivals, which is an operationsl capacity of over 12700.

[LittleFish1976]

1 hour ago, lissie said:

I can't find the figures for Australia - how many hotel rooms does Australia have? We have 4000 https://www.mbie.govt.nz/business-and-employment/economic-development/covid-19-data-resources/managed-isolation-and-quarantine-data/

 

Relevant to the number of quarantine places is the number of people wanting to come to Australia. In addition to our resident population and our ex-pat population, there are an unknown (to me) number of people with the legal right to claim entry. I think that number is one of the stresses on the system at the moment. 

[LittleFish1976]

43 minutes ago, OzKiwiJJ said:

I think you're reading the NZ figure wrong, lissie. NZ has a total operational capacity of 4,000 based on a 14 day quarantine and cleaning time, so 4000 every 15 or so days, not every day.

 

The Australian arrivals cap is 6352 per week, not including Darwin arrivals, which is an operationsl capacity of over 12700.

 

Is that right that Darwin has capacity for over 12,700?

 

[possum52]

Just now, LittleFish1976 said:

 

Is that right that Darwin has capacity for over 12,700?

 

I think it is 1270 not 12700.

 

Leigh

[LittleFish1976]

4 minutes ago, possum52 said:

I think it is 1270 not 12700.

 

Leigh

 

That's sounds more like it! Thanks, Leigh!

[OzKiwiJJ]

28 minutes ago, LittleFish1976 said:

 

Is that right that Darwin has capacity for over 12,700?

 

Sorry, my earlier comment may have been misleading. Australia has an operational  capacity of over 12,700 excluding Darwin, which was calculated from the weekly caps.

 

I'm not sure what the capacity of Darwin is. Howard Springs is quite big but I'm not sure how much of it they are using for quarantine.